Under the headline "ABC makes whopping on-air blunder," a March 5 WorldNetDaily article highlights "WND has found" that a map aired by ABC misidentified Iraq as Iran, to which Klein adds, "Does ABC News know where hot spots Iran, Iraq and Syria are located?"
Funny, we don't recall Klein being bothered by an even more whopping on-air blunder, which misidentifed Iraq as Egypt.
Or when Fox labeled Utah as Nevada, and Vermont as New Hampshire.
Then again, Klein is the same guy who, after falsely suggesting Fox News paid a ransom for a kidnapped reporter, issued a suck-up piece insisting that "I am horrified people have falsified and misrepresented my article to attack Fox News" and that "that "I have enormous respect for [Roger] Ailes."
CNS Freaks Out Over Dem Congresswoman's Statement First Popularized By Grover Norquist Topic: CNSNews.com
A March 7 CNSNews.com article by Eric Scheiner highlights a statement by Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wis.) told a TV station in Milwaukee that "Many Republicans see this as a first down payment on their ultimate desire to just shrink the size of government, so much so, that you can drown it in a bathtub."
Scheiner doesn't mention, however, that a conservative said it first.
Grover Norquist originally what Moore said almost verbatim: "My goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub."
The clear motive for Scheiner highlighting this was to set Moore up for mockery by CNS readers, as the vulgar, hateful rants in the comments demonstrate. But has Scheiner ever highlighted Norquist's originial statement, let alone treat it as ridiculous?
WND Misleads About Linking Abortion, Birth Control to Breast Cancer Topic: WorldNetDaily
Garth Kant writes in a March 4 WorldNetDaily article:
They’re the carcinogens you won’t read much about in the establishment media: birth-control pills and abortion.
The evidence linking hormones and breast cancer just keeps pouring in. What kind of hormones? Those found in birth-control pills and those associated with abortions.
The prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) reported Feb. 27 the rate of metastatic breast cancer in women ages 25 to 39 nearly doubled between 1976 and 2009, from 1.53 to 2.9 per 100,000.
Kant then reports on claims by right-wing groups that blamed the increase on birth control and abortion:
The American Council on Science and Health calls the increase “slight.” But Dr. Jane Orient, executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, points out there has been no corresponding increase in older women.
Karen Malec, president of the Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer, said it was “utterly stunning” that JAMA lead author Rebecca Johnson’s team called the increased incidence in advanced cancers among young women “small.”
“That’s a nearly doubled increase in the incidence of a disease with a mean five-year fatality rate of 69 percent,” she said. “By contrast, the mean five-year fatality rate among women with breast cancers that have not spread to distant sites is 13.2 percent.”
And what distinguishes the younger women from the older? The sexual revolution, says Orient.
“Young women in huge numbers have taken higher doses of hormones than their menopausal sisters – in birth-control pills,” she said.
In 2005, the World Health Organization classified oral contraceptives as Class-1 carcinogens, one of only about 100 substances found to be “carcinogenic in humans.”
But the JAMA study made no determination of reasons for the increase -- which, in fact, is "small" since what was discovered was an increase of 1.37 cases of breast cancer per 100,000 population.Kant and his right-wingers also fail to acknowledge that the increase might be attributed in part to increased screening.
Kant continued:
Orient said at least 29 studies have shown a significant increase in breast cancer in women who have had an abortion. She said many studies indicate abortion may increase the risk of breast cancer by an average of 30 percent.
Orient says women “at the very least lose the protective effect of the first full-term pregnancy if they abort their first baby.”
She thinks women should be informed about the growing evidence linking abortion and breast cancer. Even if they do have an abortion, she said, they could at least be extra-vigilant and get early screening.
In fact, the National Cancer Institute says that "the evidence overall still does not support early termination of pregnancy as a cause of breast cancer," and the American Cancer Society says that "the scientific evidence does not support the notion that abortion of any kind raises the risk of breast cancer or any other type of cancer."
