Conason: MURDOCH's flying monkeys waging war on DailyKos

[UTUSN]

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http://www.observer.com/2007/murdoch-s-crackpot-minion

Murdoch’s Crackpot Minion

by Joe Conason Published: July 24, 2007

.... The Murdoch empire, operating as the Fox News Channel, has mounted a crusade against DailyKos.com, the largest progressive political Web site, and YearlyKos, the site’s annual blogger convention, which will take place in Chicago next month. On his nightly broadcast, Fox News sage Bill O’Reilly charged that the proprietors of Daily Kos are “hatemongers” like the Ku Klux Klan or the Nazis—and targeted JetBlue for serving as a sponsor and the official airline of YearlyKos. Not surprisingly, Mr. O’Reilly’s ranting and raving frightened the JetBlue suits into withdrawing their sponsorship, or at least asking Daily Kos to remove the airline’s name from the YearlyKos promotion. ....

But are the bloggers somewhere on the opposite extreme? For those who have yet to make his acquaintance, the creator of Daily Kos is Markos Moulitsas—an Army veteran of Salvadoran and Greek extraction who grew up in the Midwest and now lives in the Bay Area with his wife and two children. He is a business entrepreneur and a serious sports fan. He also happens to be a liberal Democrat with a determination to win and occasionally a hot temper.

He and the other leading voices in the netroots seek a Democratic politics that is both pragmatic and principled. Antiwar, but certainly not anti-military, they have fostered alliances with veterans of Iraq. They avoid rigidity, dislike identity politics, and apply few litmus tests. In 2006 the bloggers raised money for many of the candidates deemed conservative by the Washington press corps.

In truth, the bloggers share the values of most Americans, who also want to end the war in Iraq, establish universal health insurance, reduce global warming, increase the minimum wage and preserve Social Security. It is the ideologues such as Messrs. O’Reilly and Kristol whose opposition to those values locates them on the fringe, despite their loud megaphones and corporate backing. And what Murdoch bullies prove whenever they try to stigmatize the citizen bloggers is how much they fear a fair (and balanced) fight.

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[zbdent]

1. I wonder how many "conservatives" and Repuke ancestors were on film

during those Nazi Party rallies in the old Madison Square Garden (and other places) during the early part of the 20th century?