Strange Bedfellows: James Rainey and Charles Johnson
If a conservative wants attention and kudos from Big Media, there’s one sure-fire way to do it: make solid arguments that are rigidly supported by the facts. Ha, ha! I’m joking of course. The actual way to the media’s heart is to harshly criticize conservatives. Meghan McCain and Kathleen Parker discovered months ago that vapid arguments and soft-headed thinking are no obstacle to gaining the Strange New Respect of a liberal media, as long as you’re willing to throw a conservative or two under the bus.
Charles Johnson is the latest darling of Big Media. Later this month he will be the subject of a New York Times Magazine article, and today he is lionized by none other than our old friend James Rainey, in a piece called A blogger’s parting with the right:
Back when he built his Little Green Footballs website into a favorite of the conservative right, Charles Johnson liked to write about the “Loony Left” and “Bush Derangement Syndrome.”
. . . .
Imagine the surprise among conservatives to learn — in a series of postings over nearly the last two years, and then in an official declaration of estrangement a little more than a month ago — that their darling did not love them anymore. Maybe he never did.
Rainey, of course, is the dupe of ACORN who had to eat crow after a video entertainingly destroyed his one-sided account of Hannah Giles and James O’Keefe’s visit to ACORN L.A. offices. Rainey later doubled down, manufacturing a quote by O’Keefe to portray him as a self-admitted truth-bender in the “mold” of Michael Moore.
Who better to lionize Charles Johnson, who increasingly seems to ignore inconvenient truths that get in the way of his own very one-sided world view?
Johnson’s knack for ferreting out fakes and hypocrisy has been impressive. But hyperbole sometimes overshadows his analytic approach. He’s not immune to the throes of passion he has disparaged on both the left and right.
Do you think Rainey is about to tell a story about how Johnson has exaggerated claims against conservatives? For example, how he claimed without proof that conservatives had created a racist Photoshop? Or how he bans conservatives for disagreeing with them? Or how he ignores e-mails from conservatives who correct his factual misstatements?
Uh, no.
He jumped on a lame and misbegotten attempt by conservatives last year to force the Los Angeles Times to release a videotape of Palestinian Americans meeting with then-candidate Barack Obama, even though the paper had promised a confidential source not to do so.
I love this:
I won’t pretend to have read enough of the husky, pony-tailed blogger’s work to give a full report card on his tactics, or politics.
Translation: I don’t know a damned thing about Charles Johnson. But who can resist a story about “A blogger’s parting with the right”?
Is Charles Johnson the new Meghan McCain? Or the new Kathleen Parker?
He’s the new [insert the name of any mentally ill person].
otcconan (9abe7c) — 1/8/2010 @ 7:58 am> Is Charles Johnson the new Meghan McCain?
All i can say is i hope and pray we don’t see cleavage shots from Johnson.
A.W. (e7d72e) — 1/8/2010 @ 7:58 amThis is easy: He’s the new David Brock.
MTF (a20706) — 1/8/2010 @ 8:01 amThis is nougaty-rich nonsense mixed with softened insults:
Of course, Rainey “pretends” a lot.
My favorite part is “husky.” Which is “code” for what?
Eric Blair (ddbceb) — 1/8/2010 @ 8:02 amI think that’s a translation error. I believe it should read, “I know that he’s a dishonest, partisan, and talentless hack but if I pretend I haven’t read him, I don’t have to admit that he is (or for that matter, that I am too).”
Stashiu3 (44da70) — 1/8/2010 @ 8:07 amGreat, now I have to visualize a suicide-squeeze play in baseball for the rest of the day to keep that image out of my head. As a penalty for that, I now will wish that you spend the rest of the day trying to remember the first two lines to the “Gilligan’s Island” theme song and then being unable to get them out of your head. You’re getting off light. 😉
Stashiu3 (44da70) — 1/8/2010 @ 8:13 amCharles Johnson is distinguished from Meghan McCain cause of he has a modicum of both dignity and intelligence plus as far as we know his daddy isn’t a viciously deranged tool.
happyfeet (e9e587) — 1/8/2010 @ 8:15 amIn my haste I forgot to tip my non-existent hat to Bradley J. Fikes and Stashiu3. Tough to do from an iPhone; this may have to suffice, guys.
Patterico (2b3377) — 1/8/2010 @ 8:19 amA viciously deranged tool who will say anything anything anything at all to get his useless codger ass re-elected.
happyfeet (e9e587) — 1/8/2010 @ 8:24 amChuck and Rainey are a match made in hell.
JD (f8c405) — 1/8/2010 @ 8:39 amThe “husky” term is funny. When I was growing up, it was a polite term for “fat.” There used to be jeans at Sears that were “husky cut.”
