CNS Plays Gotcha With Hispanic Lawmakers Topic: CNSNews.com
A May 22 CNSNews.com article by Peggy Starr plays gotcha with a trio of Democratic Hispanic lawmakers "who spoke Wednesday about alleged anti-immigrant coverage by conservative media outlets," describing them as "not aware of a recent State Department travel alert warning Americans about military-like 'combat' along the southern U.S. border in Mexico, where Americans are being kidnapped and murdered."
Starr does not explain the relevance of border violence to the issue of coverage of immigration in the media. Further, buried in the article are statements from all three members of Congress questioned -- Reps. Robert Menendez, Luis Guiterrez and Hilda Solis -- that make it clear that, contrary to what the lead of her article suggests, they are all aware of the problem of border violence.
It appears that Starr's article is nothing more than a "gotcha" exercise -- as we've detailed, CNS is doing more such articles targeting Democratic lawmakers in order to catch them off guard in the hope of gathering an incriminating quote to use against them.
Meanwhile, Starr does little regarding the actual report on "alleged anti-immigrant coverage by conservative media outlets" that prompted this little gotcha exercise beyond a paragraph at the end summarizing it. (Disclosure: the report was issued by an affiliate of Media Matters, our employer.)
MRC: Linking Parsley to McCain Is 'Left-Wing Attack' Topic: NewsBusters
A May 22 NewsBusters post by Scott Whitlock declared in its headline that an ABC News story on controversial attacks on Islam by Rev. Ron Parsley -- who has endorsed John McCain and who McCain calls a spiritual adviser -- is a "left-wing attack." The article continued:
"Good Morning America" on Thursday picked up an attack on John McCain that has grown popular in left-wing media outlets and turned it into a Brian Ross investigation of the senator's "pastor problem."
While Whitlock conceded that McCain "sought the reverend's support in February 2008," he insisted that "McCain is not a member of Parsley's World Harvest Church in Columbus, Ohio." Whitlock then invoked the MRC's standard equivocation defense on issues regarding Parsley and that other controversial McCain endorser, John Hagee: "McCain's associations with Parsley are rather slight, despite the misleading 'McCain's pastor' headline. However, [Barack] Obama went to [Jeremiah] Wright's church for 20 years." Whitlock went on to attack ABC reporter Brian Ross (boldface his):
Ross also slammed McCain for being "apparently unconcerned about what Parsley stands for." In contrast, during the March segment, although Ross featured Wright's more extreme statements, he wasn't as harsh on the Democratic candidate. Instead, he rather weakly observed, "With a powerful voice and his strong words, Reverend Wright can be a mesmerizing presence."
So, if linking Parsley to McCain is a "left-wing attack," doesn't that make attempts to tie Wright to Obama a "right-wing attack"?
P.S. As of this writing, no NewsBusters writer has seen fit to mention the current state of (lack of) relations between McCain and Rev. John Hagee. Apparently, they consider that a "left-wing attack" too.
WorldNetDaily continued its anti-gay agenda with a pair of articles:
-- A May 19 article by Chelsea Schilling declared: "Nationwide outrage against public school participation in the 'gay'-friendly 2008 Day of Silence resulted in hundreds of students boycotting the observance and some administrators canceling pro-homosexual activities." Schilling offered no objective evidence, other than the personal opinion of anti-gay activist Linda Harvey, that the "Day of Silence" is "pro-homosexual."
-- Apparently taking its cue from Warner Todd Huston's anti-gay rant, a May 21 article reported on a South Carolina high school principal's plan to resign "following a demand to launch a student club to promote homosexuality." Again, no objective evidence is offered beyond personal opinions that the Gay-Straight Alliance Club "promote[s] homosexuality."
WND has reported extensively on the nationwide campaign by homosexual clubs to inject homosexuality into public schools.
Such clubs typically are cited as the sponsors of the annual "Day of Silence" promotional event for homosexuality.
Once again, no evidence is offered that any of this "promotes homosexuality." WND is merely invoking the Depiction-Equals-Approval Fallacy.
Knight Backtracks A Bit on Decemberists, Then Launches New Attack Topic: CNSNews.com
Robert Knight has retooled his use of the Decemberists to attack Barack Obama.
Knight rewrote his earlier NewsBusters post -- in which he, demonstrating his lack of knowledge about the band, essentially claimed that a 70,000-plus crowd in Portland came to see the Decemberists (a band with a relatively small following, even in Portland) and not Obama -- for a May 22 CNSNews.com column. Knight backed off that uninformed insinuation, conceding that "it is safe to assume that most people came out for the Obama rally."
