2006/10/22
Wingnuts and NY-24
Also at BlogJosh.
With U.S. Rep. Sherwood Boehlert – a moderate Republican – retiring this year, there's a chance that control of the House could swing on the seat he's vacating. With less than three weeks left until election day, Republican candidate Ray Meier and Democrat Michael Arcuri are in a dead-heat.
But the National Republican Campaign Committee has stooped to a new low in campaign advertising – such a new low that when I saw the story about the new ad against Arcuri (via Sean Kirst), I just glossed over it..
And then I saw the ad.
The ad – which Meier, the Republican, has asked the NRCC to pull (the NRCC has declined) – takes Arcuri to task for calling a sex hotline from his hotel phone while in New York City on business, and charging Oneida County taxpayers for the call. The P-S investigated the claim (it's in the story), and the AP looked into it, too.
Turns out that an aide mis-dialed the call – the Department of Criminal Justice Services in Albany has the same seven-digit phone number, but with a different area code. Phone records show that the correct number was dialed one minute after the incorrect number was dialed.
The P-S story says many of the stations approached with the ad declined to run it, but I saw it on the local Fox affiliate, which is owned by Sinclair, a large media company run by people who donate heavily to Republican campaigns.
And never mind a distaste for accuracy, Sinclair has an evident distaste for actually informing the public. In those markets served by Sinclair that still have local news shows, only about 15 minutes of every half-hour is done locally (with 10 of those minutes being weather and sports).
Other stations – like our local Fox affiliate – rely (or, as in this station's case, relied) on other local stations to produce their news. The CBS affiliate here, WTVH, owned by Granite, used to produce the Fox affiliate's local news show. When the CBS affiliate decided to focus on its own news, the Fox affiliate ran a nasty-gram on its web site asking viewers to write to WTVH.
Because WTVH should have to program someone else's news. Right.
Here's Fox affiliate WSYT's contact info. Tell them to at least purport to tell the truth.
With U.S. Rep. Sherwood Boehlert – a moderate Republican – retiring this year, there's a chance that control of the House could swing on the seat he's vacating. With less than three weeks left until election day, Republican candidate Ray Meier and Democrat Michael Arcuri are in a dead-heat.
But the National Republican Campaign Committee has stooped to a new low in campaign advertising – such a new low that when I saw the story about the new ad against Arcuri (via Sean Kirst), I just glossed over it..
And then I saw the ad.
The ad – which Meier, the Republican, has asked the NRCC to pull (the NRCC has declined) – takes Arcuri to task for calling a sex hotline from his hotel phone while in New York City on business, and charging Oneida County taxpayers for the call. The P-S investigated the claim (it's in the story), and the AP looked into it, too.
Turns out that an aide mis-dialed the call – the Department of Criminal Justice Services in Albany has the same seven-digit phone number, but with a different area code. Phone records show that the correct number was dialed one minute after the incorrect number was dialed.
The P-S story says many of the stations approached with the ad declined to run it, but I saw it on the local Fox affiliate, which is owned by Sinclair, a large media company run by people who donate heavily to Republican campaigns.
And never mind a distaste for accuracy, Sinclair has an evident distaste for actually informing the public. In those markets served by Sinclair that still have local news shows, only about 15 minutes of every half-hour is done locally (with 10 of those minutes being weather and sports).
Other stations – like our local Fox affiliate – rely (or, as in this station's case, relied) on other local stations to produce their news. The CBS affiliate here, WTVH, owned by Granite, used to produce the Fox affiliate's local news show. When the CBS affiliate decided to focus on its own news, the Fox affiliate ran a nasty-gram on its web site asking viewers to write to WTVH.
Because WTVH should have to program someone else's news. Right.
Here's Fox affiliate WSYT's contact info. Tell them to at least purport to tell the truth.
