While watching the MLB playoffs on FOX Sports they kept running an ad even worse, and more racist than the infamous Willie Horton ad from the 1988 campaign. Now FOX Sports has become a place for racial hatred.
Fans enjoying Phillies playoff games have been jarred by violent, vile political ads from Citizens for Sanity. Here's who's behind them.
by Will Bunch | Columnist
Published Oct 16, 2022
Every few innings, the dark, grainy TV spots — with a flood of unsettling images of urban crime and civic unrest, or large migrant caravans streaming toward the U.S. border — broke up the stream of otherwise cheerful spots for iPhones or car insurance. One says “illegal immigration is draining our paychecks, wrecking our schools, ruining our hospitals and threatening your family” — blaming President Biden, and telling Democrats to “stop hurting our children,” against an ominous, empty playground swing. The crime spot blames liberals for a wave of “violence, bloodshed and death” as men with machine guns roam an urban wasteland.
You won’t be shocked to learn that the ads are deliberately dishonest,…
One other thing that won’t surprise you about the new attack ads is that the people behind them aren’t eager for you to know exactly who they are.
The required tagline lists the sponsor as a new group calling itself Citizens for Sanity. On one level, thanks to some excellent research by the campaign-finance watchdog Open Secrets, we know a lot about who these Citizens for Sanity are: the very worst, xenophobic remnants of Team Trump, offering America not just a new low for the 2022 midterms but a sneak preview of the nightmare that the 45th president’s 2024 comeback crusade is likely to be.
Open Secrets reports a close overlap between the trustees of Citizens for Sanity — as identified to the Federal Communications Commission, or FCC — and the pro-Trump America First Legal Foundation, which is spearheaded by Stephen Miller, the former Trump White House official behind harsh immigration policies such as family separation at the southern border.
Citizens for Sanity ad
Warning, this ad is vile.
From the SPLC:
By Caleb Kieffer
America’s Voice’s GOP ad tracker found 1,313 ads mentioning immigration, as of publication. Fifty-five ads have invoked ideas of an immigration invasion, while 89 have featured rhetoric about migrants swarming and flooding the Southern border.
“We should also recognize that this extreme rhetoric is part of a larger volume of political messaging from the Republicans that seeks to stoke racialized fears and anxieties around crime, jobs, and identity with xenophobic dog-whistling,” Mueller added.
After the tragic shooting in Buffalo, Mueller noted that some political figures in the Republican party have “made a conscious choice to double down on ‘invasion’ and replacement theory rhetoric.”
“They knew full well the dangers of amplifying these conspiracy theories,” Mueller said. “That much was crystal clear after the events in El Paso, and the numerous other racist mass murders associated with these ideas.”
I’m done watching the MLB playoffs on FOX ‘Sports’.
How about you?