Kant couldn't be bothered to report any of those facts, but he did report someone's baseless speculation that "major research institutes have denied any link between abortion and breast cancer because the issue has been 'politicized.'"
Newsmax Misspells Conservative Jewish Leader's Name Topic: Newsmax
A March 7 Newsmax article by Bill Hoffman informs us that "Malcolm Hoenline," the head of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, said that newly appointed Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is a "Jackie Mason on steroids." Hoffmann uses the "Hoenline" spelling all the way through his article.
Actually, his last name is spelled Hoenlein. He's a right-leaning Jewish leader to whom former Newsmax writer Ronald Kessler turned for more unequivocal Obama-bashing after he got busted for taking liberties with the words of a less conservative Jewish leader.
It's quite a blunder for Newsmax to misspell the name of a prominent Jewish leader, especially in the headline.
Erik Rush Endorses Armed Overthrow of Obama Topic: WorldNetDaily
On Jan. 6, 2013, Nathan Haddad, a former Army staff sergeant and decorated combat veteran, was selling some gun magazines when he was arrested for violating a new New York state law prohibiting possession of magazines that hold more than 10 rounds. Haddad was charged with five felonies.
The officers who arrested Haddad, and those prosecuting him have shown themselves to be enemies of the Constitution and the people of the United States of America. Officials who enforce immoral laws are no better than Hitler’s Gestapo. Where, pray tell, do they plan to draw the line at what unlawful decrees they will and will not uphold?
Very soon, we are likely to hear of an individual who, upon being contacted by law enforcement, winds up in a firefight with them over their enforcement of newly implemented gun-control measures. Law-enforcement officers may be wounded or killed, as might our citizen. If arrested, he or she will be a political prisoner. This will be the final nail in the coffin for legal firearms ownership in America, as the government and the press will capitalize upon this event (and perhaps similar others) to prove once and for all that all gun owners are potential psycho cop killers.
Why does the government (and the Obama administration in particular) want Americans’ firearms? Because they know that they are already guilty of prosecutable crimes and are planning many more. They know that they represent precisely why America’s founders put the Second Amendment in the Constitution in the first place, and that they already merit being removed by force of arms. They simply want to disarm Americans before a preponderance of us come to that realization and respond accordingly.
(In fact, the large-capacity magazines Haddad was arrested for possessing have been illegal in New York since 1994, and were not made illegal under the recently passed gun-control law.)
NEW ARTICLE: All The MRC's Hacks Topic: Media Research Center
Bob Woodward's claim that a White House official intimidated him was discredited, but the Media Research Center keeps pretending it remains undisputed fact. Read more >>
WND's Kupelian Reports On Crime He Endorses Topic: WorldNetDaily
Should someone who endorsed a crime write a news story about it? Traditional journalistic ethics say no, but this is WorldNetDaily we're talking about.
Last August, WND managing editor David Kupelian endorsed the criminal behavior of Lisa Miller, who illegally fled the country with her daughter -- that is, kidnapped her -- to evade court orders allowing Miller's lesbian ex-partner visitation rights. Miller became a Christian, decided she was no longer a lesbian, which earned her representation in her custody lawsuit by the right-wing Liberty Counsel, affiliated with Liberty University. An FBI affidavit states that Miller is living in a house in Nicaragua owned by the father of a Liberty University School of Law admininistrative assistant, and the law school teaches its students how to engage in civil disobedience in situations such as the Miller case.
In a March 4 WND article, Kupelian reports on the sentencing of a pastor who was conviced on a charge of aiding in international parental kidnapping in helping Miller leave the country. Needless to say, Kupelian's summary of the case is anything but objective:
After childhood abuse led Lisa Miller into a dysfunctional life of addictions and homosexuality, she experienced a change of heart, converted to Christianity and left the homosexual lifestyle, in which she had lived as “spouse” to another lesbian woman, Janet Jenkins. During their same-sex “civil union,” Miller had given birth to a daughter, Isabella, conceived through artificial insemination.
