http://politicalcommunication.info/

apparently, the attachment is visible only to folks who log on to The Blogora. Sorry, that's flucked. Here it is, copied from a pdf. So it won't be pretty.

Statement Concerning Recent Discourse of the McCain/Palin Campaign
October 22, 2008

This statement is signed by research faculty of communication programs from across the
nation. We speak as concerned educators and scholars of communication but do not claim
to speak for our home institutions.

We wish to express our great concern over unethical communication behavior that threatens to
dominate the closing days of the 2008 Presidential campaign.

Both major campaigns have been criticized by fact-checking organizations for prevarications.
We call on both campaigns to halt blatant misrepresentations of their opponent’s positions.

It would be misleading, however, to imply that since “both sides do it” there is no qualitative
difference worth noting. In recent weeks, the Republican ticket of John McCain and Sarah Palin
has engaged in such incendiary mendacity that we must speak out. The purposeful dissemination
of messages that a communicator knows to be false and inflammatory is unethical. It is that
simple.

Making decisions in a democracy requires an informed electorate. The health of our democracy
and our ability to make a good decision about who should lead our nation require the very best in
communication practices, not the worst.

Media investigations have debunked the notion that Senator Obama “worked closely” or “palled
around” with “terrorist” Bill Ayers. Governor Palin cited a New York Times article that actually
contradicts her claim by noting “the two men do not appear to have been close.” Nonetheless,
the McCain/Palin ticket continues to repeat the canard, most recently with so-called “robocalls”
in battleground states.1

The McCain/Palin ticket now describes the Obama/Biden tax plan with such terms as “socialist”
and “welfare.” Such descriptions are false. Even if they were not, they would apply equally to
the McCain/Palin tax proposals.2

The repeated use of “Joe the Plumber” as a symbol by the McCain/Palin ticket is more deceptive
than truthful. Despite the fact that media reports have revealed that the person is not a licensed
plumber, owes back taxes, and his current personal income tax would decrease under the Obama
tax plan, the McCain/Palin ticket continues to take Obama’s words to Joe out of context to repeat
the false claim that Obama would raise taxes on the middle class and thus hurt the American
Dream.3

Such discourse is inflammatory as well as deceptive. Behind in the polls, the McCain/Palin
campaign and its surrogates now appear intent on marking Obama as “other” to elicit racist fears.
Senator McCain’s odd question “Who is Barack Obama?” is answered by Governor Palin’s
assertion that Obama “is not a man who sees America as you and I do,” along with her comment
“We believe that the best of America is in these small towns that we get to visit, and in these
2
wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hard working
very patriotic. . . pro-America areas of this great nation.”

We see an effort to color code the election as between an urban, African-American Obama
falsely linked to terms like “terrorist,” “unpatriotic,” and “welfare” versus small town, white,
“patriotic” Americans like the mythical Joe the Plumber. “Intended” or not, the message is
getting through, as reports have emerged of ugly scenes at some Republican rallies and racists
hanging Obama in effigy in Oregon and Ohio. In an echo of McCarthyism, Representative
Michelle Bachmann has called for investigations into un-American members of Congress,
pointing to Senator Obama as the prime suspect. Speaking to warm up the crowd before a
McCain rally, Representative Robin Hayes continued the theme: “Folks, there’s a real America,
and liberals hate real Americans that work, and accomplish, and achieve, and believe in God.”
The official website of the Sacramento County Republican Party compared Democratic
presidential nominee Barack Obama to terrorist leader Osama bin Laden and urged people to
“Waterboard Barack Obama.” The October newsletter of the Chaffey Community Republican
Women in California depicts Obama on a food stamp surrounded by a watermelon, ribs, and a
bucket of fried chicken. The McCain/Palin campaign has not repudiated such actions taken on
its behalf, nor has it done enough to respond to reprehensible behavior at rallies.4

The McCain/Palin campaign and its surrogates, of course, will deny explicit racism. But their
purposeful repetition of inflammatory false statements is unethical and stokes the fires of racism.

The code of ethical conduct for the National Communication Association reads in part “We
advocate truthfulness, accuracy, honesty, and reason as essential to the integrity of
communication.”5 We believe the integrity of political communication in our nation is being
seriously threatened and we call on the McCain/Palin campaign to put a stop to such efforts
immediately.

