Keep Super PACs off PBS 12APR12

NPR and PBS have a long standing policy of no political ads and no commercials (though in the past few years program sponsors have been allowed short general infomercials about their companies, this brought about by decreased funding by the federal govt for the CPB, Corporation for Public Broadcasting). The recent court ruling removing the ban on political ads on PBS and NPR doesn't mandate that these broadcasters accept political ads from anyone, just that it is now possible to run political ads on public broadcasting radio and TV. Please join in calling on NPR and PBS to reject all Super PAC and in fact all political ads, and then, if you can go to their websites and make a donation, any amount will help, to keep their free and fair.

Take Action: No Super PACs on PBS! “Sesame Street,” brought to you by Mitt Romney. Up next: “Downton Abbey,” but first, a word from Obama’s Super PAC. We’re not kidding! Moments ago a U.S. appeals court struck down a ban on political ads on public broadcasting stations. That means your local PBS or NPR station could start running nasty attack ads right away.1 Tell PBS and NPR: No Attack Ads! The court said that permitting these sorts of ads would not threaten or undermine the educational nature of public broadcast stations. But polluting public programming with misleading and negative ads is not in keeping with the original vision of noncommercial broadcasting. And it’s certainly not the solution to funding public media. Many Americans turn to public TV or radio to escape the offensive political ads that have flooded commercial stations. Please join us and tell the leadership of PBS and NPR stations that they must reject political ads: Act Now: Political Attack Ads Have No Place on Public Media An overwhelming majority of Americans say public funding for public media is money well spent. PBS and NPR and their member stations should know that accepting political ads is not the solution to public broadcasting’s funding problems. We need to invest in public media, not open it up to dirty Super PAC money. Take action now and then forward this email to your friends. Thanks, Candace, Josh, Craig, Tim and the Free Press team P.S. Like our work? The Free Press Action Fund is powered by donations from people like you. We don’t take a single cent from business, government or political parties. Please keep us going strong with a gift of $10 — or more — today. Thank you! 1. “U.S. ban on political ads on public TV struck down,” Reuters, April 12, 2012: http://act2.freepress.net/go/9700?akid=3445.9767049.ENUf9m&t=10

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THE SWIFTBOATING OF TIM KAINE 12APR12

ALL of us have a stake in the outcome of the election of our next Senator from Virginia, the citizens of the Commonwealth of Virginia as well as all Americans. Tim Kaine, the Democratic Party's nominee, is being swiftboated by the same group that attacked John Kerry when he ran for President, they have just purchased $5.5 million in ads in the Virginia market. Check this out from the Kaine for Virginia campaign, and donate what you can, even a couple of dollars can make a difference...

That's right -- yesterday, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) bought $5.5 million worth of ad time in Virginia, and you can bet that every dime of it is going toward deceitful ads attacking Tim Kaine.
This is the organization that's headed in Virginia by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth mastermind Chris LaCivita, who claimed that he has an ad that will be Tim's "Willie Horton" and a strategy that he described to an AP reporter as giving the dark attack ads that are now a staple of American politics the venom that makes them work.
LaCivita made a big down payment on his strategy yesterday. Now I'm counting on you to make an investment in ours.
Make a contribution today so that we will have the resources to spread Tim's message for economic growth and civility in Washington above the din of LaCivita's misleading attacks.
With your help, we can rebut the attacks that LaCivita is already planning and communicate Tim's strategy for growing our economy, investing in education and workforce training, and balancing our budget across the Commonwealth.
Outside organizations have already spent more than $1.5 million on TV ads in Virginia -- a million dollars of which went towards attack ads aimed at Tim. And while the ads have been proven false by outside fact-checking organizations, I know that even the most baseless accusation can do serious harm.
You may have thought I was exaggerating over the past months when I said that outside organizations were going to spend millions of dollars attacking Tim -- well, I don't know what proof to offer other than this $5.5 million purchase of Virginia airtime.
Make this the moment you renew your support for Tim Kaine's campaign with a contribution. We need you to help us prove that we will not back down.
Thanks for your help,
Mo Elleithee
Kaine for Virginia

FACTCHECK.ORG: CROSSROADS GPS FALSE ATTACK AD ON TIM KAINE 15NOV11

karl rove's and crossroads gps' attack ad on Tim Kaines campaign for Senate in Virginia doesn't stand up to FactCheck's scrutiny. Check this out, click the header to go to the article on the FactCheck.org wegsite....

Shortfall Becomes Deficit

Crossroads is spending $616,000 on an ad in Virgina attacking Democrat Tim Kaine, claiming that as the former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, he was “Obama’s partisan cheerleader” and that he was a “reckless” spender when he served as Virginia’s governor. In the Senate race, Kaine faces Republican challenger George Allen, also a former Virginia governor and a former U.S. senator.
The ad claims: “As Virginia governor, Tim Kaine’s reckless spending turned a budget surplus into a big deficit. Reckless spending, massive debt.” Text in the background reads: “2006: $1.2 billion surplus, 2009: $3.7 billion deficit.”
For backup, Crossroads provided two stories from the Virginian-Pilot. The first story, published on Jan. 8, 2006, just before Kaine took office as governor, stated that the budget “debate centers on whether the $1.2 billion surplus should be used for one-time expenses such as construction rather than to create new programs with recurring costs.” The second story, from Feb. 17, 2009, a year before Kaine left office, states, “In December, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine projected that Virginia faced a $2.9 billion budget shortfall. He increased that estimate to $3.7 billion on Monday based on much-lower-than-expected tax payments.”
But those are misleading snapshots. And shortfalls aren’t deficits.
Virginia adopts a new budget every two years, and amendments are added to it in the odd year to square the numbers. There’s no question that Virginia experienced serious budget shortfalls during the recession due to much lower-than-anticipated revenues. But the shortfall was closed by the end of the biennium. The same Virginian-Pilot story in which Kaine talks about a $3.7 billion shortfall, notes that the stimulus provided $1 billion in budget relief, and that lawmakers were forced to cut $2.7 billion to balance the budget, as required by the state constitution.
Responding to the ad on Nov. 10, Kaine told WVEC ABC 13: “I left office with two balanced budgets that I submitted because you have to, by law, submit balanced budgets.”