NewsBusters Whines: Evolution Question To Walker Was Off-Topic! Topic: NewsBusters
Tom Blumer uses a Feb. 15 NewsBusters post to posit that Scott Walker was right to "punt" on a question about evolution he was asked because it should never have been asked in the first place because it was "brazenly off-topic":
In London, England earlier this week, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker delivered a speech about global trade at the Chatham House think tank. Given that the group's mission is "to help build a sustainably secure, prosperous and just world," and that it encourages "open debate and confidential discussion on the most significant developments in international affairs," it seemed a reasonable expectation that those present would ask questions relevant to those matters.
Instead, Scott Walker was asked several brazenly off-topic questions, including if he believed in evolution. He refused to answer them. In the case of evolution, he said, "I’m going to punt on that one ... That’s a question that a politician shouldn’t be involved in one way or another," while reminding the audience that "I'm here to talk about trade and not pontificate on other issues."
The smug establishment press apparently wants to believe that Walker's refusal has created a political crisis of epic proportions which they contend (translation: hope) may harm his presidential aspirations.
Blumer gets even more conspiratorial after that, speculating that an Associated Press reporter who covered the Walker incident is biased because he is "likely a member of the far-left, Occupy Movement-supporting News Media Guild" and that the AP itself is "likely inspired by leftist hacks who thought they had an issue they could flog." Needless to say, Blumer offers no evidence of this.
Blumer ultimately whines about "amateur-hour smear-driven journalism" -- as if that isn't what he contributes at NewsBusters, though without the "journalism" part.
NEW ARTICLE -- Needed At WorldNetDaily: A Vaccination Against Lies Topic: WorldNetDaily
When WND isn't falsely claiming the measles vaccine is worse than actually having the disease, it's falsely blaming illegal immigrants for the measles outbreak. Read more >>
Newsmax Censors de Borchgrave's Conservatism Topic: Newsmax
It's unsurprising that Newsmax would play up the death of Arnaud de Borchgrave -- after all, de Borchgrave was an original member of Newsmax's board of directors. But there's something about de Borchgrave Newsmax isn't eager to tell you.
David Patten writes in his lengthy Feb. 15 Newsmax obituary of de Borchgrave:
When de Borchgrave took over the newsroom of The Washington Times in 1985, Reagan called to offer his congratulations. At the Times, de Borchgrave's tireless work ethic was soon on full display. He knew his mammoth competitor The Post, his former employer at Newsweek, could outspend his newsroom many times over. To compensate, he labored tirelessly to single-handedly reverse the newspaper's fortunes, often sleeping overnight on the convertible sofa in his office.
In an effort to motivate the Times staff, shortly after taking the helm he recounted his experiences in the Royal Navy. "My skippers seldom left the bridge," he told them. "I see myself as your new captain on the bridge."
By 8 a.m., according to New York Magazine, he would clip his way through five newspapers, and a staff member would sift through a dozen other publications for him as well. The New York Magazine article on his arrival at the Times referred to him as "the last of the world-class reporters."
Notice what's missing in that passage. Patten doesn't mention that the Washington Times is a conservative operation funded by the cultish Unification Church.
Indeed, the word "conservative" doesn't appear anywhere in Patten's obituary, though he leaves enough clues as to de Borchgrave's ideology that it can be inferred.
In 1985, he became editor of the recently launched Washington Times. The conservative newspaper was backed by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church, a religious group often described as a cult.
The newspaper had a loyal following inside President Ronald Reagan’s administration but at times made unusual editorial decisions. For instance, its editorial page lobbied Reagan to pardon Moon, who was convicted of tax evasion, according to the Post.
Patten's boss, Christopher Ruddy, took a similar tack to his employee. In an appearance on Steve Malzberg's Newsmax TV show, Ruddy eulogized de Borchgrave but at no point explained that he was a conservative.
President Barack Obama rose to make the point that Christians should be very careful up there on their high horses criticizing Islamic groups like ISIS for crucifying children, burying their captives alive for “not being Muslin enough,” beheading them and, most recently, drenching a Jordanian pilot in flammable liquid and burning him to death in a cage. I was just about to solidify feelings of moral superiority for our different ways. Obama stopped me just in time.
