Should politics and football ever mix?

CBS is refusing to run a Super Bowl ad-spot that it considers to be political advocacy.

The… CBS is refusing to run a Super Bowl ad-spot that it considers to be political advocacy.

The ad, a 30-second spot called “Child’s Pay,” criticizes President George W. Bush’s running up of the federal deficit. It was the winner of a contest sponsored by MoveOn.org, a liberal advocacy group. The contest, called “Bush in 30 Seconds,” invited would-be filmmakers to take a shot at the President, and MoveOn.org would pay the $1.5 million to $3 million CBS charges for a 30-second spot during the game.

CBS claims it wants to avoid controversy. The network will, however, run an anti-drug advertisement from the White House, paid for with taxpayer dollars, along with countless advertisements that could be construed as offensive for their beer-shilling junk-food glorification and overall jiggle quotient.

CBS is an independent media entity, and can run or not run whatever content it sees fit. But, by carrying the Super Bowl, a game expected to draw nearly 100 million viewers, CBS is also part of a public forum, and thus ought to be a willing participant in the marketplace of ideas.

MoveOn.org is attempting to protest CBS’s decision by organizing a boycott of the Super Bowl. Even they acknowledge the near-futility of asking red-blooded Americans to do this. A great number of Americans love football, even to the exclusion of their idealism.

The network wants to avoid angering the nearly captive audience that the Super Bowl usually draws, but the point is all but moot. It is highly unlikely that a Super Bowl viewer, seeing an offensive advertisement, will throw down the remote in rage and turn off the big game without seeing the outcome. That’s just not how football is consumed. Most viewers that tune in will tune in for the entire game.

To say that Super Bowl viewers will be enraged by having political commentary interspersed with their clever talking frogs, is to do them a great disservice and to assume a bovine complacency on their part.

A common complaint about the American public is that they are apathetic and uninformed, especially in the realm of politics. Perhaps CBS should take the stance that, in an election year, the greater interest in having an informed citizenry should trump concerns over viewers who aren’t going to tune out anyway, and have the courage to ruffle a few feathers.