That New Tone
By Mitch Berg
If we learned anything over the winter, it’s that metaphors are out. Put “crosshairs” on a map? Say “don’t retreat – reload?” Use an even obliquely martial or firearms-related metaphor, even in an utterly political context? You are clearly and immediately demanding violence!
Or so says the mainstream media. When it’s Republicans.
So it was interesting reading the latest tack from Media Matters, the Soros funded propaganda firm that call the shots, directly or indirectly, for so much of the left’s “alternative” media:
The liberal group Media Matters has quietly transformed itself in preparation for what its founder, David Brock, described in an interview as an all-out campaign of “guerrilla warfare and sabotage” aimed at the Fox News Channel.
So they’ll be kneecapping Fox News crews, and putting sugar in their gas tanks?
The group, launched as a more traditional media critic, has all but abandoned its monitoring of newspapers and other television networks and is narrowing its focus to Fox and a handful of conservative websites, which its leaders view as political organizations and the “nerve center” of the conservative movement. The shift reflects the centrality of the cable channel to the contemporary conservative movement, as well as the loathing it inspires among liberals …
Irrational loathing, at that.
“The strategy that we had had toward Fox was basically a strategy of containment,” said Brock, Media Matters’ chairman and founder and a former conservative journalist, adding that the group’s main aim had been to challenge the factual claims of the channel and to attempt to prevent them from reaching the mainstream media.
The new strategy, he said, is a “war on Fox.”
Wow.
What a metaphor.
Conservatism’s response? “Left 20, Drop 50, Fire for Effect.”
Metaphorically speaking.
March 28th, 2011 at 7:15 am
Isn’t it about time that conservatives and Republicans finally took the libs at their word? The Left wing has declared war. We are far past the time for civility, turning the other cheek and being nice. If violence and threats are the new playbook for those on the left, we should respond in kind. No more Mr. Nice Guy. Bullies need to be put in their place.
March 28th, 2011 at 7:31 am
IS,
No. That’s what they want.
It was, in fact, a standard Nazi tactic – goad their opposition into swinging first (or appearing to have swung first) as a justification for greater violence “in response”; they started doing it in the twenties, and it culminated with the Gleiwitz incident (dressing a bunch of convicts in Polish uniforms, shooting them, and flopping them down around a German radio station on the border, to justify their invasion in 1939).
And you know the Dems read from the same basic playbook; they’ve been working overtime to find provocations, even manufacturing the “avalanche of violence” last year during the Obamacare protests and the Tea Parties.
The lefty alt-media played along cluelessly, naturally.
They are trying to provoke us, to justify repressing us. And as long as they control the media, the only real response is to continue to be better than them.
Hard as that can be.
March 28th, 2011 at 7:51 am
Speaking of Germany, the (Red)Greens have won 24% of the vote and are likely to be leading Germany along with the other motley (Il)liberals.
The nuclear mess in Japan is being cited for Merkel’s defeat. However, I think you could also blame recent NATO kinetic actions.
March 28th, 2011 at 7:57 am
What I don’t quite understand is how does one become a “former conservative”? I understand “former liberal”, having undergone that transformation personally. We know now that the the executive center of the brain doesn’t (commonly) begin to fully function until the mid-twenties, but how does one back peddle from logic to liberalism? Could there be a Charlie Sheen gene out there?
March 28th, 2011 at 8:03 am
Kermit, in most cases, people become more liberal because they see some reward in it. Garry Wills had more acclimation from liberal academics by turning left. Arianna Huffington got lotsa big lefty money. David Brock gets better dating results.
March 28th, 2011 at 9:21 am
Kermit: “What I don’t quite understand is how does one become a “former conservative”?” How about receiving millions from Soros? And realizing that you have burned so many bridges with traditional media organizations that you won’t get hired anywhere else?
What shocks is the doubling/tripling down on Fox News. People may not agree with Ed Schulz, Rachel Maddow or Lawrence O’Donnell or Mika Breznehev(sp), but I’m not aware of any movement, Conservative or otherwise to shut them up or target them (other than their own internal incompetence in going balls to the wall with internet hoaxes when the hoax fits their agenda).
March 28th, 2011 at 9:36 am
What I don’t quite understand is how does one become a “former conservative”?
I think it usually starts by the MSM taking the loosest possible definition of “conservative,” e.g. someone who claimed at one point to be a Republican or who grew up in a Republican household and therefore is a dubbed a “conservative” by default. Then the individual in question, after spending the bulk of their time in the public eye attacking conservatives (or some strawman set up to represent “conservatives”) reluctantly declares “I didn’t leave the GOP/conservative movement/whatever, it left me!”
Rinse and repeat.
March 28th, 2011 at 9:46 am
”Left 20, Drop 50, Fire for Effect.”
Time On Target-589 days
March 28th, 2011 at 10:35 am
The classic SitD post:
1. Mitch hyperventilates over non-threats.
2. Mitchketeer weighs in with suggestion to actually start a campaign of violence against liberals.
3. A horrified Mitch furiously backpedals, asserts that conservatives should “be better” than liberals.
4. Mitch shows us how to “be better” by comparing liberals to Nazis, an unfortunate tactic as it will only lead the more unbalanced Mitchketeers to conclude that violence against liberals is morally acceptable.
5. Astounded at Mitch’s fumbling of the post, Mitch sympathizers quickly effort to change the subject.
March 28th, 2011 at 10:55 am
Tim, you truly live in alternate universe. That is only explanation I can come up with to explain the sheer stupidity of comments like that one. Seriously dude, first look up the definition of “analogy”, and then consult a mental health professional.
But please, continue representing those on the left. We in the reality-based community need all the help we can get.
March 28th, 2011 at 11:03 am
Media Matters is a 501C3, non-profit. Its stated mission cannot be to destroy a legal business. If it is, it is in violation of the law. Of course, law becomes a relative term in the Leftosphere. The law, in the Leftosphere is a construct of the Greater Good. Liberties? – an invention of dead, white males in white wigs.
March 28th, 2011 at 11:13 am
Politico:
“. . . David Brock, described in an interview as an all-out campaign of “guerrilla warfare and sabotage” aimed at the Fox News Channel.”
Tim in St. Paul:
“1. Mitch hyperventilates over non-threats.”
What more can you say?
Just that Brock is deeply creepy and not mentally stable. That boy won’t come to a good end.
March 28th, 2011 at 11:40 am
David Brock is an admitted liar.
March 28th, 2011 at 12:19 pm
Does MM’s outing of itself as the tip of the left’s spittle-flecked spear harm other Soros sockpuppet theaters?
You betcha.
It also bodes ill for supposidly non-Soros-affiliated moonbat papspew factories like the UpChuck. Only a dimwitted leftist would ever dare use one of these sources to bolster an argument, so I’m working on coining the appropriate version of Godwin’s law to suit the occasion.
March 28th, 2011 at 1:19 pm
I thought about replying to Tim’s delusional little brainfart.
But I’ve come to realize that it’s never, ever really worth the effort.
March 28th, 2011 at 1:31 pm
Mitch, Tim is right this time. You should not have used the Nazis as a reference. You should have used the KKK because they are Democrats.
March 28th, 2011 at 1:47 pm
The law, in the Leftosphere is a construct of the Greater Good.
Absolutely. Just ask the folks at Eric Holder’s Injustice Department.
But I’ve come to realize that it’s never, ever really worth the effort.
This is like a moment out of Atlas Shrugged. Am I the only one who would love to listen to a one-sided conversation between Tim and RickDFL?
March 28th, 2011 at 4:32 pm
yes
March 29th, 2011 at 9:15 am
Am I the only one who would love to listen to a one-sided conversation between Tim and RickDFL?
I’d join you, but I have better things to do. The cat’s litterbox needs changing.
March 29th, 2011 at 9:51 am
Well I never did see Dumb and Dumberer.