NJDC Reacts to the Swift Boating of MoveOn By the RJC

A letter to the Editor from Ira Forman, NJDC's Executive Director, responding to the Swift Boating of MoveOn.org by the Republican Jewish Coalition.

October 24, 2006

To the Editor:

Republican Jewish Coalition Executive Director Matt Brooks' October 19 op-ed selflessly proclaims "Don't shoot the messenger."  But what do you do when the messenger is lying?

Republican claims that progressive websites, such as MoveOn.org, are filled with anti-Semitism just isn't true.  Indeed, of the tens of thousands of postings on MoveOn.org each week, there have been a very small number of anonymous anti-Semitic postings on the site.  Critically, those postings were made in an open forum where non-members and members alike can post comments anonymously.

Counter to the editorial's assertion, the postings were taken down immediately by MoveOn officials and refuted immediately by members of the organization.  In fact, the Anti-Defamation League letter of which Brooks speaks was written 17 days AFTER MoveOn had already removed the anonymous postings.

Even more, Eli Pariser, Executive Director of MoveOn's Political Action Committee, called the postings "abhorrent" and expressed his pleasure that "so many MoveOn members rose to sharply criticize the hate speech that was posted – even before it was brought to our attention."  The ADL praised MoveOn for its "responsiveness," noting that "the matter has been resolved satisfactorily.

Online communities, such as MoveOn.org, are open forums which not only preach free speech, but actually practice it.  Jewish voters should take comfort in knowing that MoveOn.org is not a haven for anti-Semitism and the organization will renounce and remove any postings of the sort.

Leave it to Republicans to not allow the truth to get in the way of campaigning.

Sincerely,

Ira Forman

Executive Director

National Jewish Democratic Council

Comments

[Bill Levinson]

I am one of the people who is personally responsible for the "Swiftboating" of MoveOn.org and I will continue to do it. I am sure Mr. Forman would not knowingly and willfully whitewash an organization for welcoming hate speech. I sending him the evidence that MoveOn lied about the matter to put it on record and I am confident that Mr. Forman will retract the above statement promptly.

It is a matter of record that MoveOn was told about the hate speech by Jan Poller's letter of April 1 2004 (two and a half years ago) so MoveOn didn't "just find out about it" this August. Furthermore, its exercise of editorial control over the forum, as shown by censorship of postings critical of MoveOn.org, makes it 100 percent responsible for the content. Finally, the other Action Forum participants voted overwhelming approval of the hate speech.

[Jan Mel Poller]

Ira Forman’s (Executive Director, National Jewish Democratic council) letter of October 24, 2006 is incorrect. The events that he describes are not the events that happened. I was there, I lived them. Mr. Forman did not.

I am the person who brought the anti-Semitism of MoveOn.Org and its forum to the attention of numerous people including bloggers and editorialists. Here are the facts:

• I have been following MoveOn.Org since they came to my attention during the first anti-Iraq invasion demonstrations when they teamed up with Stalinist Ramsey Clark and International Answer.

• From the beginning, MoveOn.org had anti-Semitic posts. The posts were not anonymous. The same people were posting this anti-Semitism from the time I got on until they shut down the forum. They had names and they had to be approved with a valid e-mail address by MoveOn.Org personnel.

• Initially, I was approved. I would dispute the anti-Semitic and anti-Israel posts. Because of this, my messages were frequently deleted. I was barred from posting on the forum. Two or three more times I created a different user ID and each time I disputed the anti-Semitic remarks and each time I was kicked off and my posts were deleted.

• The people who posted these anti-Semitic remarks were not censored.

• All of the above shows that the forum was monitored (which they said they did, supposedly to get ideas for MoveOn.Org). For MoveOn.Org (and Eli Pariser in particular) to say that it wasn’t monitored is just a lie.

• Mr. Forman’s statement that there were tens of thousands of postings each week is also not true. There are about 25,000 postings a year or about 500 a week. MoveOn.Org limits forum members to 3 posts per day.

• I wrote a letter on April 1, 2004 to MoveOn.Org pointing out that they let anti-Semitic remarks stand but they deleted mine and the blocked me from posting. They never answered.

• Eli Pariser can call the postings “abhorrent” or anything he wants. It doesn’t matter. Actions matter.

• All the other MoveOn forum members who protested the anti-Semitism (and there were precious few) were punished the same way I was.

• Mr. Forman claims that the membership of MoveOn.Org was against these remarks. If you look at the voting on the anti-Semitic posts, it was overwhelmingly in support of the anti-Semitism.

Again, MoveOn IS NOT an open forum as shown above.

Jewish voters can take discomfort in the knowledge that MoveOn.Org and its Jewish leaders (Eli Pariser, Noah T. Winer and George Soros) IS a haven for anti-Semitism and had no problem joining up with International Answer.

This has absolutely nothing to do with Republican or Democrat. I was a lifelong Democrat and became an Independent because of the philosophy of MoveOn.Org and other “progressive” organizations.

Jan Mel Poller

[Bill Levinson]

As a postscript, I am not working for the Republicans. I am in fact voting for at least two Democrats (Congress and State Representative) this November and I haven't made up my mind about Governor. I would probably be voting for at least three Democrats if Bob Casey had not refused to repudiate MoveOn.org's money and endorsement.

MoveOn.org has NOTHING to do with anything that most Pennsylvania Democrats would acknowledge as representing their party or their beliefs. They don't like Bush but they are patriotic Americans who don't want George Soros' puppets and tools running our country either.

I don't think Bush is the brightest bulb in the chandelier either, and all the Democrats had to do to win in 2004 was to put up a decent human being with a body temperature of roughly 98.6 (e.g. "Jew Lieberman" as they call him at the Action Forum). They put up MoveOn candidate John Kerry instead, and Kerry also consorted with a racist and anti-Semite named Al Sharpton (as Ned Lamont is doing). That is why you got four more years of Bush.

I would advise the NJDC against throwing away its credibility in defending an organization that has not only (as shown above) knowingly and willfully allowed its online assets to be used to propagate hate speech, but has actually become a liability to the Democratic Party as a whole. My side's quarrel is with MoveOn.org and not Democrats.

As soon as NJDC or other Democratic entities get behind MoveOn.org on this issue, however, they will drive thousands of Jewish (and Catholic) Democrats into the Republican camp, because those voters will then associate the Democratic Party with the hate speech. If I were a Republican shill, I would simply allow you to make that mistake and then use it for the indicated purpose: associating the entire Democratic Party with MoveOn's hate speech.

My actual position is that MoveOn.org is donkey cancer, and I think you would be doing the Democratic Party a major disservice by trying to pass it off as healthy donkey tissue.

[Winged Hussar 1683]

The Action Forum FAQ page, which MoveOn.org left online, shows that MoveOn's moderators read each piece of hate speech not once but TWICE. In other words, MoveOn's own page proves that MoveOn lied in its September 2 press release.
http://netwmd.com/blog/2006/10/28/1116

The you-know-what is already hitting the fan and now the only question is how many Democratic candidates MoveOn.org will drag under with it on November 7. The Democrats need to cut this rogue organization loose NOW.