The HuffPost Spin-Machine, Part 1

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SO predictable. So pathetically predictable.

Yesterday, I documented (HERE):

(a) Some of the hundreds of comments from seething, rabid leftists who posted on a Huffington Post thread, all centering on their regret that the Taliban was unsuccessful in taking out Vice President Cheney, and...

(b) How the HuffPost administrators, upon learning that this thread was being exposed by Rush Limbaugh, began to surgically remove these posts, and eventually entire pages, leaving only re-timed innocuous posts to create the impression that "all is well at HuffPost," as if this all never happened.

I then documented (HERE) how, predictably, that night (while the thread was discussed on TV by Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity), a number of the HuffPost regulars reverted to standard-operating-procedure: namely, claiming that it couldn't have been leftists making these outrageous statements --- that it must have been (yet another!) vast right-wing conspiracy.

Now, Arianna Huffington herself has entered the fray with an almost unbelievable commentary on this whole sordid episode, that even a functional 12 year old could demolish without breaking a sweat. And in this thread, I will do so --- easily.

And the best part is, you, dear reader, can prove the lunacy of Ms. Huffington's claims, all by yourself.

Let's start at the beginning.

In her post, entitled "Limbaugh, Hannity, and the Right's Faux Fury Over Anonymous Comments," Ms. Huffington claims:

"On Tuesday morning, The Huffington Post linked to an AP news story on the suicide bombing at the gates of the main American base in Afghanistan during a visit by Vice President Dick Cheney.

"A miniscule portion of the people who read that story chose to take advantage of the anonymous, open forum nature of comments in our news section to express regret that the Vice President hadn't been killed in the attack.

"As soon as these offensive comments came to our attention, they were deleted from the site."

First, let's deal with the claim that these comments expressing regret that Cheney survived the attack consumed only "a miniscule portion" of the thread in question.

If that were true, then why --- as I documented (HERE; see Updates 2-4), and many others witnessed --- did the HuffPost administrators turn what was a 19-page thread into a 1-page thread, that was only half-filled, with 12 basically innocuous posts, that had been moved from other pages, and apparently manipulated with new time-stamps?

Background data:
Each page of a HuffPost comment thread generally contains about 25 comments. You can validate this for yourself, by checking the number of comments that link to Ms. Huffington's own thread: as of 2:28pm today, there were 259 comments that consumed 11 pages.


You can check any other thread to further validate the fact that each comments page contains about 25 comments, for yourself.

Thus, if what she said is true --- that those offensive posts on a 19-page thread were only "a miniscule portion" --- then why would not the thread be reduced by only one page, or at a maximum, two, which would leave it at 17 pages or more?

No, the fact is, as I documented, HuffPost administrators began removing (and apparently re-time-stamping) posts, and ultimately removing entire pages, one by one, until they were left with ONE PAGE containing 12 INOFFENSIVE POSTS.

As is proven by the HuffPost's own actions, it was a "miniscule portion" of the estimated 500 posts on that thread that did NOT voice the opinion, in some way, of the leftists' sadness that Cheney survived the attack.

Next, Ms. Huffington made the following statement:

"But that didn't stop the right-wing hit machine from seizing on the anonymous comments in an effort to prove that 'Democrats and liberals' (as Rush, able to divine party affiliation and political philosophy from a username, quickly labeled the commenters) 'have a hatred and a disgust for Cheney...that cannot be explained.'

"Before I get into how ludicrous this claim is, let me be absolutely clear: No one at HuffPost is defending these comments -- they are unacceptable and were treated as such by being removed. They were not made by me, by our editors, or by our bloggers. They were made by anonymous visitors to the site -- visitors that make up a very, very small unrepresentative portion of our readers."

Here we go again.

FIRST, less than four months ago, on November 23, 2006 --- as a sort of "Thanksgiving celebration," I guess --- one of the HuffPost's authorized bloggers (those who are granted dedicated threads to voice their screeds), Tony Hedra, opened his post with the following comments:

A Thanksgiving Prayer For Dick Cheney's Heart - And A Few Other Things

"I give thanks O Lord for Dick Cheney's Heart, that brave organ which has done its darn-tootin' best on four separate occasions to do what we can only dream about. O Lord, give Dick Cheney's Heart, Our Sacred Secret Weapon, the strength to try one more time! For greater love hath no heart than that it lay down its life to rid the planet of its Number One Human Tumor."

