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New York's MTA sued over 'Muslims Are Coming!' film ad ban
Source: Reuters
US | Thu Jun 25, 2015 11:11am EDT
New York's MTA sued over 'Muslims Are Coming!' film ad ban
NEW YORK | BY JONATHAN STEMPEL
New York City's Metropolitan Transportation Authority was sued on Thursday by a studio objecting to the agency's decision to reject six subway advertisements promoting its film "The Muslims are Coming!"
The lawsuit by Vaguely Qualified Productions LLC, which said its mission is to create "smart, insightful, and comedic social justice media," is a fresh challenge to a new MTA policy banning ads of a political nature from its buses and subways.
In a complaint filed in Manhattan federal court, the studio, which also creates viral videos as well as TV and online shows, accused the MTA of violating its First Amendment free speech rights because the ads for its film were commercial in nature.
The ads employed what the studio calls "satirical and tongue-in-cheek" statements such as "The Ugly Truth About Muslims: Muslims have great frittata recipes" and "Those Terrorists Are All Nutjobs," with the word "nutjobs" substituted for the crossed off "Muslim" because it was "more accurate."
According to the studio, the film carries a message that "American Muslims are ordinary people," and that the MTA had no compelling reason to ban it.
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New York's MTA sued over 'Muslims Are Coming!' film ad ban
NEW YORK | BY JONATHAN STEMPEL
New York City's Metropolitan Transportation Authority was sued on Thursday by a studio objecting to the agency's decision to reject six subway advertisements promoting its film "The Muslims are Coming!"
The lawsuit by Vaguely Qualified Productions LLC, which said its mission is to create "smart, insightful, and comedic social justice media," is a fresh challenge to a new MTA policy banning ads of a political nature from its buses and subways.
In a complaint filed in Manhattan federal court, the studio, which also creates viral videos as well as TV and online shows, accused the MTA of violating its First Amendment free speech rights because the ads for its film were commercial in nature.
The ads employed what the studio calls "satirical and tongue-in-cheek" statements such as "The Ugly Truth About Muslims: Muslims have great frittata recipes" and "Those Terrorists Are All Nutjobs," with the word "nutjobs" substituted for the crossed off "Muslim" because it was "more accurate."
According to the studio, the film carries a message that "American Muslims are ordinary people," and that the MTA had no compelling reason to ban it.
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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/06/25/us-new-york-mta-lawsuit-idUSKBN0P521720150625
4 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
inflammatory.
This looks to be much more of a spoof.
And implicitly acknowledging that satire often gets misread - that's pretty common in all media.
