The Rovian research behind the character assassination of Hillary Clinton by the press:

The shameful episode of the New York Times and its grossly irresponsible and false story about Hillary’s emails has brought the crisis of ethics in U.S. media to the fore.

As of this writing, the leadership of the Times has neither apologized nor taken appropriate responsibility for their bungled and dangerous story, despite an extraordinary letter from the Clinton campaign's Communications Director and a well-deserved backlash among the commentariat. Instead, we are treated by the paper to yet another exercise in anti-Hillary vitriol from Maureen Dowd. As usual, Dowd's writing seethes with Hillary hatred. What's worse is that in this column, Dowd uses the tragic death of Beau Biden as a platform to smear Hillary.

We’ve spent the better part of 2015 writing about the complex process by which Hillary’s integrity is assaulted by reporters, bloggers, columnists and pundits. We’ve made the case that her political fortunes will rise and fall depending on how well her campaign and her supporters fight back against this process of character assassination.

To that end, Peter (Daou) has identified the key anti-Hillary memes (categories and subcategories) that have permeated coverage for decades:

• CALCULATING (Scheming, crafty, manipulative)

• SECRETIVE (Suspicious, paranoid, uncommunicative)

• POLARIZING (Divisive, alienating)

• UNTRUSTWORTHY (Corrupt, deceitful, dishonest, unethical)

• OVER-AMBITIOUS (Will do or say anything to win)

• INAUTHENTIC (Disingenuous, fake, unlikable, insincere)

• INHUMAN (Machine-like, robotic, abnormal, cold)

• OVER-CONFIDENT (Inevitable, defiant, imperious, regal)

• OLD (Out of touch, represents the past)....

Voters need to understand that what they think they know about Hillary is often the result of sophisticated propaganda techniques, where tightly-crafted talking points are focus-grouped and deployed by shadowy GOP groups then magnified by the mainstream media and pundits....

As the 2016 race unfolds, electing the first woman president could become an increasingly elusive goal as Hillary’s support is steadily eroded through the insidious and calculated dissemination of negative frames and narratives.

Although falsely reporting that Hillary is the target of a criminal investigation is unforgivable and damaging, it is the crafty and intentional misuse of process stories by the mainstream media and pundits that will ultimately cost her more in the months to come – and perhaps even derail her candidacy....

http://www.hillarymen.com/latest/maureen-dowd-karl-rove-anti-hillary-memes?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=email_this&utm_source=email via #HillaryMen

(This post is posted for THE HILLARY GROUP.)