The Power of Satire - Why It's Chipping Away at Sarah Palin's Credibility

Ignorance and brilliance. Blinding stupidity and daring wit. Like inexpensive glass beads jumbled together with lustrous pearls, political junkies often find legitimate sites mixed in with absurdly fake spoofs as they search for online content that supports their candidate. Google can't recognize context or satire - and neither can many casual web crawlers.

These readers - who superficially browse a site or a blog and find themselves outraged by the mindless drivel posted there - often miss the point. These sites aren't real. They are the internet equivalent of The Colbert Report - an extended exercise in satire. And more and more are popping up. Why?

There's a growing realization that to stand out in the crowd, over-the-top satire works. Snarky tongue-in-cheek posts earns page views and fans. Casual readers who don't 'get it' and post angry comments keep these sites in business, as those who do get it feel like they're insiders - privileged members of the club. The more controversial the candidate, the more material these sites have to work with.

As you might imagine, Sarah Palin is the focus of several of them.

Here's one that fools a number of readers: Teen Moms for Palin

Does satire work? Is it more effective to employ humor to sway public opinion rather than offer up hard facts and concrete evidence? The UK's Telegraph says yes, citing Tina Fey's impersonation of Palin on Saturday Night Live as one of the factors that has contributed to the GOP VP candidate's diving poll numbers and the rising view among American voters that she's not qualified to be president.

It's like the old adage, "You'll attract more flies with honey than you will with vinegar." We'd rather laugh than pucker up at the sour taste of the truth.