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发帖数: 29846 | 1 by Ned Ryun
For years, conservatives looking to effect change have turned their eyes to
Washington, D.C., and the national political and media scene. Naturally, a
philosophy that promotes a centralized solution to every problem finds a
happy reception among the elites who walk the halls of power. But for those
who proclaim federalism, it has been ironic to see many Washington, D.C.-
based conservative groups frequently fall prey to the same siren song of
power, and seem most interested in building their own Beltway empires. All
the while, the public sector unions and the groups formerly known as ACORN
have followed in the footsteps of their progressive predecessors, and are
working hard to capture power at the state and local level.
It might seem paradoxical that conservatives who believe in limited
government would spend so much time in D.C. focused on the national scene,
while liberals, whose perch of power is not eternally secure, would turn to
state-based efforts to bolster their cause and further their agenda. But
that’s the reality. As a result, local political scenes have fallen prey to
liberal media bias; a crop of left-wing or lazy political figures have come
to occupy positions of power, in some cases thanks to the weakness of major
political parties.
In Wisconsin, the nation saw the power of the professional left on full
display last year when throngs protested in the state capitol against the
conservative budget reforms proposed by Gov. Scott Walker. Years of work at
the state level in Wisconsin, the birthplace of modern progressivism, gave
the left and its media allies a sense that they were entitled to a nearly
unchallenged dominance of the political scene. Some things were taboo and no
conservative had dare tamper with those issues, they thought.
Enter Media Trackers, a state-based conservative investigative watchdog
affiliated with American Majority, the group I head, not coincidentally
launched in Wisconsin in January of 2011. By the end of the year, both the
left and right, as well as the media, would conclude that Media Trackers was
an organization that changed the Wisconsin political landscape.
During the Madison protests, Media Trackers was among the first to report on
doctors signing fake sick-leave notes for protesters, including public
school teachers who left their classrooms to demonstrate against Walker’s
collective bargaining reforms. The story went national and now, more than a
year later, many of the doctors involved in the masquerade are being slapped
with embarrassing reprimands and stiff financial penalties from the state
Medical Examining Board.
Through every step of the legislative and subsequent recall election fights
launched by the left, Media Trackers researchers pored over innumerable IRS
filings, strategy memos, social media pages, campaign finance records, and
websites; they connected the dots and built a comprehensive picture of the
agenda and funding behind the left’s machine.
When labor unions and the left began to lose, and then turned to the courts,
Media Trackers foiled the credibility of the attempt. First, an activist
judge struck down the collective bargaining reforms as unconstitutional.
Media Trackers found that the judge and her husband had close ties to
organized labor and radical environmental groups. Hoping to sustain the
ruling in the state supreme court, liberals mobilized to defeat a
conservative justice running for re-election in an off-year spring election.
But the mask of impartiality was torn from the liberal candidate’s
campaign when Media Trackers discovered a litany of financial and
ideological connections that helped tank her candidacy. A later attempt by a
Soros-funded propaganda machine and others to smear the conservative jurist
failed after Media Trackers discovered several layers of conflicts of
interest within the transparently partisan Dane County law enforcement
community.
In its biggest story of the summer recall elections, Media Trackers found a
group with close ties to the SEIU handing out tickets to a barbeque chicken
dinner in exchange for voters taking a free ride to an early voting location
to cast a ballot in what was termed the “crown jewel” race. Queried about
her connection to the group, the Democratic candidate told the media that
there was none. E-mails released by Media Trackers proved the Democratic
candidate wrong. When the media feeding frenzy began, it was game over, and
corrupt union thugs lost their chance to tip control of the state senate.
FOR ITS WORK IN 2011, a Wisconsin-based Democratic consultant speaking at a
gathering in Chicago complained that Media Trackers kept the left constantly
and consistently off message. Even a political columnist at the Milwaukee
Journal Sentinel admitted that Media Trackers had become an influential
force on the state political scene.
With 2012 already a contentious year in Wisconsin, Media Trackers has
continued to make national headlines with reports of television station
employees signing recall petitions, and even substantial anti-Walker bias in
the two most powerful district attorneys’ offices in the state. Through
old-fashioned shoe-leather-style reporting, critical questioning of
appearances, and an unrelenting dedication to the work of holding liberals
accountable, a small but highly trained team of two people is changing the
very terms of political debate at the state level.
The best part is that due to its success in Wisconsin, in 2012 Media
Trackers is expanding into Ohio, Florida, Colorado, and Montana, which will
seek to replicate its success in Wisconsin. For too long the right in
America has been on the defensive, forced to react to attacks instead
playing offense. But with Media Trackers now on the scene, the rules have
changed, and conservatives no longer have to just sit there and take it on
the chin.
Now they can punch back. |
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