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The Spectacle Blog
American Spectator readers are probably familiar with the nationwide Tax Day Tea Party rallies being planned for Wednesday. Readers may be less familiar with the attempt by left-wing propagandists (like Jane Hamsher) to dismiss the Tea Party movement as being ginned up by Fox News, “Corporate America” and the usual suspects of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy. The transparent object of this propaganda effort by the Left is to discourage coverage for the Tea Party movement by their liberal friends in the mainstream media.
Speaking as an ex-Democrat, I can say that nothing creates more ex-Democrats than the habitual deceit practiced by the Left in its efforts to control the Democratic Party and to conceal those efforts from scrutiny. Eventually you discover the truth and the realization that you have been bamboozled makes you angry.
It is no coincidence (as a Marxist might say) that many of the staunchest and most effective opponents of the Left are people like David Horowitz, the “Red Diaper” son of Communist Party parents, raised within the Left. And it is worth remembering that Ronald Reagan was himself a self-described “bleeding heart” liberal (he actually joined two Commie front groups) before he was forced to confront the deceptive machinations of the Communist Party in its effort to take over Hollywood.
A few weeks ago, it was revealed that the Left has been manipulating the national news media via an online communication loop called “JournoList.” As someone who follows political blogs closely, I had noticed how successful the Left was at (a) getting its favorite narratives picked up by the national media, and (b) discouraging coverage of narratives unfavorable to Democrats. Conservatives have long speculated on the role of back-channel communications between “progressive” activists and sympathetic journalists in this sort of coordinated messaging operation. The JournoList revelation exposed one of those back channels; that there are many others is easily inferred.
So you can imagine my reaction when I spotted Steve Benen of Washington Monthly pushing an anti-Tea Party message by Oliver Willis of Media Matters. Willis did a straight-up ad hominem attack, comparing the supposedly phony Tea Party protests to the authentic grassroots activism of the protests against the Iraq War.
Make. Me. Laugh. And now cue the army of anonymous leftoid trollbots in the comments.
View all comments (72) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Robert Stacy McCain
http://spectator.org/blog/2009/04/12/the-lefts-coordinated-message
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Pingback| 4.12.09 @ 5:40PM
The Left’s Coordinated Message Operation : But As For Me links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Donna Dunn | 4.12.09 @ 7:16PM
JHarp: see http://obamaslipsaremoving.com/2009/04/10/why-the-tea-parties/
Frosty| 4.12.09 @ 7:20PM
People are upset about Obama's multiple trillion dollar spending plans. Only kool-aid drinking marxists aren't worried about the overwhelming debt we are placing on our childrens' shoulders.
MT| 4.12.09 @ 7:22PM
jharp's probably one of the ACORN infiltrators trying to discredit the Tea Party Movement. Clown.
Nope| 4.12.09 @ 7:27PM
Yawn. You know what spells insecurity in a writer? Defensive remarks about people in the comment section who might (OH GOD!) disagree with the writer.
Dude, I wrote for the Internet for years. You don't address the comment section in your writing. The comment section is where people (GASP) submit their comments. Which may differ from your own. That's kind of how this works.
As for the tea parties... look, as soon as you guys realize that most people don't agree with you, and start actually evolving your message, then people will actually start listening to you again. We Democrats went through that. It took us from the mid-70s to 1992 to get back in power again. Do you remember how Clinton get elected? He looked at Republican ideas, saw which ones actually worked, and adopted those.
As soon as you guys actually start doing that, I'll be ready to listen. But as long as you're just holding your breath, getting angry, and complaining that not everyone else is paying attention to your holding your breath... well, we tried that too. No one cares.
Far from being anonymous, here's my email address: oliveramiller@hotmail.com Hit me up, MSM. I can take it. And I can even defend my own side's position without being sloppy and without exaggeration.
Bill Bailey| 4.12.09 @ 7:29PM
If this is jharp, he sure does look like a clown:
http://www.myspace.com/37897713
Donna Dunn | 4.12.09 @ 7:31PM
No, I did not vote for Obama. But looking past that, any clear-thinking person who does just a bit of research can see that the debt this country is taking on is totally unsustainable. Even if the income tax burden was largely shifted to the wealthiest (which it already is, and me NOT being one of them), there are programs that are going to cost consumers (EVERYONE) a ton of money. The Tea Party movement we are seeing was not dreamed up by Fox News. No. Rick Santelli of CNBC gave in to an impromptu rant about the need to confront our government about massive spending. The idea was picked up by what you might call "Blogger-Moms" who took to the internet as parents who are passionate about their children's future. The mainstream media would do well to drop this charade of claiming to cover the news, because friends, this IS NEWS. Think about it. If ACORN was holding demonstrations in 1500 +/- cities on the same day they would be covering it, for sure.
