MRC's Bozell: Admitting Prayer Hasn't Stopped Gun Violence Causes Terrorism Topic: Media Research Center
The New York Daily News' provocative front-page headline after the San Bernardino mass shootings -- "God Isn't Fixing This," pointing out Republicans calling for prayers for the victims of the shooting are just offering "meaningless platitudes" in the absence of any GOP effort to address the issue of gun violence -- was sure to get some reaction. And Media Research Center chief Brent Bozell offers some of the dumbest.
Bozell rushed out a ranting statement denouncing the cover, complete with list of demands:
“The cover of today’s New York Daily News is offensive and disgraceful. For a major city newspaper to use their front page to mock people who are praying after what happened yesterday is unconscionable and unbefitting a publication that purports to be a serious media outlet.
“I am calling on the publisher of the New York Daily News to publicly do three things today:
1) Apologize not just to the GOP presidential candidates and Speaker of the House but every person of faith it offended;
2) Fire the person who is responsible for approving the front page story immediately; and
3) Launch an investigation into the personnel and policies that allowed this to happen so that it never happens again.
If the news media want to be atheists, that's their business. But how dare they now ridicule people of faith. This kind of anti-religious bigotry is precisely what fuels Islamic terrorists' hatred toward Americans."
Wait, what? First, it's not "anti-religious" (or, in the words of the MRC's Scott Whitlock, "anti-prayer") at all; it's pointing out the lack of deeds behind that religion.
Second, it's laughable that Bozell is demanding that the Daily News "fire the person who is responsible for approving the front page story immediately" when he himself lied for 15 years about having a ghostwriter for his syndicated column and never faced any consequences for it.
Third: Is Bozell really claiming that pointing out how Republicans are offering nothing but platitudes on gun violence is causing terrorist attacks? That's odd, since Bozell (and Tim Graham, the now-exposed ghostwriter of his columns) used his column the day before to mock the idea that the anti-abortion movement's rhetoric inspired Colorado Planned Parenthood shooter Robert Dear, despite the fact he ranted "no more baby parts" during his rampage, something he obviously heard in right-wing media coverage of the anti-abortion Center for Medical Progress' dishonestly edited undercover videos targeting Planned Parenthood officials.
Bozell doubled down on that silly criticizing-prayer-causes-terrorism meme in an appearance on Fox Business (keeping their mutual admiration society going):
BOZELL: This may rattle some people. But it is precisely this kind of behavior that is fueling the terrorism against America. It is not deliberate by any stretch of the imagination, but they see America as the Great Satan, as godless. And here is the New York Daily News insulting people of faith. This only gives them more impetus to come after us.
Bozell went on to rant that reason the Daily News comes up with the media is full of atheists and sneered that President Obama "is not a commander in chief. You see a community organizer."
Finally, Bozell declared: "This is not a terrorist attack, folks. This is an act of war. We are at war with these people." Is he talking about the media?
UPDATE: Bozell's not done ranting: He has a new press release out criticizing a couple TV people -- whom he has conflated into the entire news media -- who didn't obediently follow Bozell by denouncing the Daily News cover:
“The leftists 'news' media have unapologetically adopted the left’s anti-Second Amendment, anti-faith agenda and it has been on full display since this horrific attack. America is under attack and they want us disarmed. America offers prayerful comfort to the victims and the media ridicule it.
The news media’s solutions are as ridiculous as their values are repulsive.”
More or less repulsive than spending 15 years lying about writing your own column, Brent?
And Bozell appeared again on Fox Business in which he rehashed his anti-media and anti-Obama attacks and his deliberate misinterpretation of the Daily News front page.
Meanwhile, Bozell's "news" outlet, CNSNews.com, has a column by Alex McFarland saying that the victims of the shooting deserved to die because America has "turned its back" on God: "Well, what do we expect? God is just and his justice prevails, along with His love and mercy. But God is not weak or soft, and in a nation that has turned its back on Him, suffering will occur as a consequence."
AIM's Kincaid Twists Planned Parenthood Shooting To His Own Right-Wing Obsessions Topic: Accuracy in Media
We know the ConWeb loves to distract from right-wingers who commit massacres, but leave it to Accuracy in Media's Cliff Kincaid to take it to the next level by twisting the Colorado Planned Parenthood shooting to focus on his own obsessions.
in a Nov. 30 AIM column, Kincaid dismissed alleged Planned Parenthood shooter Robert Dear as a "crazy nut living in a shack" and rants about ... Bill Ayers:
We don’t remember any outrage from the media over the alleged roles played by Obama associates Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn in the 1970 bombing murder of San Francisco police officer Brian V. McDonnell. In fact, the media peddled the nonsense that Ayers and Dohrn, who helped launch Barack Obama’s political career, were “anti-war activists” who bombed a few buildings and never hurt anyone.
Since “domestic terrorism” is now a topic of concern for the media, in the wake of the attack on the Planned Parenthood facility in Colorado, can we expect the media to pressure Obama Attorney General Loretta Lynch to gather new evidence in the McDonnell case? It’s not likely.
The claim that Ayers and Dohrn are linked to to McDonnell's death comes from Kincaid buddy and former FBI information Larry Gratwohl, who only came forward with this alleged link in 2008 in an apparent attempt to sabotage Obama's presidential bid. (Kincaid cited this 2008 article in claiming that "For more than seven years Accuracy in Media has been calling on the media to join the campaign to get justice for McDonnell’s family.")
By contrast, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that "investigators have found no evidence that links the Weather Underground to the bombing" that killed McDonnell.
Kincaid goes on to rant: "This is why the left-wing rhetoric from the media about protecting women’s health and women’s lives in the wake of the Colorado killings cannot be taken seriously. They see this violence as a political opportunity to smear conservatives. They don’t care a whit about 'domestic terrorism,' except when it serves their political purposes." Given that Kincaid is a rabid Obama-hater who has served a conduit for the utterly discredited Joel Gilbert, Kincaid cannot be taken seriously on this or, really, any other subject -- after all, he doesn't care a whit about 'domestic terrorism,' except when it serves his political purposes.
