Selective and political censorship of advertising content is hardly a new feature of the corporate media. One infamous example from the recent past, for instance, is CBS’s censorship of an advertisement for anti-consumerist drive “Buy Nothing Day”, on the extraordinary grounds that it “is in opposition to the current economic policy in the United States”. With “free” media outlets policing themselves this efficiently, we might ask, who needs state censorship?
Now, while adverts for Chevron and Exxon are aired without any problems, an ad for a grassroots-supported renewable energy drive has been refused permission to air by ABC. They can only get away with it, however, if we go on letting them. You can join the over 222,000 people who have so far protested this decision, and watch a video of the ad, here.
