Dial File: NBC hissy fit reveals a Network Behaving Badly

Thursday, July 24, 1997 | 11:19 a.m.

NBC -- Never Bear Censorship.

Given all the Peacock's palaver lately, that could easily be their battle cry against congressional advocates of TV's revised ratings plan. Try this instead:

NBC -- Nauseatingly Big Con.

Cloaking itself in anti-censorship rhetoric -- a noble sentiment only if you mean it -- NBC is the lone holdout among the networks agreeing to the new ratings concoction.

In case you missed it, this is an add-on to the first plan, in which the networks -- under pressure from Congress and children's advocates -- affixed labels to their programming (TV-G, TV-PG, TV-MA, etc.) that gave virtually no hard information on a show's content. It provided only programmers' vague, skewed -- and self-serving -- view of which shows were appropriate for which viewers, most importantly, children.

The proverbial fox guarding the henhouse. These, after all, are the same Einsteins who, when required by the Children's Television Act to show proof of educational programming as a condition of station license renewal, cited "The Jetsons."

The new alphabet soup system piles on more letters -- "V" for violence, "S" for sexual content, "L" for language and "D" for suggestive dialogue -- that give viewers -- and parents -- more information on which to base what-to-watch decisions, similar to the system already in place on cable for pay channels like HBO and Cinemax.

Heck, movies also adhere to ratings restraints. At last check there was no shortage of nude, writhing bodies or blood-spurts-from-every-orifice gore-a-thons on the big screen (if you're in doubt, check most of this summer's offerings).

But NBC -- on top of the Nielsen ratings and rolling in advertising dough -- threw a hissy fit, and a patently phony one at that. Infuriatingly, NBC has dragged out the "we're heading down a slippery slope toward censorship" argument.

As a 14-year member of the media, my anti-censorship credentials are intact. Censorship stinks -- period. I don't want to be restrained in this column anymore than NBC wants to be handcuffed on its airwaves. But the Peacock's feathers are really in an uproar about -- what else? -- money, not your right to ogle undraped derrieres and blood-soaked bods, or hear schoolyard sex references and sleazy street speech.

Those things could be defended, even if one has to hold one's nose to do it. (In some cases, given a particular show's adult-oriented nature and appropriately late time slot -- say, "NYPD Blue" -- all of those could be in context and, therfore, eminently defendable).

As much as some right-wing senators and citizens would really like the new ratings plan to be about censorship -- they've cornered the market on morality and taste, don't you know? -- it isn't. It's about: full disclosure. Truth in advertising. Labeling your product. Potential loss of revenue. All of which -- particularly that last one -- threaten the financial future of the Network Behaving Badly.

Fine. This is America. Land of the Free Enterprise System and the Home of the Brave Businessman. NBC should just be up front about it, rather than pretentiously preen about censorship -- an issue too crucial to be co-opted for a ruse.

NBC, flush with success, is more concerned that the scarlet letter ratings will shoo away advertisers, who don't want to be harrassed by the self-righteous likes of activist Donald Wildmon or the Baptists boycotting all things Disney (just flash back to the coming-out of "Ellen"). If there was a way to guarantee that ad revenue would keep flowing like champagne on New Year's Eve, NBC would conveniently forget how to even spell "censorship."

Coming clean about your product (not necessarily changing it) to help parents cope -- for the benefit of their children -- with an incredibly crowded and confusing media landscape light years from where it was just a decade ago is a cultural concession the networks should make.

Money means a lot, but not everything.

It has also long been evident that warning labels (just remember the rock- lyrics-on-CDs controversy triggered by Tipper Gore) lure those forbidden-fruit-loving consumers who will always crave what others deem off-limits, assuring eyeballs around the tube and keeping advertisers fat and happy.

Drop this sham, NBC. As TV's top-rated player, you've got a responsibility you're dodging by being the Must-See-Only-What-We-Want-You-To-See network.