thinkprogress
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 Lee Fang, Ali Frick, Ryan Powers, Matt Corley, and Marie Diamond. A past contributor was Amanda Terkel; she now works for the Huffington Post.
Related blogs include "Wonk Room" (featuring Andrea Nill) and the eponymous blog from Matt Yglesias.
Last modified Sep 7, 2014
Discussed in (click each link for the full post):
NumbersUSA, Steve King, Teaparty Patriots assist amnesty with weak immigration rally - 08/13/13
Yesterday, Numbers USA, Steve King, and the Tea Parties "Patriots" held an immigration rally in Richmond, Virginia that ended up helping those who favor an amnesty for illegal aliens.
Will ThinkProgress admit mass immigration led to lower unionization and lower wages? (Bryce Covert) - 06/11/13
Bryce Covert - the Economic Policy Editor for ThinkProgress - discusses a new study [1] claiming that wages for many workers have fallen since 1979 due to lower unionization rather than computerization.
Igor Volsky lies about Lou Barletta (Latinos, immigration, ThinkProgress) - 01/29/13
Igor Volsky of ThinkProgress quotes the following section from peekURL.com/zEmJggE about former Hazleton mayor and current Rep. Lou Barletta:
Dr. Richard Land supports Obama's anti-American DREAM Act (Southern Baptist Convention) - 06/16/12
Dr. Richard Land - a top leader of the Southern Baptist Convention - announced his support for Obama's anti-American DREAM Act, telling ThinkProgress [1]:
Can Teaparty show how Annie-Rose Strasser is wrong about Derbyshire's "The Talk" column? - 04/06/12
The answer to the titular question is, of course, "no".
Is Marie Diamond clueless, deceptive, or what? (ThinkProgress, Herman Cain, border fence, alligators, moat, Andy Kroll) - 06/08/11
As we all know, those who toil at the Center for American Progress' ThinkProgress blog don't get the joke, no matter what the joke may be.
Gary Johnson wants to "loosen" child labor laws; Ben Mankiewicz lies (Young Turks, ThinkProgress) - 04/25/11
This is a two-parter: Ben Mankiewicz of The Young Turks lying about what former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson said, and Johnson (not surprisingly) supporting bad policy.
John Hinderaker presents: "David Koch, Friend to Mankind" (formaldehyde, ineffectiveness) - 03/05/11
'Hi! My name is John Hinderaker from Powerline. You might remember me from such filmstrips as "Asbestos: America's Ever-Vigilant Fireman" and "Ladybugs: America's Least-Recognized Pest". Well, today I'm here to present "A Philanthropist Advances the Cause of Science, the New York Times Doesn't" (link) about David Koch of the Koch family. But, first I want to tell you about a wonderful substance called formaldehyde...'
But, seriously:
1. At the link, John Hinderaker says, "David Koch is one of the world's great philanthropists". That's almost as funny as Hinderaker's 2005 Bush quote [1]. While...
Yet another example of Teaparty being useful idiots for the Koch brothers? (Madison union protests) - 02/19/11
Are the tea parties useful idiots for an attempt by the billionaire Koch family to fight unionization in order to increase their profits? The latest example of the Koch family pushing an agenda that helps their bottom line and getting help from the teapartiers in that endeavor comes from the protests between public sector unions and Republican governor Scott Walker in Madison, Wisconsin. I haven't been closely following the issue, but at the very least it's clear that the Kochs are attempting to take advantage of the issue to push their agenda. And, pushing that agenda would help the bottom...
From my satire to Tea Party ideas: Mike Lee and child labor - 01/15/11
In July of last year I offered a satire called A Teaparty Timeline, containing this:
In the 1800s, teaparty valiantly fought for the rights of children to work as many hours as they wanted.
The Glenn Reynolds, Don Surber, Joe Walsh propaganda team (Illinois) - 10/22/10
About eight months ago, a congressional candidate conducted an overt publicity stunt, asking why a public meeting wasn't being started with the Pledge of Allegiance. Now, something similar is playing out - perhaps spontaneously or perhaps covertly - involving the congressional campaign of Joe Walsh of Illinois, who's running against Melissa Bean. Spontaneous or not, the latest incident has the hallmarks of a "boob bait for Bubba" GOTV propaganda effort, and that's heightened because one of those involved is Glenn Reynolds [1].
First, I'd like to ask you to read this post about "Allez Java"....
Koch family, U.S. Chamber, businesses met to plan strategy (+Glenn Beck, tea parties, "mobilize citizens for November") - 10/20/10
Twice each year, the Koch family conducts strategy meetings with corporate and thought leaders to plan how to advance their "free market" ideology. ThinkProgress has the guest list and program for their June 2010 meeting (in Aspen), and, while immigration isn't mentioned, many of the known attendees are on the wrong side.
I don't normally recommend anything at ThinkProgress, but in this case I'll suggest taking a look at their post and downloading the PDF.
The New York Times has a related report here; from that:
The participants in Aspen dined under the stars at the top of the gondola run on...
Glenn Beck urges donations to illegal immigration-supporting U.S. Chamber of Commerce - 10/14/10
Earlier today, Glenn Beck urged his fans to donate to the US Chamber of Commerce, a group that strongly supports illegal and massive immigration. In 2006, GOP Rep. James Sensenbrenner suggested that the Chamber register as a foreign agent due to what they support.
Andrea Nill not exactly honest about DREAM Act (Sharron Angle ad) - 10/06/10
Andrea Nill of ThinkProgress responds to the new Sharron Angle ad with a somewhat misleading post about the anti-American DREAM Act. The Angle ad is here; the Nill post is at [1].
Nill writes:
The ad appears to be vaguely referencing the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act which Reid attached to the defense reauthorization bill last month as an amendment. The DREAM Act wouldn’t give undocumented students special tuition rates, but it would eliminate a federal provision that penalizes states that provide in-state tuition without regard to immigration status. Angle’s...
Rupert Murdoch testifies for amnesty, massive immigration (using two CAP studies) - 09/30/10
Rupert Murdoch of Fox News testified before Congress today in support of comprehensive immigration reform (aka amnesty) and in support of massive immigration in general. And, two studies he used to buttress his argument are from the leftwing, Obama-linked Center for American Progress.
From this:
News Corporation CEO Rupert Murdoch said he supports amnesty for “law abiding” illegal immigrants because as legal residents they can help the nation’s economy by adding to “our tax base.” He also said he supports securing the border to prevent more illegal immigrants from entering the United States....
Andrea Nill uses gunman taking hostages at Discovery Channel to smear immigration groups - 09/01/10
Earlier today, a gunman took hostages at the Discovery Channel building; the situation has been resolved. We discourage using the actions of someone who's most likely insane to score political points.
Tea party leaders, complaining about NAACP "racist" charge, call Obama's policies "socialist" - 07/14/10
Yesterday, I discussed how if you object to the NAACP playing the race card, the tea partiers aren't your friends. As if to provide a real world example, Jenny Beth Martin and Mark Meckler of the so-called "Tea Party Patriots" offer "On being labeled as 'racist'" (link):
A clear pattern of behavior has emerged over the last 16 months. According to liberals, if you disagree with their thinking, and if you disagree with the Obama administration, you are not only wrong, you are a "racist."... ...At its most simple, [the NAACP resolution] is a direct attack on the First Amendment rights of...
Dennis Welch, Kos, Amanda Terkel, Steve Benen, Ben Smith, Ben Frumin smear Jan Brewer over quote - 06/02/10
Arizona governor Jan Brewer is threatening to cost powerful people money and power through actions such as signing that state's new anti-illegal immigration law. Their lower-level hacks are currently swinging into action, deliberately misinterpreting a quote Brewer made in a disreputable attempt to claim that she inflated her father's war record [UPDATE: Statement from Brewer below]. Some are listed below, and if you find others please leave a comment.
During World War 2, Brewer's father worked at a Navy munitions depot in Nevada; he died in 1955 as a result of lung disease from that job....
YouCut: another stunt showing that the GOP has run out of ideas (Eric Cantor) - 05/19/10
A week ago, GOP House Whip Eric Cantor launched "YouCut" (republicanwhip.house.gov/YouCut), an attempt to show that the GOP is serious about spending. Except, it's just another tea parties-style cheap stunt:
SEIU, NCLR release incredibly deceptive immigration poll (Andrea Nill, Arizona) - 05/15/10
The Service Employees International Union and the National Council of La Raza have released a new immigration poll of likely voters in Arizona [1], specifically asking about that state's new law and about
If Andrea Nill of CAP can't get Steve King's joke, what else is she unclear on? - 04/16/10
From this (bolding added):
Immigrant-rights groups sought to tap some of the "tea party" thunder Thursday by using the anti-tax-and-spending movement's nationwide protests to argue illegal immigrants must be legalized because they are eager to pay their full taxes... "Here there are people who don't want to pay taxes, and we're saying there are all these people who want to carry the load and we don't allow them to," said Mary Moreno, a spokeswoman for the Center for Community Change. She led a delegation that delivered five boxes of blank tax forms to a Capitol Hill office as a symbol of all...
NumbersUSA harassed at immigration march by far-left, open borders fascists - 03/22/10
Roy Beck of Numbers USA attended yesterday's pro-illegal immigration march, and you can watch the reception he received on the video at peekURL.com/v41a4yc which is also attached right or below. On the video, persons dressed as mimes surrounded him as he attempted to speak to the camera and blew whistles at him in an attempt to shut him up. Not only that, but from their posting about the day's events (link):
After threatening Roy, the mimes were ordered by Park Police to remain between 7th and 14th streets. Then they huddled and one ran to Park Police claiming one of Roy's African American...
Andrea Nill promotes false Obama claim in smear of Lou Dobbs - 03/03/10
In May, 2008, Barack Obama smeared Lou Dobbs and Rush Limbaugh, falsely claiming that hate crimes against Hispanics had "doubled" the year before. In fact, they only went up 7.8%. Not only that, but they've decreased as a percentage of the Hispanic population between 1995 and 2006.
Given that, you might not expect Andrea Nill of ThinkProgress to write the following, unless you were familiar with that site and her work. In that case, you - like me - would realize just how truth-challenged both she and the others associated with that site are. Referring to a new report from the Southern Poverty...
Disingenuous Lou Dobbs now wants amnesty, guest workers, chain migration ("comprehensive immigration reform") - 01/08/10
Appearing on last night's Bill OReilly show on Fox News, Lou Dobbs made it clear that he does support amnesty, euphemistically called comprehensive immigration reform. Not only that, but he supports guest workers and chain migration. The only question he has is how many would be legalized and how many family members those legalized would be able to bring to the U.S. Since he referenced legalizing 9 million people (3 times 3 million on the video), he wants to legalize the great majority of illegal aliens in the U.S. On those topics, he's even worse than O'Reilly. Partial transcript below,...
Hilda Solis puts interests of immigrants, illegal aliens ahead of U.S. workers, sounds just like George Bush - 12/17/09
Various sources [1] have recently called for moratoriums on various kinds of immigration and increased immigration enforcement in order to free up jobs for Americans. (Note: I tried to shame the Center for American Progress over this issue way back in March, but I didn't get any help with it).
In response to the recent calls, Hilda Solis of the Department of Labor has shown that - while she's probably interested in workers in general - she has little concern for putting the interests of American workers ahead of the interests of illegal aliens and legal immigrants. Not only that, but in so...
Mexico-linked NALEO using religion to obtain political power (Census) - 12/15/09
Per Andrea Nill of ThinkProgress (thinkprogress.org/2009/12/15/census-latinos-boycott):
In response [to a protest discouraging participation in the Census], the National Association of Latino Elected Officials (NALEO) has started using the Bible to target religious Latinos with a different message: What would Jesus do?
NALEO is handing out posters that illustrate the arrival of Mary and Joseph in Bethlehem. NALEO explains that the Gospel of Luke indicates that the reason Jesus was born in Bethlehem is because Joseph and Mary were fulfilling their civic duty by returning to the town to be...
ThinkProgress v. Human Events: idiots clash over illegal immmigration parody song - 12/14/09
Andrea Nill of ThinkProgress offers "New right-wing Christmas carol: 'Illegals in my Yard'" (link) about a talk radio parody from Talk Radio Network's Matt Fox and AJ Rice that was posted at Human Events as a regular post (i.e., not just a user-gene
Lou Dobbs kept off CNBC due in part to pressure from racial power groups? - 12/05/09
Andrea Nill of ThinkProgress offers "Report: CNBC Was Considering Hiring Dobbs Until Latino Groups Pushed Back" (thinkprogress.org/2009/12/05/dobbs-cnbc-nogales). Neither she nor those in her general sphere are that credible and would want to inflate their power as much as possible, so take this with a large grain of salt:
(National Hispanic Media Coalition) President Alex Nogales told ThinkProgress today that CNBC was in fact talking with (Lou Dobbs) and that his hiring was, at least in part, thwarted by the same coalition of Latino, civil rights, and media-watchdog groups that successfully...
Arpaio shouted down at First Amendment Forum; Amanda Terkel cheers; open borders song - 12/01/09
Last night, Arizona State University held a "First Amendment Forum" with sheriff Joe Arpaio being questioned about his relationship to the media and immigration by a professor and two others from that school. The event was interrupted by far-left protesters who began singing parody lyrics of Bohemian Rhapsody, causing the panelists including Arpaio to leave one-by-one. The Dean of the school says (link):
"They didn’t shout down Sheriff Arpaio... They shouted down three top-flight journalists who were trying to question him. My personal opinion? I think that’s dumb."
The lyrics of their parody...
Dick Armey lobbied in regards to the Stimulus Plan; what did he do? - 11/20/09
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 by Nick Espinosa (Daniel Tencer) - 11/16/09
Daniel Tencer of RawStory offers "Tea partiers punk’d into supporting removal of white people from US" (rawstory.com/2009/11/tea-partiers-punked-white-people video at peekURL.com/v5h3vrp). Both the underlying story and his treatment of it are explicitly anti-American:
Andrea Nill of Think Progress smears Joe Arpaio, gives false impression using bogus quote - 10/05/09
What impression do you get from 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 probably thought "Hispanic-hunting dragnets" might be a quote from Arpaio as well. Whether Nill meant to give that impression or not, it's false. That quote is the characterization of Arpaio's...
Immigration Policy Ctr: U.S. lost Olympic Games bid due to "anti-visitor policy", "broken immigration system" - 10/02/09
Today's "Tie Every Current Event to Your Agenda No Matter How Tenuously" award goes to the Immigration Policy Center, which blames the failure of the U.S. to bring the Olympics home to Chicago on our immigration policies (link). Per a press release:
"A litany of voices have been warning for years that the U.S. is slowly adopting an anti-visitor policy that is harming business, higher education and families... Stories in the press and report after report have all highlighted how our broken immigration system is hampering our nation's ability to attract the best and the brightest and stay...
Lindsey Graham slams Glenn Beck; "Birthers" are "crazy" (The Atlantic's First Draft of History) - 10/01/09
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 challenged on the various things he said.
Lee Fang of ThinkProgress outrageously lies - 09/28/09
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.
Census worker found hanged in Kentucky; see who's politicizing it - 09/24/09
[UPDATE: Police say it was a suicide]
"Energy Citizens": tea partiers' love for corporations goes unrequited (FreedomWorks) - 08/23/09
The American Petroleum Institute is starting a new astroturf movement called "Energy Citizens": rallies in "about 20 states" designed to:
"put a human face on the impacts of unsound energy policy and to aim a loud message at those states' U.S. Senators to avoid the mistakes embodied in the House climate bill and the Obama Administration’s tax increases on our industry."
You can download a copy of the API memo here, also discussed here and discussed here in a completely credulous fashion.
If you've been following our tea parties coverage, you're probably thinking: "corporate astroturf? Call in...
CAP promotes benefits of states, politicians profiting from illegal immigration (Census, Andrea Nill) - 08/10/09
Andrea Nill of the Center for American Progress offers "Why Counting Undocumented Immigrants In The 2010 Census 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 federal resources for states and localities. Census data is used to distribute federal funding...
National Council of La Raza promotes radical groups - 08/03/09
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) who La Raza helps fund. Aztlan is what radical "Mechistas"—as they refer to themselves on La Raza’s website—call the American Southwest, which they claim still belongs to Mexico. Their slogan is "Por La Raza todo, Fuera...
Ian Millhiser of ThinkProgress lies about anti-Sotomayor ad (Committee for Justice's incompetent ad) - 07/16/09
The attached video shows an anti-Sonia Sotomayor ad from the "Committee for Justice".