Two of my favourite meta-blogs are Instaputz and Roy Edroso's alicublog. I love them because they read the wingnut media so I don't have to. Instaputz, as you may guess from the name, began as a showcase for the passive-aggressive memory hole that is Glenn Reynold's Instapundit blog, and alicublog is an extension of Edroso's unmissable Village Voice column, Exploring the Right-Wing Blogosphere. I prefer Edroso, because he's a little lighter on the cuss-words and his jokes are better, but both of them are a reliable source of the entertaining and alarming.
But something happened today that made me think it's time I pulled my own weight: I discovered Redbaiter's blog, TrueBlueNZ. I could comment there, but all I'd really be doing is trolling. And yet, it crowds with low-hanging fruit. Someone has to do some picking.
This morning's post is a classic. On occasion of the demise of the 132 year-old New Zealand Press Association, which delivers as many as 1000 news items a day to local media outlets, many of them devoted to matters of public interest that would not otherwise be covered by anyone, Red says:
If there has ever been a more disgustingly biased news organisation in this country than the NZPA then this writer would be amazed to hear of it. This group has lead the decline in the craft of journalism and also been at the forefront of changing the news business into an advocacy organisation whose main purpose has been not to bring the public objective information but to promote the ideology of Socialism/ Progressivism.
At least two of his commenters, poor loves, appear to believe that NZPA is funded by the benighted taxpayer, and one declares that:
If all these "journalists" at NZPA are convinced they have something of value to contribute, they can do the same as the local butcher, baker and plumber, open up shop and sell their product on the free market.
He seems unaware that the chief impediment to NZPA engaging in the "free market" has been the restraint placed on it by one of its owners, Fairfax, which has now pulled the plug entirely, in favour of effectively running its own bureau.
Another cracker today: Red's discovery of the compelling political proposition that is Donald Trump:
This poll proves that what the mainstream media says and what the people think are two entirely different things. This poll proves that the media does not report the truth but rather seeks to fashion our thoughts so as to benefit their political allies. This poll proves that the media are partisan liars and cowards for refusing to investigate Obama’s Constitutional eligibility. This poll proves the US mainstream media are traitors for continuing to cover for a fake and fraudulent US President.
This poll proves that the people’s thoughts on this issue are entirely at odds with what the mainstream media claim they are. Trump is no outlier, no “nutter” none of those things Obama’s cowardly media agents say he is. Trump is saying what a large section of the people think, and he has massive support.
"This poll", it should be noted, is actually a self-selecting questionnaire on the glorious fruity Newsmax.com, and thus based entirely within the inner wingnut bubble.
Red seems unaware that until relatively recently Trump was a registered Democrat who championed universal health coverage, or that he has previously hinted that he would run for President in 2004 and 2008. Or even that he's still a cut-'n'-runner as regards Iraq and Afghanistan.
He seems untroubled by the idea that the shoal of goldfish that sweeps urgently around the reef of Newsmax will ignore the entire slate of actual Republican Presidential candidates in favour of the latest shiny object dangled in the water. I mean, seriously: Palin and Bachmann are over already? (Although, given that this week's Pew Research poll has Obama beating a generic Republican candidate by 10 clear points in 2012, perhaps they have a point.)
But, clearly, these things are less important than the fact that Trump is a born-again birther. Edroso rounds up the entertainment there, which included Trump demanding that Barack Obama produce his birth certificate (which, of course, in reality-land, he has) and then being unable to produce his own. You couldn't write this stuff.
On one level it's sad that a nation that has achieved so much has a political culture so deeply infected with The Stupid. But it really is some fun.