When we last heard about the fight between MoveOn.org and CBS, the network had decided not to broadcast the group’s commercial about the deficit during the Super Bowl.
Last week, a CBS spokesman said the decision was based on the network’s “long-term policy not to air issue ads anywhere on the network.”
This explanation didn’t quite sound kosher. CBS planned to broadcast plenty of issue ads during the Super Bowl, including an anti-smoking ad, a public service announcement about AIDS, and a commercial from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.
If it’s not censorship, it is viewpoint discrimination on CBS’s part.
“It seems to us that CBS simply defers to those it fears or from whom it wants favors — in this case, the Bush White House,” said Eli Pariser, MoveOn.org’s campaign director, in a statement. “This is the same CBS that recently backed down when the Republican National Committee made a stink about its miniseries on former President Reagan and his family.”
Indeed, MoveOn seems to be fighting back as best it can, sending alerts to its members encouraging them to sign a petition, urging CBS not to “play politics with free speech.”
CBS isn’t helping its own case. A network spokesperson told Ad Age magazine yesterday that MoveOn’s ad was rejected in part because of the group’s political message.
“Our policy is long-standing and clear,” said a CBS representative. “We do not run contentious messages that are clearly divisive.”
Huh? This is a pretty mild ad that highlights the significance of the budget deficit. Why is it “clearly divisive”? As a practical matter, it’s effectively a public service announcement.
In response to the argument that the network will show some issue ads, such as a commercial from the Office of National Drug Control Policy, CBS said ONDCP has a better message than MoveOn.
“I’d like to know who’s for drug abuse?” the network spokesperson said.
This, too, is nonsensical. Most people are opposed to drug use, but most people are also opposed to half-trillion dollar deficits. Should a corporation with control over the publicly-owned airwaves seriously be judging speech content by way of a popularity contest? Is this a reasonable standard by which voices will be heard?
If CBS wanted to argue a blanket policy against issue-ads, I’d understand. I wouldn’t like it, but at least it would be coherent.
But that, unfortunately, is not what’s happening here. Instead, CBS is creating a subjective criterion for speech content, deciding which issue-related messages are popular and which are “divisive.”
The whole mess reeks of political bias. Indeed, as MoveOn noted, the ad isn’t even particularly controversial — it’s a “simple statement of fact, supported by the President’s own figures.”
I don’t imagine CBS is going to give in on this. I’d call for a CBS boycott, but then again, I can’t think of a single program I watch on the network anyway, so in effect, I’ve been waging a de facto boycott against CBS for years.