Playing Well in Iowa

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Nov 9, 1998 | by John Elvin

Gary L. Bauer, president of the American Renewal activist group, had a message that he was willing to pay to air on Washington TV stations: President Clinton should "put our country and our children first by resigning." At the same time, the stations were approached by the liberal People for the American Way, or PAW, with ads calling on Congress to shut down its investigations of the president. Bauer's ads were rejected; PAW's were aired.

Bauer says his organization is victim of a "double standard" It is "outrageous for television stations to stifle debate," he asserts. Curiously enough, such reasoning did not occur to stations in middle America: The American Renewal ads enjoyed a two-week run in Iowa.