My local news just played a negative Kerry ad . . .

[TeeYiYi]

. . . in its entirety as part of the evening news. Unfuckingbelievable.

Here's the email I immediately sent to three email addresses at their station:

Equal air time? . . .

. . . What the hell was that? You just played a negative John Kerry ad in its entirety as a supposed news story? That was news? How about a news story about some of the negative Bush ads floating around? How about playing just one anti-Bush ad from MoveOn.com in its entirety? What? What was that? On a cold day in hell, you say? That's what I thought. Time to change the channel. ~my signature

TYY

[Renew Deal]

1. Where did this happen?

Was it the Citizens ad?

[TeeYiYi]

3. In Utah . . .

. . . on KSL 5 Eyewitness News at 6 and 6:30. :eyes:

Here's their contact page: http://tv.ksl.com/index.php?nid=28

TYY

[Protagoras]

27. I'm sorry you have to live in Utah

It's a pretty, great place....to see in your rear view mirror. Escape to the west my friend!

And KSL is owned by who again?

[TeeYiYi]

29. Thanks. Me too . . .

. . . so much so that I take the freeway everywhere and pretend I live in Seattle or Northern California. :7
Re: KSL . . . see post #17. :evilfrown:

TYY

[TeeYiYi]

4. I would call it the 'Priceless' ad . . .

. . . mimicking the MasterCard ads. It ends with "John Kerry calling himself a man of the people . . . priceless."

Is that the 'Citizens' ad?

TYY

[Kathleen04]

11. Yep, that's the "Citizens" ad

They're made by the group "Citizen's United".

[TeeYiYi]

13. That's interesting . . .

. . . they attributed it to some cube rat who "just got tired of all the negative Bush ads . . .", so he decided to do something about it. They even gave his name, like that was the angle of the story. His little wee tiny ad that he made to fight back against the big money anti-shrub ads. :puke:

TYY

[Renew Deal]

15. We are losing UT by about 25

It doesn't matter much. Besides that, it's a foolish ad.

[TeeYiYi]

17. I know Utah isn't in play . . .

. . . but it still pisses me off. How am I supposed to ever believe (I never did anyway) that this channel is capable of of unbiased journalism? Of course they're not. KSL is owned by the Mormon Church. The fact that they are NBC's local affiliate matters not. They do whatever they want, whenever they want, nuking anything that displeases them along the way. After acquiring NBC, they out and out refused to show Saturday Night Live. If I want to watch SNL, I have to catch it on the WB.

Living in Utah, I've had to tolerate KSL, but if this what it's going to be like between now and November, count me out. I won't do it. Hopefully, that's the message I gave in my emails because I'm not kidding. I'm done until after the election.

TYY

[Protagoras]

28. Guess it's better they waste the money in Utah

where it's not in play anyway...every dollar spent there in the desert is a dollar they don't have to spend against us in places that count.

[TeeYiYi]

30. They're not spending a dime . . .

. . . they played the whole damned thing as a supposed news story. Not one campaign dollar went to airing that ad. That's the issue of this thread. Equal air time.

TYY

[NC_Nurse]

2. You tell 'em!

Way to go!:toast:

[TeeYiYi]

31. Thanks NC_Nurse. ...n/t

TYY :kick:

[Catch22Dem]

5. One thing

Great e-mail, but it's moveon.org

[TeeYiYi]

9. Oops, dammit . . .

. . . I was pissed and writing in haste, immediately after watching their sham news story. If I hear back from any of the three, I'll correct it in my reply. They probably already know exactly what MoveOn.org is anyway, after the superbowl attention they received over 'Child's Pay'.

TYY

[Eric J in MN]

12. It's ok, MoveOn has a re-direct if someone types .com (nt)

nt

[TeeYiYi]

14. Oh good. Thanks Eric J . . .

. . . I was hoping they had a re-direct but I didn't test it. Thanks for that bit of info. :hi:

TYY

[BeatleBoot]

6. Tell 'em that they owe Kerry one!

Creeps.

Thank you for sending those emails. You rock!

:yourock:

Its moveon.org... by the way (not moveon.com)

[TeeYiYi]

16. I don't know how they can ethically get away with it . . .

. . . especially since, as it turns out, it's the Citizens United ad. That was no local cube rat making a political statement on his own time as they implied in their story. I know the media is bought and paid for but aren't they at least supposed to pretend to be unbiased? :shrug:

TYY

[mikehiggins]

21. Media ethics? These people aren't journalists, TeeYiYi,

they just play them on tv.

There are no ethics involved in this. It is strictly bottom-line looking out for the interests of the owners. Simple as that...

[TeeYiYi]

25. That's especially evident in Utah . . .

. . . you can actually see the strings attached to their heads, hands and mouths. :evilfrown:

Hi Mike. I rarely watch local tv news and I almost never read the local paper anymore. I pretty much gave up after 9/11. The media is and always has been wholly owned by the conservative right, and not just in Utah. But they've been getting more blatant with their biases since 9/11 and I think it's time to try to do something about it. What to do? I don't exactly know. Start complaining I guess. I'm not talking about just Utah necessarily. I think the heat needs to be turned up nationwide with the election looming. ClearChannel is giving Bush FREE campaign time (it has already started on my local radio stations) and since they own the media nationwide, the FREE airtime is probably happening nationally. I think someone needs to take on ClearChannel and Viacom about their biased politics in an election year. With Bush slipping in the polls, maybe someone will finally listen . . .

TYY

[movonne]

7. I can understand this....in the polls Utah is in the 60% area.

[movonne]

8. for bush

[TeeYiYi]

10. Understand . . .

. . . maybe. Accept? . . . oh HELL NO !

TYY

[zulchzulu]

18. Only Chimpy fans would find it funny...

Anyone else sees that it's a cheesy negative ad.

[californiahippie]

19. Good job with the emails.

It is important for news organizations to hear from people like you.

[TomSeaver]

20. Thats such a stupid Ad

Do they think we are dumb? How many politicians aren't rich????????

[AVID]

22. just sent email to ksl

asked for equal time

[TeeYiYi]

24. Thanks bigskydem . . .

. . . I hope others will do the same; complain to ANY news station airing free campaign ads as news. :grr:

TYY

[MessiahRp]

23. Get used to it...

It appears to be the Republicans' latest and greatest way around all advertising costs and Campaign Finance Laws. They have gotten just about every major newscast around the country to air their ads claiming them to be a news story. Look at Bush's first ads. They got hundreds of free plays on MSNBC alone, let alone what I could imagine Fox did. CNN was also guilty of this.

It seems to be the new way to go. Instead of paying for too much ad time you dish it off to the news to do the dirty work, and like the sheep that they are, they do it knowing full well that there is a high chance their station or network owner is a Republican who wants these aired and who wants his candidate spun a certain way.

If we want to discuss media conspiracy in this campaign, here's the opening of a lifetime.

Rp

[TeeYiYi]

26. I agree . . .

re: If we want to discuss media conspiracy in this campaign, here's the opening of a lifetime.

. . . maybe Kerry's campaign needs to take the lead on this one.

TYY