ABOUT FAITH & FREEDOM

Wednesday, June 09, 2021

CBS, Hallmark and CMT Refuse Pro-Life Ad

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Recently the Supreme Court announced they will rule on a case involving Mississippi's 15-week abortion ban.

Should they rule in favor of the ban, it could be a lethal blow to the abortion industry in America---Roe v Wade.

The pro-life group Susan B. Anthony List has produced a pro-life ad and is buying time to air it across the country.

The ad simply asks, "Isn't it time the law reflects the science?"

The Left has panicked. 

I wasn't surprised that CBS and CMT refused to air a pro-life ad.

I should not have been surprised that Hallmark has also refused to air it.

Be informed, not misled.

It's revealing that the three networks are refusing to air an ad from a leading pro-life organization---particularly an ad that is advocating for "science."

The message: "Isn't it time the law reflects the science?"

Susan B. Anthony List (SBA) is spending $2 million on a media campaign "highlighting the humanity of unborn children as the US Supreme Court prepares to hear a landmark abortion case."

This is the 30-second ad


The ad follows the announcement that the Supreme Court will hear an appeal from the state of Mississippi, which is seeking to reverse a lower court decision invalidating the state's 15-week abortion ban.

A ruling in favor of that state would weaken the central finding of the 1973 Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade, which found that a woman has the right to obtain an abortion.

The narrator in the ad notes that "five decades of medical breakthroughs, every age group has more opportunity to live except one: the unborn." 

As the narrator speaks, the outline of an unborn baby from a pregnancy sonogram flashes across the screen as the viewer hears, "Science tells us that at fifteen weeks these babies have fully formed faces. They smile. They yawn. They feel pain. Isn't it time the law reflects the science?"

Why are these networks refusing to air this ad?

In an email to SBA List, a CBS official explained that "issue-oriented advertisements that are designed for the purpose of presenting views or influencing legislation on issues that are controversial by general public consensus are unacceptable."

An official at CMT offered a nearly identical response in a separate email. Both CBS and CMT are owned by Viacom.

SBA List had already published a press release announcing the campaign and that the "30 second ad will air on national cable, including Lifetime, Hallmark and Bravo networks as well as select streaming services, and in the Washington DC media market on top news stations."

However, Hallmark then reversed itself, rejected the ad explaining "it does not meet the Hallmark Channel's criteria for the positive experience Hallmark aims to offer viewers."

First Hallmark caved to homosexual activists last year submitting to their demands that same-sex couples must be included in their "positive" experience movies.

Now the preservation of life itself is not a positive experience?

And is CBS and CMT suggesting that preserving life is "controversial?" Yes. Actually, they are.

And are they suggesting that they "approve" of the ads they allow on their air? They might want to take another look at that.

But then they don't need to. This exercise is really all about the politics of the Left. Not about any moral belief---or even about entertainment.

Not that they've asked, but I think Crown Media (Hallmark), whose success was built on the viewership of tens of millions of conservatives who deeply believe in the sanctity of life and traditional marriage between a man and a woman, maybe putting that success on the proverbial chopping block---or "the abortion table."

At some point, us "useful" conservatives and Christians may become not so useful. Perhaps they should have a chat with CNN about their far-left audience that has now evaporated.

The revelation.


What's most revealing about this episode is that SBA List doesn't issue any calls to action to Congress or attack any candidate or politician. It simply praises the modern miracles of medicine and healthcare which have extended the lives of most Americans.

None of the reasons these media outlets are using to support their decisions to not take the ad are legitimate, because the reasons are selective.

The real problem is that abortion is falling out of favor with Americans, even though the far-left secular progressives---who are currently in power in government, the news media, and the entertainment industry---are shouting their message so it appears to be a majority consensus belief.

It isn't.

In 2018, more than 619,500 abortions were performed in the US according to the CDC data.

In 2019, a Marist poll found that Americans are now as likely to identify as pro-life, as pro-choice, with 47% identifying with each label. A few months later an NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll found a majority of Americans want at least some restrictions on abortion.

Most all polls reveal there is a growing distaste and disgust for abortion as birth control. There is a growing pro-life consensus in America.

Ideologically driven abortion allies in the news media, entertainment, education and government are doing their best to maintain the status quo that Planned Parenthood has established. 

And of course, there are the hundreds of millions of abortion dollars that Planned Parenthood shares with its political allies each time they run for re-election.

Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Prayerful.