Stuart Taylor has a good piece in the National Journal about campaign lies and distortions. It’s worth reading the whole thing because while Taylor begins by asserting that McCain is doing more distorting than Obama, the evidence he presents leads him to a different conclusion by the end. And he makes the important point that the major media, when they attempt to fact check, often get it wrong:
At the same time, many in the media have been one-sided, sometimes adding to Obama’s distortions rather than acting as impartial reporters of fact and referees of the mud fights.
And here’s a nice reminder:
Many media commentators also exude a conviction that Republicans have long played dirtier and more dishonest political hardball than do Democrats. Maybe, but I’m not so sure. We are often reminded of Republican sins ranging from the (accurate) Willie Horton ads of 1988 to the (over-the-top) “Swiftboating” of 2004. We hear a lot less about Democratic sins such as President Clinton’s distortions of Bob Dole’s position on Medicare in 1996 and the NAACP’s stunningly scurrilous ad campaign in 2000 associating George W. Bush’s opposition to a hate crimes bill with the racist murderers who dragged James Byrd behind a truck.