MRC Blames The Victim For Bill O'Reilly Cutting Off His Mic
Topic: Media Research Center

In an Oct. 25 NewsBusters post, Mark Finkelstein huffed over MSNBC's Al Sharpton having "shut ... down" a conservative guest, saying, "Don't know if we've ever witnessed such a blatant suppression of facts--even on MSNBC."

But just the day before, someone was being suppressed on Fox News -- and the MRC was blaming the person being suppressed, not the host.

 Randy Hall summed it up in the headline of his Oct. 24 NewsBusters post: "BLM Advocate Provokes Bill O'Reilly Into Cutting Off His Microphone." To hear Hall tell it, O'Reilly was mad that :

During Thursday night's edition of The O'Reilly Factor on the Fox News Channel, host Bill O'Reilly tried to demonstrate the bad judgment of the Democratic National Committee allying itself with the Black Lives Matter movement, which has members who have called for violence against police officers in protests all across the country.

However, Keith Boykin, an African-American who once served as a special assistant to president Bill Clinton, aggressively asserted that none of the BLM leaders agreed with that concept -- so much so that the anchor had to turn off his microphone so the host and another guest could take part in the discussion.

Hall then complained that Boykin "tried to filibuster," glosses over the fact that Boykin said O'Reilly mischaracterized his opinion on Black Lives Matter. Hall then claimed "Boykin then tried to slam the anchor" but curiously did not quote what Boykin said, and seemed to be angry that Boykin fought back against O'Reilly likening of the Black Lives Matter movement to Nazis.

So: if a liberal cuts off a conservative's microphone, it's the liberal's fault. If a conservative cuts off a liberal's microphone, it's the liberal's fault. That's "media research" at the MRC.

Newsmax Wants To Remind Right-Wingers It Still Kinda Hates The Clintons After All
Topic: Newsmax

It seems that Newsmax wants to regain some of its right-wing Clinton-hating cred.

Newsmax publisher Christopher Ruddy has become buddies with Bill Clinton and his foundation, which has caused some backlash in certain right-wing circles where Clinton-hating is an unshakable tenet and who remember that Ruddy founded Newsmax in no small part as an outlet for anti-Clinton forces during his presidency.

Newsmax has apparently decided it wants some of that Clinton-hating mojo back. Its latest loss-leader book offer (for which you surrender your credit card number to receive a few "free" months of Newsmax's magazine, which you have to cancel before the end of the free period to avoid being charged for a full year's subscription) is Ed Klein's new Hillary-bashing book "Unlikeable." The promotion for it includes this fanciful text:

Hillary’s house of cards is crashing around her.

First she screamed at Obama in the Oval Office, “Call off your f---ing dogs!” 

Now Ed Klein is blowing the whistle on other stunning details of her shady political dealings and bitter feud with Barack Obama in a new book that just hit the streets.

Unlikeable: The Problem With Hillary hammers the final nails into the coffin of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s flagging presidential aspirations.

Highly regarded journalist and political analyst Ed Klein has thoroughly documented HRC’s decades-long trail of lies, deception, and conniving.

She even dropped an f-bomb on the president of the United States!

Hillary simply won’t be able to talk her way out of this one.

Especially considering the airtight sourcing and impeccable fact-checking Ed Klein has employed in what some are calling the must-read political book of the year.

You can claim your copy for FREE from the limited quantity Newsmax magazine has secured exclusively for our preferred readers.

In fact, the truth about on Klein is very much the opposite of what Newsmax claims. Far from being a "highly regarded journalist" who uses "airtight sourcing and impeccable fact-checking," Klein is considered a joke by actual journalists who point out his heavy use of anonymous and untraceable sources, factual errors and distortions, and lazy "cut and paste" writing.

There's no reason to believe this isn't also the case with Klein's new book, but don't expect Newsmax to tell you that.

Newsmax is also running an odd little poll of the opt-in kind (and, thus, scientifically meaningless)which it claims it will offer to "major outlets" at some undetermined point in the future. Here are the first two questions:

1) In your opinion, did Hillary Clinton violate the law by storing State Department and classified emails on her personal server?

