The Nation has a great article that attacks the false equivilence of the attacks on

[ProSense]

6. A lot

or people co-opt the term "swiftboating," but the situations are never analagous.

In Kerry's case, it was a pre-determined and well-funded character assassination aided by the media's hands-off approach to objective reporting. The "he-said, he-said" reporting was ridiculous.

Eric Boehlert's analysis showed the extent of that reporting, and the subsequent denunciations in editorials like the Boston Globe's proved that there was enough to reject the attacks long before the election. In fact, it would have required no investigative work because the facts were out there.