CBS Sidelines the First Amendment at Super Bowl XXXVIII


The controversy began with a contest "by the people, and for the people," sponsored by MoveOn.org. A couple of poorly thought out entries slipped in and caused the Republican National Committee to respond with a typical spate of distortions and lies. Now CBS refuses to air the winning ad during the upcoming Super Bowl, even though it is airing advertisements from the Bush White House. Hmmm. Whatever happened to that "Elite Liberal Media Bias" to which the GOP constantly refers?

Last November, MoveOn.org announced its "Bush in 30 Seconds" contest. The aim of the contest was to allow any U.S. citizen with the desire and the talent to make a 30-second commercial summarizing the policies and record of the Bush administration's first term in office. The winning ad, MoveOn.org announced, would be shown during the Super Bowl in February.

MoveOn.org received over 1500 ads, and in typical democratic fashion (and perhaps in today's political climate, a bit naively), believed the contest to be protected under the U.S. Constitution's Bill of Rights First Amendment, which guarantees the right of free speech to all Americans, and didn't screen the entries as carefully as they should have. Republican National Committee Chairman, Ed Gillespie, seeing a prime opportunity to use the GOP's favorite political weaponry, went on Fox News Sunday (1/4/04) to make this "fair and balanced" statement:
"But they have been running an ad selection campaign on their Web site, and one of the ads that was submitted that they considered viable for airing -- with $7 million, by the way, in funds that we don't know where it comes from, but we know they've said they'd spend $7 million to air the ad that they've settled on -- one of them morphed President Bush into Adolf Hitler. That's the kind of tactics we're seeing on the left today in support of these Democratic presidential candidates."

That fact is that it was a contest, not an official "campaign," and none of the entries at that point were considered "viable for airing." The only ads that were considered "viable for airing" were the 15 finalists which were announced almost a week later on 1/8/04, and did not include either of the Hitler ads. And the mysterious $7 million dollars that MoveOn.org would use to air these horrific ads? Well that's my fault. You see I and several million other Americans who feel that same way about Bush and his right-wing handlers have contributed our hard-earned dollars to MoveOn.org and the Democratic party so that they can fight the GOP on its own terms. I know that the GOP and its Chairman believe that their members are the only ones with cash to contribute to political causes, but they're not (perhaps it will be true if Bush steals a second term, but it's not true yet). Gillespie's first clue should have been the name of the MoveOn.org branch sponsoring the contest, "MoveOn.org Voter Fund."

It's quite appropriate that the RNC would become so angry about what they consider to be "dirty" political advertising. Because if there's one organization that knows a lot about dirty political advertising, it's the RNC. I would even venture to say that, "they wrote the book!" I think MoveOn.org's Eli Pariser sums it up best in his 1/6/04 e-mail response regarding the RNC's smear campaign:
"Not only is the RNC campaign deceptive, it's also totally disingenuous. Yesterday, the New York Post ran a long opinion column focusing exclusively on how much Presidential Candidate Howard Dean resembles Hitler, even calling him 'Herr Howie.' Of course, the RNC hasn't issued a condemnation of that. When close RNC ally Grover Norquist repeatedly compared taxing the wealthy with the Holocaust in an interview on NPR, the RNC was muted. And in 2002, the RNC and its allies were silent when supporters of President Bush actually aired TV ads morphing the face of Senator Max Cleland, a triple amputee as a result of wounds sustained in Vietnam, into Osama bin Laden. Given such a transparently partisan track record, the RNC's moral outrage doesn't mean a whole lot."

Clearly the GOP wishes for political advertising to be managed in the same way as their taxation and fiscal policies -- with a double-standard. And with the help of CBS and Fox, who are clearly in the RNC's back-pocket, the GOP may just have its wish fulfilled.

On 1/12/04, MoveOn.org announced the winner of its Bush in 30 Seconds campaign, "Child's Play," which very elegantly answers the question, "guess who's going to pay off President Bush's $1 trillion deficit?" The ad makes no garish comparisons of Bush-to-Hitler, not does it scream in your face about how Bush is a lying, cheating, two-faced, wannabe-dictator. "Child's Play" quietly and tastefully, using a very nice musical soundtrack, points out what a shit-load of trouble this country now faces as a direct result of Bush's fiscal policies. And yet, CBS refuses to air it during the Super Bowl. In it's intro to the winning ad , MoveOn.org points out that CBS will be showing ads sponsored by beer companies, tobacco companies, and the Bush White House, but won't air an ad paid for by American voters. Why?

There are a couple of reasons. First, CBS is decidedly right-wing. According to Opensecret.org, in 1999 CBS and its employees made $13,755 worth of "soft money" donations to both political parties. $250 was given to the Democrats by one Bonnie Gethner at a CBS affiliate in Los Angeles, and the remaining $13,505 was given to the Republicans by CBS Corporation itself. CBS is clearly, "putting its money where its politics is." But probably the bigger reason they're refusing to show "Child's Play," is for the huge favor that they owe to the Bush administration for pushing the 39% TV cap compromise through the Senate.

This is a debate that has been in the Senate which would place a cap on the number TV stations that any one network can own which allow it to reach a certain percentage of the national TV market. Last fall, the Senate voted to set the cap at 35%. That means that any network whose station holdings let it reach more than 35% of the national market would have to sell some stations. The Bush administration objected to the 35% cap and pushed through a compromise of 39%. Both CBS and FOX have station holdings that let them reach 39% of the national market. Hey, how's that for an example of special interest legislation? Senator John McCain of Arizona, who is himself a Republican, had this to say about the compromise,
"The fix is in. They grandfathered in Fox and CBS. I think it's an insult to the American taxpayer." (Reuters, 1/20/04)

So I guess if you want to look at it in a positive light, by not showing an anti-Bush ad during the Super Bowl, CBS is just being polite. It's their way of saying, "thanks for all the pork, Mr. Bush!" Or, if you'd like to look at is as I do, under the harsh light of reality, CBS is sidelining the First Amendment during the biggest game of an election year. If you view this situation in the same light as I do, then I recommend that you surf on over to MoveOn.org and sign the petition to let CBS know how you feel.

Posted: Sat - January 24, 2004 at 03:33 PM          

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