Yes, this is an interesting play that has, unfortunately, been run before by the left/MSM.
The sequence goes like this:
Someone, like the Swifties, brings up an inconvenient argument that interferes with the template, or story line, the left/MSM is selling.
Step 1: ignore them. If that doesn't work:
Step 2: malign them. There are several modes to this one; guilt by association, paint them as extremists, find one kook among them and make him/her the face of the whole organization, etc. If that doesn't work:
Step 3: muddy the waters. Intentionally mis-state their key argument (examples, calling the "Contract With America" the "Contract On America," referring to illegal aliens as "immigrants" and characterizing anti-illegal-immigrant groups as "anti-immigrant groups," etc.). If this doesn't work:
Step 4: find someone among the GOP or right-wing who is willing to bad mouth the group publicly. This person may be a has-been who wants publicity, a flake or borderline-mentally-disordered or senile member of the GOP, who can be pumped up into a spokesman for the mainstream. If this doesn't work:
Well, you get the idea. I think there are some more tricks they try to pull, like looking into the group's funding sources and seeing if they can come up with something embarrassing; you may be able to think of others.
If all these don't work, and (like the Swifties) the group succeeds in it's goals and really hurts the "cause," the agenda, well... the story's not over.
Then the left/MSM embarks on a long-term strategy to (a) undercut the original argument of the group, and (b) try to confuse the group's original goals and mission with that of other, less savory groups. The goal here is, again, to muddy the waters with younger people as they come of age, making sure that the original group (the Swifties, in this case) does not become a heroic model for future activism. This effort may go on for decades (in the case of Joe McCarthy, the Rosenberg matter, and the Alger Hiss matter, the effort has gone on for half a century or more).
That's what we're seeing here. It used to work, in the age of the concentrated power of the one-way MSM. In the modern era, I'm not so sure. There are a lot more ways for the truth to get out now, and it's much harder for the left to choke the baby in the crib, so to speak.
(steely)
Excellent post.
You’ve certainly got their modus operandi down cold.
I’ve been calling them “the Democrat Media” for quite awhile, although “the godless Media” is beginning to have a lot of attraction for me.
I’d call them “Pravda” but that means “truth” in Russian, and I’d hate to offend the truth.