Posted by Jed Lewison on Mon Jul 14, 2008 at 5:32 PM Pacific

Barack Obama is a Christian

This is probably as a close as I'll get to criticizing Rachel Maddow, which tells you something about the regard in which I hold her, because this really isn't criticism. On Countdown just now she and Jonathan Alter were discussing the New Yorker cover, and I can't count the number of times they said Barack wasn't a [fill in the blank, depending on the smear].

The thing that I would like to see her -- and others -- do more of is leading with the truth to debunk the smear, a lesson taught by Princeton University Professor Sam Wang, a neuroscientist. The problem is that simply saying the lie isn't true tends to reinforce the lie.

Barack Obama is a Christian

This is probably as a close as I'll get to criticizing Rachel Maddow, which tells you something about the regard in which I hold her, because this really isn't criticism. On Countdown just now she and Jonathan Alter were discussing the New Yorker cover, and I can't count the number of times they said Barack wasn't a [fill in the blank, depending on the smear].

The thing that I would like to see her -- and others -- do more of is leading with the truth to debunk the smear, a lesson taught by Princeton University Professor Sam Wang, a neuroscientist. The problem is that simply saying the lie isn't true tends to reinforce the lie.

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