TED Conversations

edward long

Association of Old Crows

TEDCRED 100+

This conversation is closed. Start a new conversation
or join one »

Do not allow paid political advertising on radio, tv, and internet.

Mass media is arguably the primary influence on the average person's decision-making. It was for this reason that tobacco product advertising was stopped. Political ads have become not much more than attempts to persuade voters to vote NO for something or someone. Most of the content is negative and derogatory, if not outright false. Useful, truthful information is getting more scarce with each election. More muck gets raked every time the campaign season rolls around. Better we should exercise personal initiative to inform ourselves about candidates and issues. Billions of advertising dollars are at stake so the mass media will probably flaunt their powers of influence to stop any such effort, I know the tobacco lobby sure did.

+5
Share:

Closing Statement from edward long

123 comments by 23 participants covered the spectrum from status quo to take the vote away from women!
8 people agree with the idea of stopping paid political ads on electronic mass media. 15 people have other ideas. Most believe there is a problem with campaign ethics. Some of the suggestions are: free air time for candidates with fact checking; third party ads ok but not endorsed by candidates; do what other countries do; repeal sufferage; people need information made available to them because they will not get it themselves; a 9-step program was itemized in detail; purge voter ignorance by force-feeding education; all advertising is propaganda; people have already made up their minds so ads don't have much influence; 2 people like the idea but feel it is too difficult to execute (the tobacco ad prohibition carried little weight); one person prefers the status quo; one thinks negative ads are helpful. Thanks to all who shared their wisdom and energy. I will see if TED will allow a debate on this.

Showing single comment thread. View the full conversation.

  • thumb

    pat gilbert 50+

    • 0
    Nov 8 2012: One more thing, the real problem is voter ignorance. So lets attack the real problem. We need somebody like Paul Ryan to learn the American public how this whole deal works. That is right, learn people conceptual understanding of how economics works and how politics works and how government works. Yup do it on national TV and reach out and PULL people up a notch so that when they go to the polls they have instead of the wandering doubt they have the steely eyed stare of an genuine individual who knows who he is.

    You may scoff at this but it was done in Canada in the early 80's that is paying dividends today.
    • thumb

      edward long 100+

      • 0
      Nov 8 2012: BINGO! Deceitful, false advertising contributes greatly to the real problem . . . voter ignorance! As a result they vote based on misinformation and lies. My immediate point for this post is to advocate stopping the false advertising and misinformation. We are not hopelessly dumbed-down yet. We can manage without being spoon-fed.(I am curious though, how did Canada get all those hosers to watch such vapid stuff, eh?). Thanks Pat!
      • thumb

        pat gilbert 50+

        • 0
        Nov 8 2012: Not sure Debra Smith learned me about this stuff, ti was done by Paul Martin, and it worked. Spoon feeding is what we need.
        • thumb

          edward long 100+

          • 0
          Nov 8 2012: Does the spoon feeding have to be subliminal, or fraudulent? Can you guarantee it won't be?Do you trust some government "nutritionist" to only spoon feed truth? I think it is better to let us make our own decisions free of force feeding.
      • thumb

        pat gilbert 50+

        • 0
        Nov 8 2012: My premise is does it work or don't it, truth is divined by workability.

        My intention is to bring people up not patronize or nanny them but bring them up. They have to make their own decisions. A basic education is NOT force feeding a political ideology.

        The reality is that a culture teaches more than any other vehicle. What I'm talking about is to introduce critical thinking into the culture.

        Your idea will not work it will just be more government meddling to no effect at the cost of yet more bureaucracy. I have thought about this a lot I did a Venn diagram of this once with the 3 dynamics were government, people, and business the overlapping part in the middle was EDUCATION, that is what it is.
        • thumb

          edward long 100+

          • 0
          Nov 8 2012: I don't know from Venn Diagrams but I "know" (no supporting data) lots of voting decisions were made based on faulty information deliberately disseminated for purposes of deception. That should stop! I don't advocate regulating it by creating a Czar of Advertising. I advocate stopping it like we stopped tobacco advertising. There was no increase in government meddling when we stopped tobacco ads. What our collective national IQ, or political awareness level, is I don't know and I have no real ideas about how to make improvements. That's another post for someone. Thank you!
      • thumb

        pat gilbert 50+

        • 0
        Nov 8 2012: To quote you "I do not have data on the the examples. I do however "know" the effects are a matter of record as I stated them. Feel free to disregard those for lack of proof."

        However Paul Martin is easily searched.

        The Venn diagram is self evident.

        What you are talking about is a symptom and fixing it will result in changing the way the marketing companies do their work but it does not address the core problem. You are making a correlation between cigarettes and advertising but it does not demonstrate causality. Education in anything is self evident to say otherwise is to say that if someone doesn't know how to do something it is irrelevant to his lack of production.
        • thumb

          edward long 100+

          • 0
          Nov 8 2012: When the house is burning I say put it out. You say do a Vinn Diagram to find out why it is burning. I prefer my solution. Maybe later we can look into why the house burned. The core problem is to put out the fire.
      • thumb

        pat gilbert 50+

        • 0
        Nov 8 2012: My idea does not have to take a long time.

        Your answer is illogical and akin to saying I will fix the porch by oiling the back door.

        Well Eddy this is one of those things we ain't gonna agree on.
        • thumb

          edward long 100+

          • 0
          Nov 8 2012: We are creating muddled metaphors here. If we do a Root Cause Analysis on the issue of voters being misled I disagree that it is illogical to think that we will find that cause to be deliberately deceptive and manipulative campaign commercials broadcast on mass electronic media. If people are sufficiently trained in Critical Thinking is a completely separate question (porch), but I want to talk about voter deception (squeaky back door). By the way I am looking for intelligent criticism and opinion, not for agreement. As always I thank you sir!
      • thumb

        pat gilbert 50+

        • 0
        Nov 8 2012: "Do not allow paid political advertising on radio, tv, and internet."

        How come?

        "false advertising contributes greatly to the real problem . . . voter ignorance!"

        How come?

        "As a result they vote based on misinformation and lies."

        How come?

        [Because they are not acting on their own volition]

        How come?

        [Because they are not trained in critical thinking]

        How come?

        [Because they are trained to think superficially]

        How come?

        [Because things are caused they do not just happen]

        So what can we do about this?

        [Education, which almost occurs willy nilly, if it is allowed to]
        • thumb

          edward long 100+

          • 0
          Nov 8 2012: Please take the last word on our exchange here sir. I think we have shared all of our worthwhile thoughts on the matter. I really hope your last word includes an indication of whether you think stopping paid political ads on electronic mass media should happen, or not. :-p
      • thumb

        pat gilbert 50+

        • 0
        Nov 8 2012: The above is your prompted for "Root Cause Analysis" and Demonstrates what could be done. It is rudimentary logic.

        No I will not accept an infringement on the 1st amendment especially for something that would not create much effect.

    • John Smith 30+

      • +1
      Nov 8 2012: Learn economics from Paul Ryan? No thanks, you might as well get sex ed from the pope, marriage counseling from Newt Gingrich or a quantum physics class from Sarah Palin...
      • thumb

        pat gilbert 50+

        • +1
        Nov 8 2012: He is a CPA. I guess it would be like learning anything from John Smith

Showing single comment thread. View the full conversation.