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"Journalist" attempst to compare my books to the Turner Diaries
Western Rifle Shooters Association ^ | April 13, 2012 | Matt Bracken

Posted on 04/13/2012 3:36:38 PM PDT by Travis McGee

On Wed, Apr 11, 2012 at 9:58 AM, J.M. Berger wrote:

Dear Mr. Bracken,

My name is J.M. Berger. I’m a journalist working on a story about the EFAD trilogy for the Daily Beast. I was wondering if you’d have a few minutes to discuss the book between Thursday and Sunday via phone or email. (My deadline is Monday and I am out of the office most of today.)

I can be reached at this address or at 202-656-XXXX any time starting tomorrow morning.

Best,

J.M.

— On Thu, 4/12/12, Matt Bracken wrote:

From: Matt Bracken

Subject: Re: Media query, #EFAD

To: “J.M. Berger”

Date: Thursday, April 12, 2012, 8:10 AM

Sure, I can do that. It’s now 8am Thursday and I’ll be off the grid until later this afternoon, but we can set up a call for anytime after that.

Matt

On Thu, Apr 12, 2012 at 8:13 AM, J.M. Berger wrote:

Any time this afternoon or after is fine with me. Just let me know, or just call when it’s convenient.

Thanks very much,

JM

— On Thu, 4/12/12, Matt Bracken wrote:

From: Matt Bracken Subject: Re: Media query, #EFADTo: “J.M. Berger”

Date: Thursday, April 12, 2012, 8:48 AM

If you would prefer, we can use written Q&A format. Or, you could shoot me some questions that I could consider prior to a phone interview. In any case, I’ll be out of range until later this afternoon.

Matt

On Thu, Apr 12, 2012 at 8:58 AM, J.M. Berger wrote:

I’m mainly interested in understanding the role you see the book playing for the Patriot movement (entertainment or educational or inspirational, etc.), and how the book reflects (or doesn’t) your own political views.

I’d also like to talk about the inevitable comparison to “The Turner Diaries.” I didn’t think the comparison was inevitable after Book One, but it’s difficult to avoid by the end of Book Three. I’m interested in what you think of Turner, whether you set out intentionally to modify or improve on what it represents, and what role you think racial politics play in the modern Patriot movement.

JM

— On Thu, 4/12/12, Matt Bracken wrote:

From: Matt Bracken Subject: Re: Media query, #EFADTo: “J.M. Berger”

Date: Thursday, April 12, 2012, 9:20 AM

Did you actually read all three novels? Every page? I’m probably going to punt on this interview if your point is to compare my work to the racist screed the Turner Diaries.

Assuming you will say that you did read all three novels, I’m guessing you are comparing FEAT to TTD based on bad actions by black characters in and around Memphis. Do you honestly think that after major earthquakes cut off W. TN (no water, no power etc), folks will all join across racial lines to sing kumbaya? There would be no racial element? Such a plot would be laughably unrealistic and PC. And do you find the murderously evil white vigilantes in FEAT to be portrayed sympathetically? Another “Turner Diaries?” Really? And did you miss the catharsis in racial feelings by Jenny?

I mean, seriously, did you read the damn novel, or skim it, or possibly just read the excerpts on my website?

If you have not read, (I mean, really read), all three novels, then forget it. Get back to me when you have.

And in any case, forget a phone interview. I can see already how that would go, when your “notes” become written words in your essay. Been there, done that, still got the scars, pal. Submit written Q&A only is how this will go, if it goes at all. My trust-o-meter is pegging the redline. My trust in “journalists” after a few decades dealing with them is below used car salesmen and hookers. I’ve given interviews, and seen my words turned via the magical process of “notes” into damnable lies. Fool me once, etc.

Matt

On Thu, Apr 12, 2012 at 9:45 AM, J.M. Berger wrote:

I read all three novels. These are the reasons I think it’s valid to compare and contrast:

1) Both books are predicated around revolution/resistance tied to the seizure of guns,

2) The Memphis section of the third book clearly echoes the content of the Turner Diaries. My opinion about the credibility of anything you described is entirely irrelevant to that point unless you’re arguing from a belief that black cannibalism is a realistically inevitable outcome of the breakdown of society or an unavoidable literary imperative of some kind.

3) Nevertheless, you seem to be approaching racial content in a markedly different way than Pierce. This is also a valid point for comparison and contrast, which is not the same as saying the two books are equal or equivalent.

4) Since you asked, my view is that the breakthrough that Jenny experiences is an awfully weak counterweight against the Memphis stuff. I plan on acknowledging its presence, and the other factors you included as counterweights, but I think it’s appropriate to discuss it in context. The balance in Book 3 is clearly much different from Book 1.

I can understand your wanting to clearly distinguish your book from Turner, but I frankly don’t understand your outrage over the comparison. I think it’s pretty obvious and valid why one would discuss these two books together. To acknowledge the commonalities is not to equate the books on the basis of racial politics, writing or anything else.

So for some actual questions. I’ll start with these, and if you’re still willing to continue, I will send more.

