Gore Vidal: Gore Vidal Speaks Seriously Ill of the Dead - Gore Vidal's Essays - Truthdig

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20080320_gore_vidal_speaks_seriously_ill_of_the_dead/

The unique mess that our republic is in can be, in part, attributed to
a corrupt press whose roots are in mendacious news (sic) magazines
like Time and Newsweek, aided by tabloids that manufacture fictional
stories about actual people. This mingling of opinion and fiction has
undone a media never devoted to truth. Hence, the ease with which the
Republican smear-machine goes into action when they realize that yet
again the party's permanent unpopularity with the American people will
cause them defeat unless they smear individually those who question
the junk that the media has put into so many heads. Anyone who says
"We gotta fight 'em over there or we're gonna have to fight 'em over
here." This absurdity has been pronounced by every Republican seeking
high office. The habit of lying is now a national style that started
with "news" magazines that was further developed by pathological liars
that proved to be "good" Entertainment on TV. But a diet of poison
that has done none of us any good.
---SPSmith