PBS Network Hit by Charges of Censorship : Television: A ‘P.O.V.’ program about gay activists is canceled and the network backs away from a dramatic film about AIDS and homophobia. Critics say the network is practicing self-censorship.

In the wake of lingering controversy over the refusal of about 100 public-television stations to air a documentary about the experiences of black homosexuals, PBS has canceled a program about gay activists and is backing away from a dramatic film about AIDS and homophobia.

On Monday, the network pulled the plug on “Stop the Church,” a short film about a 1989 demonstration against Catholic church policies on AIDS, just two weeks before it was to air as part of the series “P.O.V.” PBS programming officials also have refused to endorse the airing of “Son of Sam and Delilah” as part of the “New Television” series of innovative and experimental video art, although individual stations will be allowed to air it if they wish.

“The real issues are censorship and homophobia,” said Charles Atlas, who wrote, directed and produced “Son of Sam and Delilah.” “PBS is definitely running scared. The real reason they pulled it was all the trouble they just got into over ‘Tongues Untied.’ ”

“Tongues Untied,” a film about black homosexuals that “P.O.V.” ran last month, sparked controversy because of its frank language and some nudity, and about 100 PBS stations opted not to broadcast it. The Federal Communications Commission said that 13 obscenity and indecency complaints have been filed against local PBS stations that did show the program.

David Davis, president of “P.O.V.,” acknowledged the earlier fracas in a statement explaining why he was pulling “Stop the Church” from the schedule: “I felt another controversy at this time would break (stations’) backs and undermine their confidence in ‘P.O.V.’ ”

PBS, however, denied that there was a connection between “Tongues Untied” and its decisions regarding “Stop the Church” and “Son of Sam and Delilah,” saying that neither program was deemed acceptable for airing.

“Stop the Church,” which includes footage of Catholic rituals cut against “The Vatican Rag,” a decades-old satirical song by Tom Lehrer, “has a pervasive tone of ridicule which rather overwhelms its critique of church policy,” said PBS spokeswoman Mary Jane McKinven.

And “Son of Sam and Delilah,” which uses a serial killer as a metaphor for AIDS, is “obscure and unclear” and full of gratuitous violence, according to Melinda Ward, the network’s director of drama, performance and cultural programming. The video’s violent action includes an angry man shot through the back of the head, and other characters shot at point-blank range.

Even after Atlas added a segment at the beginning that explained the metaphor, Ward said, the violence seemed unnecessary. “We felt that the meaning of the work was obscure and that the violence would seem gratuitous. The real danger is that the audience wouldn’t get it,” she said.

Canceling “Stop the Church,” was “a judgment call, a very subjective judgment call,” said John Grant, PBS’ vice president for scheduling.

“Our decision has nothing to do with the attack on the church in this program, it has nothing to do with the fact that it was made by an AIDS activist group,” Grant said. “It really is the tone and the ridicule that we found inappropriate for broadcast.”

But privately, PBS insiders said that the problem must be viewed in a broader context. Public television, these sources said, has been under increasingly harsh attacks from conservative and fundamentalist groups throughout the past year, attacks that have been focused mostly against the local stations that make up the loosely structured network.

A conservative group called the Committee for Media Integrity has challenged the license of KCET in Los Angeles, and according to Marc Weiss, the executive producer of “P.O.V.” who programmed both “Stop the Church” and “Tongues Untied,” fundamentalist groups including the Rev. Donald Wildmon’s American Family Assn. have threatened to pressure underwriters to withdraw funding from at least six stations.

In fact, according to Grant, it was a call from a local station that prompted PBS programming chief Jennifer Lawson to review “P.O.V.’s” planned airing of “Stop the Church.”

Particularly after the controversy generated by “Tongues Untied,” Grant said, some local stations have complained about “P.O.V.,” and PBS is bracing itself to defend not only the series but also point-of-view programming in general.

“There are stations who are questioning PBS and ‘P.O.V.’ about the management of the series,” he said.

According to executive producer Weiss, stations were so displeased with the publicity surrounding “Tongues Untied” that the “P.O.V.” staff feared that another controversy coming so soon on the heels of that program might prompt some stations to refuse to run “P.O.V.” altogether, a move that could bring about the four-year-old program’s demise.

“Several people whose judgment I trust told me, ‘If (‘Stop the Church’) goes on the air, “P.O.V.” goes down,’ ” Weiss said in an interview.

Susan Dowling, co-producer of “New Television” for WGBH in Boston, said that PBS is being overprotective of the stations.

“(The PBS programmers) are gatekeepers of the system, and I respect that, but at the same time they’re perpetuating protection of content, and by extension, homophobia,” Dowling said. “Whatever the programmers’ claims, they have a damaging effect.”

Arthur Kropp, president of the liberal media watchdog group People for the American Way, said that the withdrawal of the programs portends an ominous future for controversial programming.

“This is the kind of censorship you can’t fight--self-censorship,” Kropp said. “This is the first indication of where we’re heading.

“It illustrates just what kind of environment we’re working in,” he said. “There have been so many attacks and so many threats that people are going to begin to run scared.”

PBS’ Grant and Ward acknowledged the appearance of censorship, but insisted that such a contention is not valid. “While this decision would have been called ‘good programming judgment’ if it had been made three or four months ago, being made two weeks before broadcast it raises the specter of censorship,” Grant said.

The decision to cancel “Stop the Church” was not made earlier, Grant said, because PBS officials were not alerted to its content.

And he said that while it’s true that “Tongues Untied,” “Stop the Church” and “Son of Sam and Delilah” are all gay-themed works encountering resistance from some players in the public-broadcasting arena, their situations are not related.

Citing several gay-themed programs airing this season on PBS, including “Out in America,” “Absolutely Positive” and “Longtime Companion,” Ward said that “we plan to continue to air subject matter on AIDS and homophobia. We’re not in the habit of ducking controversy.”

Only WGBH and WNET in New York have said for certain that they will broadcast “Son of Sam and Delilah.” In Southern California, KCET and KOCE Channel 50 in Orange County have not yet decided, and KPBS Channel 15 in San Diego said that it will not air the program.