Patterico's Pontifications

1/21/2011

Charles Johnson: I Never Referred to Rachel Corrie as St. Pancake

Filed under: General — Aaron Worthing @ 8:53 am



[Guest post by Aaron Worthing; if you have tips, please send them here.]

Clip this away, folks, for this will prove once and for all that Johnson is actually a liar.

Just today The Other McCain noted how easy it is to ignore Charles Johnson.  But since Patterico stirred things up, I came across this astonishing item from Johnson.

Apparently he has written at least one piece in the UK’s Guardian about the “haters” in America like Pam Geller.  Yeah, you read that right, the Guardian, which he used to refer to as the al Guardian (although to his credit he owns up to that comment).  So a few commenters with long memories brought up Johnson’s own use of the term “pancake” when mocking the death of Rachel Corrie.  Bear in mind, back in the day he used to make jokes like that all the time.  When I made some kind of joke about memorializing her with a breakfast at the International House of Pancakes, I was ripping off borrowing Johnson’s jokes.  So a few people brought up those kinds of comments.  For instance:

Sacredham

Charles used to refer to Rachel Corrie, a pro-Palestinian “activist” who was crushed by a bulldozer, as “Saint Pancake.” Google for “rachel corrie pancake breakfast.” For him to try to characterize the former tone of his site as the result of too-loose moderation is simply disingenuous.

But Johnson selectively chooses to respond only to Joey100’s comment:

Some of the rhetoric – al Guardian, St. Pancake – has been brought up in this thread to embarass CJ. Maybe he should speak to that.

To which Johnson responded:

First, about the term “St. Pancake” — the simple fact is that I never used this term at LGF, and in fact I have told people many times, when I saw them using it, that I didn’t like it. I even warned some people that continuing to use it would get their accounts blocked. This is a case in which the smear is absolutely, 100% due to the very people you see posting hateful comments directed me in this thread.

Which was appallingly deceptive.  I didn’t personally remember the man ever saying those exact words, but to deny one insult and pretend he made no other Rachel Corrie/pancake references was just bull.  It was pulling a Bill Clinton, making a statement so deceptive it is in practicality a lie.  He apparently has vigorously scrubbed his site of these jokes that used to come all the time, but, um, he missed a spot:

(Note: the highlighting effect there is the result of me selecting words to copy and forgetting to turn that off when I made the screencap.)

Notice the wording: “Indymedia unwittingly imitates Little Green Footballs: Rachel Corrie Pancake Breakfast” (emphasis added).  Now how could they be imitating anything, if LGF had never made Rachel Corrie “pancake” jokes in the first place?  Johnson was challenged on this point and he responds:

I made an ironic reference to the use of the term by LGF readers. I didn’t use it myself.

Mmm, yeah, except he didn’t say “our readers.”  He said “Little Green Footballs.”  And further in the past when other bloggers tried to hold the behavior of his commenters against him, he regularly denied responsibility for his commenters—he claimed he was not responsible for what they say.  To this day his site contains this disclaimer:

Comments are open and unmoderated, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Little Green Footballs.

So which is it, Chuckie boy?  But it gets even worse.  Let’s remember that he considered the phrase to be so offensive that he claimed that he threatened to ban accounts of people who used that term when he was aware of them.  Oh, except he didn’t.  For years there was a commenter on his site that went by the handle “St. Pancake.”  And Johnson even gave him a hat tip in this post (don’t bother deleting, Chuckie, we have the screen shot).  So the claim that he deleted that term was a lie.

But it gets even worse. The Diary of Daedalus catches an example of Johnson apparently scrubbing a comment where he did actually personally use that term and not in reference to a commenter.  If you go to this thread (and its still there, as of now) you will see a third comment that was deleted.  With a little digging, Daedalus showed that it was a comment that Charles had made.  And what, pray tell, did that comment say?  Well, look down the thread.  Charles scrubbed his comment but he failed to scrub the comments of others quoting his comment.  “NC” coyly suggested something was missing from the original post, meaning a famous photo of Corrie burning a (bad) drawing of a United States flag in the first comment in this thread.  Johnson apparently responded to him, quoted in the sixth comment as follows:

Well, since this one doesn’t mention Saint Pancake, I didn’t think it necessary to include her photo this time.

And incidentally, in the comments he eventually announces that he changed his mind and thus the current version of the post includes the picture.  So let’s review.  He made similar jokes all the time.  He  allowed commenters to make that joke, including allowing a person to register and comment on his  site with that joke as his handle.  And he himself made it.

And in line with Patterico’s “stupid or lying” query in the last post, no, this can’t be credited as amnesia.  The fact he deleted an otherwise innocuous comment including the term means that he intentionally scrubbed it from his site to cover the evidence.  You lied, Chucky.

Oh and for extra hypocrisy we have two items.  Here we have Charles Johnson denouncing Sarah Palin’s “extreme and violent rhetoric” and here is Johnson denouncing Palin for “scrubbing” her facebook page by deleting comments she didn’t like.

Months ago, I called Johnson out for his dishonesty in dealing with Obama’s bow to the King of Saudi Arabia.  For this he called me a liar.  Hopefully this will clear up who exactly can be trusted in this dispute.

But in the interest of fairness, a correction is needed.  As IMAO points out, I was wrong to say that Obama bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia.  The video clearly shows that the President bent his knee, so technically that was a curtsy.

[Posted and authored by Aaron Worthing.]

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45 Responses to “Charles Johnson: I Never Referred to Rachel Corrie as St. Pancake”

  1. So, any bets on when Chuckie starts making a turn back to the “right”? Say, December 2012??

    Tex Lovera (30e140)

  2. What’s bizarre is that Charles used to be good at the very kind of digging around that is exposing his lying.

    There has been something very strange going on in Charles’ head for years now.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  3. Johnson is a Progressive now, he’s beyond those old fashioned standards by which Conservatives are measured. Get with it Worthing. That was then and this is now. So, move on already.

    And, besides, “Saint Pancake” somehow seems perversely apropos.

    ropelight (7909b0)

  4. I think he doesn’t like to look bad or heartless, and in spinning, he looks worse. Ego and testosterone, maybe.

    Simon Jester (c8876d)

  5. I used to read LGF and Andrew Sullivan. Both went off the rails about the same time. Has anyone ever seen the two of them at the same time?

    Mike K (8f3f19)

  6. Dont feed the Little Green Troll. The best and classiest strategy with him these days is to ignore him.

    Still, how a guy went from the stalwart libertarian patriotic right of La Blogospheria to the angry demented fevered left so quickly and so comprehensively is something that may or may not be talked about on teh interwebz for either a very long time or a very short time or perhaps not at all.

    Still, Charles’ once-must read site is now indistinguishable from the Democratic Underground, Kos or FireDogLake.

    Mike D (cfd823)

  7. spqr

    this is pure speculation but a thought hit me today.

    maybe he’s been bribed. maybe George Soros or some other rich lefty went to him and said, “I will pay you $2 million to pretend to convert.” Like i said, no evidence to support it because it explains his behavior more eloquently than anything else.

    I mean its either that or IMAO’s theory that a creationist ran over his dog.

    I mean sullivan, i can understand. i watched it in real time. it was all triggered, imho, by Bush coming out in favor of a marriage amendment outlawing gay marriage. he understandably takes that personally it soured him on bush and that souring led him to repudiate everything he once believed in. i mean not completely logical, but understandable and human.

    but charles? yeah, really can’t puzzle that one out.

    Aaron Worthing (e7d72e)

  8. It’s a good takedown, really, and it’s just another example of how Charles Johnson pulled an Andrew Sullivan: a former anti-leftist whose BDS turned him into a raging leftist. (And one who still sometimes gets trotted out to do the Frum-ian “conservative viewpoint” interview on the lefty media, natch.)

    Mitch (890cbf)

  9. Aaron, I’ve yet to hear an explanation that makes sense … but probably the true answer wouldn’t make sense to me either.

    SPQR (26be8b)

  10. Also, erstwhile (???) LDF denizen Zombie, of Zombietime.com fame, includes “St. Pancake” in his/her “LGF Dictionary.”

    http://zombietime.com/lgf_dictionary/

    This reminds me of Comment #17. Do not mention Comment #17 (also in the above dictionary).

    Zombie’s posts remain sharp and anti-leftist as ever. So I have to wonder: Did Zombie distance him-/herself from LGF at somepoint? Their world-views are now very, very different.

    Mitch (890cbf)

  11. You know he should have said, I was wrong to say
    that back in the day, I realize I was being insensitive, but to deny that he said is Orwellian

    narciso (6075d0)

  12. Hey thanks for the link.

    I think you might have left out the most damning part tho. Johnson could have squashed the whole “St. Pancake” thing early on, as the debate over whether Corrie’s nickname should be “St. Pancake” or “flat bitch” took place in this thread (back in ’03):

    littlegreenfootballs.com/article/6535_Zerbisias_Slams_LGF

    But CJ effectively christened the term the next day with the aforementioned “Saint Pancake” reference, and the rest, as they say, is history.

    ChenZhen (1c5e47)

  13. Whatever the reason for Johnsons craziness, the Boiler Room Crew at Diaryofdaedalus have proven beyond any reasonable doubt that Johnson is a liar and anything he posts should be looked upon in that light.

    GrandJunctionite (7542c1)

  14. What’s bizarre is that Charles used to be good at the very kind of digging around that is exposing his lying.

    No, he used to have a lot of commenters who were good at digging and fact checking. Then he banned them.

    RoboMonkey (9a76aa)

  15. Legend has it that the head lizardoid lived under the Denver Airport. I stopped with the LGF thing a few years ago when it appeared his site sent out malware. I know others were also involved exposing the bogus Dan Rather TANG memo, but I thought CJ did yeoman’s work in that regard. I also recall some fake photography on part of Muslims which he also debunked. Then it seemed he became obsessed with Pam Geller and some other site regarding alleged neo-nazi sympathies.
    I once enjoyed Rightwing Nuthouse before that dude seemed to want to fellate obama. I stopped when my pc warned me about malware on THAT site.
    Patterico’s Pontifications is outstanding imho. I wish he lived in South Florida and could expose the crappy newpapers here also. I guess if I had to choose one site though it might be Richard Fernandez’s. Powerline is also very good. I know I will never ever waste time on those horrid far-left morons at DU, Kos and Huffington. And I thought Andrew Sullivan was terminal with Aids?
    Does anyone ever recall Zombie exposing right wing insanity, if it even exists? Zombietime.com does have some great shots of how deranged some liberals, socialists and commies are, particularly when it comes to Israel.

    Calypso Louie Farrakhan (798aba)

  16. but I thought CJ did yeoman’s work in that regard

    He did an excellent job taking the points others raised, but presenting them in a way that made the case. He deserves credit, but so did the people LGF refused to give credit to, because LGF saw this as a great way to get into magazines, etc.

    A lot of people saw this behavior for what it was, and resented it.

    But yes, Charles Johnson has the capacity to contribute intelligently. He just doesn’t want to.

    I also will note that Charles outed a contributor’s personal info. That’s on par with malware, IMO.

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  17. dustin

    you have to be a special breed of douchenozzle to out a commenter.

    on the other hand, i have taken what i know about a certain stalker we have here and put it in a sealed folder to be opened by the police upon my death or disappearance. You can never be too careful.

    Aaron Worthing (e7d72e)

  18. Saint Pancake. 🙂 I admit it: I love that one!

    But now tat I know it, if I should have occasion to use it, do I need to credit the esteemed Mr Johnson?

    The blogger Dana (3e4784)

  19. dana

    i don’t think it started with him, so… not if you don’t want to.

    Aaron Worthing (e7d72e)

  20. And can we get the sockpuppet Friday thread going; I hate to have to sockpuppet syrup-titously.

    Rachel Corrie (3e4784)

  21. do I need to credit the esteemed Mr Johnson?

    Yes, I really think you should.

    Let’s all make a point of finding an opportunity to mock the war criminal Rachel Corrie, Saint Pancake, and also H/T that expression to Little Green Footballs.

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  22. Comment by Mitch — 1/21/2011 @ 9:52 am

    Well, I don’t know if Zombie has distanced his self, but Johnson has apparently distanced himself from Zombie. Zombie’s “updated” version of the LGF dictionary used to be an LGF link, it’s a now scrubbed and defunct LGF link.

    Jewels (c7b6c5)

  23. I haven’t been to or posted on LGF in a couple of years, primarily as a result of CJ’s change in direction / viewpoints. I will not speak ill of him in his own house, just no longer visit there to participate or offer support to the site.

    But as an active participant from 2003 on – yes, CJ did refer to Corrie as ‘St. Pancake’, did tolerate those who also referred her as ‘St. Pancake’, and the ‘Fiskie’ she won as Idiotarian of the Year at LGF, was depicted by Cox and Forkum, and subject of a post by CJ, as the statuette crushing Corrie all as the linked to blog claims. She was considered by many on LGF, including CJ, as a world class idiotarian – and a fair target as were many others.

    CJ has returned to his 9/10/2001 roots….and unfortunately embraced the same approach and standards that he railed against from 9/12/2001 to mid / late 2008 as practiced by the ‘other side’. What’s next? Eliminating references to ‘Arafish’ or ‘Aloha Snackbar’ as they are politically incorrect with the left’s meme? Banning and purging more people / comments to re-write history? In cases like this, CJ needs to remember the first rule of hole digging (stop digging), and then first rule of the internet (a copy will always evade the memory hole). Oh, and one last ‘rule’, keep your ego and your argument separate.

    Athos (26d45b)

  24. It’s pretty insane that Charlie actually believes he can cover his tracks, lie and think he’s getting away with something on this. Even before he made the “Saint” response comment, he led right up to it with this in the post body itself:

    “And what post about the Pal Solidarity Movement is complete without a photo of Saint Rachel Corrie, teaching the little children of Gaza?”

    You just know Charlie’s gonna be one busy lad spending his weekend frantically scrubbing this and other incriminating evidence that’s noted here & elsewhere.

    RH (25784a)

  25. St. Pancake, I don’t recall that and at the time was a Lizard. Dropped out cold turkey when he came out for snuffing Shiavo.

    gary gulrud (790d43)

  26. The post, “Bush bowed too”, about Bush supposedly bowing as well was the one that got me banned from LGF. I had the nerve to ask Charles to a) change the title of the post and b) provide a link to any actual evidence of Bush bowing. I was polite, but he accused me of hurling insults. My user name in that thread was Kalixiri

    I don’t mind strong opinions, as long as they are corrected when they are obviously mistakes. Charles seems to live in his own little world now.

    Bellerophon (fed332)

  27. I don’t mind strong opinions, as long as they are corrected when they are obviously mistakes.

    Sadly, that’s really the heart of LGF’s affliction. It’s just bombastic ego. How dare you question my authority. I’m never wrong. You’re a jackass to question me.

    Mark Levin and Charles Johnson are exactly the same. Tell them they made a mistake, and they attempt to protect their credibility by proving they have absolutely no personal integrity whatsoever.

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  28. I go to some of those line items on the right side of the screen of blog advertising and find that i was lured to little green fbs. Every time my computer locks up and the only way i can leave the site is kill the power to my computer and restart. There are few better reasons to dislike any one even if you found anything good there which is never.

    dunce (b89258)

  29. dunce, I suggest you try using adblock, and perhaps noscript. Not so you can visit LGF safely, though. You’re better off just cutting power to your computer than bothering with that blog.

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  30. dustin

    lol for one second i thought you were calling that dude a mean name. then i saw his name IS dunce.

    Aaron "Haiku" Worthing (73a7ea)

  31. St. Pancake, I don’t recall that and at the time was a Lizard. Dropped out cold turkey when he came out for snuffing Shiavo.

    gulrud,

    Nobody cares whether you recall it or not. It’s proven. Read the post.

    Patterico (c218bd)

  32. Dustin,

    Levin’s ego does make him make foolish remarks, including when he went after Patterico without cause. That said, there’s no reason to equate him to Johnson’s narcissistic personality disorder that completely makes him rant like a madman against believes he used to share. He’s just sold his soul for 3 pieces of silver.

    Levin on the other hand still contributes to the advancement of conservative values and limited government. His knowledge of the Constitution is second to almost none. However, he does lose points when he cannot separate his private life from his media personality.

    NJRob (c6719d)

  33. Comment by Aaron Worthing — 1/21/2011 @ 9:35 am

    this is pure speculation but a thought hit me today.

    maybe he’s been bribed.

    My pure speculation: maybe he’s being blackmailed.

    Remember Scott Ritter? The UN nuclear inspector who abruptly switched to “waging peace”? And about whom accusations concerning underage girls have since surfaced?

    Nate Whilk (c4437c)

  34. Nate’s theory makes more sense to me. If they were bribing bloggers, I think they would have picked someone less emotional and egotistical, or they would have picked many bloggers. We’d have heard of it.

    However, if it was some kind of blackmail, that would make some sense. Guy’s a flaming weirdo, so it’s not too hard to believe.

    But then, I don’t really care. He has no integrity, so he can pretend Beck is Satan and the Tea Party is Xenu’s army for all I care.

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  35. “However, he does lose points when he cannot separate his private life from his media personality.”

    NJRob – He also loses points when he doesn’t do his homework before attacking people and then refuses to admit his errors.

    daleyrocks (e7bc4f)

  36. I remember “St. Pancake” very well from back in the days when LGF was a daily read for me. Johnson used to deride Rachel Corrie at every opportunity. It’s amazing that he thinks he can get away with such an obvious lie even if he’s scrubbed his site of those posts.

    rsrobinson (bfda2f)

  37. “Nobody cares whether you recall it or not.”

    Ooh, I’m so embarrassed, Rico. What happens when I actually dispute your take(I have family in LA)?

    gary gulrud (790d43)

  38. Then you provide a reason to debunk the evidence in the post, or you shut up (I have family in the Boston area, and some others in the Fresno area).

    Is what a self-respecting commenter would do.

    What will *you* do? It depends on whether you want to be a self-respecting commenter, or some guy who pops off about his memory — which, since he didn’t read every fucking comment on the LGF blog, is irrelevant anyway — in the face of clear evidence to the contrary.

    I enjoyed putting in a completely irrelevant parenthetical about where I have family. So that was fun, at least.

    Patterico (c218bd)

  39. That said, there’s no reason to equate him to Johnson’s narcissistic personality disorder that completely makes him rant like a madman against believes he used to share. He’s just sold his soul for 3 pieces of silver.

    You say this is justified because Levin advances ideas you agree with.

    I think that’s the wrong way to evaluate integrity.

    I was specific. I’m talking about people refusing to admit mistakes, even when proven, and instead lashing out because they have no values. That’s Mark Levin in a nutshell. Charles Johnson is also quite bad on this count.

    It’s true, Levin says things I agree with. Before I learned more about him, I thought he was a huge influence on the Reagan administration (based on the incorrect manner Levin has described his stature at the time). I actually was a fan, before I realized he was a liar.

    I’m not here to bash Levin. But people who respect him, even knowing about this stuff, because he claims to be a conservative leader, are misguided. There’s more to leadership than being the loudest screech. You basically can’t believe anything Levin says until you hear it confirmed elsewhere. I wouldn’t say that about the far smarter Beck, the greatly happier and more intelligent Rush, or the smart Powerline bloggers.

    There are people who support Charles Johnson for the same reason you support Levin. It’s really hard for me to understand that.

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  40. “a self-respecting commenter”

    Oh dear, I must have touched a nerve somewhere along the line.

    36.I remember “St. Pancake” very well from back in the days when LGF was a daily read for me.

    Honest, it was my homepage and like Dana I love the moniker.

    gary gulrud (790d43)

  41. gary needs to progress further with those ESL classes. Getting there, but . . . just not quite.

    Patterico (c218bd)

  42. Ya know, I’m not trying to stir up some kind of fight here. If you find someone like that valuable, more power to you.

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  43. Have a little respect.

    It’s Ste. Pancake, not St. Pancake.

    Dave Surls (c84f91)

  44. I remember Ste. Pancake over at LGF and I was not a daily reader and I no longer have family in the LA area.

    FYNQ

    daleyrocks (e7bc4f)

  45. Like many, I read LGF back in the day but not now.

    Remember the ‘pancake’ pic? Apparently Rachel Corrie’s parents had gone to see the big Arafish himself in Ramallah, and had presented a framed portrait of Rachel to the Fish. Charles had two images of that pic: the original, with the Fish holding the portrait next to the beaming parents, and a second, altered version, with Rachel’s portrait replaced by a stack of pancakes.

    I’m not imaging it, but I’ll be damned if I can find it now. Sure wish I’d keep a copy.

    Steve White (466fd5)


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