Here we go again!
August 13, 2008 5:01 AM   Subscribe

Let the Swift Boating begin! Resident conservative psychopath Jerome Corsi concocts another misleading tome of falsehoods about our boy Obama. Media Matters is on top of it but can't stop the thing from selling like hotcakes. How annoying is that?
posted by ChickenringNYC (27 comments total)

This post was deleted for the following reason: Oof, editorialize much? This is not a good way to make a post. -- cortex



 
Let the poxy electionfilter begin!
posted by pompomtom at 5:11 AM on August 13, 2008


I foresee long, helpful, enlightening thread.
posted by DU at 5:13 AM on August 13, 2008


I respectfully disagree.
posted by grubi at 5:13 AM on August 13, 2008


How annoying is this?
posted by kuujjuarapik at 5:14 AM on August 13, 2008


I find the title very suitable.
posted by bjrn at 5:16 AM on August 13, 2008


Ms. Matalin said in an interview that the book “was not designed to be, and does not set out to be, a political book,” calling it, rather, “a piece of scholarship, and a good one at that.” She said she was unaware of efforts to link it to any anti-Obama advertising.

Matalin misspelled "shit."
posted by beelzbubba at 5:20 AM on August 13, 2008 [1 favorite]


Well, if Obama becomes president, I'm sure all of this will stop.

We're at WAR, you know!
posted by gregvr at 5:28 AM on August 13, 2008 [1 favorite]


How annoying is that?

Not half as annoying as that write-up. What is this, a freeper attempt at viral marketing?
posted by 0xdeadc0de at 5:30 AM on August 13, 2008


Monkeys throw poop. That's what they do.
posted by Citizen Premier at 5:30 AM on August 13, 2008


This book is not going to be purchased by anyone who would have ever voted for Obama.
posted by wabbittwax at 5:30 AM on August 13, 2008


The claims made in this book will be uncritically reported in the media until they are shown conclusively to be fabricated, at which point the damage will have been done.
posted by zixyer at 5:35 AM on August 13, 2008 [1 favorite]


You can get misinformation for free via email forwards, so why would anyone ever pay for this book?

(OMG did you know that England is no longer teaching the Holocaust because it offends those devil-worshiping Muslims? Thank goodness the owner of my company emailed me so I could be outraged!)
posted by giraffe at 5:38 AM on August 13, 2008


The claims made in this book will be uncritically reported in the media until they are shown conclusively to be fabricated, at which point the damage will have been done.

Which is why it's annoying. And no, this is not an attempt at viral marketing, whiners. Will all of the Mc-Cain supporters on MeFi raise their hands?
posted by ChickenringNYC at 5:39 AM on August 13, 2008


Why has this term "swift boating" persisted? What is wrong with the term "smearing"? It's shorter, clearer and not jargon.
posted by WPW at 5:43 AM on August 13, 2008 [1 favorite]


I don't see any hands yet......
posted by Mastercheddaar at 5:44 AM on August 13, 2008 [1 favorite]


ChickenringNYC -- You don't have to be a McCain supporter to be an Obama non-supporter. The problem with this campaign is that nobody is a McCain supporter, really.
posted by Faze at 5:45 AM on August 13, 2008


This book is not going to be purchased by anyone who would have ever voted for Obama.

So? It will be featured prominently on bookstore and library shelves (I've seen it on the latter myself), where it functions as a billboard for idiocy.

More importantly, it disseminates the talking point "supporting" material to That Guy At Your Office or The Idiot Behind You In Line.

The Republican Noise Machine doesn't require purchase to be effective. It makes everything up on the volume.
posted by DU at 5:45 AM on August 13, 2008 [1 favorite]


For me 'swift boating' reminds me of how shamelessly obvious and blatant the smearing of Kerry turned out to be. Not that I thought he was the greatest candidate ever, but he got popped REAL bad by those assholes.

:
posted by ChickenringNYC at 5:46 AM on August 13, 2008


I agree with the sentiments of this post, I guess, but GYOFB.
posted by chillmost at 5:49 AM on August 13, 2008


I took a whole stack of these buffalo chips and re-arranged them at my local bookstore - behind things no-one will read, like Beowulf.
posted by notsnot at 5:50 AM on August 13, 2008


Will all of the Mc-Cain supporters on MeFi raise their hands?

Planning a purge are we?
posted by Knappster at 5:54 AM on August 13, 2008


McCain is vulnerable. A bunch of Democrats need to get together and attack him on his temper, his joke about Chelsea Clinton, call his wife a trollop and beyond, the bank scandal, the Iraq-Pakistan border, the fact that Republicans thought he was worse than Bush in 2000 and the bomb Iran singing.

Yes, it's getting into the mud. But they can knock the guy out. Hey, if such a group was asking for donations I'd happily donate.

Of course the Republicans are going to do this to Obama, but the reverse should be done as well.
posted by sien at 5:57 AM on August 13, 2008


I guess Bigfoot posts are fine, though. For my next post, expect something banal.
posted by ChickenringNYC at 5:59 AM on August 13, 2008


You don't have to be a McCain supporter to be an Obama non-supporter.
posted by Faze


Faze, like Mikey, has traditionally hated everything, so take that remark for what it's worth. Swine like Corsi should be treated like a rabid beast and this post should have been written more neutrally.
posted by octobersurprise at 5:59 AM on August 13, 2008


Hmm, I guess 'psychopath' gave me away. But portraying him as a 'distinguished author' would've made me throw up in my mouth a bit.
posted by ChickenringNYC at 6:06 AM on August 13, 2008


The Media Matters 'on top of it' link might be better served by also adding http://mediamatters.org/items/200808040005?f=h_top to it; that's pulling quotes from the book and debunking them with quotes from Obama's book and the press.

Also, I love how Corsi looks at the debunking and claims it's all fakes. My special one is when he goes "Obama doesn't say when he stopped using drugs", someone pulls out the part of Obama's autobiography where he talks about stopping, and Corsi's response is, basically, "well, you can't trust anything he writes because he used drugs." I mean, the reasoning there is so circular it's almost a singularity of absolute stupid.
posted by mephron at 6:11 AM on August 13, 2008


When you wrote this up, did it really look acceptable to you? You have to know that editorializing and insults are generally discouraged in FPPs. Did you just conclude that your editorializing and insults were important enough to get a pass?
posted by Mr. President Dr. Steve Elvis America at 6:13 AM on August 13, 2008 [1 favorite]


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