Ron Unz, who publishes The American Conservative, writes to say:
Thanks so much for the great plug this morning on your website. And you’d had an excellent column a couple of days ago about that Weinstein fellow denouncing Eric Margolis and various other “fringe cranks” grouped around Ron Paul.
As I’ve been telling people for years, what defines a “fringe theorist” or a “conspiracy nut” is that they’re not regularly on television. People on TV can endlessly spout off the craziest, most ridiculous theories of an Iranian-Al Qaeda-Saddam alliance to destroy American freedom, and never be labeled a believer in “conspiracies.” Since the MSM mostly refused to cover Ron Paul during his campaigns, regardless of his fund-raising or polling benchmarks, he was a “fringe kook”—Q.E.D.
Basically, television defines our reality and especially what constitutes respectable opinion. If the people on TV did a U-turn, respectable beliefs would do the same within 72 hours.