Posted by Jeff Dunetz Feb 6th 2011 at 4:58 am in Featured Story, Fox News, Mainstream Media, Media Matters, Politics, Print Journalism, Radio, Religion, Soros, Uncategorized, media bias
Part 1:What is Media Matters? Do They Really “Have it in For Beck?”
You may not believe this part of the story but it is very true. Somewhere under a giant rock, located by the northern part of the Potomac river where it splits and forms a pattern that kind of looks like a wishbone, there is a secret lair filled with computers and television screens. The people who work there spend all day watching Fox news, reading conservative columnists, and listen to talk radio and surfing the net trying to identify anyone who disagrees with a project that George (Spooky Dude) Soros is behind. The name of this nefarious organization is Media Matters and its mission is to lie —tell half-truths, let’s face it, they will do anything except deal with the facts in order to try and discredit anyone who disagrees with the “Dude” of “Spooky.”
Allow me to interject some honesty. No, it’s not true that Media Matters operates in a secret underground lair. It’s also not true that they work under a rock, it just seems as if they crawl out from under a rock to make their reports. I am not even sure that they all work in an office filled with computers and TV screens, for all I know they are all freelancers.
The rest: lies, half-truths, ignoring the facts, and serving the “Dude” of “Spooky,” all that is the absolute truth. Additionally they work hard to be hypocrites, its as if they have a rule which says, “If a progressive and a conservative do the same exact thing, only the conservative is to be criticized.”
I have been following Media Matters develop its fake smears against Glenn Beck since October 2010. That is when they initiated their quest to brand Beck as an anti-Semite to deflect criticism of the progressive movement and it’s Sugar Daddy George Soros.
Before continuing, it would be dishonest if I didn’t point out that I am an audience regular, both to Beck’s Radio and his TV program. I don’t always agree with him, (sometimes he makes me want to punch my laptop which streams the radio show) but the programs always generate thought, always entertains, and sometimes incite an ice-cream binge. But it would be just as dishonest not point out that this Case Study about the Soros-controlled hit squad is not really about Glenn Beck. False charges of Antisemitism are a particular hot button of mine.
As a Jew, every time I hear someone being bullied with false charges of Antisemitism I am compelled to offer a defense (usually that deflects the bully’s anger toward my direction). That doesn’t mean I reject all charges of Antisemitism When charges are valid I just as vigorously attack the bigot, such as when my friend Rabbi Nessenoff asked me what to do with this little video he took of Helen Thomas . I quickly posted it on my site The Lid, here at Big Journalism, gave it to Scott Baker (who at the time was working for Breitbart) who posted it on Breitbart TV, sent out tweets and emails to most of the large sites by the end of the day it was on radio and TV and the calls for Thomas’ head were all over the place.
Media Matters targeting of Glenn Beck had reached almost comical proportions even before the began their smears of Antisemitism. For example a search of Media Matters on site search engine reports the Soro-controlled media police posted 2,460 anti-Beck posts between January 4, 2010 and October 5th (the day before they began their strategy of trying to brand the Commentator as a Jew-hater. Let that number roll around in your mind for a second–2,460 posts in 274 days–that’s an average of nine posts a day– (if he didn’t miss a TV or radio show) 13 posts per program. It was obvious that Media Matters and Mr. Soros had it in for Glenn Beck.
What Media Matters isn’t revealing the fact that Soros is a major funder of the organization, most of the funding is indirect. Three different Soros charitable foundations, individual members of the Soros family, and the Geosor Corporation give hundreds of millions of dollars money to The Open Society Institute (see page 18 of the Institute’s nonprofit tax return posted here). Open Society gives money to the Center for American Progress who gives money to Media Matters. Another Soros funded group that helps Media Matters is the Democracy Alliance, and recently Soros gave a large and public chunk of money to Media matters, calling it the “first ever” donation by the financier (except for all the other I suppose). Keep in mind that Media Matters is not required to list its donors, this information comes from the tax returns of the foundations that give it money, so there may be other donations not discovered.
Part 2: The Origin of a Smear/ Who’s Smoking Dope?
The Media Matters “Glenn Beck has a Jewish Problem” hit job on Beck started in October as the commentator dedicated a program to outlining George Soros’ political network, and outlining Spooky Dude’s history of currency manipulation.Part of the programs covered Soros’ history as a currency speculator whose sometimes underhanded dealing brought down the British pound sterling and an insider trading conviction in France . He had also been accused of triggering the economic meltdown of Southeast Asian currencies in 1997.