1) Did you set out to do a political book in the form of a novel, or did you set out to write a novel that simply has political elements?

2) Did you consciously set out to write something that would be a non-racist or at least less racial alternative to The Turner Diaries as a text for the Patriot movement?

3) Would you describe yourself as part of the Patriot movement or as part of some other political wave?

4) Do you feel that the Patriot movement has historically had a racist component? Do you think it needs to change in this respect? If so, why?

Thanks for considering this request.

JM

From: Matt Bracken

To: J.M. Berger

Sent: Thursday, April 12, 2012 9:57 PM

Subject: Re: Media query, #EFAD

Mr Berger,

Let me take your approach for just a moment.

When did you stop beating your wife and children in drunken rages? Since we know that most journalists are drunken louts who beat their wives and kids, right?

Truthfully, most of the self-described “journalists” I have dealt with personally have been smarmy, lying SOBs, and I see you are typical of the breed.

AMF.


TOPICS: Books/Literature; Government; Society; Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: banglist; efad
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To: Travis McGee

Nice smack-down, brother.

Two thumbs way, way up....


141 posted on 04/14/2012 8:05:02 AM PDT by NFHale (The Second Amendment - By Any Means Necessary.)
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To: Travis McGee

In the one serious toe-to-toe dustup between the Communists and the Islamists, the Communists backed out. Of course, the Islamists had some outside help, and the home turf advantage.


142 posted on 04/14/2012 8:12:53 AM PDT by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly. Stand fast. God knows what He is doing)
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To: Travis McGee

Regarding the issue of “cannibalism”...

Recall that a few days after Hurricane Katrina blew through New Orleans, reports started coming out that the survivors were resorting to cannibalism.

Recall also that the response to those stories generally wasn’t “That’s ridiculous”.

The concept that some groups of people can go “cannibal” is one that Mr. Berger’s cohort, and possibly Mr. Berger himself, considers, in the deep, dark, secret recesses of their minds, to be plausible.


143 posted on 04/14/2012 9:11:10 AM PDT by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: Smokin' Joe
I think by the 1980s, the Russians (still running the USSR, which was on its last legs) invaded Afghanistan for geopolitical purposes. The communist ideology wrapping the USSR was by then a transparent shell. So I wouldn't even call that war “communism vs islamism,” but just “Russia vs Afghanistan.”
144 posted on 04/14/2012 10:26:00 AM PDT by Travis McGee (www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
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To: DuncanWaring

Sure, and the groups who are least restrained by religious or cultural moral underpinnings will be the very ones who resort to it first, when they are starving.

Say, groups who consider it entertaining to sucker-punch whites on city streets, then kick them in the head until they are maimed or dead, while filming it on cell phones for later amusement.

I don’t think they are going to stay at home and quietly starve when the skittles are all gone.


145 posted on 04/14/2012 10:28:44 AM PDT by Travis McGee (www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
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To: Travis McGee

The patriot movement? Wanna bet this dufus tried the same horse hockey with Rawles?


146 posted on 04/14/2012 10:37:03 AM PDT by bgill
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To: Smokin' Joe
Here is is Twitter pic: "I'm a REALLY intense terrorism expert type journalist."

In other pics, he has a full beard and he looks a lot older.

147 posted on 04/14/2012 12:46:23 PM PDT by Travis McGee (www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
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To: DuncanWaring

(His twitter self-description. VERY serious “natsec” guy, this “specialist on homegrown extremism.”

J.M. Berger
@intelwire
HIGH-VOLUME natsec feed by J.M. Berger, specialist on homegrown extremism; author of Jihad Joe, book on US jihadists. The weed of terrorism bears bitter fruit.

Cambridge, MA · http://amzn.to/ahwBqH


148 posted on 04/14/2012 12:56:55 PM PDT by Travis McGee (www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
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To: Travis McGee

I would have thought his views on “homegrown extremism” would have been all about Timothy McVeigh and the Aryan Brotherhood.


149 posted on 04/14/2012 1:02:52 PM PDT by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: Smokin' Joe; CodeToad; Joe Brower

Here’s the bio from his website. No LE or Military, just “journ-o-lism” for decades back. Note the topic of his next book, and how it ties into his approach to me, in his mind. He seems to be an apologist for islam, and a real hater of “militias” etc, that old libtard boogyman, which he links directly to white racism.

http://jmberger.egoplex.com/

BIOGRAPHY

J.M. Berger has been a journalist for 25 years, working in every form of media from newspapers to New Media, radio and television. His work has appeared in The Atlantic, Foreign Policy, the CTC Sentinel, the New York Daily News and the Boston Globe, and on National Public Radio, Public Radio International and the National Geographic Channel.

In addition to working internationally as an investigative reporter studying terrorism, he is an award-winning business writer and has covered science, technology and religion. He is currently working on a book about the FBI’s infiltration of white supremacist and militia groups in the United States.

Berger consults on homegrown terrorism and online extremism. He has presented research for counterterrorism professionals such as the New York City Police Department’s Intelligence Division, New Jersey state law enforcement, the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), the Homeland Security Policy Institute at George Washington University and more.


