Copyright 2004
Two TV networks
reject ad from liberal denomination
Bill Carter and Neela Banerjee
New York Times News Service
The United Church of Christ, one of the nation's most liberal Christian
denominations, accused CBS and NBC Wednesday of rejecting a commercial it had
produced because the networks feared hostile reactions from conservative
political and religious groups.
The commercial, about religious tolerance, included an implication that other
denominations did not welcome gays.
The networks said they turned down the commercial for the same reason they have
rejected numerous issue-oriented commercials in the past -- they do not allow
advocacy advertising.
Network executives also said the church might have been more interested in
gaining publicity.
Both networks said they had accepted a different commercial from the church on
the same subject.
Still, some consumer and media watchdog groups excoriated CBS and NBC on
Wednesday for hypocrisy and giving in to the political agenda of the White
House.
"What they are doing here is rank hypocrisy," said Andrew Jay
Schwartzman, the president of the Media Access Group, a liberal media watchdog
agency.
The commercial began running Wednesday on a number of channels, all but one on
cable television. The Fox broadcast network accepted the ad. ABC was not
included in the protests because church executives said they accepted that
network's position that it never accepts any religious advertising.
In the commercial, a pair of actors play what looks
like nightclub bouncers in front of a church. They admit only a few people, all
white. They turn away a young black woman, a Hispanic-looking man and two men
who may be interpreted by some as gay.
The commercial offers the message, "Jesus didn't turn away people, and
neither do we." It concludes with a panorama of people, including two
young women, one of whom has her arm around the other. It never mentions the
word gay.
"This is a quite wholesome message that is being censored out," said
the Rev. John H. Thomas, the UCC general minister and president.
Thomas said the advertisement had aired in parts of the country, like
But the ad was shown at a spring meeting of Christian and Jewish
representatives organized by Faith & Values, a television production
company, and some evangelical Christian leaders there were offended because the
ad implied their churches exclude people, said Edward J. Murray, the company's
chief executive.