WVUE, the FOX affiliate for New Orleans, says it takes issue with a Senate candidate’s campaign ad.
The ad for Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu (D), who is being challenged by U.S. Rep. Bill Cassidy (R), uses a clip from WVUE anchor John Snell to attack Cassidy by saying, “The congressman claimed to be two places at once.”
WVUE reports the full text of what Snell said on the Friday 10:00 p.m. broadcast was, “A former supervisor of Bill Cassidy came to his defense tonight over a controversy that the congressman claimed to be in two places at once.”
Just days before the runoff election, FOX 8 objects to what we believe is a misrepresentation in the ad, and we have formally asked the Landrieu campaign to pull the spot.
Landrieu’s campaign manager, Ryan Berni, defends the ad that’s running statewide, saying: “The ad is factual. Bill Cassidy is simply trying to distract voters from the fact that he took more than $100,000 in a taxpayer-funded salary for work he didn’t do. Louisianans deserve to know the truth.”
UNO political scientist Ed Chervenak says it toys with a journalist’s credibility.
“Well you’re almost giving sanction to the ad,” Chervenak said. “He’s almost like an authority figure, if you will. He’s a public figure. They probably want to plant the respect he’s developed as an anchor and use that in their ad. I’m not sure if that’s ethical or not.”
We reached out to Bill Cassidy’s campaign, which says it has nothing to add.
FOX 8 is legally obligated to run the Mary Landrieu ad.
We should mention that six years ago when Mary Landrieu’s Republican challenger, John Kennedy, used John Snell’s image in a campaign ad, FOX 8 objected to that, as well.
TVSpy asked WVUE for comment. We have not heard back.