Experts, However, Are Still Silent On What’s Spawning The Current Wave Of Journalistic Hackery

From this ABC News story:

Fear for Obama’s Safety Grows as Hate Groups Thrive on Racial Backlash
Violent Signs, Gun, Standoff Latest in Emerging Anger Towards the President
By BRIAN ROSS, ANNA SCHECTER and MEGAN CHUCHMACH

Comes this sentence [hat tip Peren for bringing it to my attention]:

“Experts say a sharp growth in so-called militia groups that helped spawn a wave of domestic terrorism in the 1990s – and are now using YouTube, rock music and the Internet to recruit members and spread hate and fear – shouldn’t be ignored.”

Which I nominate for an award for “the least specific sentence ever put in a ‘news’ story”. Let’s rephrase this, shall we?

Un-named experts say an unquantified growth in what un-named random people call “militia groups” which may have an had an unspecified relationship to an unspecified number of unnamed crimes between 10 and 20 years ago – and are using modern communication methods that old people find confusing and scary to do unspecified bad things – should have an unspecified degree of attention paid to it.

In other words, “Some guys said ‘Hey! Look at this!'”.

I’m guessing their editor must’ve died in some tragic racial-backlash incident, because he obviously wasn’t around to save these three diddlewits from Casey-Jonesing this linguistic train-wreck.

32 Comments

  1. i think we’re one step away from watching Huffpo curl up in a fetal position screaming about right wing extremists in between sobs. Oh wait we’ve been there for years, now they aren’t even trying to find evidence to back themselves up.

  2. I think you are right – this must have slipped past ABC’s cadre of crack editors. Had the editorail staff seen it they would have rewritten it:
    “Anyone who doesn’t love everything about Obama is a dangerous, racist, nutball.”

  3. Go look at Sweetness-Light.com at the actual graphs The Southern Poverty Law Center is using to account for these “spikes” in Extreme Right-Wingyness(whatever we’re calling it today). The word “flaccid” comes to mind.

  4. The only violence “caused” by militia groups in the 90s was when government agents used quasi military assualt forces to violate the individaul rights of law abiding citizens. Citizens who just happened to be voicing their opposition to the Clinton Administration.

    The dirty little secret is that if there had been no Ruby Ridge… if there had been no Waco… there would have been no Oklahoma City.

    I’m not a religious person, but I believe there is a verse in the Bible that says something like “As you so, so shall you reap.”

  5. What if I belong to a group that just seriously dislikes socialists (the political ones not the code word ones)? I cant belong to a hate group if they only practice “extreme dislike” ? Dont get me wrong I was hoping to graduate to a hate group later this year….. I just didnt expect to earn the label so suddenly….. well at least Im ahead on my career path….

  6. We need to stop the partisan divide—vote NO INCUMBANTS in the elections to come. Politicians have left the entire country behind. Politicians only care about reelection nothing else. We need a wholesale clean out of capital hill , term limits , and pay decreases for elected leaders . They are PART TIME employees of the American people after all.

  7. “As you so, so shall you reap.”

    You sow fields, as in plants. So that which you sow is what you shall reap, which isn’t necessarily true, since weeds tend to get in the way.

    Still, I agree with your point.

  8. Warning: ‘Global Warming’ is a fully protected copy written phrase wholly owned by the Algore Corp. This phrase may not be used without written permission of the Algore Corp. Any unauthorized use of this copy written phrase may result in immediate legal action….The Algore Corp. Makenlotsamoney, VA.

  9. Aw, I haven’t thought for years of how comically paranoid the Clintons got when “Independence Day” showed the White House getting zapped. Memories….

    Does this mean we’d nuke Britain if Channel 4 over there did another show on the assassination of a modern president, as they did with Mr. Bush, only this time the president looks like Obama? Major carbon footprint, that: maybe the White House people would instead just demand return of the PM’s DVDs and the Queen’s iPod.

