Political Animal
Blog
Maybe I’m just biased, but I wouldn’t have imagined that what the political media world most needed at this moment was a new, avowedly vicious conservative web site. But that’s what Matthew Continetti (a former Weekly Standard editor probably best known for penning the 2009 book The Persecution of Sarah Palin) is promising with the advent of the Washington Free Beacon, “a project of the 501(c)4 Center for American Freedom…[d]edicated to uncovering the stories that the professional left hopes will never see the light of day.”
Continetti’s introductory essay for the Free Beacon (of which he is editor-in-chief), entitled “Combat Journalism,” is pretty amazing coming from a professionally trained journalist. It’s a chronicle of the recent history of political media in which conservative media (and politicians) are the perpetual victims of liberal bias and “elitism,” against which they have only now begun to fight. The first examples of a determination to fight fire with fire, and the apparent models for the Free Beacon, are the gangster-pranksterism of Andrew Breitbart and the Daily Caller’s smear-a-thon aimed at the alleged media conspiracy of the off-the-record listserve Journolist (full disclosure: I was a member of said ‘list, who got to see a few of my leaked private emails taken wildly out of context and splashed across the top of the Caller’s site).
In any event, Continetti has worked himself up into a hate-frenzy and all but promised to fight dirty, as is witnessed by his manifesto’s coda: “At the Beacon, we follow only one commandment: Do unto them.”
Bully-boy bravado aside, this is pretty sad. Continetti once had the guts to reflect his free-market principles by going after Republicans, too (as evidenced by his first book, The K Street Gang: The Rise and Fall of the Republican Machine). Now it’s all us versus them, with a heavy aroma of the self-justifying claim of victimization that he must have gotten via proximity to St. Joan of the Tundra.
In any event, Continett’s pose of lonely courage may be undone by his simple inability to cut through the vast competition. If ever anyone brought coals to Newcastle, it’s the Free Beacon.
Facebook
Twitter
Quicksand on February 08, 2012 3:06 PM:
DID SOMEONE SAY FREE BACON?
mrgumby2u on February 08, 2012 3:08 PM:
Oh don't worry about the competition. If there's one thing Republicans have proved, it's that there is an unlimited market for them telling each other how victimized they are. Would you like some racism against white people, with a side of the war on Christmas?
stormskies on February 08, 2012 3:20 PM:
What a pathetic little boy. Maybe him mama took his candy away last night ...........
anm834 on February 08, 2012 3:26 PM:
It's a shame that this site isn't called the Washington Be Freakin'.
exlibra on February 08, 2012 3:32 PM:
Beacon? May it burn Breit(bart)ly.
Homer on February 08, 2012 3:34 PM:
mmmm .... baaaconnn ... D'oh
Skip on February 08, 2012 3:36 PM:
Sounds like an excellent way for a journalist to fill the empty space left vacant by the willful need to keep his eyes away from the train wreck of his own party.
If you can't deal with your own inner horrors, become a advocate to help feed the inner horrors of others.
Lifelong Dem on February 08, 2012 4:22 PM:
I keep hearing about the "professional left." How the hell can I get paid for being a lefty? I can be pretty darned professional when I try!
Trollop on February 08, 2012 4:32 PM:
Saint Joan: still dying to see Mrs. Moore's depiction but, not to be outdone I'm sure Continental here has gone through an entire case of pull-ups for the bacon already.
Anonymous on February 08, 2012 4:38 PM:
It's great to see someone finally sticking up for that plucky little small-town publisher Rupert Murdoch and his young cub reporters at Fox. When are these kids going to catch a break in this big bad world?
ComradeAnon on February 08, 2012 6:22 PM:
Why he's gone and gotten all frothy.