Deserting 'Private Ryan'

Fearing government fines for airing coarse language and graphic material, several ABC affiliates have decided not to show the network's movie "Saving Private Ryan" - the world War II story of heroism and valor - scheduled for Veterans Day.

Instead they'll air an edited-for-TV version of the R-rated Eddie Murphy comedy "Coming to America."

ABC affiliates that decided to pull the Steven Spielberg wartime movie starring Tom Hanks include those in Atlanta, Detroit, Dallas, Des Moines, Iowa and Orlando.

The cancellations are emblematic of a quandary broadcasters say they face in the indecency crackdown by the Federal Communications Commission after Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" at the Super Bowl. Individual stations face fines for airing material considered indecent, but broadcasters say there is no clear definition of what indecency is.

Lee Armstrong, vice president and general manager of Charlotte station WSOC-TV, said the station got complaints from viewers the last time "Saving Private Ryan" aired, mostly about the language in the show. ABC aired the film, in its uncut form, in 2001 and 2002.

The 1998 movie, nominated for 11 Oscars and winner of five, deals with the D-Day invasion of June 1944 and the efforts of a small unit to find a paratrooper whose brothers had been killed.

It carried an "R" rating in theatrical release for "intense, prolonged, realistically graphic sequences of war violence, and for language," according to the Motion Picture Association of America.

"Given the content of the film, I would say it is highly unlikely anyone at the FCC would bat an eye," said David Scott, an assistant professor of journalism and mass communications at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. "The problem with the FCC is that the indecency rule is vague."

Even the Parents Television Council, one of the most aggressive lobbyists for broadcast decency, said it had qualms about stations pulling "Saving Private Ryan."

"Context is everything," said Brent Bozell, the organization's president. "We agreed with the FCC on its ruling that the airing of 'Schindler's List' on television was not indecent, and we feel that 'Saving Private Ryan' is in the same category. In both films, the content is not meant to shock, nor is it gratuitous."