The Spokesman-Review (WA) reported today that KTVB-TV in Boise, Idaho, has decided to pull an ad by Dick Morris' Super PAC for America because it incorrectly claimed Rep. Walt Minnick (ID-D) voted for the stimulus bill when he actually voted against it.
From the article:
The anti-Minnick ad alters the message on health care to criticize Minnick for not backing repeal of the full health-care reform bill - Minnick maintains some parts, such as insurance reforms, are worth keeping - but then falsely claims Minnick voted for the stimulus bill.
RJ Laukitis, executive director of SuperPAC for America, said in an email, “We are looking into this claim.”
Minnick campaign manager John Foster called the ad “outrageous,” and said, “I have already been in touch with our attorneys and with a couple of station managers. We believe the law here is very clear.” Stations have the option of rejecting false ads that come from outside groups, he said.
This isn't the first time Morris has had an accuracy problem with one of his Fox-fueled ad buys. The Post-Standard (Syracuse, NY) reported in March that the League of American Voters, which Morris has advised, spent $40,000 to air ads targeting Rep. Dan Maffei's (D-NY) “vote on health care reform. But there's one problem: The commercials from the League of American Voters had the wrong facts, and now the group is being forced to revise the TV campaign. The ads, which started airing on local stations this past weekend, falsely claimed Maffei supports taxing individual health insurance plans to pay for the reforms, as approved by the U.S. Senate. In fact, Maffei, D-DeWitt, has publicly opposed the Senate bill because of the tax on so-called Cadillac insurance plans.”
As Media Matters has documented, Morris has repeatedly used Fox News' airwaves to promote and fundraise for the PAC. The on-air promotion has apparently helped, as Morris claimed the PAC is “raising almost half a million dollars a day” and over $3 million overall. Morris says the PAC is targeting 24 seats and “ad buys now going on the air [are] set to run until Election Day. Each voter will see our ad about 7-10 times, so I think they will help us to win almost all of these races.”
Media Matters has noted that Fox News has a Dick Morris problem. Indeed, the purported news network has shown no apparent concern that Morris not only regularly bungles the facts, but also uses his on-air position to lie about working for the Republican Party “without compensation” and fundraise for another Republican-aligned group without disclosing they paid him.