• by David Kaplan , October 12, 2004

A coalition of liberal groups is charging Viacom with bias in connection with the media company's apparent refusal to run the coalition's advertising on its networks.

The coalition, Let US Decide, which claims to represent 13 leading youth, civic, and political organizations such as People for The American Way and The New Democrat Network, has launched a media campaign Tuesday intended to pressure Viacom to rescind its ban on political advertising on its youth networks, said Tom O'Reilly, a spokesman for the coalition. Let US Decide plans to use advertising, e-mail, and phone campaigns in its effort to get the ad that Viacom accepted--and then later refused to run--on air. The initial ad was created by a member of the coalition, a self-described youth voting organization called Compare Decide Vote.

"[Viacom Chairman and CEO] Sumner Redstone has no problem using his Viacom bully pulpit to make his political views widely known," said Lisa Seitz Gruwell, director of Compare Decide Vote, in a teleconference Tuesday. "But when it comes to allowing free speech to young people on its networks, Viacom clearly has a double standard. While the media giant proudly promotes programming aimed at young people, it denies them access to ads from organizations like Compare Decide Vote providing simple information about candidates' positions."

"Play the Game," the ad Viacom purportedly rejected, was created by Compare Decide Vote, and urges young people to compare presidential candidates' positions on a variety of issues. It can be viewed at www.comparedecidevote.com. A draft of the ad was submitted to Comedy Central and was accepted on September 28, O'Reilly said, adding that the group was informed of its eventual rejection on October 1, citing instructions from senior management.

In the coming weeks, the Let US Decide campaign will pressure Viacom to reverse its advertising ban through a variety of tactics:

In addition to Let US Decide's media campaign, the group plans to call for a boycott of Viacom's major advertisers in hopes that those targeted companies will in turn endorse the group's desire to get its ads on Viacom's networks.

A Viacom spokeswoman said that the company does not accept "issue-oriented" or advocacy-based advertising on any of its networks as a matter of policy. Furthermore, the company does accept national political ads on all its properties except for MTV.

"The reason behind our policy distinction between issue-ads and political campaign ads is simply that across all our properties we talk about these issues every day," said the Viacom spokeswoman.