Do we need asterisks?

Interesting article (and comments from readers too) on the topic of how newspapers handle swear words. Note, if you do read the full article, there are several swear words, unasterisked (I've censored the excerpt below). Consider the consistency in papers such as the S*n and Star, which happily show topless (often teen) models, but will generally asterisk even 't*ts', a favourite slang term for such publications.

Is there too much swearing in the Guardian?
The people we write about seem to be swearing more and more. Our rivals opt for asterisks, but we tell you what they said. Are we right?
Today's blogpost could be renamed Mind Your Bad Language – and if you do mind it, I suggest you look away now. Put bluntly: are there too many f**ks in the Guardian?

The statistics tell their own story: the word "f**k" (and its variants) has appeared 705 times in the past year, with a further 269 mentions in the Observer. The figures for other national newspapers are as follows: Independent 279, Independent on Sunday 74, Times 3, Sunday Times 2, all other papers 0.

The figures for the C-word, still regarded by many people as taboo, are: Guardian 49, Observer 20, Independent 8, Independent on Sunday 5, everyone else 0. [Cartoon by the late David Austin ]