By now most of you have heard about Obama Nation, a book by Jerome Corsi, of John Kerry swiftboating fame–along with John E. O’Neil he co-wrote Unfit for Command, which promulgated the lies of the Swiftboat Veterans for Truth. If you haven’t come across mention of this latest effort to mislead the credulous (of which there seems to be a mighty supply), you can find tons of information about it on Media Matters, which is, as their Web-site puts it, a “Web-based, not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media.”
Here Media Matters spokesman, Paul Waldman, appears with Corsi on the Larry King show:
http://mediamatters.org/static/flash/mediaplayer316.swf
Media Matters has analyzed the misrepresentations, and more importantly the technique of misrepresentation exemplified by this piece of manipulative drek. If you are interested in the details check here. Media Matters also maintains an archive dealing with the chicanery of Corsi and David Fredoso, the hack who turned out The Case Against Barack Obama, a similar tome meant to cement the most spurious rumours aobut Obama into the minds of the low information voter.
However, Media Matters only speaks to those who are willing to go to their site and make the effort to find out the truth. There has also been a reasonably successful effort to tar Media Matters‘ efforts as biased and partisan, which can undercut its effectiveness with exactly that segment of the public that this book is intended to influence.
To their credit, the Obama campaign seems to be gearing up to fight and has announced plans for what they call an aggressive assault on the book. Interestingly, the Democratic national Committee (DNC) seems to have decided to make this issue the hook for a fund-raising campaign–here is an excerpt from an email I received today:
This morning our team here sent this email to a group of dedicated supporters, but I’m sending it to everyone I know.
In 2004, the media let right-wing crackpots like Jerome Corsi spread lies about John Kerry. Now Corsi is publishing another hit piece attacking Barack Obama.
This year I’m drawing the line — we’re not going to let Corsi and the Republicans get away with it again.
Scroll down to check out Corsi’s track record of ideologically driven lies and conspiracy theories, then sign up for the DNC Rapid Response Team and help keep these dirty tricks from ruining another election:
The note includes a link to the DNC site which ultimately leads to a page where one can contribute to the DNC. Personally, in spite of my first cynical reaction, I like the idea of Corsi’s mendacity leading to a huge windfall for the Democratic election effort, and I encourage anyone who has a few available shekels to donate now.
What else can you do? Years ago I was part of an Amnesty International letter writing group and was impressed that a high volume of targeted letters often did really help. Perhaps we could form a virtual letter writing group on this topic and, working from the Media Matters page, blanket the local papers with letters on this topic? Just an idea–we can’t let this happen again!
UPDATE: I am a total idiot! I just realized what Obama Nation sounds like when spoken aloud! Did everyone else get this right away? And are you all fuming?