ALG Leveled a Serious Charge. Now it’s Time to Prove it.
by Scott W. GravesI am reaching the conclusion we on the political Right may have been deceived by Americans for Limited Government (ALG).
As readers of Big Government know, late last Friday, ALG issued a press release claiming it had received an offensive e-mail from Dateline NBC producer, Jane Stone. Within hours, the Rightroots had been mobilized and the story when viral.
Known as the “Bite me Jew boy” e-mail, both Ms. Stone and NBC were pilloried by the Right. Throughout the weekend, Matthew Vadum chronicled the exchange of statements and press releases here on this site.
So Now What?
It’s been five days and ALG has yet to provide indisputable evidence to prove its claim and NBC continues to back Ms. Stone’s assertion she never sent the e-mail in question.
In making its claim, ALG gambled its credibility with activists and media contacts to help push a story that increasingly looks like a hoax. In at least 2 press releases, ALG very publicly accused a respected media professional for a major media outlet of an explicit act of anti-Semitism; a charge that if true would damage her reputation and destroy her career.
Collectively, the political Right advanced the story and stirred the pot after assurances from ALG that they had their facts straight and had done their due diligence. To date, it appears they had neither.
There are several plausible scenarios, none of which seem to justify a rush to mobilize the troops and publish multiple press releases. These scenarios could include:
SCENARIO 1.) Jane Stone actually wrote an inexplicably offensive e-mail and then followed that moment of stupidity with an outrageous lie to her employer, who then risked the reputation of a major network with an unequivocal denial on behalf of a racist employee. UNLIKELY
SCENARIO 2.) A rogue individual at ALG duped their ALG colleagues by intercepting an e-mail received from NBC, edited the e-mail, and passed it along as legitimate. ALG management then used the same individual or an otherwise unqualified source to complete their “due diligence” efforts. POSSIBLE
SCENARIO 3.) Someone used Ms. Stone’s Blackberry and sent the e-mail without her knowledge. ALG received the e-mail, did its due diligence, and published its claim. Ms. Stone denied the claims made by ALG, confident that she did not send the e-mail in question from her Blackberry. POSSIBLE–MAYBE PROBABLE
SCENARIO 4.) ALG received a legitimate e-mail from Ms. Stone’s Blackberry, decided to edit the text of the e-mail, and began the process of generating publicity with an outrageous and wholly fabricated accusation of racism. The story goes viral, screenshots don’t satisfy the skeptics, and ALG is asked to produce detailed header and server records that do not exist. I PRAY THIS DIDN’T HAPPEN
I don’t pretend to know which, if any, of these scenarios is accurate, but as I tweeted shortly after the story broke, “Someone at NBC or ALG is LYING. When they show the e-mail in question (w/ the complete headers), we will know who.”
Yesterday, I spoke with the folks over at ALG and was told they have no plans to release additional information. And while the release of more information could resolve this issue, they continue to stand behind a goofy screenshot conspicuously missing the only real evidence that could validate their claim. In doing so, they have demonstrated a willingness to behave exactly like those on the left who use baseless accusations of racism to advance their political agenda. By not publishing complete e-mail header information, it also looks like they have a disregard for the truth, the inability to conduct meaningful due diligence, and/or an ignorance of the basic technologies involved.
It is the responsibility of those in each faction of a political movement to hold its own accountable.
Anti-Semitism (and racism) is a serious matter and should never be used by any political organization as a tool in its communications toolbox. As Right and Center-right political activists, our credibility on this issue is at stake when one of our own engages in distasteful tactics. As such, it is incumbent on the Right to leverage its influence and demand ALG produce real proof of their allegations. When and if such proof is not forthcoming, I hope we all use our resources to rebuke ALG with the same level of outrage we had when the original story first broke.
I hope I’m wrong about ALG, but my gut is telling me we’ve been played.
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69 Comments
If this is true, it will hurt our cause much more than it would have hurt their cause if it were true.
I said this right at the beginning…
I've actually been wondering the same thing myself. ALG needs to prove its case.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by DRIP USA and AZ grassroots. AZ grassroots said: ALG Leveled a Serious Charge. Now it’s Time to Prove it. http://bit.ly/3vUcNF #dripusa #ocra #tcot [...]
If the scenario this writer suggests is true, Stone would have a remunerative, easy cause of action against ALG. If Stones takes no action against ALG, Graves is wrong.
