# Disturbing Randall Terry campaign ad **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [October 15, 2024, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disturbing-randall-terry-campaign-ad/1008832 "2024-10-15T15:22:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2024, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disturbing-randall-terry-campaign-ad/1008832/21 "2024-10-16T00:58:08Z")
Terry is the candidate of the Constitution Party, which is on the ballot in fourteen states. It’s the fifth largest political party, according to Ballotpedia. You can’t get much more qualified than that. Or at least only four people can be. ABC really didn’t have much of a choice. ---
**Author:** ![nelliebly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nelliebly/32/5422_2.png) [@nelliebly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nelliebly)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2024, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disturbing-randall-terry-campaign-ad/1008832/22 "2024-10-16T01:00:19Z")
I read the linked article. I have a question. It looks like networks are required to show ads even if they violate FCC regulations. Is that right? Could an election ad sponsored by a candidate and aired on network TV show full frontal nudity, for instance? Child [pornography? I’m not asking whether they should, just whether they could. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2024, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disturbing-randall-terry-campaign-ad/1008832/23 "2024-10-16T01:02:34Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > It is not designed to win votes at all-It is designed to turn people away from voting altogether. If he helps narrow that gap, he wins. He’s running against Trump and Harris for president so there is no way that he is going to win. This is purely a way to get attention. Attacking the hosts of the show that you are advertising during is unlikely to win people to your cause, so I view it in the same way that I viewed the protests by the late Fred Phelps. I think if anything this would help Harris by reminding viewers how awful the anti-abortion side is. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2024, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disturbing-randall-terry-campaign-ad/1008832/24 "2024-10-16T01:09:21Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > He’s running against Trump and Harris for president Officially, yes. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2024, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disturbing-randall-terry-campaign-ad/1008832/25 "2024-10-16T01:21:24Z")
Outrageous hypothetical: Could NARAL or some such create ads displaying the dead/dying bodies of women who died as a result of not being able to get an abortion? Fight fire with fire? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2024, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disturbing-randall-terry-campaign-ad/1008832/26 "2024-10-16T01:23:24Z")
Be no better than they are? ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2024, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disturbing-randall-terry-campaign-ad/1008832/27 "2024-10-16T01:24:08Z")
Yeah, it wasn’t a serious suggestion. I just get so pissed off. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2024, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disturbing-randall-terry-campaign-ad/1008832/28 "2024-10-16T03:47:32Z")
> [@nelliebly](#): > > I have a question. It looks like networks are required to show ads even if they violate FCC regulations. Is that right? Could an election ad sponsored by a candidate and aired on network TV show full frontal nudity, for instance? Child [pornography? I must speculate that proper _obscenity_ being itself _non_ protected speech, it would set up an interesting exercise of determining whether the material is such that the political intent of the clip somehow adds enough of a socially redeeming value that it can no longer be judged obscene by community standards… Kiddypr0n OTOH would probably be just out since for all purposes it is a _per se_ crime, no legit reason whatsoever to propagate it is contemplated, so you would not get past the point letting one other person see the footage, that other person can turn you in because right there you have committed a crime. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2024, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disturbing-randall-terry-campaign-ad/1008832/29 "2024-10-16T03:49:38Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > If CNN can reject this but the broadcast networks can’t then it’s time for an update to the FCC regs, in one direction or the other. But it’s _not true_ that CNN can reject this ad. What CNN can do (just as any broadcast network can do) is to decide on a policy to reject ALL political candidate ads. What they can’t do is decide to accept ads only from certain candidates. Or decide to accept or reject ads based on the content of the ads. So All or None – accept all political ads or accept none (and take the financial hit of losing ad sales). Seems like a quite reasonable FCC regulation to me. ---
**Author:** ![filmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2024, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disturbing-randall-terry-campaign-ad/1008832/30 "2024-10-16T04:14:02Z")
I don’t think the FCC has control over the cable channels. They own the broadcast airwaves, so they can set standards for what’s allowed to be broadcast. But the cable channels are delivered over private networks. They can do pretty much whatever they want. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2024, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disturbing-randall-terry-campaign-ad/1008832/31 "2024-10-16T04:26:02Z")
Possibly, they could, but I really think it would be a huge turnoff and they know it. To me, a recent picture of Terry reminded me of Howard Stern (and yes, I did see his interview with Ms. Harris!), or maybe Brian May, but without the hair dye. This is probably the best known picture of a woman who died from a back-alley abortion, although that’s definitely not the whole story in her case. Viewer discretion advised, which is why the link is spoilered. [Gerri Santoro - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerri_Santoro#/media/File:Gerri_Santoro_(1964).jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2024, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disturbing-randall-terry-campaign-ad/1008832/32 "2024-10-16T12:50:23Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Also - Randall Terry is still alive and kicking? He’s been around since the 80’s and looks like a couple miles of bad road. That was my reaction too. It’s been a long time since I’ve heard anything about Randall Terry, and I regret that it wasn’t longer. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2024, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disturbing-randall-terry-campaign-ad/1008832/33 "2024-10-16T13:02:03Z")
At the end of Wikipedia’s article on Randall Terry is a “discography” listing a couple of his recorded tunes. Out of morbid curiosity I searched for and found one, [“Dark Sunglasses Day”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxbB4qT21ZE) on YouTube, and listened to about a minute of it. It’s actually not terrible, just a mediocre stereotypical country-rock lament, nothing about abortion in the part I heard. Dunno when he recorded it - but if he’d hit it big as a musical act, would he have been less of an anti-abortion rights ass-pain? ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2024, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disturbing-randall-terry-campaign-ad/1008832/34 "2024-10-16T23:57:52Z")
> [@filmore](#): > > But the cable channels are delivered over private networks. They can do pretty much whatever they want. Per [@DavidNRockies cite way back in post #5.](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disturbing-randall-terry-campaign-ad/1008832/5) cable _ **systems** _ are required to follow the same all or nothing rule as broadcast stations. So CNN or Fox News might reject a political ad, but the candidate could turn around and demand that the local cable system run the ad in one of the local availabilities the cable networks give the cable operators. The effect would be that you’d see the ad while you’re watching CNN although CNN itself isn’t running the ad. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2024, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disturbing-randall-terry-campaign-ad/1008832/35 "2024-10-17T12:02:26Z")
Randall Terry in the 1990s: > I want you to just let a wave of intolerance wash over you. I want you to let a wave of hatred wash over you. Yes, hate is good. … That’s the quote I always think of when I hear his name; the man talks like Emperor Palpatine. Just insert a “my young Jedi” at the end. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2024, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disturbing-randall-terry-campaign-ad/1008832/36 "2024-10-18T02:38:09Z")
Got my mail-in ballot today. He’s not on the ballot here in Iowa. Good. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disturbing-randall-terry-campaign-ad/1008832.md?page=1)