2) Did Hillary violate the law by deleting all emails from her personal server?

But the determination of what is or is not legal isn't a poll or popularity contest, it's based on what's written in the law -- which means the poll is even more meaningless than usual.

Newsmax also doesn't mention that fact-checkers have determined that while Clinton's use of a private server is questionable, it's a legal area that's murky at best and it is unlikely she will ever be found to have violated the letter of any law regarding its use.

WND Hopes to Cash In Again On Jonathan Cahn
Topic: WorldNetDaily

WorldNetDaily and editor Joseph Farah have been enamored for years with "messianic rabbi" Jonathan Cahn since he came out with his book "The Harbinger," which posited that the Bible contains a prophecy of 9/11 -- something that isn't quite true and is based on Bible verses taken out of context.

It helps that Cahn despises President Obama as much as Farah does; WND even tried to manufacture a mystique about an anti-Obama speech Cahn once gave.

Now, after having already made a film about "The Harbinger," WND is hoping to make some more coin off of Cahn by producing a documentary about his life, "The Harbinger Man." WND's self-promotion of the film has bordered on the ludicrous.

One article declares that Cahn is "known by many as 'America’s prophet,'" but doesn't identify any of those "many" who purportedly say that. But a later article gives us a clue that one of them is Cahn's own hype man, Joseph Farah: “He doesn’t like to be called a prophet, but if he is not a prophet for our time then I don’t know the definition of a prophet.”

Another article, by house propagandist Bob Unruh, lays the myth-making on thick:

The exploding gas tanks of the 1970s Ford Pintos are the reason Popular Mechanics designated the vehicle one of “The Top Automotive Engineering Failures.”

“Ford neglected to add reinforcements to protect the easily ruptured fuel tank, endangering drivers while earning the Pinto a reputation for catching fire that persists today. The automaker’s public relations black eye lasted for years,” the magazine said.

The problem, as PM explained, was that tests revealed that in low-speed rear-end crash testing, the fuel tank, just in front of the back bumper, was subjected to a series of potential problems that “combined to create a serious risk of fire.”

They exploded in even low-speed crashes with other cars. But the company opted to pay damages to victims rather than pay for the fix.

“The Harbinger Man,” messianic rabbi Jonathan Cahn, whose life story is told in a new movie by that name, was in one of those Pintos.

He wasn’t hit by a car.

He was hit by a train.

And he emerged without a scratch.

Of course, Unruh kinda had to undercut his story by admitting that "the train hit the car from the side," which would not have created the normal Pinto explosive impact.

Bu never mind the facts; yet another article tells us how "Cahn feels he was destined to serve as a kind of watchman" and "doing what he was meant to do," which appears to involve serving as a cash cow for Farah and WND.

The fawning culminates in Farah's Oct. 11 column, in which he declares there's "something supernatural" about Cahn's story, and he felt some sort of "burden" to tell it:

In 2012, I had a burden to make a movie version of “The Harbinger” story. “The Isaiah 9:10 Judgment” became the biggest faith movie of 2013 and 2014. It touched the lives of millions. Likewise, in 2014, I had a burden to make a movie version of Jonathan Cahn’s life story. My hope and prayer is that “The Harbinger Man” will be used by God to strengthen and embolden the faith of millions in 2015, 2016 and beyond.

Of course, Farah wouldn't be telling us that his previous Cahn film was "the biggest faith movie of 2013 and 2014" if he wasn't hoping for a similar performance from his new one, and that strongly suggests that Farah was feeling another "burden" as well: to make money. WND is a for-profit business, after all, not a ministry.

Farah insists that "a righteous transformation of America " can only come from "individual transformations of the hearts of people devoting their lives to the one and only Savior of the human race," and that "Nobody is a more effective witness to that urgent need than Jonathan Cahn." It probably doesn't hurt that he and Cahn see eye-to-eye on their vicious hatred for President Obama.

