TV Stations Pull Commercial Rep. Nethercutt Complains, Contends Ad Is Deceptive

Sat., July 20, 1996

By Jim Camden jimc@spokesman.com (509) 879-7461

Two Spokane television stations pulled a commercial this week that Rep. George Nethercutt contends is deceptive. A third station refused, saying it doesn’t want to censor political debate.

The ad, sponsored by the AFL-CIO, ties the Spokane Republican to House Speaker Newt Gingrich and uses the unions’ biggest club so far this campaign season: Medicare.

“It’s all geared to destroy my candidacy and hold me up to ridicule and criticism,” Nethercutt said.

The ad juxtaposes snippets from a 1995 speech by Gingrich with pictures of an elderly woman who says Medicare offers her peace of mind.

The ad then cuts to Gingrich saying, “We don’t get rid of it in round one because we don’t think that’s politically smart and we don’t think that’s the right way to go through a transition. But we believe it’s going to wither on the vine.”

Nethercutt and other Republicans argue the quote from the speech, delivered to insurance industry executives, is used out of context.

Gingrich wasn’t talking about Medicare, they say. He was criticizing the Health Care Financing Administration, a federal agency that administers Medicare.

After receiving complaints from Nethercutt, KHQ and KXLY managers decided to stop running the commercials they had aired for about one week.

“I’m uncomfortable with pulling somebody’s speech out of context,” said Steve Herling, general manager for KXLY.

Lon Lee, Q-6 general manager, also concluded the ad quotes Gingrich out of context and ordered it pulled. The station also adopted a new policy requiring that advertisers send documentation for their claims and that the staff conduct internal reviews.

But Barry Barth of KREM said that station decided not to pull the ad after reviewing the unions’ supporting documents.

“Our policy is to have an open exchange of issues,” Barth said. “One thing we don’t want to be is a censor.”

The issue is not as clear-cut as either the Republicans or the unions suggest. That’s because Gingrich’s speech was ambiguous, and the agency he was criticizing is not well known.

Early in his speech, Gingrich did criticize Medicare and talked about future changes, according to a transcript. In discussing the changes, he likened the financing administration to a Soviet centralized bureaucracy.

Even President Clinton has suggested scrapping that agency, said Bruce Josten of the U.S. Chambers of Commerce, which this week began running pro-Nethercutt ads to counter the union commercials.

But the AFL-CIO makes a strong argument that Gingrich is talking about Medicare, not the agency, withering on the vine.

In the speech, Gingrich said “people are voluntarily going to leave it.”

“People don’t voluntarily leave an agency,” said Peggy Taylor, legislative director for the AFL-CIO. “They (Republicans) want them to leave traditional, fee-for-service Medicare.”

Nethercutt said the argument over semantics misses his larger complaint.

“When it says I want to destroy Medicare, that’s false,” he said. “My mother couldn’t have had heart surgery a few months ago without Medicare. I introduced a bill to add coverage for certain diabetes treatment to Medicare.”

The ad does not actually accuse Nethercutt of trying to destroy Medicare. But it does accuse him of cutting the health care program for the elderly. That charge in itself has been the source of long-running arguments between Republicans and Democrats.

The 1996 GOP budget, vetoed by President Clinton, proposed increases to Medicare. But the agency said the money was less than the amount needed to keep up current services for the growing number of people who qualify for the program.

That means services will be cut or rates will go up, the union contends.

It means Medicare will become more efficient, more innovative and find ways to save money, Nethercutt countered. But describing that takes more than a 30-second television commercial, he added.

Taylor, of the AFL-CIO, agreed that neither side can explore the nuances of Medicare reform in half a minute.

“What you do in 30 seconds is open a debate, get people to ask questions,” she said.

Or one can counter-punch, like the a group of business organizations calling itself The Coalition: Americans Working for Real Change. It is trying to blunt the AFL-CIO ads with a commercial of its own that praises Nethercutt for doing “exactly what he promised, voting for lower spending, tax credits for working families and to protect Medicare.”

Josten, the coalition’s spokesman, said the ads are being tested in Spokane. If they prove effective, they will be modified to use around the country where the AFL-CIO is targeting Republicans.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: AD WATCH The ad: “Wither,” a 30-second commercial sponsored by the AFL-CIO, shows an elderly woman who says she depends on Medicare for “peace of mind.” The scene switches to a speech by House Speaker Newt Gingrich saying “it’s going to wither on the vine” - and suggesting he means Medicare. It then says Rep. George Nethercutt voted with Gingrich to cut Medicare, and closes by repeating the “wither on the vine” comment with the woman’s face on the screen. Opponents’ reaction: Nethercutt, R-Wash., says the ad is deceptive demagoguery because the “it” in Gingrich’s speech is a federal agency that oversees Medicare, not the health program itself. He also argues he voted to increase Medicare spending, but less than the amount requested by the agency, in an attempt to keep the fund solvent. Campaign response: Peggy Taylor of the AFL-CIO argues that Gingrich was talking about Medicare because he also said people would leave “it” voluntarily, and people would be leaving Medicare, not the agency. Republicans also are calling for massive changes in the health care program for the elderly, and that will cause the current system to wither. Analysis: The unions appear to be overreaching in their comment that Republicans want to get rid of Medicare and let it “wither on the vine.” But Gingrich gave them the opening with a poorly constructed speech that ignored a rule taught by every junior high English teacher - keep the antecedents to your pronouns clear. While Medicare is a key issue, Gingrich’s speech isn’t nearly as important as upcoming votes on the program’s budget.

This sidebar appeared with the story: AD WATCH The ad: “Wither,” a 30-second commercial sponsored by the AFL-CIO, shows an elderly woman who says she depends on Medicare for “peace of mind.” The scene switches to a speech by House Speaker Newt Gingrich saying “it’s going to wither on the vine” - and suggesting he means Medicare. It then says Rep. George Nethercutt voted with Gingrich to cut Medicare, and closes by repeating the “wither on the vine” comment with the woman’s face on the screen. Opponents’ reaction: Nethercutt, R-Wash., says the ad is deceptive demagoguery because the “it” in Gingrich’s speech is a federal agency that oversees Medicare, not the health program itself. He also argues he voted to increase Medicare spending, but less than the amount requested by the agency, in an attempt to keep the fund solvent. Campaign response: Peggy Taylor of the AFL-CIO argues that Gingrich was talking about Medicare because he also said people would leave “it” voluntarily, and people would be leaving Medicare, not the agency. Republicans also are calling for massive changes in the health care program for the elderly, and that will cause the current system to wither. Analysis: The unions appear to be overreaching in their comment that Republicans want to get rid of Medicare and let it “wither on the vine.” But Gingrich gave them the opening with a poorly constructed speech that ignored a rule taught by every junior high English teacher - keep the antecedents to your pronouns clear. While Medicare is a key issue, Gingrich’s speech isn’t nearly as important as upcoming votes on the program’s budget.