Bauer's partial-birth ads aborted by TV networks

By John Gizzi

"Censorship," "concealment of truth," and "gag order" are just three of the phrases conservatives are using to characterize the refusal of ABC,CBS and NBC affiliates in California'a 22nd U.S. House district to air two anti-partial-birth-abortion TV spots. The ads the satations turned down were crafted by the Campaign for Working Families, the political action committee founded by Family Research head Gary Bauer.

Both of the spots simply describe in spoken words, without any shocking graphics, that a partial-birth abortion is. They were designed to inform voters in the special January 13 congressional primary that conservative Republican State Assemblyman Tom Bordonaro supports a ban an the procedure, while his opponent liberal Republican Assemblyman Brooks Firestone, opposes a ban.

Bauer had vowed to spend $100,000 airing the spots, but the local network affiliates-KEYT of Santa Barbara (ABC), KCOY of Santa Maria (CBS), and KSBY of San Luis Obispo (NBC)-refused to air them on the grounds that their verbal descriptions of the partial-birth abortion procedure were "too graphic" and "horrifying" for young viewers.

Rather than tone down its commercials, the Coalition for Working Families filed a complaint against the affiliates with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). PAC director Connie Mackey told HUMAN EVENTS the complaint focuses on whether "the network affiliates fulfilled their legal responsibility to air an ad campaign on the relevant campaign issue of partial-birth abortions." FCC regulations "bar licensees from exercising censorship over the content of political advertisements."

"Clearly, the stations have no legal basis for restricting our free speech by telling us what our ads can or cannot say," declared Bauer. "Nor do they have any basis for restricting what the voters can know."

More Graphic Than What?

One of the two ads is a 60-second spot that features a group of young women, apparently in a living room, discussing the partial-birth abortion procedure. One of the women notes that "the baby's legs are pulled into the birth canal" and "an incision is made in the skull and the brains are removed." The second ad, a 30-second spot, depicts a baby smiling in a crib as a narrator briefly describes the partial-birth abortion procedure.

Both spots close with the respective votes on the issue of Bordonaro and Firestone. Neither ad depicts any visual image of an aborted baby.

"We ran it past all of our department heads here, and they all found it to have a very disturbing content," said Sandy Benton of KSBY "While [partial-birth abortion] is certainly a very important issue, they felt that the way it was presented was horrific and the language horrifying-that it was scary stuff that would give nightmares later."

Almost echoing Benton's explanation was Byron Elton, vice president and general manager of KEYT, who recalled screening the commercials with associates when he received them in December.

"The language gave us pause," Elton told us. "It was more strident than we were comfortable with."

No one has claimed that the visual images in the ads-the women or the baby-are in any way objectionable. The affiliates are complaining only about the spoken language. But the language in the rejected spots is clearly no more "graphic" or "strident" than the descriptions of partial-birth abortion broadcast on national network news programs. (See box.)

As for the concerns of Mrs. Benton's colleagues about "scary stuff" and things they would not want their children to see, is this sentiment believable given that the three networks in question routinely broadcast violent and lascivious programming and advertisements in primetime slots when children are expected to be watching television?

This week's episodes of NBC's "Caroline in the City" and "Frazier," for example, were replete with explicit verbal and visual portrayals of their main characters' illicit sexual escapades. All of the networks have also run graphic advertisements for horror films ranging from Friday the 13th to The Alien to the current An American Werewolf in Paris.

"Is it censorship?" said Byron Elton of his decision not to air the partial birth spots. "Yes, it was. And censorship decisions are troubling to me personally. But as holders of FCC licenses, stations have to make censorship decisions every day."

Left Not Censored

As the candidacy of Tom Bordonaro was being denied an independent boost based on a major issue-with the dispute tied up in the FCC until after the election-Brooks Firestone's campaign was benefiting from a last-minute flurry of favorable television ads. A group known as the Foundation for Responsible Government, headed by long-time moderate GOP leader and Wall Street financier Lewis Eisenberg, spent more than $50,000 to air a 30-second spot hailing Firestone as a tax cutter and opponent of big government.

It is not clear who has put up all this money, because the foundation deals just with "issue advocacy" and therefore doesn't have to disclose its sources of funding. As a PAC, the Campaign for Working Families must report its contributors to the Federal Election Commission.