Just how mendacious are Terry Jeffrey and his band of merry reporters at CNSNews.com?
A Feb. 13 CNS article by Patrick Burke carries the mendacious headline "Administration Will Spend $1.8B to Build 20-Mile Railroad on 30-Mile-Wide Island."
In fact, what's not being built is a "railroad" but a light-rail public transit system on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, running from Honolulu to Kapolei via the Honolulu airport.
At no point does Burke explicitly state that this is a light-rail public transit system or that it's for the exclusive use of people. He does, however, baselessly insinuate that this is some kind of political-crony deal by President Obama by noting that one end of the line stops "approximately 1-3 miles from the University of Hawaii and Punahou School, the high school once attended by President Obama."
In fact, the transit line has been in the planning stages for more than 40 years, and approved by Oahu voters in 2008.
That's how medacious CNS is. And the Media Research Center dares to attack others for alleged bias?
WND's Ted Nugent Loves Black People (Except Obama And Those Who Like Him) Topic: WorldNetDaily
Ted Nugent declares in his Feb. 20 WorldNetDaily column that "Barack Obama, the guy who received roughly 93 percent of black American votes, is the clear and present engineer of the destruction of black America." But, apparently, they're too stupid to figure this out:
The truth is that the Democratic Party has been the engineer of the destruction of black Americans, and everyone knows it except the very people who need to know it the most – black Americans.
The turbo-destruction will continue for black Americans until they realize that dirty Democrat politicians are their true enemy, not their salvation. Fortunately, some are beginning to embrace this self-evident truth.
Then, having just insulted blacks, Nugent declares his love for them:
Indeed, the tapestry of black America is rich and vibrant. I don’t celebrate Black History Month. I celebrate it every day, as my very black-inspired musical dreams could not have been successful were it not for black Americans.
My fire-breathing musical career was literally launched by black musical thundergods such as Bo Diddly, Little Richard, James Brown, Wilson Picket, Sam & Dave, Albert King, BB King, Freddie King, the mighty Funk Brothers, and the epitome of Rock ‘n’ Roll Gods, the master, Chuck Berry. The music these gentlemen created gave birth to my music and all great, moving, soulful music. We owe it all to them.
Yes, Nugent is so steeped in black culture that he misspelled the names of Bo Diddley and Wilson Pickett.
But Nugent wasn't done loving black people:
There is no doubt that my 2013 tour will be the best of my life. With world-class virtuosos paying tribute to our black heroes nightly, it is only fitting that this year’s tour is aptly titled, “Ted Nugent Black Power 2013.” Say it loud: my music is black and I’m proud!
He's so proud, in fact, that his band has no black members.
MRC Blowing More Money On Times Square Billboards Topic: Media Research Center
Remember last year how the Media Research Center dropped $180,000 on a Times Square billboard as part of spending $5 million to demand that the "liberal media" tell "the truth" -- much of that money seemingly going more for show and less toward actual media watchdogging, undermined as it was by the MRC's efforts to intimidate reporters into not telling the truth about Republicans?
Well, the MRC has determined it needs to blow even more money on Times Square billboards.
A Feb. 20 CNSNews.com article by Michael Chapman details how the MRC has rented a cluster of five billboards in Times Square to push its new message demanding that the "liberal media" "stop censoring the news." It's acccompanied, of course, by a rant from you-know-who:
Brent Bozell, president of the MRC, said in a statement, “During the 2012 election, the liberal media moved beyond bias. They actively and repeatedly censored any story that could have jeopardized Barack Obama’s re-election. Now in 2013, they’re censoring any story that could slow his administration’s second term agenda. Their behavior is as disgraceful as it is unprecedented.”
“These billboards – located in the hub of the liberal media’s nerve center – put them on notice,” said Bozell. “The American people are sick and tired of the establishment media’s collusion with the Obama administration, and won’t stand for a corrupt press willing to censor the news.”
Bozell's definition of censorship is not that of most people -- when he says "censorship," he really means "uncritically promote the right-wing agenda."
But the vast majority of Times Square pedestrians are not familiar with the way things work in the right-wing media bubble, so they won't understand the billboards' definition of "censorship," since no actual censorship as most Americans understand it is not happening, and thus will dismiss the billboards as crazy rantings.
Of course, by Bozell's own definition, Fox News is an even bigger censor than the "liberal media" is, but Bozell would never admit that in public.
