Via Rawstory.
CNN has severed tied with conservative commentator Jeffrey Lord after he tweeted the Nazi salute “Seig Heil!” at Media Matters’ Angelo Carusone.
“Nazi salutes are indefensible,” a CNN spokesperson said in the statement, according to CNN Monday. “Jeffrey Lord is no longer with the network.”
Lord on Thursday responded to a message by Carusone that pointed out the Donald Trump supporter misspelled her name in a column.
“Seig Heil!” he replied.
Lord went on to describe Media Matters as a “fascist” website that tries to quell free speech.
That response was completely over the top, but it’s frankly the normal trollish response you can expect from a alt-right race baiter like Lord. He was clearly trying to be “ironic” arguing that the bad guys are Media Matters when in fact all they do to supposedly “suppress free speech” is to simply document the constant litany of fracked up bullshit that Conservatives say on a regular basis. They don’t even really make that much of a countervailing argument about it all that much.
We do much more vociferous push back here than they do over there, they just happen to document more of their piffle than we do because they try to get all of it recorded.
Here’s what Media Matters themselves say about it.
On August 10, the American Spectator published an attack piece by Jeffrey Lord against Media Matters. The screed lashed out at what Lord describes as “Media Matters Fascists.” Lord then tweeted the article to Media Matters President Angelo Carusone. When Carusone pointed out that his name was misspelled in the headline of the piece, Lord responded with the Nazi salute “Sieg Heil!”.
To be fair when I type of Carusone’s name spell check changed it to “Carson.” And yes, as I expected Lord claimed he was “joking.”
After receiving initial blowback on Twitter, Lord explained his confusing issuance of the Nazi victory salute by implying that it was a joke or that it was meant to further highlight Carusone and Media Matters’ "fascist" agenda.
Seeing as he’s completely misunderstood what fascism is his “joke” simply doesn’t work.
Fascism /ˈfæʃɪzəm/ is a form of radical authoritarian nationalism, characterized by dictatorial power, forcible suppression of opposition, and control of industry and commerce, that came to prominence in early 20th-century Europe.
Media Matters offer criticism of the media, specifically the Right-wing media largely because their founder David Brock when he was a writer for the American Spectator — the same paper Lord writes for — worked as hired-gun writing hit pieces against Democrats including the original Trooper-Gate story that revealed Paula Jones and and stories about Anita Hill claiming she was “a little bit nutty, and a little bit slutty” even though Clarence Thomas’ own ex-girlfriend from that time has fully confirmed her story.
I know Brock is controversial in many circles, but Media Matters is his attempt to make up for his previously biased work, and help counter the ongoing tabloid spin from the Right. Annoying they can be, but “fascist” they certainly aren’t.
Anyhoo this is exactly what Lord said about Carusone:
Over there at Media Matters – aka Media Matters Fascists, the anti-free speech bigots who, in typical fascist style, make it their mission to shut down speech they don’t like – MMF’s Angelo Carusone has come to my Twitter feed to respond. Respond, that is, to my column nearby https://spectator.org/fascist-media-matters-moves-to-silence-hannity/ in which I shine the light of free speech on MMF’s latest attempt to get Sean Hannity off the air.
Back in the days of Brock’s time with the Spectator his and the efforts of others were funded by late Billionaire Richard Mellon Scaif, while Jeffrey’s main complaint about Media Matters now is the argument that their funded by George Soros, who gave them a total of one donation.\
This is classic projection. You were funded by a mega-Billionaire so you accuse that of others, you are participating a deliberate campaign of neo-fascist government supported propaganda which is directly taking freedoms and liberties away from people — so you accuse the people who criticize you of doing that same thing.
And in fact, Media Matters does have a campaign to get Hannity off the air, which is something many of us recognize not at “government authoritarianism” but issue advocacy, free speech and also the free market at work particularly when you’re dealing with a deliberate propagandists who continues to claim that “Seth Rich was the real DNC hacker” even when Fox News has retracted that story.
At this point, if a company is sponsoring Sean Hannity’s show, it is essentially supporting a Trump propaganda operation. It needs to stop.
Sean Hannity has a long record of right-wing chicanery, lies, and vitriol. But he has morphed into something more dangerous than just a partisan hack -- he’s been exposed as a full-blown propagandist who conspires with the Trump administration to spread fabricated stories, smear detractors, and undercut the rule of law.
21st Century Fox (Fox News’ parent company) won’t hold him accountable. So, there are two options: 1) Do nothing; or 2) Take action to hold Hannity accountable.
If people want to express that they don’t like Sean Hannity to his advertisers — that’s their prerogative. It’s nothing like Mussolini who used the power of the state and military against the people in order to support the goals of his crony capitalists. It’s nothing like the methods of Stalin, or Pol Pot, or Kim Jong-Un or for that matter…
Donald Trump.