The Jawa Report shoots and misses
September 23, 2008 9:00 am ET by Eric Boehlert
Oh, don't act surprised. The warblogging site has been part of the right-wing, stopped-watch brigade for years. (They're right twice a day, tops.)
Jawa was at the center of an overexcited right-wing blog launch Monday morning ("extensive research" was involved!) with a completely circumstantial report that basically accused somebody who may or may not have had indirect relations with the Obama campaign of posting an anti-Palin video on YouTube "aimed at discouraging people from voting for McCain/Palin." Period.
We know, it didn't make much sense to us either. We guess Jawa's point was that the Obama campaign was somehow trying to create the perception of a viral video when in fact the clip was professionally made. We're talking real above-the-fold breaking news, right?
Well, it turns out the Los Angeles-based public relations specialist who Jawa accused of being the Obama bag man on the YouTube clip, Ethan Winner, did in fact create the video. He did it himself and paid for it himself and the campaign was not involved in making or spreading the YouTube clip. (Even if the Obama team was involved, so what?)
Winner made this sort of glaringly obvious observation about the rise of user-generated media, which the right-wing bloggers just don't get:
Just like the thousands of Americans who have posted videos on the Internet regarding the current Presidential campaign, I produced this video as an expression of my right to free speech, which is guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.
Note that Winner pulled the YouTube clip in question because after JaWa published personal information about him, his family started receiving threatening and abusive phone calls and emails.
So really, just another day at the office for the can't-shoot-straight gang on the far side of the blogosphere, which is now reduced to analyzing audio snippets of the voice-over pro who helped with the YouTube clip because she apparently is the key to unlocking this (none) mystery.
Honestly, just once when right-wing bloggers claim to have the goods on some supposed blockbuster (Jamil Hussein, anyone?), couldn't they first line up some actual facts before going public with their half-cocked conspiracy theories and relying on hope-and-prayer language like, "If all of this is true...."? It would save us all a lot of time.
Then again, their adventures do produce lots of unintended merriment for us, so we're torn over whether we want them to stop or not.
Media Matters: The Palin chronicles
The Friday Rush: A series of conflicts
Contrary to media hype, Sarah Palin is very unpopular
Unitended merriement for us, but not for the Winner family.
If they can just stop setting the dogs on those they disagree with - more fun all around!
Let's see, on your side, we have an opinion based tirade. On our side, this site, we have a facts based piece of writing.
Who to believe?
I'm going to go with MMFA. Why? Because they proved the so called JaWa report wrong, and the man who did make the video, did get hate mail from readers of the site. Seems to always work that way.
Also, they fails miserably to take into account the fact that Sen. John McCain worked with, Winner & Associates, the PR company that supposedly produced the vidoes for the Obama campaign, in 2002, helping them on a media manipulation initiative to ensure that public opinion was behind, Prop 202, a particular indian gaming initiative passed in Arizona. He worked on their ads and mailing campaigns as a Senator.
Sen, McCain was twice the chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, 1995-1997 and 2005-2007. That this conflict of interest has yet to be addressed is strange.
It was exposed in this post this morning containing links to all sources.
http://www.metafilter.com/75113/EPIC-FAIL-The-Astroturf-is-always-greener-on-the-other-side
The Jawa Report has yet to acknowledge, because it discredits the "investigation," and is seeking for the media to pick it up it's original story. Michelle Malkin was on Fox News talking about it and the "Obama campaigns connection" this morning.
Int heir eagerness to counter smear Obama, the right wing pundits do not yet realize the connection between McCAin and Winner Associates, that raises many more questions about his character and integrity than a nebulous and vague, at best, connection beween David Axelrod and the Winner PR firm producing a You Tube video that's supposed to be indicative of a full blown Astroturfing viral video campaign. They seem intoxicated with the idea that there's been a cover up, w/o seeing the harm they've inadvertently done to the McCain campaign itself.
Check out the Metafilter link
Shoots and misses? You guys are a joke.
While everyone expects Media Matters to lie about the facts, I recommend to its less delusional readers to read the Jawa report in question. That's it. Go read it, and see if you don't come away thinking that the case presented is powerful and accurate.
You might then, also, come away with another truth: Media Matters isn't interested in informing you of the truth but simply feeding you garbage.
Yep, just read it again to make sure I didn't miss anything, and indeed, it's a bunch of speculation, and circumstantial evidence that someone from a professional PR firm used their talents to make a video smearing Sarah Palin. And, oh my god! He might want Obama to WIN the presidency! Gee, you guys think so?
So Palin wasn't an official member of the seccessionist group in Alaska. Don't get me wrong, they have as much right to congregate as anyone else, but don't even think for one little second, if Obama had been a member of such a group, we wouldn't have heard about how he was anti American, and wanted only bad things for the US. The woman's husband was a full fledged member, and the guy who runs the group is on record many times talking about how bad America is. And she spoke (via video) at their conference. Last year. That's called tacit support for said group.
The man who made the video got some facts wrong. Guess what? He doesn't work for the campaign. He is a normal joe citizen like you and me, and like you and me, we sometimes don't get everything right, sort of like the McCain campaign at large, they seem to be turning out falsehood after falsehood in their advertisements lately.
There is no connection between this ad, and the official Obama campaign. None. Get over it. You guys have found, well, nothing really. Are you trying to tell me every anti Obama ad about him being some secret Muslim, a terrorist supporter, and so on and so forth that I've seen is somehow related to the McCain campaign? Even I don't think McCain could, or would stoop THAT low, and neither would Obama. You guys really need to get your hysterics under control. It's funny though to watch you make a huge mountain, out of nothing...
Well, I read it, and it does indeed make a powerful and accurate case that a guy put a video on YouTube. Whoop-tee-do! But the case the Jawa report makes that there's anything wrong with a guy putting a video on YouTube is basically: 1) The video looks and sounds good, 2) Ethan Winner is a Democrat. Well, I didn't need the Jawa Report to tell me that! I like the funny contrast between MMFA and this "report." If I were a conservative, I'm not sure I could stand to wade through the neck-high useless speculation. ("Did somebody do something illegal that we can neither prove nor even justify speculating about? Read on for the inconclusive results of our amateurish--and childish-- investigation!") MMFA, on the other hand, tells you what they actually take issue with (not what they might take issue with if it were true), and then, in most cases, they tell you what the relevant context is and provide a video and transcript so you can see that the person who said what they said actually said what they said.