Image of Accused Sniper Appears in Ad
From CNN:
“The commercial opens with a newspaper photo of Muhammad, who faces charges in the shooting deaths that terrorized the Washington, D.C., area this month. That fades to the image of a barrel of a gun on one side of the screen and a picture of Garrett (running against Ann Summers for an open house seat) on the other.”
A politician has actually used the Sniper in ad ad to atack the gun control position of her opponent.
Combine this with the sickening babble and childish catfighting in the Massachusetts Governors race and many other political races for that matter and you begin to wonder if advertising like this should be permitted.
It’s really no wonder why voter turnout is so low. No one wants to hear this crap. It is unimportant. We want to hear the issues discussed in a mature and considerate way. The mudslinging an negative advertising trend has simply gone too far.
It wouldn’t be perfect but I’d be all for a ban on all political advertising thus having politicians have to fight it out editorially. Say what you will about the media, but news editors still have a far better objective handle on things then campaign management.
Infringement of free speech? Sure it is. A radical suggestion? Of course it is. But do you really like listening to ads speaking half truths about politicians? Of course we’ll still hear the half truths in debates but at least there will be some modicum of control.
Think about it.
