McCain-Palin lies

Paul Krugman, "Blizzard of Lies."

Mr. Krugman says, about the blatant lies repeated --long after they've been publicly declared as untrue-- over and over again by the McCain-Palin campaign, "they’re probably counting on the common practice in the news media of being “balanced” at all costs."

I disagree. Oh sure, that's played into their hands. "Balanced" apparently means, these days, "let them lie if they want to - all is fair, yadda yadda."

But what I'm seeing, and this was backed up yesterday by some nice interviews on NPR (I'll add the link when I find it), is that there're quite a lot of people in this country that have been successfully convinced that the media --all of the media except possibly conservative talk-radio-- is "out to get" Palin and is itself lying.

This tactic is probably as old as dirt, but I first became aware of it with the Bush campaigns. What's being (erroneously, as far as I can tell) called "the base" has been led down a lovely little garden path on which it is not necessary --it's even a bad idea-- to read the news or assess facts critically, since any source of critical information other than those that obviously agree with your own worldview is immediately suspect.

If a news article in a highly reputable newspaper says Sarah Palin is lying, the newspaper article is by definition a pack of lies.

These people want to believe not only that McCain-Palin are the right choice, that their own choices are the right choices, but that any normally reliable source of opposing (or "fair") information must be ignored or slandered.

Which takes the pressure off, eh? It's not necessary to judge things critically. Don't worry about it. Don't think about it. Don't question. Just BELIEVE.

Sounds familiar. :(