No controversy here...CBS's actions speak louder than words

 
It was OK for Janet Jackson to sing during her Super Bowl halftime show on CBS, "I'm so hot, I'm gonna take off all my clothes," and then have Justin Timberlake rip off part of her costume, exposing her bare breast. It was OK for a beer commercial to feature a Chimpanzee making crude sexual overtures to an attractive (human) female, and for a voice-over in another commercial to ask rhetorically if you'll be able to perform sexually when the moment is right--but not to show a tongue-in-cheek ad reminding you that meat consumption increases the probability that you won't.

It was OK for an insurance company to facetiously offer a "trunk monkey" with every policy--that is, a chimpanzee which, if you get into a verbal altercation with another motorist, can be released to clobber your adversary with a tire iron. It was OK for a credit-card commercial to depict Homer Simpson sloshing suds immediately before driving home to spend time with his family. It was OK to run an advocacy ad from Philip Morris, and other advocacy ads from anti-smoking groups--including one highly critical of advocacy ads from Philip Morris. But an ad suggesting that future generations will be left to pay off the Bush administration's record deficits? Sorry, that's over the top.

In rejecting ads from MoveOn.org and PETA, CBS had cited a "50-year-old policy" of not accepting advocacy ads that deal with controversial subjects; but they demonstrated their tolerance for controversy by airing nudity in prime time; ads that made light of bestiality, drinking & driving, and road rage; and both a Philip Morris ad and an "anti-Philip Morris ad" ad. It's apparent that the only "controversy" CBS finds unacceptable is telling the truth about the Bush League.