As the Journolist scandal slowly unfolds, lots of talk will no doubt be around the issue of media bias. This is warranted, but not the big story in my eyes. It’s too obvious. Old news. The big story is the degree to which Alinsky tactics have been embraced by the modern left.
In a post to the list-serv Journolist, an online meeting place for liberal journalists, Spitz wrote that she would “Laugh loudly like a maniac and watch his eyes bug out” as Limbaugh writhed in torment.
In boasting that she would gleefully watch a man die in front of her eyes, Spitz seemed to shock even herself. “I never knew I had this much hate in me,” she wrote. “But he deserves it.”
…On Journolist, the question was whether the protestors were garden-variety fascists or actual Nazis.
“You know, at the risk of violating Godwin’s law, is anyone starting to see parallels here between the teabaggers and their tactics and the rise of the Brownshirts?” asked Bloomberg’s Ryan Donmoyer. “Esp. Now that it’s getting violent? Reminds me of the Beer Hall fracases of the 1920s.”
…On Journolist, there was rarely such thing as an honorable political disagreement between the left and right, though there were many disagreements on the left. In the view of many who’ve posted to the list-serv, conservatives aren’t simply wrong, they are evil. And while journalists are trained never to presume motive, Journolist members tend to assume that the other side is acting out of the darkest and most dishonorable motives.
…The very existence of Fox News, meanwhile, sends Journolisters into paroxysms of rage. When Howell Raines charged that the network had a conservative bias, the members of Journolist discussed whether the federal government should shut the channel down.
“I am genuinely scared” of Fox, wrote Guardian columnist Daniel Davies, because it “shows you that a genuinely shameless and unethical media organisation *cannot* be controlled by any form of peer pressure or self-regulation, and nor can it be successfully cold-shouldered or ostracised. In order to have even a semblance of control, you need a tough legal framework.” Davies, a Brit, frequently argued the United States needed stricter libel laws.
“I agree,” said Michael Scherer of Time Magazine. Roger “Ailes understands that his job is to build a tribal identity, not a news organization. You can’t hurt Fox by saying it gets it wrong, if Ailes just uses the criticism to deepen the tribal identity.”
Jonathan Zasloff, a law professor at UCLA, suggested that the federal government simply yank Fox off the air. “I hate to open this can of worms,” he wrote, “but is there any reason why the FCC couldn’t simply pull their broadcasting permit once it expires?”
The degree to which this radical, end-justifies-the-means tactical philosophy has taken hold on the left is unparalleled by anything on the right, and is rotting it from within. That these people are ostensibly members of a profession that claims to be a check against abusive displays of power and oppression is disgusting.
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With the latest blockbuster reporting from the Daily Caller on Journolist, the defunct liberal media mailing group started by WaPo’s blogger savant Ezra Klein, the worst perceptions of the liberal media have been confirmed. They conspired to not only to shield candidate Obama from legitimate negative stories, like his connections to the bigoted Reverend Wright, but also to smear conservatives as racists for no other reason than to distract from Obama’s weaknesses.
1 commentAccording to records obtained by The Daily Caller, at several points during the 2008 presidential campaign a group of liberal journalists took radical steps to protect their favored candidate. Employees of news organizations including Time, Politico, the Huffington Post, the Baltimore Sun, the Guardian, Salon and the New Republic participated in outpourings of anger over how Obama had been treated in the media, and in some cases plotted to fix the damage.
In one instance, Spencer Ackerman of the Washington Independent urged his colleagues to deflect attention from Obama’s relationship with Wright by changing the subject. Pick one of Obama’s conservative critics, Ackerman wrote, “Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, who cares — and call them racists.”
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James A. Traficant Jr., who served nearly two decades in Congress and seven years in prison for corruption, filed petitions Monday to run as an independent in his northeast Ohio home turf.
The seat is currently held by Democrat Tim Ryan, who once worked for Traficant and beat Traficant when the incumbent ran for reelection from prison.
