{"id":3119,"date":"2008-08-21T05:20:05","date_gmt":"2008-08-21T10:20:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=3119"},"modified":"2008-08-21T05:20:05","modified_gmt":"2008-08-21T10:20:05","slug":"the-disingenuity-of-the-bought-off-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=3119","title":{"rendered":"The Disingenuity Of The Bought-Off Media"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andy Birkey, writing at the Minnesoros “Independent<\/a>”\u00a0 <\/em>and the TC Daily Planet<\/a><\/em>, carries water for the “anarchists”.\u00a0 In a piece that came out last night, Birkey participates – wittingly or not – in misdirection, obfuscation and building enough strawmen to fill the Excel Center:<\/p>\n

With the Twin Cities set to host massive protests, an influx of media and thousands of Republicans and supporters, local corporate media [Hahahahahahahaha! Birkey, an employee of a full-time propaganda organization, is sniffing down his nose about “corporate media”! – Ed.<\/em>] are looking to fuel fears that things could get out of control.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Really?<\/p>\n

They’re “looking” to fuel fears?<\/p>\n

Like it’s an agenda item?<\/p>\n

Birkey states that as if it’s a documentable fact, rather than an editorial position.<\/p>\n

More on that in a bit.<\/p>\n

One activist group being targeted \u2014 they say, unfairly \u2014 is anarchists. They state that their plans do not include violence and that both their message and tactics are willfully misunderstood.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well, if they say so.<\/p>\n

Except that “their” “message” flip flops about wildly.\u00a0 I asked one of the planners of the “Militant” September 4 march if they renounced violence – vandalism, blockading freeways, attacks on delegates.\u00a0 She\/they refused to commit<\/a>; I’d be willing to chalk it up to a thick-headed juvenile game of self-aggrandizement…<\/p>\n

…but we know better than that.<\/p>\n

While local anarchists organizing actions at the RNC<\/span> are loathe to speak to the news media, they have done extensive interviews with local community-based media.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Hm.\u00a0 Why would that be?<\/p>\n

Because at best, the local “community-based” leftymedia are active shills for all things left, and reliable conduits of propaganda?<\/p>\n

Just a suggestion.<\/p>\n

Their message and clarifications have fallen on very few ears. Here\u2019s what they have to say about the media, their plans and anarchism as a philosophy. None of the members of the RNC<\/span> Welcoming Committee use their real names in media appearances.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cWe are not as scary\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been painted in that bad light, being compared to terrorist attacks on the Xcel Energy Center, or chemical weapons or other forms of violence that we are criticized for,\u201d RNC<\/span> Welcoming Committee member Bara Cade told Eric Angell on Our World in Depth a program on the local cable access network MTN<\/span>. \u201cIt\u2019s important for people to know we are not as scary as people make us out to be.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Well, “Ms. Cade” is right at that.\u00a0 Individually, “anarchists” are a pretty pathetic lot.\u00a0 Or at least they were when I knew them.\u00a0 Back when I was the only conservative pundit in the Twin Cities punk rock circuit, I knew a bunch of people from the “Backroom Anarchist Center”; indeed, I interviewed a few of them on the old “Mitch Berg Show”.\u00a0 They were, individually, feeble little twerps; and behind all their “working-class” bravado, each and every one that I ever met, after a little research, turned out to be a rich little brat from posh suburb, victim of an expensive Macalester or St. Thomas or (in some hard-luck cases) U of M education, who apparently got some rebellious kick out of wearing a “Che” t-shirt around their insurance executive daddy and housewife mommy.\u00a0 I’ve seen les<\/p>\n

Barry Cade, another member of the Welcoming Committee, said, \u201cOur tactics are not terroristic. If anything I would call them empowering.\u201d<\/p>\n

They do intend to prevent delegates from reaching the convention by blockading transportation routes \u2014 often with street theater, including a planned dance party by queer group Bash Back!, and even the possibility of piling stuffed teddy bears at an intersection.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So in other words, they don’t want violence; but if some angry person running late for work jumps out of their car and gets pounded flat for their efforts, they’ll have been “attacked by the injustice in the system”.<\/p>\n

I’m not even going to bother fisking the rest of Birkey’s cowardly piece of tripe.<\/p>\n

But we’re not done with this topic.<\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Andy Birkey, writing at the Minnesoros “Independent”\u00a0 and the TC Daily Planet, carries water for the “anarchists”.\u00a0 In a piece that came out last night, Birkey participates – wittingly or not – in misdirection, obfuscation and building enough strawmen to fill the Excel Center: With the Twin Cities set to host massive protests, an influx […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-days-of-adolescent-rage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3119\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}