Dear @TwitchyTeam: Seriously, WTF?
I guess we’ll call this an extended letter to the editor, dearest Twitchy Team, because one of the recent posts you ran titled “Cuckoo of the Day: FBI paved the way for gun grab” , really, pretty much pissed me off. Not only was the sense of condescension and arrogance almost completely overwhelming, the ridiculous attack on Greg W. Howard was one of the most cynical ploys I’ve seen employed by “our side” in quite some time, if ever, since I found myself becoming an online conservative activist in the last couple of years.
Are you now an “established” media presence, Twitchy Team, to be used as yet ANOTHER piece of machinery to attack those who dare dissent from what the “accepted” narrative is supposed to be? Because if you are, then you’re basically SPITTING in the face of everything that Andrew Breitbart fought, and, for all intents and purposes, died for. Don’t believe me? Well, let’s take a look at Andrew’s thoughts on having the mainstream media machinery turned on him, as related in his book “Righteous Indignation”.
“I understood that if anybody thinks that my mission is to become another person you see on TV or hear on radio pontificating ‘It’s my way or the highway’ on such matters, they completely missed my point”–Pg 222
So is that the precedent you’re establishing here, Twitchy Team? That it’s your way or the highway? That only your friends and the tweets you feature on a daily basis are truly representative of the wild and wooly world that is online conservative activism? Because if it is, then you FAIL, and really need to reassess what the hell it is you’re doing. The idea of your site is awesome, and for the most part, has been extremely effective in combating the narrative of the left. But, if instead, part of your operations are going to be to go after the people who are willing to go far out there in their thinking on current thoughts and events, then blech.
Back to Andrew.
“My mission isn’t to quash debate - it’s to show that mainstream media aren’t mainstream, that their feigned objectivity isn’t objective, and that open, rigorous debate is a positive good in our society.” — pg 223
By labeling everyone you featured in the aforementioned post as a “kook” or “cukoos”, isn’t that EXACTLY what you’re doing? Quashing debate and trying to provide an approved and sanitized narrative? If it isn’t, please, let me know.
The next passage is one you might really want to pay attention to, dearest Twitchy Team.
“Everyone of these acts by ABC News came in reaction to the left’s push to get me kicked off the air. Every one of these acts was unilateral, without anybody from ABC News Contacting me. They were throwing their invitee under the bus and they were doing so in a most cruel fashion. What was worse, they were calling me out as a liar. They were giving the anti-free speech forces of the left everything they wanted.” –pg 227
Pure Alinsky is what you did, friends at Twitchy Team. You attacked in an attempt to marginalize those people’s voices. And, what’s worse, is you cynically attacked Greg W. Howard because of completely unrelated crap. Get over yourselves. You essentially squashed free speech with that post, and quite frankly, it’s disgusting.
Now, just to prove how completely cynical that attack was, I am going to feature a tweet from Pat Dollard. I dig Pat. His fighting spirit, and his awesome weirdness is definitely an asset, but, again, he seems to be mostly ignored by you, the so-called “smart set” of online conservative activism.
Video: Heart-Attack Inducing Gun is.gd/3RXbfr
— Patrick Dollard (@PatDollard) March 1, 2012
Dated March, 1, 2012. One of the wilder ideas about how Breitbart met his untimely death. Now, if the tweets featured in your cuckoo piece were worthy of that, why not Dollard’s? You guys launched on March 7, and that heart attack gun story was STILL circulating at that time. Funny, that.
What’s perhaps even more amusing is that one of the smart set’s most beloved, Stephen Kruiser, was talking about dissenting opinions just recently.
@swerdlick Because 1 side may not embrace, but does allow, dissent. The other doesn't. And that would be the left. @owillis @jeromeehudson
— SFK (@stephenkruiser) July 13, 2012
Something doesn’t quite jive, there, Twitchy Team. Kruiser is pointing out the fact that the Right does, indeed, welcome dissenting opinions among its ranks. But, your cuckoo piece seems to indicate otherwise.
Weird.
And it REALLY is unfortunate that you decided to make Howard a target. I mean, this man has been through so much shit from both the left and right over the last two years that he deserves a damn break. I’m not entirely sure where attacking a former Marine who’s stood up for this country and this movement time and again falls into a definition of “conservatism”, but maybe I’m just simple.
I will close with more of Andrew’s words, because they describe myself, Howard, and so MANY others who have waded into political activism either online or in real life in recent years. You’d do well to remembers these words, Twitchy Team, because it seems you’ve forgotten them, and forgotten the important message they were a part of.
“But I have also met the America that was rendered silent by the media and is now shaking itself to life again.”