Traficant, 68, told the AP on Monday that he believes he can win in the Democratic stronghold despite the fact that he has no money or campaign staff. “Maybe it’s time money doesn’t dictate an election,” he said. Though he has made recent appearances at tea party events throughout northeast Ohio, Traficant said he is not a tea party candidate.
Insinuating a connection between Traficant and the Tea Party (throwing in his denial hardly removes the implication) + failing to mention that Traficant was convicted as a Democrat = WaPo’s bias as usual.
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The media spin cycle was in full overdrive following the RGA Remember November video. Act II responds to their distortions, fabrications and scare-mongering.
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Charles M. Blow, a regular columnist for the New York Times, has taken the already despicable race narrative on the Tea Parties to another level. He begins with a bit of “diversity” hunting:
I had specifically come to this rally because it was supposed to be especially diverse. And, on the stage at least, it was. The speakers included a black doctor who bashed Democrats for crying racism, a Hispanic immigrant who said that she had never received a single government entitlement and a Vietnamese immigrant who said that the Tea Party leader was God. It felt like a bizarre spoof of a 1980s Benetton ad.
The juxtaposition was striking: an abundance of diversity on the stage and a dearth of it in the crowd, with the exception of a few minorities like the young black man who carried a sign that read “Quit calling me a racist.”
…It was a farce. This Tea Party wanted to project a mainstream image of a group that is anything but. A New York Times/CBS News poll released on Wednesday found that only 1 percent of Tea Party supporters are black and only 1 percent are Hispanic. It’s almost all white.
The implication: a lack of the kind of diversity Mr. Blow deems important (because there are other kinds, which he apparently doesn’t care about) is somehow condemning. Notice he never actually explains the logic for how this matters. But don’t hold your breath waiting for Mr. Blow to similarly investigate an NAACP event, or the next Million Man March.
But that’s hardly the worst. Things really get ugly when he begins using his own racist attacks:
And even when compared to other whites, their views are extreme and marginal. For instance, white Tea Party supporters are twice as likely as white independents and eight times as likely as white Democrats to believe that Barack Obama was born in another country.
Furthermore, they were more than eight times as likely as white independents and six times as likely as white Democrats to think that the Obama administration favors blacks over whites.
Thursday night I saw a political minstrel show devised for the entertainment of those on the rim of obliviousness and for those engaged in the subterfuge of intolerance. I was not amused.
Because, you know, white views are just naturally extreme and marginal, so even by that standard the tea parties are on the fringe! What a racist. Can you imagine the New York Times running an op-ed that says “even compared to other blacks, their views are [insert negative attribute]?” The author of such a statement would be crucified.
He then doubles down with a racist attack on the black speakers, who he dubs a “minstrel show.” Apparently no black person is capable of the free thinking that might lead them to be there because they believe in the cause. Oh no. They must be getting used or duped. I wonder if Mr. Blow has ever applied the same logic to his employment at the upper-class, white New York Times. Probably not, because if he did his head might just explode.
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Tax Day has come and gone. Naturally, this means Tea Parties have successfully been conducted across the nation. Not that the horse needs any more beating, but the Tax Day Tea Party event I attended in DC once again blew away the left’s racism narrative (which is not stopping them from doubling down with a new smear).
If the popularity of black speakers such as Rev. C.L. Bryant wasn’t enough, take this account from Politico:
Brooks Alexander, a 23-year-old Olney, Md. hotel worker and Obama supporter who wore an Obama tee-shirt to the evening rally, said infiltrators were being disrespectful.
“They’re doing a disservice not only to themselves, but to the people who are here trying to express their views,” said Alexander, who is African American and said he traveled to the rally to verify for himself liberal accounts blasting the tea party as racist.
“All my friends told me I was crazy to come down here in an Obama shirt,” he said. “Obviously I have political disagreements [with the tea party], but I cannot lie. I cannot say that people have been anything but nice to me. They have been shaking my hand. One guy told me I had a lot of [guts] for coming down here. I will definitely walk away from this with a new understanding of the tea party.”