    I do worry about the president’s safety, any president — there’s loonies galore out there, though Mr. Obama probably doesn’t have to worry about Squeaky Fromme now that she’s paroled. But you know what public figures’ safety I do worry about more than usual these days? Citizen Palin and her family. She doesn’t have the public office holder protection any more.

  10. “Experts, However, Are Still Silent On What’s Spawning The Current Wave Of Journalistic Hackery”

    It’s offical you have to be a hack, liberal, commie pinko, hippie, socialist journalist to work for the Obama Propaganda Ministry, intelligence and individual thought is not requiered.

  11. Honestly people need to do their homework. This band of cretins in the White House have little to no idea who they are dealing with.

    I present the following examples (because I am most familiar with them) for your edification: (oh and flag.com folks here I am……not hiding, right here at the old computer box)

    Revolutionary War: “To stop this rebellion, England had sent additional troops, now on their way across the ocean. One attempt to halt the colonists’ rebellion was by Lord Dunmore in Virginia. His orders were to gain control of the Potomac River, split the colonies, and stop the flow of supplies to the colonists. His plan was also to send his ships to meet the land troops loyal to England. As he sailed up the river, he had also planned to raid several plantations owned by two of America’s leaders, known to be loyal to the American cause, George Washington and George Mason.

    But Lord Dunmore’s plan was not to be, thanks to an alert Marylander named John Hanson. He and his men captured the land troops sent to meet Lord Dunmore, and met Dunmore’s ships with such resistance that he fled the Potomac. One of the first early English plans to split the colonies had failed.”

    War of 1812: “The city had openly proclaimed its anti-British stance days after war was declared. An angry mob destroyed the building where a Federalist newspaper criticized America for going to war.

    Baltimoreans also struck at the British directly. Swiftly sailing schooners seized British merchant ships and transported limited cargoes to foreign ports.

    Other cities followed the practice; however, Baltimore alone accounted for about 30 percent of all British merchant ships captured by the U.S. during the war. From this, Baltimore earned the nickname ‘nest of pirates.'”

    Very few of these folks were professionally trained military men, just citizens. Angry at their government or those who presumed to be their BETTERS, those elites who refused to listen to the “voice of the people”. Seriously ladies and gentlemen, what do the teach at Harvard in the History department? If I was a parent of a graduated of that vaulted institution, I demand my money back.

  12. “What’s spawning the current wave of journalistic hackery?” 1) Gorebull Worming 2) Transmissions received via tinfoil hats from Laika The Space Dog. 3) Transmissions received via tinfoil hats from the ‘monolith’ of Mars. 4) Spontaneous Generation, like maggots on dead carcasses. 5) Lynette Squeaky Fromme was recently released from prison, and is recruiting new ‘Family’. 6) The lizard people of Planet X have been surreptitiously taking overall means of communications. 7) Sweeps Week 8) Like a salmon run, it’s journalistic hacks time to spawn. If only Kodiac Bears could develop a taste for them. 9) Just as Alternating Current has an apex in it’s Sine Wave, so does journalistic hackery. 10) Full Moon?

  13. What a made up story! Southern Poverty League as a source is disinformation. Former federal agents are always good sources. Rush Limbaugh made it acceptable for people to join hate groups. There was no logical flow because there was no logic!

  14. I guess Jesus is the cause of all the hate and intolerance that goes on in his name too. The Spanish Inquisition, the Huguenots in France, the Witch Trials (Europe as well as American), the burning of people at the stake for heresy. I could go on but why bother.

    The one and only reason for the rise in hate groups is peoples distrust and fear of their own government, which has been taken over by a Socialist Anti-Christ. Yes, I know. I said it. (Still at the computer box, flag folks……….that’s S E A N M A H A I R . Type slowly)

  15. The Experts in the ABC report comes from an actual decent group called the Southern Poverty Law Center, headed by the great Marshal Deeds. Believe it or not I’m actually talking about Marshal Deeds with great respect. This is the guy who took down the United Clans of America back in the early 80’s. This guy made it so a black lady ended up owning the United Clans of America’s compound and the right’s to the name “United Clans of America”. He’s a local hero here in Idaho by taking down Richard Butler and his company of losers, the Arian Nation. He took their Compound in Hayden Lake Idaho, and their name and gave it to a Nes Perce tribe member.

