John Geer on the Web

THERE ARE few pieces of conventional wisdom more deeply held than the idea that negative political advertising is a danger to our society. David Broder, the dean of Washington's political journalists, claims that "trivial is too kind a word" for the content of today's campaigns. And the public apparently agrees. In February 2004, for instance, 80% of Americans claimed in a Pew Research Center poll that negative campaigns bothered them either "somewhat" or "very much." A USA Today headline captured the general sentiment well: "Orgy of Negativity Has Many Voters Disgusted."

The argument against attack ads is straightforward: They take our minds off the real issues by distracting us with meaningless personal attacks; they encourage deception and incivility, and they disillusion voters. In her book, "Dirty Politics," Kathleen Hall Jamieson claimed that a Republican ad in the 1988 presidential campaign " suffers from the weakness that pervades contemporary campaigning: It tells us what Dukakis is against, but not what Bush is for." ... more