INTRODUCTION

I. Whoever Controls “The Narrative,” Controls the National Political Conversation

When it comes to most of today’s mainstream media we are no longer talking about an entity that reports truth or facts. Everything about the MSM is now about The Narrative. Even though they’re supposedly made up of separate and competing newsrooms, there’s a very good reason why the MSM as a whole is usually covering, emphasizing and amplifying the exact same stories. This is what The Narrative is and its usefulness to the MSM is how it pushes particular stories to the forefront of public awareness in order to further a political agenda — an agenda that 90% of the time is meant to aid the Left and damage the Right.

Another part of The Narrative is what the MSM chooses NOT to cover; what they willfully ignore.

You can see The Narrative at work as I write this. The same MSM that assured us that when it came to Barack Obama, the church he attended for two decades didn’t matter, is now obsessing over a church Rep. Michele Bachman’s hasn’t attended in over a year. Here you have two separate (and wildly hypocritical) narratives at work: one meant to protect a Democratic presidential candidate, the other meant to damage a GOP presidential candidate.

On the other hand, you can also see The Narrative working by what’s NOT being covered today. The same MSM that obsessed over the Valerie Plame non-story is currently all but ignoring Obama’s brewing “Fast and Furious” gunrunning scandal –mainly because it’s exactly the kind of scandal that can swamp a presidency into paralyzing, under-40 approval ratings.

II. How Alternative Media Created the MSM’s Need for a Media Matters for America

Prior to the rise of the Internet, the Left almost completely owned the narrative. The simple truth is that before Al Gore’s invention was fully realized, other than a few esteemed columnists, the media had no serious ideological competition from the Right. The rise of the Internet, however, changed all of that as citizen journalists — many of whom are motivated by the MSM’s liberal biases — found this new tool invaluable when it came to both debunking the MSM’s latest lie (the most famous being RatherGate) or reporting on stories the MSM chose to ignore for ideological reasons.

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Photo by Dana Loesch

St. Louis County Prosecutors watered-down the charges in the Kenneth Gladney case from a misdemeanor to an ordinance violation without so much as even calling St. John’s Hospital, where Gladney received treatment for his injuries, and checking Gladney’s hospital record or speaking with care providers on site.

Elston McCowan and Perry Molens were witnessed on video assaulting Gladney who is seen being taken to the ground. Cheryl Johner punched Kelly Owens in the face – which Owens caught on camera, an assault witnessed by a police officer, according to the police report – and all three get off with nothing more that ordinance violations.

Owens beating recap:

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The story of Kenneth Gladney may finally be getting somewhere. County Counselor Patricia Redington, after waiting three months, has been forced to come out and defend her office in emails and in an interview with KMOX, a local St Louis radio station.  We’d say it was quick work, but waiting to look into charges of political violence until after healthcare reform comes to a vote seems to be the plan.  In previous columns, we identified a time difference for assault charges of 3 months versus 2 days.  3 months to start looking if you’re a black man beaten by union thugs and 2 days if you’re a Republican running for Congress against Dick Gephardt.

Redington is now responding to emails saying she is looking into the events, the investigation is still under review, and her office is interviewing witnesses.  This is one of her responses to a St Louis county resident about the affair.

There were several incidents at this event which required police intervention, and our office is reviewing the police report and has been interviewing various witnesses before making a final decision on what charges may be issued.

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SEIU is not stupid. When reports first came out of violence at the Russ Carnahan TownHall in Missouri, SEIU flacks jumped into their media spin machine and got to work. Tim Targaris, the SEIU new media spokesman started the party with a Tweet declaring:

Seven teabaggers arrested at Missouri town-hall event today. One SEIU staffer sent to hospital (shoulder) and will be ok. 9:01 p.m. August 6th.

We know now that it was five HCAN supporters who were arrested, but Tagaris continued to tweet false information, defending the story by citing an internal brief and then moving to other media response. A pledge was quickly created and touted by SEIU, decrying violence at townhalls. A video was cut that took the post-attack YouTube footage and spliced it with alternating footage of SEIU members singing peacefully followed by groups of tea party protestors shouting. And then an anonymous phone call characterized as a death threat was played for dramatic effect. It was some very fine propaganda.

Step 2 was turning the initial attacker Elston McCowan into a saint. SEIU and their pet bloggers on the left started talking about the 40-something, blind in one eye Baptist minister who was brutally attacked by teabaggers (SEIU likes to repeat the sexual slur). McCowan published photos of himself in a black outfit, a white priest collar, and a sling. He was Saint Innocent, the real victim. Once the video was released, SEIU created a second version of the story, maintaining it was McCowan who was attacked while laying helplessly on the ground. On August 13th, a full week after the attack, in an interview with Don Fitz of the St Louis Gateway Greens, McCowan relates what he claims is the real story behind the attack:

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Three months after Kenneth Gladney and Kelly Owens were assaulted in the Bernard school parking lot following Russ Carnahan’s town hall the charges still remain in hibernation at the County Counselor’s office. Upon contacting Bob McCullough, I was told that Gladney’s charges fall into Patricia Redington’s jurisdiction.

Redington was quick to file charges back in 2000, when a staffer for Democrat Richard Gephardt stalked serious contender Republican Bill Federer on a parade route. The staffer, James Larrew, tried to shove his camera into Federer’s face until Federer was forced to push the camera away. The staffer freaked, flagged down a cop and claimed that he had been assaulted. Larrew then called Gephardt’s office and spoke to Joyce Aboussie, Gephardt’s top political adviser, who then contacted Redington’s office. Two days later Redington filed assault charges against Federer, on Columbus Day, a national holiday; after which Redington, Aboussie, and Larrew conducted a media blitz, all arranged for by Gephardt’s office.

From an account of the incident:

Note that Redington is a Democrat-appointee with close ties to Gephardt’s closest adviser, Aboussie.

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We’ve just started to lay the groundwork on the Kenneth Gladney story and the shameful failure of the county prosecutor Bob McCullough to pursue criminal prosecution of SEIU assailants.  Left wing blogs, mainstream newspapers, and of course SEIU, having concluded a smear the messenger campaign, have now resorted to a blackout strategy.  The first rule of union beatings is you do not talk about union beatings.

With the healthcare bill having just passed the house, this story couldn’t have come at a worse time for Democrats.  Falling poll numbers for congressional Democrats and the President, waning support for the Pelosi/Reid bills, and renewed, often heated conflict between the progressive and moderate wings of the Democratic party gives a very small window to pass this bill. Discovering that the story of union members attacking a man outside a Townhall was covered up and ignored by politicians, unions, local papers and the mainstream media is a live grenade rolled into the middle of the healthcare debate.  There is no hiding from the scandal if Gladney’s story comes out.  Careers and campaigns will be ruined in St Louis.  Conservatives will have a convenient club with which to beat the St Louis Post Dispatch for their shameful coverage, and the strong ties of HCAN’s Missouri members to the Obama administration will continue to taint all of the enablers.

But this isn’t just about Kenneth Gladney.  Let’s set aside that travesty of justice and focus on the second assault that night.  After the police arrive, an OFA volunteer by the name of Cheryl Johner struck a Tea Party activist in the face.  A police officer saw the assault, and immediately arrested Ms. Johner.  Furthermore, the entire event was recorded on video, as the Tea Party Activist had her camera on the entire time.  We see Johner approach the camera, punch the girl in the face, and then we immediately see Johner cuffed and taken away.  This is the relevant portion of the video.

There is no doubt what happened.

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