McCain's new ad attacks Obama for canceling a visit to wounded troops in Germany during his overseas trip. The ad says Obama bowed out because he couldn't bring television cameras. Obama himself has said he had no intention of bringing cameras on the visit, but no matter. Exposure trumps inaccuracy every time.
The ad began running this past Saturday. It has run as a paid commercial roughly a dozen times to date. Yet it's run literally hundreds of times, for free, as the network and cable news outlets highlight the controversy it has created. Is there a lesson to be learned from this? If so, is it that a candidate should run a wildly inaccurate ad during a time when he or she knows there's little other news to cover?
The news outlets ought to know better, and they do. They can cover the controversy without showing the ad every time they do. McCain himself ought to know better as well. What's good for the goose is also good for the gander. How will he respond if Barack Obama does what he's already done and gets an equal amount of free news coverage of a paid advertisement?
And when will all this end?
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