Kenneth Cole Blogger Slams FreedomWorks, We Fight Back
May 22nd, 2008 by Brendan SteinhauserKenneth Cole should stick to selling expensive shoes. Instead, he and his blogger minions are selling untruths about FreedomWorks. And covering up their smear campaign when they are proven wrong. Here is what happened. A blogger named Dominic Basulto wrote the following post on the Kenneth Cole Awearness blog.
Ever wondered what a fake grassroots movement looks like? On Monday, the Wall Street Journal pulled back the cover on a site that - on the surface - appears to be a spontaneous, angry tirade from frustrated renters about the proposed $300 billion government bailout plan for U.S. homeowners. But what if the site was actually cooked up by a lobbying organization led by former House majority leader Dick Armey and publishing billionaire Steve Forbes?
If you start to think about the politics involved here - a Rupert Murdoch-owned media publication taking on wealthy and powerful Republican bigshots - things start to get very interesting indeed.
When I sent this out to some of our best volunteers, they got upset and began posting comments about how they are real people that have been fighting for lower taxes, less government and more freedom across the country. We’ve already more than answered the sloppy journalism of Michael Phillips over at the Wall Street Journal with emails to him and the editors there. But our members wanted to sound off on Kenneth Cole’s blog to drive the point home that they exist, that they enjoy fighting for freedom, and that people that call them “fake” are flat wrong.
When our members posted their comments, Dominic must have gotten the message because he tried to cover his tracks by deleting the original post. Unfortunately for him and Kenneth Cole, Google keeps a cache, or snapshot of everything its web crawlers see. When you click on the original post, you get a dead link. But we saved the cached file to show that he posted his thoughts, received comments from our members, and then deleted the post so as not to look foolish. But in deleting the post, that is exactly how he looks now.
There is nothing like defending an attack that you are a “fake” group with real grassroots activism. Great job Freedom Swarm for sending the message loud and clear, one click at a time!
UPDATE: You can let the editor of the Kenneth Cole Awearness blog know how you feel about the company slamming conservative grassroots groups on its website. I doubt the company executives want to lose all their conservative customers due to their left-wing activism and attacks. Email the editor at editor@awearnessblog.com
May 22nd, 2008 at 7:04 pm
Dude, former frequent commenter Sickle blew the lid off your totally bogus “Angry Renter” website on *this* blog weeks & weeks ago! The Cole people and the WSJ are just a tad late on the uptake it seems.
May 23rd, 2008 at 1:05 pm
Mr Guy,
Methinks you have never entered the offices of FreedomWorks. As a former intern, I sent mailings to many of the hundreds of thousands of FreedomWorks members across the nation. As someone who posts often on this blog, you should have had time to scroll through the pictures showing people across the country fighting to protect individual freedoms. They’re real people, not politicos from DC. If you haven’t seen them, here’s a link:
http://www.freedomworks.org/08032006/
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:23 pm
What you should try and take the time to do is actually, maybe, *read this blog* and learn what’s already been said about this issue, period. The other website in question was created by the people from this website and intentionally made to look like a “grassroots” site, which it wasn’t.
May 24th, 2008 at 7:00 pm
I use JKN frequently when someone on the other side slips up. This service preserves the original webpage, and lets everyone see what we we are fighting against.
May 26th, 2008 at 8:26 pm
I am an angry renter who knew perfectly well who was funding the petition, and still happily signed it. I think wealthy Democrats should have to reveal themselves as being behind every “I want to help the poor by making others pay for it” initiative.
June 6th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
I liked the letter this guy wrote:
Oops! Turns out Mr. Kohler has been bilking seniors out of their money and lining his own pockets with it!
http://wweek.com/editorial/3321/8778/
Nice company you guys keep…