..Gary Dretzka
..Noah Forrest
..Leonard Klady
..R.J. Matson
..David Poland
..Douglas Pratt
..Ray Pride
..Michael Wilmington

October 23, 2006

For Immediate Release:

CNN, NPR Won’t Run Ads for “Death of a President”

“Rush to judgment tramples basic American values,” says distributor

Los Angeles - Oct. 23, 2006 - Controversy continued to swirl around “Death of a President,” director Gabriel Range’s political thriller about the fictional assassination of President George W. Bush, as both CNN and National Public Radio said today they would not accept ads for the provocative award-winning film, which opens in theaters nationwide this Friday.

Even though “Death of a President” has been hailed by the critics for its anti-violence message, CNN told the movie’s distributor Newmarket Films in an email today that it “has decided not to take the ads because of the extreme nature of the movie’s subject matter.”

NPR cited similar reasons in refusing to run sponsorship announcements on behalf of “Death of a President.”

“To refuse to accept ads for a movie is tantamount to saying it shouldn’t be seen, and this runs counter to everything we are supposed to believe in as a free society,” said Newmarket co-founder Chris Ball. “What we find especially troubling is that these decisions are being made by people who we believe have not seen even seen the movie. This rush to judgment tramples on the basic American values of fairness and free expression. As everyone who has actually seen the movie agrees, ‘Death of a President’ is the opposite of a call for violence – it’s a powerfully cautionary tale about the pernicious effects of violence.”

All of the ads for “Death of a President,” both print and electronic, have been approved by the Motion Picture Association of America. Broadcast and digital ads for the movie have been accepted by MSNBC, Fox.com, and CNET.com, among others. Print ads have already appeared in major newspapers in virtually every major media market in the country, including The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, and Philadelphia Inquirer.

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