Up Wants To Derail Mtv Video

Union Pacific Railroad Co. has sued MTV and Sony Music in federal court over the depiction of the railroad in a video for Firehose bassist Mike Watt.

Omaha, Neb.-based Union Pacific charges in a March 30 complaint that the video impairs the railroad’s “reputation and standing in its industry” and exposes it to “the hatred, contempt and ridicule of the general public.”

At issue is the depiction of Watt as a drunk train engineer who runs over pedestrians and tosses a bomb on an ambulance and a Union Pacific locomotive seen crashing in the video for Watt’s song “Big Car.”

The song is from Watt’s recent “Ball-Hog or Tugboat” album on the Sony-owned Columbia label.