Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily columnist Erik Rush manages to outdo the original in his vicious attacks of Barack Obama and others -- even likening the president to a rapist. Read more >>
Friday, December 18, 2009
New Article: The Other (And Even More Hateful) Rush
Topic: WorldNetDaily WorldNetDaily columnist Erik Rush manages to outdo the original in his vicious attacks of Barack Obama and others -- even likening the president to a rapist. Read more >>
Posted by Terry K.
at 1:01 AM EST
WND Treats Bogus Obama Threat As Real, Hides Its Disintegration
Topic: WorldNetDaily For something that has never been proven to be true, WorldNetDaily has sure jumped on the bandwagon of promoting the never-verified claim that the Obama administration threatened to shut down Nebraska's Offutt Air Force Base if Nebraska Sen. Ben Nelson didn't vote for health care reform. A Dec. 16 WND article by Joe Kovacs treated the rumor as fact. While Kovacs noted that "Both the White House and Nelson are denying any such threat ever existed," he ignored evidence that the instigator of the claim, the Weekly Standard's Michael Goldfarb, is backtracking on it. As Media Matters has noted, on the Dec. 16 edition of Glenn Beck's TV show -- which aired before Kovac's article was posted -- Goldfarb retracted his earlier claim that White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel was behind the purported threat. WND has also hidden other doubts about the claim, even by its own reporters. In a Dec. 17 interview with Radio America's Greg Corombos, Republican Sen. Kit Bond said the claim was a "rumor" that "we haven't confirmed." Yet the headline linking to the interview from WND's front page was a separate Bond quote, "Total blackmail – the worst kind of Chicago politics." Nothing was highlighted regarding Bond's statement about the unverified nature of the rumor.
As if to demonstrate further that WND cares nothing about reporting facts if they don't conflict with its anti-Obama hate campaign -- er, "worldview," Kovacs goes on to note that "Despite the denials, some WND readers have expressed outrage if a threat were indeed made." Who cares what anybody has to say about a rumor? WorldNetDaily does -- if it can be used to smear Obama. That's how much it hates Obama. That's the height of irresponsible journalism. But then, irresponsible journalism is the WND way.
Posted by Terry K.
at 12:18 AM EST
Updated: Friday, December 18, 2009 12:19 AM EST
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Meanwhile ...
Topic: NewsBusters Media Matters catches NewsBusters' Lachlan Markay inadvertently telling the truth -- that according to some people, "every aberration in weather patterns is taken as evidence that there is something seriously wrong with the climate, and humans are to blame." The problem there, of course, is that's exactly what Markay's fellow NewsBusters do, by regularly portraying pretty much every cold snap and snowfall as evidence that there isn't global warming.
Posted by Terry K.
at 8:56 PM EST
Updated: Thursday, December 17, 2009 8:57 PM EST
CNS Won't Let Bogus Story Die
Topic: CNSNews.com Earlier this year, we detailed how CNSNews.com repeatedly and baselessly suggested that the Obama administration demanded that an "IHS" symbol (a monogram derived from the Greek letters for Jesus) be covered during a visit by Obama to Georgetown University, despite the utter lack of evidence that there was ever a specific demand from anyone to do so. Months later, CNS is still pushing that bogus story. A Dec. 17 article by Nicholas Ballasy and Edwin Mora claims that, in purported contrast to Obama's visit to Georgetown, "Obama has spoken at a number of venues while standing or sitting in front of other prominently displayed symbols and monograms that were not covered up and that thus received national exposure and publicity thanks to the president. These have included the monogram for the American Medical Association (AMA), the monogram for the AARP, and the symbol of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s most prominent gay rights organization." Unmentioned by Ballasy and Mora: It can be presumed that speeches at which the AMA and AARP logos were displayed likely had something to do with the content of the speech. Obama's speech at Georgetown, however, was about the economy, which does not dovetail with religious symbols. As before, Ballasy and Mora are still suggesting that the Obama administration specifically demanded that the IHS be covered up -- and again, no evidence is presented to support the claim. This obsession with a manufactured slight shows just how desperate Terry Jeffrey and CNS are to smear Obama. UPDATE: Indeed, Obama's speech at Georgetown was a policy speech on the economy, not targeted directly to a Georgetown or religious audience.
Posted by Terry K.
