Some wag, during a discussion over projected political moves, said that getting Libertarians to agree is like herding cats.
But then, that is not difficult on a temporary basis: throw a stinking fish in the direction you favor and they’ll rush toward it just as if they were a herd of lemmings. After all, Independent Thinkers of whatever political stripe are first, and foremost, human, and thinking dinner tastes right because it seems just what one expected is a universal trait. Perhaps it is all too easy to herd these cats, and maybe not very desirable after all.
Bring up the left-wing bias of the MSM, and all the fuzzy heads will nod together. Show how a lie is propagated and expanded by the MSM and see the necks work in tennis-match unison. Throw anything they are predisposed to believe, and beware the stampede. But what to make of propagations and expansions committed by those decrying that practice by the MSM?
Two such cases recently appeared, and the so-called Liberty-minded and Independent Thinkers rushed to judgment as thoughtlessly and ignorant of the facts as any the so-called “sheeple” have ever done. The blogs SENATE BURGLARY: CIA DOMESTIC BLACK–OP TEAM ARRESTED (Jan 30, about the arrest of journalist James O’Keefe and team), and The personhood of corporations (Jan 21, about the SCOTUS ruling striking down the BRCA, aka McCain-Feingold) were repeated verbatim without question on so-called conservative and libertarian sites such as the Wall Street Journal, The Daily Paul, MoveToAmend.Org, etc. Google either of those titles and witness the hundreds of sites reprinting those stories with loud approval – and without checking their facts. In addition, a raft of derived editorials (including at least three here on RagingDebate and TheBurningPlatform were spawned decrying the awful CIA and the terrible SCOTUS.
The problem, of course, is that both stories were fundamentally flawed, mainly made up, and fact-poor. At best, those stories were misleading; less charitably, they were disinformation.
Regarding such disinformation regarding James O’Keefe, here are two recent pieces from one of the few real journalism sites still out there.
Discussion Comments:
SeattleGuy: Thanks, TC. I’ve been watching this story closely since the ACORN dust-up occurred a few months ago. I think it will be used in the history books to explain the demise of the MSM.
Politico: A similar thing is happening with the Toyota sudden-acceleration story.
By now we’ve all seen and heard the horrible story of the 9-1-1 call and the aftermath — all 4 people killed.
However, the story behind the story is that the official accident investigation report — performed by an engineer — was that there was ZERO problems with the accelerator. The springs and other devices were functioning perfectly. Indications are that the owner replaced the standard Lexus floor mats with Lexus floor mats meant for another type Lexus — and the pedal subsequently jammed underneath it. However, one media outlet after another ran the story as Toyota’s fault — and even Toyota got caught up in the hype and acted out of necessity to show it-was-doing-something. There is still no clear-cut evidence of a real problem. Billions and billions of miles driven … and almost all of the terribly few incidents involved drivers older than 70. Something smells fishy here.
And, of course, some Senator or Congressman called for people to stop driving their Toyotas. Well, that’s what you get when the government owns a car business … a little smearing of the competitor, justified or not, never hurts.
LostCongress: I am sure the folks at Government Motors have not tried to make it that much harder for Toyota to fix the problem. See the problem?
One hand of the government is running GM and the other is telling Toyota how big this problem is and warning people to not drive their Toyotas at all until it is fixed. No conflicts of interest there.
Foxynews: I don’t care if the fucking fenders fall off my (made in America) tundra, it’s still a hundred times better than that 2003 f 150 i traded in. rather have a paid-for recall any day than a pile of shit transmission replacement at 48000 miles. tundra has never been in the fix-it shop in 78050 miles. buddies’ new government model shit-o let,w/ less than 8000 mi has been repaired 4 times now for the same problem. THAT’S THE “JUNK IN BOX CRAP” THAT SHOULD BE RECALLED! it’s still not fixed. and now its off to arbitration.
Anon: Exactly correct, Stuck. The stink eminating from the District of Corruption is so vile we can smell it here in Fl. These “people” have no honor and they will stoop to unbelievably low levels to control us. Who cares what the facts are! Toyotas are built by non-union workers, they compete with govt owned GM and Chrysler……soooo lets use this trajedy to discredit Toyota any way we can. In the mean time what’s left of our “country” is going down the shitter at an ever accelerating rate, but the crooks in DC will do nothing about that.
Alex: So I don’t understand, then refute the allegations. Was O’Keefe and three of his “associates” masquerading as telephone repairmen or not?
There is a difference in pretending to be a pimp, a known illegal activity, and pretending to be a telephone repair service person, which is a legal profession. So quit the lecturing and where can I read what actually happened?
NotCNNNews: You’ve explained a lot about spin and dishonesty, most of which anyone who has worked in Washington already knows to be “business as usual,” but you haven’t told us what Mr. O’Keefe was actually doing in Mary Landrieu’s office. The legal accusations appeared to be pretty specific. If those accusations are incorrect, which ones are untrue, and what was occurring instead? This laundry list of “the other side’s” naughtiness tells us very little. Since you know O’Keefe, perhaps you can provide some non-hearsay input into what really occurred. Did they misrepresent their identities and intent in a Federal office building? Did they actually handle Landrieu’s office telephone? Did they ask for directions to the telephone closet? I can appreciate the efforts of any patriot in uncovering corruption, but there is a risk and price for such endeavors if done illegally. It isn’t really reasonable to whine about it after getting caught. What is more reasonable is to appreciate that, at least for the time being, the situation in America is still such that they didn’t disappear into political prison, or worse yet, get shot outside in the street twenty minutes after getting caught.
Bill: If OKeefe had proof of this bribery then he should have taken it to the authorities. He didn’t, obviously. And tried to ‘prove it’ by checking phones? Makes no sense. How is people not getting thru on a phone mean they took a bribe????
Bill: Please explain to me how dressing up as a phone repair person and checking the phones prove that legal bribes were taking place? I don’t care about all this he said, they said, she said the MSM did this Blumenthal said that. Hannah Gile wrote what. Blah blah BS….How does checking a phone prove OKeefe’s idea that Landrieu took a ‘legal’ bribe? How are the two, a legal bribe & nonworking phone, even remotely connected? When I want to see if the government is corrupt I go inside and see if the phones working? Is that it? And if it isn’t then, by Gosh, someone is taking a bribe and I need to put on a telephone repair uniform and rush out to some politician’s office, with a camera hidden in my hard hat, to catch the phone in the act of taking a legal bribe? Do people want me to believe that? Anyway, I need to fix my car so I’m going to dress up as a doctor and take my hidden camera to the hospital and prove that they broke my automobile’s brakes. And when I get arrested that I was simply being a journalist trying to uncover the saboteur doctors that mess up people’s brakes on their cars cause I am an investigative car repair journalist.
Anon: Calling BullShit on the self-proclaimed Purveyors of Truth? Get with the program.
Unfortunately, this is an old discussion that has been closed.
Photo Credit: “Pasqua. Easter” by the bbp is marked with CC BY 2.0.
