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Anti-Bush ad finalist in national contest
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By Dave Ranney | January 5, 2004
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A Lawrence man is one of 15 finalists in a national contest to pick the
30-second commercial that best depicts the shortcomings of the Bush
administration.
"They accepted 1,017 entries, and now we're down to the final 15," said
Mike Cuenca, who runs Civil Society Group, a Lawrence-based consulting
and production business.
Cuenca said he spent about 60 hours
producing the commercial, which juxtaposes images of soldiers killed in
Iraq with Bush in his 2003 State of the Union address, warning Congress
that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.
As Bush speaks, the words "He Lied. They Died." appear on the screen.
The contest is sponsored by MoveOn.org , an advocacy group that plans
to air the winning commercial in Washington and in swing states in the
days leading up to Bush's 2004 State of the Union address, set for Jan.
20.
The contest sparked controversy recently when Republican
and Jewish groups learned one of the entries compared Bush's foreign
policy with Adolf Hitler's. An editorial attacking the contest appeared
in Monday's Wall Street Journal.
MoveOn.org confirmed receipt of the controversial entry but noted it was not one of the 15 finalists.
It's unclear whether the winning ad will be seen in northeast Kansas.
Efforts to contact MoveOn.org for comment Monday were unsuccessful.
The winning entry will be selected by a panel of judges, including:
• Margaret Cho, comedian.
• Al Franken, comedian and author of "Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot" and "Lies and the Lying Liars Who tell Them."
• James Carville, former political adviser to President Clinton.
• Jessica Lange, actress.
• Michael Stipe and Eddie Vedder, singers in the rock groups R.E.M. and Pearl Jam, respectively.
The winner will be announced Monday in New York during an awards show
hosted by actress Janeane Garofalo. Others on the bill include Cho,
musical artist Moby, rapper Chuck D and filmmaker John Sayles. Cuenca
said he and a friend planned to attend the ceremony. "They provided
$300, which just about covers the cost of one of the tickets," Cuenca
said.
Cuenca entered the contest, he said, because "the
mainstream media is not communicating what some of us think are the
most important issues facing the country. We feel like we're being
spoon-fed what the White House wants us to know and to think."
He added, "There's very little critical thought, analysis or skepticism by the media these days."
Cuenca is a former assistant professor of visual communications at
Kansas University. He sued the university in 1999, claiming he was
denied tenure, in part, because he is Filipino-American. The case was
dismissed in 2003 and is now on appeal.
Formed in 1998 in
opposition to the impeachment of then-President Clinton, MoveOn.org
claims more than 1.6 million members. It has vowed to raise $10 million
for ads challenging Bush's re-election in several key states.
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Originally published by Lawrence Journal-World.
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