Excuse me, but this was more than a little bit manipulative, IMO.

Ani is asked to submit three songs for "approval" by network censors.

She submits at least one song that has controversial content, and at least one that doesn't have controversial content.

The network censors make the obvious choice.

Ani gets to claim she is being censored by CBS, garnering much more publicity that will last longer than actually appearing on the show and singing the controversial song would have generated.

Yawn.

Cynical and manipulative publicity stunt by Ani's side, I say.

And I like Ani a lot. But it still looks like a manipulative publicity stunt to me.

I suppose there are people out there who believe the networks are great defenders of the First Amendment rights of all people, rather than just themselves.

They may even be SO SHOCKED! by all this.

But Ani knew the score going into this. Just more Ani, playing her usual game.