Beck claimed Soros “rolled the dice in ‘97 in Asia, and many, including the Malaysian prime minister, believe it was billionaire speculator George Soros who helped trigger the economic meltdown that spread through Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines.”
Media Matters took Beck relating this story and invented some crazy, twisted logic. Try to follow this (if you can)— since Beck mentioned Soros was accused of doing underhanded dealing by the Malaysian Prime Minister—and since the Malaysian PM is a serial anti-Semite who once said Soros’ currency dealings were part of a Jewish conspiracy–and since Soros is Jewish—well then, that must mean Beck must be a Jew-hater who believes that Jews run the banks. Understand? No, I didn’t think so. Don’t feel bad because it doesn’t make the slightest bit of sense. It is reminiscent of those weird questions found on the S.A.T. exams in the 1970s. Remember? —Cat is to Dog as hamburger is to automobile. You would be scratching your head for days trying to figure out what the exam’s creator was smoking.
The problem with Media Matters charge (besides the fact that it isn’t true) was Beck did not mention or even hint at the word Jew in his discourse. Of course according to the Media Matters play-book Beck’s omission of any tie to the Jews is not a concern, because like the Ministry of Truth from 1984 truth is not their concern.
When attacking the Media Matters claim, I pointed out if giving the title of underhanded currency speculator to George Soros made one an anti-Semite, there was going to be some real dirty looks when I next attended Shabbos services at Shul, since I have made similar accusations about Soros.
What I didn’t realize at the time, this was was not to be an isolated incident, it was actually the beginning of a new strategy of “Spooky Dude” and his team of progressive cronies’ to silence one of their fiercest critics.
For the next four months they have been trying to label Beck as “Someone with a Jewish Problem,” and someone who seeks to water down the meaning of the Holocaust by cavalierly throwing out Nazi, and other Holocaust -related terms.
The last charge was very ironic since Soros wrote a book where he said George Bush used Nazi-tactics; Move-On an organization seeded with some of George Soros’ money created a TV commercial comparing George Bush to the Nazis, and many of their progressive supporters on TV have made similar analogies with nary a peep from Media Matters.
Part 3: Dumb and “Dumberer”/The Challenge
Since they didn’t have the capacity to debate the Fox Commentator’s on his facts, Media Matters and the rest of the Soros started to do would do whatever they could to brand Glenn Beck an anti-Semite. Maybe they believed in the anti-Semitic stereotype that Jews controlled the media,and at was needed to rid themselves of Beck was to convince the media’s “Jewish overlords” that Beck hated Jews. Granted that is a ridiculous theory. But not as ridiculous as the one Media Matters presented next.On November 9th they attacked Beck-owned website,The Blaze, using a charge that will rank as probably the lamest allegation of Antisemitism made since biblical times when God told Abraham to leave Ur the land of his birth, his kindred and his father’s house, move to the Holy Land to create the first “Jewish neighborhood.”
The Blaze’s infraction was quoting Zubi Diamond, author of The Wizards of Wall Street” in order to push the claim that George Soros may be “betting on U.S. financial collapse.” According to Diamond, Soros’ agenda is “to destroy capitalism.” According to Media Matters, when Diamond called Soros the “mastermind” behind of a “cabal of slithery rich” who “visited financial violence on the American people to get Barack Obama elected,” He was referring to Soros using anti-Semitic imagery. No really, they actually said that.
Interestingly when Mr. Spooky (or is it Mr. Dude) used the anti-Semitic canard that the Jews control everything they were silent “The pro-Israel lobby [a polite way of saying, those dammed Jooose] has been remarkably successful in suppressing criticism.”
They were also silent when General Merrel McPeak, former Obama for President Co-Chair, was asked during an interview why there isn’t peace in the Middle East. He answered, “New York City. Miami. We have a large vote — vote, here in favor of Israel. And no politician wants to run against it.” (In other words those pesky Jews, who control America’s policy on the Middle East.)
And there are plenty of other examples, comments made by one-time Obama appointee Chas Freeman, Obama Campaign adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, Progressive Congressmen Moran and Ellison just to name a few—all ignored by Media Matters.
During his Soros series Beck used an interview Soros did with 60 Minutes where the Pope of Progressivism discussed how he helped to confiscate Jewish property:
KROFT: My understanding is that you went out with this protector of yours who swore that you were his adopted godson.
