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Cbs refuses anti bush ad { January 31 2004 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/01/31/MNGHR4M8TF1.DTLhttp://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/01/31/MNGHR4M8TF1.DTL
Anti-Bush ad rejected by CBS to air on CNN
Internet group had wanted commercial shown during Super Bowl
George Raine, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, January 31, 2004
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A television ad that calls attention to the federal deficit, rejected by CBS for airing during the Super Bowl as issue-advocacy advertising, will be seen on CNN throughout the day Sunday and through next week, its sponsor said Friday.
The ad, which is harshly critical of President Bush and describes children being saddled with debt, will also air on broadcast and cable stations in five states expected to be central to the presidential campaign.
The ad's sponsor, the Internet-based, politically left-leaning group MoveOn.org, in all will spend some $1 million for air time for the spot called "Child's Pay.'' Had the 30-second spot been accepted by CBS for the Super Bowl, the price would have been $2.3 million, but reporting on the ad's rejection is giving it considerable exposure.
Dana McClintock, a CBS spokesman, said MoveOn.org was mining publicity from the matter. He said that in recent years a cottage industry had arisen among groups that submit advocacy ads that they know will be rejected. "They then resort to press releases and Internet diatribes about the rejection to reap considerable free media attention and financial contributions to support their cause,'' he said. CBS says it has rejected issue advocacy advertising since the early 1970s.
MoveOn.org spread the word of its CNN commercial buy to its 1.8 million members Friday and asked them to leave the CBS Super Bowl broadcast for a minute Sunday during halftime, at 5:10 p.m. PST and 5:35 PST, and switch to CNN to watch "Child's Play.''
MoveOn.org is raising funds to create and buy television time for political ads critical of President Bush in swing states. Its "Child's Pay'' commercial will be seen beginning Sunday in Florida, West Virginia, Ohio, Missouri and Nevada. The ad shows children working adult jobs and has the tagline, "Guess who's going to pay off President Bush's $1 trillion deficit?'' It was chosen the winner in a competition that had 1,500 entries.
Also this week, 26 members of Congress criticized CBS for rejecting the spot, and suggested the network might be bowing to Republican Party will.
Rep. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, and 25 Democratic colleagues Wednesday wrote to Leslie Moonves, the CBS chief executive and president, to say that issue ads are commonplace and important for the democratic debate. "Yet, CBS seems to want to limit that debate to ads that are not critical of the political status quo, and in the case of the MoveOn ad, of the president and by extension the Republican-controlled Congress,'' they said.
Sanders recalled the decision by CBS in the fall to pull a made-for- television movie called "The Reagans'' after being pressured by conservatives who considered it unflattering.
"Perhaps not coincidently, CBS's decision to censor the Reagan program and to deny airtime to this commercial comes at a time when the White House and the Republican Congress are pushing to allow even greater and greater media concentration -- a development from which Viacom (owner of CBS) stands to benefit handsomely,'' the letter reads.
The debate over the network's choice is largely fueled by Move-On.org, which bought an ad in the New York Times published Wednesday saying that the CBS chairman's "kowtowing makes a certain sense,'' as Bush recently reversed an anti-trust rule that would have forced CBS and Fox to sell some of their local stations.
McClintock of CBS said the network's policy was designed to prevent those with means to produce and purchase network advertising from having undue influence on "controversial issues of public importance.''
He said the network had rejected hundreds of advocacy ads over the years, including those submitted by Mobil Oil and W. R. Grace Co. and ads on all sides of issues from gun control to abortion to the North American Free Trade Agreement. CBS also rejected an ad proposed for Sunday's Super Bowl by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
"We have found that people tend to agree with the policy when they disagree with the thrust of the ad, and vice versa,'' CBS said in a statement.
The network's critics have said that, by its own policy, CBS should have rejected an ad by the Office of National Drug Control Policy to air during Sunday's game. McClintock said the comparison of the two ads was between apples and oranges.
He said CBS has been airing the drug control policy office's ads since the Clinton administration . "That (ad) is clearly not considered to be advocacy,'' said McClintock. "There is no debate in this country over whether drug abuse is a good thing. There may be a debate over whether drugs are a good thing, but there is no reasonable, intelligent argument why drug abuse is a good thing.''
At the same time, Sanders said in an interview, "I do not see any redeeming social value to the deficit.'' He said CBS was "picking and choosing'' among issues for which to accept advertising.
ABC does not accept issue advocacy ads, said a spokeswoman. Nor does Fox, said a spokesman. NBC examines ads submitted on a case-by-case basis, but a spokeswoman said the network preferred to handle controversial topics in news and public programming.
E-mail George Raine at graine@sfchronicle.com.
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