SS, DD

Eric Boehlert: Health care mobs = Swift Boat Vets. And the press plays dumb, again.

But what has been perfectly consistent is the way the press has, again, fallen for a right-wing smear campaign and dressed it up as news. Just as with the Swifties, the press has turned over its summer coverage to a band of agitators spreading misinformation. Five summers ago, the Swift Boat Vets helped hijack the election. They lied about documents, they lied about eyewitness, and they lied about their partisan affiliations and connections... Too spooked by the GOP Noise Machine and its charge of liberal media bias, the press propped up the Vets as serious men and showered them with attention.

Fringe players on the right are making wild accusations that cannot be backed up by fact. The mainstream media response? We must cover the phenomenon daily, even hourly!

Swiftboaters = health care goons = teabaggers = birthers = deathpanelers = the latest disaster. Sort of like a tornado, or a shark attack, or Hanna Montana pole-dancing. Of COURSE the media is going to cover it. Until the next disaster comes along. They make me sick.