Joe McCarthy’s America
Andy Martin in a 2006 file photo
“I don’t pretend to be an exclusively fact-based reporter, though I try as hard as I can to get the facts.”
– Andy Martin
Suppose you were a television executive putting together a “documentary” on Democrat Barack Obama. Would you base a big part of your production on assertions made by Andy Martin?
Fox News Channel did on Sunday.
The program, aired as part of conservative commentator Sean Hannity’s “Hannity’s America,” was entitled “Barack and Friends: The history of radicalism.” It purported to provide “exclusive information, never revealed before, about (Mr. Obama’s) ties to controversial people and radical groups.” Sifting through the transcript, however, we found less new information than slurs and smears that have circulated anonymously on the Internet.
One of the program’s main sources was a perennial political candidate named Andy Martin. In 2006, when he ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate, Mr. Martin was among the first to claim that Mr. Obama is a secret Muslim.
Mr. Martin’s campaigns — he has run for office as both a Republican and a Democrat, in Connecticut, Illinois and Florida — have been marked by bizarre allegations, barrages of e-mail press releases and frequent threats of litigation.
During Sunday evening’s prime time Fox telecast, Mr. Martin offered what he modestly described as his “expert opinion” that Mr. Obama was groomed to run for higher office by Bill Ayers, a founder of the radical Weather Underground group who is now an education professor in Chicago.
Mr. Ayers is a big admirer of Cuban President Fidel Castro and Venezeulan President Hugo Chavez, Mr. Martin claimed. “We are basically in the throes of a social revolution which attempts to essentially freeze out anyone who is not part of this radical ideology,” he said.
Based on Mr. Martin’s record, there’s plenty of reason to be skeptical of a man who was denied a law license, sanctioned by a federal court for filing frivolous lawsuits against people he thought had wronged him, and expressed virulent anti-Semitism.
When Mr. Martin ran for Congress in Connecticut in 1986, the Chicago Tribune has reported, the name of his campaign committee included the phrase “to exterminate Jew power in America.”
In a 1983 personal bankruptcy case, he called a federal judge a “crooked, slimy Jew who has a history of lying and thieving common to members of his race.” In a related filing, the Tribune reported, he expressed sympathy for Nazis who perpetrated the Holocaust.
Although he graduated from the University of Illinois law school, Mr. Martin was denied a law license in 1973 because of “issues raised as to (Martin’s) mental stability.” Among them was his Selective Service record, showing that the man who then went by the name Anthony R. Martin-Trigona had “a moderately-severe character defect manifested by well-documented ideation with a paranoid flavor and a grandiose character.”
Among the evidence cited to deny his admission to the bar was a petition filed by Mr. Martin asking that a parking ticket be thrown out because it was “entered by an insane judge,” and his description of an attorney as “shaking and tottering and drooling like an idiot.”
Mr. Martin has been sanctioned by a federal court for filing “vexatious, frivolous and scandalous” law suits. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said his frequent suits seemed designed to “harass persons who have unluckily crossed his path.”
During his 2006 campaign alone, Mr. Martin threatened to sue the Chicago Tribune for publishing a poll showing he had support from less than 1 percent of Republican voters. And he sued WBBM-Channel 2 in Chicago when it refused to include him in a televised debate.
It’s possible, of course, than even someone as deeply flawed as Andy Martin can be right on an issue. But the odds don’t favor it.
Responsible journalists would likely be as interested in Mr. Martin’s evidence as his spectacular charges. But not Fox News Channel. It’s Sunday’s broadcast was heavy on the innuendo and smear, light on the factual basis for charges made by Mr. Martin and other so-called experts.
That’s the way things used to work back in the day, when the late Sen. Joseph “Tail Gunner Joe” McCarthy used innuendo and smears to intimidate witnesses and cow the national press. Apparently, that’s still the way things work in Sean Hannity’s America.