at 12:26 PM EST
Updated: Friday, December 18, 2009 9:48 AM EST
Kessler Still Obsessed With Rev. Wright
Topic: Newsmax Ronald Kessler has long been obsessed with Rev. Jeremiah Wright, repeatedly using him as a way to attack Barack Obama, even as he has hidden Obama's criticism of Wright's more inflammatory remarks. Kessler's obsession surfaces yet again in a Dec. 16 Newsmax column, in which he insists that, "In my view, Obama’s 20-year association with the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. told us everything we needed to know about how he would govern." So obsessed with Wright is Kessler that he regales how he tried to shop the articles he wrote about Wright for Newsmax in early 2008:
The problem here is that Kessler is likely hiding his motive for doing promoting this story. He wants us to think that he's being a responsible journalist trying to alert the world, but the more logical explanation is that Kessler -- who demonstrated his anti-Obama bias throughout the 2008 campaign -- was pushing an attack on Obama that he hoped would get him on TV.After all, Kessler was complaining just before the election that Republicans weren't using Wright against Obama to his satisfaction -- hardly the sign of a responsible journalist. Remember also that Kessler, after months of bashing John McCain in order to promote his preferred candidate, Mitt Romney in the 2008 Republican presidential primaries (remember that creepy profile of Romney's wife?), quickly changed his tune after McCain clinched the nomination and became a committed McCain fluffer, portraying previously negative attributes as positives. All of which makes it a bit rich that Kessler is complaining that "if the media had done the job the First Amendment envisioned for the press, Obama would not be president today." Kessler's work for Newsmax is largely bereft of evidence that he genuinely cares about journalism. Indeed, we're still waiting for Kessler to address or correct his longtime -- and since debunked -- claim that death threats against President Obama have increased 400 percent over threats against President Bush.
Posted by Terry K.
at 10:23 AM EST
Molotov Mitchell vs. The Facts
Topic: WorldNetDaily Molotov Mitchell devotes his Dec. 16 WorldNetDaily video insisting that "the facts mean nothing to liberals" and that they "make stuff up to get their way." He ends his video by asserting that "liberal research isn't research," adding, "So the next time you hear some hokey liberal 'research,' I want you to pay close attention to the researcher." We can't help but think that's directed at us. After all, we've detailed how Mitchell has his own issues with the facts. Indeed, just a couple of weeks ago, he chose to believe a convicted murderer's claims over that of law enforcement (and said convicted murderer's previous statements on the issue) regarding the death of Matthew Shepard. Of course, Mitchell has never contradicted anything we've written about him. And Molotov being Molotov, he doesn't play straight with the facts even when he's accusing others of lying. For instance, he makes a big deal out of claiming that "our troops discovered roughly 500 metric tons yellowcake uranium last year just south of Baghdad," citing MSNBC and CNN to support the claim, which he says contradicts the liberal insistence that there were no WMDs in Iraq. But the MSNBC (actually, AP) article he cites tells a different story -- it's about about the removal of yellowcake from Iraq, not the discovery of it. (The link he provides for the CNN article he cites does not work.) In fact, the article states: "U.S. and Iraqi forces have guarded the 23,000-acre site — surrounded by huge sand berms — following a wave of looting after Saddam's fall [in 2003] that included villagers toting away yellowcake storage barrels for use as drinking water cisterns." And it was not even discovered by U.S. troops then; as the article states:
Further, yellowcake is not WMD; the uranium located within must be first extracted and refined, then enriched to weapons grade. As even Newsmax concedes, what little nuclear capability Iraq had was dismantled after the first Iraq War, had only achieved low-grade enrichment of 1.8 tons of it, and the technology Iraq had to enrich it was buried for years in the garden of the physicist who ran Saddam's weapons program. In other words, Iraq did not have anything resembling the capability to do weapons-grade enrichement of uranium after 1991. Parts buried in a garden do not equal capability. It also wouldn't be Molotov if he didn't engage in a little gay-bashing. He claimed that "lesbian anthropologist" Margaret Mead "fabricated an entire culture taht allegedly promoted rampant promiscuity in her book 'Coming of Age in Samoa,'" adding that "bitter old lesbians still cite her research to this day, even though it's been throughly debunked by other anthropologists and even the outraged Samoans themselves." That's an apparent reference to Derek Freeman's book attacking Mead's claims. But Mitchell's version of events doesn't appear to square with the facts either (shocking, we know). According to Wikipedia:
Further, according to Wikipedia, Freeman's own research "documented the existence of premarital sexual activity in Samoa." What Michell said about "hokey liberal 'research'" goes double for his own, since he seems determined to prove time and time again that right-wing research -- and his especially -- isn't research.
Posted by Terry K.
at 12:56 AM EST
Updated: Thursday, December 17, 2009 9:54 AM EST
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
WND Uses Hate Group's Research Again
Topic: WorldNetDaily A Dec. 15 WorldNetDaily article by Bob Unruh cites "tresearch [sic] by staff and volunteers for Mass Resistance" to make more questionable accusations against Kevin Jennings -- this time, that "teachers in the state were offered professional credit for attending a now-infamous 2000 seminar in which students were instructed in lewd homosexual practices." Unmentioned by Unruh: the controversial workshop in question was one of more than 50 workshops held during the seminar, which would more than justify the awarding of professional credit. Also unmentioned by Unruh: MassResistance is considered a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Posted by Terry K.
at 9:47 PM EST
Shapiro Smears the Hell Out of La Raza, Obama Nominee
Topic: CNSNews.com Ben Shapiro spews numerous false and misleading claims in his Dec. 16 column, published by CNSNews.com and WorldNetDaily. Many of them are related to the National Council of La Raza -- including the false assertion that el Plan Espiritual de Aztlán, a statement urging Hispanics to "[reclaim] the land of their birth," was a "founding document" of NCLR. Shapiro also falsely smears Mari Del Carmen Aponte, a former NCLR board member whom President Obama nominated to be U.S. ambassador to El Salvador, as "an alleged former spy for Fidel Castro." In fact, the FBI cleared Aponte of allegations that she had been recruited as a Cuban spy.
