monchieland: a reality-based community

Joe, in some small ways, you're starting to understand what's been going on for the past two to three decades. The GOP has an extremely powerful and dishonest smear/propaganda/brainwashing machine that has poisoned our politics, weakened our democratic republic, and almost thoroughly corrupted our journalism.

Let me tell one little story that I think illustrates a tiny bit of the damage. I know a woman whose basic tendency is toward a liberal point of view, but she isn't a politics/journalism junkie like I am. Yesterday, after I first explained the actual facts behind the Nancy Pelosi military airplane manufactured "scandal," she told me that one thing Pelosi had done awhile back had given her a bad taste in the mouth: that Pelosi had appointed a criminal to some position.

My first reaction was "Huh?" Then, after asking her a few questions, I realized she was referring to the manufactured "scandal" over the appointment of the chair of the Intelligence Committee. I had to explain to her that: a) this started because it was well known that Pelosi was disinclined to appoint the ranking Democrat, Jane Harman, because Harman had not displayed sufficient spine in standing up to the Bush regime over the past several years; b) the next highest seniority Democratic member of the committee was Alcee Hastings, which would've been a bad choice (IMHO) because he'd been impeached and removed as a judge...and yes, he had also been tried but acquitted in a criminal case, though questions remained with regard to his behavior; c) Pelosi had never ever given even the slightest indication that she would appoint Hastings; d) yes, seniority would be a factor in the appointment but Pelosi could easily override that factor; and e) Pelosi ended up passing over Hastings as well and appointed someone else -- someone who didn't have Hastings' dirty laundry -- as chair.

The woman said, "Oh, I never knew about all that," then explained that her knowledge had been mostly from quick readings of newspaper headlines and ledes. Of course her misunderstanding had been caused by misleading, sensationalistic, dishonest journalism that strongly insinuated that a) this was a personal "catfight" between Pelosi and Harman; and b) if Pelosi didn't name Harman, then she was going to name Hastings. Of course this spin was total BS -- pardon my incivility, but no other phrase is really accurate.

This is the kind of thing I fight in my daily life all the time. Another woman I know thought the entirely fictional "We got Osama in our sights" smear of the Clinton administration -- from a TV movie!!! -- was actual fact. Even though I patiently explained that this story had been debunked -- I wish I had remembered at the time that the principal debunker was Richard Clarke -- she continued to believe the fictional story over the factual one.

It's enough to make you want to bang your head against a wall...or start a blog.