CNS' Starr Peddles Oil Industry Propaganda on Keystone Pipeline Topic: CNSNews.com
CNSNews.com reporter Penny Starr has long been a reliable propagandist for the fossil fuel industries (which is a major donor to the Media Research Center). She proves it again in a Nov. 17 CNS article in which she shills for the proposed Keystone XL pipeline. Starr heavily quotes those with a direct financial interest in getting the pipeline built, including longtime buddy the American Petroleum Institute:
The American Petroleum Institute, the trade association that advocates on behalf of the U.S. oil and gas industry, on Monday issued a plea to Obama about the pipeline and its benefits.
“Mr. President, do not outsource the 42,000 American jobs this pipeline represents, to move Canadian and U.S. energy resources from North Dakota and Montana, to U.S. refineries on the Gulf Coast,” API President and CEO Jack Gerard said in a statement.
“Americans are embracing our domestic energy renaissance but they can’t fully benefit from it unless there is a robust infrastructure system to transport the fuels they demand,” he added.
[...]
TransCanada, the company in charge of the Keystone XL pipeline construction, calls it “the definition of shovel-ready infrastructure project,” and cites the State Department’s own findings. (The department is in control of the project’s destiny because of its “international” element.)
“Almost overnight, Keystone XL could put 9,000 hard-working American men and women directly to work,” TransCanada says on its website. “The U.S. State Department’s Final Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement found that the project would support more than 42,000 direct and indirect jobs nationwide.”
But Starr doesn't report the full context of the State Department's job predictions. PolitiFact points out that the 42,000 jobs that would be "support[ed]" by the pipeline doesn't mean that 42,000 jobs would be created. The vast majority of those jobs are temporary and would last only as long as the pipeline is being constructed, and a number of them already exist. The operation and maintenance of the pipeline after construction will create only about 50 jobs.
Starr goes on to regurgitate more claims from TransCanada:
“Keystone XL Pipeline will have the capacity to transport 830,000 barrels per day of crude oil from Canada and the continental United States to refineries on the Gulf Coast, where it can displace much of the higher-priced oil those refineries currently import from overseas,” TransCanada says.
“This view is backed up by a December, 2010 U.S. Department of Energy study which states: ‘Increased Canadian oil imports will help reduce U.S. imports of foreign oil from sources outside of North America.’”
But as the Christian Science Monitor reported, Canadian oil exports to the U.S. will increase whether or not Keystone XL is built. And Reuters notes that a significant amount of the crude oil coming through Keystone XL would be exported.
Because Starr is in propaganda mode, she won't report any of those inconvenient facts to her readers.
House GOP Shoots Down Aaron Klein's Benghazi-Syria Conspiracy Topic: WorldNetDaily
Since the attack on diplomatic facilities in Benghazi, Libya, in 2012, WorldNetDaily's Aaron Klein has pushed the (anonymously sourced) claim that the Benghazi facility was used to ship arms from Libya to Syrian rebels. That claim is a centerpiece of Klein's failed book on Benghazi, as Klein's own website describes:
The U.S. special mission in Benghazi and the nearby CIA annex were utilized in part to coordinate arms shipments to the jihadist rebels fighting the Syrian regime, with Ambassador Christopher Stevens playing a central role, documents an explosive new book released today.
The activities, which included a separate, unprecedented multi-million-dollar weapons collection effort from Libyan militias who did not want to give up their weapons, may have prompted the Sept. 11, 2012, attack, charges the new book.
The findings and more are revealed in the new work by radio host and WND reporter Aaron Klein, “The REAL Benghazi Story: What the White House and Hillary Don’t Want You to Know.”
Klein asserts the arms-to-rebels scheme that ran through Benghazi “might amount to the Fast and Furious of the Middle East, the Iran-Contra of the Obama administration.”
[...]
According to information cited by Klein, Stevens served less as a diplomat and more as an arms dealer and intelligence coordinator for assistance to the so-called Arab Spring, with particular emphasis on the Syrian rebels.
