What happens to a journalist when they go after an extremely powerful target like the multi-billionaire Republican financiers the Koch brothers?A quiet and mysterious smear campaign emerges, accusing that reporter (in this case Jane Mayer of the New Yorker) of plagiarism.
Of course, it wasn't true. There was no plagiarism at all. Even the conservative website "The Daily Caller," the sleazy site that purchased a Keith Olbermann e-mail address just to send out e-mails to make him look bad, finally admitted that there was absolutely no truth to the rumor.
But how many people will have only heard the smear, and not the repudiation of the smear?
The smearer doesn't care if it's repudiated or not. Their work is done. That's why some people still think the President was born in Kenya. And some people believe that the health care bill endorses killing old people. And some people think George Bush ordered the destruction of the World Trade Center. And some people think Bill Clinton fathered a Mulatto baby. And some people think Hillary murdered Vince Foster.
Once the smear is out there, it's out there.
