Topic: NewsBusters
The political angst of Tim Graham and crew is awfully close to having a body count: They're kicking conservatives out of the club for being insufficiently loyal to John McCain and Sarah Palin. Read more >>
Friday, November 7, 2008
New Article -- Out There, Exhibit 48: The Heathers at NewsBusters
Topic: NewsBusters The political angst of Tim Graham and crew is awfully close to having a body count: They're kicking conservatives out of the club for being insufficiently loyal to John McCain and Sarah Palin. Read more >>
Posted by Terry K.
at 1:45 AM EST
ConWeb Dumps McCain, Rushes to Palin's Defense
Topic: The ConWeb Having seen its side lose the election, the ConWeb is now engaging in little cleansing ritual: throwing John McCain under the bus and defending Sarah Palin from criticism. Newsmax has been the leader so far. A Nov. 5 article by Dave Eberhart blamed McCain's loss on "the woeful campaign they said John McCain had run and how blatantly biased the media has been." After noting revelations that Palin's "infamous shopping expeditions for her entire family were even more outrageous than previously reported," Eberhart spun it as best he could: "But the McCain campaign failed to turn the clothes issue into positive spin: Palin was an "average Jane" who wasn't a millionaire like the Obamas." He continued:
Eberhart concluded: "Sarah Palin demonstrated real charisma and will remain a force in the GOP for years to come." A Nov. 6 article by Jim Meyers was even harsher on McCain and more defensive of Palin:
A Nov. 6 article by Rick Pedraza featured right-wing radio host Michael Reagan asserting that "Palin is not the reason McCain lost the presidential election to Barack Obama." That blame, he said, goes to "George Bush and his lack of leadership in Washington, D.C. with his own party." At CNSNews.com, a Nov. 6 article by Susan Jones headlined "The Post-Election Sliming of Sarah Palin" lamented that "Disgruntled McCain staffers apparently are behind media reports critical of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin":
That's the entire article; Jones doesn't offer detail on any of the claims. Even normally friendly Fox News reporters weren't immune to scrutiny for telling the truth about Palin. A Nov. 6 NewsBusters post by Sharon Hughes complained that "Carl Cameron of FOX News reporting for the "O'Reilly Factor" took the low road yesterday in repeating rumors and gossip from unnamed staffers in the McCain camp about Sarah Palin: her knowledge, temperament, being a shopoholic, etc." Hughes continued:
Hughes makes no effort to disprove the claims, nor does she provide a video of Cameron making the claims so that her readers can judge for themselves (that would be here). She also fails to explain that having "an 80% approval rating in her own state of Alaska" (in fact, it's currently 65 percent) has nothing whatsoever to do with the accusations made by those unnamed McCain staffers.
Posted by Terry K.
at 12:36 AM EST
Thursday, November 6, 2008
WND Not Fond of Single Women
Topic: WorldNetDaily WorldNetDaily arguably declared war on women with its disturbing obsession with female teachers accused of having sexual relations with students. Now comes a Nov. 5 WND article citing polling results stating that unmarried women supported Barack Obama "by a stunning 70 to 29 percent margin" -- or, actually, the WND poll of the day asking readers their opinion on this development. The four top results as of this writing:
Do WND and its readers have some issues they need to work out with a licensed therapist? It appears so.
Posted by Terry K.
at 4:45 PM EST
NewsBusters Flip-Flops on Tough Questions
Topic: NewsBusters It was just a week or so ago that NewsBusters was ridiculing Democrats for going into "full panic mode" over a "grilling" of Joe Biden by an Orlando anchorwoman. Apparently, it doesn't work the other way. From a Nov. 5 NewsBusters post by P.J. Gladnick:
Gladnick later adds: "WARNING! WARNING! Stand by for a sleaze attack by Rick Sanchez." That "sleaze attack": noting that Wurzelbacher owes back taxes. Funny, we thought NewsBusters liked it when anchors asked tough questions of political figures. Guess not; Gladnick concludes: "It looks like Rick Sanchez will air your dirty laundry if he finds he is losing an argument." P.S. The headline on Gladnick's item is "Rick Sanchez Gets Dirty With Joe the Plumber." Does Gladnick know what he/she is implying by putting "dirty" and "Sanchez" in close proximity in the headline?