Or that Cahn is so agreeable to becoming a basis of revenue for Farah and WND.

CNS Writer Promotes Her Old Scientology-Touting Article
Topic: CNSNews.com

An Oct. 22 CNSNews.com article by Barbara Hollingsworth raises the issue of overprescription of antidepressants. She cites mainstream, peer-reviewed sources to do it. It's a legitimate issue.

But we noted that at the end of her article, Hollingsworth provided a "related" link to a CNS article she wrote a year ago promoting retired Army psychologist Bart Billings' claim that there is “a direct correlation” between the increased use of psychiatric medications to treat PTSD and the high rate of military suicides.

In that article, Hollingsworth tried to boost  Billings' credibility by noting that "Billings was the recipient of the 2014 Human Rights Award by the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), which has produced a documentary, 'The Hidden Agenda,' on the use of use of psychiatric drugs in the military." She didn't report that the Citizens Commission on Human Rights was created by the Church of Scientology with the goal of attacking the field of psychiatry and is not a "human rights" organization at all.

Hollingsworth's Oct. 22 article, while using legitimate sources, do raise the issue, combined with her earlier Scientology-touting item, of what her agenda is and why she's using her CNS platform to try and discredit antidepressants. Her CNS superiors should discuss with her whether this is an agenda they want to be pursuing.

Mychal Massie Thesaurus Watch
Topic: WorldNetDaily

When WorldNetDaily columnist Mychal Massie isn't spewing hatred, he's plundering thesauruses for five-dollar words to stick in his column.

He drops some more excess verbiage in his Oct. 19 WND column, in which he uses the phrase "pernicious camarilla of Erebusic marplots."

Now, "Erebusic" and "marplots" are two of Massie's favorite showoff words, but we don't recall him putting them together like that. We're not sure what a "pernicious camarilla" is, let alone a "pernicious camarilla of Erebusic marplots."

This superiority exercise by Massie, by the way, is directed at a year-old study arguing that twice as many drivers failed to yield for black pedestrians than those who were white. Massie declared -- in language used by actual humans -- that this "witch-hunt" was conducted by "white cultural Marxists" who were expressing their "personal bigotry."

Massie further argued that the behavior found in the study was justified because of "the high rate of violent behavior by blacks." No, really:

These white-hating racists and all like them never factor in the idea of self-preservation of the whites they are accusing. They did not factor in the number of car-jackings by blacks or the documented unprovoked attacks upon vehicles operated by whites in intersections and crosswalks by blacks. Did they factor the attacks by blacks such as the kidnapping, rape, sodomizing, torture and murders of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom? (See: “We Must Unite Against Black Racialists”; mychal-massie.com; Dec. 20, 2013)

Of course not, because that would mean holding blacks accountable for their actions. Neither these people nor their alleged researched studies are interested in truth; they are only interested in promoting white guilt, accusing whites and continuing the idea of blacks being treated negatively based on the color of their skin.

This wasn’t a study – it was an exercise in the “golem effect,” a phenomenon in which low expectations lead to decreased performance, which is a form of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Uh, yeah.We've detailed how Massie loves to invoke his black-conservative privilege to say things that would leave him branded as a racist were he not a black conservative.

Maybe Massie should stick to thesaurus-plundering.

MRC Clinton Derangement Syndrome, Benghazi Edition
Topic: Media Research Center

In keeping with the long, sordid history of Clinton derangement that animates the Media Research Center roared to life once again with Hillary Clinton's testimony before the House Select Committee on Benghazi.

TheMRC kicked things off with the Oct. 21 column by Tim Graham and Brent Bozel, which rather desperately tries to distract from the statements from Republicans -- not Democrats -- that the committee is designed to harm Hillary's presidential chances: "The Democrats have pushed heavily on the narrative that the House probe is transparently political — as if everything they say about Clinton is transparently ... nonpartisan?" See what they did there?

They even spun Republican Kevin McCarthy's statement to that effect by claiming he merely said Hillary was "untrustable," omitting the part about how he said it was the Benghazi committee that made her so.

