I try to be civil.  Really, I do.  Even across party lines.  Some of my best friends are liberals.  I talk with liberals; I’m the guy who works overtime to invite liberals to MOB parties; heck, even Uptake invited me on their show to talk last weekend.  I got interviewed in the friggin’ Utne Reader, for crying out loud!

Not saying I try to cozy up to the other side.  But I am not one to suspend the Golden Rule just because I differ with someone’ politics. I prize civility.

But I have my limits.

As my friend and Salem Radio colleague Dennis Prager says, I strive for clarity more than agreement.  Being clear is a genuine virtue, especially in political blogging – a trade built to a great extent on obfuscation and spin.

So when “Tom Angelo” at Minnesota Progressive Project writes:

Mitch “Thank God for Tom Delay” Berg likes to pick on us here at MN Progressive Project…

Let’s do try to be clear: I don’t like to “pick on” the MPP.

I like to reply to little bon mots like this, in about the same way I like to shoot rubber bands when I’m bored:

Here is an excerpt from a post on Mitch’s site yesterday:

The stock market does well for a president – Clinton – who, to be fair, was forced to do a decent, hands-off job on economic policy by a conservative congress, and to be even more fair was benefitting from the “Peace Dividend” Ronald Reagan gave him: “The President is responsible for the strong market!”

The stock market starts correcting into a mild recession as overvalued tech stocks correct at the very end of his term in office: “The President is not responsible for the market!”

The already-ailing market tumbles after 9/11: “The President is responsible for the weak market!”

Leaving aside the historical errors in the post, you can see what he’s doing, making the case that the performance of the markets is assigned to the president on a partisan basis. When there is a Democrat in office and the market is doing well than it’s because of the President. When a Republican is in office and the market is doing well it’s not because of the president.

But do you notice what is missing from Mitch’s post?

Proof.

That’s right, “Mr. Angelo”.  Because it’s a qualitative observation.  There is no quantitative measurement for impressions of bias (which is why people like, say, everyone on the MPP can get away with saying the mainstream media is conservative).  There is no “proof”, per se, short of piling up dozens of quotes from drooling leftybloggers and cable-TV shills saying…exactly what I said.

But let’s continue. I like to mock the Minnesota Progressive Project for their mindless hyperdramatics.

I like to make sure the world knows that some of your “writers” are shrieking ninnies who are groaningly incurious and are, let’s be honest, almost too obvious to parody.

 I want to make sure that we’re clear on the fact that the Minnesota Progressive Project posted a “diary” by an anonymous hitblogger who turns out to be a sad, risible little fellow from New York who is motivated by a curious vendetta; the piece had not a single word of of truth in it (except for the bits that are either standard industry practices or things the NARN has been joking about for years).  It used a manufactured source that has gone public and disavowed the use of his information in the context that Fred Gates (“Jimmy Olson” to the MPP) presented it.  It was, in short, a lie.  Pure and simple. And the MPP ran it without question.

Hit the link.  It’s got the proof.

Oh, yeah – and that if you want to find out things about Mitch Berg, you should do what a “journalist” would do and ask, rather than send giggling, dippy chuzzlewits like Grace Kelly calling around town looking for dirt on me. (Yes, Grace, you gutless hack, you are busted!)

And when you pile all that together, I guess I don’t so much like to say “if brains, talent and integrity were gasoline, the entire staff of the Minnesota Progressive Project couldn’t drive a moped around the inside of a Cheerio” so much as I merely find the statement accurate enough to run with.

Glad we’re clear on that.

This entry was posted by by Mitch Berg on Monday, April 6th, 2009 at 5:33 am and is filed under Lefty "Alt"-Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.