ConWebBlog: The Weblog of ConWebWatch

MRC Smears Lesbian Teen As 'Accused Child Molester'

Fri, 24 May 2013 22:55:55 -0500

The headline on Matt Philbin's May 21 MRC Culture & Media Institute article screams, "Left Defends Accused Child Molester Because She’s Lesbian." But it sounds like Philbin's attacking her because she's lesbian:

When your 18-year-old daughter is expelled and charged with sexual battery of a child, one option is to go public and declare she’s a martyr under fire from anti-gay bias. That’s the approach taken by the parents of Kaitlyn Hunt, a Florida teen who faces two felony charges of “lewd or lascivious battery” on a child. And sure enough, the tactic has earned Hunt some high-profile left-wing media defenders.

According to the charges, Hunt, a senior at Sebastian River High School who was set to graduate this spring, pressured a 14-year-old girl four years her junior to be her “girlfriend” and engage in sexual activity with her. But when Kaitlyn faced prosecution from her underage partner’s parents, her own parents and gay activists immediately granted her victim status, claiming she was unjustly persecuted for being homosexual.

Would Philbin be writing about Kaitlyn Hunt if she wasn't a lesbian? Probably not -- we searched the MRC archives and found nothing at all about Genarlow Wilson, a 17-year-old male who was convicted of child molestation for having oral sex with a 15-year-old girl at a New Year’s party and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Philbin went on to whine:

Clearly, Hunt’s parents and her supporters in their “Stop the Hate, Free Kate” Facebook group disagree. They are portraying her story as a tragedy like Romeo and Juliet – two lovers separated by people who just don’t understand.

Actually nobody's doing that -- as the link Philbin himself provides. It goes to an article about what's called a Romeo and Juliet law, which exists in several states to deal with situations such as the Hunt case, in which teenagers, one of whom is underage, get involved in a consensual sexual relationship. The goal is to keep the older teen from being branded a sex offender if the facts warrant it.

Philbin goes on to claim that those supporting Hunt are "homosexual activists anxious to topple any and all rules regarding sex." He offers no evidence to back this up, of course -- he's too slavishly devoted to his employer's anti-gay agenda to care about such things.

Reza Kahlili Unverifiable Story Watch

Fri, 24 May 2013 19:40:00 -0500

The latest unverifiable claim from "Reza Kahlili" at WorldNetDaily:

Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani issued a press release Tuesday denying reports that he received a letter from Secretary of State John Kerry that said the United States would support him if he chose to run in Iran’s presidential election next month.
[...]
In a May 15 exclusive, WND reported that a secret message from Kerry was delivered to Rafsanjani of U.S. support, according to a source affiliated with the office of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The source, who remains anonymous for security reasons and who has provided valuable information before, said that on May 3, Kerry’s letter was delivered via the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh to Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal, who arranged through the Saudi Embassy in Tehran to present the message to Rafsanjani indicating support from both the White House and the Saudi monarch.

As per usual, "Kahlili" offers no on-the-record evidence to back up anything he says.

Remember, "Kahlili" a guy with a fake name using anonymous sources who has provided no reason whatsoever why anyone should trust him.

Logrolling In Our Time: Trump and Newsmax

Fri, 24 May 2013 14:57:28 -0500

The lovefest between Newsmax and Donald Trump isn't showing any signs of slowing down.

A May 23 Newsmax article is dedicated to ... Trump tweeting nice things about Newsmax:

Donald Trump has expressed high praise for Newsmax and its CEO Christopher Ruddy. The billionaire mogul tweeted: "Newsmax Media is one of the top media outlets in the country. Chris Ruddy has revolutionized political commentary and reporting."

The message was spread far and wide: Trump has more than 2,227,000 Twitter followers. And his TV show "Celebrity Apprentice" is one of NBC's most highly rated programs.
Newsmax is indeed a "top" media outlet — Newsmax.com has reached the No. 1 position in comScore’s News/Politics category.
Of the 61 million Americans comScore tracks seeking political news across all digital platforms, more than 13 million monthly unique visitors turned to Newsmax.com's political sites, exceeding such competitors as Huffington Post and Fox News in March.

As we detailed, Newsmax had to compare its entire website to mere parts of others to be able to say that.

WND Tries to Blame Gays For Sexual Assaults In Military

Fri, 24 May 2013 10:03:11 -0500

In a May 21 WorldNetDaily interview, Elaine Donnelly of the Center for Military Readiness falsely suggests that an increase in male-on-male sexual assaults in the military is linked to allowing gays to openly serve in the military. According to WND, Donnelly said "the military and the federal government are kidding themselves if they don’t think some major policy decisions aren’t contributing to the rise in sexual violence."

But as the Washington Times article WND and Donnelly refererence in support of their claims points out, very few of the male-on-male perpetrators are gay. Indeed, this is a longtime problem in the military that is unrelated to the status of gays.

CNS' Lucas Fails At Trying to Create An Obama Conspiracy

Thu, 23 May 2013 22:51:46 -0500

Fred Lucas smells a conspiracy in a May 20 CNSNews.com article:

The head of the National Treasury Employee Union (NTEU), which represents employees of the Internal Revenue Service, met with President Barack Obama in the White House one day before the manager of the IRS’s “Technical Unit” suggested establishing a “Sensitive Case Report” for the tax-exempt status applications of Tea Party groups, according to data from the official White House visitor log and the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.

The White House visitor log shows that NTEU President Colleen Kelley met with Obama--“POTUS,” President of the United States--on March 31, 2010.
[...]
At 11:03 a.m. Monday, CNSNews.com e-mailed the White House press office, referencing the March 31, 2010 meeting between Kelley and Obama: “Did they discuss tea party groups or other conservative groups in any context?”

CNSNews.com also called the White House press office immediately and confirmed that it had received the e-mailed question.

As the White House press briefing was ending on Monday, CNSNews.com asked White House Press Secretary Jay Carney as he was leaving the podium, “Did the Treasury union chief talk about tea parties during her meeting with the president in March 2010?”

Carney did not respond.

Later on Monday afternoon, CNSNews.com again e-mailed the White House press office and Carney, with the same question sent earlier in the day. CNSNews.com also called the White House press office and confirmed that it had received the e-mailed question.

However, neither the press office nor Carney responded before this story was posted.

Had Lucas bothered to do a little actual research instead of trying to play gotcha by suggesting the White House's non-responses to him were evidence that Obama was trying to hide something, he would have learned that Kelley was one of 117 visitors who came to the Old Executive Office Building for what the log describes as a "Workplace Flexibility Forum," and she did not have a personal meeting with Obama.

WND's Farah Ludicrously Calls Obama Gosnell's 'Accessory to Murder'

Thu, 23 May 2013 16:31:34 -0500

Joseph Farah begins his May 20 WorldNetDaily column by admitting that it "may seem loaded and over the top" to argue that President Obama is an "accessory to murder" in the Kermit Gosnell case. Given that this statement comes from a man who once accused Obama of trying to kill God (which earned Farah a coveted Slantie Award), clearly nothing is too loaded and over the top for Farah to spew when it comes to anything related to the president.

As we've come to expect from Farah, his over-the-top accusation against Obama is rooted in a lie. He writes:

Why can’t Obama talk about it?
Because Obama is on record as supporting the kind of thing Gosnell did.
[...]
As an Illinois state senator, Obama twice voted against bills that would have “defined any aborted fetus that showed signs of life as a ‘born alive infant’ and entitled to legal protection.” He said he viewed the bills as backdoor attempts to deny women the right to abortion.
So, in other words, if Obama had his way, Gosnell would still be practicing – still free to kill more babies.

As we've repeatedly pointed out, Illinois already had a law at the time requiring medical care for a viable fetus that survived an abortion, and what Obama opposed were efforts to expand that law with a "born alive" clause requiring that any fetus that survived an abortion, even ones that could not survive outside the womb, receive medical care. Obama has said he opposed those bills because the law would likely have been struck down in the courts for giving legal status to fetuses, a requirement that a second doctor be present at abortions, and their lack of a "neutrality clause" to make sure the bill would not affect current abortion laws.

