The controversy over CBS’s refusal to air MoveOn.org’s anti-Bush commercial during the upcoming Super Bowl is heating up. CBS claims its policy of not airing advocacy advertisements during the Super Bowl precludes showing the commercial, while MoveOn.org cries censorship and suggests CBS is repaying the Bush Administration for relaxing media ownership rules (see Moveon.org’s ad from today’s New York Times). Outrage is appearing in online community sites and on the floor of the U.S. Senate.
It is difficult to understand how all those CBS-owned and –affiliated broadcast license holders are serving the public interest by refusing to carry a tasteful political advertisement during the Super Bowl, but it is equally difficult to imagine the current FCC doing something to change the situation. What happened to Chairman Powell’s aggressively pro-market stance?