AIM's Kincaid Still Can't Quite Admit Proposed Uganda Law Would Kill Gays Topic: Accuracy in Media
For the past two years, Accuracy in Media's Cliff Kincaid has championed a proposed draconian anti-gay law in Uganda while denying the fact that it would permit the death penalty for mere homosexuality. Now, Kincaid is pushing the law again in defense of an American anti-gay activist accused of helping to inspire the law.
In a March 15 AIM column, Kincaid writres that the proposed law "had a death penalty provision for certain homosexual acts, such as sex with children." In fact, as we've documented, the proposed law counts "aggravated homosexuality" -- which the law defines as, among other things, a previous conviction for homosexual behavior -- as an offense punishable by death.
Nevertheless, Kincaid insists that the U.S. media "falsely called" the propsed law the "Kill the Gays bill" -- even though that's exactly what it would do.
Kincaid spends most of his column defending anti-gay activist Scott Lively from a "frivolous lawsuit" filed by "the George Soros-funded Center for Constitutional Rights" accusing Lively of crimes against humanity for his role in advising Ugandan lawmakers on the anti-gay law. Kincaid claims that Lively is being target for merely "criticizing homosexuality during a trip to Uganda." In fact, the CCR accuses him of much deeper involvement:
Scott Lively has been working with anti-gay forces in Uganda since 2002. In March 2009, Lively, along with two other U.S. Evangelical leaders, headlined a three-day conference intended to expose the “gay movement” as an “evil institution” and a danger to children. Lively likened the effects of his advocacy to a “nuclear bomb” in Uganda and stated that he hopes it is replicated elsewhere. The Anti-Homosexuality Bill emerged one month later with provisions that reflected Lively’s input. As in Uganda, Lively aims to criminalize LGBT advocacy elsewhere and has worked with religious and political leaders in Russia, Moldova and Latvia to that end. He states he has spoken on the topic of homosexuality in almost 40 countries and advises that “the easiest way to discourage ‘gay pride’ parades and other homosexual advocacy is to make such activity illegal.”
Kincaid uncritically repeats Lively's defense that he opposes any death-penalty provisions in the proposed Uganda bill, but no documentation is offered to back up Lively's story.
Kincaid selectively quoted from an Open Society Institute blog post, writing that "the Open Society Institute acknowledged that its 'Initiative for Eastern Africa' had drawn 'scrutiny from conservative leaders' in Uganda 'for supporting sexual minority groups.'" The blog post details the OSI's effort to purchase a newspaper ad space for a tribute to murdered Ugandan gay activist David Kato, noting that one newspaper group demanded the OSI soften language stated the undisputed fact that gays in Uganda "are routinely subject to arbitrary arrests, hate speech, torture, vigilante violence, and persecution." Does Kincaid support this kind of censorship?
Kincaid also whined:
For simply reporting on Uganda’s efforts to save their nation from Soros and his international networks, this columnist was falsely attacked as someone supporting death for homosexuals. The obvious purpose of such attacks is to silence critics of homosexuality and the Soros agenda for the U.S. and Africa.
Well, if Kincaid is supporting this law -- and he gives no evidence he has changed his mind about it -- he is indeed supporting death for homosexuals. It's not anyone else's fault but his own that he can't deal honestly with the facts.
AIM's Kincaid Harshly Criticizes Limbaugh (But Not At AIM) Topic: Accuracy in Media
In contrast to the tepid critiques of Brent Bozell, there is one conservative who has offered forceful criticism of Rush Limbaugh's misogynistic attacks on Sandra Fluke. However, he's apparently not allowed to offer that criticism at the website of his employer.
Accuracy in Media's Cliff Kincaid has harshly criticized Limbaugh, but you won't read about it at AIM -- that sort of thing has been relegated to the fringe-right site Renew America.
In a March 8 Renew America column, Kincaid lamented that "Limbaugh has turned out to be the best thing going for President Obama and the Democrats." After bashing Fluke and the general idea of birth control pills,Kincaid pointed out that Limbaugh was wrong to assume that "birth control pills have no other medical purpose than preventing pregnancy," also noting that Limbaugh "didn't even have the guts to call her personally to apologize, leading to speculation that the hasty statement was a last-ditch effort to stop the mass exodus of his advertisers." Kincaid concluded:
Limbaugh is losing this debate and may lose his show. He has no one to blame but himself. Armed with no facts and a series of smears, Limbaugh, a college drop-out, went into a battle with a young woman law student that he lost and is continuing to lose. Conservatives can and should do better than this. Limbaugh should go, before even more damage to the cause is done.
In a March 10 Renew America column, Kincaid responded to critics:
My advice to those of you who have been critical of me for standing up to Rush Limbaugh: think for yourself. Don't be a "dittohead" for his phony "Gospel" of personal invective. Please stand up for moral values. We cannot hope to save America if we encourage or defend those who drag America down. We should not defend "conservatives" who are in the gutter with the liberals.
We do not have to sink to their level. We should not resort to insulting or abusive language. As an alternative to Limbaugh, I recommend Christian conservative broadcaster Janet Parshall. She is on 700 stations from Alaska to the Virgin Islands. Please listen to her.
Despite Kincaid's claims, Parshall does engage in false and misleading attacks. She baselessly claimed that terrorists wanted John Kerry to defeat President Bush in 2004; treated a satirical right-wing attack on Hillary Clinton as real; and called the adoption of children by same-sex couples "state-sanctioned child abuse."
Is that really any kinder and gentler than Limbaugh? Perhaps it is in Kincaid's world.
Lawrence Sellin, AIM's Birther Columnist Topic: Accuracy in Media
Lawrence Sellin has apparently become Accuracy in Media's official birther columnist.
We noted last month how Sellin promoted debunked birther conspiracies, including one over Obama's purported use of a fraudulent Social Security number (never mind that Sellin himself could be prosecuted for publicly releasing Obama's alleged Social Security number in public). AIM has published two more Sellin columns since then.
In a Feb. 28 column, Sellin touts the Obama-bashing claims of John Drew, whom he describes as " a contemporary of Obama at Occidental College." In fact, as we've detailed, Drew graduated from Occidential the semester before Obama enrolled , and the two apparently met only twice at social occasions while Drew was making return visits to the schoool.
Sellin went on to suggest Obama never actually attended Columbia University, and that if he had, it didn't mean that much because it was the real Columbia:
In 1981, after two years at Occidental, Obama presumably transferred to the Columbia School of General Studies, one part of the Columbia University system that does not have rigorous Core Curriculum and transfer constraints as the elite Columbia College.
Sellin also delves into conspiracy-mongering about how Obama financed his college education: "It has never been clear, who paid for Obama’s Harvard education, but it is possible, if not probable, that the money came from Saudi Arabia."
Sellin also repeats his discredited claims about Obama's purportedly " forged Certificate of Live Birth, a forged Selective Service registration and the use of a Social Security Number (SSN) not issued to him."
In his March 5 column, Sellin promotes the results of the highly dubious Arpaio cold case posse "investigation" of Obama's "eligibility," touting how it "stated that Obama’s Selective Service card was most likely also a forgery." In fact, as Dr. Conspiracy has detailed, the posse's explanation for how this purportedly occured is an utterly impossible scenario.
Sellin goes on to lament that the media is trying to "discount the evidence of an Obama felony by discrediting Arpaio," but Sellin never disproves any of the criticism made against Arpaio. Nevertheless, Sellin is on a conspiratorial roll:
The Democrat and Republican establishments and the mainstream media will do anything within their power to bury the evidence because they have a clear vested interest in doing so. Revealing the full truth about public figures would drive a stake into the heart of a hopelessly corrupt political system.
It would, furthermore, expose the American media for being little more than the propaganda arm of extreme left-wing Democrats promoting the goal of a de facto one-party state for the U.S., reminiscent of the role played by the Communist Party newspaper Pravda in propping up the dysfunctional Soviet Union.
