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You are here: Home / Open Threads / FreedomWorks

FreedomWorks

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Per the comments, Megan McArdle’s fiance used to work for FreedomWorks.

Small world.

I don’t know that much about FreedomWorks and I’m not trying to demonize anyone personally here. But Washington sure is an incestuous city.

I hate to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but it sure does seem like the Atlantic guys are in the tank on this one. Am I wrong to think that it seems funny that Marc Ambinder’s spent the entire day carrying water for the outfit that employed his Atlantic blogger buddy’s fiance?

Reader Interactions

52Comments

  1. 1.

    beltane

    Good. Now we can officially disregard anything this fool has to say for herself. The fact that Washington is incestuous would explain the stunning feeblemindedness of the Beltway media; inbreeding will do that.

  4. 4.

    TR

    Together, Ambinder and McArdle have convinced me of one thing — it’s time to let my decades-long subscription to the Atlantic finally die a mercy death.

    I don’t care how distinct the website and the magazine are. I don’t want my money paying for their bullshit and idiocy, even if it’s indirectly.

  8. 8.

    Crashman06

    Ain’t no way this little bit of info makes it’s way to theatlantic.com. Sure would be nice to watch McMegan defend this, though.

  10. 10.

    Rosali

    Did Sully backtrack his demand to see the original birth certificate? It seems like he accepted the Hawaii state proof at first, then he doubled down and retracted his acceptance and demanded to see the vault copy of the b.c. After seeing that the birthers were lunatics, did he renounce his previous demand? Did he even address the issue that the birthers with which he aligned himself with, have been proven to be are irrational?

  11. 11.

    thingsbreak

    TNC and Fallows are great and I’d love to continue to support them, but goddamn.

    The obesity crap was enough (‘ive never seen a study that says x lol’ “Uh, what about here, here, or here?” ‘lol that didnt say exactly wordforword what i said lol.’). This is just confirmation that I’ll be doing the right thing by canceling.

  16. 16.

    JK

    McArdle and Ambinder are lying sacks of shit who have severely tarnished the reputation of a formerly great magazine.

  17. 17.

    The Grand Panjandrum

    I will always subscribe to the Atlantic. I won’t base my opinion on the magazine because I don’t like a couple of the bloggers. Fallows, TNC and Sully’s long form pieces are ususally good stuff. Its one of the few magazines I subscribe to and actually sit down to read the dead tree version.

  18. 18.

    El Cruzado

    @Rosali:

    He seems to be on the side or reasonableness now. That’s Sully for you, say something very stupid, perform an overwrought song and dance number, reach the obvious conclusion.

  20. 20.

    Warren Terra

    @ TR #4
    A week ago on another McArdle-inspired thread, I commented the following rant, which I stand by:

    Y’know, I subscribe to the Atlantic, and have for most of a decade, because while their short-form articles are almost universally hopelessly Broderist and sometimes aspire to the least interesting forms of Kinsleyist counterintuition, their arts section is a cruel joke (featuring Caitrin Flanagan, the tragic remains of the once-brilliant Sandra Tsing-Loh, the incoherent screeds of Christopher Hitchens that no longer even pretend to address the books being “reviewed”, and all edited by someone who more and more transparently only wants to write about architecture or fashion rather than to edit the back half of a journal of ideas), and their lifestyle pieces are an insult to anyone without hundreds of thousands in disposable income (Corby Kummer would have been very happy writing lifestyle pieces in Versailles, or in the stately homes of the late
    Roman Republic) – despite that long list of complaints, their long-form articles are often excellent, they employ the still-great Jim Fallows, and they were the first people to throw money at Matt Yglesias.
    But the magazine just keeps on getting worse, its short-format pieces ever less readable, and its employment of the likes of Douthat, McArdle, Reihan Salam, Joshua Green, Marc Ambinder, and of course the late Michael Kelly, and especially the obvious pride the magazine takes in these people, gets harder to ignore. Yglesias is gone, and Sullivan is going crazy (crazier). Maybe it’s time to cancel the subscription.

    Also, Gil Mann’s comment (@ #3) was great. And I’m wondering why the Blackwater thread, just after this one, has its comments closed.

  21. 21.

    Ben Richards

    @thingsbreak: I was a subscriber and I let it lapse, but they never disconnected the online id and password, so I can still see everything… Heh.

  24. 24.

    Ben Richards

    Just realized that you can see everything anyway. For a while I thought they were blocking some of the content…

  25. 25.

    Fulcanelli

    Anybody else having problems with no comments input window in the top level thread (now about Blackwater) besides me?

    I’ve tried FireFox and now Safari and I get no comment input area… Cleared cache, and got new commenting cookie, but still no window.

    {Sob}

  27. 27.

    JenJen

    No, I think you’re right. Ambinder is definitely one of the kinds of guys the Villagers likes to quote to make them sound smart, and he seems utterly convinced of the grass-rootsy goodness.

    That’s just delicious that McArdle is getting hitched to a former member of “Dick Armey” too! Wow, wow, color me surprised. And to think Ezra pretty much destroyed her non-argument against health care reform without even knowing that, just the other day.

    And now I see Sully is linking to Josh Marshall’s critique of Ambinder, and proclaiming Josh to be on a “mini-crusade.”

    No, Doug, I’d say you pretty much nailed it, really, at least among those three at the Atlantic. I don’t think TNC’s on-board yet!

  28. 28.

    steve s

    August 4th, 2009 at 10:39 pm Reply to this comment
    DougJ
    @steve s
    Holy shit.

    I know, right? It’ll probably turn out to be not as spectacular as it presents, but if it does, holy Concern Troll.

  29. 29.

    JGabriel

    [email protected]:

    I hate to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but it sure does seem like the Atlantic guys are in the tank on this one. Am I wrong to think that it seems funny that Marc Ambinder’s spent the entire day carrying water for the outfit that employed his Atlantic blogger buddy’s fiance?

    Perhaps it’s time for a reminder that The Atlantic defended the same type of pay-for-play parties that Kat Graham was planning to hold and that The Atlantic had, in fact, been holding them for several years already.

    I don’t think Ambinder is necessarily carrying water for McArdle’s BF, especially when such obvious sources of corruption are already available.

    .

  32. 32.

    SGEW

    Also speaking of Fallows, I just picked up his collection of Atlantic essays written in China, Postcards From Tomorrow Square. Simply fantastic read so far – especially as I just finished Oracle Bones, another great (if notably different) book about modern China.

    As far as I’m concerned, so long as they keep Fallows and Coates on board, the rest of their content can be filled with monkeys pounding on keyboards. Those two can make up for a hell of a lot of bad reportage.

  33. 33.

    JGabriel

    @tammanycall:

    More on Freedomworks … Lobbying for Social Security privatization

    There’s a real opportunity here, and I’m surprised none of the major Dem players have picked up on it yet. They need to get out word that the people opposing health insurance reform are the same people who were arguing for Social Security Privatization.

    Then you ask people, given the turn of the market in the last year, whether or not they’re happy Social Security Privatization failed.

    .

  34. 34.

    tc125231

    @TR: I long ago cancelled my subscription specifically becauseof McGerbil, although Ambinder and Sullivan run close seconds in the nonsense department. I find her inability to follow a chain of logic past its basic premise irritating.

  37. 37.

    brad

    If memory serves properly at this early hour it’s also worth mention that Suderman has jumped back on the Koch funded wingnut welfare teat. I can’t remember which particular one, but when Susan gets here I bet she’ll be able to.

  38. 38.

    Arr-squared

    When Matt Yglesias was blogging for the Atlantic, he carried McArdle’s water at least 3 or 4 times a week, and was invariably stomped by his commentariat. He moves to a think tank, and links to McArdle drop 90%. Such a coincidence.

