Life Of Jason

I really don’t like getting into blog fighting matches but unfortunately I have to respond to a very misleading post and a blindsided attack made upon me by someone that until today I considered a blogger worth viewing.  Jackie Melton, also known as JackeHammer, was someone with whom I had discussed issues and found myself agreeing with on local issues.  We share a passion for our community being better and we line up on many political issues.  Unfortunately, it appears that Jackie cannot handle someone being critical of a conservative and holding them to the same standard of conduct in the political venue that they hold liberals.

Jackie takes my post about a political activist ambushing Rep. Jack Murtha and turns it into a slanted diatribe by selective quoting only portions of the blog and misrepresenting my views.   I tried to respond on her blog with a comment to which I was met with more spin and misinformation.

For example, Jackie posted “When I pointed out that Mattera said “Al-Jazeera” rather than “Al-Qaeda,” Jason corrected it but he said it made no difference to him. I think there’s a bit of difference but that’s just my opinion.”  That implies to the reader of the blog that it is my opinion the two organizations are the same.  However, that is not what was posted on this blog.  I said that I didn’t see a difference because in the eyes of the far right they imply that Al-Jazeera is sympathetic to Al-Qaeda.  The sentiment I expressed regarding those on the right using Al-Qaeda or Al-Jazeera references to smear those on the left is the same because they are used the same way in those smear tactics.  However, if you only read Jackie’s post, you wouldn’t see the context of the comments to understand my true view.

She also posted “I do think Jason was off the mark on this one, however, and wanted to set the record straight. Not to “get” Jason, but to make the point that a spokesman for Young America’s Foundation has the same right to his opinion as anyone else, heck, for that matter he’d have that right even if he was a reporter rather than a spokesman.”  Nowhere in my blog did I say this man did not have the right to his opinion or to express it.  If someone did not read my blog, they would walk away from Jackie’s posting thinking that I was advocating that position.  Why?  Because she says that I was “off the mark” in the same paragraph where she says that he has the right to his opinion.  That’s tying those two things together and that creates a misrepresentation of what I had posted.

When I responded to Jackie with a comment on her post…a courtesy that Jackie did not give to me before her attacking post…her response was to again spin what I had said and misrepresent what I was saying so she could make her point.  She posted “In your opinion the distinction between Al-Qaeda and Al-Jazeera doesn’t matter and I DID mention you felt that way in my posting. Also, I provided a link both to your blog AND to the posting that I was referring to, surely you didn’t expect me to repost the whole thing here? How can I do more than provide a hot link?”  First, as you can see from the actual blog, I never said anything about how I see Al-Qaeda or Al-Jazeera but rather how the far-right sees them.  Second, she asks “how can I do more than provide a hot link?”  Well, you could have posted enough of the blog…or directly quoted the passage you were referencing…so that readers of your blog would see the real context of the statements.  Instead, you chose to write a summary that was inaccurate in it’s content.

In Jackie’s posting, she tries to downplay the impression that Mr. Mattera leaves that he is a reporter.  Any reasonable person who sees that video would believe that Murtha is being confronted by a journalist and not a political activist.  (The video that I posted from YouTube has an added opening to explain what is going on.  The raw video, which played on places like CNN, does not have that introduction.)  Jackie chooses to spin by saying he’s not a reporter as if that somehow excuses his behavior toward Rep. Murtha.  Jackie says in her response to my response that “I didn’t state that you claimed he didn’t have a right to an opinion, however, you had a problem with him issuing his opinion, albeit while thinking he was a reporter.”  As I showed earlier in this blog, she didn’t say it in so many words but she wrote that I was off the mark and immediately comes back by saying he had the right to make his post.  The implication of her opinion is very clear.  To say “I didn’t state…” is just spinning the situation.  It’s like Bill Clinton saying it depends on what your definition of “is” is.

Finally, Jackie wraps up her response by saying “I was surprised to find you more concerned about Mattera’s words than Murtha’s, whose words you only cited to set up your argument that the young “reporter” shouldn’t have used that tone or been politically incorrect.”  If you read my blog, you’ll see that I took on Murtha’s comments and actions first.  I was critical of his refusal to apologize, critical of his attacking the members of our armed forces and criticized Murtha’s tactic of bringing up his military service any time someone takes him to task for his attacks on our soldiers.  A larger amount of the blog is more critical of Murtha than Mattera.  It’s obvious if you read that blog without political bias that I am not more interested in Mattera’s words than Murtha’s and Jackie’s characterization that I “only cited” Murtha’s words is disingenuous because I did much more than just “cite” Murtha’s words.

I have held many up for criticism when they use the Nazi reference to conservatives or similar smear tactics.  The use of “that’s something Al-Jazeera would say” by Mr. Mattera is the right’s equivalent of saying “that’s something they’d do in Nazi Germany.”  I’m disappointed that Ms. Melton apparently cannot see that these statements are similar in their slanted partisanism and do nothing to encourage honest, healthy political debate.  It’s not about “political correctness” as Ms. Melton also tried to accuse me of endorsing.  It’s about simple common courtesy.

I knew these kinds of postings against me would come because I’m not a conservative who’s going to give carte blanche to those who attack liberals.  What Mr. Mattera did was valid in asking the question to Murtha as I stated in the previous blog.  However, as I said before, the point was made long before the Al-Jazeera reference.  It was unnecessary and only creates more ill feelings among those on the left or who have liberal views because they’re seeing a conservative yet again comparing a liberal to terrorists or groups that sympathize with them.  If we want to get our views discussed and even have people on the left see there are views on the right with merit we cannot let people like Mr. Mattera run around like a right wing Michael Moore.

I really didn’t want to write this blog but I wanted to correct the misrepresentation for anyone who might read Jackie Melton’s blog and then click over here.  I can only hope all who read her piece do that so as not to believe what she had posted there was the complete, accurate truth.