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.
