The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Wow. New York Times Article About Charles Johnson Is Reasonably Accurate

Posted on | January 22, 2010 | 64 Comments

Unlike the fawning Los Angeles Times column that spoiled my breakfast in Burbank a couple of weeks ago, Jonathan Dee’s article takes time to examine the pivotal episode in the Little Green Footballs meltdown, the 2007 Brussels conference:

It seems borderline ridiculous that the political character of an extremist Belgian party, which in the last parliamentary election captured just 17 seats out of 150 in the Chamber of Representatives, should become the issue over which a kind of civil war among American conservatives broke out, but that is what happened. . . .
Johnson first hinted, and eventually demanded, that [Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer] publicly distance themselves from both Vlaams Belang and the conference itself, and when they demurred, he publicly distanced himself from them. . . .
Johnson broke off relations with blogs that claimed openly to owe their own existence to him. He called the syndicated columnist Diana West and the investigative reporter Richard Miniter fascist sympathizers. He threatened to take down Michelle Malkin. In some ways, it was an exploration of the limits of his own influence: all over the blogosphere, you were either with him or with the fascists. . . .

Read the rest, and remember that it was in October 2007 that Geller first stood up against Johnson’s bullying.  It was not until November 2008 that I first spoke up in Geller’s defense, and September 2009 when Johnson came after me. If the two weeks when I did battle against LGF seemed to me to stretch out like an endless nightmare, think of what it was like for Geller and Spencer to endure it for months on end.

For far too long, then, Geller, Spencer and a handful of others were pretty much alone against the once-awesome might of Little Green Footballs, and a lot of other people ignored it because it wasn’t in their interest to get mixed up in someone else’s blog war. But there were larger issues at stake, and conservative bloggers would have been wiser to heed the alarm bell when it first rang.

At least Dee’s New York Times article doesn’t buy into Johnson’s self-serving claim of a road-to-Damascus awakening about global warming as the origin of his war on the Right. What happened to Charles was a lot more personal than climate change. His attacks on others were an externalization of his own inner demons — scapegoating and projection — and because he lacked the manhood to confront his failures, he couldn’t back down or admit the possibility of error.

Tuesday night on blogger’s row in Boston, Pamela Geller was seated between Karen Tumulty of Time magazine and Kerry Picket of the Washington Times. When the band played, and the balloons dropped and confetti filled the air . . .

Well, Charles Johnson wasn’t there. He was somewhere else, infinitely and miserably alone.

UPDATE: Graydon Carter hires Barrett Brown?

Somehow, I managed to get myself involved in all of this despite having no real connection to the conservative movement other than enjoying a couple of Ted Nugent songs, or rather just one of them.

“Managed to get myself involved” = belatedly jumped on the dogpile after everyone else had become bored with the sordid mess at LGF.

Evidently Vanity Fair‘s editors decided that permitting that pretentious phony James Wolcott to befoul the blogosphere wasn’t enough, so now they’re grooming young Brown as a sort of junior varsity Wolcott.

Infinitely less interesting than VF‘s photos of Stephanie Seymour nude but, then again, isn’t everything?

(Graydon: Let Wolcott and Brown handle the boring-and-obnoxious-writing business. All I want is that photographing-nude-hotties gig.)

UPDATE II: Robert Spencer of JihadWatch reacts to the New York Times article but is strangely silent about Stephanie Seymour nude.

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Category: Atlas Shrugs, Charles Johnson, Rule 4

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  • http://pointofagun.blogspot.com/ Dave C

    I saw this over in the comment section..

    Misery loves company, I guess.

    They have his and hers ponytail bands now.

    BTW, did this part get discussed already? Charles has a fiancee!
    Congratulatutions Charles! Many best wishes to you both and all the happiness in the world!

  • http://pointofagun.blogspot.com/ Dave C

    I saw this over in the comment section..

    Misery loves company, I guess.

    They have his and hers ponytail bands now.

    BTW, did this part get discussed already? Charles has a fiancee!
    Congratulatutions Charles! Many best wishes to you both and all the happiness in the world!

  • http://theothermccain.com/ Robert Stacy McCain

    Charles has a fiancee!

    The poor woman . . .

  • http://theothermccain.com/ Robert Stacy McCain

    Er, at least I assume its a woman . . .

  • http://theothermccain.com/ Robert Stacy McCain

    Charles has a fiancee!

    The poor woman . . .

  • http://theothermccain.com/ Robert Stacy McCain

    Er, at least I assume its a woman . . .

  • http://pointofagun.blogspot.com/ Dave C

    Dunno how long it will last the way he keeps letting his hair clog up the drain.

  • http://pointofagun.blogspot.com/ Dave C

    Dunno how long it will last the way he keeps letting his hair clog up the drain.

  • http://www.littlegreenfootballs.com Charles Johnson

    The New York Times is banned from the internets.

  • http://www.littlegreenfootballs.com Charles Johnson

    The New York Times is banned from the internets.

