How's THIS for hypocrisy?

[mnmoderatedem]

recently, the Twin Cities airwaves have been carrying an ad supporting the Iraq war, claiming, among other things, that we're fighting Al Qaeda over there, and the public doesn't know it, because the media is misleading the public.

If that's not bad enough, get a load of this:

The same group now has another ad running, this one featuring the mother of a fallen soldier, claiming we need to "stay the course", "finish the job", yada yada yada.

One problem; it's not his mother; it's his stepmother. The ACTUAL mother of the fallen soldier is adamently opposed to the war. For some reason, her viewpoint never managed to make it into their ad.

And these people have the cajones to complain about "misleading" information?

Fortunately, an astute local columnist sets the record straight:

<snip>

Another pro-war ad is getting a trial run on some Twin Cities TV stations, repackaging the same deceptions that I deconstructed last Sunday. The first ad was bad enough, but the newest installment in this expensive effort to shore up support for the war in Iraq is not honest about a mother's grief.

Ad No. 2 began airing Wednesday and features the mothers and fathers of four dead soldiers. The final mother figure in the ad tells the camera: "We have to finish this job to remember Erik's sacrifice, and all of the other fallen heroes." She is identified as M. J. Kesterson, and many viewers will assume she is the mother of Chief Warrant Officer Erik Kesterson, 29, a helicopter pilot killed in 2003 who figures prominently in the ad.

But she's not his mom.

M.J. Kesterson is married to Erik's father, who also appears in the ad, and she's Erik's stepmother. His mother is Dolores Kesterson, and the distinction is important because Dolores Kesterson is opposed to a war in which she believes her son died to prevent the use of weapons of mass destruction that did not exist and to avenge 9/11, which was not connected to Iraq.


<snip>

http://www.startribune.com/357/story/252923.html

[gratuitous]

1. I wonder if ads featuring the biological mother would be run?

I mean, anyone can put together an ad and make a buy with local stations. But I know that responsible voices opposing the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq have all but been banned from the nation's airwaves. I wonder if a commercial featuring Erik's biological mother and denouncing the invasion of other countries without cause would get similar airplay in the Twin Cities? Or would the stations all individually decide that they'd been running too many ads about the war, and all "independently" decide to quit running ads, now that the pro-war side has had its say?

[babylonsister]

2. Kicking and rec'd for exposure to just how underhanded

these groups can be!