Media Matters, the far-left, ‘progressive media watchdog‘ has blessed The Zelman Partisans with publicity. In a hit piece which starts by targeting Ted Nugent’s most recent bit of controversy, MM’s Timothy Johnson demonstrated a lack of journalistic skill which I’ve come to associate with MM.

Amid Anti-Semitism Controversy, NRA’s Nugent Attacks His “Mentally Challenged” “Devil” Critics
(Not linked, to avoid driving traffic to them.)
“Below the interview, Nugent posted a link to a press release issued by a fringe gun group called The Zelman Partisans, a more hardline spin-off of the far-right gun group Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (JPFO).

“The press release, which excused Nugent’s use of the anti-Semitic image and played on the same anti-Semitic tropes espoused by Nugent, suggested that The Zelman Partisans would accept Nugent’s conduct if he joined the group.”

In fact, Mr. Johnson managed to spend fully half of his article on us, despite never having contacted us. But then, since he was inventing his own facts anyway, why should he?

Nor, although he makes claims about our press release, did he link to it (and thus, we return the ‘favor’). I suppose that was so his ill-informed readers would remain ill-informed. If they read it, they might have seen:

“Ted Nugent planted boot firmly in mouth on Monday…”

“Invoking some hoary, fictional Jewish conspiracy is ridiculous.”

“Jews are simply an easy and familiar target for blame.”

That hardly “excused Nugent’s use of the anti-Semitic image”. Nor did it suggest “The Zelman Partisans would accept Nugent’s conduct”. We offered Nugent an opportunity to prove his claim that he is not anti-Semitic, a chance to correct and redeem himself in our eyes.

Johnson settled for taking a single sentence out of context, and presenting it as indicative of the entire release.

We would like to thank Timothy Johnson for helping to spread our message, even to those who might be incapable of comprehending it, rather like Johnson himself. And thanks for that traffic.