Ramaswamy discontinues controversial attack ad featuring Acton's estranged mother

🗞️ Story file #1139

Ramaswamy discontinues controversial attack ad featuring Acton's estranged mother

Oct 29, 2 PM ET to Oct 31, 9 PM ET · 3 outlets not rated for lean

20outlets carried it
🫏10 · 3 · 4🐘left · center · right
2.3 dayson the front pages
16front pages at once, at its peak
21 minof TV captions
4 of 5parts of a saga

📰 read it at: HuffPost The Daily Kos The Guardian The New Republic AP Mediaite NBC News The Independent The Washington Post Yahoo News Newsweek Scripps News The Hill Just the News Washington Examiner New York Post The National Desk Talking Points Memo The Washington Sun Zeteo

👣 How this story traveled: from the front pages that broke it, out through TV, radio and the shows, into what people retold and what fact-checkers examined, and on into the saga it is part of. Everything here is matched to the story by our tools, so a link can be wrong; the trackers' pages say how each is made.

Oct 29, 2 PM ETfirst on a front page: NBC News
Oct 30, 3 AM ETfirst on TV: MSNOW
Oct 30, 2 PM ETpeak: on 16 front pages

the front pages that ran it, hour by hour

Front pages carrying it at each hourly run, Oct 29, 2 PM to Oct 31, 9 PM ET (peak 16), by the outlets' lean: left · center · right · not rated

Who carried it and when: each outlet in the order it picked the story up, a bar for each headline from when we first saw it on the front page to when we last did, in the outlet's lean color (dashed: not rated); a dot marks a new headline, and a headline swapped for a new one between our hourly looks runs on to it. A gap means a look found the story gone from that front page. Beneath, its captions on TV, the radio newscasts that carried it (bigger: the lead) and when people were found retelling it. Hover for details.

💬 Quoted

“Our Numbers Cratered”1
“fair game”1
“defamed my mother”1
“Where does the bottom live?”1
“liar”1
“Mentally Unwell”1
“Terrible Idea”1

phrases its headlines put in quotation marks; the bar is how many outlets did

📌 Linked by aggregators

1 Google News

aggregators linking to it from their front page (they don't count as outlets covering it)

✏️ 5 outlets ran more than one headline on it (reworded, or a follow-up)

NBC News (3 wordings): “Amy Acton’s mom, who called her a ‘liar’ in Ohio election ad, faced years of turmoil, records show” → “Amy Acton’s mom faced years of turmoil, records show”
Newsweek (2 wordings): “Vivek Ramaswamy Attack Ad Backfires As Ohioans Switch Votes to Amy Acton” → “Vivek Ramaswamy Discontinues Amy Acton Attack Ad That Triggered Backlash”
The Hill (2 wordings): “Ramaswamy: Acton campaign ‘defamed my mother’ before attack ad” → “Controversial Ramaswamy ad with Acton’s mother off the air”
Washington Examiner (3 wordings): “Ramaswamy pulls controversial ad featuring Amy Acton’s estranged mother” → “Ramaswamy pulls controversial ad with Acton’s estranged mother”
Yahoo News (4 wordings): “New poll shows Ramaswamy's ad of Acton's mother didn't win over voters” → “Vivek Ramaswamy’s ad using Amy Acton’s estranged mother has ended its TV run”