Two days later, Kincaid was back with a column titled "Planned Parenthood Killer Was a Deranged Pothead." And -- we are not making this up -- this is all somehow Obama's rault (oh, and George Soros too):
The liberals were quick to blame conservative Christians, Republicans, and others on the right for the carnage in the Colorado Planned Parenthood clinic. It turns out the killer was a paranoid pothead who probably moved to Colorado because it offered him plenty of legal weed. The murders were just the latest example of President Obama’s pro-pot policies causing “active shooter” cases in which innocent people get maimed and killed.
[...]
While President Obama blames easy access to guns for these acts of madness and death, it appears that easy access to high-potency marijuana is really to blame in the Colorado case. Marijuana is legal in Colorado, which passed a marijuana legalization measure on the state level in 2012, thanks to “progressive” groups funded by pro-drug billionaire George Soros.
Under Obama, a heavy marijuana user in his youth, the Justice Department has refused to enforce federal laws and treaties against the use and cultivation of marijuana. So the Colorado legalization “experiment” has continued.
Hence, Obama’s pro-pot policies may have cost the lives of those in the Planned Parenthood clinic. No wonder Obama wants to blame guns.
Obama was a member of the Choom Gang, a group of heavy marijuana users. Speculation has mounted that Robert Lewis Dear was on “Obama choom,” as it’s known on the street, or “speed weed,” a high potency form of marijuana perhaps mixed with other drugs.
Kincaid didn't mention that Dear ranted "no more baby parts" during his rampage, was described by neighbors as a Kincaid-level Obama-hater, and believed that anti-abortion extremists like the Army of God were doing "God's work."
Leave it to Kincaid to do anything he can to distract from the fact that extreme anti-abortion rhetoric now has a (larger) body count.
MRC Doesn't Care About Jailed Journalist, Except As A Tool To Bash 'Liberal Media' Topic: Media Research Center
Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian was arrested in July 2014 in Iran on vague charges -- but it took a year for the Media Research Center to notice. (Rezaian has since been convicted in a secret trial and sentenced to an unspecified prison term.) The Post is part of the hated "liberal media," after all, so he wasn't exactly a priority.
Until he could be used as a tool in the MRC's right-wing agenda, that is.
The MRC has written nine items referencing Rezaian, all since July 2015. Three of them are attacking other media for not reporting on developments in Rezaian's case, despite the fact that the MRC itself ignored Rezaian for a year after his arrest.
Five others invoke Rezaian to attack the Obama administration for not doing enough to free prisoners like him in connection with the nuclear arms deal with Iran. The final article references Rezaian in attacking the New York Times for sponsoring a tour to Iran.
If the MRC genuinely cared about Rezaian's situation, it would have said something long before it did, it would be fighting for his release, and it wouldn't cynically treat him as a tool to be used to bash President Obama and the media.
It seems the MRC is no better than Iran in treating Rezaian as a political pawn. Remember that the next time Tim Graham complains about the MRC's anti-media agenda not being recognized as "sincere."
WND Doesn't Mention Its History of Obama Birtherism In Cruz Birther Article Topic: WorldNetDaily
In a Nov. 26 WorldNetDaily article, Cheryl Chumley writes about how Florida congressman Alan Grayson plans to "challenge Sen. Ted Cruz’s citizenship via a formal lawsuit if the Texan wins the GOP nomination for the White House" because he was born in Canada.
Chumley doesn't mention, however, the fact that her employer virulently attacked President Obama's "eligiblity" to be president or explain why WND won't aggressively pursue the issue with Cruz like it did Obama.
As we'vedocumented, WND has steadfastly and hypocritically refused to make an issue of Cruz's eligiblity despite the fact that Cruz is, under WND's preferred yet never-court-endorsed definition of "natural born citizen," Cruz is even more ineligible that Obama because, unlike Obama, Cruz was born outside the U.S. -- thus demonstrationg that WND never cared about the Constitution and cared only about smearing Obama.
The closest Chumley gets to recognizing this is quoting radio host Alan Colmes noting that "people who had a problem with … Obama’s birth certificate don’t have a problem with Ted Cruz, who literally was born in another country." But, presumably on orders from WND's higher-ups, she takes it no further.
WND owes a clear explanation to its readers for its indisputable birther double standard. Will it ever provide one?
MRC Blogger Is Sad Anti-Muslim Prejudice Is Being Criticized Topic: NewsBusters
In a Nov. 15 NewsBusters post, Dylan Gwinn takes issue with Green Bay Packers QB Aaron Rodgers' criticizing a fan who yelled "Muslims suck!" during a moment of silence for victims as displaying the kind of "prejudicial ideology that puts us in the position we are today as a world":
The first part of Rodgers comments there are fine. Clearly, if he wants to point out being personally disappointed in someone using that moment of silence to have an outburst like that, he can. That’s his right.
But to take it to the next level by then saying that anti-Muslim prejudice is somehow responsible for “where we are today as a world,” is beyond ignorant and not supported by any evidence of any kind. After all, where was the prejudice in France, when France brought in thousands and thousands of Muslim migrants over the past several months? And yet Muslims, including migrants, still attacked those who were welcoming them.
Now, if he meant that the prejudice of Muslims towards the rights of others to simply exist as non-Muslims is responsible for “where we are today as a world,” then he would really be onto something.
I’m guessing that’s not what he meant.
So Gwinn is saying there isn't enough anti-Muslim prejudice in the world? It sure looks that way. After all, this is the guy who defended Curt Schilling's likening of Muslims to Nazis.
CNSNews.com isn't the only part of the ConWeb trying to deflect coverage of the shooting at the Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado away from the anti-abortion aspect of the story.
WorldNetDaily's Bob Unruh has already complained about folks on Twitter (liberal folks, that is, but that's understood) jumping to conclusions about the shooter before all the facts are in. Then, oddly, WND does exactly that in an article published not too long after that one:
Throughout Friday’s six-hour armed standoff at the Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood facility that left three dead and nine wounded, social media feasted on the fact the gunman was described as a white man, as WND reported.
