WASHINGTON, Aug. 20 (UPI) -- The U.S. media treatment of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth's initial anti-Kerry television ad boosted public awareness of its charges, a poll indicates.
Polling by the University of Pennsylvania's National Annenberg Election Survey found that more than half of U.S. adults heard about or saw the ad: 33 percent of respondents nationwide reported they had seen the ad while 24 percent said they heard about it.
"The influence of this ad is a function not of paid exposure but of the ad's treatment in free media," Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg Public Policy Center said. "The advertisement has received extensive coverage, particularly on conservative talk radio and cable news channels and has been the subject of some attention in broadcast news as well."
The anti-Kerry group had originally planned to air its initial spot in just three states -- Wisconsin, Ohio and West Virginia -- beginning Aug. 5.
The Annenberg Center's findings are based on polling of 2,209 respondents Aug. 9-16. The margin of error is 2 percentage points.
