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| Home Front: Politix | |
| The Conservative Media Meltdown | |
| 2016-04-22 | |
| by David Cole [TakiMag] However the Trump War resolves itself, we’ve already seen at least one casualty—conservative media cohesion. Sides are being drawn, and blood feuds have been declared. As The New York Times recently pointed out, Trump-inspired divisions and conflicts among normally allied conservative media personalities are growing at an alarming rate, and staying neutral is practically impossible. A recent Guardian piece (for which I was interviewed) about the Hollywood conservative “oasis” Friends of Abe paints a portrait of a “slow-motion civil war” in which members are at each other’s throats over Trump. Friends of Abe used to be a place where everyone could hang out and get along: the Breitbart people, the National Review people, the RedState folks, the Horowitz clan. At any given past event, you might have seen Ben Shapiro doffing his yarmulke to Ann Coulter, Roger Simon clinking glasses with S.E. Cupp, and Bill Whittle and David Horowitz passed out together in a corner after forgetting to breathe while monologuing at each other. Such unity! What the hell went wrong? Is it just Trump? Well, yes, in that the Trump candidacy put the hot needle to the zit. But the puss had been building up for some time, and there are many reasons why. Look at the Lewandowski/Fields affair and the ensuing Breitbart.com crack-up. Everyone involved is unlikable. There are absolutely no heroes in that debacle. Michelle Fields is a whining millennial drama queen who claimed—with a straight face—that Lewandowski’s arm tug was the worst thing that happened to her since her father’s death. This is why the “old media,” corrupt and biased as it is, still commands respect. When old-school reporters like Sam Donaldson were arm-touched, they responded by simply telling the unwanted toucher, “Get your hands off me.” They understood that the occasional arm touch was a hazard that comes with the job. They didn’t respond to unwanted contact by calling a press conference and going on an “I’ve been victimized” media junket.
Shapiro was editor at large of Breitbart.com at the time Yiannopoulos made that statement in a piece posted on the site, and he was totally cool with it. No angry pressers, no job-quitting hissy fit. Tugging a female reporter’s arm is an unpardonable sin, but cheering the ruthless beating of a female reporter is fine. That’s some nice Old Testament ethics there, Benny. How very Deuteronomous of you. But if Fields and Shapiro are bad actors in this freak show, what can be said of Patrick Howley, the Breitbart.com reporter who initially doubted Fields’ story? Howley, it turns out, is also a master at faking events and making himself the center of a story. Frankly, his record puts Fields’ to shame. In October 2011, Howley “infiltrated” a Washington, D.C., Occupy group in order to provoke a clash with security guards by gate-crashing the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum while pretending to be one of the Occupy protesters. I had the honor of witnessing firsthand Howley’s unethical behavior when he contacted me in late 2014 regarding a “scoop” he thought he had about Bill Clinton and me. Howley, then at the Daily Caller, had previously misattributed a quote in an earlier piece involving a Democrat congresswoman who’d written me a fan letter (such is the surreal nature of my life that fan letters I receive become headline news). After refusing to correct the quote, he got in touch with me about the Clinton story, which (purportedly) involved me, the former president, and country-rock singer Julia Garlington, who used to open for Blake Shelton before, shall we say, “falling on hard times.” Even in the face of my warning that the Cole/Clinton story was bogus (which it was), Howley went ahead with it anyway. To be fair, I let it happen, because these days I have zero tolerance for two things: misattributed or fake quotes, and death threats. Howley, having perpetrated the former, was solidly on my “do not resuscitate” list when I saw him hanging himself with his own rope. The result was much hilarity in the form of a public pantsing of Howley (by sites like AlterNet, TPM, and Media Matters) that I hope hastened his departure from the DC (although, amazingly, the discredited Clinton/Cole story is still up, with no update or correction). Howley is no better than Fields and Shapiro. More at the link | |
| Posted by:badanov |