Mr. SOROS: Yes. Yes.
KROFT: Went out, in fact, and helped in the confiscation of property from the Jews.
Mr. SOROS: Yes. That’s right. Yes.
KROFT: I mean, that’s–that sounds like an experience that would send lots of people to the psychiatric couch for many, many years. Was it difficult?
Mr. SOROS: Not–not at all. Not at all. Maybe as a child you don’t–you don’t see the connection. But it was–it created no–no problem at all.
KROFT: No feeling of guilt?
Mr. SOROS: No. [my emphasis]Ironically, Beck had used this passage to bring out sympathy for Soros:
But when he had to go over and take the lands from the people, his Jewish friends and neighbors who were being sent to the gas chambers, I can’t imagine what that would do to a teenager, or anybody, an adult—well, what did it do to George Soros.Beck’s only real question about Soros and the Holocast era is why today at age 80, he considers it the happiest year of his life.
A few days later, Progressive leader Abe Foxman head of the ADL, who often works harder for progressive issues such as abortion rights and amnesty for illegal aliens, than Jewish issues criticized the way Beck handled his discussion of Soros’ youth in Nazi Hungry saying: “Glenn Beck’s description of George Soros’ actions during the Holocaust is completely inappropriate, offensive and over the top.”
But unexpectedly Foxman had to “walk back” his criticism when Beck revealed a letter he received from the ADL guru praising the commentator as a friend to both to Israel and the Jewish Community. Most of the progressive Mainstream Media leaped all the Foxman criticism (leaving out of course the walk back part). The small Jewish community newspapers such as the Jewish Week in New York, who make no attempt to hide their progressive bias, were particularly harsh.
In December, disgraced progressive heroine Helen Thomas went on another one of her anti-Semitic diatribes. Thomas claimed that “You cannot say anything (critical) about Israel in this country”. And that was the nicest thing Thomas said all night. In her speech about discrimination against Arabs she launched into an anti-Semitic tirade about how those rich Jews control America. Thomas drew a standing ovation when she talked about
“the whole question of money involved in politics. We are owned by propagandists against the Arabs. There’s no question about that. Congress, the White House, and Hollywood, Wall Street, are owned by the Zionists. No question in my opinion. They put their money where their mouth is…We’re being pushed into a wrong direction in every way.”Interestingly, two months later Ms Thomas’ diatribe was echoed in a piece published written by‘ MJ Rosenberg and published by Media Matters. The Media Matters piece implied that the Jews ran the government, the media, and if it wasn’t for those dammed Jews, the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran would be practically “kissing cousins.”
The Thomas incident had no connection to Media Matters except for the fact that it made me wonder, If Soros’ hit men exerted all of that effort on fake charges of Antisemitism against Glenn Beck, would they put in any time criticizing a real example of Antisemitism in the media, Helen Thomas.
I offered a challenge:
… allow me to send a shout-out to the hypocritical folks at Media Matters, you enjoy blasting conservative figures such as Glenn Beck with trumped up charges of Antisemitism, along with writing up one-sided editorials about peoplethrowing around Nazi-related terms. Since you folks have set yourselves up as the “protector of all Jews” will you now write something that criticizes real Antisemitism spewed out by the progressive Helen Thomas? ….So my progressive friends are you going to finally accept the fact that it is humanly possible for a progressive to be a hater? Maybe after you are done with Helen you can go two of the most Anti-Semitic sites on the internet, the progressive Daily Kos, and the progressive Huffington Post.
That’s if George Soros allows you to.That challenge was repeated in Big Journalism a week later. But there was no answer and it couldn’t be because Media Matters wasn’t reading my posts. Between July 2010 and Jan 2011 they read and criticized at least six pieces I wrote for the Breitbart Big Sites. It was assumed they ignored the challenge because Helen Thomas was progressive.
Part 4: 400 Rabbis Choose Politics Over Faith and A Station Wagon Full of Nuns
After the horrible tragedy of the Tucson shooting Media Matters and Uncle George cooled it on the Antisemitism slander for a while, not because they were heeding the President’s call for toning down the dialogue, but because they were too busy blaming, Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, the Tea Party, Rush Limbaugh and other for the Tucson shooting.Just before the weekend of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, the “Glenn Beck hates Jews” machine re-started its engines as the Soros-affiliated Jewish Funds for Justice (JFJ) delivered a petition to Fox headquarters criticizing Glenn Beck for comments he made about George Soros back in October (the same ones Abe Foxman criticized). JFJ embellished the original Foxman allegation with a false charge that Beck used Holocaust terms to describe people he disagreed with “hundreds of times.”
