How the New Yorker cover hurts Obama.

[ChimpersMcSmirkers]

http://www.newsweek.com/id/146217
Jonathan Alter

snip

...To explain why it is harmful, consider Lesley Stahl and my cousin Paul.

Lesley Stahl covered the Reagan White House for CBS News. One day in 1984 she broadcast a five-minute (extremely long for TV news) blistering report on how President Reagan was cutting funding for public health and for children with disabilities. After it aired, the late Richard Darman, a top Reagan aide, called and said, "Congratulations! We loved it!"

Stahl was dumbfounded. The piece had been a hatchet job.

"Nobody heard what you said," Darman told her. The pictures Stahl had used to "cover" her story were of Reagan cutting ribbons at hospitals and speaking at the Special Olympics. The White House knew that these warm images spoke a lot louder than anything Stahl was reporting.

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...For a while, I thought only rightwingers and other Obama haters bought into the lies being spread about him. Then I got a call from Ross Perot, who was trying to plant some dirt about John McCain leaving live POWs behind in Vietnam (untrue, by the way). In the course of the conversation, it became clear that Perot thought Obama was a Muslim. When I informed him that Obama was actually a Christian, Perot was relieved. He didn't hate Obama; he just had an instinct to believe whatever he happened to see online over what he read in reputable newspapers.

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...To give you an idea of how far these distortions about Obama have spread, I offer the case of my cousin Paul, a smart and successful Californian now in his 80s. He doesn't read the New Yorker, but does include Newsweek, Time, the Los Angeles Times and such rarefied publications as the American Scholar in his media diet.

Paul, a lifelong Democrat, is truly undecided about whom to vote for, and it's not hard to see why. To get a fix on the truth about Obama, he recently sent me a letter with a series of things he'd heard about the man. He asked me to answer "true" or "false" to each. Sorry to walk you through this, but this is the sort of thing the press needs to do more often. So here are a few of Paul's Internet rumors, with my answers:


I hope it's not this bad...

[Ron Green]

1. It's very simple: If more thoughtful people vote than dumbasses vote, we'll have a good outcome.

And the only way to help dumbasses become more thoughtful is to let the truth be constantly aired.

[On the Road]

2. Until Now, I Hand't Thought of Checking in with the Expert

http://www.bagnewsnotes.com/

[AZBlue]

3. Oh no, I know some supposed liberals who believe the lies about Obama.

This is a scary situation.