More News Reports Show Up in Campaign Ads, to Journalists’ Chagrin

More and more this election year, campaign ads include footage from television news programs, further blurring the fading lines separating modern journalism and politics. The trend bothers practitioners of journalism more than those in politics.

“When people see political ads, they think someone’s lying to them,” said Mark McKinnon, an ad maker who worked on both of George W. Bush’s winning presidential campaigns. “We try really hard to get credible third-party messengers to deliver facts,” McKinnon explained. “A fact coming from you is much more believable than a fact coming from us.” As flattering as that might sound to journalists, our own credibility is hardly setting industry records right now. Which is precisely why journalists worry about the additional baggage of becoming associated with campaign advocacy. “I don’t like it,” said Tom Brokaw, for years the anchor of “NBC Nightly News.” “It’s so hard to stay in what I call the ‘umpire mode.’ ”