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The slime campaign of 2004 has begun. I got an email forward of an editorial written by a Don Bendell that engaged in pretty thorough character assassination of John Kerry. Here is the response I gave the sender and the other recipients:

Thanks for including me in this email. It helps me see what influences a global network has on various social structures, like gossip and political campaigns.

This piece is better than most Internet forwards in that it is tied to a web site where one can actually check for some validity. However, the author sounds terribly angry (kind of like someone else we heard about so much over the past year). It seems apparent this Don Bendell does, indeed, have a deep scar concerning the Vietnam war, but I think it is a scar that was largely self inflicted. I think he missed much of the point about the anti-war movement.

I fully expect J Kerry to be labeled many things (Mass. liberal, for example) but I really thought that most people had come to agree that the Vietnam war was a big mistake and so his anti-war efforts wouldn't be such a big issue. This editorial is largely opinion. There aren't many facts to check out. I suppose someone with more time could find the original Congressional testimony to check the actual wording Kerry used to describe what he saw in Vietnam. However, I'm not sure what it would prove. He came back as a decorated hero but he had serious problems with the war itself and especially the way the war was executed. I find it odd anyone would fault a soldier for following his conscience in attempting to change unjust policy.

As for the slander about his view of the National Guard, that doesn't make sense. The only issue related I can think of is the very serious issue of whether the current President actually served the guard that he says he did. It seems he's provided more evidence lately, but nothing has been said degrading the service of others serving in the guards. That's a strawman that this Don Bendell has put up just so he can attack where there is nothing to attack.

On the Congressional actions, again, it is hard to say what he's talking about. Unless someone has the actual facts you have nothing worth considering. It may well be that Kerry took some action mentioned here, but it may just as well be that he opposed one bill so a far better bill could be passed. This is the kind of selection of detail that goes on all the time in these email letters. Oh well, I'm going to continue watching this phenomenon because it use to be that you could smear a public figure via word of mouth but that traveled very slowly. Now you can assassinate a politician with one cleverly-drafted email letter.

A couple of years ago I read about a publicly-traded company that was driven almost to bankruptcy because one person made up a bunch of lies, passed them around in emails and caused the company's stock to crash. Fortunately, the deed was traced and the perpetrator was arrested. I don't know, however, how that came out. The same kind of thing could be going on anytime you get one of these slimy rants. It is better to try to filter down to facts where you can find such and let go of the rest (delete).

posted by Unknown at 2:02 PM