Wendy Rogers Changes Video Ad, Deletes Scene From James Foley Execution

Arizona congressional candidate Wendy Rogers has deleted an excerpt of ISIL's James Foley beheading video from one of her campaign ads. The Republican and retired Air Force lieutenant colonel caught flak from the Democratic Party, media pundits and probably some of her own supporters after airing the video this week...

By Ray Stern

October 8, 2014

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Arizona congressional candidate Wendy Rogers has deleted an excerpt of ISIL's James Foley beheading video from one of her campaign ads.

The Republican and retired Air Force lieutenant colonel caught flak from the Democratic Party, media pundits and probably some of her own supporters after airing the video this week on TV and YouTube. It features a clip from a brutal propaganda video by the Islamic States of Iraq of the Levant (a.k.a. ISIS) to make a point how Rogers' opponent, incumbent Democratic Congresswoman Kyrsten Sinema, is supposedly weak on terrorism.

On Tuesday, Rogers' campaign spokesman, James Harris, defended the ad to an Associated Press reporter, who quoted him as saying, "We think it's an important ad to highlight the differences on what this election is about and how President Obama's failed leadership internationally has made our country less safe."

But later in the day Rogers' campaign put out a press release admitting it had released a new video without the disturbing footage. Rogers, or whoever wrote the press release, says that the candidate "edited the opening two seconds of her 30-second commercial to maintain focus on Kyrsten Sinema's votes."

Then, interestingly, Rogers links to both the edited and original version of the ad. Apparently, only the PG version will run on TV, but she'll keep the original posted on her YouTube campaign channel as a memento to bad judgment.

Click here for the original, which is "unlisted" by YouTube and not available for embedded viewing.

Below, the reboot:

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Ray Stern is the former news editor of Phoenix New Times. He worked as a newspaper reporter in Arizona for more than two decades. He's won numerous awards for his reporting, including the Arizona Press Club's Don Bolles Award for Investigative Journalism.