CONSERVATIVE Party head Mike Long is vowing to ask Gov. Pataki to step into a burgeoning scandal involving the MTA and a pro-life group denied the right to buy subway advertising.
“I’m disgusted by what looks like a double standard for pro-choicers and pro-lifers,” said Long, a staunch pro-life advocate and ally of the governor.
“I’m going to reach out to the governor and ask him to see that this gets resolved.”
Last Sunday, The Post revealed that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and TDI, its advertising agency, denied the American Life League’s (ALL) request for subway ad space – in apparent violation of the law.
The proposed ad featured an 8-week-old fetus in its mother’s womb, accompanied by the slogan, “Please don’t do it. She’s your baby.”
Abortion-rights placards have long been displayed in the subway. The league simply wants to pay for equal time.
In the past week, TDI officials have hidden from the media, leaving MTA spokesman Tom Kelly to field press calls with information – apparently false – given him by TDI.
Throughout the week, Kelly has maintained that neither the ad agency nor the MTA ever received the pro-life ad from the Virginia-based ALL.
That claim – at least as regards TDI – seems dubious now, in light of documents that have just surfaced.
On Friday, ALL provided The Post with copies of a Federal Express airbill dated Jan. 26 for a package sent to Jeff Feinstein, the TDI account representative dealing with ALL. The organization says the package contained a “conceptual version of the ad” for TDI’s approval.
The group produced a receipt indicating the package was delivered on Jan. 27. Ken Williams in TDI’s mailroom confirmed the package was received and logged in.
Williams was the only person at TDI who would take my phone call. Everyone else was “in a meeting” or “out.” Top TDI lawyer Tina Kowalsky Haut was, a secretary claimed, “in Paris.” Hiding from the First Amendment, no doubt.
Kelly blew his top when I told him of the airbills and of TDI’s stonewalling and obfuscation.
“For the record, the MTA has not denied [ALL’s] ad. It was never brought to the MTA’s attention,” he fumed. “We were told that this woman [Kowalsky Haut] would be available. I’m sorry about this.”
In the future, if TDI tells him the sky is blue, Kelly had better stick his head out the window to check.
Again going on information given to him by TDI, Kelly told reporters there had been a price dispute with the pro-lifers over the ad, with ALL refusing to pay the requested rate.
“This is false. We never asked for a reduced rate,” said ALL president Judie Brown. “We’re willing to pay the very same rate that was discussed [in January]. Nothing has changed.”
ALL produced a Feb. 24 letter from its attorney to TDI’s top lawyer indicating that the cost question had been settled back in February. The letter quoted a TDI rep telling ALL that the ad was being rejected for nebulous reasons of “content.”
If true, that’s against the law – and nobody knows this better than Tina Kowalsky Haut. She unsuccessfully defended TDI in a 1996 Pennsylvania case involving a pro-life group that sued to have ads run in the Philadelphia transit system.
TDI rejected those ads based on content, though it had previously approved pro-choice ads in the publicly funded mass transit system. The appeals court ruled the pro-life ad ban unconstitutional.
What’s the difference here? Good luck trying to track down Travelin’ Tina for an explanation.
Giving people who question them the runaround looks like par for the course with TDI, which often finds itself in legal wrangling all over the country for censorship reasons.
“I really question whether they understand that the First Amendment applies to them,” said Alan Schlosser of the Northern California ACLU.
Schlosser is battling the advertising giant on behalf of a group called California Peace Action. The organization proposed buying ads opposing increases in the defense budget.
“One of the ads had a picture of a cruise missile and asked if this was the best way to spend money,” Schlosser said. “TDI refused to put it up, saying it violated their ‘no weapons’ policy. It was absurd. And we’ve yet to see their no-weapons policy in writing.”
The San Francisco Bay Guardian tangled with TDI back in 1998. The alternative weekly bought a series of promotional ads on city buses through the company.
Most were “soft,” said editor Tim Redmond, but one depicted the publisher with the caption, “City Hall is full of crooks. I want them exposed.”
TDI ordered that ad removed. Redmond wanted to know why.
“They stonewalled,” he said. “First they denied everything. They denied that the signs had come down. Then they said it must have been a mistake. Then they said the signs had been defaced.”
None of this proved true, and Redmond’s requests to TDI for ad guidelines went ignored by the company. TDI ultimately backed down under threat of a lawsuit and agreed to run the campaign for free.
The American Life League is giving TDI and the MTA one more chance to run its ad before hitting them with a First Amendment lawsuit.
“We’re not backing down,” said Judie Brown.
Look, TDI works for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, not the other way around. Gov. Pataki and MTA chief E. Virgil Conway can avert a lawsuit the state is sure to lose by ordering Travelin’ Tina to do the right thing.
E-mail: [email protected]