As a new Christian, Lisa Miller’s all-consuming focus in life was to be a good mother to Isabella. However, after a Vermont judge demanded that Lisa allow her former lesbian partner, Janet Jenkins, to have unsupervised visits with little Isabella, Lisa’s nightmare – which continues to this day – got its start.
According to the testimony of experts and eyewitnesses, the court-ordered visits were severely traumatizing the child, and Isabella’s court-appointed advocate said Jenkins was “turn[ing] her world upside down.” A clinical therapist testified Isabella appeared “traumatized” by her visits with Jenkins, and that “unsupervised visits … could cause permanent damage to normal development.” A social worker testified the little girl “suffers from sleep disturbance and nightmares, having difficulty sleeping through the night,” adding that “Isabella also talks about death, and has expressed fear that if her mother Lisa dies she will be at risk. Without prompting, Isabella has said she is afraid that Janet Jenkins may take her away from Lisa.”
Kupelian also references the testimony of "clinical therapist Sylvia Haydash" attacking Miller's former partner, failing to point out that Haydash was acting under Miller's direction, making her testimony suspect.
Kupelian couldn't be bothered to practice actual journalism and tell the other side of the case, like how judges apparently found no merit whatsoever in the smears Miller launched against Miller. Nor does Kupelian mention the FBI affidavit, which details how Miller is staying in a vacation rental in Nicaragua owned by a wealthy donor to Liberty University.
Kupelian does, however, uncritically parrot Liberty officials' blanket denials of involvement with Miller fleeing the country, despite the numerous unanswered questions and the documented evidence of Liberty's involvement with Miller.
The next time you see that WND has published yet another piece of shoddy, biased journalism, remember that David Kupelian is the man in charge who makes sure its journalism is biased and shoddy.
MRC's Graham Bashes Photos of Obama With Kids, Then Wonders Why Nobody Takes MRC Seriously Topic: Media Research Center
Tim Graham devoted a March 5 NewsBusters post to complaining that NPR ombudsman Edward Schumacher-Matos "attacked media watchdogs as a class as silly, uninformed nitpickers."
Just four days earlier, however, Graham proved Schumacher-Matos correct by writing a post ranting that the Washingtonian magazine's website published "The Cutest Photos of President Obama With Kids." Graham raged that the Washingtonian "is a monthly for the Beltway crowd, and like many other D.C. organs, it’s in love with Obama," because what other reason could it have to publish photos of Obama with kids, which are "just a lot of mugging and Obama love"?
This is the height of silly, uninformed nitpicking, but Graham is apparently too self-unaware to notice.
Graham also takes offense at Schumacher-Matos' defense of the role of the newspaper ombudsman:
Is this the kind of copy an "independent" ombudsman should write if they're trying to seek public goodwilll? No, but Schumacher-Matos has been an insular voice from the day he arrfived at NPR in 2011. Unlike the last NPR ombudsman, he has made zero attempt to reach out and talk to us at MRC. (I'm the "NPR guy." The call would come to me.) His copy has proven he's about as "independent" as the average NPR reporter, and maybe less so.
Has he ever considered that the "objective" media's reporting often sounds to the audience like "silly nitpicking or advocacy opinion thinly disguised as analysis"? He's written about some silly, nitpicking subjects, like whether it's okay to call the president "Obama" instead of "Mr. Obama" after the first reference.
Then he separates groups like MRC from the “serious, nonpartisan” efforts inside the bubble of the liberal media industry[.]
More self-unawareness on Graham's part. The reason the MRC has no connection to "serious, nonpartisan" is because it is neither. The MRC's so-called research is nothing but partisanhackery that fails even basic standards of professional research and is tailored to back up a predetermined conclusion.
And really, should anyone take seriously an organization that posited that Matt Lauer wearing a checkered scarf meant that he was displaying Palestinian sympathies? We didn't think so.
