RTP-area local music and culture

[Monkey Boy <monkeyboythom AT gmail.com>]

I think Dennis Leary was right about them...


Mötley Crüe Sues NBC for Discrimination

By JEFF LEEDS and JACQUES STEINBERG, The New York Times

Mötley Crüe says their free-speech rights have been violated by the
Peacock network.
In the latest twist in the broadening battle over decency standards,
the glam-metal band Mötley Crüe filed suit against NBC yesterday. The
suit states that the network violated the group's free-speech rights
and weakened its sales by banning it after Vince Neil, the lead
singer, used an expletive on the air in a Dec. 31 appearance on "The
Tonight Show."

The lawsuit, filed in a federal court in Los Angeles, accuses the
network of censoring the band to mollify a Federal Communications
Commission that has been increasingly quick to levy steep fines for
broadcasting indecent material on television and radio. The lawsuit
says the network, which banned the group after Mr. Neil inserted an
expletive into his New Year's greeting to Mötley Crüe's drummer, Tommy
Lee, added insult to injury by promoting a summer reality series
featuring Mr. Lee.

The band, known for 1980's hits like "Shout at the Devil" and "Girls,
Girls, Girls," is requesting a ruling that NBC's ban is
unconstitutional, a court order forcing the network to lift it, and
unspecified financial damages tied to the band's reduced media
exposure.

"We meant no harm, but it feels that we're being singled out
unfairly," said Nikki Sixx, the band's bassist. "This is a
discrimination issue, pure and simple. All we've ever asked is to be
treated like everybody else, which is why we're taking this action."
In a statement yesterday, NBC said: "To ensure compliance with its
broadcast standards, NBC has the right to decide not to invite back
guests who violate those standards and use an expletive during a live
entertainment program. The lawsuit Mötley Crüe has filed against us is
meritless."

The band's case appears somewhat quixotic, given that federal courts
have afforded wide discretion to broadcasters to choose their own
content. But it does illustrate the uneasiness of the relations
between entertainers and the media companies that provide a platform
for their fame in the cautious climate that has surrounded programmers
since CBS's Super Bowl fiasco last year, when Janet Jackson's right
breast was exposed during a half-time performance in front of tens of
millions of viewers. Last year the F.C.C. proposed fines of nearly $8
million against broadcasters, primarily for risqué material, and
executives have spoken openly of practicing self-censorship to avoid
the agency's crosshairs.

Jeff Zucker, president of NBC Universal Television Group, has provided
examples of how the decency standards on broadcast television differ
from those on cable. This past season, he played himself - albeit an
expletive-spewing caricature of himself - in the limited-run Showtime
series "Fat Actress."

Whether performers can take legal action to influence programming is
in serious doubt, however. Charles Tobin, a Washington lawyer who
specializes in First Amendment law and has represented CNN and Fox,
said: "The government has no right to censor people on the content of
their speech. But time and again the Supreme Court has upheld the
rights of broadcasters, newspapers and the other media to decide who
it wants to give priority to. That includes the right to ban anyone
they want to."

"I think it's a publicity stunt," Mr. Tobin said of the Mötley Crüe
suit. "It can't get NBC's help to boost its album through the
airwaves. So it's going to try and do it by dragging NBC into court."

But the band's lawyer, Skip Miller, argues that there are lower-court
opinions supporting the notion that a private entity, like a
television network, acting under government pressure, can be liable
for damages for violating free-speech rights. Mr. Miller added that
NBC's action unfairly singled out Mötley Crüe because NBC had not
announced similar bans on other performers who have uttered
profanities on its airwaves, including the singer Bono of U2, or the
singer John Mayer. (The F.C.C. found that NBC violated decency
standards by broadcasting a vulgarity uttered by Bono during the
Golden Globes in 2003, but did not impose a fine.)

"Once you're on, and then you get banned," Mr. Miller said, "the
question is why? Is it because NBC decided to throw Mötley Crüe under
the train? If it's because of kowtowing to the F.C.C. and governmental
pressure," he continued, "yes, I do think that can be a First
Amendment violation."

In the lawsuit the band said Mr. Neil was not aware that his statement
was being broadcast. But in any event, the band said, the live
broadcast took place during late-night hours when federal prohibitions
on indecent material have not traditionally been applied.Three weeks
later, Mr. Zucker of NBC told a meeting of television critics that
"Mötley Crüe will not be back on NBC." He said that the New Year's Eve
edition of "The Tonight Show" would be broadcast on a five-second
delay going forward.

As a result, the band said, a previously planned appearance on NBC's
"Last Call With Carson Daly" was called off. The band also said it was
barred from appearing on other network programs, including "Late Night
With Conan O'Brien," and media exposure that cost it prospective
ticket, merchandise and album sales, as well as corporate
sponsorships. Even without appearances on the network, the band's new
double album, "Red, White & Crüe," composed primarily of previously
released songs, has sold a surprising 349,000 copies, according to
Nielsen SoundScan.

Still, when the ban went into effect, just before the release of the
album, it "was a tender, important time for them," Mr. Miller said.
"NBC's action was overkill."



-- 
Less talk. More monkey.