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New Cain campaign ad accuses media of ‘high-tech lynching’

avatar by Published Nov. 4, 2011 8:00 am Updated Nov. 4, 2011 9:20 am

National Review (via Garance Franke-Rupta)

Supporters of embattled presidential hopeful Herman Cain have released a new campaign ad that targets the media for his troubles. The spot — which lasts about one minute and 15 seconds — features footage from MSNBC, front pages from the LA Times and New York Times, and logos from The Daily Beast, Politico, The Huffington Post, CNN, ABC, NPR and The Washington Post. “The mainstream media goes for the ugliest racial stereotypes they can to attack a black conservative,” says Rush Limbaugh in a voice-over taken from comments made earlier in the week.

The ad also recycles footage of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ confirmation hearings, during which he famously described his experience as a “high-tech lynching.”

Thomas was accused of sexual harassing Anita Hill. Cain is accused of sexually harassing at least two women he worked with while at the National Restaurant Association in the 1990s. A new poll out today shows Cain continues to rise in popularity despite news that the association paid financial settlements to both of these women. Republican women were less likely than men to continue supporting him.

Here’s the ad:

Related: Why media protect Cain accusers’ anonymity (HuffPost) | Deggans: Stop using ‘lynching’ in coverage of Herman Cain accusations | Cain camp considering legal action against Politico (Washington Post)

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  • reginald williams

    Race has little to do with this. The “liberal” media didn’t start this. Cain is living proof that politicians eat their own. Aim high enough and its open season on you. Cain is what happens when you forget that. Cain is what happens when you forget how to treat people on the way up.

  • Anonymous

    the story was broke by Politico, which practically an organ of K Street and the GOP establishment. Some lynching. Obviously, someone like Rove is the man behind the curtain here.

  • Anonymous

    What bothers me the most about the Cain scandal is how painfully unoriginal it is. Unlike Anthony Weiner, who added the Twitter dimension to the traditional kabuki dance of denial/obfuscation/gradual drip/abrupt, tearful admission, Cain and his detractors/supporters are working from threadbare scripts we all can recite from memory. Most obviously the ‘high tech lynching’ gambit, which I think every sensate person over the age of 30 knows they snatched word-for-word from Clarence Thomas, circa 1991. As a consumer of irrelevant but narrative-dominating political scandals, I’m feeling kind of ripped off here. And as a writer-slash-analyst I’m infuriated. If Cain and company won’t bother to bring new material into the game, they have no business in the big top, let alone in the center ring. High tech lynching? Only in a world where high-tech means shoebox-sized cel phones, amber-and-black computer screens and cable systems with nearly 50 channels.