This piece, by Andrew Ferguson in Commentary, is almost too easy, but it sure is fun.  Did the little furry mammals tuck into the dinosaur eggs with so much gusto?

The tiny corner of the New York Times empire where David Barstow works is called the investigative unit. The name has an impressive urgency to it, like the title of a TV spin-off—CSI: Times Investigative Unit. You can imagine guys in Weejuns and khakis getting a hot tip and springing into action, yanking their tweed coats off the backs of chairs and shouting something irreverent and ironical over their shoulders as they bolt for the newsroom door.

Perhaps a new “torture memo” has been leaked; maybe a politician has committed an act of creative accounting on Supplement B (3) subpart vii of his financial-disclosure form. Or maybe a large number of Americans way out there in the land beyond the Bronx have been caught holding political opinions that are dangerously bizarre. TIU is on the case.

These strange-thinking Americans, loosely roped together as the Tea Party movement, sent David Barstow on his most recent investigation. His assignment lasted for five uninterrupted months and bore literary fruit, with a 4,500-word front-page story on February 16. “Tea Party Lights Fuse for Rebellion on Right,” the headline read—aptly enough, for a premonitory suggestion of bombs going off just over the horizon rumbled through Barstow’s story. To the astute Times reader lingering with the paper over breakfast, the hints were unmistakable.

There was the dateline, for one thing: Sandpoint, Idaho. The reader might rub his chin?.?.?.?-Sandpoint? Vaguely familiar…rings a bell…let’s see…Wait! God Almighty! Yes, that Sandpoint, notorious 15 years ago as the home of gun-slinging Randy Weaver and his Ruby Ridge survivalist compound, the headquarters of the Aryan Nation group of gun owners, a hothouse of gun-owning militias and paramilitary groups with their guns?.?.?.

(more…)

As Big Journalism readers know, a New York Times reporter accused a speaker at CPAC of using “racial tones” and “racial stereotypes.”

I was that speaker.

Last week, I was invited to participate on a panel to discuss my forthcoming book, Obama Zombies: How the Liberal Machine Brainwashed My Generation.  The New York Times’ Kate Zernike wrote up the speech for the NYT’s “Caucus” blog.  This was her headline:

CPAC Speaker Bashes Obama, in Racial Tones.

In the very first paragraph, Zernike writes, “How can conservatives win the youth vote that overwhelmingly went for Barack Obama in 2008? At the Conservative Political Action Conference, apparently, some are betting on using racial stereotypes.”

Her evidence? Nothing I actually said, but to her tin ears, I was allegedly channeling a “Chris Rock” voice.  Yes, Chris Rock.

Regarding my closing statement, Zernike opines, “Can we save our generation from Obama zombies, he [Mattera] asked. He answered himself by borrowing the president’s campaign slogan: ‘Yes, my brothahs and sistahs. Yes we can!’”  Obviously, Zernike is insinuating I purposely mispronounced the words “brothers” and “sisters” in order to mock black people, particularly President Obama.

(more…)

On February 18, 2010, at 12:45 PM, Kate Zernike’s piece “CPAC Speaker Bashes Obama, in Racial Tones” went live on the New York Times’ Website. Just after 4:00pm that afternoon, Andrew Breitbart received the Reed Irvine Accuracy in Media Award from AIM for uncovering corruption at ACORN this past year.  He used part of his speech to voice his opinion of Zernike’s piece.  Transcript begins at around 6:05 into part I:

Kate Zernike of the New York Times, are you in the room? Are you in the room? You’re despicable. You’re a despicable human being. You’re the New York Times.  What is your headline here? You came to CPAC to get your prey and here’s your prey, Jason Mattera from HotAir and also from Young America’s Foundation. This is the headline: CPAC Speaker Bashes Obama, comma, in Racial Tones.

How can conservatives win the youth vote that overwhelmingly went for Barack Obama in 2008? At the Conservative Political Action Conference, apparently, some are betting on using racial stereotypes.

It goes into a story that does not express that he used a racial stereotype.  It is just built upon a bed of lies. It says that he went into a Chris Rock voice. She’s the one that correlated his voice to Chris Rock. He happens to be from Brooklyn. He’s using HIS voice.

Part II of Breitbart’s speech after the jump.

(more…)

My friend Jason Mattera, Young America’s Foundation spokesman and conservative gadfly, is never afraid to speak his mind.  Even if you don’t totally embrace his style, he’s thoroughly entertaining and a really great, energetic guy.  What he’s not, however, is a racist.  But that’s exactly what New York Times reporter Kate Zernike concludedafter attending a CPAC panel discussion in which Mattera participated yesterday.

She posted on the Times‘ political blog that Mattera had “bashed Obama…in racial tones.” GASP!

See full video of the speech and read relevant quotes from the New York Times article here.

Anyone who meets Jason quickly becomes aware of the fact that he’s from Brooklyn.  His accent makes it hard to miss.  Like many people, when he talks excitedly, the pitch of his voice goes up.  This combination, Zernike concluded, constituted a “channeling” of Chris Rock and an obvious case of racism.  If Zernike had bothered to, oh I don’t know, speak to the person at whom she was hurling a provocative and damaging accusation, she may have noticed that Mattera happens to speak “like Chris Rock” all the time.  With the slightest bit of effort, this New York Times reporter may also have discovered that Rock also grew up….in Brooklyn.  Maybe this New York (!) Timesreporter may have put two and two together before dashing off her insulting and pathetic blog post. (more…)

The BigJournalism.com editorial panel is attending this weekend’s Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, D.C., and it didn’t take long for a media-induced controversy to break out.  We expected the mainstream media couldn’t cover a gathering of 10,000 conservatives for an entire weekend without playing the race card at least once, but The New York Times‘ Kate Zernike charged Young America’s Foundation Spokesman and CPAC panelist Jason Mattera with “using racial stereotypes” by lunchtime of Day 1.

We’ve included the video of his speech below, as well as relevant excerpts from Zernike’s New York Times piece.  Let us know if you think it was appropriate for her to describe Mr. Mattera  using some of the most caustic vocabulary in American life.

We’ll be offering our commentary in the days to come.

Bonus question: Identify with time stamps where Mattera uses the “Chris Rock voice.”

February 18, 2010, 12:45 pm
CPAC Speaker Bashes Obama, in Racial Tones
By KATE ZERNIKE

How can conservatives win the youth vote that overwhelmingly went for Barack Obama in 2008? At the Conservative Political Action Conference, apparently, some are betting on using racial stereotypes. (more…)