ThinkProgress

Summary (posts follow):

ThinkProgress.org is a juvenile blog run by the Center for American Progress; think of a grade school version of Media Matters for America. Virtually every post at their site contains one or more misleading statements or logical fallacies. Sometimes they outright lie, other times they simply smear. Part of that appears to be unintentional; their writers are unable to figure out how they're wrong. Those writers include Amanda Terkel, Lee Fang, Ali Frick, Ryan Powers, and Matt Corley.

Related blogs include "Wonk Room" (featuring Andrea Nill) and the eponymous blog from Matt Yglesias.

Last modified Jun 24, 2009

Discussed in (click each link for the full post):

Dick Armey lobbied in regards to the Stimulus Plan; what did he do? - 11/20/2009

Disclosure documents show that tea parties organizer, head of FreedomWorks, and former Rep. Dick Armey lobbied in regards to the stimulus plan. The documents don't indicate what the lobbying consisted of, but there's certainly a fair possibility that he wasn't lobbying to reduce the amount of the stimulus.

Liberals cheer racism, repudiation of U.S. sovereignty at tea party protest (Daniel Tencer) - 11/16/2009

... incident include Amanda Terkel of ThinkProgress ("Interloper tricks Tea Party audience into an anti-European immigrant chant of 'Columbus go home!'", thinkprogress.org/2009/11/16/columbus-go-home), Andrew Sullivan of The Atlantic (links to the preceding, saying only "An anti-immigration rally gets punk'd by an impostor", andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_...

Andrea Nill of Think Progress smears Joe Arpaio, gives false impression using bogus quote - 10/05/2009

... this passage from Andrea Nill of ThinkProgress [1]? According to the Phoenix News Times, (Sheriff Joe Arpaio) appeared on KTAR 92.3 FM’s Jay Lawrence Show last night vowing to continue operating his "Hispanic-hunting dragnets," even if it means driving undocumented immigrants back across the border himself: That's followed by a quote from Arpaio, and if you're like me you pr...

Immigration Policy Ctr: U.S. lost Olympic Games bid due to "anti-visitor policy", "broken immigration system" - 10/02/2009

... re-transmitted by Andrea Nill of ThinkProgress (thinkprogress.org/2009/10/02/chicago-olympics-bush).

Lindsey Graham slams Glenn Beck; "Birthers" are "crazy" (The Atlantic's First Draft of History) - 10/01/2009

The Atlantic is conducting a corporate-sponsored series of interviews they call the "First Draft of History". Me, I call them EstablishmentHackapaooza. Earlier today, one segment featured Sen. Lindsay Graham being interviewed by Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic (firstdraftofhistory.theatlantic.com/analysis/graham_the_loyal_opposition.php). As could be expected, Graham wasn't exactly...

Lee Fang of ThinkProgress outrageously lies - 9/28/2009

Lee Fang of ThinkProgress offers "Right-Wing Conference Tells Activists To Get Their Guns Ready For ‘Bloody Battle’ With Obama The Nazi" (link). Fang continues ThinkProgress' long habit of lying, and in this case it's especially despicable. Austrian native Kitty Werthmann appeared at the How To Take Back America Conference and compared the various actions of the Obama admin...

Census worker found hanged in Kentucky; see who's politicizing it - 9/24/2009

On September 12, part-time Census Bureau worker Bill Sparkman was found hanged in rural Kentucky with the word "Fed" "scrawled" (per the AP) on his chest. The story was only released yesterday and the details aren't known, but that hasn't stopped several (listed below) from trying to blame right-wing media figures and politicians (such as Glenn Beck and Rep. Michelle ...

"Energy Citizens": tea partiers' love for corporations goes unrequited (FreedomWorks) - 8/23/2009

... source is Public Citizen via ThinkProgress [1], so there's the possibility that it was faked up. However, that appears to be slight. While some will no doubt laugh at them for being useful idiots (OK, I admit it), it's mostly just pathetic. If the oil companies (or FreedomWorks' funders, or the Koch family) want a crowd, at the least try to get some money out of it. That's wha...

CAP promotes benefits of states, politicians profiting from illegal immigration (Census, Andrea Nill) - 8/10/2009

... Counts For A Lot" (wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2009/08/10/immigration-census-bureau), a through-the-looking-glass post listing all the wonderful ways that states and localities can make out like bandits from counting illegal aliens in the Census and using their population in apportioning Congressional representation: ...the census serves many other purposes, namely the allocation of scarce fe...

National Council of La Raza promotes radical groups - 8/03/2009

Tom Tancredo writes: The National Council of La Raza bills itself as "the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States" who works through "its network of nearly 300 affiliated community-based organizations." Among these affiliates are several chapters of the Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan (Chicano Student Movement of Aztlan) w...

Ian Millhiser of ThinkProgress lies about anti-Sotomayor ad (Committee for Justice's incompetent ad) - 7/16/2009

... response to the ad, Ian Millhiser of ThinkProgress offers "Right-wing group launches TV ad claiming Sotomayor led a terrorist organization" (thinkprogress.org/2009/07/14/sotomayor-cfj): The claim that Sotomayor led a terrorist organization apparently refers to her service on the board of the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, a mainstream civil rights organization. It seems ...

Andrea Nill of ThinkProgress misleads about Joe the Plumber immigration comments at tea party - 7/06/2009

... it easier for Andrea Nill of ThinkProgress to write the misleading blog post "Joe The Plumber Says Immigrants Should Get 'The Hell Out Of Our Damn Country'" [1]. Here are some of the ways she's misleading her readers:

Amanda Terkel of ThinkProgress' despicable smear of Sean Hannity - 6/24/2009

... against judges, Amanda Terkel of ThinkProgress (run by the Center for American Progress) says (thinkprogress.org/2009/06/24/hal-turner-arrest/): As the Nation has pointed out, Turner has ties to Fox News’ Sean Hannity. In fact, Hannity has “offered his top-rated radio show as a regular forum for Turner’s occasionally racist, always over-the-top rants.” Hannity would also reportedly offer ...

Lee Fang of ThinkProgress misleads about Obama citizenship issue - 6/23/2009

... they're eligible, Lee Fang of ThinkProgress offers a volley of misleading statements at thinkprogress.org/2009/06/23/gop-birther-bill:

Andrea Nill /ThinkProgress misleads about California immigration (Micheal Savage) - 6/23/2009

Andrea Nill of ThinkProgress offers a discussion of Michael Savage using hyperbole and, rather than admitting that he's correct to a good extent she makes several misleading statements (wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2009/06/23/california-immigration-michael-savage).

Casey Sanchez/SPLC, Frank Sharry, Andrea Nill/CAP smear FAIR over non-existent connection (Dave Bennion) - 6/17/2009

From a FAIR press release (link): The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has launched its most irresponsible attack to date against the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR). The SPLC claims that Shawna Forde, the alleged killer of a little girl and her father during an Arizona home invasion, had ties to FAIR. Although no association exists -- or ever has -- between Ms. Forde and FAIR,...

Clueless: Lee Fang of ThinkProgress doesn't even understand how liberals play the race card (Steele comments) - 5/27/2009

... Center for American Progress' ThinkProgress site offers "Days After Steele’s Racist Attack On Obama, C-SPAN Airs Video Of Steele Denouncing Racism" (thinkprogress.org/2009/05/27/steele-racism-malcolmx) about two recent sets of comments made by RNC chairman Michael Steele. The first set is discussed here; the second here. See both links for the context. Of the first, Fang says: .....

Michael Steele: Obama wasn't vetted because of his race (Ali Frick /ThinkProgress, Ben Smith, Marc Ambinder) - 5/22/2009

... that's what Ali Frick of ThinkProgress wants us to think (link). Except, as could be expected from that source, all he can do is engage in a logical fallacy by saying it's "striking" that Steele would say such a thing after some sources said that same thing about him. Frick fails to address Steele's argument by, for instance, providing examples of the mainstream media vet...

Low-wattage radio, TV hosts say dumb things about Mexicans and swine flu; leftwing attacks in order to support illegal activity - 4/30/2009

... the same time, Ryan Powers of ThinkProgress offers "Conservative talker suspended after blaming swine flu on the ‘millions of leeches’ from Mexico" about Jay Severin making stupid comments that aren't absolved by containing a grain of truth (thinkprogress.org/2009/04/30/severin-immigrants-racist). And, Fernanda Santos of the New York Times offers "Mayor’s Appointee Draws...

John Nichols /The Nation pushes bogus flu pandemic preparedness issue; distraction from Obama admin, Dem failures - 4/27/2009

... he bashes them, Ryan Powers of ThinkProgress quotes Collins and Spectors - both more friends of the Democrats than not - as in favor of spending money on preparedness. [1] Compare their comments to this February 8 quote from Charles Schumer (link): "All those little porky things that the House put in, the money for the [National] Mall or the sexually transmitted diseases or the flu pandemic,...

ThinkProgress now openly acting like White House PR department - 4/13/2009

ThinkProgress - the very low-wattage blog run by the Obama-linked Center for American Progress - has, of course, been strongly pro-Obama since he won the election. However, the post "Obama: Stimulus transportation projects ‘under budget,’ ‘ahead of schedule’" [1] by Faiz Shakir is more like a press release or something you might find on Page D-8 of an 70s-era copy of Pravda or in...

GOP still struggling with asking tough questions (Eric Cantor campaign against Dems on House floor) - 4/08/2009

Patrick O'Conner of the Politico offers "Cantor's strategy: Ambush Democrats" (link) about a plan from House Minority Whip Rep. Eric Cantor in which more experienced legislators take to the House floor to berate less-experienced Democratic House members over various issues:

ACORN doesn't need to sabotage the tea parties, they're doing a bang-up job on their own - 4/06/2009

... Center for American Progress blog ThinkProgress offers "Republican Members Of Congress Embrace Radical Anti-Obama Tea Party Protests" (thinkprogress.org/2009/04/08/gopestablishment-joins-teaparties). It's typical childish tripe, but the fact that it's appeared there may in fact indicate that the Obama administration is at least a little bit worried about the parties. [1] pajam...

McCain lashes out over leading on immigration "reform" and not getting "Hispanic vote"; not a moment of clarity - 4/03/2009

... that out. UPDATE: Matt Corley of ThinkProgress offers "Report: ‘Angry’ McCain Referred To Hispanics As ‘You People’ During Outreach Meeting" (thinkprogress.org/2009/04/03/mccain-hispanics-you-people). He only concentrates on the low-hanging fruit: the contention that McCain was angry and his supposed use of "you people", which Corley implies is a racial insult despite ...

Why Matt Corley of ThinkProgress is a lightweight (Marty Peretz Mexico comments) - 3/28/2009

... (link). To which Matt Corley of ThinkProgress offers "Jonah Goldberg Sticks Up For Marty Peretz’s Racism" [2]: Though Goldberg slightly acknowledges the offensive nature of Peretz’ line about "near-tropical work habits" by calling it "unfortunate," he never addresses the fact that Peretz also asserted that "Latin society" is plagued with "congenita...

ThinkProgress lies for Obama (Cliff Kincaid on knowing where Obama was born) - 2/28/2009

... born in the United States The ThinkProgress blog - run by the Barack Obama-linked Center for American Progress then lied about what he said, uploading a video with that quote under the false title "Cliff Kincaid Says President Obama Not Born in US" (link). Obviously, saying we don't know where Obama was really born and saying that he wasn't born in the U.S. are too very differ...

The Star Spanglish Banner and Barack the Magic Negro tear up the RNC chart - 12/29/2008

... (huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/29/msnbc-anchor-i-wouldnt-fi_n_154107.html) and Ben Armbruster of ThinkProgress (thinkprogress.org/2008/12/29/tamron-hall-magic-negro).

Shock: Michael Chertoff used cleaning company that employed illegal aliens - 12/11/2008

... side: dailykos.com/story/2008/12/10/21400/312/533/671706 thinkprogress.org/2008/12/11/thinkfast-december-11-2008

New smear: Palin didn't know Africa was a continent or the three countries in NAFTA - 11/05/2008

... so gullible? * Faiz Shakir of ThinkProgress also completely buys it: thinkprogress.org/2008/11/05/palin-africa-continent/ * However, in a report oddly similar to the one from HotAir linked above, ksh01 of DailyKos implicitly throws some cold water on this by discussing the palace intrigue aspects: dailykos.com/story/2008/11/5/194551/287/976/651932 10/20/09 UPDATE: The full story is still not know...

Jeff Bercovici, ThinkProgress spread anti-Rush Limbaugh smear (Antonio Villaraigosa) - 5/06/2008

... Villaraigosa." The evil airheads at ThinkProgress claim this is an "Ethnically-Charged Insult" (thinkprogress.org/2008/05/06/media-limbaugh-villaraigosa), when in fact it appears to have another explanation. I don't know whether Rush has clarified what he was thinking of, but a commenter on that TP thread points to this story from April in which a Missoula, Montana shoeshiner ...

SPLC's "The Year in Hate" misled about FBI hate crime statistics - 3/31/2008

... in Hate Groups" (link) * ThinkProgress (3/10, link) * Deborah Bulkeley/Deseret Morning News ("Utah groups listed in racist-hate report", 3/11, link) * WITN ("Study: 28 Hate Groups In NC, Including Greenville", 3/10, link) * DiversityInc Magazine ("Hate Groups in America Surging: New Southern Poverty Law Center Report", 3/10, link) * Bob Lowry/Huntsville Times (...

Think Progress deletes another comment, again! - 8/01/2006

All thoughts must be sanitized and correct in the fine sparkling world of Think Progress, and the latest example comes from the thread "Malkin: Outrage About Qana 'Manufactured,' 'If It's Not Qana, It's Something Else... It's Beauty Pageants'". As you might expect, a firestorm of witty "liberal" comments and jokes follows, partly because th...

Lonewacko banned from ThinkProgress, QAndO - 6/19/2006

... blocked from leaving comments at ThinkProgress. Here's the last comment I left there, which was removed (twice!): Interesting factoid: Nativo "Larry" Lopez - one of the organizers of the recent illegal immigration boycott - was booted off the Santa Ana schoolboard because of his views on Spanish. He not only supports bilingual education, he reportedly wants to make Spanish the offi...

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