Posted on 02/19/2003 10:49:03 PM PST by ppaul
A National Public Radio station in Colorado has touched off a controversy by deciding that God can't be mentioned in what are essentially commercials.
A dentist in the Four Corners area of the Southwestern United States uses the phrase, "Gently Restoring the Health God Created," as a theme in his practice. "It's on our stationary and our appointment cards, and things like that," said Dr. Glenn Rutherford, based in Pagosa Springs, Colo.
But when he used the phrase in sponsorship of programs on KSUT-FM, a taxpayer-funded National Public Radio station in the area, the staff wouldn't have it. A station representative broke the news to the doctor.
"He said, 'Well, we had a staff meeting and there was universal agreement that that couldn't go on," Rutherford said.
The "that" was the mention of God. But when Don Wildmon, president of the Tupelo, Miss.-based American Family Association, got involved, the reason for editing "God" appeared to have changed. Wildmon said KSUT station manager, Beth Warren, wrote a letter that said, in part: "'The station is bound by (Federal Communications Commission) rules for public broadcasting, and works daily to comply with lots of regulations set forth by Congress.' "
Said Wildmon: "She's implying that it's illegal to do this, when it's not."
When Family News in Focus called Warren for clarification, she said the matter was between the station and Dr. Rutherford, and hung up. Subsequent calls to KSUT were not returned.
Said Rutherford: "I was a little incensed the station could run gay and lesbian coalition sponsorship spots but I couldn't mention God in mine?"
TAKE ACTION
The KSUT Web site contains a contact form that you can use to send comments.
Now, the KSUT website lists only contact@ksut.org as their email...but I have a list of some others on staff, below.
Copy these emails below into your To:, CC or BCC fields and send KSUT a message. If you choose to only mail to one, may I suggest Station Manager Beth Warren.
beth@ksut.org, steve@ksut.org,stasia@ksut.org,sean@ksut.org,hugh@ksut.org,ron@ksut.org,
bruce@ksut.org,susan@ksut.org,edub56@hotmail.com,joan@ksut.org
When you email the station, be SURE to put the word COMPLAINT in the subject..since they must follow government-ordained bureaucracy to lodge and handle complaints.
This station is licensed to the Southern UTE Indian Tribe in SW CO. You can visit their website here and use their feedback form to lodge a complaint...
Also, I have been emailing the sponsors, listed in posts above, with the following message:
Dear Pagosa Hot Springs Owner,
I am upset with you as a sponsor on KSUT....discrimination radio.
KSUT recently refused to accept an ad from a dentist because of the word "GOD" in it.
Trash and filth is OK...but GOD is not????
This bigotry toward Christians cannot stand.
I will not be using your services as long as you advertise on this station. Also, I will notify my friends and fellow church members in the SW Colorado area, asking them to boycott you as well.
Please stop your ads on bigotry radio....and support the families of America!
Sincerely,
If I had more money to spend on advertising, there is a large population of my local neighbors who regularly listen to NPR. I'm not "supporting" them with advertising dollars, I'm reaching out to another segment of the population that may not listen to conservative talk radio and therefore haven't heard my ad.
No, you are supporting it, writing off the contribution, and rationalizing your lack of creativity in finding another way to support your local businesses accomplishing the same thing.
No, what makes him a good American is the fact that he is a dentist who seeks to expand his business, employ his neighbors and fosters a better community through a capitalist outreach and trickle-down economics.
That's a lot of assumptions. For all you know this guy could support nationalized health care. He certainly supports socialied radio communications. In supporting NPR in the name of "advertising" our dentist was also looking for a tax break, similar to the corporate communists who support public broadcasting in general. Believe me, the Ford Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, Pew Charitable Trusts, Annenberg, Carnegie and the rest are NOT supporting public broadcasting for "charitable" purposes and they aren't doing it to sell trucks, publications, oil, or steel; they are doing it for ideological purposes destructive to the Constitution to inclucate a system where making money carries little risk to them. They do it for power and profit for their global investments that have sucked this country dry.
Further, buying "advertising" on public radio is fraudulent, becuause it is supposed to be a NOT for profit activity in order to qualify for the tax deduction. An unconstitutional IRS looks the other way because it's good for them. No, supporting public radio is tax-exempt influence buying, AUGMENTED BY TAX DOLLARS, and the "protagonist" in this story buys into it all when he gives them his money. You can't rationalize this by intent, because it is consequences that define accountability.
Ignoring your customers simply because you disagree with their political philosophy is business suicide and patently unAmerican.
Straw man. I never suggested he ignore his customers and he is now clearly alienating that same clientele with his comments, so your argument in his support fails the test of consistency.
You, on the other hand, are criticizing him for a background you do not know in market conditions you don't understand with insults that are more a product of image projection than reality.
You don't seem to be the sort of person who has ever run a business.
Look who's doing the projecting here? I have created real industrial products, patented them, developed the manufacturing process, built the machinery, managed regulatory compliance, and implemented production worldwide. I now own a business in the process of patenting a management method that will replace the need for regulatory government. It has been hand carried by a Senator (gratis, I might add, on the strength of its ideas alone) to every cabinet level secretary and to the Vice President.
You were saying?
So that means we're going to have to wait until 2004?
Every Federal Election, he sends scare letters to churches, warning them not to take voter guides....implying (but carefully not stating) that they are illegal....in fact they are PERFECTLY LEGAL...but he manages to scare some churches into NOT taking voter guides..that show the candidates positions on issues without endorsing candidates or parties.
