FIRST OFF . . .

Two civil liberties groups have accused NBC of censorship for refusing to air their constitutional bicentennial advertisement on grounds it contained “veiled references to abortion and homosexuality.” The network said the issues raised by the spot were controversial and could not be aired in commercial time. “This is somewhat beyond belief,” said Oren Teicher, head of Americans for Constitutional Freedom, a group organized by the publishing industry. Teicher’s group and the Washington-based Americans for the Preservation of Freedom submitted the script for the ad to NBC earlier this summer, but NBC demanded that changes be made in the script.