Aaron Klein Anti-Obama Agenda Watch Topic: WorldNetDaily
Aaron Klein is still hurling guilt-by-association garbage at Chas Freeman, President Obama's apparent pick to head the National Intelligence Council. In a Feb. 25 WorldNetDaily article, Klein claims that Freeman "once peddled a book to U.S. public schools that falsely claims Muslims inhabited North America far before European explorers."
But Klein offers no evidence at Freeman personally "peddled" this book, as he states. Rather, all Klein offers is that the organization Fredman heads, the Middle East Policy Council, once promoted it.
That's not a distinction without a difference -- things are often done in an organization's name that its officials may not have necessarily signed off on. Unless Klein can demonstrate Freeman's personal involvement in "peddling" the textbook, Klein's claim is guilt-by-association at best and, completely false at worst.
Klein also repeats his previous false suggestion of ties between Freeman and Osama bin Laden.
Examiner Can't Stop Lying About ACORN Topic: Washington Examiner
A couple weeks ago, as we noted, the Washington Examiner built a "special report" around the false claim, made by local opinion editor Barbara Hollingsworth, that ACORN was allocated money in the stimulus.
Hollingsworth strikes again in a Feb. 26 Examiner column, falsely asserting once more that ACORN "received billions of tax dollars under Obama’s $787 billion stimulus plan."
Once again: ACORN isn't even named in the stimulus bill, let alone allocated money, and ACORN officials have stated that they aren't even eligible for the "billions of tax dollars" it's supposedly getting.
Hollingsworth tries to expand her lie this time around, claiming that La Raza is also receiving "billions of tax dollars" in the stimulus. But she offers no evidence of that, which suggests that this claim is false too. All we could find regarding it is an guilt-by-association assertion by Michelle Malkin that because Citigroup has in the past donated money to La Raza, it's getting stimulus money now.
A Feb. 25 WND article uncritically quotes Philip Berg -- whose lawsuits against Obama demanding that he prove he's a U.S. citizen WND has breathlessly promoted -- calling Obama "an illegal alien" who "should be arrested and deported."
Needless to say, WND fails to mention that it originally debunked Berg's claims about Obama's birth certificate -- including citing "experts" to proclaim that the certificate released by Obama's campaign to be authentic -- before deciding to pretend that it didn't.
New Article: Joseph Farah's Thin Skin Topic: WorldNetDaily
The editor of WorldNetDaily has demonstrated a clear inability to handle criticism, to which he responds by insulting his critics and trying to change the subject. Read more >>
In an interview with the Emory University student newspaper, published Feb. 25 at FrontPageMag, David Horowitz lets a little truth slip out:
How do you feel about being paired in debate with individuals such as Ward Churchill, who you termed “an idiot”? Is it demeaning to be paired with them in debate, as if they’re your equivalent?
Yeah, totally. Believe me, the internet is wonderful and horrible. I know everything that’s said about me thanks to Google. A lot of it is deliberately disrespectful and hateful and is meant to destroy me.
The attacks have been so unprincipled that I have had to create my Center [the David Horowitz Freedom Center] in order to have a platform.
There you have it -- the only reason the Horowitz organization (including FrontPageMag) exists is to promote Horowitz.
WND's Washington: Obama Is A NaziFascist Devil and Mobster Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily columnist Ellis Washington has already smeared President Obama as a Nazi and a fascist. What can he do for an encore? Liken Obama to the devil, of course -- with a side smear of mobster. From Washington's Feb. 25 column:
How does the legend of Faust apply to Gov. Jindal's refusal to accept all of the $100 million dollars Obama is offering the state of Louisiana as part of it's share of stimulus package money. President Obama, like the suave, cosmopolitan Mephistopheles, has not only crafted and passed the largest wealth confiscation in the history of the world, but upon closer examination of the 1,000-plus pages of this bloated, complex and convoluted text, the devil is truly in the details.
[...]
