Linkmeister

Cowardly Lions

Picture this (you'll have to, since CBS and NBC won't show it to you). You're the United Church of Christ and you have a congregation of 1.3M members. You decide you'd like to start an ad campaign to tell Americans about yourself. So you create a 30-second spot which you then try to sell to the aforementioned networks, but because the ad depicts a couple of beefy bouncers telling gay folks they can't come into the church, the networks decline, saying it's too controversial.

"Because this commercial touches on the exclusion of gay couples and other minority groups by other individuals and organizations," reads an explanation from CBS, "and the fact the Executive Branch has recently proposed a Constitutional Amendment to define marriage as a union between a man and a woman, this spot is unacceptable for broadcast on the [CBS and UPN] networks."

This is the state of the American media. It would rather not offend the Executive Branch of the US Government by showing an ad produced by a third party. Not a promo for one of its own programs (gee, what was that Desperate Housewives Monday Night Football flap about?), but an ad which is about as innocuous as you can imagine. After showing the two bouncers blocking the path, the screen goes black, and then the following words appear: "Jesus didn't turn people away. Neither do we."

And the media wonders why people don't think much of it.

(Link swiped from rrbrinker's diary at Daily Kos).

Posted by Linkmeister at December 1, 2004 12:01 AM