Just one problem with that narrative: The newly released Republican-led House report on Benghazi discredits the accusation:
Multiple media outlets have reported allegations about CIA collecting weapons in Benghazi and facilitating weapons from Libya to Syria. The eyewintess testimony and thousands of pages of CIA cables and emails that the Committee reviewed provide no support for this allegation.
Committee Members and staff asked all wigness what they observed at the Benghazi Annex and whether they had any informationto support allegations about weapons being collected and transported to Syria. Each witness reported seeing only standard CIA security weapons at the base. No witness testified that non-CIA weapons were brought to the Annex. Security personnel and officers testified they had complete access to the Annex and would have observed any weapons, such as MANPADs, stored at the facility. Security personnel and officers also testified that nobody told them to hide or withhold any information from the Committee. This record is consistent throughout the Committee interviews by members and staff.
According to testimony from CIA Deputy Director Morell and confirmed by other witnesses, the CIA's mission in Benghazi was to collect foreign intelligence. From the Annex in Benghazi, the CIA was collecting intelligence about foreign entities that were themselves collecting weapons in Libya and facilitating their passage to Syria. The Benghazi Annex was not itself collecting weapons. The Committee has not seen any credible information to dispute these facts.
Don't expect a correction from Klein on this, let alone WND recalling Klein's book due to the false information contained in it. Not only is that not how WND rolls -- indeed, WND has yet to acknowledge the existence of the House GOP report on Benghazi, even though it has been out for nearly two days -- Klein's book tanked badly enough that the effort is barely worth it. As of this writing, "The REAL Benghazi Story" has slid to No. 80,072 in sales at Amazon.com less than three months after its release.
MRC Attacks 'Hippie-Hypocrite' Neil Young Topic: Media Research Center
It was apparently a slow day at the Media Research Center a couple weeks back, because Geoffrey Dickens decided to have a fit about Neil Young appearing on "The Charlie Rose Show" and featuring a clip of Young singing a song opposing fracking:
Within seconds after playing the clip the PBS host also asked Young about his new memoir in which the singer “covers everything from his love of cars and painting to his crusade for Mother Earth.” However, Rose never once asked the environmental activist if he felt guilty about all the fossil fuels he’s used in his cars or his painting. Rose also never mentioned all the fossil fuels used in the promotion of Young’s over 50 year-long career in the production and transport of his vinyl records, tapes, CDs. Rose also didn’t bring up the fossil fuels that were utilized in sending Young, his band and crew members on all those tours over the years.
Wow. Dickens is bashing Young for using "fossil fuels" in his painting? Really, Geoffrey? And Dickens seems to have overlooked the fact that he converted one of his beloved cars, a formerly gas-guzzing 1959 Lincoln Continental, to run on cellulosic ethanol.
Besides, Dickens is about a decade late in calling out Young's alleged hypocrisy. The Toronto Star reported:
A vocal champion of environmental issues for most of his career, Young nevertheless managed to conveniently ignore the dichotomy inherent in his fetish for gas-guzzling, fume-belching classic automobiles until he and Crazy Horse took their earth-conscious rock opera Greendale on the road in 2003.
One day after the accompanying movie was finished, Sarah White — a friend of Young’s daughter enlisted to play an activist protesting against oil companies and a “villainous, anti-environment, pollution-spreading corporation” called POWERCO in the Greendale film — cornered him and, “with all of the intensity of youth unbridled,” called him a hypocrite for going out on tour with a fleet of fossil fuel-reliant trucks, buses and airplanes immediately after making a stand against the very same sort of wastefulness onscreen and on record. It stung. And it stuck.
“She was absolutely right,” he writes in Special Deluxe. “Imagine a character in my own story telling me that I was hypocritical for not practising what I was preaching. That was a seminal moment.”
“Yeah, it made a big difference to me,” Young now says of that conversation. “I had the feeling already that we had to do something different, but this young lady made a very clear point. It’s just knowledge. You just accrue knowledge. If you’re interested in something, you gather knowledge.”
From that point on, as documented in Special Deluxe’s sharpened third act, Young set about dutifully reconfiguring his tour transportation to ensure that it ran on renewable, lower-emission biofuel whilst versing himself in the science of climate change and renewable energy to a customarily “obsessive” degree.
If Dickens had bothered to do any actual research before writing his item, he would have learned not only about the converted Lincoln but also that Young has been running his tour transportation on biofuel for years.
But then, the Media Research Center isn't really about "research," it's about promoting an ideology and trotting out tired old insults like "hippie" to smear anyone who opposes them.
When Barack Obama and his political henchmen get done with his plan to transform this country, we’ll end up being a country of one state.
He’s taking us apart bit by bit. When he’s done, we’ll no longer be the United States – 50 states with rights and obligations, with states’ rights preeminent – but one country under the thumb and rule of the federal government with no individual states rights.
We’ll not be the United States because at every level, he and his minions in legislatures, the courts and the bureaucracies are overriding state laws and enforcing federal restrictions instead.
Richard Nixon was driven from office in shame for actions that do not begin to rise to the level of this health-care fraud. Enough of the talk. We demand action on behalf of the American people. We need state attorneys general and Congress to take immediate action to have Obama punished for defrauding the American people. In fact, I would further argue that the lawyers who argued in support of Obamacare also knowingly participated in the lie and that they should be held accountable as well.
At a time when the country needs an actual leader at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, the great Community Organizer in Chief comes shining through again to illuminate exactly why he’s unfit to be president of the United States.
Facts are irrelevant to Barack Obama, and it’s obvious he still harbors lingering resentment for having to hold a beer summit with his friend Henry Louis Gates and Sgt. James Crowley. In the case of Obama meeting secretly with the Ferguson protest leaders, it’s obvious who truly “acted stupidly” in once again displaying a complete aversion to being a leader interested in healing wounds instead of pouring salt on them.
But then again, Democrats nationwide attempted to utilize the unrest in Ferguson to drive black voters to the polls, filled with the type of racial resentment that must keep Obama and Holder awake at night thinking there’s a Klansman behind every door they encounter.
Obama knows that all of these options leave the GOP between a rock and a hard place, and that is exactly the way he wants it. He is daring them to try and impeach him, believing that they will suffer the same fate they did when they went after Clinton. He is betting that the American people won’t go for it and the Republicans will be ruined if they do. The White House is using impeachment as bait in the hopes that the GOP will destroy its own credibility. Why do you think most of the impeachment talk is coming from his party and not the Republicans?
When Rush Limbaugh contradicts Obama’s statement that he (Obama) is not an emperor, he tacitly accepts the ideological paradigm Obama actually professes. Of course, I’m reasonably sure he does not intend to do so. An emperor is one who commands the law by virtue of his power. So far, Obama has successfully demonstrated his power to do pretty much as he wills. So, according to his Marxist paradigm, he is an emperor.
Would-be dictators and bullies must be opposed, resisted and defeated. It will not be acceptable for Congress to sit on its hands after Obama’s usurpation. It must act not as a matter of partisan competition but on behalf of the Constitution itself and the sovereignty of the American people, which it has a sacred duty to safeguard.
Now that Obama is declaring war on the Constitution and attempting to further emasculate Congress, it must draw and use every weapon in its constitutional arsenal to nullify Obama’s action – and to deter future tyrants from following his disgraceful example.
If the president could have carried out this executive order the whole time legally, THEN WHY HASN’T HE? If it’s legal for the Executive to do this, then Congress’ action or inaction is completely irrelevant. The only possible conclusion is that this whole episode is entirely political at best, completely illegal at worst.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why many, including myself, simply don’t trust this man. He is a deceiver. I’ve said this in private, and I will say so now publicly: Whenever this president speaks, I feel like saying, “I have never heard nothing in so many words.”
One can’t resist noting that on Oct. 2, 2014, we at Freedom Watch petitioned the Department of Homeland Security to deport Barack Hussein Obama, due to his use of falsified identity documents. Perhaps Obama has a personal soft spot for not wanting the United States to deport people not legally in the country. Freedom Watch calls for all illegal aliens to be returned to their country of birth, including Obama.
