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Punchline: Kondracke is Fox News’ Idea of a “Liberal”
” … So-called liberal contributors, who are at best centrists, include NPR’s Juan Williams and Mara Liasson and Roll Call’s Morton Kondracke. … ”
… but most of us view him as a conservative:
“John McLaughlin’s The McLaughlin Group, which went on the air in 1981, is sponsored by a private corporation, General Electric, with two liberal journalists facing off against … two conservatives such as Fred Barnes, Morton Kondracke or Pat Buchanon. … ” – Laurence Jarvic, PBS: Behind the Screen (Forum Books, 1997).
Back when we were young. (We're younger than that now (h/t Bobby Z). As far as the media owners are concerned. We'll believe anything.)
I was recently reminded about my long ago habit of hunkering down every Sunday morning with my Dad to observe the mellifluous, solemn (loud) tones from John McLaughlin and all the rest of the scoundrels of The McLaughlin Group as they put their special spin on current events at the end of which he would always proclaim at the top of his lungs (and I'm paraphrasing so forgive my presumption, please):
"And Mortooooooooooooooooooooooooon . . . . How do you feel about that? Wouldn't you like to chime in here with your highly learned, above-it-all, liberal take on this incredibly emotional, much-fraught situation?"
And then Mort would slowly look over his wire-rimmed, professorial-looking glasses, and start in on the same "everybody's equally guilty" version of what we've come to understand today as the Cokie/Peggington Noonington/Juan/Will mainstream media propaganda about no one being really to blame for anything and their being exceptionally well-thought-of, smart, and neutral reporters. As if.
If only we'd have known all of this long ago - but that would have precluded knowing about the reality of the ownership of the public airwaves by those who use that privilege solely to benefit themselves (and their benefactors). On a parallel reality track, does anyone remember (way back when again) when Keith Olbermann was allowed to be an angry, informed liberal on TV? Yeah, there are other "liberals" around, but none of them can actually act angry on TV - not even Walter Cronkite at the end of his career).
The Life & Lies of Mort Kondracke
Edited by Alex Constantine
“If Fox, you know, was embarrassingly right wing or something like that, it would be plain for all to see.” – Mort Kondracke
Mort Kondracke and the Army’s Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC)
The CIC is well-known for the recruitment of Nazis immediately after WW II to “serve”* American intelligence efforts in the Cold War, for instance “the Counter Intelligence Corp’s hiring of Klaus Barbie, the former Gestapo leader in Lyons, France.”
* The CIC, CIA and Reinhard Gehlen Network
Declassified documents from the Japanese Imperial Government Records Interagency Working Group report:
“The notion that they [CIA, Army Counterintelligence Corp, Gehlen organization] employed only a few bad apples will not stand up to the new documentation. Some American intelligence officials could not or did not want to see how many German intelligence officials, SS officers, police, or non-German collaborators with the Nazis were compromised or incriminated by their past service… Hindsight allows us to see that American use of actual or alleged war criminals was a blunder in several respects…there was no compelling reason to begin the postwar era with the assistance of some of those associated with the worst crimes of the war. Lack of sufficient attention to history - and, on a personal level, to character and morality - established a bad precedent, especially for new intelligence agencies. It also brought into intelligence organizations men and women previously incapable of distinguishing between their political/ideological beliefs and reality. As a result, such individuals could not and did not deliver good intelligence. Finally, because their new, professed ‘democratic convictions’ were at best insecure and their pasts could be used against them (some could be blackmailed), these recruits represented a potential security problem. … ”
••• Kondracke and the CIC
Wikipedia: ” … Born in Chicago, Illinois, Kondracke graduated from Joliet Township High School in 1956, and from Dartmouth College in 1960. He joined the U.S. Army and served in Washington, DC in the Counter Intelligence Corps while pursuing graduate work at Georgetown University and working part time for the Washington Star. … ”
Note that Kondracke went to Georgetown, a university crawling with spooks and Washington elite insiders, and worked as a reporter while still a CIC intelligence asset.
About the Star: The Washington Times was founded a year after the Washington Star closed shop, the culmination of a century in publication. Many on the payroll at the Moonie-owned Times are former employees of the Washington Star.
••• Kondracke Advocates Ethnic Cleansing In Iraq
“Thinkprogress.org — Fox News contributor Mort Kondracke writes today that if President Bush’s escalation policy doesn’t work, his Plan B should be ‘winning dirty,’ which will likely involve ‘ethnic cleansing, atrocities against civilians and massive refugee flows.’ … ‘No one has publicly advocated this Plan B, and I know of only one Member of Congress who backs it — and he wants to stay anonymous. But he argues persuasively that it’s the best alternative available if Bush’s surge fails.’ … ”
“Kondracke says it’s understandable that Sunnis suffer because ‘so far they’ve refused to accept that they’re a minority. They will have to do so eventually, one way or another.’ … ”
http://digg.com/politics
••• War Crimes Fine by Mort
Morton Kondracke – “Obama Should Say ‘No’ To ‘War Crimes’ Probes Of Bush Team”
http://www.caglepost.com/c/72/Morton+Kondracke.html
••• Kondracke was a Member of the Council on Foreign Relations in 1995
See Council on Foreign Relations Membership Roster, 1995
http://jya.com/nsa032999.htm
Kondracke is also a Member of Freedom House, a CFR Front
See http://watch.pair.com/FreedomHouse.html
•••
Kondracke Defends Rumsfeld
Iraq prison scandal not worth firing Rumsfeld
By Morton Kondracke
Chicago Sun-Times | May 14, 2004|
“The abuse of Iraqi prisoners that is now coming to light was without a doubt despicable, abhorrent and illegal. But on the basis of known facts, these events do not justify the ouster of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld or the political frenzy it has caused in Washington. … ”
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1P2-1531890.html
Kondracke Denies that Waterboarding is Torture
Kondracke: Waterboarding “doesn’t result in any lasting damage”
“Summary: In a Fox News ‘All-Star’ panel discussion, Morton Kondracke said of the interrogation technique known as waterboarding, ‘I’m sure it feels like torture, you know, it doesn’t result in any lasting damage, but it feels like torture.’ … ”
http://mediamatters.org/items/200710310004
Olbermann named Kondracke “Worst Person” “winner” for waterboarding comments
“MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann named Roll Call’s Mort Kondracke the “winner” of his nightly “Worst Person in the World” segment for asserting on Fox News’ Special Report: “I’m sure [waterboarding] feels like torture … ”
http://mediamatters.org/items/200711010011
News Hounds: Torture? A-OK With The “All-Stars”
••• Kondracke’s Power of Prophesy
“Watching Mort Kondracke defend Republicans and predict gloom and doom for Democrats tonight it was impossible to guess that he had the slightest connection with the Democratic Party. … Kondracke claimed that the ethics charges involving DeLay and Frist would turn out to be nothing. … Then he reminded viewers that the Republicans are in power and the Bush poll numbers have risen to a 45% approval. Adding that this is only 2005, he hinted that the Party would recover by 2008 and there was little chance that Democrats could gain control in 2006. Fred Barnes chuckled and congratulated Kondracke with ‘an excellent job on your homework.’ … ”
http://www.newshounds.us/2005/10/01/mort_kondracke_democrats_are_in_an_ecstasy_of_indignation.php
•••
Red-Baiting
From The Nation: ” … On The Beltway Boys, Morton Kondracke likened Nevada Democrats to Communist propagandists. … ”
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070507/alterman
Healthscare
” … Fox’s Morton Kondracke (Beltway Boys, 6/24/07) warned of a slippery slope from single-payer care to a socialist dictatorship, saying that “Moore basically wants socialized everything and the movie neglects to tell you that Cuba is a dictatorship and an economic basket case.” (That “basket case” grew at a rate of 9.5 percent in 2006, according to the CIA World Factbook.) … ”
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3446
The “Anti-American Conspiracy”
Noam Chomsky on Kondracke’s “enthusiasm for terrorist violence and illegal economic warfare”:
“The March 15 [NY Times Book Review] carries Morton Kondracke’s review of Paul Hollander’s Anti-Americanism: the author and reviewer are loyal apologists for atrocities by the US government and its clients. Kondracke applauds this worthy exposure of the crime of anti-Americanism, though he feels Hollander may go too far in citing benefits for the handicapped as an illustration of the leftist deviation of Congress. …
“Kondracke agrees that ‘the left gets more respect and attention in the news media than its ideas merit,’ and is ‘strongly influential’ in colleges and the church. But all is not lost: ‘there is not a single Marxist or “anti-American” major daily newspaper (or even major newspaper columnist) in the country,’ and the dangerous ‘mainline churches’ are losing membership. Fortunately, those with ‘a generally critical disposition toward existing social arrangements’ are almost entirely barred, though we must keep up our guard in case the heresy finds a tiny outlet. … ”
“Kondracke is particularly outraged that even though ‘the Communist alternative has collapsed,’ the anti-Americans (by implication, pro Communists) maintain their ‘permanently adversarial culture’ and continue to ‘hate their nation.’ They ‘have not recanted,’ even though they have been proven ‘disastrously wrong’ in their wild claims that the Sandinistas and other evil-doers ‘represented a bright future for mankind’ – or, to replace raving by reality, that the Sandinistas might have offered hope for Nicaraguans. The criminals in this case include the World Bank, Central American Jesuits, the leading figure of Central American democracy, Jose Figueres, a great enthusiast for US corporations and the CIA, indeed, a rather broad range. But that just shows how awesome the anti-American conspiracy is. … ”
http://prernalal.com/scholar/Noam%20Chomsky%20-%20The%20Propaganda%20System.pdf
•••
Kondracke’s Judgment on Character
Kondracke: McCain is “truth-teller” on Iraq war
“During the ‘All-Star Panel” segment on the June 6 edition of Fox News Special Report with Brit Hume, Roll Call executive editor Morton Kondracke asserted that during the GOP presidential debates, Sen. John McCain ‘was the truth-teller about the war in Iraq.’ (sic) … ”
http://mediamatters.org/discuss/200706070011
•••
A Doctored Tape and Kondrake’s Trademark “Spin” (Patent Far-Right Moonshine)
After Fox edited out applause following Lowery’s remarks at King funeral, Kondracke expressed surprise at audience’s muted reaction
” … ‘Fox News’ Special Report with Brit Hume showed an edited video clip of Rev. Joseph Lowery’s remarks at Coretta Scott King’s funeral, during which he mentioned the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Lowery’s remarks were greeted with 23 seconds of applause and a standing ovation, but the clip Fox News aired presented nine seconds of applause and little hint of the standing ovation without noting that the clip had been doctored. After seeing the clip, Roll Call‘s Morton Kondracke concluded that the audience “wasn’t exactly uproarious in its response” to Lowery.’ … ”
http://co-mm.org/items/200602090006
But, according to the folk-in-the-know, Mort-on was still a perfect representative for liberal thought in the USA. Just ask them.
It's good to know that we have such upstanding, fair reporters and that they are worried about our behavior.
Isn't it?
Speaking of worrying about a skeptic's behavior. Our friend at Living Lies has a hot one. And a warning.
Banks Targeting LivingLies?
by Neil Garfield
There is an old expression which I may have used on this site before says "you know that you are over the target when you start getting flack."
In a variety of ways, we have uncovered a number of strategies being employed by the large banks on Wall Street directed at discrediting the discussion on this blog and making it as difficult as possible for us to do business. One of the ways that they do this is by planting articles in various periodicals which make it seem as though the housing crisis is behind us and that the banks are doing everything possible to alleviate the suffering of homeowners who are under the gun of wrongful foreclosures that amount to nothing less than outright theft.
Another way they do it is by posting "comments" on the blog that are designed to take up a lot of space and interfere in serious discussion between the readers. The latest round of spamming from the banks has been pointed out to us by a reader and the way that we are handling this is by eliminating the comments from those people who are clearly interfering in intelligent conversation and bona fide research that appears in the comment section in each blog article. To those whom we suspect are paid spammers from the banks, we are sending the following email:
"We received numerous complaints from other followers of the blog regarding comments that you have posted. We are now blocking any comments from you and we will be watching for any variations used by you to post comments that are designed to confuse and chase people away from the blog. We are very much aware of the effort of banks to interfere with our operations and we must be extremely careful to stop any activity on the site that appears to be spawned by people who are paid by the banks to discredit the blog. If you wish to appeal this decision please send an email to NeilfGarfield@Hotmail.com."
As for the attempts to interfere in our business I will not give any details here nor will I state how we are staying one step ahead of the banks who would like to see the blog taken down in the business destroyed. I am no stranger to fighting with these banks. And they are no stranger to losing the fight when the issues finally appear on the radar screen.
For my part I will continue to provide increasing depth, suggestions, strategies and tactics for lawyers to use against these banks. There is no doubt in my mind that these banks will eventually fall despite all attempts by government and central bankers to create the illusion of strength when in fact both the financial condition of the banks and the financial condition of the economy continued to be bankrupt beyond repair.
There is only so far that you can kick the can down the road. Now that I have so much company in this effort in the form of attorneys, government officials, and pro se litigants, it can be fairly said that my efforts have spawned a cottage industry in which these banks will find themselves the target as real people represented by real lawyers seek money damages and other relief. The outcome of this is very clear to me. There are many economists who have seen and recently made comments based upon their analysis of government issued economic statistics; in particular there are concerned that financial services was at equilibrium with the rest of the economy when it accounted for only 16% of economic activity.
Now at a time when unemployment and underemployment combined with those people who have given up completely may have reached an all-time high, it is apparent to those economists that the alleged growth of our gross domestic product is in large measure due to our willingness to treat the trading of worthless paper as economic activity. The proof is in the pudding. The only way we can say that our gross domestic product is improving at a low rate of 2.5% is by ignoring the fiction of economic activity in the financial sector.
Financial services are now counted in gross domestic product at around 48% versus the 16% when financial services were at equilibrium with the volume of actual production of products and delivery of services. While unemployment grows and while wages continue to stagnate and even decline, we invite a social catastrophe caused by graphic economic inequality supported by fictitious numbers and arrogant policies controlled by those who have received the largest benefit from the largest crime in human history.
Thus the question being answered by this blog and others like it is how long we will listen to government statistics showing an increase in economic activity of 2.5% which is a complete illusion, and when will we start acting on the fact that comparable economic activity has declined by 32%. Think about it.
And by the way, those people who think that they can earn easy money by acting on behalf of the banks should realize that they are extremely expendable and will definitely be thrown under the bus once the plan of action has been disclosed. To the extent that you have any written confirmation of instructions from the banks as to how to interfere with this blog and other discussion sites, I suggest you make copies and have them distributed in different geographic locations. Otherwise, in the event of a lawsuit for interference in our contractual relations with customers and prospective customers, you might end up being the lead defendant.
Neil Garfield | June 13, 2013
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