Posted by Terry K.
at 3:17 PM EST
Raezler Still Complaining That Media Told Truth About Palin
Topic: NewsBusters Before the election, as we noted, the MRC's Culture & Media Institute released a report complaining about news coverage of Sarah Palin focused too much on the (very much true) facts that Palin didn't display a whole heck of a lot of knowledge during interviews, that some conservatives declined to support her, and that she served as the McCain campaign's attack dog. Report co-author Colleen Raezler is still pushing her faulty meme in a Nov. 5 NewsBusters post, complaining that an NBC report "virtually recapitulated CMI's study in a single news segment." Raezler again lamented that Palin is being portrayed as "unqualified and unintelligent" even as evidence piles up to support the claim. Any chance Raezler will ever concede that the things she's complaining about are basically true and that what she's really complaining about is that the media didn't slavishly repeat McCain campaign spin? Somehow we doubt it. UPDATE: A Nov. 6 post by Matthew Sheffield is quite happy to report that Palin "seems to have gone out of her way to attack the press," uncritically repeating her lament that there's a lack of "fairness and objectivity in the reporting."
Posted by Terry K.
at 11:48 AM EST
Updated: Thursday, November 6, 2008 1:34 PM EST
Brennan Falsely Claims Earth Is Cooling
Topic: Newsmax In his Nov. 5 Newsmax column, Phil Brennan asserts: "The Earth is not warming. The 28-year period of warming between 1970 and 1998 stopped dead in its tracks, and the climate has been cooling ever since. That's a fact, but the global warmiacs ignore facts because they sometimes tend to be inconvenient." Actually, Brennan's the person ignoring the facts. As we've previously detailed, researchers have found that the Earth, in fact, got warmer over the past decade, not cooler.
Posted by Terry K.
at 9:27 AM EST
NewsBusters Downplaying Obama Mandate
Topic: NewsBusters NewsBusters is joining Newsmax in downplaying the idea of Barack Obama having a mandate to do anything. A Nov. 4 post by Jeff Poor repeats CNBC's Larry Kudlow's warning that "Obama shouldn't misinterpret the election results to unleash an attack on vital parts of the economy," adding, "Kudlow explained to viewers that some of Obama's strength on Election Day came in traditionally red states by very close margins - meaning Obama voters wanted change, but not radical liberal policies." And a Nov. 4 post by Matthew Sheffield tout how, on CNN, "Bill Bennett was the lone voice trying to say that an Obama presidency is not a mandate for radical liberalism," going on to complain how after recent presidential election victories by George W. Bush, "one of the most common liberal media refrains was how Republicans shouldn't read too much into their victories." But as we detailed in 2004, the ConWeb insisted Bush had a solid mandate, even though he defeated John Kerry by only half the margin that Obama defeated John McCain. By that measure, Obama has much more of a mandate than Bush did.
Posted by Terry K.
at 9:04 AM EST
Obama Derangement Syndrome, Bitter Post-Election Division
Topic: WorldNetDaily
-- Craige McMillan, Nov. 6 WorldNetDaily column
-- Jill Stanek, Nov. 6 WorldNetDaily column
-- Erik Rush, Nov. 6 WorldNetDaily column
Posted by Terry K.
