Not only did 911 INVOLVE hijacking, but more and more we are seeing clear signs of how this national tragedy which created fleeting bipartisan, national unity is BEING hijacked. Here’s the latest outrage:
The controversial video of the burning World Trade Center towers in a television campaign ad for Ohio Sen. Mike DeWine is doctored, U.S. News has learned. The television spot, which has been lambasted by critics as a political exploitation of the Sept. 11, attacks Democrat challenger Rep. Sherrod Brown for being weak on national security.
On the air in major Ohio markets since last Friday, the ad shows the towers, with the south building billowing smoke, which gradually drifts upward. In the video, the north tower, which was struck first on September 11, is undamaged.
“This particular image is impossible,” says W. Gene Corley, a stuctural engineer who led FEMA’s building performance study on the World Trade Center after the 9/11 attacks. Corley reviewed the ad at www.brownvotes.com for U.S. News. “The north tower was hit first [so] the south tower could not be burning without the North Tower burning.” Corley also says, “the smoke is all wrong.” The day of the attacks, the plumes of ash were drifting to the southeast. “The smoke on 9/11 was never in a halo like that,” Corley says.
DeWine’s office acknowledged the error. “The Senator was unaware that the image of the towers was a graphic representation and has instructed the campaign to replace the footage with a picture of the Twin Towers,” his office said in a statement on Wednesday evening.
DeWine spokesman Brian Seitchik says the image of the burning towers in the ad is a still photo with computer-generated smoke added.
In a sign of how politically charged the issue of politicizing the Sept. 11 attacks has become, DeWine’s camp promised a newly edited version would be produced immediately and released as early as Thursday.
But there really is no apology for the use of 911:
The new ad will feature images of the World Trade Center before the Sept. 11 attacks – sans smoke. Despite the ongoing controversy, DeWine’s campaign is standing by the TV spot. “The factual basis of the ad is well documented,” Seitchik says. “There is a fundamental difference between Sherrod Brown and Mike DeWine on national secuirty issues, and this ad was about shining a spotlight on that.
Yep. And they just COULD NOT DO IT without using footage of 911 and implying by its use that Brown did not care about what happened (that IS the implication behind it, if you cut away all of the politically-correct garbage).
Note to DeWine and those who try to use 911 against any political party:
- Unless you’ve been living on Mars with Alan Keyes, 911 was the result of administrations of BOTH political parties not connecting the dots and of intelligence agency tensions that led to lower than adequate job performances.
- In case you forgot, after 911 there was enormous BIPARTISAN unity and NATIONAL unity.
- No one party has bragging rights on American reaction to 911 or deserves the complete blame for 911. Key votes on changes after 911 were won with votes of BOTH parties.
Hopefully Mr. DeWine’s constituents will remember all of this. And although we don’t endorse candidates we do suggest that voters of ALL or NO parties repudiate this kind of use of 911 in this controversial ad in a fitting way: by turning thumbs down on Election Day to any candidates who choose to cheapen the memories of people who died on September 11th by seemingly ignoring the incredible national unity and bipartisan resolve on terrorism that blessed our country after that tragedy.
Perhaps Mr. DeWine’s campaign can present a doctored image of him appearing to be painstakingly respectful of 911’s place in our political history as an event that was a tragedy for all Americans, a failure of many administrations and a moment during which Americans put aside partisan differences and came together as one nation.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.