[...]
But here? But now? While that metal cage was still smoking from the Jordanian pilot’s incineration? Is this the president’s idea of proper timing for that particular history lesson?
Why did it give me the impression that this president is not quite mad-as-hell at ISIS?
There’s something highly biblical going on. The forces of evil have risen. Will the forces of good rise up to overwhelm them? For that, stay tuned.
In those two words, “sacred union,” is the rub. Obama not only lied, but he used “God” to sell the lie, a stunning bit of blasphemy in whatever faith Obama professes.
For Obama, lying about his faith was apparently no big deal. As he told Axelrod after stumbling through a question on same-sex marriage, “I’m just not very good at bulls––ing.”
One has to ask, if Obama was willing to bulls–- about his relationship with God, what was he not willing to bulls–- about? Why should anyone, for instance, believe his “for me as a Christian” line?
The Axelrod revelation casts further doubt upon Obama’s professed Christianity and fuels the speculation that he might well be a crypto-Muslim.
While Mr. Brokaw is calling for Mr. Williams’ head, we should remember the discussion Brokaw and Charlie Rose had just a week or so before Barack Obama was elected in 2008. In that conversation, which can be seen on Youtube, Brokaw and Rose discussed what little they, the media, or anybody knew about this Barack Obama community organizer.
Had Tom Brokaw been completely honest during his discussion with Mr. Rose, he would have stated how the media was in the tank for Barack Obama, which is why they didn’t live up to Journalism 101 by performing due diligence on Mr. Obama. Brokaw failed, many believe intentionally, to do his journalism job and encourage other reporters to do their jobs. For that, no one should ever listen to what this semi-retired windbag has to say.
As circumstances in America deteriorate more rapidly (with the advancement of the Obama administration’s unimpeded agenda), I have noted an increasing instance of certain grave issues coming to light months after my having reported them (usually here on WND).
President Obama has, in so many words, explicitly expressed his desire for total control over you. As he sibilantly slurs his way through various attacks on Christianity, individual liberty, economic freedom, American exceptionalism and every other foundational tenet of this free nation’s founding documents and underlying philosophy, he is making clear not just that he hates you and your politics, hates you and your liberty, hates you and your family. He is establishing quite clearly through word and deed that he has absolutely no problem with the myriad ways in which your government (and every other entity, private and public) invades your privacy.
To Democrats, you are not an individual. To progressives, you are not a human being. To Obama, you are not a free citizen.
Here we are again this week complaining about the same administration that has transgressed the law and the rights of the American people. Barry blurted out the truth in his confusion this week, claiming that the media overstates the terror threat (Deuteronomy 28:36).
However, the American people are now coming to the realization that he hates Christians (Leviticus 26:17).
[...]
Yet, in America we see that the president of the United States rules by his will concerning the decisions that are made from the people’s White House and does so arbitrarily. It is not for any representative, regardless of branch or capacity in which they serve the people, to rule outside of their scope of authority. That is unlawful and, therefore, illegal, which makes it a criminal act.
When Obama continued missing shot after shot, it was because he believes he is God, and that eventually the planets would re-align themselves and his shots would all start swishing through the net without his having to make even the slightest adjustment.
It’s time for the media to start calling Obama out for what he is. The president simply is not detached from reality or incompetent, as the media apologetically often depict his numerous foreign-policy failures and scandals. Even Fox News, which I congratulate and appreciate for its hard-hitting fair and balanced reporting generally, skirts this central issue: Obama’s biases and prejudices and how they destructively affect his governance. Even if the media will not brand him as the anti-white, anti-Christian, anti-Semitic bigot he is, it is at least high time that reporters, columnist, and television and radio commentators say it straight up: Obama sees nearly everything and acts from the lens of his Muslim, African heritage, frequently to the detriment of the rest of us.
Last year I was criticized by the left-wing media for giving a speech satirically challenging the president to get up off his knees, to put the Quran down and to come out with his hands up. Given his prejudices and his myriad scandals, along with his refusal to call Islamic terrorism what it is – but instead casting blame on Jews and Israelis, Christians, whites and, by implication, Jesus himself – my words now ring truer than ever.
