Oversensitivity can only compromise debate

GRAHAM Young is the founding editor of a well-regarded e-journal called On Line Opinion......

In December he published a piece arguing the case against gay marriage by the pro-family campaigner, Bill Muehlenberg, and then a series of spirited exchanges on the merits of the argument. It was not the first article he'd run on the subject ; that honour had gone to Rodney Croome, a gay activist. Nor were most of the essays run opposed to gay marriage.

On account of the Muehlenberg piece, Young told me two major advertisers had just pulled out: the ANZ Bank and IBM. Comparing this year's January gross ad sales with last year's, he calculated that revenue from his main category of advertising had fallen by 96 per cent.

Read on

Any company has the right to decide where it advertises.

In this instance it appears they had sub-let the right to advertising agencies and 'Google Ad' type internet placing agencies. ANZ have now taken back their right from the agencies.

Maybe the reasons are due to threats from gay-rights activists, maybe it is a different commercial business plan being implemented, but whichever, if a company doesn't want to advertise on a web-site, then why condemn it when it withdraws its advertising.

Obviously the business plan of the web-site developer, to rely on two major advertisers for 96% of it's revenue, is flawed.