US campaign begins to get dirty (WP says that if we had photos we wouldn't run them)

BBC ^ | 2/15/04 | Paul Reynolds

[Ohioan]

Whatever the rule is, we have to insist that there be one rule. Right now, we have one rule for Democrats ("Let someone else prove it, then maybe, maybe, maybe maybe we'll run it") and one for Republicans ("If there's an allegation, it's a story").

What you suggest is only fair. But, unfortunately, the media has not been fair within the memory of man. We need to find ways to deal with the bias--since the bias is clearly for the Left--but in that, the field of spreading gossip is the least of our worries. Properly handled, the spreading of gossip will backfire on those who spread it.

If Bush had been better advised in 2000, the last minute DUI smear--what else was it, a minor over the line infraction 24 years earlier, when he was only apprehended because he had taken precautions not to endanger anyone--could have been a tremendous opportunity to garner a couple of million extra votes.

The way you play such a smear is to let it build an audience, then go on TV to answer. People who do not like you, tune in to watch you squirm. But you do not squirm. You admit (in the case of the DUI) that you were not perfect at 24. That takes 20 seconds. Then you deliver a stirring 28 1/2 minute speech on your vision for America. You can only gain from the approach. (Nixon's 1952 "Little Dog" speech would be a well known example of the technique, althoug there he had to spend several minutes on the actual charges. Bush had a better opportunity to really use the smear to advantage.)

William Flax Return Of The Gods Web Site

[raloxk]

the party can respond. The intersesting thing will be when some liberal sues Rush Limbaugh for violating CFR simply by being on the radio.

[VadeRetro]

The way you play such a smear is to let it build an audience, then go on TV to answer. People who do not like you, tune in to watch you squirm. But you do not squirm. You admit (in the case of the DUI) that you were not perfect at 24. That takes 20 seconds. Then you deliver a stirring 28 1/2 minute speech on your vision for America.

I think you have to watch baiting and switching. I personally get tired of people who see every open mike as an opportunity to zing in the next sequential talking point, never mind how that open mike came to be there. People should already know your vision for America before election eve or you're in trouble anyway. Especially if you're an incumbent.

[Shermy]

New Kenya story. Not vouching for the accuracy of the headline.

http://www.eastandard.net/headlines/news17020445.htm
Kerry lover holed up in city house

[Ohioan]

There is no possibility for "baiting and switching," when you are responding election eve, to an obvious smear campaign. And remember, Bush was not an incumbent in 2000--he just had the same dysfunctional political advisor.

The point is, that you let the smear build your audience. Then you can seize the moment, whether as an incumbent or candidate for new election.

William Flax Return Of The Gods Web Site

[VadeRetro]

By Nixon Ng’ang’a

Can't use it. Everyone knows Nixon despised young Kerry.

[optimistically_conservative]

Boy, I'm glad the BBC is not biased. I mean after naming all those dirty trick Republicans throughout the ages they named how many as Democrats?

Zero?

Oh, never mind.

[optimistically_conservative]

They had less when they hit Bush with questions about adultery in the 2000 campaign.

Yep.

GEORGE W. BUSH SMEARED IN ADULTERY SCANDAL

[mewzilla]

Did you listen to Limbaugh today? The BBC has doctored this story! Click on the link now and you'll find the reference to the not even with pics and lying to Imus paragraph no longer there...

[mewzilla]

We need another investigation into the Beeb. Why did the Beeb edit this story? Who told whom to do what and why? And why isn't the author of this swill screaming bloody murder at having his journalistic integrity besmirched? Inquiring minds want to know...

[an amused spectator]

Media shenanigans & CCRM ping

I want to know more about this Glenn Frankel Postie - did he really say that her parents were Republicans?!!?

[GOPJ]

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