DENVER —
Graphic TV ads for anti-abortion activist Randall Terry, both a self-proclaimed lifelong Republican and 2012 Democratic presidential candidate, won’t be airing during the Super Bowl in Colorado, local stations say.
Hoping to take advantage of an FCC rule against censorship of political ads within 45 days of a presidential primary or caucus, Terry said he purchased ad time before and during Sunday’s big game in 11 markets, including Grand Junction NBC affiliate KKCO.
In the last week, however, KKCO has determined that Terry isn’t considered a bona fide Democratic candidate by the Colorado Democratic Party, station General Sales Manager Stacey Smith said, “in which case we opted not to accept the ads.”
Terry, now based in Washington, D.C., is the founder of Operation Rescue and other anti-abortion organizations. He wants to run Super Bowl ads picturing aborted fetuses because, he said, “the testimony of their mangled bodies” might make people who support abortion rights “come to their senses.”
The Colorado Democratic Party and Democratic National Committee have both written letters stating that Terry, while filing paperwork in a number of states in an attempt to appear on the ballot as a Democrat, is not a legitimate Democratic candidate.
“He is only hoping to exploit the rules the rules concerning candidate access to television airtime,” CDP Chairman Rick Palacio wrote in a letter to KUSA-TV Jan. 24.
The Terry ad campaign has been an unwelcome distraction, CDP spokesman Matt Inzeo said. NBC affiliates in Denver and Colorado Springs have indicated they haven’t sold Terry air time.
“Randall Terry tried to hold TV stations’ broadcast licenses hostage to his ideology, but his campaign is such a sham that he didn’t even bother to comply with basic Democratic Party rules,” Inzeo told the Post today.
Attorneys for Station WMAQ in Chicagowrote the FCC Wednesday that Terry is not legally qualified to be the Democratic party’s presidential nomination, and the station therefore denied his request for Super Bowl advertising time.
The FCC requires broadcast licensees to provide “legally qualified candidates for federal elective office” with “reasonable access to … reasonable amounts of time.”
Yet Terry did not make a “substantial showing of a bona fide candidacy for the nomination in Illinois or 11 other states,” WMAQ told the FCC in response to a complaint by Terry.
Terry, in his letter today to the FCC about the refusals of NBC affiliates in Chicago, Missouri and Oklahoma to run his campaign ads, said the Democrats’ suggestion that stations not run them is “a content-driven exclusion, and is therefore forbidden” under case law.
“The right of voters and candidates in primaries cannot be infringed by party bosses based or race or creed,” Terry wrote in the letter, which is posted on his website, Randall Terry for President.
Earlier this week Terry said he had already purchased air time before or during the Super Bowl in Grand Junction, the Oklahoma cities of Ada, Tulsa and Oklahoma City; the Missouri cities of Joplin, Springfield, Kansas City and St. Louis; Kansas City, Kan.; Paducah, Ken.; Eau Claire, Wisc.; and, Minneapolis and St. Paul in Minnesota.
It remains to be seen how many, besides Grand Junction, will opt out or what the FCC will determine about the legitimacy of Terry’s claim for air time.
Electa Draper: 303-954-1276 or edraper@denverpost.com