    Lately though, his group has been going after anyone that opposes Immigration. I guess wanting to support our borders equates us with the Clan now. The Southern Poverty Law Center came out with a report last week that has sent the liberal media in a tailspin of fear. The group came out with a shoddy report of the “Rise of Right Wing Groups.” Surprisingly it is better than the DHS report in actually naming groups it fears; sadly it is based on shoddy public news stories, and overreactions. (It actually names an instance where a retard tried to get a DUI Conviction thrown out of court because he was a “Sovereign Citizen” In a Pennsylvania court as an act of Right wing extremism (last paragraph of Page 6.)) Here is the Report:
    http://www.splcenter.org/images/dynamic/main/The_Second_Wave.pdf

    There are some major gaping holes in this report:

    1) It equates the purchase of fire arms and the opposition to gun control laws to extremism (This is throughout this report). I have no clue how it is in the rest of the country, but in Idaho the only difference between Republicans and Democrats, is in Idaho, Democrats have more guns. For some reason these beliefs are enough for the Southern Poverty Law Center to lump 70% of America in with White Supremacy groups.

    2) This report points out these groups fear the government, then jumps to the conclusion this government is now headed by a “Black Man” (they say this with no examples, they just mention this as a fact (pg 5, paragraph 5)) these “Racist” People are joining these Groups. But it quotes an anonymous Federal law enforcement official saying “Theses groups aren’t to what they were at 1994-95 levels but they have the most growth he’s seen in 12 to 10 years.”(Page 6, Paragraph 2). I know I was young back in those days but I don’t remember a black man as president in 1995. I do remember there being a Democrat in office though. So the in essence this report tells me under a WHITE President there was more people joining these groups than currently under a BLACK President, but Racism somehow is involved.

    3) This report also points to a guy in Nevada, telling a judge his name is “Sam, I Am” as a case in point of the rise of Right wing Extremism. SERIOUSLY!!! (Page 7, paragraph 1).

    4) It Quotes Stewart Rhodes, (A supporter of Ron Paul. I guess that makes him like Himmler in their book, a nut job in ours.) as stating that a law enforcement officer leaked the DHS report about Right wing extremists. Okay… So a Cop who thought a poorly written report that named personal beliefs as a threat to America, is an act of right wing extremism? Well according to this report it is.

    5) It names acts that were named in the news by white supremacist groups as right wing extremism, like James Von Brume murder at the Holocaust Museum (Page 6, paragraph 4). I don’t know what to be more insulted by. The fact that the Southern Poverty Law Center Thinks anyone that has Racist Views is a Right winger or they think a socialist (Nazi) is a Right Winger? (Bonus question: What party did David Duke make a failed attempt at the nomination for President with?)

    The thing that makes me sad is this report has been quoted by CNN, MSNBC, and ABC; and no one seems to look at it and think this is an obvious hit piece. It’s poorly written at best. If I was an aging hippie liberal douche bag, with access to goggle, and wanted to write a report summing my fears about the right, this is exactly what I’d write. This report reads more of a lefty college English paper than an actual threat assessment.

    Anyway thought you guys would find this interesting

  16. The best part of that obfuscated foggy mess of linguist vomit is that they find a way to blame “rock music”. WTF, is it 1950 again? Did I miss something or did Jerry Lee Lewis come out against Obamacare???!?

  17. “While officials told ABC News that the President’s daily threat matrix has yet to reflect a sharp increase in threats”

    So it gets better. By the time you get to the end, they admit that NOTHING has changed so this is a non story about nothing.

    Kind of describes the President after all.

  18. Still…I can remember in the 90’s when we were all so terrified about terrorism! I mean, it was such a scary era. Probably explains why Clinton took such pains to prevent further terrorism by actively gathering up known terrorists like Bin Laden, ummmm…

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