In some ways, I actually have a degree of sympathy for Barack Obama, or whoever the man in the White House actually is. While you are gathering up the stones, I will explain those sympathies.
The man is in so far over his head he has given up. All that matters to him now is his eventual escape from the fishbowl of the presidency and the perks and distractions of which he can avail himself between now and then.
The man doesn’t have the education he claims to have. If he did, he would have written to the colleges and requested the public release of his educational activities. Why would you not be proud of those accomplishments?
Does anyone believe anything Obama says about anything? If he promised the sun will rise next Monday morning, tens of millions of Americans will start planning for life in darkness, and for good reason.
Barack Obama and others like him have a direct connection to evil; whereas too often people serving God are not directly connected to truth. This is why Obama can lie and push his destructive agenda and mercilessly attack our freedoms and sacred institutions.
MRC's Bozell Still Won't Resign For His Lies, Now Tries To Rewrite History Topic: Media Research Center
Brent Bozell and Tim Graham write in their Feb. 14 column:
That Brian Williams six-month suspension has fallen flat. His critics aren't mollified. His supporters are clearly dispirited. Everyone knows this one is not over -- though his tenure at NBC may very well be done.
The suspension isn't going to work for the same reason his apology went nowhere. It resolves nothing.
Hubris. So many celebrities -- be they politicians, journalists, artists -- refuse to accept that the cover-up and obfuscation is always worse than the crime. Time and again, when honesty and humility beckon, they are nowhere to be found.
Bozell might as well be writing about himself. As we've documented, Bozell has yet to face any punishment for years of presenting Graham's work ghostwriting his column as his own -- only when it was exposed last year did Bozell consent to adding Graham's byline to his, and he still won't retroactively credit Graham for his earlier work.
Yet he has the hubris for attack Williams for exaggerations that led to the suspension. Ofcourse, Bozell and Graham don't care about journalism -- they care about having Williams as a scalp on the walls of the MRC's spacious new headquarters in suburban Washington, D.C.
But Bozell and Graham not content to wallow in hypocrisy -- they also want to rewrite history as well, setting up St. Ronnie as an example of how to handle a scandal:
Ronald Reagan did address Iran-Contra immediately, personally taking responsibility and firing staff responsible. But the body language of his administration and supporters (we were in that number) was different: The Contra cause was noble (and it was), therefore the funding was, well, clever. Except it was illegal.
When the Lebanese newspaper "Al-Shiraa" printed an exposé on the clandestine activities in November 1986, Reagan went on television and vehemently denied that any such operation had occurred. He retracted the statement a week later, insisting that the sale of weapons had not been an arms-for-hostages deal. Despite the fact that Reagan defended the actions by virtue of their good intentions, his honesty was doubted. Polls showed that only 14 percent of Americans believed the president when he said he had not traded arms for hostages.
Bozell and Graham conclude by lecturing:
Brian Williams lied. The honorable thing was to apologize honestly and completely, and resign. His career would have been resurrected immediately. If he refused to, the honorable decision from Comcast/NBC was termination and a corporate apology (which they owed anyway). Neither happened. Instead it was a bizarre long-term suspension, and another self-inflicted wound, and more bleeding as the Peacock Network's credibility disintegrates.
We'll believe their sincerity about this when Bozell does the honorable thing by apologizing for his years of deception and resign as MRC president. But Bozell simply doesn't have the guts to live up to his own self-proclaimed standards.
Again, everything appearing under Bozell's name about Williams may as well be writing about Bozell himself. Is that perhaps Graham's revenge for years of unsung ghostwriting?
WND Isn't Giving Up On Claiming Obama Is The Antichrist Topic: WorldNetDaily
No, WorldNetDaily still hasn't given up on the idea that President Obama is the Antichrist.
