Both sides claim the other “politicized” 9/11
Wednesday, Sep 12, 2012 - Posted by Rich Miller
* Sometime Monday afternoon, I was tipped off by a Democratic operative that Republican congressional candidate Jason Plummer hadn’t pulled his TV spots for Tuesday’s anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Pretty much every congressional campaign had already pulled their advertising, so I called Plummer’s spokesperson and left a message to see what they were doing.
At 6:55 Monday evening, I received this e-mailed response…
We have reached out to the local stations to have our advertisements removed and have suspended all campaign activities tomorrow in remembrance of the tragedy on September 11, 2001. Out of respect to the victims and their families, our campaign chose not to politicize and draw attention to our decision.
* But that explanation may not have been true. It turns out that Plummer didn’t ask TV stations to pull his ads until after the stations had closed for the day...
However, late notification from Plummer’s campaign Monday resulted in at least two of his ads running Tuesday morning on WSIL-TV3, the local ABC affiliate.
Station news director Mike Snuffer said Plummer’s campaign sent email notification after advertising business hours Monday.
“Because it was sent after hours, it was not read until later (Tuesday) morning, and some of the ads already ran,” Snuffer said. “We pulled the ads soon after reading the notifications not to run them.”
Jason Bresler, spokesman for Enyart, said their campaign was able to pull advertising in time.
“I find it very troubling Plummer would try to hide his slanderous attacks on Major Gen. Enyart, especially on a day of remembrance such as (Tuesday),” Bresler said in a statement.
* Plummer’s media consultant then weighed in…
[Jason Roe] said it was all a matter of timing and did not run contrary to Plummer’s promise to pull advertising for 9/11. There were four different markets that had to be contacted, and some ad departments had simply closed for the night before getting the request to cancel the ads, he said. […]
“(Enyart) has politicized 9/11 when the point of pulling the ads was not to politicize 9/11,” Roe said in a phone interview with The Southern Illinoisan on Tuesday..
Who’s right?
- Anon - Wednesday, Sep 12, 12 @ 2:24 pm:
They both are. This shouldn’t be an issue, end of story. A campaign shouldn’t feel pressured to stop airing ads, but if they want to they shouldn’t be criticized for it.
- Fight for Chicago - Wednesday, Sep 12, 12 @ 2:25 pm:
Who’s right?
More like who cares.
- houston - Wednesday, Sep 12, 12 @ 2:27 pm:
We have a problem. i’m glad everything in dc is fixed so we can focus on important stuff like this.
- Cheryl44 - Wednesday, Sep 12, 12 @ 2:28 pm:
Eventually we’re going to start treating Sept 11 the way we treat December 7. We might as well start easing down that road now.
- Spliff - Wednesday, Sep 12, 12 @ 2:29 pm:
They shouldn’t have had to pull them. They should have never bought time for that day … they both should fire whatever fly by night media firm they have hired.
- Shemp - Wednesday, Sep 12, 12 @ 2:29 pm:
I’m with “who cares?” We’re so bombarded with political ads, what’s another ad? Stations need ad buys to operate and run 9/11 commemorative programming. This post 9/11 sniping about politicizing 9/11 is more politicizing than the ads.
- Shore - Wednesday, Sep 12, 12 @ 2:33 pm:
In addition to not being able to explain his position on why he should be lt governor on chicago tonight, not having a resume beyond working for his father, what jason plummer is trying to say is that his campaign either didn’t know why 9-11 is important or thought it was ok to play games and run ads.
- Yellow Dog Democrat - Wednesday, Sep 12, 12 @ 2:36 pm:
Plummer’s media consultant offers the lamest excuse ever.
No reason they couldn’t have notified the stations last week, and no excuse for not getting it done first thing Monday.
That said, its a bit of a tempest in a teapot. I don’t expect campaigns to be suspended on 9/11, just as I don’t expect MLB to take the day off, or anyone else.
- J - Wednesday, Sep 12, 12 @ 2:36 pm:
This is another one of those Jason Plummer is an idiot moments.
This is one of our political norms. People have been pulling their ads on the anniversary for more than a decade at this point, so it’s not like this is some new thing that the Plummer campaign didn’t know about.
This is a small hit that Plummer deserves for being dumb.
- D.P. Gumby - Wednesday, Sep 12, 12 @ 2:45 pm:
What? Was Plummer’s campaign surprise cuz the date wasn’t on their calendar? Were they waiting to see what everyone else was doing? Waiting until the last minute to pull ads for 9/11 doesn’t seem like it shows much character or leadership.
- Hold Your Horses - Wednesday, Sep 12, 12 @ 2:45 pm:
I didn’t eat all day and rolled around in cinders at 7am, noon, and 6pm. I’ll support candidates who can show a similar level of…..of what ever they’re showing.
Really, I had no idea that candidates were doing this. Are late night comics skipping political jokes that night too? I guess you can call it a nice touch, but geez it’s all show.
