The following communication is from the Joyce Elliott campaign:
On Friday afternoon, the Arkansas Democrat Gazette sent notification to the Joyce Elliott for U.S. Congress campaign that a political advertisement placed by the campaign had been rejected. The newspaper, however, refused to provide any reason why the ad was rejected. Last week, the campaign submitted a political cartoon for placement as a political advertisement in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette.
The Elliott campaign intended to purchase a quarter page in the Sunday edition of the newspaper in order to place an ad for the Elliott for Congress campaign titled “Tim Griffin on Jobs.” The cartoon and all the original artwork was created by a staffer on the Elliott campaign.
The campaign took all the proper steps to place a traditional political advertisement including proper size adjustments, “paid for by” disclosure language and citation for every assertopn made in the cartoon. The campaign submitted all requested materials before the Thursday deadline.
In a follow up communication, the campaign offered to revise and resubmit if the paper was willing to disclose why the ad was rejected or what could be changed. The official response from the newspaper’s representative stated, “I cannot tell you what is wrong with the ad; only that we cannot accept the ad in its present form.”
“The Elliott campaign would just like to know why the ad was rejected?” asked Marisa Pryor, spokesperson for the Joyce Elliott campaign.
“A campaign is about effective communication and we believe the cartoon is a creative way to let folks know the truth about Mr. Griffin’s record,” Pryor continued. “We know people love the Sunday newspaper and political cartoons have long been a traditional part of political discourse. In addition, the cartoon was thoroughly researched and cited, something that routinely doesn’t happen in political cartoons.”
“I believe the cartoon is funny and truthful. While some may say the cartoon is hard hitting, all of the events highlighted in the cartoon are properly cited and most of the events have been reported on by the Arkansas Democrat Gazette,” stated Senator Joyce Elliott. “So, why would the newspaper not allow the ad to run?”