Two weeks later in the January 27th edition of the Wall Street Journal was an advertisement/open letter signed by four-hundred Rabbis via JFJ. Repeating the libels found in the petition delivered earlier that month, the letter added a demand that Fox News Chief Roger Ailes disrespected the group because when JFJ announced they were preparing a complaint signed by four hundred Rabbis, Ailes dismissed the threat describing the group as “Left-Wing Rabbis who don’t think anybody should be able to use the word Holocaust on the air.” Ailes was completely incorrect– the group was composed of Left-Wing Rabbis who don’t think anybody but progressives should be able to use the word Holocaust on the air.
This was the Soros/Media Matters anti-Beck strategy hitting the bottom of the barrel. That Rabbinical letter broke the Jewish laws against loshen hora (evil speech). Even worse, it tried to put Beck in a situation where in order to defend himself he would have to attack 400 Rabbis. Or, as Archie Bunker’s attorney Mr. Rabinowitz once advised:
In a court of law, you can’t beat a station wagon filled with nuns!Being Jewish and somewhat observant, I still wouldn’t dare try to argue against the nuns, however felt completely comfortable challenging libelous accusations of 400 Rabbis.
Using Halacha (Jewish Law) explained down by ancient Jewish sages, something the 400 should be practicing, I explained why that Rabbinical letter broke the Jewish laws. Those sages explained that before people could make charges against anybody they should, among other things, research the veracity of the accusations and examine the motivation of the accuser. Jews are taught that even if the charges are true (which was not the case this time) in the vast majority of cases Jews are commanded to keep that kind of talk to themselves. Because of ignoring the rules they are supposed to be teaching, these 400 Rabbis brought shame upon themselves, their holy profession, the entire Jewish people, and even worse, have committed a Chillul Hashem (desecration of God’s name).
Before the Media Matters types accuse me of making the same mistake I accuse the Rabbis, as well as Media Matters and Soros of making allow me to suggest their contention would be argued against by none other than the Chofetz Chaim, his real name is Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagan. In 1873 the Rabbi wrote what is considered the definitive book on the Jewish laws of proper speech (Chofetz Chaim, meaning Desire Life is also the name of his book). The Chofetz Chaim, of blessed memory, would argue that when such desecration and Loshon Hora as committed as in the case of the Beck-libel, one has a duty to respond, point out the infraction in order to give the offender’s an opportunity for teshuva (Hebrew for repentance). The purpose of this Case Study is not only to clear Becks name, but to point out to Soros, Media Mattes and the Rabbis how they have been operating, warn other who may be facing similar libel from Soros, the Progressives and Media Matters, and most importantly to give them an opportunity to change.
A Further investigation revealed that most of the people/or organizations whose quotes were used in the body of the JFJ letter to corroborate their slander were rebelling against the Soros effort. Out of the five quotes, three weren’t contacted prior to the use of their names, disagreed with the thrust of the letter and were not happy that they were included. A fourth came out and said the letter was too one sided. And, not surprisingly, the only group/person not raising an objection has multiple connections to the Dude himself.
Media Matters decided to weigh in-on that last report and as their usual practice; they used half-truths and distortions in an attempt to discredit.In this case not Beck, but your humble blogger–me. This new evidence must have truly disturbed them since they brought out the “heavy” ammo, Senior Fellow, Eric Boehlert to respond.
This was actually exciting, an experienced writer with all of the financial backing of the Spooky Dude looking at the work of an unemployed marketing director living on a few freelance writing jobs and the kindness of a few strangers hitting his tip jar, struggling to find a full time paid writing gig. Here was an opportunity to pick up tips from a professional, an opportunity to hone my craft.
Sadly, it was obvious that Mr. Boehlert did not spend much time with my piece. Well either that or he was deliberately trying to mislead his readers. Of course, that wasn’t possible Eric Boehlert wrote a freaking book about blogging, he wouldn’t break rule number one, being honest with your readers readers, it must have been that he was forced to do a rush job.
