TV Ads and Truth
2014-10-22 - by
My last blog raised the possibility that big money and negative TV ads increase voter turnout. Now let’s consider the radical idea that the same two evils have another happy effect: increasing the level of voter information.
Denouncing the money and the ads, an N&O editorial said, “The ‘assault ads’ that bombard the viewer with dubious claims about the other candidate aren’t about informing voters at all but about appealing to the worst instincts of Republicans and Democrats, going for the emotional jugular.”
True, the ads go for the jugular. But is it true they don’t inform voters?
Actually, if you paid attention to every single ad in the U.S. Senate race, all the candidate ads and outside-group ads, you’d know everything there is to know about both candidates, good and bad: their voting records, their attendance records, their positions on issues, their past statements, their business records, you name it.
Now, are all the ads true? Of course not. They slant and distort. They gild the lily and stretch the truth. As do all paid ads, whether for cars, brokerage companies or weight-loss products.
But that’s not true of just “assault ads.” Sometimes the biggest lies are in the positive ads. See the ad where the Duke Energy President talks about the company’s commitment to the environment? That’s a positive ad. Do you believe that everything he says is true?
No, because we’re smarter than that. Smart enough to sift through what we hear and make up our own minds.
Of course, we’re not all paying attention to every ad. Maybe we’re like the Walmart moms that Rob Christensen wrote about: “Despite all the TV advertising, the moms could not recall much about Hagan or Tillis. They could only remember a few of the TV ads, other than they were bashing each other. These are busy people whose lives revolved around their families and their jobs, and watching the news didn’t seem to be a high priority, and they have only a passing interest in politics….Several mothers said they planned Googling for information on the Internet on election eve.”
That makes sense. Because everything on the Internet is true. Unlike TV ads.
Posted in General
TV Ads and Truth
2014-10-22/
My last blog raised the possibility that big money and negative TV ads increase voter turnout. Now let’s consider the radical idea that the same two evils have another happy effect: increasing the level of voter information.
Denouncing the money and the ads, an N&O editorial said, “The ‘assault ads’ that bombard the viewer with dubious claims about the other candidate aren’t about informing voters at all but about appealing to the worst instincts of Republicans and Democrats, going for the emotional jugular.”
True, the ads go for the jugular. But is it true they don’t inform voters?
Actually, if you paid attention to every single ad in the U.S. Senate race, all the candidate ads and outside-group ads, you’d know everything there is to know about both candidates, good and bad: their voting records, their attendance records, their positions on issues, their past statements, their business records, you name it.
Now, are all the ads true? Of course not. They slant and distort. They gild the lily and stretch the truth. As do all paid ads, whether for cars, brokerage companies or weight-loss products.
But that’s not true of just “assault ads.” Sometimes the biggest lies are in the positive ads. See the ad where the Duke Energy President talks about the company’s commitment to the environment? That’s a positive ad. Do you believe that everything he says is true?
No, because we’re smarter than that. Smart enough to sift through what we hear and make up our own minds.
Of course, we’re not all paying attention to every ad. Maybe we’re like the Walmart moms that Rob Christensen wrote about: “Despite all the TV advertising, the moms could not recall much about Hagan or Tillis. They could only remember a few of the TV ads, other than they were bashing each other. These are busy people whose lives revolved around their families and their jobs, and watching the news didn’t seem to be a high priority, and they have only a passing interest in politics….Several mothers said they planned Googling for information on the Internet on election eve.”
That makes sense. Because everything on the Internet is true. Unlike TV ads.
Posted in General