In a Feb. 16 article, WND executive news editor Joe Kovacs -- who, if you'll recall, has said he joined WND because Joseph Farah and Co. "cared about reporting the news. I mean the real news. The news that matters" -- reported on a newspaper's correction about whether a letter writer called Obama the Antichrist. Kovacs seemed to be playing the story as a joke ... until the final paragraph, where he tried to bolster the idea:
Ironically, the night Obama was first elected president in November 2008, the three-digit winning lottery number in Illinois, the state in which Obama resided at the time he was running, was 666, a figure which the Book of Revelation in the New Testament calls the “number of the beast.”
So, apparently, the "real news" and "the news that matters" to Kovacs is keeping the fringe-right idea of Obama as Antichrist alive. Good to know.
Why Is MRC's Graham Putting 'Reverend' In Scare Quotes for Sharpton? Topic: NewsBusters
Tim Graham does a curious thing in his Feb. 14 NewsBusters post attacking Al Sharpton: When referring to Sharpton, he puts "Reverend" in scare quotes. Those scare quotes, though, create the impression that Graham believes Sharpton isn't a real reverend -- even though he's an ordained minister -- because he believes evolution exists:
“Reverend” Al Sharpton isn’t too big on the Bible, certainly not on the tale that God created the world and everything in it. MSNBC tweeted out Sharpton’s Thursday night segment where he wished his viewers and guests “Happy Darwin Day” three times, and mocked Gov. Scott Walker for skipping an evolution question in a London interview.
A snarky commenter on MSNBC.com noted that Sharpton was pushing Darwin, whose book The Origin of Species was also titled The Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. Uh-oh, Rev.
As explained on Wikipedia, Darwin's use of "race" is a synonym for "varieties," not the modern connotation of human races; the first use of the word in the book refers to "the several races, for instance, of the cabbage" and proceeds to a discussion of "the hereditary varieties or races of our domestic animals and plants." Graham might want to vet the random "snarky commenters" from whom he gets his inspiration a little more closely.
Nevertheless, Graham then goes on to claim, "Apparently, in other books, Darwin expressed the thought the 'Negro' was inferior, and 'the civilised races of man will almost certainly exterminate and replace the savage races throughout the world.' That might be worth a segment." Interestingly, the link Graham provides as evidence of this -- from a blog by John S. Wilkins focused on evolution -- points out that Darwin's clinging to the racial stereotypes pervasive in his era actually contradict his theory of evolution:
Why does Darwin do this? In the early days of a theory or new view, it is hard to puzzle out all the ramifications of the idea, and to isolate it from superficially similar ideas already in the air. Darwin’s notion of evolution does not require progress, or inferior versus superior races, but he’s being led down that path by the culture around him, and the fact, after all, that he is a member of a privileged class (historically fairly recently so) of an imperial society, with a history of devaluing those who were not in control. It turns out, Darwin is human after all.
Anyway, the implication remains that Graham appears to believe Sharpton isn't a real reverend because he acknowledges evolution. So we asked him via Twitter:
Graham's first response: "He's a RINO. Reverend In Name Only. Starts with refusing for decades to acknowledge his sin in the Brawley hoax."
Fair enough; it's a legitimate criticism. Then he added: "And it's funny he's channeling the Darwinists and science against Christian conservatives, like he's Ricky Gervais."
That seems to confirm that, in Graham's view, evolution is incompatible with being a "real" Christian, and definitely not compatible with being a Christian minister.
Then we asked Graham if the MRC would start putting scare quotes around "Dr." when referring to anti-abortion activist Alveda King -- after all, unlike Sharpton's title, King didn't earn hers; the doctorate is honorary. Graham didn't respond.
Matt Barber Lies About The SPLC Topic: WorldNetDaily
In the midst of a rant against thte Southern Poverty Law Center in his Feb. 13 WorldNetDaily column, Matt Barber complains about how the SPLC portrays him:
The “social justice” organization’s most recent hit on me came this past Monday in the form of a “Hatewatch” report. While the SPLC’s lies about me are legion, a shining example can be found in this particular report’s claim that I have said, “HIV is a punishment from God for homosexuality.” I have never said this, nor even remotely suggested it. Neither do I believe it. It’s a lie.
