(Help) Milking A Story

For someone who prides himself on having zero integrity or credibility, our founding editor has nonetheless managed to amass quite a bit of both over the past few years.

Alright, alright … Sic Willie obviously has no integrity … who are we kidding!

But it’s hard to argue that FITS News hasn’t become a credible news outlet, even as Sic rakes in the big sweet dollars from undisclosed special interests while at the same time disingenuously proclaiming his hatred for the accumulation of such mainstream “respects.”

Errr … wait … no, actually.  None of that.  Did we just write that?!?!?  Mistake! We meant something else!

Anyway, as FITS has shown on multiple occasions, Sic is also the master of “milking a story,” as he is obviously doing with the whole “Lindsey Graham is a tool of the radical left” series.

And yes, here’s the obligatory invitation for you to click here, here, here and here if you want to read the meticulously-documented stories that expose the whole scam.

Sometimes, though, it’s not us that’s milking the story … it’s the hit dogs who “holler back” at us.

For example, here’s an email we received earlier today from one of the leaders of Lindsey Graham’s Shining Path …

In one of your recent posts about Lindsey Graham you incorrectly assert that Republicans for Environmental Protection gets funding from the Tides Foundation. REP has not recieved a dime from Tides. REP is organized under section 501c4 of the tax code and I do not think it would even qualify for such support.

REP has no connection whatsoever to liberal whacko George Soros, and implying that we do is dishonest. You also imply that REP is not really the group defending Senator Graham. We are. So please get your facts straight. If you are really interested in honest reporting, I am happy to answer any questions that come up regarding REP.

Thank you for your time and attention to this matter.

David Jenkins
Vice President for Government and Political Affairs
Republicans for Environmental Protection

First, excuse us while we bend over and contemplate the half-hour (and several hundred dollars) that our lawyers are going to bill us for as they contemplate this nonsensical missive …

(moon river …)

… ahhh, that’s better. Thank you.

Now, on to the substance of this merit-less complaint (which $640 later we were advised to simply ignore, btw).

First of all, as FITS readers are very well aware, “Republicans for Environmental Protection” was not the group originally listed as the entity behind these ads.  It was supposed to be paid for by the left-leaning “Truman National Security Project,” although our investigation into the whole she-bang (bad pun, sorry) forced Graham’s left-wing defenders to switch the sponsor of the buy at the last minute (see the evidence of that here).

It’s funny to see such a passionate response from a guy whose organization was literally thrown onto the ad buy at the very last minute – after we exposed the first assemblage of tree huggers.

Anyway, let’s look at the various bones of contention from Mr. Jenkins’ nastygram (because we’re milking, remember?) …

“You incorrectly assert that Republicans for Environmental Protection gets funding from the Tides Foundation,” Jenkins writes.

Well, no.  No we didn’t.  We asserted what we could prove, which was that Republicans for Environmental Protection “is connected to a donor fund managed by the San Francisco-based Tides Foundation, one of the many George Soros-funded non-profits that provides provides ‘fiscal sponsorship for progressive groups.’”

Indeed, during the 2008 cycle, $20,000 of the $25,000 received by the Republicans for Environmental Protection PAC came from John A. Harris IV and Lawrie Harris.  The Harris’s are big time donors to environmental 527 committees.  In the 2006 election cycle, for example, they contributed over $1 million to environmental groups. In one of those donor disclosures, Harris lists a group called the Changing Horizons Fund as his employer.

Guess who manages that fund? George Soros’ Tides Foundation.

Jenkins goes on to allege that our story implied that “REP is not really the group defending Senator Graham. We are.”

Um, really?

Actually, we stated directly in our story that Republicans for Environmental Protection was “the group that is now responsible for the pro-Graham ads.”  And obviously, the “now” reference refers to the fact that they weren’t always the group responsible for the ads, which is once against a fact that we not only caused, but meticulously documented as well.

Seriously, dude.  If you’re gonna come into our kitchen, accuse us of “inaccurate” reporting, and tell us to “get (our) facts straight,” you better come with more than this.

This is our kitchen, and we refuse to be blamed for the fact that you and the rest of your fellow Lindsey lovers left such an easy trail of bread crumbs for us to follow …

Of course if you’re looking for a place to print this weak ass sh*t, we recommend taking it over to Graham campaign headquarters.  They’ll no doubt print it verbatim and unchallenged.

Of course, bear in mind that in so doing you’ll only be helping us to further milk the story …

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