The producer of "Boston Legal" still isn't sure why ABC made him drop mentions of Fox News Channel in a recent episode, The Los Angeles Times said Thursday.
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David E. Kelley told an audience at the Museum of Television & Radio in Los Angeles the decision might be related to the Super Bowl halftime show in which Janet Jackson's breast was exposed.
"That was the first time in 18 years I've ever had a network squelch an idea," Kelley said. "This was the first time that we really got the feeling that the network just did not want us to tell the story."
In the episode, conservative students complained of censorship when a high school principal blocked access to Fox News on the school's cable system. On orders from ABC, mentions of Fox News were replaced with references to an unnamed cable news channel with a conservative agenda.
The Walt Disney Co.-owned ABC said its decision had nothing to do with politics.
Kelley tweaked ABC, the Times reported, having the show's central character observing that "the First Amendment is losing its luster lately. Some networks are even censoring their scripted dramas."