GOP, Big Labor Wrangle Over TV Ads' Truth

By Brooks Jackson/CNN

WASHINGTON (May 23) -- When Republican House freshmen sent operatives to arrange a news conference outside AFL-CIO headquarters, union members were waiting for them.

They ended up hijacking the GOP event, turning it into a rally in support of the minimum wage.

"We need this money," union member Dolores Dalman told the crowd. "We need a raise for our family to put food on the table."

The Republicans' original purpose was to denounce labor's $20 million TV ad campaign as false and force the ads off the air.

Rep. Dick Chrysler (R-Mich.) said labor's ads "are factually challenged at best."

"Educational ads should be true, and the stations should pull those ads," Chrysler said. (96K AIFF or WAV sound)

Union members bristled at the attack, booing when Rep. Jon Christensen (R-Neb.) said, "What I disagree with is the intellectual dishonesty that your leadership has going on..."

The AFL-CIO ad in question hits Republicans hard. One version of the ad declared, "In 1991, the minimum wage was $4.25 an hour. Since then, corporate profits and executive salaries have soared and Congress gave itself a 30 percent pay raise. But our Congresswoman voted four times to block a minimum wage increase."

But is it really a "big lie," as Republicans claim?

Well, it's true that in 1991, the minimum wage was $4.25 an hour. And it's true that since then, corporate profits and executive salaries have soared. But it is misleading to say that Congress gave itself a 30 percent pay raise.

Congress voted itself a big pay raise all right, but it was in 1989, not after 1991 as the ad says. No Republican freshman could have voted for it.

Union officials say their main point is still valid. "The ad is not meant to say that these individuals necessarily voted for the pay raise, but that they benefited from the pay raise," said Peggy Taylor, the AFL-CIO's legislative director. (64K AIFF or WAV sound)

Republicans have hammered at local TV station managers with calls and letters.

In one letter, Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-Ky.) said the ad shows "reckless disregard for the truth and blatant defiance of federal election laws" and stations running them could face wide-ranging federal investigations and lawsuits.

That pressure has had small effect. Meant to run in 14 states, the ads are still running on 107 stations. Labor says only five stations have refused their ads.

In addition, radio ads are running in five states, with a grand total of 29 House members targeted, all Republicans.

One station manager explained why he kept running labor's ad.

"We contacted a representative of the AFL-CIO who stood by the content of the ad, as did the advertising agency," David Kaufman, general manager of WMTW-TV in Auburn, Maine. "And it's not our position to check or deny or verify the veracity of the ad content."

Labor's ad is a bit misleading, but if stations refused to run every political ad that stretched the facts, there wouldn't be many left.

This story originally appeared on CNN's "Inside Politics."

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