For quite a while, it seemed as if the only political ads that were rejected by television networks came from the left. Last week, for example, Fox News rejected an ad from the Center for Constitutional Rights about the administration's torture because, as Bill O'Reilly insisted, the ad was "anti-American." Last year, NBC refused to run an ad from MoveOn.org about alleged Republican corruption. Around the same time, all of the major TV networks rejected an ad by the United Church of Christ that told viewers, "No matter who you are or where you are on life's journey, you're welcome here."

The trend has been discouraging for a while. In November 2005, Fox News wouldn't run anti-Alito ads. Not long beforehand, MoveOn.org raised enough money to buy an ad during the Super Bowl, but CBS rejected it, noting its "long-term policy not to air issue ads anywhere on the network." Just a few weeks prior, CBS and NBC refused advertising from the UCC because the church's open, tolerant message of inclusion was labeled "too controversial."

With this background in mind, it came as a bit of a surprise last week when NBC rejected a political ad from Freedom's Watch, a right-wing group created to support the White House's policy agenda, concluding that the group's website, referred to in the ad, was "too political."

Alan Wurtzel, NBC's head of standards and practices, said the network decided not to run the Freedom's Watch ad because the group insisted that the spot contain the URL address of its Web site.

The group's home page links to another Freedom's Watch Web page that lists nonprofit organizations that are sending care packages to soldiers and that suggests other ways of expressing support.

It also contains a welcoming message that states: "For too long, conservatives have lacked a permanent political presence to do battle with the radical special interests groups and their left-wing allies in government."

As much as I'm opposed to Freedom's Watch, I didn't necessarily perceive this as welcome news. The point isn't to block liberals and conservatives from the public's airwaves; I'd much prefer the networks allow both sides to advertise and reach the public.

That said, I was at least mildly encouraged that NBC was being even-handed -- the network rebuffed MoveOn.org, a message of tolerance from the United Church of Christ, and the loyal Bushies at Freedom's Watch.

Or so I thought.

Correction: In its original form, this post reported in error that the ad in question began with a political statement. In fact, the ad did not contain a political statement. We regret the error.