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Little Green Footballs (often abbreviated as LGF) is a political weblog run by California web designer Charles Johnson. Much like neo-conservative icon Irving Kristol, Johnson claims that he was "a liberal until he got mugged" — in this case, by the September 11, 2001 attacks.
History
Before September 11, Johnson's blog had been geared towards the discussion of bicycle racing, programming, web design, and the occasional humorous news item. After September 11 it became a very active warblog, focusing on the United States' War on Terror and the Arab-Israeli conflict.
LGF features extensive coverage of sometimes under-reported news stories, particularly those featuring examples of European anti-Semitism and Islamist terrorism. LGF is also known for its irreverent spin on hot-button issues, featuring Photoshopped treatments of Rachel Corrie as "Saint Pancake," Yasser Arafat as "Arafish" and jailed Palestinian terrorists as Elvis and Bob Dobbs.
LGF was one of four sources, along with the Power Line and AllahPundit blogs and the Free Republic discussion forum, responsible for the initial stages of the 60 Minutes Killian memos investigation.
LGF was voted "Best International Blog" in an online poll by the Washington Post in November 2004.
Little Green Footballs supporters have helped raise thousands of dollars for such military public relations and charity organizations as Spirit of America (http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=13955_Of_Money_and_Mouths#comments) and Pizza for the IDF (http://www.pizzaidf.com/).
Changes and controversies
Fans see the website as an alternative media outlet which provides a counterweight to the alleged anti-American, anti-Zionist, anti-Conservative bias of mainstream media outlets such as Reuters (or "al-Reuters" in LGF slang).
Critics point to the hyperbolic language and dehumanizing slurs employed by some commenters (e.g., "Palesimians," "Oil Ticks," "koranimals", "sand niggers") and charge the webmaster with encouraging groupthink, jingoism, and Islamophobia.
Johnson himself does not use hate speech on the site, and includes a disclaimer disavowing responsibility for comments. However, he has been accused of double standards in deleting comments he considers anti-semitic while allowing anti-Islamic remarks to remain.
Johnson and the LGF regulars (the self-proclaimed "Lizardoids") have engaged in a number of high-profile feuds and flame wars over the years, pitting LGF readers against such sites as:
- Atrios [1] (http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=13850_Freak_Parade_at_Atrios#comments)
- BoingBoing (http://www.littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=10547#comments)
- Kathryn Cramer (http://www.kathryncramer.com/wblog/archives/000497.html)
- the Daily Kos [2] (http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=site%3Alittlegreenfootballs.com+daily+kos&btnG=Google+Search)
- Indymedia ("Nazimedia" in LGF slang)
- Metafilter
- Nathan Newman (http://www.nathannewman.org/log/archives/001636.shtml)
- the NYU Center for Religion & Media (http://www.therevealer.org/cgi-bin/r/mt-search.cgi?IncludeBlogs=1&search=LGF)
- Slashdot (http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=13741_The_Faint_Whining_of_the_Slashdot_Nerd#comments)
- users of the Straight Dope (http://www.littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=7117_The_Straight_Dopes#comments) message board
- Andrew Sullivan (http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=14492_Sullivan_Off_the_Rails_Again#comments)
- la vie viennoise (http://www.uncoy.com/2004/04/lgf_and_lgfers_.html)
- Oliver Willis (http://www.oliverwillis.com/node/view/684)
- Winds of Change (http://windsofchange.net/archives/004817.php#comments)
- Matthew Yglesias (http://www.matthewyglesias.com/archives/003049.html)
As each such confrontation triggers a stampede of vistors from rival sites, Johnson often redirects the traffic thus generated to the Israel Defense Forces homepage.
Denial of service attacks
On Thursday, October 16, 2003 Little Green Footballs was knocked offline when a Denial-of-service attack originating in Malaysia and aimed at Internet Haganah (another pro-Israel site on the same server) took down the entire Hosting Matters system [3] (http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=8570#c0119).
On Sunday, January 9, 2005 Hosting Matters was subjected to another Denial-of-service attack; Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit believes this was a Distributed Denial-of-Service attack (DDOS). Service was restored around 11:40 pm EST on Monday, January 10.
Slang and posting protocols
The LGF comments board is heavily laced with in-group slang - not least by the webmaster, who sometimes claims credit for coining the political epithet "Idiotarian." Other terms popularized by the site include "moonbat" and "Islamonazi."
Like other politically charged internet forums (e.g., Democratic Underground), LGF attracts dissonant outsiders. These users are shunned as "trolls" or "morlocks" and banned through their IP addresses if they are deemed to have become disruptive. Per one LGF user's "Troll Detection Kit (http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=5205#c0077)":
Trolls' beliefs follow a standard outline, whose roots are in the anti-American, Jew hating, Marxist rhetoric of Noam Chomsky, Said, etc. along with generous doses of Jewish loony-leftist rhetoric, courtesy of Israel's New Historians (read: anti-Zionists) and Jewish anti-Semites such as Ben Shapiro.
As the volume of comments from argumentative newbies rose with the site's increasing profile, many regular users requested a simple registration system; Johnson obliged them in June 2004.
Mainstream media bias
Almost since its inception, LGF has been plagued by accusations of bias from "mainstream media" sources. This has lead many LGF fans to conclude that the mainstream media is itself biased aginst LGF. A few notable examples:
"This site is the focus of considerable controversy for its focus (and particularly the focus of the constituents in its comments section) on Islamic culture and dogma as the source of Islamic terror. As a popular, active, and well presented site, it is worth checking out, but some may find its content hateful or even racist."
- In February 2005, Johnson asked Google to classify LGF as a news source on the basis of its original content. Google refused, prompting one LGF poster to note that "Google is notoriously anti-semetic." [4] (http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=14598_Google_News_Turns_Us_Down_Again#comments)
Frequently quoted
External links
Pro
- Little Green Footballs (http://www.littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/)
- Cox & Forkum (http://www.coxandforkum.com) - Editorial Cartoons (LGF affiliated)
- Discarded Lies (http://www.discardedlies.com) - formerly "LGF Watch Watch"
- Israel National News (http://www.israelnn.com/news.php3?id=62000) - "At Israel's Right" (interview)
- OpinionJournal (http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110002505) - "MSNBC Smears Charles Johnson"
- Right Wing News (http://rightwingnews.com/interviews/johnson.php) - Interview
Con
- Anil Dash (http://www.dashes.com/anil/2002/08/21/little_green_mo) - "Little Green Monsters"
- Jewschool (http://www.jewschool.com/2004/04/lgf-gets-back-what-it-dishes-out.php) - Overview of LGF feuds & flamewars
- LGFWatch (http://lgfwatch.blogspot.com/) - "Keeping an eye on those rabid racists at Little Green Footballs"
- The LGF Quiz (http://www.drmenlo.com/lgfquiz/) - "Little Green Footballs or Late German Fascists?"
- the Peking Duck (http://pekingduck.org/archives/002204.php) - "Charles Johnson does Auschwitz -- and gets it all wrong"
Other
- Jewlicious (http://www.jewlicious.com/index.php?p=327) - overview of LGF, LGF Watch, LGF Watch Watch, etc.
- LA Observed (http://www.laobserved.com/archive/001679.html) - Little Green Footballs, pro and con
- The LGF Dictionary (http://www.zombietime.com/lgf_dictionary)
- Little Green Footballs (http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=5987#c0310) - Peace Troll Taxonomy 101
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