When I first posted about DC pro-life congressional candidate Missy Smith 2 weeks ago, she had enough money in her coffers to air her 2 graphic abortion ads 15 times.

Since then money has poured in from pro-lifers around the country, enabling Smith to force network television stations by law to run her ads showing the truth about abortion 200 times – and the Washington Post yesterday noted that number may escalate to 500 by Tuesday, November 2, at 7p, when the ads must end.

It’s all up to us. Show Missy the money, and she’ll show the District of Columbia abortion. We have 72 hours to make donations so Smith can turn around and buy ad time.

According to a press release from Smith today, she has also broken through the cable tv barrier. Cable shows popular with the targeted 16- to 30-yr-old age group will see her ads 96 times this weekend alone. Previously cable had balked, not bound by federal law as are network stations to run Missy’s ads.

The national and international free media Smith has garnered has been phenomenal. So has the conversation. From John Kennedy at BeliefNet.org:

It’s certainly true the content of the Smith spots is “shocking and disgusting.” But then so are images of the Holocaust, genocide in Darfur and even Abu Ghraib.  But, as disgusting as those images are, it’s important that they be seen….

It can certainly be argued that the graphic imagery in Smith’s ad is more appropriate in a news program dealing seriously with the issue of abortion than in the middle of Seinfeld. But the fact is 60 Minutes or 20/20 will not be showing us the reality of what happens inside an abortion clinic any time soon. A mainstream media that usually argues in favor of exposing virtually everything to the camera  stops short when it comes to abortion.

Why?

Pro-abort Tracy Clark-Flory over at Salon thinks the “gruesome” ads of admittedly “dead and dismembered fetuses” should be censored from public view, although she fully supports the “choice.” Still, she’d rather we view puppies – seriously.

Ah, the purposefully blind, barefoot and barren. As Dr. Laura, in endorsing Smith’s ads, wrote on her blog, “Choosing without being totally informed is not really make a choice. It is hiding from actually making a choice.”

But the Washington Post, a decidedly liberal newspaper, gives Smith kudos…

The idea is by any measure ingenious. The federally protected ads are one thing; the barrage of media coverage Smith has gotten as a result – what the campaign pros call “earned media” – is another. She appeared on CNN’s “Situation Room” and on radio shows across the country. And, yes, in The Washington Post….

But give Smith and [Randall] Terry credit for one thing: In an election cycle dominated by economic issues, Smith has found a way to rekindle the most divisive of cultural issues. And, once again, D.C. residents pay an odd price for living in the national capital.

Smith’s campaign could become a biennial tradition. If she doesn’t oust a member of pro-choice Democrats – or, as she refers to it, the “party of death” – she’ll be back in 2 years with the same ads. And 2 years after that.

“All I can see in my mind are these little babies that have been murdered,” she said.

And now, apparently, so do we.

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