Republican Mudslinging On An Industrial Scale!

[napi21]

http://www.factcheck.org/article460.html

The ads being aired by both the NRCC and its rival, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, are overwhelmingly negative. However, the DCCC ads generally attack Republican candidates on policy issues or their performance in office – accusing them of casting votes favorable to drug or oil companies, or of supporting President Bush's unpopular policies in Iraq or on Social Security. We've recently criticized factual inaccuracies we've seen in some of those, and we'll have more to say in a later article. Here we focus on the NRCC's ads, which are much more likely to demean an opponent's character. That's the very definition of political mudslinging.

(s)
First the numbers.Spending by the two party committees tells part of the story. According to the Federal Election Commission, so far in this election cycle the NRCC has spent $41.9 million attacking Democratic opponents and $5 million supporting its own candidates, roughly an 8:1 negative-to-positive ratio. The DCCC has spent $18 million and $3.1 million, respectively, for a 5:1 ratio. Most of that money on both sides is spent on television advertising.

We zoomed in for a closer look, reviewing all ads by the DCCC and NRCC that appeared since Labor Day in any of the top 101 television markets, which reach 87 per cent of American TV viewers. Copies of the ads were supplied to us by the Campaign Media Analysis Group . Of the 115 NRCC ads, we judged 91 per cent to be purely negative. The DCCC's 104 ads included 81 per cent we found to be purely negative.We found very few on either side that were all positive, but the DCCC's contained more mixed or "comparative" ads –a mix of positive statements about the supported candidate and negative statements about the opponent.

Thewhole article isquite interesting!

[Warpy]

1. I'm sure, I'll file it for later when I'm not so sick of the whole business

I'll be celebrating on Nov 8 because the liquid feces shooting through my screen every time I tune in to a local station will be GONE. I sincerely hope the character assassins will be out of work permanently as their party is stuck out of power, wondering what the hell the slimers did wrong.

All conversations I've tuned into out in the world would indicate that people are sick to death of the negativity and are blaming the GOP for the worst of it.

[napi21]

2. I'm just gladto see that somebody is keeping track of who's the worst!

I know I certainly thought the Pubs ads were awful, but I know I have a prejudicial attitude. Glad to see a place like Fact Check is checking in an unbiased way and agreeing with me!