I have no idea what to think about the accusation that an NBC producer responded to a blast email from Americans for Limited Government by writing "Bite me, jew boy!"
It's so bizarre that I simply can't believe that an NBC producer did this. But it's also so bizarre that it's not actually all that much more plausible that Americans for Limited Government made the thing up. It's not like they're playing to the common stereotype that the television world is hostile to Jews.
ALG says they checked where the email comes from, in language that suggests they tracked it at the server level, not from the email headers.
The most likely explanation is that someone punk'd them. But who? And how?
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Megan- I know you're not that naive. I've never heard of Americans for Limited Government, but by the name would seem to be a conservative organization, which in these days under the Dear Leader means a sick, twisted den of subhuman evil.
Liberals are very much against racism, sexism, anti-semitism, and homophobia, unless the minority, woman, Jew, or gay happens to be a conservative. In which case they aren't just evil, they are a traitor and use of epithets is perfectly acceptable.
Polling reveals, counterintuitively, that liberals are on the whole more anti semitic than conservatives. Its an old tragic story, socialists liberate the Jews who in turn give their full power to the socialists who then stab the Jews in the back.
You can already see it forming in their fixation on the evils of bankers and Israel.
It's not counterintuitive at all. Left-wing rhetoric is just antisemitic rhetoric with "Jews" crossed out and "corporations" or "the rich" written in in its place.
Maybe its counterintuitive in the sense that Jews vote overwhelmingly democratic, to the tune of ~80% in presidential elections in the last 20 years. I guess it depends on how extreme your "left-wing" is.
People voting against their own interest is not counter-intuitive.
The beneficaries of affirmative action, for instance, are overwhelmingly middle-class and upper-middle-class blacks, but poor blacks support it.
mischief - Isn't a beneficiary of affirmative action someone who wouldn't have made the cut if it weren't for affirmative action? An African American with a straight 'A' average just gets people wondering if he only made it into his prestigious college because special allowances were made for him.
and
do not mean the same thing.
Though there is the question of whether blacks who would have succeeded without AA support it -- which I think quite possible, since support is so strong among blacks.
Additional research reveals that tehdude's polling was conducted in his bathroom.
And the evidence for this is what? The fact the most liberals are unwilling to jerk their knees in rote aproval of Israel's foreign policy, or support yoking US foreign policy to Israel's whims?
There are worse sins in the world. It would be best to just ignore that kind of behavior, assuming it actually happened, in the interest of not becoming the thought police. I'd much rather live in a country where people can insult each other than one in which they were punished by 3rd parties for doing so. Also, getting ones ass kicked by the person one insulted should be legal too.
Hmm... Speculation about a NBC producer's answer to an e-mail. Oh man, this one is guaranteed to be a completely uninteresting news item, whatever the true story turns out to be.
But, wait a minute. Americans for Limited Government. Sounds free-markety. Maybe I should amplify it...
So, guys, huh, I can't think of anything remotely interesting to write about, but I've got a special treat for you. That's right! More raw meat. Fetch!
(WOOF! WOOF! arf arf)
NBC-->MSNBC-->LIBRUL NETWORK---->LIBRULS R CLOSET ANTI-SEMITIC HYPOCRITES
[whispering] *Very good! Atta boys. Good boys, good, gooood boys!* (pat pat. woof!).
[louder] Hey, you can't make that sort of gross generalization! People, I just want to say that I don't subscribe to any of the opinions of my pooches. Anti-Semitic sentiments exist on both sides of the aisle in a completely symmetrical fashion. I'm just saying, maybe Jews should think twice before 78% of them voting Democrat.
Why don't I, being a libertarian and all, address civil rights issues more often? Waddya mean? Isn't it obvious? I'm not Will Wilkinson or Tyler Cowen, so I don't have time for that crap. I blog on economic policy, for heaven's sake!
Look, more news about ACORN! Fetch!
If your only contribution is to prove you're an asshole why don't you do it somewhere else? We already iknow.
Yet another robot. Do any other lefties have a boring personal Alinsky #12 attack to make? If so, can we put them all under this thread? This strategy is so 1980.
Wait, so your delusions about "lefties" are only an attempt to make yourself more interesting? Wow, that's quite interesting. You know, in a "meta" sense.
