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Backing away from a confrontation with religious groups, NBC said Thursday it has decided not to show pictures of Madonna mounting a Crucifix when it airs a concert special with the pop star next month.
The concert, which lists Madonna as an executive producer, is scheduled to air Nov. 22. During the provocative passage in her concert, Madonna is shown on a mirrored cross wearing a crown of thorns. She has explained that it was meant to illustrate a theme of confession.
But this angered some religious leaders, who called it a bad-taste publicity stunt. Several religious groups in the United States told NBC they would organize a boycott of one of the concert's commercial sponsors if the cross scene appeared, and were meeting next week to decide which company to target.
NBC didn't explain its decision, with a spokeswoman saying the network doesn't discuss how its editorial decisions are made. NBC Entertainment President Kevin Reilly ducked out of an industry function in Los Angeles Thursday before reporters could reach him.
"NBC did the right thing, but the fact that it did not say why the offensive part of Madonna's concert was cut shows cowardice," said Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League. "What NBC should have done is to admit that since it refused to air the Danish cartoons that Muslims objected to earlier in the year, it felt obliged not to treat Christians in a discriminatory manner." Mercury News
Bill Donohue had informed NBC that he would organize a boycott of one of the show's sponsors if the show had been broadcast as originally planned. But he would not tell them which sponsor would be the target until after the show.
2 comments:
This is great news!
Yes, that is good news.
In a perverse sort of way, I was hoping that they would have gone ahead with the original plan and then Bill Donohue would have declared a boycott of some advertiser.
Hopefully it would have been somebody that had a common product that I could boycott, and more importantly, walk into stores and declare to the manager that I didn't like to see him/her selling that product.
It would have been an interesting test of strength to see if Catholics could be mobilized.
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