It didn’t take long for that meager piece of information to morph into “Christian,” “pro-lifer,” and “Republican,” even though authorities had not then — or even yet — released any information about the gunman’s motive.
So far, Robert Lewis Dear, 57, of Hartsel, Colorado, is disappointing those who tried to stereotype pro-life Christians as terrorists.
No evidence of Dear’s involvement or even opinion on the issue of abortion or religion has surfaced. Pro-life groups denounced the shooting and indicated they had neither interacted with or heard of him.
As it turns out, Dear’s not even a Republican — he’s registered to vote in Park County, Colorado, as unaffiliated. And as a female!
Voter registration information posted by Gateway Pundit gives Dear’s address and notes, “Her voting status is: Active. She is unaffiliated.”
The fact that WND is getting its information from the Dumbest Man on the Internet is a major clue to its veracity. Needless to say, WND's suggestion that Dear is a transgender leftist is not true at all.
First, the mugshot of Dear (above, also in the WND article). Does he look transgender? The voter information form identifying Dear as a female is most obviously explained as a typo. And he actually more closely fits the profile of the ideal WND reader: Buzzfeed quoted a neighbor of Dear describing how Dear was "handing us anti-Obama pamphlets” and saying that “Obama was ruining the country and needed to be impeached.”
Nevertheless, the counterfactual portrayal of Dear has made it all the way to Ted Cruz. And WND is totally cool with that; a WND headline on a story stolen from CNN reads, "CNN's panties in bunch over 'transgendered' shooter." Meanwhile, WND's original story remains uncorrected.
So, mission accomplished, WND -- once again putting an untruthful narrative ahead of the facts. And, hilariously, mere hours after complaining others were doing the same thing.
CNS Follows Right-Wing Playbook In Distracting From Abortion Clinic Shooting Topic: CNSNews.com
When the shooting that killed three at a Colorado Planned Parenthood clinic -- where the alleged killer, Robert Dear, reportedly ranted about "baby parts" during the crime -- occured, the anti-abortion folks at CNSNews.com knew what it had to do: change the narrative. And that's what it tried to do.
First on the agenda: dismiss the shooter as crazy, despite the fact that no psychological evaluation of Dear has been performed or otherwise made public. Here's how that narrative was advanced:
Susan Jones declared that Dear was "an apparently unstable man" and quoted GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee calling Dear a "madman" and "very unstable."
Jones, in a separate article, highlighted Dear's "several run-ins with police" and a peeping-tom charge against him.
Eric Scheiner copied a Republican congressman's discussion of "mental problems" because “No one would say, 'I’m standing up for life by going to take a life'. That is completely inconsistent with the movement that is so focused on individuals protecting life."
Melanie Hunter played up Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina's comments on the shooting, noting that she said Dear "appears deranged."
If this tactic sounds familiar, it is. CNS has repeatedlyportrayed Scott Roeder, killer of abortion doctor George Tiller, mentally unstable despite the fact that he did not mount an insanity defense at his trial and a psychologist hired by the defense found Roeder competent to stand trial.
The next step was to separate Dear from the anti-abortion movement, even though he was echoing its attacks on Planned Parenthood. Lauretta Brown (pictured above) -- who we last saw peddling misinformation about birth control and portraying extremist pastorsas "conservative black leaders" -- suddenly found her sense of journalistic balance in her article, in which she counters statements by NARAL Pro-Choice America president Ilyse Hogue condemning the killings and those who apparently inspired Dear with statements from anti-abortion groups denouncing violence.
Brown quoted the Center for Medical Progress' denunciation of the killings -- in which Dear was dismissed as a "violent madman" -- and proudly noted CMP's "undercover videos over the summer showing Planned Parenthood’s harvesting of aborted baby parts," but she did not mention that Dear was ranting about "baby parts" during his rampage.
Similarly, Brown highlighted Operation Rescue's statement denouncing the incident, but she didn't mention that Operation Rescue official Cheryl Sullenger spent time in prison for plotting to blow up an abortion clinic.
Because Hogue specifically called out Operation Rescue president Troy Newman, Brown went further into defense mode:
Hogue was likely referencing comments in a 2000 book, “Their Blood Cries Out,” co-authored by Newman, and which Australian MP Terri Butler recently invoked to deny Newman’s visa for a speaking tour on character grounds.
The Guardian reports that Butler pointed out this passage of the book: “In addition to our personal guilt in abortion, the United States government has abrogated its responsibility to properly deal with the blood-guilty. This responsibility rightly involves executing convicted murderers, including abortionists, for their crimes in order to expunge bloodguilt from the land and people.”
“Newman has never advocated violence against abortion providers or facilities and has instead adamantly encouraged pro-life activists to work through the legal, legislative, and justice systems to bring abortionists who are breaking the law and harming women to justice,” Operation Rescue replied in a September statement.
But claiming that abortion doctors should go through the legal system before being executed is still demanding that they be executed, no matter how much Operation Rescue tries to deny it; his "Their Blood Cries Out" statement does not differenctiate between abortion docctors doing their job legally and "abortionists who are breaking the law."
Brown concluded her article with an apparent attempt to justify the shooting and blame Planned Parenthood itself for it by invoking Mother Teresa:
Planned Parenthood also tweeted Sunday: “To all of the trolls who spew hatred and lob attacks at us, PP family, or supporters online, you are a part of the problem.”
Mother Teresa, at the 1994 National Prayer Breakfast attended by the pro-abortion President Bill Clinton and first lady Hillary Clinton, called abortion “the greatest destroyer of peace today.”
[I]f we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another?” said Mother Teresa. “Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love one another, but to use any violence to get what they want. This is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion.”
But CNS was not done. Managing editor Michael W. Chapman tried to change the subject altogether with an article on "The latest abortion surveillance report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention," in which "55.4 percent were performed on black or Hispanic mothers."
Chapman was silent on the ethnicities of the people Robert Dear murdered while apparently inflamed by anti-abortion rhetoric.
WND: Don't Speculate On Crime Motive (Unless The Perp Is Black, Then Presume Racism) Topic: WorldNetDaily
Bob Unruh grumbled in a Nov. 27 WorldNetDaily article:
The reports coming from reporters on the scene of a shooting in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on Friday were vague.
Police said three officers were wounded, as were an unknown number of civilians. The suspect, or suspects, were unknown. His, or her, motives were unknown. Firepower: unknown. Location: Known only within a broad area that includes a Planned Parenthood abortion business. And more.
The suspect had been described only generally as a 6-foot white male with white beard wearing hunting clothing.
But Twitter users already had the case solved.
“I see the ‘pro-life’ crowd is up to its usual,” wrote a social media user identified only as Dat Wags Tho.
So Unruh was complaining that people were speculating on motive before a crime was solved.
Ironically, his WND colleagues were doing the exact same thing a couple days earlier. From a unbylined Nov. 24 article:
In the highly politicized climate of President Obama’s final months in the White House, when he’s stated his goal of 2016 is to go after Americans’ gun rights, every mass shooting becomes a moment for the Democrats to speak out against the Second Amendment.
Except this one.
Zebulum Lael James, a 22-year-old black student at Jackson State University, is accused of going on a shooting spree and randomly selecting his targets in Jackson, Mississippi. The capital city of the state, Jackson is 79 percent black and 18 percent white.
Both of the targets police in Jackson say James “randomly” shot were white women, Suzanne Hogan and Kristy Lynn Mitchell.
Even though the article goes on to quote the police chief explicitly stating there's no evidence of motive at this point, WND then gives space to its favorite race-baiters to definitively declare that the perpetrator was obviously racist:
Jack Cashill, a WND columnist and the author of “Scarlet Letters: The Ever-Increasing Intolerance of the Cult of Liberalism” told WND he hadn’t even heard of this shooting spree when asked for comment.
After learning the details of the shootings, he said, “The Jackson media ask, ‘Because James is a black man and police believe he shot and killed two white women, is this considered to be a hate crime?’ Well, if at the University of Missouri it is considered a hate crime when a person of unknown race draws a poop swastika, I would think that singling out two white women for murder in a largely black city might just qualify. Media, where are you?”
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, a WND columnist and author of “The Antidote: Healing America From the Poison of Hate, Blame, and Victimhood,” also had not heard of this multiple shooting when asked for comment from WND.
He told WND, “If a white man shot and killed two black women, I guarantee you that it would be immediately classified as a ‘hate crime’ by Barack Obama and AG Loretta Lynch. Obama and Lynch would hold a press conference and blame racism and lecture white Americans and the nation on the need to end racism. The DOJ would open an investigation for civil rights violations. The local and national media would be all over the issue doing specials and portraying it as a national race crisis. Based on this case and countless other underreported black on white crimes, I’ve concluded that to this administration and the mainstream media: white lives don’t matter! They could care less about black-on-white crimes.”
Colin Flaherty, who has chronicled nationwide black violence directed against whites in “White Girl Bleed A Lot: The Return of Racial Violence to America and How the Media Ignore It,” pointed to the improbability of James “randomly choosing two white women in a city that is 80 percent black.”
Flaherty said, “Random is the single most misused word in crime reporting, and the recent killings in Jackson, Mississippi, are good examples. A black man there shot and killed two white women – in separate incidents. Immediately, the black police chief of Jackson declared the shootings were random, and they had no idea what the motive was.”
He said, “The chief means that they did not find the killer had sprinkled the scene with anti-white epithets or flyers or magazines. But that hardly means the murders are random. Or that they have no racial content.”
Considering the math again, Flaherty said, “It’s easy enough to test: Just ask any mathematician who has the crime numbers in the area: If two white women are killed while shopping or driving or going about their business, what are the odds that a black person is responsible?
“The odds are wildly out of proportion. And anyone who took – and passed – math 101 knows that. Yet we have public officials and reporters trying to tell us – once again – that this black on white crime and violence and murder is just kind of an accident.”
In fact, there's plenty of evidence -- which WND and its resident race-baiters have chosen to ignore -- that indicate that the victims of Zebulum James' crime spree were chosen at random. He also fired shots into a house and a municipal bus, where there was no apparent racial motive.
But at WND, if you're a black criminal, it's presumed you're racist -- also ironic since WND arguably helped inspire an actual racist shooter, Dylann Roof, and was used as reference by another racially motivated mass killer, Anders Breivik.
Newsmax Is In Business With An Anti-Global Warming 'Scam Artist' Topic: Newsmax
A recent promotion at Newsmax highlights what purports to be "A Breaking Report From Newsmax Media," with this scintillatingly written leadoff:
Imagine, for a moment, sitting at a prestigious steakhouse in Palm Beach, Florida, a hot spot for some of the wealthiest and most famous — Donald Trump, Tiger Woods, Oprah Winfrey, James Patterson, Rush Limbaugh, and hundreds more.
And, imagine dining with a handful of men you’ve only read about. Some of them are worth millions, others published best-selling books, and some have held prominent positions at the White House.
In essence, you’re sitting at a five-person table of VIPs.
Tom Luongo has worked extensively with the University of Florida on making crop yields more productive for third world countries, creating an intermetallic coating for gun barrels that dropped maintenance requirements on firearms by half, and assisting in the development of cures for diseases. You’re about to take a bite of your New York strip when one of the men, a top U.S. intelligence agent, slams a 164-page document in the middle of the table.
This document, you soon find out, contains damning evidence that a network of politicians, corporations, and scientists have conspired together to promote the fear of “global warming” . . .
Despite evidence clearly stating no such “global warming” exists.
The motive: $22 billion per year.
That’s $22 billion of taxpayers’ money . . . to stop the “global warming” epidemic.
