Over there at a site run by “Catholics for Catholics” is this amazing headline:
Largest Billboard Company in US Cancels Catholic Group with Message Supporting Donald Trump
You read that right. The story reports:
This week Catholics for Catholics (CforC) announced that it had become the latest victim in a nationwide trend to censor the messages of conservative organizations. CforC says it signed a contract with billboard provider Lamar Advertising, one of the largest billboard companies in the country, to place several billboards to promote Catholic values in the public square.
The billboards, referenced further in this release, show a recreation of the iconic picture of former President Donald Trump, bloodied after an attempted assassination, accompanied by words from the Prayer to Saint Michael the Archangel. This billboard is part of the National Campaign that CforC has undertaken to place dozens of this image on billboards all over the battleground states.
The story goes on to report:
After signing a contract with an initial representative of Lamar, who had previously received the artwork, CforC was notified that such artwork had been denied by Lamar’s corporate office because the concern was that “it plainly could be taken as a Catholic endorsement of Trump.” CforC was told that the requirements to continue its advertisement were to remove their logotype, website (cforc.com) and use the abbreviation “CforC” on the sponsor disclaimer (paid by Catholics for Catholics). In other words, they asked CforC to renounce to their Catholic identity in order to run the billboards ads. CforC fearlessly rejected their arbitrary suggestion and took their business elsewhere.
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It is interesting to note that CforC volunteers have identified the actual billboard location that was canceled, as being in heavily Catholic Milwaukee, Wisconsin and have put eyes on the boards, only to report back that the opposite sides of the agreed upon boards contain pro Kamala Harris advertisements paid for by the Democrat Party.
What continues to amaze is the brazen openness with which those opposed to Trump will use their supposedly professional, nonpartisan businesses to lash out at Trump and his supporters.
The other day, the Scientific American, the 179-year-old publication devoted to science, drew the attention of the Wall Street Journal editorial board, which headlined this:
The Political Scientific American
A very unscientific Harris endorsement shows why voters don’t trust scientific elites.
The Wall Street Journal wrote, in part, this:
The scientific clerisy fret about eroding public trust in science, but what do they expect when they act like political partisans? The latest exhibit is an editorial this week endorsing Kamala Harris by the formerly esteemed publication Scientific American.
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The magazine has a rich 179-year history of highlighting emerging technology and scientific debates in ways the lay public can understand. So it’s sad to behold its transformation into another progressive mouthpiece, broadcasting opinions on such subjects as gun violence, climate policy and identity politics that masquerade as science. Its Harris endorsement is a classic of this genre.
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The more scientists and their magazines imitate an MSNBC roundtable, the more Americans will distrust anything they say.
Bingo.
In the case of the “corporate office” of the Lamar billboard company, the same game is in play. Lamar is transforming from a professional billboard company into just what the Wall Street Journal labeled the Scientific American. Lamar is now just “another progressive mouthpiece.” Using their professional business to target Americans — their own customers specifically included — because the denizens of the Lamar corporate office hold a contemptuous view of their own customers.
And in the case of Lamar and those Catholics for Catholics sponsoring the pro-Trump billboards, there is also the decided whiff of religious bigotry, in this case anti-Catholicism.
Time, as always, will move on. The 2024 election will soon recede into the distance. But what will not recede is the vivid image of a major billboard company showcasing what can easily be seen as religious bigotry alongside its Trump Derangement Syndrome and open contempt for its own customers.
Too bad. And decidedly not good.