The MRC displayed its full-derangement mode with the headline of this Oct. 22 post by Geoffrey Dickens: "Watch Hillary Gleefully Laugh As Andrea Mitchell Clip Played In Her Defense At Benghazi Hearing." That's right -- Hillary laughing is the only item of "media research" substance it could pull from the testimony.

Other items of MRC "media research" include complaining about commentary over the hearing that was insufficiently hateful of Hillary and a clip of MRC chief Brent Bozell whining on Fox Business that Republicans weren't asking Hillary tough enough questions.

Meanwhile, over at MRC "news" division CNSNews.com, here is what was considered "news" from the Benghazi hearing:

 

• An article by Melanie Hunder rehashing Rep. Trey Gowdy's assertion that his Benghazi committee is not about Clinton, but omitting the statements of two Republicans and a former committee staffer that the committee is designed to ruin Clinton's presidential campaign.
• Another article by Hunter fowarding the amazing right-wing spin that "of the more than 600 security requests related to Libya and Benghazi that came in in 2012 before the Sept. 11, 2012 terrorist attack none ever reached her desk" yet "[Sid] Blumenthal’s 150 emails reached her desk." hunter did not point out the difference between personal messages from Blumenthal and requests for security that went to State Department personnel whose job it was to review.
• A lengthy rehash by Susan Jones of Republicn Rep. Jim Jordan's talking points for his questioning of Clinton, which is so skewed it reads like it was written by Jordan's congressional staffers.
• An article by Jones repeating testimony by Clinton, in response to a Republican representative's questioning, that "I did not conduct most of my business that I did on behalf of our country on email."
  
• A repeat of an article on Benghazi CNS first published in 2013.
• A blog post featuring Adam Baldwin's take on the Benghazi hearings. CNS' Mark Judge did not explain what special insight the actor has into Benghazi that made his views worthy of a blog post.
  

No original CNS story on the hearing referenced questioning from Democratic members of the committee.

WND Columnist Censors California Gov's Explanation of Right-To-Try Veto
Topic: WorldNetDaily

Barbara Simpson rants in her Oct. 18 WorldNetDaily column:

California Gov. Jerry Brown is giving thinking people in his state whiplash with his position on the “Right to Die” and “Right to Try” bills.

On the one hand, he signed the “End of Life Option Act,” allowing supposedly terminally ill people to legally kill themselves using doctor-prescribed drugs.

Then, within days, Brown vetoed the “Right to Try” bill, which would have allowed terminally ill people to have access to experimental drugs or devices not yet approved by the FDA but which might aid their condition.

Brown’s signature makes it impossible for patients to have a last-ditch chance to try treatment that may affect their survival – and have the opportunity to make that decision for themselves.

But terminally ill people do, in fact, have "a last-ditch chance to try treatment that may affect their survival" -- and that's why Brown vetoed the bill.

Brown said that "Patients with life threatening conditions should be able to try experimental drugs, and the United States Food and Drug Administration's compassionate use program allows this to happen. ... Before authorizing an alternative state pathway, we should give this federal expedited process a chance to work."

Simpson chose to censor Brown explanation from her column, presumably so it wouldn't interfere with the bashing of Brown she devotes her column to unleashing.

Newsmax's 'Top 100 Health Blogs' Includes Quacks
Topic: Newsmax

Newsmax's new list of "Newsmax Health's Top 100 Health Blogs" includes most of the usual suspect. Plus, as you'd surmise with the task of coming up with enough entries to fill the list and Newsmax's own dubious health advice, a couple of quacks.

Located prominently at No. 6 is "Mercola.com — Alternative medicine news from Joseph Mercola, D.O." If that name sounds familiar, it should -- WorldNetDaily promoted Mercola's fearmongering about the HPV vaccine. According to Quackwatch, Mercola is a seller of health supplements who opposes immunization, fluoridation of water, and mammography; claims that amalgam fillings are toxic; and makes many unsubstantiated claims in recommending dietary supplements. 

