Art Pope

UNC School of Journalism professor Phil Meyer wrote a book years ago called Precision Journalism. Among other things, it examined how news organizations should and shouldn't use polling data to supplement their stories. Apparently, the cracker-jack political reporting staff at the News and Observer missed a few classes.

It's bad enough that the N&O's Rob Christensen consistently relies on Art Pope's Puppets as sources to bolster his stories. But today, Pope's "multi-million-dollar opinion-manufacturing machine" grabs the golden ring in a trashy little piece of reporting that should be embarrassing. If he were in class with Professor Meyer today, Christensen's lame excuse for news would have received an automatic F.

It seems like every time I turn around I'm adding new tags to keep track of the lunatic fringes of Puppetshow. Today I had to add Americans for Prosperity to the list, one more ugly face of the hydra that is the multi-million-dollar opinion-manufacturing machine funded by Art Pope.

Why today? Because today, Americans for Prosperity has decided to weigh in against the sane Wake County policy makers who voted to withhold judgment about raising the cap on charter schools.

The issue is a simple one: Government haters want to crush public schools out of existence over the long haul, so that eventually only rich white people will be able to afford an education. In the short term, they want to choke off school funding, thereby reducing traditional public schools to dysfunctional shells. Their plans call for siphoning off money into charter schools.

I personally have a great deal of hope for charter schools, but that hope has not yet been anywhere near fulfilled. I'm aware of NO evidence that charter schools perform any better than public schools ... nor does there appear to be a workable model in place for managing a significant increase in their number.

Under normal circumstances I wouldn't be opposed to using a picture of Dr. Weird for any occasion... but I saw this little tidbit on the Asheville Citizen-Times' website this morning and noticed that the Puppetmaster was sending a little bit of Taco Island our way next week...

General turned Fox News pundit to speak

by STAFF REPORTS
published September 15, 2006 10:48 am

ASHEVILLE – A retired Air Force commander and Fox News military analyst is the guest at an Asheville luncheon next week.

The John Locke Foundation, a conservative Raleigh-based think-tank, is bringing Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney to Tuesday's noon event.

The co-author of the book "Endgame: The Blueprint for the Victory in the War on Terror" will speak about that blueprint at the Renaissance Asheville Hotel.

Cost is $25 including lunch.

When the Stagemanager at the John Locke Foundation isn't running his "multi-million-dollar opinion-manufacturing machine," he sometimes dabbles on other stages like this one where he tries to make the case that neocon pundits don't pay any attention to their patrons.

These pundits, he argues, are intellectually honest and would NEVER be bought or paid for by big donors.

At issue is a New York Times article that took rightwing opinionators to task for failing to disclose financial relationships with big-time contributors like WalMart. Hood's piece doesn't make much sense on its face, but on second reading, it's clear as a bell.

http://andrewjacksondem.com

The North Carolina State Board of Election's recent decision finding the activities of Raleigh businessman Arthur Pope did not violate election law does not reflect the forward thinking that distinguishes the Tar Heel state from its southern neighbors. By allowing Pope to tansfer money ($660,000) from his retail business and fund political expenditures to candidates of his persuasion, the NC Board of Elections is agreeing with the precedent set by the U.S. Supreme Court decision of Buckley v. Valeo, which allows money to be equated to speech.

I'll give the N&O credit for covering the 527 story we reported a week ago, but it's too bad they missed the main point.

Three of the paper's top political minds, Kane, Curliss and Christensen, teamed up Under the Dome and they still didn't get to the heart of North Carolina's open market for buying and selling elections.

You know it's a sad day in Puppetland when John Hood has nothing better to do than whine about the mean old News and Observer and the bullies at BlueNC. But whining he is, and it's one of the funniest things I've read in a long, long time.

Let's take it apart.

RALEIGH – I’d like to be able to claim credit for a colossal, unprecedented feat of public-relations hocus pocus. That would be quite a rush. Unfortunately, the facts would not bear out such a claim.

Not that facts are an impediment to some. Which brings me to Jim Protzman and his allegation that the Raleigh News & Observer has become a mouthpiece for conservatism in general and the John Locke Foundation in particular. Protzman, a former member of the Chapel Hill Town Council and strategic director for the Raleigh public-relations firm CapStrat, is the main founder of a blog site, BlueNC, for progressive Democrats. While the site itself is worth an occasional glance, for those wanting a sense of what some North Carolina Democratic activists are thinking about and working on, Protzman’s contributions (under the nom de plume “Anglico”) border on self-parody.

This one is just too, too rich for satire. The story is in today's News and Observer.

After years of controversy over a proposed donation to the study of Western cultures, the John William Pope Foundation of Raleigh will give UNC-Chapel Hill $2.3 million, most of which will go to the football program.

The university announced the gift Thursday. It includes $2 million for an investment fund that will generate $100,000 a year to supplement the salaries of assistant football coaches.

Poor Puppetmaster. The mean old faculty at UNC didn't like the fact that he had too many strings on his original gift to study the glories of white old rich men. So instead of supporting intellectual integrity and furthering the highest ideals of public education, the Puppetmaster takes his money and punts!

Imagine you're the Puppetmaster, sitting high up on your throne, watching the Little People scurring around, doing your bidding, carrying your water, licking your boots.

You raise your pinkie and presto, 4999 hate-filled mailings fly into Kinston, magically "educating" voters about the evils of compromise and common ground. You raise an eyebrow and POW, your pack of hungry lawyers slaps a lawsuit on some little guy who dared to question your infinite wisdom and awesome power.

You sit back and smile, your beady little eyes shifting in search of more rabble-rousers. You are on a mission to purify the planet, to restore the aristocracy, to celebrate the joys of having more money than sense. Life is good. You close your eyes. You rest.

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According to Bubba and Damn Yankee, netizens of the always reliable Internets in Kinston, Art Pope, Puppetmaster-in-Chief of All Things Conservative, is filing charges against fellow Republican Steven LaRoque for defamation of character.

As you may recall, Mr. LaRoque had the gumption to critcize the Puppetmaster for bankrolling a direct mail campaign that helped Willie Ray Starling win the Republican primary for the House seat representing Kinston. Mr. Starling, a frequent lurker at BlueNC, appears to be an honest, god-fearing Theocrat who believes the good lord (or maybe the Puppetmaster) should call all the shots when it comes to North Carolina politics.