MEDIA MATTERS
Posted: October 01, 2011
11:10 pm Eastern
Meet HuffPost's annoying, but relentless conservative
'Forgive them God, for they know not what they do'
Posted: October 01, 2011
11:10 pm Eastern
By Dave Tombers
© 2011 WND
© 2011 WND
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A conservative commentator has infiltrated a known bastion of liberal bloggers at the Huffington Post and is hiding in plain sight.
"The Relentless Conservative," hereafter known as RC, began a series of columns in June with commentary titled "Why the Left Should Listen to the Right."
His anonymous article openly declared that he was setting up shop in the enemy camp but that it would be good for Huffington Post readers: They should embrace learning more about their enemies on the right.
He told his readers things such as:
"Well Huffington Post readers, you will now have the opportunity to hear, regularly, conservative opinion that should rankle you deeply and, if I get it right, will make you angry at yourselves and at the liberal elected officials you've installed. My core concern was, is and will remain the good of the country and all its people of whatever persuasion."
And:
"Nothing is as maddening as attempting a political conversation with liberals. Believe me, I've tried. It's almost as if they cannot accept another worldview, that the only opinion about government that exists – or matters – is theirs."
(Story continues below)
Within hours, Huffington Post readers put their keyboards to work letting the conservative writer know what they thought of him. One commenter had this to say:
"Let the Republicans go peddle their junk in places with like-minded people, like churches." - HUFFPOST SUPER USER Raker.
Another added this:
"Okay, I don't usually suspect this of conservatives but there absolutely HAS TO BE someone on their side with a little more brains than this guy has." – Huffpost Pundit Jmpurser.
RC quickly updated his column to call out some of what he described as "anonymously vicious" and "over-the-top spiteful" reactions.
He added this to the updated piece:
"Once again, liberals are convicted, judge and jury, of hypocrisy.
"I'm not first to claim that liberals apparently have a hearing disorder that kicks in only when they are confronted with conservative thought. It's been a major criticism of the left for decades now.
"There must be something to it, especially when I exhort people – Huffington Post readers, in this case – to listen to each other and perhaps, just maybe, get along together to solve the real problems facing this country."
More Huffington Post readers responded with comments like this:
"Dear Relentless Conservative, I feel like kissing you with my mouth wide open and swirling my tongue deep inside because I just threw up in my mouth after reading your column."
WND spoke with RC, who says the anonymity of his conservative columns on a liberal blog is for good reason.
"I truly feel like there are some seriously deranged liberals out there. Though they try to make it appear as if only deranged conservatives are prone to violence, I feel the opposite is true," he told WND.
RC said that he pitched the idea of an anonymous, conservative column on the Huffington Post to Arianna Huffington herself, after meeting her at a United Nations event in New York.
He pitched the idea like this: "Ms. Huffington, you and I couldn't be any more different politically. However, something you and I share in common is our unique ability to make ourselves understood and our opinions heard in print or on TV."
He told WND that she replied, "Yes and so?"
RC then explained his vision to Huffington, after which she replied, "I would love that."
The vision? "I would be attracting more readers – conservative, liberal and everything all the way to apolitical readers, readers period – to her site which she readily agreed she needs," RC told WND.
Not long after that, "The Relentless Conservative" began running a featured column on the pages of The Huffington Post.
His first column, "Why the Left Should Listen to the Right," had so many comments from readers that it was picked up by the Wall Street Journal online.
While some comments attacked RC personally and some simply said, "This is a joke, right?," RC proved something that he had intuitively guessed; there already are conservatives watching the site.
Some of the comments verified that:
- "Keep posting brother."
- "You are right."
Then there was this comment:
"Bravo, bravo. Finally I can read an honest contributor at the Huff & Puff, without getting ill."
According to RC, having conservative readers on their site was a surprise to Huffington and her staff.
"The HuffPo has many more conservative readers than even they thought. The conventional wisdom was that there were almost NO conservative readers of HuffPo," he told WND.
Reader comments aside, writing for the Huffington Post has produced other headaches for the conservative columnist. He told WND that sometimes the editors have taken longer than normal to publish his work, and sometimes have miniscule issues to work out.
"When I have to follow up with them about my columns on hold, they normally have a few, usually rather serious concerns regarding my wording being 'threatening,' a fact-checking issue or some journalistic minutiae or the other. It seems suspicious to me, but they assure me it is not."
Some articles never make it to the site, which forced RC to confront one editor with, "I know you don't like my politics, and I don't much like yours, but can we set that aside and get down to business?"
Another issue he deals with is prime positioning. His conservative pieces have never made it to the homepage. You have to do some hunting through the site to turn them up. He hopes to resolve that with Huffington in the near future.
Even so, RC says the comments following his columns prove that he is on to something. He told WND that he feels he's even gotten through to a few of the "less dense" liberal readers.
He says, "Out of the many foul-mouthed, hateful missives in the comment sections of my article, a few truly common-sense, Thomas Paine-like ones come shining through."
When WND asked RC if he's always been conservative he replied, "Nope, like Winston Churchill's great quote: 'If you're not a liberal at 20, you have no heart, if you're not a conservative at 40, you have no brain.'"
RC recalled that he rode his bike down to George McGovern campaign headquarters to volunteer during the Democratic nominee's 1972 presidential run against Nixon.
"I hated Nixon, which I believe is a dynamic of youth," he said. "Nowadays, I grimace when I think of myself doing that; idiot kid."
For now RC plans to continue reaching out to the Huffington Post readers with his steady voice of conservatism.
"It never ceases to amaze how after the fall of communism and the freeing of hundreds of millions of Russians, Eastern Europeans and Europeans, that anybody could justify or even attempt to, any political beliefs or leanings resembling communism, socialism or Marxism/Leninism. It's all just evil," he said.
"And the latte-sipping, BMW-driving, 'Limousine Liberals' who talk such a good game about caring about their fellow man … these are the people I'd like to talk some sense into; to shake by the shoulders until they wake up.
"Forgive them God, for they know not what they do," he said.
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