[popdonnelly]

Swift boating is telling truths about Democrats that make them uncomfortable.

Scurrilous and unfounded claims against Republicans are "a search for the truth".

[Lee'sGhost]

please let Mr. Martin know.

[DBrow]

I agree. A conservative bringing up the actual public record of a liberal is "going negative" and this action justifies hysterical mudslinging from the left, called "a search for the truth".

And Swift Boating is indeed an effort by grass-roots activists to publicize what MSM attempts to bury.

[RightWingConspirator]

Like Dan Rather's forged documents!

[Jim Verdolini]

"Swift boating is telling truths about Democrats that make them uncomfortable.

Scurrilous and unfounded claims against Republicans are "a search for the truth"."

Another term screaming for clarification "Refuted".

I am so tired of having some mind addled dolt tell me something (like the Swifties) have been 'refuted' simply because some approved liberal source has published a piece that disagrees.

This takes me back to the source of the communications problem.

"True" and "Fact" are defined as any idea that comes from an approved liberal source, like the Guardian or the Times, or that has been stated as true by a national liberal.

"Lie" is any idea that the left does not agree with.

It is exceptionally hard to hold a debate with folk who define stuff like this.

[KC_Conspirator]

Swift Boating is getting the real record out instead of a media driven, superhyped, false lie.

I am still convinced to this day that Kerry got and dishonorable discharge, but we will never know because he has not signed off to release his records.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Swift boating is telling truths about Democrats that make them uncomfortable.

"Swiftboating" - it should be considered a single word in this context - is a manufactured word most analogous to "McCarthyism."

If you read Treason by Ann Coulter, you know that Senator Joseph McCarthy was far more sinned against than sinning. Basically he was railroaded by Big Journalism. Think about it: the outcry against "McCarthyism" was an outcry against putative censorship. If you were to research through the pages of the newspapers of the time you would have no trouble at all finding charges that Senator McCarthy was stifling free speech.

And that is the best possible proof that no such thing was being accomplished by Senator McCarthy. If you were to research the archives of Iraqi newspapers under Saddam, you may be sure that there would be no articles charging that Saddam was censoring newspapers. Why? Because he was censoring the newspapers, and if you were an Iraqi and publicly criticized Saddam in any way your life was forfeit. So (although I don't read Arabic and have never even seen an Iraqi newspaper) I am quite confident there was essentially no overt indication that Saddam was censoring anybody. Because that would have implied that somebody might have wanted to criticize Saddam.

So "McCarthyism" is a word which journalists synthesized to insult Joseph McCarthy and suppress support for anticommunists. Neither more nor less. Likewise "Swiftboating" is a word which journalists synthesized to insult the "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" and, having sullied their reputation, to suppress criticism of Democrats by tarring critics with the brush of the "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" organization.

"McCarthyism" and "swiftboating" are Newspeak words, purpose-built by journalists to suppress criticism of positions which journalists favor. Absent the journalists' motive in using them, neither word would ever have gained any currency whatever.