Update: Ads will be purchased on liberal blogs now. Thank you. I will watch the move on Sunday and post a review.
It appears that the new movie,
United Flight 93, is getting some good reviews. When I first saw a trailer for the movie, I must say that I was overcome with a wave of emotions. I feel very strongly that the passengers on that plane were American heroes of the highest order. Their actions, which no one asked them to make, and which they knew would cost them their lives, saved the lives of other Americans. September 11th, 2001, was the worst day in the recent history of America by a long way. Thousands of Americans were murdered. National treasures were destroyed. Our economy was sent into an immediate recession. I doubt that anyone over the age of six will ever forget where there were on that day.
Among the many heroic actions of that day, somehow the actions of the passengers on Untied Flight 93 always stuck in my mind the most. Maybe it is because no one asked them to do what they did. Maybe because they had no training to deal with the situation they faced. Maybe it is because they were all alone, and had no one else to rely upon. Maybe it is because of the cell phone messages they wee able to leave on the answering machines of loved ones before they decided to take action. Whatever the reason, those people still represented in my mind what is best about America. They were ordinary Americans acting not to save their own lives, but to save the lives of other Americans. They voted on their actions before taking them.
Those were not the only emotion that stirred in me when I saw the trailer. I also worried that a movie studio might be trying to make a buck by exploiting some of the most painful memories of Americans. I worried that it might be too soon. I also worried that conservatives would try to exploit this movie in order to further their own agenda, as they have tried to exploit 9/11 to further their own agenda for over four and a half years now. From the way Republicans talk, you would think that only Republicans died on 9/11, that only conservatives took action aboard United Flight 93, that the New York City fire fighters all voted for George Bush, that only people who have somehow "forgotten" what no one could ever forget oppose the Iraq war. I remember trying contact every member of my family like everyone else. I remember one of my students telling me he was taking a trip to NYC around that time, and only later finding out that he had been on the roof the World trade Center two days before. I remember being the only person walking around Center City Philadelphia at one point that day, and spending hour after hour after hour watching building burn, collapse, people covered in ash hugging one another. I remember it all, like everyone in America who was alive that day.
This is why I have a question for the marketers for United Flight 93. Why are you only marketing this film to conservatives?
I am the manager of the
Liberal Blog Advertising Network, which has 86 member blogs that combine for 17.78 million page views per week. It is
the second largest advertising network at Blogads. From what I can tell, not a single blog in that network features the Untied 93 advertisement that apparently was purchased on
all 103 members of the Conservative Blog Advertising Network. That network was 4.37 million page views per week, just under 25% of our traffic.
Why did the marketers of United Flight 93 decide to only advertise on conservative political blogs? The Liberal Blog Advertising Network is four times as large, and is even a 20-30% better deal per page view (or CPM, to use the relevant industry term). Do they think that attack is only relevant to red America? Do they think that only Republicans were attacked on 9/11? Do they think that only conservatives remember that day? Do they think that the only people who took action on United Flight 93 had voted for George Bush one year earlier?
The Americans aboard Flight 93 were red and blue, male and female, white and not, gay and straight. They were all heroes, and all Americans recognize them as such. All of America was attacked on that day, and all of America worked to save lives that day. There have clearly been, and continue to be, disagreements about the appropriate course of action for us to pursue as a nation in response to that day. However, on September 11th itself, we were all united, including on United Flight 93.
For some reason, in memory of that day, the marketers of Untied Flight 93 have taken it upon themselves to continue the conservative slander against liberals and progressives in this country that we don't remember that day, that we didn't care about the lives that were lost, and that we somehow hate our country. If any single day in American history should have shown just how utterly slanderous statement like that are, it was September 11th, when right in the heart of blue America we all stood together. And yet, even in the marketing of their own film about a day when we were not divided, Universal Studios and the marketers of their latest film have chosen to divide us. That is sad and offensive. As not only the manager of the Liberal Blog Advertising Network, but also as a proud patriot who works every day to try and help the country that I love, the country in which I was raised, the country where nearly everyone who I ever loved lived and lives, the country that has produced my favorite works of art, music and literature, that country that I still believe is the greatest beacon of hope the world has ever known, I am saddened and offended by this. And I promise that I will not be attending this movie, which I had been intended to see and review on Sunday, until I receive some sort of explanation on this matter.
