CBS helped craft anti-choice Super Bowl ad

Last week I wrote about the hypocrisy on display by CBS when it agreed to air an anti-choice ad from the right-wing Focus on the Family during this year's Super Bowl after rejecting an ad from the United Church of Christ intended for the 2004 Super Bowl that advocated the inclusion of LGBT people and others.

Well, CBS has doubled down on the hypocrisy rejecting a gay-themed ad that was intended to run during this weekend's big game.

It gets worse.

According to a report in The Daily Beast, CBS worked for months with Focus on the Family developing the anti-choice ad's script featuring college football star Tim Tebow which the network ultimately approved (surprise, surprise):

The major broadcast networks have avoided political advocacy ads for years, so CBS's decision to air the Tebow ad caught abortion rights advocates off guard. But Focus on the Family, the Colorado Springs-based conservative Christian group founded by Dr. James Dobson, says that it has actually been working closely with CBS executives for months on the ad's script.

“There were discussions about the specific wording of the spot,” said Gary Schneeberger, spokesperson for Focus on the Family. “And we came to a compromise. To an agreement.” Schneeberger declined to comment on exactly how CBS changed the ad's message.

CBS has said that in the last year, in an acknowledgment of “industry norms,” it loosened previous restrictions on advocacy advertisements, accepting ads that pushed for health reform and environmental activism.

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