Ryun ned

B2 speechwriter NED,

see also dad and evil twin Drew

--=-==

-=-=

A Fox News host sent a dire warning to President Donald Trump and the rest of the Republican Party, saying that time is running out to avert disastrous losses in the forthcoming midterms.

During the Tuesday evening edition of her show, The Ingraham Angle, Fox host Laura Ingraham sent a "blunt" message to the president, as noted by The Daily Beast, warning him that the GOP's majorities in both the House and the Senate are at risk in November. This came during a discussion with her guest, American Majority PAC CEO Ned Ryun, who worried that the party was "whistling past the graveyard" as it disregarded the potential for certain red stronghold states to flip Democratic in the midterms.

"I think Republicans are kind of whistling past the graveyard on some of these Senate seats that they thought were safe,” Ryun said. “We got to kick it into gear over these next 10 weeks, or we are looking at not only the House but also the Senate as well."

Among the at-risk red states, according to Ryun, are South Carolina, Alaska, Nebraska and Ohio, with surprise losses in just a few of those states putting the Senate majority in serious jeopardy for the GOP. Ingraham added that she is also worried about the race in Iowa for retiring Sen. Joni Ernst's seat, set to be contested between Republican Rep. Ashley Hinson and Democratic state Rep. Josh Turek.

"I think there are a number of states that Republicans better get their act together. Iowa is one of them," she said.

"The Senate is thumbing their nose at the base over the SAVE America Act," Ryun added. "Gas is $4.10 a gallon. You know, they’re not seeing a lot of the things they voted for. The Iran war is killing us."

"Trump still considers himself an electoral asset and according to a report in The Atlantic, intends to put himself front and center in last-minute midterm campaigning," The Daily Beast added in its report about Ingraham's warning. "But Trump’s approval ratings are at historically low levels, with a Reuters/Ipsos poll putting him at 33 percent as his unpopular war on Iran sends gas prices higher at the pumps."

This cratering approval has some Republicans scrambling to get some distance between themselves and the president, especially on issues of deeper importance to their particular states. Hinson, for example, recently broke with Trump on the announcement that he would be allowing 300,000 of imported beef into the U.S. without a tariff to try and address soaring costs, causing much frustration among American cattle farmers.

"We need to focus on affordability, but I think this isn’t the way to do that," Hinson said during a recent appearance on Fox's Sunday Morning Futures.

-=-=

---

mma

Laura Ingraham says warnings of Trump's fascism could be pretext to stealing the presidential election from him

Written by Media Matters Staff

:{Published 10/24/24

Video

CitationFrom the October 24, 2024, edition of Fox News' The Ingraham Angle

NED RYUN (GUEST): I think Democrats have made it very clear that if we can't have political power in America, we'll burn it all down. And I think it would behoove the corporate propagandists, if they can find it within themselves in the last 11 days of this campaign, to start asking Kamala and Democrats when Donald Trump wins on November 5th, will you accept the results of this election?

LAURA INGRAHAM (HOST): Exactly. Well, Mark, if he's Hitler, as they say, if he's a dictator in waiting and a fascist, it is our collective patriotic duty to stop this, not after he becomes president, but now. That's what I'm worried about here. ASSAss bs?

MARK PENN (GUEST): Well, that's why this kind of language doesn't have an appropriate place in the campaign at this time. Say that you shouldn't vote for Donald Trump, say that you think he will take the country in the wrong direction. Say anything you want about his policies and even somewhat him personally, but when you invoke Hitler, again, you demean Jewish people, 6 million people were killed by the real Hitler. This whole fascist thing, it's just not in this environment, when we have to bring this country together, regardless of who wins, the right way to approach the end game of this campaign.

===

an 621

Remember this guy? In the stream of the QAnon loving Republicans today, you'd think they have just forgotten him. He denounced Trump (far too late), and got onboard with vaccines (too soon for the Qanon conspirators). If you want to know a lot about where the Republican party is right now, take a look at the people who go to work in the Republican infrastructure. They know what the base wants, and they will say whatever it takes to continue to be relevant. Enter Ned Ryun, former Bush speechwriter, son of Kansas congressman Jim Ryun, who was defeated by Democratic candidate Nancy Boyda in a bit of an upset, and now, a ridiculous puppet for outright bonkers ideas.[mlk ~ CRT...]

turning pt kirk

former deputy director at the Republican National Committee, Drew Ryun is the political director of the Madison Project. After his stint at the Republican National Committee, Drew served as Director of Government Affairs for Jay Sekulow and the American Center for Law and Justice. A twice published author, Drew launched Media Trackers in 2011, a non-profit, investigative news site.

==

OMG

https://www.mediamatters.org/climate-deniers/15-nonsensical-comments-made-right-wing-media-during-2023s-summer-climate-fueled

15 nonsensical comments made by right-wing media during 2023’s summer of climate-fueled extreme weather events

Special PROGRAMS

CLIMATE & ENERGY

WRITTEN BY ALLISON FISHER

PUBLISHED 08/07/23

July 2023 was the earth’s hottest month on record, punctuated by record-shattering extreme heat events, catastrophic floods, and historic wildfires. While major media outlets sounded the alarm on the climate crisis, climate denial and downplay reached a fever pitch among right-wing media outlets and influencers.

