NCAA Faces Criticism Over Ad

The National Collegiate Athletic Association is taking heat over an ad for a conservative advocacy group that appeared for a time this week on its corporate Web site.

The promotion for the group, Focus on the Family, features a smiling father holding his young son, next to the words “Celebrate Family. Celebrate Life.” Beneath the photo appears the message: “All I want for my son is for him to grow up knowing how to do the right thing.”

It’s the second time this month that Focus on the Family has been linked to the world of college sports. The organization stirred controversy over an antiabortion commercial featuring Tim Tebow, the standout former University of Florida quarterback, that aired during CBS’s broadcast of the Super Bowl.

Uproar over the ad on NCAA.com emerged on Monday, when Pat Griffin, a professor-turned-blogger, saw the ad and wrote about it. Other blogs took note. A Facebook group soon appeared and urged its members to protest the NCAA’s decision to run an ad from a group that they perceive as being against gay rights and diversity. By midday Tuesday, the ad was gone.

More at: The Chronicle!

Also, read more at Pat Griffin’s blog by clicking here!

Lying: The Religiously Right Thing To Do

The sleaze tactics used by the religious right in their fight against LGBT equality is something that’s to be expected.  All in all, they have nothing to base their baseless arguments and judgments on.  Being gay doesn’t make you a scary monster.  Being gay doesn’t make you a pedophile.  Being gay doesn’t take away from the life of anyone else.  Being gay is NOT an abomination.

However, since the religious right probably realizes all the above, they know they have to make up lies (we all know it’s a good Christian moral value to lie as long as your lying about the gays) and spew as much hateful rhetoric as possible hoping that some of it will influence the general population, which to a degree, I’m sure it does.  Throw dung at a wall, and some of it is going to stick.

So, in the case of adoption of children by LGBT people in the state of Florida…where gay adoption is currently illegal but being challenged, the religious right has stooped to an all time low.

The Florida Family Policy Council, who is associated directly with the anti-gay Focus on the Family, ran a piece about a lesbian couple who are battling an adoption case in Florida.  One of the lesbians is actually a blood relative to the child in question, yet the anti-gay bigots are worked up in a battle to maintain the discriminatory law that prevents gays and lesbians from adopting children in the state of Florida.  Now it doesn’t surprise me the group would run a post objecting to gay adoption.  After all, a great deal of their tax-exempt income is based on the manifestation of fear…fear of the gay agenda.

However, the thing that does surprise me, their blatant stupidity.  They knowingly used a picture to misrepresent the couple actually trying to adopt.  Of course I’m sure they knew they would be called out for their misrepresentation, but again…What happens when you throw dung at wall?  Some of it sticks, and I’m sure that’s exactly what they were trying to accomplish.

According to the Orlando Sentinel:

The judge’s ruling said exactly what most people would want to hear in an adoption case.

It said that the 1-year-old boy who had been living with his foster parents was “happy and thriving” — and that a permanent adoption made perfect sense.

It should be a simple story with a happy ending.

Except it is not.

That judge’s ruling — which focused solely on the child’s well-being — enraged some on the religious right.

Why? Because the little boy’s adoptive parents are gay.

So now those who profit from division are pouncing.

They aren’t the people who have cared for this little boy, who have nursed his wounds and tucked him in at night. In fact, they haven’t done a thing for him.

They haven’t consulted the experts — everyone from a child psychologist to a Guardian ad Litem — who say the parents provide precisely the loving environment that this child needs.

All these critics know is that they don’t want gay people to have the same rights as straight people.

So they want him separated from the parents who love him.

“Arrogant judicial activism” was how the finger-waggers at Orlando’s Florida Family Policy Council described the ruling in an alert it sent out to its members last week.

And to make their point about just how frightening this ruling was, the Policy Council included a photograph of the couple — a strange and androgynous-looking duo, one with bleached skin and both with mullet haircuts. The couple look so odd (you literally can’t tell whether they are male or female) that one might wonder how any judge could place a young child with such a disturbing-looking duo.

Except the judge didn’t.

The abnormal-looking couple that the Policy Council chose to illustrate this story is not the same couple granted the right to adopt the child.

You can read the entire post at the Orlando Sentinel by CLICKING HERE….and see the picture used below!

On the left, the picture used by the anti-gay "Christian" group. On the right, the actually couple.

And Yet Another CBS’s Superbowl Controversy?

UPDATE:

I have found no source from CBS that even acknowledges this ad was submitted for consideration.  Could this be a “brilliant” marketing ploy on behalf of Mancrunch.com?

As reported earlier:

Again, although I’ve not been able to confirm through a reliable source, there are rumors circulating about CBS and another Superbowl ad.

As you may know, CBS has agreed to air an anti-choice ad submitted by the anti-gay Focus on the Family during this year’s NFL Superbowl game, but the highly sought after advertising time may not be extended to “all” groups as CBS originally claimed, using this as their excuse to allow the ad.

However, it may not be “all” groups…(again, still seeking legit confirmation) but, according to a post on Back Porch Fanhouse:

On Tuesday, a coalition of women’s groups urged CBS to drop a Super Bowl commercial paid for by Focus on the Family that features Tim Tebow and his mother because it conveys an anti-abortion message.

And today, there’s this: FoxNews.com reports that CBS has yet to reach a decision on whether “to run a controversial Super Bowl ad from gay dating site ManCrunch.com” despite “days of deliberation.”