This overwrought prose, presented as being told by somebody named Tom Luongo, is all about the story of John Casey, described as "a former White House space program adviser, consultant to NASA headquarters, and space shuttle engineer. He is now one of America’s most successful climate change researchers and climate prediction experts." What follows are a bunch of discredited claims typically peddled by global warming deniers, such as "global warming reversed its rise in 1998."
The piece even touts how "a petition was signed by more than 31,000 scientists that states 'there is no convincing scientific evidence that human release of . . . carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth's atmosphere and disruption of the Earth's climate'" -- a claim we've pointed out is more than a little dishonest.
There are numerous other false and misleading claims made in the promotion, many of which are debunked here.
But who is John Casey? He first surfaced several years ago spouting his denier claims as leader and sole employee of something called the Space and Science Research Center (whose website is currently defunct with the domain apparently for sale). Casey has no training in climate science and his never published a peer-reviewed paper in the field, which would seem to run counter to the Newsmax promotion's claim that he's "one of America’s most successful climate change researchers and climate prediction experts." Even a fellow global warming skeptic suspects him to be a "scam artist trying to get his hands in your pockets."
Well, now he's found a way -- by hooking up with Newsmax.
The whole point of this dishonest exercise is to sell you something -- in this case, a package of something called "The Cold Truth Initiative," which includes a book by Casey called "Dark Winter." Turns out the book is published by Humanix Books, which is the publishing division of Newsmax.
In a WorldNetDaily-esque move, there's also a film version of "Dark Winter." If you look at the spine of the cover image supplied in the pruple-prose promotion, it states that the film is a production of "Newsmax TV Original Films."
Since this is Newsmax, there's also the obligatory "four-month subscription to the award-winning Newsmax magazine" (which you must cancel prior to the subscription period ending to avoid being automatically charged for an entire year's subscription) and a three-month subscription to the "Resolute Wealth Letter" (same opt-out deal), which turns out to be written by Luongo and published by Newsmax, who calls Luongo "our gold expert."
Newsmax and Casey have been working together for a while. A November 2014 "news" article by Clayton Reid, for example, falsely touts Casey as a "climatologist" and promotes the "provocative" book "Dark Winter" while unethically failing to disclose that it was published by a Newsmax operation.
So Newsmax is on record teaming up with a thoroughly discredited "climate change researcher" for the apparent sole purpose of selling more Newsmax stuff. Given Newsmax's history of scammy dealings, we're not really surprised.
MRC Is Now Mad Jeff Bezos Was Allowed To Appear On TV Topic: Media Research Center
Jeffrey Meyer is apparently the Media Research Center's "researcher" in charge of being angry that an MRC enemy is allowed to be on TV. He's already gone off on Ted Koppel twice this week.
Now Meyer has found another person to be angry about appearing on TV. From Meyer's Nov. 24 NewsBusters post:
On Tuesday’s CBS This Morning, co-host Charlie Rose teed up liberal Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos to provide a free advertisement for his newspaper, calling it “the new paper of record” and a “bright light that helps shine light on all of our institutions in this country and the political process.”
Bezos, who has donated thousands of dollars to Democratic candidates over the years, refused to admit the Post’s liberal agenda and instead spun that the role of the paper is to make sure that the political institution in America “stays strong so that it can shine a light on all of these important players, especially in Washington.”
Meyer didn't mention that the segment he's obsessing over is part of a larger, 6-minute interview with Bezos that mostly focused on his rocket company (as if the giant rocket behind Bezos wasn't a clue to that) and which also included questions about Bezos' day job as the head of Amazon.com.
If Meyer is so upset that Bezos "refused to admit the Post’s liberal agenda," he should be similarly demanding that his boss, Brent Bozell, admit the right-wing agenda of the MRC's "news" outlet, CNSNews.com.
Really, we see no reason for Meyer's posts on Bezos and Koppel to exist other than as petulant rants -- after all, the only thing he's really complaining about is that they appeared on TV, which means he, and the MRC, are effectively advocating censorship.
WND Still Hasn't Reported Quiet End of Jade Helm Exercise It Linked To Conspiracy Theories Topic: WorldNetDaily
Earlier this year, WorldNetDaily was all about fearmongering about the U.S. military's Jade Helm 15 exercise:
WND columnist Chuck Norris suggested that Jade Helm had a nefarious purpose by people "pulling the strings" in Washington and argued that the government was "stoking the fire" by conducting it -- a claim he later walked back lest he appear too crazy.
Bob Unruh pushed a right-wing congressman's idea that "the military has designated for purposes of its exercise several mostly-Republican regions as 'hostile' territories" is some kind of sinister plot.
Leo Hohmann even listed Jade Helm among the "potentially prophetic events" heralding the WND-promoted Shemitah prophecy (which turned out to be kind of a bust, not that WND or its favorite religious guy of the moment/cash cow, JonathanCahn, will ever admit it).
The leader of the fearmongering brigade at WND was reporter Cheryl Chumley. She promoted the conspiracy theory that the closing of some Walmart stores in the states where the exercise took place was a part of the Jade Helm conspiracy, and she ran to the defense of disgraced pastor Jim Bakker after his promotion of Jade Helm conspiracy theories earned him some media derision. She also fretted that "several in the press" were taking "pot-shots" at Jade Helm conspiracy-mongers who are really just "government watchdogs who expressed concerns at its secrecy."
And a June 8 article by Paul Bremmer quotes Chumley -- portrayed here as an "author and reporter" and bizarrely failing to note the fact the place where she's a reporter is WND -- declaring that the residents of the states where the exercise was being held were "the test subjects for these special operations soldiers" and the the citizens themselves were "guinea pigs." Chumley went on to raise more suspicions: “So if they’re training on civilian grounds, in communities in seven different states, then you have to wonder, what are they training for?”
(The scary-looking image of folks in military garb under night-vision green accompanied Bremmer's article, identified by WND as "JadeHelm.jpg" despite the fact that WND offers no proof the picture came from a Jade Helm exercise.)
