Opposition Mounts

CBS has a strange story about the growing opposition to Camp Casey protesters, including Fort Qualls, a pro-Bush camp set up in downtown Crawford by Gary Qualls in honor of his son, a marine killed in Iraq. Also, the story discusses a Salt Lake City television station that is refusing to show a Cindy Sheehan TV ad on the grounds that "it is inappropriate commercial advertisement for Salt Lake City." Inappropriate like hardcore pornography, etc. So therefore, unshowable.

A competing television station, owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and an NBC affiliate, felt that the ad was the exact opposite: an appropriate exercise of Free Speech with relevence to Bush's speech in Salt Lake City today:

The e-mail read: "The viewpoints reflected in the spot are incompatible with our marketplace and will not be well received by our viewers." It added that the spot didn't qualify as an issue advertisement.

For the ad to have been considered an "issue" advertisement a ballot measure would have had to be at stake, D'Antuono said.

Mark Wiest, vice president of sales for NBC-affiliated KSL television, said that in the interest of freedom of speech, his station didn't hesitate to run the ad. KSL is owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

"The bigger picture is, by suppressing the message are we doing what is right under the First Amendment and in an open democratic society?" Wiest said.

But while CBS News headlines this story as one of "Mounting Opposition" to the Anti War Mom movement, they also include at least two mentions of dynamic support of her. The first is the television station noted above who feels that her message is one of valid social comment and needs be heard, particularly in a city like Salt Lake. The second is by the mayor of Salt Lake City himself, who has called for massive demonstrations against Bush during his speech:

Salt Lake City's Mayor Rocky Anderson used e-mail this week to call for "the biggest demonstration this state has ever seen," when President Bush appears at the convention Monday.

Anderson says Bush policies are disastrous for the country and that to stay quiet during the president's visit would be send a message of apathy.

The mayor's e-mail called for a collaboration of health care advocates, seniors, gay and lesbian advocates, anti-Patriot advocates, civil libertarians and anti-war folks to protest outside the VFW convention.

This is hardly the opposition that CBS headlines.