These new billboards have double the square footage of the single billboard it rented last year, which means that the MRC has spent at least $360,000 on this campaign. Additionally, the MRC is paying an undisclosed amount of money to right-wing radio host Mark Levin to promote this campaign.
As we noted last year, a static billboard -- even five of them, arranged in a way that's not terribly compelling -- is a miniscule presence among the flashing neon and giant video screens of Times Square. Plus, February isn't exactly a peak month for tourism, so it's questionable whether it will be viewed by the "1.4 million onlookers" that the MRC claims. And these billboards will be forgotten as soon as they are taken down.
Is this really an effective way to spend a nonprofit group's money, or is the MRC just doing it for show in order to create the illusion for its funders that it has some real-world impact so they'll donate more money? The MRC's annual budget is $10 million, which means it has blown approximately 5 percent of it on this campaign already with 10 more months to go in the year.
WND's Unruh Hides Anti-Muslim Bias of Disciplined Instructor Topic: WorldNetDaily
Bob Unruh uses a Feb. 18 WorldNetDaily article to serve up his usual brand of slanted reporting, lavishing attention of a right-wing legal group coming to the defense of an instructor at the National Defense University who was disciplined for "teaching an approved course on Islam."
Nowhere is it stated who "approved" what Matthew Dooley taught in his Islam, and Unruh can't be bothered to report exactly what Dooley taught that got him disciplined.
The course instructed senior officers at the lieutenant colonel, commander, colonel and Navy captain level that “there is no such thing as ‘moderate Islam,’” and that wartime protections against civilians of Islamic countries were “no longer relevant.”
Materials distributed by Dooley’s guest lecturers suggested inaccurately that President Obama is a Muslim. Similar material taught to the FBI in 2011 compared Islam to the Death Star in Star Wars. Dooley himself taught, “Your oath as a professional soldier forces you to pick a side here.”
Dooley considered the reduction of Islam to a “cult status” an acceptable outcome of what he considered a civilizational war. Accordingly, his instructional material is reminiscent of The Innocence of Muslims, the anti-Islam video that was used as a pretext in the Middle East over the past week for anti-American protests.
In other words, Unruh is trying to hide the fact that Dooley's course was virulently anti-Muslim and factually inaccurate. You know, just like WND.
Mychal Massie Rewrites Declaration of Independence To Attack Obama Topic: WorldNetDaily
In the course of our current human events, it has become necessary not simply to remind people why we must dissolve the political bands that connect us to the Obama federal government but to publish and declare our intent to do so.
There are two constants that have remained throughout all of history: good ultimately overcomes evil, and ultimately, the people rise up against their oppressor. The Obama administration is evil, and the first attempt of the people to rise up against it – vis-a-vis the tea-party movement – was so successful that it was not Obama who rose to defeat the movement but rather Karl Rove and other Republicans who feared that the success of the tea-party movement would deprive them of their spoils.
[...]
I submit that a rewriting of the closing paragraph of the Declaration of Independence should read:
We, therefore, the people of the United States of America, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of our belief in the Constitution and The Declaration of the United States, solemnly publish and declare, that We the People of The United States are united in our right to be free and independent citizens under the authority of our States, and that we declare ourselves absolved from all allegiance to the Obama government, and that all connection between the Obama federal government is and ought to be totally dissolved, and that as free citizens we have the power to self-determination, to contract alliances, to establish commerce, to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do, and, if it becomes necessary, to defend our rights in whatever way the situation may demand. And for the support of our Declaration, with firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.
When We the People commit to that movement we will not only reclaim our government, but we will also reclaim our constitutional rights. We need a movement of NO. No more Obama and no more government intrusion. History shows that movements of the people to dethrone potentates and reclaim individual rights have succeeded.
Noel Sheppard Gets Huffy About Accurate Description of Fox As Candidate Training Ground Topic: NewsBusters
In a Feb. 14 NewsBusters post, Noel Sheppard got all huffy about former White House communications director Anita Dunn claiming "What you're seeing now with Fox is that that alternative Fox universe that they created for four years is crumbling" and that "there are not a lot of news networks that have on their payrolls as Fox did two years ago the bulk of the people who are planning to run for president in a political party."