  • http://www.littlegreenfootballs.com Cato the Elder

    I am particularly disappointed that Dee seems to take the word of a notoriously deranged loon like Pam “Smearnoff” Geller as a reliable source without so much as a glance at the crazy hall of mirrors that is her site.

    Do NYT reporters actually use the web when reporting on it?

  • http://www.littlegreenfootballs.com Cato the Elder

    I am particularly disappointed that Dee seems to take the word of a notoriously deranged loon like Pam “Smearnoff” Geller as a reliable source without so much as a glance at the crazy hall of mirrors that is her site.

    Do NYT reporters actually use the web when reporting on it?

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  • Chuck

    dude… my pic of Stephanie Seymour was covered up by the ad for the Vanity Fair with Obama on the cover.. bait and switch!

  • Chuck

    dude… my pic of Stephanie Seymour was covered up by the ad for the Vanity Fair with Obama on the cover.. bait and switch!

  • Miss Sharon

    ROFL. He misses the days of the “unslanted” Walter Cronkite?!

  • Miss Sharon

    ROFL. He misses the days of the “unslanted” Walter Cronkite?!

  • Mats

    You are all creationists!!!

  • Mats

    You are all creationists!!!

  • SDN

    “Somehow, I managed to get myself involved in all of this despite having no real connection to the conservative movement other than enjoying a couple of Ted Nugent songs, or rather just one of them.”

    Oh, and turning himself into an obnoxious troll over at Protein Wisdom, cherry-picking the comments section for responses to his trollsomeness for some book of his about the horrible awful no-good very bad conservative blogosphere.

    “What a maroon!” B.Bunny, Esquire

  • SDN

    “Somehow, I managed to get myself involved in all of this despite having no real connection to the conservative movement other than enjoying a couple of Ted Nugent songs, or rather just one of them.”

    Oh, and turning himself into an obnoxious troll over at Protein Wisdom, cherry-picking the comments section for responses to his trollsomeness for some book of his about the horrible awful no-good very bad conservative blogosphere.

    “What a maroon!” B.Bunny, Esquire

  • http://www.thepiratescove.us William Teach

    Funny how the Times finds this as “news” now, considering that that the big war broke out about 8 months ago, and now most of us pretty much ignore that banning chump.

  • http://www.thepiratescove.us William Teach

    Funny how the Times finds this as “news” now, considering that that the big war broke out about 8 months ago, and now most of us pretty much ignore that banning chump.

  • John

    Give the Times credit for pretty much just laying out the timeline the way it was. Normally, when you have someone who’s seen as being on the right move to the left, like Garry Willis, Kevin Phillips, David Gergen or David Brock, their come-to-Gaia moment is lionized by the Times and other liberal media outlets, which is what you see in the Vanity Fair piece on Johnson and LGF. Charlies probably expected both outlets to offer up similar treatment, so the Times story has to be about like getting your sock caught in the bicycle chain.

  • John

    Give the Times credit for pretty much just laying out the timeline the way it was. Normally, when you have someone who’s seen as being on the right move to the left, like Garry Willis, Kevin Phillips, David Gergen or David Brock, their come-to-Gaia moment is lionized by the Times and other liberal media outlets, which is what you see in the Vanity Fair piece on Johnson and LGF. Charlies probably expected both outlets to offer up similar treatment, so the Times story has to be about like getting your sock caught in the bicycle chain.

  • Terry Gain

    His wake up moment was to become an AGW hysteric. Hilarious. Climategate must have been hard on his over-sized ego. Charles Johnson possesses the rare skill of photographing fences and rails. He’s in a class of no greater than 308 million Americans.

  • Terry Gain

    His wake up moment was to become an AGW hysteric. Hilarious. Climategate must have been hard on his over-sized ego. Charles Johnson possesses the rare skill of photographing fences and rails. He’s in a class of no greater than 308 million Americans.

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  • Koblog

    LGF was once a daily read.

    I’ve even deleted LGF bookmarks now.

    Sounds to me like Charles crashed his bike on the Palos Verdes switchbacks and suffered a head trauma.

  • Koblog

    LGF was once a daily read.

    I’ve even deleted LGF bookmarks now.

    Sounds to me like Charles crashed his bike on the Palos Verdes switchbacks and suffered a head trauma.

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  • Beto

    #7 Projection much Brute?
    And your comment supports the articles bent.

  • Beto

    #7 Projection much Brute?
    And your comment supports the articles bent.

  • http://www.littlegreenfootballs.com Charles Johnson

    Ban people from LGF? How can that be? I only ban fascists and racists, not people who merely disagree with me. Of course if you disagree with me, you must be a fascist racist.

    I have a few significant disagreements with the angle taken by Jonathan Dee in his profile for the New York Times, most of all his willingness to accept unverifiable anecdotal information from people who post comments on the Internet under fake names, to claim that their LGF accounts were blocked simply for disagreeing with me — a claim which, in the vast majority of cases, is simply not true.

