What began as the rude end of an Anti-Thesis may come back later as Thesis in a period of excess.
McCarthyism, in other words, is back. Only now it’s called "Swiftboating." It’s the hammering of public figures with lies aimed at destroying criticisms of failed policy.
The term comes from what happened with John Kerry, but it’s a technique, not an event. It combines Big Media, Big Money, and the Big Political Stick. Its aim is to drive out dissent.
And right now it’s hitting Middle East expert Juan Cole. Cole is presently at the University of Michigan, he has a powerful blog, and he’s up for a big new position at Yale. Thus, the White House is desperate to destroy him, and sent one of its most loyal hatchetmen, the Wall Street Journal editorial writer John Fund, to do the dirty work.
Fund made up quotes, attributed them to Cole, and now Cole is spitting-mad. I don’t blame him.
But, in a wondrous proof that the times they are a changin’, Cole has a megaphone of his own. Had this happened in 1966 he could not have fought back. Now he not only has his own blog, but every blogger who has read him. The simple message — John Fund is a Lying Weasel — will now be repeated hundreds, maybe thousands of times throughout the blogosphere.
And, since Cole’s record of excellence in journalism and analysis is
transparent, there for all to see, as is Fund’s history of lying, guess
who is going to come out of this on top? Guess whose integrity will be alive at the end of the day? Cole’s.
This is what makes blogging such a threat to all hierarchies. It gives
power to those who would otherwise be readily destroyed by the Right
Wing Noise Machine and its allies in the Corporate Press. Blogging is the open source ethos applied to journalism. The Wall Street Journal is the proprietary ethos.
Those who use such weapons, of course, must be careful, because the blogosphere
watches everyone, but if you live and work in a transparent way (as
Cole does), if your record is clear and clean (as Cole’s is) you have
nothing to fear.
John Fund, on the other hand, has a lot to fear. 
