Nelson Campaign Cries Foul Over TV Ads

The news media is not doing enough to police the accuracy of television advertisements produced by the Pete Ricketts campaign for U.S. Senate.

So says Marcia Cady, communications manager for Ben Nelson, the state's Democratic and incumbent challenger.

"Our opponent, Pete Ricketts, has produced at least three television political ads that contain fabricated headlines and quotes - sometimes attributed to legitimate news sources or government agencies and sometimes just formatted to look like newspaper copy - to deliberately mislead voters about Senator Nelson," Cady said.

The ads in question are:

A commercial titled: "6/29/06": In it, Ricketts makes the claim that Ben Nelson told "straight out lies." The words in quotes are attributed to "news reports," possibly leading viewers to believe that they originated in legitimate news analysis or editorials about Nelson, Cady said. However, the actual quote is from a 1996 statement by then-GOP candidate Chuck Hagel.

In a commercial regarding Nelson's record on property taxes as governor, the voiceover uses the phrase, "Ben Nelson broke his promise" and attributes it to the Nebraska Department of Revenue. However, according to Cady, this phrase has never appeared in any documents by that agency.

In a commercial titled, "New Low," Ricketts uses the words "Ben Nelson's Attacking Pete Ricketts" and "Ben Nelson is Still Attacking Pete Ricketts," attributing these phrases to the Lincoln Journal-Star and Omaha World-Herald newspapers, respectively. However, neither paper used those phrases either as headlines or in an article.

"They are complete fabrications," Cady said of the headlines.

In at least one case, complaints by the World-Herald to the Ricketts campaign resulted in a commercial being pulled.

Ricketts' Campaign Manager, Jessica Moenning, said the Nelson camp's call of attention to the advertisements is just "more politics as usual" and is intended to be a diversionary tactic.

"(It is) turning attention away from the fact that he attacked Pete Ricketts on challenging his property valuation and didn't bother to come clean that he had done the same thing four times," Moenning said.

"Ben Nelson has spent the first two months of this campaign misrepresenting Pete Ricketts' positions and benefiting from ads paid for the National Democrat Party he pretends not to be a part of," Moenning said.

"Now he has to answer for his record on increasing property valuations as governor, costing Nebraska taxpayers $145 million because of his 'bad faith,' and hiding the fact that he had challenged his own property valuations four times. This is just a desperate attempt to change the focus from his own deception and dishonesty."

Cady, who has extensive journalistic experience - including a stint as assistant news director at WOWT - said it is the media's duty to act as a watchdog and point out inaccuracies when they occur.

"We believe the media must be vigilant in its public duty so the level of political discourse in this state remains balanced," she said.