News Media
Anti-Bush ads refused as �too inflammatory�
From The World Can't Wait


Sep 24, 2007, 00:46

The national political organization World Can�t Wait -- Drive Out the Bush Regime said Friday that they had been refused premium back-page space in the New York City daily newspaper Metro NY based on the content of their ads.

A message on World Can't Wait's website announced that on Thursday, Metro NY newspaper refused to run their ad headlined �Who is the Real Nuclear Threat?� in its September 21 issue. The reason given by the publisher was that the content was �too inflammatory� for them to publish on the back page.

On Friday, World Can't Wait tried to place a different ad, headlined �One Million Dead in Iraq.� This ad was also rejected by Metro NY for placement on their back page explicitly because of its content. Later the newspaper offered to run it on an inside page at a prohibitively high price, almost four times higher than what was originally agreed upon.

Debra Sweet, the director of The World Can�t Wait -- Drive Out the Bush Regime, drew links to the attack by Bush and the Senate on last week's MoveOn ad (which criticizes General Petraeus for giving the White House version of the troop surge report).

She said Friday, �This Senate condemned MoveOn for a paid ad which dissents from the ongoing war, but won�t censure George Bush, a proven liar, for repeatedly using falsified intelligence to justify the war on Iraq. Now there is another wave of White House propaganda geared to justifying a war on Iran. The major media repeated their lies about Iraq for years, and now they�re doing it all over again on Iran.�

Sweet indicated that World Can't Wait will continue to fight to publish the ads which call the Bush administration the world�s �real nuclear threat� and ask people to protest when George Bush speaks at the United Nations on September 25.  �We do not know if the Metro NY publisher opposes in principle the content of these ads, or is reacting with cowardice to defending the principle of freedom of expression. We don�t know, but it doesn�t matter, ultimately, because the effect is the same. One of the few avenues to get the truth into the major media -- buying advocacy ads -- will in effect be closed down if publishers are afraid to sell space. The White House will be the strong-arm arbiter of what is acceptable in terms of political criticism.�

The World Can�t Wait also announced plans to publish the ads even more widely, and are making them available to other organizations.