July 6, 2014

Why, ABC? WHY? Someone please tell me why you would put convicted felon Dinesh D'Souza on This Week and give him plenty of time to pimp his movie? And why would you do it without even a whisper about his sentencing for campaign finance violations coming up in September?

This clip is a shining example of why our corporate media needs to die and die quickly, beginning with these idiotic Sunday shows that enough people watch to keep them barely relevant.

Here we have Dinesh D'Souza versus Michael Eric Dyson, except not really. They're sitting at the same table but they may as well be on different planets. This segment was done for one reason, and one reason only: To give D'Souza a platform to legitimize his new right-wing movie while trashing anyone who disagrees with him. No one was exempt: Martin Luther King, Noam Chomsky, Hillary Clinton, and Saul Alinsky were some of the names he dropped.

After making the claim that the Alinsky encounter in high school was some kind of turning point for Hillary, D'Souza goes on to say "Hillary met Saul Alinsky in high school. She brought him to Wellesley College. She wrote her thesis on him." D'Souza continued, "So we're not inventing a connection between Alinsky and Hillary, they're -- the connection is well-documented."

And that, my friends, justifies the claim. Because connection. Let's forget all that Hillary as Goldwater girl stuff, because of course the right wing never, ever studies or uses Alinsky's organizing techniques. Right? Wrong. Hint: Freedomworks.

D'Souza is really just making a cynical political play here. Bill Clinton is the most popular living US president right now. In order to carve Hillary away from Bill, D'Souza is using Alinsky as a common thread between Hillary and Obama in order to dissuade those who might support Hillary but hate Obama. Any port in a storm.

Michael Eric Dyson wasn't too helpful either, basically saying well, no, that was a long time ago and he doubts there's much influence. No, the right answer there was that he wished Alinsky had more influence on the left, since the right is so effective in using his techniques.

Martha Raddatz, however, serves the icing on the cake and proves why our media is just completely useless. Closing up the discussion, she says "It's a very interesting movie. Everybody should go see it and continue a debate like this."

Beyond the obvious plug for box office receipts, does Raddatz have a clue what she just suggested viewers should go see and debate? This tweet from Oliver Willis sums it up nicely:

Thanks to ABC News for legitimizing D'Souza while ignoring his criminal history. You get the Most Irrelevant Corporate Media Award for This Week.

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