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Krugman has a good column today (sorry if you don't have TimesSelect). He discusses the tactic of using "little lies" to create the impression of scandal where none exists:

"Each pseudoscandal [of the Clinton administration] got headlines, air time and finger-wagging from the talking heads. The eventual discovery in each case that there was no there there, if reported at all, received far less attention. The effect was to make an administration that was, in fact, pretty honest and well run — especially compared with its successor — seem mired in scandal."

Of course, there's nothing inherently right-wing about this tactic. Still, I have to say that it's being used against Senator Obama quite a bit. Several times I've heard people refer to his madrassa education, even though this story was a fabrication. The story itself got huge attention, but the correction didn't register with a lot of people. It's a serious problem, because a lot of voters simply don't have time to track down every little story. Most people probably aren't even aware of why they have negative feelings about someone (what exactly did Mike Milken do wrong?), so they don't even know where to look for countervailing information.

It seems to me that political/ideological actors are always going to spread disinformation. This is a problem when either mainstream media is compromised, or when people cluster into ideologically homogeneous websites and blogs. I don't have a solution, other than vigorous debunking. It never seems to reach the whole audience, though.