Calling Out Anderson Coopers False Left/Right Equivalency

Originally posted on Dailykos

Wherein I Call Out Anderson Cooper for his Lies and Smears about the Netroots supposed "Engaging in the same tactics as the Right" - and Officially Call for him to correct HIMSELF and Apologize.



Transcript

Cooper : I mean, I don't -- I don't get -- as somebody who is not particularly partisan on the left or the right, I try not to view things through the lens of being liberal or being conservative. I don't get -- it just seems like, whether you're a conservative or whether you're a liberal and you have a blog, it doesn't seem like the truth really matters. It's just, you say whatever you want to say, whether you're on the left or the right, to prove your point, and if you're wrong, no one ever says they're wrong. No one ever seems to apologize.

The first problem with Coopers construction is that it's based on a false premise, that those on the left - writ large - are deliberately engaging in factionalism where truth and facts becoming secondary to ideology and partisan gain.

Anyone whose spent more than 30 seconds on any major progressive site, particularly this one, knows that's not true because We Self edit and Self Correct. We do point out mistakes, we do even Take Down Posts which other members find racially, religiously or otherwise offensive. I understand Cooper's effort to remain "non-partisan" by proclaim "both sides do it" - but the effort to achieve False Neutrality often leads to creating a False Reality.

Cooper has Smeared us as Liars as bad as Brietbart and he deserves a response.

Certainly, anyone can make an honest mistake, anyone can have an intemperate moment and shoot off the cuff, the question is - can you admit and fix that mistake or do you double-down on it because your ego and ideology demand it?

Can you admit it when you're wrong?

Anderson's charge is that both the left and the right equally fail in this test.

i submit He. IS. Wrong. Not everybody does it. Not everybody lies.

Generalizing this broadly as he has, is just as offensive and wrong-headed as a Racial Smear would be. Bring Specifics Anderson or else you must take back the charge.

certainly there are general tendencies between left and right, but lets be honest here. The general stock-in-trade of the right has been in creating and maintaining a pack of falsehoods that support their economic and social agendas, the general path of the Left has been to counter those falsehoods with Facts, even when they don't necessary lead where we might like them to. If there is a fundamental difference between the two ideologies, it's the one (the Right) operates with absolute certainty, and then fills in the gaps later - while the other (the Left) generally operates with constant questioning, correction and testing of our theories to ensure their provability.

The Left argues with each other constantly and openly, which is why we often seem in disarray even in victory - the Right functions in constant Lock Step, without question, without dissent, without allowing truth to spoil their certainty. Trying to get the Left all going the same direction is literal like herding cats, getting the Right to go all the same way simply requires pointing out "where the Liberals are" and they automaticaly go stampeding the other way at FULL Warp.

This is of course a generalization, and there are clearly exceptions in both directions, but I think it generally holds true.

Wanna see what happens when someone goes off the approved reservation in Right-wing World? This...



As of this very moment Markos Moulitsas founder of this site is currently on suspension from MSNBC for an intemperate tweet, not because what he sais was factually wrong, it wasn't - it's because the facts hurt Joe Scarborough's feelings. Meanwhile conservatives such as Liz Cheney can personally insult MSNBC hosts Olbermann and Maddow and still appear on the network (perhaps because neither of them is the great big Crybaby that Scarborough is or perhaps the Truth of what Markos said stings far more than the Lies of Cheney - take your pick.)

If the Left has been criticized, it hasn’t been because of a lack of facts, it’s been for their inflammatory cartoons and the intensity of their editorial language (yes, we will drop an F-BOMB on a dime) – but that’s it.

In this I think it’s illustrative to note how different the reaction to those cartoons/signs has been coming from left and right.

In 2006, Firedoglake published an editorial cartoon of Joe Lieberman in Blackface – did they apologize? Hell, yes – they did.

I sincerely apologize to anyone who was genuinely offended by the choice of images accompanying my blog post today on the Huffington Post. It’s also important to note that I do not, nor have I ever worked for Ned Lamont’s campaign. However, at their request, I removed the image earlier today.

Unfortunately, Senator Lieberman’s campaign has used this in attempt to hurt Ned and score political points, mustering their own faux indignation in attempt to further distract from the issues important to the voters of Connecticut.

In 2007 someone on Dailykos posted another inflammatory picture of Joe Lieberman with his hand in George Bush’s pants.

Let me ask you something Anderson – whose career did that destroy? Who was lied about? No one in their right mind thinks Joe Lieberman is gay (and frankly around these parts – we wouldn’t care, he might even get a parade if he was) but the TRUTH in that picture is that after 2006 Joe Lieberman became George Bush’s favorite neo-Democrat lackey. Editorial Cartooning has a long history and sometimes the point being made may not be nice to say, they should still be essential true and this one is true. Yet, who took that event and immediately turned it "Racial" when Lieberman's race and religion had nothing - literally NOTHING - to do with the point of this cartoon?

Bill O’Reilly – that's who.

O'Reilly: This is what the Kos traffic's in. The fact that these democratic candidates would support a website with a picture like that - is hard to believe.

Agree with him or not, Senator Lieberman is a Patriot and a man of conviction. Right now he's opposing the loons in the Senate who don't want to protect American citizens who report possible terrorist activity from lawsuits. Lieberman deserves respect, not hatred.

