SOME CONSERVATIVE MEDIA BURNED IN CLIVEN BUNDY AFFAIR
By Cliff
Kincaid
April 29, 2014
NewsWithViews.com
Some “prominent Republicans and conservative news media outlets” are being accused by The Washington Post of rallying around the cause of Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy, who made derogatory comments about “Negroes” and has been discredited as a racist.
But Glenn Beck, the prominent conservative TV and radio host, did not fall into the trap. He concluded early on that the Nevada rancher was “unhinged” and not worthy of support, after noting that some followers of radio host Alex Jones were “deeply embedded” with the Bundy family and preparing for a confrontation with federal agents.
“These guys are dangerous. They are looking for revolution. They are looking for a fight,” Beck said of the Alex Jones disciples.
Recognizing a dangerous situation in the making, when armed federal agents tried to seize Bundy’s cattle, Beck urged a peaceful response to the conflict. Eventually, the federal agents were withdrawn, and bloodshed was avoided.
Jones is being inaccurately described in some reports about the controversy as a “conservative” when, in fact, he insists he is a “libertarian.”
What is an established fact is that Jones has a habit of exploiting legitimate conservative issues for his own benefit.He is a 9/11 “truther” who thinks the September 11, 2001 attacks were carried out by a secret cabal and that Muslims were unfairly blamed.
In a decision he has probably come to regret, Sean Hannity of Fox News had followed Jones’ lead on the Bundy case. Bundy’s comments about the “Negro” being better off under slavery caused Hannity and other responsible conservatives to denounce the rancher.
Bundyhad commented, “Negroes abort their young children, they put their young men in jail, because they never learned how to pick cotton. And I’ve often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy? They didn’t get no more freedom. They got less freedom.”
Beck said, “If he really thinks…that slaves had a family life, just that shows you how unhinged from reality this guy is! You’ve got to distance yourself. You must know who you are standing next to at all times.”
Hannity backed away from Bundy, saying, “All right, allow me to make myself abundantly clear. I believe those comments are downright racist. They are repugnant. They are bigoted. And it’s beyond disturbing. I find those comments to be deplorable, and I think it’s extremely unfortunate that Cliven Bundy holds those views.”
Jones, however, is still defending Bundy, insisting that he is really “pro-black” and that he has been “demonized” by the media and that his comments were taken out of context.
Jones had also claimed that Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid (NV) was behind the attempt to force Bundy off the land, so that the Chinese could erect a solar energy complex there. Beck’s website The Blaze debunked that and other sensational claims.
But Jones’ lunacy goes beyond stoking domestic confrontations and sparking calls for revolution. A frequent guest on the Russia Today (RT) propaganda channel, he defended the Russian invasion of its former republic of Georgia in 2008, and his websites are now defending the Russian government’s invasion of Ukraine.
“CIA Will Soon Roll Out Death Squads to Deal With Activists in Eastern Ukraine,” is the headline over one Alex Jones “Prison Planet” story about how the government of Ukraine supposedly intends to deal with Russian-led movements inside their territory. The story includes a clip of the Russian foreign minister from the Iranian propaganda channel Press TV.
One Jones website even runs pro-Russian propaganda from the Voltairnet website, promoting what it calls a “strategy against imperialism and Zionism.”
If violence had occurred in Nevada between federal agents and Bundy family members and supporters, one can safely assume Jones would have blamed the so-called “globalists,” supposedly pulling the strings behind the scenes. He occasionally airs the view that shadowy members of the Bilderberg group, a private group of wealthy and influential Americans and Europeans, are actually running national and global events.
A staple of the Jones approach is to claim that terrorist incidents, such as 9/11 and the Boston bombings,are carried out by the federal government so that “neocons” can claim a pretext for going towar on behalf of Israel.
Going even further than this typical approach, a Jones website is currently featuring a “Voice of Russia” story about the Boston bombing being a “false flag terrorist attack,” featuring “fake blood, make-up artists and smiling ‘victims.’”
Another pet cause of Jones is the marijuana movement, a fact that may explain a lot of his appeal. He promoted a movie called “Guns And Weed: The Road to Freedom,” in which the combustible combination of drugs and firearmsis somehow viewed as the salvation of America, a source of jobs, miraculous medical treatments, and armed defense against sinister forces trying to take away people’s rights.
Ironically, this stance puts Jones on the same side of the debate as George Soros, supposedly his nemesis and one of the architects of the “New World Order” that Jones claims to reject.
Soros has been a major funder of the marijuana legalization movement.
“Anybody with two remotely active brain cells to rub together knows that marijuana prohibition is absurd,” says Jones associate Kurt Nimmo, ignoring the scientific evidence linking the drug to mental illness.
Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez, a fan of the Alex Jones movie, “The Obama Deception,” is a concrete example of what happens when Jones’ theories are accepted by potheads with mental problems.
A marijuana addict, he tried to kill President Obama by shooting at the White House, and was recently sentenced to 25 years in prison because he came to believe the federal government was standing in the way of marijuana legalization. The Jones film portrays Obama as a secret CIA operative.
Instead of warning against marijuana causing mental illness, Jones sells a “fluoride shield” ($40 a bottle) of “herbs and ingredients,” supposedly to protect people from the effects of a mineral used mostly for cavity prevention. Since fluoride is in the water, Jones also sells water purification systems.
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Demonstrating similar paranoid delusionsto those that drove Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez, Jones is now accusing Beck of being a “globalist tool” and pawn of the CIA because he didn’t embrace Cliven Bundy’s grazing “rights”on federal land, a right that he had already lost in state court.
Beck is a “Judas Goat,” Jones says.
The controversy serves to illustrate how Jones, whose remarks are regularly highlighted by the popular “Drudge Report,” is poisoning the minds of many conservativesand Tea Party members who think Jones is on their side.
Jones gave the Drudge Report credit for igniting the national coverage of the confrontationin Nevada,and complained when Hannity tried to take center stage in coverage of the confrontation. Bundy went on both of their shows.
© 2014 Cliff Kincaid - All Rights Reserved
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Cliff Kincaid, a veteran journalist and media critic, Cliff concentrated in journalism and communications at the University of Toledo, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree.
Cliff has written or co-authored nine books on media and cultural affairs and foreign policy issues. One of Cliff's books, "Global Bondage: The UN Plan to Rule the World" is still awailable.
Cliff has appeared on Hannity & Colmes, The O’Reilly Factor, Crossfire and has been published in the Washington Post, Washington Times, Chronicles, Human Events and Insight.
Cliff Kincaid is president of America’s
Survival, Inc.
E-Mail: cliff.kincaid@aim.org
