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$100,000 of ‘grassroots’ anti-Rush activism

$100,000 of ‘grassroots’ anti-Rush activism

Just as Bill Maher was pleading for an “amnesty” in the political correctness war to silence speech, Media Matters was committing $100,000 to an advertising campaign urging people to call local radio stations to complain about Limbaugh.  Via AP:

The liberal Media Matters for America is using a past campaign against Glenn Beck as a template. In Limbaugh, however, they’re going after bigger game. He’s already fighting back and the group’s stance has provoked concerns that an effort to silence someone for objectionable talk is in itself objectionable.

Media Matters is spending at least $100,000 for two advertisements that will run in eight cities.

The ads use Limbaugh’s own words about student Sandra Fluke, who testified at a congressional hearing that contraception should be paid for in health plans. Limbaugh, on his radio programs, suggested Fluke wanted to be paid to have sex, which made her a “slut” and a “prostitute.” In return for the money, he said Fluke should post videos of herself having sex. Under sharp criticism, Limbaugh later apologized.

In one of the anti-Limbaugh ads, listeners are urged to call the local station that carries Limbaugh to say “we don’t talk to women like that” in our city.

Media Matters is proving what we all knew:  The grassroots campaign against Limbaugh is Media Matters astroturf, funded and stoked by George Soros’ $1 million donation for a war on conservative media, and fueled by David Brock’s bizarre and paranoid notions of political warfare.

The same person coordinating the advertising is the person behind the Beck boycott and the contrived Twitter war, per the AP report:

Ad time was purchased in Boston; Chicago; Detroit; Seattle; Milwaukee; St. Louis; Macon, Ga.; and Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The cities were selected to support active local campaigns against Limbaugh or because of perceptions Limbaugh may be vulnerable in that market, said Angelo Carusone of Media Matters.

“What we’re really looking for is a way to demonstrate the persistence of the effort and the fact that it is on a wide scale,” Carusone said.

This is a clarifying moment.

Conservatives, including those who disagreed with Rush’s statements about Sandra Fluke, need to make this Media Matters’ Waterloo.

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Comments

So Media Matters doesn’t have the right to do this? Why not?

    Ragspierre in reply to jimbo3. | March 22, 2012 at 10:37 am

    Where does the Prof. say…or even hint…Media Mutters has no right?

      jimbo3 in reply to Ragspierre. | March 22, 2012 at 10:42 am

      Maher is right. But an amnesty is not possible so long as groups like Media Matters and Think Progress exist, because what Maher decries is their very reason for existence.

      Conservatives, including those who disagreed with Rush’s statements about Sandra Fluke, need to make this Media Matters’ Waterloo.

      –Sure looks to me like the Professor is arguing that Media Matters should be distroyed because of what it’s doing.

        Ragspierre in reply to jimbo3. | March 22, 2012 at 10:54 am

        A. How does that implicate a lack of “right”?

        B. Does beating Media Mutters here mean destroying them?

        G Joubert in reply to jimbo3. | March 22, 2012 at 11:41 am

        Media Matters has the right to try to destroy Rush, and people who disagree with them have the right to destroy Media Matters. Questions?

          jimbo3 in reply to G Joubert. | March 22, 2012 at 12:12 pm

          Didn’t many of the posters here agree that any attempt to destroy Rush was “economic terrorism”? I don’t think the people here as a group agree that people have the right to try to take down Rush.

          Ragspierre in reply to G Joubert. | March 22, 2012 at 12:30 pm

          Typically, you confuse a “right” with what is right to do.

          LukeHandCool in reply to G Joubert. | March 22, 2012 at 12:36 pm

          Rags is right. Just because something isn’t illegal, doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do.

          Astroturfing may not be illegal. But don’t ask us to take it in the arse and politely ask for another. Astroturfing is like a disease. And we’re not supposed to organize in any way as a kind of group antibiotic?

          All this stuff seems to always go back to “Big Soros”

          jimbo3 in reply to G Joubert. | March 22, 2012 at 6:34 pm

          It looks like the GOP, GOP candidates and large corporations have also astroturfed in the past–including with respect to Obamacare opposition:

          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroturfing

          I think you (as a group) doth protest too much.

          Republicans don’t need astroturf. You’re projecting Jimbo3.

    janitor in reply to jimbo3. | March 22, 2012 at 12:09 pm

    I’m thinking if that Media Matters is making or implying misrepresentations (in this case the a widespread “grass roots” taking of offense and demands to advertisers), and if Media Matters is doing so for the explicit purpose of harming others’ business contracts, relationships and income… there’s at least a couple of actionable torts in there.

