Hillary Planned Bloggergate in 1995

Poe.com ^ | October 29, 2007 | Richard Lawrence Poe

[Kitty Mittens]

Thank you for the Ping!

[kcvl]

Morley, a native of Minneapolis, attended Yale University. He worked as an editor at The New Republic, The Nation, and Spin Magazine before coming to the Washington Post in 1992. In 2000 he became the World News Editor of the online edition. In 2004 he became a columnist on the international media. World Opinion Roundup appears every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

Jefferson Morley is the plaintiff in a lawsuit against the CIA, demanding the release of records pertaining to CIA officer George Joannides. Joannides was called out of retirement in the 1970s to serve as liaison with the House Select Committee on Assassinations. Unknown to the HSCA, Joannides had in 1963 been the case officer for the Student Revolutionary Directorate, the Cuban exile group with whom Lee Harvey Oswald had multiple interactions in New Orleans.

In October, 2006, Judge Richard Leon upheld the CIA's right to block disclosure of records about Joannides's operational activities in August 1963.

******

Oct. 15 -- Jefferson Morley, a 15-year veteran at the Washington Post, has joined the Center for Independent Media as its national editorial director, with overall responsibility for guiding the center's fast-growing network of 40 journalists and overseeing the launch of a new Washington, D.C.-based online news site with 10 reporters in late 2007.

"After a thorough and intensive search, we are honored to have Jeff Morley join our team," said David S. Bennahum, the center's president and CEO. "With Jeff's magazine experience from the Nation and New Republic, daily newspaper experience from the Washington Post and track record as an editor of the Post's website, Jeff is ideally suited to help lead the way to the 21st century newsroom," Bennahum said.

The Center currently operates sites in four states: Colorado Confidential, Iowa Independent, Michigan Messenger, and Minnesota Monitor.

******

Dedicated to "balancing" what it deems "conservative dominance in traditional media," the Center for Independent Media (CIM) describes itself as "a not-for-profit organization that fosters diversity of ideas in the national debate by bringing talented and diverse voices and ideas to the fore of our nation's discourse, through its fellowships, conferences, and research. … The Center's fellowships and programs focus on blogs as a fast-growing exemplar of independent media that works to diversify the spectrum of ideas in the national debate."

Officially launched in April 2006, CIM states that it grew out of "a four-month intensive research study conducted by a progressive not-for-profit media watchdog organization." (An organization that fits this description perfectly is the George Soros- and Hillary Clinton-affiliated Media Matters, from which CIM rents office space in Washington, DC, but CIM does not identify the "watchdog" group by name.) "The research project's objective," CIM continues, "was to understand how blogs work to broaden ideological diversity in the media, and how to reinforce these positive effects. The study focused on how blogs advance original information and expert commentary that impacts the national debate. Fifty-three bloggers were surveyed in January-February 2006, providing essential empirical data on the demographics of blogging, and the specific needs, in terms of education and services, that bloggers require in order to be more effective. The results of these surveys and analysis led to the decision to create the Center for Independent Media as a progressive not-for-profit learning center … producing original news and information that augments the current media landscape of local newspapers, television, and radio …"

[kcvl]

CENTER FOR INDEPENDENT MEDIA (CIM)

CIM’s Program Director is a young woman named Ali Savino. As of November 1, 2006, the following ten individuals were CIM’s Minnesota fellows, writing predominantly about local issues:

Abdi Aynte: This Minneapolis resident writes and edits the bilingual Somali-oriented blog Hiiraan Online, and also blogs at TCDailyPlanet.net. On September 6, 2006, Aynte disputed claims that illegal aliens are a drain on taxpayer dollars in Minnesota, stating that such charges fail to consider “the revenue generated by undocumented workers, who many of them [sic] pay taxes.” On October 25, 2006, Aynte praised the Council on American-Islamic Relations for seeking to “wane [sic] down anti-Muslim stereotyping in the Fifth Congressional District” of Minnesota, where Keith Ellison is campaigning to become the first Muslim elected to the U.S. Congress.
Andy Birkey: This recent graduate of the University of Minnesota holds a degree in Urban Forestry, Urban Studies, and Sociology. Originally from Peoria, Illinois, he has been a Minneapolis resident since 2000 and is active in LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) issues, HIV/AIDS advocacy, and environmental and transit concerns in the Twin Cities.

Joe Bodell: This blogger for Minnesota Campaign Report wrote, on October 18, 2006: “The goals of government and religion have been warped, twisted together like some gnarled, mutated swamp creature by twelve years of a Republican majority in Congress, of which six have included a President [George W. Bush] who has readily and willingly manipulated the American evangelical Christian community for its voting and organizational strength.”

Craig Cox: The part-time managing editor of Twin Cities Daily Planet (a grant-funded website that aggregates stories from small newspapers and other websites), Cox is also the editor/co-owner of the local community news site, The Minneapolis Observer.

