Well if you thought the hate-wing e-mail being spread around wasn't enough, well none other than the Associated Press has now decided to do what the press did in 2004 and "cover" the Swiftboat-style lies being promulgated by the extreme right-wing liars in our country.
Yes, they're giving credence, not only with the body of their story, but with their headline, to the "Obama may not be patriotic" smear. Check out this headline:
Obama May Face Grilling on Patriotism
By NEDRA PICKLER
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sen. Barack Obama's refusal to wear an American flag lapel pin along with a photo of him not putting his hand over his heart during the National Anthem led conservatives on Internet and in the media to question his patriotism.
Now let's just think about that headline for a minute.
"Obama may face grilling on patriotism."
In our popular culture (i.e. TV shows, the media) who do we see getting "grilled"? Suspects. People who are on trial. Who does the grilling? Authorities. Experts. Detectives (people heroically searching for the truth).
And for what is this person a suspect? For their very patriotism. Which suggests that their years of public service, their motivations, their very souls, are suspect. Possibly counterfeit. Potentially part of an elaborate scam.
The headline alone is simply loaded with innuendo. It suggests that "Authorities" on the subject of patriotism might need to "grill" (and the connotations that word contains of, well, torture, frankly) someone whose Patriotism is suspicious.
Here are some other choice bits from the article:
"Many Americans will find the three things offensive. Barack Obama is out of the McGovern wing of the party, and he is part of the blame America first crowd."
"If you are McCain, you want to play up the decorated war hero, loves his country, served his country," Appell said. "You want to play those themes up as much as possible, especially in comparison to Obama and his role in the anti-war movement."
Right, Obama has never served his country. Uh-huh ... And I'm sure he doesn't love it, no. And I love it how everybody seems to let them get away with this "anti-war" categorization -- suggesting that because you're against an ILLEGAL war, you're "anti-war" in general, which of course connotes that you're a long-haired, pot-smoking, draft dodging, America-hating HIPPIE.
"First he kicked his American flag pin to the curb. Now Barack Obama has a new round of patriotism problems. Wait until you hear what the White House hopeful didn't do during the singing of the national anthem," said Steve Doocy, co-host of "Fox and Friends" on the Fox News Channel.
"He felt it OK to come out of the closet as the domestic insurgent he is," former radio host Mark Williams said on Fox.
The article is simply an excuse to spread this filth. Sure, it's written "objectively" in a sense, in that it refutes the smears and gives Obama's point of view, yet at the same time, the very fact that the AP is reporting this as a "news story" gives the smear-meisters equal status as Obama himself.
It's that "some say" brand of journalism. God knows we've seen a lot of that in the last few years. "Some say" is just another excuse to spread smears and lies.
Yes, they even bring up the e-mail. "That" e-mail.
Obama already is the subject of a shadowy smear campaign based on the Internet that falsely suggests he's a Muslim intent on destroying the United States.
This is exactly what they, and the rest of the corporate media did in 2004 when they spread the Swift-Boat Liars "story" around the news, ad infinitum.
Presented smears as news. "Some people are saying ..." Soon it will be "Could the allegations be true?"
The AP has a terrible record. Just searching Dailykos for stories on them turns up a few doozies, such as this -- AP Asks: Why So Many Upset by Iraq Death Toll? which was covered in this diary by theyrereal. BarbinMD wrote about Bias And The Associated Press. JohnnyGunn comes right and and says I Hate the F***ing Associated Press and here they managed to make a visual and dishonest smear against Cindy Sheehan. Theyrereal has another one on how How the AP smears the Plame story, and Dopies complains that this AP headline doesn't hold water if one reads the very article that it's for: Say 'Fahrenheit 9/11' Is Propaganda (AP) Nice how they managed to spread the "F/911 is Propaganda" lie through this "news story", isn't it? That's very similar to the subject of this diary.
Expect more of the same. This is Your New America, folks. And your "liberal media".
I honestly don't know what we can do about it except constantly call them on this bullshit and provide an alternative source of information.