Now, THIS Chap ad illustrates unethical "referencing"

A while back, the progressive blogosphere of Virginia was all incensed about an ad by Tim Hugo where he quoted a well-known democratic activist who was disgusted by Rex Simmon's negative and lying campaign. Their "argument" was that, by referencing the web site where the comments were made, but NOT giving the name of the commenter, the ad misled people into thinking the web site made the comment.

While I and many serious people quoted in the Washington Post thought the web site had a quite overinflated view of their standing in the community, I agreed that it would be better if the name of the person was included in the ad (and also would have made the ad a better ad, because the person who made the comment was much more believable than the web site).

Well in case the progressive blogs REALLY cared about the issue, and weren't just pretending to care to attack a republican... (pardon me, I'm laughing so hard I can't hardly type) ....


Here's a much better example of how you can lie to voters through improper referencing.

Seems Chap Peterson wanted to say something bad about his opponent. But he figured nobody would believe it if HE said it, so he wanted to give it some credility.

So, he found a quote in the local NEWSPAPER, and used it in the ad. The ad prints the quote, and the name of the newspaper where the quote came from.

Unlike a web site name, when a newspaper name is given, but no person's name, it means the quote was a quote of a fact from the paper, or a quote from the paper's editorial opinion.

So, which was this quote? Was it a quote of a fact from a news article? Well, no. Was it the opinion of the paper? Well, no again. So, what was it?

Well, the ad had two quotes. One was supposedly from the Fairfax Connection, and says "Ad Crosses Line". Below that, Fairfax County Times name is given, with the quote "is completely fabricated".

The ad therefore misleads you to think someone said Davis's "Ad Cross Line, is completely fabricated". Of course, that's from two different papers. But that's only the start of the deception.

Because, as Chris found out over at Mason Conservative, the "quote" Chap attributes to the "Fairfax County Times" wasn't FROM the editors. It was a quote IN the paper from someone.

And WHO was that someone? Again, with thanks to Crhis, from the Fairfax County Times, "Petersen rebukes allegations in Devolites Davis' TV ad":

On the gas tax, Petersen stated that the 38-cent increase allegation "is completely fabricated."

Yep. The "quote" from the paper was actually CHAP'S OWN WORDS.

So, Chap Peterson gave a quote to the newpaper, which the published. He then used his own quote from the paper in an ad, but attributed that quote TO THE PAPER, rather than to himself, making it look like the paper agreed with him.

For the record, and you can look at the article, the paper never agreed with Chap about anything. The entire article is based on quotes from Chap, and from Michael McDonald, whom the article says is:

a former campaign/political consultant for Ron Christian (Devolites' opponent for state senate in 2003), said he has been following the race between Devolites Davis and Petersen

But he never agrees with Chap on any of Chap's complaints. Instead, he says:

McDonald said he would not be surprised if the Petersen campaign started going more negative as the race gets closer to Election Day, Nov. 6.

We've seen that as Chap has sent out the paid bloggers and unpaid bloggers who give him "implausible deniability" while they attack Davis' personal life and her grown children, and now as Chap himself accuses Davis of deliberately putting his family at risk, a charge that is unfounded but will put HER family at risk from "progressives" who will take him seriously and will want to "get revenge" on her -- they already made plans for it over at NLS before Chap temporarily put a stop to it.

At the time, I thought Chap was being a good guy, but it seems now he just thought they were jumping the gun, and wanted them to stop until he could get into the act himself.

Anyway, That's it. Chap Peterson put a quote that SAID it was from the newspaper, but was actually his own quote. I'm waiting for Dr. Carter to show up on the front page of the Post to denounce this improper and misleading ad. I'm waiting for Raising Kaine to make a front-page post about how evil Chap Peterson is.

No, I'm not really waiting. The progressive bloggers, like the Democratic Party of Virginia, aren't serious, they are faking their outrage, just as DPVA is lying about candidates in mailers all over the state. Principle is a commodity for Progressives to tossed away during elections.

Here's a funny video MC put together to illustrate Chap's false attribution of his own quote in his own literature: