Tuesday, February 2, 2010

CBS-Old Double Standard (DangerouslyWorse)

At the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, U.S. athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their arms to symbolize Black Pride, and to protest the murder of 200 people by the Mexican Government. (They were slaughtered for daring to speak out against the use of funds designated for essential human services programs to pay for the Olympics.) Smith and Carlos were ostracized by the IOC, and IOC President Avery Brundage. It should be noted that neither the IOC nor Brundage objected to Nazi salutes during the Berlin Olympics in 1936. Time magazine and other media outlets lambasted the two athletes.


Here in 2010, athletes are free to adorn themselves with references to biblical pasages.The rationale that is used to justify such displays is “freedom of religion”.When,however, Smith and Carlos excercised “freedom of speech” they were demonized and punished.



Now CBS is on the verge of breaking its own policy that in the past has prohibited advocacy commercials during the Super Bowl. Focus on the Family is being allowed to run a commercial featuring Tim Tebow (pictured above). The commercial will advocate denying women the opportunity to make personal choices with respect to reproductive rights. In 2004, CBS banned a MoveOn commercial that highlighted Bush’s fiscal irresponsibility, and that same year CBS would not allow the United Church of Christ to run a commercial that showed them welcoming a gay couple who had been turned away from another church. “Constitutional freedoms”, are subservient to CBS fiat. Jim Daly, the current President of Focus on the Family, was a featured speaker at a conclave called “Values Voter Summit”. Other speakers included the usual suspects from FOX noise, a number of GOP lawmakers, and other virulent orators spouting extremist religious doctrine. And a booth at the “summit”, which was manned by religious racists, was allowed to sell boxes of Obama Waffles for $10 each.



The honchos at CBS are kow-towing to the whims of dangerous people and organizations. Either that or they share similar ideologies. A ”free” press? Sure, as long as you are in league with media moguls.
In either event, what CBS is being allowed to get away with highlights the old double standard, and worse, dangerously worse.

No comments: