The picture of the president strolling through flower beds while holding hands with Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah has been published nearly everywhere, in print and broadcast media. But when an environmental group wanted to use it in a USA Today ad, the newspaper rejected it, saying the photograph was in “bad taste.”
Apparently USA Today newspaper has something against hand-holding, at least when the president of the Free World does it.
The newspaper last week refused to run an ad placed by the Alaska Wilderness League protesting the Bush administration’s oil policies. The ad depicted the much-lampooned Associated Press photo of President Bush holding hands with Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah with the this text beneath it: “IN GOOD HANDS? When it comes to AMERICA’S ENERGY POLICY, the answer is NO.”
Steve Margelos, a USA Today account executive, explained in an e-mail to the organization, which was obtained by [Roll Call], that the newspaper’s advertising department “considers the photo ‘in poor taste’ and will not allow the ad to run as is. They also didn’t see why a picture of President Bush holding hands with a Saudi Prince related to drilling for oil in Alaska. But the main issue was the photo.”
There’s been something of a trend of late with mainstream outlets rejecting liberal advertising (Cindy Sheehan’s ad was rejected by a Utah television station; CBS rejected a MoveOn.org ad; CBS and NBC refused advertising touting tolerance from the United Church of Christ, etc.), but this one makes the least sense.
Newspapers across the country ran the photo, sometimes on the front page. What’s so distasteful about it?
Margelos did not respond to an e-mail request for comment, though he said in his note to the league that “the text of the ad was okay to run. The photo is the reason the ad was rejected.”
How bizarre.