The Ad:
Title: “Sold Us Out”
From: Obama/Biden Campaign
Type: Attack Ad on Republican John McCain’s views on outsourcing jobs
Date: Sept. 16, 2008
URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaCdcvdPHVM
What It Says:
The ad begins with an image of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama smiling and shaking hands with workers at a factory. The video fades to an abandoned building behind a chain link fence. Slow, dramatic music plays and the scenes show workers with distressed and somber expressions.
The narration:
“Corning shuts down its plant in Pennsylvania. Hundreds lose their jobs. Then the workers are rehired to disassemble the plant and ship the equipment to China. Washington sold them out with the help of people like John McCain. He supported tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas. And voted against cracking down on China for unfair trade practices. We can’t afford more of the same.”
Senator John McCain’s face comes onscreen. The background is a close-up of chains wrapped around the fence in front of the plant.
The Facts:
Recently, Senator Barack Obama’s camp launched an ad attacking rival presidential candidate John McCain’s voting record on taxing corporations and on China’s trade practices. The ad accuses McCain of having “sold out” the workers of a factory in Pennsylvania that closed down in 2003. The ad implies that tax breaks McCain voted for sent the manufacturing plant to China and left almost 1,000 workers unemployed.
• “Corning shuts down its plant in Pennsylvania. Hundreds lose their jobs.”
It’s accurate that the plant was shut down and workers did lose jobs. But the factory, owned by Corning Incorporated, wasn’t moved to China. The factory made cathode ray tubes, or CRTs.
“We found that CRTs are a dying business. We exited that business entirely.” ( Kelli Hopp-Michlosky, spokesperson for Corning Inc.)
• “Then the workers are rehired to disassemble the plant and ship the equipment to China.”
The ad suggests that the factory in State College, Pennsylvania, was moved overseas. But it doesn’t explain that Corning sold the equipment they were no longer using to a Chinese manufacturer.
“Corning did not ship a single job out of America. We didn’t create any jobs in China, either. That the parts we shipped haven’t even been used and we confirmed that with the Chinese manufacturer.” (Kelli Hopp-Michlosky, spokesperson for Corning Inc.)
Corning has protested the Obama campaign’s use of the plant closing in ads against McCain and, during the Democratic primaries, against Sen. Hillary Clinton.
“It’s not presented in full context. We’re not happy about this. It’s really unfortunate.” (Kelli Hopp-Michlosky, spokesperson for Corning Inc.)
• “Washington sold them out with the help of people like John McCain. He supported tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas. And voted against cracking down on China for unfair trade practices.”
The ad cites three Senate votes as evidence of McCain’s voting to give tax breaks to companies that outsourced jobs. It is accurate that Senator McCain voted against taxing corporations that moved manufacturing jobs overseas (Senate vote 63, 3/17/05). Senator McCain also voted for the federal government to provide for the taxes of income of foreign corporations for their imports (Senate vote 83, 5/5/04). Yet, it is misleading to say that these votes pushed jobs out of America or caused the Corning plant in Pennsylvania to shut down.
Also, the ad is not specific on what legislation McCain opposed that would “crack down on China for unfair trade practices.” In 2000, he did vote to extend normal trade relations treatment with the People’s Republic of China. “Normal trade relations treatment” is a legal term meaning that the U.S. allows for fewer restrictions on trade between countries. During the primaries, the Obama camp also attacked Hillary Clinton for her support of normalizing trade relations with China and again tied it to the Corning plant shutting down. The assertion that normalizing trade restrictions with China had any effect on the Corning plant shut down is misleading and inaccurate.
Conclusion:
Obama’s ad takes the facts far out of context. Corning didn’t move its plant to China. And the notion that Senator John McCain “sold out” Pennsylvania workers is an exaggeration, to say the least. The ad also misrepresents McCain’s position on taxing corporations that do business overseas and on China’s trade practices. The Obama camp has used this tactic to attack opponents twice, but on both occasions, they have failed to be accurate.
(Boris Sanchez is a senior with dual majors in broadcast journalism and international relations.)
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