I used our advertisements in Tidbits and Macintouch to remind people to vote on Tuesday. Tidbits ran the ads without problem, however, in a very disappointing move, Macintouch’s Ric Ford decided that the use of our paid advertising space on his web site to remind people to vote was “too political” and without notice to us refused to run the ad. That was an arbitrary and unnecessary bit of censorship. We’ve used our space in the past to wish happy holidays and other non-sales messages and I considered the Please Vote message to be a public service. Voting is a political act, so I can sort of see Ric’s point, however, I really do not see the controversy in a non-partisan ad encouraging people to vote.
Voting is our direct connection to our legislators and leaders. Keeping our law makers in tune with the people is the function of the ballot box. To call a simple “Please Vote” message too political for his web site and imposing unilateral censorship of our advertisement as a result was just plain wrong. Ric went so far as to say that if he let me put a “Please Vote” message in my ad that it would make the other advertisers on his site look bad and less patriotic.
I do not know why internet advertising should be held to any different standard than print advertising. If I was placing this same advertisement in a newspaper or magazine, the publishers would have a tough time legally or ethically telling me that my message was somehow inappropriate.
Many people have sacrificed and fought to protect this democratic right that serves as the basis of our liberty. It is a shame that one of the leading voices in the Mac market doesn’t feel that encouraging people to vote is suitable material for his web site. Shame on you Ric.
Don Mayer
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