A 501 is running attack ads against Jerry McNerney (CA-11) on KCBS radio accusing him of being soft on the terrorists because he doesn’t support giving away our freedoms to support the Bush Administration. I have a call in to Ed Cavinero, News Director at KCBS (phone--415-765-4049) to ask why KCBS has chosen to run this false and defamatory ad.
At first, I thought that this attack was just a bunch of kooks, like Mary Park, who wrote letters to the editors of the Modesto Bee and the Tracy Press attacking him for opposing the Bush Administration’s "effort to protect our nation". But, it turns out that this is just part of what looks like a well-funded organizational effort that has now hit the airwaves in San Francisco, CA.
According to TPM Muckraker:
A group called the "Foundation for the Defense of Democracies has launched a national ad campaign criticizing Democrats for not passing the Senate's surveillance bill."
This ad claims that the lapse of the so-called "Patriot Act" has left our intelligence collection crippled. This is factually false and I was blunt in asking KCBS why they were running a patently false ad. I want to know what their policy is—is it their policy to run advertisements that they know to be false? I have a call in to Ed Cavinero, their news director, asking him to pull the ad.
It’s one thing to claim that McNerney voted against a particular piece of legislation if he did so; it’s quite another thing to tell people falsely that the legislation does something it doesn’t do.
KCBS needs to be held accountable for its actions. By broadcasting this lie they are misleading the American people into undermining the Constitution. This is subversive activity on its face. I’m calling them on it and I think you should, too.
I’m probably more tolerant of questionable speech than most people. I’d be inclined to err on the side of letting the marketplace of ideas do its work. But this is not just attacking a politician; it’s attacking the Constitution of the United States. It’s more despicable than the usual kind of mudslinging because it attacks us. We need to speak out to oppose it.
And please be on the lookout for letters to your paper claiming that your representative is soft on national defense for not voting to undermine the Constitution. We must insist that the government follow the law as it is written. Here’s my reply to one of these idiots, which you are free to quote:
The Constitution was written by people in more danger of being killed than us. In fact, not many years later, the country was invaded and Americans killed. You remember—the rocket’s red glare....
But the founders were even more afraid of a tyranny than of external attacks. So am I. I don’t worry that terrorists will kill me. I worry our government will perfect its means of spying on us until our security services are the most efficient the world has ever known, more efficient than the KGB, the Stasi, the SS. Imagine all that headed up by a President who doesn’t really have the good of the American people at heart.
I had a particular President in mind, one that I don’t think has the good of the American people at heart. You can probably guess who that is.
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Update (28 April 2008 22:52): I didn't hear back from Ed Cavinero today. I'm considering launching a boycott of their sponsors.
Update (30 April 2008 19:30): I still haven't heard back from KCBS, but I left them yet another message. It seems to me that a real news organization would be interested in preserving the Bill of Rights. At least, I hope so.