Re: Favor Regarding Robert Stacy McCain
Subject: Re: Favor Regarding Robert Stacy McCain
From: Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com>
Date: 2/19/10, 17:18
To: Spencer Ackerman <sackerman@washingtonindependent.com>

Hi again-

Thanks for getting back to me. Here's a more fundamental rundown:

1. The traditional media is deeply flawed and its dynamics are responsible for misinforming the voting public on life-and-death issues.

2. Certain respected commentators like Thomas Friedman are only well-regarded among reasonable people to the extent that they are unaware of his long list of failed predictions and contradictory assertions.'

3. When enough prominent bloggers discuss a particular issue at a given time, mainstream media outlets will report on it, often by way of things like Politico which straddle the print and TV world on one hand and the blogging world on the other.

4. I'm setting up the means by which the more reasonable and honest bloggers can organize on occasion in an effort to reach this critical mass via intentional coordination and thus prompt coverage by mainstream outlets, thus allowing us to inform non-bog readers of those things that we all know, like Friedman being a shitty columnist.

5. I've got a bunch of great folks involved already, will have tons more soon, such that the project is entirely viable.

6. The network will be organized by way of some nifty software that we've got under development and which will be released for free as open-source.


Basically, I'm trying to fuck up the orthodox media apparatus by using its own flawed dynamics against it, and wanted to gauge your interest in getting involved and perhaps being part of the executive committee that would oversee some of the specific decisions that will need to be made. Let me know what you think.

Thanks,

Barrett Brown
Brooklyn, NY
512-560-2302

On Fri, Feb 19, 2010 at 4:32 PM, Spencer Ackerman <sackerman@washingtonindependent.com> wrote:
I'm a bit vague on what this means...?


On Fri, Feb 19, 2010 at 4:00 PM, Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi, Spencer-

Barrett Brown here; you may recall that we spoke last year about Martin Peretz, on whom I wrote a chapter for my upcoming book. Thanks again for your input on that.

I'm launching a project with the intention of bringing greater attention to the failures of certain parties amongst the mainstream media, such as Thomas Friedman, Charles Krauthammer, Richard Cohen, Howard Kurtz, David Broder, and those who still employ them despite their backlog of failed predictions, poor analysis, contradictory musings, and all the rest; to a lesser extent, we'll also be going after such prominent bloggers as Michelle Malkin, Glenn Reynolds, the Powerline gang, and everyone else who gets to go on the ol' teevee despite their nonsensical and occasionally genocidal output. All of this is to be accomplished by way of an invitation-only network of bloggers who will be asked to coordinate on occasion in order to reach the critical mass necessary to prompt certain mainstream media outlets to cover a given travesty - Friedman's record of terrible predictions, for instance. As it is now, when one of us point out the demonstrable failures of some respected pundit, a couple people might link to it, but for the most part we're only reaching people who are already relatively savvy and well-informed and who thus aren't particularly susceptible to flawed commentary to begin with. On the other hand, if we take advantage of the manner in which at least some editors and reporters with the traditional pubs are likely to address a topic if it's being talked about by a great number of bloggers at once, we can use the "herd dynamics" of the media in such a way as to reach those who consume information largely from print and television - which is to say, a relatively huge number of people who would benefit more from learning that their favorite pundit has no idea what he's talking about. This will all be facilitated by software that a friend of mine is writing and which will be released under an open-source license upon completion, and which will involve significant improvements to the means by which bloggers acquire, evaluate, and disseminate important pieces of information, among several other features that we expect to be of some assistance to both bloggers and their readers.

I mentioned the project briefly in my most recent piece for Vanity Fair and will be making a more formal announcement on Huffington Post, True/Slant, and Daily Kos soon. I've only done a little bit of recruiting on the hush-hush at this point, but so far I've got Allison Kilkenny, Charles Johnson (he's very reasonable now), the fellows at Instaputz, and a few other folks on board; Juan Cole is considering joining up as well, as are a couple of other commentators I've spoken to over the past couple of weeks as well a few non-writers with useful skill sets (political organizers/activists, programmers, etc). I'm also meeting with the execs of True/Slant on Wednesday, as they're interested in promoting the project and perhaps adopting the software across their network, among other things. All in all, we think this is a viable means by which to help reduce the influence of those commentators who have contributed to the national decline by way of their undeserved influence over the electorate while also increasing the influence of those commentators - mostly bloggers - who have shown themselves to be intellectually honest and insightful. 

