Media reports on Freedom's Watch advertisements don't note misinformation
SUMMARY: Media outlets including CNN, NBC, The New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times reported on a recent advertisement buy in support of the war in Iraq but ignored that two of the four advertisements link the Iraq war to 9-11.
Media reports about a recent advertisement buy in support of the war in Iraq by an organization named Freedom's Watch, including those by CNN, NBC, The New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times, have ignored that two of the four Freedom's Watch advertisements link the Iraq war to 9-11, as an ABCNews.com report noted.
As ABCNews.com noted -- but the reports by CNN, NBC, The New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times did not -- the Freedom's Watch advertisements "link the war with Sept. 11, despite no reliable evidence Iraq played any role in those attacks":
The ads also link the war with Sept. 11, despite no reliable evidence Iraq played any role in those attacks.
In the ad, [Iraq war veteran John] Kriesel says, "They attacked us, and they will again. They won't stop in Iraq."
Laura Youngblood is featured in another ad -- she lost her uncle Henry, a New York City fireman, on Sept. 11, and her husband, Travis, in Iraq.
In the advertisement featuring Youngblood, she says, "I lost two family members to Al Qaeda -- my uncle, a fireman on 9-11, and my husband, Travis, in Iraq. ... Congress did the right thing, voting to defeat terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan." The advertisement featuring Kriesel included the words "They attacked us" on top of an image of the smoking Twin Towers, which aired without comment on the August 23 edition of NBC's Today:
As Media Matters for America has repeatedly noted (most recently here), while President Bush and members of his administration have repeatedly linked Iraq and the 9-11 attacks, the 9-11 Commission found "no evidence" that contacts between Iraq and Al Qaeda "developed into a collaborative operational relationship" before the Iraq invasion. A September 2006 report by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence concluded: "Postwar information supports prewar Intelligence Community assessments that there was no credible information that Iraq was complicit in or had foreknowledge of the September 11 attacks or any other al-Qa'ida strike."
From the 4 p.m. ET hour of the August 22 edition of CNN's The Situation Room:
JESSICA YELLIN (CNN congressional correspondent): Democrats are pouncing on those words. While they acknowledge the surge has had some military success, they insist the president is missing or avoiding the larger point.
Says Senator Hillary Clinton [D-NY]: "The surge was designed to give the Iraqi government time to take steps to ensure a political solution to the situation. It has failed to do so."
Senator Ted Kennedy [D-MA] agrees: "Political reconciliation continues to elude Iraq's leaders."
And Majority Leader Harry Reid [D-NV] adds: "It's time to change direction in Iraq and Congress will again work to do so in the fall."
KRIESEL [Freedom's Watch ad]: If we pull out now, everything I've given in sacrifice will mean nothing.
YELLIN: This comes as a new conservative action group unveils a series of ads targeting wavering Democrats and Republicans.
VICKI STRONG (mother of soldier who died in Iraq) [Freedom's Watch ad]: We're starting to see results. The price is being paid. Don't give up.
YELLIN: Part of an effort to stymie Democrats' chances of building a consensus for a drawdown.
[end video clip]
YELLIN: And Wolf [Blitzer, host], those ads will run in dozens of congressional districts for five weeks, through General [David] Petraeus' testimony and the debate that will follow here on the Hill.
From the August 22 edition of NBC's Nightly News with Brian Williams:
KELLY O'DONNELL (NBC News White House correspondent): The president claimed America's modern enemy, Al Qaeda, saw weakness -- that if a war became unpopular enough, the U.S. would leave. A parallel campaign launched today involves new TV ads, fighting the PR battle.
KRIESEL [Freedom's Watch ad]: I know what I lost. I also know that if we pull out now, everything I've given in sacrifice will mean nothing.
O'DONNELL: Injured veterans and military families appear in these spots from a group backed by Bush donors, friends, and former [White House] press secretary Ari Fleischer. The spots target 20 congressional districts.
KRIESEL [Freedom's Watch ad]: It's no time to quit. It's no time for politics.
O'DONNELL: On the other side, a TV campaign from a group long critical of many Bush policies, targeting Republicans, like Maine Senator Susan Collins.
