Did you know that Rick Santelli's well-publicized rant on CNBC Feb. 19 wherein he called for a Chicago Tea Party to protest the White House's mortgage bailout plan was set up by a vast, rightwing conspiracy to bring down President Obama run by the co-founder of the John Birch Society and former Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey?
You didn't?
Well, that's what Playboy magazine claimed Friday in a piece outlining a grand cabal that supposedly has been in the works since last August:
What we discovered is that Santelli's "rant" was not at all spontaneous as his alleged fans claim, but rather it was a carefully-planned trigger for the anti-Obama campaign. In PR terms, his February 19th call for a "Chicago Tea Party" was the launch event of a carefully organized and sophisticated PR campaign, one in which Santelli served as a frontman, using the CNBC airwaves for publicity, for the some of the craziest and sleaziest rightwing oligarch clans this country has ever produced. Namely, the Koch family, the multibilllionaire owners of the largest private corporation in America, and funders of scores of rightwing thinktanks and advocacy groups, from the Cato Institute and Reason Magazine to FreedomWorks. The scion of the Koch family, Fred Koch, was a co-founder of the notorious extremist-rightwing John Birch Society.
As you read this, Big Business is pouring tens of millions of dollars into their media machines in order to destroy just about every economic campaign promise Obama has made, as reported recently in the Wall Street Journal. At stake isn't the little guy's fight against big government, as Santelli and his bot-supporters claim, but rather the "upper 2 percent"'s war to protect their wealth from the Obama Adminstration's economic plans. When this Santelli "grassroots" campaign is peeled open, what's revealed is a glimpse of what is ahead and what is bound to be a hallmark of his presidency.
Pretty paranoid stuff coming from someone not named Clinton, wouldn't you agree? But there's more:
Within hours of Santelli's rant, a website called ChicagoTeaParty.com sprang to life. Essentially inactive until that day, it now featured a YouTube video of Santelli's "tea party" rant and billed itself as the official home of the Chicago Tea Party. The domain was registered in August, 2008 by Zack Christenson, a dweeby Twitter Republican and producer for a popular Chicago rightwing radio host Milt Rosenberg-a familiar name to Obama campaign people.Readers should recall the Obama campaign last August tried to shut down Rosenberg's show on WGN 720 when his guest was Stanley Kurtz, the Hudson Institute adjunct fellow and National Review contributor who had extensive information on our current president's connections to local terrorist William Ayers. But I digress:
That Rosenberg's producer owns the "chicagoteaparty.com" site is already weird-but what's even stranger is that he first bought the domain last August, right around the time of Rosenburg's launch of the "Obama is a terrorist" campaign. It's as if they held this "Chicago tea party" campaign in reserve, like a sleeper-site. Which is exactly what it was.
ChicagoTeaParty.com was just one part of a larger network of Republican sleeper-cell-blogs set up over the course of the past few months, all of them tied to a shady rightwing advocacy group coincidentally named the "Sam Adams Alliance," whose backers have until now been kept hidden from public. Cached google records that we discovered show that the Sam Adams Alliance took pains to scrub its deep links to the Koch family money as well as the fake-grassroots "tea party" protests going on today. All of these roads ultimately lead back to a more notorious rightwing advocacy group, FreedomWorks, a powerful PR organization headed by former Republican House Majority leader Dick Armey and funded by Koch money.
After the authors elaborated on more cryptic details which included claims of multiple websites being scrubbed, they concluded:
So today's protests show that the corporate war is on, and this is how they'll fight it: hiding behind "objective" journalists and "grassroots" new media movements. Because in these times, if you want to push for policies that help the super-wealthy, you better do everything you can to make it seem like it's "the people" who are "spontaneously" fighting your fight. As a 19th century slave management manual wrote, "The master should make it his business to show his slaves, that the advancement of his individual interest, is at the same time an advancement of theirs. Once they feel this, it will require little compulsion to make them act as becomes them." (Southern Agriculturalist IX, 1836.) The question now is, will they get away with it, and will the rest of America advance the interests of Koch, Santelli, and the rest of the masters?
Getting a good picture of just how far media are willing to go to bury anyone having the gall to challenge Obama?
Pretty scary, don'tcha' think?
—Noel Sheppard is the Associate Editor of NewsBusters. Follow him at Facebook and Twitter.
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Comments Policy
G - O - - V - W - R - C - ! - !
March 1, 2009 - 04:10 ET by lnthompWow. And of course, the publishers of Playboy only make $65,000/year, just to keep everything "fair", right?
It's just terrible that businesses actually want to keep some of their money so they can HIRE PEOPLE.
