MRC's Dishonest Christie Scandal Comparison Topic: Media Research Center
As you would expect, the Media Research Center is coming to the defense of Chris Christie over the so-called Bridgegate scandal. But their main bit of defense is utterly dishonest.
In less than 24 hours, the three networks have devoted 17 times more coverage to a traffic scandal involving Chris Christie than they've allowed in the last six months to Barack Obama's Internal Revenue Service controversy. Since the story broke on Wednesday that aides to the New Jersey governor punished a local mayor's lack of endorsement with a massive traffic jam, ABC, CBS and NBC have responded with 34 minutes and 28 seconds of coverage. Since July 1, these same networks managed a scant two minutes and eight seconds for the IRS targeting of Tea Party groups.
It's only several paragraphs later that Whitlock gets around to parenthetically mentioning one key fact: that the IRS scandal "first broke in May." That's two months before the MRC started its counting of IRS coverage.
That means the MRC is comparing apples and oranges -- breaking news of a scandal vs. story that broke two months before the MRC started counting. It's dishonest and misleading.
Also, Whitlock counts only the broadcast networks -- which devote relatively little airtime to news -- and not the cable news networks. Of course, if he did, he would have to admit that Fox News tried to avoid covering Christie.
Whitlock tries to paper over this dishonest comparison by declaring that "it's not as though there wasn't much happening" during that time on the IRS scandal. But that's dishonest too.
The scandals are not equivalent, and who can explain that better than a Fox News reporter, John Roberts:
During an appearance [Friday] on Fox News Radio's Kilmeade & Friends prior to the press conference, Roberts said that the scandal "has the potential to be very damaging to Gov. Christie because, you know, unlike what's happened with President Obama -- you know, the IRS thing was a woman who was in Cleveland. This is in the governor's living room. This is his deputy chief of staff. And as you mentioned his best friend who he went to high school with. It's difficult for him to be able to fully separate himself from this without at least giving the appearance that he doesn't know what's going on in his own home."
He added that the scandal "reinforces the worst perceptions about Gov. Christie. It makes it look like a Tony Soprano-type of administration. And while people in New Jersey appreciate many of the things that the governor has done, on the national level, if you want to run for president, you can't look like this is the way that your administration would operate."
But the MRC has its dishonest story, and it's sticking to it. Whitlock cranked out a follow-up item whining that the networks were "devoting a staggering 88 minutes" to the Christie story. Unlike his first article, Whitlock completely ignores that he started counting IRS coverage two months after it broke.
MRC chief Brent Bozell also touted Whitlock's dishonest coverage on Fox News, failing to mention that the IRS coverage totals didn't include breaking coverage and trying to dismiss the Christie scandal as nothing but "a lane closure on a highway."
UPDATE: Media Matters points out that the lack of network news coverage of the IRS controversy also meant that they ignored news that the scandal was overblown.
WND's Unruh Can't Stop Distorting Facts To Fit His Right-Wing Agenda Topic: WorldNetDaily
Does Bob Unruh even care about real journalism anymore? Many of his articles of late are one-sidedpressreleases for the right-wing views his employer, WorldNetDaily, favors, and he can't be bothered to tell the other side of the story fairly, when he deigns to mention the other side at all.
Unruh performs his stenography service again in a Jan. 7 article promoting the Alliance Defending Freedom's representaion of a Colorado baker, Jack Phillips, who refused to make a cake to mark a same-sex marriage. Unruh's article is almost entirely devoted to quoting the ADF's defense of the baker, while only one paragraph of the article quotes from the ruling against the baker (which Unruh couldn't be bothered to link to).
What indirect quotes from the ruling Unruh does provide are taken out of context and presented in a highly biased way. He writes that Judge Robert Spencer's ruling "said Phillips’ constitutional rights are secondary, because otherwise the 'cost to society' isn’t considered. He granted homosexuals a special standard." Unrh added:
But the ACLU, which is representing the duo, said the same standard should not be used in other circumstances, such as asking a Muslim baker to make a cake criticizing his faith or asking a black cake maker to make a cake for the KKK.
Those bakers, because of their beliefs, would be allowed to refuse service, Spencer said.
