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Schadow
Vice Admiral
Joined: 30 Sep 2004
Posts: 936
Location: Huntsville, Alabama
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 Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2006 7:01 pm Post subject: "Swiftboating" enters the lexicon, with difficulty |
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"Wikipedia" fancies itself as the modern arbiter of the meaning of words. For some time, "Swiftboating" and "Swiftboated" have been the subject of heated debate among Wiki's contributors.
The current definition is pretty loaded with terms implying lies, distortions, half-truths, etc., etc.:
| Quote: | Swiftboating is American political jargon for an ad hominem attack against a public figure, coordinated by an independent or pseudo-independent group, usually resulting in a benefit to an established political force. Specifically, this form of attack is controversial, easily repeatable, and difficult to verify or disprove because it is generally based on personal feelings or recollections.
The name comes from the portrayal of Presidential candidate John Kerry's military service in Vietnam and subsequent antiwar activities by the Swift Vets and POWs for Truth organization. Although many of the charges were unverifiable, they were disseminated widely, which led to swiftboating's reputation for being a controversial but highly effective form of "smear campaign".
Swiftboating frequently refers to a campaign that uses viral marketing techniques to sell the allegations. By using credible-sounding sources to make sensational and difficult-to-disprove accusations against an opponent, the campaign leverages media tendencies to focus on a controversial story. Mostly used as a pejorative, the term has gained currency among some left-wing writers and commentators. Its appropriateness as a description of political debate has been questioned by some conservative commentators. |
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiftboating
Wikipedia has a lively forum where the definition is still under vigorous discussion. An example (POV means point of view, NPOV means neutral point of view):
| Quote: | Perfect Representation of what Wiki has become
This article is the perfect representation of what Wikipedia has become- a ridiculously one-sided joke, posing as "NPOV". The whole article is an attack on a group of veterans who felt that the whole story was not being told; In effect, under the phony definition put forth on this page (the real definition of "swiftboating" is pointing out the truth about a habitual liar), you are doing what you have condemned. No doubt if someone came along to fix this article, it would be "reverted" as POV, even though it is this article that is junk. As soon as those of you on the loony left stop inserting your point of view as fair and unbiased and stop treating your ridiculous edits as God-given fact (yes,I saw the DUmp thread yesterday encouraging DUmmies to edit this post), we can actually get to the truth (yes, instead of "NPOV", as truth should always be the only concern, even if it offends some left wing ninny). Until then, Wikipedia will always be a joke.--WinOne4TheGipper 19:09, 30 November 2005 (UTC)
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Your statement “(the real definition of "swiftboating" is pointing out the truth about a habitual liar)” is exactly what swiftboating is about. You have no proof that Kerry lied… just half-truths taken out of context and political spin. DuBose 14:16, 9 December 2005 (UTC)
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This article is about the term "swiftboating" itself, which incontrovertably IS used as a pejorative. If you want to point out SBVT members' motives in speaking out, there is a page devoted to the group with plenty of that sort of info. --EECEE 17:27, 6 January 2006 (UTC) |
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Swiftboating
And on and on. It's all kind of amusing. I'm still waiting for any of the eggheads to come up with a lie in the Swifties' various presentations. 
Schadow
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Capt, 8th U.S. Army, Korea '53 - '54 |
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Nutso
PO3
Joined: 25 Aug 2004
Posts: 271
Location: Minnesota
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| Posted: Sun Feb 19, 2006 2:00 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | Although many of the charges were unverifiable, they were disseminated widely, which led to swiftboating's reputation for being a controversial but highly effective form of "smear campaign |
If John Kerry would just open the records - and not the whitewashed version - these charges would be verified and he would have to phone his next filibuster in from France!! |
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BuffaloJack
Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy
Joined: 10 Aug 2004
Posts: 1637
Location: Buffalo, New York
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| Posted: Sun Feb 19, 2006 2:15 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | Although many of the charges were unverifiable, they were disseminated widely, which led to swiftboating's reputation for being a controversial but highly effective form of "smear campaign |
If uncovering a buried truth and then bringing it to light is considered a smear, then so be it.
This is no different than an ex-felon wanting the records of his past crimes to be sealed by a court.
Swiftboating is using the truth against someone living a lie.
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Swift Boats - Qui Nhon (12/69-4/70), Cat Lo (4/70-5/70), Vung Tau (5/70-12/71) |
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Schadow
Vice Admiral
Joined: 30 Sep 2004
Posts: 936
Location: Huntsville, Alabama
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| Posted: Sun Feb 19, 2006 3:06 pm Post subject: |
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| BuffaloJack wrote: | | .... Swiftboating is using the truth against someone living a lie. |
That's about the most succinct definition yet. I would modify it only to substitute "to expose" for "against". No real difference, though.
"Rathering", on the other hand is using a fabricated lie to try to harm a good person. Interestingly, when I search Wikipedia for "Rathering", I get: No page with that title exists. Maybe there should be one? 
Schadow
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Capt, 8th U.S. Army, Korea '53 - '54 |
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MrJapan
PO1
Joined: 27 Sep 2004
Posts: 465
Location: Chiba, Japan
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| Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2006 6:51 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | The name comes from the portrayal of Presidential candidate John Kerry's military service in Vietnam and subsequent antiwar activities by the Swift Vets and POWs for Truth organization. Although many of the charges were unverifiable, they were disseminated widely, which led to swiftboating's reputation for being a controversial but highly effective form of "smear campaign". |
I'm still waiting for someone to tell me at least 1 thing that was disseminated...  |
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coffee
Founder
Joined: 07 May 2004
Posts: 66
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| Posted: Sat Mar 04, 2006 2:54 pm Post subject: |
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We have another new word in our local liberal paper this morning--"Swift Boat-esque". "Efforts to pull a Swift Boat-esque attack on Rupublican U.S. Senate hopeful...."
I can't believe that they keep coming up with these words.
Coffee |
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Me#1You#10
Site Admin
Joined: 06 May 2004
Posts: 6503
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| Posted: Sat Mar 04, 2006 4:22 pm Post subject: |
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| coffee wrote: | | We have another new word in our local liberal paper this morning--"Swift Boat-esque"..... I can't believe that they keep coming up with these words. |
This is propaganda 101 and, IMHO, doomed to failure. There are too many who now understand that "John Kerry, War Hero Patriot" was a blatant political fantasy. Eventually, ANY journalist/media entity worthy of the name will be compelled to look into the SVPT allegations against Kerry and not merely parrot propagandist tripe from the NYT et al. |
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LewWaters
Admin
Joined: 18 May 2004
Posts: 4042
Location: Washington State
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| Posted: Sat Mar 04, 2006 9:56 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | ANY journalist/media entity worthy of the name will be compelled to look into the SVPT allegations against Kerry |
I'm of the opinion that many already have............. and promptly discarded their findings in favor of the "bash Bush and conservatives" flavor of the week.
As wise old Winston Churchill once said, "Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened."
To admit they have been wrong about Kerry and the Swifties might be a first step in seeing their agenda of Socialist indoctrination is at best, faulty, at worst, fatal, for America. |
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