U.S. President George Bush’s campaign used attack ads more frequently than Democrat John Kerry’s, a University of Missouri study out Monday found. Most of Bush’s attacks, the University’s William Benoit said, came prior to the Democratic National Convention. From the convention forward, however, Kerry used attack ads more often than Bush. Benoit also found the Democratic National Committee used attack ads more frequently — 82 percent of the time — than either major party presidential campaign. The study examined 225 presidential campaign television ads released through the campaign’s final week: 50 Bush ads, 79 Kerry ads and 23 DNC ads. Also included were 46 by pro-Kerry groups and 27 from pro-Bush groups. The Republican National Committee, Benoit said, tended only to co-sponsor ads with Bush and had only one sole-sponsored ad. Fifty-three percent of the statements in Bush’s ads, Benoit said, were attacks vs. 45 percent of Kerry’s. Conservative non-candidate groups attacked in 84 percent of their ad statements while liberal non-candidate groups attacked in 81 percent of their statements. © Copyright 2004 by United Press International

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