Coming in at No. 34 is Newsmax's own favorite doctor, Russell Blaylock. We've documented how Blaylock -- who has partnerd with Newsmax on a health newsletter -- fearmongers against vaccines and claims NutraSweet and MSG cause brain damage.

Newsmax's mixing of quacks into its list casts a dubious shadow over the rest of the list, even if most of them are offering sound medical advice (which they appear to be doing).

NEW ARTICLE: Joseph Farah, the Coulter Codependent
Topic: WorldNetDaily
It's clear that there is nothing so offensive Ann Coulter could do that would make WorldNetDaily drop her column -- WND needs the traffic she brings too much to do that. Read more >>

WND Invokes Mental-Illness Defense for Dylann Roof, Doesn't Mention His WND-Aligned Views
Topic: WorldNetDaily

WorldNetDaily has never denied that the things that motivated Dylann Roof to murder nine blacks in a Charleston, S.C., church are the same things that are part and parcel of WND's right-wing editorial agenda: an obsession with black-on-whte crime, the prosecution of George Zimmerman in the death of Trayvon Martin, the moral supremacy of apartheid-era South Africa.

Instead, WND is now denying that Roof was a committed right-winger, just "mentally ill."

In an Oct. 15 WND article, Leo Hohmann complains about government efforts to battle domestic extremism, which he baselessly suggests is being given priority over efforts against Islamic extremism. He further asserts that "the Justice Department sees Islamic jihadists as no more dangerous than mentally ill actors such as Dylann Roof, the Charleston, South Carolina, church shooter who killed nine black Christians."

Hohmann then complains about "a study by the New America Foundation that found nearly twice as many Americans have been killed by 'right-wing' extremists since Sept. 11 than by Islamic terrorists," but the list "includes the Charleston church shooting among 19 'right-wing' attacks, despite evidence that Roof has a history of severe mental health issues."

Hohmann provides no evidence to back up is insistence that Roof was "mentally ill" at the time of the Charleston shooting. Since Roof has not yet been prosecuted in the massacre, no official evidence of mental illness has been put foward.

Salon writer Arthur Chu notes that invoking claims of mental illness is a copout, designed to distract attention from the views Roof held and the motivations for his massacre.

In what is surely not a coincidence, Hohmann also fails to mention the WND-aligned views Roof is documented to have held at the time of his massacre.

Instead, he rants about "mind-control programs" the government is supposedly going to start using to make citizens behave in approved ways. He also claims that "John Muhammad, the Washington, D.C., sniper who killed at least 10 people in 2002 with his young accomplice, Lee Malvo," was a "jihadist" attack on the U.S., despite the fact that law enforcement never determined a motive for the attacks and Muhammad and Malvo demanded only ransom money while the attacks were ongoing.

What AIM And Its Chairman Are Tweeting About Instead Of Wayne Simmons
Topic: Accuracy in Media

Up until (and shortly after) his arrest on fraud charges, self-proclaimed terrorism expert Wayne Simmons was a member of Accuracy in Media's "Citizens' Commission on Benghazi," a kangaroo court stuffed with Obama-haters and birthers that AIM wants us to believe is seeking the truth about what happened in the Benghazi attacks. Simmons was arguably one of the more prominent members of the CCB.

But after Simmons' arrest, he has suddenly become He Who Must Not Be Named By AIM. It's been systematically scrubbing Simmons and any ties he has to the CCB from its website, and its bland statement on Simmons, issued more than a day after the charges were announced, is oddly buried on the CCB section -- not linked to on AIM's front page -- and its existence was announced solely via an AIM tweet cryptically worded, "Statement on the Citizens' Commission on Benghazi."

Aside from that cryptic tweet, AIM's Twitter account has been silent on Simmons, even though AIM's statement touted him as a "colleague" whose current situation leaves them "stunned and saddened."And the Twitter account of AIM chairman Don Irvine has been completely bereft of any reference to Simmons, cryptic or otherwise.

