Monday, July 24, 2006

Re: “An ‘Activist’ Problem”   [Jason Mattera]

It’s not surprising that the same people who brought us a new meaning of the word “is” would skirt around a rebuttal and instead give us a meaningless biographical sketch of those whom they do and do not like. David Halperin, of Campus Progress, did just that when he responded to my Human Events Online op-ed. “When it comes to accuracy, persuasiveness, and civility, Jason Mattera makes Rush Limbaugh look like Abraham Lincoln,” he writes. Halperin regrets that I’m not nice to him like other conservative reporters. In fact, if you delete all the lines in which Halperin expresses his personal dissatisfaction with me, the article is threadbare.

Halperin’s feelings were obviously hurt. Next time I’ll try to be more delicate. I’m a New Yorker, so I can’t make any promises. But such emotional breakdowns were not limited to only liberals, as Alston B. Ramsay’s posting reveals. Ramsay, too, is distraught by my tone and tenor, but besides that, adds nothing to the main point of contention: Is Campus Progress a member of the press? We say “no.” If Ramsay’s answer is “yes,” then Campus Progress should contract him to rebut that point.

Ramsay writes that “Halperin’s factual take-down [of me] is pretty sufficient, so I’ll avoid getting into those weeds.” Let me cut the weeds.

I did resurrect a claim that Campus Progress granted me press credentials, but that claim didn’t come from Young America’s Foundation’s President Ron Robinson, as Halperin asserts. The resurrection was courtesy of David Halperin—the same David Halperin who tosses and turns at night because I don’t want to be his pal. According to a blog post by him, “Campus Progress granted [Jason Mattera] press credentials to cover our National Student Conference,” a position that Elana Berkowitz of CP affirmed on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal. Within hours of Halperin’s initial accusation of my hypocrisy, he acknowledged that I actually never sought a media pass and also added that “Frankly, it wouldn’t really matter to us whether Jason Mattera attended our conference in person or not.” So let’s get this straight. First Campus Progresses accuses me of duplicity by pandering false information that suits its agenda, then the group knowingly suckers an NR intern into repeating that same misinformation.

If that weren’t enough, let’s test their so-called “reporting” skills on Alston Ramsay’s post about me. According to Campus Progress’ August J. Pollak, “National Review Defends Campus Progress.” Not quite. Ramsay’s post was his own opinion, not an NR editorial.

For Halperin to get bent out of shape over my use of “Google” rather than “Google News” means that he is grasping at straws to make an argument (it’s very Clintonesque as well.) To Halperin, having Google News feature your “publication” is something to brag about, and as evidence, he provides us with a hyperlink to a page that he probably forgot to read himself. The news and opinion carried on Google are “compiled solely by computer algorithms, without human intervention.” 

Campus Progress is nowhere to be found on the National Press Club’s list of credentialed media for the D.C. area. Its parent organization Center for American Progress is nowhere to be found either.

David Halperin asks me for evidence to back up my statement that rapper Fat Joe is “a gang-banger, misogynist, and glutton.” Let me take a stab at this one: Fat Joe rhymes about armed robbery, extortion, and grand larceny, weighs over 400 pounds, and calls women bitches and hos.

I understand that no one likes to feel like a puppet, let alone be exposed as one. But that doesn’t belie the fact that Campus Progress is a front group for George Soros’ Center for American Progress. Soros was an original brainchild and a main financier—contributing $3 million as an initial pledge—to get CAP on its feet.

What about the notion that Campus Progress is a smear group? In my HEO piece I mention that Campus Progress calls Rush a “permanent scab on the American political landscape” and lampoons Dr. Laura’s commitment to traditional values just because some website purports the radio host had an extramarital affair. But to top it off, the Soros—yes, Soros—group has an entire section on its website called “Know Your Right Wing Speakers” that is one rhetorical jab after another at conservatives such as Kate O’Beirne, William F. Buckley, and Ward Connerly. With this list prominently shown on its website, Campus Progress indicates that smearing conservatives is central to its mission.

 

Now that I’ve gone through the facts, I would address Ramsay’s objections, but his post is filled mainly with empty rhetoric, such as implying that I am “irrational,” “tin[-eared],” “contemptuous,”  “indefensible,” “bankrupt,” and that I possess no “intellectual gravitas.”

 

Ramsay’s post does display, however, that he has no idea how to spread conservative ideas on college campuses. His highbrow attitude is good for those who want to be teachers’ pets, but when it comes to the basics of college activism, he’s both naïve and ignorant — a dangerous combination for anyone in a position to give advice to students.   

If Young America’s Foundation’s “no-holds-barred intellectual war” didn’t work, Campus Progress wouldn’t be so determined to imitate our programs and infiltrate our conferences. The undeniable truth is that our aggressive style of activism is the reason that Young America’s Foundation reaches the maximum number of students with the ideas of small government, free enterprise, and traditional values.

07/24 09:11 PMShare