I think GWB sums up his entire Presidency about as well as anyone ever could:

“I do not need to explain why I say things. — That’s the interesting thing about being the President. — Maybe somebody needs to explain to me why they say something, but I don’t feel like I owe anybody an explanation.”

From the administration that brought you ‘No Child left behind’ which underfunded education, the ‘Clear Skies’ initiative that let polluters off the hook, the ‘Healthy Forests’ legistlation that allowed campaign contibuting logging companies access to old growth forest, and of course the Iraq war, who’s justification shifts faster and more often than grains of sand through the proverbial hourglass… It should be no surprise that their ‘closer’ ad for this year’s election has been…

You guessed it. Faked.

In the TV ad ‘whatever it takes’ the size of a crowd Bush is speaking to, and assumingly, bringing to tears with his eloquent speech, has been photoshopped to increase it’s size and impressive show of military force. The dailykos website has the images and links to the video so you can check it out for yourself.

From it’s policy to it’s advertising, this administration has a chronic problem with being upfront and honest.

Well at least we kep the oil ministry safe and secure after troops entered Bahgdad…

350 tons of high grade explosives are unaccounted for almost a year and a half after the Iraq invasion because they weren’t secured by US forces. Even worse, the Pentagon pressured the Iraqi government and the CPA not to report the missing explosives to the IAEA. Choice quote from the man who broke the story:

“This is the stuff the bad guys have been using to kill our troops, so you can’t ignore the political implications of this, and you would be correct to suspect that politics, or the fear of politics, played a major role in delaying the release of this information.”

Nothing says ‘support our troops’ like trying to sweep something like this under the rug for political purposes.

How many Bush administration officials does it take to change a light bulb?

None. There’s nothing wrong with that light bulb. There is no need to change anything. We made the right decision and nothing has happened to change our minds. People who criticize this light bulb now, just because it doesn’t work anymore, supported us when we first screwed it in, and when these flip-floppers insist on saying that it is burned out, they are merely giving aid and encouragement to the Forces of Darkness.

– John Cleese

(via William Gibson’s excellent weblog)

I don’t know how to read this press release from Sinclair that just hit the wire:

Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. (SBGI.O: Quote, Profile, Research) , under widening scrutiny over plans to air a documentary about Sen. John Kerry’s wartime activities 30 years ago, said on Tuesday it would not show the program in its entirety.

The key phrase there is ‘in its entirety’ of course. Thinly veiled smear campaigns have no place on network TV so close to an election, regardless of how much is shown, but it looks like Sinclair is finally feeling the heat after a week of outcry. Hopefully they just pull the whole thing and get out of the ‘content business’ alltogether.

Obviously the Sinclair decision to air the anti-Kerry smear infomercial next week has hit a bone with investors:

Off about 20% in the last 5 days, and down 7% today alone(as of 3pm EST). Corporate decision time!! Let your stock tank and lose millions of dollars in shareholder value to gain GOP-love, or can the smear campaign, make money and piss off your fanboys in the White House…

Over the past week since the Sinclair story broke into the mainstream, there have been lots of ideas of what regular people can do to stop the outrageous lengths a major media company – and strong GOP backer – will go to force their anti-Kerry smear infomercial down the throats of their 62 affiliate stations, and the viewers of those stations.

At first, a lot of people suggested writing to the FCC, the FEC, and other federal commisions and agencies, but it was pointed out that going throug the official channels to do so would not only take too long, but you’d be dealing with the power structure that people are trying to get around here.

So the focus now has been on people calling up local advertisers of the Sinclair affiliate stations, and basically say that you don’t support their advertising on the affiliates, and by extension their company and its products/services. In fact, there’s an online database where you can get contact information for the local businesses that do advertise on those stations and let them know what you think.

Here’s a list of companies in Milwaukee that advertise on Sinclair affiliates WCGV & WVTV, and here’s a list of companies in Madison who advertise on affiliate WMSN.

Yesterday, I noticed that Broadway Paper was listed on the list of Milwaukee advertisers, and having been a long time patron of the company (they are in the building next to my work office) I decided to let them know how I felt. Here’s a snippet of my email to them:

My name is Dan, and I live in Milwaukee and work in the Third Ward, near your store. I frequently shop at Broadway paper for things like last minute gifts and of course, wrapping paper and supplies.

At any rate, I understand you advertise with WCGV/WVTV, a Sinclair Broadcasting affiliate. I don’t know if you’ve yet heard of Sinclair’s plans to force their affiliate TV stations to show what’s basically a 90 minute campaign commercial during prime time just before the election.

I believe this is a direct assualt not only on a fair and balanced media, but really subversive campaign aimed at unfairly providing a 90 minute smear campaign against John Kerry. You can read more about it at the Journal Sentinal website:

http://www.jsonline.com/enter/tvradio/oct04/265799.asp

 

While Sinclair is taking this route, and while your company is an advertiser for a Sinclair affiliate, I am sad to say that I can’t support a company who supports the TV station (via your advertising dollars) that is trying to force this smear campaign down the throats of Wisconsin citizens simply because they think they own the airwaves.

Maybe as an advertiser on WCGV/WVTV you will be able to convince Sinclair that their actions in this matter are unacceptable, and send a clear message that no single company controls the airwaves.

I was happily suprised this morning by a reply from the owner of Broadway Paper who had this to say:

Unfortunately, we were not aware of anti-Kerry documentary when we signed a 3 month advertising contract in August. We are however, pulling our ad effective immediately.

Cheers to Broadway Paper who’s since been taken off the list of affiliate advertiser! In Madison, there has been lot’s of pressure lately as well, with good results according to the Capital Times.

The others I plan on emailing today, and I’d encourage readers to call or email as well, are the Bucks, Rank & son auto, Lazer 103 (who’s offices are a block from our house), and Lakeland Truck Caps. Sending to an info@ address as well as a ‘real’ employee address seems to help.

Hopefully if enough people express their displeasure with the companies that support the stations who are doing this, a clear message will be sent that we don’t appreciate partisan media companies forcing the point of view on their viewers, especially when it’s a slimey attack ad that’s thinly veiled as ‘news’.