ABC shows its colors again. First sean spicer, now this despicable anti-AOC ad.

[catbyte]

I hope the boycott "catches fire."

Link to tweet

The boneheaded decision by @ABC execs to run a disgusting ad, which shows a burning picture of @AOC juxtaposed with dead bodies, MUST be held to account.

It was run during a debate that millions of Americans watched.

ABC (and Sinclair Broadcasting) MUST PAY. #BoycottABC

Link to tweet

…

[MontanaMama]

1. I was sorry to not watch the debate last night

because I don't get ABC on Sling/Roku. I was boycotting and didn't even know it.

[dalton99a]

2. It was disgusting.

[Liberal In Texas]

3. The right conflates socialism with Communism. Like they're the same thing.

The Cambodian war was about the incursion of COMMUNISTS. Not socialists.

[DURHAM D]

6. Exactly - that stupid ad makes no sense. nt

[maxsolomon]

9. It doesn't need to make sense.

It needs to create fear in the low-information voter, specifically those who grew up with Red Scare propaganda. The elderly.

[moondust]

8. For a century now.

The predatory capitalists have always conflated anything and everything even remotely related to "shared prosperity" with evil communism.

Today's Republican Party is little more than a gang of predatory capitalists and this despicable ad is a new low in their Red Scare bullshit. Fuck ABC for aiding and abetting these sociopaths.

[JHB]

17. Most Americans don't really "do" subtle about that

Try to make a distinction about communism vs. socialism, and they'll just quote the name of the USSR: Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

The trick is to not dicker and argue. Instead, go straight at the conservative cranks about how they call everything they don't like "socialism". Any law, government program, or policy that helps ordinary people get a little more economic security is attacked as "socialism!" Anything that restricts a corporations right to squeeze its customers and screw its workers is "socialism!" Anything that doesn't treat maximizing profit as the highest virtue and a divine right is "socialism!"

When Medicare was in the works but not enacted yet, Ronald Reagan first dipped his toe into politics by warning of "socialism!" Well, Medicare is some 55 years old. Gee, can't you tell how it made us into a bunch of commies?

They always screech. They always fearmonger! They always paint the slightest reform as first step of Red Revolution!

They're so consistent with their excess that smart ad firms used to parody it.

[moondust]

20. +1000000

[IndyOp]

4. If anyone has a link to a petition or a way to submit comment to ABC - please share. (nt)

[Kid Berwyn]

5. A Bill Casey-CIA Production

ABC and the rise of Rush Limbaugh

The following brief history of ABC offers a perfect snapshot of everything that has gone wrong with the media. This remarkable story includes ABC's takeover by a conservative parent corporation, the demise of the Fairness Doctrine, the rightward shift of the evening news, the rise of conservative talk radio, and the cozy relationship between a state and a press that are supposed to be separate.

EXCERPT...

The Fairness Doctrine was repealed in 1987 by the FCC. Reagan had staffed the FCC with prominent media businessmen who were intent on slashing government regulations… the equivalent of letting the fox guard the chicken coop. Among the many other regulations slashed during the Reagan years were anti-trust laws that prevented the media from becoming a monopoly. Much of this was done under heavy pressure by corporate lobbyists.

In this atmosphere of deregulation, Capital Cities found the perfect time to take over ABC. Not only were all the legal restrictions removed, but by now Casey was head of the CIA, and whatever contacts existed between the CIA and Casey's company (in which Casey held substantial stock) were immeasurably strengthened. Capital Cities soon began buying out ABC stock. The facts of the acquisition remain curious and unconventional. Capital Cities was only one-fourth the size of ABC, and there were much wealthier corporate giants who were salivating over a plum like a television network. But word got out on Wall Street that the Capital Cities takeover bid was "protected" by Warren Buffet, a legendary trader often described as the "Darling of Wall Street." (Until 1995, Buffet was the richest man in America.) With Buffet's help, Capital Cities took over ABC. According to one source, a high-ranking CIA official teased Casey, saying, "I understand Sam Donaldson is working for you now."

Sam Donaldson would not be tormenting Republican presidents for long. By the Bush Presidency, Donaldson was removed from covering the White House and paired with Diane Sawyer in a weekly news magazine that covered political fluff. Brit Hume, a staunch conservative, would take his place, and the same torment that ABC once reserved for Ronald Reagan would now be directed towards Bill Clinton.

The new conservatism at ABC was subtle but apparent. Peter Jennings, noting that the program's "American Agenda" had a liberal slant, stated that the news would pay more attention to conservatives, since their ideas are "more provocative and less predictable on some issues."