But this time, he leads off with the claim, lifted from Wikipedia, that the band "often opens its own shows with the National Anthem of the now-defunct Soviet Union."
Knight never answers the obvious question: "So what?" Nor does he explain why this should be considered more offensive than, say, John McCain endorser John Hagee proclaiming that Hitler was a "hunter" who was tasked with expediting God's will of having the Jews re-establish a state of Israel.
Former Democratic President Bill Clinton also traveled to Israel for a historic celebration. But, being always a petty, point-scoring opportunist, Clinton exited the main door of Air Force One to greet Israeli leaders in front of news cameras while requiring Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich to exit by a rear door.
The liberal mainstream media depicted Gingrich as reacting petulantly to Clinton’s action. But the real victim of Clinton’s childish political act was not Gingrich but Israel.
The safety of the Jewish state depends on America’s unwavering bipartisan support.
By forcing America’s highest ranking Republican to the back of the bus, Bill Clinton signaled that he put an egotistical adolescent gesture of American politics above a life-or-death symbolic reaffirmation of unified American support for Israel.
This Clinton insult to ally Israel was shameful.
1) The "historic celebration" in question was the funeral of assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Why does Ponte think this was a "celebration"?
2) Gingrich was depicted as "reacting petulantly" because he did, in fact, act petulant. Gingrich cited the incident as a reason he and the then-Republican-controlled Congress sent Clinton a continuing resolution they knew he would not sign, thus forcing a partial government shutdown. Further, as Clinton officials pointed out at the time, Gingrich was allowed to take his wife on the trip, while other officials' wives were bumped because there was no room on the plane, hardly the sign of an "insult."
3) Since when is Gingrich -- or, more to the point, Gingrich's ego -- synonymous with the state of Israel?
We've noted that for all of WorldNetDaily's bluster about having, in Aaron Klein's words, "one agenda: fierce independent reporting that exposes the truth," there's a marked refusal on WND's part to cover John McCain as aggressively as Barack Obama. Nowhere is this disparity more starkly illustrated than in the area of pastors linked to candidates.
While WND has published article after article referencing Jeremiah Wright's relationship with Obama and the various controversial statements he has made -- a search of WND's archive for Wright's name generates 151 hits as of this writing -- WND has not published a single news article about controversial statements made by John Hagee, a conservative pastor whose endorsement McCain sought. Indeed, there have been a mere two references to date to the controversy in any form at WND: a May 9 syndicated column by token liberal Bill Press noting that Hagee has been "given a free ride by the media" (and WND too, he might have added), and a May 6 column by Dennis Prager defending Hagee.
Why is that? Perhaps because WND is not so fiercely independent as it claims to be.
As we've noted, WND editor Joseph Farah appears to be a little too close to the situation, having previously called Hagee "my friend" in a 2007 column and published a column by Hagee for a time in 2002. WND's online store also sellstwo Hagee-penned books.
Wouldn't a "fiercely independent" news website be unafraid of reporting things regardless of its personal and business relationships? It seems that WND is not that website.
Will WND continue to remain silent on Hagee, even with his latest outrageous claim -- that Hitler was doing God's will to force Jews to move to Israel? Certainly that trumps much of what WND has reported about Wright. Certainly even Orthodox Jew Aaron Klein would be offended by that.
Or Farah may actually agree with Hagee -- Hagee and Farah are buddies, after all. Silence equals assent, they say.
Will WND dare to touch this statement in any fashion? We shall see, but we won't be holding our breath.
Huston Likens Homosexuality to Bestiality, KKK, Nazis, Black Panthers, Anti-Americanism Topic: NewsBusters
In a May 21 NewsBusters post, defending a South Carolina high school principal for resigning rather than presiding over a school that has a Gay/Straight Alliance Club, Warner Todd Huston baselessly attacked the club, alleging without evidence that it encourages sexual activity.
After citing the principal's objection that the club "implies that students joining the club will have chosen to or will choose to engage in sexual activity with members of the same sex, opposite sex, or members of both sexes" (again, no evidence is cited that this is the case), Huston adds:
This is exactly right on. Why are we promoting "clubs" in a high school based on sexual activity? Do we have a porno club at Irmo high school? Why not? How about a polygamy club? Maybe a bestiality club?
