If you have been reading or writing blogs for some time, you may recall the early, heady days of the blogosphere back around 2002-03. Many of us old-school bloggers started back then (I started writing baseball on the web in May 2000, and political blogging in August 2002; RedState wouldn’t be founded until the summer of 2004). The blog world was a small town in those days, where everybody knew everybody, nobody was too big to respond to emails, comments or trackbacks (remember trackbacks?), and for all the fire of political debate, there was a broad-based sense that blogs constituted a community of interest that crossed party lines. Bloggers were glad to see recognition given to blogs and bloggers, engaged in debate across ideological lines, and in some cases informal alliances sprung up, as when blogs on the right and left alike united to drive media interest in ousting Trent Lott as GOP Senate Majority Leader after the 2002 elections over his comments about Strom Thurmond. Sites like The Command Post, which followed the blow-by-blow of the Iraq War, featured contributors from both sides of the political spectrum (myself included, along with others who would later become contributors at RedState). I don’t want to overstate the degree of comity or idealize that era, but there was at least some degree of prevailing ethos that bloggers – amateurs using the internet to gather news and offer citizen punditry – had something in common even when their partisan and ideological interests diverged.
Those days are long, long gone. The coordinated and utterly predictable left-wing assault on CNN’s hiring of RedState leader Erick Erickson over the past few days is merely the latest illustration of how the left side of the blogosphere sees it as its role not to debate conservative bloggers and pundits, but to destroy us and preclude us from being heard. Nobody on our side of the aisle should be under any illusion about the depths of personal enmity harbored towards us by the left blogs, nor the fact that they will spare no effort to go after us personally. These are not good people, they are not our friends, and they mean us harm.
It’s debatable when and why the change came in the blogosphere, although it’s clear it was driven from the Left – in many ways, with a few exceptions like Erick and the HotAir and BigGovernment sites, the right-wing blogs are the same collection of amateur part-timers, with the same leadership and the same demeanor and methods as we had in 2002. Partly it was the Left’s increasing bitterness after their thumping in the 2002 elections exposed the fiction of their view that Bush’s victory in 2000 was an illegitimate aberration. Partly it was the increasing partisan temperature that came with the Iraq War. Partly it was the nature of the Online Left as people: dissatisfied with the existing order of society, often childless and thus with more time on their hands and fewer checks on perpetual immaturity, apt to treat the personal as political and the political as personal, and frequently irreligious and tending to put politics in the place where others put religion. Perhaps the influence of Markos Moulitsas as the leading figure in the left-wing blogosphere could be blamed as well, although I regard the explosive growth of Daily Kos more as a symptom than the underlying cause.
But most likely the largest cause of all was money and the lust for power. With its party leadership discredited and its official organs subject to campaign finance laws that don’t regulate blogs, the Left began pouring serious money and man-hours into the blogosphere after the 2002 elections. Billionaire George Soros (also a chief funder of think tanks like John Podesta’s Center for American Progress, founded in 2003) was the most prominent of these donors/investors, but hardly the only one; Arianna Huffington was another. Left-wing interest groups like SEIU and other unions mustered advertising dollars for major left-blogs, effectively putting them on retainer. That gave the blogs the tools to do activism, polling, fundraising, investigative muckracking, and simply to generate a lot of ways to go after people and waste their time. Daily Kos, TPM, MediaMatters, ThinkProgress.org, the Huffington Post…these sites were increasingly staffed by full-time employees, tasked with taking out people on the Right, in MediaMatters’ case explicitly focused on conservative pundits. One by one, major left-bloggers became professionalized. Moulitsas lived off “advertising” revenue, Glenn Greenwald (already independently wealthy) got hired by Salon, Kevin Drum by Washington Monthly, Ana Marie Cox by Time, Phil Carter got paid by Slate and the Washington Post, people like Matt Yglesias, Ezra Klein and Oliver Willis got blogging jobs straight out of college, funded by various combinations of employment by supposedly non-partisan mainstream media organizations (the Washington Post, the Atlantic Monthly) and left-wing funders; others like Jane Hamsher and John Aravosis also apparently work full-time as bloggers. Today, the WaPo employs both Klein and TPM veteran activist Greg Sargent; Washington Monthly employs Steven Benen; HuffPo employs a variety of people, including Klein’s former co-blogger Nico Pitney. And a host of left-wing bloggers are regulars on MSNBC, a putatively major cable news network. By contrast, sites like RedState and the New Ledger are staffed almost entirely by volunteers with day jobs outside politics.
The professionalization of the Online Left created a sense of entitlement – left-bloggers tended not only to crusade for their policy goals, but to work for a personal seat at the table for themselves and their colleagues, becoming an interest group of their own and thus even more personally invested in the accretion of power to their own side. Moulitsas and Jerome Armstrong even wrote a book entitled “Crashing the Gate” about their drive to gain power within their party. Today, left-bloggers are feted at the White House. One of the most incendiary left-wing bloggers, Matt Stoller, got a job working for Florida Congressman Alan Grayson.
What disappeared along the way was any semblance of a sense that left-wingers should debate the Right, or even accept as legitimate the existence of conservative bloggers and pundits as participants in public debate. An early sign of this came when the Washington Post hired Ben Domenech, another of RedState’s founders, in 2005. Never mind that WaPo was trying to pair him with a liberal writer, or that WaPo has always had a liberal editorial page and many more liberal than conservative op-ed writers; the Online Left started a viciously gleeful, single-minded crusade to get Ben fired, coming up with one ridiculous attack on him after another. Unfortunately, they eventually found one that stuck (some plagiarized movie reviews from his college-age years), he had to leave the job, and WaPo never replaced him with another conservative blogger. Yet when the paper hired Klein (who had volunteered with the Dean campaign in 2004) and Sargent, and essentially presented them as nonpartisan pundits (as compared to the “Red America” tagline on Ben’s columns) conservatives complained and continue to poke fun at them (I know I have), but never made anything like a similarly coordinated effort to get them fired. Not that we couldn’t have spent time digging through their archives for choice tidbits like Klein Tweeting “f**k tim russert. f**k him with a spiky acid-tipped d**k” (although Klein has prudently buried most of his old blogs, see here, here and here).