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Not just electorally, but literally:
In a new report, the Congressional Research Service says the law may have significant unintended consequences for the “personal health insurance coverage” of senators, representatives and their staff members.
For example, it says, the law may “remove members of Congress and Congressional staff” from their current coverage, in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, before any alternatives are available.
The confusion raises the inevitable question: If they did not know exactly what they were doing to themselves, did lawmakers who wrote and passed the bill fully grasp the details of how it would influence the lives of other Americans?
Of course, the New York Times had no use for this question when it might have actually mattered.
Hat-tip: Hot Air
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Don’t expect any condemnation from the media and his Democratic colleagues for such behavior (video at link) unbecoming of a Congressman.
Hat-tip: Michelle Malkin
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Not only has AP suddenly noticed that there are blacks in the Tea Party movement, but they’ve also taken note of the racist vitriol hurled at them by the left:
They’ve been called Oreos, traitors and Uncle Toms, and are used to having to defend their values. Now black conservatives are really taking heat for their involvement in the mostly white tea party movement — and for having the audacity to oppose the policies of the nation’s first black president.
“I’ve been told I hate myself. I’ve been called an Uncle Tom. I’ve been told I’m a spook at the door,” said Timothy F. Johnson, chairman of the Frederick Douglass Foundation, a group of black conservatives who support free market principles and limited government.
“Black Republicans find themselves always having to prove who they are. Because the assumption is the Republican Party is for whites and the Democratic Party is for blacks,” he said.
But don’t be fooled. The article was full of backhanded insults and unsubstantiated attacks on the Tea Party.
For instance:
Opponents have branded the tea party as a group of racists hiding behind economic concerns — and reports that some tea partyers were lobbing racist slurs at black congressmen during last month’s heated health care vote give them ammunition.
Who are these opponents? While they are identified as opponents, avoiding actually naming them makes it harder to recognize the people saying this as the partisan Democrat hacks that they are. And what about these “reports?” Oh, that’s right. The only proof of such slurs comes from accounts of Democratic Congressman who have every reason to lie and make themselves look like victims. Meanwhile, all available evidence suggests that they never actually happened.
We then get irrelevant non-statistics about Tea Party demographics:
Still, she’s in the minority. As a nascent grassroots movement with no registration or formal structure, there are no racial demographics available for the tea party movement; it’s believed to include only a small number of blacks and Hispanics.
“It’s believed” by whom? Oh, that’s right. Answering that hidden question would expose this particular claim for the political smear that it is.
Or here’s one that’s particularly laughable:
McGlowan believes the tea party movement has been unfairly portrayed as monolithically white, male and middle-aged, though she acknowledged blacks and Hispanics are a minority at most events.
Hey, you know where else blacks and hispanics are a minority? In the entire freaking United States. Definitive proof that the U.S. is racist!
The article then ends with the classic fake concern from a leftwinger:
Hilary Shelton, director of the Washington bureau of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, suggested a bit of caution.
“I’m sure the reason that (black conservatives) are involved is that from an ideological perspective, they agree,” said Shelton. “But when those kinds of things happen, it is very important to be careful of the company that you keep.”
But don’t you worry about keeping company with the party of Robert “There are white niggers, too” Byrd.
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Chris Matthews is outraged that Rush Limbaugh referred to the administration as the “Obama regime.” He’s has never heard the word regime applied to an American administration before, he says.
Only, he has. Not only does Byron York show that a simple LexisNexus search reveals over 6,000 media results “Bush regime,” but he shows that the phrase was frequently used on MSNBC, and even by Chris Matthews himself.
I’ll say it again for clarity: Chris Matthews is a dishonest hack.
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I am a libertarian-conservative blogger living in the DC area. I have a Master's degree in Political Science and work in public policy, but please don't hold that against me.
