Media Truth

The Problem (9/12/08):

Sarah Palin's candidacy is based entirely on bald-faced lies:
- That she said "thanks but no thanks" to the "Bridge to Nowhere"
- That she was a leading opponent of earmarks
- That she is ready to be Commander-in-Chief
- New lies baked daily!
More broadly, the McCain campaign is now based entirely on lies and smears:
- That Obama wants to raise taxes on the middle class
- That Obama promoted sex education for pre-schoolers
- That Obama called Palin a pig
- New lies and smears baked daily!
The McCain-Palin lies are being treated as truths by journalists and pundits who are either stupid or lazy
- Atrios 9/12/08: Liar
  And the lies will continue until the bobbleheads start repeating over and over again that John McCain is a liar, has a trouble with the truth, doesn't care who he deceives, etc.
- Josh Marshall 9/12/08: What a Team ...
  We're at a key moment -- where we learn if there is any consequence in this election for serial lying. It's a question that only the major media outlets will be able to answer.

The Opportunity: To expose the lies and brand McCain-Palin as liars

Responsible and honest journalists now understand lying is the heart of the McCain-Palin campaign
A growing number of those journalists are willing to call them lies
- John Cole
- Joe Klein
- Andrew Sullivan
- Jake Tapper (9/12 earmarks)
- Jeff Toobin (9/12 earmarks 6:45 pm ET)
Progressive bloggers are paying close attention and documenting some (but not all) of the lies in near real-time
- Atrios
- CrooksAndLiars
- DailyKos (Hunter)
- Digbysblog (dday)
- FireDogLake (Lindsay Beyerstein)
- HuffingtonPost
- MediaMatters
- MotherJones
- TalkingPointsMemo
- TheNation (Ari Melber)
- ThinkProgress
Online organizers are "packaging" anti-lie campaigns and reaching an enormous activist base
- BraveNewFilms
- Democrats.com
- Moveon
- TrueMajority
Progressive TV personalities are challenging the lies on their own
- Paul Begala
- Joy Behar
- Jack Cafferty
- Alan Colmes
- Rachel Maddow
- Roland Martin
- Keith Olbermann
- Jon Stewart
Progressive columnists are challenging the lies on their own
- E.J. Dionne
- Bob Herbert
- Paul Krugman
- Greg Mitchell
- Frank Rich

The Challenge: To expose the lies and brand McCain-Palin as liars

Expose McCain-Palin lies in near-real time
- Blog the lie and link to the truth
Quickly spread the truth throughout the blogosphere
- Core email list of McCain-Palin truth-bloggers
Get the truth on TV through our allies above (how?)
Enlist more TV allies (how?)
- Donna Brazile
- Campbell Brown
- Mika Brzinski
- James Carville
- Chris Matthews
- Andrea Mitchell
- David Shuster
Get more bloggers, columnists and op-ed contributors to write the truth and go on TV
- Ari Melber (9/12 TV)
- David Sirota
Identify mainstream journalists who are buying the lies and get them to stop
- Examples
  - Gloria Borger
  - MICHAEL COOPER and JIM RUTENBERG (9/13)
  - Adam Nagourney
- Strategies
  - Personally-directed blog posts
    - MediaMatters
    - Atrios: Wanker of the Day
  - Emailbombs
    - Corporate email (hardball@msnbc.com)
    - Personal email (chris.matthews@msnbc.com)
Get the Obama campaign and the Democratic Party to do free and paid media to build the narrative that McCain-Palin and all Republicans are campaigning entirely on lies

User login