A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes. — Mark Twain (attributed)
Let me open with the follow-up to yesterday’s post:
UPDATE 10:40AM 20 Oct 2014:
Even though Drudge featured the Reuters report (which seems increasingly slanted, ideologically) and the Righties with Magic Eyes™ “saw” the same thing in blog after blog, oddly, the CBS affiliate saw something entirely different:
… the rally drew a huge crowd of thousands waiting to see the president.
There were so many people at the rally that some of them couldn’t even get in. As expected, the president said Anthony Brown was the right man for the job in a rally that was all about revving up energy for the Democrat’s campaign.
They waited for hours in long lines. Nearly 8,000 people packed an Upper Marlboro high school auditorium for a rally in support of Anthony Brown’s bid to become governor….
Karl Rove/Donald Segretti-style dirty tricks? (Or, perhaps a time limit on parking?)
At this point, and given the GOP’s track record, it seems entirely likely.
Either way, the “heckler” referred to in the Reuters story turned out to be a protester for Immigration Reform.
Obama noted that he agreed with the heckler and suggested that he heckle the people blocking reform.
President Barack Obama hit the campaign trail here Sunday, vouching for his law school classmate and Democratic gubernatorial candidate, Anthony Brown, even after he was interrupted by a pro-immigration reform protester.
“The problem is, I’m actually for immigration reform,” Obama said at Dr. Henry A. Wise, Jr. High School here, after a young man holding a handwritten sign reading “#Not1More” shouted out. “Of course, he should be protesting the folks who are blocking it, but that’s OK.”
The focus of Obama’s remarks, though, was on encouraging the predominantly African-American crowd of 8,000 that filled the high school’s massive gym and a smaller runoff room to get out and vote…
~from POLITICO, no friend to accurate reportage.
ODD, that this little “nuance” was entirely absent from the Reuters “report.” As was the report on the “positive” fanaticism of a crowd waiting hours to pack a gym. Hmmm.
Because, then, you know, it wouldn’t SEEM like the public was “turning their back” on the President — a “fact” that would EXACTLY “confirm” the Right Wing narrative.
Something smells rotten, and it’s closer than Denmark.
Hmmm.
Boop boop be doop.
Oh. And this from the POLITICO story, clearly anathema to the Reuters “reporter”:
Before Obama took the stage, the crowd cheered at an invocation noting that the slaves who built the White House would be proud to see a fellow African-American as president, and that Obama would prove “the pundits” wrong and eventually be seen as the country’s greatest presidents.
Somebody’s “goosing” the narrative. Are we surprised?
The lie made its way halfway ’round the world:
Crowds WALK OUT during President Barack Obama’s speech in Maryland
Daily Mail [UK]
The president had shown up at the Democratic rally in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, near Washington, to support Lieutenant Governor Anthony Brown, who is running for governor. With Obama’s approval levels hovering around record lows, many candidates …
AND …
Crowd walks out as President Barack Obama makes rare appearance on …
By Rosa Prince, and Reuters
3:50AM BST 20 Oct 2014
Telegraph.co.uk
And
President Obama’s Rare Campaign Trail Appearance Leads To Heckling And …
Headlines & Global News – ?47 minutes ago
President Barack Obama made a rare appearance on the campaign trail for two Democratic candidates on Sunday, Reuters reported. But the early departure of crowd members in Maryland during Obama’s speech proved to be yet another souring proof of the president’s growing unpopularity.
Really? You could tell all that from the Reuters story and are NOT simply parroting the narrative? If you doubt that, take this abortion of a paragraph later down:
But given his low approval rates and sagging popularity thanks in part to a mediocre economy, the war with ISIS terrorists and anxiety over the Ebola outbreak, most Democratic candidates are choosing to keep a distance from the president while they campaign this season, according to a Wall Street Journal blog.
Oh. A Wall Street Journal blog? THAT’S credible. Here’s the salient paragraph:
Perhaps underscoring some of Mr. Obama’s unpopularity, though, he was heckled by one protestor and others at the Maryland rally started leaving the event as the president spoke.
And this “narrative”:
In a recent Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, only 42% of the public approves of the job Mr. Obama is doing his job.
As a result, candidates have been wary of too closely associating with him. At the extreme, some aren’t even saying if they voted for the president in 2008 and 2012.
You mean Allison Lundergan Grimes in Kentucky running against Mitch McConnell? Everyone knows about the story. Why are you hiding the name and then pretending to elevate an anecdote into a movement? Oh wait. NARRATIVE, right. Gotcha.
Rupert thanks you.
Notice how the misguided heckler is almost UNIVERSALLY stripped of context and literally FORCED into ‘supporting’ the narrative? No: this is not news reporting. It is propaganda masquerading as “news” and cherry-picked facts in support of a DESIRED “conclusion.” (Creationist “science” works just the same way, as does global warming denialism, so don’t pretend it doesn’t exist or is unusual in any way.)
