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Political Mudslinging Via YouTube, MySpace 249

Posted by Zonk from the don't-forget-to-duck dept.
An anonymous reader writes "BusinessWeek takes a look at how political campaigns are taking the time-honored tradition of political mudslinging digital. One notable example: In the Virginia Senate race incumbent Republican George Allen held a comfortable lead over challenger Jim Webb until one of Webb's camera-toting aides captured footage of Allen making a racial slur during a campaign stop. The video soon held the number 1 ranking on YouTube and gained national attention. Allen has since taken a steep drop in the polls, and Republicans now risk losing a seat they thought secure."
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Political Mudslinging Via YouTube, MySpace More

Political Mudslinging Via YouTube, MySpace

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  • Mudslinging? How? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by eldavojohn ( 898314 ) * <eldavojohn@noSpAM.gmail.com> on Thursday November 02, 2006 @03:58PM (#16693451) Journal
    BusinessWeek takes a look at how political campaigns are taking the time-honored tradition of political mudslinging digital. One notable example: In the Virginia Senate race incumbent Republican George Allen held a comfortable lead over challenger Jim Webb until one of Webb's camera-toting aides captured footage of Allen making a racial slur during a campaign stop.
    How is that 'mudslinging?' The definition of mudslinger is "one that uses offensive epithets and abuse/insult especially against a political opponent." I mean, if you show a video (without doctoring it) of your opponent saying "macaca" and it really happened, how are you mudslinging? I'd sure like to know if the guy I'm voting for is willing to call a group of people something offensive.

    I haven't been able to see the video but if it's accompanied by some commentary like, "... George Allen's typical closed minded Republican speak ..." then I could classify this as mudslinging because not all Republicans are like this. What's truly unfortunate is that the people who were going to vote for him as a viable candidate may now have no where to turn in time for the election. Jim Webb could have all the wrong stances on issues and he might win by default for an ignorant use of a word by his opponent. Well, I guess that's American politics.

    Muslinging still is rampant and there still are videos ... but when they're not lies or aren't pertinent, I'm interested in seeing them. A lot of the time, I don't believe what I see/hear unless it's verifiable [factcheck.org] or (as in this case) it's coming from the candidates mouth. It doesn't matter if it's TV, the radio, the internet or even my best friend, I'd still want verification.
    • Yeah, this one isn't mudslinging. This one is George Allen being himself, on camera, without any doctoring whatsoever.

      A classic example of real mudslinging would be the Willie Horton ad; it insulted Bush Sr.'s opponent, played off racist fears (without using any overt racism), and took an explicitly biased stance against Michael Dukakis. That's mudslinging.

      This was just a politician hanging his own political career in front of millions.

    • How is that 'mudslinging?' The definition of mudslinger is "one that uses offensive epithets and abuse/insult especially against a political opponent." I mean, if you show a video (without doctoring it) of your opponent saying "macaca" and it really happened, how are you mudslinging? I'd sure like to know if the guy I'm voting for is willing to call a group of people something offensive.

      I think mudslinging generally refers to the practice of negative campaigning, which the "macaca" video definitely was.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by catfood ( 40112 )
        I think mudslinging generally refers to the practice of negative campaigning...

        No it doesn't. Mudslinging is a pretty well-defined term. You have to wonder about the motivations of people who want to blur that meaning.

        • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

          by eln ( 21727 ) *
          Nobody in politics intentionally misuses words for any purpose, especially not for propaganda. Only a fascist like you would think otherwise.
        • That's just slinging mud at people who want to blur the meaning!!!

          Or is it?

          /head asplodes

        • No it doesn't. Mudslinging is a pretty well-defined term. You have to wonder about the motivations of people who want to blur that meaning.

