What’s the goal in this case? This sounds like it’s only attempting to address effectiveness at avoiding disputes over standards, but that could more easily be achieved by not having any restrictions at all.
I don’t buy it. Even if we accept for the sake of argument that limiting sexual references on broadcast TV is a good plan (a point that I don’t consider settled, by the way), using dirty words as a proxy runs straight into Goodhart’s law: the broadcast rules are known in advance, and innuendo’s bread and butter to TV writers. A good Schelling point has to be hard to work around, even if you can’t draw a strict line; this doesn’t qualify.
The reason is that banning certain words works much better as a Schelling point.
Better for what, and better than what alternatives?
You wind up in endless arguments about whether this particular show is beyond the pail.
That doesn’t seem like it answers my question.
What’s the goal in this case? This sounds like it’s only attempting to address effectiveness at avoiding disputes over standards, but that could more easily be achieved by not having any restrictions at all.
I don’t buy it. Even if we accept for the sake of argument that limiting sexual references on broadcast TV is a good plan (a point that I don’t consider settled, by the way), using dirty words as a proxy runs straight into Goodhart’s law: the broadcast rules are known in advance, and innuendo’s bread and butter to TV writers. A good Schelling point has to be hard to work around, even if you can’t draw a strict line; this doesn’t qualify.