From an AP article exploring those negative cable news-bait campaign ads (the ones that don’t require an actual ad buy by the campaign, just an email to reporters):
Liz Cox Barrett is a writer at CJR.“It’s getting just silly that the ads they are putting out are represented as real spots,” said [Evan Tracey, head of TNS Media Intelligence/Campaign Media Analysis Group, a firm that tracks ads].
“You used to hide the harder edge message in radio and direct mail,” Tracey said. “What you have now is that the campaigns say, ‘Hey, (MSNBC’s) Morning Joe is a food fight, let’s supply the tomatoes.'”