VideoSavant| 4.12.09 @ 7:45PM
I do not believe that the tea parties are directly aimed at President Obama or the majority Democrat party.
The tea parties are reaction to a government in general -- both Democrats, Republicans and others -- that views working Americans as a bottomless well of money to be used for any and all manner of government programs.
While I am personally coming from a fiscal conservative/social moderate viewpoint, I have major problems with how both parties have approached spending over the past 20 years. It is a proven fact, that as government as a whole chews up more of a country's GDP, the less prosperity there is for the country as a whole.
There is also a growing anger over the process of government. A few years back, legislative rules were suspended in order to try to ram through immigration reform that was very clearly at odds with what the majority of the American electorate wanted. And more recently, we have a House and Senate that assembled the biggest spending bill in the history of the world and put it onto a hurry-up-and-vote timetable that made it impossible to read beforehand. This is nothing other than dereliction of the public trust.
If you think I'm wrong, consider that the stimulus bill included the language that effectively greenlighted the payment of bonuses to AIG and that this should have been a shameful embarrassment to those who later demonized these bonuses and the executives receiving them. How can they complain, when they voted to authorize the payments in the first place?
In a nutshell, the tea parties are a symbol of growing recognition that government -- at all levels, regardless of party doctrine -- is absolutely out of control.
I think it is reasonable to question whether the tea parties will accomplish anything. At this point, they seem to be more about blowing off steam, but I think this fledgling movement could ultimately prove to be very constructive. Much of what is wrong with government today is a result of an electorate that has been largely disengaged from the process for several decades. Now, more people are paying attention and making an effort to come together and express their concerns about the direction and scope of the governing class.
While this is only a tentative awakening, it is one that should cause genuine concern for the political establishment that has prospered massively from an apathetic and inattentive electorate.
MT| 4.12.09 @ 7:53PM
You're right, VideoSavant; I've heard that the Tea Party Movement is comprised of democrats, republicans and independents. People in general are sick and tired of bloated, piggish and intrusive government. Obama is just the latest figurehead of coercive, out of control spending governance.
Red Phillips | 4.12.09 @ 7:55PM
The TEA Party idea is actually not the brainchild of FOX News or any other organ of the "mainstream" right. They are gravy training on it after the fact. This is a spontaneous movement of fed up individuals, but the main organizing elements if anything represents the “far” or "outside the mainstream" right. Note the refusal to allow RNC Chairman Steele to speak in Chicago.
I don't think the main issue is taxes. 15 April is just a convenient and obvious date and the tea party theme a historical nod. The issue is spending, debt, and our slide toward outright socialism.
Nope, even if what you say is true the point should not be to simply pick popular ideas and abandon the rest like a bunch of unprincipled power seekers. There is way too much of that going on in Washington from both parties already. The object should be to persuade.
The idea that you can spend your way into prosperity with funny money created out of thin air is self-evidently foolish. Only a child would believe such nonsense along with Santa Clause and the Tooth Fairy. We are attempting to awaken the slumbering masses from their lethargy. And I know it has you just a little frightened or you wouldn’t be wasting your efforts trying to downplay it.
Cookie| 4.12.09 @ 7:55PM
What has happened to Santelli? Did the fascist liberal goons lock him up in a rubber room?
MT| 4.12.09 @ 8:00PM
There's no Soros' money behind the grassroots Tea Party movement. It's populist driven. I think it's unfair to say that Fox is 'gravy training' on the Tea Party Movement after the fact--what other media are covering it? I'm grateful to Fox for giving us some badly needed publicity. Why knock Fox?
Red Phillips | 4.12.09 @ 8:17PM
"Why knock Fox?"
MT, my criticism of FOX is from the right. FOX is a mouthpiece for mainstream neo-conservatism and GOP talking points. But the GOP as currently constituted is part of the problem when it comes to spending. They have been spending like drunken sailors for the last eight years. My point was that the elements organizing the TEA Parties in many cities are not your typical GOP party regulars. They are Ron Paul supporters, Campaign for Liberty types, libertarians, etc. In FOX terms, they are more Beck and Napolitano than Hannity.
Nope| 4.12.09 @ 8:20PM
I'm not frightened at all. I'll let you know when I am, though.
