wyomingpolitico.blogspot.com/2011/03/wy-trib-eagles-extremism-in-wyoming-is.htmlWY Trib Eagle's "Extremism in Wyoming" is "Journalistic weasel words; unacceptable past high school journalism; lacking truth"
This last Sunday, March 6, the Wyoming Tribune Eagle ran a front page article titled : Extremism in Wyoming, which - in short - was a highly opinionated ranting attack on all things Tea Party Wyoming Red Neck bigotry not worthy or applicable to actual news. Josh Mitchell (the professed journalist) labeled Wyoming as being full of racist bigots running around trailer parks shooting guns and living to hate anyone else who doesn't. Mitchell's entire report was based on dialogue of an out of state loony, Pelham, but also takes considerable effort to validate the claim that we're all Neo-Nazi's and part of the KKK and really, when you look at Wyoming, "that's just the tip of the ice berg."
Full Text : Wyo Trib Eagle's "Extremism in Wyoming"
Of all the things deserving a developed hatred in the world, the Wyoming Tribune Eagle decided to find something to hate here : home, and focus the narrative on the negative ... and it's Bush's fault damn-it! No one can dissent the Obama administration - he is black; to dissent would make us racists.
Mitchell might need a lesson in American-ism before he goes off ranting, angered and agitated by his own intolerance for allowing people to think and behave how ever they want.
This is America, the land of the free, and even IF someone IS truly a racist, Neo-Nazi, member of the KKK ... so what? (They're most likely a DEMOCRAT) In America people are allowed to THINK and be RACIST if they truly want to be - that is between them and their creator, as are all men. What America and our own LAWS allow for is people to be free thinking individuals; behavior and action that breaks the law - breaks the law - and then people do the time or pay the price. So yes, even though the KKK was founded by the Democratic party - we in Wyoming are tolerant of their mistakes and we still elect a few to political office - even those who take up the Republican name.
Frank Smith of Cheyenne composed this response the the Extremism article:
Evidence that Liberalism is indeed, what radio talk show host Dr. Michael Savage calls, “a mental disorder” should need no further proof after Sunday’s front page article on “Extremism in Wyoming”.
To use the Southern Poverty Law Center as your source and to lump the KKK with the Constitution Party and tea party is laughable.
The SPLC routinely smears individuals and groups which are pro-life, patriotic, Christan or conservative. Its Spring 2011 Intelligence Report, Issue 141, lists Active ‘Patriot’ Groups as hate groups with the disclaimer, “Listing here does not imply that the groups themselves advocate or engage in violence or other criminal activities, or are racist.” Thus, your paper twisted an unreliable source to fit your political point of view.
To be considered an extremist by the Southern Poverty Slime Center is a political merit badge in my book.
As a current or prior member of all five groups which your newspaper labels “Anti-Government ’Patriot’ Groups” in Wyoming” it is clear to me not only is this information wrong but 180 degrees from the actual truth.
If the Constitution Party were so racist, please explain how Dr. Taylor Haynes, who is both black and Catholic, would have been our candidate for governor, had we gained ballot access? And why did we back his write in campaign?
The John Birch Society, favorite target of the press since 1960, is about as far as can be from the KKK. As a former member and chapter leader for 17 years, the Society is best summed up by its motto, “Less Government, More Responsibility and with God’s Help, a Better World.” Does that sound like hate mongering?
What the Wyoming Tea Party, Tyranny Response Team, John Birch Society, Constitution Party, and We the People have in common is opposition to a government which has trespassed on our Liberty, our property and our Constitution. It is very strange, indeed, to be labeled as an “extremist” to believe in the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and limited government.
Journalistic weasel words run rampant in the article, the tea party is “said to have ‘strains’ of extremism”; these are what is known as unattributable quotes, a literary device unacceptable past high school journalism. Not to be bothered with defining “extremism”, nonetheless your paper felt compelled to condemn it. Stuff and nonsense.
The domestic terrorist threat, manufactured in large part by the SPLC and FBI entrapment, seeks to justify loss of our Liberty for a little security in the coming police state.
As journalist Paul Joseph Watson wrote in his March 3, 2010 column, that threat “...in every instance has been fostered, prodded and provoked by the only entity that ever benefits from acts of domestic terror--the federal government.”
To blend lunatic fringe groups such as the militias and skinheads with legitimate, peaceful political organizations is irresponsible at best and dishonest at worst. The purpose can only be to demonize any conservative political action. That tactic won’t work any longer.
Andrew Jackson wrote in 1832, “There are no necessary evils in government. Its evils exist only in its abuses. If it would confine itself to equal protection...it would be an unqualified blessing.”
Now, 180 years later, it should be clear that government is not an unqualified blessing, but a damnable curse. Government is a cancer upon the body politic which threatens our life, liberty and property.
To be labeled an extremist as one who believes in the Constitution recalls the words of Patrick Henry in 1788, ”I am fearful I have lived long enough to become an old-fashioned fellow. Perhaps an invincible attachment to the dearest rights of man may, in these refined, enlightened days, be deemed old fashioned; if so, I am contented to be so.”
Frank Smith, Cheyenne
Related : Liberal Hummingbird Blogger : 'It didn't go far enough' : Extremism goes mainstream in Wyoming politics
Lead article in this morning's Wyoming Tribune-Eagle by Josh Mitchell:
Extremism in Wyoming: Neo-Nazis are here. So is the KKK. A white supremacist group thinks this could be a great place to thrive. But when it comes to extremism in Wyoming, that's just the tip of the iceberg.
Reach the author, Josh Mitchell, of the "Extremism in Wyoming" article here : jmitchell@wyomingnews.com
