By Jennifer Cox
 
      Until a week ago, ONDCP was just another obscure White House agency with an impossible name, a fat budget and a certain zeal for getting its message out before the American people.
    What a difference a week makes. Last Friday, Salon published a lengthy report revealing that ONDCP--that's the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy--was in cahoots with high-level brass at the networks to insert anti-drug messages in the story lines of America's favorite primetime shows, sometimes actually changing scripts to emphasize the evils of drug use.
    For a day or so, ONDCP bigs, perhaps misreading a storm of public attention, were bragging hither and yon about their ability to influence TV viewers.
     No more. ONDCP officials now say they will not review scripts of shows before they air. They will, however, continue with the anti-drug program, which compensates the network for running ads and promoting shows that encourage young Americans not to use drugs.
     The ONDCP statement attempted to clarify its policies regarding the reviewing of television programming.
    "We believe that these guidelines will eliminate any confusion about how the pro bono match process of the National Youth Media Campaign works," said ONDCP director Barry McCaffrey.
     The deal has caused a major political stink, with civil libertarians especially decrying what they say amounts to censorship on the part of the White House.
     Representative Billy Tauzin, a Louisiana Republican, complained yesterday: "This is a direct assault on the First Amendment."
     On Friday, the Salon story, by Daniel Forbes, told how this strange arrangement came to pass. As Forbes explains it,  the deal was the result of a billion dollar purchase by the government of advertising on network TV, to be used for anti-drug ads,  with the provision that the networks would match the purchase with an additional billion dollars of free ad time.
     The networks soon regretted the deal when the economy rose and the price of TV ads went through the roof.
    An agreement was struck between the networks and the ONDCP. In lieu of the commercials, the story reported that networks agreed to weave anti-drug messages into the programming. In return, the ONDCP would credit the network, with each such show being worth so many ad credits against its debt to the government.
         Initially, the networks downplayed the arrangement, saying that any anti-drug messages in their shows found their way into scripts through the natural creative process, not at the suggestion of the government.
     But writer Forbes reports that the number of anti-drug themed shows has tripled since the ONDCP began the pro bono match process.
    The ONDCP maintains it does not ask to read or change scripts before a show’s airing, though it says the networks had occasionally sent scripts in prior to airing for advice on how to depict drug-related issues.
    According to the ONDCP, 20 to 24 programs, of 109, were sent to them in various stages at the network’s request for input.
     But Forbes reports that the ONDCP did indeed advance beyond simply approving and rating the shows after production, to influencing the program during various stages of the process.
     Last week, after the story broke, ABC president Pat Fili-Krushel told reporters that the ONDCP changed its guidelines this year and started requesting an advance peek at scripts before broadcast. At that point, she said the network refused to cooperate.
    The ONDCP said ABC had misunderstood their policies and that there was no timetable as to when a program should be considered for media match consideration.

-Jennifer Cox is a staff writer for Media Life.