Posted on 11/01/2010 8:58:13 AM PDT by smoothsailing
By Philip Rucker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, November 1, 2010; 11:12 AM
Christine O'Donnell is taking a page from the playbook of Barack Obama. The Republican Senate candidate has produced a 30-minute television advertisement in the form of a documentary chronicling her connection with the people of Delaware.
But unlike Obama's ad at the end of the 2008 race, the tea party insurgent's campaign has run into obstacles getting it in front of voters before Election Day. The campaign did not purchase advance time on networks in the Philadelphia or Delaware markets, said a source close to the O'Donnell campaign, and the networks did not have time available to air the ad on such short notice.
So O'Donnell turned to a public access television station, Delaware Channel 28. She told supporters at a Tea Party Express rally on Sunday in Wilmington to watch that night at 11:30. "Tell everyone to tune in," she said at the rally.
"1 minute until the premiere of our 30 minute feature. Tune in to meet all the heart warming people I've met on the campaign trail. Ch. 28," O'Donnell tweeted Sunday night.
But the ad never aired.
A few minutes later, O'Donnell tweeted: "Okay... this is NOT our show! Must be a programming mix up. We will get back to you..."
The source, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive campaign operations, said the station "forgot to air it."......
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Some of this is O’Donnell campaign incompetence.
This means war.
The media is our enemy.
Yeah, right. You pay for an ad to air and they TWICE - TWICE - “forget” to air it? And you blame Christine? WTF is wrong with you?
Looks like a dirty trick to me.
I hope she kindly forgets to pay them for the Ad time......
Other than having a person in the control room to make sure the program is aired, what could she do? Now, maybe that should have been done because of all the enemies we have in the press. The station didn’t just “forget” to run a prepaid ad twice. It decided to not run it and then claim ignorance.
She’s owed more than that. Can you say punitive damages?
Contacts at Channel 28:
Tim Qualls - Executive Producer tqualls@delaware28.com
Brittney Snider - Ass’t. to Exec. Producer bsnider@delaware28.com
Jimmy Biggs - Special Projects/Webcasts specialprojects@delaware28.com
David ‘Daps’ Reinert - Production Manager daps@delaware28.com
Kevin Powers - Ad Consultant kpowers@delaware28.com
Comcast is the licensee and responsible for the station. Their phone numbers are:
Bational (800)266-2278
Local (302)656-7847
I told them I would file an FCC complaint for taking money under false pretenses and interfering in an election.
From what I heard, she prepaid for it. (Although if I were in business I would never accept a job from a political campaign that wasn't cash on the barrelhead. Too often they run out of money and forget about their bills after election day.)
“Some of this is O’Donnell campaign incompetence.”
Possibly. Did the RNC ever offer to help her at all? These are the mistakes newbies make. Karl Rove must be doubled over laughing, but somebody should have advised this courageous candidate on managing the media. She’s done pretty well, considering that she has had to fight the libs and the country club set.
She should sue them into the ground. Sue them so they have nothing left. Not airing it the first time would be bad, and you could claim it was a mistake or oversight, but when they miss it two different times, on two different days, there’s something else going on here.
Amazing. That poor gal needs a break. Hopefully she will get one when the votes come in.
The only thing forgotten by the station was forgetting to tell Christine O’Donnell they wouldn’t broadcast the ad under any circumstances.
Did Rove send out a call?
As much as I usually dislike the Washington Post, I 've got to give them credit for running this story. PLUS, they have a link embedded with the article to the full 24 minute O'Donnell ad. They didn't have to that, but they did.
More precisely: her campaign is absolutely and utterly incompetent.
It is pretty obvious now that grassroots anger at incumbents like Castle got her nominated - her campaign has done nothing right.
sounds like grounds for a foral complaint to the FCC seeking their licenses. AND a civil suit for failure to provied a service that had been paid for.
For something this important, you had better believe a campaign should have an employee babysitting the station manager.
They sure are and I agree with you on WaPo. Maybe some people there are finally starting to realize how much of the print media are going down the tube for biased reporting and they don't want to be part of that. They've run a few other pieces of late they didn't have to.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.