NBC’s Battle With Movie Group Heats Up

Flak is flying between National Broadcasting Co. and the Motion Picture Assn. of America over their respective, and well-known, positions on the seemingly endless debate over television’s “financial interest and syndication” rules. Public relations staffers have been working overtime drafting snarling letters to the opposition and dutifully faxing copies to the press.

NBC started the PR spat earlier this month when it publicized its unsolicited “response” to Pathe Entertainment’s $1.2-billion bid to buy MGM/UA Communications. NBC took a dim view that Pathe is controlled by foreigners--two Italian businessmen--and bemoaned the U.S. entertainment business falling “entirely into foreign hands.” NBC argued that overseas companies have an unfair advantage over U.S. networks when it comes to participating in rerun revenue from old TV shows.

To make its point, NBC ordered 75 pizzas to go and had them delivered to members of Congress who are involved in the fin/syn debate. “While NBC can’t have a piece of the pie, you can,” read the attached note. “Buon Apetito!” it said in misspelled Italian.

Within hours, MPAA chief Jack Valenti shot off a missive to the Italo-American congressional delegation, saying “some of your colleagues who received pizza counted this PR ploy by NBC to be callously racist, demeaning to all of us of Italian extraction.” An alert NBC corporate staffer warned executives in a memo that “it is Valenti’s intent to stir up some members to publicly criticize NBC and we need to be prepared with a response just in case this happens.”

Valenti then hit the roof after seeing Wednesday night’s NBC News special titled “The New Hollywood,” anchored by Tom Brokaw. The main point of the show was that giant conglomerates have taken over Hollywood and are squeezing out the little guys. Valenti wrote NBC chief Robert C. Wright to complain that NBC didn’t disclose it is lobbying to scrap the fin/syn rules and thus, supposedly, has a vested interest in making the studios look bad.

The MPAA, to make sure it was getting out the word, summoned the press to its Washington offices Friday and called for equal time to “present a rebuttal to NBC’s lack of disclosure.”

The network’s top spokesman on fin/syn, Joe Rutledge, labeled Valenti’s demand “idiotic. That means no.” Wright also wrote to Valenti, saying his claim--that the corporate interests of NBC’s parent, General Electric, dictated the angle of the show--was “appalling” and the subsequent press conference “yet another publicity stunt designed to undermine the negotiations.”

At the press conference, Valenti diplomatically noted that he had no beef with Brokaw, only the network’s alleged failure to disclose its hidden agenda. “I don’t think Tom Brokaw had a bias,” he assured reporters. “I trust Tom Brokaw.”