CBS censors moveon but allows White House ads

[Donutboy 0]

I know our conservative budies are going to be upset at this blatant censorship of a liberal website, banned merely because of it's politics. Of course, this is the same spineless bunch that banned the Reagan movie because of possible political fallout!!

It smacks of hypocrisy when the network turns down "liberal" ads citing policy to refuse "advocacy ads" but allows the opposing views to be aired.

CBS Cuts MoveOn, Allows White House Ads During Super Bowl

By Timothy Karr

MediaChannel.org

NEW YORK, January 17, 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 two spots 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.

At the same time, CBS is allowing ads placed on the docket by the White House's anti-drug office. For the third year in a row the White House has paid between $1.5 and $3 million each for 30-second spots during the broadcast. The 2004 ads, produced for the White House by Ogilvy & Mather are expected to convey a message similar to their previous Super Bowl spots. While CBS would not reveal the content of the upcoming ads, previous White House Super Bowl spots drew a controverial link between casual drug use and the financing of global terrorists.

Writing about the previous ads, LA Weekly media critic Judith Miller reported that their message plays well into Bush's anti-terror campaign because it keeps ordinary citizens under siege and the war on terror central in their minds -- an objective which in 2004 serves the president's re-election strategy well.

CBS does not consider the White House ads to cross the line of advocacy. "We are fallible human beings who do not have Solomon-like wisdom but try to make rational decisions based on the ads we receive," Martin Franks, executive vice president of CBS told MediaChannel. "Taking into account the deep pockets in play in this election we don't want to appear to favor one side over the other."

MoveOn is now working the "back channels" at CBS, either via local affiliates or through others within the network to get "Child's Pay" on during the Super Bowl this year, said Wes Boyd, MoveOn co-founder. Boyd claimed that the networks do place advocacy ads during the Super Bowl. Moveon.org worked with Washington's local ABC affiliate WJLA in 2003 to air "daisy" -- an ad based on the famous Lyndon Johnson 1964 campaign commercial -- which urged President Bush to let the UN Iraqi inspections work.

"It's not clear to me that the White House ad is a PSA as opposed to advocacy ad," Boyd said. "This is about CBS and where they draw the line. It's very arbitrary and capricious when certain ads are accepted while others are not. The networks don't reveal their guidelines leaving the public unaware of the process."

Franks would not comment when asked about previous White House Super Bowl ads that equated the war on drugs to the war on terror. These ads appeared in 2002 on the Fox network, which aired the NFL championship that year, and in 2003, on ABC.

Franks would not reveal the content of the White House ads planned for CBS' February 1 broadcast. As a matter of policy CBS does not comment on ad submissions in advance of broadcast, Franks said, adding that there is "a thorough vetting of every ad that appears on CBS. End of sentence."

MoveOn.org has run afoul of Viacom, CBS' parent company, in the past. In February 2003, the grass-roots advocacy group-solicited donations from its email members to raise $75,000 to place an anti-war ad on billboards in four major American markets. The group claims that they raised the amount from members in two hours. When they approached Viacom Outdoor -- a division of Viacom and the largest outdoor-advertising entity in North America -- the company refused to post the ads, according to MoveOn.

In March 2003 MTV, another Viacom-owned entity, refused to accept a commercial opposing war in Iraq, citing a similar policy against advocacy spots that it says protects the channel from having to run ads from any cash-rich interest group whose cause may be loathsome. "The decision was made years ago that we don't accept advocacy advertising because it really opens us up to accepting every point of view on every subject," Graham James, a spokesman at MTV told the New York Times. The youth-oriented music station regularly airs recruitment ads for the U.S. Army.

According to Adage.com, Super Bowl 2004 will also include product spots for AOL, Bayer and GlaxoSmithKline, Daimler Chrysler, FedEx, FritoLay, GM, H&R Block, Monster WorldWide, the NFL, Pepsi Cola, Philip Morris, Procter & Gamble, Sony Pictures, Touchstone Pictures, Universal Studios, Visa USA, and Warner Brothers.

A survey of 1,000 adults conducted last year by Eisner Communications found that 14 percent of those viewing the Super Bowl watch just for the ads.

[CarolinaTiger 0]

LOL @ DB.

poor ole CBS probably doesn't know which way to turn these days...