It's like the wedding scene of "The Godfather," Part I, where Michael Corleone recalled his father (Vito Corleone) doing business through his muscleman, Lou Cabrachi: "Either your signature on this contract, or your brains on this contract." President Barack Corleone's so-called $787 billion economic stimulus package has offered America a deal with the devil.
It's only a month into Obama's presidency, and Washington is running out of insults to hurl. We have to wonder: Does Washington insult the college students he teaches the way he insults the president?
Blumer Doesn't Understand the AP (Or, Really, The Entire Media ) Topic: NewsBusters
A Feb. 25 NewsBusters post by Tom Blumer bashes the Associated Press for issuing a story on President Obama's address to Congress, written in past tense, several hours before the speech was given. But Blumer clearly doesn't understand the purpose of such a story.
The AP issues such a advance story for many such addresses, based on an advance copy of the speech. Why? To allow morning newspapers that publish early editions with a publication deadline before the speech is delivered to have a story on the speech. Newspapers with later deadlines would not run this story because it would be updated with reaction to the speech and other details. Since many news websites that publish AP copy are set up to do so automatically, advance stories such as this appear online as well.
Because Blumer doesn't understand what he's criticizing, he chooses to make fun of it, touting its "comic relief."
Blumer has frequently displayed his ignorance of the media he's supposedly criticizing. He has gotten facts wrong, he cluelesslythinks that supposed "liberal bias" is the only possible reason the newspaper industry is in trouble, and he has falsely suggested that President Bush didn't pre-select reporters to take questions from during press conferences while Bashing Obama for doing so.
How does someone who clearly knows so little about the media get to present himself as a media critic? Or is such ignorance a prerequisite for writing at NewsBusters?
Aaron Klein Anti-Obama Agenda Watch Topic: WorldNetDaily
A Feb. 24 WorldNetDaily article by Aaron Klein attacks Chas Freeman, nominated by President Obama to head the National Intelligence Council, as once having "business ties to Osama bin Laden's family." But in baselessly suggesting that Freeman is tied to Osama bin Laden, Klein fails to report relevant details showing the lack of connection between Osama's terrorism and the bin Laden family's business interests.
At no point, for example, does Klein mention the fact that Osama's brother, Bakr bin Laden, publicly renounced Osama bin Laden in a statement released to the media in February 1994. Instead, he claims that "some bin Laden factions have not disowned Osama" -- but never bothers to prove the implication that Freeman is in any way associated with those "factions.
In his Feb. 24 syndicated column, published at WorldNetDaily and Newsmax, David Limbaugh repeats the discredited claim that the stimulus bill is "allocating billions of taxpayer dollars to community organizing groups, such as ACORN."
As we've repeatedlynoted, ACORN isn't even named in the stimulus bill, let alone has money allocated to it, and ACORN officialshave pointed out that they aren't eligible to receive the money people like Limbaugh think they're supposedly "allocated."
Meanwhile ... Topic: WorldNetDaily Ed Brayton and Richard Bartholomew point out that invoking the anti-Semetic Martin Luther to criticize Pope Benedict's lifting of the excommunication of Holocaust denier Richard Williamson, as Les Kinsolving did in his Feb. 17 WorldNetDaily column, is perhaps not the most appropriate analogy.
Sheppard Applauds Destruction of Satellite Topic: NewsBusters
It's not often you see a right-winger root for the destruction of government property, but that's what Noel Sheppard does in a Feb. 24 NewsBusters post as he takes near-sadistic glee in the crash of a NASA rocket containing a satellite to be launched.
Why is Sheppard taking such perverse happiness? Because the satellite was to track worldwide levels of carbon dioxide in order to help track the rate of global warming. Sheppard chortles:
How delicious that it landed near the continent whose expanding ice mass totally defies the myth climate alarmists so eagerly spread for their own purposes.
