Several weeks ago, I reported here on how NBC nixed an advocacy ad portraying President Barack Obama as an unborn child. The hard-to-miss point against abortion was a bit too strong for the Super Bowl ad execs who wouldn’t let the piece show on TV.
And sooo, here we are awaiting Obama’s State of the Union address tomorrow and once again, CatholicVote.com (the ad’s originator) has tried to place it on CNN as it’s gotten more than 1.6 million views on YouTube, which has it here. So there is interest out there. They just got the following reply from CNN:
SEE RELATED:
“Thank you for your patience. We have decided to pass on this creative. CNN doesn’t accept advocacy ads that portray personal decisions in a manner that suggests a position in favor of the advocacy message, without having permission of the persons involved.”
The folks at CatholicVote point out this is patently ridiculous because in 2005, CNN ran a NARAL ad in 2005 with linking then-Supreme Court nominee John Roberts with abortion clinic bombings (NARAL ultimately pulled the ad after protests that it was inaccurate). I don’t think John Roberts’ permission was asked before that ad ran. NARAL stands for National Abortion Action Rights League, so you might get a drift of where they stand on the issue. They’ve since renamed themselves NARAL Pro-Choice America.
So, what has changed since 2005? CatholicVote suggests emailing CNN to find out. CNN President Jonathan Klein can be reached at jon.klein@turner.com or jonathan.klein@cnn.com. Let me know what you find out.
- Julia Duin, religion editor
