Saturday, January 30, 2010
Bigotry trumps equality at CBS. The network carrying this year’s Super Bowl officially rejected an ad for a gay men’s dating website while accepting a controversial ad from the antigay group Focus on the Family.
Citing several reasons for not running the ad from ManCrunch.com, CBS editor Kristen Bartlett said in a letter:
“CBS Standards and Practices has reviewed your proposed Super Bowl ad and concluded that the creative is not within the Network’s Broadcast Standards for Super Bowl Sunday. Moreover, our Sales Department has had difficulty verifying your organization’s credit status.”
So, I guess we’re left to conclude the credit status of the vehemently antigay Focus on the Family, whose anti-abortion ad featuring the evangelical Christian college football star Tim Tebow was easier to verify? I think not, CBS.
Needless to say, this blogger will not be watching the Super Bowl.
From the Left 
So would CBS accept a pro-abortion ad to run during the Super Bowl? I just wonder how political they want to make their choice in ads? Clearly, CBS is telegraphing a message and that message is: gays are not welcome. Oh well, I hate football and never watch anyway.
this is SO bad on so many levels……
at first CBS used “we are sold out” as an excuse – which of course no television program is ever sold out (anyone who comes in and is willing to pay more than the cheapest ad – will get a deal and bump out the cheap guys)
this is prejudice and network fear through and through. from the same network that aired Janet Jackson’s tit.
and credit status – give me a fracking break – we put tons of people on the air with no credit – it is called CIA – cash in advance – like ALL POLITICIANS must pay cash in advance (even Obama, Hillary anyone) – if the company wanted to pay CIA, CBS would have found another reason.
more than the other networks – CBS’ audience strength is in more rural areas – including New Orleans (which has among the strongest CBS affiliates in the country – WWL) – i would guarantee that many of the CBS affiliates in places like Salt Lake City and Wichita and Nashville called in and told the network not to air that spot – or they would cover it. (which they cannot do by contract – unless it violates the standards of the community – ugh)
a bunch of chickens
and Christopher – i read somewhere there is some doubt to the whole Tebow family story, you might want to check that out
This is appalling in 2010.
But, pro-sports has a long and storied history of not being tolerant of gay people. CBS clearly knows their audience for the Super Bowl and they’re pandering to them.
Christopher, I’m glad you’re blogging about this. I knew it was going to be a “backup” ad, but it was rejected for credit worthiness? WTH? Every year we see SB ads for companies we’ve never heard of, and some of those disappear off the face of the earth within months.
And distributorcap is right. I’ve heard rumors that when Pam Tebow was pregnant with Tim she was in the Phillippines, and at the time the country did NOT allow abortions.
In other words, Pam didn’t choose to keep her baby. She had no choice at all if the above is true.
I would bet you my right testicle that had the ad featured two women kissing, CBS and their stupid Standards and Practices rule would’ve had no problem running it.
I won’t be watching the Stupid Bowl either but I would be very interested to learn if CBS accepted ads for Viagra and Ambien? Beer and Alli? My guess is, CBS had trouble with image of two men kissing and in the closeted world of sports, where married, heterosexual men stop off at rest stops on the way home for a blow job, gay men are a threat and something the producers can’t deal with.
Remember, two men kissing is pornographic but two women kissing is artful and beautiful.
Two words for CBS and the Stupid Bowl: Fuck you.
vicodaniel1987@yahoo.com
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I’m a huge NFL fan, straight and not the least bit freaked out by two guys or two girls kissing. In fact, I dig two girls kissing. It’s 2010 and most people grew up with gay people in the media or your family. I just don’t think people under the age of 40 care. Trust me, this is CBS’s bullshit.
As a liberal woman, a friend of the LGBT community, and a Latina, I will not be watching this dumb sports event.
I have to take a stand and this is it. As Daniel said, fuck CBS.
Houston….., we have a problem.
Looks like Tebow’s mother may be a lying sack of shit and CBS fell for it.
This is why no one should ever accept advertising from Focus on the Family.
http://www.truthwinsout.org/blog/2010/01/6545/
I am loving yout dating adventures. Who knew something that wasn’t average could come up on a google search about dating. I can’t wait to see what happens next time! I will definately be adding this to my rss reader.
If it was truly rejected because it showed two males making out, then that is wrong if you look at it from an equality viewpoint. But for the sake of argument, what if that wasn’t the real reason CBS decided against it. I have read reports that CBS is saying that… “Sources said the network felt the site was using the tried-and-true tactic of generating free publicity by submitting a Super Bowl ad they knew was likely to be rejected and was ultimately unwilling to pay for.” If these types of “tactics” are real or not I wouldn’t know. But if they could not pay the $2.5 million dollars that the add would have cost, then you couldn’t blame CBS for rejecting the add. However, if they had the money for it, then CBS should have aired it. Does anybody know if they could have come up with the funds? I would be interested in knowing that.
How very cowardly on the part of CBS.
What a bunch of crap. CBS’s Les Moonves is schtupping that bobblehead, Julie Chan, from Big Brother, and CBS had a huge intern scandal at the Letterman show but they said x-nay on a gay dating ad for the Super Bowl? Give me a break.
The corporate media get more offensive with each passing day.
CBS is so out of touch with mainstream America.
I’ve said for years now that the network TV model is broken and this decision is just one more example of what I’m talking about. Oh well, I haven’t watched the Super Bowl in years anyway, so why change now?
Yeah, I haven’t bothered to watch the Stupid Bowl for awhile myself. It is for certain that I won’t be watching it this year, nor am I likely to watch anything else presented on JBS (the Jesusistan Bullshit Service.)
Remember the ‘Go Daddy’ domain registry company ads a few years ago? The model in the tight t-shirt and not bra, running around saying “go daddy?”
Unless you have a website or a company and you are familiar with them, it looked like a porn ad. A lot of people were outraged but the controversy put the company on the map thanks to CBS taking a chance by accepting them as an advertiser. When did CBS get so damned conservative?
Surprised no one is being more cynical about this. This isn’t a gay dating site, but a niche site developed from Simone Dadoun-Cohen (who also created other sex sites like establishedmen.com and cougarlife.com).
This was clearly a publicity stunt on the part of people who could not afford the $3 million pricetag (like PETA in years past) and still wanted free publicity.
Do you think the NFL teams would even give permission to use those jerseys? Doubt it.
Not to mention the ad itself is extremely homophobic. This isn’t the kind of thing that furthers the LGBT community. It’s patronizing and disgusting
The big three networks really just need to hang it up.
Well this tells you where their morals are
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