January 23, 2014, Rochester, NY– Television stations quadruple ad costs for Black community television message on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
On January 20, Martin Luther King Jr Day, a coalition of leaders of local churches and organization’s representing the Black and Hispanic communities launched a televised awareness raising campaign, called the “Am I Not A Child” calling for recognition of the personhood of all persons especially the pre-born minority child. After seeing the ad WROC and the Bounce network classified it as “Issue advertising” and increased the cost by 2-4X the regular rate.
The campaign is designed to raise awareness within the Black and Hispanic communities about the devastating impact abortion has had on the demographics in Rochester and the U.S. For example, because of abortion the Black community in Rochester will be half of what it is today in a little more than 60 years. The hard hitting ad entitled “Endangered Species.”
Spokesman for the Am I Not a Child campaign, Dr. John Walker, said that “In our free market society I respect the right of the station owners to manage their client relationships as they see fit. I do not understand how the factual message presented in our awareness campaign can be construed as anything but educational. The reality is that when respecting the personhood of the most vulnerable among us is deemed a political issue it only serves to illustrate our point. It is unacceptable that any class of human can be dehumanized to the point of political debate. I find it ironic that this level of push back happened on the day we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Apparently his dream has not yet reached fruition. Visit www.AmINotAChild.com and see for yourself.”
Ayesha Kruetz, President of the Frederick Douglas Foundation of NY, commented: “There was another time when the Rochester media refused to cover the truth about slavery and the rejection of the personhood of Blacks. Therefore, Frederick Douglas launched the North Star. So too, we have launched AmINotAChild. If anything, instead of quadrupling the ad costs the station owners should have cut them in half! Hey, but that’s their decision. It is just too bad that it costs the black community 2-4 times what it costs anyone else to communicate to their own people. Isn’t that a form of censorship?”