  39. 39.

    Hunter Gathers

    Ambinder is going to look like the fat-assed dipshit that he is when one of these birthers does something stupid on camera.

  40. 40.

    Barry

    HG, the problem is that looking like a fat-*ssed dipsh*t is not a problem to the Villagers; it’s more like a job requirement. He’s demonstrating ‘team spirit’.

  42. 42.

    James Joyner

    I would note that Megan has repeatedly disclosed Peter’s former employment by FreedomWorks and current funding by Koch. Peter’s not a reporter but a right-of-center pundit. Ideological pundits frequently pay the bills working for like-minded funders.

  43. 43.

    nepat

    Remind me why anyone reads Ambinder – and why this blog insists on caring what he has to say one way or the other? Ambinder revealed himself to be a paste-eating dough boy of the highest order during the primaries. He’s a lazy and predictable thinker, a tireless (and tiresome) sycophant to rightwing talking points, and a ‘fraidy cat who’s easily intimidated by Republican cowboy rhetoric so as not to appear the wuss he truly is. He’s Exhibit A of the Stockholm Syndrome that afflicts some Villagers. I have a huge crush on my captor and all that.

  44. 44.

    McCormick

    Washington sure is an incestuous city.

    Just to be all bipartisan about it, Dave We/gel used to date the woman who is now his editor. I know this because as of recently I’m dating a friend of theirs, who also knows Matt Yglesias. (Well, I think We/gel self-identifies as a conservative so I guess this wouldn’t be bipartisan, technically, but he has the right enemies.) The kicker is, my friend isn’t into blogging herself at all, nor bloggers qua bloggers; she just happens to know them socially. And I met her at an event that had nothing to do with politics or blogging or anything like that.

    It is a village.

    -A regular commenter who just this once is using a different pseudonym.

  45. 45.

    DougJ

    Remind me why anyone reads Ambinder – and why this blog insists on caring what he has to say one way or the other?

    He’s influential, like it or not.

  46. 46.

    Paul L.

    carrying water for the outfit that employed his Atlantic blogger buddy’s fiance?

    I guess progressive’s are finding “guilt by association” to be fashionable again.
    After denouncing the use of it for Obama with Bill Ayers and Rev. Wright.

  47. 47.

    Sickle

    Wait a minute. I’ve trolled the FreedomWorks blog for years. Peter Suderman was the only voice of reason there. He was much more an Andrew Sullivan type than the gay-hating, race-baiting folks they have there now (like Brendan Steinhauser). Suderman actually corrected posts that were factually wrong, sometimes the posts of other bloggers at FreedomWorks who wouldn’t retract false statements. Say what you want about FreedomWorks—they’re a vile organization—but Suderman wasn’t really “of” them, and it’s unfair to go after him now. He’s as honest a libertarian as can be.

    Suderman wasn’t at FreedomWorks for very long, and rumor is that he left because they were all wack-jobs over there.

  48. 48.

    Anne Laurie

    I would note that Megan has repeatedly disclosed Peter’s former employment by FreedomWorks and current funding by Koch.

    Shorter Megan: “Grima Wormtongue? Who wouldn’t wanna hit that? I mean, he’s self-aware, he’s controlling the discourse, and he has a direct link to Sauron Himself!”

  49. 49.

    Susan of Texas

    Brad–Peter Suderman is an intern at Reason. He has a great future ahead of him. Way back in June 2008 he was plotting ways to manipulate voters.

    John Carney touches briefly on an idea that’s been gnawing at me the last few weeks: the brewing anti-corporate sentiment on the right. For a long time now, the Republican party has been the party of business, but I’m not sure that’s bound to last forever. In fact I wonder if the right won’t revive itself to some significant extent on a tide of anti-corporate sentiment. Sounds nuts, right? Permit me to try to sketch out this (admittedly half-baked) idea.

    [snip]

    This opens up the opportunity for the right to exploit the anti-corporate outrage in Middle-America–outrage we can already see boiling up in the crusades against earmarks, (hand-outs to donors and corporate interests), against CEO pay, against hedge fund tax rates and oil company profits. But instead of running the traditional anti-corporate campaigns, which mainly focus on taxing and regulating big-business, the right runs against the way liberal politicians have gotten into bed with corporations. It’s against the Washington favor-racket, against back-room politics, against collusion between business and government. This pleases libertarians somewhat and, if done properly, keeps low-taxers in the fold.

    Of course, some will turn the message into a purely anti-corporate one, but if done with a bit of skill, it uses anger at the way corporations influence the government to fuel a separation of the two rather than additional layers of easily gamed regulation. Maybe you even end up with corporations trying to distinguish themselves as good citizens by publicly refusing to have lobbyists or to take subsidies, regulatory favors, etc — starting, obviously, with Whole Foods, run by the self-proclaimed libertarian, John Mackey.

    The result is that you end up with a weird sort of libertarian populism, and maybe, just maybe, you trace it back to the (presumably failed) McCain campaign, arguing that McCain’s honor economics — for low taxes but also deeply set against corporate influence and sleazy government deal-making — is what got it all started. The time is obviously not right for this. But five years down the road, or ten, if the GOP is still struggling and business has largely left them anyway, why wouldn’t they abandon their corporate wing and try something crazy? The sentiment is there for anyone who can figure out how to tap into it.

    Suderman’s idea just needed a few adjustments, and a tea-bagging movement was born. Of course the corporations simply paid groups like Freedomworks to protest against Democratic government. And now corporation-friendly media outlets like The Atlantic support the tea-baggers.

    James Joyner–McArdle did the absolute minimum. She stated that astro-turfing was no big deal, nothing to see here, move right along, oh-by-the-way I’m sleeping with someone who used to work for Freedomworks. She then wrote three more posts down-playing the scandal and pretending that having corporations run so-called grass-roots movements was just “standard political organization tactics.”

    Anyone who believes Suderman is a voice of reason has been listening to the wrong voices for too long.

  50. 50.

    Susan of Texas

    In case my earlier comment disappeared–

    Brad, Suderman is an intern at Reason. He advocated for an early form of tea-bagging way back in 2008. He is knee-deep in the culture and no doubt has a fine career ahead of him as scum of the earth.

    McArdle did her best to minimize the Freedomworks story, adding in the absolute minimum disclosure of her relationship, and always utterly incapable of seeing her conflict of interest. McArdle is of limited intelligence, which she hides through flattery, imitation and bluster. Her lack of professionalism is acute and she is utterly lacking in empathy. But she can be personable on tv and evidently that is all that is required of her–charm them on the blog with a kittenish version of Ann Coulter’s liberal baiting and bashing, while tossing out enough half-remembered economic terms to fool the rubes.

    Congratulations, Libertarians. Your poster boy and girl are a selfish, self-satisfied Me-First dilettante and a Doughy Pantload.

  51. 51.

    Nutella

    A question: PR is one thing. We all know it’s advertising, really. But astroturfing, like the fake letters sent to the Va congressman from fake people falsely claiming to be from real organizations, isn’t that fraud? And isn’t fraud illegal?

  52. 52.

    Chris

    It’s funny; half the time I think Ambinder’s in the tank for Obama (when he’s bashing the left for wanting Obama to live up to campaign promises, like not repeating Bush-Cheney national security suckitude), and the other half of the time I think Ambinder’s in the tank for whichever conservative flack or hack has said something nasty about Obama or Democrats to him.

    I guess the common denominator is that when someone has something nasty to say about the left, Ambinder’s there to repeat it, and only half the time does Obama actually qualify as taking or defending the left-ward position.

    (And once in a blue moon, Ambinder does something that’s actually journalistically worthwhile.)

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