Because of one picture (which by the way was deleted and highly criticized when it appeared) and some intemperate (and massively HR'd) comments he called us a “Hate Site”, he said we were “Worse than David Duke”.

One picture and a 100,000 people who regularly visit and post here are “Worse then David Duke?” I bring this up because this is the standard that Bill O’Reilly and FOX News Set.

One Picture (even if people on your own side complain about it) equals David Duke. Got it? ONE PICTURE!

Here’s shocker for you Anderson, some of the fact checking done on this site is better than that on CNN. We’ve fact checked (Jeopardy Champion) Wolf Blizter, we’ve fact checked Dr. Sanjay Gupta and found them both severaly wanting. Right now I’m Fact Checking You

The accusation that the Left regularly traffics in LIES in order to unfairly smear the Right is False. It can't be backed up, it can't be proven.

If one or two rude pictures of Joe Lieberman equals "David Duke and the KKK" - what's this equal?



We don’t have to lie about them, all we have to do is accurate quote them and teh crazy is obvious for all (or nearly all) to see. Why don't you ask Eric Boehlert about that, because point out their lies is really all that Media Matters does.

You're wrong Anderson, and to help prove my point - I DARE YOU to prove me wrong. In fact, I Double DOG Dare you back up your bogus claim.

It hasn’t been the Left unfairly smearing the Right, it’s been almost entirely the Opposite for quote some time. That's not a partisan argument, it's simply Factual.



Don't think at least Some Conservatives are Anti-Obama because of Race? Check this out.



Does this mean all of them are motivated by Race? Of course, not. Only Janeane Garofalo has suggested such a thing and here on Dailykos - We Disagreed With Her.

I'm not a big fan of false civility or political correctness. The web is blunt, sometimes bitingly so - but that is a completely different proposition from having facts completely out of wack.

The Tea Party isn't being called out simply for being Racist - it's because all of their underlying arguments are Factually Wrong.

There are no Death Panels. Obama was born in Hawaii, not Kenya. He's not a Muslim, he's not a Socialist or Communist or Marxist. The truth is that he's a Centrist/Corporatist with minor Progressive Leanings.

ACORN was not involved in a deliberate massive Voter Fraud Scheme, and they were not Criminally Corrupt - the Brooklyn DA, the California Attorney General and the Congressional Research Service all agree despite what Breibart and his Convict Pal O'Keefe says.

The argument that Joe Lieberman was going out of his way to service the needs of the Republican President and Republican Party is a valid argument, he went so far as to campaign for John McCain - so although the image was rude, IT WAS TRUE in spirit.

But is there ANY TRUTH to any of this...?



Or this?



Or this?



Or this?



Or this?



Or this?



Where is the equivalence on the Left to any of this?

But while all this is going on we've also had outbreaks of violence. The Shooting at the Holocaust Museum by a Racist Birther, Gregory Guisti who threatened Nancy Pelosi's Life, White Powder sent to Rep. Anthony Weiner's Offices, the Hutaree Militia and their plan to Murder Cops and Blow-Up their Funeral, the Pittsburgh Cop Killer who didn't want Obama to Take His Guns Away, James Adkisson who shot and killed Liberals at a Knoxville Unitarian Church, the Wingnut from Maine who was trying to build a Radiological Dirty Bomb, James Stack flying his plane into the IRS Building, the Christian Hate Group Terrorizing Amarillo Texas... and this latest attempted attack on the ACLU and Tides Foundation in San Francisco.

While the Left has occasionally used some off-color visual and verbal jabs, they haven't deliberately and repeatedly LIED, they haven't issued Death Threats, let alone actual violence on anyone. If anything they've been fighting against the lies and rising tide of Hate and Fact-Free Fear that people like Breitbart, Limbaugh, Malkin, O'Reilly and Beck have repeatedly, incessantly promoted.

Congressman Clyburn and Lewis were called the N-Word - there were witnesses! Just as there was tape from ABC News of Barney Frank being called "Faggot". Pretend they didn't say the N-Word, all you want Andrew - they DID say that - that's the truth.

The problem with the Tea Party isn't so much with the ones who made those statements, those are only a few people, it's with the majority of them including Breitbart who refuse to own up to that minority and take responsibility for their still being in their group.

We kicked the Lieberman picture off the site, they stand their and smile with the "Obama the Witch-Doctor/Money" signs, or else try to blame those people signs on Democrats. Are you seeing the difference? No matter what, they refuse to take responsible action unless forced.

It took One Rude Tweet to get Markos bounced from MSNBC, but even after this....

[R]epeat after me: Islam is a 7th Century Death Cult coughed up by a psychotic pedophile and embraced by defective, tail sprouting, tree swinging, semi-human, bipedal primates with no claim to be treated like human beings or even desirable mammals for that matter.

And this...

Dear Mr. Lincoln

We Coloreds have taken a vote and decided that we don’t cotton to that whole emancipation thing. Freedom means having to work for real, think for ourselves, and take consequences along with the rewards. That is just far too much to ask of us Colored People and we demand that it stop!

Mark Williams didn't quietly finally leave the Tea Party Express, until yesterday.

You think what they do and what we do is equivalent?

Not hardly.

Do some damn Due Diligence and correct the record Anderson, or else be considered as just as much of a Joke as Brietbart.

Vyan

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