Oregon TV stations differ with two networks over church ad

By Rukmini Callimachi
The Associated Press

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The 30-second spot, launched Wednesday by the United Church of Christ, highlights the church's welcoming stance toward gays and others who might feel alienated.

In the ad, a gay couple, a Hispanic man, a black woman and a man in a wheelchair are pushed back from the doors of a church by two bouncers. The ad flashes the words: "Jesus didn't turn people away. Neither do we."

National officials for NBC and CBS have rejected the ad, citing long-standing policies of not airing commercials that advocate one side of a political issue.

But local affiliates in Oregon said they saw no problem with the ad.

"In the spot, there's no advocacy for special groups, gay people, or this people or that people — it is a very inclusive message," said Brenda Buratti, director of programming for the NBC affiliate KGW-TV in Portland.

David Lippoff, vice president and general manager of CBS affiliate KOIN-TV in Portland, said he "didn't see anything objectionable about the spot. If they were to approach us, we wouldn't have a problem airing it."

CBS affiliates in Medford and Eugene, as well as NBC affiliates in Klamath Falls, Medford, Eugene and Bend, said they saw no immediate problem with the spot, but several added that they would not air it without first running it past their staffs.

"The question I always have to ask myself is 'Is it appropriate for my neighbors?' " said Kingsley Kelley, the general manager of KTVL-TV in Medford, a CBS affiliate. He said the affiliate reviews each spot on a case-by-case basis.

"Our experience has been that most advertisements that are controversial create an opportunity to discuss the subject. So it's really difficult for me to act as the censor," he said.

Regional and state leaders of the United Church of Christ, along with clergy from other churches and denominations, staged a protest in Portland yesterday against the national networks' position.
 
"CBS and NBC are seeking to deny a major denomination access to the public airways. Why are they doing this?" the Rev. Eugene Ross, a minister for the United Church of Christ's Central Pacific Conference, said at the protest at the denomination's Portland branch.

NBC spokeswoman Shannon Jacobs in New York said the network did accept an ad by the United Church of Christ considered less inflammatory by the network.

In the ad, the camera pans across a panorama of churchgoers, including a black man, a smiling Asian girl and two women holding each other affectionately. Jacobs said that spot expresses the church's message of inclusiveness without casting other churches in a negative light.