![\"\"](\"http:\/\/libertyblitzkrieg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Screen-Shot-2017-06-13-at-10.49.31-AM-1024x769.jpg\")
<\/p>\nMichael Krieger |\u00a0Liberty Blitzkrieg<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Comedian Lee Camp has hosted a show on RT<\/em> called Redacted Tonight<\/a> since 2014. While I certainly don\u2019t always agree with his conclusions, he\u2019s clearly a passionate, genuine and highly intelligent American who cares deeply about the country and the people living in it. He believes (rightly), that our fellow citizens are are suffering unnecessarily due to our demonstrably parasitic, corrupt, imperial, oligarchic, corporate-state. Because he possesses such attributes, The New York Times<\/em>\u00a0found it necessary to dispatch one of its minions to write an embarrassing, unprofessional and downright shady piece of propaganda about him.<\/p>\n His response is lengthy, but it\u2019s also extremely important for everyone to read in full. It provides further evidence that those who peddle in fake news and shoddy, deep state propagandist drivel should not throw stones.<\/strong> The New York Times<\/em> needs to get its own house in order before whining about how everyone else is so deficient.<\/p>\n Below are some of the more outrageous excerpts from his excellent rebuttal. You can read it in full at Naked Capitalism<\/em><\/a>:<\/p>\n This past Thursday\u00a0the New York Times\u00a0vomited up\u00a0a\u00a0hit piece on little ol\u2019 me<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 a guy who has been doing stand-up comedy for nearly 20 years and thought maybe that\u00a0comedy\u00a0could be used to inform and inspire audiences, rather than just make fun of the differences between men and women.<\/em><\/p>\n At first when you\u2019re the center of a smear job, you\u2019re annoyed and frustrated. But as I read further through the piece, I realized it was a master class in how to write propaganda for one of the most \u201crespected\u201d news outlets in our country. I\u2019m actually grateful it was written about me because now I can see with my own eyes exactly how the glorious chicanery is done.<\/strong> I count no less than 15 lies, manipulations, and false implications in this short article, a score that even our fearless prevaricator-in-chief Donald Trump would envy.<\/em><\/p>\n So here now is a \u201cHow To\u201d for writing propaganda for\u00a0the New York Times\u00a0\u2013 using the smear piece against me as an example.<\/em><\/p>\n Guilt by Association<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n That Mr. Camp does this on RT \u2014 which describes itself as the \u2018Russian view on global news\u2019 and which paid Michael T. Flynn, the former national security adviser, to speak at the gala where he sat next to Vladimir V. Putin \u2014 raises questions about the comedian\u2019s independence, particularly when he delves into the conspiracy about Mr. Rich. Just last month, Andrew Feinberg,\u00a0a former White House reporter for Sputnik, another Russian-financed media outlet, said that his bosses \u2018wanted the Seth Rich story pushed.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n So now he\u2019s somehow looping in\u00a0me and my comedy news show with Michael Flynn, Putin, Sputnik (the radio channel), Seth Rich conspiracies, and I\u2019m pretty sure he mentioned something about me hanging out with Bill Cosby.<\/em><\/p>\n Here\u2019s the problem with that paragraph \u2013 I have nothing to do with Sputnik. I have nothing to do with Michael Flynn, Andrew Feinberg, nor Vladimir Putin. I have never spoken to or met any of them. (Nor do I speak Russian, so a conversation with Putin would consist of me grunting and trying to act out references to\u00a0The Hunt For Red October.) I have never been told by anyone at RT America to say anything about Seth Rich, nor have I seen anyone being told to talk about Seth Rich, nor did my segment even support the theory that he was killed by the DNC.