corrente

There has been much talk about the (non)broadcast of "Saving Private Ryan" by some ABC stations on Veterans Day. Our own Keanu Reeves [no, really] was heard to suggest the motivation that "Must squelch Spielbergian leftist drivel -- real Americans don't question orders." There's questioning going on here all right, but it looks like more of a smack in the face to Michael (Colin Jr.) Powell's schizophrenic FCC:

This was the most complete single story I was able to find, out of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. I have taken the liberty of boldfacing the ownership identification of the stations that took part. It's an interesting mix, but the rationales given may, just may, indicate a wedge making its way into a crack in the Republican facade, between the "values" crowd and the Big Bizniz Boys:

NEW YORK (AP) -- Several [actually 66 of them, or a third of the total per E!News] ABC affiliates have announced that they won't take part in the network's Veterans Day airing of "Saving Private Ryan," saying the acclaimed film's violence and language could draw sanctions from the Federal Communications Commission.

Stations replacing the movie with other programming Thursday include Cox Television-owned stations in Atlanta and Charlotte, N.C., three Midwest stations owned by Citadel Communications.

"Under strict interpretation of the rules, we can't run that programming before 10 p.m.," said Ray Cole, president of Citadel, which owns WOI-TV in Des Moines, KCAU-TV in Sioux City and KLKN-TV in Lincoln, Neb.

In a statement on the Web site of Atlanta's [Cox TV owned] WSB-TV, the station's vice president and general manager, Greg Stone cited a March ruling in which the FCC said an expletive uttered by rock star Bono during NBC's live airing of the 2003 Golden Globe Awards was both indecent and profane.

Other stations that decided not to air the movie include WGNO-TV of New Orleans, owned by Tribune Broadcasting Corp., and WMUR-TV of Manchester, N.H., owned by Hearst-Argyle Television Inc.

WSOC-TV of Charlotte [owned by the mysterious IBS company, about which I can find little information] said it had received complaints about language in the movie when it was aired in 2001 and 2002.

ABC has told its affiliates it would cover any fines, but Cole, of Citadel, said the network could not protect its affiliates against other FCC sanctions.

Cole cited recent FCC actions and last week's re-election of President Bush as reasons for replacing "Saving Private Ryan" on Thursday with a music program and the TV movie "Return to Mayberry."

Google any of the stations named above, or just "Private Ryan" for further details. There are currently 617 stories filed there under that topic so I hope I will be forgiven for not checking all of them.

This cannot possibly have amused Disney-owned ABC TV. Oh, and Sen. John McCain (R-Hypocrisy), who gave a little talk as an intro to the film on those places where it did air, is reported to have personally worked the phone lines to individual stations to assure them that this movie would never get them in dutch with FCC. Somehow they failed to find his words reassuring. Wonder why?

UPDATE: Just a couple more ownership details, per the Richmond VA Times-Dispatch:

ABC affiliates of Young Broadcasting Inc., including Richmond's WRIC-Channel 8, are withdrawing "Saving Private Ryan" from tonight's schedule.

WRIC general manager Bill Peterson says, "The debate and decision were made at our corporate offices. We had input.

and from the North Carolina News-Record, a name you knew would come up in this discussion somewhere:

Sinclair Broadcast Group, which owns the ABC affiliate in Winston-Salem, WXLV (Channel 45), opted not to broadcast Steven Spielberg’s critically acclaimed movie “Saving Private Ryan” in honor of Veterans Day.

Sinclair ABC in Nashville didn't run it either.