The Californians for Equal Rights Foundation was apparently canceled by the San Diego Union-Tribune after it tried to place a voter education ad that criticized critical race theory, according to a press release by the nonpartisan and nonprofit organization. The Union-Tribune stated that the group was presenting “opinions as facts” even though they provided “an item-by-item reference list of official documents to substantiate our statement that Poway Unified School District is teaching critical race theory.”
“Our attempt to expose the prevalence of CRT in PUSD in the forms of racial equity and ethnic studies was botched by a politically biased media platform,” said Frank Xu, president of CFER. “Not surprisingly, the Union-Tribune does not apply the same level of scrutiny to causes and advertisements they are ideologically aligned with.”
According to the press release, CFER contacted Pomerado News to place an ad in the Union-Tribune earlier this month. The ad was to “raise public awareness on the issues of CRT and ethnic studies in PUSD and to announce our upcoming CRT Town Hall on November 18.” Pomerado News approved the ad but on the day the ad was supposed to go into print, the Union-Tribune allegedly told CFER that they had to “provide detailed references to each claim, submit a disclaimer and show permission to use CRT quotes.”
One of the main issues that the Union-Tribune allegedly identified as concerning was one of the quotes provided by CFER that stated, “Critical race theory questions the very foundations of the liberal order including equality theory, legal reasoning, Enlightenment rationalism, and neutral principles of constitutional law.”
That quote is from Critical Race Theory: An Introduction (Third Edition) by Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic, according to the press release. The Union-Tribune did not respond to the group after it provided “line-by-line sources to corroborate” their claims in the advertisement.
I contacted the Union-Tribune to find out why they rejected the ad and did not follow up with CFER after the group provided what had been asked.
“The headline in the ad was ‘PUSD is teaching critical race theory.’ The school district’s associate superintendent was already on record as saying, ‘Poway Unified is not teaching critical race theory,’” Jeff Light, publisher and editor in chief told me in an email. “So our ad standards group asked for the basis for this and other claims in the ad.”
“The advertiser needs to present evidence for claims presented as fact,” Light said.
Light also told me how the Union-Tribune makes decisions on advertisements.
“The ad standards group in LA is pretty rigorous, so, yes, they are poring over the ads as they come in from the managers,” Light said. “They follow a 20,000-word handbook.”
Light provided me with four important details they adhere to.
“The company will never knowingly publish advertising that in its judgment is: misleading, fraudulent, or unfair; indecent or offensive, or which contains text or illustrations in poor taste; libelous, abusive or contains attacks of a personal, racial or religious nature; in violation of local, state or federal laws.”
Yet according to CFER, the information to verify their claims was indeed provided to the Union-Tribune in an email. It showed the attributions for each claim. When I brought this to Light’s attention, he said that CFER’s email must not have met their standards. When I asked Light which violation CFER was guilty of, he responded that “we concluded the ad was misleading.”
I asked Light if he could tell me why CFER received no reply after providing the basis for its claims. I also asked that why the associate superintendent’s claim was treated as fact and not given the same scrutiny as CFER’s claims. I did not receive a response to this question.
“A reputable regional news platform is supposed to provide impartial media coverage. Instead, the San Diego Union-Tribune excessively scrutinized our submission of a voter education ad,” said Wenyuan Wu, executive director of CFER. “Perhaps they don’t want parents and community members to be educated or informed on the pervasiveness of a race-centric ideology in Poway schools.”
These allegations should cause alarm. The fact that there is an alleged attempt to silence the voices of those opposing critical race ideology speaks volumes of the depths to which supporters of CRT will sink to get their message out. If CFER is required to verify its facts in an advertisement, safe to say, so should anyone making claims in any advertisement. Yet, looking at multiple issues of the Union-Tribune, there does not appear to be attribution supporting any claims made in advertisements.
Despite the alleged censorship, CFER has not lost any enthusiasm in its quest to bring awareness to the venomous propaganda in CRT.
“CFER is undeterred by SDUT’s censure,” the press release said. “As we forge ahead in this genuine movement for unity against the invasion of CRT, we continue to broaden our alliance and will work with partners such as Reform California to present to the public an informative event on November 18!”
“If they think ‘cancel culture’ works to silence dissent in this day and age, they are misinformed,” Wu said.
One of the most concerning aspects of this was Light’s admission that personal judgment was inserted into the decision. If a handful of people are in charge of determining what they feel is or is not misleading, they control what the public sees. There were compromises that could have been mutually agreed to so that CFER’s ad could have been published. By all the evidence available, it just seems that the Union-Tribune was not interested in doing so. As a result, they seemingly made an ideological decision to censor an ad against CRT.