And many many more. Notice the “narrative” taking hold from the questionable “objectivity” of the Reuters reporter?
Just ask yourself the ONLY important question here: WHOM does this “story” and its “conclusions” serve?
It doesn’t matter IF it’s true, or whether there were unexplained circumstances (e.g. the gym had turned into a hotbox after hours of waiting, a potentiality I’ve personally experienced many times before). All that matters is that the echo chamber picks it up and runs with it.
No truth will ever be able to catch up with this “story” – no matter what kind of shoes it puts on.
What matters to the Rightie blogswarm and Drudge is the imputation that Obama “turned off” the attendees. Keeping up the narrative that Americans now hate him, etc. etc. etc. A “souring proof” in a deliberately slanted phrase NEVER used in professional, actual reporting of facts.
Click pic for original page with links.
Narrative, not facts, propel this story.
To a PARTISAN end.
And that’s our thesis for the second installment in what SHOULD be a three part series:
HOW the election is being driven by partisan propaganda to create a false impression, and to divide and conquer the Democrats and Progressives. We have seen this before.
OK:
Return with us to those thrilling days of yesteryear, when “criticizing a sitting president in time of war” was tantamount to treason. When all US troops overseas were perfect choirboys and girls, and when protesting the illegal war in Iraq was made impossible or ridiculous in the USA.
And Dubya went to Merrie Old England.
And antiwar protesters actually GOT TO PROTEST the Usurper-In-Chief (something denied us mere US Citizens).
Except….
It started with a post on Free Republic dot Com (since pulled, but rescued by Democratic Underground):
Edited on Thu Nov-20-03 03:21 PM by Wonk
FreeRepublic.com “A Conservative News Forum”
BUSH PROTESTORS ARE USING EMAIL TO TRACK HIM – LET’S SLAM THAT ADDRESS
Posted on 11/19/2003 4:17 PM MST by Martyboy1
Hey guys/gals. The protestors trying to scream their goofy comments at Bush during his England trip are going to use email and instant/text messaging on cell phones and so on to tell each other where Bush might be at any particular time…so as to organise their efforts. WELL, look at the source URL I provided. It has a photo of the poster with the email address. I suggest that we find the address they are planning on using (I can’t make it out from that photo) and we can suggest to the protestors where Bush is, if you know what I mean Maybe they’ll get a little more mail than they can handle, thereby making their idiotic plan useless Sounds good to me. If someone gets that email address, I’d love to know what it is!
And they found it. The thread goes on for a long ways. Read if if you need convincing that radical Right Wing thugs decided to attack the websites and servers of British Antiwar protesters, because these “patriots” had decided that all protests must be silenced. (How “Second Amendment” of them!) Here’s from a little further down in the thread:
posted on 11/19/2003 5:24 PM MST by Freemeorkillme
To: Martyboy1
Thank goodness these protestors are getting the truth out…lol (sarcasm) Why does it always see to be the maggot-infested, granola-smoking hippie types that we see at these protests? Where are all the ‘regular’ folks? Oh, that’s right…they’re at work earning a living. They don’t have time to protest something in the streets every other day Some of these photos are really funny…
And further down …
To: Martyboy1
Keep watching the site as the email address may change soon. Note also it’s shown on the site as a GIF image, not as text the spam harvesters could use.
Create a throwaway email address to send from, like “leftists-stink@yahoo.com “. If you use our own address they will probably retaliate.
Etcetera.
Northwest journalist David Niewert traces it back all the way to the “disputed” Florida results in 2000:
What is also clear, however, is that Bush and his cohorts have not the least compunction about allying themselves with the thuggish and potentially violent component of the extremist elements that have now been subsumed by the Republican Party. This became abundantly clear in the 2000 election, and particularly in the post-election fight in Florida. Don Black’s Stormfront people were there providing bodies for the pro-Bush protests, and his Web site proudly announced their participation. And as the Village Voice reported at the time:
On November 13, Black helped an angry crowd drive Reverend Jesse Jackson off a West Palm Beach stage with taunts and jeers. “He wasn’t being physically threatened,” Black says, in a later interview.25
No one from the Bush camp ever denounced the participation of Black and his crew or even distanced themselves from this bunch, or for that matter any of the thuggery that arose during the post-election drama. Indeed, Bush himself later feted a crew of “Freeper” thugs who had shut down one of the recounts in Florida, while others terrorized his opponent, Al Gore, and his family by staging loud protests outside the Vice President’s residence during the Florida struggle.
These failures were symptomatic of a campaign that made multiple gestures of conciliation to a variety of extreme right-wing groups. These ranged from the neo-Confederates to whom Bush’s campaign made its most obvious appeals in the South Carolina primary to his speaking appearance at Bob Jones University. Bush and his GOP cohorts continued to make a whole host of other gestures to other extremist components: attacking affirmative action, kneecapping the United Nations, and gutting hate-crimes laws.
