http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JournoList

Grain of salt and all but take a look.

This proves it beyond a shadow of a doubt- for someone to deny that is either a) stoopid or b) intellectually dishonest. I can afford neither with my time.

People are going to believe what they want to believe. The Globe had a nice summary of recent research on this subject two weekends ago. Scientists have discovered that there’s actually a blowback effect: when presented with facts that contradict their view of the world, liberals didn’t change their opinion at all and conservatives actually became more convinced that they were right.

Substance seems to matter little; rhetoric is far more effective. Democrats: tens of thousands of Americans die every year because of lack of healthcare. Republicans: the Democrats want to establish death panels. Who won that public relations campaign? (Though opinion has shifted fairly heavily since). I’m certainly not suggesting that rhetoric is better. It’s not. But we as a society seem to only respond to it. I don’t really understand why facts matter so little.