Exclusive: New Line did *not* withdraw all of its misleading ads

Remember those grossly-misleading online advertisements produced by New Line Cinema claiming the U.S Bishops had said that their new movie, The Golden Compass, is "An exciting adventure story, entirely in harmony with Catholic teaching"?

Remember how they changed the online advertisements to read "An exciting adventure story. Intelligent and well crafted - U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops" after some pressure?

Remember that they scrapped plans to run this advertisement in "the nation's top 50 Catholic diocesan papers", as reported by LifeSiteNews, owing to pressure from many named sources, including Amy Welborn and myself?

Well, this afternoon while I was taking a ride on the metro, I was reading a very popular daily newspaper, and what did I see in the movie section but the following...

(update: thanks to the reader who retouched the original image for clarity.)

Here, once again, is the original advertisement text reading "'The Golden Compass' Is An Exciting Adventure Story, Entirely in Harmony With Catholic Teaching." - U.S. Conference of CATHOLIC BISHOPS."

Go ahead, open up a local newspaper, I wouldn't be surprised if you find the same (misleading) endorsement.

Granted, these ads were probably purchased some time shortly after the review was published (or given to the New Line folks), and it's much more difficult to pull or edit a newspaper ad than an online one. But the fact remains that the initial advertising "push" for this movie in the most-read U.S. news dailies includes this fallacious quote.

Another observation: the other endorsements in this advertisement, besides "the U.S. Bishops", are by "CBS-FM Radio, Maxim, E!, Parade.com and The London Sun." Notably absent, I would submit, are the regular "top" movie reviewers: New York Times, LA Times, Variety, Ebert & Roeper, etc.

Awkwardly and ironically, Harry Forbes and John Mulderig of the USCCB Office for Film and Broadcasting appear to have been left holding the bag by the mainstream reviewers. And in an unfortunate development, one can begin to speculate if their gushing review wasn't in-fact prompted by something other than aesthetic wonder. I mean, since when does a vocally anti-Catholic, "anti-God" author merit some sort of benefit of the doubt when his books are adapted to the silver screen? How did the mainstream reviewers find so many flaws?

To review: 1) movie debuts. 2) U.S. Bishops'-sponsored reviewers laud it for it's artistic merit, 3) mainstream-affiliated reviewers pan it for it's artistic content, 4) movie bombs. 5) AmP scratches his head.

For AmP's previous coverage of The Golden Compass, click here.