This week the Montana Post put up stories designed to increase donations to one of their favored political candidates.
Supposedly, this candidate was attacked and threatened that they’d be primaried.
Social media lit up.
@RaiseTheBahrMT has raised over $1000 in 24 hours due to attacks. Take that potential primary challengers! #MTPol #MTLeg @billingsgazette @KTVQ @KULR @mikedennison
— Amelia D. Marquez (@Amelia4MT) April 24, 2019
I appreciate the article and the $$ it has attracted early because Early Money Is Like Yeast! (it makes the dough rise) #MTLeg #MTPol @MTDems @emilyslist
— Jen Gross (@JenGross4MT) April 24, 2019
@RaiseTheBahrMT has my full support and I will more than happily go to Billings to tell people why. #mtpol #mtnews
— (((Josh Manning))) (@GIJoeMontana) April 23, 2019
Montana Post jumped into action, providing readers with claims of the attacks without providing any evidence. They did this so Bahr could raise money. Here’s that post and here’s how the author put it:
“The time to allow progressives to carry the banner forward is now though and we must defend Jade against these attacks. Currently, unnamed figures are considering trying to oust Jade from her hard-won seat HD 50 in the city of Billings.”
Hm…”unnamed figures.”
If that wasn’t enough, the next day the Montana Post doubled down, asking for even more money while providing, yet again, no evidence of these attacks.
Here’s that post. Once again, there was no evidence of attacks.
It was interesting to see Montana minority politicians jump on this fake bandwagon, as you can see quite clearly if you visit Bahr’s Facebook page.
I went to Bahr’s candidate Facebook page and she had 3 to 4 posts over the past month.
Bahr’s original Facebook post claiming she was attacked was put up on April 23. The post she put up before that one came on April 13 and doesn’t reference any attacks.
Bahr figures that the attacks against her came because of how she “voted yes on a gun referendum bill, against two bills looking to address sex trafficking bills, voted for a cigar club, and I voted for allowing pharmacies to give vaccines, I vote for gambling...There’s probably more. I know I don’t fit the cookie cutter ideal version of being a liberal but overall I thought I was pretty legit.”
I did not see any attacks on her social media feed at all, leading me to once again believe that this is a made-up story, or what we sometimes call ‘fake news.’
One thing you notice if you go to Jade Bahr’s Facebook page is that she has 100 comments on the post she put up that claims she was attacked
You get a lot of political types commenting on that post, mostly offering support.
I was interested to see that some were upset that Bahr voted against two bills that would have addressed sex trafficking.
“I don’t feel this type of legislation actually gets to the issue,” Bahr said.
She has a few hundred more words in her response to justify those votes, if you care to read them.
Even Monica Lindeen chimed in:
“Just to set the record straight, the Montana Democratic Party is NOT looking to run anyone in a primary against a sitting Democratic legislator.”
And there you have it, folks - the executive director of the Montana Democratic Party even came on Facebook to say the Party was not attacking Bahr.
Conclusion
We shouldn’t be surprised at the desperation the Montana Post is exhibiting. I told you the other day that it’s lost significant website traffic over the past six months. The type of content the site has put up over the past few weeks has been an attempt to regain some of its former footing, an attempt to stay relevant.
I personally believe that the perpetrators of these fake attacks are the same types of people that are donating to these radical Democratic candidates.
If you follow the money you’ll find some basis for such an opinion.
A fringe, minority group of middle-aged Democrats came up with a plan to Shanghai an Indian legislator, making her think that conservative elements in her Party had it out for her.
Less than 24 hours after these false attacks began, the group that was supposedly attacking Bahr came out publicly to say they were not attacking her.
This would have been a wonderful opportunity for the pro-Bahr group to come out with some actual evidence of these attacks, but they chose not to.
I don’t think it was a choice - I don’t think they had any evidence to begin with. If they had, they would have given you screenshots of it in their initial post.
One of the big problems is the cabal of young, minority Montana Democrats that think they - because they live in large, often-liberal cities - can dictate the debate.
Sadly, this just isn’t true.
People in Montana aren’t interested in what Jade Bahr has to say, nor are they interested in what the people that gave her money so she could join them in what’s, let’s face it, is a sad group of very vocal (yet highly unelectable) statewide personalities.
Not sure who I’m talking about?
Most gave to her 2018 campaign:
- Shane Morigeau
- Bryce Bennett
- Mary Caferro
- Carol Juneau
- Big Sky Values PAC
- Carol’s List
- Yellowstone County Democratic Central Committee
- Big Sky Democrats
- Montana Progressive Democrats
You’d think that maybe, just maybe, the Montana Post wouldn’t put up such spurious articles...when they’ve spent years now claiming that Republicans are the Party of such fibs.
Alas, we find that after years of proving little, writers at sites like the Montana Post resort to such just so they can try and prove their point.
While the converted that they’re preaching to might be impressed, the rest of us are not.
And then there’s the political donation aspect of this story. Currently, Bahr isn’t even a candidate for 2020, which means she can’t legally raise money. If she’d filed a C1, that would be fine.
I do believe that a political complaint could be filed with COPP over this episode.
I inquired with COPP about this, and was told that, “If an individual is soliciting for/or accepting contributions or making expenditures they have 5 business days to file a C-1.”
Bahr hasn’t filed a C1 and currently has less than 5 days to do so if she wants to stay within the law. Here is the official complaint form, in case anyone would like to enforce the rules that are currently on the books.
Hey, I don’t care if you’re a Democrat or a Republican - I’d like you to follow the rules. I’d also like you to raise money off your own merits, not off of made-up stories that you can’t prove.
It’s not the mainstream that’s making these attacks - it’s the fringe.
Used to be the anonymous writers at MT Cowgirl would put up these posts, but we called them out on it so much that the site had to shut down.
Montana Post tried to take over, but their content is so off-putting to most Montana voters that not only does their site rank near the bottom of Montana political news sites/blogs, but it also paints candidates endorsed by Montana Post with such a taint that they’d never be able to win a statewide race.
If you have the audacity to call Montana Post out on such, they’ll most likely block you from their social media feeds, cut off your ability to comment on their site, and put up articles calling you a Republican (which seems to be their idea of hurting you).
Rarely does the Montana Post or its writers speculate on why Democrats in Montana are unable to win a majority in the legislature.
And why would they want to? Acknowledging that you’ve had it wrong for over a decade might make you look silly (as if continually losing does not).
It’s much better to double-down, pretending that you got it right while hoping everyone else is too stupid to notice.
Alas, the Montana Post has failed abysmally in this endeavor.
The site ranks near the bottom of Montana political blogs. And don’t be fooled by all those Facebook ‘likes’.
Both the Montana Post and the Missoula Current have seen a drastic decrease in social media ‘likes’ over the past few weeks.
I’m sure the sites are worried and wondering what’s going on.
I think what’s going on is that many are realizing sites like Montana Post don’t really have value. They don’t provide information. They just provide the same, tired, talking points you’ve grown to despise.
And on top of it, they put out false narratives to try and boost the campaign donations of a candidate.
It really is sad.