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Anatomy of a Left-Wing Smear: The Great (Santelli) Tea Party Conspiracy Busted
Newsbusters ^ | March 3, 2006 | Warner Todd Huston

Posted on 03/03/2009 12:59:43 PM PST by abb

Playboy Magazine got its undies in a bundle over the nation wide Tea Party protests held last Friday that were inspired by CNBC's Rick Santelli's free market rant of February 19. As Noel Sheppard noted on March 1, the skin mag published a piece claiming that Santelli was part of a vast right-wing conspiracy to protest Obama's socialist policies.

It turns out, however, that the story has been proven false and in response Playboy has mysteriously removed the piece that first raised the question of the grand conspiracy. Happily, the facts have won over on Playboy forcing it to pull down the fallacious story. In its place, all we now get is a "We're sorry, we couldn't find the page you requested," notice. Story Continues Below Ad ↓

To recap, this is what made Playboy run for its tinfoil hats:

What we discovered is that Santelli's "rant" was not at all spontaneous as his alleged fans claim, but rather it was a carefully-planned trigger for the anti-Obama campaign. In PR terms, his February 19th call for a "Chicago Tea Party" was the launch event of a carefully organized and sophisticated PR campaign, one in which Santelli served as a frontman, using the CNBC airwaves for publicity, for the some of the craziest and sleaziest rightwing oligarch clans this country has ever produced. Namely, the Koch family, the multibilllionaire owners of the largest private corporation in America, and funders of scores of rightwing thinktanks and advocacy groups, from the Cato Institute and Reason Magazine to FreedomWorks. The scion of the Koch family, Fred Koch, was a co-founder of the notorious extremist-rightwing John Birch Society.

What they "discovered" turned out to be wrong. David Bauder of the AP is reporting that Santelli had nothing to do with the various Tea Party demonstrations. In fact, Instapundit reported that some of the Tea Party efforts predated Santelli's TV rant.

Bauder reports that Santelli and CNBC requested that one Tea Party site remove Santelli's name from its pages because there was no affiliation between them. AP notes that the original site, http://www.reteaparty.com , even had a disclaimer attached declaring the fact that Santelli was not connected with the site.

Now, above I said "happily facts have won over Playboy forcing the mag to pull down the fallacious story" which is all well and good. But the problem is we now have hundreds perhaps thousands of left-wing DailyKosers and such all imagining they know the real story, the one that corresponds to the fake Playboy tale.

So, while the fake story has been scrubbed, the claim of conspiracy is still floating around like a noxious cloud befouling the air.

And, THAT, my friends, is how the left works. Scream the lie, whisper the retraction.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bho44; cnbc; conspiracytheory; culturewar; playboy; playboymag; santelli; smearcampaign; teaparty; vrwc; waronerror
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Of interest.
1 posted on 03/03/2009 12:59:43 PM PST by abb
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To: abb

Playboy is nearing bankruptcy BTW.

idiots


2 posted on 03/03/2009 1:04:10 PM PST by GeronL (Will bankrupting America lead to socialism?)
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To: abb
...a piece claiming that Santelli was part of a vast right-wing conspiracy to protest Obama's socialist policies.

Why is every vast conspiracy always right-wing? Are the lefties hinting that they are incapable, perhaps too stupid, to come up with their own organized efforts?

What a bunch of idiots.

3 posted on 03/03/2009 1:04:26 PM PST by rabscuttle385 ("If this be treason, then make the most of it!" —Patrick Henry)
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To: abb

If you can’t trust the articles in Playboy, why would anyone ever open one??


4 posted on 03/03/2009 1:04:55 PM PST by Texican72
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To: abb

People READ Playboy? That’s a first..


5 posted on 03/03/2009 1:04:55 PM PST by max americana
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To: abb

Since Playboy is so pro-tax they should voluntarily raise their prices by $2 a copy to give to the bailout fund.


6 posted on 03/03/2009 1:05:39 PM PST by GeronL (Will bankrupting America lead to socialism?)
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To: abb

playboy has articles?


7 posted on 03/03/2009 1:05:44 PM PST by absolootezer0 (thank God for Chicago: makes Detroit look wholesome by comparison.)
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To: abb

Stick to boobs, Playboy, you do that real well (and even that’s faked most of the time). Everything else, you’re rather marginal.