The effort to not only disagree with conservatives but agitate to have them driven from the public square is endemic with these paid, professional left-bloggers. Sargent, Greenwald and Benen complain constantly about Dick and Liz Cheney being permitted on TV and covered in the press. Left-bloggers pressed MSNBC for some time to get rid of Pat Buchanan, despite (1) the network’s overwhelming leftward tilt and (2) the fact that Buchanan isn’t even a particularly good or representative spokesman for the GOP or conservatives. They campaigned to get Lou Dobbs, a populist who’s similarly only vaguely conservative, off CNN. There’s been a long-running campaign to attack the advertisers for Glenn Beck, and with a fair amount of success despite Beck’s sterling ratings. The common thread is that the Online Left isn’t content to debate these people; they want them to be defunded, unemployed and unheard by the public, while they themselves reap funding from like-minded donors and interest groups.
(In the extreme example, conservative blogger Jeff Goldstein received sufficiently threatening emails towards his then 2-year-old son from a mentally disturbed left-wing stalker that he obtained a restraining order against her.).
Which brings us to the energy and bile that these paid tools of the left have directed at CNN – which is trying to reach out to the viewers that have consistently made rival FOX News the cable-news ratings champ – in an open effort to get Erick’s hiring rescinded and ensure that CNN’s viewers are not exposed to his opinions. The volume of material churned out by the left blogs, especially the paid ones, is too massive for me to excerpt or link it all here, but I’ll offer a few samples:
-An organized campaign to flood CNN, especially its Twitter feed and those of its employees and on-air personalities, with complaints, and to pressure its advertisers to try to get Erick fired, was ginned up by nasty, foul-mouthed left-blogger Shoq. The campaign includes a “DumpCNN” Twitter feed (at last check: 89 tweets just since Tuesday). Some sample tweets from Shoq and DumpCNN:
“I think we should block ALL CNN twitter accounts”
-Eric Boehlert, paid staffer for Media Matters, has griped at length about Erick’s hiring on his Twitter feed and the MMFA website, comparing him unfavorably to such solons of non-partisan news commentary as former Clinton campaign staffers Paul Begala and James Carville (while ignoring entirely why CNN wanted Erick – not just as an effort to win back viewers from Fox but because of his growing influence as an activist voice for the next generation of Republicans). Boehlert promoted the “DumpCNN” twitter feed and tweeted complaints at CNN. Perhaps Boehlert’s most hilarious tweet was his claim that “the weird part is the Left doesn’t have an Erick Erickson for CNN to hire; somebody that hateful and unethical to pontificate.” (Apparently he’s forgotten, among too many other examples to cite here, Moulitsas’ famous reaction of “screw them” to the death of American contractors in Iraq).
For more MediaMatters attacks on Erick’s hiring, see here, here, here, and here. This is an extensive deployment of paid resources to attack a single hire of a commentator.
-Moulitsas’ initial reaction on Twitter was a lame joke, before stepping up to gripe, “HIs dream job is Al Qaida. CNN just a stepping stone.” See also this, this, and a handful of retweets of other people.
-Greenwald similarly started off with something lame, then got gradually unhinged:
“Is CNN balancing Erick Erickson with some Democrats’ Pol Pot?”
-Salon was similarly apoplectic: “What was CNN thinking with latest hire?” The Salon article called Erick a “spinner,” which is kind of a ridiculous argument considering that CNN already employs Begala and Carville; Begala is the Platonic embodiment of spin. But the Salon article nonetheless admitted that “Erickson is remarkably well plugged into the Republican establishment these days, and is a good barometer of where tea partiers will end up — he was one of the earliest supporters of both Doug Hoffman and Marco Rubio, for example.”
-Cox’s reactions here and here.
-Willis pestered Ed Henry of CNN on Twitter here, here, here, and declared here, “feel like ed henry is reading now and realizing what a mistake he made defending erickson. heh.” More Willis tweets here, here, here, here, here and here.
-Benen tweeted that “CNN’s Erickson hire marks a genuinely sad for American journalism” and went after Erick’s hiring at length from his paid position at Washington Monthly here, naturally with the disclaimer he always adds, when arguing against putting conservatives on television, that of course he’s not against putting conservatives on television, just whoever he happens to be writing about in a given post.
-Greg Mitchell, formerly of the defunct Editor & Publisher, complained about CNN even wanting to recapture viewers disenchanted with the network’s reputation for disdain for conservatives and conservative viewpoints: “Why are those “the very people” John [King] hopes to reach?”
-Atrios, at one time a prominent left-wing blogger, whined, “dear cnn, “the best political team” by definition cannot include someone as stupid as erick erickson” Atrios then went on to tweet his complaints to CNN’s Twitter feed while passing along something Erick supposedly wrote “Three days before CNN hires” him, although the post was obviously dated 2008.
-Crooks and Liars went after Erick at length here:
Red State is the heavily-funded, longstanding arm of the Republican wingnut online noise machine. Erickson is a propaganda-spinner, a liar and a troll.
I don’t know where these guys get their ideas about RS’ funding. If we were enormously well-funded, I think I’d know about that. The post that had to be edited for failing even Crooks and Liars’ low standards for accuracy when it claimed:
When I worked for CNN Interactive, RedStaters were paid to troll our political discussions and disrupt them, especially during the Clinton impeachment proceedings. Back then, CNN locked them off the site. Now they pay them to troll in real time, on the air.
RS, of course, wasn’t founded until 2004, and Erick’s still the only paid blogger on the site; the idea that we could pay people to comment on the CNN website is ludicrous on its face. (The post now claims that “Freepers” were paid to do this, but as far as I know, FreeRepublic has never had that kind of cash either).
-More examples from lower-level left-wing blogs here (“What in the hell is CNN thinking? And John King? Is he harboring a grudge against Glenn Greenwald and to get back at him has employed someone who would be more at home in the hate talk ghetto?”), here, here (for a reaction of ” shocked discuss”), and here.
Conservatives, of course, have our own grievances with media bias, but one longstanding difference is that we generally don’t argue against major outlets employing liberal commentators who are labeled as such; the problem more typically is a 1-2 punch of not pairing them with good, or any, representatives from the Right, while passing off liberals and former Democratic staffers as objective journalists. It might be a good thing for the networks and major newspapers to put more bloggers, from both sides, on the air and in print, and let the consumer decide. But to the Left, that means only bloggers from their side need apply, and you risk an organized campaign against your sponsors if you try to give a conservative blogger a job. This is a mindset that goes all the way up to the President of the United States, who despite receiving mostly worshipfully deferential press coverage during his run for the presidency was and is obsessed with Fox News.