Frank, R. Wolf, Virginia (CH) | José E. Serrano, New York |
Harold Rogers, Kentucky | Alan B. Mollohan, West Virginia |
Jim Kolbe, Arizona | Robert E. (Bud) Cramer, Jr., Alabama |
Charles H. Taylor, North Carolina | Patrick J. Kennedy, Rhode Island |
Ralph Regula, Ohio | Martin Olav Sabo, Minnesota |
David Vitter, Louisiana (VC) | |
John E. Sweeney, New York | |
Mark Steven Kirk, Illinois |
Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education (top)
2358 Rayburn HOB
Washington, D.C. 20515-6024
Ralph Regula, Ohio (CH) | David R. Obey, Wisconsin |
Ernest J. Istook, Jr., Oklahoma | Steny H. Hoyer, Maryland |
Roger F. Wicker, Mississippi | Nita M. Lowey, New York |
Anne Northup, Kentucky (VC) | Rosa DeLauro, Connecticut |
Randy "Duke" Cunningham, California | Jesse L. Jackson, Jr., Illinois |
Kay Granger, Texas | Patrick J. Kennedy, Rhode Island |
John E. Peterson, Pennsylvania | Lucille Roybal-Allard, California |
Don Sherwood, Pennsylvania | |
Dave Weldon, Florida | |
Michael K. Simpson, Idaho |
Lucky you. I have a speaking engagement this weekend.
Business people are very creative at promoting their businesses. It's not for a "lack of creativity" that we would advertise on an NPR station, it's for customers.
It's for lack of creativity that he can't find a preferable and ethical alternative.
If they have a strong medium (whether or not I agree with their message) and a large demographic, they can expect advertisers. It's a simple rule of marketing. What they should neither expect nor receive is taxpayer funding. When that is finally pulled, they will either die on the vine or be self-supporting. When they are no longer the "voice of balance" that they claim to be now as supported by the government, they will have to answer to their listeners and advertisers. Right now, though, it's academic.
Ends don't justify means. Go read Aristotle's ETHICS and get back to me. Oh, that's right, Aristotle is academic.
For all you know this guy could support nationalized health care."
And you say I'm reaching?!
No, I'm demonstrating how little you have supporting your conclusions.
Let's look at what we know from the article and stop injecting our own values on him, shall we? He is a dentist. What do dentists do? They clean and repair teeth. For whom do they provide these services? Their clientele. How do they build their clientele? Advertising.
In case you didn't know, contributions to NPR are not advertising BY LAW. It is used as such, while still being called non-commercial. The IRS winks because PBS supports their agenda. That you would justify it because "everybody does it" is more of the twisted ethics I cited above. That it is commonplace is no excuse.
I have not reached in my assumptions, you have. You have ascribed to this man a full ideological point of view not found in the article. WHERE he chooses to advertise is based on finding customers, not ideology. If he only chose based on ideology, he would be a business idiot.
Upon which you clearly place a higher value than an ethical, moral, or political idiot.
Let's see... I can reach a large segment of the population AND I get a tax deduction... He's not the one who sounds like an idiot here. I agree with your take on the IRS but while these are the rules, he is free to use them.
Ends don't justify means. Go read Aristotle's ETHICS and get back to me. Contributions to NPR are not advertising BY LAW. (I'm repeating because your reading skills are clearly lacking.)
"You can't rationalize this by intent, because it is consequences that define accountability."
Do you know how communist you sound?
Projecting again and name-calling. Sigh, how lame. You just don't recognize integrity when you read it. By their fruits shall ye know them.
He's a business man who made a business decision.
Business decision. As if such things were isolated from ethics or politics. Nope, it depends upon politics. You would rather judge him based on a trumped up ideology you invented.
Trumped up? Oh really? In case you didn't know, contributions to NPR are not advertising BY LAW. That you would justify it because "everybody does it" is more of the twisted ethics I cited above. That it is commonplace is no excuse.
This guy is a hero. If he knew his ad would be rejected, then he set them up for a Constitutional challenge. If he's just a business man trying to make a buck in a tough market, then he's just a business man trying to make a buck in a tough market.
If that's your qualification for heroism, I feel truly sorry for you.
[clapping] I'm impressed (though not nearly as impressed with you as you seem to be).
Your sincerity is overwhelming, especially considering the performance of your "hero."
I was saying that you have impuned a good man who is either smart at marketing his business or a Constitutional Don Quixote by attributing your own biases and myopic vision to him. He deserved better.
Impugned, and I don't think he does. He deserved better from NPR. He didn't get it because he was a fool to expect it. See "realistic." Then see "waste of time." Then reconsider whether he's really such a good businessman.
Quixotic? No. Principled.
It's equally clear that you might have said the same of Messrs. Jefferson et al and been one of those who hid when the Revolution commenced. I have merely observed the MASSIVE scale of corruption in this country using political means to contort regulations or socialized risk to make a buck instead of winning in the marketplace on the merit of creative ideas and productive services. How is that communist? I did something about it because I think it worth risking a half million dollars (so far) to restore our government to its Constitutional footing, not just for me, but for my fellow citizens and my children. Call it foolish self-aggrandizement, call it anything you want; but I regard you as the fool for going along with the usual and customary use of the system and justifying it as you have. Why? Because, in the end, if you condone such behavior and act in similar vein, then you have supported it. You will have then chosen to profit by participation in the downfall of this nation's founding principles.
There are other things more valuable than that.
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.