ANNOUNCER [Americans United for Change ad]: Tell Susan Collins it's time to take a stand. End the war.
From the August 23 edition of NBC's Today:
O'DONNELL: As the president called Vietnam a tragedy, the lasting wounds of today's war are on TV.
KRIESEL [Freedom's Watch ad]: We are winning on the ground and making real progress.
O'DONNELL: Twenty-five million dollars spent in competing TV ad campaigns in a message battle over the war. From the side that says, "Stay in Iraq," an injured veteran:
ANDREW ROBINSON (Iraq war veteran) [Freedom's Watch ad]: To hear Congress talk about surrendering really makes me angry.
O'DONNELL: The mother of a fallen Marine:
STRONG [Freedom's Watch ad]: We've already had one 9-11, we don't need another.
O'DONNELL: Paid for by a group that includes donors and friends of the president and former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer. Their aim is Congress.
YOUNGBLOOD [Freedom's Watch ad]: Call your congressman and senator. Tell them surrender is not an option.
O'DONNELL: And from the side that says "It's time to get out of Iraq":
ANNOUNCER [Americans United for Change ad]: After four years with no end in sight, nearly $500 billion spent --
O'DONNELL: Congress is also a target.
ANNOUNCER [Americans United for Change ad]: -- Iraq in religious civil war and over 3,700 Americans dead. Susan Collins is still standing with President Bush on Iraq, voting time and again --
O'DONNELL: And all of this is important because of the timing. In about three weeks, Congress will get that expected report from General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker and so, both sides -- the president and those who oppose the war -- are very much trying to compete for Congress' attention and the public's as well. And we'll be hearing more from the president in the days to come.
From the August 23 New York Times article:
As the battle lines are drawn, a new advertising war is beginning to heat up, focusing on lawmakers, especially Republicans, who face tough re-election campaigns. On Wednesday, a new interest group, Freedom's Watch, led by allies of the Bush administration -- including Sheldon G. Adelson, a Las Vegas casino magnate who ranks sixth on Forbes Magazine's lists of the world's billionaires -- began a monthlong, $15 million campaign intended to support the president's policy.
Ari Fleischer, former press secretary to Mr. Bush and a member of the group's board, said the ads would run in 20 states, in more than five dozen Congressional districts. ''Anybody who is considering switching their vote is somebody we care about,'' he said.
From the August 23 Los Angeles Times article:
A secondary communications effort got underway from a different quarter of the Republican Party on Wednesday, as nonprofit group Freedom's Watch launched a $15-million television ad campaign to support the administration's position on Iraq.
The group, headed by two former Bush administration officials -- Bradley Blakeman, a former senior assistant to Bush, and Ari Fleischer, Bush's former spokesman -- is funded by private donations.
"Those who want to quit while victory is possible have dominated the public debate about terror and Iraq since the 2004 election. Freedom's Watch is going to change that," Blakeman said in a statement.
The group did not specify which members of Congress would be targeted by the ads, and Blakeman and Fleischer did not respond to calls seeking comment. But antiwar groups said 90% of the group's targets were Republicans, mostly moderates and mavericks who have expressed doubts about the course of the war.
"There are 41 politicians covered by their buys, and 37 of them are Republicans," said Tom Matzzie, Washington director of MoveOn.org and campaign director for Americans Against Escalation in Iraq.
"Their theory is that they are providing support" for those Republicans, Matzzie said, but he believed the ads would backfire: "More Iraq on TV is bad news for Republicans in Congress. All people are going to see is more people hurt by the war."
These ads won't do much for Congressional Republicans, if not make things worse, considering they are playing in specific districts with "wavering" Republicans. They are now going to have to start playing ads in my state (VA) with John Warner calling for redeployment.
Any one with ten brain cells to spare knows full well that Iraq had ZERO to do with 9/11.......
As far as I'm concerned every single person within the Bush regime that knew that this is and was the case should be tossed in prison (to start) for, if anything else lying about the reasons for war, if not treason!
Those within the media and even our average Joe/Jane citizens that have by now know have learned the truth but have decided to ignore it and blindly follow the so-called leaders in DC should be all given the chance to go to Iraq to fight a war that they know to be wrong.
