[via
Channel 5 Rejects Anti-Bush Ad of Borough President Candidate - New York Times]:
Broadcast channels, which are regulated by the Federal Communications Commission, are allowed to reject so-called issue advertisements from interest groups based on their content. But they are prohibited from doing so with ads from candidates."There is part of the statute that says the station cannot censor the content of a political ad," said a communications commission official who spoke on condition of anonymity, following the commission's general practice of avoiding public comment upon matters in which it is not involved. (The F.C.C. generally only acts on complaints; Mr. Ellner said he would probably file one but had not done so.)The commission official said that after a station agrees to sell time for a campaign commercial, "the station is required to put it on the air - they have no option."Still, the official said there was a way around the rules. While stations are required to accept all commercials for federal candidates, they can pick and choose the local races for which they will run commercials. And stations in the past have cited that loophole after being accused of rejecting candidate spots based on their content.
Wow!
Brian Ellner is turning out to be the most media saavy candidate of the local races. First, he has his face plastered all over the nation with his now gaytastic 'this is my partner' ad. An ad that outs him completely from the local race with his attack on Bush. Second, he goes right to the belly of the beast and places said ad on the local FOX CHANNEL?!?! That's like, so politically macho of him.
What I love about this whole unfolding drama is the context of the rejection. You see, as if hell did not keep him busy enough,
Roger Ailes was recently appointed chairman of Fox TV Stations. If you need to jog you're memory, yes, it's the
Roger "Willie Horton made my day" Ailes. The Roger Ailes that had Bush's cousin declare him the president of the United States. That Roger Ailes.
Given his penchant for using his abuse of media power the way Dole uses Viagra, I wonder if he has anything to do with the station's "discretionary" rejection. We'll see what happens with this one.
UPADTE (1:14pm) :
Well, now it's hit the international wires. My Reuters feed just showed me this :
[via
Oddly Enough News Article | Reuters.co.uk]:
Ellner said on Tuesday, "This is censorship and it's un-American. ... It's either anti-gay because I introduce my partner, or it's anti-free speech because I criticise the president."
