planetdan

Tuesday, March 25, 2003 :::

The Iraq Love Shack
MTV (Europe) sent out a memo to program directors to put a moratorium on playing certain videos and songs that may offend the public in times of war. Now, some songs I am all for banning, like that Aerosmith song from Armageddon. That should never be heard again. But are there actually people who are so oversensative to any mention of things even remotely war-related that they would be offended by the airing of a B-52s video? Is it even possible to watch the video for Love Shack and be politically conscious at the same time? Poor B-52s, they get so little airplay as it is. Here is part of the memo:

Obviously, there will be heightened public sensitivity to representations of war, soldiers, bombing, destruction of buildings and public unrest at home. The ITC Programme Code requires us not to broadcast material which offends against good taste or is offensive to public feeling. We therefore recommend that videos featuring the following are not shown at the moment: war, soldiers, war planes, bombs, missiles, riots and social unrest, executions, other obviously sensitive material.

Examples include:
System of a Down "Boom!" - anti-war video containing facts and figures about, amongst other things, the projected casualties in the war in Iraq.
Aerosmith "Don't want to miss a thing" - contains footage from the film "Armageddon".
Manic Street Preachers "So Why So Sad" - contains footage of soldiers being killed and man throwing a hand grenade.
Passengers/U2 "Miss Sarajevo" - contains missiles, guns and buildings being blown up.
Bon Jovi "This ain't a love song" - contains war scenes and victims in distress.
Iggy Pop "Corruption" - contains wars, riots, guns and captions "we love guns" and "we love rifles".
Paul Hardcastle "19" - contains war footage.
Radiohead "Lucky" - contains war footage including injured children.
Billy Idol "Hot in the City" - contains an atomic explosion.
Armand van Helden "Koochy" - contains an atomic explosion and ships being blown up.
Trick Daddy "Thug Holiday" - contains soldiers being killed at war.

Furthermore, videos with words such as "bomb", "missile", "war" or other sensitive words in the artist or song title should not be shown at the moment.

Examples include:
Outkast "B.O.B (Bombs over Baghdad)" - song title may offend.
Radiohead "Invasion" - song title may offend.
Megadeth "Holy Wars" - song title may offend.
Gavin Friday "You, Me and World War Three" - song title may offend.
B-52s videos.

You can read the whole memo if you want, but those were the most interesting parts.

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