Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center tried to discredit presidential debate moderator with specious charges of "liberal bias." When that failed, it resorted to ugly personal attacks against the female moderators. Read more >>
Friday, October 26, 2012
NEW ARTICLE: Moderator Wars
Topic: Media Research Center The Media Research Center tried to discredit presidential debate moderator with specious charges of "liberal bias." When that failed, it resorted to ugly personal attacks against the female moderators. Read more >>
Posted by Terry K.
at 12:10 AM EDT
Thursday, October 25, 2012
WND's Erik Rush: Try (And Presumably Execute) Journalists for Being Too Pro-Obama
Topic: WorldNetDaily Erik Rush uses his Oct. 24 WorldNetDaily column to mark Free Speech Week ... by advocating the trial and punishment, "no matter how severe," of journalists for "treason" for doing things like pointing out that President Obama did not go on an "apology tour." We'll outsource the ridicule to Wonkette. (Here, too, also.)
Posted by Terry K.
at 3:48 PM EDT
MRC's Graham Has A 'Gay Agenda' Freakout
Topic: NewsBusters In an Oct. 21 NewsBusters post, Tim Graham has a fit over a Washington Post "puff piece" about Ellen DeGeneres winning the Kennedy Center's Mark Twain Award. Why? Because it suggested that DeGeneres' talk show doesn't have a "gay agenda." Graham ranted in response:
Needless to say, Graham never describes what this "gay agenda" is. The only example of how this supposed "gay agenda" can be found in DeGeneres' talk show is an anecdote about how she" put on a couple of little red-headed boys, and one said he favored the president, because "Barack Obama said that men and men can marry each other and woman and woman can marry each other and I think that’s right." That's it. One example out of 11 years of shows. But apparently, according to Graham, the mere fact that DeGeneres is gay is enough evidence of a sinister "gay agenda." UPDATE: Fixed name of newspaper.
Posted by Terry K.
at 12:44 PM EDT
Updated: Friday, October 26, 2012 5:59 PM EDT
WND, Newsmax Pretend Trump's 'Bombshell' Isn't A Dud
Topic: WorldNetDaily WorldNetDaily drooled at the prospect of what might be in the special announcement Donald Trump made on Oct. 24. It devoted an article prior to his announcement by repeating an unsubstantiated story that "Michelle and Barack Obama once seriously considered getting a divorce," followed by Trump's claim that "none of the speculation about the subject of the announcement was correct." Well, Trump's big announcement turned out to be a self-promoting dud -- he vowed to donate $5 million to the charity of President Obama's choice if Obama would release his college transcripts. But WND still needed to pretend like Trump's offer was anything but a fizzle. So Bob Unruh penned an article headlined "Kaboom! Trump drops Obama bombshell" that avoids mentioning Trump's actual proposal anywhere in the headline or the subhead and was mostly a updated cut-and-paste of the earlier article. Meanwhile, Newsmax -- which has promoted Trump's presidential ambitions and tried to partner with him to host a Republican presidential debate -- played the same game of make-believe. An Oct. 24 article by Martin Gould treated Trump's dud with gravitas, even adding, "The Obama campaign had no immediate comment on Trump's video." Meanwhile, outside the right-wing, Trump-fluffing fever swamp, his announcement was treated with the lack of seriousness and outright ridicule it deserved.
Posted by Terry K.
at 7:21 AM EDT
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Too 'Feisty' For Bozell -- Or Too Female?
Topic: Media Research Center Brent Bozell's Oct. 24 column is headlined "Say No to Feisty Liberal Moderators," but it's clear that he has only certain feisty moderators in mind. Bozell wrote that "old PBS hand Jim Lehrer let the candidates debate, and for that he was savaged by liberals for 'losing control' of the evening. He also wrote that "liberal CBS anchorman Bob Schieffer did it right. He moderated without asserting his own political opinions. Indeed, if this was all you had as a compass, you'd never know where he leaned." (That, of course ignores the fact that Schieffer has a personal relationship with George W. Bush, whose debate Schieffer moderated in 2004 -- a relationship the MRC has thus far not mentioned to its readers lest that conflict with its lucrative "liberal media bias" storyline.) Bozell then said that Schieffer and Lehrer were "a welcome change from the Raddatz and Crowley libfests." He continued:
Welcoming a feisty female moderator sounds doubly terrible to Bozell. We're sure it's just a coincidence that the two debate moderators Bozell found too "feisty" were both female. Make of that what you will.
