When Did the TV Censors Quit?

I was watching an episode of Real Housewives of New Jersey this afternoon and found myself wondering when TV stopped being censored.

What got me questioning this wasn't so much all the cursing that isn't bleeped out (since when can you say the b-word and the synonym for donkey on TV?) but the fact that the word retarded was bleeped over. You can use the Lord's name in vain over and over again, and you can call your mom a b*tch, but you can't tell her to stop treating you like you're retarded?

I am, of course, not trying to say retarded is an OK word to use in any situation. But I also don't think it is right to say Oh My God unless you are actually praying or reading the Bible.

Part of my objection to all of this does have to do with my being a mother and understanding all too well how much influence the world will have on my 3-year-old son. He came home from daycare saying "Oh My God" this spring and we have had to tell him regularly that, in our house, we don't say that. We say oh my goodness (not even oh my gosh).

And no, I wouldn't expose him to the Real Housewives franchise. But I find myself more and more offended by what is on television these days.

First, I asked my husband about television censorship. He was sitting right next to me, and as a social studies teacher he is pretty knowledgeable in these things. He said something to the effect that Hollywood is all about pandering to the lowest common denominator and there are no morals left in society.

That still didn't answer my question. When did TV censorship end? On the show Madmen, which is set in the 1960s, they are complaining about the censors, so it had to be after that. But when?

So I did what any reasonable woman would do. I googled it. And after not finding much information, I stumbled upon this article by the Museum of Broadcast Communication.
Apparently, censorship initially was due to assumptions that the viewing audience was a bunch of WASPs, which as a white Anglo-Saxon protestant, I don't have a problem with. However in the mid-1970s, demographics began to change.

"Ratings researchers began to break down the viewing audience for individual programs according to specific demographic characteristics, including age, ethnicity, education and economic background. In this context, the baby boomer generation--younger, better educated, with more disposable income--became the desired target audience for television programming and advertising," the article reports.

So my husband was right. It was about advertising and making money. (I am sick of everyone having their hand on my wallet!!)

The article explains that special interest groups started fighting for equal screen time. And I have no problem with non-WASPs being portrayed on TV. But I don't understand why cursing and partial or total nudity is allowed on TV. And I really do not understand what minorities getting equal screen time has to do with the decline in morality on television. It's just a lame excuse, I think.

I know RHONJ is on cable TV, but at the same time, the past seasons are now replayed on network TV without any extra editing. Is there a difference between networks and cable anymore?

For the record, I tried to cancel television last week and was told that in order to not pay through the nose for internet (on Cablevision or FIOS, the only options I could find in my area), we had to also have cable television and phone. We went for the smallest package, but at the same time, I find it offensive that I can't get internet without also getting TV.

I am working on figuring out how to put "parental controls" on the TV, more because I don't want to see this garbage than because I am worried about my son seeing something he shouldn't. And I know we could just turn the TV off, but we won't.

What do you think about what's on TV these days? I personal wish we still had censors. Sure, married couples couldn't share a bed, but unmarried couples couldn't either.