Jenee Desmond-Harris at The Root reports that the dishonest pro-forced-birth ‘Life Always’ billboards in Chicago have been targeted by activists:
Controversial billboards in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood that feature an image of President Barack Obama and the words “Every 21 minutes our next possible leader is aborted” were covered with fabric banners with messages scrawled in red paint today.
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One banner says: “In 21 minutes this sign should be gone.” Another, blown down by the wind, reads, “Abort Racism.”
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A group described as “social workers and community members,” claimed responsibility for the act in a statement emailed to the Chicago Tribune. The group said the ads were disrespectful and did not represent the views of the community and that “it wanted to replace the negative, condemning message with a positive one.”…
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But is covering up the message the best idea? There has to be a more effective response to these troubling — and ever-increasing — tactics than chasing them around hanging sheets over them…
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How about another billboard explaining what The Daily Beast reported today?
The DB article was written by Michelle Goldberg, who covers “Christian nationalism” as well as reproductive-rights politics:
It’s just the latest attempt by the antiabortion movement to wrap itself in the cloak of the civil-rights struggle. In February, Life Always erected a giant billboard in New York’s SoHo with a photograph of a young black girl under the words “The most dangerous place for an African American is in the womb.” That was also the month white Republicans discovered their passion for racial justice, choosing a congressional debate to accuse Planned Parenthood of targeting African Americans.
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The website of Life Always lists its founder as a Texas African-American pastor named Stephen Broden… But dig a little deeper, and it’s clear that the man behind Life Always is Brian Follett, a white conservative activist from Austin, Texas. Follett was a major backer of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, donating more than $40,000 to the famous smear campaign. A passionate foe of abortion, in 2004 he founded a group called Majella Cares Outreach, with the goal of “reducing abortion through mass media education,” according to its website. In 2009, Majella rebranded itself as Heroic Media and expanded into Chicago and then into Florida. Life Always is simply a front for Heroic Media—Texas state records list Follett as Life Always’ registered agent, and both organizations have the same official address in Austin.
When ABL discussed these billboards last week, my suspicion was that Life Always is less interested in “educational outreach” than in concern-trolling for profit. Its NYC billboard got pulled, IIRC, after the rental company found some loophole in the terms-of-service agreement; Life Always used a stock photo of a young girl whose mother was not happy about it. But public outrage during its brief airing garnered them a ton of free press coverage, which I’m sure they’ll be using in fund-raising letters for years to come. The Chicago billboards seem like a blatant attempt to attract attention from the White House (the administration did once ‘discourage’ an outerwear company from using a stock photo of Obama on a Times Square billboard), in the (fortunately, so far, vain) hope of some negative comment that could be used as evidence of Big Brother government suppression of Tha Truth! ! ! next time Life-A needed to gin up donations.
I didn’t know, then, that Life-Always was a straight-up astroturfing scam with a fat white Texan bankroll behind it. But of course, as with Scooter Libby’s aspens, Republican activists“turn in clusters, because their roots are connected…”
Swiftboat Liars’ Sugar Daddy Behind Lying BillboardsPost + Comments (16)