Anti Scott Brown WhichSideAreYouOn.org ad banned in Boston; Clean Air Act Ads Banned by MBTA for being “too Controversial”; Banned Ads Highlighted Link between Brown’s Vote to Gut the Clean Air Act and $1.9 Million Poured into his Campaign by the Fossil Fuel Industry

Clean Air Act Ads Banned by MBTA for being “too Controversial” 

Banned Ads Highlighted Link between Brown’s Vote to Gut the Clean Air Act and $1.9 Million Poured into his Campaign by the Fossil Fuel Industry

[If folks want to pushback on this blatantly political move by the MBTA, they can tweet at @MBTAGM and tell them that political censorship is unacceptable. For background on how the MBTA's decision is inconsistent with past decisions to run "controversial" advertisements, check out this post at Blue Mass Group: http://bluemassgroup.com/2011/06/banned-in-boston-scott-brown-ad-too-political-says-mbta/]

UPDATE:

Dear Friends,

We just got banned in Boston.
A few weeks ago, thanks to many of you, we were able to raise enough money to run ads in the Boston subway system calling out Senator Scott Brown for his vote to gut the Clean Air Act.
But our team just received some outrageous news: the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA) is refusing to run ads revealing the amount of money Big Polluters are spending to support Sen. Scott Brown.

Can you believe it? The MBTA only rejects about two ads a year--usually ads containing drugs or borderline nudity--but they’ve decided that a citizen-funded attempt to hold Scott Brown accountable for his vote to gut the Clean Air Act is unacceptable for public consumption. We’ve sent a letter to the MBTA explaining our position, but rather than waste our time arguing with them, we want to keep the spotlight on Scott Brown.

Here's the good news: we’ve found an ad firm that will pull our Scott Brown billboards through the streets of Boston on bicycles -- it’s a carbon-free way to make sure our message sees the light of day! 

If we can raise another $3,000, we can keep these bicycle-powered ads in the streets of Boston for nearly two weeks throughout Boston. We’ll take the ads to the most popular places in the city so they get lots of attention and then bike them right up to Scott Brown’s campaign events to be sure he gets the message.

Can you chip in $5 to help us put these ads in the streets of Boston?


Since Big Polluters and their allies like the US Chamber of Commerce dumped over $1 million to propel Sen. Brown into office, he’s consistently voted against environmental regulations like the Clean Air Act that protect the climate and public health.

The MBTA may think that educating people about Sen. Brown’s voting record is too controversial, but we know Massachusetts residents want the facts. Over 200 people across the state helped fund these ads so that your neighbors could ask Sen. Brown a simple question: which side are you on? Are you working for Massachusetts or Big Polluters?

Your enthusiastic response raised over $10,000 in 48 hours, convincing us that not only are crowd-sourced ads a good tactic, but that people across Massachusetts are ready to expand the campaign for clean energy and climate action. From our work to confront the US Chamber of Commerce to this September 24’s “Moving Planet,” we’ll be looking to you to lead the way.

But right now, our highest priority is making sure we don’t let Scott Brown off the hook for his dirty votes.

Please click here to help take our “Banned in Boston” Scott Brown ads out of the subway and into the streets. 

Thanks for all you do,

Phil Aroneanu for the whole 350.org team
P.S. We need all the help we can get in Massachusetts--can you spread the word with a couple of clicks on Facebook andTwitter?

_____________________________________________________

BOSTON, MA, June 15, 2011

Mere weeks after Senator Scott Brown was targeted by rallies and ads across Massachusetts for his controversial vote to gut the Clean Air Act, the MBTA has ruled that an ad highlighting his vote is “too controversial” for their riders.

The ad in question was crowd-funded by hundreds of Boston area residents who gave an average of $40 each to spread the word of Brown’s contentious vote and its connection to the $1.9 million poured into his campaign by the fossil fuel industry and their corporate front groups.

Residents, fired up after a massive rally two weeks ago in downtown Boston, teamed up with grassroots climate campaign 350.org and crowd-funded ad start-up Loudsauce to put the ad in Boston T Stops. They were stopped short of their goal by the MBTA ruling that it was “too controversial.”

"Too controversial? Too controversial is voting to gut the Clean Air Act, for 40 years the bulwark of our environmental policy," said Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org. "Maybe the T thinks spreading that news will scare people too much--it's sweet of them to be so protective of their riders, but Brown's vote is the real horror."


Other recently banned ads include movie ads deemed too “sexy” or “risqué” and a marijuana legalization ad deemed inappropriate for seemingly promoting smoking to kids. A recent uproar was caused by ads with near-naked women promoting hard alcohol, but those ads have yet to be banned.

“As a mother of a child with asthma, I wanted to get the word out to local families that Senator Brown voted to gut the Clean Air Act,” said Vanessa Rule, a Boston area mother and activist who organized the downtown rally and donated for the ad. “His campaign benefited from over $1.9 million from the fossil fuel industry, and now he is putting their profits over our health.”

The text of the ad reads: “Senator Brown: On April 6^th you voted to gut the Clean Air Act. Was it because dirty energy companies and their corporate front groups poured more than $1.9 million into your campaign last year? Are you working for people or Big Polluters?”

Rather than waste time arguing with the MBTA, 350.org is planning to take the ads out of the subway and into the streets: in the coming weeks, bicycles will pull the banned billboards past iconic places in Boston, as well as Sen. Brown's district office. From one form of alternative transportation to another, local residents are determined to make their voices heard. 

Local residents plan to increase fundraising in response to the banning in an attempt to place the ad in new locations.

“If Scott Brown’s vote and his campaign contributors are too controversial for MBTA, maybe he should think more carefully about who he is representing,” said Josh Lynch, another local organizer of the clean air fight. “This won’t stop us from getting the word out, we will work harder than ever to raise the money to put the ads somewhere new.”

The Clean Air Act vote specifically was meant to roll back regulations of toxic coal pollution, responsible for more than 251 deaths in Massachusetts every year.

Photo of the banned ad: 

https://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/1879/images/scottbrown-v3_blast.jpg