Whatever the intent or term, false and negative ads often work very well, said Dr. Carolyn Lin, a communications professor at the University of Connecticut who formerly taught at Cleveland State University. "When it works, it works like a charm, and historically it has worked. That's why they do it.
"The unfortunate thing about political advertising," she added, "is that when you tell lies, these lies often stick, and the liars never receive any penalties.
West agreed. "Candidates aren't worried so much anymore about a media backlash, and McCain's campaign thinks the public is less likely to listen to reporters."
In fact, studies have shown that debunking falsehoods can have the backfire effect of reinforcing falsehoods by repeating them.
People screen out facts that run counter to broad narratives they accept, and they perceive reality in a way that conforms to their long-held beliefs, said science writer Farhad Manjoo, who writes about the phenomenon in his book "True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society."
"You can go so far as to say we're now fighting over competing versions of reality. And it is more convenient than ever before for some of us to live in a world built out of our own facts," he said.
By rebutting untruths, meanwhile, a candidate departs from his own message and can risk being seen as weak or complaining.
Legally, candidates have a right to lie to voters just about as much as they want, said FactCheck.org's Jackson.
The Federal Communications Commission requires broadcasters to run ads uncensored, even if the broadcasters believe they are false. And the Federal Election Commission deals with finances, not ads.
"Ohio has the toughest truth in political advertising law in the nation, and it doesn't work," Jackson said. "There's no fines, no enforcement mechanism."
A little over 40 years ago the 20th century marketing genius Rod MacArthur oversaw the mail sales advertising campaign for one of the first Medicare Supplement policies. What most interested Rod was what induced people to buy, and thus the preliminary mailings were stratified into two types of advertising copy: "clean", or thorough disclosure, and "dirty", consisting of ... well, hyperbole. He discovered that more people were swayed by the hyperbole (selling the sizzle rather than the steak).
Okay. So political advertising is dirty. Politics is dirty. What is a citizen's duty in such a context? I'd say it is to make ones self as well informed as possible, to avoid buying into the sizzle. To realize that advertising that reinforces one's world view just makes the sale that much easier.
And to get involved. This was Gore Vidal's advice:
Q: What can people do to energize democracy?
Vidal: The tactic would be to go after smaller offices, state by state, school board, sheriff, state legislatures. You can turn them around and that doesn’t take much of anything. Take back everything at the grassroots, starting with state legislatures. That’s what Madison always said.