Any citizen that knowingly allows or defends those that propagate lies, an illegal war, that allows torture in our names.......
My heart aches for all the damage being done to the world in our names!
Lets not just say "Stop the War" lets rid ourselves of those that put greed, profit, and power over others also!
Read "Vice" by Lou DuBose & Jake Bernstein
can't we stay just a little bit longer? you know al qaeda don't mind, and bush don't mind, and the iraqi government don't mind if we take a little more time, we can't leave it all behind..... can't we stay just a little bit longer and longer and....
WHY WON'T WE STAAAAA-AAA-AAAAAY... JUST A LITTLE BIT LOOOOONGER!
PLEASE Say, You will. :-)
As much as I disagree with MMFA's politics, this is how liberals should engage in politics. (In the realm of ideas and debate)
James Boyce on Huffington Post, conversly to the tactics of MMFA, thinks that a "false advertising" lawsuit is in order.
Regardless of the fact that this is a baseless legal claim, the fact that he wished he could use the force of government to silence people is Stalinist and dangerous.
Yelling fire in a crowded theater ain't covered either...
I suggest no one bites on this copious stink-bait.
You really call these lies "Ideas and debate" with a straight face? It used to be called fascist propaganda by any sane observer.
No one ever accused Copius of being sane....
:-)
In regard to postings, this dude is a copious cut and runner. Has he ever followed up on any of his inflammatory statements? I think he gets off just saying them and watching people react, even as his tissue paper rantings easily go down.
More snivelling about exposing misinformation miscast somehow as silencing. Give it up. You arent talking to morons HERE. Keep the stupidity for anyone dumb enough to think your weird blog is worth reading.
Willfully deceiving the public by manipulating 9-11 images to gain sympathy for the unrelated war in Iraq, yeah, those people are going somewhere warm in the afterlife
so disgusting to use 9/11 this way.
These Freedom watch nuts are fun to call. It's on their dime and I get the feeling they're being flooded with calls from people responding very differently than they'd hoped. I talked to my congressman's office this afternoon and they hadn't even heard of the thing. Call these guys lots. 1-877-222-8001. They'll ask you if you've enjoyed the Koolaid. Agree with everything they say and they actually connect you with your representative's office. Tell them the truth and they hang up on you. Model Republicans.
I don't think you wanna be advocating calling these people "lots" on their 877 line. That's harrassment. It's not harrassment, though, for lots of people to call them once and ask reasonable questions. And then post the interesting responses.
Here's the interesting response I got when I said I didn't think 'surrender' in Iraq would make terrorism worse. 'click.' Anybody get to talk with these folks?
I'm particularly fond of the ANOTHER ATTACK bit in the commercial, I should write for these psychos...
If you don't vote Republican this year your children will all get cancer and die, Bill and Hillary Clinton created that cancer in underground labs staffed by illegal criminal alien homosexual seculars and rapists, and if we leave Iraq before the Emperor says so the very Earth will explode
gimme a f'n break
I could not believe when I saw this ad the other day, I remember telling my wife "These people will stop at nothing to spread lies".
I haven't watched the clip. but from the article, the thing I found most interesting was the typical tug at heartstrings approach by Freedom's Watch, as opposed to the numbers and other specifics in the opposition's advertisement. Falsehoods and imagry are all that Bush and his ilk have left. All they really had, I guess.
Why do you think these servicemen or their families are just trying to "spread lies"? We are currently fighting al qaeda in Iraq even though Iraq had nothing to do with September 11th.
Most of the people we are fighting in Iraq are not al Queda. If China invaded the US would it be only terrorists fighting them? In fact every country as a matter of black letter international law has every right to armed resistance to foriegn occupation.
Images of flag-draped coffins coming home have long been suppressed by the Bush Administration.
Four years later, the dream of a stabilized Iraq still remains only a dream, but the Administration is now resorting to displaying images of an amputated soldier in a desperate move for public support.
Couple this with the horrible invocation of Vietnam, and it's plain to see that there are now no depths to which Bush will sink in order to stay the course.
In the ad, [Iraq war veteran John] Kriesel says, "They attacked us, and they will again. They won't stop in Iraq."
