posted on July 13, 2004 07:34:55 PM new
Tue Jul 13, 5:03 PM ET
By ERIN McCLAM, Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK - A dispute over a proposed anti-war billboard that would loom over Times Square during the Republican National Convention and up until Election Day landed in federal court Tuesday.
The billboard, 69 feet by 44 feet, was to show a stylized bomb and fuse, decorated in stars and stripes, above the message, "Democracy is best taught by example, not by war."
Project Billboard, a group that says it is devoted to "diversity, tolerance and free expression," says it signed a three-month contract for the space beginning Aug. 2.
But Clear Channel Spectacolor, which leased the space to the group, objected to the message, according to papers filed in Manhattan federal court by Project Billboard. The contract allows Clear Channel to revoke the billboard if it is obscene, "misleading or deceptive" or "offensive to the moral standards of the community," court papers say.
A lawyer for Clear Channel told a federal judge Tuesday that the media group "has concerns about the bomb image."
"Those of us who have been in New York for a while understand the sensitivities that many New Yorkers have to bombs," said the lawyer, Robert Pees.
The billboard space is on the side of the Marriott Marquis hotel. Clear Channel leases the space from the hotel.
Project Billboard initially offered to replace the bomb with a dove, keeping the text the same, but Deborah Rappaport, a board member for the group, said that offer no longer stands.
"What we want is our billboard up," she told reporters.
In addition, Pees said Marriott must approve the billboard, and that the hotel had an "explicit" opposition to political advertising.
Clear Channel was willing to offer another space in Times Square, Pees said. Rappaport said Project Billboard would be willing to accept another space.
The judge made no immediate ruling, and scheduled another hearing for Thursday.
The four-day Republican National Convention begins Aug. 30 at Madison Square Garden, about 10 blocks south of Times Square.
Clear Channel, the nation's largest radio chain, has been accused of promoting right-wing politics and banning artists — including the Dixie Chicks whose lead singer disparaged President Bush — with whom it disagrees.
The company is a major donor to Republican political candidates.
But the company denies banning the Dixie Chicks from airplay and says pro-war rallies held by some stations during the Iraq war were the work of individual radio hosts and managers, rather than a corporate directive.
