KOAT on Wilson's Medicare Ad
I'll admit, I don't watch that much local news. I'll watch the weather (especially in the past six weeks or so) and maybe catch the top stories, but then something comes along that just makes me change the channel. Like a story on John Mark Karr or Tom Cruise.
But I was flipping through the channels this evening, and on KOAT at 6:00 they had a segment called "Adwatch" in their election coverage, which they call "Commitment 2006". Not to be confused with "Indecision 2006".
Tonight's Adwatch took a look at a Heather Wilson ad that has been on the air for a couple of weeks (at least it seems like a couple of weeks). It is the one that claims that Heather Wilson is singlehandedly keeping New Mexico's senior citizens on prescription medication. Or something like that.
KOAT only evaluates the claims that can be proved fact or fiction, they don't delve much into the gray areas. Otherwise they could spend ten minutes talking about the different meanings of certain words used in ads.
In this ad, Wilson's campaign uses facts with no sources attributed to them, so the KOAT team had to go searching. One such fact is the claim that Wilson has saved $1100 per New Mexico senior.
That claim was by Mark B McLellan, the Head of Medicare and Medicaid. KOAT points out the $1100 is based on the Bush Budget, so probably does not match reality; it's closer to what the administration wants it to be. It also only applies to seniors who previously had no previous prescription coverage.
Another claim is that 96% of seniors are covered by the Medicare Part D (for Disaster). In reality, KOAT points out, it covers 96% of all people eligible for Medicare -- therefore the percentage of seniors would be less. This also doesn't account for people who had trouble getting into the program.
Most of the ad is filled with, well, filler, that didn't say anything except "Hey! I'm already in Congress. My name's Heather Wilson!" and showing pictures of Wilson with senior citizens. not much content, and when there actually is content, it's wrong.
I'll tune in to KOAT more often to watch more AdWatch segments. But be warned, KOAT, if I see another story on John Mark Karr, I just might switch over to KRQE.
But I was flipping through the channels this evening, and on KOAT at 6:00 they had a segment called "Adwatch" in their election coverage, which they call "Commitment 2006". Not to be confused with "Indecision 2006".
Tonight's Adwatch took a look at a Heather Wilson ad that has been on the air for a couple of weeks (at least it seems like a couple of weeks). It is the one that claims that Heather Wilson is singlehandedly keeping New Mexico's senior citizens on prescription medication. Or something like that.
KOAT only evaluates the claims that can be proved fact or fiction, they don't delve much into the gray areas. Otherwise they could spend ten minutes talking about the different meanings of certain words used in ads.
In this ad, Wilson's campaign uses facts with no sources attributed to them, so the KOAT team had to go searching. One such fact is the claim that Wilson has saved $1100 per New Mexico senior.
That claim was by Mark B McLellan, the Head of Medicare and Medicaid. KOAT points out the $1100 is based on the Bush Budget, so probably does not match reality; it's closer to what the administration wants it to be. It also only applies to seniors who previously had no previous prescription coverage.
Another claim is that 96% of seniors are covered by the Medicare Part D (for Disaster). In reality, KOAT points out, it covers 96% of all people eligible for Medicare -- therefore the percentage of seniors would be less. This also doesn't account for people who had trouble getting into the program.
Most of the ad is filled with, well, filler, that didn't say anything except "Hey! I'm already in Congress. My name's Heather Wilson!" and showing pictures of Wilson with senior citizens. not much content, and when there actually is content, it's wrong.
I'll tune in to KOAT more often to watch more AdWatch segments. But be warned, KOAT, if I see another story on John Mark Karr, I just might switch over to KRQE.
posted by LP at 7:48 PM
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