Clear Channel discovers free speech:

...As part of its "Truthful Witness Campaign," the Christian Coalition is currently raising money to lease space on a billboard that will proclaim that homosexuality is a choice, not an innate characteristic.

The billboard, located on Route 299 in New Paltz, is owned by Clear Channel and Highway Displays, Inc. The billboard owner has told the group that it will display the poster as long as it is not offensive or obscene....

The Christian Coalition plans to feature a photograph of Stephen Bennett, who claims that he was a homosexual before a religious conversion enabled him to become heterosexual. His wife and children will also be in the photo with a caption that says: "Wonderful husband. Loving father. Former homosexual. Jesus Christ changes lives."...

(New Paltz, New York, of course, is where Mayor Jason West married a few dozen gay couples before he was ordered to stop.)

Remember a few months ago, when an anti-war group wanted to put up an ad in Times Square that featured a highly stylized bomb? No one complained, and yet Clear Channel declared the stylized bomb image unacceptable. The ad wasn't allowed to be posted until changes were made.

"We're just not going to run bomb copy in New York City," said Paul Meyer, president and chief executive of Clear Channel Outdoor -- which oversees the Spectacolor division -- Sunday afternoon.

(Er, were any bombs used on 9/11?)

People are complaining about the New Paltz ad -- Mayor West, for starters -- but Clear Channel has unilaterally declared it "not offensive or obscene." Now, what do you suppose would happen if a group wanted to rent speace on a Clear Channel billboard in the Bible Belt to show a gay couple and their children with a message such as "Love Makes a Family"? Think CC would come to the same conclusion?