But Spencer made it clear that there was a difference between those hypothetical cases and Phillips' case. From the ruling that Unruh couldn't be bothered to link to:
Finally, Respondents argue that if they are compelled to make a cake for a same-sex wedding, then a black baker could not refuse to make a cake bearing a white-supremacist message for a member of the Aryan Nation; and an Islamic baker could not refuse to make a cake denigrating the Koran for the Westboro Baptist Church. However, neither of these fanciful hypothetical situations proves Respondents’ point. In both cases, it is the explicit, unmistakable, offensive message that the bakers are asked to put on the cake that gives rise to the bakers’ free speech right to refuse. That, however, is not the case here, where Respondents refused to bake any cake for Complainants regardless of what was written on it or what it looked like. Respondents have no free speech right to refuse because they were only asked to bake a cake, not make a speech.
The judge did not, as Unruh asserteed, grant homosexuals "a special standard." Spencer wrote:
At first blush, it may seem reasonable that a private business should be able to refuse service to anyone it chooses. This view, however, fails to take into account the cost to society and the hurt caused to persons who are denied service simply because of who they are. Thus, for well over 100 years, Colorado has prohibited discrimination by businesses that offer goods and services to the public. The most recent version of the public accommodation law, which was amended in 2008 to add sexual orientation as a protected class[.]
[...]
The salient feature distinguishing same-sex weddings from heterosexual ones is the sexual orientation of its participants. Only same-sex couples engage in same-sex weddings. Therefore, it makes little sense to argue that refusal to provide a cake to a same-sex couple for use at their wedding is not “because of” their sexual orientation.
Unruh's refusal to quote the judge's ruling appropriately -- or to even provide a link to the ruling so his readers can make their own decisions -- is journalistic malfeasance, pure and simple.
Unruh knows he could not have gotten away with such shoddy, biased journalism in his previous career with the Associated Press. That, presumably, is why he now works for WND, where putting a political agenda before the truth is not only not frowned upon but actively encouraged.
CNSNews.com apparently believes that December's unemployment numbers were sufficiently substandard that it didn't need to do much rooting through them to cherry-pickdata to obscure good news.
CNS devoted only two stories to the December numbers. The first, by Susan Jones, carried the headline "Hiring Slows in December; Only 74,000 Jobs Added, Fewest in 3 Years." This is the first time in recent memory that CNS put the jobs-added number in the headline; normally, it buries that number because it contradicts CNS' narrative of running down the economy under Obama.
Will WND's Flaherty Admit That 'Knockout Game' Incident He Promoted Has Been Discredited? Topic: WorldNetDaily
Colin Flaherty cranked up the race-baiting drama in describing one so-called "Knockout Game" incident in a Dec. 30 WorldNetDaily article:
The most recent example of the Knockout Game involves a couple taking a late-night stroll at the open-air mall in Charlottesville, Va., when they were viciously beaten.
Jeanne Doucette and her boyfriend, Marc Adams, were enjoying the Christmas lights downtown when Adams tripped and was immediately pounced upon by three black men.
They beat him severely, breaking his ankle, cracking ribs and knocking out one of his teeth, reports the Charlottesville Weekly.
While Doucette suffered bruising to her head and tearing of the cartilage in her ear, Adams bore the brunt of the men’s aggression, sustaining broken bones and a concussion that he said has robbed him of any memory of the incident and its immediate aftermath.
According to the victims, the attackers never uttered any racial epithets and, therefore, police are not classifying it as a “hate crime.”
The assault moved up the street as Adams and Doucette tried to escape their attackers. They screamed at passersby for help. They screamed at their attackers to stop. No one listened. The beating continued.
Then came the laughter, one of the identifying aspects of the Knockout Game.
“They were laughing, high-fiving, hugging, and then returning to kick him,” said Doucette. “There was some kind of camaraderie to it.”
Doucette managed to take photos that appear to show the assailants as they kicked and pummeled her boyfriend into unconsciousness.
Nearly two weeks after the attack, the physical wounds are healing, but both Doucette and Adams are troubled by what they see as a lack of response from the Charlottesville Police Department. Doucette said police refused to release her photos to the public.
“I don’t understand why they couldn’t even have the courtesy to call and say we’re not even going to look for them,” she told the newspaper.
