Swift-Boating Jerome Corsi

Apparently, Jerome Corsi's latest set of smear email forwards put into book form The Obama Nation is going to debut at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list. But we all know how the right games the system, giving away millions of copies through conservative book clubs and buying up copies from bookstores before reducing them to pulp, just to give the books (and the lies inside them) the stature and the credibility. What matters is how the media reacts to it. Well, so far, they appear to be giving the book the treatment it deserves.

This NYT article is appropriately skeptical, calling many of the book's claims "unsubstantiated, misleading or inaccurate." Media Matters, which has led the charge against the book, has gotten a good amount of success as a counterpoint to Corsi's lies. Last night, Paul Waldman appeared on Larry King Live to debate Corsi, and he did a spectacular job.



It wasn't too long ago that there wouldn't be anyone offering pushback on one of these conservative smear artists. Media Matters' emergence is extremely important to the progressive movement. They've forced themselves into the conversation. These pieces of infrastructure are invaluable. Unlike 2004, this year the smears are not going unchallenged in the traditional media.