News-Record.com

If you have never seen the documentary "9/11," you're missing something very painful. But it's also very, very good; my personal opinion is bolstered by the awards it has won -- multiple Emmys, a Peabody, a Writers Guild of America prize.

CBS plans to air the 112-minute documentary on the fifth anniversary of 9/11. There's just one problem. CBS plans to broadcast the documentary uncut ... and the American Family Association -- "America's largest Pro-Family Online Action Site!" -- is mad because the documentary includes a few curse words, which the organization characterizes as "a tremendous amount of hardcore profanity."

The American Family Association is run by the Rev. Don Wildmon, who first crossed my radar two decades ago for criticizing NBC because he thought that the parody-heavy-metal group Spinal Tap's performance of "Christmas With the Devil" on "Saturday Night Live" was a real heavy-metal performance.

Keep that example of Wildmon's razor-sharp powers of discernment in mind when his group claims, on the basis of precisely zero evidence, that:

CBS wants no limits. This is a test case for CBS to see how far they can go. If there is no out-pouring of complaints from the public, they will go further the next time. ...

The goal of CBS is to be able to show whatever they want at anytime. The network wants no restraints on their programming. If they are allowed to get away with this, they will simply air even more profanity in the future.

So the AFA is asking people to e-mail the Federal Communications Commission, the network and its local affiliates (WFMY, channel 2, in the Triad) demanding that the offending words not be aired.

Here's a couple of clues, for a group that appears badly in need of some:

• It's a documentary. That means it's journalism. No one inserted bad language into this film just to boost the audience numbers or titillate viewers. The filmmakers have an affirmative duty to be truthful. Like it or not, bad language was a part, albeit a small part, of America's response to the horrors of that day.
• Unlike the AFA, it would appear, I have actually seen the film and can assure you that the profanity is a small part of it.
• And in terms of its relevance to the work as a whole, complaining about profanity in "9/11" is like complaining about the shade of grass in a football game.

That's not to say that "9/11" isn't difficult viewing. Its producers were the only people to capture on video the first crash, that of American Airlines Flight 11 into the north tower. It shows, briefly, people jumping or falling from the towers, and if I recall correctly, in at least one segment you can hear, though not see, the impact of one such person.

But it's real power to move comes not from scenes of violence but from the emotions with which people recall that day, from a vantage point of just weeks or months after it happened. Their pain becomes your own.

I wouldn't wish that pain on anyone, even the AFA. But I will say this: If the AFA want to really hear "a tremendous amount of hardcore profanity," they're welcome to give me a call.