| #12 The "conservative" Media are showing their true colours now. Not conservative at the core, but pandering to whatever gets them ratings. Just like the Progressives they used to hammer for being hypocritical. Coulter, Hannity, Falwell, and even Limbaugh fall into this bunch who want ratings over all else. The mask is off. And for the audiences, so are the blinders. |
| Posted by: Slung Smith3824 2016-04-22 23:56 |
| #11 The Dems will try to paint Trump as racist against Blacks but I don't think it has really been sticking. They've got the Black Lives Matter but I'm not sure about the bulk of African Americans. A lot of blacks have been hit by the same economic issues the poor whites have been hit by. It will be an interesting campaign. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2016-04-22 17:03 |
| #10 A Republican split maybe, but no conservative supports Trump. |
| Posted by: Thravimp Lover of the Antelope7006 2016-04-22 13:27 |
| #9 I've said it before: That word "conservative" seems to mean different things to different people. Guys like Jeb Bush calling himself conservative when he's willing to leave our borders undefended makes no sense to me. Trump doesn't exactly fit into my concept of a true conservative, especially on the social issues, but nobody else seems to understand that American these days is in a serious state of decline. As for Lewandowski, grabbing that girl's arm was perhaps not heroic but it was his job. What a novel concept it is for a guy to understand what his job is and then actually do it. |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2016-04-22 12:46 |
| #8 I'd say short lived urban riots if they call forth the militia rather than the National Guard. "You mean this is real?" |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2016-04-22 12:36 |
| #7 then Reconstruction V2.0 |
| Posted by: Frank G 2016-04-22 12:01 |
| #6 Prediction: Trump defeats the Beest, urban riots. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2016-04-22 11:22 |
| #5 Damn spell check and me on this I phone do not get along. Sorry |
| Posted by: 49 pan 2016-04-22 11:21 |
| #4 Funny but it seems to me we are seeing the same thing on the dem side. Not so much in the press but more so with the voters in the party. The gop will rally around trump when he wins, however begrudgingly. Sort of like the eels and Obama. However divided the goo it, they are nothing compared to the dems. The dems are radicalized, in a near fascist state. They are inciting violence and hate over every topic. There is zero rational discourse with the people of that party. When Hillary wins the party will rally to her, the Bernie supporters-voters, will not. They will feel cheated and played by a broken system. They will not support her, some might cross over, some will take their radicalization to the next violent level. Understand the occupy socialist communist movement has legs, when suppressed the socialist movement becomes violent. This election will be interesting. |
| Posted by: 49 pan 2016-04-22 11:20 |
| #3 What is interesting is the depth of dislike or outright rejection of many on the right of democracy. Oh, they love the trappings and rituals, but actual democracy seems to either frighten them or disgusts them. In that they are no different than the authoritarians on the left. "It's all too important to leave to the 'mob'." We must have order here! It's all about power (and theater). |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2016-04-22 08:04 |
| #2 Two kinds of Republicans. One type doesn't mind the giant bloated bureaucracy, just thinks they should run it because they can do a better job than Democrats. They don't care if leviathan exists. They've made the choice that rights are trumped by the appearance of compassion and civility - said appearance run slightly better than Democrats might do so. The other type understands that half the agencies in government need to be swept away summarily because they either do nothing of authentic worth or actually damage the ability of the private sector to produce. And that if this isn't done - very, very soon - the point of no return will be upon us. And that this must be done without regard to the financial damage it will do to the fired hacks. And that civility, while nice, will never be reciprocated by leviathan. Choose wisely. |
| Posted by: no mo uro 2016-04-22 07:51 |
| #1 Ah yes, the death of conservatism. Only slightly out of context, but what the hell. At least the author has it right in the closing para: “Muzzies” are primitive, ignorant goat-buggerers worthy only of being on the other side of walls, the business end of guns, and the receiving end of bombs..... You earn your neocon bones by being uncompromising in attitude and language regarding the “Muslim problem.” |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2016-04-22 03:02 |