In my previous article (See Archive December 13, 2006) I drew attention to one of the many ‘charities’ that are rich in funds and busy promoting Leftists causes. The links between these organizations’ employees, so-called advocacy and human rights groups and the Media Class, are like a spider’s web. It is possible to get an idea of this from a cynical daily reading of Media reports and starting from the understanding that the Media Class rules most, if not all, Western nations and daily fills our minds with propaganda. For the purposes of this article we will focus on the USA.
Organizations like Atlantic Philanthropies and the Soros-financed Open Society Institute clearly must employ quite a small army of Leftists on good salaries and these are people whose Leftist credentials can be in no doubt. They are not people who have to drive taxis by day, erect scaffolding, run a corner store, manage a farm, sell insurance or pick cabbages before going home to do some political work. They are full-time professionals who can enjoy a good lifestyle whilst caring about the underprivileged. Their job is to manage investments, give away money and influence the influential.
To dispense the astronomical amounts of money at their disposal they have to maintain links with suitable activist groups who are strategically sited in key cities throughout the USA and especially in Washington D.C. These activist groups do not need to have big memberships. Indeed they are likely to have extremely small memberships, since their purposes are anything but popular. The American Civil Liberties Union is a good example of such a group. Its agenda is extremely unpopular almost everywhere, yet it is very energetic, successful and always in the news. Atlantic Philanthropies will have no difficulty maintaining links with it, of course because Gara LaMarche, its new CEO has worked for the ACLU in the past. No doubt, such cross-fertilization of employees goes on all the time like a game of musical chairs. I would speculate that for an aspiring champagne socialist, straight out of college, getting a job in one of these activist groups is an ideal career starting point.
The activist groups were something of a mystery to me many years ago when I first began monitoring the Leftist media reporting in the UK. There were so many of them, covering so many Leftist causes, always ready with a quote for the media reporter and all with professional staff. I assumed that they had rank and file memberships who spent their time raising funds with bring-and-buy sales, garden parties and coffee mornings. I was very naïve. Supporting unpopular causes did not worry their spokespersons. No fear of getting dismissed from a job or suffering persecution from work colleagues unlike some of us conservatives who dreaded seeing our names and views in print because of Union bullies or Public Service Leftist bosses.
I would wager that the dispensers of money to the Leftist causes are very popular with their activists, since they are bankrolling them and their little cells and I doubt they need to break a sweat searching them out. The really aspiring activist groups sometimes do some ‘research’ in collaboration with Leftist academics. This involves starting out with a Leftist premise and then finding appropriate evidence to support it. The result is then uncritically trumpeted in the Media and becomes part of Leftist folklore and repeatedly quoted until every one believes it to be true.
The final link in this spending chain is to the Media Class since none of the huge sums of money invested in causes have any meaning unless they find their way into the Media’s propaganda machine. So we have the three-segment circular chain of news and opinion outlets (and their political mouthpieces in the legislatures and political parties), the Activist groups and the funders. Leftists move around these three links gaining experience, net working and socializing. They do so whilst enjoying a comfortable living and feeling morally superior because of their work on behalf of society’s victims. I suppose winning popular support for a cause (and the overall cause that we identify on this website as the Media Class agenda) is one of the long-term aims of all these employed people, but it is not an immediate aim, for all involved know that public opinion is an obstacle that can only be slowly worn down
Consequently the tactics are concerned with frustrating and derailing the popular will. This can include, assisting Media attacks on politicians who look dangerous, courting politicians who are running scared of the Media, rewarding politicians who energetically support the Media Class agenda, mounting challenges to popular referenda with confusing campaigns or technical challenges in courts, and so on. The ACLU is clearly an important tool for some of these activities, since the unpopularity of its work does not rub off on the Media Class or Leftist politicians who have to face the electorate.
Providing interviews and quotes to reporters is also important. We are all familiar with the kind of Media report that sets out a situation that might energize public (conservative) opinion but then says ” however, experts from the non-profit Association of Human Rights say….”.
In recent times, as my experience of the Media’s propaganda machine grows, I have become more aware of the cycle of issues that surface as if by chance. On April 13th, 2006 on this website, we referred to a just released book called “A Death In Belmont” by Sebastian Junger. We drew attention to a critique of its misleading content. The book was an attack on the death penalty. On October 13th, 2006 (Leftists Take Refuge in Fiction) we focused on John Grisham’s new book, “The Innocent Man”. This book is now a non-fiction bestseller, since Grisham is a successful writer of pulp fiction writer and thus well known. He is an arch opponent of the death penalty. His book was also criticized for its lack of accuracy with facts and we drew attention to that.
Atlantic Philanthropies with its $4 billion endowment to be spent in 10 years is in business to end the death penalty, as well as to pursue other Leftist causes. Even a small portion of $4 billion is a lot of bread! Grisham’s current big-selling propaganda tome provides the Media’s Leftists with another opportunity to mount a campaign and so we can expect to see many Media articles that are anti-death penalty in the coming weeks. This flurry of activity will not be by chance. Behind the scenes, Atlantic and other paymasters will be working with the Activists and journalists to do all they can to undermine public confidence in capital punishment. Last Thursday, December 14th, 2006 the front page of the Wall Street Journal carried an article by Gary Fields headed “On Death Row, Fate of Mentally Ill Is Thorny Problem.” It continued through six columns on page 8 and early on quotes “David Elliott who heads the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, a Washington D.C. group.”
Meanwhile in Florida and California the respective Governors have announced a moratorium on the death penalty because allegations have surfaced that the recent executions of two killers have caused suffering to them.
It may well be that other issues will put the anti capital punishment campaign on the back burner. A 50-50 split in the Senate would enrage the Media Class to the exclusion of everything else. But do not be surprised to see a flurry of news releases that will be designed to soften up public opinion on abolition and demoralize the proponents of retribution for killers.