Cox agrees on airing ad critical of Bush tax cut

[Guest Jobber of the Week]

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/l...4cox-ads14.html

 

Cox relents, will air ad against Bush tax cut

Jon Kamman

The Arizona Republic

May. 14, 2003 12:00 AM

 

 

Cox Communications has reversed itself and will air a television ad opposing the Bush administration's push for tax cuts.

 

The nation's fourth-largest cable TV system had rejected the commercial in Phoenix and Las Vegas, although 20 other markets across the nation are playing it this week.

 

Cox relented in both cities on Tuesday, the ad's producer said.

 

In Phoenix, Cox spokeswoman Andrea Katsenes said the company turned down the ad after judging its script "in poor taste," but reversed the decision upon viewing a tape.

 

The ad agency differed with that sequence of events and said it was told only that the ad was "too controversial."

 

At the Santa Monica, Calif.-based Zimmerman & Markman agency, Lanicia Shaw said Monday that the script had been accepted in most markets last week, but Phoenix, Las Vegas and Tampa rejected it after viewing it.

 

The ad is a dramatization of a real fund-raising event last month in Eugene, Ore.

 

About 50 parents sold their blood plasma to help pay the salary of an elementary school math teacher who faced being laid off because of budget cuts.

 

The ad shows two adults giving blood and others waiting.

 

"You can always count on Americans in a crisis, but this blood is not for troops in Iraq," the narrator says.

 

"George Bush's tax cuts for the rich have meant less money for education, and now he wants to cut $9 billion more," the spot says. It closes with a slogan accusing Bush of "Putting Rich People First."

 

Katsenes said she did not know what Cox executives found offensive in the script, but noted that it referred to two adults lying on gurneys, giving blood. She would not speculate on why that scene might be in poor taste.

 

There's more but that's enough because I need to step in here and say: BULLSHIT. Bush's tax cut for the rich is the reason education is underfunded? WHAT IN THE HELL? Education hasn't been properly funded for years, not under Reagan, not under Bush Sr, and not under Clinton. And it's not even their fault.

 

I find this sort of advertisement completely disgusting. Local and state governments provide more than 90 percent of education funding.

 

Federal Education spending, in Bushes first budget, recieved the largest cabinet level increase in budget of ALL TIME. ALL TIME. 11 fucking percent increase in spending. Bush asked Ted Kennedy to add the "fucking" part in, but it is still never enough.

 

All this does is prove that "more money for education" is just in the stock list of complaints by special interest groups. It will never ever be enough. Some teacher will have to sell their sperm to buy chalk and the Federal Budget for education will have to go up another billion dollars because some politician who wants to look good for the "moms" in their election.

 

Exactly how much money should we be spending on the federal level for education?

[Guest Hogan Made Wrestling]

Using "troops in Iraq" in the ad for sympathy is poor taste.

[Guest NoCalMike]

Just wait folks. This is only the tip of the iceburg. I can almost bet that mud-slinging will be at an ALL-TIME HIGH for the 2004 elections.

[Guest kkktookmybabyaway]

Nothing we can do today compares to the mud-slinging (and pistol firing) of our great country back in the day.

 

I have a few friends that are/going to be teachers and I ask them how much should teachers get paid (cost of living adjustments excluded). Only one has provided me with an answer -- $50,000...

[Guest Olympic Slam]

I know these ads you should make me mad, but they just end up making me laugh more than anything. This is all too similiar to other such classics as Gephardt's imaginary grandmother and her problems with Bush's tax cuts or that one ad which said "if you elect another Republican, a black church is going to burn."

[Guest kkktookmybabyaway]

I'll NEVER forget (or forgive) that NAACP ad back in 2000 linking Bush with Byrd's (?) dragging death...

[Guest Olympic Slam]

I'll NEVER forget (or forgive) that NAACP ad back in 2000 linking Bush with Byrd's (?) dragging death...

You know what? That's one of the few of these political attacl ads that WASN'T funny in the least. That thing was the pinnacle of sick.

[Guest EricMM]

I have a few friends that are/going to be teachers and I ask them how much should teachers get paid (cost of living adjustments excluded). Only one has provided me with an answer -- $50,000...

 

Do you think that is a fair amount?

 

I certainly think it is. I wouldn't want to raise a family on it as a single parent or anything, but I think that fifty thousand is a pretty decent salary, but I've never actually MADE a salary before so what do I know...

[Guest Vyce]

Too bad this ad is incredibly STUPID

 

What's worse is that Cox is maybe the shittiest cable service you can buy.

[Guest BDC]

Teachers are underpaid, to be honest. For people that put up with the idiot kids in the schools and take a large role in preparing them for life, whether they're teaching to read or instructing on the intricacies of politics. Paying by the hour doesn't work because you'd have to pay for all the time they spend grading assignments and such.

 

That being said, it's hard to really go much further. Education is getting a HUGE cut from the federal government, the largest in a long time. States don't have the revenue to shut everybody up, and for many states, education is at the top of every budget.

[Guest MrRant]

Odd... COX in Las Vegas is still partly owned by a individual who is quite liberal. Since I worked there I know... it was a fight to get FOX NEWS added on.

[Guest Cerebus]

Cox is ok...I have it at home in connecticut and they do a pretty descent job...

 

As for the ad, nothing can match the "If you own SUVs you fund terrorism" crap.

[Guest kkktookmybabyaway]

"Do you think that is a fair amount?"

 

For some, yes.

 

For some, no because they deserve more.

 

For others, HELL NO...