Jon Henke at The Next Right:
In the 1960’s, William F. Buckley denounced the John Birch Society leadership for being “so far removed from common sense” and later said “We cannot allow the emblem of irresponsibility to attach to the conservative banner.”
The Birthers are the Birchers of our time, and WorldNetDaily is their pamphlet. The Right has mostly ignored these embarrassing people and organizations, but some people and organizations inexplicably choose to support WND through advertising and email list rental or other collaboration. For instance, I have been told that F.I.R.E (The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education) – an otherwise respectable group that does important work – uses the WND email list. They should stop.
No respectable organization should support the kind of fringe idiocy that WND peddles. Those who do are not respectable.
Good for Jon Henke. The more prominent conservatives say “Enough” to fringe trash, the better it will be for the political discourse and the American mainstream.
There is, however, a small catch. Henke argues that those who advertise on WorldNetDaily shouldn’t be considered “respectable,” and deserve to be boycotted. That’s an entirely defensible position, but the Republican National Committee is one of the entities that does business with WorldNetDaily. Indeed, they partnered on a mailing as recently as last week.
Perhaps Henke’s call will encourage the RNC to reconsider its relationship with “fringe idiocy”?
The more important criticism is that Jerome Corsi, the loon that sparked Jon to say “Enough” is the yahoo who was behind the Swift Boat Veterans slime group that attacked John Kerry so successfully in 2004. While some of us on the Right denounced them at the time, most sat by and figured the ends justified the means.
At this point, I’d just be happy if the GOP can find leaders who rise above the Birther and Death Panels fray and put forth principled alternatives to the Obama-Reid-Pelosi programs. Aside from continuing the status quo, what’s the Republican plan for solving the impending financial collapse of our health care system? What’s the Republican vision of American security policy? Does it envision continuing nation-building in every country where Islamist terrorists might live? How do we pay down the national debt and get back on the road to fiscal sanity?
Ultimately, focusing on that might take the spotlight off the crazies.
Jason Linkins at HuffPo:
Henke, along with Patrick Ruffini and Soren Dayton, who also ply their trade at The Next Right, are working right at the center of the technology/reportage deficit that Yglesias hit on. And they’ve correctly identified WorldNetDaily as an institution that works at cross-purposes to their efforts, driving simple-minded, conspiracy-based foolishness upstream into the mainstream newshole and the mouths of naive conservative politicians such as the oft-mocked Michele Bachmann (Minn.).
There’s a similar abundance of bizarreness on the left, if you know where to look for it, but over time, a more sensible media apparatus has taken precedence. Outfits like Talking Points Memo, Greg Sargent’s The Plum Line and Yglesias’ own ThinkProgress put an emphasis on reporting and research and tend to eschew the sort of claptrap that WorldNetDaily pumps through the conservative online bloodstream. Henke and his colleagues seem to recognize the need for a similar apparatus on the right, and such efforts should be cheered on by all, because success would be a net gain for the substance of our ideological debates and political discourse.
Think about this. On The Ed Show, Ed Schultz has a daily feature called “Psycho Talk,” where he ridicules the sort of feeble-minded bilge that emanates from places like WorldNetDaily. He scores points regularly, but — take it from one who knows! — these points are very cheaply won. Imagine if those opportunities were not there?
UPDATE: Joseph Farah at WND responds
Jon Henke rounds up the responses
E.D. Kain at The League
UPDATE #2: Patrick Ruffini
Matt Welch in Reason
UPDATE #3: Razib Khan at Secular Right
UPDATE #4: Jon Henke on the Rachel Maddow Show
UPDATE #5: Bill Scher and Matt Lewis at Bloggingheads
Around The Sphere 
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