Dem lawmaker tells DC Metro to remove ad that profanes Obama

Washington, D.C.’s Metrorail should remove an advertisement in one of its subway stations that criticizes President Obama, a Democratic congressman from northern Virginia argued Wednesday.

Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.) said in a letter to Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority General Manager Richard Sales that the ad “does not belong” in the capital region’s transportation system because it is “deeply disrespectful to the President of the United States.”

{mosads}”I accept that WMATA should display ads, including those of a political nature, in the Metro system in order to secure the revenue they provide,” Moran said.  But he added that “minimum standards of decency must be maintained
through a vetting process” of advertisements on the D.C. public
transportation system.

The ad, Moran said, is for a film that is critical of the federal health law and includes the phrase “Go to hell, Barack.” The ad appears in a metro station in Virginia.

“I call on you to remove this ad and any others like it from the system,” Moran concluded in his letter.

“Profanity has no place in the public forum,” he added in a subsequent tweet to the WMATA Twitter account.

A spokesman for WMATA, Dan Stessel, did not respond directly to Moran’s tweet, but he posted a link to Federal Transit Administration guidelines on transit advertisement and first amendment protections.

-This post was updated with new information at 11:40 p.m.

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