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Title: The Genesis of the Smears (JOHN COLE ASKS ABOUT FREEPER ICUWHATUDO)
Source:
John Cole's Balloon Juice
URL Source: http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=8849
Published: Oct 11, 2007
Author: John Cole
Post Date: 2007-10-11 14:47:37 by aristeides
Keywords: None
Views: 2158
Comments: 176
The Genesis of the Smears By: John Cole October 11, 2007 at 12:53 pm Appears to have been an aide to Mitch McConnell, according to the Communists at ThinkProgress: On Monday morning, Don Stewart sent an email with the following text to reporters: Seen the latest blogswarm? Apparently, there’s more to the story on the kid (Graeme Frost) that did the Dems’ radio response on SCHIP. Bloggers have done a little digging and turned up that the Dad owns his own business (and the building it’s in), seems to have some commercial rental income and Graeme and a sister go to a private school that, according to its website, costs about $20k a year ‹for each kid‹ despite the news profiles reporting a family income of only $45k for the Frosts. Could the Dems really have done that bad of a job vetting this family? In the email, Stewart attacks Democrats for allegedly doing a bad job “vetting this family.” That effort to blame Democrats for the smear campaign seems to have swayed some reporters, as CNN this morning claimed that the real story is that “the Democrats didn’t do as much of a vetting as they could have done.” What is so surprising about all of this is not that all of the stuff in the leaked email has turned out to be completely false- that is just amusing. What is surprising is THE SPEED with which the “citizen journalists” ran with this, and echoed everything the leaked email did- just like good little soldiers. It was viral in no time. I would not be surprised if Malkin, Limbaugh, and some folks at the NRO were not in the coterie of ‘reporters’ this was emailed to, nor would I be surprised if they got it from a friend of a friend (despite pretending to be different from the beltway crowd, all of the above are insiders to the Washington game, despite their protests otherwise). I’d like to know a little more about the freeper who ran with this in the first place, giving Michelle and others their “in” to run with the story without having to be the ones to take the blame for doing it. Who is icuwhatudo? What is her/his real identity? How is this person connected to the McConnell aide or the reporters who received this list. Or was it just a coincidence? If I prided myself in being a citizen journalist, those are the questions I would be asking. And does anyone have any pictures of his living room?
ThinkProgress has obtained an email that congressional sources tell us was sent to reporters by Sen. McConnell’s communications director Don Stewart.
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#18. To: aristeides, ALL (#0)
Olbermann And Maddow On The Right’s Jihad On 12 Year Old Boy Maddow: “Twelve year old Graeme Frost, meet Cindy Sheehan, meet 9/11 widows, meet Staff Sgt. Brian McGough, meet Michael J. Fox, meet the kids who were targeted by Mark Foley, meet Jack Murtha. I mean, Graeme Frost as a twelve year old now joins an esteemed list of Americans who have been personally attacked, personally slimed, called liars and cowards and frauds, and threatened for daring to publicly espouse a view that the right disagrees with. I mean, just when you think you’ve found the person who they can’t possibly slime, I don’t know, say a twelve year old kid just out of a coma, turns out yeah, the bar does actually go that low, it’s just astonishing.” Filed Under: Air America, Countdown/Keith Olbermann, Hackery, MSNBC, Rachel Maddow, Right Wing Pundits, Right Wing Radio, Right
#20. To: All (#18)
Additionally from Crooks and Liars: Malkin Debases Herself With Further Attacks On A 12 Year Old. C&L Exclusive Quote! (Remember this ad for Bush in ‘04?) Do you actually think I would ever have considered attacking her and her family because of their support of Bush? I mean, it boggles the mind, doesn’t it? The utter depravity of it all. The sickness that dwells inside the Malkinites must run deeper than I thought. That’s the only way they can continue to dwell in such slime. I have an exclusive quote from an anonymous source close to the story: “What these right wing bloggers and some of their Republican friends in Washington have done to this family is simply unconscionable. Instead of attacking the issue, they decided to attack a 12-year old boy. This entire smear campaign by the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Michelle Malkin and their allies has been a perverse distraction from the issue at hand - the plight of millions of uninsured children in this country. It also needs to be remembered that the Frosts were viciously attacked for simply speaking their minds and voicing their support for the SCHIP program that was so instrumental in saving the lives of their children. From the Frosts’ perspective, what could be more American? Hmmm…just debating the issue at hand. Now there’s an idea. You may remember that Howard Kurtz wrote a glowing profile of the right wing’s very own Michelle Malkin a while back. It was rather odd, but not surprising. Soon after he attacked the Huffington Post for having some nasty comments about Dick Cheney on their site, which is a favorite trick of the mmm-essss-mmm. It was dirty pool because he understands the nature of blogging. Since you write about the bloggers quite often, Howie, will you denounce the right wing/Malkin attempts to smear a family and a 12 year old boy? (Here is a public email: http://projects.washingtonpost One critic, in an e-mail message to Graeme’s mother, Bonnie, warned: “Lie down with dogs, and expect to get fleas.” As it turns out, the Frosts say, Graeme attends the private school on scholarship. The business that the critics said Mr. Frost owned was dissolved in 1999. The family’s home, in the modest Butchers Hill neighborhood of Baltimore, was bought for $55,000 in 1990 and is now worth about $260,000, according to public records. And, for the record, the Frosts say, their kitchen counters are concrete. Republicans on Capitol Hill, who were gearing up to use Graeme as evidence that Democrats have over-expanded the health program to include families wealthy enough to afford private insurance, have backed off. An aide to Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, expressed relief that his office had not issued a press release criticizing the Frosts. As for accusations that bloggers were unfairly attacking a 12-year-old, Ms. Malkin wrote on her blog, “If you don’t want questions, don’t foist these children onto the public stage.” All the proof you need is Rep. Mitch McConnell backing off of the Frost family. Would he so willingly fade away? Actually the real message is that if anyone stands up against the Republican agenda, the right wing bloggers will smear and stalk you with the desired effect of “STFU or we’ll ruin you.” Intimidation, plain and simple. How many times have we seen this? But to be so low as to go after a child. Joe Gandleman–who isn’t a liberal–has a great take on it: But no, it’s easier to go after a 12 year-old. After all, these days, anyone who is in the way of an agenda has to be discredited so that no one listens to them anymore. Yet, once upon a time, American society would pull out all stops not to go after a kid. The bar has been lowered yet again. This time it has been lowered so far, it has struck oil amid the sleaze…read on T
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As Michelle Malkin, Rush Limbaugh and the right wing hate machine’s jihad against SCHIP and 12 year old Graeme Frost blows up in their faces, Countdown host Keith Olbermann and Air America Radio’s Rachel Maddow lay out what is without a doubt, the best framing of the latest and reprehensible episode for the Republican Party. Olbermann and Maddow give the GOP and their hordes a brilliant beating, Rachel sums it up perfectly:
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