Is there “a term describing a period of nonstop, vicious verbal attacks directed at a particular person or group that is communicated through the mass media such as TV, radio, newspapers, periodicals, or the Internet”?
According to Wikipedia, there is. In 1991, it was “coined by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas during his...confirmation hearings, referring to the allegedly racist remarks by the Democrats in the Senate.”
Justice Thomas was being opposed for supposed sexual harassment of a young African American employee, Anita Hill, but his defense turned into a vindication by a bipartisan vote.
He claimed “...as far as I'm concerned, it is a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves, to do for themselves, to have different ideas, and it is a message that unless you kowtow to an old order, this is what will happen to you. You will be lynched, destroyed, caricatured...rather than hung from a tree.”
I wonder what he thinks about Don Imus, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton.
Why would Anita Hill be out to lynch anybody? That was the most misplaced "I'm a victim of racism" cry ever.
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