With their threatening music and grainy mug-shot photos, they warn of shady pasts and terrifying outcomes if a certain candidate is elected. We explore the themes presented, where the truth may or may not come in, and who’s paying for these ads. And then, another election season pet-peeve: polls.
GUESTS:
- Wayne Lesperance – professor of political science at New England College, and director of the Center for Civic Engagement, which includes the New England College Polling Institute.
CALLOUTS:
- Andy Smith – professor of political sciences at the University of New Hampshire, and director of the UNH Survey Center
- Jonathan Van Fleet - managing editor for content at the Telegraph of Nashua, and editor of PolitiFact-New Hampshire.
Here are the dueling political ads we played and discussed during the show:
LINKS:
- PolitiFact-N.H.'s fact-checks on New Hampshire ads
- NEC and UNH's most recent polls for New Hampshire's major races
- No single station aired more ads in a U.S. Senate race than WMUR-TV in New Hampshire: "If you’re a New Hampshire voter, though, you can’t turn on your TV set without seeing an ad – it works out to be pretty much a television ad about the US Senate race going up in New Hampshire, when you include the Boston stations too, once every about 6-7 minutes."