Look, dudes, you guys need a little tough love. I'll be frightened when you actually start taking my advice. Being out of power is weirdly a little liberating, no? You can yell about everything you've always wanted to yell about, and throw a little more in for good measure. (Not you, Red; I'm speaking of the tea partiers.) Hey, I remember it. It looked like liberals were going to be extinct for a while there, and man, we bitched and moaned about every little thing. And we didn't necessarily approve of Clinton, either. He was making too many compromises, we said. But eventually we got our act together.
You guys have to make a decision. Do you want to shout about how mad you are about everything, or do you want to work a little harder and actually come up with solutions? Either way is fine with me. If you choose the first option, you'll be wandering in the wilderness for years. If you choose the second option, then we'll actually have an opposition party again. I'd rather that didn't happen; I'd like the Democrats to stay in power for a long, long time. But at least we'd have a Republican party that's worthy of the name.
MT| 4.12.09 @ 8:25PM
You're too critical, Red. What's the point? We have to pull together or the progressive morons like this stupid nope guy will prevail. We still need the publicity--I think it's a mistake to bash Fox when they're about the only media outlet supporting us. I'm sick of living in the past; we gotta move on.
Cookie| 4.12.09 @ 8:29PM
The Tea Party Movement is powerful and is quickly gaining greater power and momentum. Response has been incredible from people all over the political spectrum. I've never seen anything like it. It's becoming a force to be reckoned with. Just watch.
Red Phillips | 4.12.09 @ 9:14PM
MT, I welcome the radicalization of the language. Calling Obama a socialist for example. I welcome some measure of unity on the right in opposition to Obama. But it will ultimately do very little good in the long term unless the people who are calling Obama a socialist recognized that McCain was only marginally better. This can't just be about simple partisan cheerleading. It has to be about ideas and principles, and if Republicans are doing a poor job at representing them then we need to say so. We can't bite our tongues simply because someone who wears our color jersey is in power.
Go here. Scroll down and read the article by Michael Lind. He is a confirmed moderate, but he describes the situation we have today perfectly. He describes the back and forth on this blog perfectly. We have to be conservatives, not Republicans.
http://www.newamerica.net/publications/articles/2006/what_is_left_what_is_right_does_it_matter_4048
Eyas| 4.12.09 @ 9:24PM
jharp,
NO. Obama did NOT just cut taxes.
In case this concept eludes you; please tell us all
1) whose taxes were "cut";
2) how much their taxes were "cut" by; and
3) how much tax had they been paying before the "cut"
As for you insisting on calling it "tea-bagging" -- is this about me "tea-bagging" your wife?
VideoSavant| 4.12.09 @ 9:29PM
OK, to address the tax issue directly: Yes, Obama's stimulus bill included some tax cuts, but the more important issue is the additional baseline spending that will come from the stimulus, from the omnibus, and the 2010 and beyond Obama budget outline.
Anyone who believes that 95% of Americans aren't going to be paying additional federal taxes in the near term is stuck on denial or stupid. I don't know if either applies to you jharp, because again you are, strictly speaking, correct that some taxes were cut in the stimulus.
But anyone who can add 2 and 2 understands that tax increases are coming for a lot more than the top 5% of income earners.
In addition, this is not just a federal government issue. California and New York have already passed significant tax increases rather than try to address spending, which is the root cause of the tea party protests. Likewise, at least 10 other states are considering significant tax increases, including my own state of Corruptinois (aka Illinois), which is flirting with the idea of increasing the state's income tax rate by more than 50%, from 3% to 5%.
To paraphrase for you jharp, it's the spending -- and the inevitable -- taxing.
MT| 4.12.09 @ 9:33PM
Red, we can deal with the clowns on our side later; right now the fascist democrats need our full, undivided attention. I'm just sick of the circular firing squad. Let's train all of our firepower on the power monger liberals.
Bill Bailey| 4.12.09 @ 10:07PM
jharp of Longmont, Colorado
(http://www.myspace.com/37897713): Do your masters pay you by the word or the comment? I'd like to know so we can approach the rightist puppet masters who run the world and ask them to pay us to troll your lefty sites.
Pingback| 4.12.09 @ 10:11PM
Ignore the JournoList Meme of the Week and Go to a Tea Party! : The Sundries Shack links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
MT| 4.12.09 @ 10:46PM
$65.00 more a month? Well, hells bells!! That's about $16.00 a week; won't even cover jharp's teabags.
Troll Hunter| 4.12.09 @ 11:09PM
Spending our kids' money by printing more today and inflating tomorrow... is a tax on their wealth. Honest folk call that "theft." Got hope yet, jharp?
