tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4223398383609158624.post6101715800314575701..comments2024-02-24T00:37:43.087-05:00Comments on The Other McCain: Web site owner goes too farRobert Stacy McCainhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03084541621503669804noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4223398383609158624.post-62470282576765791082009-12-16T15:49:12.842-05:002009-12-16T15:49:12.842-05:00the (oxymoronic) "Libertarian Socialist Party...<i>the (oxymoronic) "Libertarian Socialist Party." </i><br /><br />Noam Chomsky describes (or at least described) himself as a "libertarian socialist". I wonder if White has been reading Chomsky.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4223398383609158624.post-37296105897457337472009-12-16T10:38:56.677-05:002009-12-16T10:38:56.677-05:00Your response to Nicholas explains a lot. If you ...Your response to Nicholas explains a lot. If you had the poor luck to be photographed with a "hate group leader" or to have attended the wrong conference -- CJ and others would toss you in with everyone you "associated with." You'd be linked with uch-and-such group forever.<br /><br />Keep up the good work.ukuleledavenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4223398383609158624.post-61241891224488764212009-12-16T09:11:03.800-05:002009-12-16T09:11:03.800-05:00Now how could you take chucky johnson serious beca...Now how could you take chucky johnson serious because anything that doesn't agree with him is a threat. Please.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4223398383609158624.post-30444959185946456782009-12-15T23:34:33.424-05:002009-12-15T23:34:33.424-05:00nicholas said
It's interesting to note that ev...<b>nicholas said</b><br /><i>It's interesting to note that even off the wall fringe types can be useful in gaining information from places you wouldn't ordinarily go. That's a useful bit of insight, that I suppose is Mother's milk for a reporter but somewhat foreign to a political blogger.</i><br /><br />That's just it: The Sharks vs. Jets vibe of punditry in the blogosphere means that if you cite a source, you are believed to be <i>endorsing</i> that source -- and everything he's ever said or done, and all his associates and everything they've ever said or done.<br /><br />Whereas, when you're searching for inside information on what's going on in politics, you don't view your sources that way. All that matters is, Can they get me the scoop? As I explained in September, Bill White was able to tell me stuff about, <i>inter alia</i>, the Buchanan takeover of the Reform Party that nobody else had. (Not all of which was reported, then or since, but that's another story.)<br /><br />Look, suppose there were a situation involving street gangs in a turf war, and you were a reporter assigned to report it. In the process of doing so, you might have to talk to a dozen guys with serious criminal rap sheets. Does that mean you endorse drug-dealing, assault, robbery, etc.? No, it means you're getting the story from the guys who are willing to tell you about it. You're doing your job.<br /><br />Same thing with reporting fringe politics. Many political movements that we nowadays consider mainstream began as fringe phenomena, and sometimes people on the fringe see things that people in mainstream politics don't notice. If all you ever do is cover the Dems-vs-GOP battle in Washington -- politics as a game played between the 40-yard-lines -- you'll miss things as they are developing at the embryonic stage.<br /><br />Honestly, Bill was (and is) a very smart guy, well-read in many subjects, with an obvious penchant for publicity. He struck me as one of these young people who get tired of the phony PC crap they're taught in school, not as an actual hater. When he turned toward anti-Semitism I was appalled. He was always a radical troublemaker, but I never expected him to turn into a goose-stepper.<br /><br />By the same token, of course, nobody in 2004 expected Charles Johnson to turn into a raving moonbat. But CJ is responsible for CJ's decisions, just as Bill White is responsible for Bill White's decisions.Robert Stacy McCainhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03084541621503669804noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4223398383609158624.post-80410699689768155412009-12-15T22:14:50.174-05:002009-12-15T22:14:50.174-05:00It's interesting to note that even off the wal...It's interesting to note that even off the wall fringe types can be useful in gaining information from places you wouldn't ordinarily go. That's a useful bit of insight, that I suppose is Mother's milk for a reporter but somewhat foreign to a political blogger.James Nicholashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06715293983358801138noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4223398383609158624.post-27326428560600758032009-12-15T21:10:40.088-05:002009-12-15T21:10:40.088-05:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Barrett Brownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14090847901520138473noreply@blogger.com