Re: [A-List] Marx, Lenin and Mao in Cancun?

["Anyutka" <annewilliamson@xxxxxxx>]

Michael wondered what I might know about CNSN after Macdonald wrote:

>
> Who can tell me something about the people who run this website? They seem
> like a bunch of nutters, but I may be wrong (or offending the peanut
lobby).

Hmm, I was completely unaware of this enterprise until Macdonald's query.
These folks certainly aren't my "sort," but they are not all bad - just
behind the curve, out-of-date, and marginalized thanks to their own
gullibility and vanity.  The Bozell name caught my eye as it did Michael's.
Bozell has been around for years and years.  He is Bill Buckley's
brother-in-law, I believe, and a very committed Catholic whose conservative
adherents have their own "corner," so to speak - a corner I don't know a
great deal about as I am not Catholic and therefore am not conversant with
their traditions and arguments except somewhat spottily.  It's a study of
it's own, as I perceive it.  (For instance, Lew Rockwell is a Catholic - by
conversion - and though I don't know Lew's personal "story" on this matter,
I certainly do know he does not belong to this group of conservative
Catholics a la Buckley.)  Bozell's chief enterprise for many years has been
the Media Research Center, which did serve a purpose when modern liberalism
truly dominated US print and broadcast media, but which looks rather absurd
if not superfluous today when we are all suffering from the Bush
administration's expert bullying of the media, and the delusional
programming of Fox Television along with the general decline of American
journalism.  Bozell's brand of conservatism has always been anti-Communist
and pro-family, whose crowd thought they'd landed in hog heaven with the
election of  Ronald Reagan.  This is where my complaint comes in:  at the
very moment when mainstream conservativism (not my kind either) thought they
had finally gained a toehold, the leadership proved insufficiently attentive
and let it all go to their head, giving opportunity to the neo-CONs to march
in and get control of the grassroots' money, the think tanks, and the RNC.
It's been very painful these many years since to think of the average folks
in "flyover country" who want nothing more than a return to constitutional
government sending their contributions and donations off to various
"conservative" groups based in DC - a funnel of money directly into the
pockets of people like Irving and Wm Kristol, Michael Ledeen, and Podhoretz.
And it's people like Bozell who tolerated them (for the money, newfound
legitimacy and attention the neoCONs brought with them from "new" quarters)
who I hold responsible for the betrayal of their donors and the 100%
despoilation of the RNC (of which I am not now, nor have I ever been, a
member.)  And now, consequently, we have the ongoing tragedy of first, Bush
I (an oligarchical  traitor to what grassroots believe is conservatism)
followed by "Mad Dog" Bush II.  These "conservatives" are only now waking up
to the error of their ways, and seem stunned by what has emerged.  I poked
around the site and after some time did find some background information,
posted below.  My own scan of the site and news stories picked at random
makes me think all they are doing is re-writing the day's news with some
additional reporting on their part so as to emphasize their main issues.  I
did notice they published some very vigorously critical letters from readers
in a prominent "Talk Back" section.  So, no, I don't agree that they are
"nutters," but I certainly understand why MacDonald and other A-Listers
would be averse. I will only add that as unpalatable as these people may
seem generally to the A-List, all of us would be sleeping better at night if
they ruled the roost as opposed to the truly murderous and lunatic imperial
"nutters" who do (but we'd all still be filled with complaint based on our
own POVs.) -A.

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*************

  The Cybercast News Service was launched on June 16, 1998 as a news source
for individuals, news organizations and broadcasters who put a higher
premium on balance than spin and seek news that's ignored or under-reported
as a result of media bias by omission.

Study after study by the Media Research Center, the parent organization of
CNSNews.com, clearly demonstrate a liberal bias in many news outlets - bias
by commission and bias by omission - that results in a frequent
double-standard in editorial decisions on what constitutes "news."

In response to these shortcomings, MRC Chairman L. Brent Bozell III founded
CNSNews.com in an effort to provide an alternative news source that would
cover stories that are subject to the bias of omission and report on other
news subject to bias by commission.

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