by Andrew Warner

The Democratic National Committee was denied the opportunity to advertise their message by Republican contributors Lamar Advertising Company. Not only is speech no longer free, our money�s no longer good to these corporate giants.

As owners of the billboards Lamar has the technical right to sell to who they see fit, but this is a clear case of the �corporate controlled media� that progressives are often screaming about. While the message often falls on deaf ears, or people who don�t want to hear it, this is a situation where we now need to take notice.

This could set a precedent for the other types of media that sell to political causes. Will they start limiting what commercials political parties can put on TV, what newspapers they can buy an advertising spot in? This is a dangerous path that Lamar is beating for other corporate media to follow.

The advertisement the DNC wanted to place on the billboards was not offensive. It featured the text:

Shame on you, Jean Schmidt: Stop attacking veterans. Keep your eye on the ball - we need a real plan for Iraq.

The advertisement also provided Schmidt�s office phone number so citizens who were interested in the issue could call and let her office know how they feel. Such phone numbers are easily accessible and encouraging people to call them is encouraging participation in our government, something we should be fostering and not hindering.

Friday on WAIF Radio, The Dean of Cincinnati, Independent Eye Publisher/Editor Steve Novotni, and former mayoral candidate Justin Jeffre were discussing the drawbacks of corporate media. They mostly dealt with bias in reporting, Greg Korte�s alleged inadequacies, and other issues that are more �subjective.� Lamar�s message filtering is a concrete example that we should all be able to understand objectively.

The media can not continue to filter messages they don�t politically agree with. I encourage you to write a letter to Theresa Doran who is listed as the �general information� contact at Lamar. You can tell her that this is wrong by e-mailing her at . 

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