Ironically, while most of the ire directed at Erick has been fueled by a handful of his more bomb-throwing posts (I don’t dispute that he’s provocative, and has even used the “f” word on very rare occasions his tweets, albeit never on RedState, which has an anti-profanity site policy we all support), many of the people doing the complaining produce vast volumes of far more offensive and foul-mouthed stuff; they just rely on the fact that nobody on the Right has paid staff with the time to comb through it all. Meanwhile, besides being a hugely influential activist, Erick’s been campaigning actively both against corruption in the GOP establishment and things like birtherism at the grassroots, and has taken his share of flak for those stands. As a city councilman, he’s also an elected official dealing with the problems of government at the ground level. But then, none of this is really about Erick at all; it’s a replay of the attacks on Ben and will be repeated again whenever a conservative (an actual one, not a neutered yes-man like David Brooks) gets televised or published outside of explicitly conservative media. And especially when it’s a conservative blogger. They’re not interested in debate. They’re only interested in destroying us.
Steve Maley
KnightsofMalta
Dan Spencer
Moe Lane
Dan McLaughlin
That's because their ideas don't stand up to scrutiny.
bannedtroll Friday, March 19th at 3:38PM EST (link)It’s why Air America failed and conservative talk radio thrives. It is why MSNBC doesn’t bring on any contrasting viewpoints while Fox does. The only successful medium for them is print media because they can give one-sided stories all day long. When you’re on the wrong side of liberty, the Constitution and history, are you really surprised they don’t want to debate?
I’m a banned Democrat who came here to promote the idea that Republicans are racists for disliking Barack Obama.
Give 'em Hell, Erick
GT350 Friday, March 19th at 3:38PM EST (link)The only way I will ever watch the Clinton News Network again, is if you are on the show. Then I’ll turn it right back to Fox once the credits roll.
Totally OT: Speaking of the Internet Wayback Machine, I’ve been trying to remember the name of Conservative website I followed before coming over to Redstate. Maybe around ’04-’05. There was a big blowup over the topic of immigration, with the bloggers falling into different factions. The site owner/founder was an immigrant himself, took a strong position on the issue, and essentially shut it down to stop the bickering. Half the contributors came here to RedState, and I followed.
Anyone remember?
Polipundit?
Dan McLaughlin (Diary) Friday, March 19th at 3:45PM EST (link)nt
“No compromise with the main purpose, no peace till victory, no pact with unrepentant wrong.” – Winston Churchill
Polipundit. Yessssss....
GT350 Friday, March 19th at 3:47PM EST (link)I think that was it. Thank you. I’ve been battling with trying to remember that name for weeks now.
I didn't know Polipundit shut down
Neil Stevens (Diary) Friday, March 19th at 5:40PM EST (link)I thought he just kicked off the writers who kept using his site to push views that bothered him greatly.
RS contributing editor, technical administrator, and “a hardy variety of crabgrass.”
Read the RedState Posting Rules
Unlikely Voter: Poll Analysis, Election Projection.
“I rejoice that America has resisted.” – William Pitt, the Elder
It is fortunate for the left...
gnomechumpsky Friday, March 19th at 3:42PM EST (link)that the right is so civil.
Should we be?
wgsampson Friday, March 19th at 3:58PM EST (link)If we are in a fight for our country, and – in the case of Healthcare – for our very lives, should we be so civil? We are armed with the Constitution, its timeless truth, and our convictions. But, shouldn’t we fight fire with fire?
I think not
streiff (Diary) Friday, March 19th at 4:02PM EST (link)I think in the future we have to go after these people on a very personal level.
“What keeps me here is the reek of beer, the ladies and the craic”
We absolutely should not -nt
E Pluribus Unum (Diary) Friday, March 19th at 4:15PM EST (link)Kill the Terrorists
Protect the Borders
Punch the Hippies h/t IMAO
Correct, EPU, except
Flagstaff (Diary) Friday, March 19th at 9:25PM EST (link)we need to be civil as Obama is civil. That is, he hides what he’s doing behind the facade of bland support for “social justice,” which most people don’t decode.
If things turn as bad as some folks are predicting, there will be some who decide that Thomas Jefferson was right. You pick the quote; I’m sure you know which one. I pray that it never reaches that point, but we’ve had it too good for too long, and we’ve gotten complacent about our liberty. We just can’t believe that we could lose it.
Everybody needs to keep in mind that although the Constitution is a statement of how our government is supposed to run, it remains “just” a piece of paper. The executive branch is charged with enforcing the laws, the legislative branch is charged with writing the laws, and the judicial branch is charged with determining that laws are written within the letter and spirit of the Constitution. The people within those branches are the true “keepers of the faith,” and if the leadership of any one of them decides to shirk its duty or ignore the Constitution, it’s up to the other two to protect and defend it.
The Supreme Court has accelerated its own failure with the Kelo decision. Given that it involved a state’s court decision, the only solution would be national laws to protect against that kind of error, but there’s no Congressional desire for that, and what would be the point? The Fourth Amendment was clear enough, yet it was ignored.
But we’re now faced with a situation where the Congress is over-reaching, the President will accede, and it’s questionable as to what the Court will do. If the Court fails to stop it, all bets are off, because all three branches will be conspiring to subvert the Constitution, their oaths of office notwithstanding.
That will leave the solution in the hands of the people. There may not be enough of us awake to do what is needed in the political sense, which is to throw all Democrats out of the the House and all those up for election out of the Senate (and Lindsey Graham can go with them when it’s his time). If there are not, and if Congress and the President don’t heed whatever does happen in November, the non-political Jeffersonian decision will revert to the people. Not that I’m advocating it, but I’m predicting it.
But when it come to leftist bloggers, lies have to be countered. Erick will help do that.
“The press is so powerful in its image-making role that it can make a criminal look like he’s the victim and make the victim look like he’s the criminal. If you aren’t careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.”– Malcolm X, Audubon Ballroom, December 13, 1964
It's that serious, Flagstaff
E Pluribus Unum (Diary) Saturday, March 20th at 1:30AM EST (link)I agree, it could go downhill in a hurry if something does not halt where the momentum is taking the country.
Kill the Terrorists
Protect the Borders
Punch the Hippies h/t IMAO
Should we be like them? No.
houstoneagle (Diary) Friday, March 19th at 8:47PM EST (link)We are nothing like them. They use personal attacks; we use reason. They destroy wealth; we create it. They advocate evil; we advocate good. They do not have truth on their side. They do not have logic on their side. They do not have reason on their side. Therefore, they have no choice but to throw flames. Be at peace knowing that is all they can do. Only if we stray from what’s right do we give them argumentative power.
And because of all of this, they do not have the American people on their side. They see this, they know this, yet they deny this. By November 2, they will deny no more.
