On Tuesday, Sept. 15, and Wednesday, Sept. 16, I will be joining 47 talk-radio hosts from all over the nation who have been invited to broadcast our shows from Washington, D.C.’s annual “Hold Their Feet to the Fire” event, sponsored by the Federation for American Immigration Reform, or FAIR.
I have been honored to accept this invitation again this year.
But I have, by e-mail, received a copy of an extensive statement which contends that this invitation to me, and to CNN’s Lou Dobbs, among others, is no honor at all; and is, instead, shameful(!)
This statement’s extensive headline includes the following from a decidedly left-wing organization called “Media Matters for America”:
“DOBBS REPRESENTS ‘ONGOING THREAT’; PRIME-TIME HOST’S APPEARANCE AT ANTI-IMMIGRATION RALLY ON CAPITOL HILL CAUSES FURTHER PROBLEMS FOR CNN’S CREDIBILITY”
Initially, this rally is by no means “anti-immigration.”
Rather, it is anti-illegal immigration.
But that important distinction apparently meant no difference to this Media Matters organization, given its desperation to distort.
M.M.’s president, Eric Burns, wrote to CNN President Jonathan Klein the following – among other seething accusations:
“Mr. Dobbs represents an ongoing threat to CNN’s credibility as a serious news organization, in no small part because of his polemical coverage of immigration issues and his continued use of his CNN show to lend prominence to groups like FAIR. The attention and legitimacy he gave to the ‘birther’ movement – and CNN’s condoning of his actions – did real damage to that credibility. His participation in the upcoming FAIR rally would do further, serious damage. We urge you to finally acknowledge that Mr. Dobbs’ actions in this and other contexts are inconsistent with the reputation that CNN strives to maintain.”
While most of Mr. Burns’ burning letter consisted of an attempted roasting of the allegedly Dreadful Dobbs, I was also honored to be deplored – even very briefly (but by name and organization) – in the next-to-last paragraph of this Burns Blast, as follows:
“There should be no doubt concerning the content of the upcoming rally. It will give a platform to precisely the type of radio hosts you, Mr. Klein, reportedly said would no longer be invited on CNN. Speakers last year included Les Kinsolving, a WorldNetDaily.com columnist who asked Robert Gibbs at a White House press briefing why the president won’t release his ‘long-form birth certificate.'”
Why am I and Lou Dobbs, and, I suspect, all 45 other talk-radio hosts, denounced by this organization called “Media Matters for America”?
The Wikipedia encyclopedia identifies David Brock as the founder of this organization. Wikipedia also reports of Mr. Brock:
“In 1986, he joined the staff of the weekly conservative news magazine Insight on the News, a sister publication of the Washington Times. After a stint as a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, in March 1992 Brock authored a sharply critical story about Clarence Thomas’ accuser, Anita Hill, in the American Spectator magazine, in which he said Hill might be ‘a bit nutty and a bit slutty.’ …
“(But) in ‘Blinded by the Right’ (2002), Brock said that he had reached a turning point – he had thoroughly examined charges against the Clintons, could not find any evidence of wrongdoing, and did not want to make any more misleading claims. Brock further said that his former friends in right-wing politics shunned him because [his book] ‘Seduction’ did not adequately attack the Clintons. He also argued that his ‘friends’ had not really been friends at all, due to the open secret that Brock was gay. …
“In July 1997, Brock published a confessional piece in Esquire magazine titled ‘Confessions of a Right-Wing Hit Man,’ in which he recanted much of what he said in his two best-known American Spectator articles and criticized his own reporting methods. Discouraged at the reaction his Hillary Clinton biography received, he said, ‘I … want out. David Brock the Road Warrior of the Right is dead.'”
Ladies and gentlemen, this begs the question as to WHICH ONE OF THE APPARENTLY TWO DECIDEDLY DIFFERENT DAVIDS SHOULD WE TRY TO BELIEVE?
That, and how credible is anything founded by this Great Big Shifter?
Wikipedia also reports:
“Bill O’Reilly, the subject of many Media Matters items and a frequent critic of Media Matters, has called them a ‘vile propaganda outfit … which specializes in distorting comments made by politicians, pundits and media people.'”
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