... most people do not go out in search of facts or sound arguments. Rather, they let information find them.
And when it is delivered by established news sources, then the receiver's threshhold of skepticism is considerably lower than it might otherwise be.
Since whatever is sensationtional is what gets talked about, the "Celebrity" narrative that the McCain campaign has been developing - insistently and consistently - is what is going to reach people. Never mind that the "substabtive" policy related portions of these ads are entirely false. The things we hear shape our opinions and inform our choices. Someone tuning into the campaign season now is going to see and hear this story told everywhere not just by McCain, but by the news outlets who talk about it, and it is going to affect the way they think about their choice at the ballot.
In these past 18 months we have seen how easily misinformed people can become: a message that starts out simple and clear one day - that then has to make its way through an savage obstacle course of noisey gaffes/scandals/distractions and patent lies - ends up mangled and distorted, mishapen and full of static, so much so that what the receiver hears has not the remotest resemblance to what the initial messenger said.
The McCain campaign obviously knows this, and they are exploiting it for all its worth. They have now managed to get the antichrist meme into Time magazine. So what started out months ago as an outlandishly fringe fear mongering fantasy that made its way through individual email boxes has now made its way into an established news medium where it will automatically enjoy some measure of credibility for many readers.
The irony here is that McCain's campaign get to saddle Obama with their own characteristics: they portray him as frightening and devoid of empathy and substance by running a frightening campaign devoid of substance and empathy.
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