Corker asks radio station to pull attack ad
Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Bob Corker joined Democrat Harold Ford Jr.’s campaign Friday in denouncing as “reprehensible” a radio commercial attacking Ford and sponsored by a group calling itself “Tennesseans for Truth.”
Corker’s campaign learned of the ad being aired on a Gallatin radio station after being contacted by Ford’s campaign on Friday, according to Corker spokesman Todd Womack.
Michael Powell, senior adviser to the Ford campaign, said the campaign’s “research people” who monitor advertising had found the ad and, so far as he knew, it has aired only on the one station, WHIN.
Powell said the ad was “racist.” Womack declined to use that word.
After listening to the ad, Corker campaign manager Tom Ingram promptly sent a letter to the station, asking that the “offensive, reprehensible advertisement” be taken off the air immediately. A copy of the letter was sent to media.
Mike Marshall, a sports commentator fielding calls at WHIN Friday night, said it is “my understanding” that the ad had been pulled. He said that, to the best of his knowledge, it only aired two times.
The ad is an attack on Ford and his “Washington liberal lobbyist” father, former U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Sr.
“His daddy handed him his seat in Congress and his seat in the Congressional Black Caucus, an all-black group of congressmen who represent the interests of black people above all others,” the narrator says in the ad.
“Ford’s Congressional Black Caucus secretly prepares and presents their own alternative budget to Congress each year to fund aid to black Americans. Discrimination at its worst,” the narrator says.
After other criticism - including, for example, a statement that “no Tennessee college was worthy of Harold Ford Jr.,” a University of Michigan graduate - the ad concludes with this line:
“Tennesseans want a color-blind senator, a real Tennessean representing all of us without discrimination.”
Powell said little could be learned of the group “Tennesseans for Truth” except that there were indications it was “out of Kentucky.” A brief review of state and federal campaign finance records found no organization of that name.
A similar name, “Tennesseetruth” is listed as the creator of a mock TV ad attacking Ford and placed on the YouTube Web site. It also attacks Ford, featuring a video recording of Ford’s father and a list of Ford family members accused of illegal activity.
Posted Wednesday, it had been viewed by only 453 people, according to a Web site count on Friday night, but has been circulated in Tennessee political circles.
As for the radio ad, Powell said it is “a very ugly, hateful, racist ad that has no place in this campaign.
“We are happy that, to Mr. Corker’s credit, his campaign has seen it the same way we see it,” said Powell, adding the ad contains statements that “are absolutely, unequivocally untrue - not just distortions and exaggerations.
“There was a very insidious purpose and intent behind that ad. Whoever authorized and funded it has a very hateful and a very sick view of our common humanity.”
Ingram said in his letter that “Bob Corker believes this sort of advertisement has no place in this, or any other campaign.”
Womack said Corker believed the ad “offensive” and that the Corker campaign had no idea who was behind “Tennesseans for Truth.” He said the campaign also had no knowledge of who has posted the YouTube ad attacking Ford.