Many in the right-wing media have downplayed the record heat — suggesting that it’s normal summer weather, despite clear evidence that the intensity of this summer’s heat waves would not have been possible without climate change — or dismissed its lethal impact by arguing that more people die of cold than heat. Others have said those linking July’s extreme weather to climate change are weaponizing these events to push a radical climate agenda or call for climate lockdowns.

Here are 15 other examples that illustrate the lengths to which right-wing media are going — often deploying nonsensical arguments or outright lies that attempt to ignore the fact that there is scientific consensus that carbon emissions are heating our planet— to maintain climate denial in the face of climate-fueled catastrophes: 

1 in

1. response to extreme weather that grounded planes in the Northeast, Fox host Rachel Campos-Duffy said the left is “trying to control the weather” and “trying to be God.” Fox News, :{Fox & Friends:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:, [7/3/23]
2. Responding to calls for climate action, Newsmax host Eric Bolling denied that human activity is responsible for warming: “Real scientists, meaning those not purchased by the kings of propaganda, well, they’ll tell you there is actually no such thing as climate change.” Newsmax, :{Eric Bolling The Balance:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:, [7/11/23]
3. Fossil fuel shill Steve Milloy on Newsmax’s Rob Schmitt Tonight: “The Earth is greener than ever before. Have we affected the planet and wildlife? Yeah, sure. But you know, in the end, it's been, I think, positive. The Earth is carrying more life now than ever before thanks to warming, thanks to CO2, thanks to fossil fuel use.” Newsmax, :{Rob Schmitt Tonight:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:, [7/11/23]
4. Newsmax host Greg Kelly said that “LGBTQ+IA whatever has been kind of pushed so relentlessly. … I think climate change and the whole phony debate about it has something to do with it,” suggesting the goal is to decrease population in order to reduce climate impacts. Newsmax, :{Greg Kelly Reports:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:, [7/11/23]
5. Fox host Jesse Watters suggested that U.S. special presidential envoy for climateJohn Kerry made it “impossible” to believe in climate change because according to Watters he lied about using a private plane. Fox News, :{Jesse Watters Primetime:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:, [7/13/23]
6. Conservative radio and Fox News host Mark Levin on his radioshow said climate change is a religion not based on science: “This is a religion. This is an ideology. This isn’t science. ...Don't you see how hot it is in Nevada? In the middle of the damn summer?It's what we have air conditioning for.”Westwood One, :{The Mark Levin Show:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:, [7/13/23]
7. Far-right media host Steven Crowder claims that carbon dioxide is not pollution because plants use it: “Is carbon dioxide the — basically, you know, the neurotoxin atmospheric poison that people make it out to be? Because you just pointed out plants thrive on it.” Rumble, :{Louder with Crowder:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:, [7/15/23]
8. Fox host Greg Gutfeld attempted to downplay the record-breaking heat with bizarre logic: “The problem with using weather — like saying, ‘This place broke records’ — how many states,how many countries didn't break records? Nobody ever provides you the context. They’re going, ‘Three countries had record-breaking heat waves.’ It’s like, well, how many countries are there?” Fox News, :{The Five:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:, [7/17/23]
9. The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh claimed that the record heat is not a result of human activity but the sun: “The sun … that’s what calls the shots on Earth. It determines the temperature. It determines everything in terms of weather. … And until you can figure out a way to literally control the sun, there is basically nothing we can do to intentionally and significantly raise, lower, or otherwise affect the temperature on Earth.” The Daily Wire, :{The Matt Walsh Show:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:, [7/18/23]
10. The Daily Wire’s Ben Shapiro: “Thank God we have this thing called air conditioning. … You know what’s a great cure for being super-duper hot outside? Being a first world country.” The Daily Wire, :{The Ben Shapiro Show:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:, [7/20/23]
11. Fox Business host Larry Kudlow on America Reports: “This is not an overly hot July. ... Hot weather happens in some places; cooler weather happens in other places. We do not have a climate catastrophe.” Fox News, :{America Reports:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:, [7/21/23]
12. Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk on climate science and why carbon dioxide is not pollution: “The science is not solid. The science is debated. They look at science as if it is religious, irrefutable dogma.” Kirk added, “The built-in premise of the climate hoax is carbon is bad. OK, well, carbon is life, actually. … Don’t plants thrive on carbon dioxide?” :{Real America’s Voice:(style="background-color:#ffff66;"):}:, :{The Charlie Kirk Show:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:, [7/24/23]
13. On The Ingraham Angle, American Majority founder Ned Ryun called climate change a “hoax”: “It is nothing more than an attempt to manipulate people into a state of fear to have them give more control over to a ruling elite who would take this hoax and enforce it through a whole host of means:{.” Fox News, :(style="background-color:#ffffff;"):}::{The Ingraham Angle:(style="background-color:#ffffff;;box-sizing:border-box"):}::{, :(style="background-color:#ffffff;"):}:[7/27/23:{]}:
14. On America’s Newsroom, fossil fuel shill Daniel Turner deliberately conflated weather with climate: “And if you look at the weather forecast for this great city, where I’m born and raised, next Friday is mid-70s. So we are in what's called a heat wave.” :{Fox News, :{America’s Newsroom:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}::(style="background-color:#6633ff;"):}:, [7/28/23]
15. Climate denier Marc Morano on Jesse Watters Primetime blamed global wildfires on arsonists, dismissing the role of climate change: “This is a global problem of people starting this. Now, is it climate change? Well, this would be the equivalent of blowing up a dam or sabotaging a dam and allowing a valley to flood and then saying, oh, look, climate change is causing more floods.” Fox News, :{Jesse Watters Primetime:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:, [7/28/23]

…

Next page

Related

Right-wing media deny climate change in face of deadly and record-breaking extreme weather event

07/20/23

Right-wing media downplay the hottest day in modern history with the help of Twitter’s community notes feature

07/11/23

Only 5% of national TV news segments on the record-shattering heat wave that scorched Texas mentioned climate change

07/03/23

crypto/zombied/punked?

SPN's Legislative Agenda Is Frequently Buttressed by Its Forays as "Press" and the Echoes of Its Allies in the Growing Right-Wing State "Press" Corps. As CMD was one of the first to document, SPN groups like the Goldwater Institute are hiring people to act as reporters, and the legislative agenda of SPN is increasingly echoed by the growing right-wing infrastructure of groups that pose as press. Some even get their stories or "reports" picked up as news and delivered to state newspapers as a "wire" service like the Associated Press, as with the Franklin Center's Watchdog.org groups and the Ryun brothers-allied "American Majority" and "Media Trackers" operations.

big data:

Karl Rove, Koch brothers lead charge to control Republican data

By: Kenneth P. Vogel and Maggie Haberman

April 22, 2013 05:04 AM EDT

The GOP didn’t have an answer for Big Democratic Data in 2012, costing them in close races from Congress to the White House.

Now, they’ve got lots of answers — possibly too many — and a feisty rivalry is brewing between tea party upstarts, nonpartisan data geeks, operatives linked to the Koch brothers and insiders like Karl Rove.

Instead of fighting Democrats, the right’s would-be data wizards are going after each other with claims of cronyism and incompetence, as well as cutthroat bidding wars and threats of legal action.

(PHOTOS: Republican money men)

This isn’t just about who can hire the most young IT programmers, create the slickest app to optimize door-knocking routes or stave off a repeat of the Election Day collapse of Mitt Romney’s ORCA system.

Rather, in a very real way, it’s about who controls the party through its most precious asset — its voter data — and the multimillion-dollar contracts that could follow.

Rove has begun soliciting donors for a $15 million-plus data project. There are competing systems being offered by a pair of twin brothers. And a programmer who helped start the dominant Democratic voter data system is pitching a copycat setup for Republicans.

The Republican National Committee is encouraging the intramural competition and,at the same time, pushing a data management system of its own.

(Also on POLITICO: DSCC outraises NRSC by $2 million)

“I would hope that the pressure and the desire to win is so great that people will really try to get the best product that is truly going to solve the problem and not just make their decisions based on who has the best connections,” said conservative data entrepreneur Ned Ryun.

Rove earlier this month spoke with major donors in New York about a voter data project that he has estimated could cost between $15 million and $20 million. He has been working with San Francisco-based private-equity investor Dick Boyce, who is fronting a political data concept called Liberty Works, sources tell POLITICO.

The public relationship between Rove and Boyce has been complicated, according to several sources familiar with the project. Rove has openly embraced Boyce’s work, touting it at an invitation-onlyconference that drew some of the GOP’s biggest names to a swanky Georgia resort in March. But Boyce has established distance from Rove, indicating to prospective donors that he’s not simply a front for the latest project from the Rove-conceived Crossroads groups, which sponsored one of Rove’s New York meetings this month.

(Also on POLITICO:Obama political arm strikes fear in GOP)

Likewise, Crossroads spokesman Jonathan Collegio, called Liberty Works a “stand-alone” effort.

Meanwhile, POLITICO has learned that a voter database outfit called Themis, established by the political network associated with David and Charles Koch, has been working with an established private political data company called i360. The partnership seems to give Koch World, which until recently had mostly focused on conservative issue advocacy, new reach into Republican Party politics.

On its website, i360 boasts of maintaining a constantly updated database of over 187 million active voters and over 211 million consumers that “provides hundreds of data points on every American adult that is currently or potentially politically active.”

It’s unclear when the Themis relationship began, but since 2010,  i360 has worked for Republican candidates and committees ranging from Reps. Diane Black and Tom Cottonto unsuccessful 2012 candidates Allen West, Josh Mandel and Tim Pawlenty, the Maine Republican Party, and a pro-Rick Perry super PAC, according to Federal Election Commission records.

Themis — which cost at least $18million to build in 2010 and 2011, according to recent tax filings — was used in 2012 by Koch-backed nonprofit groups such as Americans for Prosperity to contact millions of voters through phone calls and door-knocks in the run-up to Election Day.

Some critics grumbled about Themis’s performance, and POLITICO has learned that operatives have held post-election meetings on how to utilize it more effectively.

A representative from Koch Industries declined to comment on the record, but a person familiar with the situation said “Koch remains committed to Themis and their technology.”

Multiple sources said that Boyce’s effort has collided with Themis, adding to the rivalry between two of the deepest-pocketed factions in conservative politics — Crossroads and the Koch political operation.

Lighter-weight groups also have made some in-roads into the wide-open conservative data landscape.

Last year, Ned Ryun and his twin brother Drew, in a partnership between their American Majority Action nonprofit and a company called Political Gravity, rolled out a voter data interface called Gravity that helped customers ranging from victorious Texas Senate candidate Ted Cruz to the tea party group FreedomWorks.

