Super Bowl, Super Hypocrisy

As you have probably heard, there is a major controversy brewing around one of the Super Bowl ads scheduled to run this year. CBS has accepted an ad from Focus on the Family featuring college football player and Heisman trophy winner Tim Tebow and his mother Pam.

While living in the Philippines and pregnant with Tim, Pam Tebow says she was counseled to have an abortion because she had been taking harmful medication to treat dysentery. Pam chose to keep the baby and the result was her football star son.

Focus on the Family describes itself as, “a global non-profit Christian organization with a vision for healing brokenness in families, communities and societies worldwide through Christ. The purpose of the ministry is to strengthen, defend and celebrate the institution of the traditional family and to highlight the unique and irreplaceable role that it plays in God’s larger story of redemption.”

In January the group issued a press release about the ad. “The 30-second spot from the international family-help organization will feature college football star Tim Tebow and his mother, Pam. They will share a personal story centered on the theme of “Celebrate Family, Celebrate Life.”

The Women’s Media Center (WMC) has called on CBS to cancel the ad but so far the media entity is not budging.

I have been trying to write something about the ad and the controversy for days but there is just so much to say that I’ve been struggling to organize all of my thoughts. So, in the spirit of one of CBS’ own shows, I’ve decided to do a Top Ten List. Here are my “Top Ten Reasons CBS is the Most Hypocritical Organization Ever.”

1. CBS had a policy not to air advocacy ads up until – well, nobody is really sure when.
2. CBS reversed the policy but apparently only told Focus on the Family about the policy reversal. In fact, CBS and Focus on the Family have been discussing this ad for months.
3. In past years, this “no advocacy” policy has been the excuse for blocking ads from PETA and MoveOn.org. CBS also blocked this religious ad.
4. CBS ignored calls from the WMC to cancel the ad stating, “At CBS, our standards and practices process continues to adhere to a process that ensures all ads — on all sides of an issue — are appropriate for air. We will continue to consider responsibly produced ads from all groups for the few remaining spots in Super Bowl XLIV.”  But then we learned CBS rejected an ad from a man-only dating site. Stating, “…the creative is not within the Network’s Broadcast Standards for Super Bowl Sunday.” View the ad here.
5. One of the concerns the WMC has with the Tebow ad is that women should have a choice in determining what is best for them when it comes to reproductive rights. Pam Tebow had a choice after all.  But did she really? Abortion is illegal in the Philippines and was when Tebow was pregnant with Tim.
6. With its slippery, ever-changing policies, CBS is practicing censorship, plain and simple.
7. CBS has no business, absolutely none, dictating morality. They are airing the Super Bowl after all. You know the Super Bowl, the annual winter rite where male athletes are super heroes and women wearing very little do suggestive dances on the sidelines to cheer them on.
8.  8. CBS is the same organization that aired the Grammys. You know the Grammys, the show that featured Jamie Foxx singing his date rape anthem, “Blame it on the Alcohol.” Click here to read the repulsive lyrics.
9. 9. At that same Grammy show last weekend, CBS bleeped out the f-words during a performance by Lil Wayne (who is headed to prison next week), Drake and Eminem.
10. 10. According to the Parents Television Council report on violence in television, “Women in Peril,” CBS showed more incidences of violence against women on screen during 2004 to 2009 than ABC, NBC and even Fox. So while CBS wants to protect us from abortion and men kissing, and four-letter words, they have no problem airing violent imagery-especially when the victims of the violence are women.

Ladies, I’m not CBS so I am not going to try to dictate what is right and wrong, or what you should or shouldn’t do. If you enjoy football, or advertising, or the potato salad your friends serve, then by all means, tune in to the game, attend that party this Sunday. But be aware of what you are watching. The Super Bowl is not a family event. The Super Bowl is not some unifying, national celebration. The Super Bowl is a football game played by well-paid men, glorified for their athletic abilities. It is run by a major media entity with shifting censorship policies and it is paid for by organizations that make a pretty profit portraying women as sex objects and victims of violence.

Party on!

If you want to sign a petition asking CBS to pull the Focus on the Family ad, click here.

Tags: abortion, cbs, mancrunch, rape, sexism, super bowl, tebow, violence against women

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010 at 3:11 pm and is filed under Feminist Forte. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.