Networks Helped Spread McCain's False "Troops" Ad

NY Times:

The number of times Senator John McCain's new advertisement attacking Senator Barack Obama for canceling a visit with wounded troops in Germany last week has been shown fully or partly on local, national and cable newscasts: well into the hundreds.

The number of times that spot actually, truly ran as a paid commercial: roughly a dozen.

Result for Mr. McCain: a public relations coup that allowed him to show his toughest campaign advertisement of the year -- one widely panned as misleading -- to millions of people, largely free, through television news media hungry for political news with arresting visual imagery.

Read the whole story: NY Times

Comments

[max08]

The networks taken for a ride? Or a failure on the part of network producers to read and investigate enough to have real news to report on?

[Janet Carter]

And they are continuing to run these McCain ads free of charge today. I have seen the latest "Britney Spears" ad by McCain run in it's entirety on Fox News and MSNBC no less than 20 times and it is barely after 12:00 noon. Surely SOMETHING can be done to stop the MSM from giving McCain this free advertising.

ObamaKaine '08

[jsinclair]

This ad is not "misleading".

It is a LIE.

And McCain KNOWS it is false to say (as he did again to Larry King on Monday) that Obama didn't visit the hospital "because he couldn't bring cameras and press."

Every reporter on the trip knows that is FALSE. I've heard both Jonathan Alter and Andrea Mitchell (no Obama fan) say bluntly that there was NEVER a plan for ANYONE from the press to go with him.

Which is completely consistent with his other military hospital visits, including the recent one to Walter Reed. No comments. No cameras.

For McCain to persist in LYING like this....fo­r McCain to continue running ads that knowingly PERPETUATE LIES says more about his character (i.e. his lack of character) than anything Obama could have said.

McCain is a liar and an opportunist and absolutely CANNOT be trusted. This is the message of those ads and his comments to all but his most deluded supporters.

Liar. Opportunist. No integrity whatsoever. On "character" alone, this man doesn't belong in the WH.

[demfriend]

The media has done this so many times and yet people let it happen. We have the capability to email the stations, the news channel, the talking heads who are doing it and yet many sit on their hands and cry out "it's not right". Yeah I am talking to you fellow bloggers who sit and watch these people at work doing the dirty nasty on anyone and anything they choose to focus on. How many shows on the "news" channels have run these ads like we have to examine every single word on the ad repeatedly on the same program with each and every single commentators re-reading the ad over and over for every single "guest" like they cannot remember from the last time it was read like maybe two minutes previous? I have watched the same news program show the same ad over 6 times before I got fed up with it! They all do it like we and the guests are so stupid that it has to be imprinted on our brains to have an opinion. I write to the person who is the "name" on theprogram and tell them to stop doing it. One voice does little many does a lot.

[mnash]

Yeah, but you didn't see Mc gaffe's and untruths aired did you? The MSM didn't take the time or didn't want to run anything on M. But they certainly set their sites on O

[JRandomPoster]

I don't mind them running it as part of a news story. What I do mind is them running it, and only going so far as to say that "The Obama camp pushed back on this" as opposed to saying, "This add contains blatant falsehoods­." (Though, I will admit that a few have.)

[lthuedk 1]

Can producers be sued for fraud if they continue to push a known misrepresentation for money? Lets hear from the lawyers out there.

[frappe]

The mainstream media historically has, unfortunately, done a pathetic job of keeping the Republicans honest when it comes to deceptive campaign practices. In fact, they often seem to supplement or reinforce their efforts by replaying those pathetic ads in a continuous loop on their cable tv political news shows while not offering an effective rebuttal to the ridiculous claims being made by the ads. This, of course, only serves to make matters much, much more difficult to counter for the Democratic candidate. (We all remember this scenario from the infamous Swiftboat ads that were used quite effectively against John Kerry in 2004.)

So, in the absence of an effective referee on broadcast television, it is incumbent upon Barack Obama to do what many in the mainstream media won't do -- consistently expose the lies and deceptions of many of the Rovian-inspired campaign ads and statements by responding with an aggressive ad campaign that educates and informs voters with the undeniable, unmitigated truth.

[GuyFawkes]

Even Keith Olberman showed it in its entirety. Baffling. This is how the Swift Boat Ad spread. You'd think the msm would learn its lesson by now. But if you watch CNN or MSNBC, they regularly run McDubya's ads in their entirety, especially on Hardball.

[jsinclair]

Yes, but Olberman dismantled it, point by point, and completely exposed the lying.

His handling of it was very informative--unlike the others who showed it.

[unscum]

True or not, the wounded troops ad is very effective for a certain demography of 'low information' type voter. I'm positive the narrowing of national polls between Obama and McCain have to do with negative ads like this over the past couple of weeks released not only by the McCain campaign but also by the RNC and republican leaning 527. Hillary Clinton was right, this is just beginning and it's going to get a lot worse unless the democratic party and the left in general grow a spine and fight back.

[likeicare]

The MSM is helping spread McSame's vitriol b/c they were bullied into it by the Rethuglicans.

They fell for the old ploy that every kid tries to use against a parent: "You love (insert name of sibling here) more than me!"

But what else should we expect, right? It's not like they're in the news business, afterall.

They're just another marketing venue to sell crap made in China.

[BillyCioffi]

As cynical as I am. I never believed that Kerry had a chance for example, I have a feeling about this election and I think even the media do as well. I would put the odds at 70% at least the next four years will be controlled by Americans with D's after their names. It will be time to put up or shut up in changes that could make the"new deal" seem mild. It could be the grand step towards what America is supposed to be and represent in this new century. I pray we don't blow it like the Repugs did and we will all one day stare at each other in disbelief in that we as a nation almost let the dream of America slip through our fingers into the slimy hands of those in this group of fascist capitalists cowards who sacrificed our countries youth and treasure for their own hubris and dreams of power. Even the most deluded of true believers Conservatives can barely hold down their lunch listening to the vacuous right wingers who will spin so they can collect their few hundred in fees . A lot of these Bozos will be looking fr jobs. I wonder what the JOD Female soon to be ex lawyer will be doing? Competing with a hard working illegal for the below minimum wage maids job. My money is on the honest illegal she would not wrong this country as badly loser robot "lawyer".

[50fromohio]

McCain knew this was going to happen and the media fell for it and happily obliged. Keith Olbermann was the only one to take it a step further and show how McCain has not back the military - will anyone take notice? No the media wants to keep this a close race! It's a shame that THEY are affecting the outcome of the race.

[thegreatgiginthesky]

The guy who voted at every turn to screw our wounded vets out of benefits is the one telling us that his opponenet does not support the troops. Someone in JM's campaign should explain to him the meaning of irony.

[kasinca]

And all they can say is that the MSM is liberal while they have carried water for the neo-conservatives and the thugs in the Bush Crime Family even while Bill Clinton was still in office. John McSame would be worse than W Bush. We do not need another fascist in the WH.