Posted on 07/09/2008 10:07:48 PM PDT by kristinn
...How important is calumny today? In 2000, calumny effectively led to John McCain's defeat in South Carolina. That smear campaign against him used robo-calls and fliers, and e-mail also played an important role, as the New York Times reported in February 2000. Arguably, calumny defeated John Kerry in 2004, and the infamous Swift boat television ads of that summer were, importantly, preceded by an aggressive Internet campaign begun that January that included perhaps the first viral campaign e-mail: a computer-generated image of Kerry and Jane Fonda beside each other on a podium at an antiwar rally. The image originally emerged at the Web site FreeRepublic.com, and Fonda had not in fact been at the event. But the damage was done. Today we are seeing viral anti-Obama e-mails, some of which I have traced to some of the same origin points for the 2000 and 2004 smear campaigns.
SNIP
A right to free speech is no excuse for lying. While strongly protected rights of free speech are critical to a healthy democracy, rights bring responsibilities. Citizens should, as a standard practice, take responsibility for their views -- the matters of fact and principle that they wish to put before the public for consideration -- by appending their full, legal names to their expressions, even in blog posts. While there are times and places for anonymity, it should be the exception. Unfortunately, the Internet has brought us to a point where anonymity is the rule, not the exception. Rather than facilitating free speech, this is corrosive to democratic discourse. It's time to rebuild a responsible culture in which people speak in their full, legal names and honor the truth.
SNIP
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Several things, the photos, real, fake, and sources for the composite are prohibited by their creators from appearing ON FR.
Which is odd because the only OWNER of the fake is the guy who created it, not the guy who’s photos he used. In the absence of a court order, the ownership of the image does not transfer.
The Lefties at Snopes got a notice from Corbis which made them revise their copyright information but I doubt they PAY Corbis for the image that they host on their own servers. And I know they aren’t paying the creator of the hoaxed image (which can be found here on Snopes where they kept the topic alive).
http://www.snopes.com/photos/politics/kerry2.asp
Ms. Allen is niggardly with truth and facts. Though I’m sure that her use of obscure words is meant only to enlighten us hicks, who cling to guns, religion and the Constitution, I feel that her defense of Sen. McCain is disingenuous and duplicitous.
If memory serves, Registered caught absolute hell for it from all sides, and he pretty much disappeared because of it. So how much is enough for the leftists?
I seriously doubt that ANY journalists saw the photo when it was posted originally in that thread. As I say, it was generated and the post pulled rather quickly (someone probably rightfully hit the abuse button).
DU trolls did the rest.
Not sure that he ever “disappeared”. I know he continued to make graphics.
One of his mocked up Bush Iraqi dollars was on CNN or something when Baghdad fell.
It says “thank you for the wonderful spring rolls”. Nothing more, comrade. That wing of the Vietnam Heroes Museum is closed for repairs. No further questions! Tour over!!!
This is truly bizarre.. two Wapo articles on this subject? Both making heroes out of this woman who knows how to google? Both refusing to address the underlying claims? what shoddy journalism.
Yeah, I mean he disappeared from here right about that time.
Bull. The Registered composite was touted far and wide by MSM outlets as an example of dastardly Internet deception well before the Swift Vets even formed. To claim that the composite was a major factor in Kerry's defeat is grotesquely dishonest. Even the leftist professor Ken Light, who took the photo Registered used and eventually filed suit against him, admitted in the Washington Post on Feb. 28, 2004 that "the Internet has come as close as it gets to a correction. If you use a search engine... you find the hoax explanation before you see the photo itself."
There's no shortage of evidence that Kerry and Fonda did in fact work together to achieve a common goal: US defeat in Vietnam. The two radical activists used exactly the same tactic - lying about US war crimes in an effort that was carefully coordinated with the Vietnamese communists. D. Allen wants to pretend that a trivial incident involving fake "evidence" had a major impact, so she can ignore the real evidence against Kerry that really did change minds.
That "arguably" in front of her "calumny" charge against the Swift Vets is a nice bit of weasel-wording. Allen obviously has no qualms about using innuendo when she can't find evidence. When her "genius grant" expires, expect to see Ms. Allen pumping out slipshod research and leftist polemics someplace like Media Matters.
Like Publius, Silence Dogood, Poor Richard, etc.?
I keep missing commenting on the part of that story about the speakers. They actually listened to Donald Sutherland, the man who showed such “great” judgement with this decision when he took his part in “Animal House”;
“Donald Sutherland was so convinced of the movie’s lack of potential, that, when offered a percent of the gross or an upfront payment of $40,000, he took the upfront payment. Had he taken the gross percentage he would have been worth an additional $30-40 million.”
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077975/trivia
Barack from Kenya or was it Indonesia?
He has a Muslim brother, I wonder about his mother.
He likes to toot his own horn, I wonder where he was born.
He has a lovely house, that's in a gangster's yard.
He thinks he'll become President, by playing the race card.
It is a little surprising, however, that the Washington Post is giving this scumbag an open-ended platform.
"D'oh!" What am I thinking.... No it's not.
ROFL. Good one doug.
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