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For those of you who are contacting the media at every turn, complaining about the Swift Hoax veterans, kudos. For those of you who are angry at the Swift Hoax veterans, and want to see them destroyed, while I personally understand your sentiments, I think you are missing the point.
These people are total creations of the media. They would have disappeared by now, had the media not pumped them up into something they should never have been. That got them more funding, which in turn got them more publicity. It is, to sully a phrase, a virtuous circle. It was almost certainly hoping to avoid this circumstance that the Kerry people elected not to confront it from the start. They had good success with this approach once before with a spurious accusation, if you'll recall, with the Alexandra Polier non-scandal.
All this is kind of meaningless at this point, but I would like to ask a favor: every time you write or call the media regarding this issue, whatever your reason, add a reminder that this story never should have received the play it has in the first place, that the Swift Hoax veterans have been debunked so many times the media should have ridiculed them then put them on ignore a long time ago.
The phrase I use with different variations is "Whatever happened to the gatekeeper function of the media?" The media, you see, are supposed to exercise judgment over what is news and what is not. Clearly, they've fallen down on the job here. At some point, shame should be a weapon, and I think we've reached that point, actually we did a long time ago.
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