Just weeks after an advertisement at the Clarendon Metro station told President Obama to “go to hell,” the Arlington County Board is looking into whether it can regulate such controversial ads on Metro property.
In a recent closed-door session, Arlington officials discussed “the county’s authority to regulate the content of advertisements on Metro property,” Board Chairwoman Mary Hynes said. That’s all county officials would reveal about the meeting or what was discussed there, but it’s not clear whether the board has any authority over the Metro ads.
The board started wondering if it could banish advertisements it considers offensive after an ad for an anti-Obama documentary called “Sick and Sicker” appeared at the Clarendon station. The ad said, “Barack Obama wants politicians and bureaucrats to control America’s entire medical system. Go to hell, Barack.”
The ad drew ire from a number of officials, from Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., to Metro General Manager Richard Sarles, who called the ad “disrespectful to President Obama and the nation.”
Still, Sarles acknowledged that the ad couldn’t be taken down under existing Metro advertising rules. Those rules are intended to prohibit ads that are false, misleading, contain violence or incite violence.
Metro is no stranger to controversial advertising messages. It caused uproars in the past by posting anti-abortion missives and ads promoting the legalization of marijuana. In 1984, Metro was sued after rejecting a political poster that called Ronald Reagan’s administration “the Jellybean Republic.” It lost that case when a court ruled that Metro’s ad space was a public forum.
That ruling makes it unlikely that the Arlington board would be able to regulate ads on Metro property. With the ad space designated a public forum, few restrictions can be placed on the kinds of messages allowed there. The anti-Obama ad was taken down March 11, but only after the contract for its display expired. Moran spokeswoman Anne Hughes said it should have been taken down before then.
“Metro has the authority to regulate ads,” she said. “They don’t advertise tobacco or alcohol, and they can set acceptable standards.”
Staff Writer Kytja Weir contributed to this report.
