speech and respect - College of Social Sciences and International ...

The Poverty of Civil Libertarianism
influenced by the "good taste" and "moral values" of their regular
programmes. New York Times C2 (July 14, 1992).
90 Los Angeles Times A27 (January 30, 1992); Warner et al. (1992).
91 New York Times C1 (February 25, 1992). Some executive compensation
consulting firms refuse to talk to reporters. Business Roundtable members
who are clients of Towers Perrin persuaded the firm to stop helping the
Wall Street Journal prepare its annual executive pay survey. Half a dozen
angry clients phoned Michael J. Halloran of Wyatt Company after he
helped Fortune with its 1991 pay survey, which included stock options for
the first time. Another firm assured clients that it had refused to cooperate
with Fortune. New York Times C1 (August 25, 1992).
92 They also examine advertisements for taste, fairness, and documentation.
The vice president for comercial standards at ABC said that only 125-150
of the 46,000 commercials are challenged each year; about half are
modified or withdrawn. A "What is Sexy" commercial for Jovan Musk
exposed an inch of skin around a woman's navel, which the network
inisted be covered. Jovan tried to circumvent such prudery by showing a
man and woman undressing while an actor portraying the network censor
explained what was acceptable. Censors would not allow Vitabath bath
oil to show a woman in a bathtub using her toe to plug an annoyingly
dripping faucet, which they felt was too suggestive of intercourse. Companies
also seek civil damages when competitors malign them. New York
Times s.3 p. 10 (September 27, 1992). The New Yorker cancelled a twopage
Benneton ad worth $73,000—a photo of an albino Zulu woman
apparently being shunned by others—because it was inconsistent with
the feature story about Malcolm X. Previous New Yorker editors had
sometimes objected to ads. New York Times C13 (October 2, 1992).
93 New York TimesCI5 (November 14,1989), s.2 p.1 (December 8,1991),
13 (February 1, 1992); Los Angeles Times F1 (January 17, 1992). Advertisers
pulled $500,000 out of a "Law and Order" episode about the
bombing of an abortion clinic and $350,000 from one about the assisted
suicide of an AIDS victim. In the first half of 1990/91 it had more pullouts
than any other network show, but the next year it was nominated for six
Emmys and won the National Board of Review's DW Griffith Award and
the ABA's Silver Gavel award. Now shows can be cancelled after three
episodes. "Quantum Leap" offered advertisers a plot synopsis beforehand
and their money back if they were uncomfortable with it. Los
Angeles Times F1 (September 1, 1992).
In 1973, when CBS reran an episode about the first abortion by a
leading television character (Beatrice Arthur as Maude), not a single
national sponsor bought ad time, and 39 affiliates refused the show.
Meredith Berlin, editor-at-large of Soap Opera Digest, said: "Writers will
fall all over themselves to avoid an abortion. Miscarriage is a convenient
out. So is falling down stairs or off a horse. Or a hysterical pregnancy."
Ashley Abbott, the good girl in "The Young and the Reckless," had
perhaps the last abortion on a soap; she was punished by suffering a
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