I’m going to start a new non-profit.\u00a0 With help from my anonymous donors, I’m going to defend leftybloggers from people who attack their own logical, rhetorical and ethical lapses.\u00a0I’ll call myself a “Citizen Advocate”.\u00a0 I’ll even publish a Code of Ethics.\u00a0 To wit:<\/p>\n
There.\u00a0 I should be legal now.\u00a0 Onward and upward.<\/p>\n
The other day, Learned Foot\u00a0started digging into one of Minnesota Monitor’s financiers<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Yesterday, a fella named Bretton Jones, writing for a blog called “Minneapolitics”, swung at Foot’s fastball like Stevie Wonder <\/a>going for a Johann Santana slider at 3-2…<\/p>\n …ooops, sorry.\u00a0 I forgot Rule 1 of my Code of Ethics.\u00a0 Let’s try again.\u00a0<\/p>\n Bretton “Mister” Jones “And Me” took a mighty thwack at Foot’s piece<\/a>:<\/p>\n Let\u2019s go a\u2019 dissecting shall we?<\/p>\n \u201cBut we rip mostly because they are a paid propaganda arm of the Democratian Party (not in actuality, but de facto), who try to sell themselves off as a legitimate news source.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n What is the Kool Aid Report a de facto propaganda arm of?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Mr. Jones,\u00a0are we sure we’re\u00a0clear on the concept?<\/p>\n Learned Foot is clear about the fact that he’s a satire-oriented “Thunderjournalist” with explicit biases.\u00a0 He has never passed himself off as a journalist (although when he puts on his “researcher” cap – he’s a lawyer, after all – he routinely shreds the Monitor, the Strib and\u00a0other purported “journalistic” outlets).\u00a0<\/p>\n The Monitor, however, does <\/em>try to pass itself off as “journalists”, albeit “progressive”\u00a0ones.\u00a0\u00a0The goal seems to be to\u00a0present something passing as “news” to the audience.\u00a0 Foot is merely\u00a0showing that audience – those who don’t already know, anyway\u00a0– the funding that motivates their biases.<\/p>\n It’s called “transparency”.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0Next they pull from another blog [Mine, as it happens.\u00a0 Mr. Jones apparently doesn’t know how to link].<\/p>\n \u201cWe conservative bloggers give the Minnesota Monitor a hard time. As has been amply observed by many local center-right bloggers, the MinMon is supported by the \u201cCenter for Independent Media\u201d, which until fairly recently shared offices with \u201cMedia Matters for America\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n So this guy has proven that there were people at MM4A that had an idea to form an org to give grants to media orgs to create solid citizen and\/or advocacy-oriented journalism.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Um, no, Brandon, and that’s really not the point.\u00a0\u00a0OF COURSE I haven’t “proven” anything – although the fact that they shared office space certainly lends the appearance of a connection,\u00a0something the reader should be aware of – but the point is, we dont’ know <\/em>where their funding comes from.\u00a0 If they want to pass themselves off as “journalists”, bully for them, but unless they’re open about disclosing\u00a0the hand that\u00a0jerks their leashes, someone needs to find\u00a0it out for <\/em>the audience. \u00a0<\/p>\n Then he drops the SOROS-BOMB. Watch much Bill O\u2019Reilly, fella?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Actually, no.\u00a0 Never have.\u00a0 Go back to Talking Point Central and get a new cliche!<\/p>\n And citing Soros in caps may pass for cutesy among the “truthiness-based community”, but that pesky fact of the Center for Independent Media’s old connection to Soros-funded Media Matters just keeps rearing its head. \u00a0<\/p>\n Mr. Jones returns to citing me:<\/p>\n \u201cThe Center for Independent Media pays a group of local bloggers a fairly fat stipend, by blogging standards, to write for the Minnesota Monitor. One must, on the surface, give the CIM and the Monitor some points for at least trying to put up a good appearance; they bandy their \u201cCode of Ethics\u201d about with giggly abandon.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Now compare what MN MON and CIM do to what Fox News is and ask yourself which is a greater affront to reality.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n While the Fox\u00a0News reference is a strawman, and a dumb one at that,\u00a0to be fair I did <\/em>expect a Halliburton reference.\u00a0 Point for Mr. Jones.<\/p>\n Everyone <\/em>knows\u00a0not only Fox’s purported orientation, but the sources of its funding.\u00a0 It’s\u00a0a publicly-held corporation.\u00a0 Rupert Murdoch is among the most public people in the world.\u00a0\u00a0There is no mystery.\u00a0 <\/em><\/p>\n On the other hand, the Monitor would have the uninformed reader (what other kind of liberal reader is <\/em>there?) that they are an organic, independent body that owes no fealty above the Center for Independent Media.\u00a0 Foot, and the rest of us,\u00a0are showing that it’s simply not true.<\/em><\/p>\n Which doesn’t bear on their right to present their product, their way.\u00a0 We’re just making sure the full story is available to the reader (since the Monitor damn sure won’t).\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0Sure MN MON exists to push a certain values-laden agenda. So do I. Is this some big f-ing secret? No. This Thursday I will be doing video coverage at Fair Vote MN\u2019s Fund Raising Party to promote IRV in St Paul. Whether or not I\u2019ve (not yet) recieved funding from the CIM wouldn\u2019t be an issue either way. I do it cuz I love it and like meeting cool new people. If I got paid, whatever.<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s fair to say that some of their \u201cjournalists\u201d make a game effort to try to meet that \u201ccode\u201d; an examination of Minnesota Monitor\u2019s coverage shows that the \u201ccode\u201d gets ignored when convenient. And while questions have been raised about CIM\u2019s funding, they\u2019ve never revealed anything – although the phrase \u201cliberals with deep pockets\u201d has slipped out in informal conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Got any examples? Didn\u2019t think so.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n
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