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Ad Fueled By TV Funding Cut Likens 4 Officials To Dictators

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By Anthony McCartney | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 25, 2007

VIDEO: Watch The Commercial

TAMPA - What do Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Fidel Castro and four current Hillsborough County commissioners have in common?

Their likenesses all appear in an ad the Tampa Bay Community Network plans to air this weekend to raise money for a legal fund. The network is suing Hillsborough County over its decision to cut $355,000 in spending for the station from this year's budget.

The network has prepared at least three fundraising ads for the court fight. The most hard-hitting is an ad that opens with images of Hitler, Stalin and Castro and then fades to pictures of the four county commissioners who voted to kill the station's stipend.

"All of these dictators have one thing in common," a narrator says as the ad opens with a photo of Hitler giving a speech. "They all knew that if they controlled the media, they would control the masses.

"It worked."

The ad then fades to black before showing pictures chairman Jim Norman, vice chairman Ken Hagan and Commissioners Brian Blair and Al Higginbotham.

"Let's not let it happen again," the narrator's voice says.

The 31-second ad ends with a graphic that tells residents where to send their checks – to the TBCN station near the University of Tampa campus.

Louise Thompson, TBCN's executive director, said the ad isn't directly comparing the commissioners to the three dictators it just makes the point that their regimes thrived when public discourse was stifled.

"I think it's hard-hitting, and it sends the message that we need to make sure we keep the public's voice open," Thompson said.

The county's decision not to give the station any money has forced TBCN to deny access to its studios to residents of unincorporated areas, Thompson said. The station still allows Tampa residents to record shows because the city did not cut its support.

The network, also known as Speak Up Tampa Bay, has sued Hillsborough in federal court, alleging the decision to cut funding was aimed at cutting off free speech from a channel that it couldn't control. The suit points out that county commissioners didn't eliminate all spending to two other stations, The Education Channel and HTV22, which airs government programming.

The ad will begin airing on Saturday on TBCN's channels, which vary depending on the cable provider.

Reporter Anthony McCartney can be reached at (813) 259-7616 or amccartney@tampatrib.com.

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