The group Conservatives for Patients’ Rightshas produced a 30-minute documentary-style commercial, which aired May 31 on NBC after "Meet the Press." Hosted by former CNN anchor Gene Randall, the program, labeled "paid programming" throughout, was a very lengthy version of ads the group has run criticizing government-run health care systems in Britain and Canada. We called one of the group’s ads "misleading," saying that it "falsely suggests Congress... Click to Read the Full Post
Summary Both the Coalition for Constitutional Values, a liberal group supporting Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination to the Supreme Court, and the Judicial Confirmation Network, a conservative organization that opposes President Obama’s choice, have ads up attempting to enhance or undermine her confirmation prospects. The ads are accurate and civil. JCN’s spot, which is running only on the Internet at this point, quotes extensively from Sotomayor’s own remarks about how she hoped... Click to Read the Full Post
On May 28, the National Republican Congressional Committee announced a new ad campaign attacking Democratic House members by attempting to tie them to Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s winding story of what the CIA did or did not tell her about U.S. interrogation techniques. The NRCC says it plans to target 20 Democrats with mailers, robocalls, TV and radio ads; it announced that robocalls and radio spots will run in 17 districts. So far we have seen one television ad, in the district of Rep. Frank Kratovil... Click to Read the Full Post
Summary A group called Conservatives for Patients’ Rights began airing a television ad this week that criticizes government-run health care and falsely suggests Congress wants a British-style system here in the U.S.: The ad neglects to mention that President Obama hasn’t proposed a government-run plan and, in fact, has rejected the idea. It claims that a research council created by the stimulus bill is "the first step in government control over your health care choices."... Click to Read the Full Post
Summary Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Arlen Specter apparently doesn’t need an official opponent to come out with guns blazing in an attack ad that marks the first TV spot in this race. His ad criticizes former U.S. Rep. Patrick Toomey, a probable challenger in the GOP primary. But Specter misfires a few times along the way: The ad says Toomey "sold risky derivatives called credit default swaps … that have now plunged us into this financial mess." But Toomey dealt in interest... Click to Read the Full Post
The American Issues Project, a conservative group, has released an ad attacking President Obama and congressional Democrats for the bonuses issued by American International Group after it received federal bailout funds. The ad is scheduled to run for the next week on a $500,000 ad buy. Here’s the ad: It shows a headline saying that "Obama Accepts Blame for AIG Bonuses," which the group’s backup says is from The Wall Street Journal. And indeed, the Journal includes such a headline.... Click to Read the Full Post
On Friday, the Democratic National Committee released an ad attacking Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina for not accepting $700 million in stimulus funds. Sanford is considered a potential Republican candidate for president in 2012. The ad is correct to say that Sanford is "turning down millions in recovery act funds." Sanford has said that he would rather use the money available at his discretion through ARRA to pay down the state’s debt, and he requested a special waiver from... Click to Read the Full Post
Back in September, we analyzed an ad from the environmental group Defenders of Wildlife that attacked Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin for "aerial hunting" of wolves. Though its facts were essentially correct, we pointed out that the Alaskan government called the hunting "predator control" and said its purpose was to keep the populations of moose and caribou high enough to sustain subsistence hunting. A few weeks ago, we noted that the Defenders had brought... Click to Read the Full Post
The liberal advocacy group Americans United for Change (along with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees labor union) released a new ad attacking Republicans for not supporting President Obama’s economic stimulus plan. Here is our review of an earlier ad from Americans United for Change. Here is the new one: The main message of the ad is that Republicans said "no" to Obama’s plan, and, therefore, said "no" to "3.5 million jobs"... Click to Read the Full Post