But the brothers have since split. Drew left American Majority, and they launched competing firms after Election Day.

The Ryuns are “type double As” who have been “competing all our lives,” said Drew Ryun, whose new company, Surge Data Tech, is among a handful of voter data firms pitching state Republican parties.

“Free market competition leads to innovation,” he said. “The conundrum will be when innovation is outside the purview of GOP consultants and therefore their bank accounts.”

Ned Ryun’s firm Voter Gravity is courting campaigns directly, and this month fired off a cease-and-desist letter to a newGOP consulting firm called MGA Holdings founded by a pair of former operatives for the National Republican Senatorial Committee and Republican Governors Association demanding that the new firm stop using the name Gravity-N for its data tool.

MGA Holdings — which says it intends to drop the use of the name Gravity-N — hopes to bring together data streams across a wide array of platforms, including potentially using applications from other companies. Co-founder Alex Skatell, who was digital director for the NRSC and the RGA, says the more, the merrier.

“It’s encouraging that there are others out there willing to put the time, energy and investment into working towards solutions,” he said.

The RNC in its post-election autopsy announced it would seek to facilitate the competition by allowing approved software platforms, candidates and groups to directly access a revamped version of its once-vaunted voter file through the Data Trust database created in 2011 with support from Crossroads.

But it’s also quietly pushed state parties to sign onto a voter data management system — GOP Data Center — created around the same time, which some conservative data entrepreneurs outside the party structure see as stifling competition.

Republicans know what they don’t want: another ORCA — the voter-mobilization system built by Romney’s campaign, which was crippledbybalky interfaces that volunteers couldn’t navigate and cataclysmic Election Day crashes.

What they do want is a matter of debate.

Establishment types worry that a truly open data environment could empower tea party candidates and groups to use the GOP’s data to defeat incumbents in Republican primaries, while groups and firms that cater to the base worry that the RNC will shut them out.

The nightmare scenario for many on the right has Data Trust, the Kochs and possibly operatives like Rove and the Ryun brothers building their own competing voter files, creating a money vacuum that could produce conflicting or overlapping data and further splinter the conservative movement.

Democrats built their voter data advantage partly because their data is more centralized. A few well-connected firms like Catalist and NGP VAN have earned de facto endorsements from the Democratic establishment and used those blessings to build near monopolies on the left. As a result, Democratic candidates and liberal interest groups have benefited from enhancing and sharing the same data through the same interfaces.

“That came as a result of a competitive marketplace where there were five or six players, and, over time, over half the states decided that they thought VAN was the superior product, and then the [Democratic National Committee] stepped in and expanded the NGP VAN contract to 50 states,” said Stu Trevelyan, CEO of NGP VAN.

Trevelyan rejected criticism that his company has stifled competition or been slow to innovate, saying, “we continue to provide more innovation than anyone on the Republican side.”

Bruce Willsie, the president of a nonpartisan data firm called Labels & Lists, said there’s no clear answer about what’s better.

“On the plus side, the competition may be healthy and result in better technology and data,” said Willsie, whose company in 2012 was paid $68,000 by conservative and liberal candidates and committees ranging from unions to FreedomWorks, according to FEC reports. “On the minus side, the lack of coordination may introduce inefficiencies.”

NGP VAN’s dominance could make Democrats susceptible to losing their data edge, suggested Jim Gilliam of the nonpartisan firm NationBuilder. It was started by liberals but has recently made inroads with GOP groups, drawing fire from NGP VAN and liberal activists suggesting Democrats should be wary about doing business with firms that play both sides.

“I believe the choose-a-side card is in its last days,” Gilliam said. “The competition is definitely going to help, not hinder the Republicans. It will encourage a bit more of an open ecosystem as they will need to share data.”

Steve Adler, a Rhode Island programmer who helped start one of the companies that became NGP VAN, has switched sides and developed a parallel system for Republicans called rVotes.

Adler’s company has had meetings or calls to present its system to some of the most influential Republican data consultants — from the Romney campaign’s digital gurus Zac Moffatt and Michael Beach (who got a demonstration in the spring of 2011) to the RNC (first back in 2009 and again in March, when he pitched to chief of staff Mike Shields and top adviser Jeff Larson) to Rove (who talked with an rVotes supporter after the election).

Despite the meetings, Adler says there’s a reluctance among GOP bigwigs to award data contracts to anyone who’s not part of the insider Beltway consultant class. “They just don’t know what they’re doing,” Adler charged, adding “They’re not qualified.”

As for his efforts to get traction for rVotes among Washington’s GOP elite, he said, “It’s like trying to sell beauty products to ugly people, but they’re blind, so they don’t know that they’re ugly.”

His company failed to land any big federal or state GOP contracts last year, with federal records showing rVotes earned only $18,000 in 2012 mostly from longshot or tea party congressional candidates such as Will Cardon of Arizona, Barry Hinckley of Rhode Island and Jamie Radtke of Virginia.

Moreover, Adler says there’s little incentive for consultants to let anyone else try their hand, since “even though they’ve failed, they succeeded, because they still made money off of ORCA and Data Trust.”

