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Republican Ad Shocks Some in Tennessee
NPR ^ | 26 OCT 2006 | NPR

Posted on 10/26/2006 11:18:39 AM PDT by radar101

The Republican National Committee provided the money for a television advertisement running in Tennessee that Some say plays to racist fears.

Jennifer Peebles, the political editor at the Tennessean newspaper in Nashville, speaks with Susan Stamberg about the ad.

All Things Considered, October 25, 2006 · The election is less than two weeks away in a year when control of the House and Senate is at stake. One campaign tool that gets rolled out every election year at this time is the shocking campaign ad, and this year is no different. Just when you think you've seen it all, political consultants come up with new ways to call their opponents scum.

In Tennessee, the Republican Party has run an ad against Democract Harold Ford, an African American, that is so loaded with innuendo that even Ford's Republican opponent denounced it.

In the ad, a blonde coos into the camera, "I met Harold at the Playboy party."

John Gere, a political science professor at Vanderbilt University, says the commercial "makes the Willie Horton ad look like child's play." Gere, who studies the effectiveness of political ads, calls this one a new low.

"It's raising the race card and playing it through the use of old-style fears about interracial couples and interracial relations. I've never seen anything like this," Gere says.

When asked about the ad, Ken Mehlman, the chair of the Republican National Committee, initially said he didn't see the racial overtones. He also noted that the Republican National Committee didn't have any say over the content. (Mehlman's office later called NPR to say that the ad was going to be taken out of rotation.)

In a much more subtle -- but just as devastating -- ad by the Democrats, actor Michael J. Fox sways and twitches with the effects of Parkinson's disease while he speaks in support of stem cell research.

If these and the hundreds of local ads like them are to be believed, politicians in America are tax-and-spend, sex-crazed criminals who hate children, puppies and rainbows, and love to vote themselves pay-raises.

But Vanderbilt's Gere says that negative ads don't seem to be responsible for the American public's distrust of politicians. In fact, he says, most negative ads serve a noble purpose: They are actually more substantive than positive ads.

"If you want more issues, the issues to be more specific, the issues to be documented," Gere says, "it turns out negative ads have that more than positive ads" -- which often feature warm and fuzzy images of candidates and their families, or a vague appeal to values and security, Gere says.

But Gere also notes that negative ads haven't been shown to be any more effective than positive ones. In the end, it comes down to how much an ad is repeated, and how well it grabs voters' attention.


TOPICS: Politics/Elections; US: Tennessee
KEYWORDS: deathtax; dems; dontpull; funnyads; goodgrief; greatad; growupalready; hilarious; notracist; taxes
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ADS: Harold Ford

http://youtube.com/watch?v=kkiz1_d1GsA

TAXMAN

http://www.gop.com/Multimedia/MediaPlayer.aspx?ID=1138&TypeID=2

STAKES

http://www.gop.com/Multimedia/MediaPlayer.aspx?ID=1136&TypeID=2 http://www.gop.com/Multimedia/MediaPlayer.aspx?ID=1138&TypeID=2

1 posted on 10/26/2006 11:18:41 AM PDT by radar101
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To: radar101

I believe this is ANOTHER dead story. First it was pulled. Second Corker apologized for it. Everything is over...let's go on to the next event. Don't leave us waiting. lol.


2 posted on 10/26/2006 11:21:38 AM PDT by napscoordinator
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To: radar101

I think the real problem the Dims have with the Ford ad is that it is funny and effective. It paints Ford as a leftist on taxes, guns, and foreign policy.


3 posted on 10/26/2006 11:21:47 AM PDT by MichiganConservative (The US is so full of domestic enemies, maybe all we can do is slow the inevitable ascent of tyranny.)
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To: radar101

Was NPR shocked at the NAACP ads in 2000 which blamed George W. Bush of complicity in the dragging death of a black man in rural Texas ?

Yet another glaring illustration of why NPR has no business existing off of taxpayer money.

Why haven't PBS and NPR been defunded ?


4 posted on 10/26/2006 11:22:08 AM PDT by colonel mosby
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To: radar101

I love how the dems are complaining about this advertisement. The more they complain, the more it looks like they are afraid of it, that the ad is completely 100% true. Thanks NPR and the rest of the dems, you have helped us (unwittingly) yet again.


5 posted on 10/26/2006 11:22:26 AM PDT by FlipWilson
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To: radar101

How racist is it, really? I didn't think it was racist to point out that the guy went to a Playboy party.

If they had put a black woman in there instead of a white woman, asking Harold to call her, they'd be screaming even louder, wouldn't they?


6 posted on 10/26/2006 11:22:26 AM PDT by The Old Hoosier (Right makes might.)
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To: MichiganConservative

My favorite part of the ad is the guy that says he doesn't need all his guns.


7 posted on 10/26/2006 11:22:29 AM PDT by rhombus
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To: radar101

I'd like the media to report how some people don't find the ad racist at all and those that do are just looking for anything to be offended about. nd no, I didn't see the racism in the Williw Horton ad either.


8 posted on 10/26/2006 11:22:53 AM PDT by Betty Jane
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To: Betty Jane
Don't forget it was Al Gore who first ran the Willie Horton ad in the primary. It was not even an issue until it was ran locally by small conservative group in the general election, not GB 41.
9 posted on 10/26/2006 11:25:30 AM PDT by crosslink (Moderates should play in the middle of a busy street)
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To: radar101

Anybody whose opinion is swayed by an ad shouldn't be voting in the first place!..........We're not selling soap powders, people!..............


10 posted on 10/26/2006 11:25:53 AM PDT by Red Badger (CONGRESS NEEDS TO BE DE-FOLEY-ATED...............................)
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To: Betty Jane

"that Some say plays to racist fears. "

I suppose since "some" is capitalized that means that there is a Mr. or Mrs. Some, somewhere who is shocked.


11 posted on 10/26/2006 11:26:22 AM PDT by Toespi
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To: colonel mosby

Yep. I recalled exactly the same ad. The big difference is this year's Tennessee ad is based on ACTUAL FACT about something Ford not only admitted he did, but bragged about. The James Byrd ad was a total fabrication about something GWB had absolutley nothing to do with (other than ensuring the perps were prosecuted), was not pulled and what NPR/PBS had absolutely nothing to condemn.


12 posted on 10/26/2006 11:26:25 AM PDT by Vigilanteman (Are there any men left in Washington? Or are there only cowards? Ahmad Shah Massoud)
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To: radar101

The Left is always "shocked" and "offended" kind of like how the Muslims are always "shocked" and "offended".


13 posted on 10/26/2006 11:26:51 AM PDT by D-Chivas
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To: The Old Hoosier
Why does race have to do with it? If all of the playmates are white and there aren't enough women of color at the playboy mansion, then it's Hugh Hefner's diversity policy which should be questioned.
14 posted on 10/26/2006 11:26:53 AM PDT by Perdogg (Democratic Party - The political wing of Al Qaida)
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To: MichiganConservative

"I think the real problem the Dims have with the Ford ad is that it is funny and effective. It paints Ford as a leftist on taxes, guns, and foreign policy."

Of course that is correct. There is nothing racist in the ad. It is a phony charge by democrats to try to get the ad off the air and then call Corker and the RNC racist.



15 posted on 10/26/2006 11:28:21 AM PDT by Hendrix
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To: radar101

So John Gere and other critics continue to manufacture and label problems that don't exist.

This is standard, non-substantive response when they can't address the basic charge.


16 posted on 10/26/2006 11:28:23 AM PDT by G Larry (Only strict constructionists on the Supreme Court!)
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To: radar101
If these and the hundreds of local ads like them are to be believed, politicians in America are tax-and-spend, sex-crazed criminals who hate children, puppies and rainbows, and love to vote themselves pay-raises.

I take exception to this statement. Michael Steele loves puppies.

Now that the record has been set straight, carry on,

17 posted on 10/26/2006 11:28:40 AM PDT by NeoCaveman (Politics ain't beanbag. Make it a Rovetember to remember)
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To: napscoordinator

What would you expect from "National Pubic Radio?"
It's funny, I've spent a lot of time in the desert SW. You can drive for a hundred miles and not pick up a commercial radio station, but By GOD, you sure as hell can get a damn PBS station. That entity needs gutting at the throat....


18 posted on 10/26/2006 11:29:32 AM PDT by Gaffer
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To: radar101
They've really run out of opportunities to play the race card, haven't they?
19 posted on 10/26/2006 11:29:45 AM PDT by Physicist
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To: radar101
Added tn (US: Tennessee) to the TOPICS list for our FRiends who monitor Tennessee news in the sidebar.

Instead of just scrolling past them all, please take a moment to click the applicable state(s) on the Topics screen when posting news of particular interest to people in that state.

20 posted on 10/26/2006 11:29:46 AM PDT by newgeezer
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