An Orlando television station, WESH, last night aired an examination of claims the U.S. Chamber of Commerce made in their recent ad attacking Sen. Bill Nelson’s record on Medicare and health reform.

The Orlando station reported the ad to be false and full of distortions, noting the spot even mistakes Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson for Florida’s Bill Nelson in accusing Nelson of casting the “deciding vote” on health reform.

“The name of this ad is Nightmare, but the Chamber is simply dreaming if it expects to get away with these distortions,” WESH concludes at the end of the segment.  

PolitiFact and FactCheck.org have run similar pieces on the false claims and mistakes in the Chamber’s ad. 

On Monday, Nelson’s attorney asked Florida TV stations to stop running the Chamber ad, saying the claims the ad makes are untrue. Nelson, through his  attorney, asked 48 stations and 10 cable operations to immediately pull the ad because it directs Floridians to call his office, attacks his Senate record and falsely claims “seniors will see $500 billion in Medicare cuts” because of health-care reform.

Nelson’s lawyer, Kendall Coffey, said stations have “a duty to protect the public from the spread of false information and deliberate deception.”

Responding to Nelson’s demand that the ads be taken down, Florida Chamber of Commerce President Mark Wilson defended the spots and questioned Nelson’s motives.  

“Politicians sometimes vote one way and then tell their constituents they voted another. As the voice of business in Florida, we have found that it is not uncommon for a friend of the plaintiff trial lawyers to use lawyers and loopholes to try and block television and radio ads they don’t want their constituents to see,” Wilson said in a statement.

–Nora McAlvanah

Tags | Ben Nelson, Bill Nelson, Chamber of Commerce, Kendall Coffey, Mark Wilson, WESH