Two Political Ads Share More Than Fame and Controversy (Swift/Willie)

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1151-2004Sep6.html

By Paul Farhi
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 7, 2004; Page A02

Separated by 16 years, two of the most famous and controversial TV ads in presidential campaign history share a remarkable set of traits. Both were launched by nominally independent groups, not by the candidates themselves. Both aired in just a few small markets, gaining widespread exposure only through news media coverage. Both were denounced as inaccurate and unfair.

And both the "Willie Horton" spot of 1988 and the 2004 campaign's initial commercial by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth slammed a Democrat from Massachusetts and helped a Republican candidate named George Bush.

The Horton ad caused a huge media stir when it ran during the fall of the race involving Vice President George H.W. Bush and Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis, the Democratic nominee. The ad, launched by a group called the National Security Political Action Committee, showed a mug shot of a black convict named William Horton (although he was never known as "Willie," the ad referred to him that way) who had attacked an Oxon Hill, Md., couple while free under a Massachusetts prison furlough program overseen by Dukakis. The ad was intended to highlight allegations that Dukakis was soft on crime, but critics saw it as an attempt to stir up racial fears.

The commercial aired last month by a group of Vietnam-era naval veterans known as Swift Boat Veterans for Truth was also denounced by Democrats. That ad questioned Democratic nominee John F. Kerry's Vietnam service record, which has been a centerpiece of Kerry's campaign.

For academics who study campaign rhetoric and advertising, the parallels between the two commercials are striking.
<snip>

[truthisfreedom]

1. of course they're strikingly similar. it's the same smear tactics used by

the same freaking a-holes.

[LiberalFighter]

6. Back then it was Lee Atwater

Today it is Karl Rove a protege of Lee Atwater

[progressivebydesign]

8. at least Atwater had a supposed death-bed conversion...

unfortunately for Rove, he never watched A Christmas Carol. There's a reason people convert on their death-beds.. they realize the enormity of what they did wrong. Rove heard Jacob Marley's chains and thought it was wind chimes.

[grasswire]

2. argh!

This article is cheap and superficial:

"It's impossible to tell which commercials are going to percolate up" and gain wider attention through the news media, Goldstein said. "You can't always tell from just looking at them which ones will make that leap. If I had to guess, I'd say that context and timing matter a great deal. It also shows you that the message matters."

No. It's not impossible to tell which commercials are going to percolate up. When you see the networks pushing one by replaying it thousands of times and by creating a "scandal" you'll know THAT's the one percolating.

D'oh. Miserable excuse for a news story.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

3. The spin is palpable.

[glitch]

4. WP is a national embarassment - they rarely have good articles anymore

and as for excellent, well. When was the last excellent article from the Washington Post? I really want to know, and if it was recent and I missed it I will be happy to be corrected.

[bluestateguy]

5. Now I am convinced of it

The United States lost the Vietnam War because we had hateful, bigoted people like these losers on the front lines.

P.S. Yeah, lurking Freepers, I'm not going to hesitate to attack their war records. You guys just made that a fashionable thing to do.

[thebigidea]

7. someone should dig up Bush's crewmates to vouch for his bravery

until then:

http://www.terminalproduct.com/tangang.rm

[Supersedeas]

9. Horton ad caused a huge media stir--TV media is stirring it up again