Anatomy of a smear

[Mass]

Sad image of this country and of what the Internet brought us.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/09/14/anatomy-smear/2ItX6FqhY1C8nENToIpWUN/story.html

Once upon a time, political partisans and gangsters used to adhere to a certain code of conduct: all’s fair when it came to your rivals, but their families were off limits.

But that was a long time ago. There are no men of honor left in criminal societies, and it is increasingly harder to find them among those who truck in today’s hyperpartisan politics.
...
A constellation of right-wing websites has propagated a conspiracy theory ostensibly aimed at Secretary of State John Kerry, who was the United States’ chief negotiator with Iran. But the real victims of this smear are Kerry’s daughter and her husband Brian Nahed, who are physicians at Massachusetts General Hospital.

View Story
Iran deal protected, Kerry eyes next crisis
John Kerry may have trouble matching the nuclear deal in terms of accomplishments. But even critics expect him to keep trying.

The story went like this: John Kerry is in the tank with Iran because his son-in-law is Iranian. Not only that, but the best man at the 2009 Boston wedding of Nahed and Vanessa Kerry was the son of Mohammad Javad Zarif, the Iranian foreign minister who negotiated the deal with Kerry. Kerry sold out his country for his in-laws.

It was a great story, except none of it is true.

[orpupilofnature57]

1. That's why when Ronnie Ray-gun made it acceptable for news organizations to print garbage without

being liable, he not only busted unions, he made the Truth expendable .

[MBS]

2. I'm so tired of the Republican lie-and-hate machine.

As Vanessa said in the article: "Opinions are one thing, lies are another".
And so especially outrageous, and potentially (and unfairly)damaging, in the case of this very impressive couple.

I'm glad that they got more of the posters to take these things down from their website-- I only wish all of the liars would have complied. Or, better, that they had never broadcast these lies in the first place.

[karynnj]

3. That is a very disgusting desperate smear

It is pathetic and there have been links to all those claims on twitter for months if you search "John Kerry". This article is the first that shows how this has harassed and harmed Vanessa Kerry and her husband. It is beyond pathetic that the country of Iran actually put out a denial of the lies of these RW nut cases.

To some degree, it is a reminder of the idiocy and hatred that Kerry has faced most of his adult life.

[MBS]

4. creepy, isn't it?

I feel for Vanessa's husband. He didn't sign up for this, for sure.

[mylye2222]

5. Creepy and disgusting for sure.

Lie anti -Kerry machine has never stopped.... we could say since Nixon dirty tricks back in 1972 when a young man JK saw his first électoral bid being sabotaged by NWH operatives.
My support to all family.