This Veterans' Day's broadcast of \Saving Private Ryan"" will not have reached everyone. ABC carried Steven Spielberg's 1998 film unedited and commercial free last night, but in lieu of this year's Janet Jackson Super Bowl fiasco some affiliates avoided airing the film for fear of a hefty FCC fine. Out of 225 ABC affiliates, as many as 18 were saying they would not air the film and preempt it with different ABC programming. Ironically, both the Walt Disney Company, which owns ABC, and many conservative politicians now find themselves on the free-speech loving side of the coin, as both camps encouraged all affiliates to broadcast the film in its entirety.
There are numerous ironies and puzzling aspects of this story. Eight of the stations that threatened not to show ""Ryan"" are owned by Sinclair Broadcasting, which is no stranger to controversial decisions (they tried unsuccessfully to air an anti-John Kerry documentary before the election). Conservative politicians, usually in favor of stricter restrictions on broadcast television, also encouraged every station to air the film. Disney/ABC, usually squeamish about controversial material, is fully behind airing Spielberg's movie, and there's no reason they shouldn't be. This would be ""Ryan's"" third Veteran's Day broadcast (after being aired in 2001 and 2002), and the FCC never lashed out at them before, though this was before the Janet Jackson/FCC uproar.
But if the FCC does fine any ABC affiliates for airing ""Saving Private Ryan,"" it fully destroys any credibility left within the organization. Janet Jackson's breast was indecent because it had absolutely no context or justification outside of being risqu?? or containing shock value. It goes practically without saying that ""Saving Private Ryan"" is fully justified in its violence and language, as it is in the context of showing the horrors of war rather than showing the horrors of what Janet Jackson inserted into her nipple. At least both Disney and politicians are on the logical side of a free speech argument for once, proving there is at least an ounce of sanity in the world. To be fair, the affiliates who opted not to show the film didn't say what they would air in ""Ryan's"" place. Surely ""Desperate Housewives"" honors our nation's veterans just as proudly.
Scenes from a Marfield normally runs on Mondays, and will run as usual this Monday. Contact him at ddmarfield@wisc.edu.
