Such is the power of the right-wing smear forward, a vehicle for the dissemination of character assassination that has escaped the scrutiny directed at the Limbaughs and Coulters and O'Reillys but one that is as potent as it is invisible. In 2004 putative firsthand accounts of Kerry's performance in Vietnam traveled through e-mail in right-wing circles, presaging the Swift Boat attacks. Full Story »
Posted by Dwight Rousu
Years ago when the "Information Age"--in which we are now fully immersed--was only a promise on the distant technology horizon, everyone gushed about quickly and easily it would be to disseminate information. Every piece of knowledge instantly at the touch of a button. But what we failed to realize was that the real challenge of the Information Age was what to do with the inundation of the overpowering amounts being heaped upon us. In order to effectively deal with information, we must be able to judge the accuracy and legitimacy of what we are being told. This process is known as "thinking". Therein lies the problem. While everone has thoughts, few actually think.
The subject of this report is probably the most under reported political story of the past 10 years. Sites like Drudge, The Politico and media pages "The Note" and "First Read" provide the oxygen these slug groups need to achieve main stream status. Journalists are perpetual mirror observers, reevaluating everything they do in panels and roundtables, however, this is one area they MUST take a hard look at their complicity in harboring and encouraging the loss of what is a fact.
The nature of the smear machine and some detailed examples of smears that have been propagated help one develop a scepticism about new stories and a distaste for those who launch them.
a recent study of how our minds work, cited by FactCheck i think? says that once people believe something it's very very unlikely that they will stop believing it even when they hear the truth of the matter. so what is documented here seems to affirm that. i would like to see ideas in the press on practical ways to counteract this, particularly when the press rarely factchecks (publishing at the same time the truth) itself when printing what people say.
This opinion piece is so one-sided it threatens to fall off the edge of even the far-left magazine in which it is printed. More smears have been directed at President Bush than all the "victims" in this piece combined. Perhaps it is a parody of the incessant angry left attacks on the President. No journalistic merit.
Retrieving Comments