Then shouldn't we GTFO of Iraq? Doesn't that destroy the whole "Fight them over there so we don't fight them over here" rhetoric?
Congress did the right thing, voting to defeat terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Only there was no terrorism in Iraq until we let it in. And things ain't going so well in Afghanistan, since we dropped them like a hot potato so we could have the "surge" in Iraq.
Why can't Ann Coulter go after these people instead of the Jersey Girls?
They continue because they honestly believe this "art project" is the best option they have to set the stage in advance of Gen. P's report, and continue the feeble attempt to save face with at least their reliable group of sicophants who only connect giant dots, reflexively respond to provocative images, and are brainwashed to believe that questioning our government at a time of war is immoral. I continue to feel sorry for all the traumatized, brainwashed conservatives who (even in middle age) haven't figured out that they aren't going to burn in hell if they listen to their own sensibilities, and that life will still make sense, even without relying on someone telling you what, how, and when to think. I'm sure I'm not alone in having family & friends (or their children) putting their lives on the line in Iraq... On one hand, I can't wait for it to be over, and on the other, I can't imagine how it will possibly end...
Why is this here? What does MMFA hope to achieve by pushing this story? Surely there are more important things to worry about? .........oh sorry guys, I was just channelling Tommy for a minute. I'll wait a few minutes for him to post those remarks himself. Back to the issues at hand - it's incredible that it still works to associate Iraq with 9/11 - clearly people still fall for this. Perhaps it might be worth launching a campaign to out morons - y'know, we find out exactly what kind of person believes that Iraq had anything to do with 9/11, we get them to state that view on film and then broadcast their "thoughts" to the rest of the nation. Then, we bring em on for a live ambush/interview (o'lielley stlyle) and pin them to the wall, pointing out that it was their ignorance, their laziness, their twisted idea of dingbat patriotism that has gotten almost 4,000 u.s personell killed in Iraq. Then, we have them look into the camera and tell the rest of the country about how it is their right to be a cretin who cheerleads death at every opportunity, how decades of watching the dukes of hazzard has made them an expert on international relations and how once they can find Iran on the map, they'll be next. But of course, they'll never pick up a rifle themselves, just send their poor kids off to die instead. One of the things that makes America a great nation is that its citizens have rights - one of the saddest things is that so many of those citizens fail to discharge the democratic responsibility to get informed before participating in the democratic process. The absolute FOOLS who continue to swallow the Iraq -9/11 connection story are so dangerously stupid that i think you could call it "culpable patriotism."
If that doesn't make sense, think of it this way:
You swallow bullsh*t.
You vote for bullsh*t.
Bullsh*t policy gets implemented.
Bullsh*t policy results in deaths of thousands.
Whose hands have blood on them?
We could call the show "To Catch a Moron".
"Congress did the right thing, voting to defeat terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan."
Jesus H. Christ. I can only hope that this poor soldier sincerely believes this crap, and didn't just say it because they paid him to. My heart goes out to him, and I hope they're just taking advantage of his misplaced trust.
Here's the uncomfortable truth that the Troglodytes cannot grasp, and the GOP Military Industrial Whores won't admit...Even if we turn Iraq's desert sands into radio active glass, IT WON"T DEFEAT TERRORISM. IT WON'T MAKE US ANY SAFER. How hard is that to understand? We're wasting lives and money in Iraq, and it's perfectly clear that we're creating new terrorists faster than we can kill them. NOBODY IS BORN A TERRORIST.
I've been trying to find out who are the people that run/fund this group... Apparently they see themselves as the counter to moveon.org
Bradley A. Blakeman is the president
Gordon C. James Public Relations announced today that Bradley A. Blakeman, former deputy assistant to President George W. Bush for appointments and scheduling, will join its Washington, DC office as a senior advisor. Blakeman is currently the president of Kent Strategies, LLC, a consulting firm focused on providing strategic confidential corporate and government advice and counsel. He also appears regularly on the FOX News Network as an on-air political commentator and has commented on shows including ABC's Nightline, MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews, BBC, CNN and various national and regional radio programs.
