Prometheus 6

The news media also need to think through this issue, for we're being manipulated. I remember rumors about Mr. Bush in the 2000 campaign that were well known among journalists, but they never saw the light of print because we could not substantiate them. Every major candidate draws scurrilous charges, but responsible journalists - quite rightly - refuse to report unsubstantiated accusations of things like love children, drug dealing or mistresses. As CBS has found, to its chagrin, extraordinary charges require extraordinary proof.

Even though the Swift Boat Veterans' accusations are unsubstantiated, wealthy Bush supporters have turned them into campaign ads - and the press has often covered the result like a sporting event, rather than trying to find the truth.

That's a choice, pal. No one was manipulated. My appreciation of the precise metaphor (covered like a sporting event) isn't great enough to let that particular evasion slip.

Oh, this is where that came from:

Washing Away the Mud
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

That I found most dispiriting over the last month of politicking was the sight of two senior statesmen in the Republican Party - yes, I mean you, George H. W. Bush and Bob Dole - climbing on the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth bandwagon in its campaign to turn Mr. Kerry from war hero to craven braggart.

Both former President Bush and Mr. Dole are honorable. [P6: Not anymore. Honor is as honor does.]

The SBV are already cranking another set of lies. Obviously they feel invulnerable and maybe with some justification.

You see, if (using a totally randomly selected media outlet) only Fox News carried their lies there could be a focused response similar to the right's response to the 60 Minutes story. But with EVERY MEDIA OUTLET handling the issue as though Kerry's record was actually in question.

The correct way to handle it would be to lead every story with something like "After unsuccessfully trying to smear Sen. Kerry's war record, the SBV have devised another attack."

And why doesn't President Bush condemn those attacks, showing the kind of integrity that Mr. Dukakis showed?

The campaign's first self-answering question.

The only hope for stopping the mudslinging is if well-meaning people try to police their own side.

If they're intellectually consistent, Democrats will speak out not only against the Swift Boat Veterans but also against Mr. Kerry's demagoguery on trade, like his suggestion that outsourcing is the result of Mr. Bush's economic policies. Trade demagoguery may not be as felonious as an assault on a war hero's character, but it harms America by undermining support for free trade.

I'm afraid that the dishonesty of politics has infected all of us if we're so partisan that we're willing to point out only the sins of the other side. Intellectual consistency requires a tough look first at one's own shortcomings. So Republicans should be denouncing the smear against Mr. Kerry's war record, and Democrats should be denouncing their candidate's protectionist tone on trade.

So we should equate policy differences with actively, publicly stinking up the place with unsupported personal smears? I don't think so. A true comparison would pit Democratic "intellectual consistency" on protectionism against Republican "intellectual consistency" industry subsidies. The we can compare Republican mendacity on SBV lies to…what?

There's actually nothing comparable. Which, of course, is the point.