The execrable libelblogger Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs, still smarting from the thorough flaying he received from Ace of Spades over his hypocrisy and support for Van Jones, has fallen back on a familiar trick he uses to rally his dwindling number of cult members: make up lies about me.
But since some people still read his Orwellian hate site, I will state here for the record: Charles Johnson is lying — again. During my recent trip to the U.K., I did not “hang out” with members of the English Defense League. I did not meet with them, then or at any other time. What’s more, the link Johnson provides to establish this “hanging out” doesn’t even say I did meet with them.
In other words, Charles Johnson, you’re a lying scoundrel.
UPDATE: Adrian Morgan of Family Security Matters writes this in the comments below:
Robert is right. He did not meet with the EDL members – their arrival at the George coincided with the exodus of those who had been there earlier.
The EDL members did not attend the meal and left the vicinity of Crossharbour early and, like myself, they did not attend the dinner.
This “guilt by association” tactic, made by people who were not at the event, is insidious. I – on the other hand – did talk briefly with the EDL members, to try to find out what sort of people they were (rather than believing the hype put about on internet weblogs).
My conversation took place on a walkway beside one of the docks, with neither Robert Spencer nor Douglas Murray present. Does my talking to them make me a member of their group, in league with “forces of Evil”?
If one is invited to an event in good faith, one cannot be held responsible for the presence of other people on the host’s guest list.
I do not collude with or condone the EDL’s tactics of physical confrontation. I see such tactics as damaging – violence begets violence and benefits no-one, no matter how personally frustrated these EDL members may feel.
But I do believe in talking to people to try to find out who they are and what their viewpoints are.
I also discovered, in the course of the short discourse, that one of the three EDL members who had turned up had a black daughter.
Freedom of speech and freedom of association are fundamentals of a democracy. The British blog that Johnson quotes attacks the “association” of Martin Mawyer and the EDL. The EDL had been invited to the George pub (unbeknownst to Robert Spencer and other invitees) because Martin Mawyer had – the day before Robert Spencer arrived in Britain – been interviewing these individuals for a documentary.
If interviewing people is a crime, (it is a crime for those on the left, it seems) then journalism itself might as well be outlawed.
Maybe Charles Johnson should visit Britain and start talking to people who were eyewitnesses – as a true journalist should – rather than typing away in his ivory tower, gossiping about people he does not know and pretending to be an authority on situations he has not witnessed or properly examined.
I – unlike Johnson – was actually present on that Thursday in Docklands.
And if it came to a libel suit – I would willingly give evidence on Robert Spencer’s behalf. Robert is telling the truth.
I used to enjoy reading LGF a few years back as a source of news, not as a source of gossip and character assassination. But something has changed. Sneering insinuations are never an adequate substitute for the honest reporting that should exemplify good journalism.
I think many well-known people who set themselves up as messengers of “factual details” should own up and admit that they are just purveying “spin”, and not even doing that very well.
Adrian Morgan