When To Respond?

FIGHTING BACK

Leftist Attacks Increasingly Personal



Sparking a rare Sunday blogswarm, Michelle Malkin today pounds leftist critics who've recently been stepping up personal attacks:

During one of countless book-related radio interviews this week, a liberal radio host insultingly asked me whether I write my own column. His question was prompted by vicious anonymous bloggers who portray me as a greedy Asian whore/dupe/brainwashing victim who simply parrots what my white slavemasters program into my empty little head. These critics have stepped up attacks on my husband Jesse as a fanatical right-wing puppeteer orchestrating all I do and say.

I assume these tinfoil-hat wearers also think I'm secretly wired during my TV and radio appearances, speeches, and debates-- you know, just like George Bush.

While I've long felt the best defense is a good offense, when to ignore or respond to critics is always open for debate. Today, Malkin forces the issue to the surface.

If liberals have any real guts, perhaps they'll consider questioning Michelle directly when she appears on WRKO's (680 AM in Boston) Pundit Review, tonight at 9pm EST.

Clearly as a result of her background, Malkin's been subjected to an unusual level of scrutiny in the last several years. However, the lefty oppo research techniques applied to her, are increasingly being used against the rest of us.

One would think we were running for the US Senate, given the time and energy put into this campaign.

How do you know you've made their target list? Look for these signs:


--- When background investigations are no longer limited to mere Google searches, instead heading into the realm of hardball campaign politics. Obtained information suddenly goes beyond your political positions and into personal details.

In the Malkin example, this became clear when opponents began researching her parents, hometown, college record and children, in addition to the extreme (and hypocritical) scrutiny applied to husband Jesse.


--- When every element of your CV or biography is examined in an effort to find exaggerations or outright dishonesty. If they can't dig up sleaze, they'll resort to enormous leaps.

Case in point: last year, I was nominated for a 2005 Payne Award For Ethics In Journalism. It seemed odd to me, because the University of Oregon program has an ultraliberal reputation. Based on what they consider courage under fire in newsroom settings, the award honors those who've stood their ground in hostile circumstances.

Sure enough, some on the left assumed I'd nominated myself and without any evidence, spread this across the Internet. Simply because someone could do this meant that I must have. That's lefty "logic" in action.


--- When your press coverage is mischaracterized and taken out of context.

On July 7, 1997, I was compared to Rush Limbaugh in Time Magazine. If you take only the exact story passage, it can be used to make me look like a fringe extremist. Put back into context, it's clear leftist writer Walter Kirn was seeking to make all Nevadans look like redneck loose cannons.

Sure enough, that's what my critics have been recently doing, digging up the original story from now-ancient Internet archives.


--- When they look for the slightest on-air or Internet comment to wildly twist out of proportion.

Recent attacks on Bill Bennett and Bill O'Reilly provide the best examples. Bennett wasn't calling for black babies to be aborted, nor was O'Reilly demanding Islamists destroy San Francisco (not a terribly important global terror target anyway).

Because the left wanted this to be case, however, they simply repeated the statements out of context until most of the public believed it. Intellectual dishonesty at its finest.


--- When anti-blogs are set up to trash yours.

While read by relatively few, these already exist to oppose Michelle, as well as other major bloggers. I've no idea why these people waste their time. There's now an anti-Radio Equalizer site, as well, so I'm happy to join the club.


Even President Bush has realized critics can't always be ignored. Recently, he's begun taking them head-on, a smart move, even if a bit late.

For the rest of us, it's a question of what to ignore and when to respond.



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