If you'd be interested in getting involved, please let me know, as I'd like to have you on board if possible, and hopefully list you as a participant when I make the formal announcement; we could really use someone who specializes in military, security, and related subjects. More details will be forthcoming when I have that piece published (I may wait till after the meeting on Wednesday to run it), but in the meantime I can answer any questions you may have, and would also like your input on any features you'd like to see from the software or any ideas you may have regarding the project in general. E-mail me back or give me a call at your convenience if you think this is something in which you might like to participate.

Thanks,

Barrett Brown
Brooklyn, NY
512-560-2302

On Wed, Oct 21, 2009 at 9:52 PM, Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com> wrote:
Sure, I understand. Thought he might be interested because of this: http://washingtonindependent.com/61581/robert-stacy-mccain-responds-to-gawker-defends-palin-collaborator-lynn-vincent. But of course I don't know the fellow and you do, so you'd be in a better position to make that call.

At some point, do tell me that story about McCain's letter regarding your article on the Democratic=communists thing when you have a moment.



On Wed, Oct 21, 2009 at 10:46 PM, Spencer Ackerman <sackerman@washingtonindependent.com> wrote:
Honestly, I don't think Dave wants to really touch this, and I'd rather not put him in a position.


On Wed, Oct 21, 2009 at 10:04 PM, Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com> wrote:
Hey again-

I just realized that your fellow Independent writer David Weigel wrote something on R.S. McCain a few weeks back, but I don't think he's aware of the more recent revelations. Would you pretty please forward the info to him as well, along with this link which itself cites even more damning stuff that the fellow wrote under his little internet moniker back in the day?


Again, thanks much for getting me in touch with David Neiwert on this; he says he'll be picking up the story ASAP, which should help to push this one over the edge.

Thanks again,

Barrett Brown
Brooklyn, NY
512-560-2302


On Mon, Oct 19, 2009 at 10:17 PM, Spencer Ackerman <sackerman@washingtonindependent.com> wrote:
David, meet Barrett. Barrett, meet David. You guys, I think, will have a lot to discuss.

Also, remind me to tell you about the time RS McCain wrote a letter to my editors at NY Press when I was 19 objecting to how I took exception to a GOP bumpersticker that called Democrats Communists. No lie.

On Mon, Oct 19, 2009 at 9:00 PM, Barrett Brown <barriticus@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi, Spencer-

Hope all is well and whatnot. Wanted to see if you could help me out with something real quick. Over the last month and a half, I've been writing a bunch of pieces for HuffPo and a few other outlets regarding former Washington Times editor Robert Stacy McCain (who co-wrote Donkey Cons with Lynn Vincent, who ghosted Going Rogue) and his increasingly-evident white supremacist sentiments and neo-Nazi connections. Back in 2002, he wrote under an assumed name for American Renaissance, an white nationalist website. Under the same moniker, he used to link to that site as well the neo-Nazi outlet Overthrow.com from Free Republic and whatnot. There's more along these lines as well, and I've dug up something else over the weekend that I think rounds out the case against him nicely and putting the finishing touches on what I hope will be the last article I have to do on the guy.

So, anyway, I've now teamed up with Charles Johnson of LGF - who's actually a pretty cool guy, as it turns out - to ensure that all of this material gets out and reaches the critical mass necessary to get McCain thrown out of polite society. But Johnson's not as influential as he used to be since he started calling out the nonsense among his old allies, and I'm not really hooked in with too many bloggers myself. I know you're essentially a national security writer, but perhaps you know some people who might be interested in bringing all of this to a wider audience and could forward this e-mail along to them? Here are some links to the pertinent facts. Incidentally, he's also been making goofy threats to go beat up the editorial board of the Charleston Gazette, talking nonsense about how I suck Charles Johnson's dick, and otherwise being a silly-billy. It's an unseemly business.




There's tons more, too. If you can think of someone who might be interested in taking this ball and running with it, please forward this to them.

Also, I met Adam Kruvand a few weeks back - not for the book, he happens to be old friends with a buddy of mine. Had some amusing things to say about Peretz.

Regards,

Barrett Brown
Brooklyn, NY
512-560-2302



--
Spencer Ackerman
Senior Reporter
The Washington Independent
202. 387. 3670 x230 office
202. 294. 9523 mobile
GoogleChat: spencerackerman
Skype: spencer.ackerman
AIM: ackermanspencer




--
Spencer Ackerman
Senior Reporter
The Washington Independent
202. 387. 3670 x230 office
202. 294. 9523 mobile
GoogleChat: spencerackerman
Skype: spencer.ackerman
AIM: ackermanspencer





--
Spencer Ackerman
Senior Reporter
The Washington Independent
202. 387. 3670 x230 office
202. 294. 9523 mobile
GoogleChat: spencerackerman
Skype: spencer.ackerman
AIM: ackermanspencer