DO NOT MISTAKE THIS for wimpy, limp-wristed moderation. Oh no. The fire you speak of must be tended and kept hot–the fire in our souls that fuels our mind and our actions to sound off continually on the issues of the day, performing our religious, familial, and civic duties with excellence.
That is the fire we fight them with. Not with similarly desperate flamethrowers, but with fire that fuels and drives us to win the arguments of the day on the merits, that shows the path to 218 in the House, 60 in the Senate, and 1 in the White House–that shows the path to our fellow Americans the way to taking our country back.
Should our fire be hotter and brighter than theirs? It already is. Don’t waste it by throwing it at them. Nurture the fire. Remember this anger that you feel at what they are trying to do to our country. Let it animate everything you say and do as you represent a cause greater than any one of us.
“We preach the conservative gospel of individual liberty and choice and point out the only choice the Democrats want you to have is whether or not to kill a baby.”–Erick Erickson, D-Day 2010
5
aesthete (Diary) Saturday, March 20th at 3:31AM EST (link)Good analogy.
The act of defending any of the cardinal virtues has today all the exhilaration of a vice – G.K. Chesterton
Sadly, we can see how successfully...
closetcon Monday, March 22nd at 9:05AM EST (link)…the moral high ground has served us in the past. If we took a page or two from their book we might not be under the thumb we’re under now.
We should hit back, as morally as possible, but using the same tricks and tactics. Go Alinsky on their a**es.
CC
I really, really hate these people
streiff (Diary) Friday, March 19th at 3:53PM EST (link)Until the Iraq War started I considered them a nuisance. Since March 2003 it has become blatantly obvious that they are loathsome excuses for humans. They celebrated the deaths of our troops for 5 years. They’ve crapped on every principle this country was founded on.
I just really hate them.
“What keeps me here is the reek of beer, the ladies and the craic”
5 (n/t)
Finrod (Diary) Saturday, March 20th at 3:44PM EST (link).
Let’s get down to brass tacks here. How much for the ape?
'...at one time a prominent left-wing blogger...'
Moe Lane (Diary) Friday, March 19th at 3:55PM EST (link)Vicious.
Also: true.
The Kim Kardashian of blogging.
Check out my blog at http://moelane.com/.
http://moelane.com/filthy-lucre-filthy-lucre/
http://twitter.com/moelane
My (combined) wish list.
Their tactics atrophied their ability to debate
saltlick Friday, March 19th at 3:59PM EST (link)I worked in academia for 20 years and watched the slow atrophy of reasoning ability among members of the Left.
It started when they were able to end debate by using personal attacks against their opponents –”sexist, racist, homophobe,” subsituted for argument. This grew into a more general attack via campus speech codes and fascist tactics, including outright destruction of conservative student newpapers and violent disruption when conservative speakers appeared on campus.
30 years of that and they have simply lost the ability to reason. There is no respect for free and open debate. They are pure Will to Power now.
It's been around more than 30 years
etlib Tuesday, March 23rd at 9:18AM EST (link)Take it from a Berkeley grad (physics) from the 60′s. There was no interest in debate from the leftists on campus then just as there isn’t now. The so-called “free speech movement” was more interested in shutting down contrary ideas than anything else. Take it from a life-long conservative who was there.
“No creature without tentacles has ever developed true intelligence”
There's no reason to give the libs any quarter
SteveM (Diary) Friday, March 19th at 4:02PM EST (link)No mercy should be the rule.
Why? They don’t deserve it. They routinely call us names while hypocritically calling for less partisanship. They claim to want a post-racial society while simultaneously playing the race card for all it’s worth.
Time to stop pussyfooting around these people, They don’t operate on the same ruleset we do. They don’t mind lying, spinning and personal attacks if it advances the cause. Anything goes if it justifies their end game.
The hell with all of them, The new rule should be no mercy, and no quarter. You can’t expect civil behavior from them, so there’s no reason to give these people any in return.
I learned the difference between the right and left....
sponge Friday, March 19th at 4:04PM EST (link)Being a conservative and becoming passionate about it only recently, I’ve come to the conclusion that liberals have 2 personality quirks with regards to America. They don’t want to take responsibility for their actions (their stance on abortion suits my argument perfectly) and they don’t accept that you don’t think like they do. Conservatives believe in freedom and relish in the fact that everyone has their own ideas and beliefs. We are fine with you thinking how you do and will try to debate to get a point across, where liberals shun you for thinking freely and not believing as they do.
5 nt
houstoneagle (Diary) Friday, March 19th at 8:50PM EST (link)“We preach the conservative gospel of individual liberty and choice and point out the only choice the Democrats want you to have is whether or not to kill a baby.”–Erick Erickson, D-Day 2010
Folks, let's say a prayer for Erick (even as you read this...) nt
undergroundconservative Friday, March 19th at 4:10PM EST (link)Thanks!
Prayers. Excellent post, Dan. -nt
KathW (Diary) Friday, March 19th at 4:50PM EST (link)We've been aware of this for some time.
Vassar Bushmills (Diary) Friday, March 19th at 4:12PM EST (link)Bernie Chumm runs his own “scat patrols” in Oregon. The Left uses the blog as part of their agitprop, well funded, and actually well organized. Rather sophisticated, notwithstanding the bile.
We think they can be debated, but it takes some work, and quite frankly, you wonder what the objective is. We’ve written on that at some length here. (see Civility).
But there is a ranking system, and their handlers do not want their cannon-fodder to even be able to read some arguments, positions or statements, It’s almost as if they were kept in a stable. Unless you use Jesus, Christ or God as an adjective, you, and your comment will be blocked. Similar, “I Love America, the Constitution, etc”. Interesting way they view sentimentality. But their gatekeepers make Neil Stevens look like a drunk jailor, asleep in a chair with the keys dangling from his wrist. They truck no unwanted incursions.
More later. as I have a piece in the works as to how they study us, and we should them…from a point of war, not comity.
Outstanding. Simply outstanding. nt
Aaron Gardner (Diary) Friday, March 19th at 4:33PM EST (link)conform and celebrate diversity….or else!!!
“We’d be much better off if We The People had desired small government enough to keep it.” acat
Follow @Aaron_RS
as William F. Buckley, Jr. said...
Patrick_Murdock (Diary) Friday, March 19th at 4:38PM EST (link)as William F. Buckley, Jr. said “Liberals claim to want to give a hearing to other views, but then are shocked and offended to discover that there are other views.”
http://www.patrickscartoons.com
A hamburger whore has a better moral compass
louisiana (Diary) Friday, March 19th at 5:08PM EST (link)than the left. I agree with Streiff, this has become personal. They are bullies who have put us on the defensive too long. As an old basketball coach, I learned that a team that presses, hates to be pressed themselves. More often than not, they are truly surprised when their own strategy is used against them.
