Washington Post's Dana Milbank Pushes Lie About Van Jones &
Occupy

WaPo's Dana Milbank Pushes Lie About Van Jones and Occupy

by Adele M. Stan

AlterNet
June 21, 2012

http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/989348/wapos_dana_milbank_pushes_lie_about_van_jones_and_occupy/

On June 18, Van Jones gave a hard-hitting speech to
progressive activists in which he praised the Occupy movement
while chiding the older, more established iterations of  left-
wing activism for abandoning the cause because of
disappointment in President Barack Obama. But if you read Dana
Milbank's coverage in the Washington Post, you'd think
precisely the opposite had happened. In a piece representing
either the worst of lazy-reporter hackery or outright
dishonesty, Milbank wrote that Jones used his speech to slam
the Occupy movement -- a false charge if there ever was one.
(Video of Jones' speech appears at the end of this post.)

And then at least 17 other newspapers across the nation picked
up Milbank's column, spreading a false narrative that, three
days later, the Washington Post has yet to correct.

Jones essentially laid into the national liberal establishment
-- the institutions of the anti-war movement, the civil rights
movement, the women's movement, the environmental movement --
for failing to act with gusto in the current presidential
campaign, and for abandoning the recall effort in Wisconsin.
Here's how he stated it (emphasis added):

    I'm seeing the people who fought the hardest in the decade
    that Dr. [Melissa Harris-]Perry just talked about now
    fighting the least. I'm seeing a movement that was built
    up over that decade -- that stood up against Bush, that
    stood up against Rove, that stood up against Cheney, that
    stood up against torture, that stood up against war, that
    stood up for the people who were suffering in [Hurricane]
    Katrina.., who saw that there was nothing in Washington,
    D.C., that would answer the call and who stood up and
    insisted that we g in a better way -- I'm seeing that
    movement that broke the stranglehold that Karl Rove had on
    our Congress, that elected the first African American
    president, I'm watching that movement that inspired the
    world, that shocked the world, that stunned the world, in
    the moment of maximum peril now, sit down.

As a contrast, as examples of courage in the face of
opposition, he used the examples of the "young people" of the
DREAM Act movement, the anti-Keystone movement, the LGBT
rights movement -- and the Occupy movement:

    Look at the young people who rescued America last year,
    coming out of that horrible August when the Tea Party put
    Congress in a headlock and said, "If you don't do what we
    say, we're going to blow a hole in the American economy;
    we're going to destroy America's credit rating." And this
    whole town trembled in fear and gave in and said, "We'll
    create a super-committee to do super damage to the
    American people." And some young people and some
    strugglin' folks -- no pollsters , no lobbyists, no big
    grants -- went down with some sleeping bags and some tents
    to the scene of the crime against their future, and
    occupied Wall Street, and turned this country upside down.

Here's how Milbank misreported the speech, misrepresenting
Jones' critique of the liberal establishment as a slam of the
Occupy movement (emphasis added):

    The Occupy movement is preoccupied.

    In October, when liberal activists gathered in Washington,
    they had hopes that the nascent Occupy Wall Street
    movement would become the left's answer to the tea party.

    But this time around - the annual Take Back the American
    Dream Conference was moved up to June this election year -
    the Occupy encampments are gone, and participants in the
    conference were pondering what went wrong. Or, as activist
    Van Jones put it to them, what has become of "the voice
    that is missing."

    Jones, an Obama administration official who resigned under
    pressure because of his far-left positions, is a fixture
    at the annual gatherings and a fiery orator. But this
    version of his yearly pep talk was laced with
    disappointment. "I'm watching that movement that inspired
    the world .?.?. that stunned the world, in the moment of
    maximum peril now sit down," he lamented at the opening
    session...

The Washington Post is a place of employment for many fine
journalists. Dana Milbank isn't one of them. He's either the
essence of a lazy journalist or an outright prevaricator,
deliberately picking quotes out of context to suit his
predetermined theme.  If you agree, you can send your
respectfully stated objections to Milbank's so-called
reporting to Patrick Pexton, the paper's ombudsman:
[log in to unmask]

In 2009, AlterNet took Milbank to task for essentially calling
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a "bitch" in what was
supposed to be a humor video posted on the Washington Post
site. While Milbank's video co-star, Chris Cillizza,
apologized, and Washington Post Executive Editor Marcus
Brauchli kinda-sorta did, too, Milbank remained unrepentant
and kept his job.

Here's the video of Van Jones' speech. Van Jones keynote from
2012 "Take Back the American Dream" conference
http://youtu.be/jaEgo9PjXp4

[Adele M. Stan is AlterNet's Washington correspondent.]

==========

___________________________________________

Portside aims to provide material of interest to people
on the left that will help them to interpret the world
and to change it.

Submit via email: [log in to unmask]

Submit via the Web: http://portside.org/submittous3

Frequently asked questions: http://portside.org/faq

Sub/Unsub: http://portside.org/subscribe-and-unsubscribe

Search Portside archives: http://portside.org/archive

Contribute to Portside: https://portside.org/donate