Being someone who works in the media, I see advertisers "nuance" their message all the time to influence our audience to use their products/services. Sometimes their claims are so misleading or untrue, you hear them get slapped with "false advertising" claims. Why don't we do this with our elected officials and those who to aspire to be one, as well?
As a staunch Democrat, a believer in individual rights, a believer in equal rights for women, minorities, homosexuals and heterosexuals, a believer in peaceful plotting as opposed to privatized war mongering, I'm sick and tired of seeing our public offices being won by misleading advertising campaigns. So here's my solution.
We need a maverick congressman to introduce legislation creating a non-partisn committee at both the state AND federal levels to monitor truth in campaign advertising. Allow these committees to screen campaign television, radio and internet advertising for a period of 24 hours before either approving or disallowing the advertisement to be distributed. Misleading mis-information, outright lies and falsities would bar a commercial from ever reaching the eyes of the voting populus.
My belief is that too many potential voters become apathetic about voting because, after the mud-bath, they hate both candidates and have negative perception of both. How many times have we heard a friend or loved one say "I think they're both crooks"?
What congressman or senator would fight such a measure? Wouldn't they be called to task by their local media and constituency? Wouldn't they want to know why their representative didn't want campaign ads to be filtered for untruths? I'd want to know why my congressman would rather misleading information shape my vote than truth.
While I think such a measure would curtail 'spin' more from the right than the left, I can't imagine either party standing up to deny such a measure. Thoughts?