What happened on BET when Usher tried to speak?

At this year’s BET Awards, when Usher went up to accept his lifetime achievement award, he announced, “Sorry, I'm gonna curse and let you know how I really feel.” As the R&B artist famous for singing, “Just when I thought I said all I could say,” launched into his 13-minute speech, audiences watching at home on television intermittently lost audio.

Many viewers took to the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, to express their confusion. One wrote, “Soooooo Usher’s entire speech is bleeped out.” Another asked, “Why they censor Usher speech or is my tv acting up??”

BET told the Associated Press it had “inadvertently muted” Usher — a mistake “due to an audio malfunction during the live telecast.” Yet video from the ceremony suggests BET muted certain moments of Usher’s talk due to concerns about his language.

The public confusion underscores the diverging standards that apply on television networks depending on their medium of transmission. 

FCC regulations impact expression

The Federal Communications Commission, which regulates broadcasting, cable television, and satellite services (along with other telecommunications), has long held broader authority to regulate content on over-the-air broadcasting than on other media, such as cable networks and subscription services like HBO. It does not have authority over programming streamed online.

Among the regulations the FCC enforces is the law and regulations that prohibit broadcast indecency. Basic (non-subscription) cable networks like BET are not subject to the FCC’s indecency regulations, but cable and satellite television providers often bundle them with broadcast channels in service offerings. 

Because basic cable revenue models are similar to those of broadcast networks – that is, ad-supported – and advertisers often seek to avoid placing ads beside content some viewers may deem controversial or indecent, basic cable networks will sometimes maintain their own standards and practices that may mimic FCC broadcast indecency limits. In practice, this can mean restricting content they could have aired but chose not to air, based on what they believe may attract or repel advertisers.

In an age when social media and online advertising have eclipsed television — while content that the FCC would consider “indecent” pervades widely-accessible commercial platforms — live television’s narrow boundaries of expression appear increasingly outdated.

For over-the-air broadcasters, the FCC considers a program to be indecent if it contains language or material that, in context, depicts or describes, in terms patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards for the broadcast medium, sexual or excretory activities or organs. This rule applies when children are likely to be in the audience, which the FCC has deemed between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m.

This standard was inspired by George Carlin’s “Seven Dirty Words You Can’t Say on Television,” a comedy routine he first performed in 1972 at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. The routine was later broadcast over radio, which led to FCC action that created the indecency standard. This, in turn, led to a Supreme Court case in which the FCC policy was narrowly upheld. Controversial from the start, the policy has been enforced unevenly over the years, but in recent times has fallen into general disuse.

Cut back to Usher

Who really knows why Usher was muted on BET?

Perhaps the network’s “audio malfunction” explanation is true. Yet, it’s at least plausible that a nervous network censor elected to “bleep” the speech in real time, reflecting basic cable networks’ tendency to sometimes mimic broadcast rules. When regulators impose different standards on different sorts of TV channels that are bundled together, and advertising revenue models work similarly for the different types, networks sometimes err on the side of restricting more speech.

BET promised to make Usher’s uninterrupted speech available “across BET Platforms” and via a later re-airing of the BET Awards. This is a post hoc victory for a culture of free expression, but doesn’t change the loss to the audience who tuned in live, who heard almost none of what Usher had to say. In 2023, the same live event attracted 2.8 million viewers: If this year’s show tracked similarly, millions were deprived of the unfiltered speech on live TV. The fact that the same speech will circulate online and in reruns — not to mention all over social media — highlights the extent to which live television is an anomaly among its peers.  And it illustrates the futility of FCC attempts to sanitize media.

The FCC’s low bar for indecency, history of using the bully pulpit to encourage networks to self-censor, and the vagueness of its rules have created a medium where broadcast speech is remarkably encumbered compared to most other contemporary media. In an age when social media and online advertising have eclipsed television — while content that the FCC would consider “indecent” pervades widely-accessible commercial platforms — live television’s narrow boundaries of expression appear increasingly outdated.