8 posted on 03/03/2009 1:06:18 PM PST by domenad (In all things, in all ways, at all times, let honor guide me.)
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To: rabscuttle385

9 posted on 03/03/2009 1:06:20 PM PST by abb ("What ISN'T in the news is often more important than what IS." Ed Biersmith, 1942 -)
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To: abb

Damn and I only buy it FOR the articles. Guess I’ll have to cancel my subscription.


10 posted on 03/03/2009 1:06:40 PM PST by Doctor Raoul (New Obama Mantra, "Screw World Peace, I'll Buy You A Pony.")
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To: abb

The radical left has ANOTHER set of techniques:
1. Ignore.
2. Discredit or smear.
3. ELIMINATE.

Check with the late Congressman Larry McDonald’s family if you don’t believe me.


11 posted on 03/03/2009 1:06:44 PM PST by Dick Bachert
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To: GeronL

Playboy want a bailout? Rollover, heel, dance, sing ...


12 posted on 03/03/2009 1:07:07 PM PST by Tarpon (It's a common fact, one can't be liberal and rational at the same time.)
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To: abb

I guess I’ll look at the pictures from now on.


13 posted on 03/03/2009 1:07:17 PM PST by Man50D (Fair Tax, you earn it, you keep it!)
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To: rabscuttle385

It’s their mindset -

they can’t possibly understand that a bunch of people can all start acting in concert without being directed from some central locus of control.


14 posted on 03/03/2009 1:07:50 PM PST by MrB (The 0bamanation: Marxism, Infanticide, Appeasement, Depression, Thuggery, and Censorship)
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To: rabscuttle385
What a bunch of idiots.

Boobs...

15 posted on 03/03/2009 1:08:00 PM PST by Doctor Raoul (New Obama Mantra, "Screw World Peace, I'll Buy You A Pony.")
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To: rabscuttle385

GoreBull warming is one vast left-wing conspiracy!


16 posted on 03/03/2009 1:09:55 PM PST by Red_Devil 232 (VietVet - USMC All Ready On The Right? All Ready On The Left? All Ready On The Firing Line!)
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To: abb

Playboy has ARTICLES?


17 posted on 03/03/2009 1:12:05 PM PST by WayneS (Respect the 2nd Amendment; Repeal the 16th)
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To: abb

Bunch of hot air. Anybody with functioning neurons could see Santelli was being spontaneous in his rant. It’s always the same anti-Occams’s razor thing with the left, if there’s a simple, obvious explanation, it has to be immediately excluded from consideration. Not only that, but anyone who’d even consider the simple explanation must be ridiculed and called a neanderthal. Because there’d be no need for those $150K 4-year Humanistic Sociology degrees if there weren’t complex, arcane, convoluted theories to be floated ad infinitum.


18 posted on 03/03/2009 1:14:05 PM PST by Attention Surplus Disorder (Mr. Bernanke, have you started working on your book about the second GREATER depression?")
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To: abb
Why did the libtards Global Warming protest that was a fizzle due to weather get coverage but the Tea Partys got nothing (that I have seen)? Did I just miss all the coverage or did we really get ignored by the MSM? I suppose I shouldn't be surprised but somehow I am. I mean they didn't even try to cover it and spin it or cover it and "point to the KKKers" or whatever. It just "didn't happen". Unbelievable.

Μολὼν λάβε

19 posted on 03/03/2009 1:17:18 PM PST by wastoute (translation of tag "Come and get them (bastards)" and the Scout Motto)
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To: abb
Why did the libtards Global Warming protest that was a fizzle due to weather get coverage but the Tea Partys got nothing (that I have seen)? Did I just miss all the coverage or did we really get ignored by the MSM? I suppose I shouldn't be surprised but somehow I am. I mean they didn't even try to cover it and spin it or cover it and "point to the KKKers" or whatever. It just "didn't happen". Unbelievable.

Μολὼν λάβε

20 posted on 03/03/2009 1:17:35 PM PST by wastoute (translation of tag "Come and get them (bastards)" and the Scout Motto)
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