Graphic anti-abortion ads air on Washington stations

[n2doc]

By Dugald McConnell and Brian Todd, CNN
October 26, 2010 1:59 a.m. EDT

CNN) -- A disturbingly graphic political ad is airing on local stations in Washington this week -- and stations are telling viewers there's nothing they can do to prevent it.
The ad, calling for an end to abortion, apparently shows bloody and dismembered fetuses, and has been airing over the past few days in the nation's capital, including during afternoon and early-evening time slots, when children are likely to be watching.

But according to spokespersons for several of the broadcasters, they are required by law to carry the ads unaltered.

The two ads are paid for by the campaign of Missy Reilly Smith, the long shot Republican candidate from the heavily Democratic District of Columbia. She is running for the post of nonvoting Congressional representative, which is currently held by Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton.

Smith makes no apologies for the disturbing images in the ads, comparing them to the photos of Nazi concentration camps that forced the world to realize an awful truth.


http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/10/26/anti.abortion.ads/index.html?hpt=T2

[iverglas]

1. I was confused, but this is the bit that explains:

Federal communications law requires local stations to carry any and all ads by qualified federal candidates, to make sure no broadcaster has the power to oppose or censor any candidates by limiting their access to the airwaves. According to the Federal Communications Commission, broadcasters can only reject a federal candidate's ad if it contains a copyright infringement, or is defamatory.

"Legitimate candidate? They've gotta run the ad," said Howard Kurtz, host of CNN's "Reliable Sources."

But here's the bit that really explains it:

The ads were written and produced by her campaign manager, Randall Terry -- a vocal anti-abortion activist who founded Operation Rescue.

As the CNN consultant quoted in the article wonders: are the ads about the candidate's campaign, or is the campaign about the ads?

If they had not been placed by a candidate, the station could (and apparently defintely would) have rejected them.