at 1:29 AM EST
Updated: Thursday, November 6, 2008 1:29 AM EST
Newsmax Downplays Obama, Dem Mandate
Topic: Newsmax When President Bush won re-election in 2004 with a bare majority of 51 percent of the vote, the ConWeb did its best to portray it as a mandate. The leader was Newsmax, which stated: "The major media are very angry George Bush won the presidency by a significant margin. America is not divided. The race was not even close. The verdict of the people is clear: Americans today support President Bush and the values he stands for." Newsmax's Christopher Ruddy followed up by asserting that "the American people voted decisively to re-elect President Bush." But with Barack Obama's victory margin over John McCain being twice as large as Bush's over John Kerry in 2004, what is Newsmax doing? Playing down the idea he has any sort of mandate. Lowell Ponte tried some pre-emptive mandate-squashing in a Nov. 3 Newsmax article:
How so? Ponte cited a 2004 statement by Newsweek's Evan Thomas that media bias is "worth maybe 15 points" to the Democrats, which "could give Mr. Obama 15 more points on election day that he would never have won had the media been fair." Ponte continued:
That claim comes from an similar one Ponte made in an Oct. 6 Newsmax article: "In 2005, Virginia authorities sampled Project Vote registrations and rejected 83 percent of them for containing false or questionable information." Ponte offers no evidence to back up this claim or the source from where he plucked it. A quick Google search uncovered no independent source making the same claim. Nevertheless, Ponte deducted 3.3 million votes, or 2.75 percent, from Obama's vote total and concluded:
And Ponte's ethical dishonesty is offering statistics that can't be verified, as well as general Democrat Derangement Syndrome.
Posted by Terry K.
at 12:40 AM EST
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Aaron Klein Just Can't Quit Ahmed Yousef
Topic: WorldNetDaily Despite the failure of his previous attempts to smear Barack Obama by promoting apparent endorsements of Obama (and Joe Biden) by a Hamas official, Aaron Klein goes back to the Ahmed Yousef well one more time, using a Nov. 5 WorldNetDaily article to quote Yousef, "Hamas' chief political adviser in the Gaza Strip," as saying that Hamas "is drafting a letter of congratulation to be sent tomorrow directly to Obama." As before, Klein buries the fact that Obama has condemned Hamas as a terrorist group far down in the article. It appears that Klein is using Yousef like an automaton, playing that particular key on his mighty Wurlitzer whenever he feels the need to link Obama to terrorism. Is Yousef aware he's being cynically used by Klein? And thus, Klein's hatred of Obama will continue to burn brightly for the next four to eight years, even though his (and WND's) brand of fact-free smears masquerading as "reporting" has been repudiated by Obama's win.
Posted by Terry K.
at 2:51 PM EST
Updated: Wednesday, November 5, 2008 2:54 PM EST
Smerconish Gets Heathered
Topic: NewsBusters Along with Tim Graham, P.J. Gladnick has a key component of NewsBusters' Heathers crew, ostracizing anyone not sufficiently, slavishly dedicated to the right-wing agenda. The latest victim is Philadelphia radio host Michael Smerconish. In a Nov. 4 post, Gladnick gets all snippy about "conservative" (the scare quotes are Gladnick's) Smerconish's endorsement of Barack Obama, channeling right-wing blogger Brian Maloney's baseless assertion that Smerconish did so only to please his corporate bosses and to gain greater exposure in the form of his show expanding to Washington, D.C. Gladnick called Smerconish's endorsement "self-serving" and "career-enhancing," adding ominously, "It's all part of the Faustian bargain. Selling your soul comes with a huge price tag as Smerconish will find out." And Smerconish won't get to hang out at the mall with Gladnick anymore, either.
Posted by Terry K.
at 9:16 AM EST
Obama Derangement Syndrome, Bitter Post-Election Division
Topic: WorldNetDaily
-- Mark Crutcher, Nov. 5 WorldNetDaily column
Posted by Terry K.
