Today's Cal Thomas column, "Taliban Wing Has Captured Democratic Party", is filled with hateful namecalling and specious reasoning. The column tries to pin the anti-Semite label on the bloggers supporting Lamont. I find the whole diatribe to be Ann-Coulter-like and I would be inclined dismiss it as the garbage it is, except for the fact that under all the nastiness is an issue of which we should be aware.
Thomas selects quotes from individual bloggers on Dailykos and Huffingtonpost and extrapolates them into the consensus position of the blog. Lanny Davis did this too in interviews leading up to the primary. Neither acknowledges the complexity, diversity, and open exchange one finds on such sites.
I am concerned the general non blogging public will buy into the false frame of "take a quote and make it the official postion", and thus let the hatemongers like Thomas continue to cherry pick quotes to use as strawmen.
I wrote my local paper complaining about the column. Bloggers will know that "one voice is just one voice", but I'm not sure the general public will see the "one person said it so it must be the official position" falacy at first glance. Any ideas on how to get the message out?