I would like to suggest (challenge?) all of us smart bloggers use this story as a case study of what the Oct elections will look like.

Rovian tricks will be used against Democrats.
The media will be told X and will not fact check. The candidate will be busy or the spokesperson will be caught off guard. The right-wing will smear/lie/trick the media.

We can help.

If you spot a whisper campaign in your region tell us. RIGHT AWAY. If you are aware of a plot in advance a smear in the making, help expose it.

I'll give you one right now.

Remember Melanie Morgan who went on Hardball and said that what Bill Keller did was treasonous?
She said on the air that all the news media that did the story on the financial tracking program should be hung.

I heard Melanie Morgan gloating about information in her upcoming book that will "Shock the country and blow the lid off of mother Sheehan's image." She says it will be "Headline news all across the country" and that even the front page of the New York times will be "forced to run this blockbuster information."
http://s88172659.onlinehome.us/Morganpre smearofSheehan08072006H05M06.wma

I have no idea what the smear will be, and if you can't stop a smear campaign, how do you derail it?
I sent the above audio clip to the Cindy Sheehan people, but as I posted on Digby the other day, bloggers need to help the media stop the smears because the journalists have mostly retreated to a "X says this" and "Y says this". This "blockbuster information" will go from World Net Daily to Drudge to Rush to the Washington Times to Fox to CNN to well you know the drill. If the NY Times does have to do a story it will  be because of all the Buzz around this story. Even if the content is overblown.

Like Karl Rove, sometimes these nuts are so proud of themselves they will tell you just what they are going to do in advance.
I really don't want to stand by and wait until the smear is out of the bag. I pre-empetively wrote the TV stations in the Atlanta area about Morgan's "Censure Carter" campaign and her stupid ad didn't get any more pick up. I'm not sure that I had any real impact, but I like to think I helped remind the journalists what was going on with Morgan and her crew, before they ran a news story about the "controversial ad"

Thanks for doing that pitch! And I totally agree with you. Part of this is their relentlessness also, most of them are PAID to do this. It is their full time job for some campaign or think tank or lobbying/PR firm.

Remember when Reid was going to put together a war room to quickly respond to this crap? Did that happen? I think it is up to bloggers like you who know what a pitch IS and how to reach the right people. Of course it isn't usually our job and we are doing it in our spare time, but it might make the difference.

Someone over at FDL helped stop a MAJOR Metropolitan Daily from running with the "Lieberman's site was HACKED!" Story at the last minute. She was able to get them to stop because she had read blogs that revealed the truth and did some fact checking.

Excellent comment. I actually have thought about this for a while. I think that bloggers can HELP the mainstream media prevent these kind of mistakes if they get the kind of polite (since they faint when you say the f-word) focused emails that Media Matters suggest we write.

Excellent informed analysis. You sound very knowledgable about these things.

syolles:
Here is another thing that the corporations are doing. Supporting hate speech. Who pays the salaries of hate radio? Advertisers. And here is the interesting thing. If you point that out to them, they say, "We really don't want to taint our brand with that language."  

Oh, and check out the movie The Corporation if you haven't already it is really chilling.

I had an idea. Why not go "undercover" at some of these big box churches and bust them for their open politicking? Just the stuff that the IRS would be interested in. So that they would lose their tax exempt status. That would be an interesting story.

Wow. Excellent post! If you get paid to make your client look good and do what is best for the client (and not the majority of people or your constituents)then you need a certain amount of "mental flexiblity" that allows you to stop viewing the world from the seniors point of view.

The thinking goes a little something like this:

"The seniors aren't paying me. And in fact, lots of the seniors aren't going to have problems. Just look at the demographics! Seniors have MORE money than ever! There will just be a small number of seniors who have a problem and there are ALWAYS going to be people who complain. Why it even says in the bible "the poor are always with us". And just because they didn't prepare for their health care why is that our CLIENT's fault? And besides, the current administration is really the one who started this, not our client!
No, really the problem is not that big. Look at the poll that we commissioned. See? Right here it says that things are fine. It's in black and white."

The article talks about the violence called for in the wingnut blogs. The talk show hosts on the right are just as bad and I've got audio clips!. Here are a few from KSFO. Home of Melanie Morgan, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and my personal unfavorite, Brian Sussman.

This first clip is dedicated to Tom Tommorrow's penguin friend Sparky. Listen to Ms. Morgan's co-hosts imitate the sounds of Bill Keller in the electric chair "Ol' Sparky"
http://s88172659.onlinehome.us/MelanieMo rganBrianSussmanOfficerVicKSFO07102006H0 8M06.wma

Here is one from Ms. Morgan calling for the editors who wrote the story about the finanical tracking program to be hanged. Note: There are no qualifications for a trial or conviction, just "Hang 'em!"

http://s88172659.onlinehome.us/MelanieMo rganHangem06272006H08M06.wma

Her other co-host suggests the editors at the AP commit mass suicide. What prompted this comment? They did a story about Cindy Sheehan's hunger strike.
http://s88172659.onlinehome.us/Lee_Roger s_to_AP_Commit_Mass_Suicide_audio_from_K SFO_06292006H06M06.wma

Do you think that she is just going after the NY Times? Nope.
"All of you people are equally guilty of treasonous behavior."
http://s88172659.onlinehome.us/Melanie_M organ_All_guilty_of_treasonous_behavior0 6302006H05M06WSJ.wma

Finally she is right and confident and those damn facts won't get in her way. http://s88172659.onlinehome.us/KSFO_560_ am_Morgan_I_retract_NOTHING_06302006H05M 06.wma

These people depress me.

You whipper snappers have no idea! I remember back in the early days we had to go to court to put a modem on the internet. I kid you not. "You'll mess up our network!" they cried.

Back in 1996 some people I know were involved with the development of a new network access point. The telcos did NOT like the idea. They really wanted to make money selling long haul lines and direct connections not this new fangled "World Wild Web".

They were all pissed off at this because they figured it would take money from them. Of course in the early days everyone was all "Nobody is making money from the internet" until someone did. Then it was all, "how can we get that money?"
The real money turned out to be in search specific results. What a surprize. The telecos felt like suckers. They felt they weren't getting enough. So they screamed "F***! We want some of that juicy, juicy Google money! How can we force them to give us money?"

Hmmmm. How about we say, "If you don't give us money we will take away access to your precious website?" And so they came up with a plan to force them to give them money.

And here is another thing I want to point out. Google, lots of Democrats. Telcos. No so much. That is one of the reasons they like to bash Google. They aren't playing their game and they aren't part of their club. Google has a lot of money now and they don't have to play the standard game. The Telco Republicans have decided to do what they always do. Go after the refs. They are going to make sure that Google will pay for being an uppity Dem. And if Google doesn't pay off the vig, they will get crushed by the refs because they didn't pay off the refs. Thank goodness Google finally got some lobbiest in Washington to fight these bastards back at their level.

I'm going to throw it up on my blog, Spock's Brain. The Blog that is sweeping the nation! Now with 6 readers!