http://gcjpr.com/blakeman.aspx
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Bradley_A._Blakeman
The donors include Sembler; Anthony Gioia, a Buffalo businessman who was Bush’s ambassador to Malta; Kevin Moley, who was Bush’s ambassador to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in Geneva; Howard Leach, a former Republican National Committee finance chairman who was Bush’s ambassador to France; Dr. John Templeton of Pennsylvania, chairman and president of the John Templeton Foundation; Ed Snider, chairman of Comcast Spectacor, the huge Philadelphia sports and entertainment firm; Sheldon Adelson, chairman of the Las Vegas Sands Corp. and ranked by Forbes magazine as the third-wealthiest American; and Richard Fox, who is chairman of the Jewish Policy Center and was Pennsylvania State Chairman of the Reagan/Bush campaign in 1980.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0807/5479.html
This is where Cheney gets his payback from all those Billionaires who got tax cuts. They can fund these ads with the money that falls into their sofa cushions.
Amazing how many professional liars you can hire if you have enough cash.
Thanks, MHK. I can't say that I fell out of my chair with the shock of seeing the cronies involved, but I alwayd appreciate seeing these connections noted.
Not that it gets any reaction out of the faithful except "so what?"
An ex-co-worker of mine who was very gung=ho on the Iraq invasion was shown somw info on Halliburton and their subs regarding stinky contracts and unaccounted-for funds.
He read the item and responded;
"Somebody's gotta get the contracts. What's the difference?"
This person would probably only get incensed if Halliburton stole directly out of his wallet...every day.
It's pretty disheartening to see how many of these people were Bush appointees of one form or another. I'm not against groups that do advocacy, but the outright lies and exploitation of 9/11 is just wrong. How can these people sleep at night? Never mind I already know the answer to that question, they sold their souls to Dick Cheney :P As far as your comments on Halliburton and your co-worker. I find it interesting that the free-market ideals are out the window when government contracts are involved. This is the area that really baffles me within the Republican party. The only answer I can think of is that greed trumps ideals (it could be the new GOP slogan)
Have you seen "Iraq for Sale"? If not, I highly recommend it.
I don't know how many people still remember all the flap about the $400 hammer in defense contracts. As best I remember, it came up during the 70s and was quite a scandal. Sadly, the excesses in Iraq make a $400 hammer look like a Wal-Mart Blue Light Special.
Why are all of our right of center friends so silent on this issue? I can't understand why they claim to be for accountability, efficiency, etc. yet they remain silent when Corporate American is out of control? All of that money lining the pockets of people that don't need more, when we have so many people in need. It's just sad.
I haven't seen that documentary yet, but it's in the Q. I did just see "Why We Fight" recently. Very disturbing.
It's interesting to note that, after publicly admitting that Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11, Bush is once again shamelessly connecting the two? I guess his puppeteers have realized that the Koolaid-drinking 30% really don't pay attention.
SAVE DEMOCRACY, VOTE FOR A DEMOCRAT!!
Equal time!! Equal Time!! EQUAL TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If we are to be an enduring democracy we must insist that when an opinion is to be promoted on the public airways that any party must pay for equal time in rebuttal and make advanced public notice of making such political add!
If an public policy matter is to be publicly advertised, then a common interest among voters and citizens exists that all valid, and truthfull sides to any issue or policy, or candidate should be equally, and fairly accessible to the same airways!
Fairness Doctrine that works! Fairness that serves the public, not exploit it! The Democratic thing to do!
Happy Thoughts;
Dan Grady
My impression of the media hyping of the surge is that, in addition to trying to keep the war going, it seems to be laying ground for an eventual "stab in the back" myth. If/when the situation deteriorates to the point that our military reaches a point of exhaustion and must withdraw or redeploy, the right will then be able to harken back to the Summer of 2007 when "even Hillary admitted the surge was working" in order to paint those who supported withdrawal as some sort of fifth column (hope I'm not dating myself too much here) who defeated America from within.
Assuming there is an eventual withdrawal, and I'm not holding my breath, be prepared for testimonials from embittered vets (some genuine, others opportunistic) amplified by the usual chickenhawk war cheerleaders. We will almost certainly hear from those who will state that they were on the verge of victory when the cowardly cut and runners stole their rightful glory and rendered their sacrifices meaningless. As we've seen in past wars lost, this sort of mythmaking can have an insidious power. This scenario should not deter those who have taken a principled stand against this catastrophe, but I hope we're ready to counter it.