Is that what Rainey is gently hinting about?
I thought this guy rode bicycles all the time, his ponytail in the wind?
Eric Blair (ddbceb) — 1/8/2010 @ 8:42 amI had been reading LGF for years, but began to notice a rather belligerent turn to the darkside by Johnson. It is interesting to note that so many others have recognized the same thing.
BarSinister (95d346) — 1/8/2010 @ 9:09 amRather than strange bedfellows, Rainey and Johnson seem a fitting duo: both tend to skirt the truth when convenient, and have no shame about doing so. They are unintentional cautionary tales.
…and about that whole husky, phony tailed thing – ew.
Dana (f64b7d) — 1/8/2010 @ 9:09 amCharles is the new Andrew Sullivan.
Official Internet Data Office (2748b2) — 1/8/2010 @ 9:11 amEh. …and about that whole husky,
phonypony tailed thingOh. Either way, actually.
Dana (f64b7d) — 1/8/2010 @ 9:13 amOh, Dana, I love the “phony tailed” line. That is the new meme, I hope!
Eric Blair (ddbceb) — 1/8/2010 @ 9:13 amIn retrospect, it appears that Johnson wasn’t ever playing with a full deck. But the wheels started coming off a couple of years ago.
Surprising that it has taken this long for everyone to notice.
EW1(SG) (edc268) — 1/8/2010 @ 9:24 amstash
well, you could focus on the infamous meghan mccain pictures as an antidote.
btw, supposedly there is a church somewhere that set the song amazing grace to the gilligan’s island theme. Try to imagine it once. then try to get that out of your head.
A.W. (e7d72e) — 1/8/2010 @ 9:30 amWell, he IS husky and has a ponytail.
patrick (961b5d) — 1/8/2010 @ 9:31 amIt’s “the left’s” revenge for Lil’ Richard.
nk (df76d4) — 1/8/2010 @ 9:51 amWait, he actually has a pony tail? yike, that explains everything.
A.W. (e7d72e) — 1/8/2010 @ 9:51 amMy favorite part is “husky.” Which is “code” for what?
Comment by Eric Blair
I wonder, too. Have they met ? Are they an item ?
Mike K (2cf494) — 1/8/2010 @ 9:52 amFor anyone who speaks Italian, does “tutti fruti” mean “complete fruit” or “all the fruits”? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVWm9PQeYtE
nk (df76d4) — 1/8/2010 @ 10:01 amOn the other hand, haven’t I heard Andrew Breitbart call himself a “husky male model”?
Eric Blair (ddbceb) — 1/8/2010 @ 10:09 amJohnson is the new Andrew Sullivan – who went bonkers when he figured out that Bush wasn’t gonna let him have his ice cream (gay marriage), despite stopping those mean, nasty jihadis.
Wonder what sent Chuckie over the edge? The French accusing Lance of doping during the Tour de France?
Wind Rider (f448f0) — 1/8/2010 @ 10:11 amThe fact that Rainey interviewed Chucky may explain Chucky’s hate for the O’Keefe/Giles videos.
eddiebear (ba86bd) — 1/8/2010 @ 10:20 amThe actual way to the media’s heart is to harshly criticize conservatives. … Kathleen Parker discovered months ago that vapid arguments and soft-headed thinking …
So that’s what happened. Seeing her column in the local little paper has been cause for shaking of the head and asking, “What in the world is this? How did this lady get called a conservative?” Now I understand, she is the paper’s “balancing conservative commentator”.
MD in Philly (d4668b) — 1/8/2010 @ 10:29 am“Husky” is code in the gay world (not that there’s everything wrong with that)for the gent who prefers his pals a litle on the hairy and chunky side. Google it. I prefer not to link…
Gazzer (7fd3c1) — 1/8/2010 @ 10:29 amTwo puerile, leftist liars are strange bedfellows? A rare case of an inaccurate Patterico headline… Of course I’m joking that was a very healthily sarcastic title which I most definitely approve of. A little OT now, anyone read the Times’ swipe at Rasmussen in their Mass. Senate story? A pollster ‘not believed accurate by many news organizations,’ by which they meant, as they said later, ‘Rasmussen doesn’t meet the Times’ standards because they use automated calls.’ The war on Tea Parties has always been the war against Fox News. We’ve always been at war with Rasmussen. The MSM will do or say anything that their commanding officers Colonels Rahm and Axelrod and Captain Brock tell them to.
chaos (7c068a) — 1/8/2010 @ 10:32 amAfter that headline, Ican’t get the image of Rainey and Johnson spooning out of my mind.
MU789 (514c52) — 1/8/2010 @ 10:48 amI dunno which one Charles. His rack might be bigger than Meghan’s, but at least hers looks pretty good on her.
physics geek (6669a4) — 1/8/2010 @ 11:35 amheh, “husky”
“husky” is a boy’s size of slacks
when you are in your 50’s and you are fat and out of shape, you are no longer “husky”- you are fat
“Fat, pony-tailed loser Charles Johnson can’t make a living blogging, is a failure as a professional musician, can’t make money with his poor photography, lives alone and unloved and unwanted by either the left or the right, and he’s bitter about it. So he makes outlandish attacks on the right over trivial matters, then attacks the right for what he calls trivial attacks on the left.”
docweasel (b970ac) — 1/8/2010 @ 11:37 amBut who can resist a story about “A blogger’s parting with the right”?
I’m gonna subtly hint at the irony gently before someone else what won’t be so gentle points it out.
happyfeet (71f55e) — 1/8/2010 @ 11:48 amCharles Johnson is a ‘fake’ if you believe his own writings. He supposedly left the ‘right wing’ because it was going too far. Yet, he blogged in his own hand that he was never a conservative nor a member of the ‘right wing’. So, he is fraudulently allowing unknowing members of the media that he parted ways with the ‘right’ which is untruthful and misleading.
Image cap of Johnson’s admission.
Beezer (f07c2e) — 1/8/2010 @ 11:48 am
“Is Charles Johnson the new Meghan McCain? Or the new Kathleen Parker?”
Dunno, he’s more like the new David Brock or Andrew Sullivan. The girls are just a couple of giddy twits whereas the boys are mendacious chameleons. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, if you know what I mean.
Pity, too, because back-in-the-day LGF and the Freepers between them ended Dan Rather’s career at CBS.
furious (71af32) — 1/8/2010 @ 12:12 pmI didn’t see MTF’s or OIDOs posts before submitting, honest and seriously.
furious (71af32) — 1/8/2010 @ 12:16 pmIn my haste I forgot to tip my non-existent hat to Bradley J. Fikes and Stashiu3. Tough to do from an iPhone; this may have to suffice, guys.
You spend countless hours laboring on this blog. I’m glad to give something back.
Bradley J. Fikes, C. O.R. (a18ddc) — 1/8/2010 @ 12:46 pmI didn’t see MTF’s or OIDOs posts before submitting
That’s all right. I don’t read my posts before submitting, either. 🙂
Official Internet Data Office (2748b2) — 1/8/2010 @ 12:50 pmbeezer, good point. Charles knows it sells to claim he’s leaving the conservative tent. He didn’t have the thoughtfulness of Andrew Sullivan to actually claim he is conservative, so instead he takes it on faith that the media will ignore that he repeatedly admitted he never was conservative.
Sullivan’s long game is clear. But LGF’s is not. His blog is so dull now… repeated mockery of anyone critical of Obama, and anger and bashing detractors. Every day, every week, every month. That’s not a good formula. Either he’s winging it and cashing in while he can, or he wants to stop blogging.
Dustin (b54cdc) — 1/8/2010 @ 12:54 pmI wonder if any of CJ’s new MSM buddies will ask him about how he has banned hundreds of now former LGF commenters that dared to ask the wrong question or point out a flaw in his reasoning and what that says about him? I know, I know, it will never happen.
An amusing aside, the other day CJ was proclaiming from on high about the 6th or 8 millionth (I forget) comment on LGF. Fair enough. I wonder if that includes all of the comments he has sent down the memory hole? If not, exluding those, his count should be at about 2 million.
BT (74cbec) — 1/8/2010 @ 1:08 pmHow did this lady get called a conservative?
The same way Brooks was called a conservative by the NYT. As long as they attend the right parties, went to the right schools and share the same contempt for the rest of the country that actually has to work for a living, they’re aces.
Dmac (a964d5) — 1/8/2010 @ 2:11 pmI know this is immature and piling on, but yeah, husky. Sometimes he even posts the times and distances for the bike rides. The term surprised me.
carlitos (057200) — 1/8/2010 @ 2:28 pmat the moment, the most insightful comments at LGF are by the guy named
eddiebear (ba86bd) — 1/8/2010 @ 2:28 pm[-deleted-]
Charles and the left are in a mutual-admiration-society-bordering-on-full-blown-love thing right now, but there are still those pesky past posts for the left to get out of their heads, combined with the fact that while Johnson is now far less interested in Middle Eastern incidents, he hasn’t flipped completely there and gone full Andrew Sullivan in advocating things like a U.S. military action in Israel and the Palestinian areas. Unless he’s willing to do that, the next time a crisis breaks out in that area he and the left will find themselves still not 100 percent simpatico.
John (d4490d) — 1/8/2010 @ 3:23 pmDang.
“All i can say is i hope and pray we don’t see cleavage shots from Johnson”
Am I the only one who missed Meghan McCain’s cleavage shots?
Greg (69d423) — 1/8/2010 @ 3:33 pmI’m husky.. and uh… thinning at the top
George Costanza (9e47d2) — 1/8/2010 @ 4:07 pmDid Charles get wacked with the ban-stick from PJ Media?
I seem to recall reading something along these lines about the same time he began to turn on the Right.
TakeFive (7c6fd5) — 1/8/2010 @ 4:34 pmReminds me of writing a review of Going Rogue, but not ever really reading the whole book.
Audacity (2fd5ad) — 1/8/2010 @ 5:27 pm“I’m gonna subtly hint at the irony gently before someone else what won’t be so gentle points it out.”
Sorry, too subtle.
Did you mean to say “gentle” or “honest,” btw? Just curious.
Patterico (2b3377) — 1/8/2010 @ 6:23 pmoh I just mean the right wing blogosphere has been a lot unable to resist the story of a blogger parting with the right probably even a little more than Rainey
but I don’t want to push that idea too far
happyfeet (e9e587) — 1/8/2010 @ 8:59 pmPatterico left out Peggy Noonan (and her slagging of Palin during the conventions)
rayra (b088ec) — 1/8/2010 @ 10:17 pm…And Charles Johnson’s nom de blog shall forever be NANCY.
rayra (b088ec) — 1/8/2010 @ 10:18 pm“I didn’t see MTF’s or OIDOs posts before submitting
That’s all right. I don’t read my posts before submitting, either. 🙂 ”
lol…back in the day at lgf I usually never read the posts before or after my own…more of a “screaming into the wind” kinda thing for me. Over a year ago I grew tired of following all the bullshit of the previous seven, post 9/11 years. lgf was also becoming less of a place for finding out wtf was going on with the Islamofascists, and more about hissy-fits “he said this/associates with this guy, he should apologize” type bs..I don’t give a **** about that…
Started reading here yesterday via a link from Glenn Reynolds because a few weeks ago I tried to put a comment on lgf and discovered I was “blocked” . . . and so I sent an email to Charles that said:
Greetings Charles 🙂
Why did you block my account?
…
I checked that email account yesterday, after reading the post and comments here about the photoshop (and honestly, I didn’t realize it was a shop, or that was Obama shining shoes until half-way through the comments…and I worked at the same place as the guy over a decade ago. (though I only talked to him once, and maybe saw him there twice…lecturers are like that, that’s a whole ‘nother story)
I wasn’t surprised after reading the comments here that I hadn’t gotten a reply…I think my last post on lgf was when some months back I noticed the addition of a site policy that forbade any post advocating violence…I can see where he might have been coming from in some respects. OTOH, I think jihadists should be killed, and will freely say so…ah well
If Charles Johnson wants to be a lunatic in his own little sandbox, so be it. People with rationality will see his nonsense for what it is. Those with no sense will continue to believe lies and believe his MSNBC advertiser.
…welcome to free speech…
(the alternative is ugly for everyone)
“That’s not a good formula. Either he’s winging it and cashing in while he can, or he wants to stop blogging.”
I think he’s cashing in, I can’t imagine he would have sold advertising space to MSNBC a few years back. He’s probably in someone’s pocket now, sad to say, it used to be such a great blog about media perfidy too…how much was your reputation worth Charles, how many dollars is your integrity worth Charles?…or are you just flippin’ insane now? How much of your time are you angry now? Have you let anger take over? – – –
I never took Charles as a “conservative” fwiw.
“I wonder if any of CJ’s new MSM buddies will ask him about how he has banned hundreds of now former LGF commenters that dared to ask the wrong question or point out a flaw in his reasoning and what that says about him? I know, I know, it will never happen.”
..funny CJ has turned into a DU type…early last decade I posted on a few of the (what I discovered) were whacko blogs/forums/websites and was promptly banned…”free speech for me, but not for thee” People who can’t argue the truth and rationally ignore it/ban it/destroy it.
…Welcome to that class of losers in the realm of ideas Charles….
buh bye now
(and thanks to you guys here for filling me in a bit about what’s been going on, I really haven’t cared enough to look into wtf was happening at lgf)
Orbit Rain (42927a) — 1/8/2010 @ 11:12 pm“Is Charles Johnson the a)new Meghan McCain? Or the b)new Kathleen Parker?”
Neither. I would submit that he’s the c)new Irene Ryan:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwTXqwHXLyk
GeneralMalaise (68a574) — 1/9/2010 @ 9:14 amAnybody notice that, all of a sudden, the many comments on the Times article are now flushed down the memory hole today.
All gone.
vanderleun (444f85) — 1/10/2010 @ 9:10 pm