Oversight needed for political ads

During the first week of June the Republican Governors Association launched a scurrilous, misleading and defamatory TV advertisement against gubernatorial candidate Andy Beshear.

This ad is so duplicitous it is quite astounding the TV stations airing it have not withdrawn it because of the obvious distortions in it.

To be perfectly clear, neither major political party has clean hands when it comes to using half-truths to furthering their agenda, and if Democrats stoop to the tactics used in this particular ad, this column will call them out as well.

I hope all Kentuckians will see this ad — and look at it with a jaundiced eye to see through all the misguided attempts to cast Beshear in a negative light.

To synopsize, the ad, which is overlaid with grainy images in an effort to make it seem more like a police report than a political ad, strongly suggests Beshear, while serving as Attorney General for Kentucky, accepted bribes and is therefore not to be trusted as a public official.

Even though the ad points out it was Beshear’s deputy attorney general, Anthony Longmeyer, who accepted bribes, the “guilt by association” ploy is enhanced by numerous innuendo.

Here are some facts about the incident which the RGA attempts to lay at the doorstep of Beshear.

First, the $200,000 bribe was taken by Longmeyer while he was secretary of the Personnel Cabinet, not working in the office of the Attorney General.

Second, federal authorities who investigated the case said there was no evidence Beshear knew of Longmeyer’s schemes.

Third, Beshear appointed a special prosecutor who convicted Longmeyer under state charges.

In one segment of the ad, the narrator talks about Longmeyer being the recipient of bribes, while showing a video of Beshear, thereby strongly implying it was Beshear who was the guilty party.

Like so many political ads, especially those which attack an opponent, this one resorts to catch phrases which are designed to inflame the public and place someone among an abhorred horde. In the 1950s, this tactic was used when someone was suggested to be affiliated in some way with Communists.

The narrator of the ad says: “Politician Andy Beshear can’t be trusted.”

Get it?

Andy Beshear is not the Attorney General. He is not even just a Democrat. He is a politician. How bad can it get?

And how stupid?

Don’t the people who made this ad, who wrote the script, understand their candidate is also a politician?

Every voter probably understands politicians are not saints. They all have feet of clay. They are all subject to errors, to misjudgments, to violations of their oaths of office, even if unintentionally.

None will likely ever meet all the expectations of those who place them in office.

It would be pleasant and unusual to see the upcoming election conducted with gentlemanly behavior and truthful rhetoric, but the Kentucky electorate will undoubtedly be subjected to a plethora of ads vilifying one candidate or another. More’s the pity.

However, the media — TV, radio and newspapers — should exercise a high degree of oversight and refuse to air or publish ads which are patently untrue, or as misleading as this RGA ad is.

Such oversight must not trample on free speech rights, nor be used as leverage to promote one party or issue over another.

A fine line to walk indeed.

Chuck Witt is a retired architect and a lifelong resident of Winchester. He can be reached at chuck740@bellsouth.net.

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