E.D. Hill paired Michael J. Fox's stem cell ad, RNC ad called “overtly racist” by Republican William Cohen as “negative ads ... one from each side”; let Card claim only “Democrats have a message of negativity”

Written by Rob Dietz

Published


On the October 26 edition of Fox News Live, host E.D. Hill compared two “negative ads ... one from each side” -- one by Missouri Democratic Senate candidate Claire McCaskill in which actor Michael J. Fox, who has Parkinson's disease, endorsed McCaskill due to her support for supporting embryonic stem cell research, the other an ad funded by the Republican National Committee (RNC) that attacks Tennessee Democratic Senate candidate Harold Ford Jr. by depicting a scantily clad white woman who “met” Ford “at the Playboy party.” As Media Matters for America noted, former Republican senator and Secretary of Defense William Cohen has called the ad attacking Ford “overtly racist.” As the two ads aired on-screen, Hill interviewed former Bush White House chief of staff Andrew Card, leaving unchallenged Card's claim that “Democrats have a message of negativity” after earlier stating: “Republicans have a message that has some specifics to it about the future.”

From 11 a.m. hour of the October 26 edition of Fox News Live:

HILL: OK, let me tap into your political wisdom here in terms of this last-minute campaigning because we're seeing a lot of negative ads coming out, and they come out on both sides. From your experience, when you're talking to the people, everybody says they hate negative ads, but do they work?

CARD: Unfortunately, negative ads do work. But the most important thing is that the Republicans have a message that has some specifics to it about the future. We know that we want to secure America; we want to give the president the tools to secure America. We want our economy to be strong; we don't want taxes to go up. That's a very specific message.

The Democrats have a message of negativity. It's one -- just -- they just complain about the past, and they don't have any hope for the future. I think that some of those ads highlight the fact that the Democrats really do not have a plan and we should be afraid of them.

HILL: Well, we're seeing negative ads that are out there right now, one from each side. Is there a point when negative ads go -- you know, go past that line?

CARD: Well, I think there's a limit to everything. But right now, we're in the final stages of the campaign. It's really the ground game that will make the difference, and so Republicans are very good at organizing.