Fully vetting our country’s top politicians will be a giant step in the right direction.
As would AIM not giving space to gullible birthers so they can spin their discredited conspiracies.
AIM's Irvine: Limbaugh 'Should Have Called' Sandra Fluke 'A Skank' Topic: Accuracy in Media
Accuracy in Media chairman Don Irvine gets into the misogynistic spirit of Rush Limbaugh's attacks on contraception hearing witness Sandra Fluke, declaring in a March 2 tweet that Limbaugh "should have called her a skank."
AIM Falsely Portrays Garrison Keillor As NPR Employee Topic: Accuracy in Media
In a Feb. 21 Accuracy in Media blog post, Logan Churchwell disapproves of radio host Garrison Keillor hosting a fundraiser for the Obama campaign. After rehashing Keillor's donations to Democratic causes, Churchwell writes:
The list goes on and on. Lisa Simeone and Michele Norris were both removed from their respective posts for violating NPR’s code of ethics in 2011 after disclosing involvement with political groups. Though Keillor is not on NPR’s news staff, this is further confirmation of NPR’s political leaning. How National Public Radio will weather these challenges to their objectivity in the face of potential federal funding bans remains to be seen.
Not only is Keillor not a member of "NPR’s news staff" -- he is an entertainer, after all -- he's not even an NPR employee. Keillor's show, "A Prairie Home Companion," is produced by Prairie Home Productions, and distributed nationwide by American Public Media.
So much for the "accuracy" part of Accuracy in Media.
AIM Embraces Debunked Birther Conspiracy Topic: Accuracy in Media
Accuracy in Media has been known to go birther on occasion, and it does so again with a Feb. 21 column by Lawrence Sellin, who embraces one particular conspiracy (edited to remove references to Obama's full Social Security number):
Lawlessness may apply, not only to his Administration, but to Obama himself.
In my opinion, there is irrefutable evidence that Barack Hussein Obama is using a Social Security Number ([number]) not issued to him.
According to SSN Verifier Plus, the number [number] was issued in Connecticut between 1977 and 1979. The names associated with it are “Obama, Barack” and “Obama, Barack Hussein.” The dates of birth associated with that SSN are “1890”, “8/4/1961” and “4/8/1961.”
Sellin, it should be noted, is apparently violating federal law by including Obama's full alleged Social Security number. The law forbids "disclosing, using, or compelling the disclosure of the Social Security number of any person for unauthorized purposes."
Anyway, back to the conspiracy:
It is not a quantum leap in logic to conclude that Obama’s friend, unrepentant domestic terrorist Bill Ayers, who also lived in New York City between 1981 and 1985, may have helped him obtain a new SSN.
In his book “Fugitive Days” Ayers describes his method for creating false identities:
“We soon figured out that the deepest and most foolproof ID had a government-issued Social Security card at its heart, and the best source of those were dead-baby birth certificates. I spent impious days over the next several months tramping through rural cemeteries in Iowa and Wisconsin, Illinois and North Dakota…”
The 1890 birth date may refer to the Connecticut resident who was the original holder of Obama’s SSN.
Sellin ignores the fact that birther lawyer Phil Berg has debunked the idea that Obama is using a fraudulent Social Security number.
Alan Caruba Still Peddling Global Warming Denialism Topic: Accuracy in Media
Climate denier Alan Caruba has a lengthy history of misleading about global warming. He keeps it up in a couple recent columns posted at Accuracy in Media.
In a Feb. 14 column, Caruba blames "the global warming hoax" for an alleged insufficiency of electricity in Europe as it deals with unusually cold temperatures because, he claims, countries have been "spending billions for wind power when they should have been building coal-fired and other sources of energy to heat their homes and businesses." Caruba goes on to note how "Serbia has started implementing power cuts in a desperate bid to stave off the collapse of its national grid as the country suffers the effects of days of freezing temperatures."