Let's dispense with this quickly then. Search for the truth, find it, and proclaim it. If ALG is getting in the way, they should be held accountable for their obstruction. I truly hope it was some rogue employee in either institution that is responsible.
always take a claim of E-mail stories with a grain of salt.. there are too many ways to fradulently copy those kind of documents.
I'd wager if anything Scenario #2 is the one most likely…
When liberal organizations make wild claims, we expect them to show proof. We should expect no less from ALG.
Just thought about this incident yesterday. Was thinking that if there had been more proof, it should have come out by now. A possibility is that someone is working quietly behind the scenes with NBC to resolve the matter, and that public charges and counter-charges do not contribute to the discovery of the truth. As to your premise that a movement which demands truth and transparency must particularly demand it from within its own ranks, I could not agree more.
There is a Fifth Scenario that the author omits: We don't care.
Last week, my view was that this was much ado about nothing. Something between ALG and NBC. In the scheme of things here, it is a diversion, a distraction.
It does boil down to one simple thing: Someone Lied. Either ALG or Ms. Stone at NBC. It can't be both ways, and with ALG going silent, the burden of proof is in their court…………
Never get in a land war in Asia, and NEVER put forth an email as evidence of anything.
I never gave that whole story a second glance or even a comment, being a veteran watcher of such skirmishes.
However, I would not put scenario #1 past the MSM. I sincerely would not. They still think Dan Rather's interview with fake Vietnam War Vets is worthy of archival as a fact. So, y'know.. . .
Never get in a land war in Asia, and NEVER put forth an email as evidence of anything.
I never gave that whole story a second glance or even a comment, being a veteran watcher of such skirmishes.
However, I would not put scenario #1 past the MSM. I sincerely would not. They still think Dan Rather's interview with fake Vietnam War Vets is worthy of archival as a fact. So, y'know.. . .
.
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Never get in a land war in Asia, and NEVER put forth an email as evidence of anything.
I never gave that whole story a second glance or even a comment, being a veteran watcher of such skirmishes.
However, I would not put scenario #1 past the MSM. I sincerely would not. They still think Dan Rather's interview with fake Vietnam War Vets is worthy of archival as a fact. So, y'know.. . .
.
my feeling, after spending all morning combing the web for news that interests me as a conservative, is that this is a molehill… whatever the truth… if Stone did it, so what, no surprise that a media type would feel that way, no ground to be gained there… if it's a hoax, well I had not heard of ALG before this started and I don't expect to be hearing about them a year from now if in fact they hoaxed this.. neither way comes CLOSE to addressing the major issues of this election season… so, no matter what way this ends up going, no big deal, sad to say.
It won't hurt conservative groups if they denounce it loudly and rapidly. In fact, both Democrats and Republicans need to do a better job of denouncing their extreme radicals. While I'm at it, Religions also need to do a better job of denouncing their extreme radicals.
You gotta be kidding me. I retweeted that link because I thought, and still think, NBC is still capable of stunts of this nature. If ALG had to contrive that story, its a serious overreach and they are copycatting liberal tactics, which will bring them (and us) down to their level. You don’t need to generate things like this – work with what’s already there.
I came to the conclusion that ALG was not being completely truthful almost immediately.
I am a software developer and have been doing this for a number of years. There are a few things that stand out to me.
One: Who is Bill Wilson and why is he sending mail using Alex Rosenwald's account?
Two: ALG claimed that it is verifiable that the e-mail was not tampered with. Unless the e-mail was digitally signed, this claim is flat out false. E-mail is incredibly insecure and quite easily tampered with. That's why there are people trying to make money on digital verification and mail encryption. If it was in fact digitally signed, ALG should say so, because that completely deflates NBC's argument. Since very few e-mails are digitally signed (far less than 1%), I'm disinclined to believe that it was without some evidence.
Three: Forging e-mail is practically the easiest "hack" there is. When I was in college, that was a common prank. At least once a month while I was in college, someone I knew was either the victim or culprit in such an endeavor. And it could've been done much more often. It'd take me about 10 minutes of work to set up the necessary infrastructure on my laptop to forge e-mails and then I could literally create forged e-mails nearly as quickly as you can create actual ones. All you need is access to an unlocked SMTP server and it's pretty trivial to install one.
polly i agree totaly
It never made sense. For one, the insult is too adolescently male. Silly, and should have been dismissed by all unless irrefutable proof was immediately forthcoming.