Posted by Terry K.
at 7:43 PM EDT
WND's Farah: Pray For An End To The 'Obama Tribulation'
Topic: WorldNetDaily
-- Joseph Farah, Oct. 23 WorldNetDaily column
Posted by Terry K.
at 5:19 PM EDT
Newsmax Does Post-Debate Romney-Fluffing
Topic: Newsmax Right on cue, Newsmax's David Patten -- a loyal right-wing apparatchik -- quickly moved after the Oct. 22 presidential debate into full Romney-fluffing mode with an article headlined "Pundits Proclaim: Romney Passes ‘Commander-in-Chief Test’." Patten began in a cheerleading fashion:
Of course, all of the "pundits" Patten quotes -- Judith Miller, David Gergen and Doug Schoen -- are conservative-leaning. Patten misleadingly describes Schoen as a "Democratic pollster" despite the fact that he's making his living these days in part by bashing President Obama.
Posted by Terry K.
at 12:31 PM EDT
WND's Obama-Iran Claim Backed Up ... By 'Whitey Tape' Charlatan
Topic: WorldNetDaily We've been detailing how WorldNetDaily has been trying to take credit for the New York Times' reporting about alleged proposed one-on-one talks between the U.S. and Iran, even though WND's Reza Kahlili made unproven, unsubstantiated claims that went far beyond what the Times reported. Now, WND is trying to get others to back up Kahlili. its first choice, though, is a bad one. An Oct. 23 WND article touts how "A former CIA analyst says a WND report that revealed Iranian sources confirming a deal between the Obama administration and a representative of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei over that nation’s nuclear program means the issue could not be used to “bludgeon” challenger Mitt Romney." It continues:
If Larry Johnson's name sounds familiar, it should. He's best known for feverishly promoting the existence of what is infamously known as the "whitey tape" -- a supposed recording of Michelle Obama railing against "whitey." Just one problem: No such tape has ever surfaced. Johnson has peddled strange explanations about why the purported tape has never been released, always absolving himself. We can presume that neither Batchelor nor Kahlili -- who was a guest along with Johnon on Batchelor's show -- asked Johnson about this alleged tape during his appearance. After all, that would have discredited Johnson and, by association, Kahlili -- and we can presume that right-winger Batchelor was not about to do that. Meanwhile, a new follow-up article by Kahlili quotes more anonymous, unverifiable sources making related claims. Kahlili claimed that his "highly placed" source says that "after the WND revelation of the secret meeting, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was incensed." Kahlili added in yet another attempt to take credit for the Times' reporting: "The Iranian supreme leader demanded the Americans explain about the leak, which prompted the White House to leak a soft version of the story to the New York Times and deny the facts." What facts? Kahlili has provided nothing that can be independently verified, and he has a history of making crackpot claims. WND has given its readers no reason whatsoever to trust anything Kahlili says. Kahlili also has provided no evidence linking anything he has written to the Times' report, so he should really be less of an egomaniac about this. In short: Unless Kahlili can deliver something beyond anonymous, unverifiable sources, he can't -- and shouldn't -- be trusted.
Posted by Terry K.