Apparently, ManCrunch.com representatives don’t think CBS has any intentions of airing the spot “but do not want to officially ‘reject’ the spot out of fear there may be a backlash from gay advocacy groups.” According to Fox News, a CBS spokesperson said “The ad is still under review, the process takes a little while. … We still have a lot of ads we have yet to review.” So officially, there’s still a chance we’ll all get to see this:

The 30-second spot shows two men excitedly watching the game, before their hands brush as they both reach into a bowl of chips. Suddenly, the two begin making out, much to the shock of a guy sitting close by.

So, it’s OK to let an anti-gay, anti-choice, tax-exempt religious organization run an ad, but it’s not OK to let a site that advocates finding love for single gay men to do the same? How is that representing everyone? CBS, I think your true (homophobic) colors are shinning through!

CBS Refuses to Pull Ad by Anti-Gay Group

Contributed by Lyndon Evans:

On January 16 this writer was one of the first in the media to voice opposition to CBS Television’s decision to sell ad time during this year’s Super Bowl  to the anti-gay hate group Focus On The Family.

Yesterday CBS stood behind it’s decision to sell ad time and that it will not drop Focus On The Family as a Super Bowl advertiser. In an article at Broadcasting and Cable (B&C) reporter John Eggerton wrote in part, The network said it does not reject advocacy ads out of hand, and added that it would consider “responsibly produced ads from all groups” for the “few” remaining spots in the broadcast.

“We have for some time moderated our approach to advocacy submissions after it became apparent that our stance did not reflect public sentiment or industry norms on the issue,” CBS said in an e-mailed statement Tuesday. “In fact, most media outlets have accepted advocacy ads for some time. At CBS, our standards and practices process continues to adhere to a process that ensures all ads — on all sides of an issue — are appropriate for air.

“We will continue to consider responsibly produced ads from all groups for the few remaining spots in Super Bowl XLIV,” the network said.

A CBS spokesperson had told B&C Claire Atkinson last week that the network had vetted the spot’s script and did not expect to have any trouble with the video.

“It is not inflammatory or divisive,” a CBS exec told Atkinson last week.

The ad in question may not be inflammatory or divisive but Focus On The Family certainly is.

The following is an open letter directed to Les Moonves, President and CEO of the CBS Corporation.

Dear Mr. Moonves,

As a former and once proud employee of CBS Broadcasting I find your decision as head of CBS Broadcasting to allow Focus On The Family to buy ad time during this year’s Super Bowl broadcast, putting corporate profit above the fight against discrimination and to allow a group such as Focus On The Family to dictate what should be the moral conscience and decency for Americans, to be unconscionable.

When I was the commercial continuity manager at the CBS Radio Group in Hartford, CT and managed barter ads for program distributors such as Westwood One, I was not allowed to schedule certain radio spots.

I was not allowed to schedule ads from XM Satellite Radio as it was deemed a competitor. I was not allowed to schedule ads for Trojan prophylactics as the ad subject matter was deemed inappropriate for our four stations in the radio group.

And there were times I was not allowed to schedule ads from Radio Shack because the ad co-oped with XM Satellite Radio.

Part of my job was to bring to the attention of the Director of Operations and the General Manager of the Radio Group ads which may have “underlying political messages”, inappropriate content matter for the radio stations and ads which may be of a competitive nature to the radio broadcast industry (with the exception of TV or Cable Networks).

Should I be remiss in my duties and neglect to become “suspicious” of ad content, as I did once with Radio Shack co-oping with XM, my ass was handed to me on a platter, to put it in blunt terms.

So while the content of the upcoming ad from Focus On The Family may not be “inflammatory or decisive”, the same can not be said about the organization behind the ad.

Not only is your descision to accept advertising dollars from Focus On The Family an affront to LGBTs, women and those who believe in reproductive choice, it is a major disappointment I am sure for a great many loyal employees of the CBS Corporation and it’s divisions, this a Corporation which in its employee policy does not tolerate intolerance among the CBS Corporation and its various division’s employees.

Were I still working at CBS I would not write this communication to you for fear of losing my job.

Now that I no longer have to worry about that scenario, I can write this to be a voice for the thousands of fellow CBS employees I left behind and who may be afraid to express the like-minded view of this communication.

I use to say CBS was like a second family to me.

Today and until such time as you make the decision not to air the Focus On The Family ad, I am ashamed to have been part of the CBS  family.

Sincerely,

Lyndon Evans

Religious Right: Stronger than Ever?

According to an article on the Denver Post:

Fire and brimstone evangelicalism has simmered down into a broader movement of cooler approaches.

Yet much of what has been said about the expanded political agenda and softer tone of evangelical Christians has missed the point, say observers of the Christian right.

“Every time a Democrat gets elected they say: ‘That’s the end of the Christian conservatives. They’re gone,’ ” said D.C.-based Ethics and Public Policy Center vice president Michael Cromartie. “But they’re not. Broadening their agenda doesn’t mean they are suddenly liberal Democrats.”

And evangelicals, Cromartie said, are not abandoning their core issues: traditional marriage and sanctity of life. “Climate change does not trump pro-life issues.”

Although the rhetoric is gentler, the politics are the same. The money is going to lobby for the same things. The basic voting structure was largely unchanged in 2008, pollsters say.

“We want to be relevant to a new generation, but we plan to stay strong on the pillars Dr. James Dobson built at Focus on the Family,” said Tom Minnery, the ministry’s senior vice president of government and public policy.

Read more: http://www.denverpost.com/

So what is the motivation?  Is it that Americans are really rejecting the notion of “change”?   Are Americans truly afraid of the LGBT community?  Do they really believe there’s a gay agenda to take over the country and perhaps the world with the goal of ending opposite sex marriage and procreation?  Is it a failure of our educational system to demonstrate scientific fact?  Are churches more successful at reaching an audience and captivating them through fear based upon ignorance?

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