In today's NY Times, Paul Krugman provides an excellent summary and critique of the Republicans' despicable and failed attempt to slime a 12-year-old boy who suffered brain damage from a car accident. Krugman refutes all of the GOP's lies and distortions of the Frost family, which everyone one dkos is already well-versed on, so I won't repeat that here. But the best part of the column is how Krugman calls out CNN for being nothing more than a PR arm for the right-wing smear maching, as well as how he rightly slams down Michelle Malkin and Mitch McConnel for their roles in the Sliming Graeme Frost campaign, and exposes how the right-wing smear machine works these days.
First, Krugman calls out Malkin for her role in stoking the GOP sliming of Graeme Frost and disseminating the GOP's failed talking points far and wide. He notes that the modern right-wing political machine routinely relies on "character assassination in place of honest debate," with the attacks led by well-financed right-wing mouthpieces like Malkin and Limbaugh. And he effectively points out that Malkin is not just some "fringe blogger" who can be easily dismissed but is an integral part of the Republicans' well-oiled smear apparatus:
You might be tempted to say that bloggers make unfounded accusations all the time. But we’re not talking about some obscure fringe. The charge was led by Michelle Malkin, who according to Technorati has the most-trafficked right-wing blog on the Internet, and in addition to blogging has a nationally syndicated column, writes for National Review and is a frequent guest on Fox News.
Then Krugman calls out Mitch McConnell and his fellow Repugs in Congress for being willing participants in attacking a sick little boy. In the past, Republican politicians used to try hard to distance themselves from hack jobs like Malkin and Limbaugh that they sent out to do their dirty work, but these days they seem to be happy to roll around publicly in the mud:
...G.O.P. politicians were eager to join in the smear. The New York Times reported that Republicans in Congress "were gearing up to use Graeme as evidence that Democrats have overexpanded the health program to include families wealthy enough to afford private insurance"but had "backed off" as the case fell apart.
In fact, however, Republicans had already made their first move: an e-mail message from the office of Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, sent to reporters and obtained by the Web site Think Progress, repeated the smears against the Frosts and asked: "Could the Dems really have done that bad of a job vetting this family?"
The kicker, though, is how Krugman exposes CNN's pivotal role in the Republicans' smear of Graeme Frost. The news media used to investigate claims before they put them on the air, but Krugman notes that the news media are "still willing to be used as patsies" for the right wing's unfounded, mean-spirited and pathetic character assassinations:
...the attempt to spin the media worked, to some extent: despite reporting that has thoroughly debunked the smears, a CNN report yesterday suggested that the Democrats had made "a tactical error in holding up Graeme as their poster child," and closely echoed the language of the e-mail from Mr. McConnell’s office.
It's a sad state of affairs, which Krugman sums up appropriately:
Only a truly vicious political movement would respond by punishing their injured children.