To wit, the companies that handled the bulk of the data business for Romney’s campaign and the RNC — Targeted Victory, FLS Connect and Target Point Consulting — since the beginning of 2011 have received $190 million from Romney, the RNC and other federal Republican candidates, committees and groups,FEC records show.

The huge windfalls drew harsh criticism from Republicans, who — noting the firm’s close ties to the folks picking vendors (Targeted Victory was created by Moffatt and Beach, while Target Point was founded by Alex Gage, whose wife Katie Gage was Romney’s deputy campaign manager, and FLS Connect was founded partly by Larson and counted Romney political director Rich Beeson among its partners) — called it everything from “racketeering” to the “incestuousbleeding of the Republican Party.”

RNC chairman Reince Priebus defended Larson, who served as RNC chief of staff during the 2012 election, pointing out that he stepped down from FLS Connect. But the decision to open the data file to outside firms was seen in some quarters as a response to the argument that the party didn’t welcome outsiders.

The idea, as expressed in the autopsy, was that the RNC should be “supporting competition in the marketplace to ensure that the best ideas rise to the top.” But even that announcement was greeted skeptically, with grass-roots critics pointing out that the RNC only recently created GOP Data Center, which it pays FLS Connect to maintain and encourages state parties to adopt.

“Volunteers have been very frustrated” with GOP Data Center, said Steven Kuivenhoven, a Michigan GOP official during the 2012 cycle who encouraged activists to use alternative voter outreach interfaces last year. He has emerged as an rVotes evangelist, supporting a proposal Adler submitted this month to the state party, and he expressed concern about state parties relying primarily on GOP Data Center, which Michigan’s GOP this year agreed to use.

GOP Data Center and Data Trust are “a patchwork of apps built on an old database structure,” he said. “This is very inadequate as compared to what the Democrats use.”

Interoperability, said Moffatt, was “one of the challenges that we ran into in 2012. The systems on the Republican side weren’t built to talk to each other. If you’re building new technology and you’re doing it properly, then the systems should talk to each other.”

RNC spokeswoman Kirsten Kukowski said GOP Data Center will work with other applications — not against them — partly by allowing them to interface with Data Trust. “There has been an appetite for one central open data platform for others in our party to access data and build innovative tools and applications that will help make our party better,” she said.

Adler, the rVotes creator, says the GOP’s biggest challenge may stem less from technological deficiencies than from a fundamental approach to politics.

“The technology supports a philosophy that isn’t there,” he said. “Most Republicans don’t want to knock on doors. They don’t want to motivate people at the grass-roots level. It’s just not what they want to do.”

Steve Friess contributed to this report.

Ned Ryun, son of former Kansas Republican Representative Jim Ryun, who served in the House of Representatives for 10 years, was a writer in the George W. Bush White House and is now the "founder and president of American Majority, registered with the IRS as a 501(c)(3) political training institute."^[1] His twin brother, Drew Ryun, was a deputy director at the Republican National Committee and is now "the president of the 501(c)(4) arm," American Majority Action, "that can engage in more politically tinged activities."^[2]

Ned Ryun was also the co-founder and former director of Generation Joshua, a project launched by the :{Home School Legal Defense Associatio:(style="background-color:#ffff66;"):}:n.^[3] According to Michael Standaert, author of an exposé of the Left Behind book series and the culture surrounding them, "in the 2002 midterm elections, Ned Ryun-- coordinator of Generation Joshua-- sent teams of students to Missouri where they manned the phones for seven candidates in tight races, six of whom eventually won their elections."^[4]According to Standaert, the Generation Joshua project "gives high school credit in exchange for students joining voter drives and volunteering for local campaigns where conservative Christian candidates are in close races."^[5] Generation Joshua's website states, "Generation Joshua wants America to be a perpetual city on a hill, a beacon of biblical hope to the world around us. We seek to inspire every one of our members with faith in God and a hope of what America can become as we equip Christian citizens and leaders to impact our nation for Christ and for His glory."^[6]

Ned Ryun was also formerly on the board of the Madison Project (not to be confused with the James Madison Project blog, an apparently separate project of Maggi Cook, or the James Madison Project, another non-profit), a PAC which "raises money for conservative candidates through our network of grassroots conservatives."^[7][8] According to the People for the American Way's Right Wing Watch, it was established in 1994 by Michael P. Farris, who is also the Chairman and Cofounder of the Home School Legal Defense Association.^[9] Its 1999 letterhead called the organization "A Political Network for Pro-Life Conservatives," and it "organizes and 'bundles' small contributions by individuals to amass large contributions."^[10] Former board members also "include famous conservatives P:{aul Weyrich:(style="background-color:#ffff66;"):}: and Tim LaHaye."^[11]

Ned Ryun is the co-author, along with his brother Drew Ryun and his father Jim Ryun, of Heroes Among Us.^[12]

A frequent contributor to the blog Red State, Ned Ryun blogged on February 21, 2011, "On Saturday, standing on the state capitol steps in Madison, Wisconsin, I saw history. I saw the first public, physical manifestation of the great struggle between the tea party movement and the public sector unions. At stake: the future freedom and prosperity of this country.

