For just over a year, we’ve been entertained by the sorry saga of David Lenio, aka PyschicDogTalk2 on Twitter. A Michigan banker’s kid, Lenio moved to the Flathead at the end of December 2014. Six weeks later he was in jail, busted thanks to an amazingly unhinged Twitter duel with Jonathan Hutson, a fellow who just happens to be a professional “media consultant” for progressive causes.
All of a sudden, Montana’s free-speech Bill of Rights standard-bearer is a 9/11 troofer/Occupy Wall Streeter/howling anti-Semite? Wonderful! Even more wonderful, as James Conner (the Flathead’s wisest progressive) wrote in his Flathead Memo commentary, the case (which generated attention from national-level civil-liberties punditry) was “tenuous, difficult to prove, raised important free-speech issues” and was “likely to create bad law” that could significantly harm not just Mr. Lenio’s free-speech rights, but everyone’s.
Despite all that, Mr. Hutson and a tiny gaggle of Flathead progressives seemed determined to “witness” a show trial (with a conviction, of course) and then milk the proceedings in order to slander Flathead County as a haven for heavily-armed bigots – while coincidentally burnishing Mr. Hutson’s resume (and his consulting fees) as a movement hero credited with preventing a mass school shooting.
March 21 was to be Lenio’s big day in court. But on March 4 it was announced Flathead County Attorney Ed Corrigan and Public Defender Brent Getty had struck a “deferred prosecution” deal: If Lenio breaks the law any time in the next two years, he’ll be back before a judge on intimidation and defamation charges. For now, Lenio’s back in Michigan where we hope his family can straighten him out.
So, was that all? No. Late in March, Mr. Conner alerted me that a Lenio documentary premiered on a cable network I’d never heard of, Investigative Discovery. The title: “A Town on Fire.” The premiere was March 24 – timed perfectly to air during the expected court process.
I don’t have cable, so all I’ve seen is a short clip headlined “How A Potential Mass Shooting Was Prevented Through Twitter.” Mmmm, that fits – and the trailer segment managed to obliterate factuality during that minute.
Unfortunately, this “documentary” is one of a series – “Hate in America,” hosted by former CNN-then-Al Jazeera anchorman Tony Harris. I’m unfamiliar with Harris, but I’ve long ranked Al Jazeera alongside RT Television (Russia Today), Putin’s English-language propaganda arm.
I was even less impressed to learn the series is being produced by Peacock Productions (an NBC subsidiary entity) and that Harris “partnered with the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC)” on Hate In America. In short, “Hate in America” is a showcase for SPLC.
Now, SPLC once served a useful function, by going to court in order to bankrupt groups that espouse morally-bankrupt ideas. Led by attorney Morris Dees, SPLC fiscally wrecked the Ku Klux Klan and also bankrupted the Aryan Nations in Hayden Lake, sparing Northwesterners the annual neo-Nazi parades in Coeur d’Alene. That’s useful – or it was.
But compared to SPLC’s $37 million judgement against United Klans in 2013, IRS records show that in 2013, SPLC spent $13 million on its civil-rights litigation program, gathering $193,393 in court awards – quite a bit less – and less useful.
Then there is SPLC’s “Hate Map” showing 892 “hate groups” all across America. Montana supposedly has six total, four in Flathead County (Three in progressive Whitefish, no less!) But the two “statewide” groups lack even a Montana post-office box. The three “White Nationalist” groups in Whitefish are affiliates run by one man, Richard Spencer, while the Kalispell group is headed by Northwest Montana’s favorite pop-music stage mom, April Gaede.
So, is Kalispell really a “Town on Fire” with Montana in the throes of an Aryan invasion leading to a fascist, racist takeover of society? No. What about the OTHER 886 “groups” on SPLC’s “Hate Map?”
On the bright side, “A Town On Fire” was broadcast on a network nobody watches, so our reputation as a Montana nice place should be fine. Even brighter, those gullible enough to fall for “Town on Fire’s” slanted narrative will be scared away from moving here. That’s always useful.