ClimateProgress whines:
The ad submitted to WRC Monday parodies TransCanada CEO Russ Girling and its suspect claims that the pipeline would lead to energy independence and create tens of thousands of jobs. The Hill’s Ben Geman noted that an oil industry-run group immediately criticized the new ad.
“After a careful review, it was determined that this ad violates our guidelines. We have communicated that to the advertiser,” a WRC spokesperson said.
According to NBC’s advertising guidelines, anything that appears to be “an attack of a personal nature, a direct attack on an individual business or a comment on a private dispute” can be considered unacceptable content.
This ad did not run because it was immature and no network besides Comedy Central would run such an ad. It’s appropriate for social media usage but not network broadcast. Mr Steyer should know better.
Given that NBC functions as a state-operated media outlet, this may be evidence that Obama is leaning in favor of approving the Keystone XL pipeline project… before or after the 2014 midterm elections, depending on how the political winds are blowing.
How bad would an anti-XL ad need to be for NBC to reject it?