[CLUE-Talk] [Fwd: MRC Alert Special: ABC's War News Touts Doubt and Dissent]

[Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier]

On Wed, 2003-03-26 at 07:43, Randy Arabie wrote:
> On Tuesday, 25 March 2003 at 22:47:58 -0700, Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier
> <clue at dissociatedpress.net> wrote:
> >
> > Unlike the right-wingers, I don't have a problem with people exercising
> > free speech -- even when they like to twist the facts as much as these
> > folks. I won't call them traitors or cast aspersions on their patriotism
> > even though they're doing their level best to silence dissent that is
> > constitutionally protected. But, I'm just as free to call them on their
> > bias as they are to spew it. So...you can pretty much expect me to play
> > "watchdog" whenever Kevin feels the need to pollute the CLUE-talk list
> > with trash from MRC. 
> 
> Ok, I can't let that one slide through.
> 
> Give me an example of the "right-wingers" who are calling the protesters
> traitors.  And while you are at it, please tell me what they are doing
> to silence the dissent.

Here are some excerpts from a good starting point... 

Some Dare Call It Treason
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15422

On a recent edition of his nightly program, O'Reilly said that "Once the
war against Saddam Hussein begins, we expect every American to support
our military, and if you can't do that, just shut up. Americans, and
indeed our foreign allies who actively work against our military once
the war is underway, will be considered enemies of the state by me.

A recent column by conservative columnist Michelle Malkin echoed Senator
Graham's sentiments: "What color is a human shield?" Malkin writes.
"Crayola needs to invent a new hue weaker than lemonade and paler than
jaundice: Traitor Yellow." Malkin says that the human shields are as
"willfully treacherous as American al Qaeda enemy combatant John Walker
Lindh. The only place that's fit for these stateless turncoats to call
home is a detainee bunk bed at Guantanamo Bay."

In "An Open Letter To The Hollywood Bunch" dated March 4, the
Nashville-based country western singer Charlie Daniels wrote: "Sean
Penn, you're a traitor to the United States of America. You gave aid and
comfort to the enemy. How many American lives will your little, 'fact
finding trip' to Iraq cost? You encouraged Saddam to think that we
didn't have the stomach for war."

As demonstrators were preparing for the February 15th anti-war rally
march in New York City, the conservative New York Sun ran an editorial
referring readers to Article III in the Constitution which says,
"Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying war
against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and
comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony
of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court."
The editorial suggested that "'anti-war' protesters – we prefer to call
them protesters against freeing Iraq – are giving, at the very least,
comfort to Saddam Hussein." 

The Web site of Michael Savage, host of a popular daily talk-radio show
and a weekly television program on MSNBC, features a banner headline:
"The Sedition Act – Time to Act. Time to Arrest the Leaders of the
Anti-War Movement, Once we Go To War? We Must Protect Our Troops!
Sponsor The Paul Revere Society!"

That enough for ya? There's plenty where those came from, unfortunately.
Hell, look at Ann Coulter: 

KISSING COUSINS: NEW YORK LITERATI AND NAZIS
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=108&ncid=759&e=1&u=/ucac/20030321/cm_ucac/kissing_cousins__new_york_literati_and_nazis

Yes, Alternet is a left-wing news source - but all of those incidents
are verifiable. 

> I have not heard anyone from the Bush administration calling the
> protesters traitors or questioning their patriotism.  In fact, I have
> seen several occaisions where Bush, Rumsfeld, and Powell have each
> stated that the protesters were simply exercising their constitutionally
> protected right to free speech.

No, the Bush administration has been content to let their apologists do
that for them. They started with that tack (see here:
http://www.inthesetimes.com/issue/25/26/backtalk.shtml) but backed off. 

> I even tuned into that evil bastion of right-wing filth, Rush Limbaugh,
> one day last week.  He wasn't calling them traitors or questioning their
> patriotism, either.  Granted, he was questioning why so many people were
> participating in ani-war rallies funded and organized by organizations
> with strong ties to self-described marxist organizations like the
> Workers World Party.
> 
> Here is a "right-wing" media story about that:
> 	http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,81314,00.html

Yeah, note the spin: We won't criticize what they're saying -- just the
timing and costs. Where are the articles questioning abortion protesters
and the costs of protecting abortion clinics?

Oh... and about Rush. Maybe wasn't calling them traitors on that
particular occasion, but it wouldn't be the first time -- here's the
words straight from Rush's mouth:

If they were for peace, they would give every dollar they raise to the
U.S. defense department because it's the U.S. defense department that
keeps the peace and liberates the oppressed in the world and gives them
the opportunity to have freedom, which is what we want for Iraq. It's
beyond me how anybody can look at these protesters and call them
anything other than what they are: anti-American, anti-capitalist, pro
Marxists and communists." - Rush Limbaugh

So, he didn't specifically say "traitors" but I think this qualifies. 

http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/weekend_sites/weekinreview_012003_012403/content/across_the_fruited_plain.guest.html

Oh... and let me take the opportunity to address that issue: Yes, some
of the protesters may be connected to lefty political parties that even
I find distasteful - but the last time I checked, that was a guaranteed
freedom as well. There are plenty of soccer moms, business people and
Gulf War I vets who are protesting this war as well. 

> There is trash on both sides of the political spectrum.  Please don't
> pollute CLUE-talk with any lefty trash in your attempts to police for
> right-wing trash.

Show me the trash, Randy. Show me one thing that I've brought up that
isn't true. 

Zonker
-- 
Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier
jzb at dissociatedpress.net
Aim: zonkerjoe
http://www.dissociatedpress.net