A Biased WND Editor
Topic: WorldNetDaily
The next time you hear conservatives complaining about media bias, keep in mind a Dec. 28 column by Joe Kovacs, executive news editor for WorldNetDaily. Here, he displays plenty of bias that has undoubtedly spilled over into its news coverage.

Kovacs refers to anti-war protesters as "crazy Froot Loops from the leftward land of silliness." He claims that " Sandy 'Burglar' Berger had found a novel way to preserve classified documents by pickling them in his pants and socks" despite the fact that there's no evidence of Berger smuggling documents via his socks. He throws in an unflattering photo of Hillary Clinton with the caption, "Did Hillary suddenly realize she's still married to Bill?" He repeats a dubious claim (promoted by WND, by the way, as a bigger story than a corrupt congressman) that a book signing by anti-war protester Cindy Sheehan's was a failure; after noting Sheehan's claim that she sold all the books at that signing and that she "got writer's cramp signing them," Kovacs adds: "The loneliest, most publicized book-signing in history, and Cindy gets cramps. I think there's a cure for that. It's called deportation."

Remember, Kovacs is an executive news editor, which means he presumably has some input into WND's news coverage -- what is covered and how. Even though Kovacs takes a jab at USA Today "suggesting it has 'editorial standards,'" we already know all about WND's journalistic standards, which Kovacs also presumably plays a part in promoting.

Remember this column the next time Joseph Farah insists that WND isn't conservative.

NewsBusters News
Topic: Media Research Center
A couple tidbits from NewsBusters:

-- A Dec. 27 post by Mark Finkelstein laments that the hosts of NBC's "Today" have stopped playing along with Ann Coulter's provocative schtick. The rest of us, meanwhile, lament that the bookers at "Today" take her seriously enough to put her on the show in the first place.

-- In a Dec. 28 post commenting on a New York Times article about Christian film criticism, Tim Graham takes issue with one person's assertion in the article that conservative Christians would have protested showing "Schindler's List" because of the nudity. Graham wrote: "Some might have protested the necessity of nudity to the storyline, but I doubt anyone suggested it 'should not be shown.' Did anyone?"

In so many words, yes. Oklahoma Rep. Tom Coburn attacked NBC for airing an uncut version of "Schindler's List," saying that NBC had taken network television "to an all-time low, with full-frontal nudity, violence and profanity" by airing the movie. He said the broadcast should outrage parents and "decent-minded individuals everywhere." Coburn later claimed that he meant that the film should have been broadcast later in the evening.

WND Hides Rest of Falwell Story
Topic: WorldNetDaily
A Dec. 27 WorldNetDaily article noting that the Los Angeles Times corrected a claim made in an op-ed that Rev. Jerry Falwell "claimed that Ellen DeGeneres played a role in the 9/11 terrorist attacks and Hurricane Katrina because she was the host of the Emmy Awards ceremony preceding both events." The WND article stated that "Falwell frequently has been criticized for frank comments on cultural and religious issues," then cited as an example Falwell's statements attacking the Islamic prophet Muhammad.

There is no mention of Falwell's statement in which he did in fact blame gays, among others, for 9/11:

I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say "you helped this happen."

We would insert a comment here about how a real news organization would have noted that relevant fact, but we've already established that WND isn't a real news organization.

UPDATE: Dave Pierre at NewsBusters also mentions this in a Dec. 25 post -- and also fails to note Falwell's similar statement.

We're not excusing the LA Times for not catching the false claim in the first place, but the faux outrage by WND and Pierre hides the fact that, given that he has made a similar statement, such a claim by Falwell is not as far-fetched as they want you to believe.

Defending Dick Morris
Topic: Newsmax
A Dec. 25 NewsMax article runs to the defense of Dick Morris after the New York Times panned Morris' "Condi vs. Hillary" book by rather lamely claiming that Morris isn't the only one who, in the review's words, "clearly has some unresolved issues with Hillary Clinton."

NewsMax fails to note that, in addition to his unresolved Hillary issues, Morris has a dismal history of political prognostication.

'Rape of the Marlboro Man'
Topic: WorldNetDaily
A Dec. 27 WorldNetDaily column by David "Matrix" Kupelian is at least the fifth commentary WND has published attacking "Brokeback Mountain," and the first to claim that the film is about "raping the 'Marlboro Man,' that revered American symbol of rugged individualism and masculinity." Kupelian goes on to claim the the movie's goal is to "desensitize us to the immoral and destructive reality of what we're seeing, while fervently coaxing us into embracing that which we once rightly shunned."