150 posted on 04/14/2012 1:06:23 PM PDT by Travis McGee (www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
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To: DuncanWaring; CodeToad

I guess that OKC / Aryan Nations stuff too old, and he needs some newer and catchier headlines. That’s where I come in, I guess.

Plus, he’s probably pissed off that nobody gives a damn about his lame nonfiction book “Jihad Joe.” After a year, it’s at about 350,000 on Amazon, so it’s selling maybe a handful of books a week, if that. IOW, diddly squat, despite the glowing reviews it received from the LSM, such as this by the NYT:

(Here is the last par)

At a time when some politicians and pundits blur the line between Islam and terrorism, Berger, who knows this subject far better than the demagogues, sharply cautions against vilifying Muslim Americans. “Extreme and indiscriminate anti-Muslim rhetoric helps to validate the worldview of our enemies — the premise that America’s wars are indeed wars against Islam,” Berger writes. “You cannot tell someone, ‘You are my enemy,’ and then blame them for believing you.”

It is a timely warning from an expert who has not lost his ­perspective.

Scott Shane is a national security reporter in the Washington ­bureau of The Times.

(Good grief, I’ve never gotten a single LSM review, and I’m outselling him by miles. Imagine if the NYT reviewed my trilogy, even in the negative! It would sell a million copies with that kind of fawning coverage from the NYT and WaPo etc. And Jihad Joe is still on the way-back list at Amazon. I suppose Berger thinks my name and titles will help to launch is book about how the FBI is infiltrating all of those “white racist militias.”)


151 posted on 04/14/2012 1:14:21 PM PDT by Travis McGee (www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
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To: stephenjohnbanker

This is precious: J.M. is “available.”

IOW, he ain’t raking it in as a “domestic terrorism expert” with his very own website.

http://jmberger.egoplex.com/newspapers.html

AVAILABILITY
Berger is available to work as a writer, editor, researcher, ghostwriter or producer. His experience includes writing for the Boston Globe, the New York Daily News, The Atlantic, Foreign Policy, Nature, as well as many businesses and institutions. E-mail or call (202) 656-4XXX to find out what he can bring to your editorial product.


152 posted on 04/14/2012 1:19:10 PM PDT by Travis McGee (www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
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To: SaraJohnson; Travis McGee

” Liberals are mind readers. They can read a white racist between lines that are not written and between words that are not said.”

As long as we have purused the “Phenominology of Jethro Bodine” I am reminded of the old Dick Van Dyke show where book publisher John McGiver says to Rob Petrie “ I know symbolism! I NEVER miss it, Why, I can see symbolism when it isn’t even there!! “


153 posted on 04/14/2012 1:25:57 PM PDT by stephenjohnbanker (God, family, country, mom, apple pie, the girl next door and a Ford F250 to pull my boat.)
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To: stephenjohnbanker

Good one! Mind reading put the “smart” into liberals.


154 posted on 04/14/2012 1:39:40 PM PDT by SaraJohnson
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To: Travis McGee

” AVAILABILITY
Berger is available to work as a writer, editor, researcher, ghostwriter or producer.”

Ghostwriter or producer??

Well, I suppose number of book sales he has thus far qualifies him as a “ghost”

Producer ?
LOL


155 posted on 04/14/2012 1:41:45 PM PDT by stephenjohnbanker (God, family, country, mom, apple pie, the girl next door and a Ford F250 to pull my boat.)
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To: Travis McGee; SaraJohnson

JM Berger

” Sales of my book on terrorism started off slowly.....and then, of course, they began to taper off”

: )


156 posted on 04/14/2012 1:49:57 PM PDT by stephenjohnbanker (God, family, country, mom, apple pie, the girl next door and a Ford F250 to pull my boat.)
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To: MestaMachine

Don’t we all know at least 3 J.M. Bergers personally?


157 posted on 04/14/2012 1:56:50 PM PDT by EDINVA
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To: EDINVA

I only know 2

The expert

The phony

Make that one : )


158 posted on 04/14/2012 2:15:59 PM PDT by stephenjohnbanker (God, family, country, mom, apple pie, the girl next door and a Ford F250 to pull my boat.)
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To: stephenjohnbanker; Travis McGee

Travis,

I have been thinking about it and if your books were targeted by the dummies as a huge, white racist secret plot and it caught on, sales of your book would go through the roof! All the liberals would have to buy your books to “study” your unspoken racist intentions. The socialist neo-Nazis would have to buy it in case it had the secret marching orders they missed. :)

Maybe you should do the interview and make the liberal hysterical?


159 posted on 04/14/2012 2:18:50 PM PDT by SaraJohnson
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To: SaraJohnson

Trust me, I can’t wait to read the DB piece, if it ever gets into digital print. “There’s no such thing as bad publicity.” The 5 day free period already increased my circle of awareness far beyond the conservative choir. A hate-fest by the libtards would just mean more folks read the books. They will stand on their own.


160 posted on 04/14/2012 3:44:01 PM PDT by Travis McGee (www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
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