CBS Wipes Corporate Ass on 1st Amendment, Flushes Fairness Doctrine
2004-01-31 09:03:51
As anyone who's followed the antics of Adbusters or PETA knows, it's hard to buy airtime for your commercials if your message conflicts with the world view of television executives. Now MoveOn.org has joined the ranks of the rejected when CBS refused to air MoveOn's paid ad Bush in 30 Seconds during this year's Super Bowl.
CBS claims that Bush in 30 Seconds and another ad from PETA are too controversial to air during the Super Bowl.
CBS broadcasts on the public's airwaves. In return for that lucrative privilege, the Communications Act of 1934 requires CBS and other broadcasters to broadcast in "the public interest, convenience and necessity."
In 1969 the Supreme Court upheld the FCC Fairness Doctrine requiring broadcasters to air alternative viewpoints (Red Lion Broadcasting v. the FCC). The Fairness Doctrine provides that a broadcaster has an obligation to treat 'controversial issues of public importance' fairly, and to present all sides of such issues during the course of their programming. The remedy it provides is that the FCC can order a station being complained about to present the opposing points of view, although the FCC generally leaves it up to the station to decide how this is done.
Now the CBS network claims that the ad, which shows children working at menial jobs and ends with the words "Guess who's going to pay off President Bush's $1 trillion deficit?", is too controversial for Americans to see. Who exactly does CBS think is going to pay off the deficit? CBS isn't paying for it, and they get to use our airwaves so they can make obscene profits. I know I don't have a trillion dollars in my checking account. When you're talking about a huge public debt with compound interest, you're talking about payments that are going to extend over a generation, so who exactly is CBS trying to kid?
It's not just fringe wackos who believe in free speech who are riled up about the CBS executives' decision to censor the ad, 26 members of Congress wrote an open letter to CBS urging them to rethink their decision.
Even if it is in President Bush's interest not to air the ad, censorship is not in the public interest. CBS needs to rethink this one, and they've got 24 hours left before the kickoff to swallow a little pride and do the right thing.
After all, a small, activist web site almost certainly HAS $2.3M to blow on a 30 second commercial. It's not as if this is just some cheap publicity stunt.
T O P S T O R I E S
The Future Ain't What It Used To Be
Ideas have taken horrifying shape and rooted into our modern reality. (More...)
The Once & Future King of Dust
Only The Onion could have acquired Infowarts. (More...)
Another Nobel Prize-Winning Author Describes Drunkenness
This book won a Pulitzer Prize. Here's its famous paragraph on getting drunk... (More...)
Why I'm pretty sure JD Vance had sex with a couch
True or false? The answers await us in that magical land where all truths are revealed -- the internet. (More...)
In 2010 Dr. Cheng-Huai Ruan discovered a way to cause a patient with an abnormal heartbeat to get back into a normal rhythm by sticking a finger up the patient's ass. (More...)
WKRP in Cincinnati aired from 1978 through 1982. Howard Hesseman played Dr. Johnny Fever, a DJ from Los Angeles who was fired from his previous job for saying the word "booger" on the air. In the show Hesseman would do some dialogue, introduce a song, and start the song. You'd hear a few notes, but never the whole song. (More...)
C L A S S I C P I G D O G
The Peppermill Is Not Good For You
Paradise lounge on the strip. Expense it, bad boy! (More...)
Skunk School -- Learn Why Not To Keep Skunks As Pets
There is an alarming trend in pet purchasing habits this fall. People inspired by the WWII film, "Life is Beautiful" -- the one with that annoying Italian guy -- are buying descented skunks by the millions. (More...)
The Deep Dark Underbelly of the Star Wars Myth, or Ramayana Remembered
It's a fact: Star Wars is a blatant plagiarism of an ancient Asian legend, and the long lines of devout Star Wars freaks are really unscrupulous Asian copyright busters. From Indonesia to Thailand to Nepal, videos are available for sale or rent before they're even released in the US and UK due to this nerdy camcorder-clutching bunch. (More...)
Naked Australian Redhead -- Missing!
She posed naked on the web, fought for pornography online, and even kept an online "Diary of a Virtual Girlfriend." But after earning a place in internet history, Bernadette Taylor vanished without a trace. (More...)
We here in SMRL's Beverage Research Lab realize that there is more to life than just drinking spocktails. It's important to have other activities. One such activity that we wholeheartedly support is dancing six or more hours to Trance music. So we have designed a drink to accommodate this. (More...)
Last week I had eye surgery and it was certainly one of the least enjoyable episodes of my life. Eye Surgeons like their patients to be conscious enough so that they can move their eyes to the proper position during surgery. (More...)