Did all these candidates pull their ads on webs as well?
And finally, yeah, Plummer turned an extremely small negative into a much bigger mistake.
- wordslinger - Wednesday, Sep 12, 12 @ 2:46 pm:
I wish Plummer didn’t feel obligated to attempt to pull his spots. I don’t think any candidate should.
Why empower 20 murderous nobodies like that?
- Louis G. Atsaves - Wednesday, Sep 12, 12 @ 2:53 pm:
Wordslinger, I initially felt this was much ado about nothing. Your comment of “why empower 20 murderous nobodies like that” makes sense. If I adopt your position am I flip/flopping?
- wordslinger - Wednesday, Sep 12, 12 @ 2:58 pm:
No, Louis, you’re just seeing the light, lol.
- Adam Smith - Wednesday, Sep 12, 12 @ 3:02 pm:
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
- thechampaignlife - Wednesday, Sep 12, 12 @ 3:03 pm:
It’s not Plummer’s fault. He wasn’t notified until the end of the day on the 10th that the following day was the 11th. He did as best he could with the time he had.
- Downstate Illinois - Wednesday, Sep 12, 12 @ 3:09 pm:
They don’t pull ads on Sunday why should they on 9/11?
Also, the Obama campaign tweeted first thing on 9/11 for contributions. There’s an election in 60 days. We had three terrorist attacks on 9/11 yesterday. What a couple of candidates were doing or not doing really doesn’t matter.
- x ace - Wednesday, Sep 12, 12 @ 3:14 pm:
Agree with -J- demonstrates “Dumb” Plummer.
If had not planned to run , then dumb to let them be scheduled. And also dumb,if had planned to run, gets an inquiry from Mr. Miller, panics and then pulls the ads.
- just sayin' - Wednesday, Sep 12, 12 @ 3:24 pm:
Cut Plummer some slack, he was like 5 when 9/11 happened.
- Will Caskey - Wednesday, Sep 12, 12 @ 3:26 pm:
I think Mitt Romney just set a hilariously high bar to politicize 9/11 to the point of actual political damage. Tempest in a teapot here.
- John A Logan - Wednesday, Sep 12, 12 @ 3:53 pm:
This is not Jason Plummers fault. He called his mom and told her to stop the TV stuff. Right after that he pumped up the tire on his bike and rode to dairy queen for a blizzard.
- Just Observing - Wednesday, Sep 12, 12 @ 3:58 pm:
Yawn.
- Big Muddy - Wednesday, Sep 12, 12 @ 4:07 pm:
Funny that Plummer’s people didn’t start contacting these stations until long after the Enyart press release…
- Liandro - Wednesday, Sep 12, 12 @ 4:27 pm:
Don’t. Care. If they had spent 9/11 talking serious foreign policy, it would have been the best tribute I can think of. Apparently neither was so inclined.
- sal-says - Wednesday, Sep 12, 12 @ 4:40 pm:
Haven’t read the previous comments, so……
Did these campaigns just figure out that a 9/11 anniversary was coming up? And they want our votes?
- Shore - Wednesday, Sep 12, 12 @ 4:49 pm:
perhaps the appropriate title for these episodes going forward should be Dumb and Plummer with apologies to Jim Carrey.
- Skeeter - Wednesday, Sep 12, 12 @ 5:58 pm:
The mistake was pulling them at the last minute.
If you are going to do something, do it on purpose. Either run them or don’t. Run them on the basis that, as Word says, you don’t want to let 20 terrorists tell us what to do. Don’t run them on the basis that the day is for solemn reflection.
But to give it no thought at all until the very last minute? The guy continues to prove that he has no clue at all.
- Skeeter - Wednesday, Sep 12, 12 @ 6:03 pm:
That being said, Bresler looks bad. He needs to learn when to shut the heck up and let others make the argument.
When he said “We were able to pull our ads” he looked thoughtful and competent. He should have stopped there. Instead, he cried that his opponent was mean.
Let people in the media make that charge against the opponent. Instead, of looking dignified, the campaign looks small.
Are they any professionals at all on either side of that one?
- dr. reason a. goodwin - Wednesday, Sep 12, 12 @ 7:33 pm:
It hardly matters. We’ve seen the ridiculous ads from both of these campaigns so many times that we’ve stopped paying attention. Whoever wrote both of these ads must think we are complete idiots.
- Anonymous - Wednesday, Sep 12, 12 @ 8:01 pm:
what kind of ad department doesnt read their e-mails until late the next morning?
- East Sider - Wednesday, Sep 12, 12 @ 11:16 pm:
Yawn…
- Jason? - Thursday, Sep 13, 12 @ 12:11 am:
What is interesting to note is that the media consultant is the same person who managed the Roskam race in 2006. He also comes with a fair amount of controversy.
http://revolvis.com/revolvis/people/jason-roe/