Posted by Terry K.
at 9:18 PM EST
CNS' Jeffrey: Obama Supporters Are Young, Poor Heathens
Topic: CNSNews.com
-- Terry Jeffrey, Dec. 16 CNSNews.com column
Posted by Terry K.
at 5:33 PM EST
Column on Continetti Book
Topic: The ConWeb For a little non-ConWeb-related reading, we have a column up at Media Matters reviewing Matthew Continetti's book "The Persecution of Sarah Palin."
Posted by Terry K.
at 1:04 PM EST
WND Now Merely Misleading About Jennings
Topic: WorldNetDaily WorldNetDaily has a history of lying about Kevin Jennings, so it looks like progress when WND merely misleads about him. Bob Unruh does the latter in a Dec. 14 WND article, highlighting a claim that a "teacher who attended a 2000 sex seminar in Massachusetts at which public school students were taught deviant techniques such as 'fisting'" now claims that "the project was the idea and product of the man who now serves President Obama as chief of the Department of Education's Office of Safe Schools." What Unruh (following in the footsteps of Gateway Pundit, which first reported the claim) doesn't mention: The teacher has no actual evidence that Jennings knew of the specific content of the workshop in question. Unruh also fails to mention that when Jennings was made aware of the workshop's contents after the fact, he criticized it. Further, Unruh highlights claims made by the anti-gay group MassResistance without noting that the Southern Poverty Law Center considers it to be a hate group.
Posted by Terry K.
at 12:58 AM EST
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
WND Columnists Unhappy That Lesbian Elected Houston Mayor
Topic: WorldNetDaily It's not a surprise given its far-right, anti-gay agenda, but WorldNetDaily's columnists are not taking the news that a lesbian was elected mayor of Houston very well.
And to make it an anti-gay trifecta, Les Kinsolving weighs in (though not on the mayor):
Posted by Terry K.
at 2:00 PM EST
Updated: Wednesday, December 16, 2009 1:03 AM EST
Corsi's Greatest-Hits Conspiracy Column
Topic: WorldNetDaily When you're devoting your column to endlessly restating your argument, you've failed as a columnist. That's pretty much what Jerome Corsi does in his Dec. 14 WorldNetDaily column:
Beyond the needless repetition, Corsi's column is little more than a greatest-hits of Obama conspiracy-mongering, punching all the usual tickets -- ACORN, Cloward-Piven, even George Soros. And it would be Corsi if he weren't getting facts wrong; he claims that Project Vote, which Obama worked for in 1992, was "an ACORN effort to register voters nationally." In fact, as we've repeatedly detailed, Project Vote was not affiliated with ACORN in 1992.
Posted by Terry K.
at 11:55 AM EST
Is Newsmax Bothered By Geller's Hateful Obama Smears?
Topic: Newsmax While Pamela Geller has mostly behaved in her Newsmax column, she's gone wild on her own Atlas Shrugs blog, viciously and falsely smearing Obama as a Nazi and anti-Semite: From a Dec. 11 post:
From a Dec. 14 post:
After its experience with John L. Perry calling for a military coup against Obama and Pat Boone calling for a "tenting" of the White House, is Geller really the kind of columnist Newsmax wants to have? Or is Newsmax willing to allow Geller to be as disgusting and hateful as she wants on her blog as long as she tones it down for her column?
Posted by Terry K.
at 7:15 AM EST
WND Still Lying About Hate-Crimes Law
Topic: WorldNetDaily A Dec. 13 WorldNetDaily article by Bob Unruh is devoted to baselessly accusing the recently signed expansion of federal hate-crimes law to gays of resulting in "witch hunt[s]" and "the Spanish Inquisition." We know it's baseless because Unruh quotes Canadians -- who are apparenly unfamiliar with the actual details of the U.S. law -- making this accusation. Of course, Unruh himself gets the law wrong too, falsely claiming that it "cracks down on any acts that could be linked to criticism of homosexuality or even the 'perception' of homosexuality." In fact, the bill does nothing of the sort, focusing on "speech, conduct or activities consisting of planning for, conspiring to commit, or committing an act of violence." It specifically states that "Nothing in this Act shall be construed to prohibit any constitutionally protected speech, expressive conduct or activities (regardless of whether compelled by, or central to, a system of religious belief), including the exercise of religion protected by the First Amendment and peaceful picketing or demonstration" -- a clause Unruh and his WND coworkers have repeatedly failed to report to their readers. Unruh quotes numerous critics of the law but no supporters. WND editor Joseph Farah as expressed his support for "getting other points of view," "interviewing those with whom you disagree," and "representing honestly the opinions of others," but this edict may apply only to reporters who write about WND, not to those who work for it.
Posted by Terry K.
at 12:12 AM EST
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