Barnes’ use of rape images exploitive
It’s October, and as the leaves begin to turn, the nights start to cool, and Halloween and November draw closer, the political ads become more and more nightmarish.
For the last week or so, for example, Democrat Roy Barnes has been banging on his Republican opponent, Nathan Deal, about a bill that Deal sponsored in the state Senate almost 20 years ago.
According to Barnes, the bill would have seriously weakened the rape shield law in Georgia that protects victims from being hauled into the witness stand and forced to recount their sexual histories. According to Deal, the bill would have brought Georgia law into line with the federal government’s tough rape shield law and strengthened it against legal challenge.
So who’s right? Well, back in 1991, opposition to Deal’s proposed change in state law snowballed so quickly, particularly among women’s groups, that nobody — including Deal — was willing to stand in front of it and try to stop it. He was forced to rewrite the legislation.
That doesn’t mean he was wrong as a question of law, or that he really was trying to undercut protection for rape victims, as Barnes now alleges. I was covering the state Legislature pretty intensely back then, and my admittedly vague recollection is that knowledgeable, well-intentioned lawyers were saying at the time that the changes proposed by Deal would have been fine. But they were saying it quietly, off the record, because public opinion had coalesced so powerfully on the other side and nobody wanted to get tagged as being pro-rapist. That happens sometimes; good legislation gets a bad rep, and everyone decides that it’s not worth the political capital needed to rescue it.
Fast forward almost two decades, to a hard-fought gubernatorial campaign in which the women’s vote might prove decisive. Under the circumstances, it was probably inevitable that Barnes would resurrect the issue. Again, I think Deal is probably right, now as he was back then, but Barnes at the very least has what you might call “a lawyer’s case,” with enough facts and statements on his side to put forth a plausible argument. In politics, that’s more than enough.
But a campaign can choose to make its case on such an issue responsibly, or irresponsibly. As the images here demonstrate, the Barnes campaign has taken the second course, the irresponsible course. When I saw them last night popping up on my computer, I was honestly offended and began taking them as screen grabs.
Good ads are supposed to make an impact, and this one surely does. But it does so by sensationalizing rape and by implicating Deal as — at the very least — a co-conspirator in sexual assault. It provokes revulsion and horror, and it attempts to pin that revulsion and horror on a candidate for public office. Regardless of the merits of the legal debate that inspired it, the ad is grossly unfair. It exploits rape and its victims for political gain.
I’ve documented my problems with Deal’s candidacy, and won’t reiterate them here. It’s also true that Barnes himself has been the target of some brutal advertising, most notably the King Rat ads of eight years ago, which he clearly has neither forgotten nor forgiven.
But there ought to be some places you won’t go, some things you won’t do. This was one of them, and I very much hope there aren’t more to come, from either side.
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223 comments Add your comment
RB from Gwinnett
October 21st, 2010
12:17 pm
Can we just pick a governor out of the phone book?!!!
Cissy
October 21st, 2010
12:18 pm
@@, I have friends who have gone so far as to give their daughters flasks to carry to parties, with firm instructions to drink out of them, for their own safety.
Not My Real Name
October 21st, 2010
12:18 pm
Maybe Mel Gibson is directing commercials for Roybama?
Mirror, Mirror
October 21st, 2010
12:19 pm
That is it!
Mr. Bookman, all you do is slam Democrats!
Unlike our conservative friends here who are MUCH more fair and balanced!
Therefore, I’m canceling my AJC subscription!
Well it is about time. I just don’t know how you have tolerated their brazen attitude toward Dems as long as you have.
Mark T
October 21st, 2010
12:21 pm
md
I know exactley what you’re saying and what you meant, Obviously there are people with less intellgence on here..no need to keep explaining yourself
I guess every woman that screams rape is telling the truth by his terminology!
Normal
October 21st, 2010
12:22 pm
AmVet,
you DON’T have a subscription to the AJC!
Soames
October 21st, 2010
12:24 pm
Politicians love to take things out of context and these two candidates for Governor are two peas in a pod. Neither one of them has any real answers to Georgia’s problems but they’ll promise the moon.
Deal = Pot
Barnes = Kettle
Monds = clueless
We’re in trouble folks.
catlady
October 21st, 2010
12:24 pm
Well, I am glad to see this, actually. To know that there has been a point in time when Nathan Deal actually DID try to do something, sponsor something, other than enrich himself. If you look at his federal Congressional work, you would never know it. Too bad he is all about himself and HIS needs, rather than the “regular folks.”
Hernando de Soto
October 21st, 2010
12:24 pm
Question – if I walk along Marietta Street at night alone with cash bills visibly hanging out of my pockets and I get robbed, whose fault is that?
Bill Knowles
October 21st, 2010
12:38 pm
Mr. Bookman,
I wrote a two part article called Send In The Clowns: Roy Barnes, Tyrone Brooks, Floyd Griffin and Malachi York that reports the lack of effort by Governor Barnes in dealing with one of the nation’s most notorious child molesters, Malachi York. I would appreciate it if you would look at it and report on the facts of the article.
