TV station rejects ad for anti-Obama film

See the movie ad:

NEW YORK – Denver's NBC affiliate has refused to air a 30-second television spot promoting a new documentary that seeks to demonstrate the fallacy and grave consequences of the progressive ideology embraced by President Obama and the Democratic Party.

KUSA-TV has told filmmaker Joel Gilbert the ad for the upcoming “There’s No Place Like Utopia" must comply with Federal Election Commission requirements for political advertisements tied to an election campaign if it is to air on the station.

As WND previously reported, Gilbert’s premiere is planned July 18 at the Regal UA Colorado Center Stadium 9 & IMAX at 2000 South Colorado Blvd. in Denver.

“I am a media entity, a producer of documentary films, and I’m not subject to any FEC regulations,” Gilbert insisted in an interview with WND.

Gilbert argued that for FEC rules to apply, the film must advocate for a candidate in an upcoming political race.

"My film focuses on President Barack Obama’s progressive political philosophy, and Barack Obama under the 22nd Amendment cannot run for re-election as president," he said. "Nobody mentioned or featured in my documentary is running for election this year.”

Gilbert said his budget for television and radio advertising in Denver totals nearly $50,000.

So far, only KUSA has rejected him.

“What Channel 9 wants is for me to fill out a FEC Political Broadcast form PB-18 and change the content of the advertisement to demonstrate that it is a political advertisement,” Gilbert explained.

“Of course, none of my spots for TV or radio are political advertisement. The commercials are meant to publicize the movie premiere. I doubt Michael Moore would have to face this requirement if he were to premiere a new documentary in Denver.”

KUSA's national sales manager, Amy Nisenson, wrote in an June 20 email to Gilbert that the TV spot would need sponsorship identification, as required by FEC laws and regulations.

“Your spots must explicitly state that it is “paid for” by the entity purchasing the time,” Nisenson wrote, maintaining that FEC rules and regulations applied to Gilbert’s movie advertisement.

“The sponsorship ID must appear at the beginning or the end of the spot. Television spots must have the visual ID with letters that constitute at least 4 percent of the vertical picture height (20 scan lines) and must air for at least four seconds," she wrote. "The FCC has stated that each line of type must meet the 4 percent requirement and that if upper and lower case type are used, the 4 percent requirement applies to the lower case (smaller) type. The ID must be set against a background that does not reduce the announcement’s legibility.”

Nisenson told WND that KUSA policy prohibited her from speaking with reporters directly. Mark Cornetta, the station's general manager, returned WND’s telephone call but had no comment for publication.

As WND reported, Gilbert has styled his film to take viewers along on a journey of discovery across America. It emulates the highly successful films of leftist filmmaker Michael Moore, who currently holds the distinction of having produced the highest grossing documentary in film history.

Gilbert, in his new film, depicts Barack Obama as "The Wizard" in the Land of Oz.

“The fundamental lesson of the Wizard of Oz is that there is no wizard.” Gilbert said.

“Obama has made promise after promise that have all turned out to be empty; all turned out to be lies. The people I met who supported him were literally living in dungeons in the witch’s castle. Everything had changed for the worse – Detroit, South Side Chicago, Newark. Fifty years of progressive control over these cities demonstrated that no one was progressing, they were all regressing.”
See the movie trailer:

The movie trailer for “There’s No Place Like Utopia” will begin appearing Friday in 12 Regal Cinema theaters throughout Denver.

Advance tickets will be available on Fandango.com beginning on Friday.

Featured in the film are comments by WND staff reporter and author Jerome R. Corsi, WND columnist and author Jack Cashill, conservative author David Horowitz and former KGB officer Konstantin Preobrazhensky.

Keying off Dorothy’s conclusion in the classic “Wizard of Oz” that there’s "no place like home," Gilbert analyzes the literal meaning of “Utopia,” concluding, “There’s no place like Utopia.”

Gilbert does not shy from producing politically controversial documentaries.

In 2012, he produced the documentary “Dreams from My Real Father,” arguing that leftist journalist and poet Frank Marshall Davis was the biological father of Barack Obama.

During the 2012 presidential campaign, WND reported Gilbert distributed millions of copies of his “Dreams from My Real Father” to households in key swing-states in an attempt to bypass an establishment media blackout of his message.

Gilbert’s other films include “Atomic Jihad: Ahmadinejad’s Coming War and Obama’s Politics of Defeat” (2010) and “Farewell Israel: Bush, Iran and the Revolt of Islam” (2008).

“Atomic Jihad” won the Hudson Institute Film Festival in 2010.