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Terror Attack Images in Campaign Ads

Two lights illuminate the New York skyline where the World Trade Center once stood©Songquan Deng/123RF

Last Updated on September 11, 2021

The latest fuel for political fire seems to be a few campaign ads for President Bush which include images from the 9/11 Terror Attacks. His critics wasted no time jumping on these spots because they felt they were insensitive to victims of 9/11 and used a tragedy to get votes.

There comes a point at which even the more politically charged among us must stop and think for a moment. Does anyone think that there couldn’t possibly be a Democratic candidate who, given the same set of circumstances, might have used images from 9/11 in their own ads?

As the 9/11 attack and the response thereafter gave Bush one of the highest approval ratings (at least for a while) of any president in years, is it a surprise? As the 9/11 attack and the response thereafter dictated dramatic developments in foreign affairs that continue today, is it unreasonable to address them in political ads? Should we ignore what happened?

When Democrats run commercials on economy, I fully expect them to avoid the job issue: after all, all those people who lost theirs during the last four years shouldn’t have to be subjected to the painful reminder of that fact.

the authorPatrick
Patrick is a Christian with more than 30 years experience in professional writing, producing and marketing. His professional background also includes social media, reporting for broadcast television and the web, directing, videography and photography. He enjoys getting to know people over coffee and spending time with his dog.
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Original Comment:
Those critics were indeed family members, but fdtate forgot to point out that they belong to an organization funded by Kerry’s wife. And the firefighters: union members – who are beholden to the left and whose Union Prez endorsed the Democratic candidate (as usual).

If the 2,500-ish dead had only 4 family members each, then why were less than 80 of 10,000 family members “offended?” Isn’t it possible that those 80-ish are simply playing politics and not genuinely “offended?”
Comment from armandt – 3/9/04 10:33 PM

Original Comment:
Most of the critics of these ads were family members of those killed in the terrorist attacks and NYC firefighters.
There’s a touch of irony here — the President has banned all photos of flag-draped coffins arriving at Dover AFB from Iraq, supposedly out of respect to the families of the dead, but has no qualms about using images of a flag-draped body being removed from the rubble at Ground Zero.
Comment from fdtate313 – 3/7/04 4:24 AM