If you look at the SPLC article to which Barber is referring, it does not claim that statement attributed to Barber as a direct quote and is presented as a paraphrase:
Matt Barber, the editor of the virulently anti-LGBT Barbwire.com, is a frequent host of the Liberty Counsel’s Faith and Freedom Radio. Barber has Tweeted that “Fake ‘gay marriage’ is fake ‘consummated’ through squalid and feculent abuse of the reproductive and digestive systems.” He has called same-sex parenting a form of child abuse, and [s]aid that HIV is a punishment from God for homosexuality, stating that “it is never good, healthy, normal or natural.” He also expressed support for Russia’s draconian anti-LGBT laws, saying that he would like to see laws that “stop homosexual activist propaganda from corrupting children in our nation and we need to see that right here in the United States.”
The link the SPLC uses to support that statement is a Right Wing Watch post quoting from a September WND column by Barber:
Scripture admonishes, “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). Unnatural behaviors beget natural consequences. It is hateful to promote a sin-centered lifestyle to children, to anyone for that matter, which leads to disease, death and, unless repented of, eternal separation from God.
It bears repeating: “[H]alf of all gay and bisexual men will be HIV-positive by age 50.”
The wages of sin is death.
Yet in today’s upside-down world it is we who are disingenuously accused of “hate” – those of us who remain compassionate and bold enough to warn our fellow fallen human beings of the spiritual, emotional and, yes, even the physical death that comes as a natural consequence of unnatural behaviors. A toxic cloud of political correctness distorts reality, choking off any honest appraisal of these self-destructive sexual behaviors. We truly live in a dark age that calls evil good and good evil.
Homosexual conduct is always sin. It always has been. It always will be. It is never good, healthy, normal or natural.
The wages of sin is death.
Summarizing Barber's statements to "HIV is a punishment from God for homosexuality" is perfectly accurate. Barber does not explain why it isn't.
In other words, Barber is a liar. But he's not done lying:
In the same report, the SPLC attacked my good friend and former colleague Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel – a legitimate civil rights organization by contrast – absurdly asserting that as the judicial imposition of same-sex “marriage” becomes a widespread reality, Staver has said, “everyone will decide to be gay and society will ‘cease to exist.’”
I kid you not. They actually wrote that and attributed it to Staver. Read it for yourself. Again, this particular whopper is so stupid that it strains credulity to imagine how they thought it would fly.
Apology? I won’t hold my breath.
The SPLC cites a Right Wing Watch transcript of a radio interview in which Staver stated: "If you ultimately promoted same-sex marriage and everyone started to go towards same-sex marriage, what would happen to society? It would just simply cease to exist."
So, yes, Staver is pretty much saying what the SPLC claims he is. And Barber is a liar.
Will Barber apologize for his lies? We won't hold our collective breath.
Even A Mere $33,000 Spent On LGBT Issues Is A Waste, According To CNS' Hunter Topic: CNSNews.com
No amount of federal spending on LGBT issues, it seems, is too small for CNSNews.com deputy managing editor Melanie Hunter to portray as a waste.
Hunter adds to her pile of obsession over LGBT-related federal spending -- she has written no federal spending articles on any other subject -- with a Feb. 13 article:
The National Institutes of Health has awarded $33,037 in taxpayer funds to the University of South Florida to study factors that can increase vaccination among gay men for the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) to prevent them from developing anal cancer.
Yep, even a mere $33,000 is considered to be a waste by Hunter if it goes toward LGBT-related issues.
Hunter has yet to explain her obession on this subject.
WND's Corsi Thinks Illegal Immigrants Are Bring Smallpox Into U.S. Topic: WorldNetDaily
In a Feb. 13 video posted on WorldNetDaily's Facebook feed, Jerome Corsi lists diseases purportedly making a resurgence in the U.S. as a result of "open borders" and illegal immigration.
Corsi lists measles, of course, because he apparently didn't get the memo that the measles vaccination rate in Latin America is equivalent to that of the U.S. But then Corsi starts bloviating that "various diseases that have been eradicated from the United States, including smallpox and other diseases coming from Latin America, Mexico, South America through illegal immigration."
