CNN's "Truth in Advertising" segment just *destroyed* the RNC ad.

[VolcanoJen]

Hard to believe what I just saw... in fact, CNN's been giving Bush the business all afternoon. For those interested, I've done my best to transcribe the segment below... it's the most analytical, and lengthy, point-by-point attack on the RNC ad from a media observer that I've seen yet.

In Bruce Morton's "Last Word on Truth in Advertising," which appeared at the end of "Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer," he focused the entire segment on truth in political ads. The segment started with shots of the Kerry and Dean ads currently playing, then turned to the infamous "Daisy" Democratic ad against Goldwater. "Would Goldwater have got the country into a nuclear war? Nobody knew then. Or now," commented Morton.

Here's where it gets good...

Morton: "Here's an ad from this year."

Shot of the RNC ad, with the words "Some are now attacking the President for attacking the terrorists."

Morton: "Well, no, that's wrong, and misleading. Going into Afghanistan was attacking the terrorists; that's where their training camps were. And I don't know anyone, and I'll bet you don't either, who was against that. Remember how many flags we flew?"

Shot of pre-Iraq War protests

Morton: "Americans have criticized the president for invading Iraq, but that's different. He said Iraq was a big threat to us, but the mass weapons they were supposed to threaten us with just never showed up. Maybe the President got bad information, maybe he misled the country because he just wanted to get Saddam Hussein. You can have those arguments, but they have nothing to do with 'opposing attacking terrorists,' who in fact seem more active now than before the Iraq invasion. Wouldn't the U.S. have done better to concentrate on al-Queda? That's another argument we can have."

Shot of RNC ad, highlighting the words "Some call for us to retreat, puttting our national security in the hands of others."

Morton: "That's not quite right either. Some have criticized the President for not working harder to build alliances, but no one suggests the U.S. isn't responsible for its own defense. Nobody that I know has come out for disbanding the army, for instance."

Shot of RNC ad, highlighting the words "CALL CONGRESS NOW - Tell them to support the President's policy of preemptive self-defense."

Morton: "That, now, is something serious to argue about. Some Americans like the idea of invading other countries, striking first; some don't. You needn't bother calling Congress, though. It gave the President nearly everything he wanted, except for maybe that money to set up zip codes in Iraq.

"Arguing foreign policy is very common in wartime, in American history. Lyndon Johnson took heavy criticism during Vietnam, Truman during Korea, even FDR during World War II. But the Republican ad is misleading. In war, someone once said, truth is the first casualty. It dies pretty early in campaign advertising, too."

Truly excellent piece... and I enjoyed his highlighting, toward the end of the segment, of wartime Democrats.

Be sure to catch this, it's at the very end of the two-hour show, if it's repeated.

transcription and emphasis by VolcanoJen