Absolutely...you can count on it. I'm sure the scripts are already written, and distributed to the talk radio parrots.
Unless something changes drastically, we'll be forced to pull out of Iraq. What follows will be a shameless propaganda campaign to blame it all on those "Spineless Liberals". Bush and Cheney will be elevated to the status of courageous visionaries, and placed alongside Saint Ronald in the Republican Revisionist History Pantheon.
Hide and watch.
I get a kick out of watching BDSers make up scenarios so they can have something else to be mad at, (as if they don't have enough already).
If you ask me, it is shows a departure from reality.
If you don't see it coming, then you haven't been paying attention. This is not paranoia, it's an educated prediction based on past events.
Rush and his fellow Parrots have been laying the groundwork for months. I don't know if you listen to Rush, but one of his favorite catchphrases is "Democrats own defeat". Make no mistake...if we pull out of Iraq with anything less than a resounding "victory", they'll blame the Democrats. You can take that to the bank.
I get a kick out of trolls denying the truth with their stupid little memes.
speaking of woodwork, where'd you come from?
By the way, does BDS make me eligible for a handicap sticker on my car?
BDS is a devastating condition, but my understanding is that it's a picnic compared to the ravages of BCRF (Bush Cranium-Rectal Fusion).
Yes, I believe it does.
Funny!
The meme is already well underway. As one exemplar, here's George Will being a bit more candid than some of his fellow right-wingers would like.
"We are in danger of having, George [Stephanopolous], a Weimar moment in our politics. German politics was embittered disastrously by the belief that they were on the cusp of victory in 1918 and were stabbed in the back by the civilian leadership that didn't understand Germany's military prowess. There is a constituency in this town that believes we're winning in Iraq, that we have at last figured it out, that the indices of success are there. And if we pull out and have the kind of disastrous consequences, telegenic disastrous consequences or could have, we're going to have people saying, "We had it won and threw it away."
Of course it won't likely be labeled a stab in the back by the more savvy politicos (too many unfortunate Nazi comparisons), but this sort of blame shifting is frequent from those who lose wars and it doesn't take a crystal ball to see it coming, just a basic understanding of history and human nature.
I think it mildly amusing that Will decided to back to WWI for his analogy. Vietnam would have sufficed. :-)
Hey got the link to the Will article? I'd like to read the rest of it.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/22/AR2007082202402.html
http://www.sacbee.com/110/story/339689.html
http://instaputz.blogspot.com/2007/07/george-will-calls-out-stab-in-back.html
Sorry, couldn't find video for the quote I gave, though apparently it is/was available as a podcast from i-tunes. The first two links are not verbatim to the "This Week" quote, but are from George Will articles dealing with the same issue.
"I think it mildly amusing that Will decided to back to WWI for his analogy. Vietnam would have sufficed. :-)"
Yes, how improper of him to contravene the unwritten rule that all references to Iraq and terror must only be seen through the lens of WWII. But I agree; Vietnam is another good example of this syndrome.
George Will aside, my original post was dealing with how many in the right would paint defeat in Iraq as the fault of the "anti-war" movement. You said this was a "made up scenario;" I say it's already happening.
"Defeatocrats," "cut and runners," and "praying for defeat" are emblematic of the strategy being used on the right to paint a possible defeat in Iraq as the fault of the left. Another example: here's Rush Limbaugh speaking of the Democrats as "spokespeople for al Qaeda."
"They [Democrats] have aligned themselves with the enemy. They continue to align themselves with the enemy."
http://mediamatters.org/items/200708010008?offset=40&show=1#comments
This is "stab in the back" myth-making in action.
That makes us even I get a kick out of Bush Idolotry Syndrome sufferers and koolaid guzzlers making appologies for this kind of blatant propaganda.
I'm surprised they didn't get that "Iraq veteran" who appeared on Faux News and claimed that the liberals spit on him ... but never provided any evidence other than his word ... yet he did have video of pro-peace protestors passing by him ... 20 to 30 feet away ... if they were able to spit on him, maybe they should enter some of these red-state county fair competitions ...