Posted on 08/21/2005 2:42:14 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
(AP) A Utah television station is refusing to air an anti-war ad featuring Cindy Sheehan, whose son's death in Iraq prompted a vigil outside President George W. Bush's Texas ranch.
Also, a patriotic camp with a "God Bless Our President!" banner sprung up in downtown Crawford, Texas Saturday, countering the anti-war demonstration started by Sheehan. The camp is named "Fort Qualls," in memory of Marine Lance Cpl. Louis Wayne Qualls, 20, who died in Iraq last fall.
The anti-war ad began airing on other Salt Lake City-area stations Saturday, two days before Bush was scheduled to speak in Salt Lake City to the national convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
However, a national sales representative for KTVX, a local ABC affiliate, rejected the ad in an e-mail to media buyers, writing that it was an "inappropriate commercial advertisement for Salt Lake City."
In the ad, Sheehan pleads with Bush for a meeting and accuses him of lying to the American people about Iraq's development of weapons of mass destruction and its connection to al Qaeda.
"I love my country. But how many more of our loved ones need to die in this senseless war?" a weary-looking Sheehan asks in the ad. "I know you can't bring Casey back. But it's time to admit mistakes and bring our troops home now." The ads were bought by Gold Star Families for Peace, co-founded by Sheehan.
Salt Lake City affiliates of NBC, CBS and Fox began running the ad Saturday.
In a statement Saturday evening explaining its decision, KTVX said that after viewing the ad, local managers found the content "could very well be offensive to our community in Utah, which has contributed more than its fair share of fighting soldiers and suffered significant loss of life in the this Iraq war."
Bush carried nearly 70 percent of the vote last fall in Utah, one of the most conservative states north of the so-called Bible Belt.
Station General Manager David D'Antuono said the decision was not influenced by the station's owner, Clear Channel Communications Inc.
Celeste Zappala, who with Sheehan co-founded Gold Star Families for Peace, said she was puzzled by the decision.
"What stunned me was that it was inappropriate to hear this message," she said. "How is it that Salt Lake City should hear no questions about the war?"
The e-mail read: "The viewpoints reflected in the spot are incompatible with our marketplace and will not be well received by our viewers." It added that the spot didn't qualify as an issue advertisement.
For the ad to have been considered an "issue" advertisement a ballot measure would have had to be at stake, D'Antuono said.
Mark Wiest, vice president of sales for NBC-affiliated KSL television, said that in the interest of freedom of speech, his station didn't hesitate to run the ad. KSL is owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
"The bigger picture is, by suppressing the message are we doing what is right under the First Amendment and in an open democratic society?" Wiest said.
Salt Lake City's Mayor Rocky Anderson used e-mail this week to call for "the biggest demonstration this state has ever seen," when President Bush appears at the convention Monday.
Anderson says Bush policies are disastrous for the country and that to stay quiet during the president's visit would be send a message of apathy.
The mayor's e-mail called for a collaboration of health care advocates, seniors, gay and lesbian advocates, anti-Patriot advocates, civil libertarians and anti-war folks to protest outside the VFW convention.
Mike Parkin, senior vice commander of a VFW post in Salt Lake City, says the move makes Anderson look unpatriotic.
The Vietnam vet, who says he voted for Anderson, but won't again, says the protest will offend veterans and embolden enemies of the U.S.
In Crawford, Gary Qualls, the father of a slain soldier, explained his reasons for supporting the pro-war camp. "If I have to sacrifice my whole family for the sake of our country and world, other countries that want freedom, I'll do that," said Qualls, who is friends with the local business owner who started the camp. He said his 16-year-old son now wants to enlist, and he supports that decision.
Qualls' frustration with the anti-war demonstrators erupted last week when he removed a cross bearing his son's name that was among hundreds the group had put up along the road to Bush's ranch.
Qualls called the protesters' views disrespectful to soldiers, and said he had to yank out two more crosses after protesters kept replacing them.
Succinctly put!
Cool. I have an autographed album from the Riding To The Wall event.
Would never have known you!
We warned them.
We warned them that the last time they did this what resulted in 2002 were counter protests in the thousands with Hollywood screaming about a "chill wind". Keep it up Libs, and watch more average Americans come out to put a boot in your butt.
This isn't Vietnam and you will not relive it through our military's courageous sacrifices.
