Little Green Footballs

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Little Green Footballs

Little Green Footballs logo
Political affiliation	Conservative
Website	www.littlegreenfootballs.com

Little Green Footballs (LGF) is a political blog run by California web designer Charles Johnson. In the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks, Johnson transformed his blog's discussion of bicycle racing, programming, web design, and the occasional humorous news item into a very active discussion of the War on Terror, Islam and the Arab-Israeli conflict. Although LGF has been characterized as "ultraconservative"^[1] or even right wing,^[2] prior to 9/11 Johnson sometimes expressed liberal political views and occasionally criticized United States President George W. Bush.

For "promoting Israel, and Zionism" and "presenting Israel's side of the conflict," LGF won the "Best Israel Advocacy Blog" award from the Jerusalem Post in 2005.^[3] Gil Ronen, a reporter for Israel National News, has written:^[4]

If anyone ever compiles a list of Internet sites that contribute to Israel's public relations effort, [Charles] Johnson's site will probably come in first, far above the Israeli Foreign Ministry's site.

In the United States, LGF is perhaps best known for playing a key role in exposing the forged Killian documents about President Bush^[5][6] which preceded the resignation of CBS' Dan Rather. The site won the Washington Post's reader poll for Best International Blog in November 2004^[7] and played a large role in exposing the forged and altered photographs in the Adnan Hajj photographs controversy^[8] (referred to on the blog as the "fauxtography scandal").

[edit] History and notable events

[edit] Registration

Johnson began requiring users to register for posting privileges in June 2004, closing the site to new registrations later that year; new user registration has been permitted for brief windows of time at irregular intervals ever since. [1]

[edit] Killian documents

Main article: Killian documents

The animated GIF image posted at LGF, comparing what CBS claimed to be a 1973-era typewritten memo with a 2004-era Microsoft Word document made with default settings.

LGF was one of four sources, along with the Power Line and Allahpundit blogs and the Free Republic discussion forum, who conducted the initial investigation of Dan Rather's assertions on 60 Minutes that the Killian documents were genuine.^[6]

[edit] Charitable contributions

Little Green Footballs supporters have helped raise thousands of dollars for Spirit of America's "Friends of Iraq Blogger Challenge".^[9][10] Supporters also donate pizzas for IDF soldiers.^[11]

[edit] Pajamas Media

Main article: Pajamas Media

In late 2005 Johnson, along with blogger and author Roger L. Simon launched a news site called Pajamas Media (briefly called Open Source Media) featuring mostly conservative and libertarian-leaning bloggers and journalists (e.g., Michelle Malkin, Glenn Reynolds, Michael Barone, Tammy Bruce, John Podhoretz, Michael Ledeen, Cathy Seipp) with some liberal participants (e.g., David Corn, Marc Cooper). The name refers to Jonathan Klein's comment about bloggers working in their pajamas.

[edit] Doctored Reuters photographs

Main article: Adnan Hajj photographs controversy

On August 5, 2006, LGF showed how a photograph of Beirut after an Israeli air strike taken by Adnan Hajj was manipulated before being published, a serious breach of journalistic ethics.^[12][13]

[edit] Recurring themes

[edit] Ideological influences

Posts on LGF frequently cite the writing and views of Victor Davis Hanson, Charles Krauthammer, Mark Steyn, David Lane, Oriana Fallaci, and James Lileks.

[edit] "Palestinian child abuse"

Johnson often posts photos taken by Associated Press and Reuters photographers, among others, of Palestinians dressing their children in terrorist and/or military clothing emblazoned with slogans such as "Muhammad is the one true prophet" or "Death to Israel." These children are often shown carrying guns and bomb belts. Johnson refers to such treatment of children by their parents as "Palestinian child abuse."^[14]

[edit] "Religion of Peace"

Johnson uses the term "Religion of Peace" (sometimes abbreviated as "RoP") in the title of posts which reference Islamic terror attacks.^[15]

[edit] Rachel Corrie

Johnson has stated many times that he is disgusted with media coverage of the death of ISM activist Rachel Corrie, who was killed by an Israeli bulldozer in Rafah, a town in the Gaza Strip.^[16] Johnson disputes the ISM's account and points out that Corrie voluntarily placed herself in front of the bulldozer.^[17] Johnson also holds that Corrie was "trying to 'protect' a house used for drugs and weapons smuggling".^[16] Johnson puts forth the view that the ISM is explicitly anti-Israel and sympathizes with Palestinian terrorists. In support of this view, he has cited a diary entry from Corrie in which she claims that the Palestinians are justified in their terror attacks because the Israeli military's capabilities, aided by the U.S., put the Palestinians at a disadvantage.^[18]

In posts about her on LGF, Johnson often features a photo of Corrie burning a hand-drawn American flag and surrounded by Palestinian children.^[16]

[edit] Other Slang

Johnson is credited by some with coining the political epithet "Idiotarian."^[19] Other terms popularized by the site include "moonbat" and "Islamonazi".

