h/t TheWrap.com

At the Toronto Film Festival, filmmaker Michael Moore excoriated newspapers for seeking profits and for "slitting their own throats".

(Need you ask?)

Every so often I will run across some talk show from the past that points out just how naive we all were as a country, many years ago.

On October 5, 1958 the Open Mind program hosted a discussion on the future of television in politics and how advertising could possibly be used to make or break a candidate or issue. Fifty years ago, remember?

Bear in mind, TV wasn't as all-encompassing as it is today. Stations routinely went off the air at midnight. Color was new. Video tape was new. Most homes had TV's that were, at the most 17" and usually encased in a massive console. There were virtually no live on-the-spot reports and there were lots and lots of talking heads.

So, when Open Mind brought on Professor Eric Goldman (author of the book "Rendezvous With Destiny"), John Elliot Jr. from the BBD&O Ad Agency and Lloyd Whiteburke, an advertising consultant. The conversation about the possibilities that Television could influence a political campaign were very real.

Lloyd Whiteburke: “There’s no FTC, no Federal Trade Commission in political advertising. If a product is falsely advertised, as you all know, the Federal Trade Commission will seek an injunction against the advertiser and have that advertising changed and penalize the advertiser. The only person penalized for buying a candidate who is not what he represents himself for is the voter. And he’s got four years to wait to throw him out, throw out this candidate. So it imposes a tremendous sense of responsibility on the advertising fraternity to make darn sure that something isn’t done, that isn’t correct for which the FTC does not have call. And that’s why some of the practitioners do, in the course of their work, say things and do things that are perhaps not exactly right. And we have to watch that and we have to police our own . . . “

Television was still in its infancy. The 1952 Presidential campaign, being the first to utilize Television in a prominent way, was recent history. The Kennedy-Nixon debates were still two years off and cable was only an idea.

I don't think anyone could have imagined what it would all become.

The Caucus Blog [New York Times]

A leading conservative legal advocacy group that has a played a prominent role in the debate over the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Sonia Sotomayor has created a new ad accusing her of supporting violent terrorists and comparing her to former Weatherman Bill Ayers.

At one point, the ad ...shows a picture of Judge Sotomayor alongside the text: “SUPPORTED VIOLENT TERRORISTS.”

Mr. Levey said the ad was written by Chris LaCivita, who also helped create the Swift Boat Vets for Truth ads against Senator John F. Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee. The Swift Boat ads were riddled with unsubstantiated charges and led to a new political term for smearing a political opponent with lies: “swift-boating.”

Ben LaBolt, a White House spokesman, called the Sotomayor ad “an uniquely implausible act in wingnuttery.” Right Wing Watch, a division of the liberal People for the American Way, called it “over-the-top and nonsensical.”

Mr. Levey acknowledged that the ad presented a “caricature,” but it defended it as “factually true.”

In fairness, when I first saw this ad I was so sure it was a hoax, I asked the gang at Relaxed Politics to do a little digging for me. It's real.

And now Think Progress reports that Orrin Hatch has distanced himself from the ad, even though he's attended fundraisers for the group that produced it. Hatch claims this is "not the kind of ad he would run."

But did you help pay for it, Senator?

The Republicans on the Judiciary Committee should start a big fat file labeled "With Friends Like These..."

A Youtuber picks some favorite Superbowl commercials. Open thread below, for football, advertising, or anything else on your mind.

WASHINGTON - Sen. John McCain - who knows a bit about nasty politics - said the 2004 race for the White House is the worst he's ever seen. "This is the bitterest, most unsavory campaign in the nation's history," McCain said. "And it's only going to get worse."

The Arizona Republican spoke to The Associated Press as the debate over John Kerry's and President Bush's Vietnam records disintegrated into a pool of mud.

McCain called on Kerry to condemn a new ad charging that Bush "used his father to get into the National Guard, and when the chips were down, went missing." The Massachusetts Senator promptly did so. "I agree with Sen. McCain that the ad is inappropriate," Kerry said in a statement. "This should be a campaign of issues, not insults." read on...