Melissa Clouthier writes in an Aug. 15 NewsBusters post:
So Matt Lewis writes a column decrying, I think, the Political climate's nastiness. I say, I think, because after reading it, I'm not quite sure what he's saying.
Matt brings up two pieces of evidence: Matt Yglesias saying that lying is okay was one distressing example. Well, duh. Yglesias is a liberal and I have yet to read a liberal blogger who doesn't believe the ends justify the means. There is no true objective truth, after all. And, really, lying is fine, if a greater truth is served yada yada. This is not new. Nor is it shocking. Everything from science (Al Gore and global warming) to social science (single mothering is as good as dual-parent families) to religion (Christianists!) to media coverage is manipulated to serve the statist i.e. Democratic good. And to make the arguments, lying isn't just recommended, it's necessary.
[...]
Here’s another thing: In basketball, there is a winner and a loser. There are two teams. Some politicians and pundits get all mushed up and confused. They act as though we’re in a system where getting along means winning. No, it doesn’t. Getting along means Democrats winning, because getting along means compromising on government programs which, by definition, expands the size, scope and reach of the government. When compromise wins, government wins. People lose.
So, how does Clouthier's mindless liberal-bashing fit in with NewsBusters' declared mission of "Exposing & Combating Liberal Media Bias"? Near as we can tell, it doesn't.
Clouthier obviously has the right to be as hateful as she wants -- indeed, her entry was cross-posted on another blog. But shouldn't NewsBusters have editorial standards that keep the blog from straying from his declared (not to mention tax-status-mandated) mission?
NewsBusters Shocked That Local News More Important Than National News Topic: NewsBusters
An Aug. 13 NewsBusters post by Kyle Drennen makes a big deal of how "instead of showing the CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, the network's Washington DC affiliate, WUSA-TV, decided to continue with live storm coverage." Drennen presents this as being suspect because "The Evening News has consistently ranked third among the network evening newscasts during Couric's tenure."
Why Drennen thinks it's surprising that a local TV station would want to devote more coverage to a devastating storm that cut power to 110,000 people at a time when people are already predisposed to watch news is strange. It's almost as if he's being paid to push an agenda to bash Couric and CBS, no matter how logic-defying the attack.
WND's Mercer Issues Racial Attack on Michelle Obama Topic: WorldNetDaily
Ilana Mercer has decided that smearing Michelle Obama as Marie Antoinette was offensive, or racially appropriate, enough for her. From Mercer's Aug. 13 WorldNetDaily column:
PIMP MY FLOTUS. A world away from her husband's dirty little war was the first lady's ostentatious sojourn to Spain. I must say that the Marie Antoinette metaphor for Michelle did not do it for me. Despite the motorcades and the session with the Spanish monarchs at their Marivent Palace – the mental imagine that I got was made in America; it came from reality TV or MTV. Shades of the shows "Pimp my Ride" and "Cribs" came to mind. Coloring my imagination was a vivid, prior mental image of the "sedate" soiree the first lady held for Mexican President Felipe Calderon, down to the disco ball and the half-nude, pelvis-grinding Beyonce. (Bibi Netanyahu was confined to the cellar.)
Still sillier were demands our patrician pundits made (at least one of whom has touted one-time porn star Kim Kardashian as a role model because she does not imbibe) for Mrs. Obama's dollars to be spent stateside, so as to boost the American economy. Michelle Obama's income comes from taxpayers. The first family doesn't produce anything; it only consumes American wealth. Somewhere in the U.S., productive activities have already been suspended to fund the POTUS, the FLOTUS and their lavish lives. It matters not where the first family spends the loot.
You might think a judge who is a homosexual activist would consider recusing himself from judicial review of California's Proposition 8, a ballot initiative prohibiting state recognition of same-sex marriage carried by the votes of 5.5 million people.
You would be wrong.
Instead, Vaughn Walker imposed his own views on the population of California with a dramatic and sweeping edict that defies common sense, 5,000 years of Judeo-Christian moral standards, 230 years of American history, nature and, most importantly, nature's God.
Do people like Walker just expect the rest of us to accept their unaccountable rule over us?
I don't know about you, but I don't think Americans can take much more of this kind of tyranny.
Quite frankly, this is far more blatant and more abusive than anything our colonist forefathers endured before throwing off the shackles of the crown of England.
CNS Attacks Official For Being Gay Topic: CNSNews.com
CNSNews.com ventures into the gay-baiting arena with an Aug. 12 article by Jane McGrath asserting that "Conservative groups are expressing concern that David Hansell, an openly homosexual man and former AIDS activist, is currently serving as the acting head – the assistant secretary – of the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)."