In alphabetical order:

Rosita Albert, Associate Professor, Communication Studies Department, University of
Minnesota

Robert Asen, Associate Professor, Department of Communication Arts, University of Wisconsin

Gayle Austin, Associate Professor, Department of Communication, Georgia State University

Austin Babrow, Professor, School of Communication Studies, Ohio University

Jeffrey Bennett, Assistant Professor, Department of Communication, Georgia State University

Carole Blair, Professor, Department of Communication Studies, University of North Carolina

Arthur P. Bochner, Distinguished University Professor, Department of Communication,
University of South Florida
3

Ruth Laurion Bowman, Associate Professor, Department of Communication Studies, Louisiana
State University

Michael S. Bowman, Associate Professor, Department of Communication Studies, Louisiana
State University

Jackie Byars, Associate Professor, Department of Communication, Wayne State University

James Cantrill, Professor & Department Head, Communication & Performance Studies,
Northern Michigan University

Bryan Crable, Chair, Communication Department, Villanova University

David Cheshier, Chair, Department of Communication, Georgia State University

Kenneth N. Cissna, Professor and Chair, Department of Communication, University of South
Florida

Lynn Clarke, Assistant Professor, Department of Communication, University of Pittsburgh

Ann L. Darling, Chair, Department of Communication, University of Utah

James P. Dillard, Head, Communication Arts & Sciences, Pennsylvania State University

David S. Domke, Head of Journalism, Communication Department, University of Washington

Rosa A. Eberly, Associate Professor, Department of Communication Arts & Sciences,
Department of English, Pennsylvania State University

Renee Edwards, Chair, Communication Studies Department, Louisiana State University

Ted Friedman, Associate Professor, Department of Communication, Georgia State University

Ronald Walter Greene, Associate Professor, Communication Studies Department, University of
Minnesota

Larry Gross, Director, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Southern California

Lawrence Grossberg, Morris David Distinguished Professor of Communication Studies,
University of North Carolina

Joshua Gunn, Assistant Professor, Department of Communication Studies, University of Texas

Claudia L. Hale, Director, School of Communication Studies, Ohio University

4
Dan Hallin, Chair, Department of Communication, University of California, San Diego

Jarice Hanson, Professor, Department of Communication, University of Massachusetts

Kelly E. Happe, Assistant Professor, Department of Speech Communication, University of
Georgia

Teresa M. Harrison, Chair, Department of Communication, University at Albany, SUNY

Stephen John Hartnett, Chair, Communication Department, University of Colorado, Denver

Ekaterina Haskins, Associate Professor, Department of Language, Literature, and
Communication, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Gerard A. Hauser, College Professor of Distinction, Communication Department, University of
Colorado at Boulder

Michael Hecht, Distinguished Professor, Department of Communication Arts and Sciences,
Pennsylvania State University

Robert L. Ivie, Professor, Department of Communication and Culture, Indiana University

Anita C. James, Associate Professor, School of Communication Studies, Ohio University

Sut Jhally, Professor, Communication Department, University of Massachusetts

Christopher L. Johnstone, Associate Professor, Department of Communication Arts & Sciences,
Pennsylvania State University

Susanne Jones, Associate Professor, Communication Studies Department, University of
Minnesota

Lisa Keranen, Assistant Professor, Communication Department, University of Colorado at
Boulder

Celeste Lacroix, Associate Professor, Department of Communication, College of Charleston

Randall A. Lake, Associate Professor, Annenberg School for Communication, University of
Southern California

Christopher Lamb, Professor, Department of Communication, College of Charleston

Judith Yaross Lee, Professor, School of Communication Studies, Ohio University

Kwan M. Lee, Associate Professor, Annenberg School for Communication, University of
Southern California
5

Brenton Malin, Assistant Professor, Department of Communication, University of Pittsburgh,

Richard Maxwell, Chair, Department of Media Studies, Queens College, City University of New
York

Brian McGee, Chair, Department of Communication, College of Charleston

Robert D. McPhee. Professor, Hugh Downs School of Human Communication, Arizona State
University

Marian Meyers, Associate Professor, Department of Communication, Georgia State University

Katherine Miller, Professor, Communication Department, Texas A&M University

Michael Morgan, Professor, Communication Department, University of Massachusetts

Charles E. Morris III, Associate Professor, Communication Department, Boston College

