A Developing Pattern: Clear Channel Refuses To Allow Billboard Critical Of DeLay

I don’t know what companies owned the Houston TV stations that earlier this year refused to air some anti-DeLay ads, but it seems that there is a growing pattern of media companies not allowing candidates to air ads which involve DeLay.

Via Watching the Watchers, the Reading Eagle has the scoop on Clear Channel not allowing a Democratic Congressional candidate in Pennsylvania, Lois Murphy from buying a billboard which criticizes Tom DeLay and her Republican opponent:

Murphy, a Montgomery County Democrat, just wanted to pay for a billboard chastising Republican incumbent Jim Gerlach for keeping $30,000 in campaign contributions from former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

DeLay, a Texas Republican who resigned his post earlier this year, was indicted on charges related to violating Texas’ campaign-finance laws.

Murphy’s proposed billboard featured dollar bills cascading over the U.S. Capitol dome along with the claim: “Congressman Gerlach you are part of the problem in Washington. Return Tom DeLay’s money!”

The billboard would have gone up near the Belmont Avenue exit off the Schuylkill Expressway in suburban Philadelphia.

But Clear Channel’s outdoor advertising division turned down Murphy’s money and rejected the billboard.

“We were told by Clear Channel that they would not put up any billboard that would make Jim Gerlach mad,” said Mark Nevins, a Murphy spokesman.
…
“Politics plays absolutely no role in reviewing ad copy,” Clear Channel stated [on its web site, in a context not addressing this particular incident]. “In fact, Clear Channel Outdoor actively works with groups across the political spectrum to help them reach their target audiences.

Having been in the newspaper business, the only time I ever experienced  refusing to publish a political advertisement (a decision I made, I might add) was when it was clearly slanderous or in such poor taste that it was simply inappropriate. And this was an ad that was both racist and personal, was brought by an individual with an ax to grind not involved in the race, and attacked a Republican constable candidate for not removing the man’s daughter from the home of a black man she was living with at her father’s request.

That, folks, is questionable advertising, not urging someone to give back Tom DeLay’s dirty money.

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