Thursday, September 20, 2012

Axes Ground

So. If you still give a hoot about Megan McArdle, who seems to be increasing her output at what is an excellent fit for her, the Daily Beast-Newsweek publishing powerhouse, here is The eXiled w/ a recap of her resume & her other offenses against decency.

McArdle should be very familiar to eXiled readers. Many of you probably first learned of McArdle’s existence more than three years ago, when she led a smear campaign from her perch at the Atlantic to discredit the first media investigative piece exposing the Tea Party as an Astroturf campaign funded by the Kochs and FreedomWorks, written by eXiled editors Mark Ames and Yasha Levine and published in Playboy in February, 2009. That’s when we first got to know the McArdle name too, and we were wondering then why someone who called herself a “journalist” would work so hard to discredit other journalists’ investigative work while defending powerful rightwing oligarchs, rather than the other way around. The S.H.A.M.E. profile on Megan McArdle clears up the air on McArdle’s long, deep undisclosed ties to the Koch brothers’ libertarian influence-peddling machine, and to the GOP activist community. Read the profile on the S.H.A.M.E. site or check it out below — we’re sure Ms. McArdle will appreciate it if you do.

8 comments:

Susan of Texas said...

That article is spreading quite a bit and the response isn't very good for our Megan. The commenters at Joyner's defense of her are much more negative than in his other defenses of her. (She keeps him busy, doesn't she?)

Adam Eli Clem said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Adam Eli Clem said...

Well, this is interesting. Was the Koch connection ultimately fatal to McCardle's tenure at The Atlantic Monthly, and was the SHAME piece fed by Atlantic folks eager for the Daily Beast to know who they bought? Some of the episodes from McCardle's Atlantic-era life, like the Friendly Black Man on the bus, are so perfect that they can't have been the product of Exiled's research alone: others had to have bird-dogged them for the authors, people with institutional (and long) memories.

It'd be nice if the SHAME piece resulted in some recognition for those of us, Susan included, who suffered for so long. Perhaps a Greatest 2x4 Whacks post list is in order?

Susan of Texas said...

It is indeed.

I don't think any recognition is in the cards. The respectable people need us to do the dirty work because we have nothing to lose and they do. They must maintain a degree of separation in case the criticism backfires on someone. After we get out the information they can comment on it. Ames etc of course don't play by those rules.

You guys started the ball rolling. I jumped in and got her to admit in public that she lied about her data, a story that the bigger blogs ran without attributing to me. I exposed her lies about IHs along with Exiled. We did not and will not benefit from all our difficult and tedious work. But we know what we did, and that's enough for this country girl.

Susan of Texas said...

A correction--Tom Levenson always gave me credit.

Susan of Texas said...

And Angry Bear as well? I think.

Susan of Texas said...

Since I'm cluttering up the comments anyway let me add that McArdle seems to think she can just ignore all this but there is a marked change in people's reactions to her. Many are now repeating that she lies and is dishonest as a matter of course.

Cedrick Delaney said...

My fave Mark Ames article is the one where he boasts, in his 30s no less, of fucking a 15-year-old (search for the word "pervometer"):

http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/beast-in-the-east/Content?oid=902762

My fave article about Mark Ames is the one written by a former associate of his who accuses him of being a rapist:

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/the-gonzo-classic-that-wasnt-/261541.html