PRIME-TIME PROPAGANDA

No, it's not censorship, and of course it doesn't infringe on the
First Amendment. It's merely a voluntary arrangement under which the
networks submit their scripts to a White House office to make sure
they're "on strategy." In return, the networks feel the deep joy that
comes from knowing the feds and they are on the same side of an issue.
But if it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it's a duck, and
everyone's pieties aside, it really is censorship. It's no surprise to
see the White House, or anyone or anything connected to it, to be part
of that, but the networks are supposed to know better. Actually, they
do know better; it's just that they don't care.

Very quietly, the major broadcast television networks have been
sending scripts to the White House Office of National Drug Control
Policy, and, very quietly, the bureaucrats who work there have
suggested changes in at least two dozen programs. It is unclear how
many of the changes were made, and the networks insist they would
never surrender editorial control, or impugn their artistic integrity
(Oh, ha, ha) but a buck is a buck, and you may not believe them. Under
a complicated, and badly conceived, piece of legislation passed by
Congress in 1997, cooperation with the White House allows the networks
to make more money.

The legislation financed a huge anti-drug advertising campaign -- some
$1 billion over five years -- that effectively required the networks
to match any ads the government bought with anti-drug spots of their
own. In subsequent negotiations with the White House drug office,
however, it was agreed that the networks could dispense with some of
the spots if they incorporated anti-drug messages into their
prime-time programs. The networks, of course, could then sell the air
time that would have been used for the anti-drug announcements to
their regular advertisers. It is not clear how much the networks have
profited by this, but advertising costs have risen sharply in the last
two years, and the sums appear to have been substantial. The on-line
magazine Salon, which first revealed the network-drug office
connection, reported that NBC regained $1.4 million worth of air time
in exchange for episodes on "ER" alone that dealt with drug abuse.

NBC has declined to confirm or deny this, although one of its vice
presidents put out a statement saying "NBC has never ceded creative
control of any our programs" to the White House or anyone else. It
would be nice to think that's true, but the record is not reassuring.
Brave, principled behavior does not seem to be NBC's long suit. For
example, after Kweisi Mfume, the president of the NAACP, denounced the
television networks for their "denial of opportunity for people of
color," NBC succumbed to the diversity hustle in all its egregious
forms.

Thus NBC agreed to pay more attention to "image portrayal," which
apparently means it will present not only more, but also more
attractive, minority characters in its shows. (And if that's not
ceding creative control, what is?) NBC has also agreed to require
diversity training for all its 5,000 employees. At the same time, it
says that "achieving diversity goals will be a key measure of every
employee's compensation review." Translated that means that employees
who do not go along with the diversity program will not get any raises.

If Kweisi Mfume can intimidate a network that successfully with just a
few speeches and demonstrations, then imagine what a presidential
administration can do. Anti-drug messages today, and anti-smoking,
anti-alcohol, and anti-anti abortion messages tomorrow -- the
possibilities are endless for prime-time government propaganda.

Meanwhile, conservatives may want to blame the White House and the
liberal networks for all this, but they will be short-sighted if they
do. The 1997 legislation that allowed the government to buy ads and
then require the networks to run more ads was passed by a Republican,
and nominally conservative, Congress. The First Amendment, which
begins by saying, "Congress shall make no law," seems to prohibit
pernicious legislation like that, but the Republicans had other things
on their minds, and apparently no one cared.