Yeah, I heard about this a few days ago. Here's what I received in the mail from the nice, if albeit sometimes nutty, folks at FAIR:
</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
December 3, 2004
Three broadcast networks have rejected an advertisement from the United
Church of Christ, deeming the ad's message of tolerance to be too
controversial.
Citing the Bush administration's proposal of a constitutional amendment to
ban gay marriage, CBS and UPN have refused to run a UCC commercial that
advertises the church's acceptance of all people, including gays and
lesbians. NBC also deemed the ad "too controversial" to air (UCC.org,
11/30/04).
The ad depicts two bouncers in front of a church letting in two white
girls and a white heterosexual couple but turning away others, including
people of color, a man in a wheelchair, and two men holding hands. A
message reads, "Jesus didn't turn people away. Neither do we." As the
camera pans over a crowd of diverse UCC members, including a woman who
puts her arm around another woman, a voiceover states, "No matter who you
are, or where you are on life's journey, you are welcome here."
Because ABC has a policy against accepting any religious advertising, UCC
did not attempt to place an ad on the network (San Francisco Chronicle,
12/2/04). Several networks accepted the ad, including ABC Family, Fox and
TNT.
According to the UCC (UCC.org, 11/30/04), CBS explained the rejection in a
letter to the group:
"Because this commercial touches on the exclusion of gay couples and other
minority groups by other individuals and organizations, and the fact that
the Executive Branch has recently proposed a constitutional amendment to
define marriage as a union between a man and a woman, this spot is
unacceptable for broadcast on the [CBS and UPN] networks."
CBS spokesperson Dana McClintock elaborated on that explanation two days
later (Newsday, 12/2/04): "If there is a public policy debate going on, as
there is on the issue of gay marriage, we do not accept advocacy
advertisements."
CBS and NBC have certainly not been consistent in their rejection of
advocacy ads. As Media Matters for America noted (6/18/04), CBS ran an ad
during the 2003 Super Bowl from the White House Drug Control Policy Agency
that suggested that casual marijuana smokers support terrorism-- a
controversial proposition, to say the least. And NBC in 1993 sold two
half-hour blocs of time to Ross Perot to criticize President Bill
Clinton's economic policies (Media Matters, 12/1/04).
But a network asserting that it would reject an ad for expressing a
political viewpoint is problematic in itself. Viacom, which owns both CBS
and UPN, has explained its policy in various ways after coming under fire
for refusing independent political ads on its networks in the past.
In October, Viacom's MTV Networks blocked an ad from the progressive group
Compare Decide Vote that compared the presidential candidates' policy
positions on issues important to young people. A Viacom spokesperson
argued that it didn't need to air such ads because "across all our
properties, we talk about these issues every day" (Media Daily News,
10/13/04).
When Viacom blocked an ad from the anti-war group Not In Our Name prior to
the Iraq War, CBS executive vice president Martin Franks argued that such
an advertising policy was necessary for a national network (New York
Times, 3/13/03): "How could you take an advocacy ad and have it reflect
the values of the entire nation?"
As FAIR has argued before, Viacom's position that its own coverage of
important political issues renders political ads unnecessary is arrogant
and unfounded (FAIR Action Alert, 10/18/04). And to argue that ads should
reflect the values of the entire nation holds them to an implausible
standard that the network's own programming would be hard-pressed to
meet-- as, for that matter, would its non-political advertising.
But in this case, it's hard to see how the UCC spot can even be considered
an advocacy ad at all. CBS makes quite a leap to interpret the UCC ad as
advocating for gay marriage or entering a public policy debate; the ad
never mentions or even implies that the gay couples featured are or wish
to be married, or that the UCC condones gay marriage. That the Bush
administration's opposition to gay marriage should lead CBS to block an ad
that simply notes a church's acceptance of gay people is astounding and troubling.
While NBC's explanation of its rejection made no mention of the Bush
administration, it did seem rather concerned with the reaction of other
churches. "The problem is not that it depicted gays, but that it suggested
clearly that there are churches that don't permit a variety of individuals
to participate," said Alan Wurtzel, president of research for NBC (Boston
Globe, 12/2/04).
It's true that the ad's metaphorical message is that some groups are not
welcomed by some churches-- and that's a reality that has been made clear
in countless news reports on various Christian sects that have barred gays
and lesbians from being ordained, prohibited gay marriages and proclaimed
their opposition to homosexuality.
By blocking an ad that acknowledges the existence of homophobia in some
churches, NBC gives extraordinary censorial power to those churches. Both
NBC and CBS set a dangerous precedent by extending their advertising
policies to block ads that might, without advocating any political
position, contradict or offend the administration or its religious allies.
ACTION: Please contact CBS and NBC and urge them to reverse the absurd
policy that deems a church's acceptance of all people to be "too
controversial" to air.
CONTACT:
Les Moonves
Chairman, CBS; co-President & co-COO, Viacom
Phone: (323) 575-2345
Bob Wright
President, NBC
Phone: (212) 664-4444
As always, please remember that your comments have more impact if you
maintain a polite tone.
[/ QUOTE ]