Robin Nabi, Associate Professor, Department of Communication, University of California, Santa
Barbara

Lester C. Olson, Professor, Department of Communication, University of Pittsburgh

Della Pollock, Bank of America Honors Professor, Communication Studies Department,
University of North Carolina

William K. Rawlins, Stocker Professor of Communication Studies, Ohio University

Shanara R. Reid-Brinkley, Assistant Professor, Department of Communication, University of
Pittsburgh

Angelo Restivo, Associate Professor, Department of Communication, Georgia State University

Ronald E. Rice, Professor, Department of Communication, University of California, Santa
Barbara

Felicia D. Roberts, Associate Professor, Communication Department, Purdue University

Heidi M. Rose, Associate Professor, Department of Communication, Villanova
University

Edward Schiappa, Chair, Communication Studies Department, University of Minnesota

Matthew W. Seeger, Chair, Department of Communication, Wayne State University

6
Herbert W. Simons, Professor Emeritus, Communication, Temple University

Joseph W. Slade III, Professor, School of Media Arts and Studies, Ohio University

Cynthia Stohl, Professor, Department of Communication, University of California, Santa
Barbara

Michael S. Stohl, Chair, Department of Communication, University of California, Santa Barbara

Nathan Stormer, Associate Professor, Department of Communication and Journalism, University
of Maine

Patricia A. Suchy, Director, Program for the Study of Film and Media Arts, Department of
Communication Studies, Louisiana State University

Scott Titsworth, University Professor, School of Communication Studies, Ohio University

Monique Mitchell Turner, Associate Professor, Department of Communication, University of
Maryland

Mary Douglas Vavrus, Associate Professor, Communication Studies Department, University of
Minnesota

Niklas Vollmer, Associate Professor, Communication Department, Georgia State University

Barbara Warnick, Professor, Department of Communication, University of Pittsburgh

James Watt, Professor, Department of Language, Literature, and Communication, Rensselaer
Polytechnic Institute

René Weber, Assistant Professor, Department of Communication, University of California, Santa
Barbara

Merrill D. Whitburn, Louis Ellsworth Laflin Professor, Department of Language, Literature, and
Communication, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

Kirt H. Wilson, Associate Professor, Communication Studies Department, University of
Minnesota

Roy V. Wood, Chair, Human Communication Studies Department, Denver University

Emory H. Woodard IV, Associate Professor, Communication Department, Villanova University

David Zarefsky, Professor of Communication Studies, Northwestern University

7

Media Contacts

Members of the media are free to contact any signatory they wish. Email addresses can be
obtained from Edward Schiappa. In the interest of minimizing the risk of abusive emails, contact
information is not included in this document except for the following individuals, who have
agreed to serve as initial media contacts:

Edward Schiappa, Chair, Communication Studies Department, University of Minnesota
(612) 624-2808 or Schiappa@umn.edu

Larry Gross, Director, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Southern California
(213) 740-3770 or lpgross@usc.edu

Herbert W. Simons, Professor Emeritus, Communication, Temple University
(215) 204-1880 or hsimons@temple.edu

Michael S. Stohl, Chair, Department of Communication, University of California, Santa Barbara
(805) 893-7935 or mstohl@comm.ucsb.edu

Endnotes

1
See: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2008/10/17/ST20081017.... The NewYork
Times article can be accessed here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/04/us/politics/04ayers.html?_r=1&hp&oref=...
2
See: http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/obamas_welfare.html;
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iE2JCSH5p9r2GBkQWS9TWAMzmuvQD93T0HGO0 and
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/politics/national/stori...
campaign_19pol.ART.State.Edition2.4a77412.html
3
Unlicensed: http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081016/NEWS09/81.... Taxes
would decrease: http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/obamas_welfare.html. Back Taxes owed:
http://apps.co.lucas.oh.us/onlinedockets/Docket.aspx?STYPE=1&PAR=LN20070...
000&STARTDATE=01/01/1900&ENDDATE=01/01/2100&PARTY=D,1. Taking Obama’s words “spread the
wealth” out of context: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/10/18/fact-check-obama-said-he...
wealth-around/#more-25366. Factcheck.org has repeatedly debunked the McCain/Palin misrepresentations of
Obama/Biden’s tax plan and its effect on the middle class.
4
Bachmann: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESdA52S4Dbg. Sacramento:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/10/15/politics/main4525005.shtml. Food Stamp:
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_S_buck16.3d67d4.... Examples of the failure to
repudiate offensive behavior at rallies have been collected (with video evidence) at a partisan website:
http://hubpages.com/hub/Not-Repudiated-Hate-Talk-Express-McCainPalin-Hat...
5
http://www.natcom.org/Governance/lc/nov99/ResCredo.htm

