Ford spokesman Mike Moran is now claiming Ford did not cave to the anti-gay demands of the extremist gay-hating organization American Family Association. In fact, Moran himself admitted Ford caved earlier this week.
Moran had this to say to the Baltimore Sun today:
"Jaguar and Land Rover have been streamlining marketing and making reductions across the board," Ford spokesman Michael Moran said in a telephone interview yesterday. "The decisions on advertising were made for business reasons and not as a social statement one way or the other."Moran's statement to the Baltimore Sun directly contradicts a statement he gave earlier this week to the DC-based Metro Weekly:
When asked if the advertising was being discontinued because of the threatened AFA boycott, Moran said, ''Ceasing advertising is an outgrowth of those meetings.''Moran also contradicts the statement he gave to the Advocate last week:
"They've heard our concerns; they are acting on our concerns. We are pleased with where we are," said Donald Wildmon, AFA's chairman, in a statement....And finally Moran contradicts statements from Ford's other spokesman, Jim Cain, saying that Ford was pulling ads from "advocacy publications," labeling such benign publications as OUT and The Advocate (akin to the gay version of "People") as promoting "gay advocacy." Cain confirmed that Ford had indeed reached a formal settlement with AFA, and this specifically includes withdrawing advertising for certain Ford vehicles from LGBT publications/media.
When first contacted, Ford spokesman Moran referred Advocate.com to the AFA statement, suggesting that the company had no disagreement with Wildmon's assertions.
So in addition to lying to the New York Times, Washington Post, AP, Reuters and CNN, Ford has now lied to the Baltimore Sun as well. Time will only tell whether the mainstream media plans on following up on the lies they've been told, or whether the lessons of Judith Miller journalism have yet to be learned.
