C-SPAN Apologizes for Vulgar Titles

At least they're being honest. Many assumed C-SPAN's site was hacked over New Year’s when its online feed of the Senate’s fiscal cliff debate was topped with the title “Just Plain Dick” and its stream of the House debate said “I Want You to Shut the F#ck Up.” As it turns out, there's a much stranger explanation: the Senate debate had preempted a previously scheduled discussion of Just Plain Dick, a book about Richard Nixon, and a note during the House debate indicated that a discussion of I Want You to Shut the F#ck Up—a book on politics by D.L. Hughley—was airing on C-SPAN 2 at the same time. The network said in a statement, “While the site was not hacked, our policy of using current nonfiction book titles verbatim in our schedule led to the unfortunate posting of content some might find offensive on C-SPAN.org.”