Cue Sheppard's huffiness: "At the start of the last presidential campaign cycle, there were eleven Republican candidates. Only two - Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum - had previously worked for Fox." But Sheppard didn't mention that Fox also employed three others who were considered potential 2012 Republican candidates but who eventually decided not to run -- Mike Huckabee, Sarah Palin and John Bolton. Huckabee and Bolton remain with Fox.
But Sheppard wasn't done being huffy:
Of course, Dunn didn't say anything about her former co-worker Robert Gibbs going to work for MSNBC.
I'm sure she sees no problem with that, or with former Clinton adviser George Stephanopoulos being a prominent figure at ABC News or former Democratic presidential candidate Al Sharpton being a host of his own MSNBC program. She also failed to mention that Sharpton's colleague, Chris Matthews, very publicly discussed running for Senate in Pennsylvania as a Democrat.
Let's take these point by point:
1) Stephanopoulos was a staffer and never claimed to be a presidential candidate.
2) Sharpton's presidential candidacy was in 2004, a full eight years before he joined MSNBC, and he has not expressed any desire to run again that we know of.
3) Matthews talked about running four years ago, and ultimately decided against it. He already had his MSNBC show for several years before that.
By contrast, all of the folks linked to Fox are currently viable candidates.
And of course, Sheppard didn't say anything about Fox News' Geraldo Rivera very publicly discussing running for Senate in New Jersey as a Republican.
NEW ARTICLE: WorldNetDaily's Drum Major For Race-Baiting Topic: WorldNetDaily
Colin Flaherty keeps seeing "black mob violence" everywhere he looks, regardless of the actual facts -- and then plays dumb about the fact that he's race-baiting. Read more >>
A Feb. 19 article by CNS editor in chief Terry Jeffrey makes this claim:
Outgoing Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta has unilaterally issued a directive stating that the U.S. military will now extend certain benefits to unmarried domestic partners that were formerly reserved for married couples—but will only do so if the domestic partners certify in writing to the Department of Defense that they are of the same sex.
Heterosexual unmarried partners do not qualify for the benefits—and thus are treated unequally by Panetta’s directive on the basis of their sexual orientation.
Jeffrey conveniently fails to mention that same-sex partners are not permitted to marry in most states, thus being "treated unequally." If same-sex members of the military could legally marry nationwide, there would be no need for this policy.
But that's not all. Look at the picture CNS uses to promote the article on its front page, which also accompanies the article itself:
That's a picture of Panetta and President Obama hugging. Are Jeffrey and CNS trying to insinuate that Obama and Panetta are in a gay relationship?
The hate just oozes off the CNS website, doesn't it?
WND Fearmongers About Sex Ed In Croatia Topic: WorldNetDaily
A Feb. 16 WorldNetDaily article by Bob Unruh carries the headline "6th-grade porn teachers exposed." That's just one of the many misleading claims in Unruh's article.
The focus of the article is sex education in Croatia and a speech by anti-Kinsey obsessive Judith Reisman given there in opposition to it. As is Unruh's modus operandi, he treats the claims of Reisman and sex education opponents as unassailable while making no effort whatsoever to present balance by telling the other side of the story. Apparently, Unruh believes there is nothing legitimate to say in support of sex education.
Unruh calls Reisman a "preeminent American researcher" -- which anyone familiar with her work knows is simply not true. Reisman is so determined to portray sex researcher Alfred Kinsey as a child-molesting monster that she frequently departs from the facts to further her demonization. Even the consrvative-leaning Canadian newspaper the National Post wrote in a December 2004 editorial: "There is little reason to take Dr. Reisman seriously."
But WND does -- it published one of Reisman's anti-Kinsey books, and WND managing editor David Kupelian has approvingly cited her work in his books.
So, we get treated to the spectacle of Unruh uncritically regurgitating Reisman's hatred of Kinsey and her questionable attacks on him.
What does this have to do with Croatia? According to Unruh, she "told WND one of the authors of the proposed sex curriculum in Croatia, Aleksandar Stulhofer, is linked to Kinsey’s research and the ongoing work of an institute that bears Kinsey’s name."
And where do the "6th-grade porn teachers" come in? That isn't even mentioned until the 30th paragraph of Unruh's article, in which he makes the unsupported claim that "Pornography is taught in the sixth grade" of the sex ed curriculum.
In fact, Unruh quotes only "critics" about the details of the Croatian sex ed program. There's no evidence that he made any effort whatsoevder to contact Croatian education officials for a response to the criticism, like a real journalist would.
