Republicans Are Evil Online

While Democratic candidates have been making great strides in using the Web to make their campaigns more transparent, two Republicans just got caught using their Web sites to hide the truth from voters.

- Mark Kennedy, Repubican from MN, just got busted altering and selectively excerpting AP articles on his Web site. In one example he changed an AP headline:

When the Pioneer Press published Frommer's article, the headline read: "Kennedy's votes break with GOP. Democrats call change 'election-year makeover.' " The Kennedy Web site headline read: "Kennedy: A common-sense, get things done guy."

- Meanwhile Jeanine Pirro, who's running for Hillary Clinton's Senate seat, has no mention of her husband on her campaign Web site. No photos, not in the bio, nothing. Perhaps that's because hubby Albert is "a lawyer-lobbyist who spent 11 months in federal prison on a tax fraud conviction."

More and more people expect campaign Web sites to be informational hubs for voters looking to find out about a particular candidate. As such, it's fair game for the media to point out when candidates aren't totally upfront about themselves on a Web site. No one would bust a campaign for doing the above if it was in a TV spot or a direct mail piece - but on the Web you can't pull the same shit.