And all the TV networks and all the major newspapers are just full of "unbiased" reporters just waiting to jump on the tea-party bandwagon.
Proud (currently unemployed) member of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy!
Lee T / USN(ret) / Oregon City, OR
When responsible people make mistakes, responsible people bear the burden. When irresponsible people make mistakes, responsible people bear the burden. -- UserFriendly.org, 2/12/2009
You aren't retired, Lee
March 1, 2009 - 17:52 ET by bpjamYou are apparently a slave-owner. Didnt' you read the last two paragraphs? This right-wing conspiracy strategy comes from slaveholders literature.
Of course, that Obama still quotes from Saul Alinsky and his socialist literature is still actively denied and suppressed by the 'objective media'.
But honestly, isn't Playboy just accusing the Right of doing exactly what George Soros and the Left have done??? Have they now decided that this is some crime of transgression? That the secret 'Secretary of States Project' or the sudden emergence of 'think tanks' using Clintonites to promote Soros social goals is simply 'democracy at work' or the vast number of 527s which sprang up (80% of which were Leftists, btw) using Soros money and it's all just 'people being involved in politics'. But if somebody on the Right puts money into politics there is a sinister motive.
Hypocritical much, Playboy (former) Empire??
Vast Anti-Obama Conspiracy???
March 1, 2009 - 04:26 ET by R D HelmSadly, vast it isn't as yet, but now that it has taken root, let's all hope it grows exponentially.
Barack Hussein Obama represents the single greatest threat to our freedoms and liberties since this nation was founded.
-Dave
Our clueless political leaders are about to drive us all over a cliff. The time to HITM is now-before we go over.
RD -- I would give my LEFT
March 1, 2009 - 05:32 ET by Jack BauerRD -- I would give my LEFT arm (who need a lefty anyway) for an actual fully functioning vast right wing conspiracy!
You'll note how "dissent" is NO LONGER fashionable. Isn't that odd?
no doubt!
March 1, 2009 - 10:06 ET by clinging to my guns and my religiona "vast right-wing conspiracy" is how this country was founded, and is the only way this country can be saved!!
"When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle." Edmund Burke
The return of the "Vast Right Wing Conspiracy"
March 2, 2009 - 08:01 ET by Zookeeper29Just like the Clinton retreads in the Nobama cabinet and administration, they had to dig out this classic for use again.....
The real
March 1, 2009 - 09:23 ET by kgThe real conspiracy:
Chicago Tribune has removed the article of the Obama campaign trying to shut down WGN radio.
"Obama campaign last August tried to shut down Rosenberg's show on WGN 720"
"DumbAssity of Dope"
Do you know if WGN 720 is
March 1, 2009 - 09:50 ET by WorriedDo you know if WGN 720 is the same station that ACORN protesters gathered to try to prevent David Freddoso, author of "The Case Against Barack Obama," from being a guest?
I guess Rosenberg is another target the Obama's thugs will seek to silence, too.
Well, RD, I'd say there are
March 1, 2009 - 13:03 ET by ConservativeRexWell, RD, I'd say there are at least 57 million of us that are anti-Obami, that's a good start. And I think it's growing every day.
Delenda est Washington
Getting a good picture of
March 1, 2009 - 04:49 ET by Dan The Man 2Getting a good picture of just how far media are willing to go to bury anyone having the gall to challenge Obama?
Yes, but the same could be said for some of the right's accusations on the Soros connections. Makes one wonder if as the Bible says we are in the middle of a war between prince's and principalities and whose side is right. I guess we really have to think about these things to understand where and why we are.
Nuke em til they glow then shoot em in the dark.
Soros
March 1, 2009 - 07:13 ET by DontFeedTheTrollsOne difference concerning Soros and his connections, Soros is a real and very powerful individual, unlike some nebulous VRWC, who has said he wants to bring down America. He has funded various interests towards that goal, spending as much as $100 million in support of the democrats since 2004. He may attain his goal with Obama in the White House.
D
Keep the ILLEGALS out, join NumbersUSA to send free faxes to your reps.
The vast right bling conspiracy
March 1, 2009 - 05:37 ET by Jack BauerI just bashed out a response to this nutty article, I don't expect it'll get past the site moderator... so here it it!
Frankly Noel, I am deeply disappointed.
March 1, 2009 - 07:02 ET by JWFWhere is Newsbusters in the scheme? What, no mention?
I folded the Right Wing Nutjob club into Newsbusters with the express promise of having a prominent role in the conspiracy. I BROUGHT YOU ROVE & CHENEY! Now - Nada?
