Politico's Mike Allen fans the DHS flames
April 17, 2009 8:55 am ET by Eric Boehlert
We're a little late on this, but it's worth repeating what Think Progress recently highlighted.
Appearing on Hugh Hewitt's far right radio show, Politico's Allen shoveled out right-wing misinformation about the DHS internal intelligence report about violent, extreme domestic terrorist groups. Allen, like Hewitt and the rest of the right, pretends the report is about conservatives.
I think it’s a big story...I think some bureaucrat who wrote this report, like, misstated in a way that doesn't comport with your or my observations about the real America. I think it was somebody who, written inside the Beltway, who maybe has fantasies about what happens outside in the real America.
Three problems. A) So now Allen knows more about domestic terrorist groups than the Department of Homeland Security? B) Allen can read minds of terrorist experts within DHS; he can tell that they were fantasizing while writing a report? C) Allen dutifully seems to sign off on the right-wing's beloved conspiracy theory that the DHS is targeting mainstream conservatives out in "real America."
It's bad enough when Politico shovels misinformation on its own site. Why does it have to spread it around the radio, too?
Perhaps, Eric, this should be one of your "irony alerts" ... Politico's Mike Allen is going to proport to tell US about "real America".
I guess when you live in the DC media bubble, real America is 100% gun-toting militia-loving tax & govt haters ...
You reap what you sow.
When you babble indiscriminately and interchangably in the nonsense words of "rightwing" and "conservative", then you are subject to an every bit as loose interpretation of those meaningless words, in response to and against you.
The very title of the idiotic report in question, begins with the word "Rightwing": I immediately knew from that first word, that the report would probably be just babbled nonsense, if it begins with "Rightwing"... and reading the balance of the report, I was confirmed in my suspicion: the entire report was worse than a bunch of "ism" and "ization" and "istic" nonsense, it also took the strange and strained effort to blindly slander and mistrust IRAQ and Afghanistan military veterans.
Now, who is it who uses the words "rightwing" and "conservative" indiscriminately and interchangably?
Who uses those words "conservative" and "rightwing", when in truth they mean and should be saying Republican?
You reap what you sow... and when you sow strange nonsense words like "conservative" and "rightwing", then you harvest idiotic stuff like this DHS report, and all the chaff and flack that comes with it.
ALLEN: I think some bureaucrat who wrote this report....
Where did he get this idea? I thought it was the assessment of federal law enforcement professionals. Imagine the phony wingnut outrage if this had been a military report and a reporter said it came from "some bureaucrat."
It's all relative. You see, if it was examining left-wing extremists, then it would the work of seasoned professional law enforcement professionals.
But if it examines right-wing extremists, then it's just a political hit job.
Please try to remember to use entire names! "Politico's Allen" is not the same as saying "Mike Allen."
More and more I'm noticing bloggers not catching the fact that an excerpted quote or reference isn't preceded by the use of a person's full name. This seems to be happening even at Media Matters.