Silly campaign against CBS enough to elicit bad words

By Monroe Anderson, The Chicago Sun-Times, September 3, 2006

The latest target of the American Family Association's holier-than-thou crusade is CBS. The network is commanding the wrath of the radical right-wing religious organization because on Sept. 10 it's airing an updated rendition of the Emmy and Peabody award-winning documentary, ''9/11.'' The association, which claims to be more than 3.5 million strong in its narrow-minded order of the righteously pious, has launched an e-mail campaign because, "not content with all the profanity already on TV, CBS has decided to air the profanity-laden unedited version of '9/11.' ''

If you weren't one of the 39 million Americans who watched the uncensored, first airing of the documentary in March 2002, or viewed its second broadcast on Sept. 11 of that year, you may not understand what the fuss is all about. And if you have seen ''9/11,'' you definitely won't understand what the fuss is all about. The movie was shot by two French filmmakers, brothers Gedeon and Jules Naudet, who were filming a documentary about a rookie New York City firefighter when one of the hijacked planes hit the World Trade Center. Jules followed the firemen into the lobby of the Trade Center and ended up shooting the only known footage from inside the Twin Towers the morning of the attacks, capturing real-life dialog from real-life heroes on the scene and in their firehouse. That dialogue includes a smattering of the f-word, used as an expression of anger, frustration or joy.

The firefighters' rough talk apparently conspires to address more than meets the ear. ''This is a test for CBS to see how far they can go,'' the association warns. ''If there is no outpouring of complaints from the public, they will go further the next time.''

It's not news that network television is fighting to keep as many eyeballs as it can. Thirty-five years ago, CBS, NBC and ABC commanded more than 90 percent of the total TV audience. Today their prime time audience is less than half of that mark and sliding. Many a network executive has come to realize that it's difficult for broadcast TV to compete against cable with general audience fare in an R-rated world.

That's where the conservative zealots of the association come marching in. They want to return network TV to the black-and-white days of ''Father Knows Best,'' to a time when ''Ozzie and Harriet'' had to sleep in separate twin beds lest viewers suspect married couples might be having sex, to a period when network censors wouldn't allow the word pregnant to be mentioned on television although Lucille Ball obviously was by her husband, Desi Arnaz.

This allegedly Christian organization may love Lucy but it seems to hate just about everything else. Besides spewing spiteful fire and brimstone blather over the usual sins -- extramarital sex, gambling and pornography -- the association also seems to hate the constitutionally blessed separation of church and state, the National Endowment of the Arts, abortion, unfiltered access to the Internet in public libraries, and, of course, television. Oh, I forgot, radio, too. The Rev. Donald Wildmon, the chairman/founder of the 29-year-old organization, has called for the silencing of PBS and as a result of his organization's hateful handiwork, many state legislatures reduced funding for public broadcasting.

Wildmon and his followers evidently have a love affair with the hatred of homosexuals and "the gay agenda." The Mississippi-based association has boycotted Disney, American Airlines and Ford Motors and now protests against Wal-Mart -- all for not discriminating against gays.

The group is now set on poking its accusatory finger in the CBS eye. "The goal of CBS is to be able to show whatever they want at anytime," it prophesies. ''The network wants no restraints on their programming. If they are allowed to get away with this, they will simply air even more profanity in the

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