Jeff Fecke: An aspiring novelist who lives in Eagan, Minnesota, Fecke has been writing the “Blog of the Moderate Left” since 2002. He is also the co-creator of DFLSenate, and is a columnist for Minvolved.com. On October 12, 2006, Fecke wrote: “certainly it can be said that the Bush administration’s Korean policy, like the rest of the Bush administration’s foreign policy, has been an abject failure.”

Matt Martin: He is the founder and editor of the liberal blog MN Publius.

Robin Marty: His writings appear on the Power Liberal, Drinking Liberally, and DFLSenate blog sites. On October 5, 2006, Marty wrote that “National Security advisor Condelezza [sic] Rice was clearly warned about Al Queda attacks before 9/11 and failed to do anything about it and then lied to the 9/111 [sic] commission about it, and lied about lying about it until official records contradicted her.”

Leigh Pomeroy: The 2004 Democratic Party candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives in Minnesota’s 1st Congressional District, Pomeroy is an adjunct professor at Minnesota State University, Mankato. A strong believer in the dangers of global warming, he wrote in July 2006: “The planet burns while George Bush fiddles. … Meanwhile the Middle East is burning up in another sense as well. … Surely, no rational person can say that the planet is appreciably better off now than it was six years ago. Blame can be attributed to many sources, most visibly the principal fiddler, Mr. Bush. … [O]ur energies should be spent working for positive change — change that can be manifest in the November elections.” “The evidence is now absolutely clear,” he wrote in June 2006, “that the Bush administration selectively chose evidence to take the U.S. into war against Saddam Hussein, leaving Iraq in an even worse situation that it was under that tyrant’s leadership.”

Sara Reller: Focusing her writings on the Democratic Party, Reller describes herself as “a big city progressive with a rural background.”

Paul Schmelzer: This blogger wrote a September 27, 2006 piece titled “We love torture, yes we do,” lamenting that “The U.S. is one step closer to OKing a new bill that limits the rights of detainees and, according to Democrats, may result in continued torture of terror suspects.”

[kcvl]

By Michael B. Brodkorb | October 2, 2006

MINNESOTA MONITOR & CENTER FOR INDEPENDENT MEDIA EXPOSED

According to Minnesota Monitor’s website (“All contributors listed here are Fellows with the Center for Independent Media”), the following 10 bloggers are contributors (called fellows):

Abdi Aynte: Hiiraan Online, tcdailyplanet.net

Andy Birkey: Eleventh Avenue South, Metroblogging Minneapolis.

Joe Bodell: Minnesota Campaign Report

Craig Cox: The MInneapolis Observer, Twin Cities Daily Planet

Jeff Fecke: Blog of the Moderate Left, Minvolved, DFLSenate

Matt Martin: MN Publius

Robin Marty: The Power Liberal, Drinking Liberally, DFLSenate

Leigh Pomeroy: Vox Verax

Sara Reller: Broken Nails

Paul Schmelzer: Walker Art Center blogs

According to the New Journalist Fellowship Application, “fellows” are paid a stipend of $4500 over 3 months to blog. I’m not aware of the bloggers listed above disclosing on their blogs they are paid to blog. This disclosure is also noticeably absent from Minnesota Monitor’s website.

The Center for Independent Media is spending at least $31,500 (7 paid bloggers x $4,500) to pay liberal bloggers in Minnesota.

This begs the question: who is funding Minnesota Monitor and the Center for Independent Media?

In the interest of full disclosure, I attempted to find the answer.

Minnesota Monitor’s website lists no address or a contact phone number. But an address and phone number is listed on the bottom right-hand corner of the New Journalist Fellowship Application. The address is 1625 Massachusetts Avenue, 3rd Floor, Washington D.C. 1625 Massachusetts Avenue, Suite 300 is the location of Media Matters.Who is Media Matters?

“Media Matters for America is a Web-based, not-for-profit, 501(c) (3) progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media.” Source: Media Matters

I spoke with a representative of the Center for Independent Media and she informed me they are renting space from Media Matters and they do not receive any funding form Media Matters. I asked for information about their funding and she refused to provide me with any information about who is funding the Center for Independent Media.

If Media Matters is like the Center for Independent Media, it may be difficult to find out who is funding Minnesota Monitor:

“Media Matters has not always been forthcoming about its high-profile backers. In particular, the group has long labored to obscure any financial ties to George Soros. But in March 2003, the Cybercast News Service (CNS) detailed the copious links between Media Matters and several Soros ‘affiliates’—among them MoveOn.org, the Center for American Progress, and Peter Lewis. Confronted with this story, a spokesman for the organization explained that ‘Media Matters for America has never received funding directly from George Soros’ (emphasis added), a transparent evasion.

