Fw: SFGate: CBS, NBC refuse to run church ad welcoming all/Appealing to gays violates 'hot button' policy, networks say

[Mark Giebels]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl


Kritiek op de Nederlandse TV? Lees het onderstaande artikel maar eens.
Een 'ad' weigeren, omdat een kerk zich expliciet tegen racisme
uitspreekt....how low can you go...

Mark Giebels


<-----Original Message----->

From: mark
Sent: 12/2/2004 3:13:00 PM
To: mark at giebels.org
Subject: SFGate: CBS, NBC refuse to run church ad welcoming
all/Appealing to gays violates 'hot button' policy, networks say



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Thursday, December 2, 2004 (SF Chronicle)
CBS, NBC refuse to run church ad welcoming all/Appealing to gays
violates 'hot button' policy, networks say
Steven Winn, Chronicle Arts and Culture Critic


A new national television commercial promoting the United Church of
Christ
says that "Jesus didn't turn people away," but two major networks have
turned away the ad itself, saying it violates their policy of airing
commercials on hot button topics -- such as tolerance toward gays and
lesbians.
CBS and NBC rejected the 30-second ad, which depicts a pair of stern
bouncers barring people of various ethnic types as well as a female --
perhaps lesbian -- couple from entering a fictitious church.
"No matter who you are or where you are on life's journey," a voice-over
says, "you are welcome here." The "here" in the spot is the United
Church
of Christ, and the welcome is "regardless of ability, age, race,
economic
circumstance or sexual orientation," according to a church statement.
The networks' rejection of the ad has spawned fresh controversy about
religion and the media in the politically charged marketplace of moral
values and ideas.
The ad, which will run on the Fox Network and various cable channels
through Dec. 26, arrives at a time of heightened sensitivity to
religion's
societal role in everything from gay marriage to abortion.
Church officials insist they weren't trying to be political in this
case,
and the networks say the same.
"The ad is saying that people feel alienated from the church in general.
It's about the United Church of Christ welcoming all people," said Barb
Powell, head of public information for the Cleveland-based Protestant
denomination. "We were surprised by the networks' response."
CBS and NBC cite straightforward corporate policies on accepting ads
about
controversial topics. ABC, said spokeswoman Julie Hoover, accepts no
religious advertising on its broadcast network. However, the
Disney-owned
company's ABC Family cable channel will air the spot. The networks all
contend that controversial topics should be handled by their news
departments and not be hijacked by special-interest advertisers.
But the CBS and NBC decisions not to run the ad struck chords still
ringing from last month's presidential election. That's especially true
with a liberally inclined church whose clergy went on the record
opposing
the Iraq war.
"It's ironic that after a political season awash in commercials based on
fear and deception by both parties seen on all the major networks, an ad
with a message of welcome and inclusion would be deemed too
controversial," said the Rev. John Thomas, general minister and
president
of the United Church of Christ, in a statement. "What's going on here?"
The Rev. Kyle Lovett, pastor of St. John's United Church of Christ in
San
Francisco, proposed an answer. On the eve of President Bush's second
term,
she said, the networks "can't afford to go against the administration's
version of Christianity and what counts as moral values and what doesn't
count as moral values."
That version, she added, "sees 'moral values' as a code word for a very
narrow set of concerns -- gay marriage, abortion and stem cell research.
But the term is much broader than that. It includes education,
environmentalism, urban decline, the quality of our working life. The
problem is that some other Christians are more organized than we are,
and
they're the ones out there defining the issue."
"It really is like censorship," said Wilfred Glabach, pastor of First
Congregational Church of San Francisco, a United Church of Christ
member.
"Gay and lesbian characters are all over TV shows, and people make fun
of
them all the time. But when something comes along that tries to treat
their lives and their concerns in the church seriously, this is what
happens."
CBS and NBC say their policies on certain kinds of advertising are
decades
old. "We have a long-standing policy of not accepting advocacy ads or
issue-oriented ads," said a CBS spokesperson. NBC declines ads "dealing
with issues of public controversy," according to spokeswoman Shannon
Jacobs. In this case, she said, the problem "stems from the ad's
implication that other religions are not open to all people."
A United Church of Christpress release quotes a CBS "explanation" that
goes somewhat further: "Because this commercial touches on the exclusion
of gay couples and other minority groups by other individuals and
organizations," it reads, "and the fact that 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." According to a source, the language comes from
a
memo directed by the CBS standards and practices division to the
church's
advertising agency.
The rejected commercial is one of two filmed by the United Church of
Christ in a $30 million campaign aimed to coincide with the
denomination's
50th anniversary in 2007. Another ad, which depicts a young girl opening
her steepled hands in a welcoming gesture, was accepted by both CBS and
NBC. The United Church of Christ's Powell said it may run on those
networks and others around Christmas and again next year during Lent.
The disputed ad was test-marketed earlier this year in Cleveland,
Oklahoma
City, Tampa-St. Petersburg, Fla., Harrisburg, Pa., and several other
markets. The church, which has 6,000 congregations and 1.3 million
members, is spending $1.7 million to air the spot this month.
In a Webcast on the United Church of Christ Web site
(www.stillspeaking.com), church spokesman Ron Buford offers this
blessing
on the commercial: "If Jesus was alive today," he says, "the Sermon on
the
Mount would be on TV."

E-mail Steven Winn at swinn at sfchronicle.com.
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Copyright 2004 SF Chronicle

.


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