Do you know how many hours I have spent babysitting the 4 clones of Reagan? What name did you give one of them? Oh right - Jonathan Krohn. He did a nice job at CPAC Mr. Noel. You trained him well.
I went to Santelli and gave him the code word for the trigger just like a good 'bot - "Noel likes gummy bears".
After all this, we get no mention? Deeply disappointed sir. Deeply disappointed.
Sincerely,
a Veteran of a 1000 psychic wars.
JWF, I, too, am very disappointed in NewsBusters...
March 1, 2009 - 14:09 ET by DEVILDOCMOMwhy were we never notified of the "Republican sleeper cell blogs"? I am now stamping my foot and pouting! Don't we count? I would think the secret handshake they sent me when I signed up was enough...yes?
JWF
March 1, 2009 - 14:20 ET by botgsleepers stay under the radar
=------ bot-g
The Democrats, liberals and leftsts are such crybabies...
March 1, 2009 - 07:49 ET by CKA in Red State USA. . . and cowards.
They all need a good kick up their backsides. Daily.
What they don't understand is that, in their terms, the vastness of the "right-wing conspiracy" -- that red herring the thin-skinned Clintons used and continue to use because they, like Obama and his lemmings, don't have the mettle to withstand criticism -- extends, in one form or another, to EVERYONE who did not vote for Obama.
If they're crying now, they'll be paralyzed and speechless as the days roll on and the socialist empty suit from Chicago continues his anti-American, anti-capitalist, anti-God, anti-family, anti-military, anti-working-people march through America and its history.
Totally AMESless
March 1, 2009 - 08:04 ET by Jack BauerFrom AMES Wikipedia entry...
I guess now he just wants to suck-up to Obama and the "boring lefties" -- a different kinda Koch altogether.
Oh -- and he resides in PANAMA. I guess no one told him the left runs Congress, the Judiciary. the Presidency, the Media, the Academia ... I guess he just wants to crush any dissent to the monopoly of power.
To capitalize or not to capitalize.
March 1, 2009 - 08:42 ET by imau2fanTake a look at that second paragraph quoted by Noel. Anyone notice anything strange?
Big Business is capitalized. Big government isn't.
Government good. Business bad. That's pretty much all you need to know about the objectivity of this article.
And another example of something I've said all along. For any liberal media deniers out there, ask them one simple question, "How many times do you hear the MSM use the terms Big Business, Big Oil or Big Tobacco?" Then ask them, "How many times by contrast do they use the term Big Government, and capitalize it?"
There's your answer.
Big Business
March 1, 2009 - 12:41 ET by slickwillie2001I usually notice these things too poster. Liberal bias consists of some real outrage, and millions of little things like this. Whether it reveals the simple worldview of liberals or deliberate bias, it's part of the problem. In postings over the years I've tried to popularize the terms 'Big Union' and 'Big Education' and 'Big Environmentalism' , but I'm just one person.
Huh...Who'd a Thunk It...
March 1, 2009 - 08:47 ET by NoJellyPlayboy has stories?
I always thought it was a resume clearing house for airbrush artists...
Well, when the story makes Hustler and Swank, I'll worry. Until then I'll continue rolling my eyes...
Waitaminnit!
March 1, 2009 - 08:53 ET by heldmywYou mean somebody ACTUALLY reads the articles in Playboy?
Their print content is so much drivel and has always been. Pretentious, snotty and silly, it's just wrapping for the T&A.
Playboy
March 1, 2009 - 10:31 ET by jaywlI just look at the pictures.
My thoughts exactly
March 1, 2009 - 16:11 ET by doug1950I wondered aloud, "Does anyone still read or subscribe to Playboy?" I thought it had pretty much deflated (pun intended) to a small circulation of devoted fans, mostly adolescent boys and metrosexual men who still fancy themselves "players" led by an over the hill geezer dressed in a Captain Crunch outfit. Most if not all the clubs are gone, the air plane has been sold and obviously they can not afford to pay top researchers or writers. Probably just old Hef up in his bedroom tapping away on his old reliable IBM Selectric between sips of Medimucil and Pepsi.
~I love it
March 1, 2009 - 09:04 ET by choselife3xThe leftists are quoting 'slave manuals'. I always wondered what they read.
Hope and Change=
Despair and Socialism
No matter what leftist
March 1, 2009 - 09:11 ET by MidAmericaNo matter what leftist organization or government you look at they cannot tolerate opposing views because they cannot logically defend their actions. It's why they do not survive on talk radio. They only win when they dominate the conversation. The msm knows this and that's why they are trying to smack down any opposition to obama. In fact they are trying to create the impression that obama's support has ballooned to almost 100%. That the only opposition is a few crackpot rightwingers and the Big Business special interests. They want the average citizen who harbors 'wrong' thoughts about obama to feel like an odd man out. Yep, we are all in a huge re-education camp now.
