Beware super-pac of lies

With rich third parties aiming to influence elections, isle citizens can urge stations to vet ads for truthfulness

By Kathleen Hall Jamieson

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Sep 09, 2012

~~<p>A recent TV ad by the anonymous donors hiding behind the label "Crossroads GPS" alleged that, while the state's attorney general, North Dakota Democratic Senate candidate Heidi Heitkamp "spent taxpayer dollars to buy private planes."</p>
<p>Viewers had no way of knowing that in 1993 the federal government had given the two aging T-42 Beechcraft Barons to the state free of charge for purposes revealed in a July 28, 1993, Grand Forks Herald headline: "N.D. Gets 2 Old Federal Planes to Fight Drugs."</p>
~~

A recent TV ad by the anonymous donors hiding behind the label "Crossroads GPS" alleged that, while the state's attorney general, North Dakota Democratic Senate candidate Heidi Heitkamp "spent taxpayer dollars to buy private planes."

Viewers had no way of knowing that in 1993 the federal government had given the two aging T-42 Beechcraft Barons to the state free of charge for purposes revealed in a July 28, 1993, Grand Forks Herald headline: "N.D. Gets 2 Old Federal Planes to Fight Drugs." Login for more...