DMN Slams Bush Campaign
By Byron LaMasters
It's good to see the Dallas Morning News editorial board take an occasional time-out from their GOP chearleading to call the Bush campaign out on the Howard Dean + Al Gore = Adolf Hitler ad:
Stop it. Stop it this instant.
No more Hitler images. No more brown-shirt references.
It doesn't matter who started it. It doesn't matter who perpetuated it.
It doesn't matter how badly either party wants to win this election or how much its partisans dislike the guy on the other side.
For those who've missed all the yelling, the Bush campaign has a Web ad that tars the Kerry forces as "the coalition of the wild-eyed." In addition to film clips of agitated Democrats, the spot offers glimpses of two ads submitted months ago to a contest run by MoveOn.org, which likened the president to the Nazi dictator.
Bush followers say the ads – which MoveOn yanked after a few days from among the 1,500 entries on its site – fairly represent Democratic fanaticism. Kerry supporters say his campaign had nothing to do with the original ads, while the Bush campaign has everything to do with keeping them in public view. Further, the Kerry-ites say, the Bush spot, by juxtaposing Al Gore, Howard Dean and Adolf Hitler in what looks like a spit-slinging derby, draws a subliminal connection between the Democrats and the Nazis.
Frankly, my dear, when it comes to the nuances of the thing, we don't give a damn.
Every political party, interest group or individual should retract any and every Hitler image or reference, regardless of where it originated. Both sides should apologize – if not to each other.
Note to the Dallas Morning News - MoveOn.org has already apologized.... six months ago:
The Republican National Committee and its chairman have falsely accused MoveOn.org of sponsoring ads on its website which compare President Bush to Adolf Hitler. The claim is deliberately and maliciously misleading.
During December the MoveOn.org Voter Fund invited members of the public to submit ads that purported to tell the truth about the President and his policies. More than 1,500 submissions from ordinary Americans came in and were posted on a web site, bushin30seconds.org, for the public to review.
None of these was our ad, nor did their appearance constitute endorsement or sponsorship by MoveOn.org Voter Fund. They will not appear on TV. We do not support the sentiment expressed in the two Hitler submissions. They were voted down by our members and the public, who reviewed the ads and submitted nearly 3 million critiques in the process of choosing the 15 finalist entries.
We agree that the two ads in question were in poor taste and deeply regret that they slipped through our screening process. In the future, if we publish or broadcast raw material, we will create a more effective filtering system.
Some low level staffer at MoveOn.org probably posted the Hitler ad without thinking about the consequences. On the other hand, the campaign of the President of the United States utters Adolf Hitler in the same breath with patriotic Americans like Howard Dean and Al Gore. It's pretty simple to me who owes who an apology here.
Posted by Byron LaMasters at July 8, 2004 05:29 PM
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