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The stars of the Super Bowl are the ads. They reflect current events, and airtime is a hot commodity for mass exposure for a product or topic. This year the mind-trust at Fox Sports has decided that Bloomberg’s anti-gun political ad is good, while pro-life group Faces of Choice is bad. Obviously, in the game of guns vs abortion, we know the score.
Fox Sports provided the “non reason” reason for why this ad wasn’t approved. The Washington Times reports, “A spokesperson said in an email that the network sold out its ad space early for this year’s championship game…”
Grab some tissue, watch the ad. You decide.
Lyric Gillett, founded of Faces of Choice. A group focused on bringing awareness of abortion survivors. The video participants are multi-ethnic, span age groups, and genders. She accused Fox Sports of stringing her along after negotiations began in July to air the powerful black-and-white ad. She states in the Daily Caller,
In an era where we’re trying to give survivors a voice, whether that is through the #MeToo movement or on any number of issues, for some reason we deem survivors of abortion worthy of being ignored into oblivion …. That, to me, is both ironic but also just appalling.”
Democrat candidate for POTUS, Michael Bloomberg is firmly opposed to firearms. He founded “Everytown for Gun Safety”, a firearm restriction group focused on eliminating firearms access for Americans. He spends millions of dollars supporting groups that want to restrict or eliminate firearms for the private citizen. His stance is that guns are responsible for thousands of deaths per year, and saving children means getting rid of guns. This is the ad Fox Sports is running during the game.
Abortion and Firearms are two of the most polarizing and divisive topics in our country. Everyone has an opinion and undoubtedly a battle will ensue when those are shared. On the surface the decision by Fox Sports makes sense. Avoid hot button issues at every opportunity. After all, people line up to throw money at the network for ads during the Super Bowl. Fox Sports can be discerning.
But are they discerning or discriminating?
In discriminating between ads, Fox Sports is pushing in the narrative that guns are the greatest threat to life. Especially the lives of children. But the numbers don’t support the ideology. The most recent firearms homicide data (2017) from the Centers for Disease Control limited to ages 1-24 years paints a different picture. There were 4,651 people aged 1-24 years old murdered with a gun (table 6 pg. 36)
Contrast that number with the Center for Disease Control Abortion Surveillance most recent data (2016 with 48 states reporting data) for abortion, women aged <15-24 years old. 97,651 humans were murdered. The number I wrote is a drop in the bucket for the total number of children killed by abortion. I limited the age group to correlate the age group for gun homicides. The total number of abortions for 2016 is 623,471 abortions reported to CDC by 48 areas (not all states report numbers, so the total is actually higher).
Virginia is perhaps the most recent example of a skewed narrative between guns and abortion. The state legislature is enacting far reaching restrictions on firearms, while attempting to expand the window for abortions. In 2016 Virginia cites the number of homicides with a firearm as 374.. In 2017 it was 353… 2018 it was 347. A three year total of 1,074 people killed with a firearm. The CDC numbers for a single year (2017) of people killed by abortion in Virginia, 17,007.
But please, Fox Sports, favor the narrative that guns are more deadly than abortion. Push that agenda in your choice of ads for one of the biggest audiences in America.
I close with this quote in the ad approved by Mike Bloomberg,
Mike’s fighting for every child because you have a right to live. No one has a right to take your hopes and dreams.”
Okay Mike. Prove it.
Shame on Fox Sports for determining ads based on the method of murder.
Thank You Sarah Hoyt and welcome to our Instapundit readers!
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Dietrich says: Fox is no different than the other outlets.
talgus says: this fight boils down to: the right to protection of self, whether pre or post born. Mike is against kids getting shot (killed) unless, of course, they are being carried by their mom. then if she decides on murder, its OK. FOX is now part of the MSM. OAN
Joe in PNG says: The sad slide of Corporate Crony Capitalism continues. The Superbowl ads have been bathing in WOKE!!! for the past few years now, and I have every reason to believe this trend too shall continue.
But, this too is part of the Circle of Life. When the big Companies get too big, too hidebound, too ossified, and too cumbersome to function, they die off and are replaced by those who are more in touch with the market.
GWB says: I won’t even try and watch the ads of the Super Bowl anymore.
They’ve turned me off with their juvenile antics and their wokeness.
GWB says: Mike’s fighting for every child because you have a right to live. No one has a right to take your hopes and dreams.
Wow. Because that statement is antithetical to both abortion and the gun confiscation movement.
I found it an interesting dichotomy of how a phrase can mean different things depending on the audience. She’s not wrong. Life is important.
Scott says: Best super bowl ad ever was the Budwiser one after 9/11… Only showed during the game (you can find it online, but they said they didn’t want to cash in on a tragedy).. Damn thing still brings me to tears..
Since then, many have been crap, and none have been worth suffering through the rest…
I agree. Still makes me cry. I also enjoy the one with the puppy and the foal. Budweiser has an amazing ad team for these two.
Sal says: Good article, but please correct the spelling of Ronald “Regan” in your bio. Unless of course you are not referring to Reagan…
Three things: Thank You. I think you are the first person to have read it. You are the second to notice. Auto-correct hates me on several levels. I’ll update again. Appreciate it!
R.T. Neary says: Fox has been slipping for some time. There has even been a pelvic paradigm shift in their language usage now.
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