Lee Fang, a writer for the far-left blog Think Progress, recently posted a video purporting to show racism at Tea Parties. But the video was a total fraud. It took statements out of context, claimed racism where there really was none, claimed liberal plants were authentic members of the movement, and even used video from 2006, three years before the movement existed!
Liberal writers at the Nation and the Huffington Post, as well as former Fox News cohost Alan Colmes all trumpeted the Think Progress video as evidence of Tea Party racism, despite the easily-verifiable evidence to the contrary.
One activist, who says he's "proud to be a racist," is a well-documented Tea Party "crasher" -- one of the tremendously unsuccessful (despite Think Progress's best efforts) counter-protesters that attempted to infiltrate rallies and pose as racists and other undesirables.
In a video titled, ironically, "Proof that the Tea Party is not racist," this man is singled out, hounded, and chased from a rally. The video is six minutes long, so there is no way that Think Progress spliced out the portion that it did without seeing the context -- without knowing that this man was a plant. No matter, he fit the narrative, truth be damned.
A number of activists in the video say things that could not reasonably, by themselves, be interpreted as racism. "Afro-Leninism," for instance, could be a reference to Obama's ties to prominent Black Liberation Theologists, including Van Jones and Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
"We think the Muslims are coming in and taking over" may be a bit loony, but it's certainly not racist. "Send [Obama] back to Kenya" likewise demonstrates a divorce from reality, but is not a racist comment. "We can fight al Qaeda, we can't kill Obama" may be a deranged way to look at it, but likewise, it's not racism. "Faggot" is a derogatory term, but not a racist one.
One man holding a sign is seen at the beginning of the video saying that Obama is "too black to be president." But later, in a longer portion of his statement, he says "it's nothing racial … and if you look at my wife, it's not the color of his skin that troubles me." His wife is black. He also states in a portion of the same video not clipped by Think Progress, "It’s the blackness inside … his heart. He’s a bad guy." In other words, he's not at all racist.
Another activist originally seen in the video calls (presumably) pro-illegal immigration protesters "wetbacks." But the video was from 2006. Think Progress has since removed it and posted a different video.
But why was this the only correction made? The man who claims he is "proud to be a racist" is obviously not a true Tea Party protester, and virtually every other person showed throughout the clip does not say things that support the contention that the Tea Party movement is racist.
As Bob Owens wrote,
Reality would not provide them with the propaganda they sought to exploit for their own political gain. So they invented it.
Real journalists would be fired on the spot for this behavior. The willful perversion of the SharpElbows.net video should end careers.
According to Think Progress’ “About Us” page, Faiz Shakir is vice president at the Center for American Progress and serves as editor-in-chief of ThinkProgress.org. He sets the standards for this group.
Lee Fang, the Think Progress “researcher” that bylines this video, has interned with a similar propaganda site named Media Matters.
In just 53 seconds, they’ve created propaganda so blatantly dishonest as to make their termination mandatory. They’ve abused their readers, and their opponents.
But perhaps that is what they are paid to do.
