Focus on the Family Ad pulled after protests from Gay Activists

Most people probably heard the fuss over the Superbowl ad by Focus on the Family. The ad featured Tim Tebow, a college football star in the US, and carried an anti-abortion message. Tebow got involved because of his personal beliefs against abortion - his mother had been advised by doctors to have an abortion for medical reasons when she was pregnant with him.

Anyway, it looked like the whole issue had died down - but now it has a sequel. 

Focus on the Family had a deal with CBS (the channel that aired the Superbowl), and as part of this deal, also ran an ad on the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) website (which is operated by CBS).

 

However, due to protests by gay activists, the NCAA has now taken down the ad. Why, you may ask? There's nothing anti-gay about the ad; it has nothing to do with sexual orientation. But because it was run by an organisation that holds an opposing stance to the gay activists, they protested. And the NCAA caved.

As the article I linked to says, "Not only do they want to block speech that's opposed to their position, they also want to block speech by their opponents even when it's not directly about their position."

The whole issue of gay rights aside, it is wrong to stop an organisation with whom you disagree from running ads when the ads have nothing to do with the issue on which you disagree. It was just an ad for the organisation and carried no specific agenda or message. Not to mention, CBS had a deal with Focus on the Family and has now broken part of it. I hope FOTF got their money back.