If it isn't Paranoid "teh Muslims are invading" movertyperguy - probably the only guy aruond here who knows Alinsky's rules by heart (really man, who f-ing cares?)- and mj, the pure blood stupid who believes there is no such thing as global warming - it's all a conspiracy!
You are certainly among the fetch dogs I'm talking about, but looks like this time Thrasymachus and tehdude have beaten you to it.
Bad, bad dogs!
You can spot the idiot when he has to pretend people he disagrees with have ideas he can actually ridicule. I recall your last position on global warming as particularly unconvinvcing.
You argued that people who disagree that global warming is such a threat we need to completely ruin the economy to combat it are clearly wrong because different people have silly opinions on other topics. A new low for rational thougth.
But you keep tghinking you're the genious. In your circles I suppose you might be. The ability to parrot the liberal mantra seems to be much prized among freshmen.
What position was that? I'm sure you can provide a quote and a link. Or you would, if you were actually referring to some concrete position, poochy-pooch.
OH NOES! CO2 EMISSIONS WILL ROOIN TEH ECONOMY! WOOF!
Reality check - countries who signed Kyoto have stopped a little short of "completely ruining the economy". Indeed, one might even argue that they're doing better than the US in many fronts. For further info, research the topic "car industry" and "balance of trade - exports".
Furthermore, these economically ruined nations are ready to build upon their previous suicidal commitments on reduction of CO2 emissions. Even though every single one of them already has lower per capita emissions than our country.
How odd.
Nimed,
I realize honesty is a completely foreign concept to you. But try to recognize two facts:
1. Most countries who signed Kyoto are not meeting its requirements. Leadership responsible for economic performance in these countries have suspended it for this very reason. The lack of economic impact is because they aren't meeting the requirements, not because the requirements wouldn't cause economic harm.
2. Environmentalists routinely describe Kyoto as "a first step" since it will have no meaningful impact on their forecasts. So why pick Kyoto as your standard when you know its only 1/10 of environmentalist goals?
Let me guess: it's because you heard these vignettes from some equally clueless ideologue and it never ocurred to you to think.
"What position was that?". I told you here "You argued that people who disagree that global warming is such a threat we need to completely ruin the economy to combat it are clearly wrong because different people have silly opinions on other topics."
I'm not much interested in research assignments from assholes. But I tell you what: I'll give you the link if you promise that when I do you will NEVER post here again.
This is just one more assertion to add to your pile of easily debunked bullshit.. Which is why, like everything you say, is unsourced. 20 out of 36 signatories are complying or performing better than their emission goals. Others have failed, but are pretty close. Others yet have failed, but will accept the penalties of non-compliance. Still, every one of these countries, with the exception of tiny Luxembourg, has pretty low emissions to begin with, compared to the U.S.
Unsourced again. And Kyoto will be revised soon. But let me get this straight: most countries aren't doing enough to cut emissions, so we should do nothing?
Man, that's really stupid. Even by your standards.
WOOF! WOOF! YOU'RE A MEAN IDEOLOGUE!
WOOF! SUPPORTING MY OWN STATEMENTS IS TOO HARD FOR ME. I'LL RATHER MAKE SHIT UP AND BE DEBUNKED OVER AND OVER AGAIN! Arf.
By the way, there's yet another statement you failed to back up, or even address:
WE CAN'T CONTROL EMISSIONS WITHOUT ROOINING TEH ECONOMEE! EVERYBODY ELSE DOES IT, BUT IT'S IMPOSSIBLE FOR US!
I guess the sheer imbecility of it was too much for even you to try to defend. Well, that's some progress.
WOOF! ACORN! WOOF! WOOF!
Uh, is this about something else? Why all the PUI?
Apparently Megan auctioned off an all-season pass for being an unbearable jackass to other commenters, insulting them, and engaging in almost pure ad hominem attacks without gentle reproaches from her to knock it off. Nimed won. It's great because I really was missing threads that consisted of "you're a doodyhead. No, YOU'RE a doodyhead." I feel that I now know more than ever about politics and policy, and am a better human being for having clicked on the post and read the comments. Applause all around, fellas.
As long as I have the ad hominem pass, I'll use it for The Truth and The Good. redfly, your sanctimony is insufferable and 3rd rate sarcasm is unfunny. Avoid the role of teacher or comedian at all costs.
No, Nimed, YOU'RE the doodyhead.
