March 27, 2012


5 Steps to Help Catholics Stop Failing at Online Activism (and Start Winning)

Name UserAmerican
by Thomas Peters
9 hours ago
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You read me right: Catholics are failing at online activism.
Sure, if you’re reading this, you probably know a heck of a lot more than your average Catholic about online activism, but still, when it comes to this subject in general, we Catholics are way behind.
The reason Catholics need to start winning at online activism isn’t about numbers on a scoreboard. Social media activism is a new major force which influences the outcome of battles we care about.
Consider the recent controversy over Susan G. Komen cutting ties with Planned Parenthood. Manynews agencies have pointed out that Susan G. Komen felt intense pressure to reverse its decision because of the massive social media campaign waged against it. Planned Parenthood and left-wing social media won the battle to dominate the messaging war, mostly because they’ve invested time in training their supporters to be online activists.
I could name more examples but it’s enough just to trust me — Catholics are not well represented when it comes to online social activism. And many of us who are engaged are not well trained or intentional about how we do it. We can make huge strides by a) recruiting more social media activists and b) training them to be more effective.
Because, as it stand now, even though our forces fight valiantly, we are outnumbered and outgunned online, and when we lose online, it is far harder to win at all. period.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t enjoy losing — especially when losing is completely avoidable.
So let me suggest some steps we can all take to stop failing at online social activism and start winning instead.
While it is true that blogs still play a vital role when it comes to articulating and arguing the truth of our positions, the impact of FacebookTwitter and online petitions is more immediate when it comes toinfluencing perception, creating momentum, and showing strength in numbers.
And that’s the essential point to get: when it comes to influencing public opinion and winning the online war, it’s not enough to be right, we must also stand up for what is right, and in great numbers.
So here are 5 steps Catholics can take right now to stop failing (and start winning) at social media activism right away — I’m sure there are other good tips, and I’m happy to see more suggestions in the comments — but I know these 5 Steps work.
I’m going to use the example in all these cases of the Dump Starbucks Campaign. For background on this campaign, see here. But basically, it is a campaign urging people to promise they will dump Starbucks coffee for as long as the organization continues to commit itself to lobbying on behalf of gay marriage and other anti-marriage/anti-family causes.
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1. Acknowledge the Impact of Social Media
The most common excuse I run into when I talk about social media activism is people saying that it doesn’t actually influence the public debate or the outcome of important battles. (Not being a part of social media activism, how would they know?) But it does — trust me. Otherwise why does every left-wing activist group, not to mention businesses and politicians, invest so much time and money into developing a social media network?
The second most common excuse I get is that personal interactions matter more. Sure, they do. But you can help the culture in more than one way, and unless you are constantly helping the culture in other ways, why not add social media to your arsenal? I can think of few more effective ways to make a positive impact for the time and effort invested.
2. Join the Network
If you haven’t already, join Facebook and Twitter and get familiar with using them. Get to know the lingo. Next, like (or follow, if we’re talking Twitter) causes, organizations and people who fight for the Catholic values you believe in and start passing on what they are talking about and the actions they are promoting to your social network. Good places to start are CatholicVote on Facebook and Twitter and AmericanPapist on Facebookand Twitter.
Why?
If you are on the sidelines right now — in other words, if you are not doing social media — this is exactly where our enemies want you to be. They are filling the internet and social media –the modern marketplace of ideas– with their message, and you are silent because you are not there. If you are not speaking up for the things we Catholics believe in, everywhere that message needs to be heard, and especially online, who will?
3. Be a Social Media Creator, Not Just a Consumer
Do you follow people on Twitter? Do you have a Facebook page? Great! Now let’s put them to use for the causes you believe in.
The best thing you can do on Twitter is to re-tweet important action alerts and to help trend hashtags on twitter. Right now @DumpStarbucks is working to trend #dumpstarbucks (during the Susan G. Komen foundation we worked to trend #IStandWithKomen). On Facebook one of the best things you can do is use the “Share” button to share causes you believe in on your timeline and “Invite” friends to join. Folks doing these two actions have helped grow the Dump Starbucks facebook page past 6,000 fans.
Why?
Because we all have networks of friends and family who watch what we do and what we support and promote. What we do privately matters, but what we do publicly matters even more when it comes to providing a concrete witness to others.
Are you worried about scandalizing your friends and family by what you support? What you should be worried about is that you are missing an opportunity to stand up for the truths you believe in… which leads to:
4. Stand Up and Be Counted
Sign petitions you believe in. Most only take a few minutes to complete. If you are worried about keeping your email address private, create a secondary email address to use for when you sign petitions. Right now, almost 20,000 people have signed the Dump Starbucks pledge. There’s no reason at all that pledge shouldn’t be well past 100,000 signers by now, and with your help, it can be.
Why?
Because people really notice of these petitions. Corporations and politicians can ignore viewpoints they disagree with when only a few people are speaking up. But when thousands and tens of thousands say the same thing, they are forced to pay attention and listen. Make no mistake, the CEO of Starbucks will know how many people have signed the pledge at DumpStarbucks.com. He will know if only 20,000 people care about the institution of marriage, or if 500,000 people care enough to do something about it.
5. Make It Part of Your Routine
Doing something good once is good. Making something good a habit is excellent. We have to make social activism a habit, like sorting our mail and responding to text messages. Consider how much time you spend doing social media or surfing the internet and how much more you would have to show for it –how much more you could be proud of it– if you spent a portion of that time engaging in social media activism.
Taking action, and speaking up for the truth and for causes you believe in, isn’t just something you can do, it’s something we all must do if we believe these truths are worth defending and promoting.
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If we can successfully create an online culture of vibrant Catholic activism and active social media participation, we will have come a long way from failing and be solidly on the path to winning!
Here’s one brief example to show you the potential power of my personal Catholic network: currently I have roughly 10,000 people following me on Twitter and almost 7,000 Facebook fans. That’s something, but if every one of my followers chose to pass on something I wrote or an action item I promoted that message could potentially reach over 200,000 accounts on Twitter 750,000 people on Facebook! Almost a million souls, with only a couple clicks and maybe a few keyboard strokes.
This little scenario gives you a sense of the power of the Catholic Online Network, if it is utilized to its maximum capacity.
The great blessing of social media is that, at the end of the day, the power of a message is based on how many people care enough to relay that message. So how much do you care about the fundamental messages inspired by our Catholic faith?
I mean for this to be the first of several more posts on the topic of how to improve Catholic Online activism. I welcome reactions and additional tips in the comments, but I believe the real measure of the success of this post will be how many of you commit to following the five steps.
At the bottom of every CatholicVote post is a social media bar offering ways to promote that post on social media. It is there because you are there!


At the top of Fox News Channel’s “The Five,” co-host Greg Gutfeld opened the program with an assault on Media Matters and the organization’s campaign against conservative talker Rush Limbaugh, saying that their goal isn’t maintaining decency on the airwaves, but is instead to get a “scalp.”
“Alright, so Media Matters — that tree house of trolls who continue to disappoint their parents — are spending $100,000 on ads to unseat Rush Limbaugh,” Gutfeld said. “Remember, Rush doesn’t hold an office — he hosts a radio show. So it’s a campaign against someone simply because he hurts their feelings. Now, to parrot my acting coach, what’s the motivation? Is it really about decency? No, this is simply manufactured outrage masquerading as concern. Remember, Rush already apologized, but that didn’t matter because Media Matters really wants annihilation. After all, Rush excels at exposing tools like them. So they want his scalp.” (RELATED: Full coverage of Media Matters)
Gutfeld challenged the right to fight back harder against Media Matters and mocked the head of the organization to illustrate there is little reason to be timid in waging this fight.
“If they want a war, why won’t the right give them one? Why so timid all the time? If advertisers are bowing down to senior fellows toiling away in soiled underpants, shouldn’t Rush’s listeners fight back? I’d also say let’s make Media Matters’ life miserable but they’re already there. It’s got to be rough when your mom asks, ‘David, why don’t you get a job?’ And David says, ‘I work at Media Matters.’ And then mom quietly weeps.”
Gutfeld also took a swipe at the Los Angeles City Council for passing a resolution “calling on local TV and radio stations to limit any ‘racist’ and ‘sexist’ comments on their broadcasts.”
“But worse, the sparrow’s nest of chirping bird brains known as the L.A. City Council just passed a resolution urging the press to curb racist, sexist slurs. Well, why don’t they say what they really want to ban? Their parents. I haven’t seen such a pathetic bunch since the Academy Awards. Folks, we’ve got to wake up — the national debate is being steered by unelected group of operatives willing abetted by politicians who are supposed to raise our standard of living, but instead focus on raising awareness. I’d start a campaign to get them fired but I have a life.”


Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/03/23/gutfeld-so-media-matters-wants-a-war-why-wont-the-right-give-them-one/#ixzz1qN54qJDA

SPECIAL REPORT

The Plot to Get Rush

Hannity, Palin next targets: Who is Angelo Carusone?
It was a set up.
From start to finish.
A quite specific, quite detailed plot to get Rush Limbaugh, ruin his career, and drive him off the air.
Next targets? Sean Hannity and former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.
Lots to cover here.
Let's start with Mr. Angelo Carusone.
Who is Angelo Carusone? Today he is now the "Director of Online Strategy for Media Matters for America."
But a few years back? He was just your basic left-wing law student with a standard left-wing passion. That passion? Totalitarian-style censorship.
Let's stop here for a moment for a brief bit of historical background -- not a detour but a very necessary context.
It is a big mistake -- a really big mistake -- to dismiss what's being done to Rush Limbaugh as just some crazy guys at Media Matters.
When we work our way through what Angelo Carusone and his Media Matters comrades and others are doing when they target Rush, or went after Glenn Beck, or plan to do in targeting Sean Hannity and Sarah Palin and who knows who after that (Levin? Laura?) remember: this is the way the Left -- the global left throughout history, not simply the American Left today -- has always behaved. A fanatical intolerance is part of the leftist DNA.
The late Austrian free-market economist Ludwig von Mises described the leftist method of operation as "fanatical and intolerant." It works, he said, this way:
Socialism… works on the emotions…to stifle the voice of reason by awakening primitive instincts.
Primitive instincts.
And that most primitive of human instincts? You got it. 
Fear.
The skillful, clever use of fear (not to mention hate) is the defining trait of leftists throughout history. Fear is the primitive emotion the left feeds on like a junkie needs drugs. It is a trait repeatedly manifested in history by the use of intimidation or bully-boy tactics to assert raw power. It is the vividly identifiable scarlet thread of intolerance that has shown itself in one leftist movement after another on down through the centuries, regardless of nationality.
Leftist French Revolutionaries launched the "Reign of Terror," dragging terrified opponents to the guillotine. The moment Lenin's triumphant Communists overwhelmed Russia, notes The Black Book of Communism, the triumphant left "institutionalized the notion of 'enemy of the people.'" People so identified were to be "arrested immediately," charged with "crimes" like "abuse of one's position" -- essentially the American left's charge right now about Rush Limbaugh. In short order, millions of Soviet citizens in the new order were shot outright when not sent to the Gulag. In the 1930s the newly powerful National Socialists of Germany -- aka the Nazis -- began sending storm troopers to terrify Jews by painting crude yellow signs reading "Not for Aryans" on the windows of Jewish shopkeepers. Eventually, Jews were forced to wear a yellow patch in the shape of the Star of David, bearing a single word Jude -- Jew. In Mao's China, this leftist fanaticism appeared as the "Cultural Revolution," which targeted all manner of dissenters with both psychological intimidation as well as physical violence. One of the favorite weapons of Mao's Red Guards was "Chinese Roulette." The game? A group of dissenters would be rounded up and delivered to a firing squad -- but at the last minute only a random few would be pulled from the group and shot. The rest who had survived were said to have suffered something worse than death: a "bullet" of fear and repression inside the brain.
In America, the leftists beneath the hoods of the Ku Klux Klan lynched terrified blacks at night while running America's Democratic Party by day. No less than future president Ronald Reagan was threatened with having acid tossed in his face if he didn't cease fighting the infiltration of Communists in Hollywood. Today SEIU thugs are captured on video beating up those who dissent on Obamacare, calling their victim the "n--word".
Fear. Intimidation. Bullying. Racism. Hatred of the "other." Without these tactics, the left is naked in the war of ideas. By coincidence, R. Emmett Tyrrell, the founder and editor-in-chief of The American Spectator has a book coming out in May titled The Death of Liberalism.
There could in fact be no better sign of that death than the behavior of the left -- the typical behavior -- as evidenced in this entire episode. The Happy Warrior "politics of joy" of that cheerful liberal's liberal Hubert Humphrey is long, long gone.
So.
You thought the business of getting Rush Limbaugh off the air was because of a bad word choice about Sandra Fluke?
Think again.