So what have AIM and Irvine been tweeting about to keep from having to talk about simmons? Well, AIM touted the trailer for the new "Star Wars" film, complete with R2D2 emoji:

AIM also promoted a Fox News story on Benghazi reported by "Past Reed Irvine Award Winner Catherine Herridge," as if Irvine Award winners were known for reporting facts instead of reinforcing right-wing talking points:

Irvine has been even more eager to change the subject. He also touted the new "Star Wars" trailer:

He complained about the weather and his car:

And he live-tweeted the latest episode of "The Walking Dead":

This is what AIM and its leader are talking about instead of Wayne Simmons, a story they are at the center of and whose point of view would be a contribution. Silence and a buried, bland statement do not serve the "accuracy in media" AIM purports to desire.

It seems like the group's initials should be changed from AIM to CYA.

WND's Corsi Is Now A Chelsea Clinton Birther
Topic: WorldNetDaily

When the Obama birther conospiracy theories promoted by Jerome Corsi and WorldNetDaily were discredited, they never admitted they were wrong; they just didn't bother reporting the truth. Having given up the birther ghost, Corsi and WND have found someone else to go birther over.

We've noted how WND is ignoring the immoral swinger lifestyle of Roger Stone to promote his new hatchet-job book on the Clintons. Corsi is taking the same selective-morality route in promoting Stone's book. And guess which part of it he's focusing on?

In an Oct. 11 WND summary of the book by Stone and Robert Morrow -- who loves to spread his bizarre sexual fantasies about the Clintons -- Corsi makes sure to highlight never-proven right-wing rumors that Chelsea Clinton's real father is Webb Hubbell:

Among the “family secrets” that Stone and Morrow discuss is the “strong circumstantial evidence” that Chelsea Clinton is not the biological daughter of Bill. The authors publish photographs of Chelsea that appear to show “extensive plastic surgery to rebuild her face in her 20s” to make her appear physically less like Webb Hubbell, the Arkansas attorney who was a colleague of Hillary at the Rose law firm in Little Rock who went to prison for tax fraud in relation to his billing.

Then, in an Oct. 14 WND article, Corsi highlights how sex-obessed author Morrow tried to ambush Chelsea Clinton with a question about Hubbell being her father, adding his own ambush:

WND caught up with Hubbell by telephone Wednesday to ask him about the accusations in the Stone-Morrow book.

“I have not read Roger Stone’s book, and I don’t plan to. Thank you very much,” said Hubbell abruptly.

When asked specifically about the accusation that he was Chelsea Clinton’s biological father, Hubbell responded: “No comment.”

Corsi presents no actual evidence Hubbell is Clinton's father, citing only "a rumor swirling in the dark underworld of Clinton family speculation." You know, like all of his Obama birther reporting was based on rumors and the deliberate shunning of actual facts.

It's telling that Corsi is quite comfortable with the fact-free sleaze peddled by people he would dismiss as sexually depraved were they not rabid Clinton-haters like himself. Makes us wonder if there's something in Corsi's dark underworld that he's trying to hide...

MRC Trolls CNN Anchor On Media Bias
Topic: Media Research Center

Not content with trolling members of Congress to provoke them into saying something on camera it can use to further its right-wing agenda, the Media Research Center is now trolling the media figures whose existence it despises.

An Oct. 17 NewsBusters post by "NB Staff" (though listed in the post's URL as written by Tim Graham) touts how "new MRCTV correspondent Brittany M. Hughes asked CNN primetime host Don Lemon if the media tilts left. He made faces like the question was preposterous, and denied any such thing." NewsBusters then issued its apparent coup de grace:

So MRCTV followed up with a collection of CNN clips from our archives that demonstrate that left-wing opinion often bursts forth from CNN anchors and their very political contributors (ahem, Paul Begala):

but that clip package demonstrates how thoroughly deceptive the MRC's definition of "liberal bias" is. As stated, the clips do indeed show people expressing liberal opinions. But mere expression is not bias, as the MRC claims. A liberal like Begala or Sally Kohn (who's also in the clip package) invited onto CNN to express his opinion is expected to express one that's liberal. For the MRC to claim that this is bias is ridiculous.