CNS Reporter Demands That Activist Be Censored Topic: CNSNews.com
The Media Research Center just loves to portray the media as "censoring" a given pet conservative cause, so you'd think they'd oppose any form of censorship. Not so.
In a Nov. 20 tweet, CNSNews.com reporter Penny Starr demanded that an activist with whom she disagreed be prohibited from expressing his views: "This anti-Christian man should not be a witness at Congressional hearings. Why should he be given credibility?"
Starr is referring to Michael Weinstein, head of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, which opposes religious extremism in the military.
Starr is so committed to shutting Weinstein up that she devoted an entire Nov. 20 CNS article to repeating Republican Rep. Randy Forbes' ad hominem attacks on Weinstein simply for showing up to testify at a congressional hearing on religious freedom in the military.
Starr is so determined to bash Weinstein that she never explains why the hearing was held in the first place.
Apparently, at the MRC freedom of speech is granted only when the MRC agrees with that speech.
WND Parrots Sheriff's Bogus Stats On Illegal Immigrants Topic: WorldNetDaily
In a Nov. 19 WorldNetDaily article, Leo Hohmann plays stenographer for a group of sheriffs who are "march on the nation’s capital, hoping to send a message to President Obama and Congress that they oppose amnesty for illegal immigrants." Hohmann uncritically quotes from a letter written by the sheriffs:
Given the fact that 25 people are killed each day by illegal immigrants, and our schools are becoming overcrowded and more costly, our public health is threatened by new diseases and ailments introduced by people living in our communities illegally, and the fact that benefits are being given and violations of the law forgiven for a select group of non-citizens, makes clear our obligation to act now before we erode the confidence and the faith citizens have in Sheriffs across the country and throughout our history.
The sheriffs are repeating a zombie lie that, as we've detailed, WND has been peddling since 2006.
The idea that "25 people are killed each day by illegal immigrants" was first promoted by anti-immigrant Republican Rep. Steve King, who claimed to have "extrapolated" this figure from a claim that 28 percent of all U.S. prison inmates are "criminal aliens" -- which itself is false, overstating the number of inmates by a factor of four.
The sheriff's claim that "our public health is threatened by new diseases and ailments introduced by people living in our communities illegally" is simply an echo of fearmongering peddled by the likes of WND's own Jerome Corsi.
Hohmann reports that this anti-immigrant effort is being spearheaded by "two sheriffs from Massachusetts – Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson and Plymouth County Sheriff Joseph McDonald." The fact that he can't be bothered to call out the sheriff's rank fearmongering and fact-check their bogus statistics is just another reason why nobody believes WND.
Tim Graham's Hypocritical Attack On Media Bias Topic: Media Research Center
Tim Graham huffs in his latest anti-gay freakout in a Nov. 19 NewsBusters post:
Washington Post “social change reporter” Sandhya Somashekhar wrote a front-page story for Wednesday’s editions on how the Barilla pasta company completely surrendered to the gay left. The headline was “A recipe for recovery: Barilla makes amends to gay groups.”
As usual, the Post divided the conflict into “gay rights groups” and “social conservatives.” Gay activist Bob Witeck described the conservative view as “stupid and backwards.” Conservatives said...nothing. There was no space for rebuttal. “Social change” moves faster when “backwards” gets censored.
[...]
Nobody in the story gets to say, for example, that "Human Rights Campaign" is a funny name for an anti-free speech group. "Discriminatory" speech -- soon to include sermons inside churches, if Houston is any example -- must be squashed. Nobody gets to say "discriminatory" things like "transgender-related health care" such as the amputation of breasts and genitals isn't "health care." In today's progressive Post, those things are better left unthought, not just unsaid.
Graham has not expressed that same concern about "censorship" when it's practiced by a "news" organization that operates down the hall from him.