The crux of McGrath's article are unsubstantiated allegations by the right-wing Fanily Research Council that Hansell "conducted a series of meetings aimed at forcing Florida to lift its ban on same-sex adoption" and "is lobbying to cut HHS financial assistance for all Florida adoptions if the state doesn't change its policy." McGrath quoted theFRC's Peter Sprigg as saying that "We have heard from private sources" about theallegations and "Sprigg told CNSNews.com that he is not at liberty to divulge the identities of the private sources who informed him of the alleged meetings."
McGrath made no apparent effort to verify Sprigg's claims; she wrote that Hansell "would not grant an interview to CNSNews.com" but answered an unrelated question via email.
McGrath also allows anti-gay activist Peter LaBarbera to smear Hansell by comparing him to "Kevin Jennings, a former homosexual activist whom President Obama appointed as assistant deputy secretary for the Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools at the U.S. Department of Education," adding:
Jennings came under public scrutiny last year for how he handled a situation as a teacher in a private boarding school when a 15-year-old boy informed him about a sexual relationship with an older man. Jennings, who has written and spoken of the incident, claims he told the boy “I hope you knew to use a condom,” but did not report the information to authorities.
In fact, the student in question was 16, and there wasn't a sexual relationship.
(McGrath's article is currently not showing up at CNS; here it is in Google cache.)
WND Rewards Liar With Puff Piece Topic: WorldNetDaily
How does WorldNetDaily reward a writer who forwarded an attack on President Obama and Elena Kagan that was so blatantly and egregiously false that WND was forced to scrub the hell out of it? Why, give him a forum to promote his book.
An Aug. 12 WND article touts how "Hundreds of people hungering for Bible truth turned out" for an event in Oklahoma in which WND executive news editor Joe Kovacs read from his book "Shocked by the Bible":
"Wow, look at all these people. I'm shocked!" declared Joe Kovacs, the executive news editor of WND and author of the No. 1 best-selling book "Shocked by the Bible: The Most Astonishing Facts You've Never Been Told." "I didn't know so many people had an interest in Bible truth these days."
Ifyou're interested in actual truth, however, Kovacs is not your guy. As we detailed, Kovacs wrote that Kagan, in her position as Obama's solicitor general, came up "at least nine times on dockets involving Obama eligibility issues." In fact, none of the cases Kovacs cited involved "eligibility." But Kovacs did his job in smearing Obama and Kagan, truth be damned.
So Kovacs spreads lies, and WND not only doesn't punish him, it rewards him with a puff piece. That's the moral bankruptcy of WND in a nutshell.
WND Flails At International Baccalaureate Curriculum Topic: WorldNetDaily
An Aug. 10 WorldNetDaily article by Michael Carl is dedicated to attacking the International Baccalaureate curriculum. Why is this univerally respected program being attacked? Because a right-wing evangelist doesn't like it. And an anonymous blogger doesn't like it either. Carl makes no attempt to talk to anyone actually directly involved in IB programs to obtain any response to the criticism.
Carl manages to work both George Soros and Bill Ayers into his conspiracy that IB programs are anti-American and anti-Christian.
Carl is a former full-time WND employee who now apparently moonlights for it while serving as a pastor. That would seem to explain why Carl has no interest in telling a balanced, fully truthful story.
Erik Rush's Aug. 12 WorldNetDaily column is dedicated to attacking blogger Matthew Yglesias for writing a Washington Post piece that is, in his words, "a quintessential example of Orwellian Ministry of Propaganda fare, so surreal in its assumptions that it its absurdity is scarcely to be believed, especially to those who do their level best to avoid the Post altogether. It is also a prime example of the composition of progressive racial orthodoxy, which is illustrated very effectively and at several junctures in this piece."
But Rush is so busy trying to smear Yglesias that he doesn't bother to quote from the column to rebut anything he writes, beyond noting that Yglesias "casually" used the words "vitriol" and "xenophobia."
This, by the way, who casually likened President Obama to a prison rapist, so perhaps Rush is not a person who should complain about the word usage of others.
Shocker: MRC Admits That Conservative Bias Exists Topic: NewsBusters
As we've detailed, the Media Research Center has a long history of pretending there's no such thing as conservative media bias, which makes MRC official Tim Graham's concession to its existence noteworthy.
In an Aug. 10 NewsBusters post, Graham tries to make the case that a reporter for a Washington, D.C., TV station was suspended because he exhibited "conservative bias" in claiming that, in Graham's words, "President Obama's a major recipient of BP cash."
Of course, Graham (and, apparently, the reporter) botched the fact -- Obama received only $1,000 from BP's PAC in 2004, much less than other candidates that year, and other noted donations came from BP employees, not the company itself.
But kudos to Graham for acknowledging that conservative bias exists, which runs counter to the MRC's longstanding policy.
