Time: Sun Nov 10 06:14:18 1996
To: 
From: Paul Andrew Mitchell [address in tool bar]
Subject: Disinformation Media
Cc: 
Bcc: 

When he was a member of that body,
Thomas Jefferson submitted several
bills to the Virginia Legislature
to abolish slavery.  They voted
him down every time.

/s/ Paul Mitchell



At 11:58 PM 11/9/96 -0700, you wrote:
>Two articles ran in newspapers across the country this weekend that well 
>represent the reason why the public has lost confidence in the integrity 
>of the mainstream media and is turning to the Internet for information.
>
>The first, by James Coates of the Chicago Tribune, describes the report 
>by Pierre Salinger of TWA 800 being brought down by a misguided Navy 
>missile as a "Net hoax" Salinger fell for, but offers no evidence that 
>the report is a hoax, and downplays Salinger's claim that the report was 
>supported by officials of the U.S. and French governments he spoke to.
>
>The second, by Jim Nesbitt of Newhouse News Service, is a collection of 
>characterizations of a political reform movement by its opponents, 
>suggesting that the militia movement admires Jefferson because he was a 
>"racist".
>
>Both articles appear in the news sections. But they are not news. They 
>are opinion articles, belonging, if anywhere, in the op-ed section.
>
>The first is a poorly-disguised attempt at damage control, by what is 
>obviously a government flack masquerading as a journalist, whose 
>propaganda is being dutifully passed along by newspapers across the 
>country.
>
>The second is a poorly-disguised attempt to discredit a movement to 
>bring the government into compliance with the Constitution, as written 
>and intended by the Framers, by seeking to characterize that document as 
>some kind of parable, providing only general guidance, and not as the 
>Supreme Law of the Land.
>
>Excuse me, but the people are not as stupid as some editors seem to 
>think they are.
>
>The important thing about the Salinger story is not the report that 
>spread over the Internet, which may or may not be accurate but has not 
>been shown to be a hoax, either. It is the two officials he claims 
>support the report. We need to find out what they know, if anything.
>
>A missile is certainly consistent with the lack of evidence found in the 
>TWA 800 investigation so far. Most missiles bring down aircraft not by 
>impacting them but by exploding nearby, letting the shock wave from the 
>explosion overstress the airframe to the point that the aircraft breaks 
>up. The evidence of such an event can be indistinguishable from the 
>result of excessive air turbulence.
>
>As for Jefferson and the constitutionalist/militia movement, it should 
>be pointed out that Madison, the principal author of the Constitution, 
>agreed with Jefferson's strict constructionist interpretation of it, as 
>did many of the other Framers. Jefferson merely expressed those views in 
>many more letters and articles than the others did. Jefferson's private 
>views on race are irrelevant, since he rejected those views in the laws 
>he helped write. As for attempts to characterize constitutionalist 
>activists as "racist", that is pure fabrication. They are fervently 
>anti-racist, and the one place you won't find racists is at militia 
>gatherings, unless they are provocateurs sent there to discredit the 
>gathering.
>
>If you want stories about political reform movements, let the activists 
>speak for themselves. Don't let their opponents monopolize the 
>discussions about them and their views, and keep all such discussions in 
>the op-ed section where they belong.
>
>--Jon Roland
>916/450-7941
>
>-- 
>=======================================================================
>Constitution Society, 1731 Howe Av #370, Sacramento, CA 95825
>916-450-7941 http://www.constitution.org/ mailto:jon.roland@the-spa.com
>=======================================================================
>
>
      


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