Remember when MoveOn had the contest – I think it was in 2004 – for people to make their own ads, and a few people made ads featuring comparisons between Bush and Hitler? Even though MoveOn hadn’t made the ads – and in some cases (IIRC) weren’t aware of the ads, they still took a LOT of flack about it because they hadn’t pulled them from the site before people found them. That’s EXACTLY the same mentality that they’d use here.

The fact that it was made without NBC’s permission, however, isn’t a much better scenario. Why use NBC? Was it chosen because more liberals watch NBC than the other channels and whoever made the video thought that would give it more impact that if they’d used, say, FOX? That can still be taken as a pointer to NBC being biased. Why use a real network’s graphics and logos without their permission? Did they expect NBC wouldn’t object?

We’ve joked and made fun of how often McCain has used a song by an artist – paying the appropriate fees to the licensing agency, but without seeing if the artist is going to make a stink about it – only to then have the artist come out, say they’re upset about it and ask him to stop using it. What’s the difference here? VoteforChange took material, used it in a way that wasn’t authorized and had NBC turn around and tell them to stop. We find it funny when it happens to McCain, but its “shame on NBC?”

This was just a bad idea from the get-go. They could have done a great job without using a specific network, their graphics or their anchors and made it look “real” enough to have the same emotional impact, without all the garbage.

You just have to worry about it happening for real come November.

J.

Apparently Keith Olbermann wasn’t consulted first.

J.