So here's the problem with the whole
Tim Tebow anti-abortion ad set to air during the Superbowl. It isn't the content of the ad. It isn't the Tebows telling their story (as was suggested by a anti-choicer on MSNBC yesterday). If they want to tell their story, of course they should. Shout it from the rooftops.
It IS the fact that, as CBS admits in the linked story above, CBS used to claim to have a policy that wouldn't allow political issue ads, and used that policy to refuse to air ads from MoveOn, the United Church of Christ, etc. (liberal organization ads). And now, all of the sudden, CBS says it has changed its policy, and will accept political ads. And the first ad just happens to be an anti-choice ad paid for by Focus on the Family (a conservative organization). You see the disconnect?
The quagmire that CBS finds itself in here is one of parity. When a network allows political ads, it needs to give equal time to both sides of an issue. It has to do that with election ads, so it should have to with so-called "softer" issue ads. Don't stop anyone from speaking (which is why I will not be signing any petitions to stop the ad), but let EVERYONE speak.
And check out
this post for some interesting tidbits on the Tebows and their story. Hint: The whole story won't be in the commercial.
In related news...we have the
Citizens United opinion. This opinion is staggering on so many levels. Not only does it give corporations free speech rights (How is a corporation a citizen? Can a corporation vote? Can it hold office? Well, not YET. Just give the Roberts court some time.), it kills any restrictions on corporate political spending, AND
opens the door to foreign spending in U.S. elections (I'm going to figure that most people can clearly see why THAT'S a bad thing). Make no mistake, this fucks EVERYONE over, not just liberal organizations. Think the so-called populist tea partiers will be able to be heard above the roar of corporate interests? How about your average citizen? Not so much. Understand that now, for a citizen to have his or her voice heard, he or she will have to be a part of a corporation/association. But hey, you might be saying, this opinion didn't put any restrictions on individuals, it just lifted restrictions on corporations, so I can still say what I want. And to you I say, think about this. How do you get your voice heard in the halls of power? Access. And how do you get that access? By being loud enough and strident enough to get noticed. And how do you make yourself that loud? Publicity. And how do you get that publicity? Money. Money for ads, money for press conferences, money for large and organized events. Do you have that kind of money? I don't. Do you know who does have that kind of money? Corporations, and on a sometimes smaller scale, associations. And that is why the Citizens United decision hits each and every one of us. Now, someone out there is bound to say, well, corporations already do all the stuff you just talked about, they just had to be sneaky about it. To that I say, at least we had a platform on which to fight it. At least we were able to call it out and fight it when a line was crossed. Now, there's no line.