And here you thought that all of those zombie apocalypse movies and TV shows were just bullshit. There really is a toxin out there that can turn humans into brainless nightmares, wanting nothing more than to turn everybody else in the world into themselves. They’re called Republicans, the contagion is called Trump, and we may not have any choice except to quarantine 46% of the population while we check for infection.
We all know that Donald Trump is the master seller of conspiracy theories, he peddles that shit like a street corner hot dog vendor on Wall Street. And the lower he sinks, the more he seems to mesmerize at least some GOPasaurs into his conspiratorial madness. According to a new report on Politico, even conservative groups are not protected from the conspiracy theory contagion.
The conservative group Media Research Center, along with a new conglomeration of clods called Media Equalizer have a beef, and a battle plan to combat it. Their beef is that shows like Rachel Maddow have been peddling conspiracy theories about things like Trump campaign collusion with Russia, and using those conspiracies to smear poor, innocent little lambs like Carter Page and Paul Manafort. Their battle plan? Start putting public pressure on advertisers on the offending programs to dump advertising on their shows! No shit, they’re actually serious with this stuff;
"Fighting fire with fire is just to point out this can go both ways,” said Brian Maloney, a former conservative radio host heading up the Media Equalizer movement. “We’re trying to show [that] if you’re going to play this game, live or die by this sword. I don’t think the left is used to the right firing back on this.”
MRC President Brent Bozell said in a statement his group will closely monitor “leftist opinion programs” and when the hosts go “beyond political commentary and engage in smear, hate and political extremism,” they will encourage advertisers to push back.
OK, so now, reporting on actual, verifiable congressional and criminal investigations into the possible collusion with Russians during the 2016 campaign, and naming the possible players involved is a conspiracy theory and slander, along the lines of a Clinton backed child sex ring in the basement of a suburban Washington DC pizza parlor, or calling a private citizen activist like Sandra Fluke a “slut” for advocating for birth control? I guess so, since these groups are publicly placing advertisers on notice of the public flogging they can expect to receive if they don’t drink the Kool-Ade pronto;
“[W]e will be publicly listing the advertisers of these programs and asking them to defend their decision to continue airing ads on these shows,” Bozell said. "Every time one of their on-air personalities go beyond political commentary and engage in smear and hate, we are going to unleash an army of activists to contact these advertisers by phone and through social media to ask them why they are advertising on programs that are so biased, repulsive and morally bankrupt."
Come on guys, really? You finally have your ultimate political teenage seduction fantasy, the entire government in your hands. Your legislative agenda is in the toilet, your President is under investigation, your own congressional members are beginning to research “morning after” scenarios for next November, and your decisive response is to piss and moan at the advertisers tho hawk their wares on the programs that are outing your sophomoric antics?
You know, when you look at how well this kind of public pressure has worked in cases like helping to boot O’Reilly and Glenn Beck, shoved El Rushbo to second hand stations, and made Sean Hannity piss his pants when the first five sponsors bailed could cause problems for hosts like Maddow or O’Donnell if properly done. But it shouldn’t, for two simple reasons. First, the programs that were most affected by public pressure on advertisers were spouting moronic conspiracy theories, along with insulting sexist and.or misogynistic venom. The shows the GOP are targeting are reporting news, that can be verified simply by turning on CNN or any major network news hour broadcast, and are not being vindictive or personally insulting. The second reason is that somehow or other I just get the feeling that a bunch of tweets, FB posts and emails where half of the words are misspelled, in ALL CAPS, or both is not going to generate the kind of corporate gravitas the organizers are hoping for.
But there are a couple of very real reasons that this grand scheme could come a cropper. One is that I just don’t see the Trombies in this world going to the kind of trouble to set up actual sites and coordinated efforts that the progressives did, this isn’t as important to them as calling brown people and Muslims nasty names. Also, unless a major RWNJ media outlet like Breitbart picks up on it, I don’t see it getting the kind of coverage or traction as the Limbaugh and O’Reilly campaigns did, and to me at least it’s doubtful that if they did, they could rally their troops around the flag. Besides, Breitbart’s imprimatur on anything would make it pretty much toxic anyway.
Still, if these poor schlumps ever do get this thing off of the ground, I sure hope that Rachel, Lawrence, and all of the other targets of this tardy April Fools joke keep a running tally of lost sponsors due to the pressure. They should end up with enough zeroes for a regulation baseball game shutout, with the possible exception of the sponsor hawking the “end of the world” food packets, I don’t know what they’re doing on there anyway.