Eric Burns, Media Matters for America

I am taking a moment today (August 15) and share some exciting news in the fight against conservative smears and misinformation. On Wednesday night (August 13) Paul Waldman, Senior Fellow at Media Matters for America, appeared on CNN's Larry King Live to denounce the falsehoods and malicious insinuations in Jerome Corsi's book, The Obama Nation. The half-hour long segment was a triumph of truth over fiction -- and a great example of what can happen when progressives have the opportunity to confront right-wing smear merchants.

Watch the video of Paul's appearance.

Much of Paul's argument was based on the Media Matters review of Corsi's book, which documented numerous lies and distortions. Corsi is well known for a book he co-authored that launched the Swift Boat attacks against John Kerry -- a book now widely condemned as flawed and untrue. The difference we are seeing today is that the falsehoods being pushed by Corsi and others are being challenged in the mainstream media, by media figures themselves and through appearances by progressive groups speaking out -- and being heard -- on Corsi's smears and falsehoods. Media Matters has been at the forefront of this effort, providing objective research to reporters, bloggers and organizations to mount an aggressive and substantive response.

Here are some other examples of how our pushback is framing the debate:

• On MSNBC, Contessa Brewer cited Media Matters and pressed Corsi on "all of these factual errors in your book."
• The New York Times noted in a front-page article that Media Matters "has been particularly aggressive in fact-checking the book" and called several of Corsi's claims "unsubstantiated, misleading or inaccurate."

Your support of our organization -- by taking direct action against media outlets that give the mudslingers an audience, by sharing information debunking false and baseless attacks with friends and family -- will ensure Media Matters for America has the resources and community support to continue fighting the right-wing smear machine.

Related:

The liars are back. Time to finish them off, John Kerry

Willie Horton 2.0: Political ad man Floyd Brown aims to sink Obama campaign, Robert Faturechi, Seattle Times