Quotes in context?
“Different,” a 30-second television ad by Rep. George Nethercutt’s campaign, opens with a photo of Osama bin Laden. A picture of the World Trade Center destruction follows.
Then, the ad dedicates 15 seconds to video footage of Sen. Patty Murray speaking to high school students about bin Laden. Murray tells the class, “He’s been out in those countries for decades building schools, building roads, building infrastructure, building day care facilities, building health care facilities. And the people are extremely grateful. He’s made lives better. We have not done that.”
“He’s made their lives better?” a narrator asks in a baffled tone.
Nethercutt appears at the end and says “winning the war on terror means fighting terrorists, not excusing them.”
Murray’s stance “George Nethercutt’s ad is a lie, and he knows it,” Murray said in a telephone press conference Wednesday. As she did when these comments first surfaced in December 2002, Murray said her words were taken out of context. She was talking to the class about why bin Laden has so effectively recruited people to his cause in other countries. Murray accused Nethercutt of using terrorism for political gain. She said she won’t stop asking tough questions, such as “How we can better promote our values in the world?” | Nethercutt’s stance Nethercutt campaign spokesman Alex Conant denied the ad takes Murray’s comments out of context. “The part of her statement that we show in the ad is consistent with her statement in general.” Conant also said Murray “has never shown any regret or apologized” for her comments, and hasn’t corrected any of her statements. “The issue is, at the end of the day, bin Laden hasn’t helped anybody.” He also denied the ad was “playing politics” with terrorism: “The war on terror is the defining issue for our state and nation.” |
Murray doesn’t think fondly of bin Laden, as the ad tries to suggest. She was explaining to the kids why a man so despised in the U.S. has won the hearts of so many in the Middle East. And, yes, her words were taken out of context. Before that quote, Murray explained that bin Laden has found support in countries where people don’t have roads, schools and good health care. Countries where people would be vulnerable to someone who made their lives easier. After the quote, she asked the class to consider how the U.S. could improve its relations with other countries. Don’t be surprised to see a Murray ad soon that quotes Nethercutt at an October 2003 Seattle event talking about the news media’s lack of coverage of the good news in Iraq. ” … It’s a bigger and better and more important story than losing a couple of soldiers every day which, which heaven forbid is awful,” Nethercutt told an audience Some reports of that event left out his last clause. Murray declined to say whether she’d run such an ad, but the odds seem likely during this intense election season. If she does, Nethercutt could have a valid claim that his words were taken out of context, too. | |