Ads spewing venom | The Salt Lake Tribune

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2012, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

The Atlantic's September issue contains a disturbing image from an anti-Obama rally. There's a caricature of the president as a vampire. He has just stuck his fangs into the Statue of Liberty, who appears to be dead. It made me contemplate how someone could so despise the president.

One culprit: negative TV ads. Intentionally or not, they are spreading this venom. One example is Barack Obama's anti-Romney political ad about Bain Capital's purchase of and subsequent closing of Kansas City's GST Steel. In the ad, Joe Soptic tells how he lost his job and health benefits. Soptic was unable to afford health insurance, and his wife died of cancer. The ad's implication is that Romney personally caused the woman's death.

These commercials will continue, and they could get even more bitter. Despite them, we must not give into hate. As a people, we are better than that.

Jim Schnitter

Salt Lake City