Bob responds to Dave
AD from Page 1
have a record.”
Goodman said the Karnes adver
tising campaign has centered on one
idea — getting Nebraskans to know
Karnes.
“The more people get to know
Dave Karnes, the more they’ll like
him and want to vote for him,”
Goodman said.
But the advertising campaign
depends on the candidate, he said.
“This has been a surprise of more
aggressive and sometimes more
negative campaigning,” Goodman
said.
Goodman said most people al
ready knew' Vice President George
Bush so it was easy to build on that.
“In the Nebraska senate race,
we’re doing this in reverse,” he said.
“Bob Kerrey is very well-known and
Dave Karnes is very new.”
Therefore, identifying Karnes has
been a major theme of the advertising
campaign, he said.
Karnes’ identity is defined in his
ads in terms of values, family and
strong defense, “just basic values that
arc very Nebraskan,” Goodman said.
The Goodman agency has been in
charge of Karnes’ ads since the begin
ning of the campaign, and Goodman
said the advertising reflects the input
of many people from the agency and
the campaign.
in the last week of the campaign,
Goodman said the ads arc focusing on
Bush’s recent visit to Nebraska.
“We’re going to maintain the posi
tive portraits of the reason Kay Orr
selected him and why he was able to
survive a tough primary race as a
novice,” he said.
Rothstein said the Kerrey advertis
ing campaign was “easy — because
he had a very clear idea of what he
wanted to do and what he wanted to
say.”
“It was more a matter of asking
how he wanted to relate to people and
then executing,” Rothstein said.
In more than half the commercials,
Kerrey talks directly to the camera,
which has made it “more of a first
person campaign,” he said.
Rothstein said that the first-person
approach is a real contrast to the
Karnes commercial, which he said
uses voice-overs.
“I think the Kerrey commercials
are much more personable,” Roth
stein said.
Rothstein said the Kerrey com
mercials focus on three areas:
Kerrey’s background, his position on
issues and his vision of the country’s
future.
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Experts: Negative ads cloud campaign issues
By Jerry Guenther
Staff Reporter
False accusations and distorted
facts are just a couple of campaigning
techniques which some University ol
Nebraska-Lincoln professors said
political candidates have used to
avoid addressing the issues during
this year’s elections.
Jack Kay, chairman and associate
professor of speech communication,
said he’s noticed more mudslinging
this year on both the national and state
levels.
Although Kay said he doesn’t be
lieve politics arc more corrupt than in
the past, he docs think campaigns arc
more negative.
“I think any time you have a cam
paign where one candidate is way
ahead of another, you’re going to find
a lot more negativism — a lot more
mudslinging going on,” Kay said.
Kay said incumbent Sen. Dave
Karnes has used many ads which are
“too negative without being substan
tive,” in his campaign for the senate
scat against Bob Kerrey.
“Kerrey’s commercials have
tended to be very character-oriented
or very issue-oriented,” Kay said.
“Most of Karnes’ commercials lend
to just go out on the attack.”
“I think Karnes is hurting himself
with a lot of his statements.”
Kay said Karnes’ attacks that
Kerrey has a Hollywood fund raising
club and an ad saying Kerrey is soft on
drugs are “distortions."
Chuck Piper, lecturer at the Col
lege of Journalism, said the senatorial
race between Karnes, Kerrey and
Ernie Chambers has been “somewhat
of a three-ring circus.”
“That didn’t really start out to be a
campaign of negativism,” Piper said.
“But 1 think as lime has gone on, and
perhaps as candidates have become a
little more desperate, one candidate
will take a shot and the other candi
date will react to it.”
As a result, Piper said, candidates
have been defending themselves in
stead of addressing the issues.
In the presidential campaign be
tween Michael Dukakis and George
Bush, Piper said there arc major is
sues which haven’t been addressed.
Because Dukakis has failed to
address such issues as the environ
ment, the national deficit and the fact
that the United States is now a debtor
nation, Bush has been allowed to lake
the offensive, Piper said.
As a result, Piper said, Dukakis has
spent most of his lime reacting, rather
than setting the agenda of issues
which need to be discussed.
“He has allowed himself to be
vulnerable on some really petty is
sues,” Piper said. “And that’s been
very apparent in the advertising.”
Piper said political advertising
tends to reduce complicated impor
tant issues to “slogan lines and deter
gent commercials.”
“It seems to me that wc do the
American public a disservice when
we provide them with this shallow
pap,” Piper said. “Wc arc not giving
them the kind of information that a
candidate owes to them.
“The public has a right to some
information,” Piper said. “Advertis
ing has the opportunity to provide a
good deal of that information, and the
advertising prepared by these candi
dates has rarely addressed itself to any
of that (information).”
Ann Mari May, assistant professor
of economics, agrees that both
Dukakis and Bush have failed to
address the issues.
“I think that when Jesse Jackson
was in the campaign, he elevated the
campaign in the sense that he raised
the issues,'*\ May said. “And ever
since Jesse Jackson left the campaign,
the issues went with him.”
May said Dukakis hasn’t had a
chance to address the issues because
he’s been loo busy defending himself
from Bush’s attacks.
“Not only has he not had the
chance,’’ May said, “but he’s been
reluctant to do so because it’s not
popular to talk too specifically about
the issues.’’
It’s easier not to address the issues,
May said, because concrete solutions
involve trade-offs and negative as
pects the public docs not want to hear.
May also said Bush has misrepre
sented the economy in one of his
recent campaign ads which asks the
public to remember what it was like
under the Jimmy Carter administra
tion.
The Bush ad implies there was
high unemployment and people wail
ing in gas lines while Carter was
president, she said.
That’s a misrepresentation, May
said, because the number of jobs cre
ated under the Carter administration
were greater lhan under Reagan’s
administration.
In addition, May said, there wasn't
a recession during the Carter admini
stration, while the worst recession
since the Great Depression occurred
when Reagan was in office.
John Comer, professor of political
science, said he doesn’t recall as
much negative campaigning as there
has been this year.
“Maybe our memories aren’t as
good as they should be,” Comer said.
“But thinking back to previous presi
dential election campaigns, I don’t
recall that negative campaigning was
as widespread as it appears to be in
this campaign.”
Comer said politicians use nega
tive campaigning because they per
ceive it as effective and believe it can
win the undecided votes.
“I think it’s fair to say that the bulk
of the negative campaigning has
come from the Bush side,” Comer
said, “or at least that they started it.”
Ken Winkle, assistant professor of
history, said mudslinging has histori
cally been perceived as a very effec
tive way for one candidate to destroy
another.
“It’s nothing new,” Winkle said.
“It may vary in intensity, but it’s
always been available for anyone.”
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Panelists discuss life as feminine men
By Dawn Winscot
Staff Reporter
Three panelists Thursday dis
cussed feminist topics ranging from
men who are unsure of friendships
with women to parallels drawn be
tween women and gay oppression.
“Feminist Men, Is there such a
thing?” was sponsored by the
Women’s Resource Center.
Panelists for the discussion were
Larry Doerr of United Ministries in
Higher Education, Larry Frahm of
100 Men Against Rape and Ron Zank,
a recent University of Nebraska-Lin
coln graduate in English/women’s
studies.
Each speaker gave a brief back
ground of themselves and discussed
what changed their altitudes toward
women.
In discussing traditional roles of
men and women, Frahm said he and
his wife share the home responsibili
ties.
"It makes the male relatives feel a
little guilty and mad, I suppose, when
I do the dishes after Thanksgiving and
Christmas dinner, while they watch
the game on TV," Frahm said.
Tammy Marshall, a junior, asked
how it’s possible to force a chauvinis
tic father to listen.
"Sometimes you can’t,” Frahm
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said. “Maybe you should ask him
about his early lifestyle, what his
father’s views of women were and
what his views arc of women today.”
Doerr and Zank offered advice to
men who want to break out of tradi
tional roles.
Doerr said there’s no way to
change without feeling strange. He
rued an author as saying, “You
11 know the truth, and the truth
shall make you odd."
Zank, who said he discovered he
was homosexual his freshman year of
college, found that gay and women’s
oppression were similar. His advice
to men was to try something new.
“Odd is OK — you’ll get used to
it," Zank said.
Zank said he was often the only
male in his women’s studies and
dance classes. He said one grows less
conscious to the difference after a
while.
Katherine Araujo, coordinator of
women's programming at the center,
said the '‘Women In Perspective”
series is presented every Thursday at
noon in the Women’s Resource Cen
ter.
“The purpose of the informal pres
entations is to provide a place where
people can learn about issues and ask
questions and voice opinions,
Araujo said.
Future programs for this semester
are Nov. 10, “Women in Sports;"
Nov. 17, “Family Planning Issues;”
Nov. 24, “Media Images of Women;”
and Dec. 1, “Women and Stress.”