at 7:22 AM EDT
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Fact-Checking the Fact-Challenged Seton Motley
Topic: NewsBusters Seton Motley has a growing reputation for falsely smearing General Motors in his NewsBusters post, and he continues to live up to it. In an Oct. 18 NewsBusters post, Motley ironically attacks former auto czar Steven Rattner for allegeldy having "a bit of a problem telling the truth." Of course, it's Motley who actually has that problem. He attacks GM for selling the electric Chevy Volt at discount prices -- even though that's standard business practice for dealing with slow-selling inventory. Motley goes on to attack Rattner for wanting to eliminate previous practice of maintaining "over-bloated inventories on dealers’ lots," then links to newspaper articles citing high inventories of GM pickup trucks. But Motley fails to explain why pickup inventories are elevated: As these industry websites note, the GM plants that make trucks are being shut down for several weeks in order to retool the assembly lines for a redesigned model, and production was increased prior to the shutdown in order to make sure dealers didn't run out of trucks while the plants were shut down. Motley serves up even more huffy disingenuousness in an Oct. 23 post, in which he ranted: "Good thing President Obama separated us from our $85 billion - allegedly to “create or save” jobs. Mostly foreign jobs, but.... And as we’ve seen with Ford, no government bailout money was necessary to preserve a gi-normous member of the American auto industry." Actually, that $85 billion wasn't given to GM alone -- it was also given to Chrysler and other auto parts suppliers. Much of that money has been paid back, and how much the bailout ultimately costs -- probably less than $25 billion -- depends on how much the government can get for its remaining stake in GM. And while Ford did not take any bailout money, the company benefited from it. Ford CEO Alan Mulally told Fox News last month that without the bailout, a failed GM and Chrysler "could have taken down the industry and th U.S. economy from a recession to a depression," and that the entire auto industry "would have been in real trouble." So: More dishonesty from Seton Motley. Anyone surprised?
Posted by Terry K.
at 6:08 PM EDT
CNS Fail: Reporter Is Three Weeks Late to Clinton Story, Still Gets It Wrong
Topic: CNSNews.com An Oct. 22 CNSNews.com article by Fred Lucas breathlessly reports on how former President Clinton 'talked about his eligibility to serve as the leader of both Ireland and France" during an interview with CNN's Piers Morgan. However, as Lucas goes on to later note, this interview took place on "Sept. 30" -- more than three weeks earlier. Why did CNS take so long to publish this story? We have no idea -- Lucas adds nothing to it that wasn't covered by other outlets when Clinton actually uttered those words. Despite this article's lengthy incubation time, Lucas still gets basic facts wrong. His lead paragraph identifies Clinton's interviewer as "Pierce Morgan." Also, the interview aired on Sept. 25, not Sept. 30. Given that Lucas took so long to write this article, you'd think he would have done a better job with it. UPDATE: CNS has corrected the spelling of Morgan's name, but it as of this writing has not corrected the date of the interview.
Posted by Terry K.
at 3:13 PM EDT
Updated: Wednesday, October 24, 2012 7:37 AM EDT
Noel Sheppard Whiffs on Conspiracy Theory Over Libya Attack
Topic: NewsBusters The increasingly discredited NewsBusters associate editor Noel Sheppard decided to go conpsiratorial in an Oct. 20 NewsBusters post, Sheppard rants about NPR's Nina Totenberg saying that "There'd be no reason to send [United Nations Ambassador] Susan Rice out to lie if she was going to get exposed immediately" regarding the the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya:
Actually, the only thing that's dead is Sheppard's ability to keep up with the news and examine things fairly. As he was writing that screed, his little conspiracy was getting blown up. As first reported by the Washington Post's David Ignatius and confirmed by the Wall Street Journal, talking points prepared by the CIA on Sept. 15, the day that Rice did the rounds of Sunday morning talk shows, stated that the attack wasthe result of a spontaneous protest, and the CIA continued to push that view internally until Sept. 22. Sheppard needs to do better research if he's going to peddle conspiracy theories like that. He's such an amateur -- yet he hold an editor's title at NewsBusters.
Posted by Terry K.
at 8:35 AM EDT
WND Lets Savage Bash His Former Radio Syndicator Some More
Topic: WorldNetDaily WorldNetDaily has clearly taken sides with Michael Savage against his radio show's former syndicator, Talk Radio Network. Now, WND is letting Savage launch more attacks on TRN. In an unbylined Oct. 22 article, WND touts Savage returning to the air with his new syndicator, Cumulus Media Networks. It also drops this claim:
It's unclear what Savage means by that, since his show is mostly live. How does TRN censor a live show? WND doesn't explain. There's no evidence WND contacted TRN for a response, which is what a responsible news organization would have done. We've previously noted how unusual it is for WND to have thrown TRN under the bus to side with Savage. TRN was founded by accused cult leader Roy Masters, whose Oregon ranch was the first home of WND upon its founding in the late 1990s. Masters' son, Mark Masters, currently operates TRN.