[...]
Like I said, if the kids wanted to form a "club" that supports pornography, would that be OK? After all, porn is legal. How about a "club" that promotes dancing strippers? A beer drinking club? How about a club that specifies support of terrorists? One that promotes Jew hatred, supports the KKK, the Nazis, gangs, the Black Panthers or Louis Farrakhan? Wouldn't the school have a vested interest in stopping these sorts of clubs based on hatred, anti-Americanism, and anti-social behavior? Is the school so bereft of moral convictions that they'd bend over for every socially backward and dangerous "club" to be formed just because the kids wanted it?
So not only is homosexuality is the same as bestality and polygamy (we're shocked he didn't throw incest in there), it's the same being a member of the KKK or the Black Panthers, and anti-American to boot.
See, folks, this is why we devoted an entire article to Huston's whacked-out ravings. Looks like he's generating enough material for a second one.
P.S. Huston also gets the name of the paper he's ranting against wrong, calling it "a small paper in South Carolina called The Statesman." In fact, it's The State in Columbia, South Carolina's capital. According to its website, it has an average daily circulation of 107,153 and an average Sunday circulation of 139,521.
Well, he did get the fact that it's located in South Carolina correct...
Aaron Klein Anti-Obama Agenda Watch Topic: WorldNetDaily
Aaron Klein's anti-Obama to anti-McCain article ratio has increased from 24-to-1 to 25-to-1 with a May 20 guilt-by-association article attacking Obama's church.
Meanwhile, an unbylined WND article references Klein's questionable interview of a Hamas supporter endorsing Obama without mentioning the pertinent fact that Obama opposes negotiation with Hamas.
Has Anyone At NewsBusters Actually Listened to the Decemberists? Topic: NewsBusters
A May 20 NewsBusters post by Robert Knight fowards one of the more absurd ideas of the election season: that the 70,000-plus attending a speech by Barack Obama in Portand didn't go to see him but, instead, the Portland-based band the Decemberists, which played before Obama's speech.
Knight declared the Decemberists "actual rock stars," pointing out that the band "has drawn rave reviews from Rolling Stone magazine." (This may be the first instance of an MRC employee referencing Rolling Stone in a non-derogatory manner.) Knight added that "Indie rock Web sites were abuzz with news of the impending concert"; somehow, we can't imagine Knight trolling said websites for the latest news about the Decemberists. Knight concluded by sniffing:
There's nothing wrong with a candidate using celebrity power to draw a crowd, but the media have a responsibility to report their presence. By ignoring the free concert, the Times and other outlets made it appear that 75,000 people were drawn only by Sen. Obama's considerable charisma.
This makes sense only if you, like Knight, know nothing about indie rock in general or the Decemberists in particular.
According to Billboard, the Decemberists' most recent album, "The Crane Wife," sold 151,000 copies in its first two months of release -- healthy numbers for a indie band but not exactly a sign of mass appeal. Billboard goes on to note that the band was "gearing up for a spring trek that will hit 1,500- to 3,000-capacity venues across the United States." A previous tour, Billboard wrote, drew 32,000 people over 18 shows.
That's a sign that the band would in all likelihood not be able to fill a 70,000-seat venue by itself anywhere -- even in Portland. They may be popular in Portland, but not that popular. Knight is just desperately trying to denigrate Obama's popularity.
As a measure of pop-culture cluelessness, Knight ranks slightly below Accuracy in Media's attempt to portray Rufus Wainwright as a "mainstream" artist in order to claim that the music industry was shoving gay musicians down the public's throat.
In her May 20 WorldNetDaly column portraying same-sex marriage as a harbinger for the end of the world (seriously!), Janet Folger cited, as a source to back up the claim, "Jeffrey Satinover, who holds an M.D. from Princeton and doctorates from Yale, MIT and Harvard."
As wedetailed when Folger previously cited him, Satinover is an anti-gay psychiatrist who 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." Not the person to go to for an unbiased view on the issue, yet Folger loves to cite him anyway.
Folger has been busy of late being inflammatory; as Right Wing Watch noted, in her May 13 WND column, Folger likened supporting Barack Obama to supporting Nazis.
We think that's a step up from authoritatively citing neo-Nazi racists, but we're not sure.
