Policing Truth In Advertising

Television stations must do a better job of telling viewers whether political candidates’ ad statements are truthful, says the head of a national election survey.

Adam Clymer, director of the University of Pennsylvania’s National Annenberg Election Survey and a former The New York Times writer, bases his conclusion on new evidence that voters often believe the claims made in attack ads, even if they are false or misleading.

In a survey Clymer’s group released last week, 61 percent of voters in battleground states said they believe President Bush “favors sending American jobs overseas,” 56 percent think John Kerry “voted for higher taxes 350 times,” and 72 percent believe 3 million jobs have been lost during Bush’s presidency.