Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily works to debunk 9/11 conspiracy theories, despite its own love of conspiracy theories -- especially if a Clinton can be thrown in. WND's also casting George Soros as the apple of its conspiratorial eye. Read more.
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
New Article: A Clinton in Every Conspiracy
Topic: WorldNetDaily WorldNetDaily works to debunk 9/11 conspiracy theories, despite its own love of conspiracy theories -- especially if a Clinton can be thrown in. WND's also casting George Soros as the apple of its conspiratorial eye. Read more.
Posted by Terry K.
at 8:48 AM EDT
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
Sheppard Misleads on Poll Breakdown
Topic: NewsBusters In an Oct. 10 NewsBusters post, Noel Sheppard is apoplectic that in a Washington Post/ABC News poll, in his words, "41 percent more Democrats were questioned for this survey than Republicans," claiming that it is "absolutely shameful that any polling organization would do such a poor job of evenly distributing respondents by political affiliation." But Sheppard fails to note that the poll sample -- in actual numbers, 38 percent Democrats; 27 percent Republicans -- is a lot closer to reality than he depicts it. As we pointed out the last time the MRC attacked a poll for questioning too many Democrats, even Republican strategist (and columnist for the MRC's CNSNews.com) Rich Galen admits that "[i]n the general population, those who claim to be Democrats outweigh those who claim to be Republicans by 7 to 9 percentage points." It skews the poll to have an even number of Democrats and Republicans, as Sheppard demands. Sheppard adds:
But given that the number of Democrats and Republicans sampled in last month's poll is almost even -- contrary to the normal general-population breakdwon -- that makes that poll the outlier, rather than the new poll.
Posted by Terry K.
at 3:11 PM EDT
Who's Blackmailing Who?
Topic: Accuracy in Media An Oct. 9 Accuracy in Media column by Cliff Kincaid is titled "Homosexual Blackmail on Capitol Hill," but it appears that Kincaid is the one who wants to engage in it. Kincaid takes to task "radical gay activist" Michael Rogers, who he quotes as decrying "closeted" Republican homosexuals "who have been helping to facilitate that anti-gay agenda." But then, Kincaid states:
That is quite clearly not "what Rogers is saying." How did Kincaid twist "facilitate that anti-gay agenda" to "sabotage a conservative pro-family agenda"? Kincaid goes on to insinuate that being gay is incompatible with being Republican: "They are acting more like Democrats than Republicans, if indeed they are Republicans." Kincaid concludes: "For the sake of honest and open government, not to mention protection of the children, the secret Capitol Hill homosexual network must be exposed and dismantled." That gets him close to the territory of WorldNetDaily's Linda Harvey, who demanded that gays be purged from politics completely.
Posted by Terry K.
at 9:34 AM EDT
It's Clinton's Fault!
Topic: Newsmax Well, that didn't take long. An Oct. 9 NewsMax article by Dave Eberhart declares that the only person to blame for North Korea's nuclear test is Bill Clinton, even though he has not been president for five years. UPDATE: Josh Marshall offers context that Eberhart doesn't regarding Clinton and North Korea.
Posted by Terry K.
at 12:28 AM EDT
Updated: Tuesday, October 10, 2006 9:01 PM EDT
Monday, October 9, 2006
Breaking: MRC Wants Non-Conservative to Rest in Peace
Topic: NewsBusters The Media Research Center has no love for non-conservative journalists. As we've noted, the death of ABC's Peter Jennings brought no "Rest in Peace" tag from the MRC (and, in fact, the MRC used the occasion to attack his alleged liberalism, the publicity over which shamed it into issuing a proper condolence note), while the deaths of two conservative-friendly writers earned an "RIP" condolence. So, it's a bit of a surprise to see that Tim Graham, in an Oct. 9 NewsBusters post on the death of New York Times writer R.W. Apple, actually state, "May he rest in peace," before resorting to standard MRC procedure by slapping around Apple's corpse, bashing him for the offense of exhibiting "a fair amount of Manhattan ultraliberalism in his public career." After all, in the MRC's eyes, death is no excuse for being a liberal. At least now it's showing a few manners about it.
Posted by Terry K.
at 2:43 PM EDT
Updated: Monday, October 9, 2006 3:06 PM EDT
Setting What Record Straight?
Topic: CNSNews.com An Oct. 9 CNSNews.com commentary by J.P. "Jack" London, chairman and president of defense contractor CACI International, defends his company against "baseless" allegations raised in the documentary "Iraq for Sale" the CACI was involved for "torture for profit." London claims that the film "indiscriminately slanders as war profiteers private contractors, including CACI, which answered our government's call for help." Problem is, CNS has never reported on the documentary or its claims. Nor does London detail the specific allegations the film makes against his company. Thus, there's no basis upon which to evaluate London's claims. London is free to write his "setting the record straight" commentary, but CNS should have provided some context for it so its readers understand the controversy, rather than running it apropos of nothing.
Posted by Terry K.
at 2:28 PM EDT
MRC: Stop Covering Foley Scandal!
Topic: Media Research Center The MRC doesn't want Republicans to look bad. It declared the Mark Foley story over with sometime last week, and is absolutely irked that others don't feel the same way. Thus, it has declared that anyone who covers the Foley scandal from here on out is a biased liberal who wants the Republicans to lose in November:
-- Mark Finkelstein, Oct. 9 NewsBusters post
-- Tim Graham, Oct. 9 NewsBusters post and CyberAlert item
-- Brent Baker, Oct. 6 NewsBusters post and Oct. 9 CyberAlert item
Posted by Terry K.
at 2:16 PM EDT
Depiction-Equals-Endorsement Fallacy Watch
Topic: WorldNetDaily Over the past few days, WorldNetDaily engaged in numerous examples of the depiction-equals-endorsement fallacy as it relates to homosexuality. An Oct. 4 article stated as fact that California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger "signed a bill terminating the last vestige of traditional marriage," a bill that would allow allow domestic partners to file personal income taxes by checking either "married filing jointly" or "married filing separately" categories. The article forwards the claim from "those assessing the results of this year's state legislature" that Schwarzenegger "has failed to fully protect school children from the 'gay' agenda"-- misleading since the article cites only two conservative groups and no non-conservatives to support it. The article also cited a "weblog participant" -- in fact, a poster at the right-wing Free Republic -- as describing the bill as "lesbolation," concluding that "California really needs a political enema." An Oct. 7 follow-up article seems to endorse anarchy, declaring that "'Don't trust the courts' is what supporters of traditional marriage are saying." Again, only conservatives are quoted, and their claims are not countered. An Oct. 5 article declared that "[t]he Philadelphia School District has launched a new advance in the battle to indoctrinate school children into the 'gay' agenda" by establishing a "Gay and Lesbian History Month." The article quotes a anti-homosexual activist claiming without evidence that "even elementary school phonics cards have been through the 'gay' editing process." But no examples of the "Gay and Lesbian History Month" are offered, let alone how depictions of gays and lesbians equals "indoctrinat[ing] school children into the 'gay' agenda." In an Oct. 6 article misleadingly headlined "'Gay' groups: We have rights to your children!" WND claimed that "[a] collection of 'gay' organizations has filed a friend-of-the-court brief in a Massachusetts lawsuit, claiming they have every right to teach their doctrine to grade-school students." In fact, the brief -- as quoted by WND -- states that "Parental rights, according to the brief filed this week, "have never meant that a parent can demand prior notice and the right to opt a child out of mere exposure to ideas in the public schools that a parent disapproves of." Nevertheless, WND quotes unchallenged a claim from a "pro-family" group that homosexuals want to "push their message on children," adding that the "true agenda" of the sponsors of the brief "is apparent in the demands that the state has a legal obligation to teach homosexual issues to young children in the public schools."
Posted by Terry K.
at 9:27 AM EDT
Letter to the Editor
Topic: WorldNetDaily To: Washington Examiner (More here.)
Posted by Terry K.
at 12:16 AM EDT
Sunday, October 8, 2006
NewsMax Desperately Spins Poll
Topic: Newsmax Here's the lead of an Oct. 8 NewsMax article:
NewsMax's headline, however, reads: "Poll: GOP Voters Backing Hastert." That requires not only an extrapolation that since 29 percent of Republicans say Hastert tried to cover up Foley's misdeeds 71 percent thought otherwise, but a willful disregard of the poll's actual findings. One really has to work to find good news for Republicans in this poll, and God bless 'em, NewsMax did.
Posted by Terry K.
at 5:19 PM EDT
WND Columnist Cites Biased Anti-Gay Research
Topic: WorldNetDaily An Oct. 7 WorldNetDaily column by Olivia St. John ("a freelance writer with almost 20 years of experience as a home educator") fails to point out the anti-gay background of a researcher whose statistics she cites. St. John writes:
St. John's calling Satinover "connected" to Yale and Harvard is a bit of resume-padding done in order to enhance Satinover's patina of credibility. According to Satinover's CV, any connection to Yale and Harvard in fields related to the study of homosexuality was long ago; he received a master's degree in clinical psychology from Harvard in 1973 and served a residency and fellowship at Yale in the mid-1980s. Satinover's anti-gay bias makes his research suspect. For instance, according to an interview with the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality -- a group that advocates therapy regimens to change homosexual orientation -- calls homosexuality "psychologically unhealthy," "an inferior way of life,"and a "sociopathy" akin to "grow[ing] up in a Cosa Nostra family," adding that "homosexuality--like narcissism--is best viewed as a spiritual and moral illness." Further, in accepting the views of Satinover that "pedophilia is far more common among homosexuals than heterosexuals," St. John also ignores research that gay men are no more likely than heterosexual men to perpetrate child sexual abuse and that that figures showing "male pedophiles are more likely to molest boys than girls" are not evidence that gay men are more likely to abuse children than straight men because they conflate men who abuse boys with gay men. We hope such biased claims as she inserted into her column are not what St. John is serving up as she homeschools her children.
Posted by Terry K.
at 11:48 AM EDT
Saturday, October 7, 2006
NewsBusters Muffs Fact on Keillor
Topic: NewsBusters The October 6 edition of NewsBusters' "Weekend Captionfest" -- a weekly feature in which posters are invited to write derogatory captions about liberals -- features a photo of director Robert Altman and "radio personality" Garrison Keillor. Matthew Sheffield added "NPR" in brackets before "radio personality." But Keillor does not work for National Public Radio. As the "Prairie Home Companion" website to which Sheffield linked "NPR" shows, Keillor's program is produced by Prairie Home Productions and distributed by American Public Media, neither of which is National Public Radio. We understand how such an error could come about, given that American Public Media produces and distributes programs that appear on many NPR-affiliated stations. But the Media Research Center is supposed to be monitoring public radio for "liberal bias" and presumably is aware of the difference between NPR and companies that supply programs to public radio stations. Still, it's a sloppy error.
Posted by Terry K.
at 7:30 PM EDT
CNS Misleads on Pelosi and Unemployment
Topic: CNSNews.com An Oct. 6 CNSNews.com article by Nathan Burchfiel misleadingly portrayed House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi's remarks about the latest employment statistics by not offering any details about the statistics themselves. Burchfiel wrote:
But Burchfiel's article offers no context that would explain why Pelosi would criticize an "optimistic jobs report," thus, possibly intentionally, making her look silly for criticizing a decrease in the unemployment rate. As Pelosi's press release also notes -- but Burchfiel doesn't -- statistics showed that only 51,000 jobs were created in September; economists generally agree that 150,000 jobs a month need to be created to keep pace with population growth. Burchfiel also failed to note that the reason the September unemployment rate went down was an upward revision in the number of jobs created in August, not for what happened in September.
Posted by Terry K.
at 9:51 AM EDT
Friday, October 6, 2006
Another Double Standard: Oil Prices vs. Dow Highs
Topic: Media Research Center Remember when the Media Research Center folks were obsessed with the idea that the record-high oil prices of earlier this year weren't actually records when adjusted for inflation? That obsession is overlooked when the "record" numbers make the Bush administration look good. NewsBusters posts by Ken Shepherd on Oct. 4 and Oct. 5 touted the "record high" for the Dow Jones Industrial Average; on Oct. 5, Shepherd pointed out the Dow's "third straight record high." An Oct. 6 article by Shepherd at the MRC's Business & Media Institute states, "The Dow Jones average closed at a record high for the third consecutive trading day." But that's not quite true. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities:
If the MRC is going to demand that oil prices be compared with adjusted-for-inflation figures -- indeed, an April 22 NewsBusters post by Brent Baker called it "the only competent way to measure any price over time" -- shouldn't it do the same for all economic indicators?
Posted by Terry K.
at 4:21 PM EDT
CREW vs. Judicial Watch: The ConWeb Double Standard
Topic: CNSNews.com The ConWeb has their long knives out for Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington. An Oct. 6 WorldNetDaily article by Bob Unruh described CREW as "funded by billionaire George Soros" before he even served up the group's name. In describing CREW's Freedom of Information Act request seeking details on visits by nine leading religious-right figures to the Bush White House, Unruh quoted two of those figures attacking CREW's request as a "publicity stunt" by "left-wing bullies" but did not quote anyone from CREW itself. An Oct. 6 CNSNews.com article by Monisha Bansal quoted Andrea Lafferty of the conservative group Concerned Women for America calling CREW a "front group" for Soros, further calling Soros "a very wealthy, manipulative, evil person who is trying to direct the outcome of this election, and he is going after Christians." The ConWeb's eagerness to denounce CREW by denouncing one of its donors runs in stark contrast to its treatment of another legal organization. A search of the online archives of both WND and CNS show no reporting at all on the links between the conservative legal group Judicial Watch -- famous for its numerous lawsuits against the Clinton administration -- and right-wing financier Richard Mellon Scaife. As CNN reported, Judicial Watch received $550,000 from Scaife-controlled foundations in 1997 alone. According to SourceWatch, from 1997 to 2002, Scaife foundations gave more than $7 million to Judicial Watch. Meanwhile, as we've noted, CREW has received a mere $100,000 from a Soros-backed group. The funding of legal groups wasn't an issue for the ConWeb before. Why start now?
Posted by Terry K.
at 4:01 PM EDT
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