That stunt almost worked and was stage managed very well with cooperative press dutifully in tow. Corker performed very well and did some masterful jiujitsu and turned the tables on Ford. Harold couldn't handle the way things went when it went off of his script and floundered. I think that's what killed him. The "racist" ad was nothing of the sort and that attack was a desperate attempt to come back from the debacle of the press conference.
Oh I agree that he did himself in with the Corker press conference, but I don’t think it was suppressed. I don’t live in Tennessee, but Glenn Reynolds does and he made it appear that it did get a lot of local attention.