So Much for Principles

NBC caves on troop-gratitude ad:  

WASHINGTON — NBC reversed course Saturday and decided to air a conservative group’s television ad thanking U.S. troops.

The ad, by the group Freedom’s Watch, asks viewers to remember the troops during the holiday season. NBC had refused to air the ad because it guides viewers to the Freedom’s Watch Web site, which NBC said was too political.

But in a statement issued Saturday evening, NBC said:

“We have reviewed and changed our ad standards guidelines and made the decision that our policy will apply to content only and not to a referenced Web site. Based on these amended standards the Freedom’s Watch ad will begin to run as early as Sunday.”

NBC’ head of standards and practices, Alan Wurtzel, notified Freedom’s Watch’s media consultant Saturday by e-mail, writing: “This will confirm that the Freedom’s Watch spot is approved for air.”

NBC initially said that airing the spot would violate the network’s prohibition on controversial issue ads. Wurtzel, in an interview Friday with The Associated Press, said NBC found nothing wrong with the ad’s content, but rather objected to the link to http://www.FreedomsWatch.org, viewing the Web site as too political.

Shameless pandering to politically deranged troop supporters!  This could get interesting.  Who knows what web site the next wildly irresponsible troop-support ad might be linked to?


Topics: media, military

  Posted by Jules Crittenden at 9:21 am Comments (3) on Sunday, December 9, 2007

3 Responses to “So Much for Principles”

  1. The_Real_JeffS Says:

    More like, NBC saw its rating getting ready to go down the toilet.

  2. RebeccaH Says:

    That’s right, TRJ, and at a time when the writer’s strike has dried up a lot of their revenue.

  3. saltydog Says:

    Power to the people! My husband and I were talking about this just last night, wondering when they would cave. I wrote my little bit to the idiots; respectfully of course.

    Bwahahahaha!

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