Dan Preston, a co-founder of the Princeton-based AntiWar Video Fund, said the group planned to contact the American Civil Liberties Union over Comcast Corp.'s refusal to air the 30-second commercial Tuesday.

The peace group had spent $5,000 for the ad to be aired six times by Comcast beginning Tuesday night, to coincide with President Bush's State of the Union speech.

The commercials, which feature a succession of people from different backgrounds and ages saying why they oppose a possible war with Iraq, were to be broadcast over CNN in the Washington, D.C., area.

But the legal department at Philadelphia-based Comcast notified the group Tuesday morning that the ad would not air because some of the claims in the spot were unsubstantiated.

Comcast has aired several anti-war ads in the Washington, D.C., area, including a recent remake of the 1963 Daisy Ad, for the peace group Win Without War, according to a spokesman for that group.

On the AntiWar Video Fund's Web site Wednesday, the group claimed that Comcast had pinpointed two specific comments as troublesome _ that going to war would be "a violation of international law" and that such a war would be run by a "self-appointed group of mercenaries."

Jenni Moyer, a spokeswoman for Comcast, would not confirm that claim, saying only that the company made a "good-faith" internal review of the ad.

At a Statehouse news conference Wednesday, Preston questioned the timing of Comcast's decision, saying the company knew about the commercial for more than a week and had ample time to raise questions.

Still, Preston said if the company's concerns were deemed to be legally sound, the peace group would consider altering the ad.

"If there's a consensus of legal opinion that the phrases are inappropriate, then we would consider changing it," he said.

The Rev. Robert Moore, executive director of the 2,000-member Peace Action Education Fund, attended the press conference and said any attempt to force a change in the ad would be "shameful." Moore also was featured in the commercial.

He emphasized that the people in the commercial were volunteers who offered unscripted, spontaneous comments about a possible war.

"These statements ... should not be stifled," Moore said.

The AntiWar Video Fund is not the only peace group to create and anti-war commercial. A high-ranking Methodist bishop will appear in an anti-war commercial aimed at persuading President Bush, a fellow Methodist, that a U.S. attack on Iraq would violate "God's law."

The 30-second commercial, featuring Bishop Melvin Talbert and actress Janeane Garafalo, is expected to be broadcast beginning Friday to New York and Washington viewers of the CNN and Fox cable news networks, said Stephen Drachler, a United Methodist spokesman in Nashville.



On the Net:

http://www.awvf.com/

http://www.comcast.com/


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