Bozell is the guy who launched the successful campaign to get the FCC to declare Bono's Golden Globe comment indecent. He's also credited with initiating the letter-writing campaign about the Super Bowl incident that so impressed FCC Chairman Michael Powell. "No television event has ever received as many complaints from the American public -- over 540,000 -- as the Super Bowl XXXVIII halftime show produced by CBS," Powell marveled in his statement accompanying the FCC's announcement it would slap CBS stations with that record-setting fine.
"Context is everything," Bozell says in the statement. "We agreed with the FCC on its ruling that the airing of 'Schindler's List' on television was not indecent and we feel that 'Saving Private Ryan' is in the same category. In both films, the content is not meant to shock, nor is it gratuitous. We applaud ABC for letting viewers know ahead of time about the graphic nature of the film and that the film would be uncut.
Foul language has made ABC stations hesitant to air "Saving Private Ryan."
(David James -- Dreamworks Llc/paramount Pictures/amblin Enterta)
|
| | | | | | | | | | ___ Arts & Living___ News about the television industry, reviews of shows and more can be found on our Television page. See what's on TV today, tomorrow or next week with the TV Grid. | | | | | | |
|
"We will not be filing an indecency complaint with the FCC over the airing of this film," Bozell added reassuringly.
But Parents Television Council didn't attack ABC stations the first time they aired "Saving Private Ryan." The American Family Association, aka Donald Wildmon's conservative watchdog group, did.
These days the AFA is focusing on trying to get advertisers to promise not to buy time in ABC's new hit series "Desperate Housewives" because it features a housewife who's having an affair with her high-school-age gardener and female neighbors discussing their relationships with their husbands over dinner. But back in 2001, the AFA went after ABC over "Saving Private Ryan," filing a complaint with the FCC in hopes it would slap the stations with an indecency fine. In its complaint, the AFA noted the movie's "violence, bloodshed, language and profanity," according to a letter of response from the FCC, a copy of which was obtained by The TV Column.
Last week's presidential election also played into Citadel's decision to scrap tonight's unedited broadcast of "Saving Private Ryan" and replace it with the TV movie "Return to Mayberry."
"We're just coming off an election where moral issues were cited as a reason by people voting one way or another and, in my opinion, the commissioners are fearful of the new Congress," Cole told the Associated Press.
Staff writer John Maynard contributed to this report.