I would be kind of suprised, the sons of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are well represented NY news media, it would be an odd place for a person that did not like Jewish people to work for over two decades.
The MSM does too many blatantly ridiculous things for someone to resort to making them up. If its the case that his story is untrue and the woman never shot the email then ALG needs to come clean with the truth. I demand the truth!
Failure to release the email headers by ALG after NBC AND Stone denied it was sent by them buried this story for me. ALG looks foolish without the headers released. ALG could very well ask another organization to play the role of arbitrator. ALG hands over their headers. NBC hands over theirs. The arbitrator examines both. Issues a report to ALG and the same report to NBC.
Maybe that happened and neither side wants to reveal the details.
Either way, the headers are important and without them this story dies.
Rampant speculation is like a dog chasing its own tail; nothing is ever achieved by the exercise.
Text messages NEVER disappear, they will be on the net long after you and I are gone. ALG should simply make their incoming message from Ms. Stone, at the cell phone carrier level, available for public scrutiny.
If they do not, then we have our answer and we should then give ALG all respect due its future publicized information. This would place ALG in the same category as the other unbelievable “news” organizations: NBC, MSNBC, CBS, ABC and The New York Times.
Firstly all race baiters need to bet eliminated from this dialogue as they have no intellectual argument.
They are there to distract and distort and try to channel the agurment to black and white versus that “we are all being screwed.” This tactic has gone on long enough. To wit: each time the race card is played ask the claimants to define “racism”. You’ll quickly be able to indentify how racist they are and you can pillory their argument for there.
Eject the race baiters from the discussion…turn off their mics!
Remember: this is just a start of the dirty tricks campaign that will be waged on those who seek to point out the corruption. First clean your own porch and don’t allow things you can’t confirm on the website. If you want and “innuendo alert” then put a “garbage can” on the website so those who want can dumpster dive. I dare say however there are plenty of important things to worry and write about.
Better yet understand that republicans and democrats are under attack, the “golden 537″ (congress and the president and vp)have a lot to lose if corruption is peeled back and they are exposed. Also big corporations will join on the golden 537’s team to protect billion dollar bonuses “as free enterprise” when the stock holder is the one getting the shaft.
It’s a rigged game that depends on “a sucker being born every minute” to gratify and perpetuate their positions.
Having personally spent 30+ years working in the news media I find it HIGHLY implausible that an NBC producer would commit such a stupid act.
This appears to be a vicious slander on the part of ALG. Too bad for the rest of us.
At this point ALG is in the same category as Obama for me. When they speak…ignore them as irrelevant until proven!
Breitbart, and Big Government; if you, and we as active involved concerned citizens clamor for the truth with ACORN, with the NEA, with SEIU, with the Rathke Bros et al. Then we must do the same thing pertaining to ALG and NBC and Mz. Stone. Anything less is hypocritical. This is not about liberal or conservative; Republican or Democrat. It is about truth; it is about right and wrong, it is about exposing corruption.
Breitbart needs to climb all over this story and expose the truth. It is simple: two people are involved, one of them is a liar. We need to keep our own house clean, and in order. Only then will we be taken seriously………
The initital story didn't pass the smell test from the beginning. The only thing that makes sense is that this is not just between Stone and Rosenwald. Some third party is involved, and that party duped both sides.
SCENARIO 1.) Jane Stone actually wrote an inexplicably offensive e-mail and then followed that moment of stupidity with an outrageous lie to her employer, who then risked the reputation of a major network with an unequivocal denial on behalf of a racist employee. UNLIKELY
This is "unlikely" how?
I vaguely remember ANOTHER major network…went by the initials CBS or something…. what was that guy's name? Rather or something?
And when you discuss a network's "reputation," NBC has been nothing BUT far left whores for years now… I can't speak for you, of course, but the mere thought of it makes my entire leg tingle. NBC, if it even has a reputation, is one of left wing bigotry of the worst kind, completely abrogating any pretense of fairness or accuracy in their presentations… be it news, or even Law and Order, Sam Watterson fringe left drama.
Denny Crane!
To be a leftist requires the ability to engage in the kind of crap alleged here. To suggest this is unlikely is to deny reality. The leftist double standard moves this from the "unlikely" column to the "probable" column for me.