John G. Carlton is an editorial writer who covers health care, science, the environment and public utilities. Before joining the editorial page, "Doc" was the newspaper's medical writer for four years. He has also worked at newspapers in Connecticut and New York. He's fond of heavy sarcasm and light anti-tank weapons. He lives in west St. Louis County with his wife, Martha Madigan, their daughter Ana and an overly enthusiastic Australian Shepherd dog, Savannah. 
So, Bob, not only did you not read the links in the blog post you criticized, you apparently didn’t read the blog post. If you had, you would have seen that I read and reviewed the transcript of the Sean Hannity piece before writing my blog posting.
In it, Andy Martin makes some very specific allegations about Barack Obama. Those very specific allegations — and their utter lack of a factual basis — are the subject of the blog posting you criticized.
Did Bill Ayers do some criminal things? Absolutely. The Weather Underground is a little before my time (I’m about the same age as Barack Obama, which means I was a kid during the Vietnam War and violent acts of the Weather Underground and other radical groups). But Bill Ayers isn’t running for president, Barack Obama is.
Does the fact that Obama served on a board with Ayers mean that Obama endorses everything Ayers stood or stands for? Does it mean that, because of their limited association, “We are basically in the throes of a social revolution which attempts to essentially freeze out anyone who is not part of this radical ideology,” as Martin claimed during Sunday’s telecast? I don’t think any reasonable person would conclude that’s the case.
Consider John McCain’s ties to Bob Jones of Bob Jones University fame. Does that connection mean McCain believes it’s immoral for blacks and whites to date? Again, I don’t think any reasonable person would draw that conclusion based on their limited contacts.
So, John G., not only did you provide dead links, you apparently didn’t bother watching the show (but then neither did I) nor did you provide a link to the transcript. Was it a link through FNC or MediaMatters?
I still know nothing about your lunatic straw man — don’t listen to him, don’t read him, don’t know him. (see previous post)
Bill Ayers did (felonious) criminal things. Agreed.
Weather Underground was violent. Agreed.
Ayers isn’t/Obama is running. Agreed.
Ayers is a big admirer of Castro and Chavez. Disagree
Ayers and Obama had a “limited association.” Disagree
John G. is spouting Robert Gibbs’ talking points. Agree or Disagree?
While looking for your missing FNC transcript link I stumbled upon an interview of John Kass, CHICAGO TRIBUNE columnist? Kass is somebody you’d think would have a good read on Obama, yes?
KASS: Yes, but what will really hurt him (Obama) later is when the national media starts figuring out that Barack Obama is not only — has been supportive of leftist figures but that he is basically coming out of the Chicago political machine run by Richard M. Daley and that that machine has Republicans and Democrats, David Axelrod, the far left, the far right, everyone working together to push this young knight in shining armor into the White House.
How ‘bout Roger L. Simon (formerly of Ramparts) who seems to be curious about New Party connections:
“There’s nothing wrong with being a socialist. I called myself one for the better part of twenty years. Millions of people have and many still do. But there is something very wrong with hiding who you are or who you were from the electorate—especially if you want to be President of the United States. Yet that seems to be a habit of Mr. Obama’s, with the collusion of the press. — The inescapable conclusion is that Barack Obama is a highly deceptive, often dishonest individual.” ~ roger l.simon
pajamasmedia . com/rogerlsimon/2008/10/08/why-the-press-hides-obamas-lies/
How about Carlton’s latest take on New Party?
===
Hey Bob, if you’re still checking this thread (which I wasn’t), the transcript came from Lexis. It’s listed on the header as having been released by Fox News Channel. I tried to find it on the Fox News Channel site but couldn’t (I think they sell that stuff, which probably explains it).
Because Lexis is a subscription service, I can’t link directly to that — or rather, I could, but you wouldn’t be able to get in. I tried to copy and paste the transcript and a couple news stories into links. If they failed, it’s a technical problem on my end. The news story links worked for me when I posted the piece.
I’ll try Google documents next time and see if that works better. I’ll re-do the links later if I have time. But as you can imagine, things are pretty busy around here as we approach elections.
John, don’t bother with addt’l links. If this was still of interest to others maybe, but it’s likey reached its shelf life. Focus on your deadlines.
===