MTV to help head off hate

Tonight, MTV will do something it's never done before: Instead of airing such network stalwarts as Celebrity Deathmatch and Total Request Live, the U.S. cable network will run a scroll listing the names of hundreds of victims of hate crimes for more than 17 hours.

The blackout -- which will air after a program depicting the death of gay Wyoming college student Matthew Shepard and an MTV News special examining hate crimes -- is the kickoff of a year-long effort to educate MTV's audience about discrimination.

The network has planned 200 hours of social programming, including special editions of the reality show The Real World, and other MTV news programs. The campaign is partly the result of a poll that found 82 per cent of 12-to-24-year-olds support expanding U.S. federal hate-crimes legislation.

But it's also the result of a year of hand-wringing by MTV executives concerned about incidents of popular culture crossing the line -- especially U.S. rapper Eminem, whose gay- and female-bashing lyrics last year outraged many groups. MTV president of programming Brian Graden said when the music-oriented network first got Eminem's videos -- before the release of his popular album -- they were cartoon-like and innocent. The network later learned that Eminem had given them edited versions.

Graden said it isn't the network's role to censor popular culture, but it did decide to stop promoting him. It also aired a special on the Eminem hubbub called When Lyrics Attack.

"We're not going to stop the wave of popular culture," Graden said, "but what we can do is get our audience to think."

That MTV has helped popularize artists such as Eminem has not discouraged groups such as the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) from partnering with MTV on the project.

"Young people are very sophisticated," said Kevin Jennings of GLSEN. "They understand videos represent the views of the artist, not the views of the network."

The scroll will begin tonight at 10 p.m. Eastern and Pacific times, 9 p.m. Central Time and 8 p.m. Mountain Time after the original movie, Anatomy of a Hate Crime. It will conclude 17½ hours later -- tomorrow.

Sacrificing 17½ hours of airtime will cost the network more than $2-million (U.S.) in ad revenue, but Graden said the losses weren't part of the debate.

"As long as we are connecting with our audience," he said, "we can make the money up somewhere else."

The campaign will have a home on the Internet, where American Web surfers can get information on how to send letters to Congress encouraging passage of legislation.

In 1999, MTV launched a similar social campaign called "Fight for Your Rights: Take a Stand Against Violence." It focused on raising awareness of youth violence, and won Emmy awards for the network but took less than 50 hours of airtime, Graden said.

The network's third "Choose or Lose" campaign in 2000 helped sign up more than one million new registered voters, Graden said.

Caryl Stern-LaRosa, director of the Anti-Defamation League's Education Division, said she hopes MTV's efforts will help change the hearts of people who harbour prejudices.

"We know people learn to hate," she said. "And we know they can unlearn to hate."