What Gosnell did was already illegal, and the proposed Illinois law would not have made it any more so.

This sort of casual mendacity gives away his little game of playing dumb about the partisan motive in his upcoming "Day of Prayer and Fasting." If Farah was a real Christian, he wouldn't lie with such impunity, and he would be begging forgiveness for his sins not only from God but from WND's readers.

MRC's Graham Lets Bad Reporting Slide (When It Makes Obama Look Bad)

Thu, 23 May 2013 13:45:31 -0500

The Media Research Center's Tim Graham demonstrates the flip side of his employer's multimillion-dollar campaign of intimidating reporters into not telling the truth about conservatives when it makes conservatives look bad; It won't call out bad reporting as long as it makes Obama look bad.

Graham uses a May 20 NewsBusters post to mock a Change.org petition criticizing ABC's Jonathan Karl for faulty reporting on the Benghazi talking-points emails. Graham stated that Karl's reporting was merely "inaccurate" without explaining how it was: Karl had claimed he had the actual emails when, in fact, all he had were paraphrased summaries (some of which were inaccurate) from Republican staffers.

Graham went on to snigger: "Joan Walsh at Salon is angry that Karl didn't make some sort of on-air correction on 'This Week' -- as if the networks are good at on-air corrections without a lawsuit pending." Graham wouldn't be so flip about Karl's bad reporting if Obama was a Republican.

WND's Kinsolving: Why Isn't Bestiality Treated The Same As Homosexuality?

Thu, 23 May 2013 12:52:41 -0500

Raging homophobe Les Kinsolving is at it again, just asking in his May 20 WorldNetDaily column why bestiality isn't treated the same as homosexuality:

If lesbians, male homosexuals, bisexuals and transsexuals should have the right to marriage licenses – as a few states, including Maryland, now provide – why should the real animal lovers (whose orientation is bestiality) not be allowed to marry?
The argument that animals are incapable of making a choice is surely invalid in that some animals choose to run away when fondled by humans, while others do not – which certainly indicates their ability to choose.
Have there ever been any reports that apprehended practitioners of bestiality have as high a rate of AIDS and syphilis as do homosexuals?

Kinsolving sure knows a lot about sex with animals. Is there something you're not telling us, Les?

NEW ARTICLE: Bridge Over Biased Waters

Wed, 22 May 2013 22:50:13 -0500

The Media Research Center may have shut down its TimesWatch blog, but Clay Waters' shoddy Times-bashing lives on. Read more >>

WND's Farah Wants In On Some Of That Sweet IRS-Bashing Action

Wed, 22 May 2013 13:06:17 -0500

Years of bogus Obama scandal-mongering means that nobody believes WorldNetDaily anymore, but editor Joseph Farah is desperate to keep his website relevant.

You can smell the desperation in the headline of his May 19 WND column: "Hey! I got audited too!" The column itself reflects the headline: The politically-motivated-IRS-audit train has left the station, and Farah is running after it trying to get aboard, invoking his own history of purportedly politically motivated audits against various entities he used to run:

I was a prominent target of Bill Clinton’s reign of Internal Revenue Service hell on individuals and tax-exempt organizations. And I was the guy who broke the story about it – long before there was a WND. Back then, I had to get the help of the Wall Street Journal, which, to its credit, gave me commentary space to lay out the whole story and turned the sordid tale into an 11-part series of editorials.
But in this day of historical forgetfulness, no one in the media seems to remember how Bill Clinton used the IRS to terrorize Paula Jones and many other women who had the misfortune of crossing his path along with a virtual who’s who of those who made his “enemies list” like me.

Farah fails to note the fact that a joint congressional committee, formed in response to complaints by Farah's Western Journalism Center and other groups, found "no credible evidence" that the IRS was biased against anti-Clinton groups.

Further, Farah expressed no concern that we remember about claims of politiclally motivated IRS audits under the Bush administration -- heck, at one time WND was essentially begging the Bush administration to sic the IRS on a group critical of the administration's agenda.

Farah generally doesn't miss an opportunity to portray himself as a victim, which is why he's so desperate to glom onto the IRS story.