In fact, the UK Telegraph article from which Caruba pulled the Serbia story makes no mention of "wind power" -- in fact, it states that "Temperatures as low as -30C have sent demand soaring but also interrupted coal production, restricting supplies to Serbia's coal-fired power stations."
Indeed, nowhere in Caruba's article does he provide any evidence that power sources that aren't coal- or oil-based have any responsibility whatsoever for deaths from extreme cold.
In a Feb. 16 column, Caruba ranted about the release of documents from the conservative Heartland Institute, revealing its strategies to promote global warming denialism:
This week, a major smear campaign against the Institute erupted as the result of an act of deception and thievery that may well result in criminal charges against its as yet unknown perpetrator.
The President of the Institute, Joe Bast, immediately informed its supporters, directors, donors and friends that someone pretending to be a board member had sent Heartland an email claiming to be a director and asking that documents regarding a January board meeting be re-sent.
A clever ruse, but the result was that elements of the confidential documents were then posted on a number of so-called climate blogs and from there to various members of the media who, with the exception of The Guardian, took no steps whatever to verify the authenticity of the documents, some of which Heartland says were either a concoction of lies or altered to convey inaccurate information.
By contrast, Caruba describes the release of stolen emails from climate researchers connected to East Anglia University as nothing but a "leak." Caruba obviously had no moral qualms over that deception and thievery -- after all, those documents "revealed the extent of their efforts to spread the hoax and to suppress any expression of doubt regarding it." (Except that they didn't.) To our knowledge, Caruba has never demanded that "criminal charges" be filed against the "as yet unknown perpetrator" who stole the East Anglia emails.
Further, the Heartland Institute itself effectively confirmed the authenticity of the documents by complaining that they were "stolen." Caruba offers no evidence that he or anyone else attempted to verify the authenticity of the stolen East Anglia emails before writing about them.
Double standard? Obviously. But Caruba has not exactly been known for his honesty in his denier activism.
AIM's Kincaid Unhappy That News Corp. Is Cooperating With Police Topic: Accuracy in Media
Who knew that a law-and-order guy like Cliff Kincaid is opposed to people cooperating with the police?
Kincaid expresses exactly that in his Feb. 16 Accuracy in Media column, in which he declares that "the sacking of Glenn Beck from Fox News" is a "sensitive topic" at the network:
It is even more sensitive in view of what News Corporation, the parent of Fox News, is doing to its staff at the British newspaper, The Sun. As part of an internal investigation of phone-hacking and bribery, News Corporation voluntarily turned over information to police authorities.
Sun associate editor Trevor Kavanagh reports that “30 journalists have been needlessly dragged from their beds in dawn raids, arrested and held in police cells while their homes are ransacked.” He said journalists were being treated like members of a criminal gang and that freedom of the press was in danger.
If News Corporation chief Rupert Murdoch would turn over his own journalists to authorities in Britain, why wouldn’t he sack Glenn Beck in response to an orchestrated campaign from George Soros and his operatives at Media Matters?
Kincaid doesn't explain why he thinks News Corp. should have stonewalled authorities even as the company's phone-hacking scandal continues to grow. Maybe he thinks that's an accepted way of doing journalism.
AIM's Irvine Pretends Cliff Kincaid Doesn't Work For Him Topic: Accuracy in Media
Accuracy in Media chairman Don Irvine uses a Feb. 12 blog post to promote Cliff Kincaid's campaign to return Glenn Beck to Fox News. Irvine describes Kincaid only as a "veteran journalist," adding, "In an interview at CPAC this weekend Kincaid told me of his concerns that Beck, who left Fox News last year and is now airing his own programming on the Internet on his subscriber based GBTV, was a victim of left-wing, George Soros-funded efforts to pressure Fox to part company with Beck."
Weirdly, Irvine fails to mention that Kincaid also works for AIM -- in fact, he's listed only behind Irvine on the AIM website's list of employees, where it's noted that he joined AIM in 1978.
Why would Irvine deny the obvious? We have no idea.
