Misplaced Pages

Max Blumenthal

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 74.198.87.67 (talk) at 17:45, 25 May 2012 (Undid revision 494340690 by JoeSperrazza (talk) wikipedia cannot be used as a source. it is unsourced here, and it is referred to as progressive by the organization itself, not by RS). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Revision as of 17:45, 25 May 2012 by 74.198.87.67 (talk) (Undid revision 494340690 by JoeSperrazza (talk) wikipedia cannot be used as a source. it is unsourced here, and it is referred to as progressive by the organization itself, not by RS)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
This article may require copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone, or spelling. You can assist by editing it. (March 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
Max Blumenthal
Born (1977-12-18) December 18, 1977 (age 47)
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Alma materUniversity of Pennsylvania
Occupation(s)Journalist, blogger, filmmaker
RelativesSidney Blumenthal (father), Jacqueline Jordan (mother)
Websitehttp://maxblumenthal.com

Max Blumenthal (born December 18, 1977) is an American author, journalist, and blogger. Formerly senior writer for The Daily Beast, he is the author of Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement that Shattered the Party.

Blumenthal's opinion and journalistic efforts have appeared on media outlets. He has produced several short video reports that he has posted on YouTube, among other websites. He works for Media Matters for America.

Background

Max Blumenthal was born in Boston on December 18, 1977 and is the son of Jacqueline Jordan and former Bill Clinton administration presidential aide Sidney Blumenthal. He received a B.A. in history from the University of Pennsylvania in 1999.

Blogging and online journalism

Blumenthal won the Online News Association's Independent Feature Award for his article in Salon.com, Day of the Dead. The piece stated that the killing of hundreds of women in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico was connected to the policies of the corporations with factories in the border city.

Blumenthal made a short video which he titled Generation Chickenhawk. It featured interviews with convention attendees at the July 2007 College Republican National Convention in Washington, D.C. Blumenthal asked why they, as Iraq War supporters, had not enlisted in the United States armed forces. In 2007, Blumenthal made a short video which he called Rapture Ready which was about American Christian fundamentalists support for the State of Israel. He also attended the June 2007 "Take Back America Conference" (sponsored by the Campaign for America's Future), interviewing Barack Obama supporters and 9/11 conspiracy theorists. Blumenthal says that conference organizers were angered by Blumenthal's video, and refused to air it.

In 2008, he interviewed a holocaust denier David Irving. In the same year, he posted video footage of Christian preacher Thomas Muthee praying over Sarah Palin (then a candidate for Governor of Alaska) and asking God to keep her safe from witchcraft.

In 2011, Blumenthal wrote a story claiming that Israeli forces trained American police departments in anti-protestor techniques, including torture, quoting Fordham Law Professor Karen Greenberg. Contacted by Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic and Adam Serwer of Mother Jones, Greenberg denied making the statement attributed to her and claimed Blumenthal mischaracterized her remarks. Blumenthal responded that he quoted Greenberg accurately and speculated that she had been "intimidated by Goldberg and the pro-Israel forces he represents." Serwer then replied that he had not been intimidated by Blumenthal, but did not agree with his reporting or conclusions in the matter; Serwer also added a note about photos from Blumenthal's article that showed violent actions by campus security officers--at a campus that had never been involved in any personnel visits to Israel, undercutting the implied link between Blumenthal's targets of disdain.

'Feeling the Hate' controversy

In 2009, Max Blumenthal posted a short video on YouTube titled "Feeling the Hate in Jerusalem on the Eve of Obama's Cairo Address". The video was a montage of footage of drunken Jewish-American youth in Jerusalem in June 2009, shortly before Obama's Cairo address. The youths used expletives and racist rhetoric about Barack Obama and Arabs, which included referring to Obama as a "nigger" and suggesting that he is "like a terrorist". According to The Jerusalem Post, the video "garnered massive exposure and caused a firestorm in the media and the Jewish world." Haaretz described the video as "an overnight Internet sensation".

Blumenthal has claimed that the video was "banned" from YouTube, Vimeo and the Huffington Post. The Huffington Post publicly stated that after reviewing the video, they found it lacked any newsworthy content and had no merits to be included on the site. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency quoted Blumenthal as stating, "I won’t ascribe motives to Youtube I am unable to confirm, but it is clear there is an active campaign by right-wing Jewish elements to suppress the video by filing a flood of complaints with Youtube." YouTube said that company policy forbids comment on individual videos, while asserting that its policies are applied "uniformly and not as the result of external pressure."

