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US TV station rejects anti-war ad
A Utah television station is refusing to air an anti-war ad featuring Cindy Sheehan, whose son's death in Iraq prompted a vigil outside President George Bush's Texas ranch.
The ad began airing on other area stations on Saturday, two days before Bush was scheduled to speak in Salt Lake City to the national convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
However, a national sales representative for KTVX, a local ABC affiliate, rejected the ad in an e-mail to media buyers, writing that it was an "inappropriate commercial advertisement for Salt Lake City".
In the ad, Sheehan pleads with Bush for a meeting and accuses him of lying to the American people about Iraq's development of weapons of mass destruction and its connection to al-Qaida.
"I love my country. But how many more of our loved ones need to die in this senseless war?" a weary-looking Sheehan asks in the ad.
"I know you can't bring Casey back. But it's time to admit mistakes and bring our troops home now."
'Offensive'
Salt Lake City affiliates of NBC, CBS and Fox began running the ad on Saturday.
The ads were bought for Gold Star Families for Peace by Washington, DC-based Fenton Communications, which provided a copy of the e-mail from station sales representative Jemina Keller.
In a statement on Saturday evening explaining its decision, KTVX said that after viewing the ad, local managers found the content "could very well be offensive to our community in Utah, which has contributed more than its fair share of fighting soldiers and suffered significant loss of life in this Iraq war".
Bush carried nearly 70% of the vote last fall in Utah, one of the most conservative states north of the so-called Bible Belt.
Station General Manager David D'Antuono said the decision was not influenced by the station's owner, Clear Channel Communications Inc.
Decision puzzling
Celeste Zappala, who with Sheehan co-founded Gold Star Families for Peace, said she was puzzled by the decision.
"What stunned me was that it was inappropriate to hear this message," she said.
"How is it that Salt Lake City should hear no questions about the war?"
The e-mail read: "The viewpoints reflected in the spot are incompatible with our marketplace and will not be well received by our viewers."
It added that the spot did not qualify as an "issue" advertisement.
For the ad to have been considered an issue advertisement, a ballot measure would have had to be at stake, D'Antuono said.
Mark Wiest, vice president of sales for NBC-affiliated KSL television, said that in the interest of freedom of speech, his station did not hesitate to run the ad. KSL is owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
"The bigger picture is, by suppressing the message are we doing what is right under the First Amendment and in an open democratic society?" Wiest said.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/7841F80F-6650-4BB4-97CB-92A33DAA2D79.htm
However, a national sales representative for KTVX, a local ABC affiliate, rejected the ad in an e-mail to media buyers, writing that it was an "inappropriate commercial advertisement for Salt Lake City".
In the ad, Sheehan pleads with Bush for a meeting and accuses him of lying to the American people about Iraq's development of weapons of mass destruction and its connection to al-Qaida.
"I love my country. But how many more of our loved ones need to die in this senseless war?" a weary-looking Sheehan asks in the ad.
"I know you can't bring Casey back. But it's time to admit mistakes and bring our troops home now."
'Offensive'
Salt Lake City affiliates of NBC, CBS and Fox began running the ad on Saturday.
The ads were bought for Gold Star Families for Peace by Washington, DC-based Fenton Communications, which provided a copy of the e-mail from station sales representative Jemina Keller.
In a statement on Saturday evening explaining its decision, KTVX said that after viewing the ad, local managers found the content "could very well be offensive to our community in Utah, which has contributed more than its fair share of fighting soldiers and suffered significant loss of life in this Iraq war".
Bush carried nearly 70% of the vote last fall in Utah, one of the most conservative states north of the so-called Bible Belt.
Station General Manager David D'Antuono said the decision was not influenced by the station's owner, Clear Channel Communications Inc.
Decision puzzling
Celeste Zappala, who with Sheehan co-founded Gold Star Families for Peace, said she was puzzled by the decision.
"What stunned me was that it was inappropriate to hear this message," she said.
"How is it that Salt Lake City should hear no questions about the war?"
The e-mail read: "The viewpoints reflected in the spot are incompatible with our marketplace and will not be well received by our viewers."
It added that the spot did not qualify as an "issue" advertisement.
For the ad to have been considered an issue advertisement, a ballot measure would have had to be at stake, D'Antuono said.
Mark Wiest, vice president of sales for NBC-affiliated KSL television, said that in the interest of freedom of speech, his station did not hesitate to run the ad. KSL is owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
"The bigger picture is, by suppressing the message are we doing what is right under the First Amendment and in an open democratic society?" Wiest said.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/7841F80F-6650-4BB4-97CB-92A33DAA2D79.htm
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She lost a son in Iraq.
The ad shows Sheehan pleading with Bush for a meeting. She also accuses him of lying about the reasons the U.S. invaded Iraq. And, Sheehan adds, "it's time to admit mistakes and bring our troops home now."
The ad is already running on other TV stations in the Salt Lake City area. But KTVX, an ABC affiliate, found it "inappropriate commercial advertisement" that could "be offensive to our community in Utah."
http://www.kcra.com/nationalnews/4877739/detail.html
“There should be a collaboration of health-care-provision advocates, seniors, the (gay, lesbian and bisexual and transsexual) community, anti-Patriot Act advocates and other civil libertarians, anti-war folks, pro-Social Security advocates, environmental advocates, anti-nuclear-testing advocates, and anti-nuclear-waste-shipment-and-storage advocates,” the mayor wrote in the e-mail sent Friday.
The mayor, a Democrat who serves in an officially nonpartisan office plans to join the protest.
Bush will address the 15,000-member Veteran of Foreign Wars convention at the Salt Palace in downtown Salt Lake City just after 11 a.m. Monday. Anderson will give a welcoming address to the convention a few hours earlier.
Anderson says Bush's policies have been “disastrous to the country. If people could organize and speak out in an effective manner from the reddest state in the country, that would garner a lot of attention.”
Failing to speak out against Bush's damaging policies would be a mistake and send a message of “apathy and resignation,” the mayor wrote.
Anderson cites specifically cutbacks to federal Section 8 housing programs for the poor as Bush programs that have hurt local families. Budget cuts have left 120 fewer families with the ability to find affordable housing, he said.
The mayor also said he is not protesting the veterans organization.
“I'm extremely supportive of the VFW convention; I'm thrilled to have it in our city.”
But Jerry Newberry, VFW communications director said the protest is “unfortunate,” but that protests are a common occurrence at the group's conventions, particularly the president has spoken. He said, however, that he didn't know of any previous host-city officials that had participated in those protests.
Mike Parkin, the senior vice commander of the VFW's Atomic Post 4355 in Salt Lake City said the move makes Anderson look “very unpatriotic” and “despicable.”
Parkin, a Vietnam veteran who voted for Anderson but says he won't do so again, said such demonstrations give comfort to enemies of America and will be offensive to convention attendees.
Anderson disagrees with any notion equating a protest with a lack of patriotism.
“Patriotism,” the mayor said, “demands that people speak out when we see our government officials acting in such antidemocratic and deceitful ways to the people of our country.”
http://kutv.com/topstories/local_story_232175944.html