In real war, propaganda is a delicate art of weaving truth with shaded truth with prevarications, knowing the people on the receiving end have compromised knowledge sources which they may not be able to remedy.
In our current political war, the context is far different: facts may be sought out by the vigorous, and the bar for persuading someone to make a choice may, and even should, include honesty and a sense of fairness. An advocate for one side or the other becomes a representative of that side, an exemplar – or they do for me.
This is why this anti-Trump ad, created by American Bridge 21st Century, is such a disappointment:
Sounds awful on its face, doesn’t it? But WaPo’s fact checkers took a closer look:
The ad says that “Trump … shipped 17 tons of American masks and medical supplies. Our masks and supplies.” The impression left by the ad is that these were U.S. government goods, shipped on Trump’s order.
But these were actually donations by private charities and public companies for Project HOPE, an international health-care organization that has been operating in Wuhan for a quarter-century and helped establish a nursing school there. Usually, donors to Project HOPE arrange for charter aircraft to take their donations overseas.
For instance, as these shipments arrived in Wuhan, another shipment — 2 million respirator masks, 11,000 protective suits and 280,000 pairs of nitrile gloves donated by MAP International and MedShare — was sent to Project HOPE via UPS, which provided the transportation as an in-kind donation.
In the case highlighted in the ad, the State Department’s role was providing the aircraft. The department sent chartered planes to Wuhan to pick up some 800 consulate workers, their families and other Americans. The planes otherwise were going to be empty on the way to China, so officials decided to fill the jets with goods donated by Samaritan’s Purse, the Boeing Company, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Intermountain Healthcare. Money to help underwrite the effort was provided by Kenneth Griffin, a hedge fund manager who is chief executive of the investment firm Citadel. (It’s unclear whether he helped defray the State Department’s transportation costs. A Citadel spokesman would not clarify.)
Which transitions this incident from the Trump Administration recklessly throwing away needed medical supplies to the Trump Administration facilitating the good-hearted donation of supplies to China. When a fact checker that can be, at worst, characterized as neutral, and is more likely in your corner, brands the ad basically fallacious, you know a mistake has been made. Why? Because this presents an opportunity for pro-Trump forces to make a convincing presentation to independents that the liberals are just as bad, if not worse, than Trump and the Republicans.
Now, I’m sure there are folks who think this is war, and anything goes in war propaganda. That’s the problem – this isn’t war. It’s not a useful analogy. Each side is trying to present convincing arguments for why their candidate is better than the other side’s candidate to an electorate in which the independents holds the decision making power. Not understanding that truth and fairness can be evaluated almost instantly, rather than taken on faith, could be a fatal mistake. If nothing else, the message and its authors fails to duly respect the Americans who view it.
American Bridge should apologize immediately and withdraw that ad.
