CBS - Center for American Progress



REALITY CHECK: CBS Runs Controversial Public Policy Ads, Rejects Legit Ones

CBS claims they won't run an ad by because they have a policy against running ads on controversial public policy issues. But this is simply not true. Time and again CBS has allowed corporation to whitewash their record on extremely controversial policy issues. The facts reveal that the decision to reject the advertisement was based on politics, not on principle.

|Allowed |Allowed |Allowed |Not Allowed |

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|Last Sunday on CBS’s Face the Nation Pfizer was | | | |

|permitted to run an ad in which they declared |Wal-Mart regularly airs ads on CBS touting itself as|During the Super Bowl, CBS will air an |The ad rejected by CBS focuses on the |

|"Pfizer is helping people in need get the medicines |a good corporate citizen. Yet, Wal-Mart’s corporate |"anti-smoking" ad by cigarette manufacturer Philip |impact of the federal deficit on children. The ad |

|they need." The statement came just weeks after |conduct is undoubtedly a “controversial public |Morris USA. These ads encourage citizens to go to |simply says that the President is responsible for |

|Pfizer successfully lobbied to weaken the new |policy issue.” In the last two years Wal-Mart’s | for information about |the deficit and that the nation’s children will have|

|Medicare bill so that it does not significantly |behavior has been front page news in the New York |smoking. But on that site Philip Morris advances a |to pay for it. There is nothing controversial about |

|lower drug prices. Additionally, Pfizer’s other |Times on three separate occasions. The facts: |number of extraordinarily controversial policy |this assertion. |

|actions further belie their ad. The facts: | |positions on smoking related issues. Some |The Facts: |

| |( CONTROVERSAL: "40 other current and former |highlights: | |

|( CONTROVERSIAL: "Pfizer Inc.'s surprise |Wal-Mart workers interviewed over the last four | |( UNCONTROVERSIAL: The President’s own budget |

|cancellation Tuesday of its anti-AIDS generic drug |months say Wal-Mart [was] forcing or pressuring |( CONTROVERSAL: "Balancing federal, state and local |documents prove the charge made in Moveon’s ad that |

|plan for poor countries called attention to the |employees to work hours that were not recorded or |budgets by raising cigarette excise taxes |the deficit – and additional debt – is primarily due|

|number of other pharmaceutical companies that are |paid." [source] |excessively is bad fiscal policy." [source] |to the President’s own policies. "Table S-3 of the |

|contributing actively to the international effort | | |President's own budget indicates that implementing |

|with below-market drugs, money and other |( CONTROVERSAL: "Hundreds of illegal immigrants |( CONTROVERSAL: "Business owners should have some |the Administration's budget would greatly increase |

|assistance." [Chicago Tribune, 11/13/03] |worked at its stores, and its subcontractors appear |flexibility in deciding how best to address the |the deficits in 2003-2005 and obliterate the |

| |to have violated overtime, Social Security and |preferences of non-smokers and smokers." [source] |projected surpluses in 2006-2008." And while the |

|( CONTROVERSIAL: The Brazilian government said today|workers' compensation laws." [source] | |White House says its tax cuts will spur the economy |

|that it will declare AIDS a "national emergency." | |( CONTROVERSAL: "Cigarettes should be regulated as |and that will fix the deficit, Table S-3 also shows |

|The government made the decision after its |( CONTROVERSAL: "For more than 15 years, Wal-Mart |cigarettes, not as a food, or, as FDA attempted to |this theory "is completely wrong." [National |

|negotiations to lower the price of nelfinavir, an |Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, has |do in 1996, as a medical device." [source] |Journal, 2/11/03] |

|AIDS drug now made by Hoffman-La Roche Inc. and |locked in overnight employees at some of its | | |

|marketed in conjunction with the U.S.-based Pfizer, |Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores." [source] | |( UNCONTROVERSIAL: Simple math shows that the |

|broke down two weeks ago. [Washington Post, | | |multi-trillion-dollar national debt will have to be |

|08/23/01] | | |paid for by America’s children, as asserted in |

| | | |Moveon’s ads. When the President took office, our |

| | | |projected deficit in 2008 was about $500 per family.|

| | | |Now it is predicted to be $84,600 per family. |

| | | |[source] |

Prepared by the Center for American Progress

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