Last Thursday we reported that the white supremacist hate group Council of Conservative Citizens (CofCC) has been actively involved in recruiting new members at tea party rallies. The most recent rally attended by the group was this past Saturday in Crystal River, Florida – an event hosted by the Citrus County Tea Party. As shocking as this was, there have been recent developments regarding CofCC’s efforts to grow its organization and spread its racist message to a larger pool of conservatives – mainly through online advertisements.
In a recent issue of The Citizen’s Informer, CofCC’s boasts that its “national website is stronger than ever, with daily traffic getting higher all the time.” It attributes this increased traffic to “CofCC ads (which) can be found on the Drudge Report and the Ann Coulter Report websites.” The group claims that these ads link directly to its national website and have helped increase its web presence.
When it comes to Ann Coulter it’s not much of a stretch to imagine her advertising this group on her website. According to an article by Mark Potok, in Ann Coulter’s book, Guilty: Liberal “Victims” and Their Assault on America, she defends CofCC against charges of racism, claiming they are just another “conservative group” whose main fault is having members who were formerly “leaders of a segregationist group.” She goes on to claim there is not much on the CofCC website that would qualify as racist, “apart from some aggressive reporting on black-on-white crimes.”
Well, Ms. Coulter certainly missed a lot.
Mr. Potok points out that she apparently didn’t read the CofCC statement of principles. According to its website CofCC “opposes all efforts to mix the races of mankind” including “forced integration.” She must have also skipped over its stand on immigration which opposes “the massive immigration of non-European and non-Western peoples into the United States that threatens to transform our nation into a non-European majority.”
Coulter’s lack of awareness is not surprising when you consider how she repeatedly uses the word “fag” to describe her political foes and calls Muslims “ragheads.” She, of course, does all this despite the discomfort it causes some in her own party.
What is confusing and surprising though are the ads reported to be found on the Drudge Report.
Founded by Matt Drudge in 1996, the Drudge Report began as a weekly conservative email publication which grew into a massively popular political website. The site reportedly has over 1 million unique visitors per days and is an important daily source for many beltway insiders. The website tends to gravitate towards sensational headlines but is often the first to break important national stories –making it an exciting political news source for those in the know.
It is unclear at this time whether the Council of Conservative Citizens advertisement is still on rotation at The Drudge Report or if Matt Drudge was even aware of the ad and its link to the notorious white supremacist hate group. However, if the CofCC’s allegations are true – its access to a website with such a vast and loyal readership is deeply troubling.
Many of us know that during times of economic and political turmoil some Americans find security by joining the ranks of white supremacist organizations. While we can’t expect conservatives like Ann Coulter to stand against the extreme racist ideology of the Council for Conservative Citizens, maybe we can count on media entrepreneurs like Matt Drudge to reject it.
Mainstream, even conservative, media need to lock the door when hate comes calling.