Pissing off a propagandist - Democratic Underground

madamesilverspurs

(1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore

Thu Feb-11-10 11:55 PM
Original message

Pissing off a propagandist

Suffice it to say that it wasn't how I'd planned to end my day.

I'd gone to a screening of a documentary about the immigration raids that took place here in December '06; I'd watched the thing happen from the parking lot of the food bank where I was working at the time. (Look for "Swift Justice", by Little Voice Productions of Denver, on PBS at some point in the near future). Revisiting that event was very emotional, there are families who are still reeling from it, it's all very ugly.

So, there I was, trying to rein in the emotions as I left that discussion and headed to another venue where a senate staffer was having 'office hours' to get questions and comments from constituents. This was a small gathering in a local coffee shop, and when I arrived there six very vocal opponents of health care reform and two of us who are clearly in favor of same.

Included in the 'anti' crowd was a guy who showed up at every town hall event, every venue where a senator or congressman was speaking; he likes to tell people that he's a reporter, he's a photographer by trade. He's a blogger whose website does the baggers and birthers proud. Now he's started his own newspaper, which he touts as a source of good, positive news. And because he has this little enterprise going he now refers to himself as a journalist. Uh huh. And I'm the Queen of England. Move over, Liz.

Anyway, there's the usual back and forth and it gets a bit loud. So the staffer notes that not everyone has had a chance to speak, yet, and that the shop will soon be closing. When this so-called journalist pipes up and insists on having his turn the staffer shut him down, saying that he'd been given ample opportunities over several months and that he had not yet demonstrated a willingness to be something other than insulting. He responds by making a show of turning up his tape recorder and spreading out his camera gear, all while the staffer is listening to my comments.

As we were leaving he stopped me and asked for an interview, and he clearly was not expecting me to laugh. Nor was he expecting my very loud "No!" He took a step back and said, "What? Why not?"

"Because," I said, "you lie." And when he challenged me on that I started a rundown on his website's flagrant lies about any elected Democrat. I gave him dates, events, what he said as opposed to the truth. When I nailed him on a particularly nasty lie about our congresswoman he tried to say he was talking about her staff; when I quoted his own words back at him, and added some of the racist stuff he'd said about Obama, he put his hands up and backed away.

He was not happy, especially since his buddies had heard this little exchange. His wife just sat down, refusing to look at anything but the floor. No doubt he'll put a very interesting spin on the encounter, should he decide to print it in his 'newspaper'. And we'll meet again, since he always shows up to record events and twist them to his sick perspective. But I'm thinking that he'll keep his distance from this old lady from now on.

---