Remembering “Gravitas” » Publications » Family Security Matters

Remembering “Gravitas” » Publications » Family Security Matters: "In a July 22 op-ed column for the Wall Street Journal, titled, “The Vast Left-Wing Media Conspiracy,” Weekly Standard executive editor Fred Barnes responded to reports that he had been targeted for a “racist” smear by liberal journalists during the 2008 General Election.

In a series of reports by conservative commentator Tucker Carlson of the Daily Caller, Spencer Ackerman of the Washington Independent is quoted as saying, “If the right forces us all to either defend (Barack Obama’s pastor Jeremiah) Wright or tear him down, no matter what we choose, we lose the game they’ve put upon us. Instead, take one of them… Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, who cares… and call them ‘racists.’ This makes them ‘sputter’ with rage, which in turn leads to overreaction and self-destruction.”
Ackerman went on to say, “What is necessary is to raise the cost on the right of going after the left. In other words, find a right winger’s [sic] and smash it through a plate-glass window. Take a snapshot of the bleeding mess and send it out in a Christmas card to let the right know that it needs to live in a state of constant fear… ”

This leftist rant, frighteningly suggestive of the Nazis’ Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass), in which Hitler’s brownshirts smashed the windows of Jewish-owned shops and businesses all across Germany, was presented for consideration by members of an Internet listserv called JournoList, comprised of some 400 liberal journalists, academics, and think-tank propagandists assembled by Washington Post writer Ezra Klein.