I am so sick of hearing about this story. Really, stuff like this is NOT important. Just like when Wilson called the Prez a liar – he was correct and a debate should have ensued with both parties giving their side of the argument, and it should have been argued until a conclusion was reached. Honestly, any more it sounds like my kids coming to me and saying "Mommy! She called me a name!" – I say to the "Jew boy" people and the Democrats in Congress who were "offended" what I say to my kids – "Is it true? If not, don't worry about it!"
You write well and put forth some excellent points.
Not too many people are aware of the exclusive "537 Club"; if more people were, it would be an easier struggle.
Here's the real problem: BigGovernment.com invested heavily in this story when it first broke, and will get splattered by the mess. I was appalled when the Pulitzer-worthy ACORN story was followed by this penny-ante BS. There's more anti-Semitism in typical MSM coverage of Israel than in "Bite me, jew boy."
Keep your powder dry, boys; it's gonna be a long war.
The last thing we need is someone on the right side of the isle making false accusations against a news woman or media outlet. They will use this to their advantage & say that if we are making this up then we might be lying about healthcare to help grow public support again & pass thier agenda. All our hard work to build a strong dissent & rally people to our side by informing them of the truth can be crushed by a couple of idiots trying to get their 15 minutes in the sun.
Sixth Scenario……
ALG is using a Big Government technique and waiting to see if lies or slander from the media before they follow-up with more info! (Probable)
NBC has written off conservatives from both a political AND a marketing perspective, deliberately choosing to let Fox, Beck, and Limbaugh monpolize the business. Based upon that, conservatives could've physically assaulted Jane Stone and get away with it. And NBC knows it.
This will do absolutely, positively, NO DAMAGE. All it is is a harmless way to gin up bad feelings toward NBC, and they're big enough to take it.
And ALG would quickly mention Lohrenz v Donnelly (DC Circuit, 2003), which dealt with "limited purpose public figures," in its defense. Jane Stone is a "limited purpose public figure," and would be subject to discovery. And Ms. Stone and NBC would thus end up dropping this case like the hot rock that it would be.
Nothing will happen to either Jane Stone or ALG.
Just as Breitbart made sure that O'Keefe had all his Is dotted and Ts crossed before releasing the Acorn videos, Big Government should have made damn sure the email was legitimate before promoting it like crazy. I read about here first and was shocked, but then I read NBC's denial and it rang too true for me to ignore it. Big Government should have immediately backed off and or tried to get to the bottom of this. This sort of thing harms us way too much and should not be tolerated.
I'd say another very probable scenario, # 1 in my mind, is that someone spoofed Ms. Stone's email address on the email and the tech wizards at ALG weren't consulted about it until after the accusations went out. (Spoofing is where an email looks like it came from someone it didn't. An example is emails that look like they come from your own address but you know you didn't send them yourself.) It's easy to tell a spoofed address from the headers if you know what to look for, but there are a lot of people who aren't aware and just take the 'from' line at face value. Egg on ALG's face if so, but they should come clean about it.
"Bite me Jew boy" still sounds like a comment Elaine could have tossed out at Jerry on Seinfeld. A likely scenario is the email is real, but ALG got caught ginning up an off-the-cuff comment into an outrageous anti-semitism charge. Now that the story has hit the range of possible slander, both sides have decided to let their points stand and not talk about it.
Is there anyone at ALG who may have been motivated by a desire to damage ALG? So often, it is a person or people within an organization who become disallusioned or have suffered a personal slight and decide to get back at the company they're with. If ALG did find out that one of their people did this in a misguided attempt to bash NBC et. al., well they need to say it themselves first. Don't let it be dragged out by someone else. There will be consequences, but a cover-up is the worst thing you can do. When you're caught, you need to admit it. When you lie and then cover-up, that's two lies to face the consequences for.
He said, she said. Always approach this sort of thing as a parent would in determining which kid is truthful. Waiting is always the best option.
Race baiting is old hat stuff. If you want to stir the pot, call someone a racist. YOU don't have to prove it, there are a multitude of others willing to 'prove' it or claim similar transgressions occurred.
Lying by anyone hurts a cause.
Correcto! I can't imagine a woman saying "bite me". (At least not in an insulting way.)
Another scenario: a plant in ALG did this to embarrass them. Could be a leftie, could be a disgruntled person with an axe to grind.