Posted by Terry K.
at 12:53 AM EDT
Monday, October 22, 2012
MRC Pre-Bashes Schieffer, Ignores His Pro-Bush Bias
Topic: Media Research Center The Media Research Center keeps up its war against debate moderators with an Oct. 22 item by Rich Noyes bashing tonight's moderator, Bob Schieffer, for purportedly having "tilted left in his previous visits to the presidential debate stage." Unmentioned by Noyes is the fact that Schieffer has had a lengthy relationship with George W. Bush. As we've detailed, the MRC has consistently ignored the fact that Schieffer was a golfing partner of Bush and that his brother was president of the Texas Rangers at the same time Bush was a partner in the team. If Noyes is going to speciously accuse Schieffer of bias -- as per usual, no methodology is presented for determining how Schieffer "tilted left" -- shouldn't he detail all of the bias he's been accused of, even when it conflicts with the MRC's agenda?
Posted by Terry K.
at 6:50 PM EDT
How Is Ellis Washington Beclowning Himself Today?
Topic: WorldNetDaily Remember last week, when Ellis Washington dedicated his column to likening President Obama to Caligula? Well, that apparently wasn't enough for him, because he has devoted another column to furthering the ludicrous comparison:
His Obama Derangement Syndrome seems to have reached an advanced stage that requires in-patient treatment and, it seems, extended confinement. Again: Is it at all surprising that nobody will hire Washington for a tenure-track teaching job?
Posted by Terry K.
at 3:21 PM EDT
MRC Writer Bashes Springsteen, Doesn't Understand Poetic License
Topic: Media Research Center Lauren Thompson usually writes for the Media Research Center's Culture and Media Institute, where we caught her being angry that certain films exist, being sad that the media no longer slurs undocumented immigrants as "illegals," and keeping a secret list of everything that offended her about the now-canceled show "GCB." Now, she has taken to MRC division CNSNews.com to demonstrate how ignorant she is about how music lyrics work. In her Oct. 18 CNS column (which was not posted at CMI), Thompson writes:
Thompson conveniently fails to mention the fact that both songs come from very early in Springsteen's career, when casual slurring of gays was much more tolerated in the media. "Lost in the Flood" appeared on Springsteen's first studio album, which came out in early 1973, and "Incident on 57th Street" appeared on his second album, which came out in late 1973. Nor does she explain the context in which those cherry-picked words appear. "Lost in the Flood" appears to be about a Vietnam War veteran; "Incident on 57th Street" is about the typical young and passionate Jersey characters he wrote about early in his career. Which brings us to the concept of poetic license -- that Springsteen was not speaking for himself but in the voice of the characters he was writing about -- that Thompson largely ignores. She does quote "Springsteen expert Danny Alexander" defending the lyrics by pointing out that “Creative writers use slang, the voices of their stories, to tell those stories. They do not ever have to be politically correct," but she immediately dismissed it:
Shelton can't exactly claim a tweet -- in Shelton's case, rewriting a lyric of a Shania Twain song with a homophobic tone -- is "poetic license" on par with a song lyric. Also, Thompson accusing GLAAD of having "politicized" the tweet by highlighting it is absurd; by that same standard, Thompson politicized "GCB" by keeping her secret list of offenses. Does it say something that CMI wouldn't publish Thompson's misguided attack on Springsteen and she had to resort to putting it up at another MRC outlet? Perhaps. UPDATE: CNS attempted this same ignorance-of-poetic-license stunt in 2008, when it rummaged through the fiction books of Democratic Virginia Senate candidate Jim Webb to find offensive statements that it dishonestly tried to portray as Webb's personal views -- a story that coincidentally came out at the same time that Webb's Republican opponent, George Allen, was publicizing the excerpts.
Posted by Terry K.
at 12:15 PM EDT
Updated: Monday, October 22, 2012 2:51 PM EDT
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