MRC Puts Univision Host Jorge Ramos In Its Crosshairs Topic: Media Research Center
Jorge Bonilla -- the current face, near as we can tell, of the Media Research Center's MRC Latino operation -- starts his Jan. 30 NewsBusters post rather boldly:
The central premise of a recent New York Times article is simple enough: If only Republicans were to submit to Univision (and, by extension, anchor Jorge Ramos) on immigration, then they may receive more favorable coverage that does not depict them to the network’s Hispanic viewership as hateful, racist, anti-immigrant monsters, and then they may have a chance to garner more of the Hispanic vote, with the blessing of the community’s self-appointed gatekeeper.
Bonilla, however, couldn't be bothered to actually quote from the Times article he's attacking, so apparently he wants us to take his word for it.
Thus, unambitious NewsBusters readers will miss the part of the Times article pointing that Ramos, in addition to being critical of Republicans' anti-immigration stance, has called out President Obama for "breaking his 2008 campaign promise — made directly to Mr. Ramos — that he would propose an overhaul of the nation’s immigration system in his first year in office, and for deporting two million people since."
Bonilla quickly ratchets up the rhetoric, accusing the Times (and, by extension, Ramos) of figuratively (or maybe literally) wanting to kill interview subjects:
The first thing that comes to mind with the Times’ take on the subject is a sense of (with apologies to Yogi Berra) déja vu all over again. What we are witnessing here is the return of the nasty plata o plomo tactics (literally "silver or lead" - the Spanish phrase that means you either cooperate by giving a bribe, or you get a bullet) previously deployed during Univision’s 2011 war on Senator Marco Rubio.
Apparently, holding Republicans accountable on immigration is much worse than, say, suggesting that those doing so are engaging in violence, figuratively or otherwise.
In case it isn't clear, Bonilla and the MRC have Ramos in their (figurative) crosshairs for the sin of not spouting conservative rhetoric on immigration. Indeed, five of Bonilla's last seven NewsBusters posts are focused on Ramos.
Bonilla takes another shot at Ramos in a Feb. 16 post, sneering that Ramos "is fond of reading his own press" and that conservative attacks on him are "legitimate." Then Bonilla -- who accused Ramos of "plata o plomo tactics" -- complained that Ramos "had the audacity to complain that conservatives want to SILENCE him as a result of his biased coverage."
Bonilla then complains that "No journalist that encourages activism, abandons neutrality, and routinely spits out partisan talking points should expect to go unchallenged." If Bonilla is really serious about challenging biased journalists, he doesn't even have to leave the MRC headquarters to do so -- he can readthebias at CNSNews.com.
WND's Klein Whiffs On Blaming Measles, Other Diseases On Illegal Immigrants Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily keeps trying -- and keeps failing -- to blame the measles outbreak on illegal immigrants.
The latest scapegoat stab comes from Aaron Klein in a Feb. 12 WND article. First, he concedes there really isn't a link:
Is there more to the measles outbreak than the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have acknowledged?
A close look at the history of measles outbreaks in the U.S. over the last 15 years evidences two significant themes – the vast majority of all cases were imported from outside the country, and many of the disease clusters were located in California, a state known for its large concentration of illegal aliens.
Still, while diseases such as enterovirus are rampant in the countries where most illegal aliens originate, there does not appear to be strong evidence that current or past measles outbreak originated with illegal aliens.
Still, he endeavors to insist there's a link just the same:
The fact-checking websites note that most illegal immigrants stem from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico. According to the World Health Organization, the measles vaccination rates among those countries for the past four years have been equivalent to, and in some cases exceed, the rate in the United States.
Still, the CDC reported the current outbreak has spread to Mexico.
PolitiFact points out the Office of Refugee Resettlement’s protocol calls for it to provide “vaccinations to all children who do not have documentation of previous valid doses of vaccine.”
However, PolitiFact misses the fact that the Refugee Resettlement, a program of the Department of Health and Human Services, mostly deals with legal immigrants who obtain the status of refugee and who are seeking safe haven within the U.S.
[...]
Unaccounted for, however, are illegals who are not caught, do not enter detention centers or who are released by border agents within 72 hours of their capture.