<\/em><\/p>\n So basically nothing in that paragraph has anything to do with me, but Zinoman wants to lead you to believe it does. This technique is called \u201cguilt by association,\u201d although Zinoman couldn\u2019t actually find the \u201cassociation\u201d part so he just included a paragraph about these people to\u00a0imply\u00a0guilt by association. Subconsciously the reader is left to think, \u201cIf Lee Camp didn\u2019t have anything to do with any of those things, then our fearless author would never have brought any of it up.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Furthermore, Zinoman is correct that RT has said in the past that they are \u201cthe Russian view on global news\u201d in the same way BBC has said in the past that they are \u201cthe British view of global news.\u201d However, BBC also creates many shows that are outside the\u00a0realm of straight news \u2013 such as\u00a0Dr. Who. I\u2019ve rarely heard anyone accuse\u00a0Dr. Who\u00a0of being the British view of global news. (Why do those crazy Brits always insist on taking flying police boxes to go everywhere?)<\/em><\/p>\n My show, written by me and my correspondents, is certainly not the Russian view of global news and neither is \u2013 for example \u2013 Larry King\u2019s show on RT America. (I get that\u00a0Dr. Who\u00a0is further afield of news than my show is, but the analogy is simply meant to say these networks create shows that are not strictly straight news.) And anyone who thinks CNN, for instance, isn\u2019t the American view of global news is kidding themselves. But I have to agree that CNN\u2019s\u00a0Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown\u00a0did a terrible job of covering the terror attacks in London.<\/em><\/p>\n I speak only for my show \u2013 I don\u2019t speak for any other show on RT America. I write the words I say on\u00a0Redacted Tonight\u00a0and have never been told I have to say anything. Compare that to\u2026 (Oh, so many examples to choose from! How can I only pick one?!)\u2026 let\u2019s say Melissa Harris Perry on MSNBC. After being forced out\u00a0she said she was censored often<\/a>. As an example she said \u2013 close to showtime \u2013 that she was told not to cover Beyonce\u2019s Black Panther\u00a0inspired Super Bowl halftime show. In no uncertain terms MSNBC heads stopped her from talking about it. Perry was literally forbidden from discussing the two most popular things to ever exist on our planet earth \u2013 Beyonce and the Super Bowl (and I\u2019m including food and sex).<\/em><\/p>\n Now that we\u2019ve established a good foundation of guilt by association (without the association) and some priming and some baseless implications, it\u2019s time to move on to:<\/em><\/p>\n Write Off Good Attributes That Don\u2019t Fit the Storyline<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Mr. Camp\u2019s hard-edge critique of corporate greed and American policy is genuine; he was taking this line in his stand-up act before working for RT. But context matters.<\/em><\/p>\n Writing about the fact that I have spent nearly two decades involved in comedy, much of it political, much of it trying to make America better, trying to stand up for people over profit\u2026 well, that just wouldn\u2019t fit with the author\u2019s theme. So he had to find a way to get this stumbling block out of the way of his race to propaganda victory! He did that by casually mentioning the good attributes before writing them off as meaningless. My work and what I stand for is beside the point\u00a0because \u201ccontext matters.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n It\u2019s What the Person Doesn\u2019t Say That Really Matters<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Because Zinoman wasn\u2019t able to find any\u00a0statements from me pledging allegiance to Russia, or supporting war by Russia (or anyone for that matter), or even voicing support for Donald Trump in any way, shape, or form (because none of those statements\u00a0exist), he had to resort to going after what I\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0say. \u2026And oddly, I agree with him that what people don\u2019t say can be important, but we\u2019ll get to that in a moment.<\/em><\/p>\n As hacking and Russia\u2019s relationship to the Trump campaign increasingly dominate headlines, Mr. Camp\u2019s refusal to dig into the story is conspicuous. He avoids the subject on air, and while he does criticize President Trump, his considerable comic bile rarely focuses on him.