stephanie
11-01-2007, 12:08 AM
By Ben Johnson
FrontPageMagazine.com | Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Code Pink learned something from the far-Left college students who smeared Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week at George Washington University this month: the liberal establishment is a most effective and willing accomplice in slandering any individual or organization that wants to see an honorable exit from the war in Iraq. This week, Code Pink excelled the success of “Students for Conservativo-Fascism Awareness,” getting the major international media to report its hoax as fact.
On Monday, the Code Pinkos issued a press release in the name of Blackwater USA – the private security force in Iraq that leftists describe as “mercenaries” – announcing the corporation had formed a new “Department of Corporate Integrity” to “defend its corporate name and clear up its public image.” It then attributed a phony quotation to respected conservative commentator Max Boot:
“Blackwater has become synonymous with mercenary, but the public doesn't understand that mercenary has actually be a positive term throughout history,” said Max Boot of the Council of Foreign Affairs.
After inventing another quotation for Blackwater CEO Eric Prince, the release stated:
Directing the new Department of Public Integrity is Kitty Laver, who has 20 years’ experience in public relations and corporate responsibility. “My job is to put the mercy back in mercenary,” says Laver. (Emphasis added.)
“Kitty Laver” was a pseudonym for none other than Medea Benjamin: Code Pink founder, Castroite, organizer of the violent Seattle World Trade Organization riots, and benefactor of “the other side” in Iraq. In 2004, Medea delivered $600,000 of cash and supplies to the terrorist stronghold of Fallujah, but on Monday, she delivered an infinitely dearer amount of anti-American propaganda in “mainstream” media. An admission Americans were involved in “mercenary” work would not only render Blackwater unpopular, but lessen the stigma of terrorists’ killing its personnel.
Nonetheless on Monday the Associated Press, CBS News, Politico.com, and all reported the phony press release at face value.
The hoax went off smoothly, without the annoyance of journalistic due diligence. One of the planners chortled, ”Code Pinkers stayed in character as Kitty Laver of Blackwater while our phones rang off the hook from Blackwater and the press…A television network called us to schedule Blackwater president Eric Prince for their morning talk show.”
Only later did they realize they had been fooled. (Code Pink conducted a "Blackwater press conference" Tuesday morning.)
Politico.com stated in its retraction:
Code Pink today pulled off a hoax that pulled in Politico and a number of other news outlets when it ginned up a fake release, saying that Blackwater USA was creating a new “Department of Corporate Integrity” that would put the “mercy back in mercenary.” That should have been a tip off.
That’s precisely the problem: it should have been a tip off, and not the only one. The fact that representatives from Blackwater denied the story “within minutes” of the release should have been a first clue. The fact that the contact number on the press release belonged to Code Pink rather than Blackwater may have also been instructive.
read the rest at..
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=85834AF5-3013-47F7-82FE-035689D8D5B4
FrontPageMagazine.com | Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Code Pink learned something from the far-Left college students who smeared Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week at George Washington University this month: the liberal establishment is a most effective and willing accomplice in slandering any individual or organization that wants to see an honorable exit from the war in Iraq. This week, Code Pink excelled the success of “Students for Conservativo-Fascism Awareness,” getting the major international media to report its hoax as fact.
On Monday, the Code Pinkos issued a press release in the name of Blackwater USA – the private security force in Iraq that leftists describe as “mercenaries” – announcing the corporation had formed a new “Department of Corporate Integrity” to “defend its corporate name and clear up its public image.” It then attributed a phony quotation to respected conservative commentator Max Boot:
“Blackwater has become synonymous with mercenary, but the public doesn't understand that mercenary has actually be a positive term throughout history,” said Max Boot of the Council of Foreign Affairs.
After inventing another quotation for Blackwater CEO Eric Prince, the release stated:
Directing the new Department of Public Integrity is Kitty Laver, who has 20 years’ experience in public relations and corporate responsibility. “My job is to put the mercy back in mercenary,” says Laver. (Emphasis added.)
“Kitty Laver” was a pseudonym for none other than Medea Benjamin: Code Pink founder, Castroite, organizer of the violent Seattle World Trade Organization riots, and benefactor of “the other side” in Iraq. In 2004, Medea delivered $600,000 of cash and supplies to the terrorist stronghold of Fallujah, but on Monday, she delivered an infinitely dearer amount of anti-American propaganda in “mainstream” media. An admission Americans were involved in “mercenary” work would not only render Blackwater unpopular, but lessen the stigma of terrorists’ killing its personnel.
Nonetheless on Monday the Associated Press, CBS News, Politico.com, and all reported the phony press release at face value.
The hoax went off smoothly, without the annoyance of journalistic due diligence. One of the planners chortled, ”Code Pinkers stayed in character as Kitty Laver of Blackwater while our phones rang off the hook from Blackwater and the press…A television network called us to schedule Blackwater president Eric Prince for their morning talk show.”
Only later did they realize they had been fooled. (Code Pink conducted a "Blackwater press conference" Tuesday morning.)
Politico.com stated in its retraction:
Code Pink today pulled off a hoax that pulled in Politico and a number of other news outlets when it ginned up a fake release, saying that Blackwater USA was creating a new “Department of Corporate Integrity” that would put the “mercy back in mercenary.” That should have been a tip off.
That’s precisely the problem: it should have been a tip off, and not the only one. The fact that representatives from Blackwater denied the story “within minutes” of the release should have been a first clue. The fact that the contact number on the press release belonged to Code Pink rather than Blackwater may have also been instructive.
read the rest at..
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=85834AF5-3013-47F7-82FE-035689D8D5B4