While Unruh also fails to note any criticism of Reisman, he does tell us that "She’s been listed in “The World’s Who’s Who of Women.”
Unruh wrote that Reisman "was invited to Croatia to speak," he could not be bothered to ask who invited her. But as Richard Bartholomew notes, she was invited by members of the Croatian Democratic Union, a conservative political party.
Unruh also touts a Croatian journalist whose show was canceled after she did a report on the sex education curriculum, citing a Project Censored report claiming that "The program was well researched, professionally produced and of significant interest to the citizens of Croatia." Well, not so much: That report appeared under the title "Pedophilia as the foundation of sexual education?" and earned the journalist an audience with the Catholic archbishop of Zagreb.
Speaking of which, Unruh is silent about the major role the Catholic Church in Croatia is playing in opposing the sex education program. Church officials there reportedly likened the imposition of the curriculum to Nazi Germany and essentially called for armed action against the state over it.
P.S. Ironically, WND editor Joseph Farah has long denounced Project Censored as being run by people who believe that "the U.S. is now in the grip of a cartel of scary clerics, corporate plutocrats, white men in white hoods and gun-loving, misogynist tree-murderers." Presumably, he backed off a little after the project gave an award to WND's Jerome Corsi for his fearmongering over "NAFTA superhighways."
MRC Peddles Dubious Claims About Minimum Wage Hike Topic: Media Research Center
Liz Thatcher uses a Feb. 15 Media Research Center Business & Media Institute article to complain the Huffington Post did an article about "a new study by the George Soros-funded Center for Economic Policy and Research" arguing that the "minimum wage should be $21.72 an hour to keep up with the increase of worker productivity." Thatcher responds by asserting that those calling for a higher minimum wage don't consider "how these increases affect the poor," then parrots a "Senior Policy Analyst in Labor Economics for The Heritage Foundation" who claims that "relatively few minimum wage workers are poor" and many are high school or college students not supporting themselves or a family on their income, and that “higher minimum wages cost some workers their jobs."
In fact, research shows that increasing the minimum wage has no discernable effect on employment, and that the vast majority of people currently earning minimum wage are over the age of 20, and half were over 25. Certainly not everybody over 25 isn't supporting themselves or a family, are they?
Thatcher also quotes a Wall Street Journal writer who claimed that a 2009 minimum wage hike "has driven the wages of teen employees down to $0.00" because numerous jobs were eliminated. But Thatcher fails to mention that the economy was cratering at that time, and the Journal writer fails to make the case that correlation equals causation.
WND Trades Birther Billboards For Ten Commandments Billboards Topic: WorldNetDaily
Remember those birther billboards WorldNetDaily briefly put up in random places across the country? It appears to be another sign of WND's waning enthusiasm for birtherism that it was found something else to make billboards about.
WND announced in a Feb. 15 article that "WND founder Joseph Farah has launched a national billboard campaign featuring the Ten Commandments to help awaken believers and non-believers alike to the evil that abounds in our country."
Farah's moralizing continues:
“The problem is America is not limited to atheists, agnostics, cults and non-believers,” says Farah. “In fact, the biggest problem America has is with those who call themselves believers but who act no differently than the worldliest individuals on the planet. You can call these people backslidden. You can call them false converts. Or you can call them undiscipled, nominal believers. What they all have in common is they are not in obedience to God. They are not even trying to follow the most basic moral law, as Jesus and the prophets all instructed.”
He said the plan is for dozens, if not hundreds, of billboards.
“The goal is two-fold,” Farah says. “I want to prick the consciences of believers and non-believers alike, and I want Americans to see the basis of all our laws as handed down by God at Mount Sinai in hopes they will repent of their sins and turn back to their Creator.”
America has never needed a campaign like this so badly, he says.
“The Ten Commandments have been banished from our schools,” says Farah. “They’ve been banished from our courtrooms and law schools. They’ve even been banished from some of our churches and synagogues. Look what has become of America since. Maybe it’s time to roll them out on highways and byways, in big cities and small towns so no one is without excuse as to the moral code the One True God gave us to govern ourselves.”
While the article claims that "Farah and WND are providing seed money for the launch and publicity," history dictates that that's pretty much the limit for putting their money where their mouths are. Indeed, WND goes on to state that it and Farah "hope that Jews and Christians alike — all worshipers of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob — will donate money to the campaign to erect the messages on public billboards from coast to coast."
