Clear Channel Drops the Bomb on Anti-War Billboard

[UpInArms]

http://www.elitestv.com/news/pub/2004/Jul/EEN40f6ce509643d.html

The $368,000 check had already been accepted by Clear Channel Spectacolor for the rental of a billboard in Times Square. Project Billboard, an advocacy group based in California, paid the bill and was set to post their anti-war message over the Marriot Mararquis Hotel. The billboard shows a Stars and Stripes covered bomb with the words 'DEMOCRACY IS BEST TAUGHT BY EXAMPLE. NOT BY WAR.' The billboard was set to be displayed from Aug. 2 to Nov. 2.

Yesterday, a Clear Channel lawyer told a federal judge that the image of the old cartoon style bomb, with a lit wick, would cause concern in a posyt-9/11 world, and asked that Clear Channel be allowed to reject it. The judge will have to decide whether Clear Channel broke their contract to post the anti-war message.

In a statement to reporters, the company said, 'Clear Channel Spectacolor was not aware when the contract was signed that that the ad would contain political content.'

Project Billboard has said that they are a non-partisan, non-political organization. A spokesman say that the billboard is not about politics, but is intended to initiate discussion.

...more...

[candy]

1. I despise all billboards so I'll stay out of this one.

[CO Liberal]

2. Times Square is One BIG Billboard

Source: http://www.banns.freeserve.co.uk/

[candy]

4. I know.Just proves my point.

[2Design]

12. what do you use in your search arguments to find these pictures

and so quickly.... I find it amazing the search capabilities of those here and would like to know more... I thought I was good, but you all are great.

You posted another from the view from the mariott....how do you find it so quickly...

[leQ]

3. the billboard in question isn't one of 'those' billboards

we're talking about times square, the marquis hotel. has anybody seen what the ad actually looks like?

[CO Liberal]

5. Here's Times Square, as SEEN From the Marriot Marquis Hotel

Source: http://www.heinchon.com/

[Longhorn]

8. I saw it on the Today Show this morning.

It's an old-fashioned bomb -- you know, a big ball with a fuse hanging off the top -- and it's all decorated in red, white, and blue. That's it, with the text mentioned in the story, on a white background. Very simple looking, actually.

Here's a link to an article with a copy of the billboard: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/14/nyregion/14billboard.html

[Parche]

6. post 9/11

Is everyone else so tired of hearing about post 9/11
I know it was an American tragedy, just like the 2000 elections
But enough is enough

[UpInArms]

7. I am tired of the lack of debate

since the 9/11 magic bullet debate stopper.

This is utter bullshit.

Wasn't there a CIA disclaimer just today that it wasn't their fault there was a "lack of debate"?

So a corporation can decide what is appropriate to debate?

This is beyond comprehension for me.

Who the f*** needs government censorship when they have their corporate crony friends to do it for them?

[Deja Q]

10. It's not surprising...

corporations give top dollar for precedence in politics. Who says they're going to be ethical anywhere else?

[Coconut Buddha Ape]

15. corporate censorship, man

it's the wave of the future! The feds know this which is why they have been doing so little to stop all the huge mergers. A higher concentration of power means that the government can more easily come down hard on a company to have them fall in line and do their bidding.

Clear Channel comes to own a huge percentage of the radio market, and suddenly is capable of doing the work of thousands of government censors under the auspices of the US government.

Corporations are allowed to buy up huge areas of the country... once they are in control, they can limit political speech by charging people who step out of line with trespassing.

The media and communications companies are already largely consolidated. The next step will have the companies police their network traffic on the government's behalf, and it will all be legal because it isn't government censorship.

...and the future looked so promising for a while, too.

[hvymtldrmr]

16. The world is NOT different after September 11th

will somebody second this?

[progressivebydesign]

9. Okay... movie and game ads have guns and explosives aplenty..

.. but a drawing of a bomb is going to freak people out? I think Project Billboard needs to come up with another graphic, and quick. THEN let's see how Clear Channel finds a way to reject that!

[DancingBear]

11. They're already done that

They resubmitted the billboard with a dove taking the place of the bomb.

Clear Channel rejected that also.

[AndyTiedye]

13. Do Their Radio Stations Reject Democratic Ads Too?

If Clear Channel wins this case, they will.

[The Backlash Cometh]

14. Clear Channel has lots of billboards with politically motivated

messages. There's tons with a right-to-life message on billboards that are located next to the interstate between Gainesville and Orlando. I hope CC is not claiming to be non-political, because the lawyers for the other side can use those Gainesville billboards as evidence that it just isn't so.

[readmylips]

17. In Liberal New York City?

This is about the bush politics in a state that is democrat and liberal. New Yorkers are used to nude bodies on those billboards. That's exactly where Calvin Klein had those billboards of those young boys modeling thongs. Why didn't the Marriott complaint then? That's the center of sin city. That's not the center of bible thumpers and kkkristian hypocrisy. You can be sure that during the convention, anyone with a sign against bush, bloomberg and pataki will have them arrested. Bloomberg needs to go after his buddies, those Wall Street criminals. That's why under the name of terror protection (ha, ha), they have placed cameras everywhere except up bloomberg's butt.