[edit] Changes and controversies

[edit] Claims of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim sentiment

• Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council of American Islamic Relations called Little Green Footballs "a vicious, anti-Muslim hate site" and claimed the FBI has "investigated several threats of physical harm against Muslims posted by Little Green Footballs readers".^[20]
• Blogger Eric Boehlert has written that LGF "oozes disdain for Arabs and journalists (and most of all, Arab journalists)" and is "obsessed with proving that all MSM reporting from Iraq and the Middle East is biased in favor of Islamic terrorists."^[21]
• Antonia Zerbisias in the Toronto Star described LGF as a "virulently anti-Muslim/Arab website".^[22]
• R. J. Smith, writing in Los Angeles Magazine, has alleged that LGF is a "dysfunctional mix of beautiful photos Johnson takes on coastal bike rides and constitutionally protected hate speech" which "believes all Muslims are terrorists until proven innocent."^[23].

[edit] Blogosphere Rivalries

Johnson and LGF "regulars" (the self-proclaimed "Lizardoids") have engaged in a number of high-profile feuds and flame wars. At various times, these debates have pitted LGF supporters against readers of a number of other blogs and alternative media sites. The debates have even "spilled over" to Wikipedia^[24][25] and Digg. Claims Derek van Vlie, a writer for the Blog Herald:

In the past, Charles Johnson, the owner of the (LGF) blog has rallied his readers to establish a “beachhead” on Digg to counteract the perceived liberal bias. All the while peppering pejoratives like “moonbat” throughout the content directed at Digg users. Meanwhile, their site does not allow open discussion. Registration is required to comment. And opportunities to register are rare. Digg users are known to rail against closed systems. After all, they came to participate...^[26]

When such confrontations trigger a stampede of visitors from rival sites, Johnson often redirects the traffic thus generated to the Israel Defense Forces homepage.^[27][28]

Johnson has also put in place an automatic filter to stop certain derogatory and racist words from being posted by commentators. While he stresses that the number of comments filtered in this way is miniscule, the filter is intended to stop any such comments being used to indicate that he personally endorses racist or derogatory terms. ^[29]

[edit] Claims of support for violence against US political figures

Blogger Glenn Greenwald, writing for Salon, charges in a March 15, 2006 article that:

... commenters at Little Green Footballs have not only expressed surprise, but outright support, for Mohammed's assassination plot against a former U.S. President. They are out in droves expressing sorrow that Al Qaeda did not have the opportunity to carry out its plot... multiple comments from Johnson's standard, regular followers -- all of whom have to register as LGF users, a device Johnson uses to ban commenters of whom he disapproves -- (are) expressing explicit support for Al Qaeda's plot against President Carter.^[30].

[edit] Media attention

[edit] 2002

• MSNBC's Will Femia wrote of LGF:

This site is the focus of considerable controversy for its focus (and particularly the focus of the constituents in its comments section) on Islamic culture and dogma as the source of Islamic terror. As a popular, active, and well presented site, it is worth checking out, but some may find its content hateful or even racist.

• Syndicated columnist James Taranto defended LGF after MSNBC 'smeared' Johnson.^[31]

[edit] 2004

• On September 25, 2004, the New York Times Sunday magazine ran a cover story about political bloggers. Although Johnson had been interviewed for 43 minutes by author Michael Klam, neither he nor LGF got a mention in the final piece - Klam focused instead on longtime rivals Wonkette and the Daily Kos. Johnson struck back with a post entitled "They Smile in Your Face"^[32] (an allusion to the 1972 soul hit "Back Stabbers" by the O-Jays), noting:

There is not one word about the anti-idiotarian blogosphere... The mainstream media’s shameful, arrogant bias [is] up there for all to see.

[edit] 2005

• Columnist Andrew Sullivan described LGF as "enthusiastically pro-torture".^[33]

• Vanity Fair theater critic James Wolcott characterized the LGF community as "sort of like a disorganized Nuremberg Rally, a lot of angry ruffians with nowhere to go...."^[34] after Johnson described an attack on Daniel Pipes by Wolcott as "the sort of high-toned writin’ that made Vanity Fair the journalistic juggernaut it is today" and one LGF reader responded by visualizing Wolcott's decapitation:^[35]

May he [i.e., James Wolcott] be kidnapped by 'insurgents' in Iraq then appear on an ugly net [i.e., uruknet] broadcast. I wonder, if in the moment before the knife started sawing into his [fleshy] neck if he might rethink his opinions on the GWOT.

• In March 2005, Johnson called attention to Google's inclusion of the white supremacist National Vanguard site (and simultaneous exclusion of LGF) in its news index; the NV site has since been dropped.^[36]

• The Weekly Standard described LGF as one of "the saner precincts of the blogosphere".^[37]

[edit] 2006

• Pajamas Media contributor Cathy Seipp wrote in the National Review that:^[38]

I'm losing patience with this notion, surely one of the most successful media Big Lies of the past few years, that Charles runs a racist hate site. By now it's been repeated so often that even normally reasonable people believe it.

[edit] External links

• Little Green Footballs

[edit] References