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(by Eric Boehlert, article)

Then there was the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth smear campaign from the 2004 presidential election, which targeted Kerry and his war service in Vietnam. The partisan Republican accusers famously manufactured nearly every allegation they made about Kerry. They lied about documents. They lied about eyewitnesses. And they lied about their partisan leanings and connections. Despite the lack of evidence to substantiate their claims, which were floated 35 years after the fact, the press refused, in real time, to call out the Swift Boat allegations as a dirty trick.

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The US sends bombs, Cuba sends doctors, but communism is evil and capitalism is both democratic and holy.

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Personally I think all brutal authoritarian leaders are evil whether the are communist, fascist, military, fundamentalist Islamists, etc. Bernie could have chosen to visit Denmark to make his point that other countries have better health care, education, etc. than we do. Why choose to visit places where human rights were regularly violated?

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The most egregious human rights violations happen at Guantanamo Bay. Not to mention the $130 billion the embargo has cost. The UN has officially condemned it annually since '92. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cuba-economy-un-idUSKBN1IA00T While the US has denied Cuba life saving medicine & medical tech, Cuba has invented a lung cancer vaccine & even educated American doctors -- absolutely free. https://youtu.be/ptFqmKlSHPQ

There are 5 Cuban political prisoners in the US. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/496608.Superpower_Principles

When Nelson Mandela was released from prison, one of the first foreign trips he made was to Cuba to thank Castro for Cuban solidarity (tens of thousands of troops) during the Angolan Civil War & against Pretoria's apartheid government. At the time, the FBI had Mandela on its most wanted list; in 86 Reagan vetoed the Anti-Apartheid Act.

https://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_4400212

Don't buy the crap about Venezuela either. It's US sanctions, not Maduro, & it's been the pro-capitalist, anti-Chavistas sabotaging their country.

https://youtu.be/A32QyDyV7js

If you find that hard to believe, I would remind you that Americans sabotage their country routinely.

https://www.rawstory.com/2019/02/dying-whiteness-trump-gop-tapped-white-americas-suicidal-crusade-maintain-white-supremacy

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As bad as the MSM is on repeating these (should be) easily debunked conspiracy theories, Democrats have had plenty of experience in what to expect, and we still fall into the same rhetorical traps time after time after time. And what Bernie did on 60 minutes was just so tone deaf to the realities of the political climate i thought it was immediately disqualifying. His desire to be right was more important than the viability of his campaign. Just inexcusable. Democrats act out of fear nearly all the damn time and it rarely works out for us. I hope Bloomberg aligns his digital team to the efforts of the D candidate and continues the work of exposing trump which clearly the DCCC and DNC are petrified to do.

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I agree that Dems do sometimes share some of the messaging blame, esp those who assume the press will help clarify during campaign

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The establishment press has a clear bias against the Dems starting in the mid-1970s so it doesn’t matter what Dems “know”.

If Biden gets the nomination, you’ll see when the Hunter Biden thing gets huge coverage all the time.

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the crazy part is press will resurrect Hunter story even tho press has debunked it

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Because it makes MONEY. It's all about MONEY. The purpose of a for-profit corporation, under the reigning Friedmanite idea, is to make MONEY. Nothing else. Media companies make money by grabbing attention to sell ads against.

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Like Clinton’s emails. Facts don’t matter to the GOP and the press does little to push Bach, instead echoing the lies. Truth matters to the latter about as much as it does to the former. But the former have something of an excuse, the press does not. Still.

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press forex love to echo GOP lies

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Really enjoying Press Run, and never miss you on Stephanie Miller .... or AM Joy....but OMG you linked to one of my most favorite songs ever..... even if it is about her dog..... just memorably beautiful and moving. Thank you!

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author

oh great!...and thanks

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Here we go. This is the headline of a story posted a short while ago on Vox:

The Democratic Party’s risky bet on Biden:

Picking Biden over Sanders might seem like the safe electability choice, but the Ukraine situation makes Biden much riskier than many believe.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2020/3/4/21164083/super-tuesday-results-joe-biden-win-ukraine

Clearly the author is making the ridiculous assumption that if we pick someone other than Biden there won’t be a scandal problem. Guess he forgot about Kerry cheating to get his medals for bravery.....

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ugh, the Ukraine story has been completely debunked, yet it’s presented as risk for Dems

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Here is an example of why it still is a risk - an article by David Ignatius in today’s WaPo demanding that Biden apologize for Burisma because it looked like he had a conflict of interest. Nothing like keeping a debunked accusations alive with complaints about the “appearance of impropriety”. That is a tried and true tactic the media uses to appear fair and balanced.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-ukraine-conversation-joe-biden-needs-to-have/2020/03/05/044335a2-5f18-11ea-9055-5fa12981bbbf_story.html

In my opinion this article is typical of another problem with how most of the mainstream media addresses debunked scandals. The only provide links to the facts instead of succinctly describing evidence that proves the accusation is false. I would bet most people don’t take the time to read those links but would read a short summary of the facts that disprove the claims if it is in the body of the article.

If repetition is how lies get spread it stands to reason that repetition of the facts would be an effective tactic for countering the lies. An example in this is the fact is by demanding the corrupt prosecutor who had already shelved the Burisma investigation Biden actually increased the risk that Burisma would be seriously investigated which could possibly hurt Hunter.

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/9/23/20879611/joe-biden-hunter-biden-ukraine-corruption-prosecutor-burisma-donald-trump-whistleblower-complaint

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Thank you!!

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author

yr welcome.;)

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I don't think we can expect the DC media to give up the practice of parroting Trump's debunked conspiracy theories and childish taunts, but this time around, we've seen that voters are simply tuning out Trump. The turnout numbers on Super Tuesday were staggering. An added factor is the complete and utter bungling by the Trump administration in the management, containment, and transparency around the Coronavirus. Not only are testing kits STILL not widely available, but the CDC website is wildly inaccurate. I do think this may be the 'X' factor that changes everything, no matter how deficient the media reporting continues to be.

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author

i hope you're right. meaning i hope there is a wider awakening re: Trump's incompetence

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The WaPo’s Margaret Sullivan had a great article about the damage parroting Trump’s lies does to people’s perception of the truth. She describes what linguist/cognitive psychologist George Lakoff has prescribed:

“That’s the truth sandwich — reality, spin, reality — all in one tasty, democracy-nourishing meal.

Avoid retelling the lies. Avoid putting them in headlines, leads or tweets, he says. Because it is that very amplification that gives them power.

That’s how propaganda works on the brain: through repetition, even when part of that repetition is fact-checking.

Hillary Clinton, Lakoff notes, was convicted without cause for many people by Trump’s repetition of “crooked Hillary.” “

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/instead-of-trumps-propaganda-how-about-a-nice-truth-sandwich/2018/06/15/80df8c36-70af-11e8-bf86-a2351b5ece99_story.html

Lakoff recommends starting off with the truth - for example say that Trump didn’t accomplish much with his meeting with X, then describe what he claimed to be true, then return to the truth by fact-checking that claim.

By repeatedly leading with Trump’s lies or by showing clips of him making those claims that journalists know are false makes it more likely that people will be bamboozled. The media needs to get it through their thick skulls that their job is not to entertain us, to pander to certain groups, etc. It is to do everything they can to make sure we have a well-informed citizenry. Our democracy depends on that.

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