Clear Channel reneges on displaying anti-war ad on Times Square billboard

[CatWoman]

A group of antiwar advocates is accusing Clear Channel Communications, one of the nation's largest media companies, with close ties to national Republicans, of preventing the group from displaying a Times Square billboard critical of the war in Iraq.

The billboard - an image of a red, white and blue bomb with the words "Democracy Is Best Taught by Example, Not by War" - was supposed to go up next month, the antiwar group said, and it was to be in place when Republicans from across the country gathered in New York City to nominate President Bush for a second term.

But members of the group, Project Billboard, contend that Clear Channel backed out of a leasing agreement last month that the two had reached in December for the billboard site, on the Marriott Marquis Hotel at Broadway and 45th Street.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/12/nyregion/12billboard.html

[MrMonk]

1. But, what does the *contract* say?

Both Project Billboard and Clear Channel signed a contract regarding the use of that billboard. (I assume that they did, because that's the normal way of doing business.) If the contract gives Clear Channel the right to refuse advertising that it objects to, or gives the hotel a veto over billboard content, then Project Billboard made a bad deal. If not, Clear Channel should Cheney off.

Clear Channel should Cheney off, anyway, for providing such a lame reason for its own proposal.

That being said, I think the bomb imagery was a bad choice. Putting a bomb together with a flag, as in Project Billboard's first ad, would cause the typical observer to close hisorher mind to the primary message. (I realize that there's a subtext to the bomb image, but most people would either miss it or find it distasteful.) Reinforcing the message with a recognized, "non-partisan" peace symbol (i.e., the dove) is a much better choice. The text stays as it is.