Republican PAC attacking Bernero is bullying TV stations into silence

by: Communications Guru via blogging for Michigan/The Conservative Media

Rich Robinson, the director of the non-profit Michigan Campaign Finance Network, says the Republican Governors Association (RGA) has been "bullying" Michigan television stations into not revealing to the public the size of their substantial ad buys, according to a story in subscription only MIRS.

The RGA has been doing the dirty work for Rick "Chief Executive Outsourcer" Snyder" by running baseless attack ads against Democratic Gubernatorial nominee Virg Bernero. This allows the Outsourcer to not only keep his millions, but more importantly, it allows him to keep up the lie that his candidacy is not politics as usual and keeps his hands clean.

The current ad the RGA is running almost non-stop is a cheap knockoff of the well known MasterCard "Priceless" ads, but the problem is MIRS already debunked it.

News Corp., which owns Faux "News, recently gave the Republican Governors Association (RGA) $1 million to run these attack ads. Not only that, the RGA has spent more money in Michigan than any other PAC in 2010, with $4 million raised.

Robinson, who routinely compiles how much money is spent on TV ads, said the RGA does not want stations to let the public know how much they are spending, and they are punishing those that dare to be transparent. Surprisingly, Robinson said the Michigan campaign finance laws do not require that TV and radio stations make the ad buys public. However, that's not the case at the federal level.

"They (RGA) are really trying to control the dimensions of the screen," Robinson told MIRS. "A lot of (the TV stations) are caving in. The one exception I've noticed is WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids. WOOD wouldn't take their money. But others have caved. It pits the public's right to know against the station's responsibilities to its stockholders."

Just one more reason not to trust the Outsourcer.