<\/em><\/p>\n Despite all his extensive research (sarcasm), Jason Zinoman failed to read the title of my show. \u2026Redacted\u00a0Tonight. I\u2019m hoping he knows what the word \u201ctonight\u201d means but maybe the \u201credacted\u201d part eluded him. \u201cRedacted\u201d means \u201ccensored,\u201d and my show tries very hard to focus on the news that (ironically in this conversation) is NOT being covered on the mainstream media, the stuff that is being censored. As he just admitted, bullshit about Trump and hacking claims FILL the mainstream airwaves. Some of it true, some of it not, but all of it covered intensively. I have no interest in being a mainstream media or government mouthpiece for anyone \u2013 which is why I created\u00a0REDACTED Tonight. It\u2019s also why the things I say (particularly the anti-corporate things) are not allowed on any standard American TV channel. Zinoman, on the other hand, is quite content working at a propaganda outlet like\u00a0the New York Times\u00a0\u2013 also more on that later\u00a0\u2013 and after all, context matters.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Zinoman tepidly says \u201cwhile he does criticize Trump his\u00a0considerable comic bile rarely focuses on him.\u201d\u00a0Well, first of all, for anyone who watches my show regularly, you know that hardly an episode goes by in which I don\u2019t call Trump a megalomaniacal fascist man-boy with the decision-making capacity of a gopher recently run over by a Hummer (or something similar). You can watch\u00a0some examples\u00a0HERE<\/a>,\u00a0HERE<\/a>,\u00a0HERE<\/a>,\u00a0HERE<\/a>,\u00a0HERE<\/a>, &\u00a0HERE<\/a>. In fact I went harsher on Trump than pretty much all of the mainstream media during the campaign season. Please point to the moments when Anderson Cooper or Brian Williams called Trump a fascist, or a psychopath, or\u00a0photoshopped his head onto Hitler\u2019s body. (I did all those things.)<\/em><\/p>\n And the reason I don\u2019t spend EVEN MORE lengthy segments on him is that A) We\u2019re the \u201credacted\u201d stories, remember? The title of my show is not\u00a0\u201cStories Everyone Has Heard 8 Billion Times On Cable News\u2026 Tonight.\u201d And B) I don\u2019t believe Trump is the cause of our country\u2019s main problems. I believe he is a symptom of an incredibly corrupt corporate-ruled system. He is a horrible and rather \u2013 not bright \u2013 man, but he is not the cause of the millions of hungry and homeless and imprisoned in our country. He is not the cause of the flaws in our democracy and our media. He is just the pimple that has risen up.<\/strong>\u00a0So either Zinoman is intentionally misunderstanding the viewpoint of my show or he\u2019s just so desperate to push his talking points that he\u2019s looking past it.<\/em><\/p>\n And I believe\u00a0the New York Times\u00a0is one of those directly responsible for making Trump president by\u00a0\u2013 along with other mainstream outlets \u2013 giving him\u00a0$5 BILLION of free coverage<\/a>\u00a0during the campaign season. In fact, Bernie Sanders supporters got so angry with\u00a0the Times\u00a0for their lack of coverage that\u00a0the Times\u00a0eventually issued\u00a0a response<\/a>. Even in that response in which they say they\u2019ve covered Sanders plenty, they admit that in one sample month Sanders had 14 articles about him while Trump had 63 articles. If that distribution of coverage had been ANYWHERE NEAR even, we would have either Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton as president. So, Mr. Zinoman, let me know when you\u2019d like to apologize for your outlet giving us the Trump presidency.<\/em><\/p>\n Fuck It, Insult the Guy\u2019s Looks<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Mr. Camp \u2014 who looks like a Broadway musical costume designer\u2019s idea of a counterculture comedian, with \u2018Jesus Christ Superstar\u2019 hair and T-shirts bearing images of Bill Hicks or \u2018Catch-22\u2019\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n The NY Times\u00a0has so deeply fallen into their own propaganda hole, they\u2019ve resorted to just insulting the looks of people they feel threatened by. I don\u2019t know what Jason Zinoman looks like, but I\u2019m sure it\u2019s awesome.