politics

Cutting Through the Flack

April 20, 2004

Yesterday, John Kerry’s campaign released three new ads, and the Bush campaign, in typical fashion, was quick to respond. In their piece in The Washington Post, Lois Romano and Howard Kurtz quote Bush campaign spokesman Steve Schmidt:

All three ads are filled with false attacks and overheated political rhetoric consistent with the pessimism that has dominated John Kerry’s conversation with America.

Liz Sidoti of the Associated Press also quotes Schmidt, ending her piece with:

Steve Schmidt, a Bush campaign spokesman, called the ads “very typical of the Kerry campaign” because they are “relentlessly negative” and filled with “inaccurate attacks.”

“They stand in stark contrast to the president’s optimistic agenda,” Schmidt said.

Schmidt certainly has a knack for staying on message, but we were left wondering exactly what inaccuracies he found in the ads. The Washington Post implies he didn’t find any at all, following Schmidt’s “false attacks” quote with six devastating little words: “He declined to detail the falsehoods.”

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But before you dismiss Schmidt’s attack as empty partisan flackery, have a look at Sidoti’s piece. She does the detailing for Schmidt, pointing out that, contrary to the claim in the Kerry ad that “3 million Americans have lost their jobs” under Bush, the latest number is closer to 1.8 million jobs lost. We’re guessing Schmidt was hesitant to mention that figure to reporters — after all, correcting the record to point out that “only” 1.8 million jobs have disappeared can’t be the Bush administration’s idea of a flawless piece of spin.

It’s nice to see any reporter take the extra step of actually vetting a campaign claim, instead of just repeating the traditional back-and-forth of attack ads. But without reading both pieces, we wouldn’t have been able to piece this all together.

What we’re waiting for is the day that we don’t need to read through multiple pieces to cut through the daily dose of spin issued by each campaign camp.

–Brian Montopoli

Brian Montopoli is a writer at CJR Daily.