Well, Jade Helm ended in the middle of September -- and nothing happened. And, as Right Wing Watch pointed out, the far-right fringers who promoted those Jade Helm conspiracy theories suddenly "fell silent when it became clear that none of the scenarios they predicted had materialized."
That's how it went at WND too. Chumley has written more than 400 bylined articles at WND since mid-September, when it was announced that Jade Helm had ended. Near as we can tell, not one of them was about how the actual exercise failed to live up to the conspiracy theories she and WND promoted about it.
Of course, WND has never liked reporting the boring truth when its conspiracies fail to form; it still hasn't told its readers that its all of its Obama birther conspiracies have been discredited.
As for Mr. Obama, who is on record as having spoken of “my Muslim faith,” he must redeem his failing “presidency” by making it quite clear that he is not a terrorist sympathizer. He is, of course, entitled to his “Muslim faith,” for your nation was born of a desire to replace the Catholic and then Protestant intolerance of Europe with a more open-minded approach to other people’s faith.
Yet a true leader has to get his priorities right. And Mr. Obama’s whining about the non-threat of global warming and his culpable silence on the fact that people who call themselves Muslims are responsible for nearly all terrorist acts around the world are no longer acceptable.
For while one may tolerate another’s religion, if that “religion” increasingly seems to be the wellspring of terrorism, and if that “religion’s” leaders say and do nothing to deter the terrorists, and if that “religion’s” adherents, such as Mr. Obama, are also sullenly silent, then perhaps, after all, it is Islam itself that should no longer be tolerated.
Perhaps Mr. Obama and others who share his Muslim faith should be debarred from holding any public office on grounds of a grievous and life-threatening conflict of interest. To be silent in the face of Islamic terror is to be a sympathizer with that terror.
-- Christopher Monckton, Nov. 15 WorldNetDaily column
Barack Obama was also profound in another of his statements: “This is a heartbreaking situation and obviously those of us here in the United States know what it’s like.”
Yeah, Barack, it is ‘heartbreaking” – a word you use for just about every lamentable situation you feel compelled to comment on.
But there is something missing.
Just as when the Russian Plane exploded killing all on board – men, women and children – Obama said not a word of condolence for that loss of life.
Now, he’s done the same thing: not a word of sympathy for the dead and wounded, even though they include several American citizens.
But then, Obama is a citizen of the world – nay, the universe. He needs not be concerned with just one country, even though it’s the one that has given him the bully pulpit.
Americans are trembling in rage and disbelief as they watch this dangerously narcissistic commander in chief show no passion for defending the United States but gush with emotion over the prospect of dumping 10,000 Syrian refugees in our land without proper security screening. We see photos of him with Russian thug President Vladimir Putin and think to ourselves, “I hope Putin will talk some sense into him about ISIS.”
What a surreal time we are living in. What an age of presidential denial. God help us.
If you could go ahead with a plan to make America as vulnerable and unsafe as possible, you couldn’t do it better than Barack Obama. The unbelievable madness continues with this administration, and when you think it can’t get any worse, it does.
[...]
Please, God, send us a leader. Someone who can see clearly what needs to be done and has the brains, guts and courage to do it.
I suppose I should not be in shock, but I am. Did you hear the president Monday, condescendingly lecturing us about our “values” and how we should not have a “litmus test” against Muslims?
Mr. President, how about no “litmus test” against Christians? Your administration drives believers out of business, fining them, threatening them and forces them to embrace institutionized sodomy, all the while trampling the First Amendment. But let’s put that issue aside for a moment.
OK, President Obama, we get your “no litmus test for Muslims” policy, but how about at least a thorough vetting process to ferret out radical Islamists? A litmus test for those who want to blow up our planes, to burn our homes, to behead our people, to rape our wives, to sell our children into slavery – Is THAT too much to ask?
I have never beat the “Obama’s a Muslim” drum, and I won’t now. But the evidence is overwhelming that he cares little for authentic Christians, while doing everything he can to affirm Islam and to coddle Muslims – violent or peaceful.
[...]
We are now at STAGE THREE.
In STAGE ONE, we were all in shock at the things Obama did, thinking, “He is merely inept. Surely this must be incompetence. No competent person would do this.” So we thought.
STAGE TWO was “This is more serious than ineptness. He is devious. This is part of his Saul Alinsky training coming out. He is smart. But this is intentional. He is not interested in merely ‘fundamentally changing’ America. He is set on perverting her.”
But now we have entered STAGE THREE. This one is much more serious. Commentators on TV are now using the term “delusional” as they describe his indescribable and atrocious response to the horrors of Paris from the G20 meetings in Turkey.
Amazingly, Mr. Obama wants to import a couple of hundred thousand Muslims over the next coming years. Only a dopey, liberal stooge would try and convince us that all these immigrants are peace-loving Muslims who will respect our Constitution and assimilate quickly into our society and culture.
-- Ted Nugent, Nov. 18 WND column
Politicians are now calling ISIS “a creation of Obama” and claiming that this president, through his actions, is benefiting ISIS.
After the Paris attacks, what did America hear from this treasonous President Barack Hussein Obama (his Muslim name)? (Luke 3:19) America heard a dictator who was angry and agitated with those who were comparing ISIS to the Muslims.
Well, Barack, like it or not, the created “terror” group ISIS (a global political battering ram to create chaos and upend nations only to consolidate power for the United Nations) is Muslim; and Muslims are ISIS.
The bottom line, dear and fellow patriots: If the Republicans do not act and fail to institute meaningful impeachment and conviction proceedings to legally remove the Muslim sympathizer in the White House before it is too late, then We the People should demand that those responsible, Republican House and Senate leaders themselves be impeached and convicted.
The nation simply cannot afford another year and a half of Obama and the Muslim terrorists he allows to run loose worldwide. If this state of affairs continues, September 11 will look in retrospect like a warm-up act, and by the time of the 2016 presidential elections next November, there may be little left of our beloved nation when it comes to our national security!