Never surrender, and never give up
renny (Diary) Friday, March 19th at 5:23PM EST (link)As a member of my own family is a left-wing true believer and even quit working to campaign closely with Hillary (they are friends), I know if Hill had won, a priority was the “Fairness Doctrine” and shutting up Rush and Hannity.
But why doesn’t the right have the funding of the left? Where is the money? I know most of the “Wall Street” banks and their failures were really Dem. party members and lib. (Fanny Mae, Freddie Mac, the CRAs) policies, but where are the Soro’s of the right? Have all businesses turned themselves into shills for Dems.?
When they debate, you ban.
Spidercrash Friday, March 19th at 5:23PM EST (link)No one wants to debate anyone. You really are lying to yourselves if you think you debate anyone. Any reply that attempts to call into question any of the conservative sacred cows, results in being banned.
You’ve made it very clear that this is not a forum for ideological debate. Can you really criticize others that seek to do the same thing, albeit on a more public stage?
The truth can only be found by those who seek it.
Big difference
Leopard1996 (Diary) Friday, March 19th at 5:31PM EST (link)This is private property that the people whom own it and run it don’t have to give you a forum. The stuff that the far-left is doing and has always done, is make sure voices from the conservative side cannot be heard on what should be public airwaves, that these stations use which are technically public airwaves. I don’t see Kos necessarily allowing open and honest debate on their site either, so at this point, this is a Hinz rule, you can go screw. Have a nice day.
“The accumluated filth of all their sex and murder will foam up about their waists and all the whores and politicians will look up and shout, “Save Us!”….and I’ll look down and whisper, “No”…The Watchmen
That's rich.
PaladinLostHour (Diary) Friday, March 19th at 5:37PM EST (link)We have a *president* – not some Democratic operative, a *President* – who’s running the Saul Alinsky playbook on his political opponents. We have a Speaker of the House acting like Nurse Ratchett dictating to her ‘charges’. We have a Senate Majority Leader with the demeanor and public service spirit of a DMV 2nd shift supervisor. And you’re complaining about the lack of civility on the *conservative* side?
Robert Bolt said it best, in “A Man for All Seasons” , as Sir Thomas More explains to his protege Roper why ‘going around the law’ (sound familiar) is never a good idea:
“More What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?
Roper Yes, I’d cut down every law in England to do that!
More Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned ’round on you, where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat?
This country is planted thick with laws, from coast to coast, Man’s laws, not God’s! And if you cut them down (and you’re just the man to do it!), do you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then?”
Alinsky’s disciples have forgotten this – if they ever really knew it.
One of my favorite quotes.
mikerazar (Diary) Friday, March 19th at 8:14PM EST (link)It is amazing how often it applies!
We have a nation to save, people.
Apples, Oranges, big-time
E Pluribus Unum (Diary) Friday, March 19th at 5:42PM EST (link)RedState is RedState. It’s not a debating society, it’s a privately run right-side blogging community. CNN brought Erick on specifically for left-right debate.
The left goes totally ape-crap, demanding he be fired before he even starts. They are basically trying to muzzle CNN, who has expressed a desire to hold open left-right debate.
Tell me how that’s even similar.
Kill the Terrorists
Protect the Borders
Punch the Hippies h/t IMAO
We ban people from other websites?
Dan McLaughlin (Diary) Friday, March 19th at 5:44PM EST (link)That’s news to me.
I wouldn’t care if Erick got banned at Daily Kos. But that’s not at all what’s going on here.
“No compromise with the main purpose, no peace till victory, no pact with unrepentant wrong.” – Winston Churchill
No, I think you misinterpreted something...
merryj1 Friday, March 19th at 11:20PM EST (link)Most on the conservative side do not want to put up with ad hominem attacks or insults, and often do not respond to same with polite patience. When someone attempts to “call into question” some “conservative sacred cow” in terms like “…you bunch of morons,” for example, it’s seldom seen as a door-opener for ideological debate.
They don't come here to debate, they come here to crap on our floor
Finrod (Diary) Saturday, March 20th at 3:58PM EST (link)RedState has had several liberal writers that have had significantly long stays here. We’ve also had a lot more one-post wonders who only want to come in and drop their pants and leave a load on our floor. The latter get banned.
The reason you think no liberals are welcome here is that somewhere between 99 and 99.7 percent of the liberals that come here are of the latter variety.
Let’s get down to brass tacks here. How much for the ape?
Good riddance. That's gotta be a record.
Flagstaff (Diary) Saturday, March 20th at 6:24PM EST (link)Lose a two-year account with the first comment.
What a maroon.
“The press is so powerful in its image-making role that it can make a criminal look like he’s the victim and make the victim look like he’s the criminal. If you aren’t careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.”– Malcolm X, Audubon Ballroom, December 13, 1964
The fact that the Left has such an overabundance of beta males
WarEagle01 (Diary) Friday, March 19th at 5:33PM EST (link)Like Moulitsas and that kid at WaPo is something I hadn’t given much thought to. If you think about it, that really does give them a leg up in the blogging world.
“A wise, doughy leg with rich tingly experiences will always reach better conclusions than will a more tanned, muscular leg that hasn’t felt those thrills.” –Chris Matthews’ Leg
“The alternative to the awful extremity of abortion is the indispensable joy of introducing this flawed world to someone who might make it better.”–John Hayward (AKA Dr. Zero)
Alinsky asks
saltlick Friday, March 19th at 5:35PM EST (link)You’ve made it very clear that this is not a forum for ideological debate. Can you really criticize others that seek to do the same thing, albeit on a more public stage?
Hell, yes. After watching you Alinkyites turn the system’s freedoms on itself in order to destroy it, I say it’s time to strike back. As your hero said, “The time to debate is over.”
Oliver Willis went to college?
Mark Impomeni (Diary) Friday, March 19th at 5:37PM EST (link)Must’ve been one of those mail order universities.
———————–
Damn the Obama! Full speed ahead!
Admittedly, I don't actually know that
Dan McLaughlin (Diary) Friday, March 19th at 5:47PM EST (link)I’m just assuming. You certainly would find no evidence in his writing that he has ever actually learned anything. My last few exchanges with him on Twitter left me wondering which he’s more ignorant of, history or law.