As we've documented, CNSNews.com -- operated by Graham's employer, the Media Research Center -- frequently censors the parts of stories that conflict with its right-wing agenda, resulting in stenographical documents masquerading as "news" articles, to the point that it actually uncritically presented the Church of Scientology's stance against psychiatric drugs.
Unless Graham and his fellow MRC superiors can get CNS to act like the "news" organization it portrays itself as, Graham has no moral standing to attack the purported "censorship" of the "liberal media."
This hypocrisy undermines the entire mission of the MRC, but Graham, Brent Bozell and the rest of the MRC crew don't seem to recognize it.
Molotov Mitchell Abandoned His Far-Right Principles, Still Lost NC Election Topic: WorldNetDaily
In his Nov. 18 WorldNetDaily video, Molotov Mitchell reviewed his campaign for North Carolina's legislature, in which he lost by a 2-1 margin. Mitchell unsurprisingly spun his massive loss as positively as he could, insisting that he got more votes than any previous Republican in his "ice-blue district."
Mitchell also claimed that his campaign showed that voters respect conservative candidates who stand their ground, saying that "sticking to your principles and not running from them is an effective campaign strategy."
In fact, Mitchell did run from his principles during his campaign in order to make himself appear less extreme. Indeed, he tried to renounce the two things he's arguably best known for -- his birtherism and his disdain for gays. The Raleigh News & Observer reported:
He’s been weighing in on national politics for years through his video commentaries and other films. In the videos, he’s argued that President Barack Obama wasn’t born in the United States, adding that “if I were a leader in the armed forces, I might be thinking coup d’etat right about now.” He’s called North Carolina’s Moral Monday protestors “ugly, mindless, littering, loitering hobos.” And his film “Gates of Hell” features a group of “black power assassins” who kill abortion doctors.
As a candidate, Mitchell has distanced himself from his video career. He says the commentaries were done in his role as an “entertainer.”
“It was to poke the bear on the left,” he said. “It doesn’t matter where Barack Obama was born.”
The News & Observer also noted Mitchell's attempt to distance himself from his support for anti-gay laws:
Mitchell has been called “anti-gay” because of a video he produced in 2010 supporting a Ugandan law that would impose the death penalty on homosexuals.
“What I supported was the right of Uganda to create whatever legislation it wants,” Mitchell said, adding that he doesn’t hate gay people or think they should be killed.
“I support the democratic process,” he said. “I really believe in freedom.”
That's an utterly disingenuous defense. As we've previously noted, Mitchell has called for the "abolition of homosexuality," and he defended his support for the law as something the Founding Fathers would also support. And it's unlikely Mitchell would be defending Uganda's right "to create whatever legislation it wants" if it was Christians instead of gays that faced the death penalty.
The News & Observer reported Mitchell's defense as it also noted that Mitchell ludicrously denounced a school anti-bullying policy as a “transgender kindergarten curriculum.”
In his video, Mitchell hinted that he would run for office again, even as he insulted his would-be consituents as "the most hard-core, Birkenstock-wearing, Che Guevara-loving socialists this side of Leningrad." That disdain for people who disagree with him demonstrates that Mitchell lost his election justly.
Also, Leningrad hasn't existed for decades. Mitchell might want to check out a map sometime.
Newsmax TV To Air What Sure Sounds Like A JFK Conspiracy Show Topic: Newsmax
Newsmax is strategically vague in a Nov. 13 article promoting a new show on its fledgling TV channel:
Marking the 51st anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination on Nov. 22, 1963, Newsmax TV will air the explosive, world premiere one-hour documentary "I Killed JFK" on Thursday Nov. 20, at 9 p.m. ET.
The documentary adds to the diverse programming featured on Newsmax TV, the new news, information and lifestyle channel that is currently ramping up to a formal roll-out in 2015.
Produced by Barry Katz Entertainment, "I Killed JFK" features never-before seen footage of the confessed killer of President Kennedy. The film presents compelling forensic and eyewitness evidence previously unavailable to the public. The documentary also includes interviews with the alleged assassin as well as two former FBI agents who found the assassin’s confessions credible.