          According to whom? I looked it up and found this: "An attempt to destroy someone's reputation"

          The key thing is, it doesn't say it has to be *false*. Is Webb trying to destroy Allen's reputation with the mileage they've gotten from the macaca thing? You betcha. Thus, mudslinging.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by catfood ( 40112 )

            Actually, Webb hasn't mentioned that incident as far as I know. Not even obliquely. G. Felix Allen is fully capable of ruining his own reputation without any help.

            Res ipsa loquitur, dude.

      • There really has been too much mudslinging, but there are issues in the campaign, though you wouldn't know it from most media [allenhq.com], because mudslinging sells them papers [allenhq.com], not responsible coverage of the issues.

        Note: I don't live in Virginia, so I haven't been following the race that closely.
    • How is that 'mudslinging?

      TFS cites this as an exception, because it's not mudslinging. I'm sure it woudn't take more than two fingers and three minutes to find plenty of business-as-usual campaign rhetoric. Not that I'm going to go look — I get quite enough of that already.
    • I agree; this isn't mudslinging, it is a video of a politician sticking his foot in his mouth. At one time I was leaning towards voting for Senator Allen, but not after that incident and his pathetic attempt to "explain it away".

      Here's the wikipedia entry on the word "macaca" - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macaca_(slur) [wikipedia.org]
      • He also used to have a portrait of Nathan Bedford Forrest [wikipedia.org] in his office (note: Allen was born in California and did not demonstrate any fealty to the Confederate "culture" prior to moving to Virginia), and two flags - the American flag (quite appropriate) and the Confederate battle flag (see previous note). Finally, he named his son "Forrest" as well. One could argue that his son Forrest could be named after anyone, but the fact that Allen himself had a portrait of Nathan Bedford Forrest in his office defin
    • It's interesting how the wide range of human hopes and opinions can be reduced to us and them by the US electoral system.

       
      • Yours is a very insightful post (hint to moderators), but the "us and them" mentality pre-dates the US electoral system by a few million years. It is sad that we (yes, I am including myself) tend to think as members of tribes than as members of homo sapiens sapiens.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by eno2001 ( 527078 )
      I'm going to play devil's advocate here. (NOTE: I am a conservative liberal who voted for Kerry and previously Nader. I will never again vote third party)

      You bring up issues, but as all of us Bush supporters know issues aren't what count! It's CHARACTER! And it's apparent that this man lacks character by simply uttering such offensive terms. This is up there with that evil Democrat who called one of Bush's nominees to the supreme court that racist slur: Neanderthal! Anyone with a brain will see that e

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by s20451 ( 410424 )
      I'd sure like to know if the guy I'm voting for is willing to call a group of people something offensive.

      It's somewhat hard to believe that there is any candidate for any office in the land who has never told a racial, ethnic, or sexist joke at any time in their lives.

      • It's somewhat hard to believe that there is any candidate for any office in the land who has never told a racial, ethnic, or sexist joke at any time in their lives.
        But there are many candidates who never told a racial, ethnic, or sexist joke during a campaign - on camera.


        It takes a special kind of stupid to do that.

      • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

        by Profane MuthaFucka ( 574406 )
        Telling a joke doesn't make you a racist. Calling people macaca to their face, putting deer heads into the mailboxes of black families, and standing up with the members of the Council of Conservative Citizens (a KKK front group) makes you a racist.
      • Difference being that most political candidates probably tell these jokes in private, away from the private eye and certainly not anywhere a video camera might pick it up.

        If I were a supervisor I can go home and say anything I want about my incompitent employees to my wife, kids, friends in the privacy of my own home. However, it is highly unethical to say the same things in the presence of other coworkers.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by TheGreek ( 2403 )
          If I were a supervisor I can go home and say anything I want about my incompitent employees to my wife, kids, friends in the privacy of my own home. However, it is highly unethical to say the same things in the presence of other coworkers.
          Actually, it's unethical if you tell your wife and kids, too.

          You're just somewhat less likely to get fired for it.
      • Yes. Telling an ethnic joke is the same thing as referring to someone as "macaca".
    • OTOH there are 10 times as many videos that take liberites with context. Jon Stewart has been airing them nightly.

      Last night, an ad said something to the effect of "Joe Blow would let this man walk free!" "This man" was just a picture of some random black guy, poory lit in OJ-on-Newsweek fashion. For all I know the guy was in prison for jaywalking and probably deserves to go free.

      But this has nothing to do with You Tube. Just how sad US politics has become, where this issues don't matter and all that counts
      • like tow chimps throwing feces at each other

        Tow chimps? Are those like junkyard dogs? They sound nasty...
      • You do realize that we have you to thank for George Allen [wikipedia.org], don't you? He was born in Whittier, California. (This is not meant to be any kind of "carpet bagging" slur, as Webb was born in Missouri, and as for me, well, I was born in (West) Germany - as an army brat.)

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by petrus4 ( 213815 )
      What's truly unfortunate is that the people who were going to vote for him as a viable candidate may now have no where to turn in time for the election.

      What I assume nobody else is going to comment on is what a complete fool you are for assuming the electoral process is still functional in the first place. This [youtube.com] might give you a slightly more realistic perspective on the state of America's political health.

      I'm not advocating doing nothing, at all...but the longer people keep pretending that the current syst
      • That's hilarious. I'm bookmarking this and returning in 2010. I just want to see how "insightful" this is. Oh yeah, and the Army? They're waaaaay more beholden to America than the sitting President. Don't go putting crap on their shoulders.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by petrus4 ( 213815 )
          That's hilarious. I'm bookmarking this and returning in 2010. I just want to see how "insightful" this is.

          Sure...Bookmark my journal as well. We can compare notes.
      • Bush's dictatorship? Never really lived under a dictatorship, have you? Either your disingenuous, or criminally naive. If this were truly the place you seem to believe, you DO understand that you, for holding such views, would be dead? Or the black helicopters would be on their way, at least?

        Only the hysterically-emo, hang-wringing naive suburban leftist could POSSIBLY equate the current political structure of the US with a dictatorship, the same kind of person that would have no trouble slinging the te

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by petrus4 ( 213815 )
          the no-holds-barred political climate that sees value in feeding your particular phobia rather than getting you the professional help you need, that you are rated 'insightful'.

          Maybe. Or maybe they know something you don't.

          You're also not the first person to tell me I'm insane. I don't let that discourage me. My theory is that it's a lot more comforting to simply assume that I'm insane than to consider the alternative. Although you could be right...I actually hope that for a lot of people's sake, you are
      • Exactly what does a rave getting raided have to do with the electorial process? If anything, those looked like SWAT rather than the military.

        • I think jackbooted paramilitary thugs persecuting a peaceful festival smells like fascism. I'd sure hesitate to express any nonmajority political views in Utah.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by geekoid ( 135745 )
        It does still work.

        See, he will be gone in two years.
        The problem is not the system, it's the apathy and people who vote mased on the letter next to a candidates name, not on the canadate.

        It's a cutural problem, but thats ok, beause that is changing as well.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Shihar ( 153932 )
        What I would advocate anyone and everyone in the US to start doing from this point on is to become as friendly with people in the military as they can...because when it comes down to the wire, your life is going to literally depend on whose side the military are on...

        My sister (navy) and her husband (marine) are both in the military. You are an absolute moron if you think they are going to revolt for Bush. Hell, you are a blazing idiot if you think Bush is even going to ask for a revolt, much less get one

  • Wait, this is mudslinging? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Nevyn ( 5505 ) * on Thursday November 02, 2006 @03:58PM (#16693453) Homepage Journal
    In the Virginia Senate race incumbent Republican George Allen held a comfortable lead [...] until [...] footage of Allen making a racial slur during a campaign stop.

    Err, sorry to break it to you US MSM but informing people that someone is a racists POS, when that is the case and you have evidence to prove it, is not mudslinging. Also note, for future reference, presenting both to stories about "my sky budy says evolution isn't true" ... not objective reporting.

