Gospel Still Too Racey for TV

Some of you may remember that when the United Church of Christ launched its "Stillspeaking Initiative" at the end of 2004, the strategy included airing commercials on network TV. You may further remember that CBS and NBC rejected the first commercial as "too controversial," due to its brief depiction of two men holding hands. The second commercial, which aired in 2005, suffered much the same fate for similar reasons.

Naturally, the UCC decided to fight back and filed complaints and license-renewal challenges to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). As of August 7 of this year, the FCC has simply dismissed the challenges.

You can read the story here: http://www.ucc.org/news/ucc-leaders-indignant-over.html?log-event=sp2f-view-item&nid=33700378

When the commercials were first rejected, I wrote a letter to the editor of our local paper drawing the community's attention to the issue. This dismissal by the FCC has merely brought up the same issues again, but now without recourse.

The decision is extremely chilling. The so-called "liberal" media has banned these commercials because the message of Jesus that all are welcome remains too radical to show on television. What does this say about our contemporary society? Why is this message still so controversial?

And what's with the power of the corporate networks to make this kind of decision? The conservative and anti-Semitic Veggie Tales even has its own Saturday morning cartoon on NBC! It's a sad day when the FCC rules against free speech due to its "controversy." As any Constitutional scholar will tell you, "controversial" speech is exactly what the authors of the Bill of Rights had in mind when they included freedom of speech in the First Amendment.

It sounds more like it's freedom of speech for only the corporations. I thought the Supreme Court ruled that the public "owned" the airwaves, but according to the FCC, that doesn't seem to be the case anymore. (I guess the false prophet-televangelists are the only ones with enough money to garner widespread media coverage.) Aaaargh.


Any thoughts?