"On one side of the debate, you have freedom loving Americans who are the taxpayers, the ones who fund our government and are the heart and soul of this great nation. On the other, those who would seek to ride on the backs of the taxpayers as they take this country down a path of statism."^[13]

On the American Majority blog, Ryun wrote on March 8, 2011, "I applaud what Scott Walker is doing in Wisconsin, but I actually feel he didn’t go far enough. All his Budget Repair Bill is doing is addressing the public sector unions’ right to collectively bargain over pensions and health care. I think it would have been nice to address the right to collectively bargain for wages, and here’s why: at the end of the day, the public sector unions are not collectively bargaining for a greater share of earnings, as do the private sector unions. They are bargaining to get a bigger slice of the pie of tax dollars, which the government has taken from the American taxpayer."^[14]

Resources and Articles

References

1. ↑ Alex Pappas American Majority wants to infuse new Tea Party blood in system, Daily Caller, December 21, 2010
2. ↑ Ibid.
3. ↑ Generation Joshua The Vision for Generation Joshua, organization website, June 24, 2008, accessed May 5, 2011
4. ↑ Michael Standaert *Skipping towards armageddon: the politics and propaganda of the left behind novels and the LaHaye empire*, Brooklyn: Soft Skull Press, 2006, p. 148
5. ↑ Ibid.
6. ↑ Generation Joshua What We Stand For, organization website, accessed May 5, 2011
7. ↑ LinkedIn Ned Ryun, online profile, accessed May 5, 2011
8. ↑ Madison Project About Us, organization website, accessed May 5, 2011
9. ↑ People for the American Way Madison Project, Right Wing Watch website, 2008, accessed May 5, 2011
10. �� Ibid.
11. ↑ Ibid.
12. ↑ Jim Ryun, Ned Ryun & Drew Ryun Heroes among us: deep within each of us dwells the heart of a hero, Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image Publishers, 2002
13. ↑ Ned Ryun Saturday in Madison, Wisconsin, RedState.com blog, February 21, 2011, accessed May 5, 2011
14. ↑ Ned Ryun Collective Bargaining is a Privilege, Not a Right, AmericanMajority.com blog, March 8, 2011, accessed May 5, 2011

Related Sourcewatch Articles

• Jim Ryun
• Drew Ryun
• American Majority
• Generation Joshua
• Home School Legal Defense Association
• Left Behind
• Madison Project

Releated PRWatch Articles

• Brendan FischerBreitbart & Americans for Prosperity President Appear at Tea Party Rally in Support of Walker's Bill, Sat. Noon-3pm, PRWatch, February 18, 2011

External Resources

• WikipediaNed Ryun, wiki article, accessed May 5, 2011
• Ned Ryun Personal Website, accessed May 5, 2011
• On the Record with Ned Ryun, Missouri Record, September 21, 2009, accessed May 5, 2011

Categories: Stubs | Religion | Conservatives | Tea Party Movement | Political Action Committees

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Drew Ryun, son of former Kansas Republican Representative Jim Ryun, who served in the House of Representatives for 10 years, was a Deputy Director at the Republican National Committee and is now "the president of the 501(c)(4) arm," American Majority Action, "that can engage in more politically tinged activities" than his twin brother Ned Ryun's American Majority, which is "registered with the IRS as a 501(c)(3) political training institute."^[1][2] He has been Executive Director of the American Majority branches in Texas and Oklahoma, but isn't currently listed in any of the staff directories on the American Majority website.^[3][4]

Media Trackers

According to Politico, American Majority sponsorsMedia Trackers, an investigative non-profit that launched in January 2011 in Wisconsin, which "has gotten considerable in-state pick-up on quick-hit videos and pieces aimed at what it says are errors, hypocrisy or offensive behavior by labor unions and their Democratic allies."^[5] According to Mother Jones, Ryun formed Media Trackers as a "nimble attack blog . . . that could quickly capitalize on the latest missteps by big-government politicians or the "liberal" media -- essentially hard-hitting, opposition-research-style shops that prize scoops, speed, and scandal over policy briefs and press conferences."^[6]

But Media Trackers has a history of "mangl[ing] the truth," according to Mother Jones and such media outlets as PolitiFact and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: An "exclusive" that "a labor-backed progressive group had violated Wisconsin state law by handing out free BBQ to Milwaukee residents in exchange for pledges to vote early in a closely fought state Senate recall election . . . turned out to be dead wrong; the DA found no evidence of wrongdoing." In November 2011, "in another splashy post that was quickly amplified by the right-wing blogosphere, Media Trackers' Wisconsin outlet claimed there were 'no privacy protections' for people who signed a recall petition to recall Walker, leaving them open to harassment and abuse. PolitiFact rated the claim 'Mostly False,' and noted that Media Trackers had given no evidence that harassment was taking place.^[7]" And in March 2012, "soon after the Wisconsin Judicial Commission filed an ethics complaint against conservative state Supreme Court Justice David Prosser, Media Trackers published a story claiming four of the commission's nine members had signed Walker recall petitions. In fact, none had.^[8]"^[6]

According to Mother Jones, "After seeing Media Trackers in action, its anonymous donors shelled out enough fresh cash for Ryun to expand into Colorado, Florida, Montana, and Ohio."^[6] Indeed, Media Trackers announced its expansion into Colorado and Montana with two similar press releases on May 9, 2012.^[9][10] Media Trackers Florida and Ohio seem to have been started in a slightly earlier wave, with organizational "about" pages on each of their websites dated March 16, 2012.^[11][12]

