The Coming Fight Over TV Gore

Kelsey McNeal / FOX

Jack (Kiefer Sutherland) chases a lead to the terrorists in "Day 6: 9:00 AM-10:00 AM", the second part of a special 24 two-hour season premiere.

Nipples are so three years ago. Janet Jackson's 2004 flash at the Super Bowl reawoke the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to decency issues and left producers scouring TV footage for too droopy bathing suits. A few fines and a lot of blurred-out prime-time flesh later, the bare-breast buzz has faded from the headlines.

But don't relax yet, River City: the guardians of decency are warning about new trouble, with a capital T, which rhymes with V, which stands for violence. The Parents Television Council (PTC), the group at the vanguard of the TV-sex wars, has lately focused on prime-time blood: power-tool...