N.C. Stations Won't Air Controversial Ad Linking Wright And Obama

As we noted in a story today, John McCain has called on the Republican Party of North Carolina not to run a controversial ad criticizing two state Democratic gubernatorial candidates for endorsing Barack Obama.

The spot, which you can see here, calls Obama "too extreme" for the state and shows Obama's former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, exclaiming "God Damn America." The North Carolina branch of the NAACP has suggested the ad is injecting "racial sentiments" into the campaign.

Now the Charlotte Observer is reporting that two of the state's television stations are refusing to air the ad, which the state party says it still plans to run.

"I just don't think it's appropriate to be on our air," the general manager of one of the stations told the paper. "I think it's offensive, and I'm not real comfortable with the implications around race."

The stations have a legal right not to air the ad, but Brent Woodcox, the state party's spokesman, told the Observer the decision was disappointing.

"You're going down a very dark path that could end up saying, 'these are the kinds of things you can say in a political debate, and these are the kinds of things you can't,'" he said. "Those aren't the principles this country was founded on."