Graham might want to keep that in mind the next time he whines that the MRC isn't being taken seriously.
Obama Derangement Syndrome, Larry Klayman Division Topic: WorldNetDaily
Once again, WorldNetDaily's Larry Klayman turns in a spasm of Obama Derangement Syndrome -- of which he is a longtime sufferer -- so extreme it warrants its own blog post. From his March 5 column:
Over the last four years, Barack Hussein Obama has increasingly revealed his true self. Claiming at the outset of his 2008 presidential election campaign that he is a Christian, it appears that his genuine allegiance is to Allah, the Muslim “deity.” Obama’s ties to black Muslim leaders and other anti-Semitic racists, such as Louis Farrakhan and Jeremiah Wright, have also disclosed his hand, not to mention his having endorsed the building of a mosque at Ground Zero and his support of radical Islamist groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood in the Middle East. This and much more have caused an ever-increasing number of Jews and Christians to see Obama as anti-Semitic and anti-Christian, a reality I also firmly believe to be true.
But Obama’s scorn stretches far wider than just the religion and ethnicity of Jews and Christians. Particularly apparent since his re-election, it has also become crystal clear that Obama simply resents people of the white race, even though he is one half white himself.
[...]
It is very sad and frightening that Obama has provoked this burgeoning race war. The nation, divided unlike any time since the Civil War, is about to explode in anger – primarily pitting black against white and vice versa.
On top of that, Klayman discloses that Bob Woodward met with him in the 1990s to find out what goods he had on Bill Clinton:
At Woodward’s request, yours truly – a staunch conservative and major adversary to the Clintons – even met secretly with him at the time in a dark area of Billy Martin’s Tavern in Georgetown (near Woodward ‘s townhouse), as he wanted to know what “we had” on the Clintons and their illegal dealings with communist China, which had been lining Bonnie and Clyde’s 1996 re-election campaign coffers with bribes. In short, Woodward, while left of political center, is an honest and fair man, a real professional who investigates and reports the news with minimum bias, particularly in today’s world of extreme partisanship in the media.
This explains why Woodward has been among the first of liberal journalists to call it like it is and “out” Obama and his White House for threatening him over his reporting of the sequester – which Woodward revealed was the brainchild of the president. Other white journalists on the left then followed suit and revealed that they, too, had been threatened over even their infrequent criticism of Obama.
Of course, Klayman doesn't mention that Woodward's claim of being threatened has been discredited. And the fact that Woodward hung out with Klayman raises questions about his journalistic ethics.
MRC Repeats Misleading '1,000 Scientists' Claim Topic: Media Research Center
Mike Ciandella uses a March 4 Media Research Center Business & Media Institute item to complain that National Journal is pointing out what an extremist Ken Cuccinelli -- the current Virginia attorney general who's running for governor this year -- is, particularly on the subject of climate change. Ciandella whined:
National Journal claims to be “the most credible, objective, and authoritative voice in the Beltway,” but apparently it doesn’t care too much about keeping that title.
The reality of “climate change” is that more than 1,000 scientists are on record dissenting from the so-called "consensus" on global warming. U.S. government atmospheric scientist Stanley B. Goldenberg of the Hurricane Research Division of National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has said, "It is a blatant lie put forth in the media that makes it seem there is only a fringe of scientists who don't buy into anthropogenic [manmade] global warming."
As we pointed out the last time he invoked the "1,000 scientists" argument, that's a very tiny number of total scientists, and it's not clear from the website Ciandella's link ultimately leads us to -- Climate Depot, run by professional global warming denier Marc Morano -- how many of those scientists have a background in climatology or another relevant discipline. Judging by the comments in Morano's article, very few.
And as we pointed out when one of Ciandella's colleagues at NewsBusters made the same assertion, picking 1,000 "global warming skeptics" out of context ignores the fact that 97 percent of climate experts agree that global warming is manmade.
WND Can't Decide Whether Or Not It Hates Catholics Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily has had occasional spasms of anti-Catholic behavior in the past, and it's sneaking in again.