Thirteen-year Border Patrol veteran Chris Cabrera is vice president of the Local 3307 chapter of the National Border Patrol Council, the exclusive representative of approximately 17,000 agents and support personnel assigned to the U.S. Border Patrol.
He recently said in a radio interview the Border Patrol is being overwhelmed by illegals, with many slipping through the cracks possibly carrying disease.
In short, Klein can't identify any actual facts to back him up and must resort to speculation and some rather lazy guilt-by-association. He does it again later in the article:
While medical literature backs up the argument that Latin America is currently safely immunized against measles, a WND review of the history of outbreaks in the U.S. since the 1980s shows two major themes: Almost all of the outbreaks came from overseas, and California saw some of the largest concentrations of the disease.
Again, no actual proof. Klein eventually gives up and switches to another disease entirely he can more easily blame on illegal immigrants, enterovirus, even though has nothing to offer but, yes, "speculation the polio-like enterovirus, which mostly targets children, could have been carried into the U.S. by illegal-alien minors from Central America."
Needless to say, Klein is wrong here as well. The Centers for Disease Control have found no evidence of a link between illegal immigrants and enterovirus outbreaks in the U.S. -- which Klein concedes a few paragraphs later after he reports all the baseless speculation.
But an increasingly desperate Klein has to find something to blame on illegal immigrants. Finally he settles on chikungunya, a mosquito-borne tropical disease that he speculates is being spread through mosquitoes that "could just as easily have been transported into the U.S. in baggage, clothing, food, or liquids carried by illegal aliens crossing the border." But once more, he can only rely on speculation, not actual proof.
In sum, Klein has an article with a whole lot of speculation designed to rile up the anti-immigrant readers of WND without any solid facts to back them up. And he buries the fact that he can't back up his speculation.
CNS Doesn't Want Any Gayness In Statuary Hall Topic: CNSNews.com
See if you can guess Lauretta Brown's main concern from the headline and opening paragraph of her Feb. 12 CNSNews.com article:
Gay Lawmaker Wants to Replace Statuary Hall Figure of Missionary Headed for Sainthood With Lesbian Astronaut
An openly gay State Senator in California has introduced legislation to replace a statue of Catholic missionary Father Junipero Serra in National Statuary Hall with a statue of Sally Ride, the first female U.S. astronaut and a lesbian.
The move by State Senator Ricardo Lara comes just weeks after Pope Francis announced plans to elevate Serra to sainthood.
Yep, it seems Brown (and, by extension, her CNS overseers Terry Jeffrey and Michael Chapman) doesn't want any gayness in Statuary Hall -- especially if means removing the statue of a Catholic.
Brown then goes on to defend the honor of Serra by quoting a Catholic monsignor who has written a biography of him:
But Monsignor Francis J. Weber, an author and historian of the 18th century missionary, has rejected the characterization of Serra as “controversial.”
“You see all of these accusations against Serra, but not one of them can be validated by a responsible historian,” Weber told the Catholic News Agency.
Weber described Serra as a hero to the Native Americans. “California today is what he started it out to be,” he said, “Things have progressed a lot in 200 years, but he set the foundation.”
“The Native Americans, I think, are being utilized by these people who have a rather warped view of what evangelization is all about,” he said. “I’m convinced that the questions about Junipero Serra are really not about Serra himself, who simply epitomized Catholic evangelization. I’m convinced that this is an attack on all of Catholic evangelization throughout the world.”
That seems like a strangely specific defense. Meanwhile, the Associated Press notes that Serra "supported flogging converts who tried to escape the mission," and that in Serra's wake, the Native American population in California dropped by one-third and fragmented tribes lost touch with their traditional languages, beliefs and way of life.
So, yes, Serra is controversial -- as is Brown's idea of journalism, where all gays must be labeled prominently as such, seemingly to engender homophobic comments on the article from CNS readers.
WND Now Using Twitter To Race-Bait Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily has really cut back on the race-baiting since Google AdSense threatened to cut off ad revenue to WND because of all the rampant Colin Flaherty-fueled paranoia about "black mobs." (Flaherty also stopped writing for WND around this time.) But that doesn't mean WND can't race-bait in social media.
