DC Metro Bans Issue-Oriented Ads After Geller Pushes for Muhammad Cartoon Ad
The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority has decided to stop running issue-oriented ads through the end of the year after Pamela Geller tried to submit a Muhammad cartoon ad to WMATA:
BREAKING: #WMATA suspends all issue oriented ads thru end of year after woman plans Muhammad cartoon on #Metro. Metro plans study. @wusa9
— Bruce Leshan (@BruceLeshan) May 28, 2015
Geller was trying to submit the winner of her now-infamous Muhammad cartoon contest––which depicts a cartoonist drawing Muhammad, Muhammad saying “You can’t draw me!”, and the cartoonist saying “That’s why I draw you”––to the DC Metro to run ads.
Geller told The Washington Post earlier today she submitted it and included the caption “Support Free Speech.” She said that if there was any sort of ban on the ad, she would challenge it in court.
Well, WMATA took a different angle by banning all issue ads entirely. And there are a few important details here, including the fact that this may not be a good financial move for them:
#wmata moratorium on "issue" ads will cost it between $2 million to $3 million. #MuhammadCartoon @wusa9
— Bruce Leshan (@BruceLeshan) May 28, 2015
Supreme Court ruled #wmata cannot chose which "issue" ads to accept. But it can reject all of them. @wusa9 #MuhammadCartoon @wusa9
— Bruce Leshan (@BruceLeshan) May 28, 2015
And then there was this comment, specifically about Geller’s ad, from a WMATA official:
Metro official says agency fears a cartoon ad of the Prophet Muhammad would make buses and subway stations "terrorists targets."
— Paul Duggan (@dugganwapo) May 28, 2015
Naturally, there were lots of stunned reactions to the move:
Considering WMATA constantly needs money, this cowardly behavior is doubly appalling. https://t.co/IaqtRkKTv9
— Sonny Bunch (@SonnyBunch) May 28, 2015
How much money does WMATA make from issue ads? And how can an agency that's constantly complaining about funding do this?
— Mike Riggs (@MikeRiggs) May 28, 2015
WMATA brings in about $20 mil in ad revenue per year. I'd imagine they need all the money they can get at the moment…
— Lachlan Markay (@lachlan) May 28, 2015
WMATA apparently had no problem with those “STOP THE GREAT TYRANT ISRAEL AND ITS COLONIZING BLOODTHIRST” ads. Now a Muhammad cartoon event…
— T. Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) May 28, 2015
[image via Wikipedia]
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