David Donnelly of the Public Campaign Action Fund sent out this very disturbing e-mail today:
Dear [desmoinesdem],
Cable giant Insight Communications pulled our new ad on Mitch McConnell at the 11th hour last night. Insight's executives have donated $17,000 to McConnell. Now they are helping him even more by engaging in political censorship to keep this ad, which criticizes McConnell for his special interest politics, off the air.
Sign this petition to tell Insight Communications that you won't stand for political censorship.
All the other broadcast networks, including NBC, ABC, and CBS and another cable system are running the ad after reviewing its content for accuracy. Why won't Insight air it?
And what role did Insight lobbyist Keith Hall or Insight CEO Mike Willner, both McConnell donors and allies and big players in the national cable industry, play in making this decision to censor the ad?
We need answers to these questions and we need your help to hold cable giant Insight accountable for political censorship, which is a blatant move to help out their favorite big money politician, Mitch McConnell. Their decision to pull the ad at the last minute, and give us no notice or opportunity to respond to their concerns, is highly irregular and reeks of a potent witch's brew of big money donors, lobbyists with connections, unaccountable big media, and a powerful Senator.
Insight Communications is censoring political speech — sign this petition and tell them to take their big money muzzles off our airwaves.
High-powered lobbyists and moneyed special interests already dominate campaigns and political debate in this country — when they try and censor ads that draw attention to this disparity they must be held to account. If big money politicians and big media win, we all lose. Only in the narrowest sense is this is a fight about whether our ad runs. At its core, it's a fight about freedom of speech.
Sign the petition today and get this ad back on the air.
Thanks for your work,
David Donnelly
National Campaigns DirectorP.S. Now more than ever we need to keep this ad running in Kentucky. Please donate today to keep it on the air.
Here is David's diary at Daily Kos on the same subject:
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