Aaron Klein Anonymous Source Watch Topic: WorldNetDaily
An Aug. 10 WorldNetDaily article by Aaron Klein contains not a single named source in claiming that "The U.S. is pushing Israel into conceding strategic territory."
Klein frequently hides behind anonymous sources to attack the Obama administration and shill for the Israeli government under Benjamin Netanyahu. Klein's record of spreading misleading claims and outright falsehoods -- as well as his association with right-wing extremists -- demonstrates that he has not earned the trust needed to use anonymous sources.
Media Matters highlights how NewsBusters' Tim Graham attacked Comedy Central's Jon Stewart for being "shameless" in criticizing conservatives' freak-out over the Islamic community center planned near the former site of the World Trade Center when he works for a network that "mocks Jesus and Christians relentlessly, but censors whenever the radical Muslims threaten them." Graham seems to have forgotten that NewsBusters praised Stewart for criticizing Comedy Central's refusal to air a "South Park" episode centered on Muhammad.
UPDATE: Graham responds in a cowardly fashion by refusing to let the name "Media Matters" cross his lips, bashing Keith Olbermann for repeating the story by "playing rip-and-read from certain Hillary Clinton-founded Fox-and-Rush watchdogs." Graham also insists that Stewart, on the "South Park" issue, "lightly made fun of the bosses, and then lightly mocked the Muslim death-threateners with Jewish-deli-and-Frisbee jokes." And the singing of the "F-You" song actually "mock[ed] Gospel choirs," not censorious Muslims.
Newsmax Picks a Side in Florida GOP Gov Primary Topic: Newsmax
When Newsmax announced in an Aug. 9 editorial that it was picking Bill McCollum over Rick Scott in the upcoming Republican primary for Florida governor, it wasn't really a surprise -- Newsmax had already been trashing Scott and puffing McCollum for weeks.
A May 23 article was headlined "McCollum: Rick Scott Linked to Healthcare ‘Fraud’."
A June 24 article by Jim Meyers carried the headline "Fla.'s Rick Scott Invested in Firm With Ties to Illegal Aliens."
A June 27 article highlights "Rick Scott’s role in the largest ripoff of taxpayers in the history of Medicare and Medicaid."
A July 7 article, headlined, "Steve Forbes: Why I Oppose Rick Scott," noted that "Forbes cited Scott's role in the largest Medicare fraud in U.S. history and even questioned his business competence, suggesting Scott was not even qualified to run a 'lemonade stand.'"
A July 14 column by Quin Hillyer, reproduced from the Washington Times, carried the headline "McCollum Is the Real Conservative in Fla. Race" and asserted that Scott "got rich in questionable ways."
A July 15 article is headlined, "Dick Morris Slams Rick Scott, Says Can't Be Trusted."
On July 21, Newsmax touted Dick Morris' endorsement of McCollum.
An Aug. 2 article by Jim Meyers carried the headline "McCollum Wins Big Endorsements, Scott's Link to Fraud Cited."
An Aug. 4 article highlighted a "hilarious new Web TV ad video" by McCollum attacking Scott was "drawing heavy traffic on YouTube as it goes viral."
An Aug. 5 article is headlined "Rick Scott's Firm Sued 10 Times, Candidate Described as 'Ruthless'."
New Article: Robert Ringer's Voice of Insanity Topic: WorldNetDaily
The WorldNetDaily columnist and author tries to intimidate through hysterical and paranoid attacks on President Obama, whom he refuses to acknowledge as president. Read more >>
Molotov Baselessly Accuses Obama of Treason Topic: WorldNetDaily
Molotov Mitchell's latest anti-Obama video rant at WorldNetDaily accuses President Obama for purportedly not enforcing border security, claiming that he has "sid[ed] with the cartels" by suing Arizona over its anti-immigration law:
For Barack Obama, who is currently responsible for securing that border, for him to stab his own citizens in the back defines the word "treason." Now, for those of you who watch "For the Record" regularly, you know I'm not the type of guy to just throw that word around, but there it is. And Arizona Sheriff Paul Babeu is right when he says, quote, "our own government has become our enemy."
That ol' Molotov claims to be the kind of guy who doesn't throw "treason" around is a minor point at best, since he is the kind of guy who smears La Raza as "the tan Klan" and spread lies about Obama. He's also the kind of guy who wants to see gays killed in Uganda.
Speaking of lying about Obama: As defined by many metrics, including the number of Border Patrol agents on the job and the number of illegal immigrants that have been deported, border enforcement is actually up under the Obama administration.
Oops! It seems that ol' Molotov should be a tad more circumspect about throwing that "treason" word around by, you know, checking the facts first.
