Reports Add Up The Bottom Line On Negative Ads {Guess who spends more!}

Star Tribune ^ | December 20, 2004 | Mark Brunswick

[wallcrawlr]

Minnesota's DFL Party shelled out at least $800,000 in independent spending for November's state House elections, with almost half of it going toward negative ads and mailings against Republicans, who spent about $10,000, a report says.

The election produced a loss of 13 seats for Republicans in the GOP-controlled House, and the conventional wisdom had it that a stalled legislative session earlier this year and the failure to finance key building programs for some districts soured voters on many House Republicans.

Fueling some of that discontent was the money spent by political parties and independent groups, as detailed in the latest reports to the Campaign Finance and Public Disclosure Board. The DFL's spending against Republican incumbents was particularly notable.

House Speaker Steve Sviggum, R-Kenyon, said the amount of negative advertising from independent groups, including political parties, was unprecedented, but the success of the attack ads suggests that it will be employed again.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

If the '04 campaign taught anything, it showed that Campaign Finance "Reform" is a travesty.

There is one sovereign remedy for the negativity in American politics - eliminate government enabling of pseudoobjcetivity. And that simply means elimination of FCC support, even toleration, of broadcast journalism.

Whether of the left or of the right, opinion frankly expressed as opinion, such as is typical of talk radio, is legitimate. But there is nothing quite so tendentious as the claim by someone whose speech has political implications that their own speech is apolitical. That is precisely what gave sophistry a bad name.

• a claim of wisdom is a claim to be above the challenge of contrary facts and logic, and
• a claim of objectivity is in fact a claim of wisdom.

If you are willing to discuss issues with all comers, as the best talk show hosts are willing and even eager to do, you are philosophical. It is, IMHO, no accident that the most successful talk show hosts are conservatives.