On March 3, WND republished (read: stole) a UK Daily Mail article claiming that the real reason that Pope Benedict XVI stepped down is because he "voluntarily delivered himself up as a sacrificial lamb" for the priest sex scandals.
On the other hand, a March 3 WND article by Joe Kovacs complained that "Saturday Night Live" "wasted little time mocking Pope Benedict" with an innocuous "hat hair" joke.
That dichotomy shows how WND's far-right, ultra-orthodox evangelical Protestantism guides the organization -- a branch of which is heavily anti-Catholic, as personified by the likes of Robert Jeffress (whose hatred WND has whitewashed).
A March 5 Associated Press article was sent out with the headline "Newly Married Wash. Gay Couple Seeks Pot License."
Run that through the CNS bias machine, and the headline is magically transformed into "Today's America: Newlywed Lesbians Seek License to Open Pot Shop in Washington State."
CNS regularlychanges the headlines of AP articles to add right-wing bias.
UPDATE: CNS has now changed the headline to the more neutral "Wash. and Colo. 'potrepreneurs' see opportunity."
WND Attacks Crimes of TSA Workers, Ignores Those of Arpaio's Posse Topic: WorldNetDaily
A March 2 WorldNetDaily article by Chelsea Schilling is very concerned about the kind of people hired by the TSA:
Some might consider it one of the most important jobs in America after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks: Protecting the nation’s airports, airplanes and citizens from would-be terrorists hell-bent on mass murder.
But the TSA screeners patting you down and combing through your belongings don’t have federal law-enforcement training, may earn about as much as a McDonald’s shift manager and are not required to possess a high-school diploma or GED.
In fact, they might even be criminals.
If recent news reports are any indication, many Americans can’t even trust that TSA’s screeners won’t steal their laptops, money or jewelry.
[...]
The most common offenses in the report included theft of money and laptops and trafficking child pornography.
One agent allegedly wore his uniform and displayed a badge before sexually assaulting a woman before fleeing on foot. Another TSA agent was arrested for kidnapping a woman and sexually assaulting her. At least four of the agents in the report were arrested for sexually assaulting young girls.
One agent wore her uniform while she sold heroin near a local elementary school.
Two agents were arrested for illegally carrying guns into airports.
WND promoted this article at the top of its front under the headline "Obama won't trumpet this about his henchmen" -- even though President Obama is mentioned nowherein the article, and Schilling states that the report she's referring to details alleged TSA offenses dating back to 2005, four years before Obama became president.
You won't, however, find that same level of concern about the kind of people accepted into the posse operated by Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio. As a Phoenix TV station reported:
Arpaio wants his army of 3,000 volunteer posse members to look like sworn deputies and sometimes perform the same duties. But an in-depth project by CBS 5 Investigates uncovered a number of posse members with arrests for assault, drug possession, domestic violence, sex crimes against children, disorderly conduct, impersonating an officer - and the list goes on.
These are crimes that are not tolerated in many professions, especially professions with an implied authority.
[...]
And then there was Jacob Cutler. According to a Flagstaff police report, Cutler threw his girlfriend to the ground and choked her while trying to sexually assault her in 2008. When she didn't cooperate, he allegedly threatened to call police and said they would side with him, because he "has a badge." He was a member of Arpaio's posse at the time.
[...]
While combing through thousands of pages of court records and police reports, CBS 5 Investigates discovered that some posse members were behaving as though they were above the law.
Kevin Ray Campos was arrested in 2007 outside a Scottsdale club for disorderly conduct. According to the police report, he spit on several bouncers and then hurled profanities at a Scottsdale police officer. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor, according to court records, and was hired as a posse member a year later.
You won't find this mentioned at all at WND -- but you will find that WND copied-and-pasted a Dec. 28 article from an Arizona TV station about how Arpaio "plans to deploy his armed volunteer posse" at area schools, as well as another copy-and-paste article from the Associated Press about how Arpaio, with the help of washed-up actor Steven Segal, "is planning a training exercise aimed at helping his volunteer posse members respond to school shootings."
