Franken’s bad karma spills into nonpolitical ad time

Republicans may have done crack oppo-research on Al Franken, but they couldn’t have also arranged for uncannily targeted third-party ad buys on local TV news … could they?

On WCCO-TV’s 10 p.m. news Wednesday, Amelia Santaniello teased there’d be a story on Al Franken’s tax woes after a commercial break. First ad up (watch it here) shows stormy seas from a what looks like the point of view of a drowning person – barely above the surface of the waves. Ominous words come at you:

IF YOU’RE NOT PAYING YOUR TAXES

IT’LL CATCH UP TO YOU

AND IF YOU IGNORE IT

IT’LL ONLY GET WORSE

At this point a wave washes over and all you see are bubbles as you go down. A 1-800 number appears on the screen with a command to call “if you have a tax debt over $10,000.” Only then did the spot depart from what looked like a devastating attack ad, which in any case segued seamlessly into ‘CCO’s report.