The Republican National Committee has put out a commercial of footage from several Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda interviews. With the elections creeping closer and closer, it seems as if the Republican party has become so afraid to lose their seats in Congress that it has stooped to scaring the American population into voting for them.
This commercial extremely bothered me, and I think it was just a cheap shot. Perhaps what bothered me the most was the fact that it actually enlisted fear in me after I watched it.
The commercial itself consists of the images from Al Qaeda interviews alongside certain quotes written up on the screen. The audio is simply a ticking clock which gets progressively louder and louder. Certain partial quotes like "kill the Americans," "inside America," "suitcase bombs," and "nothing compared to what you will see next" are left on screen after the full quotes disappear.
The agenda is obvious: Republicans are trying to ride on voters' concerns and fears about terrorism in order to win the election. They are making terrorism a main platform in their campaign as if to offer Republican election as the solution to the problem.
Perhaps the commercial is a reaction to the recent Newsweek poll, in which only 13 percent of voters put terrorism as their top concern in the midterm election. The party is either trying to add on to that 13 percent, or it's trying to distinguish itself from the Democratic party in terms of terrorism policy in order to get those 13 percent to vote their way.
Lately, it seems like the Republican party has been trying to save itself by moving away from it's usual agenda in media coverage. We see this with Bush's removal of the phrase "staying the course" in Iraq. In light of this, why would the Republican party put out such a commercial even when they know terrorism is not a top issue in the minds of voters?
While this commercial, no doubt, may scare people into voting for the party that seemingly is looking out for the welfare of the American people, the party is only looking out for itself.
The commercial is by no means a form of objective journalism or even journalism at all, but there is still something about it that bothers me and is very reminiscent of the scare tactics that plagues the media. I think, in the future, journalists would do their job to set an example for our governing bodies that fear does not give an accurate picture of the things going on in the world. This is an understatement.
Michael Luke @ November 1, 2006 - 3:35pm
Welcome to the contentious world of midterm elections.
Rick Santorum’s campaign in Pennsylvania has taken this turn, as Robin Toner from The Times compares the ad to LBJ’s one of the 60s.
"Assailing Mr. Casey’s national security credentials, the Santorum campaign has run a television commercial that shows a mushroom cloud, missiles streaking through the air and the faces of North Korean, Iranian and terrorist leaders. It concludes, 'We just can’t take a chance on Bob Casey,'" writes Toner.
Apparently, Santorum’s camp has pulled the ad, but YouTube still has the ad for those interested.
Santorum is one of the top-ranking Republicans in the Senate, but he is facing stiff opposition from Democrat Bob Casey. Santorum gained notoriety, for one, by blaming the Catholic Church’s sex abuse scandal on Boston liberals, so using an ad as demagogic as this should come as no surprise, especially for a man trailing in the polls.
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