cannabisnews.com: Ad Rejections by CBS Raise Policy Questions





Ad Rejections by CBS Raise Policy Questions
Posted by CN Staff on January 20, 2004 at 12:39:30 PT
By Jim Rutenberg
Source: New York Times 
CBS has rejected Super Bowl advertisements from two groups, saying the ads violated its advocacy rules. At the same time, the network has in the past and could again accept spots from the White House's antidrug office, raising questions about what is acceptable and what is not, and why.Last week, The Associated Press reported that CBS rejected an ad from the Democratic political group MoveOn.org. The ad uses images of children working at adult jobs to criticize the federal budget deficit. The network also rejected an ad prepared by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals that asserts that eating meat causes impotence.
Executives at CBS, which is owned by Viacom Inc., said that their policy originated in the 1950's and prohibited the showing of advertisements that took stands on controversial public-policy issues.Although Wes Boyd, a founder of MoveOn.org, told The Associated Press that he had no evidence that the ad was rejected because it was anti-Bush, he said, "I worry that it's about ideology."A spokeswoman for PETA, Lisa Lange, told The Associated Press that CBS's policy was inconsistent, because she had seen ads condemning smoking and drunken driving on past Super Bowl telecasts.The MoveOn.org ads, said Martin D. Franks, an executive vice president of CBS News, took a stand on "matters of the public debate where there are discernible sides, and we don't want those who have deep pockets to have an undue influence on the debate. Pick an issue, Nafta, gun control, abortion."Antidrug abuse or antismoking ads, on the other hand, he said, do not wade into such controversial waters. "If you can find somebody responsible who is for drug abuse," Mr. Franks said, "or someone responsible who is for teenagers seeking to smoke, then it would be a credible rebuttal of our policy. I don't know anybody who does."Asked about last year's drug policy advertisement that linked drug sales to international terrorism, Mr. Franks said, "Is it an absolutely perfect system? Absolutely not. On the other hand, the MoveOn.org ad wasn't even close. I didn't need to rewind that one in the VCR." Correction:  Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2003An article in Business Day yesterday about CBS's rejection of Super Bowl advertisements from two advocacy groups misstated the title of Martin D. Franks, an executive who commented on the decision. He is executive vice president of the network, not the news division.Source: New York Times (NY)Author: Jim RutenbergPublished: January 19, 2004Copyright: 2004 The New York Times Co.Contact: letters nytimes.com Website: http://www.nytimes.com/Move Onhttp://www.moveon.org/CannabisNews Justice Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/justice.shtml
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Comment #8 posted by FoM on January 20, 2004 at 17:26:25 PT
John Kerry Forum
I just saw in an email list that a discussion of the drug war is going on in this forum. I thought you might want to know.http://forum.johnkerry.com//index.php?showtopic=525
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Comment #7 posted by FoM on January 20, 2004 at 16:12:02 PT
gloovins
Yes we all know. I wish you wouldn't be so graphic. I haven't eaten meat since MCD surfaced and the more I read about it the sicker it makes me. Thanks.
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Comment #6 posted by global_warming on January 20, 2004 at 16:10:45 PT
How much longer
How much longer can americans remain asleep?How much longer can the world struggle with this oppression?Our souls, our lives, shall be forgotten,For we were the "x" generation..A generation that has forgotten,A generation that has forsaken,The efforts of the generations before..Have we bocome a fast food,A fast "feel good" people..?"Let me live" in peace and quiet.."I just want to live"..."I am not hurting anyone".."So why should all these evil people want to hurt me".."Why do they hate americans so much"?America..we need to evaluate our place in this world,On this only planet that we share,http://www.counterpunch.org/louthan01202004.html
gw
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Comment #5 posted by gloovins on January 20, 2004 at 16:02:46 PT
more on madcow...
I don't eat mammals anymore and rarely eat fish or poultry because of this site linked below.It's so nasty this cow disease, its all cause they were feeding the cattle back to the cattle. I believe its called rumnient feeding. They would grind the spine of the cows up & would use this a FEED! A while back I read where Woody Harrelson gave the Governor of Minnesota, Jesse Ventura, some hemp fed cattle meat & Ventura liked it so much he asked, via the press, Harrelson for more! Which brings the age old question back: Why can't U.S. farmers grow industrial hemp?Answer: Washington in the back pocket of every corp/company it threatens.God? Can you bless America, soon?
Read with caution, you may never eat a hamburger again
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Comment #4 posted by JR Bob Dobbs on January 20, 2004 at 15:54:39 PT
NORML alert
NORML just sent out an email asking folks to email CBS and tell them the same thing - if you dropped Moveon.org's ad, then the ONDCP must fall under the same heading... click below for the automated form letter submission, it only takes a minute.
http://capwiz.com/norml2/issues/alert/?alertid=4749626&type=ML
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Comment #3 posted by jose melendez on January 20, 2004 at 14:10:38 PT
hold your stones - it's just a poem
I sent this to letters nytimes.com Re: Ad Rejections by CBS Raise Policy QuestionsJim Rutenberg's insightful article inspired me to write a poem that might clarify the hypocrisy surrounding this issue:While poisons harm both you and meThey sell their drug wars on T.V. Our FDA would regulateThose cigarettes that kill your matesYet no comment so far from thoseWho insist pot offends their noseThose hypocrites are paid to sayThat joints fund terror . . . stupid, eh? - jm
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Comment #2 posted by Sam Adams on January 20, 2004 at 14:04:56 PT
Cows
Have you guys read "Fast Food Nation"? There are already tens of thousands of Americans being sickened and killed each year by e. coli and other bacteria, no need to wait for mad cow to arrive.Getting back to the article at hand, I would ask Mr. corporate-scumbag Franks who is responsible for drug abuse? Try Miller, Coors, Annheuser-Busch, Sam Adams, Bacardi, for starters. Oh yeah, I forgot, they're financing your entire sports program content. If any use of cannabis is an abuse, then hell yeah, I'm all in favor of drug abuse.
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Comment #1 posted by Virgil on January 20, 2004 at 13:09:09 PT
DK State of Nation speech and mad cow scam
I want to mention this article up at CounterPunch written by an individual that worked in a slaughterhouse related to the mad cow story. This pertains to the outlets available for reporting and shows how one man's voice can be amplified to the embarassment of the conglomerate media- http://www.counterpunch.org/louthan01202004.html
 
If we would have unloaded her in the pens, we would have never caught the BSE. How many other walkers have BSE? We will never know. The USDA only tested the downers and cripples and only at our plant. We had only been taking brain samples for about a month when we found this one.When the USDA said no more downers would be slaughtered, they essentially said no more BSE testing would be done. Vern's and every other slaughterhouse kept right on killing and selling Holstein meat from the same area as the mad cow with no BSE testing whatsoever. This is true and easily verifiable.DK gave a State of the Nation Speech today at 1:45 from NH that was carried by satellite. Compare the transcript to what Bu$h says tonight in the SOTU speech- http://www.kucinich.us/state_of_the_nation.php He will also have a live webcast of a town hall meeting in NH tonight at 8:30 http://www.kucinich.usThere are relevant figures concerning health care expenditures in this country. DK says we are spending $1.6 trillion on health care and that it represents 15% of GDP. He says Americans are already paying for universal health care. They are just not getting it.
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