Democrat shill Friedman digs for dirt on Singh

Let us never forget on whose knee this critter was raised.  Matt Friedman learned his trade from the notorious Wally Edge (AKA David Wildstein of Bridgegate).  Like Wildstein, whose blog was an integral part of the Christie project, Friedman uses his position at Politico to push a specific political agenda.

Instead of reviewing public documents put out by the Office of Legislative Services and discovering that Senator Jeff Van Drew (D-01) is abandoning his conservative past now that he's a candidate for Congress, Friedman is trolling the college-era Facebook posts of Van Drew's Republican opponent, Hirsh Singh.  Is that a handjob move by Friedman or what?

Friedman ignores real policy switches like this:

Van Drew recently took his name off two very important bills, according to the New Jersey Legislative Digest, put out by the Office of Legislative Services:

http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/legislativepub/digest/012218.htm

Co-Prime Sponsors Withdrawn:

S539(Van Drew,J)Death penalty-reinstates certain

SCR35(Van Drew,J)Minor child med procedures-notify parent

S-539 would restore the death penalty for persons convicted of certain murders.  The bill's statements lists the following:  "(1) the victim was a law enforcement officer or correction officer and was murdered while performing his official duties or was murdered because of his status as a law enforcement officer or correction officer; (2) the victim was less than 18 years old and the act was committed in the course of the commission of a sex crime; (3) the murder occurred during the commission of the crime of terrorism; (4) the defendant was convicted, at any time, of another murder; or (5) the defendant murdered more than one person during the same criminal transaction or during different criminal transactions but the murders were committed pursuant to the same scheme or course of conduct."

http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2018/Bills/S1000/539_I1.HTM

Yes, Jeff Van Drew took his name off this legislation.

SCR-35 is a proposed amendment to the state constitution stating that "the Legislature may provide that a parent or legal guardian shall receive notice before his or her unemancipated minor or incompetent child undergoes any medical or surgical procedure or treatment relating to pregnancy, irrespective of any right or interest otherwise provided in the State Constitution."

http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2018/Bills/SCR/35_I1.HTM

This legislation simply applies the same parental notification standards to the evasive medical procedure of abortion, that exist for every other medical procedure.  It looks at abortion as a medical procedure... not as a sacrament or mystical rite of passage.

And Van Drew withdrew his name from this as well.

Instead of real reporting, on real issues, Freidman has turned Politico into a kind of "Mean Girls" online "burn book." Freidman has never met a policy debate he could understand, so for him it must be all about the shoes.  "Oh, that's so fetch... on Wednesdays we wear pink."

Friedman has done this before.  We all remember how he tried to personally destroy the reputation and future well-being of Synnove Bakke.  We also remember how he, and others, refused to take a polygraph to determine if they had made similar comments in unguarded moments. 

We remember too how another website had weirdly endorsed the Orwellian idea that there should be permanent corporate surveillance of Twitter and Facebook.  As well as a "news" blog, never forget that Politico is a vendor for corporate lobbyists and the political establishment.  As with all such ventures, Politico is the sum of its paymasters.

Matt Friedman has become the bully boy of Establishment Democrats in New Jersey.  He picks on weak candidates or those without the experience to defend themselves -- and he does so by invading their private space, trolling on Facebook to find something from long before they had entered public life.  Knowing what he got up to in his younger days, he uses that as a mirror to his victims.

Bullies like Matt Friedman need a take down, so let's turn it over to...

Did Star-Ledger Editor become part of the story?

According to a source who claims direct knowledge of it, Star-Ledger Editor Tom Moran contacted Republican Party officials in an attempt to have GOP candidate Synnove Bakke recant some controversial opinions she had expressed some years ago regarding Muslims and Islamic terrorism.  Apparently, after this attempt to steer a political campaign the Star-Ledger launched an editorial attack on the candidate and the entire state GOP. 

If this is true -- and we will publish in full and unedited any clarification offered by Mr. Moran -- it represents an escalation of the growing censoriousness by the political pundits who now shape and control news content in New Jersey.  If true, then it is political correctness gone mad -- choking the free expression of ideas, constraining candidates, censoring them when they neglect to self-censor, and through them telling us all what to think, what to do, and how to feel.

Political pundits have pushed traditional journalists out and have taken over the reporting of the news.  But instead of reporting the news, these pundits try to steer it, picking winners and losers as they go.  Instead of reporting what one candidate said and then asking his or her opponent for comment, they condemn what a candidate says as "out of bounds" and then ask the opponent and others to pile on.  Who elected these pundit "judges" to preside over us and to determine what may and may not be said? 

These pundits are paid by extraordinarily rich and powerful families.  The stinking rich, union-busting Newhouse family, the corrupt Kushner family, the in and out of bankruptcy Trumps.  Their money does not set the bounds of what we can and cannot say.  We shouldn't be afraid of people whose personal lives are replete with the shame they attempt to use to muzzle us.

Rough speech is genuine, from the heart.  Do not shame it.  Let people vent, allow the emotion to flow free.  If there is something in it with which you disagree, if you see an error, then cure it with dialog -- not with name-calling and attempts to shame.  That only shuts people up, makes them give up, and tune out.  But maybe that is what you want?

They are vendors NOT journalists

As if it needed to be clearer, Matt Friedman's page on Politico included this salesman's pitch yesterday:

Want to make an impact? POLITICO New Jersey has a variety of multi-platform solutions available to reach and activate the most influential people in the Garden State. Have a petition you want signed? A cause you’re promoting? Share your message with our influential readers to increase awareness and drive action. Contact Chris Falls to find out how: cfalls@politico.com.

The message:  Hire us as your vendor.

This goes beyond blurring the line, it jumps it.  "Multi-platform solutions... to reach and activate... Have a petition you want signed?  A cause you are promoting?"  Wanna bet that "cause" will get better treatment than Synnove Bakke did?