The "taking home $65 more a month" is merely a reduction of the witholding... it is not a tax cut, as the net rate stays the same. All that changes is a reduction... in the refund. Duh. Got change yet, jharp?
Stealing value from the markets via fascistic take-overs of banks and production isn't a tax?
Stealing value from home-owners by polluting the market with more bad credit isn't a tax?
Stealing value from the energy markets by stopping our own access to our own resources and thus driving-up prices, this isn't a tax?
Will someone kindly take jharp aside and patiently explain to him basic economic principles? Please? Got a bloody clue yet, jharp?
Ed | 4.12.09 @ 11:17PM
I'd like to see the tax cuts go to the people who, you know, actually PAY income taxes myself. In proportion to the amount they pay.
Silly, I know.
Ed
Alan Brooks| 4.12.09 @ 11:30PM
I'm worried about 2012.
people can get it together by the midterms.
And Dubya, however a RINO he was, is no longer in office.
But what sort of RINO is the GOP going to run in 2012?
will it be Jeb saying "read my lips"?
I'm by far the most pessimistic person at AS.
Murphy's Law isn't a truism it is a scientific fact
Timetester| 4.12.09 @ 11:30PM
Journolist has decided they need to dispatch the concern trolls and "serious" questioners, you know their pissed and scared they don't have control.
CH| 4.13.09 @ 1:12AM
RSM must be shakin' in his boots!
jmute| 4.13.09 @ 3:10AM
>Hmmm. Taking my posts down now?
Yes, indeedy, must have been something pretty nasty, since I've seen a lot of evil things other lefty fools like you have put up on here remain. You must have used some exceedingly foul and obscene language. Tsk, tsk, jharp!
"You are are a bunch of cowards. And you specifically, Stacey, are a spineless coward."
No, you're the coward who can't bear to reexamine and repackage his own politics when anybody criticizes them, and must therefore attack the critics. Here's a clue for the clueless, jharp: you can draw more listeners with honeyed rhetoric--even if it's as empty as 0's--than you can with retarded leftist troll rants.
"I am very anxious to see you losers go out of business. Which ain't gonna take much longer."
That depends on what you mean by "go out of business" here. Everybody's likely to suffer some economic hardship from this current Marxist insanity that has our nation in its grip (including you). If anything, though, our influence and audience here on the right have only gotten greater. The viewership ratings for Fox News and its affiliates are going gangbusters. Gun sales are up. We've got TEA parties planned in upward of 1500 places, and leftist fools are now trying to emulate the success of these spontaneous gatherings with protests of their own, so far without success.
Meanwhile, the far-left newspapers are dying, the losers at MSNBC and other far-left lamestream outlets are floundering as their viewership ratings sink, and the anti-war numbskulls are discovering just how devoid of any actual pacifism those leftist Bush-bashers really were as their membership fades and flutters away like dead leaves. I'd say you leftist losers are the ones going out of business in most every way that matters, jharp.
"I'm curious if one of you yellow bellied cowards wold [sic] care to answer. How much longer is the wingnut welfare gravy train going to last posting this mindless drivel?"
What gravy train? What welfare? Nobody at Fox News is pleading for a bailout. None of these TEA party attenders are getting any government grants or earmarks for their efforts. We don't need any shady JournoList-style organization to do our thinking for us, unlike certain retarded leftist trolls who go posting their mindless drivel in our comments sections.
David Henry| 4.13.09 @ 5:55AM
The nut jobs on the left and the Journoids think that everyone between Manhattan and LA is in perfect sync with their pinhole view of the country. We are not. We are the one's paying for the s--t you are ramming thru Congress, and paying in BLOOD for the defense of the interests of the Nation. The left is a collection of Moral, Ethical and Physical Cowards.
Deborah | 4.13.09 @ 7:19AM
Human Events has a great article about Fenton Communications, run by a leftie, and their connection with leftist groups, leftist politicians (Schumer), trial lawyers and leftist media. Read it all here: http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=31396
And remember: Sunlight is the best disinfectant.
Truth Hurts| 4.13.09 @ 8:39AM
The "Left" has a coordinated message?
Mr. McCain, I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell. Interested?
Fox News, together with a few billionaires who are angry their tax rates were in the 90s, are generating this tea party nonsense.
This is the ultimate journalistic crime -- generating a news event and then reporting on it (without even questioning the assumptions underlying the message!).
But the left has a coordinated message about it!
To be sure.