Background

Ryun was formerly the Director of Government Affairs for theAmerican Center for Law and Justice and the Main Representative for the European Center for Law and Justice at the United Nations.^[13]

Ryun directs Jim Ryun Running Camp, a Christian running camp sponsored by Adidas^[14][15]

Ryun is the co-author, along with his brother Ned Ryun and his father Jim Ryun, of Heroes Among Us.^[16]

Resources and Articles

References

1. ↑ Alex Pappas American Majority wants to infuse new Tea Party blood in system, Daily Caller, December 21, 2010
2. �� American Majority Action About, organization website, accessed May 5, 2011
3. ��� Ballotpedia Drew Ryun, wiki page, last modified April 1, 2009, accessed May 5, 2011
4. ↑ American Majority States, organization website, accessed May 5, 2011
5. ↑ Kenneth P. Vogel, Right seeks edge in opposition wars, Politico.com, April 3, 2011
6. ↑ ^6.0^ ^6.1^ ^6.2^ Andy Kroll, Media Trackers, the Right's New Oppo-Research Attack Dog, Mother Jones, May 21, 2012
7. ↑ Conservative group says signers of petitions to recall Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker are at risk, PolitiFact, November 17, 2011
8. ↑ Daniel Bice, Charges against Judicial Commission fall apart, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, March 24, 2012
9. ↑ Media Trackers Colorado, MEDIA TRACKERS: CO SENATE DEMS SHILLING FOR OBAMACARE WITH UNION BILL, organizational press release, May 9, 2012
10. ↑ Media Trackers Montana, Media Trackers: Taxpayers take $3 Million Loss in Sale of Story Mansion to Org Led by Former City Planner Epple, organizational press release, May 9, 2012
11. ↑ Media Trackers Florida, About, organizational website, March 16, 2012, accessed May 2012
12. ↑ Media Trackers Ohio, About, organizational website, March 16, 2012, accessed May 2012
13. ↑ American Majority Action About, organization website, accessed May 5, 2011
14. ↑ Drew Ryun Profile, Blogger.com profile, accessed May 5, 2011
15. ↑ Jim Ryun Running Camp Jim Ryan Running Camp Website, accessed May 5, 2011
16. ↑ Jim Ryun, Ned Ryun & Drew Ryun Heroes among us: deep within each of us dwells the heart of a hero, Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image Publishers, 2002

Related Sourcewatch Articles

• Jim Ryun
• Ned Ryun
• American Majority
• American Majority Action

Related PRWatch Articles

External Resources

Categories: Stubs | Religion | Conservatives | Tea Party Movement | Political Action Committees

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Drew_Ryun

In June 2010, half a dozen rich donors came to Drew Ryun, a former Republican National Committee staffer, with the kind of question a dyed-in-the-wool operative like himself could only dream about. "If you had X number of dollars," he recalls the donors saying, "what would you do that the conservative movement does not have?"

Conservatives have their think tanks, dozens of them at the state and national level. They also have a corporate-funded legislation mill in the American Legislative Exchange Council. What conservatives lacked, Ryun told the donors, were nimble attack blogs that could quickly capitalize on the latest missteps by big-government politicians or the "liberal" media—essentially hard-hitting, opposition-research-style shops that prize scoops, speed, and scandal over policy briefs and press conferences. His pitch: Create a network of one- and two-man digital media outlets with low overhead, rapid response, and a nose for controversy.

The donors loved it. They ponied up seed money in the low six figures, and Ryun's conservative attack machine, Media Trackers, was born. Bonus: As a nonprofit, Media Trackers can keep the identities of those donors secret.

Oppo research and partisan muckraking are nothing new, of course. For decades, so-called trackers working for campaigns or political parties have used voice recorders and video cameras to exploit their opponent's every gaffe, misstep, or controversy. It was a Virginia Democratic Party tracker that Republican George Allen infamously during his 2006 Senate bid—the racial slur went viral and helped sink Allen's campaign.

Ryun, however, claims he wants nothing to do with the parties. "I'm talking about creating long-lasting impact for the conservative movement," he says.

The first Media Trackers outlet launched in Wisconsin in January 2011. The timing was perfect, as the state was primed to explode in :{protest:(style="background-color:#ffff66;"):}: over Gov. Scott Walker's anti-union "budget repair" bill. Media Trackers wasted no time in urging conservatives to "stand united" in support of Ryan. The Wisconsin bloggers' biggest splash arguably came that August. A Media Trackers story with a headline screaming "EXCLUSIVE" promised a juicy scoop: that a labor-backed progressive group had violated Wisconsin state law by handing out free BBQ to Milwaukee residents in exchange for pledges to vote early in a closely fought state Senate recall election.

Media Trackers calls itself a "non-partisan investigative watchdog."  Democrats and unions dismiss it as a group of partisan hacks.

The story, sourced to a single anonymous witness, sparked an investigation by a Milwaukee district attorney and a flurry of follow-up coverage in the local media. Conservative blogs flew into a frenzy over the scandalous activities unearthed by Media Trackers. Trouble is, the accusation turned out to be dead wrong; the DA found no evidence of wrongdoing.

After seeing Media Trackers in action, its anonymous donors shelled out enough fresh cash for Ryun to expand into Colorado, Florida, Montana, and Ohio. His 12 staffers (plus some interns and freelancers) now churn out dozens of daily posts and stories promoting a free-market agenda and hammering progressive rivals, the Occupy movement, unions, regulations, and government spending.