at 1:42 AM EST
Morris Tries to Spin Obama, Dem Landslide
Topic: Newsmax Dick Morris attempted a bit of quasi-liveblogging of the election at Newsmax. He was trying to spin away Republican losses and the Obama landslide, which got more strained as the night went on: 8:09 p.m.: "If you look at Virginia and Kentucky, it looks like a narrow McCain victory. If you look at Florida and Indiana, it looks like a big Obama win. All four states have less than a quarter of the vote in, so we can't jump to conclusions. ... On Senate races, Sue Collins' win in Maine is important. That indicates perhaps that the Dems won't reach 60 votes." 8:41 p.m.: "With McCain doing better than expected in Kentucky and Virginia, and perhaps in Georgia, it looks good for him. But Florida is the fly in the ointment." 8:52 p.m.: "One thing is clear at this point: The polls were wrong!!! Obama may still win, but he is not winning by the margins the polls predicted. In state after state, it is obvious that McCain is doing better than predicted. ... Until we see how McCain does in North Carolina and Florida (he has to win both to win the election), we cannot see how the race will go nationally. But it is clear that this is no blowout as the polls had predicted." 8:58 p.m.: "Fox News and Newsmax report that exit polls are 5 points to 10 points more pro Obama than the actual vote. This election could be very, very close." 9:25 p.m.: "It would appear that Obama is going to win, although not by the margins that had been predicted." 9:37 p.m.: "So at this point my guess would be, just projecting out, that you will obviously have a Democratic gain in the Senate. They also picked up Virginia. But I do believe it’s not going to be a 60-vote Senate. I think it will be a 56- to 58-vote Senate. That of course means you are going to have a strong Democratic majority and Republicans will have a hard time mounting a filibuster, but you can’t actually count it out. I think the Democratic gains in the Senate are less than their optimists had predicted."
Posted by Terry K.
at 12:01 AM EST
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
WND Still Can't Let Go of Obama Birth Certificate Myth
Topic: WorldNetDaily A Nov. 4 WorldNetDaily article is yet another in the series of articles on Philip Berg's lawsuit claiming Barack obama's birth certificate is fake without mentioning the fact that WND previously reported that Berg's lawsuit "relies on discredited claims" and that "A separate WND investigation into Obama's birth certificate utilizing forgery experts also found the document to be authentic."
Posted by Terry K.
at 8:05 PM EST
WND Omits Other Side In Alleged Black Panther 'Intimidation'
Topic: NewsBusters A Nov. 4 WorldNetDaily article by Chelsea Schilling howled: "Armed Black Panthers blocked a doorway to a polling location and intimidated voters in Philadelphia, Pa., according to Republican poll observers." Schilling told only the point of view of those "Republican poll observers" as reported by Fox News, baselessly asserted that "one of many cases of intimidation against people who do not support Obama at Philadelphia polling sites," and made no attempt to tell the other side of the story. By contrast, TPM's Greg Sargent reports:
Why are Schilling and WND afraid to tell their readers the full story? UPDATE: Newsmax is afraid too: A Nov. 4 article by David Alliot also fails to tell the full story, taking the lazy way out by similarly limiting himself to regurgitating Fox News' version of events.
Posted by Terry K.
at 5:47 PM EST
Updated: Tuesday, November 4, 2008 5:52 PM EST
|
Find more neat stuff at the ConWebWatch store! Buy through this Amazon link and support ConWebWatch!
Entries by Topic
All topics « Accuracy in Media Capital Research Center CNSNews.com Free Congress Foundation Free Republic Horowitz Media Research Center NewsBusters Newsmax The ConWeb The Daily Les Washington Examiner Western Journalism Center WorldNetDaily
Watchers
Media Matters for America County Fair The Daily Howler LGF Watch SullyWatch Fact-esque Malkin(s)Watch Reading A1 (NYT) John Gorenfeld (Moonies) NewsHounds (Fox News) Media Watch CJR Daily The Counterpoint (Sinclair) BlatherWatch (Seattle Radio) Watching OlbermannWatch
Blogs
Talking Points Memo Eschaton Suburban Guerrilla World O'Crap Sadly, No! Oliver Willis Angry Single Mom Orcinus Bartholomew's Notes on Religion PFAW's Right Wing Watch Altercation Max Blumenthal
Support Bloggers' Rights! |