“No compromise with the main purpose, no peace till victory, no pact with unrepentant wrong.” – Winston Churchill
Actually, all of this vitriol directed at CNN by all these Lefties
romeg Friday, March 19th at 5:42PM EST (link)Is both confirmation and affirmation of what we’ve all known for decades: that CNN is a tool of the Left and the DNC. But the Old New Media has fallen on hard time recently and CNN, in particular, needs to restore its credibility as well as grow its audience. What better way to do that than to add a Real Conservative to their roster. Give the number of followers and fans of this site and, more likely, judging from reading the ratings reports of the likes of Hannity, Colbert and The Daly Show, CNN figured out that Erick would be an instant money maker for them.
They might be useful idiots but some of them have MBA’s and know what it takes to make a buck in the TV business.
“Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victim may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated, but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” – C. S. Lewis
Saul Alinsky
pabarge1 Friday, March 19th at 6:08PM EST (link)Either you use Alinsky methods to defeat Liberals or they will use Alinsky methods to defeat you.
More Cheese, please
oneoff Friday, March 19th at 6:37PM EST (link)Want some more cheese with that WHINE?
And I’ve been around the blogosphere longer than you and completely disagree with your assessment; past & present.
What whining maggot.
Leopard1996 (Diary) Friday, March 19th at 7:07PM EST (link)I don’t see the post as whining, I see the post as making a pretty valid point which for the most part is true. Anytime someone on the right side of things gets onto to something other than Fox News or talk radio the left wing blogosphere wants that person fired, not hired, or completely silenced. I have not seen one person on the right side of the blogosphere want anybody silenced or fired, or we would have been raining letters and threats of boycott on MSNBC and publicizing here, Malkin’s site, Hotair, AoSHQ, and Freerepublic, if not other places.
“The accumluated filth of all their sex and murder will foam up about their waists and all the whores and politicians will look up and shout, “Save Us!”….and I’ll look down and whisper, “No”…The Watchmen
If I believe in one thing
Dan McLaughlin (Diary) Friday, March 19th at 7:14PM EST (link)a man has to stand up for his friends when they come under attack from deplorable people.
No thank you, I have no intention of taking this sitting down.
“No compromise with the main purpose, no peace till victory, no pact with unrepentant wrong.” – Winston Churchill
"Nanny nanny boo boo"
Bill S (Diary) Friday, March 19th at 9:16PM EST (link)Anything more constructive to say than that? Hardly a cogent rebuttal, bubba.
“It’s such a fine line between stupid, and clever.” – David St. Hubbins
Tarleton's Quarter! nt
Achance (Diary) Friday, March 19th at 6:48PM EST (link)In Vino Veritas
not to come to the defense
jackhammer Friday, March 19th at 7:13PM EST (link)but his co-commentator Jane Hamsher from FDL doesn’t seem to have said anything negative for a while. I have posted quite a bit of rebuttals in the comments over there, and get flamed by other commentators a lot, but nothing like a ban. I disagree with almost everythign on that site, but at least Jane seems to still tolerate the fact that some people might think differently.
They also are the only left wing site tha doesn’t carry water for the dems no matter what. They seem to generally be against Obamacare (admittedly because it does not have a public option), but they are sticking to their guns, whereas these apoplectic ones just carry water and burn at the cross.
I would like ot see this show, because i think they actually picked the most honest and best of the blogger in Erick and actually Jane. Again, I don’t agree with a thing she says, and there are a lot of people as commentators and contributors on that site that are filled with hate, but she seems honest and forthright in defending her side.
and at the end of the day….all this publicity is good for erick….if that show actually comes in less than last place in the ratings, it will be a major boost for CNN….
I hope erick earns enough from this to fulfill that leather recliner dream chair he hopes for every christmas…..
Erick scares the left...
Obis_Sister (Diary) Friday, March 19th at 9:00PM EST (link)…in that he sticks by his values. That scares the pants off of liberals. Most believe that anyone can be bought, any opinion can be swayed, any facts can be obscured by BS.
Ol’ Bill was quoted above, but I think he bears quoting again,”Liberals claim to want to give a hearing to other views, but then are shocked and offended to discover that there are other views.”
Ol’ Bill would have loved Erick.
Still praying for you buddy!
Obi’s Sister
www.justgrits.wordpress.com
Wow, the irony of this post is stunning.
onemorevoice (Diary) Friday, March 19th at 9:45PM EST (link)Coming from a site that brands you as a troll if you express an opposing view, and kicks you off if you keep at it. Y’all have some gall.
Testing that theory, are we?
mschmitt (Diary) Friday, March 19th at 9:58PM EST (link)And I was the one that called you a troll, not “the site” (heck, others were even willing to hold out the possibility that you were just naive — me, I have no clout or authority of any kind)….
Anyway, I can’t help but do a little happy dance, thanks for proving me right (I appreciate that little ego boost).
usque ad finem
I'm happy to boost your ego
onemorevoice (Diary) Friday, March 19th at 10:06PM EST (link)but I don’t troll. A troll is someone who tries to elicit an emotional response by posting something off topic or inflammatory. I only post what I believe.
Intriguing theory.
Thomas Crown (Diary) Saturday, March 20th at 10:02PM EST (link)So if I wander over to any left-wing site in the middle of an abortion thread and offer my sincere, true, honest belief that they are actively, willfully, and knowingly advocating mass-murder on a scale that neither the communists nor fascists ever dreamed could be achieved, I’m not trolling.
Or if I offer my sincere, honest belief that you only wrote this comment to irritate the locals, even though it reflected your honest belief — and backed that up with your complete inability to cite a single example in support of your sincerely held belief — I wouldn’t be picking a fight with you, you diseased piece of discarded pachyderm foreskin. (Another belief I truly hold.)
It certainly does make things more interesting, I’ll grant you.
———–
We are all heroes, you and Boo and I. Hamsters and rangers everywhere, rejoice!
Nobody does it better.....
janis (Diary) Saturday, March 20th at 10:11PM EST (link)You are missed.
In a time long past,
1stRichard (Diary) Friday, March 19th at 11:11PM EST (link)Harkening back to the days of dos and dialup, of attacks in newsgroups and now this new thing called blogs not much has changed. We gave them the name of Troll yet as time passes so has the lessons, we learned in time of yore.
Don’t feed the Troll, give them no quarter
It goes far beyond the blogs . . .
america1st (Diary) Friday, March 19th at 11:15PM EST (link)“These are not good people, they are not our friends, and they mean us harm.”
This statement applies to a very large number of those espousing these zany “progressive” comments. They are in the media, they are in politics, in entertainment, in academia. They are as hostile to American culture and values as the crazed barbarian followers of the mad 6th Century pederast.
