The Ad:
Title “Honor”
From: Obama/Biden Campaign, Democratic Party
Type: attack ad against Republican candidate John McCain
Date: Sept. 15, 2008
URL: http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/stateupdates/gG5q24
What It Says:
The ad opens with a clip of Republican Sen. John McCain at a podium and a graphic reading “McCain Then…” He says, “I will not take the low road to the highest office in this land.”
Narrator: “What’s happened to John McCain? He’s running the sleaziest ads ever. Truly vile. Dishonest smears that he repeats even after it’s been exposed as a lie. The truth be damned. A disgraceful, dishonorable campaign. After voting with Bush 90 percent of the time, proposing the same disastrous economic policies, it seems deception is all he has left.”
The Facts:
The Obama camp decided to air this ad in response to some media reports characterizing McCain’s campaign as “dishonest.” The ad gives cold, hard, descriptions of McCain’s campaign tactics. Problem is, none of it contains any cold, hard facts.
Most of the narrator’s script is pulled from these media reports. All of them are opinion pieces, largely from columnists who tend to favor Obama.
- “Truly vile” (Washington Post, Dionne, 09/10/08) “disgraceful, dishonorable campaign” (Washington Post, Dionne, 09/12/08)
The ad uses two quotes from columnist E.J. Dionne Jr., of The Washington Post.
Dionne’s writing has been mostly pro-Obama. But he has praised McCain in some areas. These two particular articles examine the mud-slinging and lies he thinks has characterized the election season. He writes that this campaign “is a blur of flying pieces of junk.”
In the first article, Dionne criticizes a McCain ad that makes incorrect claims about Obama’s education policies. The ad accuses Obama of supporting legislation that would offer sex education to kindergartners.
Obama really supported legislation that would allow teachers to provide “age-appropriate” sex education. It would give schools the ability to warn students about sexual predators and how to protect themselves.
- “The truth be damned” (Chicago Tribune, 09/10/08)
This quote comes from another opinion article written by columnist Steve Chapman from the Chicago Tribune. The article criticizes McCain for Chapman characterizes as lying in campaign ads.
The citation in the ad fails to list Chapman’s name. This could lead the viewer to believe that the Chicago Tribune stands behind the statement. Chapman himself criticizes McCain for making the same citation mistake in a previous ad.
Chapman writes about McCain, “He released a TV spot on education studded with falsehoods. It quoted the Tribune calling Obama a ‘staunch defender of the existing public school monopoly.’ But the Tribune didn’t say it, I did.”
- “sleaziest ads ever.” (Klein, Time, 09/10/08)
This quote comes from a blog entry by Joe Klein, Time magazine’s political columnist on the Time Web site. This particular entry criticizes McCain for what Klein describes as dishonesty. Klein mentions the same ad Dionne does and calls it the “sleaziest” ad he’s seen in politics.
Klein is a critic of both presidential candidates, but is heavily pro-Obama in his writing.
Conclusion:
An ad like this is aimed to influence more than inform. But if you take a closer look at the quoted information meant to substantiate the ad, none of it contains informative facts. This ad is a compilation of political opinions.
(Stacy Lange is a junior in broadcast journalism).
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