Thursday, March 04, 2004
'Civilized World' Outraged at Bush 9/11 Exploitation
Front-page news in the Guardian UK:
posted by Blicero : 3/04/2004 09:33:00 PM
President George Bush's re-election campaign ran into trouble today after he was accused of delivering a "slap in the face" to the victims of the September 11 attacks by using images of the atrocity in television adverts.
A £5.5m advertising campaign, which began today in 17 key election states, marked the opening round of Mr Bush's counter-attack against his Democratic challenger Senator John Kerry.
One of the 30-second commercials includes a brief clip of a body, wrapped in the American flag, being lifted from the wreckage of New York's World Trade Centre. Firefighters, who emerged as heroes of the rescue effort, also feature in the adverts.
But the campaign appeared to have backfired badly today as relatives of those killed on September 11 accused the president of exploiting the tragedy to boost his political career.
"It's a slap in the face of the murders of 3,000 people. It is unconscionable," said Monica Gabrielle, whose husband died in the attacks on the twin towers.
Tom Roger, whose daughter was a flight attendant on American Airlines Flight 11, said: "I would be less offended if he showed a picture of himself in front of the Statue of Liberty. But to show the horror of 9/11 in the background, that's just some advertising agency's attempt to grab people by the throat," he told the New York Daily News.
Firefighter Tommy Fee called the adverts "sick", adding: "The image of firefighters at Ground Zero should not be used for this stuff, for politics."
posted by Blicero : 3/04/2004 09:33:00 PM
