Les, liberal television stations circle the wagons around their fallen hero.
Clinton Resignation Ads Refused in DC
(CNS) Three network television affiliates in Washington, D.C. are refusing to accept and broadcast paid commercial advertisements calling for President Clinton to resign.
The ads were produced for American Renewal, a subsidiary of the Family Research Council, which is headed by Gary Bauer. The same ads, which were announced following Clinton's televised admission of misleading the country for seven months about a "not appropriate" relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky, are currently running on television stations across Iowa.
None of the Iowa television stations approached about purchasing airtime refused the commercials, according to Marty Dannenfelser, Family Research Council director of media and government relations. The ads have been on the air in Iowa since September 9.
Television stations will sometimes refuse to accept issue advertisements if they're determined to be inaccurate, distasteful, incendiary in their content, libelous or overly graphic, but the Washington television executives and officials interviewed by CNS cited none of those reasons for refusing Bauer's ad.
"It's interesting to note the distinction between the way people in the heartland, in Iowa, reacted to (these ads)," said Dannenfelser. "But when you get within the (Washington, D.C.) Beltway, there seems to be more of a desire to control the message and to limit the messengers."
According to a memorandum to Bauer's organization from BrabenderCox, the Pittsburgh media firm buying television time for the commercials, WUSA-TV, the CBS affiliate in Washington, said the station refused to accept the ads because the station is already covering the Clinton scandal through its news department.
"WUSA feels that we are covering the issues surrounding the president sufficiently in our news (we air 8 hours of local news each day), and that accepting money from an outside organization such as American Renewal would not serve to benefit our viewers," read a memorandum from WUSA Regional Sales Manager Sara Scott to BrabenderCox.
But WUSA Vice President and Station Manager Richard Dyer told CNS that the reason the ads weren't accepted by the station is because "the ad, as presented, is not appropriate," for station viewers.
Dyer couldn't say what made the advertisement inappropriate for the station's audience, explaining that the final decision to not accept the media buy was made by the station's general manager, Dick Reingold. Dyer said Reingold was in meetings and not available for comment.
WUSA is owned by Gannett, the same company that owns USA Today, the newspaper which ran a lengthy editorial Monday calling on Clinton to resign the presidency.
One of the ads WUSA deemed "not appropriate" for broadcast in Washington featured audio from a mock broadcast of coverage of the Clinton scandal, including a quote from the president denying his relationship with Lewinsky back in January. The ad also features audio of mock television news reports of the scandal, all of which is presented as being viewed by children gathered around a television set.
The text of the advertisement includes none of the sexual details or anatomical references that have grown more common in news coverage of the Clinton scandal over the past few weeks.
The second American Renewal advertisement considered inappropriate features Bauer on camera saying "Every American parent's job has been made more difficult," because of news reports broadcasting White House denials of the relationship, indicating that "lying is okay, that fidelity is old-fashioned." The commercial concludes with Bauer's statement, "Mr. President, it is time to put our country and our children first. It's time for you to resign."
At NBC affiliate WRC-TV, Station Information Director Angela Owens told CNS that Bauer's issue ads were refused because demands for Clinton's resignation are considered by the station to be a topic that "needs more discussion than could be provided in a 30-second spot."
Owens illustrated the point by saying the station's news coverage of the Clinton scandal "is one way people can get a fuller discussion of the issue," but did not say how paid advertising would make the discussion less comprehensive.
"We look at each one in turn. Each ad, as offered, stands on its own merit," said Owens. "The station just looks at each one that comes in and makes a decision about each one."
But Owens also said WRC has aired other issue ads from private groups in the past, including commercials advocating positions on health care reform and affordable electrical power, and Owens would not say whether those issues could be adequately discussed through commercial advertisement.
Telephone calls to a third Washington television station that refused to broadcast the commercials, ABC affiliate WJLA, were not returned.
According to the memorandum from Bauer's media firm, WJLA's explanation for the refusing the paid ads was "At this time we have decided not to accept this advertising."
The media firm's report also noted that "when pressed, this station would not go into additional detail," about the decision.
When asked why all of the television stations in Iowa accepted the commercials but none of the three Washington, D.C. stations did, Dannenfelser said that the proximity of the Washington stations to the White House could have played a role in the across-the-board decision by all three stations to refuse the ads.
"There's more of a tendency to kind of rub elbows with the people involved, and they're much more likely to have had contact with the president himself, to have friends who work in the administration, and so on," said Dannenfelser.
"I think that could potentially color their view," as to whether a television station would run commercials calling for Clinton to resign, said Dannenfelser.
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