Politics

"The idea was to grab a location 'that screamed New York.' And said politics," PressThink's Jay Rosen writes of his meeting with Sam Feist, CNN senior executive producer for political programming, at the Tick Tock Diner, a "real" New York City diner catty corner from Madison Square Garden that is being used as a TV set for CNN's convention coverage.

The Swift Boat attack on Kerry uses a classic [third party] propaganda tactic: have PR professionals [such as Merrie Spaeth] organize and launch a well-funded

While the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth may have a questionable grasp of the facts, it has been extraordinarily sophisticated in its manipulation of the media," observes the Columbia Journalism Review's Campaign Desk weblog. "To understand why this campaign has been hijacked by a small group of veterans bearing a thirty-year old grudge, it's worth examining the institutional susceptibilities of a campaign press corps that allowed the SBVFT's accusations to take on a life of their own.

"Over the past few weeks of Presidential WrestleMania MMIV, the Bush campaign has fired off more than a dozen press releases about John Kerry's policies on energy, nuclear-waste storage, forest and water protections, and other environmental issues - a hodgepodge of smears, exaggerations, and obfuscations intended to besmirch Kerry's pro-environment reputation," Grist Magazine's Amanda Griscom writes. Polls indicate that swing-state voters are concerned about things like pollution and wilderness conservation, prompting the Bush campaign to "neutralize" the environment as an election issue.