Sound familiar to you?
I am holding out the Freepers as a SYMPTOM, so a third example will suffice to show you one group that we KNOW is engaging in internet terrorism to further the radical GOP agenda by spreading harmful misinformation and slander:
The band Dixie Chicks and lead singer Natalie Maines claim that Free Republic was instrumental in fueling a nationwide boycott of their music, which was organized by some former fans and radio stations after Maines made anti-Bush comments in 2003. In their 2006 documentary Shut Up and Sing as well as in interviews, the Dixie Chicks have often mentioned Free Republic in reference to the boycott, which sharply reduced sales of their CDs and concert tickets.
Maines was quoted as saying: “It’s scary how much power they do have. They can take down someone single-handedly and I don’t think Americans are aware of that.”[42] “And I think it was originally started by the Free Republic. And they were very organized in calling radio stations across the country and telling them that they would never listen to their station, when they didn’t even live in that town.”
Awww.
So: I’ve tracked six years of intentional “trolling” attacks as a POTENT political weapon by just ONE group. Does anyone doubt that there are others?
This is what I’m talking about:
You destroy “news” by creating a narrative (and this is straight out of Psy-Ops tactics in WAR). You silence critics. You stifle protests by destroying threads and trolling. Perhaps the best contemporary example is in last week’s Rolling Stone feature story on what President Obama has accomplished and is noteworthy as a president FOR. “In Defense of Obama.”
The trolling is incredible, but RS readers keep catching it and throwing it back in the trolls’ faces. This is from HOURS ago (the trolling has been going on for DAYS!):
Tyler2Colorado • 2 hours ago
Obama’s goal isn’t to improve the country. It is to spread his liberal agenda across this nation. He had to lie to get the votes for his agenda (like telling us health premiums would go DOWN by $2500/yr when they actually went UP $2500/yr… or telling us we could keep our plans PERIOD.)
He knows the country doesn’t like his agenda. Why else does he make parts take effect just AFTER the elections?
We need a LEADER in the White House.
Dan Daniels • 5 hours ago
Indefinite Detention
Warrantless Wiretapping
Extraordinary Rendition
Overspending
Drones
Kill Lists
Gun Bans
Wall Street Accountability
$olyndra
VA deaths
IRS “targets” conservative groups
HHS “Fundraising”
Fast and Furious
Secret E-Mail Addresses
DOJ spies on the Associated Press
NSA spies on YOU
“Change has come to America” – Barack Obama”
Chaz Jones Dan Daniels • 4 hours ago
Lol, nice try with that photo which you stole. You fool no one, if you’re black, I’m Chinese and I haven’t been Chinese lately, lolol. You’re just another r*d neck b*got pretending to be black to give your phony list of phony scandals (aka talking points) legitimacy which no one is buying. Buzz off loser…
Dan Daniels Chaz Jones • an hour ago
Please prove your assertion. Thanks.
Tyler2Colorado Chaz Jones • 3 hours ago
The only one trying to fool someone is our president, (and possibly you too.)
Dan isn’t being a bigot, those aren’t phony scandals, and those aren’t talking points. Those are disturbing FACTS about our president.
You are clearly an ideologue who chooses to ignore the facts.
Chaz Jones Tyler2Colorado • 2 hours ago
Try these: running two UNFUNDED wars costing 4,400 Americans lives on the pretense of WMDs in Iraq which were never found, not to mention the untold numbers of innocent Iraqi lives lost; Drones vs boots on the ground–a no brainer; extending Medicare, not paid for; cut taxes for Millionaires and Billionaires causing a short fall of Fed. funds needed to adequately pay for goods and services we ALL need and use, esp. infrastructure upgrades; running up massive debt to the tune of $11 TRILLION and leaving a $1.5 TRILLION deficit for the next president to deal with which he’s still trying to clean up with no help from the GOP ( Grand Obstructionist Party of NO); VA deaths, a real scandal and long term problem which existed long before this president (BHO) came to power and was covered up before it finally came to this president’s attn.; IRS targeted conservatives, a RW myth; F&F started under GWB and ended under BHO; NSA spying on Americans, another myth, the fact is: surveillance of suspected terrorists ONLY to protect the country from another terr. attack; secret e-mails, another made-up lie; warrantless wiretaps were approved under GWB by the FISA Court after 911 and continued under BHO when necessary to protect the country; kill list another lie; gun bans, lol (where’s the evidence??), another baldface lie and I could go on, but I think I’ve proved my points. You clearly lost the argument, so try again.
Tyler2Colorado Chaz Jones • an hour ago
Funny how someone makes an attack on the president.
