.@komonews @mattmarkovich ABC News Seattle Soils Itself, Goes Rogue in Hatefilled Coverage of Antisemitic Bus ads

Where to begin? I think this is a first. Here is a news segment where the “reporter” got everything wrong. Everything. They got our name wrong, “American Federation Defense Initiative,” and we are not an “East Coast Jewish activist organization.” We are a human rights group dedicated to freedom of speech, freedom of conscience and individual rights. Matt Markovich says at the tail end of this piece that he tried to contact us. Everyone else managed to find us — are ABC reporters new to this?
Matt, you can email me at [email protected]. You were on this very
site, why not email me here? Clearly, Matt wasn’t trying terribly hard.

The gist of ABC’s Matt Markovich’s story (and that’s what it is, a fiction) is that our ad ran while the vicious anti-Jewish group SEAMAC’s did not. This is just plain wrong. Our ad is a response to their ad currently running. Nuts, right?

SEAMAC (the Goebbels-inspired Seattle Middle East Awareness Campaign) ad currently running in Seattle below.

The antisemitic group SEAMAC complains to ABC News’ Matt Markovich that a blood libel ad they submitted was rejected. But SEAMAC is running their ad. They are confusing a very easily confused Matt Markovich and conflating two very different stories. SEAMAC’s Ed Mast complains of unequal treatment, but where? His ad is running.

Slippery SEAMAC’s Ed Mast is referring to a years-old 2010 ad. A completely different ad, a blood libel against the Jews, which was submitted and initially accepted by Seattle Metro (see ad below) back in 2010.

In response to this vicious blood libel, we submitted these two ads of truth.

Here is the AFDI pro-Israel bus ad to run in Seattle countering the haters December 2010

Seattle Metro did not want to run to run our ads. But they
couldn’t take the antisemitic one and not ours. So they rejected both, ours and SEAMAC’s. We considered it our victory (more on that  here and here).

Pamela Geller, Breibart: Victory! Seattle Transit Drops Jewish Blood Libel Bus Ads December 2010

Confused? Don’t be. This dotty reporter mixed up the two stories. 

Our objective at that time was achieved: the Jew-hate ads were dropped after we
exposed the hypocrisy of the Seattle Transit authorities. King County Metro Transit was forced to change its ad
policy. King County Executive Dow Constantine said that the policy change was made because “the escalation of
this issue from one of 12 local bus placards to a widespread and often
vitriolic international debate introduces new and significant security
concerns that compel reassessment.” In other words, our ads forced them to change their policy. They had agreed to run SEAMAC’s vicious ad, that is, until we submitted ours. So, if Seattle transit backpedals and decides to run SEAMAC’s Jewish blood libel, we will resubmit the above ads.

ABC’s Matt Markovich, a supplicant pawn, did no research for this piece; nor did he challenge the lie that our ads are false.

The PA President, Mahmoud Abbas, said the
Palestinian state “will be free of all Jews.” Jerusalem Post

Here are two other sources for that: Scholars for Peace in the Middle East:  Abbas: Palestinian State Must Be Jew-Free SPME

Israel National News: No Jews Allowed in Abbas Planned State Israel National News

The PLO ambassador has said the same thing:  PLO ambassador says Palestinian state should be free of Jews USA Today

Palestinian ambassador reiterates call for a Jew-free Palestinian state Daily Caller

 

“Metro Transit once again taking heat for controversial ad” KOMO ABC, Seattle

BELLEVUE, Wash. — Metro Transit is involved in yet another controversy
involving bus ads, and this time it’s not about what the ads say, but
why Metro is allowing them on buses.

A new ad, which is now
featured on six buses, reads, “The Palestinian authority is calling for a
Jew-free state. Equal rights for Jews.”

Some bus riders didn’t know what to make of the ad, but others claimed it goes too far.

“It demonstrates too much prejudice,” on rider said.

The ad is controversial on its own, but it’s why Metro allowed it on buses that’s causing the bigger stir.

The
ad’s sponsor, an east coast Jewish activist group called The American
Freedom Defense Initiative, boasts on its website how the organization
strong-armed Metro into running the ad by threatening a lawsuit.

The group paid $3,300 for a four-week run on six of Metro’s 1,400 buses.

Despite
its relative lack of exposure, some say the ad doesn’t sit well with
them. That includes the people affiliated with the Seattle Mideast
Awareness Campaign.

Members of the pro-Palestinian group say
Metro refused to run their ad in 2010, and they later sued for violating
their free speech.

“If they could put up any ads they want,
then why not ours?” said the campaign’s Carla Curio. “Why are they
choosing which ads, which people get to have free speech?”

Metro released a statement insisting that the organization doesn’t take sides in political issues.

“We
look at whether an advertisement complies with our policy and must
remain neutral when it comes to content. We’re not in a position to take
sides in this debate,” the statement reads.

This is just the latest in a string of bus ad controversies for Metro in recent months. In May, Metro accepted a gun control ad that many objected to, and just last month it ran a controversial anti-terrorism ad. The sponsor of that ad eventually agreed to take it down.

Metro
changed its ad acceptance criteria after rejecting the pro-Palestinian
ad in 2010. The free speech lawsuit is now before the 9th Circuit Court
of Appeals.

The organization sponsoring the latest ad has not returned emails for comment on the story.