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Activist Media Group Uses Soros Billions to Train Progressive Pundits

It says a lot about who’s #winning when progressive activist groups have to take their sugardaddy billions to train other progs to be as good as conservatives on air.

Meet the new comedy hour:

The primary mission of Media Matters, he said, is to obsessively monitor Fox News and call attention to its distortions. But now it’s moving into the operational phase, transforming from observers to shock troops. The organization, he said, had to “professionalize the training and booking” of a left-leaning counterpoise.

Media Matters selected the coterie of attractive, articulate participants from 100 applicants, the largest pool so far. All in mid-career, the class included liberal think tank directors, former Capitol Hill staffers and presidential campaign aides, a pollster, a university professor, a combat veteran and contestants from both “American Idol” and “The Apprentice.”

Brenner, a former producer of CNN’s “Late Edition With Wolf Blitzer” and political director at MySpace, had recently founded a digital communications firm called FastFWD Group and an online magazine called HyperVocal.com.

To observe the training, The Post agreed to withhold the names of participants who asked not to be identified, which many of them did when instructors warned that a public alliance with Media Matters could jeopardize their chances of getting booked on Fox.

No, of course there isn’t any bias at the news networks. It’s like “Rock of Love,” but with progressive politics. Do go on!

Their conservative antagonists had all gone through rigorous media training at the Leadership Institute, he warned, but now they, too, would be armed with the ammunition to compete.

They’re teaching smarts? Or do they mean actual ammunition? It’s so hard to tell in this era of “no means yes” New Tone.



Eager to offer a conversion parable, the instructors showed a Fox News appearance by PTI graduate Taylor West, now a communications director for National Journal, in which her good-natured teasing bested a conservative expert on Web security. She knew virtually nothing about the issue and crammed for the interview in the makeup chair.

They call losing a debate on fact “besting?” Oh my. Please, more of this, Media Matters.

The problem for the soldiers of the left, according to Media Matters instructors, is that they are just too smart for their own good. The traditional dependence on facts and figures, on being right, is no longer germane. Too often these wonks disappear into the policy weeds or fall through the cracks of nuance.

This is what the left calls “facts and figures.” Please say there’s more of this.

The word “Liberal” then appeared on the screen, surrounded by “elite,” “big government,” “sushi-eating” and “latte-drinking.” Westen explained that the “right has spent 40 years and tens of billions of dollars” tarnishing the once-proud label.

The label hasn’t been proud since the death of Kennedy and the ones who tarnished it were progressives who hijacked liberalism to the far left.

A day after his first go-round, Brenner switched his subject to foreign aid and again underwent questioning by Neffinger, who was adopting the persona of an NPR interlocutor. Before they began, Brenner put one leg in front of the other in a seated runner’s stance and puffed his chest forward. He exuded greater confidence and offered more concise answers. Then, suddenly, the talking-points envelope on his lap slipped through his legs and onto the floor. His shoulders grew tight, his concentration faltered.

Oh no! With those Keyboard pundit Google-smarts out of reach, you have to dance to hide that fact that you truly know nothing on the issues you’re discussing.

As Matthew White, the program assistant, helped him and a handful of other participants mold their very own puttylike “interruptible feedback” earpieces, former MSNBC anchor David Shuster was revealed as the special guest who would now put the participants through a real-world simulation.

Yes, the man who got into trouble with, and fired from, MSNBC is leading the class. The blind leading the blind. I wonder if Shuster’s “simulation” involved copious application of the term “Watergate.”

“Well, David,” he replied evenly, “I understand everyone is hurting” and went on to calmly explain that foreign aid pays for medicines for children and early warning systems for tsunamis. In a second round, Shuster hammed it up as an aggressive Fox host and asked Brenner, “Why do you love the children of Africa more than the children of Alabama?”

“I want it to say ‘Made in America’ on medicines rather than bombs,” Brenner replied coolly.

“Ooooh,” the participants in the control room hummed approvingly. “Did he have that in the can?” one asked.

“He did,” nodded Kohut.

Fist bump, brah!

Unless you’re an Oscar-winning thespian, which pundits are not, it’s easy to spot the fakers. You can differentiate between those who can think quickly on their feet and those who nervously rehearsed their comebacks on Twitter or elsewhere beforehand. It’s cheesy, but hysterical to watch.

This isn’t a dance recital, Media Matters, this is broadcasted intelligent debate and your emphasis on the cosmetic over the concrete is a comedic affront to it. This is why Media Matters isn’t approached for punditry on the networks (save for MSNBC) and why Mediaite ridiculed them as being “irrelevant.” They truly believe it’s OK to not know what you’re talking about so long as you can attempt to look good while doing it. Conservatives don’t have to be trained how to handle the media; they’re passionate about the issues about which they speak and that passion drives them to want to learn more about those issues.

Conservatives are in a battle of ideas whereas progressives are in a battle for the argument.

You know what I love the most about this? That they’re so blatant with it. They don’t care anymore if people know they’re wholly astroturfed and require cable news flunkies teach keyboard pundits how to be better at a battle of sound bites. They’re journolisting right out in the open.


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