[AUloggerhead 2,356]

Do not despair, Donutboy. All is not lost for moveon.org & follwers. They can BOYCOTT watching CBS & the Super Bowl. That'll show 'em!

[Tiger Al 0]

Do not despair, Donutboy. All is not lost for moveon.org & follwers. They can BOYCOTT watching CBS & the Super Bowl. That'll show 'em!

Nah, we learned our lesson about boycotting popular things watching you guys drive the Dixie Chicks out of music and sending Disney into bankruptcy!!!

[MDM4AU 337]

Do not despair, Donutboy.  All is not lost for moveon.org & follwers.  They can BOYCOTT watching CBS & the Super Bowl.  That'll show 'em!     

Nah, we learned our lesson about boycotting popular things watching you guys drive the Dixie Chicks out of music and sending Disney into bankruptcy!!!

Isn't it great to be an American where freedom of speech works for both sides of the aisle? Just as Disney and the DC's had the right to say/do what they want, the opposition has the EXACT SAME RIGHT (via the Constitution of the United States of America) to refuse to send their money/support in their direction.

"Ain't it cool?"

[CarolinaTiger 0]

Do not despair, Donutboy.  All is not lost for moveon.org & follwers.  They can BOYCOTT watching CBS & the Super Bowl.  That'll show 'em!     

Nah, we learned our lesson about boycotting popular things watching you guys drive the Dixie Chicks out of music and sending Disney into bankruptcy!!!

seems a little odd to see TA dissing boycotting while having a picture of MLKJ in his signature.

[Tiger Al 0]

Do not despair, Donutboy.  All is not lost for moveon.org & follwers.  They can BOYCOTT watching CBS & the Super Bowl.  That'll show 'em!      

Nah, we learned our lesson about boycotting popular things watching you guys drive the Dixie Chicks out of music and sending Disney into bankruptcy!!!

seems a little odd to see TA dissing boycotting while having a picture of MLKJ in his signature.

POPULAR THINGS, ct. Racism, while popular to some, wouldn't fall into one of MY categories of popular things.

[CarolinaTiger 0]

TA, i'd like to say, "oh, i see", but i really don't.

[Tiger Al 0]

Do not despair, Donutboy.  All is not lost for moveon.org & follwers.  They can BOYCOTT watching CBS & the Super Bowl.  That'll show 'em!      

Nah, we learned our lesson about boycotting popular things watching you guys drive the Dixie Chicks out of music and sending Disney into bankruptcy!!!

seems a little odd to see TA dissing boycotting while having a picture of MLKJ in his signature.

You seemed to be lumping all boycotts into the same category. While, technically, I suppose that a boycott is a boycott is a boycott. However, I don't see the social significance in 'boycotting' Susan Sarandan, the Dixie Chicks, Sean Penn or others who simply had the nerve to state their opinion about the Bush administration. You and/or others might and that's your perogative but I'm not going to 'boycott' CBS simply because they lack backbone.

[Donutboy 0]

TA, i'd like to say, "oh, i see", but i really don't.

CT, MLK's boycotts were about a relevant issue, the continuing racism in the nation; Blacks having to sit on the back bus and having to get up to give their seat to a white patron WAS a relevant reason for a bus boycott. Natalie Maines expressing her freedom of speech WASN'T. There's hardly a comparison between the two, other than the term itself, "boycott".

[CarolinaTiger 0]

then, DB, i'm glad we agree that CBS choosing not to air this moveon.org ad isn't a big deal...wait...what was the point of this thread again?

ct

[DKW 86 7,726]

Do not despair, Donutboy.  All is not lost for moveon.org & follwers.  They can BOYCOTT watching CBS & the Super Bowl.  That'll show 'em!     

Nah, we learned our lesson about boycotting popular things watching you guys drive the Dixie Chicks out of music and sending Disney into bankruptcy!!!

But that campaign on K-Mart sure did work out well.

[Tiger Al 0]

But that campaign on K-Mart sure did work out well.

Come again???

[Jenny AU-92 0]

Moveon has gottent hemselves too much unfavorable publicity with all their Hitler crap these days - guarantee you that THAT is the reason why CBS said no. They probably wouldn't let the KKK air an ad during the SB either.

[PenguinAUB 0]

why are yall more interested in the super bowl commericials then the actualy game?

[Tigermike 3,426]

why are yall more interested in the super bowl commericials then the actualy game?

In most cases they are better than the game.