Early on in his political career, the infamous political strategist Lee Atwater stated—“Perception is reality” (Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story 2008) . This quote embodies Atwater’s political strategy of deceiving the public. Atwater understood that public opinion was the most important aspect of a campaign; it did not matter whether the media spread the truth or not. What mattered was what the public believed. This was the key to Atwater’s successes. During his career, Atwater acquired a push-pull relationship with the press that allowed him to dupe the public into believing lies about candidates thus creating a false reality. The deception of the public helped Atwater quickly climb the ladder of political success and contributed to his
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Atwater’s distortion of facts to trick the public is most notable in the 1988 campaign: George H.W. Bush vs. Michael Dukakis. During this campaign, Atwater produced several negative advertisements and made false accusations against Bush’s opponent, Dukakis. One advertisement in particular became the centerpiece of the Bush campaign, and caused complete shift in the tone and message of the campaign. The ad depicted prisoners going through a revolving door. The voice over says that Dukakis supports weekend furlough days for prisoners. As the ad shows the prisoners walking through this door, the camera zooms in on the face of a man named Willie Horton (Candidate Ads n.d.). Willie Horton is the only man who notices the camera and actually looks up—this was purposeful. Horton was the story in the media for much of the …show more content…
A prominent example of his falsifications takes place in another advertisement during the 1988 campaign: the tank ride advertisement. The ad displayed Dukakis riding in a tank with a helmet, a scroll of Dukakis’s ‘voting record’ appeared over his image (Forbes 2009). The voting record shown was a complete lie. Dukakis was not in a governmental position where he could have voted—he was a governor, not a member of Congress. However, these obvious distortions of facts went relatively unnoticed in the campaign. When journalists did question Atwater about his negative campaign tactics, he quickly brushed off the inquiries, and ‘stayed’ on message (Forbes
Atwater’s distortion of facts to trick the public is most notable in the 1988 campaign: George H.W. Bush vs. Michael Dukakis. During this campaign, Atwater produced several negative advertisements and made false accusations against Bush’s opponent, Dukakis. One advertisement in particular became the centerpiece of the Bush campaign, and caused complete shift in the tone and message of the campaign. The ad depicted prisoners going through a revolving door. The voice over says that Dukakis supports weekend furlough days for prisoners. As the ad shows the prisoners walking through this door, the camera zooms in on the face of a man named Willie Horton (Candidate Ads n.d.). Willie Horton is the only man who notices the camera and actually looks up—this was purposeful. Horton was the story in the media for much of the …show more content…
A prominent example of his falsifications takes place in another advertisement during the 1988 campaign: the tank ride advertisement. The ad displayed Dukakis riding in a tank with a helmet, a scroll of Dukakis’s ‘voting record’ appeared over his image (Forbes 2009). The voting record shown was a complete lie. Dukakis was not in a governmental position where he could have voted—he was a governor, not a member of Congress. However, these obvious distortions of facts went relatively unnoticed in the campaign. When journalists did question Atwater about his negative campaign tactics, he quickly brushed off the inquiries, and ‘stayed’ on message (Forbes