"Until now, no one has ever confessed to the murder of JFK, and most people still believe that Lee Harvey Oswald was the killer. After the world sees this special, I am confident that the greatest mystery of our generation will finally be solved," said Executive Producer Barry Katz.
"As we ramp up Newsmax TV for our official launch, we're offering a range of provocative and original programming that interests a large and under-served audience, including the generation raised in the aftermath of that tragic day in Dallas," Newsmax Media CEO Christopher Ruddy said. "They’ll see a movie that adds to the scholarship and the debate surrounding the president's assassination."
"We are heartened by Newsmax TV's decision to bring this important and revealing program to the American public. We all deserve to know the truth behind what was truly one of the saddest moments in our country’s history," added Ernest Cartwright, co-executive producer for the project.
We couldn't find any other information about this documentary beyond a bare-bones website promoting the producers' production company. Reading between the lines, one can surmise that it appears to be another one of those JFK conspiracy things. As far as we know, Oswald never confessed to killing JFK, so the references above to the "alleged assassin" who allegedly confessed is apparently a reference to somebody else.
That doesn't exactly bode well for Newsmax TV's attempt to be something of a mainstream news outlet.
Interestingly, Newsmax is not the only part of the ConWeb going with JFK assassination conspiracy theories. The URL CorsiOnJFK.com takes you to WorldNetDaily hack Jerome Corsi's latest e-book claiming to summarize " the most important new research investigating the JFK assassination." In it, Corsi says he "believes investigations into the JFK Assassination are close to establishing irrefutable evidence documenting the JFK assassination a government-organized coup d’état, not the act of a lone-gun assassin." The website add: "Dr. Corsi fully expects the final true history of the JFK assassination will expose to the American pubic the history of CIA lies and disinformation that have distorted U.S. history since World War II, in favor of a series of international conflicts and wars favored by the military-industrial complex that JFK lost his life trying to prevent."
The fact that Corsi has already discounted his e-book to $4.90 (original price $9.99) tells you pretty much what even its author thinks his book is worth.
MRC Still Clings To 'Climategate' Myths Topic: Media Research Center
A Nov. 17 Media Research Center post by Joseph Rossell tries to revive an old conspiracy:
President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping’s deal to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions in both countries couldn’t have come at a more ironic time.
Their Nov. 11, announcement came just days before the fifth anniversary of ClimateGate, which cast a pall over the credibility of major climate research institutions. On Nov. 17, 2009, it was discovered that hundreds of emails and files were either hacked or leaked from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia (UEA). According to Roger Pielke, Jr., months before ClimateGate, CRU admitted it did not have the raw data its climate science is based on.
Note how Rossell blithely notes the "Climategate" documents were "either hacked or leaked." By contrast, the MRC had a fit when documents detailing the conservative Heartland Institute's strategy to promote global warming denialism were released, screaming that they were "falsely obtained" in a "vicious" and "sleazy attack" by the head of a "George Soros-funded" group. Rossell expresses no concern that the "Climategate" emails were "falsely obtained" as part of a "vicious" attack against climate scientists because he agrees with such attacks.
Rossell then cherry-picks 10 random, out-of-context statements from the "Climategate" emails to portray them as killing the credibility of climate science. But Rossell ignores the entirety of climate science study, which affirms the consensus that global warming exists. For example, PolitiFact states:
So, to say that the CRU e-mails debunk the science supporting climate change leaves out the important point that CRU isn't the only organization looking at the issue. Indeed, there are reams of data that show temperatures are increasing and that greater concentrations of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are largely to blame.
An Associated Press review of the emails show that they "don't support claims that the science of global warming was faked" and "don't undercut the vast body of evidence showing the world is warming because of man-made greenhouse gas emissions."
But who needs facts when Rossell can simply regurgitate a discredited political narrative?
CNS'Hollingsworth Returns To Stenographer Mode Topic: CNSNews.com
Barbara Hollingsworth's Nov. 14 CNSNews.com article is yet another of her stenography extravaganzas, dutifully regurgitating the "seven reasons why [Americans] should not sign up for Obamacare" offered by the anti-Obamacare group Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom.
