MTV Holds Raciest Videos for Last

Under intense scrutiny following Janet Jackson’s breast-baring performance during last week’s Super Bowl, MTV has quietly plucked a number of its edgiest music videos out of its daytime rotation.

The Viacom Inc.-owned cable network, which produced the Super Bowl halftime extravaganza, notified several major record companies last week that at least eight of their videos would now be played only during overnight programming, generally between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., sources said.

MTV shifted most of the videos -- including recent clips from such acts as Britney Spears, Maroon 5 and Blink 182 -- because of their sexual content. But the list also included a politically charged clip from the rock band Incubus; the video for the song “Megalomaniac” depicts an Adolf Hitler character with angel’s wings flying over a crowd, and later shows a nameless politician ordering police to halt a protest.

An MTV spokeswoman confirmed the move but downplayed the idea that the channel was engaging in self- censorship. “We support the creative community, but we have to take into account what’s in the culture right now,” she said. “It’s part of our responsibility as broadcasters.”

The Jackson episode touched off a firestorm of protest and prompted a national dialogue over indecency on television. On Friday, the Federal Communications Commission reported that upset TV viewers had filed more than 200,000 complaints about Jackson’s act, in which part of her clothing was ripped off by singer Justin Timberlake.

FCC Chairman Michael K. Powell has vowed a complete investigation of the incident, branding it a “classless, crass and deplorable stunt.”

Representatives of the acts whose MTV videos have been consigned to little-watched overnight play couldn’t immediately be reached.

Label executives declined to comment, although some groused privately that MTV’s decision could undercut promotional plans for music acts that had no involvement with the Super Bowl.

Indeed, for the music industry, what’s happening is reminiscent of the period after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, when radio and TV broadcasters refrained from airing a wide array of songs that contained violent or politically sensitive lyrics.

“It absolutely feels like 9/11 programming all over again,” one music executive said.

To be sure, MTV isn’t the only television outlet to examine its practices in the wake of the show. CBS, which broadcast the Super Bowl and is also owned by Viacom, said it would air last night’s Grammy Awards using an “enhanced delay” to prevent any indecent material from airing. On General Electric Co.-owned NBC, a shot of an elderly woman’s breast was edited out of an episode of the series “ER.”

For its part, MTV previously said it wouldn’t air a planned special on the making of the Super Bowl stage show.

Viacom executives have been summoned to testify this week at two congressional hearings on indecency and broadcast standards. MTV insiders say the media conglomerate fears that the clamor over the Jackson episode could widen into a broader debate focused on MTV’s own programming, including such shows as “Jackass” and the skin-baring “Spring Break” reality series.

MTV has tweaked its video airplay in the wake of controversy before. The channel, sources say, decided against playing clips from R&B; crooner R. Kelly on its flagship “Total Request Live” program in the wake of his 2002 indictment on child pornography charges.