Teletext's "queer" editorial judgement

Have things really got the to the stage where we have to spit out anything we say before we say it? ITV Teletext seem to think so. TV Plus, reporting on on Ofcom's latest ruling against Big Brother, have decided the word "poof" would be too offensive to write in full so they instead swearified it and instead printed "p**f".

And it wasn't even directed at anyone. It was merely contextual use to state that Ofcom had rejected a complaint about the word's utterance in the show. Yes it's an offensive word but isn't it more offensive not to treat us like adults and print the word in its full form? After all, this same word has been used in children's and youth shows but only in a moralistic way. Ceefax printed the full word - well done them for standing up for themselves.

(Oh, and if you're looking for the TV Plus article it has since been removed).

I'm not sure I'd say that Ceefax were standing up for themselves, particularly.

You do raise an interesting point, however. What is the point in disguising what is being written in a way that makes it obvious what the word is? And I don't just mean the example given, but things like "f***", when we all know exactly what it means.

EDIT: And I dig your use of the word "queer" in the title.

ANOTHER EDIT: Maybe they were unsure whether it should be spelt "puff" or "poof". It's a potential minefield.

The oddest thing is that Teletext is owned by Associated Newspapers (Daily Mail), a publication not known for its love of political correctness.

And just to clarify, "queer" is used here in its dictionary meaning.

A good play on words though, nonetheless!

Teletext may be owned by the Maily Dale, but most of the news and features copy come straight from the PA wires.
It may have been them that when into 'no offence overload' mode, and the lazy sub-editor at Teletext couldn't be bothered to fill in the stars.

I am aware that Teletext star out the word "Anal" in the context of carrying Freeview listings for the porn channels, so they seem to be sensitive (over-sensitive some may say) about using offensive (rather than strong) language.

Can anyone remember in the brief era of "Teletext After Hours" if they used mild profanity?

Or chance are it's filtered, like when you say **** on this site!

Only too well. And there was also "Turner The Screw" which might have been confused with the children's character "Turner The Worm" and references about how to turn "Mr Floppy" into "Mr Stiffy". Oracle must have been turning in their grave.

After Hours bit the dust after the ITC raised concerns and was replaced by an expanded One-2-One dating section.

Sorry to dent your past is better approach but even ORACLE tried its hand at "adult" material with a section albeit a massive multipage affair which lasted for a whopping one night.

Anyway, Turner the Screw and all that appeared in a section after 11pm when the kiddywinks should be safely in bed. Either that or they were watching Carlton's Good Sex Guide! and from what I remember the kids section which at the time was on ITV only transmitted to 9pm at night telling people to come back the following day.

Annoyingly, O2's mywap site stars out anal so on my freeviewguide site you see words like ****logue, also ***bria appears on the transmitters pages.

Hey, look on the bright side, it makes a fun game for you to play when you're bored - guess the word!

What does it do with Scunthorpe?

Oh, the same as this site it would appear...