Awww, Lou Dobbs Crying Because The Minutemen Can't Run A Billboard...

[jayfish]

attacking Senators who don't go along with their vision of immigration reform. Clear Channel won't let them run the boards. Lou says it's about freedom of speech, censorship and that it's un-American not to let them run the ad. :nopity:

Ya know Lou your right Lou, it is un-American and goes against freedom of speech. One question though:


WHERE THE F&^K HAVE YOU BEEN?

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/11/22/ap/politics/mainD8E1O868K.shtml

(AP) Fox News is refusing to air an ad critical of Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito, citing its lawyers' contention that the spot is factually incorrect.

A spokesman for the groups sponsoring the ad said the network's decision reflects the political right's effort to shield President Bush's choice for the high court.

http://www.laweekly.com/index.php?option=com_lawcontent&task=view&id=8984&Itemid=

But ads for the October 5 release of the new Fahrenheit 9/11 DVD?

Now that makes Big Media gag.

L.A. Weekly has learned that CBS, NBC and ABC all refused Fahrenheit 9/11 DVD advertising during any of the networks’ news programming. Executives at Sony Pictures, the distributor of the movie for the home-entertainment market, were stunned. And even more shocked when the three networks explained why.

“They said explicitly they were reluctant because of the closeness of the release to the election. All three networks said no,” one Sony insider explains. “It was certainly a judgment that Sony disagrees with and is in the process of protesting.”

http://www.mediachannel.org/views/dissector/affalert131.shtml

NEW YORK, January 16, 2004 -- The nearly 100 million viewers expected to tune in to next month's Super Bowl on CBS will be served up ads that include everything from beer and bikinis to credit cards and erectile dysfunction.

They will also see a spot from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. What's missing from America's premiere marketing spectacle will be an anti-Bush ad put forth by upstart advocacy group MoveOn.org. The group had hoped to buy airtime to run "Child's Pay", a 30-second ad that criticizes the Bush administration's run-up of the federal deficit.

CBS on Thursday rejected a request from MoveOn to air the 30-second spot, saying "Child's Pay" violated the network's policy against accepting advocacy advertising, a company spokesperson told reporters.

http://www.peace-action.org/pub/releases/rel012903.html

Washington, DC - Just hours before they were intended to air, the Comcast cable company pulled advertisements questioning the President's rush to war in Iraq. The ads were created by a diverse group of New Jersey citizens called the AntiWar Video Fund, which includes members of the local Peace Action affiliate, Coalition for Peace Action based in Princeton.

The ads feature a number of Princeton, NJ residents voicing their concerns about a potential war in Iraq. In the 30-second television spot entitled "War and Peace," citizens voice fears ranging from a potential destabilization of the Middle East, to the violation of international law. One resident says, "I think that we have enough problems here at home," and another states, "It is not in the best interest of the American people." In the ad, residents question the impetus for war, and also state that "War on Iraq will not make me safer."

The ads were intended to run in Washington, DC on CNN before and after the State of the Union Address. The New Jersey group spent $5,000 for six 30-second ads. Comcast refused to air the ads and notified the New Jersey group the morning the ads were meant to run. Comcast stated that the ads were pulled because they contained unsubstantiated claims.

"It's ironic that Comcast would pull the ads for containing 'unsubstantiated claims', as the President's case for war on Iraq rests largely on the same," said Scott Lynch, Communications Director at Peace Action, the nation's largest grassroots peace group. "These ads represent the opinions of a growing segment of America that is fundamentally uncomfortable with the President's foreign policy. By not running these ads Comcast is stifling the most important American debate in a generation."

http://foi.missouri.edu/voicesdissent/billboardban.html

By Michael Hastings
Newsweek Web Exclusive
February 13, 2003.

Feb. 13 — Getting out the antiwar message has never been easy, but now a peace group has accused one of America’s largest media companies of censorship for its refusal to run a national billboard campaign with the slogan: INSPECTIONS WORK. WAR WON’T.

VIACOM, THE OWNER of a number of media outlets like CBS and MTV, says it is just following company policy. But Wes Boyd, president of MoveOn.org says the media giant is playing fast and loose with the right to free speech. “Viacom won’t place our ads,” says Boyd.

MoveOn.org, the group that put up the money for the campaign, first gained public attention after running the controversial “daisy” television spot riffing on an ad from Lyndon B. Johnson’s 1964 presidential campaign that juxtaposed a little girl pulling petals from a flower against the backdrop of a nuclear explosion. Yesterday morning, the organization—which describes itself as a grass-roots advocacy group—solicited donations over an e-mail list to raise $75,000 to plaster its latest message against war in Iraq on the sides of buses, buildings and billboards in four major American markets.

According to Boyd, the donations came rolling in - after just two hours the group had met its goal. About 75 percent of that money was slated for buses in Washington and billboards in Los Angeles and Detroit, markets where Viacom Outdoor—a division of Viacom Inc. and the largest outdoor-advertising entity in North America—controls a significant share of the outdoor-advertising space. And Boyd says that unlike the “daisy” TV spot, this was meant to be “a clean political message.” (The “daisy” ad ran into trouble but on a lesser scale. Only four television stations nixed the ad; three in L.A. and one in Washington.)

But yesterday afternoon, MoveOn.org received word from Metromark International, an advertising and media brokerage firm that was hired to buy ad space for the group, saying that Viacom refused to put up the ads.

...and I could go on. I guess none of these instances of censorship and un-Americanism never touched on your pet project, huh Lou.

Jay