The clip package also includes "CNN anchors" expressing opinions, but some like Piers Morgan -- who hasn't been on CNN in quite some time -- are not news anchors. So, again, the MRC fails in a logical definition of news bias.

Further, one of the clips of Morgan quotes him as saying, "Limbaugh's disgusting comments are the work of an archaic old dinosaur living in a warped, ugly swamp ... Shame on you, Rush Limbaugh." There's an edit there, one that removes the context of Morgan's remarks (and, again, Morgan hosted an opinion show, not a "news" show). Here's the full comment, with the portion the MRC deleted in italics (though we found it elsewhere at the MRC):

"Limbaugh's disgusting comments are the work of an archaic old dinosaur living in a warped, ugly swamp, who thinks it's okay to degrade decent young women for sport and ratings. Well, it isn't it. Shame on you, Rush Limbaugh."

Yes, Morgan was referring to Limbaugh's three-day rampage of misogyny against Sandra Fluke, to which the MRC responded by, among other distractions, starting an "I Stand With Rush" website.

And MRC boss Brent Bozell was kinda OK with that criticism, conceding it was "fair." Of course, Bozell then proceded to distract from Limbaugh by attacking Morgan for the entirely unrelated offense of having once nice things about Bill Maher. But last time we checked, neither Morgan nor anyone else at CNN set up an "I Stand With Bill Maher" website.

Meanwhile, on Fox News, news anchors joining their conservative guests in regularly serving up right-wing opinion, and the MRC says nary a peep about it. If it was genuinely concerned about news bias, it wouldn't keep quiet.

It seems what the MRC really wants is to censor opinion it doesn't agree with -- that is, it wants liberals off TV. Why else would it be making the ridiculous complaint the mere existence of a liberal commentator expressing a liberal opinion on TV to say is itself an act of "bias"?

Oh, and Lemon's answer to Hughes -- that "if you’re liberal, then there’s conservative bias, and if you’re conservative, you think there’s a liberal bias," and that "people are deliberately trying to skew things one way or the other" based on their own beliefs -- was accurate. The MRC is too busy trying to skew things to its own agenda to admit it.

WND And AAPS-Affiliated Doc Can't Stop Fearmongering About Vaccines
Topic: WorldNetDaily

If there's anything that doctors affiliated with the right-wing Association of American Physicians and Surgeons love to do, its fearmonger about vaccines. Turns out WorldNetDaily loves to do that too, and it also loves giving AAPS-affiliated doctors a platform for their fearmongering.

Following the Sept. 16 Republican presidential debate, in which Donald Trump fearmongered about an "epidemic" of autism he suggested was caused by vaccines and Ben Carson asserted that children are receiving "too many" vaccines, WND was thrilled. GOP candidates agree on vaccines!" enthused the headline of a WND article following the debate, declaring that "three of the candidates agreed that American doctors have become too vaccine-happy."

AAPS executive director Jane Orient used her Sept. 27 WND column to defend Trump's fearmongering about vaccines:

The American Academy of Pediatrics, or AAP, was quick to accuse candidates of making “false statements.” But AAP’s consistent advocacy for all “recommended” vaccines notwithstanding, the following statements are true:

• Safety testing is limited, especially for long-term effects and for combinations of vaccines.
• Donald Trump’s idea of lower doses spread over time is not just that of a layman. Some experienced pediatricians have thought so, too.
• Trump said we were having an epidemic of autism. So did James Perrin, M.D., president elect of AAP, in 2012. Neither AAP nor anybody else knows why. It is an extremely serious problem.

Actually, Trump -- and, thus, Orient -- are pushing a load of bunk. The Washington Post reported that the vaccine schedule for children is "carefully vetted," adding, "When they are given in combinations, or "bunched" at the same time, it's only after they are carefully tested in 'concomitant use' studies to make sure the vaccines don't interfere with each other or cause harm."

Further, Orient is lying when she claims that nobody knows why there is an autism "epidemic." It may just be that there is an increase of autism diagnosis instead of an increase of the number of people who have it, given that autism spectrum disorder is a fairly recent development.