Blumenthal has alleged he received death threats for his publication of the video. He identifies the radicalism of the interviewees with the "indoctrination" of Birthright Israel tours, a program in which several of the interviewees were participating. The filmmaker, himself Jewish, had participated in a Birthright tour in 2002.. Currently, the video is available on Youtube at 2 links.

Republican Gomorrah

Blumenthal says that his book is inspired by the work of psychologist Erich Fromm, who asserted that "the fear of freedom propels anxiety-ridden people into authoritarian settings". Blumenthal says in Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement That Shattered the Party, that in his view a "culture of personal crisis" has defined the American "radical right". Blumenthal's conclusion in the 365 page book is that "those who wrap themselves in the flag fear freedom the most" because of their own personal demons and insecurities, making them "pathologically supportive of an authoritarian state" that can provide them with the "emotional security of being a cog in a white Christian hierarchical machine."

His book received positive reviews. A reviewer Hendrik Hertzberg, of The New Yorker described the book as a "riveting account of a religio-political subculture that’s even weirder than you thought it was", remarking that "Republican Gomorrah is an irresistible combination of anthropology and psychopathology that exerts the queasy fascination of let’s face it something very like pornography." Rick Perlstein, in the New York Times Book Review gave the work some praise, declaring Blumenthal "a brave and resourceful reporter adept at turning over rocks that public-relations-savvy Christian conservative leaders would prefer remain undisturbed."

References

  1. Begala, Paul. "Commentary: Obama Lucky With His Enemies." CNN.com September 10, 2009.
  2. Blumenthal, Max. Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement that Shattered the Party. New York: Nation Books, 2009. ISBN 1-56858-398-2
  3. "Author Bios: Max Blumenthal." The Nation. No date. Accessed 2009-09-12
  4. ^ "Max Blumenthal." The Huffington Post. No date. Accessed 2009-09-12
  5. http://www.theinvestigativefund.org/reporters/maxblumenthal/
  6. Blumenthal, Max. "Day of the Dead." Salon.com. December 4, 2002.
  7. "Neighborhood Briefing." Arizona Daily Star. September 17, 2004.
  8. Mandell, Jonathan. "Why Awards Matter." 2003 ONA Conference Participant's Blog. November 15, 2003. Accessed 2009-09-12
  9. ^ Treiman, Daniel. "Max Blumenthal, Scourge of Conservative Conferences." The Forward. August 10, 2007.
  10. Greenwald, Glenn. "The Weekly Standard's '9/11 Generation'." Salon.com. July 23, 2007. Accessed 2009-09-12.
  11. LaSalle, Mick. "Maximum Strength Mick." San Francisco Chronicle. July 19, 2007.
  12. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhCbHZPwEEQ
  13. Rossmeier, Vincent. "Palin's Pastor (and Witches) Problem." Salon.com. September 26, 2008; Burke, Garance. "Palin Once Blessed Against 'Witchcraft'." Associated Press. September 25, 2008.
  14. How Israeli Occupation Forces, Bahraini Monarchy Guards Trained U.S. Police For Coordinated Crackdown On “Occupy” Protests, The Exiled, Dec. 2, 2011
  15. Jeffrey Goldberg, Did Israel Train American Interrogators in Torture? (UPDATED), The Atlantic, Dec. 7, 2011
  16. Adam Serwer: Is Israel Responsible For The Occupy Crackdowns? In: Mother Jones. December 7, 2011
  17. Max Blumenthal, A Response to Cpl, Jeffrey Goldberg on Greenberg, Israel and Torture, Al-Akhbar, Dec. 7, 2011
  18. ^ http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1092332.html
  19. Jerusalem Post 06-09-2009 Headline: Young Americans in Jerusalem 'feel the hate' for Obama. Video featuring obscene condemnations of US president draws over 200,000 viewers on YouTube Byline: TORI CHEIFETZ Edition; Daily Section: News Page: 08
  20. http://maxblumenthal.com/feeling-the-hate-in-jerusalem/
  21. ^ http://jta.org/news/article/2009/06/19/1006009/youtube-removes-blumenthal-video
  22. ^ http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1092485.html
  23. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQHxFEId47I ; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqMTEKmlzc8
  24. ^ BuzzFlash.com's Review of Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement That Shattered the Party
  25. ^ Republican Gomorrah: Inside the Movement that Shattered the Party: Amazon Editorial Review

External links

Video reports by Blumenthal

Template:Persondata

Categories: