Yahoo! News Story - Station Rejects Promo Spot for 'Kinsey'

Television - AP
AP
Station Rejects Promo Spot for 'Kinsey'

Sat Nov 20,10:48 PM ET
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NEW YORK - The New York television station WNET has rejected a promotion for "Kinsey," a film that has triggered protests among some conservative groups, because it is too provocative, the station said on Friday.

Fox Searchlight Pictures, which is distributing the movie on pioneering sex researcher Alfred Kinsey, called the decision "shocking" and said no other station in the country has rejected commercials for it.

"New York is the most sophisticated city in the country," said Nancy Utley, marketing chief for Fox Searchlight. "It would never occur to me that a censorship issue would come up in New York."

WNET is a commercial-free PBS station, but does run "enhanced underwriting spots" featuring films, said station spokeswoman Stella Giammasi. Fox Searchlight says the spots essentially are commercials, but don't include blurbs from critics or information on how to find out where the movie is playing.

WNET executives found the "Kinsey" spot "too commercial and too provocative," Giammasi said.

Some conservative groups, such as the Concerned Women of America's Culture & Family Institute and Generation Life, say the film seeks to glorify the researcher they blame for inspiring the sexual revolution.

Fox Searchlight said it has bought advertising time in San Francisco, Boston, Chicago and Philadelphia and on the Los Angeles public television station. A commercial has also run in more than 200 television markets on CNN.