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Channel 5 Nixes Ellner Ad
By
Jen Chung
Published Sep 6, 2005
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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By
Jen Chung
Published Sep 6, 2005
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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Manhattan Borough President hopeful Brian Ellner broke an ad (see it here at his campaign website) last week that both attacked President Bush and introduced Ellner's partner. And if Ellner wanted to rock the boat with the ad, he's done it a million times over as Channel 5, the NYC Fox affiliate, has rejected it from running on its airwaves. Channel 5 apparently told Ellner's campaign they wouldn't run it because the ad was in poor taste (Ellner says the "emperor has no clothes" over a picture of Bush's head Photoshopped over a naked torso), and of course, there are questions about the leaning of the Channel 5's owner, the News Corp. which has made a pretty Fox News Channel penny from supporting the President. (There might be other ways for Channel 5 to argue the ad is inappropriate, such as there are no other Manhattan BEEP ads running on their network.) The funny thing is that this controversy is exactly the kind of thing that the Channel 5 News at Ten would cover.
Well, clearly, Channel 5 doesn't remember such programming as "The Littlest Groom" or "When Animals Attack." Perhaps Ellner needed some lesbians in the ad to make it Fox-worthy. And Gawker was so sad when Ellner showed off his boyfriend.
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Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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