Logic in the mind of a liberal is like a snowflake in the desert: lost, alone and soon destroyed by a hostile environment.
They have numbers at the moment
katesmith (Diary) Saturday, March 20th at 1:47AM EST (link)They have huge numbers, armies if you will, both paid and volunteer who spend a lot of time and energy destroying other peoples’ lives. They target you for your views in all aspects of life, as mentioned above, not just politics They have no limits to what they will do to remove you simply for saying something they don’t agree with.They will spend years doing it. I’m talking about physical threats, property damage, etc.There are good reasons for not using your real name on the internet when expressing you opinion. On the other hand, I don’t believe for a minute in quitting. For example, the right may have to start using the courts a lot more now.
Case in point:
merryj1 Saturday, March 20th at 4:27AM EST (link)Stupak, who is a leftist and wants a public option (socialized medicine-foot-in-the-door) but is also pro-life, has stood (relatively) firm on demanding a “no federal funding of abortion” clause in the HC bill or he and his group will vote ‘Nay.’ He’s getting death threats from his own lefty side for holding out for what, to him, is an important principle. According to the left, I guess, you’re just not allowed to do that.
They know Erick is not in truth full of hate and lies
peg_c (Diary) Saturday, March 20th at 6:27AM EST (link)Their problem is he undermines the dogma that the Right is merely EXTREMIST (religious, gun, anti-abortion, capitalist, pro-war, racist/bigoted/anti-gay/anti-women, etc.) and that we are all irrational haters and teabaggers. As long as they can caricature us this way, they can dismiss us as unworthy of anyone’s time and attention. When a lefty outlet hires someone like Erick, it gives our entire movement and ideology significant respect. It validates an ideology and agenda that they literally detest.
They are truly scared to death now – they got basically all they wanted and it’s all falling apart on them because in actual fact, the majority of the country is rejecting them and Erick represents this majority. Anyone tuning in can see that Erick’s opinions and principles are what have motivated and stirred up millions across the country (us “nutjob teabaggers”). It helps the non-rabid CNN viewer to understand how and why Scott Brown happened, how NJ and VA fell into the clutches of rightwing nut governors
, and why so many Dems in supposedly safe seats are in deep, deep trouble. Add to this that their party is so overwhelmingly corrupt and criminal (don’t forget virtually every Democrat appointee and many who have been elected are tax cheats – and they are the party of big taxes), as well as morally bankrupt, and even rabid lefties can see their side is quite repugnant to normal people.
They also have a lying fraud in the Oval Office who (as it turns out) actually cannot speak well much less convey ideas clearly, who was their Chosen One, who in less than 15 months managed to squander huge approval numbers and alienate an enormous and diverse swath of the American public despite all the cover from and enabling by the grovelling and complicit lefty media.
Anyone on the Right who is on televised MSM arguing for conservatism and against the Marxist statism represented by the lefty bloggers, the party in control of Congress and the WH and the MSM is visible to the base and run-of-the-mill viewers and undermines the echo chamber dogma being fed to them. WE do not live in an echo chamber; those who inject only the MSM DO. I think these bloggers are screaming about Erick because he is a symbol of their overwhelming failure. They absolutely project their own hate and bigotries onto him to try to demonize and destroy him. And with all their huge funding they are being beaten by bloggers who are volunteer and who have millions of activist Americans now fighting for conservative and free market principles.
I know everyone knows all this, but if you’ve never been on the left you do not know how this simply does not compute. They have everything they wanted — and it’s no good. Even the MSM cannot hide that corrupt and greedy tyrants are running this country and on the verge of destroying it. The bloggers are defending what is rotten to the core. THEY ARE ROTTEN TO THE CORE. Do not think they don’t know this, deep down. This is exactly why they behave as they do. They are miserable, desperately unhappy people.
And we have to fight back with everything we have.
Government cannot be the solution when government is the problem.
Slight correction
peg_c (Diary) Saturday, March 20th at 6:31AM EST (link)“ingest,” not “inject,” the MSM.
Government cannot be the solution when government is the problem.
After The Machinations With...
wolfgang Saturday, March 20th at 7:22AM EST (link)….ObamaCare we have no choice.
Its always been self evident how the Liberal Press and bloggers regard the Right.
“There is a time for every purpose under Heaven.
A time to gather stones together and a time to scatter.
A time for peace and a time for war.”
November, 2010!
Think nazi's, that says it all.
johnt Saturday, March 20th at 10:36AM EST (link)An entire generation who made the mistake of swallowing the slop fed them by a moronic media.
If the NY Times changed course, within a few weeks you would begin to see shifts in the positions of these haters, Politics gives them an outlet for their inner caveman .
“a man’s admiration for absolute government is proportinate to the contempt he feels for those around him”. Tocqueville
Maybe if Erick converted to Islam...
TheSophist (Diary) Saturday, March 20th at 10:36AM EST (link)Seeing as how the Left is powerless to criticize anything Muslims do… whether that’s demanding shariah or murdering filmmakers…
Wonder why that is. And what lessons one might draw from the Silence of the Lambs.
-TS
“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.” – Ronald Reagan
This is why...
wayneepalmer Saturday, March 20th at 12:08PM EST (link)This whole situation that has come to exist, by dint of the continual propagandization and mis-education of young energetic people on the college campuses by ivory tower douche bags, whereby the only solution that can come to rebalance the equation of our society is thru mass violence.
When society recoils from the blood and death that will occur in the coming days due to the unreasonable efforts of a bunch of arrogant elitists (like the swine in the White House and the Capitol Building and college campuses across this country) to inflict their “utopia ala Stalin” on the country then will people be able to honestly work to find a balance of ideals based on reality, civil conversation, and calmer thought.
This can only come though, after so much death and destruction that the reality of it is hammered home. A second civil war is the only way we can have peace.
True peace between two enemies has only ever been acheived when one side has utterly defeated the other…if you doubt this truth visit Nagasaki sometime.
Protecting Erick from Nuts
frammis3001 Sunday, March 21st at 11:33AM EST (link)Personally, I agree with his assessment of Souter as a goat *****. But is that something we should go to bat with? Maybe that’s just a Kos rumor that he said that. Anybody know for sure?
I don’t think I believe this. It’s fake, right?
http://mediamatters.org/blog/200904300048
I was pretending to be one of you. Most of you didn’t buy it, though.
Another diseased piece of discarded pachyderm foreskin
semphoto Monday, March 22nd at 10:12AM EST (link)We can all agree on at least one opinion. The opposition has completely lost its mind. It kinda makes conversation pointless.