<\/strong><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Now here\u2019s where it gets downright dastardly, and simply inexcusable.<\/p>\n Lie<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Enough beating around the bush, it\u2019s time to flat-out lie.<\/em><\/p>\n According to several people in the comedy scene, his stand-up diatribes succeeded with like-minded fans but had more trouble with crowds that didn\u2019t share his point of view. \u2018We wouldn\u2019t book him for a weekend, let\u2019s put it that way,\u2019 said Cris Italia, one of the owners of the New York comedy club the Stand.<\/em><\/p>\n First of all, I\u2019d love to know who these mysterious \u201ccomedy scene\u201d people were. Waitresses? Busboys? Phanton of The Opera types lurking underneath the stage silently judging my satire? Unfortunately, we\u2019ll never know because \u201cthe comedy scene\u201d only speak on deep cover. (First rule of comedy scene \u2013 Don\u2019t talk about comedy scene!)<\/em><\/p>\n Secondly, Zinoman claims that Cris Italia told him that the comedy club the Stand in NYC would not book me on the weekends. Cris had actually contacted me two days before\u00a0the Times\u00a0article\u00a0came out to tell me that a reporter had reached out to him about me and that he could tell from the questions the reporter was trying to portray me in a negative light.<\/strong> (Read: Trying to push an agenda rather than being, you know, a journalist.) Italia said:<\/em><\/p>\n I told him you were liked by everyone. I also said what Dennis Miller, Janeane Garofalo, & Marc Maron were for their generation, you were for this generation.<\/em><\/p>\n But Zinoman did the smart thing for a propaganda machine \u2013 leave out the stuff that does not fit the false story you\u2019re pushing. (I picture Zinoman cringing on the other end of the line as nice things are said about the unscrupulous Russian agent \u2013 Lee Camp. After jotting down the quote about Dennis Miller, he furiously rips the page out of his notebook, chews it up, and swallows it.)<\/em><\/p>\n Cris Italia says he was next asked whether the Stand would book me on a Saturday, and he replied that they don\u2019t book headliners on weekends. (Most NYC clubs do what\u2019s called a \u201cshowcase\u201d show in which many comics get onstage over the course of the evening.) Zinoman \u2013 upon not getting the quote he wanted \u2013 must have figured he could slant this into something saying the Stand would not book me. He either didn\u2019t understand Italia or chose to misquote him. So Zinoman is sloppy at best and a fraud at worst.<\/em><\/p>\n Final Step: Leave the Reader With the Same (False) Prime You Started With<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n The article wraps up by describing my live stand-up performance at the Cutting Room in NYC a few weeks ago. Zinoman attended the show and in the article wrongly states that I performed with two correspondents from\u00a0Redacted Tonight. Only one of the openers \u2013 John F. O\u2019Donnell \u2013 is from\u00a0Redacted. But getting that fact correct would have required ANOTHER Google search. (The work never ends!) Zinoman of course fails to mention in his description that A)\u00a0The 250-capacity room was nearly sold out with excited fans B) The show went great and I think everyone left having had a wonderful\u00a0time C) My stand-up performances (unless done for a TV special) have no connection to RT America at all. They are my own events. But the author leaves all of that out even though\u2026 context matters.<\/em><\/p>\n Anyway, the article ends like this:<\/em><\/p>\n Once Mr. Camp finished and the crowd had filed out, I lingered for a minute on the sidewalk. And while there wasn\u2019t any rally, I couldn\u2019t help noticing two beefy guys speaking in Russian and laughing uproariously.<\/em><\/p>\n What Zinoman really REALLY\u00a0doesn\u2019t want you to know is that those \u201cbeefy Russians\u201d were almost certainly not there for my stand-up comedy show. The Cutting Room had a show starting\u00a0after mine that had nothing to do with my show. And guess what \u2013 that show was a\u00a0rapper named Noize<\/a>, who is described as \u201cThe most outspoken, daring and exciting Russian rapper.