Here’s an outrageous smear by Danny Schechter in Newsday that should be retracted: Eye on the Media. (Hat tip: Michele.)

The right-wing attack machine works by personalizing issues and demonizing “enemies” with overheated language and cartoon-like characterizations. Osama “the evil doer” bin Laden gave way to Saddam “the butcher of Baghdad” Hussein, and now John “the phony war hero” Kerry has been displaced with a “lather over Rather.” It’s a textbook example of how attacks against journalists are used to denigrate news not to the right wing’s liking by planting items in the media food chain and cranking up an echo chamber of feigned indignation.

The Republican National Committee operates its own 24/7 anti-news network to monitor coverage and orchestrate a rapid response. Salon reports that the story casting doubt on the documents was first pushed into the news stream by Creative Response Concepts, a Republican public relations firm. Then, selected bloggers went to work led by an Atlanta lawyer who helped get President Bill Clinton disbarred and was the first who called the memos fakes. His charges spread like a prairie fire through the rabid conservative grapevine and amen corner. The goal: Focus the media on Rather, not Bush.

Why should this blatant lie be retracted immediately? Because Creative Response Concepts publicly apologized for their misleading press release five days ago. Shame on Danny Schechter, and shame on Newsday for printing his scurrilous attack.

For the record, here’s what I wrote when Creative Response Concepts first tried to claim credit for breaking the Rathergate story:

Please note: no one from this public relations firm ever contacted me; I have never even read the Cybercast News Service article to which they refer. Spelling it out explicitly: LGF has never been in contact with Creative Response Concepts, in any way, at any time. I’m not very pleased that they would try to send such a message, while claiming credit for breaking the story.

Yet another symptom of systemwide problems in mainstream media.

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