In a July 6 Washington Post article about a new Vets for Freedom (VFF) television ad, staff writers Shailagh Murray and Michael D. Shear reported that VFF chairman Pete Hegseth “says his group is not operating on behalf of McCain and notes that federal law prohibits the organization from coordinating the ad with his campaign. ... But he conceded that the message in the ad is almost identical to McCain's on the stump.” Similarly, on July 5, the Associated Press reported that McCain “is getting ... help from” the VFF television ad campaign. Neither the Post nor the AP mentioned that two McCain supporters and frequent McCain campaign surrogates -- Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), a national co-chairman of McCain's campaign, and Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), a co-chairman of McCain's Connecticut Leadership Team -- served on the VFF Policy Board of Advisors. On May 28 -- the same day VFF released an ad attacking Sen. Barack Obama on the Iraq war -- Graham and Lieberman "request[ed] a leave" from their positions "[d]ue to McCain campaign guidelines." According to the McCain campaign website, the campaign's policy states that "[n]o person with a McCain Campaign title or position may participate in a 527 or other independent entity that makes public communications that support or oppose any presidential candidate."

By contrast, in a July 6 article about the VFF ad in The New York Times and a more extensive July 5 post on the Times political blog The Caucus, reporter Michael Luo wrote that VFF “found itself under scrutiny” when Graham and Lieberman “were both on the policy advisory board for the group in apparent contravention of a new conflict-of-interest policy by the McCain campaign.” Luo further reported in The Caucus that Vets for Freedom's founder, Wade Zirkle, “was also identified as a member of Mr. McCain's Virginia leadership team.” From Luo's post on The Caucus:

The veterans organization also found itself under scrutiny when it was revealed that Senators Joseph Lieberman and Lindsey Graham, prominent surrogates for the McCain campaign, were both on the policy advisory board for the group in apparent contravention of a new conflict-of-interest policy by the McCain campaign that prohibited people with positions in the campaign from participating in outside groups supporting or opposing any presidential candidate. Both men resigned from the group.

Wade Zirkle, the group's founder, was also identified as a member of Mr. McCain's Virginia leadership team. Mr. Hegseth was listed in a campaign news release as being a member of the team as well, but he said that was a mistake and he had not been aware of his name even being on the list, pointing out he has never lived in Virginia.

But while the Times noted connections between VFF and the McCain camp in its coverage of the latest ad, none of the three -- The Washington Post, the AP, or the Times -- noted that McCain has denounced independent expenditures on his behalf, even as he has benefited from them, asserting during the campaign, “If anyone considering an outside expenditure thinks they are benefiting me I would prefer they do not air the ads.” Further, McCain campaign senior adviser Charlie Black was quoted in a May 14 Washington Post article as saying of outside groups: “Obviously, McCain would prefer that people give money to him and the RNC [Republican National Committee] and let us run our own campaign. ... It's an issue of who is going to control your campaign.”

But as Media Matters for America has noted, although McCain has publicly denounced attack ads, he reportedly said that he “can't be a referee of every spot run on television,” a statement that, Boston Herald reporter Hillary Chabot wrote, “marks a softening of his view on the negative campaign tactic -- and opens the door to a no-holds-barred five-month scramble.”

From Murray and Shear's July 6 Washington Post article:

The ad features eight veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan and the mother of a soldier in Iraq. “We changed strategy in Iraq,” one of the soldiers says in the ad. “And the surge worked. Now that's change we can believe in. We need to finish the job. ... No matter who is president.”

Hegseth says his group is not operating on behalf of McCain and notes that federal law prohibits the organization from coordinating the ad with his campaign. The states were chosen, he said, not because they are crucial swing states for McCain, but rather because the heightened interest in those states will give it a larger audience.

“We're going to tap into that heightened awareness,” he said, noting that his organization has supported several Democratic candidates in the past year or so. “It's not an attack on anybody. We're not taking on any presidential candidates.”

But he conceded that the message in the ad is almost identical to McCain's on the stump: The troop buildup worked; let's continue the war until we win. He said McCain has been the “strongest advocate” for the veterans of the two wars.

“We would hope that success in Iraq could benefit everybody,” he said.

From the July 5 Associated Press article:

Republican John McCain, who has made support for President Bush's troop buildup in Iraq the centerpiece of his presidential campaign, is getting from help from a veterans group that's launching a national TV ad campaign next week.

Vets for Freedom is spending $1.5 million on ads that will run on national cable television and in five states in July -- the first set of ads in a multimillion dollar campaign in coming months touting the troop buildup, Pete Hegseth, the 25,000-member group's chairman, said in a telephone interview Saturday. Aimed at “informing the American people about the truth regarding progress in Iraq and Afghanistan,” the issue ads will feature veterans of the war describing the accomplishments they've seen since the buildup began in early 2007.

From Luo's July 5 post on The Caucus:

An independent group that has been highly critical of Senator Barack Obama is preparing a multi-million dollar television advertising campaign promoting what it deems the success of the troop buildup in Iraq. The ad campaign is set to begin next week and run through early November in a host of presidential battleground states.

The campaign by the group, Vets for Freedom, would appear to be the first major independent effort benefiting Senator John McCain, although the content of the commercials has not yet been released, and it is not clear if the advertisements will explicitly mention Mr. Obama or Mr. McCain. The campaign was reported by Politico.com this morning and confirmed by Pete Hegseth, the group's chairman.

Vets for Freedom is a non-profit advocacy organization for veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan that claims 24,000 members. In late May, the group released two Web advertisements attacking Mr. Obama on Iraq, challenging him for not having visited Iraq in two-and-a-half years, a line of attack that the McCain campaign and the Republican National Committee picked up on as well around the same time. Mr. Obama is planning a visit to Iraq later this summer.

The veterans organization also found itself under scrutiny when it was revealed that Senators Joseph Lieberman and Lindsey Graham, prominent surrogates for the McCain campaign, were both on the policy advisory board for the group in apparent contravention of a new conflict-of-interest policy by the McCain campaign that prohibited people with positions in the campaign from participating in outside groups supporting or opposing any presidential candidate. Both men resigned from the group.

Wade Zirkle, the group's founder, was also identified as a member of Mr. McCain's Virginia leadership team. Mr. Hegseth was listed in a campaign news release as being a member of the team as well, but he said that was a mistake and he had not been aware of his name even being on the list, pointing out he has never lived in Virginia.

According to a media advisory the group put out this week that went mostly unnoticed, the coming television advertising buy on national cable and “target markets” will feature “pointed ads” that are “aimed at informing the American people about the truth regarding progress in Iraq and Afghanistan.”