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CNN Won't Run Anti-Abortion Ad Featuring Obama

By Jim Edwards | Feb 23, 2009

CNN is refusing to run an anti-abortion TV commercial because the ad’s makers did not get the permission of President Obama to make the ad (see video below). The ad tracks the life of Obama over images of in-utero fetuses. On-screen captions say:

This child’s future is a broken home. He will be abandoned by his father. His single mother will struggle to raise him. Despite the hardships he will endure … this child … will become … the 1st African-American President.

CNN said this:


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. CNN is not accepting this particular advocacy ad because it deals with a highly personal and private matter and does so without the consent of those involved.

The ad was made by CatholicVote.com. They’re not happy about it:

This is absurd. Our ad does not suggest that Barack Obama is pro-life. Instead, we make the obvious point that Obama’s mother gave birth to a child that ultimately became the 1st African American President. This is a fact, not an opinion.

BNET’s take: This is a fake controversy. Here’s how it works: You make an ad that you know a network will never agree to air, ask for it to be aired, and then claim you’re being censored when the network declines to take your money. The “controversy” generated drives viewers to search out the ad on the web (usually YouTube) and the sponsor gets a much larger number of viewers than they would have had the ad been aired in the first place.

Jim Edwards, a former managing editor of Adweek, has covered drug marketing at Brandweek for four years, and is a former Knight-Bagehot fellow at Columbia University's business and journalism schools. Follow him on Twitter or send him an email.

BNET User Analysis

Web Buzz:
  • Randall Terry's Free Beer, Wings, and Hate Party Not Well-Attended [Parties]

    Gawker - 163 days 41 minutes ago

    Anti-abortion radical Catholic Mullah Randall Terry threw a press conference with free chicken wings and Guinness for journalists, yesterday. It did not boost attendance , really. Still! His wacky speech did attract a bit of attention, mostly from the bloggers and journalists currently documenting the most worrying of the eliminationist...

  • Anti-abortion protesters heckle Obama at college

    South China Morning Post - 187 days 15 hours 9 minutes ago

    US President Barack Obama was heckled by anti-abortion protesters at a Catholic university as he appealed to partisans on both sides to find ways to respect one another's basic decency

  • Piecing Together Data on Suspect in Abortion Doctor’s Killing

    WSJ Health Blog - 173 days 1 hour 40 minutes ago

    Scott Roeder is described as holding anti-government and extremist anti-abortion views

  • Plans for TV abortion advice, condoms ads

    EuroNews - 240 days 23 hours 31 minutes ago

    LONDON - Media rules could be changed to allow abortion advice to be advertised on television and radio, as well as easing rules for condom ads, officials said on Thursday. The moves would aim to cut high levels of teenage pregnancy, but anti-abortion campaigners said they would sexualise young people and lead to greater promiscuity, as well as...

  • After Change in Federal Policy, Some States Take Steps to Limit Stem Cell Research

    New York Times - 253 days 11 hours 9 minutes ago

    Anti-abortion groups that oppose the use of human embryos for stem cell research said similar efforts would be made in other states.

 
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  •  
    1

    ALEXIR JR

    03/02/09 | Report as spam

    RE: CNN Won't Run Anti-Abortion Ad Featuring Obama

    is it really bad?come on people,this ad is giving hope to many of us,cant u see

  •  
    2

    singingmountains

    03/13/09 | Report as spam

    RE: CNN Won't Run Anti-Abortion Ad Featuring Obama

    CNN's rationale for why it won't run the ad
    doesn't pass muster with any oracle of sound
    argument.

    We are talking about the anti-Semitic network
    shaped by a man who denigrated the laws central
    to Judaism by saying they should be called the
    Ten Suggestions.

    Obviously, a network shaped by a man opposed to
    laws that protect human life would not (unless
    it got ratings) want to promote laws that make
    the news less bloody and the earth more
    peaceful.

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