Too bad the media is treating Motley Crue's lawsuit against NBC for banning it as a joke or publicity stunt for the band's tour. Because NBC's actions raise serious questions about Big Media's -- and Washington's -- commitment to First Amendment-protected free speech and expression. To recap, the NBC ban resulted from MC's lead singer Vince Neil saying to drummer Tommy Lee during a song "Happy Fucking New Year, Tommy" just after midnight on The Tonight Show's live New Year's Eve show. Let's be clear: Saying "fuck" after 10 p.m. on broadcast television does not violate FCC indecency rules or any law.
The next day, according to the Crue, NBC refused to issue the band's apology for its error to the public and told the band not to issue any statement itself, apparently not wanting to draw attention to the incident, as it had not yet generated any complaints. But reporters started asking questions and the Parents TV Council kicked up a fuss and filed FCC complaints. Suddenly, NBC saw the incident could cause it big trouble inside the Beltway, where pop culture "indecency" is a crusade and the network and its parent company, General Electric, potentially have at risk licenses, contracts, tax breaks, export subsidies, import restrictions, cozy relations with legislators, etc., etc., worth literally billions of dollars.
Given these risks, if you're an NBC executive standing before a roomful of TV critics in January to announce your upcoming new shows -- one of which happens to be Tommy Lee Goes to College, a summer reality show featuring none other than Motley Crue's drummer! -- and you know the critics -- and the Parents TV Council -- and the FCC -- and the Congress -- are champing at the bit to fire hard questions about what you intend to do about Crue's New Year's Eve F-bomb on your network and, gosh, how can you create a new show starring a member of the very same band -- you don't have to be as smart as Jeff Zucker to know you've got a big problem.
NBC's solution: Ban Motley Crue from NBC! Now, you might ask, isn't that a wee bit inconsistent? Ban Crue and in the next breath announce new programming that includes a show starring Tommy Lee, a member of Crue? Not, apparently, if you're an NBC exec. The bottom line is this: those who call Motley Crue versus NBC a "publicity stunt" are right. But it's not Motley Crue's publicity stunt, it's NBC's, designed to demonstrate to indecency-crusading Washington policymakers that they are sufficiently "tough" on indecency, while at the same time proceeding with Tommy Lee's new show.
Not convinced? Well, guess what happened on NBC a few weeks ago on Saturday Night Live? Another band, System of a Down, said "Fuck" not once, but SIX times. Five were caught by the tape delay and bleeped, but one was not. The East and Central zones heard it, and it was bleeped in the West. So NBC must have banned System of a Down from its airwaves, too, right? No. NBC did nothing. Why? Gee, could it be because no member of System of a Down has a new NBC reality show about to premiere?!
Still not convinced this ban was an NBC publicity stunt? Think maybe NBC was just being a good corporate trustee of our publicly-owned airwaves by banning Motley Crue and that it should have the right to ban creative artists as it sees fit? Well, apparently other companies don't share the view that they need to ban Crue to avoid offending Americans or corrupting their children. On March 2, the New York Stock Exchange invited Crue to ring its closing bell, an event that is televised daily on NBC's sister network, CNBC. The next day, Crue appeared on Live with Regis and Kelly, a show aimed not at the heavy metal set, but squarely at middle American moms, televised live during the hours when FCC indecency rules are in effect.
We don't know whether Motley Crue will win its lawsuit. What we do know is this: NBC should not be in the business of "banning" creative artists from its airwaves, which are owned by us, the public. Its actions against Crue raise a number of troubling questions that deserve to be taken seriously. First, how can NBC ban a band from its airwaves for an incident that does not violate any law or FCC rule and for which few if any genuine complaints were filed? (FYI, there is no requirement that someone actually watch a show to file a complaint about it with the FCC. Indeed, most complaints are bogus, filed by Parents TV Council members, or members of other groups, who never watch the show they complain about, but are coaxed into complaining by these groups' email campaigns).
Second, what does this say about the unhealthy climate in this country of government censorship and self-censorship by media companies? After all, this is only the latest example of a network leaping to censor itself to curry favor with the Feds. Consider CBS's cancellation of The Reagans miniseries after a handful of Congressmen and Senators of the majority party criticized it as unflattering, despite the fact that they had never seen one frame of it! With those billions of dollars at stake for giant media conglomerates in Washington, from broadcast license renewals to merger approvals to favorable trade and tax treatment, these corporations bend over backward to kowtow to policymakers -- and let the First Amendment be damned. The result is media content that is consistently bland and homogenized, watered- and dumbed-down, uncontroversial and unimportant, while the free expression rights of creative artists -- and the public -- are sacrificed.
Alas, what this entire episode confirms is that our nation's media policymakers have their responsibilities under the First Amendment backwards. Over tremendous public protest, they have foisted upon the American public an excessively-concentrated media that eliminates independent creative voices from the media, limiting free expression. Then, the government has also exponentially expanded its indecency enforcement, threatening huge fines and license revocations, limiting free speech even more. Then, to avoid any trouble with its government patrons, these giant media conglomerates decline to stand up for their own First Amendment rights and instead censor themselves, as NBC did with this arbitrary and nonsensical publicity stunt of a ban on Motley Crue -- other than their drummer, of course, who will be starring in his own show on NBC this summer! Which limits free speech and expression even more!
As limit upon limit is placed upon free expression, the public's First Amendment right to what the Supreme Court calls "an uninhibited marketplace of ideas in which truth will prevail" and "suitable access to social, political, esthetic, moral and other ideas and experiences" is increasingly infringed. And that is an unconstitutional tragedy.
Stumble It!
"NBC should not be in the business of "banning" creative artists from its airwaves, which are owned by us, the public."
In response to your article and specifically your comment about the airwaves being owned by US, the public, I have to say that I find it interesting that you readily claim public ownership of the airwaves when it suits your purpose of flipping- out over the fact that NBC is trying to prevent losing it's broadcast license by avoiding any more 4 letter outbursts by the scuz that are Motley Crue on network televion, but you conveniently forget that we ALL are part of the viewing public. That means You, Me, Parents and yes, even those pesky children that you obviously detest so much because their welfare keeps you from hearing your heavy metal heroes say words like fuck, shit, cock-sucker and cunt on TV. I am not a religeous zealot or the parent of young children or a member of the right wing conservative "conspiracy". I am an adult citizen of the United States of America and I watch TV. If I start jonesing for some violence and vulgarities, I'll go RENT Saving Private Ryan and watch it 3 million times in a row if I want to and not cry like a spoiled fucking baby pussy because I can't watch it on network TV without bleeps. People like you are assholes. You scream and cry about how your rights are being violated because you don't like that movies like Showgirls isn't shown on ABC uncut and unedited but you never once stop to consider the rights of the majority of people on this country who DON'T WANT THAT KIND OF STUFF ON OUR PUBLICLY OWNED TELEVISION STATIONS. That's what VCRs and DVD players are for, you idiot! Get over it and yourself already. How's THAT for free speech?!
Posted by: Lisa F | June 03, 2005 at 01:14 PM