Move.On.org has run an ad with a headline that deserves nothing less than utter, unadulterated condemnation from thinking Americans of both parties, including those who feel his decision to give an exclusive to Fox News after his report to Congress injects him into partisan politics and is a public relations fiasco.
To mince no words, this is the kind of language that cause us to delete comments on this blog and to even ban commenters. It undermines the rest of moveon.org’s message and, frankly, when some people (like yours truly) see it, we stop reading the rest of it.
Why? Because we condemn it when the White House, conservative talk show hosts, or bloggers suggest that war critics are less than patriotic. So we condemn with equal fervor moveon.org’s political blunder which will lose it (and its side) the ear of a lot of people since it’s just as reprehensible as those who run elections suggesting war critics are cowards or want the other side to win.
The Chicago Tribune’s The Swamp blog:
MoveOn.org was looking to get attention and so they have with their full-page New York Times ad in which they slam Gen. David Petraeus, rhyming his name with “betray us.” It’s the liberal group’s version of shock and awe.
The ad’s text is an indictment of Petraeus in which they do everything but call the general a serial liar…”
Go to the link and read it. The actual TEXT could be subject to vigorous debate since the General has now either chosen or been instructed to essentially only talk to administration friendly, partisan Fox News which, whether he intended to or not, is perceived as being politically tinged (he could alleviate that by talking to MSNBC, CNN, NBC, CBS or ABC, giving them an equal shot at tossing him un-previewed questions) . Fair enough…
But the ad’s headline is as bad as anything Vice President Dick Cheney has been accused of saying about the Democrats but actually worse…since it is actually using the word “betray.”
The headline is: “General Petraeus or General Betray Us?”
We don’t like this kind of demonization politics when either side does it.
And those who dabble in it, really don’t deserve to have the rest of their ads, blog posts, or speeches seriously considered by those of us Americans who realize we can all passionately and even angrily differ without calling those who disagree with us traitors.
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.