Imagine a debate between obama and Ronald Reagan. That would be fun.
there's a spin
March 1, 2009 - 09:27 ET by jackie3The guy can't admit Obama planned on taxing him out of business. That would mean he was wrong to support the communist. So, he turns it on it's head to make some nutty conspiracy theory to account for Obama's actions.
Obama has more power than any president in the history of the USA. He created a crises to get elected and get his agenda passed. He's keeping the crises going despite numerous economist and former treasury employees stating how to stop it. Instead of going after the criminal he rewards them with white house jobs. Obama is helping to make a depression - to further his own ideals.
Never under estimate the power of stupid people in large groups.
Ha! I called for a Tea
March 1, 2009 - 09:38 ET by dscottHa! I called for a Tea Party in March 2008!
http://www.publiusfo...
From my last paragraph:
...Certain status seeking politicians are insisting on us, the Taxpayer,
to pay the bills of those who are NOT citizens and NOT playing by the
rules just so they can feel good about themselves and maintain their
status. The MSM and liberal Democrats dare to talk to us about a TAX
INCREASE when they are the ones who made the decisions to spend OUR
money in a manner AGAINST OUR WISHES and didn’t even bother to ask if
they could do so in the first place. It seems their colonialist
attitude toward the Taxpayer justifies their desire to fill the coffers
yet again. What are you going to do about it? Maybe it’s time to have
another Tea Party?
Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, starving the poor one gallon of ethanol at a time. Fill your tank with E85 and cull a village.
Sleeper-cel
March 1, 2009 - 09:48 ET by sherylsimsDid I catch that terminology right? Are they referring to the inactive website as a "sleeper cel" like we have heard others refer to inactive terror organizations that are just waiting for the right opportunity to wake up and destroy us? Do they think they are being sneaky or subliminal here?
brand people..
March 1, 2009 - 12:41 ET by eloThe chance of anything posing as spontaneous but broadcast on TV actually having been scripted in advance...95%? Santelli's rant was mentioned on a marketing blog (along with Obama's traveling around the country to promote the stimulus plan...) as an example of the "power of brand people." http://blog.marketin...
If Santelli's rant is looked at through a branding lens, then the uh...marketing plan behind it does seem..less surprising.
And even though I voted for Obama and was an early Obama supporter--no, I don't think this is a scary media act...I'm for the stimulus, but against the auto bailout. Some help for homeowners I think is probably unavoidable, but I think Santelli's points are felt by many and deserved to be heard. Many people didn't buy a home that they couldn't afford. They continued to rent. Or to live in a smaller home. Besides the 'fairness' factor, the major negative repercussion that could come about from the stimulus being improperly allocated is inflation.
Good point, inflation is
March 1, 2009 - 12:55 ET by dscottGood point, inflation is disportionately felt by the poor, I would submit any increase in energy taxation is also disproportionate upon the poor. The $500 Obama promises to 95% of Americans will be more than taken back by carbon taxes or cap and trade. The CBO scored those ideas and found them wanting but apparently no one running the government and crafting legislation, specifically Democrats are concerned. Click the link and you'll find out why.
Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, starving the poor one gallon of ethanol at a time. Fill your tank with E85 and cull a village.
Give me a Break
March 1, 2009 - 13:52 ET by SterlingMr. Sheppard, once again your articles prove to me that you will throw excrement on the wall and hope that something will stick. To use Playboy as a source to show MSM bias is just pathetic. Let us be real, it seems that you are really scraping the bottom of the barrel to find such liberal bias- what next an article about how Ron Jeremy supports Barack Obama? Then again as your esteemed colleague Mr. Huston wrote, Republicans are the biggest porn consumers.
Finally, as to this whole little tea-party thing that I have heard consistently about; this is really no big story. It is just a bunch of sluggards who are unproductive with too much time on their hands trying to make a profound statement. Please it is quite laughable to see these angry people think that they will be the next Thomas Paine or Samuel Adams. No conspiracy, just too much idle time on their hands.
Read the sites chore
March 1, 2009 - 14:31 ET by general companyHere This mean all liberal bias, so sorry your offended.
Finally, as to this whole little tea-party thing that I have heard
consistently about; this is really no big story. It is just a
bunch of sluggards who are unproductive with too much time on their
hands trying to make a profound statement.
Kinda like you and this comment, funny I dont recall you suggesting the same when the surrender monkeys were protesting, or the pro abortion crowd. Better get used to them!
"Television is a freak show" Bernie Goldberg
Well, gee, Sterling, why
March 1, 2009 - 14:49 ET by fitzfongWell, gee, Sterling, why don't you be a little consistent? Your friend Barney Frank insists that any entity that takes bailout money should have its future business practices scrutinized. Since we know the porn industry is seeking taxpayer money to stay afloat, don't you think Noel has a right to "expose" Playboy's potential conflict-of-interest here?
"Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery." -Winston Churchill
Humm...
March 1, 2009 - 16:48 ET by CobraMan"Finally, as to this whole little tea-party thing that I have heard consistently about; this is really no big story."
Since you have, as you admit "heard consistently about" the Chicago Tea Party, it can't be a "little" as you claim. I mean, really, even Playboy Magazine feels the need to comment on it, as well as CNBC, the Chicago Tribune, ect. ect. ect. Just how "little" can it actually be if so many sources are commenting on it?
It looks to me that this is bigger than you care to admit, or are afraid to acknowledge.
The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities
of Citizens in the several States.
The US Constitution
Unless you're a fetus.
The US Supreme Court
He's a patriot!!!
March 1, 2009 - 14:13 ET by Roscoe MendagoSantelli is merely exercising his rights as a patriotic American.
Isn't it interesting how the leftists equate dissent with patriotism but when conservatives dissent it's a right-wing conspiracy.
Politics in America is becoming a one-way street, only the anointed ones are allowed a voice, but when a opposing voice comes from within the MSM bunker it rattles cages. The likes of Obermann and Matthews can spew their swill and are heros. Santelli gives it a go and he's lost his mind, he'll need the requisite reprogramming or a job at FOX.
A "white feather" left on a perch would be appropriate....
Vast Anti-Obama Conspiracy
March 1, 2009 - 16:02 ET by DerRickYou mean there's a vast conspiracy behind all this? We never even suspected it? Darn. All of us grass-roots folks co-opted again.
GE owns CNBC, NBC and MSNBC.
March 1, 2009 - 16:48 ET by ACLUSUXHow could a conspiracy against BO come for BSNBC and Co? Santelli is on the wrong network. He should be on FOX. I bet he gets walking papers for his dissent.
The best part
March 1, 2009 - 17:03 ET by CobraManThe best part about the Chicago Tea Party protest was the fact that it was so unlike most liberal sponsored protests in it's consistency.
Instead of dozens, or hundreds, of different groups, each with their own unique "issue," vying for public attention like you see in most, if not all, liberal protests, this protest was focused and consistent from conception to completion.
The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities
of Citizens in the several States.
The US Constitution
Unless you're a fetus.
The US Supreme Court
Tea Party turnout
March 1, 2009 - 17:48 ET by slickwillie2001In the Tea Parties, we also don't see mobs of 'protesters' put on the streets by Big-Union goons and Soros/ACORN paid protesters. When the left wing extremists protest, whether in Cuba or the USA, you have to discount their numbers because of the fact that many of them are there 'on the job'.
Yeah,
March 1, 2009 - 21:18 ET by UpNorthand their only job, that's why the lefties have their protests on workdays. First, their people can show up and working people opposed to them can't. Second, I wonder if anyone ever checked on who actually rents the buses to bus all the "protesters" to their events. I'm sure it's ACORN and the Big Unions.
Wonder how the global warming "protest" will go in DC tomorrow, under the foot of snow they might get tonight.
Jessie R. Hamby
March 1, 2009 - 22:23 ET by jessieHJessie R. Hamby Never mind the story,-------HOW WERE THE PICTURES?
Can anyone actually....
March 2, 2009 - 01:28 ET by HillbillyKingdispute the claims made in the Playboy article?
Or are the only rebuttals available those that mock and deride?
For if derision is the only reply one has to discredit the claims in the column, then one is admitting that said claims are factual and accurate.
Most here at NB, myself included, slam the "liberal media" for the smear campaigns they employ to discredit someone or something when they lack the factual evidence to dispute it and/or the courage to admit that the other side is indeed correct in their presentation of the facts.
What does it say about the "good" guys when we employ the same tactics?
In one way it says, to me at least, that we have become entrapped in the distorted Hegelian dialectic that drives todays world.
But in the end it doesn't matter as long as our side wins, right?
If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you.
Don Marquis 1878-1937
Scary? If Playboy's claims
March 2, 2009 - 02:51 ET by JerScary?
If Playboy's claims are materially false, the article is irresponsible and possibly libelous. On the other hand, if true, it is indeed scary as hell.
Jer
Activate Zombie brigades now...3, 2, 1
March 2, 2009 - 14:29 ET by SickofLibsStick to poon, Playboy.