March 11, 2008

Polarizing ads should not be riding the bus

Free speech is one of our most important constitutional rights. It is the foundation of our democracy. In particular, the breadth of Oregon's Constitution free speech protection by which I am proud to be governed. The issue before TriMet, and about which you editorialized, is not about free speech.

Our society is built upon the free exchange of ideas, vigorous debate, and healthy disagreement. The issue is only whether that debate should occur on the sides of our buses and MAX trains. My answer is no.

What is the issue? TriMet is a public agency. In our public role, we abide fully by providing freedom of speech. But we are also a business when it comes to advertisements on our buses and MAX trains. And just as the owner of a billboard or the mural space on the side of a building we can set standards for what advertisements we will accept, something the editorial agreed with. In this case we have rejected political or issue ads and instead said we will only accept ads that are aimed at selling products or services.  And the revenue from these advertisements helps us expand our services.

The Oregonian Editorial on February 25 ran a depiction of the ad we rejected. It showed salmon swimming toward a wall of electrical plug-ins and stated "Salmon shouldn’t run up your electric bill. They should run up the Klamath River."

From a personal standpoint, I support removing the 4 dams in question. But that is not the point.

Consider the implications of no restrictions on advertising.  Would the reaction have been different if the ad rejected had been:

• The picture of a skinhead complete with a swastika tattoo asking to keep America for Americans.
• The picture of a partial birth fetus accompanied by an anti-abortion message.
• The picture of a same sex couple at a wedding altar with the heading that it is against God’s law. 

The list of controversial ads could go on and on.

Most riders, in fact most citizens of our region react as do I. At first, when we see a posting with which we agree we nod in approval, maybe even give a big thumbs up. And when we see something with which we disagree we are offended and ask, "How could that be permitted"? In our case people ask, "How could TriMet support this?"

And then, most of us do what I have done, recognize you can’t have one without the other and conclude it is best to have neither.

And that is what TriMet has done. There are many forums for the give and take of political debate that is so important to our democracy. We all support free speech. But keep the polarizing advertisements on the bumper sticker, not on buses and MAX.

Fred Hansen
TriMet General Manager
Op-Ed response to The Oregonian, Feb. 25, 2008