Monkeywrenching the political process

[unixronin]

With the popular vote in the just-past election so close, one could be forgiven for wondering how much the election may have been influenced by what amounts to an elaborate practical joke.

Of course, the article points out that the perpetrators observed that the news media could easily have exposed their hoax had they put the least effort into checking their facts.  But in this last election, by all appearances the media didn't WANT to check their facts, as long as the report involved something damaging to the McCain-Palin campaign.  Can you imagine the witch-hunt had Eitan Gorlin and Dan Mirvish chosen Barack Obama as their target?  Ah, but wait, we don't have to imagine — we have the persecution of Joe the Plumber as an example.

When I consider how one-sided the reporting of this past election campaign was, and yet how close the popular vote was, I find it hard to avoid speculating that in this Presidential election, the people of the United States did not elect Barack Obama; the news media did.

Comments

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Oh, the Moslem slurs got reported, sure. And they got debunked. Heck, McCain himself said — at campaign rallies — that they were complete rubbish.

[ossuarian.livejournal.com]

Now, last I heard 8% of the population still believed the Muslim slur. I'm not sure how many believe that Obama's real name is Barry and he changed it to sound exotic or that he's Indonesian.

Anyway, there are many times that I've heard, "Imagine if there were X" (false rumors in AP about Obama, images of Obama hung in effigy, death threats against Obama), and I have to point out, "Here's X right here. That hypothetical you're discussing is undisputed history."

So, here's what you could say. The left-wing community was outraged that mainstream media reported people paid by the Pentagon to parrot some not-entirely-honest talking points. They also feel that the mainstream media should report extensively on their own failure.

How much of that community repeated the false reports about Palin (almost all). How much of that community has admitted they were among the duped (so far as I've seen, none)? How much time will they spend reflecting that they've repeated a libel?

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

I've heard it stated that he changed his name several times and has used about five different names. I've seen no documentation either to confirm or refute it. If true, it could raise some questions, or could be completely unimportant. I can't say it was ever something that leaped out from the media at me.


In the other hand, I do have to say that Michelle Obama's declaration on election night that she had "never been proud of the US until this day" made me want to ask what she was still doing here then.