Feb
4
How a Liberal Lie is Created
Over at Big Journalism Larry O’Connor gives us chapter and verse about how a lie was started about James O’Keefe (he of ACORN video fame) and how it developed from a mildly false accusation in an obscure, liberal outlet in to a major series of slanders in the MSM. From O’Keefe attending a conference at Georgetown regarding race, a story was spun that O’Keefe organized a white supremacist forum. O’Connor points out that the least effort at investigation would swiftly blow the story out of the water, but no one did that.
Why didn’t they do such investigating? Because the story of O’Keefe – who wrecked ACORN – being a racist fits the liberal narrative of just what sort of people are opposed to ACORN…and, of course, President Obama, the Democrat party and the larger American left. The left already believes that O’Keefe and everyone like him must be racists because they oppose ACORN – and so a story “confirming” this is not something to be investigated for veracity, but to be accepted as proof of what is already known.
This sort of thing has been done by the left for ages – and prior to the advent of the New Media, they always got away with it. Not only got away with it in the sense of never being successfully called on the lies, but got away with it in the sense of permanently setting the frame of reference for various issues. The most famous case of this is what the left did to Senator Joe McCarthy and his attempts to purge communist traitors from the United States government.
In the narrative of the left, McCarthy cruelly persecuted people who were merely liberal reformers and he did this because he was a fascist out to destroy all that is good and decent in the world. McCarthy falsely accused people of being communists and by doing it in public, permanently wrecked the lives of sweet, innocent liberals who were only trying to do the right thing. This narrative is entirely at variance with the facts as was conclusively demonstrated in M. Stanton Evans’ Blacklisted by History: the Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America’s Enemies. But so successful was the liberal narrative that even conservatives, when they want to condemn someone of unfair politics, will accuse them of “McCarthyism”.
Now, decades on, we know the full story – McCarthy never wanted to name names in public, but liberal Democrats forced his hand, he never varied the number of accused communists in government and, most importantly, he was dead right that a large number of demonstrable communist traitors had infiltrated our government and subverted national policy in favor of the communist cause.
Back then, McCarthy only had the MSM to present the truth to the American people – unfortunately for McCarthy (and America) the MSM was already by that point firmly captured by the liberal world view and was, of course, also heavily infiltrated by communists and fellow travelers who used their positions in the MSM to direct slanders against the Senator. Ever since that very successful campaign, the left has repeatedly used the same tactics against anyone who proves an effective critic of the left or, indeed, just hampers their ability to advance their cause. The only slight change was in the 60′s when the left latched on to the civil rights movement and started to accuse critics of the left of being racists as well as being fascists.
Everyone who rises to any level of prominence in anti-left circles is hit with this sort of thing. Reagan, Limbaugh, Gingrich – Palin, Beck, Hannity; on and on it goes, with the tactics always the same. Accuse them of being racists. Of being closet fascists. Of being cruel and inhuman to poor, innocent liberals who just want some justice. Use the friendly MSM to broadcast the slanders and rely on same to ensure that the truth, if it comes out at all, is muted.
With the New Media, the day is done when such tactics can be used with nearly assured success. They still try it, of course, but it is less and less effective. They are reduced to expedients such as trying to find a kook out there on the right and building him up as a leader, so that they can pretend the kook represents the rank and file.
The most important thing to keep in mind about accusations against leaders of the right is that they are almost certainly untrue, and when not entirely untrue, they are invariably taken out of context. The thing is that we’re not a collection of racists and fascists and so such accusations are never based in reality – but the left will keep trying, and so our task is to be vigilant and, whenever such an accusation is made, wait for the facts and then, as necessary, counter attack with full force in defense of the slandered.
We are now engaged in a show down with the left – the bridges are burned between us and them and one side or the other will have to permanently give way to the other. We have the means to ensure that the truth gets out and that means we have the ability to utterly destroy the left. No more will American patriots be slandered in to silence – the future belongs to the patriots and the truth, not to the leftists and the lies.
