Home > Utah Station Refuses to Air Anti-War Ad

Utah Station Refuses to Air Anti-War Ad

by Open-Publishing - Monday 22 August 2005
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Demos-Actions Movement Wars and conflicts Television USA

SALT LAKE CITY — 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 Bush’s Texas ranch.

The ad began airing on other area stations 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."

Salt Lake City affiliates of NBC, CBS and Fox began running the ad Saturday.

The ads were bought by Gold Star Families for Peace. Washington, D.C.-based Fenton Communications, a public relations firm working for the group, provided a copy of the e-mail received from station sales representative Jemina Keller to The Associated Press.

In a statement 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."

Station General Manager David D’Antuono said the decision was not influenced by the station’s owner, Clear Channel Communications Inc.

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 didn’t 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 didn’t 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.

Bush received nearly 70 percent of the vote last fall in Utah, one of the most conservative states north of the Bible Belt.

http://www.newsday.com/entertainmen...

Forum posts

  • Same station that airs ’Desperate Housewives" right?

  • Secrecy is Bush’s weapon against criticism. He also practices ignoring any criticism. If none of that works he will SWift Boat the criticizers...accuse them on treason, putting our "brave boys’ at risk and other nonsense. Much of the media is under direct control of the neocon Bush thugs...they dare not print any criticism or any material which Bush would consider offensive. Also, the people of Utah are heavily conservative and will back up Bush in any stupidity he may offer, preferring to ignore disaster rather than court the famous Bush vindictiveness. In short, it is very difficult to "get at" any of the Bush actions. We would love to know what the energy executives said to Dick Cheney about energy legislation, and how that may have led to the Bush invasion of Iraq. Probably on their death beds they will confess, but meanwhile they hang to their lies lest they hang in person.

  • You, know what later the press can’t just apologize - oh - they (government) gave us wrong information. This kind of press if fully responsible and should be taken to court, because they allow a crooked government to damage the country.
    As it turns out that the Iraqi to clever to being divided by an American implanted faked government and now they start to make their own decision! It seems that the Iraqi democracy was always stronger then as it’s American counterpart.

    The mormons are a strange group - they made their own religion - calling themselves holy and having direct contact to God. At the same time polygamy is still practiced.

    Here in Hawaii the Mormons have created many eye sores called "Temple".

  • What would you expect in the Mormon mafia state? The Mormons are identical to the Taliban, men are the only sex good enough to hold the priesthod, women are baby machines and unpaid church workers. It is just another sexist cult, based on a communist economy, with all the hypocracy that goes with unaccountable power. They control the press, the vote, the politics, if you are not a Mormon you do not belong in the state of Utah.