Media Matters Senior Fellow Attacks Former Navy SEALs

A group of former intelligence operatives and Special Forces operatives (via Investors.com) recently joined forces to give a voice to current and former operatives who are furious that sensitive intelligence has been leaked to the press. They’re understandably angry that the Obama administration is revealing information for re-election purposes. They’re also fed up with politicians – from any party – who prance around taking credit for what these operatives do on a daily basis. Pretty reasonable, right? These operatives literally risk their lives for this country and don’t ask for much in return but respect.

Enter the slime merchants from the Democrat Media Complex.

Culprit #1 is Eric Boehlert, Media Matters Senior Fellow Of Pedantic Whining. Boehlert, sensing that these new ads from the Special Operation OpSec Education Fund SuperPAC might hurt Obama’s re-election, took to Twitter to try and undermine the effort. Without knowing who funds it – since, like Media Matters Action Network, it is a 501(c)(4) and not required to disclose donors (more on this in a bit) – Eric went ahead and called the group “gutless” for not admitting they were a “GOP, anti-Obama campaign.”

Of course, this charge is laughable since Media Matters, the organization Eric Boehlert works for, doesn’t admit that it is a DNC, anti-GOP campaign, because they can’t, by law. If we didn’t already know that Eric Boehlert was gutless since he refuses to debate Breitbart.com’s own Dana Loesch on her show, and he snipes at her on Twitter while having her blocked, his charge against the Special Ops SuperPAC would, in fact, apply to his own organization.

Nevermind that he’s calling former US Intelligence and Special Forces operatives, who literally get up close and personal with people who are trying to kill Americans, “gutless.” From what we know, Eric Boehlert started his writing career as a music critic or something for Rolling Stone. There’s no evidence that in between writing whiny articles about music and politics, he ran off and did some undercover work for the military or any intelligence agencies, but we’re open to Boehlert providing proof he’s qualified to call anyone gutless.

Boehlert’s attack on the Navy Seals is not the first time he has insulted the military. In October 2011, when Breitbart News editor-in-chief Joel Pollak exposed how Occupy Wall Street protestors were using “veterans, women, the young, the old, [and] the disabled” as human shields in confrontations with police, Boehlert attempted to mock Pollak as a chickenhawk: “When @andrewbreitbart blogger’s done mocking U.S. vets for supporting #OWS can he tell us which war her [sic] served in?” Boehlert did not bother to check his facts: Pollak’s wife serves in the U.S. Navy Reserve, and he demanded an immediate apology–which Boehlert never furnished.

On to the rest of the Democrat Media Complex. The article Boehlert first tweeted out was from the New York Times who, as usual, presents Obama talking points disguised as straight news.

In a direct attack on one of President Obama’s political strengths, a group of former special operations and C.I.A. officers started a campaign on Tuesday night accusing Mr. Obama of recklessly leaking information about the raid that killed Osama bin Laden and other security matters to gain political advantage.

Who says this is a political strength? Why Team Obama, of course. Obviously, some people disagree or there wouldn’t be any point to writing the article. The rest of the piece goes on to imply that this group is really just a Republican operation, but sprinkles in some Democrat opposition to the leaks to balance out the “but these are really Republicans!” tone.

Then Boehlert, unsatisfied with simply calling former intelligence and special forces operatives “gutless”, tweets again, this time linking to a Los Angeles Times attack on the new group. This article’s headline reads, “Group attacking Obama for security leaks includes talkers” – implying that the group is comprised of hypocrites who have also leaked sensitive intelligence. The headline was apparently enough for the Senior Fellow, because the article itself fails the headline’s and the lead paragraph’s implication.

Here’s their evidence that group members were hypocrites:

Rustmann appeared on Fox News‘ “Hannity and Colmes” in 2005 to discuss Valerie Plame Wilson, a covert CIA operations officer who was outed in July 2003 by members of the George W. Bush administration.  A federal jury convicted I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, who was chief of staff forVice President Dick Cheney, of four felony counts for his role in the crime.

Um, Scooter Libby wasn’t convicted for his “role” in “the crime.” Scooter Libby was convicted of obstruction of justice and lying. “The crime” the LA Times is talking about – that someone “outed” a covert operative – never happened. Ironically, leaking her name to the press is the kind of leak this group, which Eric Boehlert and the Democrat Media Complex is attacking, is trying to stop.

Anyway, this example of “talking” was obviously after the leak. In other words, this example was a weak attempt at proving any kind of conflict or hypocrisy. Luckily, the LA Times tries again. Twice. And fails. They finally have to acknowledge towards the end of the article that the instances aren’t really the same as the stuff the SuperPAC is against. All in all, a pretty lame defense of the Obama administration by the Lap Dog Media. But the fact that they try is telling.

Could this be part of a broader effort to attack “GOP, anti-Obama” SuperPACs in general? We know that David Brock has launched a new effort to go after them. Talk about hypocrisy. The very people whining about “secret” and “dark” money are, in fact, chin-deep in it. I mentioned Media Matters Action Network before. Their website, www.mediamattersaction.org, used to have a page called “Media Transparency” which was located at www.mediamattersaction.org/transparency. This link now leads to the new David Brock effort, BridgeProject.com.

Media Matters Action Fund and The Bridge Project are 501(c)(4) organizations, like the Special Operations SuperPAC they’re whining about, and don’t have to disclose donors names. David Brock and his pals demand that conservative groups disclose donors, so they can target them and harass them, but they are setting up a web of organizations that aren’t required to disclose their donors. Can you say “hypocrisy”?

Funnier still is the “about” page for the new project. Go read it, but I’ll sum it up for you: “Republicans are doing what we’ve been doing for years and we are whining loudly about it, you guys!”

So let’s wrap this up, shall we? The Democrat Media Complex is in full panic mode. They had a “kill Romney” strategy in place and it has failed. The introduction of Paul Ryan to the race has energized the conservative movement at a point in time when the Democrats were expecting to see a depressed conservative movement. Now they’re attacking anyone, even accomplished military and intelligence operatives, who dares not follow the Left’s narrative. 

The gutless Eric Boehlert and David Brock have mastered the art of projection and hypocrisy.