Free Republic Smeared by NAACP Report (Freepers will not be intimidated)

Wednesday, October 20, 2010 | Kristinn

[kristinn]

In a report released today entitled, Tea Party Nationalism, the NAACP falsely accuses Free Republic of being "an important space for...racist(sic)" and of having as a member the Holocaust Museum shooter James Von Brunn.

In falsely accusing Free Republic of being a haven for racists, the NAACP report notes Free Republic's front page promotes the Tea Party Express. However, the report fails to note the front page also includes several statements warning that racism and violence are not welcome on Free Republic:

"Please enjoy our forum, but also please remember to use common courtesy when posting and refrain from posting personal attacks, profanity, vulgarity, threats, racial or religious bigotry, or any other materials offensive or otherwise inappropriate for a conservative family audience."

And

"Free Republic does not advocate or condone racism, violence, rebellion, secession, or an overthrow of the government. Free Republic advocates a return to constitutionally limited government, reserving all government powers not expressly delegated by the constitution to the United States to the States respectively, or the people, emphasizing sovereign state governments, local government, self-government and self-rule, while restricting government powers to only those enumerated in the constitution and maximizing individual rights and liberty as originally envisioned and established by our Founding Fathers and secured and defended by the blood of patriots and statesmen for over two hundred years."

With regard to Von Brunn, he was not a member of Free Republic. The article authored by him was posted by another poster. The article did not contain racism, however the article was pulled when the moderators became aware that Von Brunn was a racist. Articles by known racists are not tolerated on Free Republic (unless the articles are authored by racist Democrats like the Rev. Jesse Jackson, Vice President Joe Biden or the late Sen. Robert Byrd.) To say that Von Brunn was a poster at Free Republic, or that the site is "an important space for...racists" is false and a correction will be demanded.

From page #53 of the section on the Tea Party Express in the NAACP report:

One of the official partners of the Tea Party Express is Free Republic, which identifies itself as “an online gathering place for independent, grass-roots conservatism on the web.”173 It is an important space for the birthers and racist. One of those posting material on Free Republic claiming that President Obama had no birth certificate was James von Brunn, the white supremacist who killed the guard at the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C., on June 10, 2009.174 This website has also posted racist attacks on the Obama family. In July 2009, after Obama’s elevenyear- old daughter Malia was photographed wearing a t-shirt with the peace symbol, a Free Republic thread featured racially charged comments about President Obama’s wife and children, using racist epithets and terms like “Ghetto street trash.” The thread was accompanied by a photo of Michelle Obama speaking to Malia that featured that caption, “To entertain her daughter, Michelle Obama loves to make Monkey sounds.”175

On the front page of its website, Free Republic advertised the Tea Party Express Bus Tour. (The Free Republic web page also features links to Tea Party Patriots and ResistNet). Free Republic’s Kristinn Taylor serves as a bridge between Free Republic and the folks behind the Tea Party Express.176 He has also worked for the anti-immigrant vigilante group Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, and has spoken at Florida Tea Party events.177 He does not get along particularly well with factions other that Tea Party Express, however. In a March 22, 2010 article entitled “Freedom Works Willing to Throw Tea Party Under the Bus to Appease Democrats, Media” on Free Republic, Taylor wrote: “Freedom Works...latched onto the Tea Party movement last year is now threatening to abandon the grassroots movement in the face of a propaganda onslaught by the Democrat party and the media.”178

The mention of the offensive comments about the Obama family is regretfully correct, but the report fails to note that the offensive comments were made by a handful of posters out of over 300,000 registered user and that the thread was pulled by Free Republic moderators when it was brought to their attention.

Freeper Gary Dunn was quoted today in The Guardian about the report:

Gary Dunn, a contributor to the Free Republic website, said it had a policy of always removing racist comments as quickly as possible.

It uses up to eight moderators to filter offensive posts, and repeat offenders were had their access withdrawn, he said.

As for my affiliation with the Minuteman Civil Defense Corps, I was a media consultant for several months. The group was not anti-immigrant and not vigilante.

The NAACP report is not just meant to smear the Tea Party movement, it is also meant to show participants and organizers that they will be investigated and held in a bad light to the public just for being in the movement. For example, others mentioned in the report have their financial situations highlighted.

I will not be intimidated by the racist NAACP, nor, I know, will Freepers.

NAACP report footnotes:

173 . Free Republic website, http://www.freerepublic.com.

174 . James W. Von Brunn, “Obama is missing!” Free Republic website, taken down by Free Republic after the shooting, cache of the post available here, http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:niXSYG-nVO8J:www. freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2141655/posts+http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2141655/posts&cd

88 | Tea Party Nationalism — A Special Report of the IREHR

=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a.