You can’t defend him because the facts are AGAINST him.
Tyler2Colorado Chaz Jones • an hour ago
I didn’t lose the argument. It was about Obama’s failures. You went into a long rant about why you don’t like Bush.
Bush was a bad president.
Obama is EVEN WORSE!
The only way you liberals can think you win an argument is to completely change the subject.
Obama is failing us as a president.
Notice the “polite” assertion and “skepticism” that the troll who is challenged comes up with? PROVE your assertion. If it were turned back on him, he’d be hard pressed to live up to his own challenge.
And then his tag team partner*, the “brave” anonymous Tyler2Colorado uses the old “if you can’t dazzle ‘em with brilliance, baffle ‘em with BS” shotgun approach, throwing up so much unsubstantiated crap that NO ONE would ever have time to refute it, even though it’s crap, hypocrisy and distortion all the way.
[* Tag-teaming is becoming more and more prevalent. Attack one troll, another magically appears as the "closer" as though they were selling cheap cars to rubes.]
(But, to be fair, that IS his rhetorical Universe, divorced from reality, as the GOP MUST divorce their record. Or, should I say: NON-record of NON-accomplishment and proactive secession by intentional inaction, blockage and, yes, filbuster.)
I didn’t have to look very hard to find that thread among the tapestry of Evil that is the subterranean – but very real and very clearly coordinated – Troll corps.
In fact, I barely looked at all. I had thought I’d have to go back, and it’s STILL being quashed by Right Wing ideologues who DO NOT READ ROLLING STONE! Got that? It’s the Freeper attacks all over again.
But, remember, it’s WORKED.
That is one arm of the octopus –or should I say, Kochtopus?
It IS a tactic, and it IS being used. Right now. Today.
My friend Mike Finnegan (who founded Mike’s Blog Roundup for Crooks and Liars) noticed it when he posted something on Facebook about being trolled, and then his thread was ENDLESSLY trolled by trolls claiming that he was HALLUCINATING it, and there WERE no such trolls.
But Mission Accomplished: the Rolling Stone Trolls have managed to shut down discussion and keep people from accepting the harsh truth that Obama is the best single president of my lifetime (since Ike) by objective and normative standards!
And then they shut down Mike’s discussion about trolls even as they proved it was true. Progressives didn’t want to be “unpleasant” and the thread and conversation was shut down.
You see, even if you recognize the tactic, it still often works. This is no longer in doubt. It is coordinated and probably compensated. It has become especially dilatory and omnipresent on Facebook since Labor Day, indicating by inference that it IS for the election.
This has been replicated million-fold throughout the land, along with the “granny” viral emails that you get from your crazy grandma or aunt, who think that since some brain-damaged friend they like sent this toxic Goebbelsian propaganda (akin to the phony “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” used to justify Antisemitism) it MUST be true.
Space does not permit my inclusion of any of it here. There is FAR TOO MUCH of it to begin to analyze without losing the thread of this friendly post about hostile posting on threads.
You know it’s true.
This was what the phony “Tea Party” narrative did to the 2010 election (and, note, policy and governance were intentionally SHUT DOWN after that election, and REMAIN SO, even as the trolls suggest you should vote for teatards because the inaction was OBAMA’s fault. Shameless, these liars).
The Right Wing controls the media, and attempts to control all discourse. They chivvy and harass everyone from your grandma to the Dixie Chicks, who deserve no First Amendment rights because, well, the corporate-funded trolls SAY SO.
THAT is why there is no discussion of issues, of problems, of solutions. No debate on what to do about our human-caused weather extremes, no discussion of the desperate state of our infrastructure — especially desperate as we’ve lost the glaciers that moderated water cycles in the American West and dilapidated dams now have to weather flooding that they were not designed to handle, EVEN WHEN they were new, and especially now that they have D grades from at least one major Civil Engineers’ society.
That is why, with the economy sluggish, no one can raise a voice to blame the Do Nothing Congress for KEEPING us in darkness and despair, in keeping us unemployed and keeping the economy niggardly and strangled.
The public square has been taken over by internet Brownshirts. There is no better descriptive term for it. Dissent is silenced (see Rolling Stone and the Dixie Chicks) and outright thuggery is seen as the keys to the kingdom (see the Florida protests installing the idiot-king and his Mayberry Machiavelli in the White House).
That is part two of the equation. Divide and dispirit.
And it’s working to a tee.
Freepers: Our American Taliban.
Tomorrow: how the Democrats aid and abet their tormentors.
Courage.
UPDATE: Karoli handles the phony “people walk out on president” story at Crooks and Liars. Really worth a read.
========================
Mr. Williams has a lively blog His Vorpal Sword. This is cross-posted from his blog.
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The post How to Blow An Election You Ought to Win (part ii) appeared first on The Moderate Voice.