Reposted from: UCCtruths.com
In a press release today from the National Council of Churches, leaders in the United Church of Christ are again promoting the myth that big media is locking them out:
"Media consolidation is a question of justice," said the Rev. Robert Chase, UCC's communications minister and current chair of the NCC Communication Commission, which includes the nation's major Orthodox, Anglican and Protestant faith groups.
He recounted the difficulties his denomination had placing paid TV ads that broadcasters judged as "too controversial." He said the ads promoted welcoming and inclusion. "It's time to return the airwaves to the people," he said.
This really isn't all that surprising. Bob Chase and other UCC leaders have lied continually about the reasons why the television ads were rejected. As we demonstrated back in February, 2005, the ads were not rejected because they "promoted welcoming and inclusion," they were rejected because criticized other churches. In fact, one ad was even accepted. From NBC's response to the FCC:
As the UCC admits, it never requested the Station to air the advertisement at issue, called "Night Club." Instead, in February 2004, the UCC, through its advertising agency, approached the Network with the ad, which portrayed other churches and religions as discriminatory in their refusal to accept people who are African- American, Hispanic, disabled, or gay. The Network concluded that the "Night Club" ad inappropriately suggested that churches other than the UCC are not open to people of diverse races and backgrounds and therefore violated the Network's policy against addressing issues of public controversy through paid commercial advertisements.
Accordingly, the Network refused to air the ad.
In November 2004, the UCC approached the Network a second time with the "Night Club" ad and also offered another commercial announcement. The other commercial, which the Network accepted, contained a positive message asserting only that UCC churches are welcoming and inclusive. The Network again rejected the "Night Club" ad as unacceptable under Network policy, however, and offered suggestions to the UCC for modifying the "Night Club" ad to address the Network's objections. The UCC responded to these offers not by telling the Network to run the acceptable ad or modifying the objectionable ad, but rather by filing the Petition – more than 10 months after the objectionable ad was first presented – against a station to which the ad had not even been offered.
There's also another problem with this press release. Rev. Gerald F. Kicanas, bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson states "We represent a vast number of people in this country and it is that voice that needs to be heard." While that might be true for Roman Catholics, the UCC national office does not and can not speak for or represent it's members. While the public debate on media ownership rules is a good one, UCC leaders can't speak for denomination members anyways. It's also a bit absurd for a Roman Catholic Bishop to suggest that the Roman Catholic Church is somehow under-represented in the media.
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