Always delighted to see the non-answer answer in action.
Halle claimed PRA discovers:
"some far-right group with ties to the campaign of the centrist Repug challenging the centrist Dem. Liberals will be certain to drop whatever flirtation they may have been having with a third party alternative."
This PRA does not engage in, partly because we are ultra-sensitive about our tax status and avoid commenting on election races. So it was an easy distortion to spot. Halle, below, goes on to drag a net of red herrings across the thread, while not defending his original main assertion, which is false.
Gee, John, a simple "I made it up" would suffice.
I assume from your response regarding the Waco video that any lie told against the goverment must be defended in the spirit of challenging the status quo? As someone who has been a paralegal investigator on lawsuits against the FBI, CIA, Military Intelligence, and local police Red Squads, I assure you I take government misconduct seriously, and resent sloppy research and conspiracy theories posing as investigative journalism. It is easy to criticize the government misconduct at Waco without resorting to leaps of logic and conspiracist speculation. PBS has done a very good job at this. The same problems plagued the Christic "Secret Team" theory which sucked millions of dollars out of the left in pursuit of Danny Sheehan's mythical vast conspiracy and sank a perfectly good legal case based on the original solid allegations of Tony Avirgan and Martha Honey.
Yes, facts and logic do matter. No, we should not remain silent about scapegoating just because the big bad corporate media usually defends the status quo.
Populism based on solid research and clear analysis has the potential for achieving democratic ends, populism based on conspiracy theories and scapegoating subverts both democracy and diversity. We can't build a movement for social and economic justice based on tolerating lies and distortions.
-Chip
----- Original Message ----- From: John Halle <john.halle at yale.edu> To: <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Sent: Sunday, January 02, 2000 9:42 PM Subject: Re: Populism (as shown in *The Progressive Populist*
> > ------------------------------
> >
> > Date: Sun, 2 Jan 2000 17:28:13 -0500
> > From: "Chip Berlet" <cberlet at igc.org>
> > Subject: Re: Populism (as shown in *The Progressive Populist*
> >
> > Dear John:
> >
> > Please provide an example to back up this claim. I cannot recall PRA our me
ever
> > having done this. It is the kind of claim that circulates on the right about
our
> > work but I am surprised to see it on the LBO list. Check out the PRA
publication
> > list or our web page to see what our focus is. Such stereotyping of PRA is
very
> > tiresome. We work very hard to challenge liberal thinking on these issues.
> >
>
> If the challenge is to back up the claim that centrist dems routinely
> threaten the spectre the extremist republican wolf in moderate sheeps
> clothing, example are almost too numerous to mention. Check out the recent
> issue of the Nation where both Bush and McCain portrayed as such, which I
> posted on recently.
>
> If the challenge is to find examples of PRA research used by the corporate
> media to discredit prospectively significant progressive issues, the most
> recent example which comes to mind is your recent appearance the film
> "Waco: the Rules of Engagement." Of course, anyone with a modicum of
> political sophistication has questions about the film and considers the
> source of the charges emanating from it. However, the thrust of the
> segment, entirely predictably for those of us without illusions about the
> function of mass media, was to discredit and pre-empt a radical critique
> of this use of institutionally sanctioned paramilitary violence.
>
> And while were on the subject of illusions:
>
> >
> > This may be true for some "watchdog" groups, but not PRA. I got into the
> > "corporate media's golden rolodex" by having accurately predicted a number o
f
> > trends on the political right.
> >
>
> Since when is a record of accurate prediction any kind of criterion for
> entering the golden rolodex? If you have illusions on this score try
> reciting the phrase "the Bulgarian connection" a few times. Do you need
> more examples?
>
> John
>