By GIL SPENCER,
Times Columnist
The NAACP is alleging in a federal lawsuit that the Philadelphia Airport abused its First Amendment right by refusing to take an ad in which the group chastised America for its high incarceration rate.
“Welcome to America, home to 5 percent of the world’s people and 25 percent of the world’s prisoners,” the ad said. “Let’s build a better America together.”
For whatever reason, Clear Channel, the company in charge of the airport’s advertising, declined to accept the ad on airport property. It’s safe to assume the company felt the ad portrayed the country in something of a negative light and worked against the image the city wants to convey to visitors.
In joining the NAACP lawsuit, the ACLU is arguing that since the airport, a quasi government operation, has accepted “issue advocacy” ads from other organizations (it specifically cites the World Wildlife Fund and the USO) it is illegal for it to refuse the NAACP’s message.
My calls to Clear Channel, the NAACP and ACLU were not returned Thursday. But it is obvious that this lawsuit is a loser.
First of all, the airport says it doesn’t accept issue advocacy ads. The ads placed by the WWF and the USO aren’t conveying a particular message; they are promoting the organizations themselves.
No doubt, the airport would have accepted an ad from the NAACP, promoting itself as one of America’s oldest and foremost civil-rights organizations. But it is under no obligation help any organization promote a specific message, especially if it considers the message offensive, controversial or inappropriate.
One presumes the NAACP would appreciate the airport’s right to not to accept an ad from say, the Ku Klux Klan seeking to promote white supremacy or from the American Nazi Party trumpeting its support for the Occupy Wall Street movement.
I also think we could also pretty much count on the ACLU to refuse to help either of those nasty groups.
And yet, if the Klan wanted run an ad that said, “Welcome to America, where black men are 6 percent of the population but commit 40 percent of the crimes,” according to the ALCU’s reading of the First Amendment, the airport would be legally bound to accept it.
Well, it isn’t. And that’s a good thing.
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