    (I don’t know what it is about this subject, but every time I’ve started to comment here I’ve wanted to type “Sandra Fluke is a slut”. Maybe the confession will help. :-))

      Henry Hawkins in reply to janitor. | March 22, 2012 at 9:34 pm

      Sluts, male or female, typically do not require or name a price. Fluke has. Ergo, Fluke is no slut, and you and Rush Limbaugh owe sluts everywhere an apology.

      I can’t recall just the now what the term is for those who do name a price…..

    Ragspierre in reply to jimbo3. | March 22, 2012 at 1:06 pm

    Rush should very prominently announce a new sponsor on his program…

    Media Mutters…!!!

This is Brock’s cynical marketplace of ideas. He will fail, as every censoring thug has in this country. Americans are smart enough to make our own decisions about what media to consume. We don’t need self-appointed monitors. Black-list censors are some of the most reviled characters in U.S. history.

One day Media Matters will join that list as an advocacy that lost sight of its mission, which was to promulgate a point of view, in order to adopt a darker one, which was to deny that right of expression to others.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0312/74307.html

I thought that was quite good.

Compare and contrast to this…

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0312/74237.html

See how many lies you can count.

You and I can Breitbart these little Collectivist censoring pukes.

Get the stations targeted by Media Mutters, and send emails/make calls of support.

Be honest, be positive, and be polite.

LA City Counsel is planning to pass a law outlawing broadcasts that are “sexist or racist”. Perhaps someone ought to school those clowns in the First Amendment.

Media Matters just lost funding from Peter Lewi shttp://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2012/03/22/MMfA-Think-Progress-Lose-Top-Donor

    DizzyMissL in reply to Ragspierre. | March 22, 2012 at 2:46 pm

    Thanks. I will contact each of them.

    chilipalmer in reply to Ragspierre. | March 22, 2012 at 10:41 pm

    From 3/21/12 Burlington Free Press report, Manager of Vermont radio station said he had not a single complaint from listeners for 2 weeks. Then the activist campaign began and it was obvious people calling were reading a script someone had sent them, ie they were not listeners. Also, ‘activists’ bullied the station’s local advertisers which caused the manager to temporarily pull their spots (in the interest of their safety). Vermont Public Radio: “Paul Goldman is President and General Manager of Sison Broadcasting which owns WVMT.

    He says after Limbaugh’s comments, the station moved all local advertisers outside of his show.

    (Goldman) “Because, frankly, some of the people were actually bullying local customers.”

    (Carapezza) He insists the station has no plans to drop the show – one of its most popular programs – before UVM’s contract runs out in 2016.”…
    3/20/12, “UVM to continue airing sports on Rush Limbaugh station,” Burlington Free Press, Mike Donoghue: “Goldman (the Vt. radio station mgr.) said the station received no complaints for two weeks after the comments were made by Limbaugh, who hosts the most listened-to talk show in the country. WVMT began to receive calls once the UVM groups went public with the issue in Saturday’s Free Press, Goldman said.

    “When Rush said these terrible things we did not get one phone call, one email. They did not hear it. They read about it,” he said about the protest.

    He said somebody sent an email with a script telling protesters what to say.

    Many of them said the exact same words,” he said….Goldman said it was clear to him the complainants have not listened to WVMT.

    “They are not consumers,” he said.” (end of quote) As a citizen, I see this is part of a long campaign to completely silence dissent. Only a few years ago the left was very big into free speech, but no more. Right of center Americans have no political party to help them-the GOP barely exists and in any case would love to see talk radio silenced along with irritating American voters. Rush Limbaugh is not the head of the GOP, he’s a voice for the Silent Majority and a small one compared to everything the left has, CBS, NBC, ABC, CNN, MSNBC, Time, Newsweek, ABC Radio Network, NY Times, Wash. Post, LA Times, and Hollywood. Media Matters and the left want complete silence by any means necessary. 3/21/12, “UVM Refuses To Drop Sports Radio Station Over Limbaugh Flap,” Vermont Public Radio

CarsInDepth.com | March 22, 2012 at 11:11 am

In Detroit, Rush Limbaugh’s show airs on WJR, the region’s leading non-music radio station. He’s the heart of their daytime lineup, they make a ton of money from his show, and there’s no way that he’s “vulnerable” in the Detroit market. This is wishful thinking on the part of Media Matters. Rush has been on ‘JR for decades, no way they drop his show. WJR is a 50,000 watt station, formerly a “clear channel” station, i.e. one of powerhouse stations that the FCC once gave exclusive nationwide use of their frequency, and they have a huge audience in the eastern half of the US. I’ve listened to Ernie Harwell broadcasting Detroit Tigers games while driving on FDR Drive in NYC. WJR is important to Limbaugh, no doubt that is why Media Matters brought up the Detroit market, but Rush is just as important to WJR. If, by some stretch, WJR dropped him, WDTK, the Salem affiliate, or WXYZ, a CBS station that just went from sports to conservative talk, would pick Limbaugh’s show up in a second.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Hollywood/2012/03/22/Kill-Kill-Kill-Rush-Limbaugh
Here’s a little song making the rounds, things are out of control.

