Could it get any faker? Shouldn't Thelma Drake be screaming from the roof tops in anguish about this?
The controversial video of the burning World Trade Center towers in a television campaign ad for Ohio Sen. Mike DeWine is doctored, U.S. News has learned. The television spot, which has been lambasted by critics as a political exploitation of the Sept. 11, attacks Democrat challenger Rep. Sherrod Brown for being weak on national security.On the air in major Ohio markets since last Friday, the ad shows the towers, with the south building billowing smoke, which gradually drifts upward. In the video, the north tower, which was struck first on September 11, is undamaged.
"This particular image is impossible," says W. Gene Corley, a stuctural engineer who led FEMA's building performance study on the World Trade Center after the 9/11 attacks. Corley reviewed the ad at www.brownvotes.com for U.S. News. "The north tower was hit first [so] the south tower could not be burning without the North Tower burning." Corley also says, "the smoke is all wrong." The day of the attacks, the plumes of ash were drifting to the southeast. "The smoke on 9/11 was never in a halo like that," Corley says.
So, DeWine doctored the photo depicting the WTC attacks to increase their political effect? Still waiting on the media to ask Thelma about her outrage on DeWine's ad....
I'd like to see some politicians calling for fair and equal treatment on both sides, no more double standards. And in the process, I'd like to see them list off all the times the GOP has used images like the ones DeWine did, just so the media actually picks up on it.
[link-pdf]Our Take from the Trenches: Senior Editor Amy Walter makes ratings changes, moving Rep. Thelma Drake (R-VA-02) to Toss Up... For more analysis click here.
Their "more analysis" is for members-only, but hey, the first half of really good news is still really good news. Go Phil Kellam!