On Dec. 29, Doucette posted the pictures she’d taken to her Facebook page and said she quickly received several tips she has passed on to police.
Her frustration at the lack of an investigation is palpable.
“I feel forgotten about,” Doucette said. “I feel like I’m not safe.”
WND liked Flaherty's race-baiting prose so much that Drew Zahn copied it nearly word-for-word in another article published the same day.Flaherty also posted the incident on his personal blog.
Just one little problem: That is apparently not what happened at all.
A Charlottesville blogger dug into the inicident and found things to be quite different than what Flaherty described:
As previously reported by the DTM, two separate sources, who wished to remain anonymous, but who were questioned by detectives in the investigation, said that Doucette told people that Adams had “said something that provoked the men.” Longo did not offer any specifics on what might have been said, saying it was “not really clear what the exchange had been.” As previously reported, sources the DTM spoke to said the attackers were known to be gay, and that they may have been angered by specific comments uttered by Adams and/or Doucette. Indeed, [suspect James] Stevenson, who delivered the majority blows to Adams, has a profile on a social media website called spring.me, under the handle “luverangel,” on which he reveals that he knew he was gay when he was 12-years old. Stevenson also appears in a video of the former Hook Newspaper’s “Question of the Week” feature, answering a question in May, 2011 about what he was going to do for the summer.
While Longo has admitted that a communication “breakdown” caused the case not to be assigned to investigators as soon as it could have, during and interview with the DTM, he bristled at the suggestion that his police force had acted negligently, or that they weren’t concerned about solving the case. As detailed previously in the DTM, the behavior of the victims had as much to do with the progress of the case as the internal communication breakdown. As Longo reiterated at the press conference, Adams refused to file a report with an officer at the scene, refused even to provide his name or have his injuries photographed, and refused medical attention, as did Doucette. It wasn’t until 24 hours later that Adams, after posting on Facebook about the incident, decided to call police. And, of course, as stories in the DTM suggest, and the police investigation seems to confirm, both Adams and Doucette may have been less than forthcoming about the circumstances surrounding the incident when they first posted on Facebook and spoke to the press, choosing instead to characterize the incident in a way that avoided revealing their involvement in the confrontation.
The blog's author told Gawker that "At this point, I have a number of good sources telling me that Stevenson and Spears are gay, and that they believe that they were reacting to racist and/or homophobic comments made by the victims, and my gut tells me that is true." He added that the men "were originally portrayed and perceived as gangsta thugs," and their gayness is "something I imagine will screw with the minds of all the people who went ahead and assumed that."
Like the rest of WND, Flaherty is not big on issuing corrections -- even when he's included non-blacks (and non-humans) in his scary "black mobs." So look for this to go straight down the memory hole.
CNS Passes Off Press Releases As 'News' Topic: CNSNews.com
Apparently, CNSNews.com is now in the right-wing press release business.
A Jan. 9 CNS article by Barbara Hollingsworth is, for all intents and purposes, a press release for the right-wing American Action Forum:
Regulations that went into effect in 2013 cost Americans $112 billion – or $447 million for each of the 251 days the federal government was open - according to a study by the American Action Forum (AAF), which predicts that the regulatory burden will increase to $143 billion in 2014.
“That’s in part because they’re going to finalize a lot of the big proposals that they had this year and the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) is going to regulate existing greenhouse gases from stationary sources for the first time, and we recognize there’ll be a big price tag for that,” Sam Batkins, AAF’s research director, told CNSNews.com.
“And in January, they are going to finalize new rules for cooling water intake structures for power plants to preserve aquatic wildlife, and we’re also going to see the final push of Dodd-Frank and Affordable Care Act implementation. There are two notable Affordable Care Act rules that will be finalized.”
Not only does Hollingsworth fail to mention the AAF's political bias -- it's headed by right-leaning economist Douglas Holtz-Eakin -- she also can't be bothered to solicit reaction to the study from anyone who might have a different view. AAF's Batkin is the only person quoted in the story.
CNS' Penny Starr performs the same service for the American Petroleum Institute, using a Jan. 10 article to tout that " A new report commissioned by the American Petroleum Institute stated that the United States, in partnership with Canada, has the energy resources to make the country completely independent of outside sources for liquid fuel supplies by 2024." Like Hollingsworth, Starr makes no effort to seek out other points of view, quoting only API sources.
CNS' parent, the Media Research Center, receives funding from ExxonMobil and pro-fossil fuel philanthropists like T. Boone Pickens, and Starr's article is in line with CNS' previous shilling for the oil and gas industry.
WND's Cashill Now Claims Obama Didn't Go To Kenya To Research Book He Supposedly Didn't Write Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily's Jack Cashill has been trying (and failing) for years to prove that Barack Obama didn't write his book "Dreams From My Father." He's taking a different tack in his Jan. 8 WND column, this time claiming that Obama didn't go to Kenya to research the book he supposedly didn't write:
Instead of going to Africa, Obama may have contented himself with going to the local library and pillaging the memoirs of longtime Kenya resident Kuki Gallmann.
This is the theory proposed by Shawn Glasco, the tireless researcher I refer to in my book “Deconstructing Obama” as “Mr. Southwest.” Obama’s evasions about his research trip make Glasco’s theory all the more credible.
Glasco was intrigued by the title of Gallmann’s 1991 memoir, “I Dreamed of Africa” – later made into a film with Kim Basinger – given the similarity between her title and Obama’s.
Glasco was intrigued even more by the many words and phrases in “Dreams” that also appeared in Gallmann’s book, “African Nights,” which was published in 1994.
These include words like Baobab [a tree], bhang [cannabis], boma [an enclosure], samosa [a fried snack], shamba [a farm field], liana [a vine], tilapia [a fish], kanga [a sheet of fabric] and shuka [decorative sashes].
It is possible that Obama remembered these phrases – and many more – from his two previous short trips to Kenya, but it is not at all likely. More likely is that he swiped them from Gallman.
“Nothing is so tempting for conspiracy theorists as what appears to be a hole in a life,” sneers Maraniss.
In leaving this hole so conspicuously unfilled, it falls to us conspiracy theorists to do the job real biographers used to do.
As Peter Millican -- the Oxford scholar whom Cashill and others tried to recruit into substantiating his theory that Bill Ayers wrote Obama's book -- pointed out in eviscerating Cashill's Ayers analysis:
The trouble with these sorts of claims is that they are far too easy to make: take any two substantial memoirs from the same era and you are likely to be able to pick out a fair number of passages that have some similarities. Unless the similarities are really close (and they weren’t), just listing them makes no case at all, even if it might be enough to persuade some readers.
At least Cashill admits he's nothing more than a conspiracy theorist, so we can safely ignore him.
MRC's Graham Bashes Author Of New Roger Ailes Bio Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center proved it's a loyal soldier for Fox News by working to protect the channel from a phone-hacking scandal taking place in other News Corp. operations. Now, it's attacking a new biography of Fox News chief Roger Ailes as insufficiently fawning.
In a Jan. 8 NewsBusters post, the MRC's Tim Graham goes on the warpath against Gabriel Sherman's new Ailes bio, calling it an "anti-Roger Ailes book" and railing against its use of anonymous sources -- as if the MRC has never touted anonymous claims before. Graham then contradicts himself and attacks onr on-the-record claim, involving an alleged instance of sexual harrassment by Ailes, because he doesn't like it.
And Graham is really, really upset that the New York Times did an article on Sherman's book, and for the Times pointing out that Zev Chafets' fawning Ailes bio -- done with the full cooperation of Ailes -- served as "a plastic funnel for Mr. Ailes's observations" and avoided "tough questions about Fox News's incestuous relationship with the Republican Party, its role in accelerating partisanship in our increasingly polarized society or the consequences of its often tabloidy blurring of the lines between news and entertainment":
Obviously, Gabe Sherman can expect a much more favorable Times reception. It's already begun. But all this demonstrates the liberal media elite's ongoing lack of self-awareness. They've never worked to elect a president.They've never had an "incestuous" relationship with a Democratic administration. They've never been responsible for "accelerating partisanship" or a "polarized society." They've never acted as a "plastic funnel" for the observations of their leaders. It's warm and comfortable inside their bubble.
Graham doesn't mention the conflicts of interest that would explain why he would be so harsh on a perceived Ailes critic like Sherman:
His boss, Brent Bozell, has a weekly segment on Sean Hannity's Fox News show.
A few days earlier, Graham himself appeared on Fox News' sister business channel to engage in a little Times-bashing.
NewsBusters conducted a softball interview with Chafets last year to promote his book.
So, yeah, Graham is totally in the tank for Ailes. Don't want to jeopardize that Fox News access, after all.
WND Wants to Ensure The Mentally Ill Remain Armed Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily does not consider itself to be constrained by facts, as its coverage of Barack Obama amplydemonstrates. That's demonstrated once again in a Jan. 8 article by Bob Unruh that puts fear ahead of facts in writing about guns.
Here's Unruh's overly dramatic and fearmongering opening:
In an end-of-week “information dump” often resorted to by political leaders to publicly release information they would like overlooked, President Obama formally has launched his much-feared expansion of the use of mental health diagnoses to crack down on gun ownership.
The Obama Department of Homeland Security already is on record casting aspersions on the mental ability of returning veterans, third-party candidate supporters and people with pro-life bumper stickers – calling them potential “right-wing extremists.” It was also caught, through the IRS, targeting conservative organizations that might be critical of Obama.
So critics of the administration long have warned the move would come. On Friday, it did.
Obama announced that his Department of Justice is proposing a rule change that would “clarify” that being committed to a mental institution – a key red flag under gun ownership rules – would include receiving nebulous “outpatient” services from a professional, such as a psychiatrist.
The president said his Health and Human Services agency is issuing a rule to pierce the privacy protections of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act so there would be “express permission” for “entities” to hand over to the federal government certain medical records – that is, “information necessary to help keep guns out of potentially dangerous hands.”
Notably, Unruh can't be bothered to link to the proposal in question -- that would have kept him trying to support the article's headline "See a shrink, lose your gun":
Some states have reported that certain barriers under current law make it difficult for them to identify and submit appropriate information to the federal background check system regarding individuals prohibited under federal law from having a gun for mental health reasons. Today, DOJ and HHS are taking steps that will help address these barriers.
Some states have noted that the terminology used by federal law to prohibit people from purchasing a firearm for certain mental health reasons is ambiguous. Today, DOJ is issuing a proposed rule to make several clarifications. For example, DOJ is proposing to clarify that the statutory term “committed to a mental institution” includes involuntary inpatient as well as outpatient commitments. In addition to providing general guidance on federal law, these clarifications will help states determine what information should be made accessible to the federal background check system, which will, in turn, strengthen the system’s reliability and effectiveness.
Some states have also said that the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act’s (HIPAA) privacy provisions may be preventing them from making relevant information available to the background check system regarding individuals prohibited from purchasing a firearm for mental health reasons. In April 2013, HHS began to identify the scope and extent of the problem, and based on public comments is now issuing a proposed rule to eliminate this barrier by giving certain HIPAA covered entities an express permission to submit to the background check system the limited information necessary to help keep guns out of potentially dangerous hands. The proposed rule will not change the fact that seeking help for mental health problems or getting treatment does not make someone legally prohibited from having a firearm. Furthermore, nothing in the proposed rule would require reporting on general mental health visits or other routine mental health care, or would exempt providers solely performing these treatment services from existing privacy rules.
At no point did Unruh explain that the proposed rule change "not change the fact that seeking help for mental health problems or getting treatment does not make someone legally prohibited from having a firearm" or that "othing in the proposed rule would require reporting on general mental health visits or other routine mental health care, or would exempt providers solely performing these treatment services from existing privacy rules." Instead, he quotes gun activists as claiming “The real agenda of the gun-hating Obama administration is to strip gun rights from law-abiding Americans, even if the result is to discourage people from seeking counseling" -- even though Unruh knows that's not the case.
Unruh then tosses in unrelated items that purport to support his contention, such as claiming that government will "crack down on gun ownership." He claims that "the government has been using its interaction with veterans to designate many of them – by the tens of thousands – incapable of handling their own financial affairs and, therefore, banned from having guns."
Unruh is comically exaggerating his numbers. The article to which he links to support his claim states only that "hundreds, perhaps thousands, of veterans" have allegedly been affected -- a far cry from the "tens of thousands" he's now claiming.
