Wash Times Says My Twitter Feed Is "Over the Line" - Same Paper Attacks Obama For Being Half Black

by: David Sirota

Tue Nov 24, 2009 at 09:20


I usually refer to The Washington Times as The Paper of Record for People Who Commit Hate Crimes. It is a fringe right-wing rag owned by the Moonie cult, and thus tends to tread in the most disgusting conspiracy theory and bigotry. So when this same Washington Times got angry at me for allegedly being too mean on my Twitter feed to freaks like Karl Rove, Dick Armey, Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin, I just had to laugh...and laugh hard.

What's great, of course, is that I ultimately shamed the Times into reprinting a good (and recent) example of its most disgusting qualities. Here's the article they ended up writing:

His remarks about Mr. Rove are not printable. And, he had this to Tweet about Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, a Republican: "Haley Barbour is the perfect GOP icon: A grotesquely fat corporate lobbyist whose gubernatorial rule keeps his state 1 of America's poorest."...

When asked by The Washington Times whether he thought any of his comments were "over the line," Mr. Sirota said in an e-mail, "The Washington Times is a newspaper that just published an editorial suggesting President Obama is un-American because he's half black. So being accused of 'going over the line' in defense of progressivism by that kind of rabidly racist, right-wing hate rag is just about the funniest thing I've ever heard."

Mr. Sirota was referring to a recent column by Washington Times editor emeritus Wesley Pruden that has been blasted by many liberals, including those at the Center for American Progress and Media Matters. The opinion piece said, "It's no fault of the president that he has no natural instinct or blood impulse for what the America of 'the 57 states' is about. He was sired by a Kenyan father, born to a mother attracted to men of the Third World and reared by grandparents in Hawaii, a paradise far from the American mainstream."

Now, you have every right to dislike some of my Twitter posts. That's fine - and if you don't like me being harsh to the Armeys, Palins, Becks and Roves of the world, then don't subscribe to my Twitter feed. However, let's just step back and look at what's going on here: A major newspaper is asserting that Obama's biracial heritage means he's un-American - and this same major newspaper is simultaneously saying my little Twitter feed is "over the line" in making a few tongue-in-cheek jokes about Karl Rove. And this newspaper is making these simultaneous allegations not in an Onion-style fashion - but in all seriousness.

When we talk about the genuine "craziness" of the fringe right-wing media - I'd say this is about as perfect an example as you can get to prove that such a characterization is undeniably accurate.

David Sirota :: Wash Times Says My Twitter Feed Is "Over the Line" - Same Paper Attacks Obama For Being Half Black

Tags: (All Tags)
Print Friendly View Send As Email
it's Amanda Carpenter, and it's the Moonie Times (4.00 / 2)
I'm just shocked Politico didn't pick this up.

That said, I'm just sad that there was nothing more interesting going on that day.  And of course, you JUST started tweeting last week.


(4) I will have to go get your twitter feed as soon as I finnish this. (4.00 / 1)
And why can't I give Diaries a four?

Great article. Not reading the Washington Times is a problem, as they push a world view that gets crazier and crazier with each passing day. I am concerned that I don't know all the twisted filth they spew, so that we have some idea what mental prisoners in their thrall are being fed.

After reading their description of Obama I will have to take a shower, but it is frightening. "Sired" "attracted to men of the Third World" "blood instinct" (?? blood instinct? holy fuck) this is filth. Goering writes like this, Goebbels writes like this, this is the out in the open racial purity anti-gospel of exterminationists.

I did not know they were so forthright in their madness and hatred.

It may be necessary for Maddow and Olbermann to spend some time going through the news from crazy, pretending to be mainstream, papers.

Thank you David, this is sobering stuff.

Change
"We must break up the banks and never again let them get so big that they distort our politics and take down the economy.


For some reason this article reminds me of a movie (0.00 / 0)
And Justice for All.

"I'm over the line?!! ....."

"It sounds wrong...
     ...but its right."


Wow that must have cost Rev wack Moon $3.45 (4.00 / 1)
From his Annual Bailout of the magazine.
Congrats!

Yeah… (4.00 / 2)
...it's the utter nonchalance that always gets me. I keep imagining someone at a dinner party casually saying reductive shit like, "a mother attracted to men on the Third World". (Sigh...)

"This ain't for the underground. This here is for the sun." -Saul Williams

"grotesquely fat" (4.00 / 2)
Unfortunately, David, your insults tend to produce lots of collateral damage.  The person you insulted I'm sure deserves every nasty thing you can think up.  But by insulting his body weight, you insult millions of other Americans at the same time.

You are correct in pointing out the hypocrisy of the Washington Times.  But by taking the low road and insulting someone's looks, you make it very difficult to make this point yourself.  


perhaps Barbour shouldn't be so fat (4.00 / 1)


[ Parent ]
Michael Moore (4.00 / 1)
So?  Perhaps Michael Moore shouldn't be so fat, either.  So what?

How many people when reading a review of a Michael Moore movie think it is funny when the writer insults Moore's physique?  How many think this is a good point and makes you more likely to agree with the rest of the article?

Anyone?


[ Parent ]
actually Moore lost a lot of weight (0.00 / 0)
it's as if he didn't want to be buried in a piano crate

you're picking a strange battle, here


[ Parent ]
Weight (4.00 / 1)
So you actually think it is okay to make fun of people's appearance?  Is this the morality we stand for?

Sure, we can go the neocon route and claim that anything less evil than what our enemies do is okay.  I don't buy that.

Why are you defending this?  Why is Dave proud of this?  Ew, I called him a fatso, ha ha ha.  Look how cool I am.

I'm actually in favor of playing hardball.  We should be calling out the neocons as the cowards they are.  We should be exposing corporate greed and evil where we see it.  But not all insults are equal.  Criticizing someone's looks is just stupid and embarrassing.

Why defend crap like this?

Are the racists bastards he is attacking infinitely worse?  Of course!  But we're the good guys, damnit.  Fucking act like it.


[ Parent ]
"Ew, I called him a fatso, ha ha ha. Look how cool I am." (0.00 / 0)
Amazing how quickly you cut right to the heart of this post!  A centrist AND a psychic, how do you find the time?

[ Parent ]
You're right (4.00 / 1)
I've read enough of David to know he most definitely was not thinking "look how cool I am" when he wrote what he wrote.  I wrote that because I got mad and knew it was the kind of criticism he finds painful.  That was stupid and wrong of me, particularly since I was mad at him, not you.  I apologize.

I also know that SpitBall is correct and this kind of thing can be used to get more attention in a way that helps, even though it also can hurt.  I used to assume Rush Limbaugh would be a boon to liberalism given his obvious blowhardedness and lies, but I was wrong.  Intellectually I understand that blowhardedness and truth can work on our side.

But damn I hate it.

By the way, don't assume I'm a centrist because we disagree over tactics.  From this distance, at least, we seem to want the same end results.  In an ideal world I may be to your right, but we are so far removed from that world that the difference is invisible from here.


[ Parent ]
I'm a big fan of Sirota - and of aggresivesly challleging (4.00 / 1)
the Washington Times and Barbour and the rest.

I'm not, however, a fan of fat jokes.

Support a Pennsylvania Progressive for Governor - Joe Hoeffel


[ Parent ]
Not so much defending Sirota (4.00 / 1)
as not letting a few nasty words obscure the content of his message.

I see a fundamental difference between those on the right attacking M. Moore for his weight and those like Sirota and Franken who used similar words to attack Barbour and Limbaugh. The personal attacks from pundits attacking Moore were the sum total of their attack, all sizzle, no steak, as it were. These personal attacks from Sirota and Franken are backed up by volumes of more substantive critique.

If I read your position correctly, you think that the personal attacks undercut their message and detract from the substance of the message. That is a fair position.

But consider that when these "lefties" (the good guys as you call them) use the tactics of the right (the bad guys, anyway) it may gain them a bit more exposure and a wider audience. I doubt Franken's books would have been as popular had he not used provocative titles, even though the content would have been the same. So, its an advertising ploy in my estimation. Now, IF folks like Sirota began to offer NOTHING more than provocative broadsides, I start worrying.



"It sounds wrong...
     ...but its right."


[ Parent ]
Even in the realm of being provocative there's nice and mean (0.00 / 0)
I doubt Franken's books would have been as popular had he not used provocative titles, even though the content would have been the same.

Franken named his book Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot.  If he instead declined to insult his opponent's girth and named it Rush Limbaugh is a Complete Idiot, or something along those lines, would the books not have sold as well?  Would it not have made his point?


[ Parent ]
perhaps the title refers to the vast expanse of Limbaugh's idiocy (0.00 / 0)
hmm?

[ Parent ]
I've heard people say things to the effect of "Sarah Palin is a huge moron" (0.00 / 0)
sayin'

[ Parent ]
"Huge" would be understood as a modifier of her "moron-ness" (0.00 / 0)
but if you said "fat" instead, no one would think the word fat is describing the "fatness of her moron-ness"; it would be assumed to be describing the fatness of the person herself.

[ Parent ]
Actually, I wonder WHY the book sold as well. (0.00 / 0)
By coincidence, got a used one recently. Only managed to make it through half of the content. After the first 100 pages, it simply becomes repititious and boring. Yes, ok, got it, rethuglicans are lying idiots. More examples don't make that point any stronger, and there's only so many funny ways you can expose the nonsense. Don't really know why this became a bestseller. It's simply too long, and it's kind of a one trick pony.

[ Parent ]
Have you read (0.00 / 0)
Lies and the Lying Liars who Tell Them?

If not, I highly recommend it.


[ Parent ]
Uh, maverick, that's the book I'm talking about. (0.00 / 0)
Is there a misunderstanding here? About which book were we talking?

[ Parent ]
Oops, my mistake. Got confused. (0.00 / 0)
I was talking about the "lying liars". I did look into the "big fat idiot" at the bookstore, but after my negative experience (boring) with the "liars", I didn't buy it. Sry for confusing things here!

[ Parent ]
No problem (0.00 / 0)
You didn't like it?  I'm surprised - maybe you should give the second half a chance.

[ Parent ]
I guess it's only me, but the problem is... (0.00 / 0)
..I really can stand only so much rethuglican nonsense at any time, no matter how humorously it's presented. And "lying liars" is full of it. It's simply too much for me.

[ Parent ]
Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Liar (4.00 / 1)
You're right, that title DID offend some people and it DID make it just a bit harder for Senator Al Franken to win an election. That's why I gave your first comment a 4.

But, oh well.  

I take your righteous point about how being politically incorrect is... well, not very nice. Sirota did not feel like being nice today. That does not undercut his overall arguments or approach, unless you don't read passed the words "grotesquely fat".


"It sounds wrong...
     ...but its right."


[ Parent ]
David (4.00 / 3)
I know to stay out of David's threads.  I've been good for months now, but I slipped today.  Some people really eat up this stuff, I'm sorry to say, and find hate a good motivator, so he has an important roll to play.  I've made my point.  Nough' said.

[ Parent ]
implying pointing out someone's grotesque obesity is "hatred" (0.00 / 0)
oh you

[ Parent ]
nitpicking, much? (0.00 / 0)
Of course, this can be called hatred. A strong judgment, but not over the top.

[ Parent ]
Donate to Open Left








Friends of the Earth thanks the OpenLeft community for the ideas you generate and your contributions to the progressive movement.

As an anti-spam measure, there is a 24-hour waiting period after registering before new users can comment.
blog advertising is good for you
blog advertising is good for you
SEARCH

   

Advanced Search