Did HuffPost kick Tony Hedra off the its bloggers roll? NO --- in fact, he was not only allowed to continue blogging... (below is his "archive of articles" from November 2006 onward)...
... on the very day that the Taliban attempted to assassinate Cheney, February 27, and all those hateful comments wishing for his death were posted, the HuffPost gave Hedra yet another thread, which he entitled:

SUICIDE BOMBER FAILS TO STOP WORLD'S #1 HOMICIDE BOMBER:

And as if that weren't enough, Hedra was allowed to post yet again

--- today, March 1, the very day that Ms. Huffington posted her claim that such comments are only the voice of a "miniscule portion" (and at the end of this thread, she referred to them as "unhinged"):

SECOND, having been an "anonymous visitor" to HuffPost for more than a year, I can attest to the fact that there have been literally thousands of comments posted by other visitors there, voicing their wishes for the death of (or other serious physical harm to come to) President Bush or Vice President Cheney.

One "visitor" to the HuffPost --- "SandyBurgler" --- said on the Cheney thread, he had clipped and saved the posts from other "visitors" and was going to be forwarding them to the FBI. The response --- as witnessed by me and many others? A steady drumbeat of profanity-laced derision from other leftist HuffPost "visitors" and regulars, castigating him for being a "tattletale," a "hall monitor," etc.

THEN, Ms. Huffington goes on to say:

"This tactic of digging through open comment threads to find outrageous comments that can then be cited as evidence of 'the angry left' has become a favorite of the swiftboat set."

But now, as the HuffPost admins have evaporated the thread into the ether, I guess we'll never know. The posts cited on my first thread here were a representative sampling, that will --- thanks to Blogger --- be preserved for eternity (or at least a very long time).

"Digging?" I was THERE. It would have been harder to AVOID seeing such comments than to hunt them down.

As to the "swiftboat" comment, ah yes. When confronted with the reality of one's own actions (and inactions), and those with whom one surrounds themselves, it's standard leftarded practice to point the finger of blame not at the offenders... but instead, at one's accusers.

Ms. Huffington concludes with this comment:

"So, please, spare us the bogus indignation. And stop trying to build an illogical but politically-convenient thesis on the backs of a few unhinged and clearly fringe commenters"

WHY, oh why, do leftists make exposing their shenanigans --- and their efforts to cover them up, while attacking the exposers --- so easy?

Who knows. But let's hope that they continue to do so.


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UPDATE: March 1, 8:35pm:

Well, as I noted on this thread, the night the Cheney thread was discovered, the HuffPosters began screaming that this all must be (another!) vast right-wing conspiracy --- that all those who expressed regret that Cheney survived the Taliban's attempted assassination of him, MUST have been non-leftists, "trolls," Republicans pretending to be "unhinged" leftists.

Lest any of us wonder if that really is the rabid left's standard excuse for everything unsavory that's exposed about them, I finally had a chance to scroll through the comments pages at Ms. Huffington's thread, in which she dismissed all this as some sort of anomaly.

Take a look yourself... it's quite... revealing. The vast majority of "visitors," instead of acknowledging the facts of this situation, revert back to and express their hate, their paranoia, and their loonbatted belief that this was all a right-wing conspiracy. (Countdown to HuffPost admins' start to surgically cleanse this thread in 3...2...1... GO!!!)

But, in fairness, there are also a few honorable leftists/Democrats, who acknowledge the reality, and express themselves quite eloquently. Here's hoping their comments will cause some reflection among the rest.

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(AFTERTHOUGHT)

WAIT... what if all those comments supportive of those loonbatted leftist hate-posts are themselves part of the vast right-wing conspiracy to make the HuffPost look even worse??? You know, by pretending to be leftists, and sympathizing with the commenters who expressed regret that Cheney survived!!!??? Wait... but that would make them...
Tin foil hats anyone???

Oh, forget it... now MY brain is hurting!!! (it ain't easy pretending to be a conspiracy-harboring, hate-filled leftist!!!)

Original content is © Copyright 2007 by Jon Quixote. Email to jonquix@hotmail.com

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