Not to promote a conspiracy theory here but such anarchic glee makes one wonder if he or his denier cohorts sabotaged the rocket to ensure its destruction. Or perhaps Sheppard is afraid of the possibility of more scientific evidence that would further contradict his politically motivated anti-global-warming activism.
Oh, and contrary to Sheppard's claim, Antarctic ice is, in fact, melting.
Another Bogus Poll from Brad O'Leary Topic: WorldNetDaily
A Feb. 23 WorldNetDaily column by Brad O'Leary purported to offer up another ATI News poll he commissioned from Zogby as evidence that President Obama "has alienated independents, small business leaders, young voters, Catholics and Republicans on a number of legislative victories." But O'Leary doesn't link to the poll or provide any of the questions asked in it, so it's a safe bet that the poll is chock full of the kind of misleading or outright false questions he has previously had Zogby ask.
Remember, O'Leary has an agenda to undermine Obama, so any poll he peddles should be treated with extreme skepticism.
Warner Todd Huston's Feb. 22 NewsBusters post is a screed against a nebulous "Hollywood," asserting that while "self-aggrandizing denizens of Hollywood constantly scold Americans over a lack of national healthcare ... Hollywood is closing its nearly 90-year-old Motion Picture Fund hospital and accompanying long-term living facilities for aging actors."
But "Hollywood" is not closing the facilities -- not that Huston bothers to define what he means by "Hollywood." The facilities are operated by the Motion Picture & Television Fund, "a charitable organization that offers assistance and care to employees of the entertainment industry."
Huston's screed continues, attacking actors who purportedly are not helping the fund:
Yes, with the millions upon millions of dollars in which Hollywood is awash, they are dumping their own healthcare facilities. So, with the many millions with which they could easily fund it laying untapped, why exactly should everyone else feel that the idea is as important as these actors so commonly claim it is if they even refuse pay the bills for their own kind?
Is George Clooney so hurting for cash that he can’t pay a little to the healthcare fund? Is Marlo Thomas in the poor house? Is Ed Asner or Mike Farrell standing in a bread line somewhere?
[...]
Again, these self-important Hollywood types have nearly unlimited amounts of cash, yet they can't adequately fund a "free" healthcare system for their own fellows?
Huston offer no evidence whatsoever that these particular celebrities have not donated to the Motion Picture & Television Fund. The fund operates numerous fund-raising events, including a golf tournament hosted by Michael Douglas and a pre-Academy Awards event with numerous celebrities as hosts.
Further, the MPTF hospital is not a full-service facility but, rather, an acute-care facility that loses money. As the MPTF points out, "Outpatient healthcare, social services, financial assistance, childcare and retirement living continues to be available to over 300,000 members of the California entertainment industry." It's merely outsourcing services; we thought Huston was a big fan of outsourcing.
Further, in calling out Marlo Thomas, Huston ignores the fact that she has a long history of philanthropy for the St. Jude Children's Hospital, founded by her father, Danny Thomas.
Given Huston's harsh tone, it sounds like somebody's jealous they didn't get an Oscar.
WND's Idea of A 'Homosex-Fest' Topic: WorldNetDaily
The headline of a Feb. 22 WorldNetDaily article states: "Oscars turn into blatant homosex-fest."
How so? Because two winners said nice things about gays. Kovacs offers no evidence of "homosex" actually taking place, let alone that there was an entire "fest" dedicated to it.
As part of its anti-gay agenda, WND loves to work in the term "homosex-fest" wherever it can -- a search for the word in WND's archives pulls up 39 hits.
Waters Repeats Clinton Travel Office Myth Topic: NewsBusters
A Feb. 23 NewsBusters post (and TimesWatch item) by Clay Waters references the Clinton administration's "persecution of the White House Travel Office."
In fact, as we've detailed, this alleged "persecution" is a right-wing myth. As the final report by independent counsel Robert Ray pointed out, Clinton was within his legal rights to hire whomever he wanted to run the travel office, and there was evidence of financial mismanagement in the office.