📰 Every outlet's headline 20left to right by AllSides rating

HuffPost🕒 Oct 29, 9 PM ET Ramaswamy Stops Airing Of Cruel Campaign Ad That Features Acton’s Mother
The Daily Kos🕒 Oct 30, 2 PM ET Ramaswamy bails on sick ad about Acton
The Guardian🕒 Oct 30, 11 AM ET Vivek Ramaswamy discontinues attack ad that prompted wave of revulsion
The New Republic🕒 Oct 28, 2 PM ET Vivek Ramaswamy’s Own Aides Warned Against Ad Featuring Opponent’s Mom
AP🕒 Oct 30, 5 AM ET Vivek Ramaswamy's attack ad featuring opponent Amy Acton’s estranged mother is off the air in Ohio
Mediaite🕒 Oct 28, 9 AM ET Vivek Ramaswamy Was Warned Controversial Attack Ad With Opponent’s ‘Mentally Unwell’ Mom Was ‘Terrible Idea’: Report
NBC News🕒 Oct 29, 2 PM ET Amy Acton’s mom, who called her a ‘liar’ in Ohio election ad, faced years of turmoil, records show
The Independent🕒 Oct 30, 9 AM ET Vivek Ramaswamy pulls controversial attack ad after Trump defends it as 'fair game'
The Washington Post🕒 Oct 29, 8 PM ET Ramaswamy takes down explosive ad featuring his opponent’s mother
Yahoo News🕒 Oct 28, 5 PM ET New poll shows Ramaswamy's ad of Acton's mother didn't win over voters
Newsweek🕒 Oct 28, 9 AM ET Vivek Ramaswamy Attack Ad Backfires As Ohioans Switch Votes to Amy Acton
Scripps News🕒 Oct 30, 8 AM ET Ramaswamy pulls controversial ad featuring opponent Acton's estranged mother
The Hill🕒 Oct 27, 12 PM ET Ramaswamy: Acton campaign ‘defamed my mother’ before attack ad
Just the News🕒 Oct 30, 1 PM ET Ramaswamy attack ad against Acton off the air after spending a fraction of original plan
Washington Examiner🕒 Oct 29, 9 PM ET Ramaswamy pulls controversial ad featuring Amy Acton’s estranged mother
New York Post🕒 Oct 30, 10 AM ET Vivek Ramaswamy pulls controversial attack ad featuring rival’s estranged mom after reported poll drop
The National Desk🕒 Oct 29, 8 AM ET 'Where does the bottom live?': Amy Acton speaks on controversial ad featuring her mother
Talking Points Memo🕒 Oct 30, 9 AM ET Ramaswamy Pulls His Reviled Ad After it Hurts Him in the Polls
The Washington Sun🕒 Oct 29, 7 PM ET Ramaswamy Pulls Controversial Ad Featuring His Opponent’s Estranged Mother
Zeteo🕒 Oct 29, 9 PM ET Vivek Ramaswamy Pulls His Disturbing Ad After ‘Our Numbers Cratered’

TV, radio, and the shows that talked about it

left
leans left
right

minutes its captions were on screen, by channel; the disc is the network's lean

hourly newscasts that carried it, by show; beside the count, how often it was the lead story, or the highest it came in the running order

📻🤷 No radio newscast matched to it.

podcasts, newsletters and streams that talked about it, by show; the bar is episodes; the disc is the show's lean by reputation

🎙️🤷 No show matched to it yet.

🕵️ investigative reporting on it and 🃏 satire joking about it (jokes, never counted as coverage); the bar is pieces

🃏 The Borowitz Report 1

what people online made of it

🦗 Nobody's retelling it online yet, as far as the daily reports of the last week can tell.

🗣️ Names in it

Vivek RamaswamyAmy ActonOhioCampaign for Amy ActonCampaign for Vivek Ramaswamy

what the fact-checkers looked into

🧐 No fact-checker has taken it on yet.

the running story it belongs to

🧵 Ramaswamy ad controversy

Cook Political Report shifts Ohio governor race to lean Democrat after Ramaswamy ad controversy
Oct 23, 11 PM ET
Vivek Ramaswamy's attack ad sparks GOP internal conflict and Trump's public defense
Oct 20, 11 AM ET
Vivek Ramaswamy's ad faces backlash in GOP poll
Oct 28, 4 PM ET
Ramaswamy discontinues controversial attack ad featuring Acton's estranged mother (this story)
Oct 29, 2 PM ET
Democrat Amy Acton defeats Vivek Ramaswamy in Ohio governor's race
Nov 3, 11 PM ET

Ramaswamy discontinues controversial attack ad featuring Acton's estranged mother

📰 Spread

📡 Broadcast

📺 On TV

📻 On the radio

🎙️ On the shows

🕵️ Investigated, joked about

🧶 Retelling

🔎 Checking

🧵 Persistence

🧵 Ramaswamy ad controversy