    • Macaca is a french word used to describe black people and others of non white heritage in north africa.

      Guess what? George Allen's mom is from North Africa.

  • Isn't it Interesting How... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by eno2001 ( 527078 ) on Thursday November 02, 2006 @04:02PM (#16693501) Homepage Journal
    ...it's "mudslinging" when some racist asshole gets caught on tape and this horrid abberation of a human is brought to the attention of the public so they can decide if they want a racist in office? But if politician gets a BJ in his office given by some reasonably 'OK' looking fat chick and it's plastered all over the media (would have been on the net too if there were video of it) it's "fair and balanced reporting". Sayonara assholes...

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by ScentCone ( 795499 )
      Sayonara assholes...

      Yeah! Good riddance! I mean, we sure don't want someone who says that women aren't "psychologically equipped" for combat, or says that (in the wake of a story about rampant unmarried pregnancies in the military) that the Naval Academy is "a horny woman's dream," and calls female midshipmen there "thunder thighs" ... no, that sort of tone deafness, bias, and assholishness can't be permitted! What? That's all stuff that Allen's opponent, Jim Webb, said while running the DoD? Ah. Well th
      • Perfect! A flamebait mod for actually reporting what someone said. A perfect example of what this thread is about: it ain't mudslinging if you're just pointing out demonstrable facts. But that's OK, modding down someone who says "both people in that senatorial race have said dumb-ass things" is just pointing out who can, and can't stand the reporting. Heh - elections are fun! Not because of the candidates, but because of the flame mods.
      • actually yes, in an all volunteer army there are many more uneducated losers.
      • That's all stuff that Allen's opponent, Jim Webb, said while running the DoD?


        Which would be pretty hard, even if he in fact said those things, since Jim Webb never ran the DoD.

        (The Secretary of Defense runs the Department of Defense. The Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs does not. Neither does the Secretary of the Navy.)

  • But wait, there's more! (Score:3, Informative)

    by smooth wombat ( 796938 ) on Thursday November 02, 2006 @04:06PM (#16693559) Journal
    captured footage of Allen making a racial slur during a campaign stop.


    Now we have footage of some of his aides/operatives attacking a blogger [blogspot.com] who asked Allen if he had stopped spitting on his wife. Why would he say that? Because that is apparently what is included in Allen's divorce papers which are currently sealed.

    As others on the media circuit have said, regardless if the question is valid or not, there was no reason to attack the person and the fact that Allen watched the whole thing and did nothing to stop the attack shows what a thug-based party the Republicans.

    This isn't the first time that Allen's been accused of being violent. His one sister wrote a book in which she describes him beating and/or attacking the other children including dragging her by the hair up a flight of stairs.

    And before anyone marks me as Troll or Flamebait, I am a Republican but people like Allen, or in my case Santorum, in no way represent me. I am thoroughly disgusted with what my party has become and I can't wait to see the results on November 8th.

    • I read a lot of your comments you have posted. I would think that you are far more Libertarian than Republican. Which is fine, Republicans can learn a few things from Libertarians.

      Watching the video and reading his blogged intent to be disruptive he got off easy. Honestly, had Allen been a foreign dignitary or the POTUS (or even a POTUS candidate) and he pushed past the bodyguards he would have been carted off.

    • That "M" word... according to the Wikipedia article [wikipedia.org] (which, given current events, may well be full of shit) says this:

      Macaca[1] is a dismissive epithet used by francophone colonials in Central Africa's Belgian Congo for the native population.

      and further:

      Allen's mother, born Henrietta Lumbroso, is of French Tunisian descent and some have suggested that she may have learned the pejorative during her childhood and introduced it to her son.

      Uh, sure... That's one family dedicated to preserving their rich

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Abreu ( 173023 )
        At least here in Latin America "Macaco" is a very recognizable ethnic slur...