Yes, yes. I'm the doodyhead. Now just stick to the advice I gave and you'll be fine.
Hey, Megan, what about the allegation that you bear responsibility for not condemning the gun-toting lunatics?
Looks a lot like the wackaloons are hitting soft targets, as I predicted.
This was a person, Megan. A real live person. This isn't part of your Reason-based glibertarian masturbatory fantasies.
How many people have to die before you acknowledge that gun-toting lunatics contribute to a atmosphere that is permissive of political violence? Five? Fifty?
Shut the fuck up salto.
Make me, fucko.
Ethan Fucko, tough talk from an asshole cocksucker.
I presume the two gentlemen are old acquaintances?
Because Shut UP! that's why! FTW!
I should have kept reading. Apparently there was more than one pass, and ethan salto and dave c got the other two.
Lincoln and Douglas are in heaven now, looking down, and saying to each other, "man, we missed the boat. We could have saved so much time and just used 'shut the fuck up' and 'make me, fucko.'"
Good point. If you want to blog about anecdotes, one would think the actual hanging of a census worker with FED carved in the chest is a more interesting piece of news than a speculation about a freaking e-mail.
"Actual hanging" with both feet touching the ground, and the word "fed" "carved" in his chest with a felt tip pen.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jbzG_BlkG2Hfc818EPRRn1bBlP6gD9AUOJL80
Given the paucity of details surrounding the story, let alone the motive (drugs, anti-government sentiment, psychosis), a bit of restraint before commenting is definitely in order.
H.Protagonist - you're absolutely right. I stand corrected on both assertions. The article I read said:
Census worker found hanged from a tree near a Kentucky cemetery had the word "fed" scrawled on his chest
The rest of the news didn't say anything about the census worker's feet touching the ground, so I presumed - wrongly - that he had been hanged.
As for refraining from commenting due to lack of details - I'm predisposed to agree. But notice we are discussing this on the thread of a post that speculates about anti-semitic accusations in an e-mail whose existence is still not confirmed.
Nimed,
At least in this case we know one of three things: either a producer at NBC sent an anti-Semitic email to the ALG people, the ALG people invented an anti-Semitic email to cause an uproar, or someone hacked an email to make it appear that NBC sent an anti-Semitic email. Either way, it's a political controversy.
In the case of the Census worker, we simply know that he has been killed, but we have no idea who any of the other players are. It's unclear what implications the killing has, simply because everything is so vague at this point.
Taking Megan to task for not addressing it seems a bit premature.
Actually, Hiro, I believe that by your logic we know that, either the census worker was killed by antigovernment freaks, was killed by someone else, killed himself, or died in some crazy freak accident!
The powers of intuition!
There's no evidence of a link between anybody on the right and that census worker. How about waiting for the investigation to conclude?
I'm all for it. How about waiting for the e-mail's existence to be confirmed before writing a post on it? Better yet, even if it turns out to be true, how about not dignifying this kind of "news" with a post?
If it is true this is the kind of news that should go around. Producer for Dateline hates Jews and now the world knows about it? Almost as good as the look on a pedophiles face when he meets Chris Hansen...
The email's existence has been proven according to the company which received it and NBC, which itself acknowledges that an email was sent by their producer (but is disputing its purported contents).
It should be noted that NBC, while claiming that it has been defamed, has not filed a lawsuit against ALG for defamation.
Filing a lawsuit would allow a judge to decide independently which organization is lying, by compelling NBC to make its outgoing email contents public.
Shut up librul lozer.
I must have missed all the wailing over the murder James Pouillon, which actually did have something to do with politics.
I didn't hear any lefties apologizing for inciting his murder, or taking a vow of silence in repentance.
If I were cynical I might think this was all faux outrage designed to shut up people with opposing views.
Recent identified-perpetrator political violent crime record:
You know, by that pattern, one would actually expect that the Census worker was killed by a progressive trying to manufacture evidence that the "gun-toting lunatics" were as dangerous as his compatriots.
So, Mr. Salto, where were you the night the Census worker died?
This was a person, Megan. A real live person.
Whereas you, in appropriating his grotesque death to further some novelty-grade inflatable political point with no obvious connection, are merely a concerned citizen with honorable intentions toward that real human life.
Meanwhile, bacon has not only achieved unaided flight, it just took shingles off your house while doing a low pass at Mach 2.5.
I love situations where one side must be lying. So much more satisfying than normal blogosphere disputes, which generally involve misrepresenting an opponent's argument, or only addressing their weakest points. There's no doing that here, which makes the outcome pretty exciting. Who wants to start the betting?
Yawn. Must be a reeeaaallly slow news day.
I tend to lean towards Capus and NBC's side of the story- it is simply easier to believe the e-mail was a fabrication than to believe someone would write such an e-mail message attached to their name.
I found interesting the "subtle" differences between the two contending e-mails. Does anyone know how many dashes should have been there? The 26 in the ALG version seems an odd number to me. It will be interesting which organization is willing to have its system examined independently.
Why do you tend to disbelieve that a producer for NBC would fire off a nasty insulting email to someone they don't like?
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/seton-motley/2008/11/03/ny-times-reporters-iat-again-facebook-miller-says-nb-contributor-vadum
And why do you think that NBC would care that one of it's producers wrote such a thing?
Journalism was at one time the domain of losers, drunks and people in between better jobs. The good ones were curious, disrespectful of authority, mean and hard headed.
Now it seems journalism is full of educated not curious authority respecting, boot licking herd followers. The current herd and boots to be licked dislike Israel.
Isn't the natural reaction when you see something you vehemently disagree with (is there any question about NBC producer political leanings?) with a jewish name attached to come up with some nasty anti-semetic comment? I've heard them so often from so many different people, in private always, that I suggest disbelieving this story means you really should get out more.
Derek
You do realize Megan is a educated journalist, right?
I thought her education was in Economics or Business.
I am constantly reminded of why people pay me.
It does no harm to remind a journalist that I pay them (however that works) for being curious and finding stuff that I can't, don't know how or don't have the resources to do.
Megan has taken a non boot licking herd following position on health reform.
And when she takes a position I may disagree with, she gives good reasons and makes me think hard about my position.
I don't watch NBC (or any tv news for that matter) but I read this blog and others of similar quality.
Derek
ps. you'd almost think there was a business case here. But the reaction of most journalists is to call me and the people I read insulting names...
She has an English degree and an MBA.
NBC's president is Jeff Zucker, who is Jewish. Maybe you ought to email him and tell him that he's running an anti-Semitic cabal.
Derek,
I don't doubt there are racists in every large organization, and they probably often feel no inhibition at displaying their bigotry in face to face confrontations, or when in friendly and like-minded company; but, to make such a comment on a company e-mail server, with one's name attached, and to a member of an organization that would likely respect no prohibition at publicizing the e-mail, seems just really, really reckless to me. The evidence that this was authentic would have to be very strong to convince me. As the matter stands right now, I simply believe that it isn't.
No, 26 dashes in both, I see. The issue was the length of them, but then this could be due to differences in the software for the two systems.
That can easily be explained by fonts. In a plain text email, the font, and point size, you see on your computer when you send is the one you selected as the font for plain text. The receiver will view it in the font, and point size, he has selected and can be totally different. Plain text email does not carry any font info in the source code. HTML mail does carry font info in the source code.
The supposed copy of the email posted by this ALG outfit appears to be a plain text email, with the font being something like Courier (serif font).
Thus, trying to compare things like length of dashes is useless. The header info is the important stuff. Of course the NBC lady could have sent 2 emails back to the sender. One being the offensive one and the other being the NBC version. We might never know what really happened
The sad part of the whole thing is that many, including me, will NOT trust either side. You'd like to be able to trust NBC, but things like Rathergate (again involving a long time "respected" producer) et al doesn't inspire any trust at all in the MSM.
I can well believe she did this. She probably thought that the email came from some server that wouldn't accept replies, and that her momentary snit-fit would go unrecorded. She teaches at NYU, too.
Possible but I would lean towards the following scenario.
She wants to forward the email with a "humorous" comment but instead of clicking ‘Forward’ she hits ‘Reply’. Types in some addresses, adds her priceless bit of lefty sarcasm to the body, clicks ‘Send’. Does a double-take later when she realizes (or somebody sends her a "you go girl" note) that the original addressee was sent the email with her comment. Makes a desperate attempt to revise and resend but either doesn’t realize that not all email systems support that function, or just hopes the original email will get lost in a cluttered in-box and deleted without being read.
The USA is in desperate shape.