CBS makes the right choice

For a nation that includes the freedom of speech as a bedrock principle in its Bill of Rights, the United States has an amazing propensity to turn the expression of certain ideas into controversy.

The latest example involves football star Tim Tebow, the college quarterback from Florida who will be entering the NFL draft this spring. He stars in a commercial slated to air during the upcoming Super Bowl that (gasp!) argues against choosing an abortion in the face of a problem pregnancy. CBS already has approved the ad, which features Tebow's mother, who ignored doctor's warnings and decided to rely on her faith and carry her baby to term. That baby, of course, is Tim, and both mother and son are still doing quite well.

CBS already has approved the ad, which is paid for by Focus on the Family, a Christian conservative advocacy organization. The network said it would approve other advocacy ads, if the sponsors did them tastefully and were willing to foot the $2.5 million for a spot.

That's not good enough for a lot of left-leaning groups that are acting as if this particular form of free speech is going to destroy the nation. Pro-choice advocates are calling on CBS to reject the ad. Terry O'Neill, president of the National Organization for Women, said the ad is "not being respectful of other people's lives."

Presumably, those other people are ones who disagree with the ad's premise, or with Christian values, or with other things for which Focus on the Family stands. They want free speech to go in only one direction.

Let's back up a minute. As anyone who holds conservative values on what may be termed family matters knows, television these days offers a virtually nonstop tide of one side in that argument. Situation comedies litter the nation's living rooms with promiscuity, sexual jokes and situations that, by their context, dismiss traditional values as meaningless. Against that Niagara of dramatic persuasion for one side comes the trickle of one single ad arguing against abortion, and suddenly the left worries about respect?

This is not really a free-speech issue. CBS is a private company and is free to air whatever advertising it wants within the rather loose FCC limits of taste and decency. But the Super Bowl is about as big a nationwide community gathering as television can offer in these days of fractured entertainment markets. CBS is doing the right thing to air the ad, and to offer time to anyone else who wants to advocate.

The nation is big enough for that, as the Founders knew when they gave us free speech in the first place.