Remember, this is the kind of stuff Unruh left the Associated Press to join WND to write. His former employer would never have published something so fact-free. And his pathetically misleading reporting has the effect of ensuring that the mentally ill remain armed -- and possibly harm themselves or others.
NEW ARTICLE: Immigrant-Bashing Is James Walsh's Business, And Business Is Good Topic: Newsmax
The Newsmax columnist doesn't seem to like Hispanics, yet he claims to speak for them. Read more >>
WND Still Trying to Prove Corsi's Oil Theory Is True Topic: WorldNetDaily
A Jan. 3 WorldNetDaily article tries to take a victory lap on Jerome Corsi's 2005 WND-published book "Black Gold Stranglehold," which promoted the fringe theory that oil is continuously generated from within the Earth, or abiotic, rather than a finite biomass. WND's big claim is that Corsi's book accurately predicted rising crude oil prices:
The book, which was ridiculed by many industry analysts, argues against the “peak-oil theory” that predicted peak oil production had already been reached as the world was facing a diminishing quantity of oil available in the earth.
Corsi and Smith also predicted that oil, then trading below $50 a barrel, would trade at $100 a barrel, which has become an industry standard in recent years.
Oil expert Darren Wolfberg of BNP Paribas projected on Thursday that oil will trade in the $93 to $100 a barrel range in 2014.
Given the fact of continual instability in the Middle East, including an Iraq war that was going on at the time Corsi's book was published, that was hardly a risky prediction. WND then tries to give Corsi credit for shale oil:
Despite strong pushback from oil industry analysts, Corsi followed up the publication of “Black Gold Stranglehold” with a series of WND stories based on data predicting shale oil could be at the heart of a U.S. oil boom.
At the time, oil experts were going the opposite direction, predicting U.S. oil depletion was proceeding at an irreversible pace.
But the article to which WND links to prove this contains no mention of shale oil. And WND fails to mention that shale oil production is feasible only because of higher oil prices -- shale oil costs more to extract than crude, and Forbes reports that crude oil needs to be at least $80 a barrel in order for shale production to be profitable.
And late last year, Royal Dutch Shell took a $2.1 billion writedown on its $24 billion investment in shale in the U.S. because it has not generated a profit.
Of course, shale oil has nothing whatsoever to do with Corsi's abiotic oil theory since, like crude oil, it's already in the ground.
Newsmax Concedes Christie Bridge Scandal Is a Real Story Topic: Newsmax
Last month, Newsmax published an article by Melanie Batley complaining that "The bridge closure controversy that has dogged New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie for weeks is threatening to go national as Democrats see a possible chink in the armor of the GOP's potential 2016 presidential nominee." Batley further complained that "Democrats have also created a politically-charged YouTube video with a narrative designed to raise the profile of the issue and link it to questions about Christie's character and integrity."
Now, with the release of emails showing that Christie aides directly ordered the bridge lane closure, Newsmax is essentially flip-flopping by devoting the top of its front page to the scandal:
That's better than WorldNetDaily and CNSNews.com, each of which are mostly downplaying the Christie scandal.
WND's Farah Has Another Problem That's Solved By Sending Him Money Topic: WorldNetDaily
Joseph Farah is not giving up on trying to separate you from your money.
Farah's Jan. 7 WorldNetDaily column considers how "Republicans in the House need to be convinced" that "they can defund Obamacare and dozens of other wasteful programs by denying any more hikes in the debt limit." And surprise, surprise, it involves sending your hard-earned money to Farah:
How do we do it?
This isn’t a new idea. It’s one I have been pushing since January 2011. It’s called “The No More Red Ink Campaign.” It’s a plan to deluge House Republicans with the demand to say no to any future hikes in the debt limit – the amount the government is permitted to borrow.
[...]
Those Republicans need your support.
I’ve devised an easy and inexpensive way for you to reach all of them – every single House Republican – with an urgent message, guaranteed to be delivered to their individual offices by FedEx, that demands they stop the borrowing the next chance they get.
So far, more than 1.5 million such messages have been spent. More and more House Republicans are getting the message. If the deluge continues, even the leadership will get the message.
If you’ve got a better idea, let me know.
Otherwise, give this one a try.