Accuracy in Media will honor Dana Loesch and Sharyl Attkisson for their outstanding contributions to journalism in a ceremony taking place at the 2012 Conservative Political Action Conference. The Reed Irvine Accuracy in Media Award is named for AIM’s founder, who was America’s original media watchdog.
“Accuracy in Media could not be more excited about the 2012 Reed Irvine Awards,” Chairman Don Irvine said. “AIM continues to be impressed with the leadership Dana Loesch has shown to grassroots citizen journalists. Her fearless challenges to biased media narratives are fine examples of citizens rising up in the name of fairness and accuracy. Loesch represents the essence of our Grassroots Journalism Award.
“For much of her 30 year career as a news anchor and reporter, Sharyl Attkisson has offered a clear example of what an investigative journalist should be doing. She has flown in a B-52 on a combat mission over Kosovo, shed light on TARP, dared to report on Operation Fast and Furious and has recently exposed dubious green energy loans from the Obama Administration. We are honored to present her with the Investigative Journalism Award.”
In the tradition of such previous recipients as Tucker Carlson and Ken Timmerman and Andrew Breitbart and Marc Morano, AIM has picked another set of real winners for its most prestigious (if you can call it that) award. As Media Matters details, Attkisson has promoted the discredited theory that vaccines cause autism and issued a factually deficient report on purported "New Solyndras" which included companies that hadn't received federal money and companies that hadn't actually gone bankrupt.
AIM's Kincaid Joins Geller's Anti-Muslim Group Topic: Accuracy in Media
Cliff Kincaid has something new to do when he's not hating gays or hurling baseless smears: It was announced that Kincaid had joined the board of advisers for Pam Geller's latest anti-Muslim group, Stop Islamization of Nations.
As Richard Bartholomew has detailed, SION's board include the usual motley crew of anti-Muslim activists, including someone who claimed that the so-called Ground Zero mosque would be used to train terrorists and a guy who has criticized Christianity as well as Islam as "closed, dogmatic and fundamentalist and closed belief systems, which divide people between believers and non-believers."
Kincaid thus joins a clearinghouse of Muslim-bashing, which is not surprising at all given that he has long blamed the post-9/11 anthrax attacks on Islamic terrorists despite the fact that the evidence points to government bioresearcher Bruce Ivins, and has promoted the idea that President Obama is some kind of secret Muslim.
AIM's Kincaid Has Another Lesbian Freakout Topic: Accuracy in Media
In a Jan. 19 Accuracy in Media column, Cliff Kincaid complains that "Sally Kohn, a former senior strategist at the Soros-funded Center for Community Change, has been hired as a Fox News Contributor." But Kincaid's real problem seems to be that Kohn is "an open lesbian who shuns feminine attire and frequently wears a suit jacket."
the notoriously homophobic Kincaid has a history of being freaked out by the existence of lesbians -- if you'll recall, he has expressed concern that Rachel Maddow is "a lesbian with hair so short that she looks like a man."
Kincaid went on to complain that "Kohn has a history of her own, having worked for the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), a group that tries to keep criticism of the homosexual agenda out of the mainstream media," citing as an example a case in which Fox News' Shannon Bream "interviewed guests critical of a transgendered person, a man dressed as a woman, who had used a woman’s changing room at a department store. GLAAD viewed this criticism as 'dangerous.'"
In fact, what GLAAD criticized was the unbalanced nature of the Fox News report , in which only critics were interviewed, and what GLAAD actually criticized as "dangerous" was not mere criticism of transsexuals but but the fact that false claims by anti-gay activist Mathew Staver went unrebutted:
Bream was also silent as Johnson and Starver made false and dangerous claims that protections for transgender people put other Americans at risk, an idea that has been roundly rejected by the American Psychological Association. Scores of municipalities around the country have enacted laws to protect their transgender citizens from harm and discrimination-- without sacrificing the well-being of anyone.
