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padding: 0px; text-align: left;">Journalism Interrupted: The
Nation Fail</p>
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0px; top: -1.5em; color: rgb(120, 120, 120);">Larisa
Alexandrovna, November 25, 2010<br>
<br>
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<div class="entry" style="border-width: 0px; font-weight:
inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-family:
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clear: both;">
<p style="border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style:
inherit; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia,serif;
vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding:
0px; text-align: left;"><em style="border-width: 0px;
font-weight: inherit; font-style: italic; font-size: 15px;
font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; margin:
0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="http://www.thenation.com/"
target="_self" style="border-width: 0px; font-weight:
inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15px;
font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; margin:
0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(153, 0, 0);
text-decoration: none; outline-style: none;">The Nation</a><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></em>has been a
true and trusted friend of mine for years. I know the
editors and many of the writers and have nothing but respect
for their work. Most importantly, I have great respect for
their consistent adherence to the highest journalistic
standards.</p>
<p style="border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style:
inherit; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia,serif;
vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding:
0px; text-align: left;">Yesterday, however,<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em
style="border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit;
font-style: italic; font-size: 15px; font-family: inherit;
vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The
Nation</em><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>ran
a piece that is nothing short of character assassination,
serving no newsworthy purpose, and<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a
href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/11/24/tyner"
target="_self" style="border-width: 0px; font-weight:
inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15px;
font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; margin:
0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(153, 0, 0); text-decoration:
none; outline-style: none;">rightfully criticized</a><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>by others as a
barely disguised political hit-piece.</p>
<p style="border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style:
inherit; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia,serif;
vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding:
0px; text-align: left;">The article, entitled "<a
href="http://www.thenation.com/article/156647/tsastroturf-washington-lobbyists-and-koch-funded-libertarians-behind-tsa-scandal"
target="_self" style="border-width: 0px; font-weight:
inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15px;
font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; margin:
0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(153, 0, 0); text-decoration:
none; outline-style: none;">TSAstroturf: The Washington
Lobbyists and Koch-Funded Libertarians Behind the TSA
Scandal"</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>by
Mark Ames and Yasha Levine essentially implies that the
entire libertarian movement is nothing more than a front for
the billionaire Koch brothers and their corporatist allies –
and by extension that libertarian protesters and groping
victims are all hired pawns representing these interests.
But do Ames and Levine implicate the American Civil
Liberties Union in this project as well? After all, the<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a
href="http://www.lasocialdiary.com/node/125921"
target="_self" style="border-width: 0px; font-weight:
inherit; font-style: inherit; font-size: 15px;
font-family: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; margin:
0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(153, 0, 0); text-decoration:
none; outline-style: none;">David and Charles Koch each
donated $10 million to the ACLU</a>, an organization which
is also opposing the TSA's nude scanners and full body
frisks.</p>
<p style="border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style:
inherit; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia,serif;
vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding:
0px; text-align: left;">This article offers nothing in the
way of proof for its allegations, but provides plenty of
speculation and bizarre claims of guilt-by-association,
beginning with the very first paragraph:</p>
<blockquote style="border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit;
font-style: italic; font-size: 15px; font-family: inherit;
vertical-align: baseline; margin: 1.5em 0px 1.5em 1.5em;
padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">
<p style="border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit;
font-style: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-family:
Georgia,serif; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px 0px
1.5em; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">Does anyone else
sense something strange is going on with the apparently
spontaneous revolt against the TSA? This past week, the
media turned an "ordinary guy," 31-year-old Californian
John Tyner, who blogs under the pseudonym "Johnny Edge,"
into a national hero after he posted a cell phone video of
himself defending his liberty against the evil government
oppressors in charge of airport security.</p>
</blockquote>
<p style="border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style:
inherit; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia,serif;
vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding:
0px; text-align: left;">The writers fail to grasp something
basic about society it seems. When people are outraged, they
tend to be galvanized very quickly. Many people who respects
