Fanning Imaginary Flames: A Look Back At The Great Church Fire Propaganda Campaign

American Thinker ^ | June 11, 2011 | Scott Swett

[Interesting Times]

Fifteen summers ago, America's news media informed us that black churches throughout the South were being torched by white racists. The purported wave of arsons dominated the airwaves and generated thousands of newspaper articles. Pundits, politicians and preachers decried the terrorism and the hate it represented.

In fact, it never happened.

Here is the little-known story of how an obscure radical group teamed up with a leftist national church organization, an unprincipled President and a legion of compliant news outlets to create a media firestorm -- one based entirely on lies.

[Dilbert San Diego]

Ya, the burning of Sarah Palin’s church was barely reported in the MSM. But it happened.

Bill Clinton lied and said he remembered all the black churches burning when he was younger, during the civil rights movement of the ‘50s and ‘60s.

Yep that black churches burning thing was pure propaganda.

Next up, we will be told that the emerging violence and mayhem caused by black youth gangs in flash mobs in our cities is due to the legacy of slavery and bigotry and discrimination and all that.

[Interesting Times]

Thanks, amigo.

[boop]

Does anyone remember that sickening radio ad aimed at black voters? The one that said: “When you vote republican, you let another church explode!”

[Eva]

Ok, I read the article and it’s amazing how organized they were in the propaganda campaign. So here’s another thought on a possible media manipulation campaign.

We’ve been seeing an anti-Mormon campaign in the media and even on tv, since before the last election, all aimed at stirring up anti-Mormon feelings in the country. Now, who is most stirred up against Romney and his religion? Not the left. The propaganda was aimed at the religious right, the same people who regularly post anti-Mormon threads here on FreeRepublic.

Now, we are already seeing articles, criticizing the religious right for their hypocritical stance on freedom of religion and their fear of Mormonism. Peggy Noonan has one in the WSJ right now. -—and Romney has declared that he will not enter the Iowa straw poll and another early conservative poll. (I forget which one)

Romney scares me to death and not because of his religion. I’ve been warning about this for way too long.

[kearnyirish2]

Twenty years from mow they’ll be teaching ten-year-olds that black churches were burned daily during Obama’s presidency; repeat the lie often enough and it becomes the truth.

[pallis]

Democrats love scams, be it burning churches, dummy Sarah Palin, global warming, Obama, and economic recovery. Liberal illness is the absence of truth.

[Interesting Times]

True. And to defeat them, you have to counter the scams with facts and evidence.

[pallis]

“And to defeat them, you have to counter the scams with facts and evidence.”

This hasn’t always been my experience. “Facts and evidence” can also be called tools of truth, and I find people who haven’t been completely mind erased by liberal illness don’t respond well to truth. Some of them violently reject it.

But I think overall, you are correct.

[Interesting Times]

True, there’s no guarantee. Relatively few people really care if the things they believe are true.

Still, it’s the best shot we have.

[A Strict Constructionist]

“We still have the SPLC, of course.”

When I read Morris Dees obituary I will take a day off in celebration. He is the most hate filled individual I can think of. He truly hates this country.

[LonePalm]

My brother told me about the burning Churches. I told him it didn't matter to me because I always preferred Popeye's.

'La bonne cuisine est la base du véritable bonheur.' - Auguste Escoffier
(Good food is the foundation of genuine happiness.)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)

[zot]

Thanks for researching, writing and publishing this article.
It shows how leftist disinformation campaigns work.

[Tainan]

There is more and more emerging evidence connecting events such as these fires with a co-ordinated network of subversives that is long established in the U.S.A.

[texas booster]

Great find.

Technically, when one gives to a dedicated project such as this one the IRS does NOT allow donors to request that monies be used for that project.

All honest churches of course honor the donors wishes. If I write “Blood Water Missions” on a donation envelope, my church would never send it over to the building fund.

OTOH, I technically have no say in how the church spends the money that it receives, from tithes or these special offerings. IRS rules for 503(c) charities.

Not that anyone (IRS, DOJ) would ever investigate the NCC / WCC charities for the missing $2.6 million that they admit to.

[MinuteGal]

We can be so proud that the author of the above article published in the American Thinker is our own talented, long-time freeper, Interesting Times.

He is also the author of the fascinating book "How Swift Boat Veterans, POWs and the New Media Defeated John Kerry".

Scott also plays a mean piano accompanied by his own singing....and is also a song writer.

Some of us remember the delight of his entertaining us at the piano for almost an hour in a small ship's salon while we glided over the warm, azure waters of the Caribbean during a freeper fund-raising cruise.

Happy times with wonderful (and multi-talented) freeper shipmates.

Leni

[Interesting Times]

You are too kind. Those were indeed fine times.

[Hoodat]

I notice there wasn’t any interest from these people when Sarah Palin’s church really was set on fire, while women and children were still inside.