Topic: WorldNetDaily
A March 31 WorldNetDaily column by Melanie Morgan tosses out several red herrings and misleading claims to defend her buddy at Move America Forward, Howard Kaloogian.
Morgan claims that in during the 2004 presidential election, "mainstream media anchors and reporters openly expressed their contempt for Bush and laid bare their adoration for the liberal Democrats Al Gore and John Kerry," but she offers no evidence of it. Then she claimed that "the media is back to smear campaigns against Republicans" -- right before she smeared Francine Busby, the Democratic candidate in the California House race for the seat of disgraced Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, as an "extremely liberal anti-war Democrat" and an "abortion militant." Kaloogian is one of 14 candidates seeking the Republican nomination for the seat; Morgan says only that Kaloogian is "on the other side" of Busby and fails to mention the other 13 candidates.
Morgan then delves into the meat of her column -- portraying the mini-controversy over a picture on Kaloogian's website labeled as having been taken in Baghdad, when in fact it was taken in Istanbul, as "an innocent mistake" turned into an "international firestorm" by a "liberal news media ... determined to destroy him."
That's not quite how it went down. Kaloogian has offered shifting and dubious explanations for the photo mixup. It has further been revealed that Kaloogian has claimed at least three fake endorsements for his campaign, as well as solicited business for his GOP consulting firm while visiting Iraq.
Morgan is silent on those last allegations, preferring instead to portray Kaloogian as "a fine, honorable and honest man" (italics hers) who is "surging in the polls."
As far as honesty goes, there are some who beg to differ. And as far as "surging in the polls" goes, that doesn't appear to be true, either. (James L. Lambert, take note.)
Posted by Terry K.
at 11:07 PM EST
