Who's behind those vile, right-wing political TV ads during the baseball playoffs?
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Will Bunch
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Were you jolted by those violent, racist right-wing TV political ads that interrupted the fun of this weekend's baseball playoffs? (I was)
Who's behind this trash, and what does it really say about the rock-bottom state of 2022 politics? My new column
inquirer.com
Who’s behind those vile, right-wing political TV ads during the baseball playoffs
Fans enjoying Phillies playoff games have been jarred by violent, vile political ads from Citizens for Sanity. Here's who's behind them.
9:12 AM · Oct 16, 2022
https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/commentary/citizens-for-sanity-tv-ads-republicans-20221016.html
No paywall
https://archive.ph/1O1sZ
If you live in Philadelphia or thereabouts, the October baseball playoffs have brought almost unbridled joy from a Phillies hot streak, punctuated by an epic bat flip and an inside-the-park home run — and marred only by jarring interruptions from the most shockingly crude and, arguably, racist political ads since Willie Horton hit the small screen in 1988.
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, conflating Democratic immigration policies, for example, with the horrific case of one undocumented immigrant named Christopher Puente accused of raping a toddler at a fast-food restaurant in Chicago (”She was 3 ... years ... old,” the narrator intones, milking the pathos). What’s not said is that the alleged assault occurred in February 2020, more than three years into the presidency of Republican Donald Trump, well before Biden took office.
That’s appalling, but that’s not what’s most upsetting about these ads, which, according to social media, have been broadcast nationally during the baseball telecasts on Fox Sports 1. There is absolutely no filter of jarring and often violent imagery, the racist overtones and the xenophobic innuendo, and the unrelenting darkness of the “American carnage” vibe. No one cares that this is afternoon baseball and little girls and boys are watching. This is America now.
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= new reply since forum marked as read
These are national ads, tailored for the local markets.
They are all over the ACC/ESPN Network, which state depends on which market the game is in.
I guess the parent company of ABC is ok with these. As is Fox.
They use the same grainy format, just change the faces and names of the Democratic candidate targeted.
They are crude and racist, violent and misogynistic, outright lies and disinformation; which is why they will appeal to the Christo-fascists cult members.
Fucking 1% owned and controlled M$M.
ESPN, FOX and NBC - see them on NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL games no matter where you watch. These are national buys that run in local ad spots on the games.
$1.6 Billion goes a long way. That is how much a rethug oligarch gave to one of the RW Dark Money PAC's to distribute 'darkly' to candidates this year - either Heritage Foundation or Federalist Society, I forget which.
after I saw they had endorsed Fetterman.
These loons drag out the same playbook time after time because they figure it works. 
Since they have been doing this since at least 1988 with Poppy's Willie Horton ad, Bunch should know better about calling this "rock bottom" in 2022. It was "rock bottom" 34 years ago and has remained trapped there in the oozing detritus of the GOP below-the-belt politicking ever since.
