Although the Super Bowl is a public event that is the most watched TV program, it is a privately produced show, and the choice of what ads to run rests with the network, a private company. Once CBS network bought the rights to broadcast the 2004 Super Bowl, it had First Amendment rights to choose what it would, or would not broadcast. Under the First Amendment, CBS has to right to exercise its editorial judgment regarding the content of Super Bowl ads. Its editorial judgment, however, seems to have been based on financial and partisan political decision, and not on the public interest.
At issue in the 2004 Super Bowl is the rejection by CBS of two advertisements, one that touted vegetarianism and another that basically bashed President George W. Bush; the network said it rejected the ads because they violated its advocacy rules. One of the ads (submitted by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) asserted that meat eating causes impotence, while the other (submitted by the liberal online advocacy website MoveOn.org) criticized the federal budget deficit (Super Bowl Advertisements Rejected, 2004). CBS stated it routinely rejects ads that take one side or the other of controversial public issues. The ads that are shown are for beer, soft drinks and other products that sell things.
The network issued a statement explaining that its guidelines are ôdesigned to prevent those with means to produce and purchase network advertising from having undue influence on æcontroversial issues of public importanceÆö (Harman, 2004). Super Bowl telecasts, however, have run ads condemning both drunk driving and smoking, making the CBS guidelines inconsistent. For example, CBS ran an ad that stated an anti-smoking position, a public service announcement about AIDS, and a commercial from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (Goldberg, 2004).
Eli Pariser, MoveOnÆs political director states that, ôthe scary thing abou...