Mr. McCain -- do you people ever ask yourselves challenging questions? Is it always this easy for you?
Eric Dondero | 4.13.09 @ 9:12AM
The nationwide Tea Party rallies are being sponsored by LIBERTARIAN GROUPS, such as the Libertarian Party and the Sam Adams Alliance.
But witness the Left NetRoots and the Mainstream Media attempt to paint the Rallies as a "Repubilcan," or "Conservative" sponsored event. Paul Krugman has a piece in the NY Times this morning to that effect. David Schuster started that ball rolling 4 days ago on MSNBC.
The Left Media does not want to report the truth that this is a Libertarian enterprise, for fear of backlash amongst Libertarians.
We all know that come election time Democrats will throw a bone the Libertarians' way, in the hope of scraping off a vital constituency of the GOP.
Thus, even when it's glaringly Libertarian, the Left Media will do everything they can to avoid using the 'L' word.
Eric Dondero, Publisher
Libertarian Republican
Pingback| 4.13.09 @ 9:50AM
Monday swings | And Still I Persist links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
WendyG| 4.13.09 @ 9:54AM
The Tea Party movement is not Libertarian. It's an expression by the Loyal Opposition - all manner of groups on the right - to Obama's policies on taxes and other matters.
The anti-Tea Party movement is an expression of the intolerance of the liberals, their one-rule-for-them one-rule-for-us mentality.
We had 8 years of protest against Bush, movies against Bush (such as by fat slob Michael Moore), parodies of Bush on SNL, endless articles against Bush in Vanity Fair, and now the right is staging one little protest and the libs/left is apoplectic.
Since they are defined by their protests, they consider protesting theirs exclusively. They just are unable to extend the freedom to protest to our side. When we protest it's like the world turned upside down for them.
WendyG| 4.13.09 @ 9:58AM
>>>jharp| 4.12.09 @ 11:56PM
Hmmm. Taking my posts down now?
There is a limit to how much insulting and nastiness the people who run this site should have to put up with.
BTW - Daily Kos, Puff Host (Huff Post) and DU scrub Conservative posters very quickly, from my observation. No opposing views tolerated AT ALL. They are echo chambers.
Pingback| 4.13.09 @ 10:36AM
Remember, Left Wing Operatives, I Need Your Reports In Triplicate | Oliver Willis links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
CH| 4.13.09 @ 3:33PM
Who said the Tea Party Movement is Libertarian? It's arrogant to try to claim something as your own that really belongs to people of diverse views. Ridiculous really. Tea Party is populist--it's everybody.
Cookie| 4.13.09 @ 3:36PM
The Lame Stream Media are the mis-information arm of the fascist democrat party. Duh!
Pingback| 4.13.09 @ 10:06PM
Robert McCain Explains the Angry Leftists Against Teabagging « Teablogging links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Alice| 4.14.09 @ 3:15PM
Why do you think we have such a national debt?
Because we don't take in enough revenue. We just spend and spend, similar to credit cards, and complain about what little we pay on the debt. Wake up Americans, your taxes are among the lowest in the world. Read "Think your taxes are bad?" at moneycentral.msn.com/content/taxes
Pingback| 4.14.09 @ 8:58PM
Steynian 345 « Free Canuckistan! links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
MT| 4.14.09 @ 9:33PM
Alice, go back to freak land, moron. Stupid liberals are responsible for destroying our country--you're so friggin' stupid I don't know where to begin. Go move to a commie country so they'll take all of your earnings, idiot.
Pingback| 4.14.09 @ 9:51PM
Remember, Left Wing Operatives, I Need Your Reports In Triplicate | Wiz Kid Reports links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 4.14.09 @ 9:51PM
Remember, Left Wing Operatives, I Need Your Reports In Triplicate | Wiz Kid Reports links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 4.14.09 @ 9:52PM
Remember, Left Wing Operatives, I Need Your Reports In Triplicate | Wiz Kid Reports links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 4.14.09 @ 9:52PM
Remember, Left Wing Operatives, I Need Your Reports In Triplicate | Wiz Kid Reports links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 4.14.09 @ 9:52PM
Remember, Left Wing Operatives, I Need Your Reports In Triplicate | Wiz Kid Reports links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 4.14.09 @ 9:53PM
Remember, Left Wing Operatives, I Need Your Reports In Triplicate | Wiz Kid Reports links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
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Steynian 345 | good morning america susan boyle links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
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Steynian 345 | know thy congressman links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
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fix bad credit, on fix bad credit, links to this page. Here’s an excerpt: