Bruce Benidt
Brian Lambert
Ellen Mrja
Joe Loveland
Jon Austin
Mike Keliher
Tony Carideo, CFA
William Souder
Snip snip.
As self evident as this assertion seems, Willard Mitt Romney apparently sees nothing wrong with contextual contortion.
This week, Romney ran an ad showing President Obama saying “if we keep talking about the economy, we’re going to lose.” Bam, clean blow, right?
The problem is, the President actually said, “Senator McCain’s campaign said, and I quote, ‘if we keep talking about the economy, we’re going to lose.’”
When pressed about the obvious flimflammery of the Romney editing, a Romney spokesperson refused to recant or apologize. Amazingly, Romney’s guy responded, ““He (President Obama) did say the words. That’s his voice.”
“That’s his voice.” Good grief, I hope the Romniac took a shower after that interview. This is the state of political communications in America today. Pathetic.
I hope my conservative friends can concede that Governor Romney went way over the line with his shameless broadcast butchery. After all, if that approach is good for the goose, it could also be good for the gander, as this satire from the liberal group ThinkProress shows:
Hey, he did say the words. That’s his voice.
- Loveland
Filed under: advertising, Communications, Ethics, language, Messaging, Politics Tagged: | Mitt Romney, out of context, political advertising, ThinkProgress, video editing
What’s great is that Obama and liberals have had the self-discipline over the years to not take conservatives out of context. Otherwise, I’m not sure they’d have any credibility when leveling charges of distortion or manipulation.
heh
Ah yes, the “everyone does it” conversation stopper.
Look my friend, I wouldn’t be surprised if Obama or some liberal has used an equally bad video vivisection. But I can’t come up with one. Can you? It seems more constructive to deal with specific cases than generalities, so help me out.
Off the top of my puny head, the only other TV ad editing bomb that I can remember is the Norm Coleman ad where Coleman showed Al Franken ranting. Coleman’s ad was making the visual point that Franken was a rageful, deranged pol unfit for the U.S. Senate, obviously a very serious and personal charge. It turned out that the full context of the video clip was that Franken was telling a funny and touching story about his dead friend Paul Wellstone encouraging his son, in a ranting way, in a cross country race. Pretty rotten stuff.
I don’t doubt that there are examples from liberals that are as bad as these two, but I’m not coming up with any. Can you help me? Liberal example? Obama example?
Politifact on this issue:
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/nov/22/mitt-romney/mitt-romney-says-obama-said-if-we-keep-talking-abo/
Romney gets a “Pants on Fire”
Here is another Romney ad–where he endorses Obama for President!
http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2011/11/a-taste-of-his-own-words-ctd.html
Published: Friday, 25 Nov 2011 | 1:10 PM ET
By: JeeYeon Park
CNBC.com Writer
Stocks closed in negative territory in thin, shortened trading Friday as investors were reluctant to go long ahead of the weekend and amid ongoing worries over the euro zone.
The Dow and S&P posted their worst Thanksgiving week since the Great Depression on a percentage basis.
Well look, I feel appropriately chastised, and I’m sure you all are correct. Democrats never do this. And when they do, they are excused. There’s not an equivalence.
The danger is real. Independents – and I mean all of them – will vote and elect Romney based on this ad rather than the the incumbent’s struggles.
I’m sorry you feel chastised. I didn’t intend to make you feel that way. I was just trying to come up with like examples from Obama, and couldn’t come up with any, so was looking for help. Not a big deal.
I agree with you that the danger of Obama losing Independents because of the sluggish economy is very real. No doubt about that.
Well, i am glad you were finally able to bring yourself to apologize, joe!
Now if only we could get this rude high schooler to apologize to the poor governor of Kansas:
http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2011/11/high-schooler-wont-say-sorry-to-kansas-governor.html
What is this world coming to? How can people be so inconsiderate of our poor, hardworking politicians?
Ariana Huffington had a nice critique of the news media’s coverage of this issue. Except: