Feb Madness: the NCAA, CBS, and Focus on the Family

Inside Higehr Ed<a href="http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2010/02/24/ncaa"></a>

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


Just weeks after CBS came under fire for airing a pro-life Focus on the Family ad staring Heismann-Trophy-winning quarterback Tim Tebow, the National Collegiate Athletic Association—CBS’ broadcast partner for college men’s basketball’s upcoming March Madness tournament—is now taking heat for a FOF ad on NCAA.com, reports Inside Higher Ed‘s Doug Lederman. 

The ad featured an image of a grinning father holding his baby boy next to the words “Celebrate Family. Celebrate Life.” Beneath the photo: “All I want for my son is for him to grow up knowing how to do the right thing.” Though the message may seem benign at first, if you know anything about Focus on the Family and its mission, then its clear the “family” the ad references is a traditional, heterosexual one and the “right thing” the ficticious father hopes his son will come to understand is that women should not have abortions. Internet turmoil over the ad erupted Monday when professor-turned-blogger Pat Griffin first noticed it on NCAA’s site. Other blogs and organizations that support gay and lesbian athletes picked up on Griffin’s post, a Facebook group formed, and by midday Tuesday, the ad had been removed from the NCAA’s site. Did the NCAA really not know what it was getting itself into after the fracas over Focus’ Superbowl spot? It must have.

NCAA spokesman Bob Williams told Chronicle of Higher Ed reporter Libby Sander that its officials work “closely” with CBS to approve and schedule online advertisements, “regularly” review the content of those ads, and “make adjustments as appropriate.” And according to Lederman, the controversial Super Bowl ad and this NCAA.com ad are both part of a larger advertising deal struck between CBS and FOF which may mean more controversial commercials are to come during March Madness TV timeouts.

Pat Griffen nailed the crux of this problem on her blog: “The issue here is not the right of CBS, a for-profit organization, to set their own advertising standards around so-called ‘advocacy’ ads, even if we don’t like them. The issue is the involvement of the NCAA, a non-profit educational organization made up of hundreds of member institutions across the USA, allowing itself to be associated with advertising that is in contradiction to the NCAA’s own written standards and organizational mission.” The NCAA’s core values includes “an inclusive culture that fosters equitable participation for student-athletes” and “respect for philosophical differences,” values that are compromised when it promotes advertisement of an organization like FOF.

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate