Who Is Funding Distribution Of DVDs About Radical Islam In Campaign Home Stretch?

[L. Coyote]

Who Is Funding Distribution Of DVDs About Radical Islam In Campaign Home Stretch?
Eric Kleefeld - September 19, 2008, - http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/09/who_is_funding_distribution_of.php#more


This got a bit of attention earlier this week, and we're surprised it hasn't attracted the notice of the bigger news orgs, because it's a pretty interesting mystery: Who, exactly, is funding the distribution of lurid DVDs across America warning of the global radical Islamic threat, in the home stretch of the election?

The DVD, which would seem to be helpful to John McCain, is called Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against The West, and it was distributed in small newspapers across the country last weekend, prompting little news outlets to start digging. ....

.........

Clarion, for its part, has refused to reveal its funding. Clarion is a 501(c)3, so it's not obliged to reveal its donors. And it's so new that it hasn't filed any IRS-mandated 990 forms yet.

[cliffordu]

1. Maybe someone should grab one of the honchos and beat it out of them.

Why do I smell Dobson??

[old guy]

5. Hagee?

[cliffordu]

6. Yep. I'd like to interview either one of those scumbags.

[L. Coyote]

11. This is likely the new 527 front for the RNC.

[maseman]

2. I got one int he mail today.

Makes a good frisbee. Now it is somewhere in the back bushes.

[babylonsister]

3. I wonder what addresses this is winding up in; rethugs, evangelicals,

who, and if it's legit, why is Clarion refusing to admit who's funding this?

[nc4bo]

7. My mom is black, a Democrat, 65+ and has home delivery for one paper and mail delivery for the other

She only got the dvd in the home delivery paper (Fayetteville Observer).

Oh yea - she's a nonpracticing AME Methodist.

[babylonsister]

8. Did it change her, or alter her perception? She's a Dem also? I

love her for starters!

[nc4bo]

9. Babylon - my mom doesn't even own a dvd player. Kindof ironic, eh? LOL

She trotted it right over to me (2 houses on 2 acres right across from each other).

I grabbed it from her and scanned it to post here. I asked her if she would call the paper and fuss them out about it and gave it back to her so she'd have it for reference, which reminds me, I need to ask her if she fussed at them. Might be something I'll have to do.

I told her what it was, she'd already read the front and back. She really wasn't much interested in it. I just explained to her what the dvd was about and why these nasty people were sending it. She complained that she didn't think it was fair or very nice that a newspaper would be involved in scaring people like that.

I'll ask her tomorrow if she REALLY wants to see it and play it for her if she says yes but, knowing mom, she'd just as soon as throw it in trash.

Ridiculous isn't it, the lengths these hateful, disgusting people can be, isn't it?

Your ? - yes, she's a life long Democrat and member (retired) of the ILGWU now called UNITE. ILGWU merged.

[babylonsister]

10. Good for mom, because it wouldn't have mattered to her. But

how about people who aren't as aware, or don't have an opinion? The latter is the target audience, though not having an opinion is beyond me. :D

[Divine Discontent]

4. a very important question, because of the large scale....

MORE AT www.cafepress.com/warisprofitable

[nc4bo]

12. We need to get more aggressive with this newspaper terror alert!

Those filthy emails are hitting the less informed and vulnerable hard and they work, no denying it. Then these same people are hit again in their homes - as they sit down with a cup of coffee and their newspaper - this Terror DVD drops out, they'll look at the colorful and ominous words on the front and back sides and they'll instantly remember those nasty emails they've been getting.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/19/AR2008091903589.html

Similar allegations by Obama in Missouri last month drew an angry response from the McCain camp, which accused the Democrat of having "played the race card, and it from the bottom of the deck."

Asked to elaborate on the challenge Obama faces from working-class voters, Biden told of an elderly woman at a Philadelphia area diner, who showed him an e-mail on her mobile phone repeating the charge that Obama is a Muslim.

"She said, 'Senator, I love you, I was going to vote for you, and I thought I liked Barack, but I can't do it,' " Biden said. "And I said, 'Why not?' She said, 'Well, look,' and she shows me an e-mail. She says, 'He's a radical Muslim,' and I said, 'Why would you say that?'

"She said, 'Everybody tells me that.' And I said, 'I promise you that's not true,' and she said, 'What do I do?' And I said, 'Well, vote for me.' And she looked at me and said, 'Does that mean I have to vote for him, too?' "

If you haven't called, visited or written to the newspapers involved in the conspiracy to spread terror, you need to do it now! If you have already, THANK-YOU, do it again. These newspapers inboxes and voicemails should be overwhelmed with our comments and opinions.

Please, draft a letter - doesn't have to be big and fancy, just honest and to the point. Any organization that allows itself to be used as a tool to spread TERROR is nothing less than a terrorist itself.

Here's what I'm using to hit as many papers as possible. I'm going to concentrate on the papers in my state then work my way to the swing states.

Congress.org makes it easy for me: http://www.congress.org/congressorg/dbq/media.

[flvegan]

13. I got one in the mail last week.

I was surprised that they sent it to me. No idea what list I'm on that they figure they can swing me via fear tactics.

[LiberadorHugo]

14. When I think of radical Islam...

I picture fascist wackos in Afghanistan slaughtering socialists, feminists, and intellectuals with American and Chinese arms and weapons.

[Starry Messenger]

15. HuffPo had a good article on it:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/erik-ose/pro-mccain-group-dumping_b_125969.html

I like this one the best because it has a list of all the states that are getting the treatment (swing states) with the newspapers helping to distribute this POS. I have some other links in my journal.

MPK

[nc4bo]

17. LOL thanks - you posted your link while I was typing my post ;)

I'm so tired of the hate.

[Starry Messenger]

18. Hey...we're getting it out there!

That's all that matters...the more it comes up in google the better, right? I'm so sick of the hate and the shadowy propaganda. x(

[nc4bo]

16. People are complaining.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/erik-ose/pro-mccain-group-dumping_b_125969.html

(UPDATE 9/13 - 70 newspapers in swing states have been paid to distribute Obsession this weekend and next, which means not all the DVDs have been delivered yet. Check the list at the end of this post to see if your newspaper is one of them, and let them know how you feel about their participation in this shameless propaganda campaign.)

This week, 28 million copies of a right-wing, terror propaganda DVD are being mailed and bundled in newspaper deliveries to voters in swing states. The 60-minute DVDs, titled Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West, are landing on doorsteps in a campaign coinciding with the 7th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. Funding is coming from a New York-based group called the Clarion Fund, a shadowy outfit whose financial backers are unclear.

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003849746

UPDATE: Newspapers Deliver Millions of 'Terror' DVDs to Subscribers -- In 'Swing States'

By Greg Mitchell and Joe Strupp

Published: September 13, 2008 2:00 PM ET

NEW YORK The arrival of tens of millions of DVDs of a controversial film on doorsteps around the nation -- but almost exclusively in election "swing states" -- via newspaper home delivery continues this weekend, with explanatory articles and subscriber feedback appearing on some of the papers' Web sites.

The DVDs of the 60-minute film, made in 2005, and titled "Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West," arrived Saturday with, among other papers, the Charlotte Observer and the News & Observer in Raleigh, with delivery with the Miami Herald and other papers set for Sunday. (To watch a clip see link below.)

Other Florida papers to distribute it on Sunday included the major dailies in St. Petersburg, Tampa, Fort Myers and Orlando. But it also showed up in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, among others.

Despite some protests from Muslim and liberal activists, the newspapers -- all hard hit by drops in ad revenue in recent months -- have explained that the DVD does not violate their usual standards; see our exchange with The New York Times below. A spokesperson there said the Times last Sunday inserted 145,000 DVDs in its papers delivered in the following markets: Denver, Miami/Palm Beach, Tampa, Orlando, Detroit, Kansas City, St Louis, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Milwaukee/Madison. Note: These are all in swing states.

Here's a link to a video clip of the DVD:

http://www.eandppub.com/2008/09/controversial-d.html