But Orient won't listen to things like science; she insists that "A multi-billion dollar industry benefits from vaccine mandates – and has enormous influence over groups like AAP."

Orient then ranted:

Children are affected by many non-vaccine preventable conditions, some fatal, such as enterovirus D68, which swept through the nation in 2014. It caused hundreds of hospitalizations and at least 12 deaths, compared with one death from measles. Trump might want to look into the possible consequences of dispersing inadequately screened immigrant children.

In fact, as we've noted, the Centers for Disease Control have found no evidence of a link between illegal immigrants and enterovirus outbreaks in the U.S.

Actual evidence doesn't sway WND on such things; Jerome Corsi was declaring last October that "The EV-D68 epidemic occurred only after the surge this year of unaccompanied alien children illegally crossing the border from Latin America" and that "but government data show the virus was rare in the U.S. before this year."

In that article, Orient assertd that "Latin American children likely have some immunity and may not be sick, while still contagious," and that "Some serious work needs to be done to get to the bottom of this." That may be true, but don't expect to see any "serious work" from Orient and the APPS -- for from WND, for that matter -- if those filthy illegal immigrants can't be blamed for it in the end.

Joseph Farah Thin Skin Watch
Topic: WorldNetDaily

WorldNetDaily editor Joseph Farah has never taken criticism well. His thin skin crops up again in his Oct. 12 column.

Farah whines about how "So-called “progressives” have, in effect, created a new neo-puritanical religion that empowers them, even commands them, to do unto others what they accuse others of doing to them," invoking Jack Cashill's new book "Scarlet Letters" (the name of which Farah misspells at one point, and which he also fails to disclose that he published). Finally, toward the end of his column, Farah vents his spleen at a certain person:

Recently, I was dubbed “anti-American” by a columnist for the Des Moines Register.

“Anti-American”? Really. Why? Because I support the Constitution of the United States? Because I want to protect and defend it as a land of the free? Because I want my kids to grow up with hope and the chance for preserving the liberty and opportunity I knew as a kid?

None of those questions really matter.

Most of these name-callers don’t know a thing about the people they attempt to tar and feather as evildoers, sinners and sociopaths.

It’s simply what they do.

They do it because it makes them feel better. They are practicing their own false creed. If they had the power to damn their imaginary enemies to hell, they wouldn’t hesitate for a minute. If they had the courage to take our lives, I have little doubt many of them would. When they are empowered to positions of authority, they abuse it by punishing those who don’t share their sacred values.

Notice that Farah doesn't quote anything from the columnist other than the word "Anti-American" or give any context for the purported name-calling. That's a sign Farah is trying to hide something -- namely, that what he says happened really didn't.

Farah is attacking columnist Rehka Basu and a column she wrote about anti-Muslim discrimination. And indeed, not only does Basu not explicitly call Farah "anti-American," the term "anti-American" appears nowhere in her column -- only in the headline.

Regarding Farah, Basu responded to criticism from him and other right-wingers regarding Ahmed Mohamed, the kid who got in trouble for bringing a homemade clock to school and of President Obama for defending the kid:

Joseph Farah, writing for conservative website World Net Daily criticized Obama for not reaching out to “the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of school children who have variously been punished for drawing pictures of guns, bringing toy guns to school, kissing other students, wearing T-shirts that defend the Second Amendment.”

But did they build something?

Demagogues are using Muslims to discredit the president, play to evangelical Christian bases or to serve some other agenda. Evidently none has actually known a Muslim well enough to know how false their gross generalizations are. Or worse, they have, yet do it anyway – leaving Americans more divided and fearful.

In other words, Basu is criticizing Farah for what Farah accuses liberals of doing -- hurling insults about a subject on which they know nothing because it makes them feel better, and for abusing his position of authority to punish those who don't hold his scared values.

No wonder Farah said that the details of what Basu was criticizing him for don't matter. He was ignoring them so he could engage in another dishonest rant.