Hollingsworth even uncritically forwards CCHF president Twila Brase's tortured argument that health coverage through Obamacare isn't really private coverage even though the policy"says Cigna, or Kaiser or WellPoint."
As is typical for a Hollingsworth stenography piece, she makes no effort to balance her article with the views of someone who opposes the CCHF's anti-Obamacare ideology, even though the article is presented as "news." Thus, you won't hear any criticism of Brase's dangerous central argument, that it's better to have no health insurance than to have Obamacare. As Bloomberg View opined when Brase peddled this argument last year:
That claim is absurd on its face: Even if you believe that exchange-purchased insurance will offer fewer care options than other types of coverage, some insurance is leagues better than none. Forget about the penalty for not carrying insurance; what if that 22-year-old needs medical care? He can pay his doctors directly, Brase responded, or seek charity care.
[...]
So Brase's advice that people who can't afford insurance outside the exchanges simply go without makes perfect sense -- but only if you're rich, you never get sick, or you only get sick during open enrollment. And how about access to preventive care to keep you from getting sick in the first place, you ask? Well, if you're worried about that, you'd better reconsider your commitment to freedom, my friend.
Again, Hollingsworth doesn't care about journalism, she cares about forwarding an ideology. That makes her a failure as a journalist, but an apparent success as a CNS senior editor.
WND's Peterson Defends Bill Cosby, Blames 'Feminists' For Rape Allegations Topic: WorldNetDaily
The accusations of rape by Bill Cosby demonstrates he's the victim of a conspiracy, according to Jesse Lee Peterson in his Nov. 16 WorldNetDaily column:
First, Cosby has made national news for publicly airing black America’s “dirty laundry.” And black people hate for other blacks to criticize them in front of whites.
In 2008, he told a black audience, “We’re killing ourselves. We’re making fools of ourselves.” He took black parents to task who spend more money on sneakers than they do on their kids’ education, and allow them to bring “street-corner” language into their homes.
And Cosby ripped black “leaders” who took issue with the blunt manner in which he delivered his message.
The liberal elite power brokers in the Democratic Party can’t allow Cosby’s call for responsibility to get a foothold in the black community because it threatens the powerful grip they have on black voters.
Since the professional blame merchants want to keep the focus off black failure and blame white America, Cosby has been scapegoated as a “sell-out.” But now they’ve found another issue they can use to try and discredit and destroy the man – and, therefore, the message – of black responsibility.
Radical feminists are notorious for accusing American men of supporting a “rape culture.” They automatically accuse anyone who questions or challenges a woman’s allegations as “blaming” or “shaming” the victim. Therefore, it’s almost impossible for men to discuss or effectively defend themselves against accusations of rape.
Peterson declares that "Cosby has never been charged with rape in a court of law," and slams one accuser:
Then, Barbara Bowman, a woman who claims that while she was under the tutelage of Cosby, he drugged and “raped” her, aired her unproven allegations by penning an op-ed in the Washington Post headlined: “Bill Cosby raped me. Why did it take 30 years for people to believe my story?”
Maybe it’s because you never filed a police report. Or could it be because you waited 30 years to make your allegations known?
[...]
I don’t know if the allegations against Cosby are true, but the man has never stood trial or been convicted in a court of law; therefore, he deserves the benefit of the doubt. His accuser should have brought charges against him or sued him years ago. Now she needs to move on. Instead, she’s seeking publicity and pushing for legislation that would make sure that statutes against rape allegations never expire.
Peterson might want to talk with his fellow right-wingers who believed Juanita Broaddrick's allegation of rape against Bill Clinton despite the fact that she not only didn't file a police report but also actively denied for 15 years that such an incident occurred. Would Peterson tell Broaddrick she "needs to move on"?
As we've noted, Peterson has issues with women -- he defended an ESPN commentator who suggested that women provoke men into beating them, and he attacked the NFL panel addressing domestic violence issues in the league.
