PaulWaldman -- All Comments -- In These Times

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PaulWaldman

- 31 Aug 06
- 2:06 pm
There's a reason why the Swift Boat Veterans are known as the "Swift Boat Liars." Their smear campaign against John Kerry was one of the most dishonest spectacles in the history of American politics. In both their ads and their public statements, they propagated falsehood after falsehood about Kerry, and most of their major claims were debunked by journalists - once they got around to actually investigating them, after giving the group reams of undeserved publicity. From the phony claim that Kerry "secretly met with enemy leaders in Paris" to the false assertion that Kerry didn't deserve his purple hearts, to …

Posted to Pushing Back Against Ad Censorship
- 31 Aug 06
- 3:55 pm
This was never an issue about "free speech," it was about telling the truth. Let's just take one example. Mr. Wright says, "we were stunned when he started supporting the North Vietnamese." John Kerry became an opponent of the Vietnam War, and worked to oppose it. He did not "support the North Vietnamese." That is a vicious, despicable slander, and Mr. Wright should be ashamed of himself. Unfortunately, this is the level of argument we hear from conservatives all the time. If you thought that invading Iraq was a bad idea (a prediction that turned out to be accurate), you were …

Posted to Pushing Back Against Ad Censorship