WND uses Twitter to promote its articles, and one tweet sent on Feb. 15 was so important that it had to be announced in ALL CAPS: "IF I HAD A SON -- NEARLY 1000 BLACK TEENS STORM THEATER IN ORLANDO TO GET IN FOR FREE."
Funny thing about the purloined Florida TV station article WND is promoting here:
1) it says "more than 200 juveniles" were involved in a disturbance at a local mall, of which only "about 100" rushed the theater -- not the "nearly 1000" the WND tweet claims. An earlier viersion of the article, which WND stole for its website, claims that "about 800 teens" were involved. Which, last we checked, requires a lot of stretching to be considered "nearly 1000."
2) The word "black" does not appear in the article, the original version that WND stole, or in the accompanying video report.
WND does not explain how it divined that every single student involved in the incident -- whether 100 or "nearly 1000" -- was black. They have have simply assumed that if there was a large crowd of teens causing mayhem, they must obviously be black.
Also, the "If I Had A Son" tagline does not appear on the stolen WND version of the article -- it simply uses "WND Crime." Apparently, this reference to President Obama's statement about Trayvon Martin is some sort of dog whistle to its more race-obsessed readers that this is another story about blacks behaving badly (despite, again, no evidence that this is indeed the case).
WND, it seems, has decided it can rest assured that no ad revenue will be threatened by Twitter calling out its race-baiting like Google did.
MRC Gives Fox News A Pass On Airing Terrorist Video Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center normally frowns on media outlets airing videos made by terrorists. MRC chief Brent Bozell (well, to be perfectly accurate, his deputy Tim Graham) has denounced al-Jazeera as "a video jukebox for Osama bin Laden and other Arab terrorist fanatics."
But when Fox News was the only major media outlet to air graphic footage from an ISIS video showing a Jordanian pilot being buried alive -- then posted the full, unedited video on the Fox News website -- Bozell and his MRC crew had nothing to say about it.
A search of the MRC and NewsBusters websites found no statements whatsoever on Fox News serving as the PR agent for terrorists as numerous media and terrorism analysts condemned it --hen Fox's in-house media critic, Howard Kurtz, said he disagreed with the corporate decision to air the video because "we are helping spread the fear that ISIS so badly wants to spread."
This is another example of the MRC refusing to apply its own standards against those with whom it ideologically agrees. We've detailed how the MRC wouldn't criticize "60 Minutes" reporter Lara Logan for bungling a story on the Benghazi attack because her distortions and falsehoods furthered the right-wing agenda to exploit Benghazi against President Obama.
Tom Blumer uses a Feb. 15 NewsBusters post to posit that Scott Walker was right to "punt" on a question about evolution he was asked because it should never have been asked in the first place because it was "brazenly off-topic":
It's unsurprising that Newsmax would play up the death of Arnaud de Borchgrave -- after all, de Borchgrave was an original member of Newsmax's board of directors. But there's something about de Borchgrave Newsmax isn't eager to tell you.
President Barack Obama rose to make the point that Christians should be very careful up there on their high horses criticizing Islamic groups like ISIS for crucifying children, burying their captives alive for “not being Muslin enough,” beheading them and, most recently, drenching a Jordanian pilot in flammable liquid and burning him to death in a cage. I was just about to solidify feelings of moral superiority for our different ways. Obama stopped me just in time.
Brent Bozell and Tim Graham write in their Feb. 14 
No, WorldNetDaily still hasn't given up on the idea that President Obama 
Tim Graham does a curious thing in his Feb. 14 NewsBusters 
In the midst of a rant against thte Southern Poverty Law Center in his Feb. 13 WorldNetDaily 
No amount of federal spending on LGBT issues, it seems, is too small for CNSNews.com deputy managing editor Melanie Hunter to 
In a Feb. 13 
Jorge Bonilla -- the current face, near as we can tell, of the Media Research Center's 
WorldNetDaily keeps trying -- and 
See if you can guess Lauretta Brown's main concern from the headline and opening paragraph of her Feb. 12 CNSNews.com 
The Media Research Center normally frowns on media outlets airing videos made by terrorists. MRC chief Brent Bozell (well, to be 