New Article: Shoebat's Story Topic: WorldNetDaily
Muslim-turned-Christian Walid Shoebat is the star attraction of WorldNetDaily's new anti-Islam book. But WND has kept mum on questions about the veracity of Shoebat's claim to be a former terrorist. Read more >>
So Warner Todd Huston has his panties in a bunch over an allegedly offensive (to conservatives, at least) Daily Kos thread, adding ominously: "Even more damning, Kos pulled the entire post off the website."
Then, Huston should consider it equally damning that a Free Republic thread on the news of Ted Kennedy's brain tumor has numerous posts deleted from it by a moderator.
Why? As Pandagon notes, the thread was locked at one point with a message from the moderator: "Some of you are a disgrace to this forum, and life is too short to waste cleaning up your messes." (The thread is now apparently open again, headed by the moderator's opaque statement, "It was locked for reasons that should be obvious to everyone by now.")
LiberalLand caught some of those now-presumably deleted Freeper posts on Kennedy that are, shall we say, less than respectful.
Will Huston take Free Republic to task the way he has Daily Kos for its similar damning behavior? Don't count on it. One might even call it a metaphysical certainty that he won't.
UPDATE: The same goes for any mention of Michael Savage playing a Dead Kennedys song out of "some respect" for Ted Kennedy's brain tumor.
Yet another example of WorldNetDaily's anti-Obama (and de facto pro-McCain) agenda is a May 19 article portraying Barack Obama has having "pooh-poohed the idea that Iran or any of a few other 'tiny' nations around the world offer a serious potential threat to the United States or the free world," compared with the threat posed by the Soviet Union. WND devotes 16 of the article's 23 paragraphs to quoting McCain, right-wing blogger (though not identified as one) Ed Morrissey and even commenters on "a forum on YouTube" attacking Obama.
Further, as is WND style, the article does not quote Obama responding to the criticism, even though his reaction (to McCain's attack, not that of the YouTube commenters) was available prior to WND's posting of its article.
MRC-Fox News Appearance Watch Topic: Media Research Center
A May 20 appearance by Brent Bozell on "Fox & Friends" offers a shocking deviation from the template: he doesn't appear solo but is paired with radio host Mike Papantonio.
Even more shocking: While at one point Bozell is introduced only as "president of the Media Research Center" while at the same time Papantonio is described as a "liberal radio host," the segment concludes with one host say, "We thank you guys for representing the right and the left." The MRC's clip of the segment contains only highlights and not the entire segment, so we can't determine if Bozell was identified as a conservative at any other point in the segment. But such acknowledgment that anyone from the MRC is right of center is a rarity on Fox News.
UPDATE: In an appearance on the May 20 edition of "America's Election HQ" -- the MRC's Rich Noyes takes President Bush's side (as does anchor Megyn Kelly) on a controversy over how an interview with NBC was edited. Kelly not only echoed Noyes' talking points, she returns to the template: Noyes appeared solo and is not identified as a conservative.
Klein Absurdly Denies Having Anti-Obama Agenda Topic: WorldNetDaily
Joseph Farah's May 20 WorldNetDaily column attacked a Congressional Quarterly writer who suggested that WND is promoting John McCain's agenda by repeatedly attacking Barack Obama (which, as we've noted, is arguably true). Showing the class we've come to expect from WND, Farah smears the CQ writer, Shawn Zeller, as "some lightweight staffer," "this little twit," and "a pasty-faced nerd who gets his jollies ripping real reporters from the friendly confines of his CQ office."
One paragraph from Zeller's CQ item caught our eye:
But in an e-mail exchange from Jerusalem, Klein says that it’s absurd to say, as some liberal bloggers have of late, that WorldNetDaily has an anti-Obama agenda. “WND has one agenda: fierce independent reporting that exposes the truth,” he says. “Isn’t it fair to report that the man running for our highest office has some questionable advisers and affiliations? What is not fair is when liberal bloggers call out any reporter who dares expose the truth about their favored presidential candidate.”
To which we say: Yeah, right. But don't take our word for it; just examine Klein's WND article archive. A look at articles Klein has written since the beginning of the year reveals the following count:
Klein articles that attack or reflect negatively on Obama: 24 Klein articles that attack or reflect negatively on McCain: 1
That, of course, doesn't include Obama-bashing articles not written by Klein, of which there are at least as many.
That's irrefutable proof of an anti-Obama agenda. Farah and Klein can deny it -- and likely will -- but you can't spin away hard numbers.
P.S. More evidence: In March, Klein slammed supporters of Obama has having a "malignant messianic infatuation."