Media Trackers bills itself a "conservative non-profit, non-partisan investigative watchdog." But Democrats and labor unions dismiss it as a bunch of partisan hacks bent on kneecapping labor and privatizing government services. Ryun makes no bones about his outfit's ideology: "One thing we don't hide is: 'Yeah, we're conservative—free-market, free-enterprise, full-spectrum conservative.'"

Although Ryun stresses the importance of fact-based research, the barbecue-for-votes nonscandal wasn't the only time Media Trackers has mangled the truth. Last November, in another splashy post that was quickly amplified by the right-wing blogosphere, Media Trackers' Wisconsin outlet claimed there were "no privacy protections" for people who signed a recall petition to recall Walker, leaving them open to harassment and abuse. PolitiFact rated the claim "Mostly False," and noted that Media Trackers had given no evidence that harassment was taking place. And in March, soon after the Wisconsin Judicial Commission filed an ethics complaint against conservative state Supreme Court Justice David Prosser, Media Trackers published a story claiming four of the commission's nine members had signed Walker recall petitions. In fact, none had.

Wisconsin Democrats and progressives who've dealt with Media Trackers say the organization peddles misleading stories while masquerading as a legitimate news operation. "It's an outfit rotten to the core that would be laughable but for the fact that mainstream media fall for their tricks and amplify their acid lies," says Graeme Zielinski, a spokesman for the state's Democratic Party.

Ryun isn't alone in trying to build a permanent attack operation. In 2010, David Brock, founder of the liberal watchdog group Media Matters for America, launched American Bridge 21st Century, an independent research shop that deploys trackers on the campaign trail and gathers damning research on GOP candidates. Bridge hopes to serve as a one-stop shop for all of Democrats' oppo needs.

Bridge's super-PAC arm has raised $5.8 million so far, according to *ProPublica*'s "PAC Track," with plans to raise as much as $20 million in the 2012 cycle. And that's for the long haul. "We will be around cycle after cycle—donors like that," a Bridge official told Mother Joneslast year. "We'll be a permanent piece of the campaign infrastructure."

Drew Ryun says Media Trackers has been attracting new donors. (The Koch brothers and their affiliates, Ryun says, are not among those donors.) He plans to double the group's footprint by year's end while spinning it off from its current nonprofit sponsor, American Majority, a tea party training organization run by his twin brother, Ned. "To be able to pitch this to donors in the conservative movement as something we've never had is huge," Ryun says. "With Media Trackers, I have a product I can't help but sell."

American Liberty Alliance is not the only Sam Adams Alliance affiliate in this fight, however. American Majority, a self-described "political training institute", is a "concept" of Sam Adams Alliance, which in turn describes itself as AM's "sponsor". American Majority staff includes former George W Bush speechwriter Ned Ryun, regional field director for Bush/Cheney '04 Lonny Leitner, former Republican state legislator Shari Weber, and former director of operations at the Oklahoma Republican Party, Matt Pinnell.

August 1, 2009 · 6:40 am

>This Disrupted Town Hall Meeting Brought To You By Sheldon Adelson & Companions

>

FreedomWorks, the right wing organization funded in part by Nevada’s very own casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, [DS] is contributing to the din of opposition to any form of significant health care reform in this country. [TP] According to the Atlantic we can expect a coalition of organizations to promote more ��Tea Parties” such as the American Liberty Alliance (message board group), FreedomWorks, and Americans for Prosperity, coordinated by the Chicago based Sam Adams Alliance (which does not disclose its donors) and the American Majority political training institute. The Sam Adams Alliance is run by former “Americans for Limited Government” activist Eric O���Keefe, who backed ballot initiatives for “Taxpayer Bill of Rights” in Colorado and in several other states. [NYT]

FreedomWorks and the American Future Fund will provide members with lists of town hall meetings, sites, times, and locations, along with prepared questions. The Atlantic article posts three examples of the prepared questions. Americans for Prosperity has launched an anti-Obama-health-care-reform bus tour of 13 states. [Atlantic] The American Future Fund is led by political professionals who worked for former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney’s 2008 presidential nomination bid. [NPR]

Americans for Prosperity is the successor organization to “Citizens for a Sound Economy,” and initially worked on behalf of the tobacco industry to defeat smokefree workplace laws and tobacco product taxation. In 2008 the group sponsored a Hot Air tour calling advocacy of climate change mitigation legislation “alarmist.” Former McCain Campaign spokesperson, Nancy Pfotenhauer, was the first president of the organization which is funded by the Roe Foundation, the Ruth & Lovett Peters Foundation, the Lambe Foundation, and the ever present right wing funding source – the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation. [Sourcewatch]

The American Majority political training institute is run by Ned Ryun, son of former U.S. Congressman Jim Ryun, and a former writer for President George W. Bush. The organization espouses: “Training and equipping a national network of conservative leadership committed to helping America remain a strong and free nation through limited government, individual freedom and the free market system”. It gives examples of these principles, such as strengthened property rights, educational freedom for individuals, reduced corporate taxes and decreased government spending.” [SR]

These are the groups distributing the “Rocking the Town Halls – Best Practices” political action memos, which advocate disrupting and attempting to create the impression that there is widespread opposition to health care reform.

desertbeacon.blogspot.com

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