Fox News Teamed with Big Biz Astroturf Group to Force Out Van Jones

If you thought the targeting of Van Jones for vilification by the Right was about his race, his youthful flirtation with socialism, or a petition he signed about the 9/11 attacks, you'd only be a little bit right. And if you think it was about the Color of Change campaign against Glenn Beck's show on Fox News Channel, you'd really miss the mark.

The racism and red-baiting suffered by Jones at the hands of Beck and his admirers are simply key elements in a marketing strategy designed to serve Very Big Business -- the oil and other business interests that support the astroturfing group Americans for Prosperity. The strategy is simple: prey upon the worst fears of the right-wing folks who live next door in order to get them to organize against their own interests.

When word of Van Jones' resignation from his White House post hit the airwaves, Americans for Prosperity's Phil Kerpen, the group's policy director, wasted no time in taking personal credit. In his column on FoxNews.com, Kerpen wrote, "The Van Jones affair…is one of the most significant things I've ever had the honor of being involved in."

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Comments

[cobaltbluedog]

Good Morning Adele,

Thanks for this expose on, Kerpen, as the eminence grise, behind the rodeo clown, Beck. It allows us to better know our true enemy.
Color of change reports that, ''. As of today, 62 companies have stopped their ads from running on Beck's show' The big question is if Murdoch will feel the sting and bow to the pressure. Giving the depth of his pockets, he can hold out a long time.
Thanks for a, very informative piece.

[underoath]

Help stop the hate
http://www.colorofchange.org/

[medic628]

The Democrats need to find a backbone to confront the insanity.

[Middleclassvotingbloc]

The administration should have never given in to Beck and his corporate masters. I think the decision to agree to Van Jones' resignation was one of the bigest flaps of the Obama Administration. They should have stood up on principal with this one. What a shame!!! This is the type of events that make many doubts the ability of this administration to fight back. They almost appear neive to the anything goes mentality of the extreme right and hate mongers. Do they really believe that they will ever be able to work with or appease these people. BRING VAN JONES BACK!!! ADMIT YOU MADE A MISTAKE OR THAT YOU CHANGED YOUR MIND, ANYTHING. THAT IS THE ONLY WAY THE ADMINISTRATION WILL BE ABLE TO REGAIN THE HIGHGROUND ON THIS ONE.

[T Specter]

Defend the quarterback at all costs.

Don't quit in the middle of the first quarter of the game.

[middleoftheroad]

Right. And all of us who went to town halls were astro turf! All they did was show Van Jones speak in his own words! Three or four more czars to go- easy.... Plus, let me ask you a question... What about the door this is opening? It's not constitutional. What the communication czar wants to do is chilling! Using regulation to stop free speech??? Really? Is that what you are about? They guy praises Chavez and his taking down the free press... You don't think it can be abused by the other side? Ebb and flows...there is a bad agenda here.

[viewfromuphere]

If you were part of the crowds who shouted down speakers at those townhall meetings I'd say you have some nerve remembering all about "free speech" now...or do you think free speech can only be stopped by govenment and not a mob of screamers...

appears to me some only like free speech when it matches their own...

[Dosadi]

As usual there are a lot of posts suggesting the white house fight back. People need to understand that this is our fight. We citizens have to srand up and demand the nuts from the Republican trash mill be silenced. The media will do it if we tell them to but not before. If we let the media know that we are tired of them pandering to lies, inuendo and propaganda they will stop showing it. The media is convinced that this is what we want to se and discuss. We have to make it clear that we want truth not lies, fairness, not hyprocrisy. It is not the President's fight it is ours so we had better roll up our sleeves and prepare to get dirty.

[Middleclassvotingbloc]

You are so right, however we voted for leaders whom we thought would have the guts to fight for us also.

[metogamekun]

Maybe it's better that he's back on the outside where he can fight against the "man." Something about being in government (DC) shrinks the cajones.

[Seattlelite]

While we democrats sit around laughing at the likes of Faux news other right wing nuts like Glenn Beck for they're "crazy talk" this is what happens -- a good solider was lost in the fight. The White House better start fighting back against this crap and we better aid in that fight dem's or expect to see it happen again.

[LMPE]

No surprise here.

[schatsie]

Glen Beck is the new Joe McCarthy and Joe did exactly what the big boys wanted him to to avoid UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE at that time....This is all about distraction and demogoguery......

[TexasMike]

The republicans. The Party of No.

No morals
No class
No ideas
No intelligence

To most of these idiots, it is all a game. They don't have a care or a clue where the country gets where it's going. To them, it is just about "My Team" winning....and just like rabid hooligans they will do anything to win.....and the devil laughs and buys more souls.

[VanillaCreme]

We are not the party of NO, we are the party of a-holes; according to Van Jones.

[tailgateshirts]

cant you be both?

[Yeah-Me]

If the shoe fits...

[chameleon59]

a-holes that say NO.

[Domenica Iacovone]

Well of course Kerpen is going to take the credit for the McCathyism route....... If the rumor of who his real father is true, that is.

[Tim303]

I find it mildly vexing that so few people appear to know about environmental racism. It really is a no-brainer to notice that toxic dumps are not usually next to rich white people's houses. Just ask a Native American.

[hidenout]

That's because the land is too expensive. It's not about racism (what a complete bastardization of the word), it's about economics.

Jeez,

[chameleon59]

And you miss the point. Environmental and institutional racism aren't about conscious attempts to keep the black man in his place - they're about policies and realities that unevenly affect minorities because minorities still make up a disproportionate percentage of the poor - thus things that affect the poor disproportionately affect minorities.

And for the record, it's not about land being too expensive - it's about keeping the poisons away from the people who have the money and about people with money being able to relocate.

[Miyake]

The right wingers are crazy. They are ruining OUR country

[schatsie]

They are NOT CRAZY, They are laughing at us all the way to the bank....re­ally....An­other Tax Cut....

[blue53]

The christian right is behind all of these think tanks. We have to wake up to the Christian Nationalist. They want this country goverened by biblical law. "Dominonism", Biblical Capitalism, Christian Nationalism" Revisionism--these guys mean business. They have been woking for a long time and are not going to give up.

[ninthraphael]

They are learning a lot from the Taliban!

[halfnelson]

DO you think that might actually be true. WOW that would explain a lot.

[Scent]

Wrong. They trained them and still control parts of them. - Read the material about that part of our history. The same guy (Brzezinski) who made Russia attack Afghanistan and who "invented" the taliban and made Bin Laden a terrorist is now foreign advisor to Obama.

Nice coincidence huh?