CNN Rejects Pro-Life Ad With Barack Obama as Unborn Baby, Opposing Abortion

National   |   Steven Ertelt   |   Feb 20, 2009   |   9:00AM   |   WASHINGTON, DC

CNN Rejects Pro-Life Ad With Barack Obama as Unborn Baby, Opposing Abortion

by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
February 20
, 2009

Atlanta, GA (LifeNews.com) — CNN has rejected the airing of an advertisement by a pro-life Catholic group depicting President Barack Obama as an unborn child and asking what would happen had he been a victim of abortion. This is the same ad NBC prevented from airing during the Super Bowl.

The ad shows a beautiful picture of an unborn child during an ultrasound and says it would have been a tragedy had Obama been aborted.

The pro-life Catholic group Fidelis and its CatholicVote web site are the sponsors of the commercial, which became an national phenomenon after NBC rejected it.

Now, CNN won’t allow the group to pay for airing the ad during its coverage of President Obama’s State of the Union Address on February 24.

Fidelis tells LifeNews.com that Kathy Christianson of CNN’s Commercial Clearance Department claims the ad twists the pro-abortion views of the president without his permission.

“CNN doesn’t accept advocacy ads that portray personal decisions in a manner that suggests a position in favor of the advocacy message, without having permission of the persons involved," she wrote to Fidelis. "CNN is not accepting this particular advocacy ad because it deals with a highly personal and private matter and does so without the consent of those involved.”

The president of the group, Brian Burch, told LifeNews.com in response, “This is absurd. Our ad does not suggest that Barack Obama is pro-life. Instead, we make the obvious point that Obama’s mother gave birth to a child that ultimately became the 1st African American President. This is a fact, not an opinion.”

“There is nothing objectionable in this positive, life-affirming advertisement. We never mention the word abortion," he adds.

"We show an ultrasound of a baby. And we congratulate Barack Obama on becoming the first African-American President. And we simply ask people to imagine the potential of each human life,” Burch said.

Burch suggests CNN is using a hypocritical standard not applied to abortion advocates.

He points out that CNN aired a 2005 ad sponsored by the pro-abortion group NARAL that suggested that then Judge John Roberts supported violence against abortion businesses.

Several prominent pro-abortion supporters condemned the ad, including President Clinton’s Solicitor General Walter Dellinger and the nonpartisan analysis web site FactCheck.org described the NARAL ad as "false" and misleading.

CNN issued a statement regarding the NARAL ad attacking John Roberts.

"CNN accepts advocacy advertising from responsible groups from across the political spectrum who wish to express their views and their opinions about issues of public importance, so the viewers can further research claims made within the ads," it said at the time.

Burch says that standard should apply to his group’s pro-life commercial.

“CNN is willing to run ads insinuating that a federal judge supports violent criminal activity, but it won’t allow an ad celebrating the life of Barack Obama. It’s a double standard from bizarro world,” he told LifeNews.com.

The ad aired on BET in Chicago on Inauguration Day and it has become an Internet hit with over 1.6 million views since Jan. 20.

The ad was in the top 10 ‘most viewed’ category on YouTube on Inauguration Day last month.

The ad reads: “This child’s future is a broken home. He will be abandoned by his father. His single mother will struggle to raise him. Despite the hardships he will endure…this child…will become…the 1st African-American President.” The ad concludes with the tagline, “Life: Imagine the Potential.”

The ad also appears on the CatholicVote.org web site, which Fidelis launched in September to educate and inspire Catholic voters to vote pro-life and to make pro-life issues their top voting priority.

The Catholic Vote 2008 election ad it produced was featured in the New York Times and LifeNews.com and nearly 4 million online viewers watched it in just eight weeks.

ACTION: Express your disappointment to CNN. Go to https://www.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form4.html?1 to comment.

Related web sites:
Fidelis – https://www.fidelis.org

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