GEN. MCCAFFREY ON PRIME TIME

The office of the federal drug czar provides 'suggestions' on rewriting TV
scripts to push an anti-drug message to viewers

THE NEXT TIME your favorite television sitcom portrays a drug-using
character suffering for his or her bad habit, don't automatically credit
that touch to the creative genius of the TV dramatists. The drug note may
well have been nudged into the script by aides of Gen. Barry McCaffrey at
the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

In a program little-noticed until the Internet magazine Salon rendered a
critical report last week, the government has carved out a role for itself
by influencing the content of prime-time TV shows. By submitting scripts in
advance to the anti-drug policy officials, networks can get credit for
warning about the dangers of addiction. They sometimes alter story content
in line with suggestions from the drug czar.

There's a powerful financial lure for the broadcasters to accommodate Uncle
Sam as a script consultant. Anti-drug messages that pass muster are chalked
up against a requirement that the networks run public-service ads denouncing
drug use. The advertising time thus liberated is available for sale to
commercial buyers at a higher rate. The networks in this manner have
fattened their collective incomes by $22 million.

What's wrong with this?

Mainly that the networks have surrendered a portion of their creative
independence to a federal bureaucracy. That's an erosion of free expression
under the First Amendment.

Another unsavory aspect of the anti-drug tactic - whatever its admirable
objective of discouraging drug abuse - is its secrecy. McCaffrey did outline
the system of storyline credits to a congressional subcommittee last fall,
but the information was largely unreported. Neither federal officials nor
network flacks were exactly effusive about how programs were being spiked
with anti-drug content. So quiet was the process that several producers of
programs submitted for government approval did not know it was going on.

Even though the anti-drug insertions are defended by the White House, the
general's aides are squeamish about giving all the details. An official
listed some shows that had been reviewed, but declined to provide the
complete list. If it is such an above-board effort in the public interest,
with no Big Brother implications, let's take all the wraps off and label
altered programs with "government-provided content."