My week in the right-wing lie machine: When Fox News, Twitchy and Montel Williams declared war on me

[xchrom]

http://www.salon.com/2014/12/18/my_week_in_the_right_wing_lie_machine_when_fox_news_twitchy_and_montel_williams_declared_war_on_me/


Clockwise from top left: Cast of "Fox & Friends," Michelle Malkin, Montel Williams, Kennedy. (Credit: Fox News/Reuters/Carlo Allegri/Salon)


John Mellencamp first heard his 2003, antiwar, anti-Bush song on the radio while driving around his home state of Indiana with one of his sons. The DJ played “To Washington,” his update of the Woody Guthrie protest anthem, and asked listeners to call the station to report their reaction. One angry caller captured the mood: “I don’t know who I hate more, Osama bin Laden or John Mellencamp.” Mellencamp’s son asked his dad how he felt about having a freshly painted bull’s-eye on his back for right-wing venom, and he dispensed some fatherly wisdom, “Sometimes when you stick your neck out, your head gets cut off.”

For the first couple of days after the publication of my essay criticizing military worship, “You Don’t Protect My Freedom,” I certainly felt like my head was resting in the guillotine. On the day of publication I woke up to check my email and found thousands of messages, ranging from the mild (“I hope you die and burn in hell”) to the touching (“If I ever see you on the street, I will kill you.”)

My Twitter account, which I had updated once in five years, exploded with counterarguments of similar erudition and insight. A scroll through my feed took me through a tour of the cyberschoolyard. Mockery of my hairstyle, and invective like “loser,” “punk and the retrograde “hippie” substituted for real argument. The Twitter campaign found its fearless leader in Montel “Bounce Any Checks Lately?” Williams, who after calling me a “POS” (an acronym for “piece of shit,” I assume), challenged me to a debate 140 characters at a time. He then unleashed his public relations team on me, and together, they started tweeting at all the cable news networks, seemingly jockeying for a segment on television, in which the payday-loan pitchman could pose as defender of the sanctity of the military against my “vile” attack.

Feeling no obligation to give Montel and his minions a venue to insult me, I deleted my Twitter account. Two days later, while the emails were still overwhelming my inbox, a well-meaning weirdo created a Twitter feed using my name and likeness, and began to tweet sophomoric replies to the right-wing mob. I filed a complaint with Twitter, and after scanning and sending them an image of my driver’s license to verify that I am the real David Masciotra, they removed the page. Michelle Malkin, whose claim to fame is defending the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, followed all of the action closely and provided her fans with updates on Twitchy – a conservative Us Weekly without the charm – and contributed to the conversation about war, peace and militarism by calling me a “jack ass” and “douche bag.”

[Doctor_J]

1. The wingers, especially the hate radio addicts, are a cult of deranged rabid animals

To get the country back we'll eventually have to face that fact

[Bandit]

2. Are you sure you want the country back?

It has very few redeeming values from my viewpoint. I mourn for the America I grew up in..

[JaneyVee]

3. Powerful read.

[Dawson Leery]

4. k/r

[Maedhros]

5. The last American soldier that died defending our freedom

was killed in 1945.

[freshwest]

6. Good piece, more impressive than the original.