Is Politico extremist? Wikipedia seems to think so.
/By Rubashov
Corporate extremism. Violent corporate extremism.
Each year, every day, corporations across the globe commit acts of violence against individuals and communities. War is an act of violence. Those corporations engaged in the furtherance of endless wars, endless occupations, profit from violence. Incarcerating human beings for profit is an act of corporate violence. The opioid epidemic that has cost the lives of so many and damaged the lives of so many more, their families, and communities, is an act of corporate violence. So is the burning of forests. Human trafficking and its corporate use as a source of labor is an act of violence. So is the destruction of American jobs through the use of slave or near-slave labor. As is the violence used against workers who attempt to organize.
These are all acts of violence, often illegal, always unethical, for the purposes of greed. The media, dependent on advertising revenue from violent corporate extremists, are left with hard choices to make. Increasingly, violent corporate extremists have come to own media outlets directly.
We were thinking on this when we came across a salutary column by one Matt Freidman, formerly of David Wildstein’s PoliticsNJ. Friedman argues that it is “time for New Jersey politicians — even some considered moderate — to take stock of the extremism they have allowed to fester.” Indeed.
Friedman is very quick to use terms like “extremist” to label the exercise of free assembly and free speech of anyone with whom he disagrees. He seems very worried that, in the past, some politically “extremist” groups “tied” to the Capitol riot were permitted to speak on public ground at events attended by “mainstream politicians”.
We wonder. Does Friedman consider Bridgegate to be an act of political “extremism”?
Is shutting down a bridge and damning the people on it – including all those “children of Buono voters” riding those school buses – an act of violent extremism? If a group of knuckleheads with Trump flags had shut down that bridge and damned those “children of Buono voters” – would that have been an act of violent extremism?
Isn’t Friedman “tied” to the “mastermind” of that enterprise?
Friedman then details some of the other instances when he feels the First Amendment should not have applied:
“In 2012, Republicans in Morris County invited birther conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi to speak. Corsi later helped perpetuate the voter fraud lie. Fast forward to late 2020, when Morris County surrogate Heather Darling organized a rally in support of small business where a man flying a confederate flag looked perfectly welcome. In 2018, Republicans in South Jersey not only tolerated but in some cases helped the congressional candidacy of Seth Grossman — who’s quoted as an Oath Keepers apologist in the Inquirer piece — despite years of racist and anti-Muslim social media posts. And even Republican U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, in office 40 years and never known as a firebrand, aired demonstrably false conspiracy theories that Antifa was behind the Capitol riot, and has since deleted his Twitter account…”
But is Friedman really in a position to exercise such moral judgment? According to Wikipedia, the publication he writes for has its own failings…
“Politico Magazine published an article in April 2017 purporting to show long-term links among U.S. President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Jewish outreach organization Chabad-Lubavitch. The article was widely condemned, with the head of the Anti-Defamation League, Jonathan Greenblatt, saying that it ‘evokes age-old myths about Jews’.”
“In March 2019 Politico was accused again of anti-Semitism when an article depicting imagery of presidential candidate Bernie Sanders next to money trees was published. Sanders, one of two Jewish candidates for the 2020 US presidential election, was targeted for the amount of wealth he accumulated over his lifetime. Politico staff writer Michael Kruse wrote the article detailing the senator's wealth, writing that Sanders ‘might still be cheap’, according to one of the senator's friends, ‘but he's sure not poor’, which was criticized as combining two anti-Semitic tropes (Jews are cheap; Jews are rich). Politico's official Twitter account used the quote to share the story; the tweet was later deleted.”
Would it be fair to label Politico a neo-Nazi publication… or just “moderately” anti-Semitic?
Like Jerome Corsi, Politico has been accused of spreading conspiracy theories and of lying. Friedman appears perfectly comfortable writing for a publication that pushes anti-Semitic “tropes”. While accusing Seth Grossman of being an anti-Muslim apologist for the “Oath Keepers”, Friedman seems to forget that he writes for an anti-Semitic group who are apologists for “age-old myths about Jews”. And finally, like Congressman Smith, Politico deletes its Twitter account.
Is it time to ban Politico from polite society?
How about anybody that had anything to do with Bridgegate? Why would any righteous politician ever send them a press release… ever! And hey, Matt Friedman, that’s who taught you. That makes you “tied” to it. That means you need to go too. Right?
Friedman continues:
“Occasionally, Democrats go down the path of conspiracy theories and extremism, and yes, there exist left-wing radicals who commit violence. But let’s resist the temptation to ‘both sides’ this issue, because there are few if any mainstream Democrats coddling it.”
Really? Did someone take a dump in Matt’s brain and forget to flush it? Or was he on sabbatical in some monastery when all that violence and arson and carnage happened last summer? We seem to remember a certain Democrat Governor marching in support of it and the Democrats in Trenton passing a resolution in support of it. Why lie to your readers like that?
Well… follow the money. Matt’s boss at Politico has a long history of donating large sums to Democrat candidates and causes and served under former President Bill Clinton. He’s an investment banker named Patrick Steel. Yep, an investment banker. Wonder what violent corporate extremism he’s got up to?
Before spending 16 years at the investment firm FBR Capital Markets & Co. (more on this later), Steel served eight years in the Clinton administration, including a stint as the special assistant to former President Bill Clinton. He’s probably arsehole buddies with Josh Gottheimer.
According to the Media Research Center, when Steel joined Politico as CEO in 2017, he had donated $64,850 to Democrats, and nothing to Republicans. Among those he gave to were Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Chuck Schumer.
So now you know the rest of the story.
Matt Friedman is clearly compromised – but not just in the way you might think. Matt writes the way he does because he is so certain of his own personal goodness. Because of this, he can look down at others, see bad, and seek to cast them out of society – question their very humanity. What Matt doesn’t seem to understand is that he is not good. He is bad, just as bad, we all are.
Here are some wise words for Matt, and for all of us, to consider. Maybe, when we are less censorious, we will find a way to be better – not good, and certainly not perfect – human beings. Maybe, probably not, but maybe…
“We lie the loudest when we lie to ourselves”
— Eric Hoffer
N.B. We welcome a conversation on this and all topics raised on this website. Jersey Conservative is entirely open to your ideas and opinions. To submit a column for publication, please contact Marianna at Marianna@JerseyConservative.org.