The starting date for this latest in a long line of fear-inducing leftists --was, according to Angelo Carusone himself, "late 2009 and early 2010."
Got that?
In other words, a full two-plus years before Sandra Fluke ever appeared on the anti-religious liberty scene, Commissar Carusone (what other title is more fitting for a self-styled free speech monitor?) was hatching the plot to "Stop Rush." In the world of Internet domains, Carusone even had it registered as "Stop Rush.org."
Modeled after Carusone's earlier successful campaign to… yes, indeed… Stop Beck.
Take a gander here at Legal Insurrectionhere at the Blaze, and here at the Village Voice to see how Carusone quite candidly goes about his self-appointed task as one of the revolutionary guards in the American Left's Political Police.
How does Carusone's storm trooper game work?
What does Media Matters do?
Remember. Angelo Carusone was going after Glenn Beck several years ago as a free-lancing leftist law student. His activities caught the attention of Media Matters, where Commissar Carusone is now officially ensconced as the group's "Director of Online Strategy."
Let's carefully comb through the record of Mr. Carusone in these various stories -- plus this Carusone interview here at a site called Raw Story. In which, on June 2, 2010, distinctly unknown in the national media at the time, the then-law student describes in detail what he is up to.
And let's add something else into this mix. Commissar Carusone, as noted, is now officially a direct employee of Media Matters. Recently the Daily Caller did a highly illuminating series on Media Matters. A series that revealed an out-of-control leftist machine filled with gazillions of leftist Big Money, headed by a man described as exhibiting "volatile and erratic" behavior who "struggles with mental illness" while parading around with the security entourage worthy "of a Third World dictator."
So let's add 2 plus 2 and see what 4 equals, shall we?
We will carefully list the tactics admitted to by Commissar Carusone himself. And add what the Daily Caller has reported about Media Matters. Remembering that the Commissar now works for Media Matters.
Here we go.
• Disrupt relationships with sponsors: Not unlike "Chinese Roulette," the object is to put a bullet of fear in the minds of the target's advertisers. Or, as a Chinese official was quoted in the Economist only last January in a story with a section titled "Chinese Roulette," give people (advertisers in the case of Rush) the sense they are "playing pass the parcel with a time bomb."
This was what Commissar Carusone did with Glenn Beck's advertisers. Now the target is Rush Limbaugh, with Carusone openly admitting he has talk radio host and Fox star Hannity and Fox commentator Palin in his sights.
So how, according to Commissar Carusone himself, does he go about his self-assigned task of putting that bullet of fear in the minds of advertisers? How precisely did he terrorize Rush Limbaugh's advertisers into believing they were "playing pass the parcel with a time bomb" -- and they, the advertisers in question, were about to lose?
First, the Commissar listens to a "supersized" batch of his target's broadcasts.
Then he selects something that offends him in broadcast X.
Next the Commissar "dispatches a letter or e-mail to corporate executives asking them if they are aware that their ads are running in an hour" when Beck or (fill in the blank…Rush, Hannity, Palin) said Y. "Y" standing for "insert newest offensive sound bite"…which is to say, words offensive to left-winger Carusone.
When did this happen in the Rush episode? When exactly did Carusone aim his weapon at the heads of advertisers and pull the trigger? When precisely did the latest leftist out to intimidate shoot his bullet of fear? Remember: Rush never said a word about Sandra Fluke until a Wednesday. Says Commissar Carusone in his Village Voice interview:
"I started talking to advertisers on Thursday, and got a lot of feedback on Friday, and I knew a lot of movement was taking place. This was important to think about from a business perspective."
Get it? The very next day -- Thursday -- the Commissar was at work instilling fear into Rush's sponsors. Result?
One of the advertisers on the receiving end of this kind of garbage was businessman Mark Stevens. As seen in this interview yesterday with Fox's Megyn Kelly -- and make a point of listening to it if you can -- Stevens had the guts to say he was the target of what he called "internal American terrorism" because he refused to drop his local ads that appear on the Limbaugh show in the New York market. Stevens pulled no punches. He understood exactly what was happening to him and had the guts to stand up to the bullies. And while he wouldn't say who was doing it -- he clearly knows. So too does Rush –--who cites Media Matters by name. So do we all.
And by the way, Stevens recognized exactly that what was happening to him and the people in his company -- one woman in particular -- was nothing less than an attempt to "invoke fear." In other words, Chinese Roulette had come to America. And Mark Stevens was being told he had to live with the bullet of fear in his head everyday -- and Mark Stevens boldly refused.
But not every advertiser has Mark Stevens' courage -- something Commissar Carusone understands full well.
Says the Raw Story article of Carusone's tactics: "Many times, that [is] enough to make advertisers pull their commercials, although Carusone admits that by now his reputation for peskiness may help grease the wheels." Thus… seven sponsors departed the Limbaugh show.
But not Mark Stevens.
 Methodically Catalogue Results of Smear and Fear Campaign: Next step? After having sprayed an AK-47's worth of bullets of fear at Rush's advertisers?
Commissar Carusone, Raw Story reports, then "catalogues his activities… which includes one running list of sponsors that have dropped the show and another of those that have not."
Stop right here.
This is the 21st century Americanization of a very old leftist tactic. It is described thusly in The Black Book of Communism, revealing how Stalin's "State Political Directorate" Commissars kept precise lists of exactly who among "enemy" social classes had been arrested, deported, or shot. Or, ominously, who needed to be. Say the authors of the procedure:
The mania for planning and maintaining statistics… was also an important weapon in the arsenal of terror.
This was exactly the Carusone procedure created for dealing with Glenn Beck.
This of course is, what causes Commissar Carusone to say of Rush's view of Fluke that Rush spoke "almost 50 smears for three days" about Fluke. Count 'em. Not 49 "smears". Not 51 "smears." Precisely 50. With not a soul asking: "Who gets to determine what is a smear?" Answer: Why, Commissar Carusone, of course.
This is straight from the playbook of Stalin's "State Political Directorate." One of the oldest tricks in the leftist playbook is given new life in 21st century online America. Using a site, found here, that Carusone says was "started… in 2009, 2010."
So if we go to StopRush.org, like clockwork in the evolution of leftist political police, we find what was described in that June 2010 interview. There it is, the "running list of sponsors that have dropped the show and another of those that have not." Indeed, at the very top of the site are sections labeled "Dropped Sponsors" and "Remaining Sponsors."
At the moment, the "Dropped Sponsors" list contains a mere 12, not the over 100 sponsors, as the pliant mainstream media would have you believe after being spoon fed by -- wonder of wonders -- Media Matters. The repeated and grossly inaccurate stories of advertisers fleeing the show a complete -- deliberate -- misrepresentation of how sponsorship in radio works. Seven of the twelve listed on StopRush.org were in fact national Rush sponsors, announced long ago in the first wave of leftist-engineered reaction to Rush's Fluke words. The "remaining sponsors" list is mysteriously empty -- because, says the site, of an update promised for….March 5. Weeks ago.
It makes no mention that Sleep Train, Rush's longtime sponsor, frantically realized -- too late -- that it had been conned and, after a barrage from Rally for Rush fans, sought to come back as a sponsor. An offer Rush refused.
But on the StopRush.org site's home page?
Here we find "Sponsor Updates" -- and it is here that one listing in particular illustrates the totalitarian mindset at work with Carusone and his leftist comrades.
Notice the company listed as "Brighter.com"? Brighter.com is an American entrepreneurial venture designed to provide dental care. It was never a national Rush sponsor Ã  la Sleep Train. But how is it portrayed at StopRush.org?
First, here's this interesting graph posted at StopRush.org:
In a statement emailed to Media Matters, Brighter.com indicated ads on Rush Limbaugh were placed in error and they would take steps to ensure such ads do not air again in the future.
Catch the reference? "In a statement emailed to Media Matters….." And who, now, is Media Matters?
That's right. Media Matters is officially the employer of…Angelo Carusone.
And what follows next? This:
A spokesperson for Brighter.com contacted Media Matters and advised that this Brighter.com ad ran as a result of "inventory being placed indiscriminately by a media buying agency," stressed that Brighter.com did not deliberately advertise on this program, and confirmed that Brighter.com has "taken steps to assure this does not happen in the future." Media Matters will continue to monitor.
Catch that last sentence? "Media Matters will continue to monitor."
There, right there, is "Chinese Roulette" at work. The bullet of fear placed in the minds of Brighter.com's executives that their free market business in making dental care affordable is now on the bully's watch list.
If this were Germany in the early 1930s, the message to Brighter.com is the equivalent of the yellow paint on Jewish shop windows warning "Not for Aryans." It is the Media Matters equivalent of marking someone with that chilling "enemy of the people" stain, resulting in a listing with the State Political Directorate, the list carefully maintained by a Stalin Commissar. 
Right there on the home page of StopRush.org is the descendant of the blunt threat of a lynching, once used by all those progressives under Klan hoods to threaten black Americans (when said progressives took time out from running Democratic Party conventions like this one). Right there on the home page of StopRush.org is the mind set of the "progressives" like those Black Panthers seen here outside a 2008 Philadelphia polling place, one menacingly wielding a nightstick -- following exactly in the steps of the progressive Klan. This is the modern equivalent of the low voice on the phone threatening to throw acid in actor Reagan's face. Let's continue.
• Propagandize the media: Says Commissar Carusone's simpatico "interviewer" in the Village Voice:
"Let me ask you about this: Sandra Fluke was a white, middle class woman. She was a law student…."
Sandra Fluke was much more than that. She was, in point of fact, a "white, middle class woman…law student" -- who was also a considerable leftist activist. Hereis her record, as recorded over here and as listed at her respective undergraduate and graduate universities, Cornell and Georgetown Law respectively:
At Cornell, where she graduated with a B.S. in Policy Analysis & Management; Feminist, Gender & Sexuality Studies, Sandra Fluke is listed as a participant in: 
-- Students Acting for Gender Equality
-- Take Back the Night
-- Sexual Assault and Violence Indicators
-- The Vagina Monologues/V-Day College Campaign
-- Cornell Women's Resource Center Volunteer
-- Cornell University Student Assembly Committee on Women's Issues
-- Women in Public Policy
At Georgetown, Sandra Fluke is listed as a participant in:
-- Women's Legal Alliance
-- Law Students for Reproductive Justice
-- GULC Anti-Human Trafficking Joint Committee
-- Georgetown Human Rights Action
-- Amnesty International
-- Innocence Project
-- Phi Alpha Delta
-- Georgetown Democrats
-- National Lawyers Guild
This is the record of an innocent college student?
Of course not. This is the record of a more-than-budding left-wing activist, a feminized version of Angelo Carusone. A Commissarette in training.
So the obvious question. How many news stories were pitched by Fluke's left-wing handlers that both resulted in this public portrait of a demure, guileless school girl? Who pitched them? And who swallowed them?
• Use the Social Media: Who needs a firing squad to play Chinese Roulette when you have Twitter?
In that 2010 interview, Carusone was said to have "more than 7,000 followers on Twitter."
So when the national media obligingly spins the yarn of Rush versus Innocent College Girl… Commissar Carusone, now amplified by the millions of dollars in leftist Media Matters money and machinery, had but to tweet and… BANG!
See for yourself right here what is being tweeted from the Commissar to his left-wing legions. This is doubtless only one arena in which, ironically, free speech for some is being used in a plot to deprive others of the same right. Under the guise of attacking corporations and companies -- as if corporations and companies and the people who work in them are not entitled to their own free speech rights, and the right not to fear intimidation for selling soap or clean teeth.
 Startled Rush sponsors were instantly receiving a seemingly self-starting barrage of angry anti-Rush tweets, e-mails, calls and snail mail -- many from people who were never customers in the first place. Without a clue that sponsors were -- and are -- on the receiving end of a quite well-tailored leftist tech campaign to frighten them into obeying the will of the Commissar and the free speech Political Police.
• The White House and its tie to Media Matters and Sandra Fluke: What's the difference between the Angelo Carusone the lone leftist law student of yesteryear -- and the Commissar Angelo Carusone of today?
Right. The Commissar works for Media Matters. The very same Media Matters identified in detail by the Daily Caller as having "close coordination with White House and news organizations."
Say again, close coordination with the White House.
And what was one of the notable aspects of the Rush-Sandra Fluke episode? Yes, indeed.
The President of the United States himself picked up the phone and made a highly publicized call to… Sandra Fluke.
And who has Bill O'Reilly reported as representing Sandra Fluke? Yes indeed. That would be ex-Obama White House Communications Director Anita Dunn. And what did the Daily Caller reveal in that story linked above? This:
A group with the ability to shape news coverage is of incalculable value to the politicians it supports, so it's no surprise that Media Matters has been in regular contact with political operatives in the Obama administration. According to visitor logs, on June 16, 2010, Brock and then-Media Matters president Eric Burns traveled to the White House for a meeting with Valerie Jarrett, arguably the president's closest adviser. Recently departed Obama communications director Anita Dunn returned to the White House for the meeting as well.
It's not clear what the four spoke about -- no one in the meeting returned repeated calls for comment -- but the apparent coordination continued. "Anita Dunn became a regular presence at the office," says someone who worked there. Then-president of Media Matters, Eric Burns, "lunched with her, met with her and chatted with her frequently on any number of matters."
In other words: The White House coordinates with Media Matters. Anita Dunn, now departed from the Obama White House, returns for meetings with the Obama White House staff and Media Matters, and is a "regular presence" at the offices of Media Matters. And -- shocker -- it is Anita Dunn who now represents Sandra Fluke. Who is being used by Commissar Carusone and his Media Matters comrades as the reason to launch yet another attack on free speech. Not theirs, of course. Heaven forbid. Just those who are, shall we say, considered to be "enemies of the people" and all of that.
• Media Matters and the $100,000 Secret Donor Campaign to Attack Free Speech: Doubtless you've seen this gem. Secret donors putting up $100,000 for Media Matters to run ads in eight cities, asking for Rush to be removed from the airwaves. In other words, a bounty of $100,000 grand to end Rush's career. Here's the story as it first appeared in the Washington Times. Fox's Bill O'Reilly has correctly slammed the campaign as being "very fascist." Mr. O'Reilly is right, and he would know, being a longtime target of Media Matters himself.
But did you notice the source for the Media Matters story that appeared in the Washington Times? Here's two key paragraphs:
Ad time was purchased in Boston; Chicago; Detroit; Seattle; Milwaukee; St. Louis; Macon, Ga.; and Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The cities were selected to support active local campaigns against Limbaugh or because of perceptions Limbaugh may be vulnerable in that market, said Angelo Carusone of Media Matters.
"What we're really looking for is a way to demonstrate the persistence of the effort and the fact that it is on a wide scale," Carusone said.
And there he is. Commissar Carusone speaks.
Now…there's more. Much more.
But let's summarize what we have here.
• The Left's Dependence on Fear and Intimidation: The left has centuries ago trademarked themselves as history's thugs, the grim, intolerant people with the brass knuckles and more if you get out of line and dare to speak your mind. From the guillotine of 1789 to the lists of enemies of the people in the 1920s to Chinese Roulette in the 1960s. In America it has run the gamut from the lynching of blacks to union thuggery to intimidating sponsors of talk radio in the twittering 21st century. It's all to the same purpose.
 Disrupt Relationships With Sponsors: A serious campaign has been underway to disrupt Rush's relationships with his sponsors. An effort launched two years -- two years -- before Sandra Fluke ever appeared on the scene.
 Keep Lists to Intimidate Sponsors: Ominous lists are kept of sponsors who have been bullied into giving up their First Amendment rights -- and those who have stoutly resisted.
• Propagandize the Media: The media is quickly propagandized with a false story. In this case, Sandra Fluke is portrayed as an innocent college girl when she is in fact a 30-year old longtime left-wing activist.
• Social Media: Use Twitter to play Chinese Roulette.
 The White House and Media Matters: "Close coordination" with the White House.
• The Media Matters $100,000 Secret Donor fund to attack free speech: A hundred grand bounty designed to both end Rush's career -- and assault your God-given right to free speech.
And one more thing.
What is it Angelo Carusone is quoted as doing in that 2010 Raw Story interview? A story that was in fact focused on Glenn Beck?
Here's the verbatim.
…Carusone is mounting similar campaigns targeting Sarah Palin, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh and CNN.
Beck is now off Fox's air.
The Rush campaign is now in progress -- but in spite of all this, in fact precisely because of all this, his audience is sticking -- not to mention getting pretty damn mad.
CNN? What did these poor struggling media mushies do? No idea. But they have somehow offended the sensibilities of Commissar Carusone.
But Sarah Palin and Sean Hannity? They have received their warning.
The Political Police are out there. Commissar Carusone is keeping his lists. The Media Matters secret donors, carefully operating in the shadows, have the bucks to enforce the Commissar.
Is this still America?
Only if we fight back.

About the Author

Jeffrey Lord is a former Reagan White House political director and author. He writes from Pennsylvania at jlpa1@aol.com.
http://spectator.org/archives/2012/03/27/the-plot-to-get-rush