Exxon Hates Your Free Speech, Tries to Censor Satirical AdCorynne McSherry In the wake of a major pipeline spill in Mayflower, Arkansas, Exxon has launched a dirty tricks campaign to prevent Little Rock television stations from running a political ad titled, Exxon Hates Your Children. The ad, which can be viewed atexxonhatesyourchildren.com, makes an obviously over-the-top assertion about the companys views about children, in order to call attention to the creators serious concerns about the companys policies. To try to keep it off the air, Exxon is circulating a memo to television stations claiming that the commercial is defamatory toward each of ExxonMobils 80,000 employees and their families. Exxon goes on to describe good things the company does for children and the environment. The ads, which were paid for through crowdfunding, were scheduled to run on local ABC, NBC, and Fox stations this week, but were taken off the schedule when the stations got the memo. In February, Exxon pulled the same stunt when Comcast was set to air the ad during the presidents State of the Union address. What Exxon should not doand what the television stations should not help them dois use ill-defined and improper legal threats to silence legitimate political speech. The stations should let the ad run and, if Exxon chooses to create its own ad, run that too. The good news is that Exxon is already experiencing the Streisand Effect. Word to Exxon: these days, trying to silence your critics is not only wrong, it inevitably backfires. Files linkwithin_text=Related Articles: 