CBS rejects Ron Reagan Atheist ad

[MindPilot]

Ron Reagan recorded a simple 30-second ad for the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF). In it, the liberal political analyst and son of the former President says he is "an unabashed atheist," and "alarmed by the intrusion of religion into our secular government."

Reagan asks viewers "to support the Freedom From Religion Foundation, the nation's largest and most effective association of atheists and agnostics, working to keep state and church separate, just like our Founding Fathers intended."

The FFRF asked CBS to air the ad on its flagship "60 Minutes" news show, or any CBS TV show.

They refused.


http://ffrf.org/news/news-releases/item/21438-cbs-60-minutes-reject-ron-reagan-s-unabashed-atheist-ad


Nice to see a huge media corporation stepping up to protect the poor persecuted Christians.

[Arugula Latte]

1. Silly Ron Jr., doesn't he know freedom of expression is only for white Christians?

[hughee99]

38. Freedom of expression is for everyone, but apparently network air-time is not. n/t

[loudsue]

2. So a corporation, which is now a person, takes away the freedom of speech of Ron Reagan who is....

what? Not as smart as the corporation person? Is THIS what our Founding Fathers had in mind with Freedom of Speech and Freedom of the Press?

[KurtNYC]

13. Many many ads have been rejected by TV networks over the years

CBS rejected an ad for ManCrunch (gay dating) to run during SuperBowl:
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv-movies/gay-dating-site-mancrunch-asks-cbs-rejects-super-bowl-ad-article-1.196165

2005 Fox rejected an "airborne" ad which briefly showed Mickey Rooney's butt
2006 NBC rejects ad for Dixie Chicks film, political
2008 Fox rejected GoDaddy ad "rude beaver" because of the repetition of the word "beaver" in the ad
2009 FaceBook rejects ad for lesbian film, "And Then Came Lola"
2010 CBS rejected ad for Dante's Inferno (electronic game) because the ad included the words "go to hell"
2011 Fox rejects "JesusHatesObama" ads
2011 Fox rejects "lookup316" as too religious and unbalanced in content and message
2012 "Big and Beautiful" (dating service) ads rejected for depicting full figured women in sexual situations
2013 SodaStream rejected for attacking Coke and Pepsi (other advertisers)
2013 NBC rejects anti Keystone pipeline ads

Network TV is a privately owned business that sells audiences to advertisers. Their customer is not the viewers, but rather the advertisers so Networks are allowed to set the terms and conditions of their sale of our minds to their advertisers.

NBC has a long list, 31 pages of things that will get your ad rejected including: homeopathic remedies, bait and switch, firearms, illegal drug use, the word "live" supered on screen, fake news casts, weight loss schemes and tobacco. Available here:

http://nbcuadstandards.com/files/NBC_Advertising_Guidelines.pdf

[FlatStanley]

25. Well, clearly CBS violates the no fake news restriction.

[1dogleft]

26. every once in a while

my faith in this community gets restored...thank you

[Arugula Latte]

32. Bait and switch -- that should be the definition of religion right there!

But I'm sure CBS would have no problem airing some Christian b.s. ad.

[Atman]

3. Church and state are simply no longer separate.

The media is the state's mouthpiece. Corporate state. 60 Minute's demographic is ancient white people. No reason to go pissin' them off. They pretend they're Christian while they work hard to destroy America in their vision.

[LittleGirl]

27. took the words right out of my mouth

brilliant. thank you.

[Fearless]

4. To me it's very simple

Believe what you want. But don't try to coerce others into believing it too.

[stopbush]

5. I am SO sick of the fucking Xians.

Zealots, moderates, whatever. They can all fuck off.

[cui bono]

9. That's exactly how I feel.

Every time I hear someone say "god bless you or whatever" I mutter to myself, "fuck god". It's gotten that bad. Especially when I have to hear our president say that all the time and he should know better. Does no one in govt know our history and constitution?

[SickOfTheOnePct]

16. Meh

The President if free to express his own beliefs; nothing unconstitutional about that.

He just isn't free to try to impose those religious beliefs on the country. (not that he does, IMO).

[joeglow3]

20. Thanks for letting me know I can fuck off

Nice

[stopbush]

36. Religious belief is a conceit that the world can ill afford.

The sooner people realize that treating fucking make believe like it was reality is stupid, the sooner the world will be a better place.

[joeglow3]

37. You no idea who I am

You have no clue how I put my faith to use. All you are interested in is climbing up on your high horse and telling others who do not think like you how much better you are and to fuck off. The irony is that you truly don't realize how arrogant, judgmental and stereotypical you are.

[stopbush]

39. But I have a very good idea about what Xianity is based on.

And if you're like most believers, you cherry pick your preferred holy book to align with your existing biases and world view.

Religion is make believe. Period. Make believe shouldn't be the basis for anything but acknowledged fairy tales.

[joeglow3]

41. I am more concerned with the behavior of the individuals

You really believe if all religion were gone today, the evil religious people of the world would turn good? If you do, I have a nice bridge to sell you.

[stopbush]

45. In the words of Steven Weinberg,

Last edited Fri Oct 3, 2014, 01:21 PM - Edit history (1)

"Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion."

[joeglow3]

46. Cool, so you WOULD like to put an offer in on that bridge?

[LanternWaste]

48. Like national borders, laws, politics and philosophy

"make believe like it was reality is stupid..."

Like national borders, laws, politics and philosophy, which also exist nowhere but our own imaginations, but we pretend it's real and base our daily decisions on these wholly imaginary constructs?





(insert distinction without a difference where to illustrate one imaginary concept is less imaginary than another imaginary concept)

[whistler162]

50. Then you must be very religious!

[adirondacker]

6. Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah !

[Scuba]

7. I smell lawsuit.

[SickOfTheOnePct]

15. Based on what? n/t

[freshwest]

8. Fuck CBS. Bet they'll run all the ads the Koch brothers tell them to run.

[fasttense]

10. Corporate censorship

If you in any way question current popular politics or religion, you don't get to advertise on our public airwaves.

Corporate censorship keeping all those dirty thoughts out of your head.

[BrotherIvan]

11. PUBLIC airwaves

Gah!

[Bryce Butler]

12. Here is the ad:

[LittleGirl]

28. That's hysterical! LOL funny

it was the "burning in hell" part they rejected. Up to that part, he was corny but honest. "Burning in hell" is a dig....and not helpful toward his point.

BUT ! ^THAT^ made me laugh out loud. If I had a pet, it would have been startled.

[KurtNYC]

33. With that background and that lighting, it looks like he IS in Hell.

WTH?

Dressed like a prisoner and it looks like he is some dungeon or a Cosplay of Doom. His face is asymetrical and lit to enhance, rather than reduce, the prominence of his under eye area.

Very amateurish production values. Doesn't fit the look of network TV, regardless of message.

[m-lekktor]

34. LOL. i like Ron Reagan!nt

[SickOfTheOnePct]

14. I read the article at the link

which included an FFRF ad from 2012, which was aired on CBS. Per the article, CBS rejected Ron Reagan's ad based on "tone".

Having watched both ads, the one that aired and the one that was rejected, the only thing I can see is that CBS may have perceived Reagan's ad as mocking religion ("not afraid of burning in hell&quot .

Don't know if that's the reason or not.

[Ampersand Unicode]

17. Not up on my Reagan history... how did XChan Ronnie's son become an atheist?

I faintly recall seeing an old People magazine cover story from the eighties about "rebellious" daughter Patty Davis. But I honestly was not aware that the Gipper's son was a total 180 from his (in)famously fundie old man.

Where does Michael sit on the aisle?

[ChairmanAgnostic]

19. he did something that Tea Baggers cannot understand. He used his brain.

[MindPilot]

22. Ron's been a non-believer since he was a pre-teen and he is very liberal.

He quit going to church at age 12 because that was the age his dad determined that Ron was able to think for himself.

I know Ron and have had several conversations with him. As he tells it, his dad was quite different in his private life--not anything like the hard-nosed right-winger he presented as President & Governor.

Michael OTOH, I do not know, but I heard he went to the right.

[onecent]

24. I don't see this as "rebellious" more "by choice"!

No offense Ampersand.... people get too testy on this website, I am not trying to
start a fight...religion and politics seems to set DU people on fire....

I don't remember him as rebellious either, he seemed to have both of them on total IGNORE.
which I admired him for that then.

[RagAss]

35. In fairness to his father, as much as it pains me to say...

He told his son to believe whatever he wants to believe and don't let anyone silence him....but just don't ever be rude about it. That was the only thing that ever impressed me about the man.

[cbayer]

18. This was a really bad decision.

I haven't found any formal statement from CBS regarding this, but they have some 'splaining to do.

[Generic Other]

30. When Romney was running the MORMONS WENT ALL OUT

with that "we are normal and real Amurricans" message. I must have seen 100 of those political ads masquerading as religious ads.

If ever there was a need for a fairness doctrine, those who are not religious should be first in line demanding equal time -- hell -- make that any time to deliver their messages!

[cbayer]

31. Agree and they were sickening.

But they were and should be allowed.

There is no justification for denying this FFRF ad, imo.

I was having the discussion with another member earlier about whether religious protections (1st amendment) should be extended to atheists. I think they should, but there are those that disagree with me

[NobodyHere]

42. It would've been a bad decision by CBS to run the ad

Considering it mocks a good portion of their audience.

[cbayer]

43. What do you see as mocking in the ad?

[RufusTFirefly]

21. Fans of Ron's dad should probably be relieved that there's no Hell

Just sayin'

As for burning, if he sticks around long enough, Ron (and the rest of us) may not even have to go anywhere.

[spanone]

23. media = agenda

[ReRe]

29. It will be interesting...

... to see what channels this ad does show up on. The only show I watch on CBS is David Letterman once in a while, and of course when Stephen Cobert takes over for Dave, I will watch him.
Oops... maybe a few sport events that aren't showing anywhere else. That's it.

[seveneyes]

40. Both Atheists and Religionists have no place in government

They both place their BELIEFS in the existence or absence of something there is no evidence to confirm.

Science holds the answers and these two nutjobs need to STFU and STFD until that evidence is in.

[mr blur]

44. What absolute nonsense.

If you ban people who accept gods and people who don't, who's left

Atheism is NOT a "belief".

But then I suspect you know this.

[IDemo]

47. True

My lack of belief in the existence of magic purple dragons does not make me a children's book author, but that seems to be the kind of thinking religionists want to apply to non-theists.

[seveneyes]

49. Who is left?

Realists. Those that accept scientific evidence to base their decisions upon.

Atheism IS a belief in the absence of "gods" and it has no science to back it up.

[kwolf68]

52. LMAO

Completely absurd.

So some also believe in

the absence of 6 headed women
the absence of purple 4 inch people that live inside our turds

You can't take every unknown/unproven and then suggest a belief in the absence thereof. A "belief" is when you believe IN something without the documentation of facts. You can't have facts to prove something does NOT exist. WTF kind of logic is that?

I would bet 100% of all atheists would BELIEVE if you provided them evidence for that belief.

[MattP]

51. like Christian Mingle doesn't offend anybody?

Or Farmers Only?