    It’s a little odd to point out at the beginning of the article that there were extremist comments posted at LGF in the early days of the blog, but then turn around and imply that I’m over-reacting today by taking a firmer hand toward policing said comments and commenters. Damned if you don’t, then damned if you do.

    Another nitpick: Dee implies that I link too much to blog posts and articles about myself — does that mean I shouldn’t link to his NYT article? Since I’m the guy whose name is on this blog, should I just ignore everything written about me? Or should I occasionally respond to the posts on other blogs that call me out by my real name?

    A while back I decided it’s best to occasionally respond, especially when there are factual issues at stake (not just ad hominem nonsense), because the best way to deal with defamatory statements on the Internet is to make sure your defense shows up in a Google search too.

    Note that if you go through the articles that appear on LGF’s front page, only a very tiny percentage fit Dee’s description; I consciously try to keep those “meta” posts to a minimum.

    Guess I shouldn’t complain too much, though; I expected a negative tilt after some of the things I’ve written about the New York Times over the past decade. Could have been worse.

    I will have revenge on Dee. Just like I will have revenge on that photographer who made my picture fat in the LA Times.

  • http://www.littlegreenfootballs.com Charles Johnson

    Ban people from LGF? How can that be? I only ban fascists and racists, not people who merely disagree with me. Of course if you disagree with me, you must be a fascist racist.

    I have a few significant disagreements with the angle taken by Jonathan Dee in his profile for the New York Times, most of all his willingness to accept unverifiable anecdotal information from people who post comments on the Internet under fake names, to claim that their LGF accounts were blocked simply for disagreeing with me — a claim which, in the vast majority of cases, is simply not true.

    It’s a little odd to point out at the beginning of the article that there were extremist comments posted at LGF in the early days of the blog, but then turn around and imply that I’m over-reacting today by taking a firmer hand toward policing said comments and commenters. Damned if you don’t, then damned if you do.

    Another nitpick: Dee implies that I link too much to blog posts and articles about myself — does that mean I shouldn’t link to his NYT article? Since I’m the guy whose name is on this blog, should I just ignore everything written about me? Or should I occasionally respond to the posts on other blogs that call me out by my real name?

    A while back I decided it’s best to occasionally respond, especially when there are factual issues at stake (not just ad hominem nonsense), because the best way to deal with defamatory statements on the Internet is to make sure your defense shows up in a Google search too.

    Note that if you go through the articles that appear on LGF’s front page, only a very tiny percentage fit Dee’s description; I consciously try to keep those “meta” posts to a minimum.

    Guess I shouldn’t complain too much, though; I expected a negative tilt after some of the things I’ve written about the New York Times over the past decade. Could have been worse.

    I will have revenge on Dee. Just like I will have revenge on that photographer who made my picture fat in the LA Times.

  • http://www.littlegreenfootballs.com Charles Johnson

    I banned Patterico from LGF, but only because he asked me to. He said it gave him street cred.

  • http://www.littlegreenfootballs.com Charles Johnson

    I banned Patterico from LGF, but only because he asked me to. He said it gave him street cred.

  • Ruben

    Right there with you Koblog. I deleted my bookmarks to LGF a long time ago when he started ad hominem attacks on anyone who disagreed with him, instead of addressing their arguments. About the same time I noticed many comments on the web noting that “Charles” had apparently lost his mind. Glad to see it wasn’t just me. It’s a pity because he used to have a very good website.

    And now a plug for my favorite blogger/commentator, Bill Whittle rules!!! Sorry Stacy, you’re good, but Whittle is amazing. :)

  • Ruben

    Right there with you Koblog. I deleted my bookmarks to LGF a long time ago when he started ad hominem attacks on anyone who disagreed with him, instead of addressing their arguments. About the same time I noticed many comments on the web noting that “Charles” had apparently lost his mind. Glad to see it wasn’t just me. It’s a pity because he used to have a very good website.

    And now a plug for my favorite blogger/commentator, Bill Whittle rules!!! Sorry Stacy, you’re good, but Whittle is amazing. :)

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  • http://www.pumas4palin.com sharmajee

    “…doesn’t buy into Johnson’s self-serving claim of a road-to-Damascus awakening …”

    That ‘road-to-Damascus’ a real nice touch, kudos!

  • http://www.pumas4palin.com sharmajee

    “…doesn’t buy into Johnson’s self-serving claim of a road-to-Damascus awakening …”

    That ‘road-to-Damascus’ a real nice touch, kudos!

  • Don

    Er, at least I assume its a woman . . .

    Probably a woman, just of the blow-up type, as she will be less likely to post remarks critical of Charles on LGF.

  • Don

    Er, at least I assume its a woman . . .

    Probably a woman, just of the blow-up type, as she will be less likely to post remarks critical of Charles on LGF.

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