The Emporer Is Naked: Sometimes New York is not that different from the rest of the country:
Channel 5, the Fox-affiliated television station in New York, rejected a campaign commercial for a Democrat running in a local race, and the candidate alleges it’s because the ad slams President Bush.
Brian Ellner, one of nine Democrats running for Manhattan borough president, said the station had agreed to air his ad for the two weeks leading up to the Sept. 13 primary. But Fox 5 pulled out of the deal after it saw the 30-second ad, which features Bush’s head superimposed onto a bare torso as the voiceover intones, “He claims he’s a uniter, but New Yorkers know the emperor has no clothes.”
Ellner’s advertisement has already drawn attention because it concludes with a scene in which he throws his arm around his partner of three years, Simon Holloway. His campaign says no openly gay candidates for public office have ever featured their significant others in political advertisements.
Ellner said Tuesday that Fox told the campaign media adviser and the ad buyer that the spot was refused because it was “disrespectful to the office of the president…”
Ellner, 35, said … “I think that it’s a decision that’s disrespectful to voters,” he said. “I think it’s anti-American.”
