We are so drearily tired of being proved right whenever we are at our most cynical, which is all the time. I really dislike Breitbart’s methods. But, much as I think he could have proven the connections without doing what he did, I must say I snicker to see the dreadful MSM (many times worse than some of the people they criticize) exposed for the frauds they are in the emails that Breitbart has uncovered.
I spotted De Graw as a plant by doing a very simple search for his articles on Alternet. He only seems to have started writing in 2009, which is when the “push-back” began, with the stimulus program in March and a concerted media effort to distort the Tea-Party, co-opt their message, and return the spotlight to the left-center.
I wrote about that in a piece called “Green Shoots and White Lies” at Lew Rockwell, in 2009.
It was in 2008, I recall, that I first noticed Matt Taibbi following my blog, and others, from where he swiped his two major stories – about Goldman Sachs (from my pieces) and about Naked Short Selling (from Byrne’s Deep Capture blog). He then went to rewrite those stories to suit the left-liberal agenda. Anti-fascist author Alex Constantine, among others, has called him a propagandist.
I wouldn’t go so far. I think he’s a terrific writer and has many valid insights. But he’s a documented plagiarist (that’s standard operating procedure for journalists these days), a show-boat, and rather gratuitous and vulgar in his personal attacks.
“Ratigan’s direct involvement in formulating a statement for distribution to news outlets, including his own, is a gross violation of journalistic ethics compounded by a lack of disclosure that continues to this day. Ratigan has disqualified himself as a trustworthy journalist covering the Occupy movement, regardless of his letting some of his personal political opinions seep through in his coverage. This problem goes way beyond anything Fox News has ever been accused of by the left; Ratigan is personally invested in the movement’s success.
As the Occupy effort and reporting on it continues, we are now seeing even more connections – via the New York Times.
Protesters Debate What Demands, if Any, to Make
In a quiet corner across the street from Zuccotti Park, a cluster of 25 solemn-faced protesters struggled one night to give Occupy Wall Street what critics have found to be most lacking.
What the New York Times doesn’t tell you is, if you go to Big Government and Big Journalism’s doc drop and do a search for “demands,” you’ll find that the topic of demands has been long discussed in emails, including with significant input from Matt Taibbi and other would be journalists. In short, the alleged journalists involved are helping to shape strategy and tactics behind the scenes, stepping back as the activists execute it, then they circle back and mouth agreement with it. That is not journalism and the fact that their activities are un-disclosed only confirms their awareness of it. Were it not an issue, they’d be bragging of their more direct involvement behind the scenes.
A Google term search indicates DeGraw’s appearance was pushed throughout the Occupy activist network. Given that both Ratigan and Williams are part of the broader NBC broadcasting family, it appears as though there are no longer any lines between NBC as a reporter of political news and a political movement driver and shaper.
Other exchanges and an email from Dylan Ratigan himself to the activist group were revealed in this Big Journalism post by Editor Dana Loesch. Note the subject header of Ratigan’s October 7th email at previous link: “Harmony.” Here is Ratigan invoking the same theme to a media reporter on October 12th.
“We’re asking, ‘Why am I here?’ and ‘What am I doing?’” he said, of the protesters. “That energy seeks to harmonize with itself,” he went on, building up some momentum. “It’s a million points of light, that’s a digital matrix of identity. It’s harder to digest the subject-object relationship. Simply one group of Us, this one gigantic group of Us.”
From Ratigan’s email signature, evidently he has a book coming out: Greedy Bastard$. Under the title, the cover states, “How we can stop corporate communists, banksters, and other vampires from sucking America dry.” Between his words and actions, Ratigan may represent the epitome of an oxymoron. Unfortunately, this is no laughing matter. The better question for NBC maybe, how to stop Dylan Ratigan from sucking all of the credibility out of their purportedly being an objective news operation.”