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Newspaper advertising: anything goes?
By Drew Halfnight | October 6, 2008
U.S. newspaper readers reacted angrily after receiving a DVD supplement warning about the threat of radical Islam in their morning papers last week.
Titled “Obsession” and produced by the conservative non-profit Clarion Fund, the film was sent to 28 million households, sparking a broad outcry and raising a host of questions for ad departments.
Is there anything newspapers can’t or shouldn’t put in their newspapers? If someone wanted to insert turkey sandwiches into the Winnipeg edition of the Globe and Mail, would there be any justification for stopping them?
In the U.S., almost anything goes. A few publications refused to carry “Obsession,” which at least one reader said was a “hate-inflaming” video, but about 70 including The New York Times distributed it, citing the first amendment.
“It’s hard to articulate a standard that would give you the opportunity to reject something like the ‘Obsession’ DVD but allow other types of political, religious or anti-religious speech,” Kelly McBride of the Poynter Institute told the Associated Press.
Turkey sandwich one, discrimination zero.
But in Canada, it’s not so hard to imagine such a standard. It’s called a hate speech law, or a law against “inciting hatred” under Section 319 of the Criminal Code of Canada.
Whether or not “Obsession” incites hatred is undetermined. Whether or not U.S. advertising departments should exercise judgment beyond double-checking the wording of the first amendment?
You tell us.
Read the article at freep.com.
Topics: Advertising | No Comments »
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