Local Nonprofit Sues Media Giant

A nonprofit Berkeley-based advocacy group is in a legal tangle with media giant Clear Channel Communications following the rejection of the anti-war billboard the group sought to post in New York's Times Square.

Project Billboard filed a breach-of-contract lawsuit Monday with a U.S. District Court in New York against Clear Channel Outdoor, a division of the corporation, after the communications company rejected the group's proposed 69 foot by 44 foot billboard displaying a fused bomb covered in stars and stripes and the words "Democracy is best taught by example, not war."

The suit seeks a court order to allow the billboard to be displayed from Aug. 2 through Nov. 2, including the week of the Republican National Convention in New York.

Project Billboard, a group of high- powered Bay Area women including Chez Panisse Chef Alice Waters, aims to promote dialogue and debate about pressing world issues through media outlets, according to its web site.

"We've been painted as an anti-war group," said Alex Slater, a spokesperson for Project Billboard. "But this is not true. We're a group set up to promote debate and civil discourse."

The group signed a $368,000 lease with Clear Channel to rent the billboard space on the Marriott Marquis Hotel in Times Square, which owns the billboard.

But the Marriot rejected the image, saying it does not display political ads.

Clear Channel Outdoor, which leases billboard space, upheld the hotel's denial of the billboard, stating the corporation's rejection was not politically motivated, but rather a response to the "inappropriate bomb imagery."

"Politics plays absolutely no role in reviewing ad copy," said Paul Meyer, President and Chief Executive Officer of Clear Channel Outdoor in a statement. "In fact, we actively work with groups across the political spectrum to help them reach their target audience."

Many have claimed the company is very supportive of Republican causes.

Clear Channel donated more than $1 million to Republican candidates between 2000 and 2002, according to the Federal Election Commission.

The New York Times reported yesterday that a Clear Channel lawyer presented the district court judge with evidence Tuesday that the lease agreement "specified the building's owner had to approve the ad's content."

Slater said this was the first time Project Billboard heard the hotel had rejected the design.

"If we had known that the hotel was going to reject our artwork, we would have gone to another billboard company," he said.

The two groups are currently negotiating a settlement, Slater said.

The New York Times also reported that Clear Channel lawyers have said the company is prepared to offer a "big and splashy billboard" to the group.

Project Billboard offered to substitute the bomb with an image of a dove Friday, Slater said, and Clear Channel agreed to accept the design, but left the final decision to the hotel.

The Marriott is looking into whether they will accept the new design, said Kathleen Duffy, Marriott Marquis hotel spokesperson.

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