Way to go, Reuters!

The United Methodist Church signed a contract through an agency to run a series of ads during the Thanksgiving season on the giant Times Square video billboard belonging to the Reuters news service. Reuters quickly nixed the deal, citing its long-standing policy against accepting religious or political advertising, but, when faced with withering criticism from religious liberty and free-speech groups, Reuters flip-flopped and will now permit the ads.

A statement by the National Council of Churches read, in part, "To imply that religious and political speech might be in the same class with messages that are ‘pornographic… libelous, misleading or deceptive in nature,’ as Reuters did in explaining its refusal to carry the United Methodist ad, is a frightening use of the power of media ownership."

Now, Reuters said that perhaps the company should accept any ads, as long as they aren’t confused with Reuters’ news coverage. If that happens, and if Reuters accepts messages that are pornographic, then, I predict, legitimate advertisers like the United Methodist Church will pull their ads, and Reuters will be left with nothing but ads that are "pornographic… libelous, misleading or deceptive in nature."