It was only a matter of time before people got wise to ALEC. It's just too bad it's taken as much time as it has. But after the Trayvon Martin case and subsequent linkage of ALEC to the Stand Your Ground laws, it's starting to get enough
April 6, 2012

[oldembed width="425" height="300" src="https://cloudfront.mediamatters.org/static/flash/pl59.swf" flashvars="config=http://mediamatters.org/embed/cfg3?id=201204050008" resize="1" fid="10"]

It was only a matter of time before people got wise to ALEC. It's just too bad it's taken as much time as it has. But after the Trayvon Martin case and subsequent linkage of ALEC to the Stand Your Ground laws, it's starting to get enough attention to cause the Coca-Cola company to withdraw their corporate sponsorship of the organization, thanks to a Color of Change campaign to draw their attention to ALEC's efforts to disenfranchise Black voters nationwide.

This victory has made Dana Loesch very, very angry. So angry that she lit into Van Jones on her radio show Thursday, despite the fact that Van Jones has not been at the helm of Color of Change for some time. According to Media Matters, Dana went on a rant against Van Jones over the ALEC action, calling him a "Marxist, 911 Truther, Cop Killer-Supporter".

It so happens that Van Jones' latest book, "Rebuild the Dream" came out this week, so Loesch's little rant on Jones just raises his profile and sells more books. I think that's awesome. Dana's little spew doesn't touch Van Jones, but it makes her look like an idiot, and by extension, CNN.

CNN's continued support of Loesch despite her unwarranted and irrational attacks on Soledad O'Brien, Michelle Obama, and now Van Jones makes them look like round fools. They were stupid to hire her, and dumber still to keep her. Based on what I've heard from her this week, she's auditioning to replace Rush Limbaugh when he loses all his sponsors. Or something.

Here's a reality check for Dana. Does she really think anyone but the True Believers of the Right Wing will believe her crap about a guy who just published a book that says this:

There is reason for hope. The United States remains a rich nation—the wealthiest and most inventive in the history of the world. Global competition and technological advances pose challenges for American workers, but we should always remember that the proverbial pie is bigger than ever today—and still growing. As a nation, we are getting richer; our GDP is still greater than it has ever been. The problem is not that the pie is shrinking; it is that working families are taking home smaller slices of it, as wealth and income are concentrated upward. It will take smart policy, better business practices, and community-driven innovation, but we still have the power to reclaim, reinvent, and renew the American Dream.

The growing movement faces three important challenges:

To transform some of its protest energy into electoral power;

To shift from expressing anger to providing answers; and

To balance confrontation with aspiration and inspiration.

At this pivotal moment in history, we can make our economy respect the 99 percent and work for the 100 percent. To do so, we must develop and promote serious solutions that fit the scale of the problems that the protests of 2011 highlighted.

This book proposes some.

America is still the best idea in the world. The American middle class is still her greatest invention. This book is dedicated to the proposition that—with the right strategy and a little bit of luck—the movement of the 99 percent can preserve and strengthen them both.

Van Jones is not the anti-Christ and Dana Loesch is not a rational actor. It's time for CNN to figure that out and decide whether they want to own their slippery sloping slide from CNN to TeaNN or stop before irreversable damage is done to their brand. When Erick Erickson and Dana Loesch exit stage right, we'll know. Until then, assume CNN is so desperate for ratings and attention that they'll let their brand die at the hands of irrational radio hosts like Loesch.

Andrew Breitbart and Rush Limbaugh's legacies are people like Dana Loesch. A dubious honor, at best.

Can you help us out?

For nearly 20 years we have been exposing Washington lies and untangling media deceit, but now Facebook is drowning us in an ocean of right wing lies. Please give a one-time or recurring donation, or buy a year's subscription for an ad-free experience. Thank you.

Discussion

We welcome relevant, respectful comments. Any comments that are sexist or in any other way deemed hateful by our staff will be deleted and constitute grounds for a ban from posting on the site. Please refer to our Terms of Service for information on our posting policy.
Mastodon