OK, before anyone slams me for context, let’s note up front that the medical marijuana ads produced by MPP were rejected for air on stations in California and New York, and the informercial named in the story below is airing on stations in the South that had nothing to do with the medical marijuana ads. So I’m painting with a broad WTF-brush on all television media here, got it?
That said, after this next story, I don’t ever want to read this lame excuse, as submitted by a Stasher from a WABC official:
As a broadcaster licensed by the government, if we accept advertising from one side of an issue, we are required to accept advertising from the opposing side, EVEN IF THAT ADVERTISING IS FALSE, HATE FILLED OR KNOWINGLY DISHONEST. We cannot refuse the ad because the law does not require it to be truthful.
The ONLY way ABC can prevent putting misleading issue oriented advertising on the air is to refuse to air any of it. Please note: In doing so, WABC loses the potential revenue from both sides of these issues, so in refusing the ads, WABC loses money. But the only option ABC has is to air all ads including the misleading and deceitful ones, or air none of them.
Got that? A TV station can’t air a 30-second medical marijuana ad because there is no way of guaranteeing the ad isn’t false, hate-filled, or knowingly dishonest. Keep that in mind as you read up on this 30-minute infomercial from the “birthers” that is airing in seven Southern states:
(TPM Muckraker) A new birther infomercial running on a CBS affiliate in Texas and elsewhere around the country tells viewers a “got a birth certificate?” bumper sticker can be theirs for the low price of $30.
For a $30 contribution, viewers also get a fax sent in their name to the 50 state attorneys general and Attorney General Eric Holder demanding that President Obama produce his real birth certificate.
[The infomercial] promises late-night viewers a “special look at where Barack Hussein Obama was really born.”"Today, you could join hundreds of thousands of other Americans and force President Obama to produce his birth certificate [*foreboding string music*].”
A logo on the screen during the infomercial features the outlines of the United States, the state of Hawaii, and the continent of Africa, with the red-white-and-blue-colored words “Where was PRESIDENT Obama BORN?”
That’s right, if you’re selling anything from the Sham-Wow to a subliminally-racist paranoid conspiracy theory that the president is a foreign-born Manchurian Candidate, there’s a half-hour worth of cheap infomercial time just waiting for you. But if you want to offer thirty seconds of people in pain asking not to be arrested for using a plant to gain relief, you can take that crazy issue-oriented advertising somewhere else!
Craziness, absolute craziness. How is this possible, don’t we live in America? Ugh, that’s why I am so glad to be apart of this movement and gain enough knowledge to educate people about the facts of medical marijuana. Awareness is key so if the TV stations won’t post the ads, then activists have to spread the word. Traveling from coast to coast these past two weeks from Boston to San Francisco working with this movement has got me so motivated to make real changes. Yes we Cannabis!
I have written about this to the networks and I get only a responce that they will take my suggestion but at this time they have no plans on changing whom they sell ad space to. Last night about did it for me, 2 booze, 4 beer and 6 presciption drug Ads all in 1/2 hour, yet they wont run one pro marijuana ad that speeks truth? I wonder if the alcohol ads say something about running marijuana reform ads that if they do they will pull their ads and take back their money? Wouldnt supprise me at all, but either way its BS!