This evening, NBC reversed course and agreed to air the “controversial” Freedom’s Watch ad — which consisted basically of people thanking U.S. servicemen and servicewomen for persisting in the face of a deadly threat.

NBC, according to the Associated Press, decided that it would no longer vet the content of websites advertised in TV commercials, as long as the content of the spots themselves didn’t run afoul of network standards. Here’s the statement from NBC:

“We have reviewed and changed our ad standards guidelines and made the decision that our policy will apply to content only and not to a referenced Web site. Based on these amended standards the Freedom’s Watch ad will begin to run as early as Sunday.”

Hallelujah. Evaluating ads based on the content of their sponsors’ websites was a ridiculous policy, and fraught with potential problems. General Motors, for one example, advertises heavily on NBC. One of its websites promotes the Corvette as a car that reaches “190 mph.” (That’s illegal practically everywhere, and not exactly “socially responsible.”)

And how many political campaigns (both legitimate and “527″-based) are going to buy national airtime next year, on both sides of the aisle? Network pencil-pushers should only be evaluating the ad in front of them, not the contents of the website an ad points to. Can you imagine NBC (or FOX) vetting 30-second spots based on their impression of whether the related Internet mud-slinging was objectionable?

The mind boggles.