\u201d<\/strong> That\u2019s right, the reason there were people in line speaking Russian outside my comedy show is because they were there to see a Russian rapper that had nothing to do with me.<\/em><\/p>\n And don\u2019t forget \u2013 context matters.<\/em><\/p>\n Either Zinoman knew about the rapper\u00a0and decided not to reveal it (so he\u2019s basically a liar), or he didn\u2019t bother to look at the massive sign listing the performances, nor ask the Russians (who probably spoke English) why they were there (in which case he\u2019s possibly the worst \u201cjournalist\u201d to walk the earth). It\u2019s tough to say which one of those two things is worse.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n But describing those laughing Russians serves a purpose greater than an interesting tidbit. Zinoman sat through an entire 90-minute stand-up comedy show in which I covered everything from how our leaders force us into endless war, to how we can feed every human on the planet, to how we are sold an infinite\u00a0parade of lies, to how my comedy doesn\u2019t go over well at children\u2019s birthday parties. He saw me cover all those important issues. He saw an audience of over 200 people loving it and coming up to meet me afterwards. He saw a guy who has fought hard for 20 years to just do stand-up comedy that matters \u2013 that enlightens and informs\u00a0and entertains.\u00a0He saw it all.\u00a0But none of THAT fit with the propaganda he needed to push. In fact, it went against the storyline he was trying to create.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n So instead he leaves the reader with the idea that either A) My show is meant for burly Russians (according to online analytics roughly 80% or 90% of my viewers are Americans) or B) My show is being watched over by burly Russians to make sure I don\u2019t say anything \u201cout of line.\u201d Both of those are fake news. The reality is that burly Russians like a rapper named Noize.<\/em><\/p>\n I want to conclude with a little bit of context about\u00a0the New York Times, and how they\u2019ve become such a propaganda outlet that they would even hire journalists who pump out loads of fake news like this article on me.<\/em><\/p>\n Chris Hedges worked for 15 years as a foreign correspondent at\u00a0the Times\u00a0and won a Pulitzer for his work. He now hosts the show \u201cOn Contact\u201d at RT America.\u00a0He once said of his former employer<\/a>,<\/em><\/p>\n \u2026many at the paper have no real moral compass. They know the rules imposed by the paper\u2019s stylebook. They know what constitutes a \u2018balanced\u2019 story. They know what the institution demands. They work hard. They have ingested the byzantine quirks and traditions of the paper. But they cannot finally make independent moral choices. The entire paper \u2014 I speak as someone who was there at the time \u2014 enthusiastically served as a propaganda machine for the impending invasion of Iraq.<\/em><\/p>\n Hedges went on to say,<\/em><\/p>\n [The senior editors]\u00a0do not question the utopian faith in globalization. They support preemptive war, at least before it goes horribly wrong. And they accept unfettered capitalism, despite what it has done to the nation, as a kind of natural law.<\/em><\/p>\n The Times\u00a0was a strong cheerleader for the War in Iraq. (Don\u2019t worry though \u2013 they still have reporters out there looking for the weapons of mass destruction. \u2026Any day now.) When Hedges came out against the Iraq War,\u00a0the paper reprimanded<\/a>\u00a0him\u00a0for \u201cpublic remarks that could undermine public trust in the paper\u2019s impartiality.\u201d \u2026So basically they said, \u201cEither stand behind this flawed, illegal invasion of Iraq or else you\u2019re not welcome at\u00a0the Times.\u201d Hedges left the paper soon after.<\/em><\/p>\n Want some more evidence of exactly how\u00a0the New York Times\u00a0operates? Here\u2019s world renowned political philosopher\u00a0Noam Chomsky going through a single issue of\u00a0the Times\u00a0in 2015\u00a0explaining how it is pure propaganda<\/a>.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Zinoman should voluntarily lock himself in a dark closet for a year, or better yet, find a new profession. Preferably both.<\/p>\n