Activist demands MTV pull Army ads

Attorney and Christian rights activist Jack Thompson has asked the U.S. Army to stop advertising on MTV, where he claims recruiting commercials appear during broadcasts that show "some of the most disturbing, graphic pornography depicting women as mere sexual objects."

In a letter faxed Tuesday to Secretary of Defense William Cohen, Thompson questions whether the government should be giving money to MTV and its parent Viacom to run ads seeking men and women recruits because the music channel trades in the "objectification of women."

An MTV spokesman declined comment, saying execs at the cabler had not seen the letter.

Thompson, who is best known for getting an album by rap group 2 Live Crew declared obscene by a Florida court in 1988, suggests that the commercials are "highly inappropriate" because "the Army, at a time when rocked by numerous sexual harassment scandals, ought not to be sending the message that its has no problem with MTV's objectification of women."

'Irrefutable link'

Thompson claims "the link between pornography and sexual abuse is irrefutable" and has represented many plaintiffs who have proven to be harmed by such a link.

"The women (the Army) seeks to recruit have a real problem with this message," Thompson told Daily Variety. "Why would they want to serve in an Army insensitive to such swill?"

Tuesday's colorfully worded missive marks Thompson's second attack on MTV.

In December, Thompson fired off a letter to attorneys for Viacom threatening a boycott of MTV unless the channel "clean(s) up its broadcasts and stop mentally molesting an entire generation" (Daily Variety, Dec. 24, 1996).

Thompson will try to press his claims directly to Viacom shareholders at its annual meeting May 21 in New York.