Falsely Appealing to Women’s Fears
Misleading ads are commonplace on the internet. It isn’t easy to know what is factual truth and what isn’t. The video above was put out by
The Independent Women’s Forum. IWF is a nonprofit organization that’s conservative and Republican-leaning. Its Web site says that it supports “greater respect for limited government” and “free markets.” In 2003, when IWF’s director was Nancy Pfotenhauer, an aide to Senator John McCain during his 2008 presidential run, the group announced an affiliation with the conservative Americans for Prosperity, the group that’s now behind a misleading ad on health care.
This 60-second ad will air on a $750,000 buy from Sept. 4 through Sept. 9 on national cable stations, according to IWF. It also ran in late August on about a $1 million buy, as estimated by the Campaign Media Analysis Group of TNS Media Intelligence, in several states including Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Indiana, Louisiana, Nebraska and Nevada. [FactCheck]
The video ad says “300,000 American women with breast cancer might have died” if our health care were “government run” like England’s, citing the American Cancer Society as a source for the figure.
Reform of the health care system in the United States is a highly controversial step which will enter a phase of much debate in the Senate after the Thanksgiving holiday. The value of “debate” is dependent upon facts. In the weeks ahead there will be a plethora of ads, pro and con, over just what the reform will entail. The Republican leadership in the Congress has been anti-reform from the beginning. As we Americans watch and read about how the reform is taking shape it is essential we know the facts. Espousing misleading information is a disservice to all.
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