I believe God wants Christians to pray a very specific prayer: Pray for the conversion of Barack Obama out of Islam. Just that. Nothing more. Try that this Sunday. It should liven up your church service.
Last week, I asked if it isn’t time to raise the “I” word in relation to Barack Obama. “Impeach” is the word, but the reality is that with this Congress, it will not happen.
But as the week progressed, other words were raised about Obama. One was “retire” – step down because of his confusing, contradictory and, too often, just plain questionable decisions. Remember, this is the man who said he would “lead from behind.” I studied logic – what does that mean?
As the week progressed, more and more Americans wonder whether Barack Obama really has the best interests of the United States “first” on his list of things to do. He is supposed to be the leader of the free world, but it’s clear that’s virtually the last thing on his mind.
MRC: How Dare Anyone Say Nice Things About Ted Koppel! Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center has decided that merely saying nice things about retired ABC newsman Ted Koppel is "liberal media bias." In the past week, it has devoted not one but two posts to the idea.
Jeffrey Meyer whines in a Nov. 19 NewsBusters post:
On Wednesday night’s Daily Show, host Trevor Noah gushed over veteran liberal ABC reporter Ted Koppel, proclaiming that there isn’t “anybody in the news who can arguably say they have had a more accomplished career than you have had.”
The liberal Comedy Central host proclaimed that the name Ted Koppel “is synonymous with great journalism, and not just great TV personality but great journalism” and despite Koppel’s push back, Noah insisted “I'm very honest to say that. I'm very honest to say that.”
After Noah finished sucking up to Koppel he wondered if “there's still journalism in the news or is it personality driven?” and the ABC veteran eagerly returned the favor by praising the role liberal comedians like Trevor Noah have in supposedly acting as journalists by mixing news and humor:
When Koppel appeared on Stephen Colbert's CBS show a few days later, Meyer was once again on it:
On Monday's Late Show, liberal comedian Stephen Colbert heaped praise on liberal journalist Ted Koppel, who hosted ABC’s Nightline for 29 years, and called him “one of the most respected journalists of our time.”
Colbert provided a fawning introduction of Koppel and touted how he “won eight Peabody awards, 11 Overseas Press Club awards 42 Emmys, you’ve been managing editor of the Discovery Channel, and news analyst for BBC America, a commentator right now on NPR.”
Rather than ask Koppel about the embarrassing decline of Nightline, the CBS comedian instead sympathetically asked “[a]s someone who is been in journalism for a long time, what do you think of the state of today's journalism? How is it doing? And please give your answer in the form of a list of 17 casts that look like world leaders.”
After Koppel explained that journalism is “so fragmented now, we have so much journalism” competing for “a tiny fragment of the audience” the veteran ABC reporter eagerly cheered how people like Colbert “end up doing more serious studies of serious subjects in a funny way than news people.”
Meyer offered no evidence that "Nightline" is suffering an "embarrassing decline." But he did make sure to brand Koppel and everyone involved in saying nice things about him as "liberal." So much for labeling bias.
At WND, Threatening Violence Is 'Free-Thinking' Topic: WorldNetDaily
Bob Unruh writes in a Nov. 18 WorldNetDaily article:
Someone doesn’t like your social-media postings criticizing the government.
So, big deal, you respond.
But then he calls authorities, and, suddenly, the Secret Service and FBI are on your doorstep. You’re declared to have mental problems, and you’re handcuffed and locked up, against your will, for a week for a psychological evaluation.
That’s the story of decorated Marine Brandon Raub, whose appeal of his case has been refused by the U.S. Supreme Court, leaving in place the precedent of how his case was handled.
“This case was about more than one Marine’s right to not be targeted for speaking out against the government,” said John W. Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute, which represented Raub in his fight over his 2012 detention.
Actually, that's not Raub's story -- and Unruh is hiding the truth. There's a reason Unruh doesn't quote from Raub's "social-media postings criticizing the government," after all.
As we've previously detailed, one of the things Raub posted on Facebook -- amid his rantings that the U.S. government was complicit in the 9/11 attacks -- was a lyric from a rap song, "Sharpen my axe; I'm here to sever heads," and a declaration that "WE MUST TAKE OUR REPUBLIC BACK."
The occasion of Unruh's article was the Supreme Court's refusal to take up Raub's case, but Unruh doesn't clearly explain what the case is about since, as per his history and in defiance of WND editor Joseph Farah's rarely demonstrated insistence that WND reporters are "required to seek out multiple sources and contrary viewpoints in news articles," he is only interested in telling one side of the story and serving as stenographer for Raub's lawyer's at the right-wing Rutherford Institute. As Law 360 details, Raub was appealing previous court rulings that his rights weren't violated in the detention following the posting of his violent words. Law 360 also notes that another thing Raub posted was "This is revenge. Know that before you die," which along with his other statements appear to run counter to attorney John Whitehead's insistence that Raub "never threatened violence."
Law 360 also recited the side of Raub's story Unruh doesn't want you to know -- starting with the fact that it was Raub's fellow Marines, not an anonymous "someone" who "doesn’t like [his] social-media postings criticizing the government" as Unruh claims, who alerted authorites about Raub:
In the summer of 2012, several Marine veterans who had served with Raub in Iraq contacted the FBI after he posted a series of increasingly ominous messages on Facebook, according to the opinion.
[...]
FBI and local law enforcement officials visited Raub at his home in Chesterfield County in Virginia, where they observed that his demeanor varied wildly over the course of their questioning, going from completely calm to extremely emotional, according to the opinion.
While Raub didn’t threaten violence, he didn’t answer when asked if he intended to, according to the opinion.
He also quizzed the FBI agents about government conspiracy theories, such as Raub’s believe that the government fired a missile into the Pentagon on 9/11.
After half an hour, the officials decided to call Campbell, who recommended that Raub be detained for an evaluation after they told him about the Facebook posts and their conversation with Raub.
