160: Character Assassination
May 19, 2000
In context of the Presidential contest between George W. Bush and Al Gore, we hear stories of character assassination...political and non-political.
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Act One
Those Who Ignore History Are Condemned To Repeat It—But Those Who Pay Attention To History Are Also Condemned To Repeat It.
Dirty political attacks go back to the very beginning of the American Republic. What's different today, says historian Richard Norton Smith, is that television and the other electronic media have made our contact with the candidates so intimate. It has greater emotional impact on us because we see every wince cross a candidate's face. What could be more intimate than Jack E. Robinson's car crash, recorded on tape? (5 minutes)
