Posts by Carter Wrenn
Let’s Fact-Check the Fact-Checkers
I think I’m going to start writing columns about reporters who write columns telling folks what’s true and untrue in political ads. After all, the reporters are setting themselves up as referees so why not fact-check the fact-checkers? For instance: A respected reporter here in Raleigh recently wrote a fact-check about the American Foundations…
Read MoreMr. Parker
Yesterday morning the phone rang and when I picked it up a friend said, Did you read Gary’s blog about David Parker? and I said, No;―I’d been scrupulously avoiding reading one word about Mr. Parker’s foibles on the theory no one cared except a dozen crazed political hacks at Democratic Headquarters and another dozen hacks…
Read MoreConcrete Pillars
My wife is a remarkable woman with an eerily perfect sense of timing – for instance, she went into labor with our first child while sitting in her doctor’s waiting room. After that, things got more hectic. When we got to the hospital and the doctor walked into Page’s hospital room he looked so…
Read MoreCongratulations
This evening Gary will be inducted into the North Carolina Hall of Fame in Journalism, Advertising and Public Relations at the UNC School of Journalism. It’s an honor and a much deserved one. Gary was already in my hall of fame but now it’s official. Congratulations, Gary.
Read MoreWrong answer
Gary used to tell a story about Tony Rand, running for Lt. Governor, debating Jim Gardner back in 1988: Gardner let fly and ripped into Tony saying he was a backroom politician who along with eight other backroom politicians (who called themselves the ‘Gang of Eight’) had written the whole state budget in secret in…
Read MoreAn Example of Spin
For the last month Paul Coble’s been running a TV ad criticizing Congress for raising the national debt 50%. Then, the other day, The American Foundations Committee (which is running an independent campaign supporting George Holding) ran an ad pointing out Coble has supported raising Wake County’s debt 93%. Coble’s response: He told the press…
Read MoreFickleness
Rick Santorum’s struck the flag and the Insurgents and Tea Partiers have been routed by the ‘Old Guard;’ long ago, flush with victory after the 2010 election, the Tea Partiers girded for battle with the Washington Republicans in the Presidential primaries. At first the Insurgents rallied behind Michele Bachmann… …then abandoned Bachmann for…
Read MoreWhatever Happened to the presidential Debates?
Two months ago the Republican Presidential Primary was rolling along like a locomotive fueled by Presidential debates on CNN, Fox and MSNBC; those debates flattened Rick Perry, gave birth to Herman Cain, created the Gingrich boomlet then propelled Santorum past Gingrich as the alternative to Mitt Romney. The debates gave Republican voters looking for…
Read MoreTime Buying
These days it seems I’m immersed in the world of TV ads and time buying but it’s that time of the year for campaigns, when a candidate with two shekels to rub together is trying to figure out whether to spend them on TV or radio or, heaven forbid, yard signs. The words ‘time…
Read MoreFamily and Friends
Sometimes politicians are just plain silly. This morning it appears Paul Coble woke up in a pique and right off ripped off an email lighting into George Holding. “George Holding” Coble wrote, “doesn’t smile much. But $214,000 in hard, cold special interest cash has him smiling like the Cheshire car – ear to…
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