Washington Post repeats Boston Globe smear on Minuteman Project
Two weeks ago I offered "Boston Globe's Yvonne Abraham makes fun of Minuteman Project", which had that reporter repeating anti-Minuteman Project smears from a frequent contributor to the North Eastern Federation of Anarchist Communists website (nefac.net). Needless to say, the reporter did not identify the source's affiliation, despite it taking me less than 10 seconds to find that using google.
I sent an email to their ombudsman, who said that either he or the reporter would be back in touch. Needless to say, I haven't received a follow-up.
Now, the Washington Post offers their own similar report in "On Patrol in Vt., Minutemen Are the Outsiders". And, it repeats the earlier smear, once again without mentioning who made it:
Then came their first official patrol two weekends ago, which was dogged by protesters who assembled downtown and shouted slogans such as "Take your hate out of our state." The Minutemen had to patrol a bike path away from town, and then -- as the Boston Globe reported -- got lost and had to ask a local for directions.
If a drunk in a Montpelier donut shop at 3am said that slogan, most people would tend to give it very little credibility. And, the same goes for someone associated with the North Eastern Federation of Anarchist Communists. And, the same goes for the Washington Post.
Please send your thoughts to ombudsman@washpost.com.
Note also that the DUmmies discuss this article, resulting in "beam me up scottie" supporting Bush, cheap labor performed by serfs, and the Mexican government. On the American side, "hansberrym" is subjected to comments from bmus which, as he points out, are nothing but smears and the like.
"bmus" even reprints Xeni Jardin's smear in which she identified a non-MMP poster as coming from the MMP. When "hansberrym" calls him on this, this is the reply:
It came from Boing Boing's photos of Minute Men on the Mexican border. Are you actually suggesting that those Boss Hogs in camo wear are above that sort of thing? Right. Of course you are.
Ah, the lasting power of anti-American propaganda.
Comments
D Flinchum (not verified)
Tue, 11/01/2005 - 04:23
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You and I both, eh.
In the middle of the Herndon day labor site story, I sent a letter to the WP, noting that with drug resistant TB on the rise Fairfax county & Herndon were taking a risk by sanctioning a meet-up area for largely illegal immigrants and their employers. Large turnover, impossible to trace contacts should an outbreak occur, large number of contacts outside the site by both workers and employers - all baaaaaaaaaaad news.
The WP actually contacted me asking my sources for the fact that illegal immigrants are the main culprits in spreading TB. I was greatly encouraged! I gave a couple of very main stream sources but they didn't specifically mention illegal immigrants. They did mention that Northern VA led the state in cases of TB, the overwhelming majority of sufferers of TB were born abroad (most in Mexico), and the majority of those born abroad had only been in the US a short time. Pretty obvious, I'd say.
Since TB had been basically eradicated in the US prior to the massive influx of immigrants in the 90's and since legal immigrants are screened for TB (among other diseases), logic dictates that TB is being spread by illegal immigrants, right? Not according to the WP. My letter wasn't printed.
I guess we'll have to wait until some old guy with a weakened immune system gets drug-resistant TB from an illegal immigrant at the Herndon site (or elsewhere since that site is in some doubt now) and his family sues the governments sponsoring the site for a gazillion dollars in order for my point to be made.
eh (not verified)
Mon, 10/31/2005 - 22:17
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"Please send your thoughts to ombudsman@washpost.com."
It won't do any good; believe me, over the last few years I've tried often enough. But after some time you realize: these people are ideologues to such an extent that they are largely impervious to facts and logic.