        I mean calling someone of dark skin "a Monkey" is definitely not a friendly nickname
    • And before anyone marks me as Troll or Flamebait, I am a Republican but people like Allen, or in my case Santorum, in no way represent me.

      I've told my friends, Santorum is the kind of guy I would vote for if he wasn't an insane asshole.

      He is pretty much the only reason I am voting . I just happened to be listening to the radio in the car and they him an interview about family values and pretty much the man's own words made me so ill (seeing his diatribe about morality and history of Judeo-Christian and worl
      • Bob Casey, Jr. is his opponent, the son of former Governor Robert Casey and our current state Treasurer. While I'm voting for Casey it's only to get Santorum out of office so he can't do any more damage.

        This is the guy who wanted to make it so the taxpayers had to pay twice to get weather information. We would pay for the information once through our taxes via the National Weather Service and then a second time through a private organization [phillyburbs.com].

        This is also the guy who said in his book that educatio

    • Why does nearly every political bashing end with the sentence "before anyone marks me as Troll or Flamebait, I am a "?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by CptNerd ( 455084 )
      Whacko with a backpack starts pushing towards a Senator, yelling and making a scene and the Senator is the violent one? And it wasn't even the Senator who "wrestled him to the ground", it was a campaign aide. But that makes the Senator violent. You all probably won't want to see this [allens-a-team.com] since it doesn't show the "nonviolent, innocent" stalker in a good light.

      Now, if it was a whacko yelling about "killing babies" while pushing towards Ted Kennedy carrying a backpack, would you call Kennedy "violent" if his s

      • Thank you! That is an excellent point! Since I don't have mod points, you get a gold star.

        Ah, I'm sorry. It's just an asterisk.

        *

    • This is one Republican (albiet stuck in Democrat *HELL*) that completely agrees with you.

      But I'm goin' down to Costco tomorrow and getting that gigantic bottle of French Vodka to sip on all night. It's gonna be a long one watching from the West Coast.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by slapout ( 93640 )
      You haven't seen the whole thing. Look here:

      You'll see the blogger shoving people to get to Allen.

      http://hotair.com/archives/2006/11/02/new-photos-s how-kos-kid-shoved-his-way-towards-george-allen/ [hotair.com]
  • I had to laugh at an NPR interview yesterday with Howard Dean's campaign manager [npr.org], who's also the author of a book on how the web is changing everything blah blah blah. He went on about how YouTube, MySpace, etc. have changed everything since 2004 blah blah blah, without once mentioning that his client in 2004 was taken out by a video of him bloviating after the Iowa caucuses, but that the video of Dean's war dance was instantly available on-line (which is where I first saw it), even though YouTube was stil

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by eln ( 21727 ) *
      With all of the feigned outrage over politicians fumbling over their words or saying something offhand that may or may not be offensive to someone, I'm beginning to think the only way to win an election these days is to sit in a bunker the entire time, occasionally coming out to say "terror" over and over again into a microphone.
      • People laugh at George W Bush, call him an imbecile, etc., but his handlers put him into the highest office of the most powerful country on earth with campaign speeches consisting of little more than repeated utterances of a few dozen phrases that tested well in front of a beef fed white Christian focus group.

        If that isn't genius I don't know what is..

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Poppler ( 822173 )
        I'm beginning to think the only way to win an election these days is to sit in a bunker the entire time, occasionally coming out to say "terror" over and over again into a microphone.
        So let me get this straight, you're predicting a Cheney landslide in '08? ;)

    • Just wait until video recording devices owned by the populace are so pervasive that nearly every moment outside a politician's office and home are recorded and on public display. Maybe we'll be able to see those lesser known (and arguably more decent) candidates that don't have the huge monetary and party backing get a few more votes, or even win a few elections.

      • Just wait until video recording devices owned by the populace are so pervasive that nearly every moment outside a politician's office and home are recorded and on public display. Maybe we'll be able to see those lesser known (and arguably more decent) candidates that don't have the huge monetary and party backing get a few more votes, or even win a few elections.

