THE powers that be at MTV have always leapt at the opportunity to scatter Madonna's megapopular videos all over the airwaves. But the Material Girl's "Justify My Love" rubbed them the wrong way.

Too much explicit sexuality. Too much implicit innuendo. Too much immorality. Too much controversy. Free expression is fine and dandy, MTV officials explained, but this time, Madonna has gone too far. At least that's what our advertisers tell us.

So in the free-thinking tradition of Oliver Cromwell, the Ayatollah Khomeini and Benito Mussolini, MTV decided not to air "Justify My Love."

Of course, MTV can air whatever it wants to air. It's a free country. And in a free country, private firms are free to do cowardly and hypocritical things.

The Self-Censorship Issue: "Where do you draw the line?" ABC's Forrest Sawyer repeatedly asked Madonna on a nationally televised Nightline appearance.

We would ask the same question.

Is MTV planning to buckle under to reactionary censorship pressures every time an advertiser complains or a Donald Wildmon-type "family values" organization signs a petition? Or does it hope to encourage artistic expression?

Perhaps MTV finds Madonna's graphic images disturbing. Perhaps MTV finds Madonna's themes immoral. But the list of creative geniuses who have used graphic images and controversial themes in their art includes just about every creative genius. If MTV wants concerned parents to be able to keep their children away from Madonna's videos, warning labels and late air times are perfectly appropriate. An all-encompassing ban only suppresses originality, discouraging artistic exploration.

The Hypocrisy Issue: What's wrong with "Justify My Love," anyway?

As far as explicit sexuality goes, it's pretty tame. A nipple here, a nuzzle there--we're not talking hard-core pornography. As far as implicit innuendo goes, there's nothing too shocking, either. A bisexual fantasy here, an S&M fantasy there--fantasies about consenting adults never hurt anyone, not even Rev. Wildmon.

And as far as immorality goes, feminist visions of sexual liberation may be threatening to some, but we (like Madonna) find the rampant violence and degradation of women on MTV's airwaves truly repugnant. The images in Whitesnake's "Is This Love?" or Warrant's "Sweet Cherry Pie"--both aired by MTV--are potentially far more threatening to American children than "Justify My Love."

But not even Whitesnake should be kept away from the public. How far down the slippery slope of paternalism will MTV travel? Since when does MTV claim to be the protector of public morality? After all, Allan Bloom has long maintained that MTV concists of "hymns to onanism and the killing of parents."

Madonna's images may be provocative, but that's what may make "Justify My Love" art. Or, then again, it may just make it a hit.