Gibson aired Santorum ad attacking Casey and stated "it's safe to say that Casey hit Santorum just as hard" -- but didn't air Casey ad
SUMMARY: Discussing negative campaign ads on The Big Story, John Gibson aired a clip by Sen. Rick Santorum's campaign attacking his Democratic opponent, Bob Casey Jr., without including an ad or even a response from the Casey campaign.
On the September 28 edition of Fox News' The Big Story, host John Gibson aired a campaign advertisement by Pennsylvania Senate candidate Sen. Rick Santorum attacking his Democratic opponent, Robert Casey Jr., without airing an ad or a response from the Casey campaign. Instead, Gibson simply stated: "[I]t's safe to say that Casey hit Santorum just as hard."
Gibson broached the subject of campaign advertising by stating: "Negative campaign ads. It's pretty bad this year. Take a look at this one." Gibson then aired a Santorum campaign ad showing billboard workers changing a Casey campaign slogan from "Bobby Casey for Auditor General" to "Bobby Casey for Governor" to "Bobby Casey for State Treasurer," and finally, to "Bobby Casey for U.S. Senate," while an announcer stated:
ANNOUNCER: Bobby Casey loves running for office. Showing up to do the job -- that's a different story. As auditor general, Casey skipped so much work running for governor, he never completed over 800 audits and lost anyhow. So, he announced for treasurer where he has skipped work almost half the time campaigning for Senate. Bobby Casey -- before running for a new job, shouldn't he show up for the one we already pay him for?
When the ad ended, Gibson stated, "[I]t's safe to say that Casey hit Santorum just as hard," but did not present an ad or even a response from the Casey campaign. He did, however, ask Fox News political analyst Kirsten Powers, "[S]hould we expect anything else?" Powers responded, "No, it's an election and this is what goes on," before changing the subject.
By contrast, in a September 12 report on National Public Radio's All Things Considered by NPR senior political correspondent Mara Liasson, audio clips from both Santorum and Casey campaign ads were aired for comparison:
LIASSON: That line of attack shows up in Santorum's television ad.
ANNOUNCER [audio clip]: Bobby Casey -- before running for a new job, shouldn't he show up for the one we already pay him for?
LIASSON: Those ads are effective, says political scientist Harry Madonna, who directs the Keystone poll in Pennsylvania.
MADONNA: The senator has scratched and literally clawed his way back into this race, not so much by improving his own standing with the voters of the state, but rather by sort of pulling Casey down to him.
[...]
LIASSON: With twice as much money as Casey, Santorum has been able to spend heavily on political advertising over the last few months, but now, Casey is beginning to attack Santorum on television, too.
ANNOUNCER [audio clip]: Rick Santorum's record: voted three times to give himself a pay raise, while voting 13 times against raising the minimum wage. And he votes 98 percent of the time with George Bush.
Gibson could have chosen from a number of Casey ads to counter the free advertising he provided the Santorum campaign. Other Casey ads Gibson might have aired can be viewed here, here, here, and here.
From the September 28 edition of Fox News' The Big Story with John Gibson:
GIBSON: Negative campaign ads. It's pretty bad this year. Take a look at this one. It's a -- a Rick Santorum ad -- running against Bob Casey in Pennsylvania.
[begin video clip]
SANTORUM: I'm Rick Santorum and I approve this message.
ANNOUNCER: Bobby Casey loves running for office. Showing up to do the job -- that's a different story. As auditor general, Casey skipped so much work running for governor, he never completed over 800 audits and lost anyhow. So, he announced for treasurer where he has skipped work almost half the time campaigning for Senate. Bobby Casey -- before running for a new job, shouldn't he show up for the one we already pay him for?
[end video clip]
GIBSON: All right now, the -- I -- it's safe to say that Casey hit Santorum just as hard. Kirsten, should we expect anything else?
POWERS: No, it's an election and this is what goes on.
It's over. And he knows it. And so does Gibson.
THANK YOU. njguy93@yahoo.com
In an effort to clarify his posture, the always-dorky John Gibson grabbed his ankles in a futile effort to valiantly save “Little Ricky” from any soon-to-be unleashed, discomforting truths regarding the Santorum Voting Legacy’s egregious manner of self-servicing greed & servile squattings about a Bush.
Airing the ad in the way the Fox did is effectively a political contribution to the Republican party. There was no real analysis, it may have well been a commercial. In this case the Republicans did not have to pay for it. This is not the first time Fox has done this.
I HAD TO LOOK AT FOX TONIGHT TO SEE HOW THEY WERE GOING TO COVER THE FORLEY STORY AND NO SUPRISE THEY ARE NOT TALKING ABOUT IT, I BET IF IT WAS A DEMOCRATE THEY WOULD HAVE BEEN ALL OVER THIS STORY. FAIR AND BLANCE MY BUTT!!!!!!
Last night Hannity had a lengthy face to face sit down with George Allen (without Colmes) which was nothing more than free campaign advertising. I've heard him do similar pieces with Tom Kean Jr on both his shows as well as several other Repubs who he blatantly shills for. It's disgusting and not a little scary. This election cycle makes it all the more evident that Fox is nothing more than the communication/propaganda arm of the neocon central committee.
Notice how Santorum's campaign always uses "Bobby". They have tried to get Bob into a p*ssing contest over this but he is too smart to go for these cheap tricks..Way to go Bob.
Also, when Sen. Santorum was on local radio, I called and referred to this BOBBY thing and he just said it is his name. Then when I asked if it were permissible to call him Little Dick, the host, a wannabe Rush, threw a temper tantrum and spewed out such morsels as..typical Democrat slander, hater, etc. It was such a joy. But honsetly, Little Dick is not the kind of thing you throw around when talking about Sen. Santorum....the proper words to justify this Senator is "He's a BIG DICK."
Thanks for the laugh.
didn't need to actually see Casey's ad. They were told that he "hit just as hard", it just wasn't worth showing.Nothing to see here, kids.
I bet his ad is just some sort of furious combative melt-down, like Bill Clinton's response to an attack...I mean, reasonable journalism or political ad.