Allow me to explain what I mean. Mr. Boehlert began his article saying:
The sweeping denunciation clearly touched a deep, right-wing nerve, since it prompted hysterical reactions like this one:To my surprise, Mr. Boehlert, the professional ignored the link/explanation which justified the sentence which he called over the top. If Boehlert had read the section carefully he would’ve realized that no, it wasn’t over the top when you understand what Jewish law says the Rabbis are supposed to be teaching. Freedom of speech and the U.S. Constitution had nothing to do with my reaction, it was the Rabbis violation of the religious tenets inherent with their sacred profession.
[T]he rabbis efforts brought shame upon themselves, their holy profession and the entire Jewish people.
A bit over the top, no? Or do rabbis no longer enjoy the freedom of speech if that speech includes criticizing Glenn Beck and Roger Ailes
Before I proceed any further, I would be negligent not to thank the Senior Fellow for linking to my blog at the beginning of his comments, the extra-traffic was welcome. I don’t want to seem ungrateful but the next time, it would be nice if he reminded his readers to click on an ad or hit the tip jar, they seemed a bit stingy. I am a sole practitioner and unlike Mr. Boehlert don’t have George Soros to help pay my salary.
Boehlert continued with a weird attack on the main thrust of the piece.
From the site Yid With Lid:
Groups Whose Quotes Used by Soros Group to Attack Glenn Beck, Repudiate Anti-Beck Effort
And this [emphasis added]:
Over the past few days, three of the groups used to corroborate the false charges raised by Jewish Funds For Justice have repudiated the letter arraigned by the George Soros proxy. All three weren’t contacted prior to the use of their names, disagreed with the thrust of the letter and were not happy that they were included. A fourth came out and said the letter was too one sided.
And…this is just dopey for the very simple reason that all the JFSJ did in its ad was reference public quotes attributed to the three Jewish organizations (the Anti-Defamation League, Commentary, and the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors). They are quotes critical of Beck’s Nazi rhetoric.Gee, nowhere did I say JFJ was not allowed to use the quotes, what I said was the people involved were upset their quotes/ organizational names were associated with the bogus letter your Soros sister organization issued. He went on:
Those quotes are all on the record, and none of them are in question. Why would JFSJ need to ‘contact’ the groups before referencing their quotes? Why would JFsJ need to make sure the groups would be “happy” to be mentioned in the ad? It’s absurd. The JFSJ never claimed the groups were sponsors in the ad in any wayYou are 100% right Mr. Boehlert, the JFJ ad never said the people or organizations were sponsors of the ad. Although by neglecting to mention that they weren’t connected with the Soros-led effort it misled the reader into thinking they were connected. It also caused the people who objected think JFJ was trying to tie them into their little hate project, something you should be pushing JFJ to apologize for.
But let’s be a little truthful here Mr. Boehlert, if that kind of disingenuous connection was made by a conservative (or if George Soros wasn’t paying part of your salary) you would have not spared one penny of Spooky Dude’s billions to bash that fake claim from here, back to Soros’ birthplace in back in hungry.
Just curious Eric, (I assume I can call you Eric because we have been talking for almost 200 words now).
How come you didn’t comment on all the charges and research presented in the first post last week? Or answer any of the questions raised in the Facebook conversation with Rabbi Steven Wernick?
Why didn’t you bother to answer the specific objections made by the people whose quotes were misused.
For God’s sake, one of them was Abe Foxman the progressive’s progressive. Face it, when JFJ lost Abe was the progressive equivalent of when Walter Cronkite editorialized against the Vietnam War and President Johnson said, “If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost Middle America”
It’s just so hard to understand; on one hand, Eric Boehlert is professional, remember he even wrote a book on blogging. There is no way that he would leave out parts of the story on purpose, just to skew it in one direction or another. Just because he works for an organization funded by George Soros, it doesn’t mean that he would be deliberately misleading. Maybe he just had to rush and get the post out quickly, I can certainly understand deadlines. But why would my new good friend Eric do a rush job that would mislead his readers? He is a professional dammit!
See my conundrum? I can understand how George Soros, Media Matters and the rest of the progressive army would exploit anti-Semitic bigotry to discredit Glenn Beck and protect George Soros; its just their desperate attempt to avoid answering the fact laid out by the Fox host, and a warning to others, not to follow in his footsteps. That is simply how the progressive Sugar-Daddy and his smear machine operates. But
I can’t come up with an explanation as to why Eric Boehlert would ignore part of the story or mislead his readers, this guy is a professional , not simply some hack writer of progressive propaganda.
Big Journalism
