Posted on 11/02/2006 3:48:03 AM PST by theothercheek
Every two years, The Stiletto hears the same lament: This year, candidates have hit a new low in negative campaigning.
This election is no exception. "Both political parties are functioning in the 2006 House races as factories for attack ads, but the National Republican Campaign Committee's work stands out this year for the sheer volume of assaults on the personal character of Democratic House challengers," claims a report issued by the Annenberg Political Fact Check, a project of media and public policy think tank The Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania.
The report continues:
The ads being aired by both the NRCC and its rival, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, are overwhelmingly negative. However, the DCCC ads generally attack Republican candidates on policy issues or their performance in office – accusing them of casting votes favorable to drug or oil companies, or of supporting President Bush's unpopular policies in Iraq or on Social Security. We've recently criticized factual inaccuracies we've seen in some of those, and we'll have more to say in a later article. Here we focus on the NRCC's ads, which are much more likely to demean an opponent's character. That's the very definition of political mudslinging.
The Republican ads variously accuse Democratic candidates of such things as charging an "adult fantasy" phone call to taxpayers, of being a "hypocrite," of being a "greedy trial lawyer," of being a "millionaire know-it-all," or of failing to pay local business taxes on time. One ad describes a Democrat's "ethical judgments" as "bad to bizarre" and claims he favored use of 50,000-volt Taser weapons on seven-year-olds.
The Stiletto hopes that the Annenberg folks will get around to commenting in depth on the negative ads run by Dem candidates before the election next week – but she won’t hold her breath.
Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal describes (subscription required) a new Web site developed by The Sunlight Network, a non-partisan "good-government group working to increase transparency on Capitol Hill" that lets voters create their own 30-second attack ads in about 10 minutes.
What a great idea! The Stiletto is always going around saying, "If you want an anti-Dem attack ad done right, you gotta do it yourself." Really. Just ask her friends.
NOTE: This is the second item in a feature called "The Daily Blade," and appears underneath an article titled, "The Revolution Has Begun." The original source includes links that The Other Cheek does not know how to imbed/include in her FR posts. Sorry for any inconvenience.
Its time to get on message, instead of bashing Kerry 24/7
I'm sure the Annenburg Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania upholds academia's reputation for complete objectivity on political topics. /sarcasm
The coverage of Kerry's comments riducling our soldiers as dumb have lasted all of 1 1/2 news cycles. Most major news outlets didn't even play the sound clip of his actual remarks, and spent most of their coverage speculating on how the Republicans would try to cynically exploit a silly little joke. Three weeks after Foley resigned from public life, we are still listening to news reports trying to link Republican congressional candidates because they both have a 'y' in their last name. If the Annenburg center detects fewer personal attacks in Democratic ads, it is because CNN, NPR, CBS, ABC, NBC air happy to make make personal attacks on Republicans for them.
The real story of this election campaign is that the Democrats entire strategy is negativism. They specifically decided not to put out party platform. Despite endless criticism with the War on Terror in general and the Iraq front in particular, they have not suggested doing anything different. Despite endless criticism of a strong economy, they have not proposed doing anything different (and they have completely avoided talking about their plans to raise taxes). Republicans continually put forward ideas and programs. Democrats critize GWB. Who's being negative.
Negative ads work...and it frees the candidates from having to talk about anything of any importance.
The purpose of anti-Dem attack ads is to counteract the anti-Republican attack "news."
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