CBS won't air MoveOn.org's ad!

One Thing That Won't Be Tackled on Sunday: Issues
By Eli Pariser
Campaigns Director, MoveOn.org Voter Fund
www.moveon.org...

When the Super Bowl is beamed into living rooms around the world Sunday, you can expect to see TV spots hyping cars, beer, razor blades, three different erectile dysfunction cures, toilet paper and snack foods.

The ads will be slick and clever, lavishly produced, brilliant in their marketing. Some, no doubt, will be sexually suggestive or violent. Most will cost $2 million to $3 million to produce and broadcast.

But here's what you won't see: a single ad about the big issues that face our country today.

Outrageous as it may sound, CBS has decided that ads selling erectile dysfunction medicines and toilet paper are appropriate for Americans, but serious discussion should be banned. An ad about our country, our war, our president, the state of our schools or the size of our budget deficit? That, in the eyes of CBS officialdom, would be too controversial.

We know, because we tried. We thought that the Super Bowl, with 130 million viewers, would be a great place to get our message out. So we held a contest on the Internet to select the best ad we could possibly run. The ad we selected from 1,500 submissions shows children cleaning offices, washing dishes and hauling trash. It ends with the question: "Guess who's going to pay off President Bush's $1-trillion deficit?" (It's viewable at www.MoveOn.org... ).

But even though we were willing to pony up the $1.6 million to pay for it, CBS refused to sell us the time, citing what it says is a 50-year-old policy prohibiting ads that take stands on controversial public policy issues.

CBS claims its policy is designed to keep the Citibanks and Microsofts of the world from buying time to tell Americans how to think. "It is designed to prevent those with means to produce and purchase network advertising from having undue influence on 'controversial issues of public importance,' " the network said this week.

Sounds fair, doesn't it? But what it really means is that if McDonald's buys an ad promoting its tasty Big Mac, no one can run an ad that says Big Macs are full of fat and unhealthful. Pfizer can run a spot saying it's "helping people in need" get medicine, but we can't air an ad saying that Pfizer lobbied to weaken the new Medicare bill to prop up drug prices. Halliburton has slick ads that stress its role supporting the troops in Iraq. But CBS would reject an ad that pointed to Halliburton's profiteering.

The fewer issue ads run, the more time there is for ads with mud-wrestling women selling beer and leggy models peddling fast cars. CBS execs think Americans love mindless consumerism more than anything else and that it's their duty to pander to this.

But with "fairness" doctrines no longer governing the airwaves and the media more concentrated each day, it's getting harder and harder to engage regular people in political discourse. Even the town square has been replaced, in most communities, by private malls, where politics is not encouraged.

Instead of taking every opportunity to promote civic discussion, commercial broadcasters like CBS shrink away. The airwaves are, more than ever, private enterprises. And for that we pay a price: As public political speech becomes more difficult and infrequent, the public becomes less engaged in the policies, processes and laws that govern us.

"Controversy" isn't the real problem. Network front offices love it when one group or another protests sexy babes in bikinis peddling beer brands, or violent video games in which the highest body count wins. That builds buzz.

The CBS policy represents the triumph of corporate self-interest over the public interest. This is the same CBS, after all, that yanked the Ronald Reagan miniseries recently when Republican bigwigs complained. As Sen. Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) noted this week, "These are the same executives at CBS who successfully lobbied this Congress to change the FCC rules on TV station ownership to their corporate advantage." CBS simply would rather not risk offending powerful people in Washington who decide such critical regulatory matters.

But try getting that issue into a 30-second spot for Super Bowl audiences.

Talk about bull#, they came up with the money now, CBS won't run their ad. Another case of repugnants(first time I've used this word) running the media. This makes me sick.

[Edited on 1/30/04 by NotTooHappy]

And everyone wonders why the country is so supportive of things they are not educated about...Im sure they would air a campaign ad for Bush, or military recruitment ads with no problem.

Join the boycott of CBS. Go to the moveon site to find out.

Originally posted by energy_wave
Join the boycott of CBS. Go to the moveon site to find out.

I've already signed up, I think everyone who opposes Dubya should too. Go here for more info.

This goes far beyond not supporting Bush. The implications of a national network not willing to air "controversial" ads are HUGE! I'm already pissed off about the so called "campaign finance reform law" that prevents lobby groups that we are part of from speaking out before an election. Now privately owned companies are in effect widening that law for their own political agendas? This is BULL#!!!

Welcome to the United States, Inc. Here is your employee manual(Patriot Act). We are an employer at will. Oh yeah EOE and all that stuff too(for now).

Wow, this makes me laugh... Liberals don't get their way, so what do they do? Cry. You want CBS to bend its 50 year old rule for your add and when it doesn't, you whine about it. As for "repugnant" control of the media... you must be out of your mind. Read two books: "Bias" and "Arrogance" by Bernard Goldberg, former media veteran and insider. These books meticulously chronicle the overwhelming liberal bias in todays media. Liberals control 4 of the top 5 mass media news stations, and Fox news is centrist. The only competition liberals get is on the radio because liberals can't survive in the competitive, dog-eat-dog world of radio broadcasting. They have to rely on their iron tight control of major news companies, which hopefully is loosening with the advent of Fox news. So don't go complaining about "repugnant" bias...