And, of course, there's a link to a donation page. And again, if history is a guide, there will be no public accounting for how that donated money is spent -- WND is a for-profit corporation, after all, and it's not averse to fleecing its readers.
A Feb. 17 article declares that the billboard campaign has officially kicked off "with 11 major billboards – all in the heart of what some call 'sin city,' Las Vegas."
We don't think for a minute that Farah himself will follow the moral code he wants to impose on the rest of us by pricking his own conscience and repenting for the sewer of anti-Obama hate and lies WND has become under his leadership since President Obama's election. But we can dream, can't we?
UPDATE: Note that the billboard makes no mention of WND whatsoever, instead promoting the web address thetencommandments.com (which redirects to the Feb. 15 WND article). WND seems to know that its brand is damaged from its birther obsession, and it could be argued they don't want to taint Christianity by linking the Ten Commandments to it.
NewsBusters Finally Finds A 'Technically Correct' Fact It Doesn't Like Topic: NewsBusters
A big part of the Media Research Center's waronfact-checkers was taking refuge in something being "technically correct" while ignoring the broader context of the claim that makes it misleading or false. Now, the MRC has finally found a "technically correct" claim that it doesn't like.
A Feb. 14 NewsBusters post by Jeffrey Meyer takes issue with a claim reported by MSNBC that "Georgia has the lowest minimum wage at $5.15/hr." Meyer retorts: "While technically correct, the graphic being presented to the liberal MSNBC viewers is extremely misleading, as lends the impression that Georgia workers actually earn that little. They don't, because, well, the higher federal wage preempts the state law."
We're not arguing with Meyer's research, just his double standard that turned a blind eye to his fellow NewsBusters turning a blind eye to pesky context in order to embrace "technically correct" claims made by conservatives.
Flaherty works up his best fearmongering over "black mobs" in Detroit in a Feb. 11 article: "Hundreds of black people rampaged through downtown Detroit Saturday night: Breaking things. Beating up people. Throwing chairs inside restaurants. Threatening. Fighting. Running. Much of it on video." He seems more appalled, however, that anyone would dare dispute that "being black had anything to do with the violence and lawlessness." After all, that would run counter to Flaherty's stock in trade.
In a Feb. 14 article, Flaherty obsesses again over the "Knockout Game," of which black people are a crucial ingredient:
The rules for the Knockout Game are simple: First, start with a crowd of black people. Then, find a white person. Beat him until he is unconscious. Or until your arms and legs get tired. Repeat as desired. Some people keep score. Others yell “Knockout Game” and laugh.
Biut as we've pointed out, the "Knockout Game" is not a black thing, it's an inner-city adolescent thing.
On Feb. 15, Flaherty proclaimed a Minneapolis high school food fight that escalated out of control to be an example of racially driven "black mob violence," even though the two main groups of students involved were both black. Or, as Flaherty put it more ominously: "All of violence was from groups of black people."
Flaherty then goes on to described allegations of "groups of blacks marauding through the downtown and other parts of Minneapolis; beating, hurting, destroying and stealing. Sometimes right in front of police."
Remember, Flaherty has a self-published book he needs to sell, so this sort of fearmongering must be reinforced.
Dick Morris Shills Even More For Newsmax Book Topic: Newsmax
We've detailed how the disgraced Dick Morris has returned to shilling for Newsmax in the form of a video promoting a Newsmax-published book bashing Obamacare. Morris has followed up with a Feb. 16 column waxing even more effusively over the book:
So often, books are called “must read.” The ObamaCare Survival Guide is only a must read if you think you will ever get sick!
Obamacare changes the rules of the game totally. I fought this law tooth and nail along with a lot of you. But it’s the law now and Obama’s victory assures that we are not going to be able to repeal it anytime soon. So this book teaches you how to live with it and make it give you the best health care you can get.
[...]
Thank the Lord that there is now a non-partisan, non-political book that explains all this in terms we can all understand. Get a copy. It is truly a survival guide.
In fact, the book is not non-partisan or non-political -- Publishers Weekly stated that the book is "boldly one-sided" and "lobs stink bombs from the start at president Obama and the Democratic Party."
Remember last year how the Media Research Center dropped $180,000 on a Times Square billboard as part of 
Let's check in on Colin Flaherty's latest 