Campbell interviewed Raub in jail, where he observed that Raub was distracted and had difficulty answering questions. Along with Raub’s belief that he was destined to lead a coming revolution, Campbell concluded that he might be paranoid and delusional, and asked a judge for a temporary detention order.
At the hospital, a psychologist examined Raub and agreed that he showed symptoms of psychosis, according to the opinion. Hospital staff then petitioned the state court for an order of involuntary admission for treatment.
At first, Raub was ordered to stay in the hospital for 30 days, but then after three days, the court released him, saying that the petition didn’t have any factual allegations.
Unruh also makes sure not to mention one more spot of trouble Raub found himself in: In July 2014, Raub was arrested on charges of indecent liberties with a child and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Investigators said Raub and his brother gave alcohol to two teenage girls. Later, Raub was accused of exposing himself to one of them and attempting to have her touch him inappropriately. Those charges were later dropped after it was ruled that Raub was not in a "custodial or supervisory relationship" at the time one of the teenage girls performed oral sex on him.
But the most amazing part of Ubnruh's deceitful article is the headline: "Supremes hang free-thinking Marine out to dry."
That's right -- threatening violence is just "free-thinking" at WND.
Also, Raub hasn't been hung out to dry -- he's been free since he was three-day detention two years ago.
Bozell & Graham Whine About 'Christian Terrorism' Claims, Ignore Pastor Who Called For Execution of Gays Topic: Media Research Center
In their Nov. 20 column, Tim Graham and Brent Bozell rant that "what is wholly unacceptable is any attempt to drag Christianity into a moral-equivalency game with radical Islam." They continue:
Then there are the feminists who love to make comparisons of Christianity and radical Islam by implying that Christians should be defined as abortion-clinic personnel killers. Late-term abortionist George Tiller was shot at his Lutheran church in 2009, and then you have to go back to Dr. Barnett Slepian being shot in his own home in 1998. How many tens of thousands have perished at the hands of Islamic radicals during that time frame?
Christians immediately condemned the killing of abortionists, evil as they are, as immoral.
But Bozell (and, presumably, Graham as his ghostwriter) didn't condemn Tiller's death with any hint of enthusiasm -- it was more of a defensive move. In a June 2009 column just after Tiller's murder, Bozell complained that Keith Olbermann called Tiller's murder an "assassination," adding: "Olbermann insisted that the mere act of denouncing Tiller as killer of babies - as if he were instead removing tumors - is an invitation to terrorism and murder."
Bozell cited "an avalanche of press releases from pro-life groups denouncing the killing," but he omitted anti-abortion leader Randall Terry -- whose activism the MRC has promoted over the years -- expressing apparant joy over Tiller's murder, saying that "I believe George Tiller was one of the most evil men on the planet; every bit as vile as the Nazi war criminals who were hunted down, tried, and sentenced after they participated in the 'legal' murder of the Jews that fell into their hands."
Yet Bozell aped Terry's rhetoric, declaring: "George Tiller was a monster who personally murdered 60,000 babies. May God have mercy on his soul." Bozell can't denounce Terry because he sounds exactly like him.
Later, one of Bozell's employees sought to justify Tiller's murder by complaining that "reporters do nothing to help their audience understand why this man was targeted," albeit buried in blather about how "loss of human life is a tragedy."
In short, Bozell and Graham may or may not approve of the method of Tiller's death, but they are certainly gleeful about the results.
There was a more recent example of Christian terrorism Graham and Bozell could have denounced in their column: Iowa pastor Kevin Swanson declaring that gays should be executed. He made this claim at a conference attended by three Republican presidential candidates.
But the entire MRC organization, from Bozell on down, has remained silent about Swanson's anti-gay rant and what it means for the three GOP candidates who were introduced to the stage by Swanson (one of whom, Bobby Jindal, has since exited the race).
Shouldn't Bozell and Graham have addressed this by now, instead of enforcing a code of silence and letting it fester for more than two weeks -- presumably because MRC favorite Ted Cruz is one of the candidates who took part?
It seems that Bozell and Graham can't condemn all Christian terrorism, it shouldn't be complaining about the subject being brought up.
The New York Daily News' provocative front-page headline after the San Bernardino mass shootings -- "God Isn't Fixing This," pointing out Republicans calling for prayers for the victims of the shooting are just offering "meaningless platitudes" in the absence of any GOP effort to address the issue of gun violence -- was sure to get some reaction. And Media Research Center chief Brent Bozell offers some of the dumbest.
We know the ConWeb 
Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian was 
In a Nov. 26 WorldNetDaily 
In a Nov. 15 NewsBusters 
CNSNews.com
When the shooting that killed three at a Colorado Planned Parenthood clinic -- where the alleged killer, Robert Dear, reportedly ranted about "baby parts" during the crime -- occured, the anti-abortion folks at CNSNews.com knew what it had to do: change the narrative. And that's what it tried to do.
Bob Unruh grumbled in a Nov. 27 WorldNetDaily 
A recent 
The whole point of this dishonest exercise is to sell you something -- in this case, a package of something called "The Cold Truth Initiative," which includes a book by Casey called "Dark Winter." Turns out the book is 
Jeffrey Meyer is apparently the Media Research Center's "researcher" in charge of being angry that an MRC enemy is allowed to be on TV. He's already gone off on Ted Koppel 
Earlier this year, WorldNetDaily was all about fearmongering about the U.S. military's Jade Helm 15 exercise:
As for Mr. Obama, who is on record as having spoken of “my Muslim faith,” he must redeem his failing “presidency” by making it quite clear that he is not a terrorist sympathizer. He is, of course, entitled to his “Muslim faith,” for your nation was born of a desire to replace the Catholic and then Protestant intolerance of Europe with a more open-minded approach to other people’s faith.
The Media Research Center has decided that merely saying nice things about retired ABC newsman Ted Koppel is "liberal media bias." In the past week, it has devoted not one but two posts to the idea.
Bob Unruh writes in a Nov. 18 WorldNetDaily 
In their Nov. 20 