Nor were groups cited by CNS the only connection between Media Matters and Soros. As investigative journalist Byron York has noted, another Soros affiliate that bankrolled Media Matters was the New Democratic Network. In addition, Soros is reported to be involved in the newly formed Democracy Alliance, a partnership of some 80 affluent financiers who each have vowed to contribute $1 million or more in order to build up an ideological infrastructure of leftist thinks tanks and advocacy groups. News reports list Media Matters as a main beneficiary of the Alliance’s funding. By August of 2004, Media Matters’ operating budget had already doubled to $4 million.

Prior to founding Media Matters, David Brock met with a number of leading Democratic Party figures, including Senator Hillary Clinton, former Senator Tom Daschle of South Dakota, and former Vice President Al Gore. Today, more than a few of the organization’s roughly 30 staff members are Democratic operatives. Among these are Media Matters’ chief communications strategist Dennis Yedwab, who is also the Director of Strategic Resources at Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Brock’s personal assistant, Mandy Vlasz, is a Democratic pollster and a veteran consultant to Democratic campaigns, including the 2000 Gore/Lieberman campaign. Katie Barge, the Director of Research at Media Matters, formerly presided over opposition research for Senator John Edwards’ unsuccessful 2004 presidential campaign.” Source: Discover the Networks

So who is paying for Minnesota Monitor and the Center for Independent Media? I challenge the liberal blogosphere to disclose this important information.

http://tinyurl.com/2gnsco

[SunkenCiv]

thanks Richard for the ping.

[SunkenCiv]

FR EXCLUSIVE: Talk radio host Mancow threatened
for talking about Hillary scandal [Paul v. Hillary]
phone call from doug | October 29, 2007 | doug from upland (via RonDog)
Posted on 10/29/2007 10:14:33 AM EDT by RonDog
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1917863/posts

[woofie]

I liked our conspiracy theories better than their conspiracy theories

[L.N. Smithee]

You don't have to tell me about Lehane & Fabiani. I authored a thread in January 2000 about the The Communication Stream of Conspiracy Commerce, including excerpts from a White House press conference with Mike McCurry incredulously claiming that it while such a purely political work was created by employees of the White House, it wasn't at taxpayer expense.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[TBP]

Typical.

Of course, she’ll make sure she has plausible deniability, even for stuff that appears on seeyouatfortmarcypark.com

[E.G.C.]

BTTT

[Budge]

A very interesting BUMP!

[Old Sarge]

“But you’ve just got to admire the way they get away with it!”

( /media adulation)

You and I both know, Sir, that nothing will happen to Her.

[Pietro]

and just what have those millions purchased?

How about the embarrasing, and illuminating, Patreus ad

Or the attempted smear job of Rush that blew up in their faces.

Moveon.org, and media matters and the center for progress, who are attempting to re-intrduce the fairness doctrine, haven't merely struck out, they've been an unparalelled disaster.

And Free Republic?

Clintoon impeachment

Stopped algore from stealing the election in 2000

Stopped Harriet Meyers and the shamnesty bill

Destroyed the career of MSM poster boy dan rather.

We certainly can't get complacent, our enemies are desparate, but there's no reason for despair. The leftwing blogs can't point to even one success (air america?) that matches FR

Hail JIm Robinson!!

[cricket]

Thanks for ping - and all your efforts. . .(bought your book - Hillary's Secret War - begin reading this weekend;^)

The Communication Stream of Conspiracy Commerce.

The effort itself sounds like a starting point for serious 'conspiracy making'. . .but whatEVER. . .

. . .Stupid wins, if people do not find it frightening - or at least feel a prickle at the back of the neck - when they learn what Fabiani and Lehane and the rest of Clinton, Inc. - 'friends in the mirror' - have put forth these past few years.

(And speaking of 'conspiracies'; who - beyond Dylan Avery and useful idiots that is - supports/stands behind 'the Truthers'? They are taking on a second life it seems, for this campaign. . .)

[jennyjenny]

Do you possibly know where I can hear the actual audio from Mancow’s show? I haven’t been able to find it. TIA

[EdReform]

BTTT

[SunkenCiv]

Not sure. Maybe the FReeper who posted that topic I linked knows.

[Syncro]

Check out this thread, I think you will find what you are looking for

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1917863/posts

Perhaps on Mancow’s website which is in one of the posts.

[chimera]

Two things for sure will happen in the first 100 days of Hillary’s Administration. She will reinstate, probably by Executive Order, some version of the “Fairness Doctrine”, which will in fact shut down talk radio as we know it today. Second, either by EO or legislation, the Internet will be regulated by the government. Sites like FR will either be banned outright or “moderated” into ineffectualness. Controlling the media and communications is always Priority One for tyrants. Without efficient communication, organized opposition is greatly hampered.