MaggotAtBroadAndWall | March 22, 2012 at 11:43 am

In the third paragraph of this Daily Caller article, the hyperlink named, “an extensive list of left-wing foundations”, takes you to a PDF file of what the Daily Caller says is about half the foundations that have donated to Media Matters.

http://dailycaller.com/2012/03/21/media-matters-wants-a-fight-but-cant-take-a-punch/

I think everyone should send those foundations a polite email or a phone call to ensure they are aware that they are funding an organziation whose purpose in life is to use strongarm thug tactics to silence and censor speech. Do they really want to be associated with an organization that enbraces tyrannical, totalitarian values?

“Conservatives, including those who disagreed with Rush’s statements about Sandra Fluke, need to make this Media Matters’ Waterloo.”

Don’t see it happening. Breitbart is gone and there’s no one else in the marketplace who can take the fight to them in his savvy, combative, personal and relentless way. His websites can harangue all they like but it’s not the same thing. You need actual, living, fire-breathing warriors. We don’t got any.

To wit: have any of our fearless presidential candidates touched this issue?

Too many in the establishment just want the embarrassing problem to go away and will accept Rush’s defeat with futile protestations and crocodile tears. These are the people incapable of making causal or historical connections when it comes to the Left. They still run things.

Maybe the grassroots can save Rush with sheer audience support but the kinds of pressures applied within the mainstream liberal culture are overwhelming.

    DINORightMarie in reply to raven. | March 22, 2012 at 12:03 pm

    Newt has. In fact, he mentioned it when he did his tear-down of the Etch-A-Sketch Romney faux pas.

    Here is a good link to that:

    https://legalinsurrection.com/2012/03/shake-it-and-start-over/

    Newt mentions “right-wing talk show hosts” being targeted….. 🙂

    Ragspierre in reply to raven. | March 22, 2012 at 12:45 pm

    YOU are supposed to be Breitbart.

    Harness up!

      raven in reply to Ragspierre. | March 22, 2012 at 1:37 pm

      Whether “I’m Breitbart” or not matters far less at the moment than who among the conservative movement’s cultural and political leaders can take it to Media Matters in the canny and balls-to-the-wall way that makes a difference, i.e., produce a “Waterloo,” a la Breitbart. The “I am Breitbart” spirit may be rising among the great unwashed and that this is important, but for the moment the leadership class of conservatism is decidedly not “becoming Breitbart.”

      As for Gingrich, he deserves an asterisk because he has, more than all candidates combined, made an issue of the Left and the media. But this is no longer the passionate and energizing force of his campaign, to his detriment and quite likely his collapse.

        Ragspierre in reply to raven. | March 22, 2012 at 1:42 pm

        Have you called or emailed each of the stations the Prof. mentioned?

        What’s your creative way to stuff it back at Media Mutters?

        Hope Change in reply to raven. | March 22, 2012 at 11:49 pm

        raven, you understand what’s at stake here. I’m not talking about the boycott issues.

        I think the collapse of Media Matters will happen much later in the process, after we get the Presidency, the House and Senate and we repeal the Leftist stranglehold on our economy, start producing domestic oil and buying it from ourselves and the economy starts to hum again–

        and we change regulations and tax rates and start the 100% expensing, and manufacturing starts up again in the U.S.–

        and we restore local control over schools, and we have a national conversation about making sure our children learn AMERICAN HISTORY.

        And the reforms are working. And people start to feel better. And the economy is really thriving.

        And THEN we have a national conversation about communism versus the AMERICAN TRADITIONS of individual sovereignty, liberty, the right to pursue happiness.

        And we compare our traditions, that result in a thriving economy and amazing opportunity versus the communist way: the State telling you what to eat, where to live, how many pair of underwear you can own, whether you can have a car, whether you can have a child, whether you can build on your land, whether you can cut down a tree, whether you can.

        We will discuss the Frankfurt Group. We will discuss Cloward-Piven. Alinsky. Witness, Whittaker Chambers. The Venona Papers. The mask of deception will be pulled away more and more.

        And that’s when donations to Media Matters will just start to drop away.

        raven — there is no collapse going on in Newt’s campaign. Review the strategy. Remember, they said Reagan had no chance. Ditto Lincoln. The American People don’t like being lied to. Once they pay attention, they are FORMIDABLE.

        This crazy primary is perhaps the only way Newt CAN get the nomination. All the monied Establishment interests are against him. The only constituency Newt has that’s not afraid to stand with him, is the American People.

        We have to be tougher. Really. IMO. Much, much tougher.

        Ronald Reagan “A Time For Choosing” 1964
        “[ … ] Not too long ago, two friends of mine were talking to a Cuban refugee, a businessman who had escaped from Castro, and in the midst of his story one of my friends turned to the other and said, “We don’t know how lucky we are.”
        And the Cuban stopped and said, “How lucky you are? I had someplace to escape to.” And in that sentence he told us the entire story. If we lose freedom here, there’s no place to escape to. This is the last stand on earth.” [end of excerpt] http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/reference/timechoosing.html

        Newt UNDERSTANDS what’s going on. With Newt, we will ENGAGE the argument. With Newt, we will WIN the argument. We will restore our precious Constitutional rights. We’ve got to back Newt up. There’s no alternative.

        There’s no alternative candidate, AND there’s no alternative except to stand up. Because come hell or high water, Newt is our only chance.

        Someone with your understanding is essential in this fight. We’ve got to restore our freedom. If we stand with Newt, we will win this fight.

DINORightMarie | March 22, 2012 at 11:59 am

Is Media Matters for America still considered a non-profit organization? As I recall, they were a 501 c(4) org., and as such, they are not legally permitted to take on partisan issues – i.e. to remain non-profit, they have to remain politically neutral.

So, has anyone in the House started an investigation into this organization, since they are now on record as partisan, targeting/harassing individuals, private businesses, and broadcast organizations that disagree with their progressive, partisan viewpoint?

I believe the appropriate federal House committee would be the Communications and Technology sub-committee (chair: Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR)), under the House Financial Services Committee (chair: Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI)). Or would this fall under finance, since this is an issue of their tax-exempt status being revoked, and perhaps owing back taxes if their activities have been in violation in the past (which of course they have been).

Anyone know if this is correct – and more about these reps? These, as well as your own individual local/district reps., being contacted to investigate MMfA and their partisan targeting/harassing of individual citizens and private organizations would start that “Waterloo” ball rolling, I believe……

    You’re apparently wrong about 501(c)(4)’s:

    501(c)(4) organizations are ….. unlike 501(c)(3) organizations they may also participate in political campaigns and elections, as long as its primary activity is the promotion of social welfare.[31] The tax exemption for 501(c)(4) organizations applies to most of their operations, but contributions may be subject to gift tax, and income spent on political activities – generally the advocacy of a particular candidate in an election – is taxable.[32]

    Contributions to 501(c)(4) organizations are not deductible as charitable contributions for the U.S. income tax. 501(c)(4) organizations are not required to disclose their donors publicly.[33] This aspect of the law has led to extensive use of the 501(c)(4) provisions for organizations that are actively involved in lobbying, and has become controversial.[34][35] In 2010, a bill (the DISCLOSE Act) was passed by the U.S. House of Representatives that addressed identification of donors to organizations involved in political advocacy,[36] but the Senate Republicans filibustered and prevented a vote on the bill.[37]

    Ragspierre in reply to DINORightMarie. | March 22, 2012 at 2:51 pm

    Media Mutters may be on offensive as a defense.

    clarice notes above that it appears one of its major donors has backed out.

    Alan Dershowitz (sp dubious) is outing Media Mutters as the anti-Semitic outfit we’ve known it to be for years, and he is going after them full-tilt.

    The Daily Caller has been exposing them as the nut-hatchery they are, with the typical Collectivist SINGLE standard (i.e., NO standards and certainly not the ones they try to impose on all of us.

    They are being self-identified as the lie factory we’ve known them to be, more and more each day to Americans generally. Generally, the only people who believe their lies are the moonbats who CHOSE to believe lies and love them.

Everybody has to meet his Waterloo. Homer & Jehtro said it best.

I like Big Fur Hat’s suggestion on this one.
http://iowntheworld.com/blog/?p=125688

[…] Matters For America is actively trying to silence Rush Limbaugh and FOX […]

The radio stations should be recording these complaints, and taking down each callers contact info. If a complainer is serious, they should want to be placed on record. If they’re unwilling to do so, the complaint should be seen as invalid.

Fluke went before Congress; if people want to continue the cause, they should want to be as visible as she.

In most cases in this country their is a right to know who would accuse us something.