Kincaid also provides a misleading defense of Glenn Beck, grousing that liberal groups "accused Beck of anti-Semitism for criticizing Soros," which he called "phony" because "Soros is an atheist with no love for Israel." But Soros grew up as a Jew, and Beck falsely and sleazily portrayedhim as a Nazi collaborator. In fact, the teenage Soros in Nazi-controlled Hungary was trying to pass himself as the non-Jewish godson of a protector who he accompanied in helping to take inventory of Jewish property previously confiscated by the Nazis. Further, there is substance to the claim against Beck, as his frequent criticisms of Soros as a puppet master eerily echo anti-Semitic stereotypes.
AIM Bashes CREW, Doesn't Disprove CREW's Criticism of Santorum Topic: Accuracy in Media
In a Jan. 9 Accuracy in Media column, Cliff Kincaid rants about Ron Paul used "Soros-funded research" in an attack ad target Republican rival Rick Santorum, clarifying: "The Soros organization alluded to by Santorum is the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). It is the source of the corruption charge against Santorum in the Ron Paul ad."
At no point does Kincaid identify the corruption charges CREW leveled against Santorum -- let alone disprove any of them. Instead, Kincaid mindlessly repeated criticism of CREW from Santorum and other right-wingers accused of shady dealings by the group.
Since Kincaid won't acknowledge this, here are the allegations leveled against Santorum by CREW in 2006, which caused CREW to place Santorum on its list of most corrupt congressmen that year:
Even though Santorum and his family lived in Virginia, his children attended a cyber charter school based in Pennsylvania, at an estimated cost to local taxpayers of $72,000.
Santorum and his PAC received political donations from companies that Santorum-promoted legislation would benefit from.
Santorum received a special mortage that his financial records indicate he didn't qualify for.
As CREW has pointed out, Santorum has not responded to the substance of these charges. We suspect Kincaid won't either.
As a sidelight, Kincaid tacitly admitted that Fox News' coverage has a vindictive right-wing bias. After noting that CREW recently issued a press release "highlighting Rupert Murdoch, owner of News Corporation, parent of Fox News, as 'scoundrel of the year'," Kincaid added, "Perhaps this has something to do with Fox News running a story on CREW’s frivolous complaints against Republicans."
Yet somehow, in Kincaid's eyes, CREW is biased and Fox News is not. Go figure.
AIM's Kincaid Repeats Bogus Attack Against Panetta Topic: Accuracy in Media
Cliff Kincaid just can't stop smearing Leon Panetta.
In a Jan. 11 Accuracy in Media column, Kincaid rants once again about "Panetta’s anti-defense views and his personal ties to radical left-wing forces and Communist Party member Hugh DeLacy." Except that's not true at all.
As Media Matters detailed (and as we noted the last time Kincaid did this), Panetta had no "personal ties" to DeLacy -- it was nothing more than correspondence between a constituent and his congressman, which is what Panetta was at the time.
AIM's Kincaid Takes Anita Dunn Out of Context, Admits He's Doing So Topic: Accuracy in Media
You gotta love the chutzpah-tasatic dishonesty inherent in the Obama derangement of Accuracy in Media's Cliff Kincaid. In a Jan. 3 AIM column attacking for Obama aide Anita Dunn, Kincaid writes:
You may remember Dunn as the Obama aide who once said communist mass murderer Mao and Mother Teresa were “two of my favorite political philosophers.” The Soros-funded Media Matters said she was taken out of context.
Kincaid, of course, is taking Dunn's statement out of context -- even admitting he's doing so -- and he dishonestly fails to link to the Media Matters item explaining why it's out of context.
That's not the only dishonesty Kincaid is engaging in here. The headline of his column reads "Former Obama Aide Lobbied for The Washington Post." But that's an inaccurate statement -- Dunn has done consulting work (which she claims is not lobbying) for Kaplan University, a subsidiary of the Washington Post Co., which also owns the Washington Post. Kaplan University is not the Washington Post, though Kincaid does make that distinction somewhat clearer in his column.