Bonus points to Kupelian for likening homosexuality to drug use and pedophilia:

I guarantee Hollywood could make a movie about a man and his drug dealer, or an adult-child sexual relationship, that would pull on our emotions and create some level of sympathy for the characters. Furthermore, in at least some cases, it would make us doubt our conscience – a gift directly from God, the perception of right and wrong that he puts in each one of us – our inner knowing that this was a totally unhealthy and self-destructive relationship.

[...]

As I said at the outset, Hollywood has now raped the Marlboro Man. It has taken a revered symbol of America – the cowboy – with all the powerful emotions and associations that are rooted deep down in the pioneering American soul, and grafted onto it a self-destructive lifestyle it wants to force down Americans' throats.

More Accurate, Still Meaningless, Part 2
Topic: WorldNetDaily
So WorldNetDaily has increased the security on its daily online poll "discourage hackers and prevent skewing of results."

Wouldn't the money WND spent to secure a meaningless online poll have been better spent, say, making Joseph Farah take a course on journalistic ethics?

'This Beautiful Black Woman"
Topic: Media Research Center
A Dec. 23 NewsBusters post by Tim Graham notes that a Washington Post magazine profile on Republican lobbyist Angela McGlowan "never mentioned what makes this beautiful black woman different from the norm -- that Republican resume."

We somehow suspect that Graham has never referred to any black female Democrat -- say, Donna Brazile -- as a "beautiful black woman."

New Article: Another Less-Than-Whole Story
Topic: WorldNetDaily
A WorldNetDaily reporter's book on the Terri Schiavo case is as biased and incomplete as WND's coverage of it. Read more.

Also, the article on WND's press release-fueled war on Christmas has been updated to add the latest press releases turned into WND articles.

Gay-Bashing Column of the Day
Topic: WorldNetDaily
In a Dec. 24 WorldNetDaily column, John Haskins, associate director of the Massachusetts-based Parents' Rights Coalition, rails against gay marriage, though he prefers the term "sodomy marriage." He calls it a "constitutional, moral and sociological aberration," "ceremonialization of anal sodomy," and something he claims is "as illegal as cannibalism." Bonus points are awarded for Haskins' reference to "the Boston Globe's activist homosexual editors."

Last-Minute Press Release Rewrite
Topic: WorldNetDaily
A Dec. 23 WorldNetDaily article regurgitates a "war on Christmas" press release from Liberty Counsel. It adds info from WND's press release-cum-news article earlier that day.

'Equal-Opportunity Crook'?
Topic: Media Research Center
We're still trying to figure out why Lyford Beverage, in a Dec. 22 NewsBusters post, has a bee in his bonnet over an AP article. Ah, we get it now -- it tells facts that contradict Beverage's false assertion that Jack Abramoff was an "equal-opportunity crook."

Yet the outside research Beverage cites proves the AP article's underlying point, that Republicans benefited more than Democrats from Abramoff's dirty money. In Beverage's words:

The Republicans, overall, received about twice what the Democrats did, nothing like 11-1. Of the top 10 recipients, 7 were Republicans and 3 Democrats. Of the top 15, 10 were Republicans and 5 were Democrats.

...thus contradicting his own assertion earlier in the post that Abramoff was an "equal-opportunity crook."

Another WND Press Release Rewrite
Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily squeezes in one more entry for this year's collection of press release-generated "war on Christmas" articles with a Dec. 23 article based on -- and structured exactly the same as -- an Alliance Defense Fund press release.

Clinton Equivocation Watch
Topic: Newsmax
You knew it was coming: A Dec. 22 NewsMax article asserting that anything Clinton (allegedly) did trumps any abuse of civil liberties by the Bush administration under the Patriot Act.

Bias Study Bias
Topic: Media Research Center
A Dec. 19 NewsBusters post by Mithridate Ombud breathlessly touts a UCLA-sponsored study by Tim Groseclose and Jeffrey Milyo as one that "objectively quantifies media bias," finding, in Ombud's words, that "Yes, Virginia, there is a leftist media bias." But the study, it turns out, is highly flawed, from its conservative links (Groseclose and Milyo have conservative think tank connections) to some outright bizarre assumptions (the ACLU is conservative? The pro-military RAND Corporation is liberal?).

Nevertheless, expect the MRC to add this study to its list of evidence of a liberal media bias -- and to never speak of the study's serious flaws.

Dubious CNS Labeling
Topic: CNSNews.com
A Dec. 22 CNSNews.com article by Randy Hall on reaction to the failure of an amendment to permit oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge describes Earthjustice as a "green group" (it calls itself a "non-profit public interest law firm") but describes the conservative National Center for Policy Analysis as only a "research institute."