BISHOP E.W. JACKSON ACCUSES WPZE ATLANTA GOSPEL RADIO STATION OF ANTI-CHRISTIAN BIAS FOR REFUSING AD URGING CHRISTIANS TO VOTE THEIR CHRISTIAN VALUES
Atlanta GA. Bishop E.W. Jackson, prominent minister and conservative activist, has a long history of urging black Christians to vote Christian values rather than race, party, or personality. His organization, STAND - Staying True to America's National Destiny - submitted an advertisement to several Gospel radio stations in Georgia urging listeners to vote their Christian values.
One portion in the sixty second ad says "When it comes to standing for the word of God in culture and politics, Christians should be a united family. If you are a Christian, your first loyalty is not to race, party, or personality, but to Jesus Christ. On every issue, vote the principles of God's word above all else."
Three gospel radio stations accepted the ad without question. The largest gospel radio station in Georgia - WPZE FM 102.5 - declined the ad claiming their legal department rejected it. According to Jackson, "This is obvious bias. There can be no valid 'legal' objection to the ad. Since the ad doesn't endorse any candidate or party, it's nonpartisan. For supposedly Christian WPZE to reject an ad which encourages Christian civic engagement calls into question the real agenda of the station. It's clearly not advancing Christianity or even serving the Christian community."
The Bishop is urging the public to complain to the station. Unless the station changes its decision, he asks them to complain to the FCC.
Stations have no discretion to deny "candidate" ads, but they have some latitude when it comes to "issue" ads by "non-candidates." Jackson, as a retired attorney, argues that the decisions of the station cannot be arbitrary and capricious or discriminatory, nor can they violate the purpose for which their FCC license was granted, or fail to serve the community to which they were licensed. In his view, denying a STAND ad specifically created for their demographic is a violation of the spirit and the letter of FCC regulations because it denies service to that community. For more information go to standamerica.us.
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