I love it when wingnuts bring the crazy in list form

because it’s somehow much more hilarious than other forms of bringin’ crazy. By now, you’ve probably heard about Family Security Matters’ “Ten Most Dangerous Organizations in America.” (The link goes to Crooks & Liars’s coverage.) The list is as follows:

10 ) Think Progress

9 ) Muslim Student Association

8 ) CodePINK

7 ) American Civil Liberties Union, National

6 ) Family Research Council

5 ) Center for American Progress

4 ) League of the South

3 ) MoveOn.org

2 ) Universities and Colleges

1 ) Media Matters for America

I particularly like the two right-wing groups thrown in to make this list look “fair and balanced.” Much has already been said about #2, and with good reason: the right-wing phobia over education is massive and it would be hilarious if it weren’t so scary.

But I’ve also got to take a moment to address it’s absolutely ludicrous criticism of Media Matters (most of the piece’s criticisms are ludicrous, but I’ll confine myself to the first item on the list. I’ve conveniently placed asterisks next to falsehoods for your reading convenience:

You’re unlikely to find a more dishonest machine than Media Matters. Their entire operation involves listening to conservative talk radio and television commentators, taking anything out of context that they can, and running the host through the mud. They are professional smear merchants who routinely attack Bill O’Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Neil Cavuto.

 

Media Matters is virulently anti-free speech when the speech involved is conservative in nature. The organization actively issues directives to its readers to contact Rush Limbaugh Show affiliates to try to boot him off the air for the “phony soldiers” comment that organizations like Media Matters willfully took out of context.

 

Media does matter for America – which is why you should steer clear of the astoundingly inaccurate and unethical Media Matters for America.

I’ll give them this: if I were a crazy-ass wingnut, I’d think Media Matters was exceptionally dangerous, too. How dare they quote what people say and place that quote in context?

Naturally, the piece gives no evidence to defend its claims, nor can it: Media Matters doesn’t take anything out of context. In fact, their coverage of right-wing idiocy includes transcripts to give the full context. Take the Rush Limbaugh “phony soldiers” comment: Media Matters quoted rush, gave audio and an in-context transcript, and then was routinely attacked–falsely–for its supposed lies.

No surprise there, of course: the far right’s game plan is to lie and then to lie more when called on it. And so they need to go after Media Matters in particular, for Media Matters annoying habit of documenting what wingnuts say is very damaging. Unfortunately for the right, they can’t explain how placing their words in context is unfair.

Or maybe I’m being too harsh in attributing to them malicious intent: maybe their fear of education has left them without the necessary critical thinking skills to actually evaluate an argument’s claims. Hey, it happened to Phillis Schlafly.

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