Friday, March 18, 2005

LIES, DAMNED LIES, AND RIGHT-WING PROPAGANDA

"If you're going to put somebody to death, or have them starved to death, I would think that you would want a complete neurological exam in reaching that conclusion," Frist said on the Senate floor. "In fact -- this is what I'm told -- that she hasn't had an MRI or CAT scan which suggests she has not had a full neurological exam."

--Senator Bill Frist quoted on the Terri Schiavo case at World Net Daily

In the initial adversary proceeding, a board-certified neurologist who had reviewed a CAT scan of Mrs. Schiavo's brain and an EEG testified that most, if not all, of Mrs. Schiavo's cerebral cortex--the portion of her brain that allows for human cognition and memory--is either totally destroyed or damaged beyond repair.

--July 2001 opinion of a three-judge panel of Florida's Second District Court

Ah, but if you try to search the Internet for "schiavo" and "mri," you get pages and pages and pages of right-wing/Christian conservative sites, all recycling the same lies, rumors, and half-truths, including the assertion that she's had no test that would show what's really going on in her head. For the millionth time, the right-wingers, using sheer volume, have won an information war -- even NPR this morning was presenting the possibility of Schiavo's recovery as a he-said/they-said story (something to the effect of "but Schiavo's parents believe she could recover").*

Of course, heaven forbid that Frist, a doctor, should make a bit of extra effort to find out the truth before shooting his mouth off.

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*And see the last sentence of this AP story.

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