NEW ARTICLE: With A Little Help From Her Friends (At the MRC) Topic: Media Research Center
If former CBS correspondent Sharyl Attkisson really played her reporting straight, would the conservative Media Research Center be so effusively singing her praises? Read more >>
WND Spreads Lies About DOJ Peacekeepers Topic: WorldNetDaily
A Nov. 13 WorldNetDaily article by Paul Bremmer (a former NewsBusters blogger) has no other purpose other than to peddle right-wing lies about the Department of Justice's Community Relations Service:
Tom Fitton, president of Judicial Watch, said his organization has been tracking the CRS’ actions in Ferguson, just as they tracked the CRS’ actions in Sanford, Florida, after the 2012 Trayvon Martin shooting.
He does not believe CRS workers are impartial mediators.
“They obviously did not facilitate anything in terms of positive outcomes and community relations, and our work showing what they had done in the Trayvon Martin shooting controversy shows that they are not there as a neutral party,” Fitton said. “They go down there to advocate on behalf of the racialist point of view that the Department of Justice has.”
Fitton is lying. PolitiFact rated Judicial Watch's claims about CRS' work in Florida after the Trayvon Martin shooting to be "mostly false":
Armed with public documents, Judicial Watch said the Department of Justice sent the Community Relations Service to Sanford in the wake of Martin’s death "to help organize and manage rallies and protests against George Zimmerman."
Judicial Watch’s statement contends an element of truth: Justice Department employees were sent to Sanford, in part to deal with community uprising, including protests. But they were sent with the idea of keeping the situation peaceful and calm, not to instigate or condone protests or violence.
That’s a critical distinction being ignored in this particular claim. We rate it Mostly False.
Despire the utter lack of a factual basis for such attacks, Bremmer pushes them anyway, uncritically repeating similar comments by race-baiters like Colin Flaherty and Jack Cashill. At no point does Bremmer make an effort to contact CRS and permit them to respond to the racially charged attacks by Fitton, Flaherty and Cashill.
In fact, the CRS' record in Ferguson is that it has brought nearly all conflicting sides in Ferguson to the table to talk about their differences and try to develop a peaceful way forward.
The fact that Bremmer is peddling known lies -- or what he should know are lies, had he bothered to do even the most basic research into his subject -- is just another reason why nobody believes WND.
CNS Promotes Catholic Vaccine Conspiracy Theory Topic: CNSNews.com
Michael W. Chapman spends a Nov. 14 CNSNews.com article lavishing attention on a Catholic-generated conspiracy theory that a tetanus vaccine being used in Kenya "by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is laced with a hormone that causes miscarriages and infertility."
While Chapman does concede that "UNICEF denies that the vaccine is tainted and the WHO says the 'allegations are not backed by the evidence,'" the bulk of his article isconcerned with presenting the claims made by "the Catholic Bishops of Kenya, along with the Kenya Catholic Doctors Association," as true and WHO and UNICEF as trying to hide something.
Chapman also brings in Donna Harrison, "an OB/GYN and executive director of the American Association of Prolife Obstetricians and Gynecologists," to bolster the Catholics' case. He doesn't mention that Harrison is an anti-birth control activist who peddles the myth that morning-after pills cause abortions.
While Chapman does eventually tell bothh sides of the story, he waits until the 31st paragraph of his article to note WHO's and UNICEF's evidence that the vaccines are not laced with infertility drugs.
Chapman's promotion of this anti-vaccine conspiracy theory is ironic because other branches of CNS' owner, the Media Research Center, have railed against those who promote anti-vaccine conspiracy theories (when they don't involve Gardasil, anyway).
We're aware of CNS' pro-Catholic leanings and reputation for unbalanced reporting, but can't Chapman -- who, remember, is CNS' managing editor -- try to attempt some actual journalism by fairly presenting both sides of the story instead of putting his thumb on the scale in favor of the Catholics, no matter how crazy their conspiracy theory sounds?
Apparently not -- to him, the political narrative is more important than the facts.
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