Today's blog "Bill Menezes on the Closure of Colorado Media Matters" notes that KOA's Bob Newman, known to fans and foes alike as "Gunny Bob," was often blasted by CMM prior to its demise on Tuesday. And to put it mildly, Newman won't miss having the organization to kick around anymore. Over the course of two e-mails that he's given me permission to publish, he discusses the tactics he used when he came under attack and needles yours truly, among others, for giving the slightest credence to the organization's partisan gamesmanship. Also in Gunny's sights: MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, who named him "Worst Person in the World" in August 2007 based on a CMM item about Newman's interpretation of remarks by former general Wesley Clark. The results are as feisty and combative as Newman's on-air style. Click "Continue" to read them in their entirety.
Newman's first e-mail:
Michael:More evidence that hate, bigotry, racism and intolerance do not sell: http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_11942109
My plan was simple and classic: combining my many years of tactics, operational art and strategerizing, I let CMM and Billy come right at me with everything they had. I never acknowledged that they were even in the ring with me, which drove Menendez out of his mind (I never replied to any of his personal, ugly hate mail to me, either). I slipped every dirty punch they threw and dodged every attempt to gouge me with a foreign object, and they never figured out why they could never draw blood, even when they went national to destroy me. Even when they enlisted Olbermeinkampf to join the fray to get the Gunny.
Now they are sprawled on the canvas, out [like] a light, the blood of intolerance and extremism pooling around them.
My weapons of choice?
Freedom of speech, the truth, and telling it to my audience straight with no PC leavening. Those weapons, when set against the many manifestations of CMM's lack of discipline, were all it took to crush them.
And, frankly, it was easy. Marines are known for winning against big odds when all seemed lost to those who weren't paying attention. CMM never grasped that.
Next.
-- Gunny
Newman's second e-mail:
You can use whatever you like in my e-mail.I will be curious to see if you write anything about how you, Michael, and [former Rocky Mountain News media critic Jason] Salzman were the only two Denver media critics who consistently took CMM seriously and gave them credit they did not deserve. Their mission was clear: get conservative pundits fired any way they could. They failed every time because others saw right through them and refused to support their intolerance and attacks on free speech.
A long time ago, the government spent a great deal of time and money after they hand-picked me to be part of a tiny Marine Corps team (4 Marines) that would learn and then teach the art & science of enemy propaganda creation, employment and defense against that propaganda. It is a fascinating and illuminating topic and my team taught many thousands of high-risk-of-capture personnel how to recognize and defend against propaganda. CMM used truly classic propaganda techniques against their puny but clearly susceptible audience, and every time they tried it I was able to instantly recognize the particular technique. And watching their helpless victims succumb and be used as tools against the 1st Amendment reminded me of the scenario-based training under duress we used to put our students through. It was uncanny to see the similarities between the methodologies CMM used to indoctrinate their victims and what we did in our propaganda defense training programs. It was right out of the USSR and PRC playbooks.
