MediaWatch: October 1991
Table of Contents:
Censoring the Case for "Censorship"
Network news executives, editors, and reporters were livid early this year when they were not granted full, immediate access to the front lines of the Gulf War, declaring themselves "the conveyors of truth" and arguing for the right to air graphic pictures of dead soldiers. Walter Cronkite defined that attitude in a January 24 interview with the Chicago Tribune: "It ought to be almost compulsory to sit in front of the television set and have to view the horror they're enduring...If we start seeing, live, on the air, people dying in combat, it's going to have one terrible effect."
But Cronkite, with his fondness for People for the American Way and other liberal "anti-censorship" groups, has not criticized his own colleagues for their coverage of the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). The same networks that lobbied to show dead soldiers declined to show graphic images of sex that were funded by taxpayers, or play the lyrics of a controversial rap music group.
To evaluate the networks' treatment of the "censorship" debate, MediaWatch analysts watched every news story from June 1, 1989 to September 30, 1991 on the NEA or the rap group 2 Live Crew. Analysts viewed ABC's World News Tonight, CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News, and CNN's PrimeNews (until late 1990) and then CNN's Evening News. In every one of the 47 stories on the NEA and 29 about 2 Live Crew, the networks failed to show the most controversial works or play the most controversial lyrics, even as some downplayed their shock value. [This article includes sexually explicit language.]
Mapplethorpe. In covering the photography of homosexual activist Robert Mapplethorpe, each network described (at least once) the nature of Mapplethorpe's controversial photos -- the ones that featured homoerotic and sado-masochistic themes or nude children. But all of them refused to show or describe the worst publicly- funded pictures: Mapplethorpe with a bullwhip inserted in his rectum, or a picture of one man urinating in another man's mouth. Only two networks, ABC and CNN, told viewers there were pictures they wouldn't be able to show.
On September 29, 1989, CNN reporter Mary Tillotson stated the networks' problem succinctly: "The problem with reporting the debate about the propriety of public funding for the arts is that the photographs at the heart of the dispute are clearly not appropriate for television." In eight of CNN's 18 stories on the NEA, Mapplethorpe's pictures were partially covered by black boxes. In its seven stories on the NEA, NBC showed Mapplethorpe's pictures in only three, and it covered up the pictures with black boxes in two. All of the networks routinely cropped out the controversial parts without telling viewers what they had hidden or cut out.
On July 26, 1989, ABC reporter Beth Nissen also noted that Mapplethorpe's photo portfolio included "a few which cannot be shown on television, [which] are images of sadomasochism." Nissen implied that art too obscene for broadcast television was comparable to past greats: "The art of Picasso, Van Gogh, and even Monet was once considered shocking. Today's disturbing works will likewise be judged by time." Seconds earlier, Nissen argued that the NEA's controversial art has not found its place with the greats, but has already been forgotten: "In its 24 years, the Endowment has given more than 85,000 grants. Only 20 of those have enraged or offended anyone, and most of those have long since been forgotten."
2 Live Crew. The networks followed the same ignore-the-facts practice in the controversy over the rap music group 2 Live Crew. In 29 stories surrounding the Florida ban on sales of the group's music, only three quoted the lyrics at the very center of the controversy. NBC (in six stories) and ABC (in two) refused to quote the lyrics. (NBC did quote some rap lyrics, in a January 29, 1990 story -- not included in this study -- on the group Public Enemy and its anti-Semitism.) In only one of its six stories, on June 12, 1990 did CBS air some 2 Live Crew lyrics. Viewers could read on screen: "I ---- all the girls and make them cry. I'm like a dog in heat, I freak without warning. I have an appetite for sex 'cause me so horny."
In its 15 stories, CNN aired the lyrics twice. The first time, on February 22, 1990, they came muffled and without transcription. On October 4, 1990, reporter Jack Poorman put these lyrics on the screen: "Girls always askin' why I f--k so much/Just say what's wrong baby doll, with a quick nut/'Cause you're the one and you shouldn't be mad/I won't tell your mama if you don't tell your dad/I know he'll be disgusted when he sees your p---y busted/Won't your momma be so mad If she knew I got that a--/I'm a freak in heat, a god without warning/My appetite is sex 'cause me so horny." Poorman concluded that 2 Live Crew "have never denied their lyrics are adult."
But these lyrics aren't the ones which actually caused the Florida record-banning controversy, lyrics that aren't "adult," but celebrate violence to women: "To have her walkin' funny we try to abuse it/A big stinking pussy can't do it all/So we try real hard to bust the [vaginal] walls," and "I'll break you down and dick you long/Bust your pussy then break your backbone." The same networks that trumpet your right to know figure you'll hear about this somewhere else.
Network censors were also sensitive about the cover to the group's album As Nasty As They Wanna Be. When they dared to show the album cover, which features women in thong bikinis with their mostly-bare behinds facing the camera, they covered the buttocks with graphics on at least five occasions.
The networks cannot have it both ways, implicitly or explicitly declaring their advocacy against "censorship" and then censoring the most controversial parts of publicly funded art or violent rap music. If they are willing to show us grotesque images of death, they shouldn't be afraid of showing us the homoerotic "art" we paid for, or the "hate speech" of rap groups. Instead, those Americans who get their news from the networks were cheated out of a complete understanding of the "censorship" controversy.