During the 1991 Persian Gulf War, Washington Post TV critic Tom Shales noted that of all the networks, ABC was the "friendliest to and least critical of the Bush Administration and its policies." After the war, ABC marketed a video of General Schwartzkopf's famous briefing of the war, entitled "Schwartzkopf: How the War was Won." It sold 80,000 copies. Later, it would market a video on life and times of Richard Nixon.

CONTINUED...

http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/L-libmedia.htm

[Tech]

7. ABC is owned by Disney. Hmmm

[brooklynite]

11. THIS TV station is owned by Sinclain. Hmmm

[Tech]

12. Good to know, I should have known to look it up. Sinclair is kind of nasty.

[rockfordfile]

22. ABC is responsible. Boycott them

[maxsolomon]

10. where did it run?

just on ABC's Sinclair stations, or every ABC station?

[Gidney N Cloyd]

18. Just on Sinclair's DC station. They dropped a network spot and put in this shit.

[maxsolomon]

19. Isn't that their prerogative as station owner?

Sinclair gonna Sinclair.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

24. Beats me.

I did undergrad in broadcasting but that was 40 years ago. Lots of laws have changed since then and I haven't paid attention to all of them.

[Initech]

13. How in the fucking hell did this ad get past standards and practices?

I just can't even fathom that someone there would have approved of this atrocity.

[NastyRiffraff]

14. I don't even like AOC, but

that ad was horrible.

[struggle4progress]

15. Who Is Elizabeth Heng?

By JOSHUA KEATING
SEPT 13, 201912:29 AM

... during the commercial breaks .. viewers were treated to a commercial in which Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s face goes up in flames, replaced by images of skulls from the Khmer Rouge genocide in Cambodia ...

The ad was produced by New Faces GOP, Heng’s new PAC, which was created in March and touts itself as trying to bring younger voters and people of color into the Republican Party. Who is Heng, you might ask? She’s a former staffer for Rep. Ed Royce, worked on Donald Trump’s inaugural committee, and ran unsuccessfully in the 2018 election against Democratic incumbent Jim Costa in California’s 16th Congressional district ...

... comparing AOC’s politics, which would be considered center left in many other Western countries, to a genocidal totalitarian regime that killed as many as 2 million people, is not moderate. It’s ludicrous and reprehensible. Perhaps Heng should ask the president she supports why he is so quick to defend the leader of an actual totalitarian, Communist regime ...

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/09/elizabeth-heng-aoc-cambodia-khmer-rouge-new-voices.html

[RhodeIslandOne]

27. I saw her one night on MSNBC on Kacie Hunt's show

She was condescending and smug, calling her opposition a socialist and ran an ad implying he wears Nancy Pelosi's heels.

[struggle4progress]

16. Who the f*ck is Heng and why is she setting AOC on fire?

Doktor Zoom September 13, 2019 01:20 PM

... she's trying to become the person who proves just how friendly Donald Trump's GOP is to people of color ...

She really is the daughter of a survivor of the 1975-1979 Khmer Rouge genocide, and that truly was among the most horrific events of the 20th century. It also has about as much to do with the policies of democratic socialists like AOC as the Holocaust had to do with national health insurance. Which is to say, Republicans can't see any difference between them. The Khmer Rouge didn't seize control of Cambodia by promising universal healthcare or even a Green New Deal ...

... Incidentally, you know who drove the Khmer Rouge out of power and ended the killing fields? A wholly different bunch of communists, the very very communist government of Vietnam.

And let's not even START on how the Khmer Rouge were able to come to power amid the corruption and chaos caused by the Nixon administration's secret war in Cambodia ...

https://www.wonkette.com/crazy-aoc-ad

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

21. Guess I missed the ad

I was flipping between the debate and the Thursday night NFL game,

[meow2u3]

23. I didn't see that agitprop on my ABC afflilate, thank God

In the Philadelphia viewing area, there are no Sinclair channels AFAIK. That anti-liberal agitprop doesn't belong on the air under any circumstances--unless our side can compare rethugs to the Nazis they are with utter impunity as well.

[NCLefty]

25. I thought she was going to end it with, "I'm a snowflake."

Minorities voting Republican... hoo-eee!

[J_William_Ryan]

26. So much for the rightwing lie

that the media are ‘liberal.’

[brooklynite]

28. First this has NOTHING to do witH ABC...

It has to do with an affiliate station (which by the way is owned by Sinclair).

Second, unless there’s evidence that this station refused to run a Democratic ad, I support their running this one. The advertiser should be held responsible, not the TV station.