Part 1 http://wearepolitics.com/posts/send-in-the-clowns-roy-barnes-tyrone-brooks-and-malachi-york
Part 2 http://wearepolitics.com/posts/send-in-the-clowns-roy-barnes-tyrone-brooks-floyd-griffin-and-malachi-york
dd
October 21st, 2010
12:40 pm
not a chance this article gets published in the AJC if Deal hadn’t already run away with the race. Time for the AJC to give up, and print some “other side” articles so they can try to claim some semblance of unbiased reporting……….? too funny
Steve
October 21st, 2010
12:41 pm
I have yet to hear one single ad from Barnes or Deal that has indicated what positive effect they would have if elected. Only ads slamming the opponent.
Can’t we just send them both in some rocket going to Mars. Both are a waste of a vote.
Liberal/Conservative
October 21st, 2010
12:42 pm
Thank the Roberts Court for its Citizens United decision. We have just begun to see the evil wrought by that piece of judicial activism. So the Founders intended that the First Amendment apply to corporations? Right. My mama didn’t raise no fool.
@@
October 21st, 2010
12:49 pm
Cissy:
I’m not a parent who encourages drinking. It impairs judgment…weakens the defenses. Can’t stop it, but I can attempt to discourage it.
How many here can recall the case of the Hofstra student (female) who engaged in group sex with five guys? Turns out the young woman recanted her testimony. Why? Because she didn’t want it known that she was into group sex.
The young men celebrated their exoneration and the woman was labeled a wh*re.
This is one of the better articles I’ve read on the issue:
The Hofstra date rape that didn’t happen
It certainly doesn’t help women when NOW (The National Organization of Women) supports Jerry Brown after Brown labeled Meg Whitman a wh*re.
ken R
October 21st, 2010
12:52 pm
Why was Tuckers blog pulled so early???? he own kind were chastizing her. She writes one article critizing the NAACP and her liberal friends throw her under the bus. I guarantee you that she will never do that again, ever ever ever.
She knows where her bread is buttered.
college_girl
October 21st, 2010
1:23 pm
its funny how conservatives get their panites in a fit and talk about how its bad to bring up things from the past- only when they are targeted. when they do it, its fine and we should all be okay with it.
and as a womam,(and student at an all womens college) i would never vote for someone who proposed a measure that would allow defense attorneys to question the victim about her past sexual activity, preference in clothing and her social background.
even if it was “in the past”. there are no excuses.
deals policy discouraged women from wanting to report rapes in fear they will be made victims again in the public court.
when you fail to represent 51 percent of the population you fail to represent democracy.
college_girl
October 21st, 2010
1:25 pm
oh, and i think jay bookman is a sexist.
PP
October 21st, 2010
1:37 pm
Barnes may not be fighting fair, but Deal started the fight. Barnes is fighting fire with fire, and who can blame him? http://perimeterprogressive.wordpress.com/2010/10/21/rganathan-deal-levy-new-attacks-against-roy-barnes/
md
October 21st, 2010
2:39 pm
“So the Founders intended that the First Amendment apply to corporations? Right”
Name one, just one, media company that is not a corporation………
Hillbilly Deluxe
October 21st, 2010
3:59 pm
So the Founders intended that the First Amendment apply to corporations? Right
At that time, corporations weren’t really an issue. Any of us around today can only guess at what they would have thought about that. At that time, corporations (what few there were) were charted by states, to perform a specific function, in a specified amount of time. The idea of the perpetual corporation came later.
Fred
October 21st, 2010
7:47 pm
Jay, while I think it’s safe to say that you are a little left of center, I think it’s safe to say that you are closer to any other opinion writer or speaker that I am currently aware of. Personally, I appreciate that. Thank you. I don’t always agree with your half baked ideas any more than I do with josefs or either one of you do with mine. That’s cool. That’s why they make chocolate and vanilla. And for the really “strange” ones, strawberry.
Another trait I appreciate is that you keep up with your blogs. Last night for instance, you responded to folks until nearly 11 PM. To me anyway, that says you stand behind what you write. You also have the intellectual integrity to take criticism and don’t get “offended” at the drop of a hat and ban folks for silly reasons, such as not knowing your personal life story. Maybe you could pass some of that on to little Jeffy Schultze lol.
Spot on about Roy Barnes. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. In this Governors race, if you vote major party, you have a choice between scum and scummier. I won’t vote for either. Libertarian guy (still haven’t researched him and your charge of not having the “experience” to handle the job doesn’t wash) or I’ll write in my own name. I WILL NOT vote for a known scumbag ever again.
tiffany
October 21st, 2010
11:42 pm
Marriage is a only thing for lifetime, I like it very much, After dinner i go to a tiffany store.
Here the decoration is very different in styles with other jewelers store, I like
unique, no matter you get wherever just as go into a the star-studded world.Each cabinet of both rings or bracelets or necklaces are super nice.
When Campaign Ads Go Too Far | Philosophical Fragments
October 22nd, 2010
12:12 am
[...] in punishing rape victims? Jay Bookman, a reporter who was covering Georgia politics at the time writes: “I was covering the state Legislature pretty intensely back then, and my admittedly vague [...]