Audubon Hits Ford for Pulling Ads

The Ford Motor Co. was sharply criticized by the National Audubon Society’s president for yanking its commercials from an upcoming special on the impact of livestock on public land.

Although a Ford spokesman said that the company considered the program, “The New Range Wars,” too controversial, Audubon President Peter A. A. Berle accused Ford of buckling to ranchers, cattlemen and others.

Berle praised General Electric, which underwrites the society’s “The World of Audubon” series and which said that it will not drop its sponsorship.

Narrated by actor Peter Coyote, “The New Range Wars” will air four times on Ted Turner’s TBS cable channel, which serves 52 million homes, beginning June 23. PBS then will air it Aug. 6.

Berle noted that this is the second time Ford has withdrawn from an Audubon special on TBS. In 1989, Ford and nine other sponsors, including Stroh Brewery Co., pulled their commercials from “Rage Over Trees,” about the destruction of Pacific Northwest forests. It was heavily criticized by the logging industry, which threatened an advertiser boycott.

“The New Range Wars” has been criticized by Myron Ebell, a Washington spokesman for the National Inholders Assn. and the Multi-Land Use Alliance, based in Battleground, Wash.

The show “makes false, misleading statements about the impact of cattle” grazing on public lands, Ebell said, calling it “a very insidious piece of propaganda.”

Ford spokesman Larry Weis declined to say how much the auto maker’s canceled commercials were worth or whether complaints from Ebell and others triggered his company’s action.

“We just simply felt it was too controversial,” he said. “It’s against our policy to take sides in highly politicized controversies of this kind.”

GE spokeswoman Joyce Hergenhan said from the company’s headquarters in Fairfield, Conn.: “When we made the decision to sponsor the broadcasts, we knew we would not agree with them on every issue. For example, we’re in the nuclear power business, and they don’t support nuclear power. However, we support their right to speak out on environmental subjects of their choosing.”