September 2, 2011

Is The Bachmann Super PAC Run By Mother Jones Fans?

A still of the anti-Perry TV ad that references a Mother Jones blog post.Screenshot: Asawin Suebsaeng

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Keep Conservatives United, a super PAC supporting GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann’s presidential bid, has produced an anti-Rick Perry attack ad, set to air in South Carolina after the Labor Day weekend. And it uses a Mother Jones article to make its case that Bachmann is the better—and more to the right—candidate.

The ad, which will begin airing September 7 on CNBC, Fox News, and CNN, pillories Perry for pitching himself as a fiscal conservative and friend of the tea party despite going on spending binges during his decade as Texas governor. Considering Perry’s entry into the 2012 race has threatened Bachmann’s share of the tea party vote, the gist and tone of the ad aren’t unexpected. What is a bit surprising is that this latest Bachmann super PAC ad deploys a Mother Jones blog post to sell Bachmann. Watch the TV spot below; the MoJo promo appears at the 30-second mark, as the voice-over proclaims that “there is an honest conservative, and she’s not Rick Perry”:

This isn’t even the first time Bachmann’s super PAC has cited MoJo. But the ad makes it seem as if we were endorsing her as the “honest” one.

Leaving aside the obvious, farcical tangle of questions this presents (like, “Why didn’t they just use a National Review post?”), the ad glosses over all the, well, you know… content.

The referenced blog post was written by our DC reporter Andy Kroll on July 19, and the first paragraph starts with a sarcastic jab at how “All that fact-checking must be paying off for Michele Bachmann”—a reference to her penchant for saying things that are patently not true. (This is clearly visible in the ad.)

No doubt, Keep Conservatives United will keep churning out the pro-Bachmann ads. So here are a few other Bachmann-related MoJo heds that we suggest for the super PAC’s next spot:

“Michele Bachmann Is Not a Doctor“

“Michele Bachmann Said What!?“

“The Teen Suicide Epidemic in Michele Bachmann’s District“

“Michele Bachmann: Crazy Like a Fox“

“Michele Bachmann’s Auschwitz Warning“

And, of course:

“Does Michele Bachmann Think the Apocalypse is Imminent?“

This KCU TV spot might be the first Bachmann ad Mother Jones truly endorses. In today’s economy, we’ll take all the free advertising we can get.

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AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

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