Originally posted by NotTooHappy

Talk about bull#, they came up with the money now, CBS won't run their ad. Another case of repugnants(first time I've used this word) running the media. This makes me sick.

[Edited on 1/30/04 by NotTooHappy]

i think if there was one bashing libs theyd probally run it.

Viewers lost is money lost. TV is business, and they are there to make as much moeny as possible. It's sound business practice, not political conspiracy.

Never forget the business in show business.

Originally posted by Esoterica
Viewers lost is money lost. TV is business, and they are there to make as much moeny as possible. It's sound business practice, not political conspiracy.

Never forget the business in show business.

That's right. The more viewers, the more it costs to air an ad. MoveOn.org has the money to pay for the air time, CBS won't take it.

I won't be watching CBS anymore, actually I never paid much attention to them anyways.

Originally posted by SonsOfLiberty
Wow, this makes me laugh... Liberals don't get their way, so what do they do? Cry. You want CBS to bend its 50 year old rule for your add and when it doesn't, you whine about it. As for "repugnant" control of the media... you must be out of your mind. Read two books: "Bias" and "Arrogance" by Bernard Goldberg, former media veteran and insider. These books meticulously chronicle the overwhelming liberal bias in todays media. Liberals control 4 of the top 5 mass media news stations, and Fox news is centrist. The only competition liberals get is on the radio because liberals can't survive in the competitive, dog-eat-dog world of radio broadcasting. They have to rely on their iron tight control of major news companies, which hopefully is loosening with the advent of Fox news. So don't go complaining about "repugnant" bias...

I am FAR from liberal. I'm sure Colonel will log on tomorrow and call me a repugnant a few times as well as a Nazi. I, however, am neither.
This goes far beyond Republican or Democrat. This is a question of the American people getting ALL of the information that they need to vote effectively. If the mass media(TV right now) completely falls under the control of one side we are doomed by the ignorance of the masses.
On that note, I'm off to sign up for the CBS boycott

Liberals control 4 of the top 5 mass media news stations, and Fox news is centrist.

and we still get censored news...why everyone falls into this left/right bullsh*t is beyond me.

I do not think that this is a big deal.

No one who housed the Super Bowl would allow controvertial commertials during the game.

It would be bad for the network and the NFL (who is very very anal about controversial material).

If this has been going on for 50 YEARS then it is not something to bust a gut about.

If this was a recent thing, then get excited.

Never once did I bring up Democrat/Republican, I said LIBERAL which CAN apply to Republicans. Would you prefer I say left-wing?

Originally posted by NotTooHappy

Originally posted by Esoterica
Viewers lost is money lost. TV is business, and they are there to make as much moeny as possible. It's sound business practice, not political conspiracy.

Never forget the business in show business.

That's right. The more viewers, the more it costs to air an ad. MoveOn.org has the money to pay for the air time, CBS won't take it.

You gotta look down the road. I'm sure CBS believes it will lose more viewers running the ads than it will not running them.

It's always money. And I can't say I blame them.

the average age of the CBS viewer is 54. doesit matter of the air it or not?

Originally posted by Shoktek
And everyone wonders why the country is so supportive of things they are not educated about...Im sure they would air a campaign ad for Bush, or military recruitment ads with no problem.

whats so wrong with military recruitment ads?

America Wake up!!!


All that is happening now already happen in the past ... Soviet Union(does it ring the bell) and Eastern Europe.

Most people didn't recognize it until it was too late and it took 40 or more years to change the course.

First you have consorship in the media until they comply and then state is going to take over. You see only what you are suppose to see.
Banned books and you read only what are you suppose to read...
Condition your mind and beware. Sooner or later you are going to get punished for having not approved thoughts in your head.

All of it was done in the name of better future for all of us. Right?

State police(or any other "Agency") will get a firm grip on everyone and everything around you.

Try to read "1984" by George Orwell and maybe u will understand what I'm talking about. Keep in mind that the book was published in 1949 and it still applies to today's politics.

People are not going to recognize the danger until it is too late AGAIN.

Good luck in the next 50 years....

CBS?

I hardly watch anything other than discovery or TLC or such anyway.

The rest is just Zombie food.

Originally posted by Sinchron
America Wake up!!!


All that is happening now already happen in the past ... Soviet Union(does it ring the bell) and Eastern Europe.

Most people didn't recognize it until it was too late and it took 40 or more years to change the course.

First you have consorship in the media until they comply and then state is going to take over. You see only what you are suppose to see.
Banned books and you read only what are you suppose to read...
Condition your mind and beware. Sooner or later you are going to get punished for having not approved thoughts in your head.

All of it was done in the name of better future for all of us. Right?

State police(or any other "Agency") will get a firm grip on everyone and everything around you.

Try to read "1984" by George Orwell and maybe u will understand what I'm talking about. Keep in mind that the book was published in 1949 and it still applies to today's politics.

People are not going to recognize the danger until it is too late AGAIN.

Good luck in the next 50 years....

you can still read those banned books. and who wanted to ban the books in the first place. liberals im looking at you. the same people who want to get rid of dodge ball cause it encourages competition