        Or.... more likely....

        Nobody worth voting for will ever run for office again, because they won't want to subject their family to constant pap

        • That's already the case. You think that a population of 300 million people can't produce as many great leaders, statistically, as a population of 3-10 million did? The colonies produced Jefferson, Franklin, Adams, Hamilton, and Lincoln. None of these people would ever touch public office now. I can't imagine that there aren't people something like them in modern society, but somehow either none of them are interested in acquiring leadership or they are weeded out of the system.

          Now we have termite exte

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by Copid ( 137416 )
            I was marvelling at the Jefferson / Adams letters a while ago noting the fact that Jefferson had, for his time, a tremendous intuitive understanding of what was formalized in economics only in the 20th century. Some of those men seemed to be at home in practically every subject, and it's interesting to think about the fact that at the time, it was quite possible to have an excellent understanding of a huge chunk of mankind's knowledge if you were intelligent and well-read. I found myself wondering, what w
        • Or.... more likely....

          Nobody worth voting for will ever run for office again, because they won't want to subject their family to constant paparazzi-style intimidation in their daily lives.

          I think you are a little too late on that. Nobody worth voting for became the Republican party. Democrats merely became the choice for "no fascism, please."

          I think it Ironic that the parent post talks about "Dean, shooting his mouth off." as though that were equivalent to Allen being a fascist. News Flash -- everyone has a
          • "14erCleaner" proves the point that others make; People need to read about candidates.

            Actually, you're proving your own point, since you didn't read my post carefully. Dean did make a public outburst, and it KO'd his election chances, and it spread in large part on his beloved internet. Dean's yaaarrrggg speech was the political equivalent of Steve Ballmer's "developers! developers! developers!" speech: it made him an object of ridicule on the web. This is nothing new, really; the referenced NPR inte

      • In that case, why don't we switch to an election process that mimics a reality show. All candidates that throw their hats in the ring will be filmed by a camera crew during all aspects of their daily lives. That means if they are currently an elected official, you get to see what they do on the job and you get to see what kind of person they are off the job (do they fly off the handle easily? Are they good husbands/wives?). The on the job footage would be great because you could see for yourself what bi
      • Fortunately the lives of politicians are a passing fancy for most people, only being important to them just before an election. This is good, because rooting around someone's personal life can get out of hand quickly and it usually doesn't offer much insight into who they actually are or what they stand for in political terms.

        I have a friend/colleague (I'm a professional photographer) who does 'celebrity photojournalism' on a regular basis for a couple of big magazines. He can afford to rent a helicopter an
    • Everything changed? Not really, Dean was removed from contention in 2004 in much the same way Allen was removed in 2006, by shooting his mouth off in front of a video camera.

      Speaking of shooting off and the nature of video as a communications medium, I wonder why no one has yet assembled clips of George Bush farting around the Whitehouse. (Gentle Slashdot readers should feel free to Google using those keywords.) It's debatable if such videos would have a direct effect on the outcome of an election, but th

      • Speaking of shooting off and the nature of video as a communications medium, I wonder why no one has yet assembled clips of George Bush farting around the Whitehouse. (Gentle Slashdot readers should feel free to Google using those keywords.) It's debatable if such videos would have a direct effect on the outcome of an election, but the commercials would be more fun to watch.

        Nah... this would get spun on FNC as another example of how Bush is a "regular guy" just like us.

        ...and to those on the right, his

    • Everything HAS changed.

      The established Democrats wanted to focus on a handful of races in a few safe states. BFD -- the Democrats might have won a few seats but been totally unable to pull of a landslide.

      In contrast, Dean insisted on rebuilding the party in all fifty states, even "when hell freezes over" states like Montana and Wyoming, and the "webroots" gave a forum for candidates (and way for them to raise money $5 and $10 at a time from hundreds or thousands of small contributors). Almost all of the "
  • This isn't any way to run a body politic.

    Television means politics is now about the *appearance* of honesty, integrity, competence.

    ACTUAL honesty, integrity and competence - who knows? how can you tell through television?

    You can tell be learning the history of a candidate, by learning about his position on major issues and what he thinks could be done.

    This doesn't happen, because it requires reading, and reading is no longer the primary communication medium in our culture. Television is. We turn to telev

  • 2008 Elections (Score:4, Interesting)

    by twifosp ( 532320 ) on Thursday November 02, 2006 @04:16PM (#16693703)
    This is really the first election where online material might have significantly moved a vote. You can bet it will be much worse in 2008.

    Given that YouTube is unregulated, I bet we start seeing fake videos hit the networks. Some anonymous user posts a video of Joe Schmo canidate talking about some random topic. A bit of audio editing (think voice boards) later, some grainy artifacts in the right place, and some clever timing and suddenly Joe Schmo just got caught saying something bad. Will it matter if the politician refutes the video? Even if they prove it to be fake, the damage will probably already be done. No real account to tie the slandering back to. No one to sue, and all YouTube can do is take down the video and ban the account. Damage already done, and no real risk.

    In the 50's we had the red scare. In the next election there migth be a YouTube scare.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by garcia ( 6573 )
      Given that YouTube is unregulated, I bet we start seeing fake videos hit the networks.

      Uhh, they already do this on network television. They are constantly showing video clips that are specifically to bolster election campaigns and give better attention to the desires of specific campaigns.

      If anything YouTube users would end up figuring this shit out and mod the stuff down to infinity. You can't exactly do that with network TV.

  • Mudslinging at an all-time high (Score:3, Insightful)

    by pilkul ( 667659 ) on Thursday November 02, 2006 @04:41PM (#16694091)
    Check out this report on this election's ads [factcheck.org] by an independent group. Democrats have 81% negative ads and Republicans 91% negative, and many of the claims are misleading or flat-out false (mostly on the Republican side -- they're getting desperate, and they learned from Rove that playing dirty works). It may be a "time-honored tradition" but if so it's getting more traditional by the year.

    The George Allen case isn't mudslinging -- this is mudslinging:
    "Over 100 Democratic elected officials are opposing Democrat trial lawyer Ellen Simon. Liberal Ellen Simon served as the president of the ACLU, a radical organization that defends hard-core criminals at the man/boy love association (North American Man/Boy Love Association), a national group that preys on our children. One Democratic mayor called Simon's actions 'utterly disgusting.' He's right. Ellen Simon: radical, liberal and wrong for Arizona."
    (taken from here [azdailysun.com]). The worst is that the 100 Democratic officials can't be accounted for, the mayor is a Democrat in name only, and best of all Simon was not the president of the ACLU but only worked for them as a lawyer on a single non-NAMBLA-related case!
  • Hey politicians!

    Whether you are doing the mugslinging or getting it done to you, you are still covered in filth.

    No amount of whitewashing can clean you of the stench of filth that you reek of.

    You all need to be booted from office and we need to start from scratch to get some honest citizens in your place that will actually do the job for the people instead of for the money.

    "VOTE NONE OF THE ABOVE!" -Montgomery Brewster (Brewster's Millions)
    • It's kinda sad that the None of the Above vote for my precinct still results in 100% Republicans. *shrug* But I'm doing it anyways... because NOT ONE of the CongressCritters serving right now is worth their weight in dog pooh.
  • George Felix Allen used standard old fashioned email to call his opponent James Webb a pedophile.

    There was no youtubing involved at all, he just cut and pasted a few sentences out of a war novel Webb wrote many years ago that is considered recommended reading by the US Marine Corps.

    Isn't that good old fashioned mudslinging? Just because he used email doesn't make it particularly new.
  • Reporting something that actually happened is not mudslinging.

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