When Republicans Attack

If you’ve been following our analyses of visual distortions in McCain’s ads, the following frames from the latest ad, “Joe the Plumber,” (in the same style as the “Acorn” ad) need no commentary.

The ad itself (link if embedded version doesn’t load: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmZ3o0Di7Go)

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SELECTED FRAMES

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Smoke from mouth:

Frame 566, 18.885 seconds

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Small horn on head:

Frame 568, 18.952 seconds

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Fire from hand:

Frame 578, 19.285 seconds

Frame 578, 1:56.297

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More fire from hand:

Frame 581, 19.386 seconds

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Fire from eyes:

Frame 583, 19.452 seconds

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Transition to second monster:

Frame 812, 27.093 seconds

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Just as you suspected (if you’ve believe the McCain rhetoric), Obama’s not from around here.

Frame 818, 27.293 seconds

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Frame 819, 27.327 seconds

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Frame 820, 27.360 seconds

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Frame 821, 27.394 seconds

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Frame 822, 27.467 seconds

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Large horn on head:

Frame 844, 28.861 seconds

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Frame 897, 29.929 seconds (end of ad)

(Frames 885-896 have similar distortions of Obama’s left eye and left cheek.)

Not content with mere negative images of Barack Obama, the Republican Attack Machine stepped up its subliminal attack in the new 30-second TV ad, Dome.

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The ad’s overt narrative is that Obama’s big government tax increases will put the nation in danger. (For an objective analysis of the ad’s misrepresentations, see FactChecker’s discussion, “There He Goes Again“).

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Washington is represented as a battleship casting its shadow onto the nation:

Frame 77, 5.117 seconds

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The sinister shadow of the Capitol darkens unsuspecting homes with “painful taxes.”

Frame 202, 13.425 seconds

Frame 229, 15.219 seconds

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At the helm of this menacing craft is Barack Obama:

Frame 99, 6.579 seconds

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depicted in transitions to and from the above shot as a skull grinning beside a pinkish-red (pinko?) Capitol::

Frame 83, 5.516 seconds

Frame 141, 9.371 seconds

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(Notice how if the above 2 shots were photographically negative, the eye sockets would be mostly white, not black. Obama’s face is whitened and the eyes darkened to create the sinister image.)

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Who is the target of the Skyrocket of Taxes?

Frame 275, 18.277 seconds

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A sleeping infant wearing a pristine white t-shirt, oblivious to the Skyrocket’s threat.

Frame 317, 21.068 seconds

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But fear not, a superhero appears miraculously. His eyes, unlike the hollow sockets of the evil Skyrocket commander, beam out blinding light to dispel the shadows and protect sleeping Americans.

Frame 398, 26.452 seconds

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As the final frames state, “Change is coming.” But will this change be revealed by the light of truth, or concealed by the shadow of subliminal manipulation?

A simple technique for exposing the lies behind a television ad is to edit the original message by splicing in footage that contradicts the original statement. This approach works best when the contradictory footage contains the candidate’s own words. Observations by journalists or pundits may be dismissed as media bias.

A number of sources in the above video (MSNBC, “The Daily Show”) might be dismissed by conservative viewers as biased. Furthermore, the quote by T. Boone Pickens (presented as “a former oilman”) is itself misleading because it doesn’t point out that Pickens currently develops alternative energy sources (wind power) for profit, and thus is not an impartial source. By providing the entire context of Obama’s statement, the video does effectively counter the McCain ad’s misrepresentation of Obama’s remark about Iran being a tiny country (see Politifact’s analysis of McCain’s distortion of Obama’s words).

Video debunking is particularly effective in reaching the type of audience that would have been persuaded by the original clip. The propagandist may also have a difficult time presenting a counter video argument because the viewer may lose track of who’s saying what.