Stop CBS from Turning the Superbowl into a political football!
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Like many Americans, I love football. I was raised in a football crazy family in a football crazy city and have serious ancestral roots in the birth of the NFL. I played in school as a boy, played pickup ball for years, and for nearly 20 years, I played adult flag-football just because I love the game. I even went so far as to spend the better part of a decade owning and operating one of the largest adult flag-football league operations in the country.

So when it comes to Super-Bowl Sunday, I have pretty strong views on the subject. It's a National Holiday as far as I am concerned, and I do not like it when people mess with my Holidays anymore than Christians like it when non-Christians mess with Christmas.

So when I read that CBS is for the first time allowing an extremely partisan organization to run an anti-abortion ad during the broadcast of my Holiday celebration, I get pretty hot under the collar. CBS is allowing James Dobson's "Focus on the Family" group to run a Tim Tebow featured anti-abortion screed during the telecast. This is a first. Until now, the networks and the NFL have kept the game strictly non-partisan. As it should be. Left, Right, or Center, the game has always been a place where we can come together as a people.

Not ONLY is CBS putting politics into the game, it is simultaneously declaring its own bias by rejecting ads that support left-leaning causes.

This is a personal foul. The airwaves are owned by the public. The game is a national treasure. Over the air networks are strictly forbidden from taking partisan stands of any kind and the NFL has never taken a public stand like this because to do so would alienate huge parts of its fan base.

This needs to be stopped - whatever your feelings on abortion, gay rights or any other social screed you may care about, can we not agree that SOME things can be just for entertainment? Not EVERYTHING needs to become another forum to pick a fight, does it?

I have sadly decided that unless CBS changes this stance, I will not watch the game - for the first time in my life. I will not attend or have a party as I usually do, and I will also not watch ANY CBS broadcast until this practice is ended.

I urge you to do the same. Please - lets keep some things simple.

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No politics in sports
By Unknown user, Jan 30, 2010 at 10:04:11 AM PT (Updated: Jan 30, 2010 at 10:04:11 AM PT )
I agree wholeheartedly with this... CBS made several fatal errors in this decision. First they denied a Super Bowl ad for a gay dating service/website (which was a non-political ad, but a VERY political statement on CBS's part). Then they decided that they would run an anti-abortion ad during the Super Bowl. This cemented CBS's stance on right wing, Christian-centric politics in general.

These actions have no place on a free television network, nor does it show the NFL in a positive light. Politics, entertainment and sports have no business being in business together.

Let's keep the Super Bowl in the spirit it was intended. An entertainment event designed for all people to come together for fun and celebration. Good-natured ribbing about team preferences is encouraged. Discussions about Roe V Wade don't belong here. There are better forums for that.
  

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