The New York Times

October 22, 2008
Op-Ed Columnist
Moved by a Crescent
By MAUREEN DOWD

Colin Powell had been bugged by many things in his party’s campaign this fall: the insidious merging of rumors that Barack Obama was Muslim with intimations that he was a terrorist sympathizer; the assertion that Sarah Palin was ready to be president; the uniformed sheriff who introduced Governor Palin by sneering about Barack Hussein Obama; the scorn with which Republicans spit out the words “community organizer”; the Republicans’ argument that using taxes to “spread the wealth” was socialist when the purpose of taxes is to spread the wealth; Palin’s insidious notion that small towns in states that went for W. were “the real America.”

But what sent him over the edge and made him realize he had to speak out was when he opened his New Yorker three weeks ago and saw a picture of a mother pressing her head against the gravestone of her son, a 20-year-old soldier who had been killed in Iraq. On the headstone were engraved his name, Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, his awards — the Purple Heart, the Bronze Star — and a crescent and a star to denote his Islamic faith.

“I stared at it for an hour,” he told me. “Who could debate that this kid lying in Arlington with Christian and Jewish and nondenominational buddies was not a fine American?”

Khan was an all-American kid. A 2005 graduate of Southern Regional High School in Manahawkin, N.J., he loved the Dallas Cowboys and playing video games with his 12-year-old stepsister, Aliya.

His obituary in The Star-Ledger of Newark said that he had sent his family back pictures of himself playing soccer with Iraqi children and hugging a smiling young Iraqi boy.

His father said Kareem had been eager to enlist since he was 14 and was outraged by the 9/11 attacks. “His Muslim faith did not make him not want to go,” Feroze Khan, told The Gannett News Service after his son died. “He looked at it that he’s American and he has a job to do.”

In a gratifying “have you no sense of decency, Sir and Madam?” moment, Colin Powell went on “Meet the Press” on Sunday and talked about Khan, and the unseemly ways John McCain and Palin have been polarizing the country to try to get elected. It was a tonic to hear someone push back so clearly on ugly innuendo.

Even the Obama campaign has shied away from Muslims. The candidate has gone to synagogues but no mosques, and the campaign was embarrassed when it turned out that two young women in headscarves had not been allowed to stand behind Obama during a speech in Detroit because aides did not want them in the TV shot.

The former secretary of state has dealt with prejudice in his life, in and out of the Army, and he is keenly aware of how many millions of Muslims around the world are being offended by the slimy tenor of the race against Obama.

He told Tom Brokaw that he was troubled by what other Republicans, not McCain, had said: “ ‘Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim.’ Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim. He’s a Christian. He’s always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer’s no. That’s not America. Is something wrong with some 7-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president?”

Powell got a note from Feroze Khan this week thanking him for telling the world that Muslim-Americans are as good as any others. But he also received more e-mails insisting that Obama is a Muslim and one calling him “unconstitutional and unbiblical” for daring to support a socialist. He got a mass e-mail from a man wanting to spread the word that Obama was reading a book about the end of America written by a fellow Muslim.

“Holy cow!” Powell thought. Upon checking Amazon.com, he saw that it was a reference to Fareed Zakaria, a Muslim who writes a Newsweek column and hosts a CNN foreign affairs show. His latest book is “The Post-American World.”

Powell is dismissive of those, like Rush Limbaugh, who say he made his endorsement based on race. And he’s offended by those who suggest that his appearance Sunday was an expiation for Iraq, speaking up strongly now about what he thinks the world needs because he failed to do so then.

Even though he watched W. in 2000 make the argument that his lack of foreign policy experience would be offset by the fact that he was surrounded by pros — Powell himself was one of the regents brought in to guide the bumptious Texas dauphin — Powell makes that same argument now for Obama.

“Experience is helpful,” he says, “but it is judgment that matters.”