" if you knew back then before your daughter was born, would you have had a abortion if you knew that Cindy would be used by the MSM and Democrat/Liberals as a useful idiot pawn, and turned out to be a anti American feminist anti Semite hag ? "
What a stupid comment! If Cindy had been aborted, the grandmother would never have been honored by Casey's service and his tragic death.
Arrgghh! First Amendment rights DO NOT include the right to have TV stations play your commercial! People really have a warped view of the First Amendment. If anything, the TV station is practicing freedom of association, and they don't want to be associated with Cindy Sheehan.
And GSFP needn't worry. Everyone who gives a poop knows their 'questions'.
Oh, pleeeez, stop already with the "We've been silenced!" crap. We hear your protests and anti-war/America propoganda all freakin' day long. Turn on any news program, it's there. Read any city newspaper, it's there.
We've heard your questions, and we don't agree with them, plain and simple. Shut up, already!!!
20 posted on 08/21/2005 4:00:31 AM PDT by AmericanChef
This reminds Me of one of the excuses why the libs didn't win the 2004 elections . The excuse was "We didn't get our message out effectively and clearly, that's why We lost". It seems to me that in both cases, their message DID get out. But in both circumstances, it was rejected by the majority of the people who heard it. This is what the libs have a hard time understanding, and until they do they will be in the political wilderness.
CC
Time does cause change.
"I use the term “Biker” for the people below – I’m on the far left of the 1978? photo. The rice rocket riders are “motorcyclists”.
Perhaps the term "Metro-cyclists" would be more in order.....
Bwaaaaa Haaaa Haaaaaaaaa
President Bush Job Approval
Updated Daily by Noon Eastern
President's job approval has risen to 48%
RasmussenReports.com
Bush up and Sheehan down
Sunday August 21, 2005--Forty-eight percent (48%) of American adults now approve of the way George W. Bush is performing his role as President.
Cindy Sheehan, the woman who maintained an anti-War protest outside President Bush's ranch, is viewed favorably by 35% of Americans and unfavorably by 38%.
It is more than a pity that good men, like the young hero Callahan, perish while the Mother......"Callahan" still sucks vital oxygen that decent folks need to breathe.
"The bigger picture is, by suppressing the message are we doing what is right under the First Amendment and in an open democratic society?"
If the following is true, then Cindy has a history of putting her needs before her family's. I saw it posted in the "Comments" section on one of the blogs on the Huffington Post--liberal hangout place. Nobody there challenged it, but I'm not sure how true it is:
"SHEEHAN BUGS OUT!
Let's see. She abandoned her husband and children when Casey was 7 and just returned 4 years ago (she said she left to "find herself"). Casey refused to have a regular Mother-Son relationship with her at first not having anything to do with her and then finally begrudgingly allowing her presence at a few family gatherings. But he steadfastly refused to call her "mom" telling friends, "At best, she's just "Cindy" to me."
So, she pulls her sick Crawford, Texas stunt pretending that she was a grieving "mom" (was she grieving when she abandoned her small children and allowed them to grow up without a mom?) and hoping for a good book deal or two.
Now her mom has a stroke, a mom who -- by the way -- told the Sacramento Bee that , "while I of course love my daughter politically I don't support her at all, I support my country and my president which is the same thing Casey would say if he was here." And Cindy -- who is really just tired of living in a tent -- runs home pretending to care about family."
Has anyone else heard this?
To placate your present emotional state, and provide a little perspective, yes, Salt Lake City IS different from the rest of Utah. It is surely the most liberal city in the state, and has the lowest percent of its population who are Mormons compared to any other incorporated or unincorporated municipality in the entire state. If a welfare problem exists anywhere in Utah, it is in SLC. University of Utah is not particularly conservative, and has a large and thriving colony of elitist liberals on-campus. It is an undeniable fact, that a practicing Mormon cannot also be a passionate liberal. There are, however, a large number of jack-Mormons who are entirely at ease with the differing ideologies.
Even so, liberals are not a majority in that city. From time to time, they can gain a plurality in an election. Which apparently explains the present situation.
In her ad, she states she loves her country.....but wasn't she quoted recently saying this country wasn't worth dying for?
She's creepy and confused.....poor woman.
She loves her country, and she loves her son. And she clearly loves neither as much as she loves liberal politics.
Therein lies the solution to the bizarre mystery that is Cindy Sheehan.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.