What happened to guys like Bill Buckley? Though I have to agree that in a street fight, I’d rather have a 100% loyal 280lb knuckle dragger on my six than an intellectual gymnast; you still won’t win the argument.
School yard bullies are pretty easily dealt with. One good punch to the middle of the face general sends them running. Unfortunately, words typed on a keyboard don’t have the same lasting effect. So until one of you chicken hawks shows up at my door with a baseball bat or a gun, I’ll just waste a few minutes of my time here and move on.
Gotta go feed the Rhino.
Respectfully.
So, once again we show our power
cyncurl999 Monday, March 22nd at 11:46AM EST (link)By religiously tuning into CNN for John King’s show when Erick is on. Watch his and only his ratings soar and only when Erick Erickson is featured. We don’t need to be nasty or hateful. Rise above it.
You may as well ask yourself...
wayneepalmer Monday, March 22nd at 11:58AM EST (link)Eric, you may as well ask yourself how the Nazi Party got started or Al Qaeda. It is a flaw of human character that rage – especially when it gets coupled with pride and lust – can be as addictive as any drug.
When you give the possibility of creating a system whereby a group of people can legally exercise and compel the submission of others to every form of their lust and rage against everyone who disagrees with them, it becomes a self-sustaining movement towards the forms of ultimate oppression that we have experienced throughout our history.
If we the people accede to their takeover of society in the blind ignorant manner of despairing and or oppressed corrupt societies of the past who just went along with these hate-filled cadres hoping for change to a better society, then we will find ourselves quickly in the same shoes as the Jews circa 1939, the average Cambodian, Chinese, and Vietnamese peoples after takeovers, or women throughout the Muslim World: butchered at a whim, tortured, oppressed, and kept in servitude without remorse.
Eric there is no difference between these people and those that circled Mao, Stalin, HItler, and the Islamists throughout the world. They can taste the fulfillment of their lust and rage.
They can see the faces of those they hate covered with blood beneath their boots.
They envision all the people they can rape, and assault, and humiliate, and make serve there every whim – knowing that this is right, this is the way it should be….that they are now the ones they’ve been waiting for.
The ultimate lust is just at their fingertips and they are on a crusade to feed in an orgiastic rage on all of us until sated. They are ready to unleash Hell on Earth for all who oppose them.
Remember your prophecy and know that it is…now.
True peace between two enemies has only ever been acheived when one side has utterly defeated the other…if you doubt this truth visit Nagasaki sometime.
Good Grief, man...
pburton Monday, March 22nd at 3:52PM EST (link)Good Grief, man, can you not add some white space? Who the hell is going to struggle through all that boiler-plate verbiage?
And opinionafteropinionafteropinionafter opinion — I hardly know where the ideas and principles begin and the griping stops.
Try this idea: so what if the socialist/collectivist blogs are Soros/SEIU funded, thus too prevalent for your taste? We beat them with ideas, not whining.
And all that sending the reader (?) off to examine the footnotes? Rather like certain Progressive friends who make their arguments emailing large chunks of quotations which supposedly support their case. What they offer is an opinion circle, with each guy pointing around the circle to his authority.
We beat them with ideas. The intelligent, free man does not get caught accepting and arguing false assumptions. And he certainly should be too proud for hand-wring and whining.
try to master reading comprehension
streiff (Diary) Monday, March 22nd at 4:13PM EST (link)as a skill before applying your incredible intellect to copy editing and layout advice. From your comment, I’m sure that will keep you occupied for a while.
“What keeps me here is the reek of beer, the ladies and the craic”
Left doesn't stand up to debate
normusa Tuesday, March 23rd at 12:53PM EST (link)It has been my observation that people I consider “left”, whether policical, Christian or science based, do not compete in honest debate because they consistantly lose in the arena of honest debate of ideas. They will attack you personally but will not argue ideas. Usually, the people who lean to the left politically will uniformly believe in Darwin, hate anythhing quoted from the Bible, hate anything Christian or Jewish and believe that the world is millions of years old. My personal feelings are that they uniformly tend to be amoral.
This is difficult to counter without getting down on their level. Where they can fling a tomato or rotten egg easily, it takes a lot more work to clean up their mess. But God is still in control and will give us the strength and guidance we need.
Which Conspiracy Are We Talking About? Right or Left?
rubicon01 Tuesday, March 23rd at 8:00PM EST (link)The intolerance of those who profess to be the tolerant among us all, is palpable. The intolerance is comical when one realizes they espouse to believe in hearing all opinions, yet they are shocked, shocked to find out there is another opinion other than theirs!
On cable TV right now, MSNBC embodies this perspective. In newsprint, all one needs to do is look at any page of the New York Times.
Now to be fair, Glenn Beck is as opinionated as anyone. His emotional outburst or crying jags, embarrass many. But. Keith Olbermann is as despicable as they come. His vitriol is beyond shameful. The mocking tones of Rachel Maddow are pathetic. If one did this to her, she would be crying foul & bringing up homophobia as the only reason. As it stands, MSNBC asserts racism even when in truth there is none.
I believe it was MSNBC that ran a story during the Town Halls debates that demonstrated just how partisan they are. One commentator asserted during an interview that the Tea Party demonstrators or protesters were racists. One line amounted to, isn’t racism involved in this? Or some such nonsense. They then showed a clip of a protester who was carrying a gun on his hip & an automatic over his shoulder on a strap. The people worried for Obama & those gun totting right winger extremists.
Another cable channel (no need to name them), showed the public the entire clip. Then, they showed the real video w/o any editing. It seems MSNBC had zoomed in to show the protesters back & guns. When the video showed all, one realized the gun owner, was black. Made the racism assertion look stupid. In addition, that protester was no where near where Obama was going to speak. 6 or 8 blocks away I think. Plus, Obama was not scheduled to be in the area for another 4 or 6 hours.
In short, some creative editing of video had been used to try to portray Tea Partiers as out of control rabid right wing extremist gun toting threats to the black president. The entire line was faulty.
Not sure how MSNBC responded to the actual video that exposed the deception.
Your article only serves to confirm what many suspect has been going on for a long time & it confirms the knowledge that there is rampant bias in our supposedly mainstream media, that is fueled by a vicious bias on the net & within the political movement.
I suspect its organized. Clinton once called us the “right wing conspiracy.” Guess what folks, w/ funding from ideological zealots, what we have may actually be “left wing conspiracies”. And there are some uber wealthy whose past political funding indicates that may be behind a lot of this.
If partisanship is to be the order of the day, conservatives had better get active since the left has had years of practice & is organized to push when the bosses raise a finger to their minions.