Fear Factor: The Republican Party

[elfs]

The Democrats have put together a political ad raking His Imperial Majesty, George W, over the coals for the now infamous big lie. They use the clip from the State of the Union speech where W says: "Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."

The Republican Party has shot back. Not at the Democrats, against whom any sort of assault at this point would be politically suicidal. No, the Republicans tried to silence the Democrats by targeting the TV and Radio stations that might air the ads by sending a letter that reads, in part:

The Democratic National Committee certainly has a legitimate First Amendment right to participate in political debate, but it has no right to willfully spread false information in a deliberate attempt to mislead the American people... as an FCC licensee you have the responsibility to exercise independent editorial judgment to not only oversee and protect the American marketplace of ideas, essential for the health of our democracy, but also to avoid deliberate misrepresentations of the facts.

Such obligations must be taken seriously. This letter puts you on notice that the information contained in the above-cited advertisement is false and misleading; therefore, you are obligated to refrain from airing this advertisement.

What is "misleading" about the information? Apparently the Dems crop out the part where Bush claims he got the information from British Intelligence. Nevermind that his own intelligence services were telling him left and right that the information was bogus.

Sigh.

GOP Warns TV Stations Not to Air Ad Alleging Bush Mislead the Nation Over Iraq.

Watch the ad (note URL)

Comments

both full of shit, IMHO

[popefelix.livejournal.com]

on the one hand, the Dems are taking "the big lie" slightly out of context, at least as regards the State of The Union address in question.

On the other hand, the GOP are resorting to some rather nasty tactics. That letter implies that these stations might face sanction from the FCC if they were to air the Democratic ad.

I'd give some sort of pithy summing-up here if I could think of one. Instead, i'll just quote Stanley Marsh: "Dude. This is pretty fucked up right here!"

[jenk]

"we don't have the balls to sue, but watch out for the fcc. oh, and ignore that the fcc is run by our people. oh, and keep this quiet, y'hear?"

[sillydragon.livejournal.com]

This letter puts you on notice that the information contained in the above-cited advertisement is false and misleading; therefore, you are obligated to refrain from airing this advertisement.

I suppose I probably shouldn't send a letter like this to various stations when campaign time rolls around...after all, no politician has ever lied, mislead the people, reneged on a campaign promise...

[lisakit.livejournal.com]

This is serious shit. Unfortunately I (or you or most of the general public) can't sue the folks who sent out this letter because I (we) have no standing. The media agencies have no cause of action until they air the add anyway and get slapped with the implied sanctions.

You think Bush's administration doesn't have the balls to impose sanctions? With everything else they've been doing? The scary thing is how many of the media agencies are going to back down in the face of these threats.

(No, no cause of action over the mere threat either. Too vague.)

Sorry, not to coherent here. This just really bothers me. The implications are pretty scary.