An excellent piece by Mr. Graves. I wholeheartedly agree with you StlDan; while there are bad apples in every bunch we are a target largely because we set our standard higher. Plus, the establishment media has the jump on us where it comes to influencing the great unwashed.
A big +1 here Polly!
Scott:
this looks eerily similar to an incident I remember from college days (I was a staff writer at the Dartmouth Review 20 years ago). The origin of the scandal was never uncovered, though all of us had our suspicions. Computer forensics were a bit more difficult in those days (work was done on Aldus PageMaker software on Mac II computers), and electronic footprints less traceable.
I think ALG made a mistake trying to make more of this than it was – at worst (for NBC) the stupid actions of an idiot.
No, Ethically it puts them at the same leves as Dan Rather and Mary Mapes.
Not looking good for ALG. If its a fake hate crime, colloquially speaking, i suspect they'll never be taken seriously again and certainly won't have any influence on national polices, just like that portly poofy haired preacher guy who puled that tawana brawley scam…whatever be came of that guy?
Chauvinist. I worked in a design studio full of women who said "bite me" all the time.
Are Conservatives still for truth?
Kudos at least to Big Gov for posting a peice like this calling for the truth. A lefty site would not have done the same in similar circumstances.
There were a number of individuals who commented on the original article, urging us all to slow down, slow down, when this story broke. If Vadum and ALG played us off like this, that is sorry as hell and there is no excuse for it. They need to be banned from any sites or print media who value their own credibility. I am angry beyond words at even THE THOUGHT that this might be a sham.
It takes something like 5 seconds to provide full headers
This was a non story for me from day one.
Funny how all the comments now are people who "knew" this was bogus. Go read the previous thread, hardly anyone felt that way. Anyone who is surprised that a Drudge protege like Breitbart would post a dubious story needs to have their head examined.
As is often the case, the story itself becomes secondary to the actions taken by the parties involved AFTER the story breaks. I wrote the post because I feel the tactic of making a baseless accusation of racism against someone perceived as a political adversary is outrageous. One need not look any further than the likes of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton to see how the Left has created a cottage industry with this tactic. In this particular case, if it is proven ALG was not telling the truth, they should be flogged and publicly humiliated by the Right.
If ALG is responsible for perpetrating a hoax, they WILL be excoriated for it by the right.
That's the difference between the right and the left in this country. The right is mature enough, (and secure enough), to admit error if they are genuinely wrong and apologize. The left isn't.
After this story broke, ALG's moral outrage over it filled their entire homepage. Now it's nowhere to be seen there. I'm afraid that their burying of this issue amounts to a tacit admission that the story is false. Although we all had good reason to be skeptical of this one, it's sad to think that a conservative organization would squander any ethical standing that it had with such an action.
If ALG has perpetrated a hoax, it needs to be investigated immediately. This is the last thing that we on the Right need, a Right-wing group perpetrating a hoax. It will only serve to give the Left some much needed ammo to use against us.
I initially believed ALG's story based on the various earlier reports on Big Government. As time went on and ALG failed to produce valid proof (ie the e-mail with valid headers) I began to question it. Now reading that they will not produce this evidence and are clamming up on the subject, I am beginning to believe that it may be a hoax but will give the benefit of the doubt for a bit longer.
ALG made the claim, ALG needs to prove the claim was true. As others pointed out, we demand this information when the Left makes wild claims, we need to demand it from the Right as well.
Kick them to the curb then. There is no room for BS and lies in this fight, especially from someone supposedly on the right. I put them in the league with ACORN now.
Before everyone discredits the screen shot, remember that a screen shot of a frequently discredited Certificate of Live Birth from Hawaii is all the current resident of the White House is willing to allow his country to see.
The Right never holds people accountable for making dubious claims. Just look at the history of this guy Carter Clews who was behind this whole mess: http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Carter...
As an IT guy I cut both sides slack at the start since I figured the people involved didn't understand about the extra header info. They must by now and ALG should be falling overthemselves to release any extra info… A big corporation, not so much. I worked for a network (in IT) and we have rules against releasing info and it has to go through legal… blaw blaw blaw… even if they want to it would take awhile.. and they probably don't want to because it goes against the culture.
More bs that the right wing loves to eat. Just like the phony ACORN video's that were doctored to trick the viewer. I'm glad the Judges handling this are smarter than most of you.
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