For the past couple of years, WND has been sucking up to Arpaio through fawning puff pieces and airbrushing him out of negative news as part of its birther crusade, which led to Arpaio assigning his "cold case posse" -- with WND's Jerome Corsi serving as a de facto posse member -- to conduct a discredited investigation of Obama's birth certificate.
Once again, WND has decided to hide unpleasant news about one of its favorite sacred cows. Is that how a real "news" organization behaves? Of course not. WND won't trumpet this about Arpaio's henchmen.
Accuracy in Media will honor Catherine Herridge of the Fox News Channel for her outstanding achievements in investigative journalism, and Jim Hoft of Gateway Pundit for his groundbreaking contributions to New Media in a ceremony taking place at the 2013 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on March 14th.
Herridge is the closest thing to an actual reporter AIM has honored. But remember that the main purpose of the Reed Irvine Award is not to honor fair and balanced reporting but to reward work that promotes conservatives and bashes liberals, especially that one in the White House. As Fox News' point person on turning the terrorist attack on a diplomatic facility in Benghazi into a cudgel her employer uses to bash the Obama White House, Herridge has certainly fulfilled that latter standard.
But Jim Hoft? Really?
Hoft is known as the Dumbest Man on the Internet, and for good reason. As Media Matters summed it up: "Hoft runs with (or spawns) almost every inane story that bubbles up in the conservative blogosphere, has proven that he has absolutely no vetting process for the sources he cites, and apparently has a hard time with basic reading comprehension."
Just this week, in fact, Hoft uncritically repeated a claim from a survivalist blog under the headline "Obama DHS Purchases 2,700 Light-Armored Tanks to Go With Their 1.6 Billion Bullet Stockpile." As Little Green Football's Charles Johnson points out, they aren’t tanks and they aren’t being bought by the DHS (they're for the Marine Corps).
This is the guy that AIM is giving an "Accuracy in Media Award" to.
Media Matters also stated: "Hoft's ongoing position of influence in the conservative media is evidence that the entire movement is intellectually bankrupt." That AIM is giving Hoft its most prestigious award demonstrates the intellectual bankruptcy of AIM.
WND Columnist's Bob Woodward Fantasy Topic: WorldNetDaily
In his March 1 WorldNetDaily column, Craige McMillan displays a very lively imagination regarding the purported fate of Bob Woodward for "coming to terms with the Chicago machine":
On a personal level, dinner and cocktail party invitations will dry up. Obama supporters are a cult of personality. This appears to be true regardless of their educational level. Facts don’t matter. Reality can be shaped by rhetoric. (The awful truth for America will emerge much later.)
On a professional level, there will be a critical reassessment of Mr. Woodward’s journalistic career and contributions. Expect to see more critical articles like this one in the New Yorker. His personal virtues and vices, not his work itself, will be the subject of discussion.
Given his age, I would expect that Mr. Woodward is probably “old school” in terms of his journalistic archives. He probably has copious notes squirreled away in paper notebooks. He probably has audio recordings on tape. He probably has interviews that people in power perhaps wish he did not have.
The Woodward biography will be rewritten not by veteran reporters, but by today’s propagandists. This is because reducing Mr. Woodward’s stature is essential to blunting his message.
Regarding Woodward’s archives, I would expect his employer to assert ownership, on the basis of his employment and “work for hire” in the copyright law. Given his age (and its influence on habits), he is unlikely to have copies stored elsewhere. He may well lose access to his own archives.
Needless to say, McMillan fails to mention that Woodward's claim that the White House threatened him over his reporting on the sequester has been completely discredited.
Last August, WND managing editor David Kupelian 
Accuracy in Media's annual "Reed Irvine Accuracy in Media Awards" have gone in recent years to people not exactly known for accuracy in media, such as 