175 . Chris Parry, “Conservative Free Republic blog in free speech flap after racial slurs directed at Obama children,” The Vancouver Sun, July 12, 2009, http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/Conservative+Free+Republic+blog+free+speech+flap+after+racial+slurs+directed+Obama+children/1782375/story.html.

176 . Kristinn Taylor is a spokesperson for Free Republic and also works with Move America Forward, whose leadership is also behind Our Country Deserves Better PAC. See, Kristinn Taylor, “Author page” Big Government website, undated, accessed August 1, 2010, http://biggovernment.com/author/ktaylor/.

177 . Our Country Deserves Better PAC is the creation of the principles in the PR firm of Russo Marsh & Rogers. Russo Marsh & Rogers was the driving force behind Move America Forward, the pro-war, pro-torture group known best for harassing anti-war activists. In fact, Our Country Deserves Better and Move America Forward share several staff members. Howard Kaloogian chairs OCDB and is the founder and former chair of MAF. Sal Russo serves as chief strategist for both groups. Joe Wierzbicki, a principal in Russo Marsh & Rogers serves as grassroots coordinator for MAF and coordinator of OCDB. Deborah Johns is MAF’s director of military relations and, until recently, an OCDB spokesperson.

178 . Kristinn Taylor, “Freedom Works Willing to Throw Tea Party Under the Bus to Appease Democrats, Media,” Free Republic Website, March 22, 2010, http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2477257/posts.

[FlingWingFlyer]

I recently called a clerk of the court in a very liberal Arizona college town to make a few checks and inquiries about a couple criminal cases. They put me on hold. I didn’t get the normal Barry Manilow songs. They had NPR to entertain me. I lasted three minutes. That was all I could take. I went with what I had.

[LomanBill]

Hmmm... odd, I didn't feel like a racist when I was walking down the National Mall to meet with other FReepers at the Washington Monument on 9-12-2009, during the National Tea Party and National Free Republic convention...

E-Pluribus UNUM!

...and given there wasn't a single incident - despite having the coincidental gathering of the Black Family Reunion Celebration running concurrently --- I evidently wasn't the only non-racist in attendance.

The peaceful reality manifested by both groups - FReepers and Black Family Reunion folks alike - in close proximity like that, was one of the highlights of 9-12 that make me a proud and hopeful AMERICAN.

So if rogue elements of the NAACP are asserting that FReepers are racist thugs - the reality of 9-12 simply refutes them.

 

 

[fight_truth_decay]

The racism card is being played--The left is very afraid & angry. They would probably love to see the same riots here, as happening with the unions over in France that Sarkozy is having to deal with. The attack on socialism.

Bill O'Reilly in his Muslim viewpoints on the 9/11 attack was not received well by Liberal leaning African Americans in the View audience. Divided audience reaction to that poorly hosted show turning aggressive assured the Left-the NAACP, the unions, that racism, minority-illegals-these issues are burning red hot; and could be just the ticket they need to start an all out firestorm.

It seemed far fetched to me when mention was made that the elections could be stopped because of riots.

[mylife]

Look at Eddy Bernice Johnson.

She talks the talk about poor kids and school, but poor white kids need not apply.

In fact, poor black kids need not apply, because she was handing that stuff out to her own family and rich black business colleagues kids.

[re_nortex]

The founders of the NAACP: Mary White Ovington, William English Walling, Henry Moskowitz...

...plus the other founders such as Florence Kelley, Ida Wells, Archie Grimke and the treasonous W.E.B. DuBois who proudly proclaimed:

Joseph Stalin was a great man; few other men of the 20th century approach his stature. He was simple, calm and courageous. He seldom lost his poise; pondered his problems slowly, made his decisions clearly and firmly; never yielded to ostentation nor coyly refrained from holding his rightful place with dignity. He was the son of a serf but stood calmly before the great without hesitation or nerves. But also—and this was the highest proof of his greatness—he knew the common man, felt his problems, followed his fate.

This reprehensible DuBois lived out his final years in Ghana, rejecting America, the place of his birth and a country that gave him so much in the way of opportunity including a Harvard scholarship.

From the beginning to the middle years to the present, the NAACP has been among the foremost champions of Marxism and racism. Their attack on Free Republic and the Tea Party patriots is nothing new. It's completely compatible with its founder's principles.

[roses of sharon]

Why all the angst?

This organization agitated for the STEALING of our earnings, and our family’s private healthcare....they elect people for the SOLE purpose to steal from their fellow Americans.

So who the heck cares if they call us racists??

Good grief.

[MamaDearest]

Given the events of 9/11 and subsequent attempted airplane terrorism incidents that have fortunately been prevented, most people I know feel precisely the same way as Juan Williams when boarding an aircraft.

Headline reminder regarding Christmas Day terrorist:

Northwest bomber was carrying a high explosive but failed detonator saved flight

[EasySt]

"There is plenty of racism on free republic. I don’t think that is a secret. The question is how to the mods deal with it. I read crap on here on a regular basis that I feel is am embarrassment to the site and to those reading the site."

You're right, and the Mods do do a pretty good job of chopping out the racist stuff that gets posted/planted here all too often.

I hate having people that know I follow FreeRepublic run into threads like "FREEP THIS POLL: Do blacks deserve to have a black president?" before they get pulled.

[takenoprisoner]

The NAACP is grasping at straw men to remain relevant. Their pity party is belatedly winding down. Though much credit is due them. And, much credit has rightfully been given them. They have been rightfully honored, and recognized over and over again for their tremendous successes in the advances they helped bring about. But, they have long outlived their usefulness to society.

The NAACP, not so much unlike a washed up quarterback, you know the one, who refuses to give up the ghost of glories past, and should retire gracefully. Like him, the NAACP simply can’t give up the ghost. Even when strictly enforced federal laws, and an entire division of US civil rights attorneys are on call 24/7 to do their bidding. Where few, if any bigots, could possibly escape the microscope of the federal civil rights commission.

So what else does the NAACP have to do? Well, surely they can find a boogie man somewhere. Oh, there goes one now. He’s a member of the TEA Party. I bet he is a member of FR too. That’s the ticket. The Tea Party is racist, and FR supports the Tea Party. So, FR must be a racist organization like the Tea Party. Now go find me a racist posting on FR. And, if you can’t, then create one and post it. Then, we’ll show them who’s still relevant.

[freekitty]

They don’t.

[Nachum]

Or maybe it was this at FR: NAACP Posts Twitter Threat to Tea Party.

Oh yes. No question that you have their full attention. They see that in you and in Free Republic as well there is a real threat to their legitimacy. There is a great deal of education that goes on here and they could well lose their credibility.

They- mark my words, they will want to 'dialogue' with you. -Call you out again, only louder. I think, that in direct confrontation, they feel they can somehow delegitimize their detractors.

[mylife]

Its called “discrimination” and it is not a dirty word.
That is how even animals survive, and it is not racism.

Every living thing on the planet discriminates.

If I see a black man a suit, with a smile, my radar does not go off.
If I see a white punk, with a scowl and an attitude my radar does go off.
If I see a muslim/black/mexican/white or what whatever threat, is that equivalent to racism?

[re_nortex]

...the Mods do do a pretty good job of chopping out the racist stuff that gets posted/planted here all too often.

In spite of my very own recent "born on" date, I've found that checking a person's posting history and sign on date to be one metric to judge the merits of what an individual writes. Anything remotely racist invariably comes from a drive-by astroturfer and is quickly pulled by the moderators (if not an outright zotting).

Yes, I did see the Malia thread for the brief amount of time it was present. It's now clear that the comments were made by plants and not FR stalwarts.

[mylife]

Thank GOD they did not discriminate in the headline!

[savagesusie]

In the last 20 years I only listened to NPR several times and it was such vile lesbian propaganda...I think the V Dialogues had just been released. The hatred for white heterosexual men was virulent. The cultural Marxism drips profusely from that immoral station and I noticed it when I wasn’t even political. I found it way more disturbing than Howard Stern’s obsession with panties. At least he had some political sense at times.

[mylife]

I am sure the never used disparaging remarks like redneck.

NPR loves everybody. /s

[re_nortex]

Its called “discrimination” and it is not a dirty word. That is how even animals survive, and it is not racism.

Every living thing on the planet discriminates.

If I see a black man a suit, with a smile, my radar does not go off.
If I see a white punk, with a scowl and an attitude my radar does go off.
If I see a muslim/black/mexican/white or what whatever threat, is that equivalent to racism?

Not at all. Let's consider the words of Jesse Jackson himself:

There is nothing more painful to me at this stage in my life than to walk down the street and hear footsteps and start thinking about robbery. Then look around and see somebody white and feel relieved.... After all we have been through. Just to think we can't walk down our own streets, how humiliating.

And Christopher Hitchens echoes your words about context when he recounted the following incident to Dennis Prager:

You're on a subway platform in New York, late at night in s deserted station. Suddenly a group of a dozen black men appears. Do you stay where you are or move to the exit? [...] Waiting alone for a train, well after midnight, I had been suddenly joined by a crew of repairmen...all of them black. I instantly felt safer [...]

[roses of sharon]

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120344047

Learn to Speak Tea Bag at NPR

[mylife]

You must speak in reassuring NPR tones OR

Orwellian disciplinarian tones.

They prefer hushed harvard tones, but Juan was sacked today for speaking truth to power.

[mylife]

It’s amazing.

When can we have a dialogue?