Go to “The No More Red Ink Campaign” website. It will take you no more than a minute to send the message to every House Republican. It’s fast and it’s inexpensive.
As we've pointed out, Farah has provided zero evidence that his scheme -- one of many letter-for-hire scams WND has promoted over the years -- that spamming members of Congress with his bulk letters accomplishes anything beyond lining Farah's pockets.
January is traditionally a slow business month, and Farah's solicitation should probably be examined from a financial standpoint, rather than any desire to send a political message.
Newsmax Won't Admit Limbaugh Is Wrong about Polar Vortex Being a 'Hoax' Topic: Newsmax
A Jan. 7 Newsmax article by Amy Woods touts how Rush Limbaugh claimed that "the polar vortex is 'a hoax' perpetuated by the liberal media to further its agenda of climate change and global warming." What Woods didn't mention: Limbaugh is wrong.
AccuWeather senior meteorologist Bernie Rayno points out that the polar vortex is, in fact, a real thing: "We've been using the name in this field for — I've been in this field for 25 years, this isn't anything new. ... Usually meteorologists would never even use that term because people wouldn't understand it."
It seems that Newsmax is just as scared as CNSNews.com to tell its readers that Limbaugh was spreading a lie.
WND Hooks Up With Messianic Jewish Publication In Israel Topic: WorldNetDaily
A Jan. 6 WorldNetDaily article on Barack Obama having a Jewish half-brother actually comes from a publication called Israel Today. The article contains a link to the WND online store for a subscription offer to Israel Today, stating that "Israel Today’s mission is to be the definitive source for a truthful and balanced perspective on Israel and to provide timely news directly from Jerusalem."
But the description of the magazine at WND's online store promises something other than balance. It states that "Israel Today is a Jerusalem-based news agency providing a biblical and objective perspective on local news" and also claims to be "the only Israeli magazine providing a Messianic perspective on events in the region."
Israel Today's declaration of a "Messianic perspective" seems at odds with its claim to also be "balanced" and "objective." Also at odds is the fact that Israel Today appears to be unabashedly pro-Israel; a graphic on the website's front page states, "Please help us in the online media war against Israel!" which links to a registration page for the site.
The fact that Israel Today has specifically declared pro-Israel and pro-Messianic biases means that, by defintion, it cannot be "balanced" and "objective." It makes sense that Israel Today is hooking up with WND, which claims in its mission statement that it seeks "truth and justice" despite publishingnumerousfalsehoods.
Regardless of its agenda, the fact that Israel Today has hooked with such a mendacious publication as WND does not make Israel Today look good.
CNS Pretends Pat Caddell Is A Real Democrat Topic: CNSNews.com
A Dec. 17 CNSNews.com article by Susan Jones touts how "Former Democratic pollster Patrick Caddell says the midterm election could be a 'rolling disaster' for Democrats."
Jones doesn't stop to wonder why someone who is so eager to cling to an identity as a "Democrat" would be so disparaging of those in the same party. Indeed, Caddell hasn't done anything for Democrats in years -- he's frequently seen on right-leaning Fox News where, as Salon's Alex Pareene notes, "he’ll reliably repeat every idiotic right-wing talking point that comes down the pike." Caddell also served as a consultant on an anti-Obama film made by right-wing group Citizens United.
Does that sound like someone who should be identified as a Democrat? It does to Jones, which tells you all you need to know about CNS' journalistic standards.
As you would expect, the Media Research Center is coming to the defense of Chris Christie over the so-called Bridgegate scandal. But their main bit of defense is utterly dishonest.
Does Bob Unruh even care about real journalism anymore? Many of his articles of late are 
CNSNews.com apparently believes that December's unemployment numbers were sufficiently substandard that it didn't need to do much rooting through them to 
Colin Flaherty cranked up the race-baiting drama in describing one so-called "Knockout Game" incident in a Dec. 30 WorldNetDaily 
WorldNetDaily's Jack Cashill has been 
The Media Research Center proved it's a loyal soldier for Fox News by 
ed by facts, as its coverage of Barack Obama 
A Jan. 3 WorldNetDaily 
Joseph Farah is not giving up on trying to separate you from your money.
A Jan. 7 Newsmax 
A Jan. 6 WorldNetDaily 
A Dec. 17 CNSNews.com 