individual rights, regardless of political leanings, oppose
the TSA's new and extremely invasive security policies.</p>
<p style="border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style:
inherit; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia,serif;
vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding:
0px; text-align: left;"><span id="more-8598"
style="border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit;
font-style: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-family:
inherit; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px; padding:
0px;"></span></p>
<p style="border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style:
inherit; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia,serif;
vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding:
0px; text-align: left;">Consider for a moment what the issue
is. The government of "we the people" demanded that the "we"
that it is supposed to represent give up our rights to our
most sacrosanct property – our bodies – in order to have
free passage across this supposed free nation.</p>
<p style="border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style:
inherit; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia,serif;
vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding:
0px; text-align: left;">In essence, my ability to travel in
the United States of America is contingent on me allowing a
government agent to either see me naked or feel me up. This
outrages me. This outrages everyone I know. The level of
invasiveness is the galvanizing factor. So no, I don't find
it "strange" that there was a "spontaneous revolt against
the TSA." I would find it strange if there was instead the
sound of crickets in response to such clear and obscene acts
of government overreach.</p>
<p style="border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style:
inherit; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia,serif;
vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding:
0px; text-align: left;">Ames and Levine are suspicious, but
suspicions alone do not make for good journalism. Moreover,
unfounded and unsupported suspicions – like those on display
in this piece – do not even make for a good op-ed.</p>
<p style="border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style:
inherit; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia,serif;
vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding:
0px; text-align: left;">They continue:</p>
<blockquote style="border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit;
font-style: italic; font-size: 15px; font-family: inherit;
vertical-align: baseline; margin: 1.5em 0px 1.5em 1.5em;
padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">
<p style="border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit;
font-style: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-family:
Georgia,serif; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px 0px
1.5em; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">While this issue
is certainly important – and offensive – to Americans, we
are nonetheless skeptical about how and why this story
turned into a national movement. In fact, this whole
campaign feels a bit like déjà-vu: As the first reporters
to expose<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a
href="http://www.alternet.org/media/129656"
style="border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit;
font-style: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-family:
inherit; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px; padding:
0px; color: rgb(153, 0, 0); text-decoration: none;
outline-style: none;">the Tea Party as an Astroturf PR
campaign</a><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>funded
by FreedomWorks and Koch-related front groups back in
February, 2009, we see many of the same elements driving
the current "rebellion" against the TSA: Koch-related
libertarians, Washington lobbyists and PR operatives
posing as "ordinary citizens," and suspicious
fake-grassroots outrage relentlessly promoted in the same
old right-wing echo chamber.</p>
</blockquote>
<p style="border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style:
inherit; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia,serif;
vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding:
0px; text-align: left;">Perhaps Ames and Levine took a
dinner discussion they were having and simply assumed that
it would make for good journalism. Not so. They ask and
answer their own question and yet continue to express
skepticism. They note that "the [TSA] issue" is "offensive
to Americans" and then ask "how and why this story turned
into a national movement" all in the same sentence.</p>
<p style="border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style:
inherit; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia,serif;
vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding:
0px; text-align: left;">Moreover, the implication that the
genuine outrage of the populace over the TSA touch-and-feel
scandal is somehow a mirage fabricated by special interests,
devalues the real concern that people have about having
their rights violated.</p>
<p style="border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style:
inherit; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia,serif;
vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding:
0px; text-align: left;">In any case, I am certain members of
the Tea Party movement are indeed outraged over what the TSA
is doing, but so are members of every political and
ideological leaning. Liberals are outraged, but the national
outrage and outcry is not a liberal creation. Conservatives
are also outraged, but neither could they claim ownership of
this national response. The common denominator here is
individual rights, which as I noted earlier, most Americans
feel strongly about. I am outraged, but hardly a member of
the Tea Party movement.</p>
<p style="border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style:
inherit; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia,serif;
vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding:
0px; text-align: left;">All of that aside, how is this in
any way journalism? It is suspicion first and speculation
after, based on a straw-man of political origins and
presented as solid news reporting. Yet<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em
style="border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit;
font-style: italic; font-size: 15px; font-family: inherit;
vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The
Nation</em><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>published
this? Why?</p>
<p style="border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style:
inherit; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia,serif;
vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding:
0px; text-align: left;">Then comes the character
assassination:</p>
<blockquote style="border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit;
font-style: italic; font-size: 15px; font-family: inherit;
vertical-align: baseline; margin: 1.5em 0px 1.5em 1.5em;
padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">
<p style="border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit;
font-style: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-family:
Georgia,serif; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px 0px
1.5em; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">So far, all we
know about "ordinary guy" John Tyner III, the freedom
fighter who took on the TSA agents, is that, according to
a friendly hometown profile in the<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em
style="border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit;
font-style: italic; font-size: 15px; font-family:
inherit; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px; padding:
0px;">San Diego Union-Tribune</em>, "he leans<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em
style="border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit;
font-style: italic; font-size: 15px; font-family:
inherit; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px; padding:
0px;">strongly libertarian</em><strong
style="border-width: 0px; font-weight: 700; font-style:
inherit; font-size: 15px; font-family: inherit;
vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></strong>and
doesn't believe in voting. TSA security policy, he asserts
'isn't Republican and it isn't Democratic.' " [Emphasis
added.]</p>
<p style="border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit;
font-style: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-family:
Georgia,serif; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px 0px
1.5em; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">Tyner attended
private Christian schools in Southern California and lives
in Oceanside, a Republican stronghold next to Camp
Pendleton, the largest Marine Corps base on the West
Coast.</p>
</blockquote>
<p style="border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style:
inherit; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia,serif;
vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding:
0px; text-align: left;">So Tyner leans strongly libertarian
– and the point is? Tyner does not believe in voting – and
the point is? Then they go on to dig into his past, where he
went to school (Gulp, Christian schools!) and note that he
happens to live in a Republican stronghold. So? What is the
point? What does this prove?</p>
<p style="border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style:
inherit; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia,serif;
vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding:
0px; text-align: left;">I lived in South Florida for many
years, a state that bleeds red to the core and even had a
Bush as governor. Does that make me a Bush loyalist or a
Republican? Does my geography marry me to an ideology or a
political movement? Florida happens to have several
military installations as well. Does that somehow implicate
me in something? What is the actual point here other than
guilt-by geography?</p>
<p style="border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style:
inherit; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia,serif;
vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding:
0px; text-align: left;">What is Tyner's crime other than he
is openly a libertarian (they still don't tell us if he is a
member of any party)? This is a philosophy which values
individual rights. Would it not make sense for him to be
outraged by the TSA invasion of our bodies? Do his
philosophical leanings somehow lessen his right to be
outraged?</p>
<p style="border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style:
inherit; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia,serif;
vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding:
0px; text-align: left;">The bad journalism continues:</p>
<blockquote style="border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit;
font-style: italic; font-size: 15px; font-family: inherit;
vertical-align: baseline; margin: 1.5em 0px 1.5em 1.5em;
padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">
<p style="border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit;
font-style: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-family:
Georgia,serif; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px 0px
1.5em; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">At least one local
TSA administrator wondered if Tyner hadn't come to the
airport prepared to create a scandal.</p>
</blockquote>
<p style="border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style:
inherit; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia,serif;
vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding:
0px; text-align: left;">At least one? Is that two, three,
how many? What is the name of this "one" TSA agent? The
anonymous TSA agent aside, their observation is telling in
that it states the obvious. "Wondered"? The whole purpose of
a protest or a show of civil disobedience is to create a
scandal, is it not? So again, what is the point of this
assertion and where are the specifics?</p>
<p style="border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style:
inherit; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia,serif;
vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding:
0px; text-align: left;">Ames and Levine then go on – at
length – to describe another "libertarian" who also
protested the TSA, which turned out to be a hoax apparently.
Yet they fail to tie Tyner to this other person. The only
connection – if one can call it that – is that Tyner and the
other protester happen to be (and we don't even know this to
be true) similar in their philosophical and/or political
leanings. Again, guilt-by philosophical association and
maybe not even. The point is? What is the point?</p>
<p style="border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style:
inherit; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia,serif;
vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding:
0px; text-align: left;">They spend an inordinate amount of
time describing the travels of this other "libertarian" and
her connections to – yikes! – yet other libertarians,
without offering anything other than speculation,
conjecture, and the implication that the libertarian
movement is somehow involved in these dealings – whatever
these dealings are. In any case, let me re-state the obvious
again: one would expect that a person who values individual
rights would indeed be outraged by what the TSA is doing.</p>
<p style="border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style:
inherit; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia,serif;
vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding:
0px; text-align: left;">Ames and Levine conflate all
libertarians with lobbyists and corporate interests, yet
prove nothing that implicates anyone in the libertarian
movement of being involved in any sort of dirty trickery on
behalf of the powerful.</p>
<p style="border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style:
inherit; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia,serif;
vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding:
0px; text-align: left;">They attack a protester for his
philosophical views (which actually are in line with his
actions) and reduce him to a geographically contaminated
paid shill. They assert, but fail to prove any substantive
connection of anyone to anything. Most importantly, they
seem to be defending the TSA from what they call "national
hysteria."</p>
<p style="border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style:
inherit; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia,serif;
vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding:
0px; text-align: left;">Yes, I am part of that hysteria.
What do my credentials have to be in order for my outrage to
count as valid?</p>
<p style="border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style:
inherit; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia,serif;
vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding:
0px; text-align: left;">Finally, let me add something about<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a
href="http://www.thenation.com/article/156679/response-glenn-greenwald"
style="border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit;
font-style: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-family:
inherit; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px; padding:
0px; color: rgb(153, 0, 0); text-decoration: none;
outline-style: none;">the response</a><span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>that Ames and Levine
published in answer to<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><a
href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/11/24/tyner"
style="border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit;
font-style: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-family:
inherit; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px; padding:
0px; color: rgb(153, 0, 0); text-decoration: none;
outline-style: none;">Glenn Greenwald's criticsim</a>.</p>
<p style="border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style:
inherit; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia,serif;
vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding:
0px; text-align: left;">In general, the response offers
nothing in support of their original allegations and
attempts to re-write an article already written. If the
original article needs to be explained with a second
article, then clearly the original article is lacking.</p>
<p style="border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style:
inherit; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia,serif;
vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding:
0px; text-align: left;">My issue with their response is
primarily with Ames' need to bring Levine's Soviet
background into his defense from a valid criticism of their
sloppy attack on those who would oppose the TSA:</p>
<blockquote style="border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit;
font-style: italic; font-size: 15px; font-family: inherit;
vertical-align: baseline; margin: 1.5em 0px 1.5em 1.5em;
padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102);">
<p style="border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit;
font-style: inherit; font-size: 15px; font-family:
Georgia,serif; vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px 0px
1.5em; padding: 0px; text-align: left;">My co-author,
Yasha Levine – whose grandfather survived Stalin’s GULAGs
– fled the Soviet Union to America to escape
anti-Semitism. So we believe that even Greenwald can
understand what a gigantic bummer, for lack of a better
word, it’s been for us to come back to America, and to
find ourselves attacked and frankly slandered for being
alleged government oppressors.</p>
</blockquote>
<p style="border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style:
inherit; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia,serif;
vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding:
0px; text-align: left;">Defending the TSA in this case does
in fact put Ames and Levine on the wrong side of an issue
that defies party affiliations and is essentially a core
principle of any free society. If they don't want to be seen
as defenders of the TSA, then perhaps they should stop
defending the TSA.</p>
<p style="border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit; font-style:
inherit; font-size: 15px; font-family: Georgia,serif;
vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; padding:
0px; text-align: left;">But what is most distasteful is that
a criticism of the bad journalism on display in their
original piece has somehow been made into an attack on a
grandson of a Jewish Soviet refugee. Seriously? What does
Levine's heritage have to do with a valid criticism of an
article he wrote? Nothing. Relying on the victim card only
further illustrates the lack of ethics on display here.<span
class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><em
style="border-width: 0px; font-weight: inherit;
font-style: italic; font-size: 15px; font-family: inherit;
vertical-align: baseline; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">The
Nation</em><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>owes
Tyner an apology at the very least.</p>
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