Study: Negative campaign ads much more frequent, vicious than in primaries past

By T.W. Farnam,
WashPost
Monday, February 20, 1:22 PM

If you thought you were living through a particularly nasty presidential primary, turns out you were right.

Four years, ago, just 6 percent of campaign advertising in the GOP primary amounted to attacks on other Republicans, a figure that has shot up to over 50 percent in this election, according to Kantar Media/CMAG, an ad-tracking firm.

And the negative ads are not just more frequent — they also appear to be more vitriolic.

In 2008, one of harshest ads run by Mitt Romney ahead of the Iowa caucus criticized Sen. John McCain’s (R-Ariz.) position on immigration, but only after calling him “an honorable man.”

In 2012, such a nicety seems quaint.

(More here.)