CNS' Starr Apparently Thinks Researchers Use Rats Off The Street Topic: CNSNews.com
A March 6 CNSNews.com article by Penny Starr is about a biotech firm that "transplants organs from aborted babies into lab rats with the goal of growing them for use in patients who need organ transplants." But look at the photo accompanying Starr's article:
Yes, that's a picture of street rats rummaging through a garbage bag. Apparently Starr thinks those are the kind of rats researchers use.
Actually, laboratory rats are notably different from wild street rats, if Wikipedia is to be believed; scientists have bred many strains or "lines" of rats specifically for experimentation.
So, no, Ms. Starr, rats in the street are not running wild with organs from aborted babies on them, however much you and other anti-abortion activists believe in your heart that is true.
Also, note that CNS is once again misusing Associated Press content by sticking this completely unrelated photo on this story. CNS has a habit of rewriting AP headlines to make them more biased.
CNS Portrays Extremist Pastors As 'Conservative Black Leaders' Topic: CNSNews.com
CNSNews.com is devoting another article to its homophobic obsession with the cherry-picked, out-of-context reference President Obama made to gays during last weekend's speech in Selma, Alabama. In it, Lauretta Brown obtains reaction from what she claims are "conservative black leaders" to the reference, giving no indication she provided the correct and complete context of the statement to them.
So who are these "conservative black leaders" that Brown thinks are worthy of perpetuating this manufactured controversy?
-- Jesse Lee Peterson is a Sean Hannity-backed pastor and WorldNetDaily columnist who has issues with women. He's also a rabid Obama-hater who once claimed that the president is "committed to spreading evil."
In his comments to CNS, Peterson went even farther off the Obama-hating rails by likening Obama to a Ku Klux Klan leader. No, really:
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson of BOND (The Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny) was similarly critical of the president’s speech.
“There was no hope in that rally,” Peterson said. “Just think about this: 50 years later we have a black president in the United States of America. This country has done more than any other country to make amends for slavery in this country and yet there was no appreciation of that. There was no praise of America, thanking America for what it had done. It was as though it was still 1955.”
“It was disgusting, it was evil, it was wrong,” said Peterson.
“That rally was a klan’s rally, was no different than the KKK, it was a hate rally, a hateful rally,” said Peterson.
The third "leader" Brown quoted, C.L. Bryant, has complained that Obama isn't a real black American and his election is a "slap in the face" to those who are.
These are who Brown and CNS consider "conservative black leaders." Actual conservative black leaders should be insulted.
It's been a while since we checked in with CNS' obsession with promoting every little pearl of wisdom that falls from Mark Levin's mouth, but yes, they're still at it:
Since this is stenography and not reporting, there's no attempt to fact-check anything Levin says -- apparently, if he says it, it's axoimatically true.
There's also no mention of the fact that CNS' parent, the Media Research Center, has a business deal with Levin in which they cross-promote each other. It's also not disclosed whether all these fawning Levin posts are part of that promotion deal.
CNS Obsesses Over Single Line Referencing Gays In Obama's Selma Speech Topic: CNSNews.com
CNSNews.com's story on President Obama's speech in Selma, Alabama, for the 50th anniversary of the famous civil rights march there isn't even a story, really -- it's just a lazy, unbylined copy-and-paste of a few paragraphs of the speech from the White House website, plucked out of context from the much longer speech.
Why did CNS do this? Because Obama said something CNS didn't like: he failed to denigrate gays. Or, as the completely context-free headline screams, "Obama: 'We’re The Gay Americans Whose Blood Ran in the Streets of San Francisco’."
So offended was CNS that it put this out-of-context speech excerpt and its even more out-of-context headline as the lead story of its website today, accompanied with a picture of an arrogant-looking Obama (because that's the impression of him CNS wants its readers to have).
CNS is has been ramping up its anti-gay agenda in recent months, and this article shows how it's happening.
After a month in which it was forced to report good news on the unemployment front because it apparently couldn't find sufficiently negative numbers to cherry-pick like it usually does, CNSNews.com is back to its old routine with February's numbers in a pair of articles by Ali Meyer:
Not News at CNS: Gaffes And Birthers At CPAC Topic: CNSNews.com
CNSNews.com sent a full complement of reporters to cover the speeches at this year's Conservative Political Action Conference -- chief among them from their boss, Brent Bozell.
But curiously, CNS' reports on the speeches quoted only the red-meat attacks. Missing was any hint of gaffe or controversy.
Ali Meyer's story on the speech by Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker plays up his anti-Washington attacks, such as calling the District of Columbia “68 square miles surrounded by reality.”Meyer failed to mention a serious gaffe by Walker in which he likened pro-union protesters to ISIS.
Strangely, CNS did publish (but buried by refusing to promote on its front page) an Associated Press article about Walker's gaffe.
(Meanwhile, the MRC's Kyle Drennen huffed that NBC reported on Walker's "blunder," while happily noting that "CBS didn't deem the comments newsworthy.")
When two CPAC speakers -- Donald Trump and Rick Santorum -- pandered to extremists by making birther-friendly comments, CNS not only refused to report on them, it neglect to report on their speeches at all.
Given how long Bozell has worked to bend CPAC to his right-wing will, he certainly doesn't want any controversy over extremist statements overshadowing the festivities. Through selective and biased, reporting, his "news" division is making sure that doesn't happen.
CNS' Hunter Finds Even More LGBT-Related Federal Spending She Objects To Topic: CNSNews.com
After a brief detour, CNSNews.com deputy managing editor Melanie Hunter is back to cherry-picking federal spending to find another example of LGBT-related spending she disagrees with.
In a Feb. 25 CNS article, Hunter complains that "The National Institutes of Health has awarded $251,173 in taxpayer funds to the University of California Los Angeles to use 'social-network based intervention' to promote the use of an HIV-prevention drug regimen among 'transgender women' in Peru."
This is the ninth article Hunter wrote has written since December highlighting LGBT-related federal spending, versus one article on spending that's not LGBT-related.
CNS' Starr Can't Stop Falsely Reporting That Emergency Contraception Is Abortion Topic: CNSNews.com
CNSNews.com haslongperpetuated the falsehood that emergency contraception is just the same as having an abortion. Apparently, CNS will continue to refuse to let the truth get in its way.
Penny Starr gives it another go in a Feb. 20 CNS article:
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) is advancing federal regulations that require federally funded organizations caring for illegal alien minors who are in the United States without their parents (Unaccompanied Children or UC) and who may have been sexually abused access to “emergency contraception” services.
“Emergency contraception” includes abortion-inducing drugs.
[...]
According to an HHS Fact Sheet, emergency contraceptives approved by the Food and Drug Administration include Plan B One-Step, Next Choice One Dose, My Way and Levonorgestrel Tablets and the IUD.
The label of one such emergency contraceptive--Plan B One Step—says: "this product works mainly by preventing ovulation (egg release). It may also prevent fertilization of a released egg (joining of sperm and egg) or attachment of a fertilized egg to the uterus (implantation)."
According to Web MD the hormonal IUD “changes the lining of the uterus, so implantation of a fertilized egg cannot occur.”
As we pointed out the last time Starr peddled this falsehood, failure of a fertilized egg to implant in the uterus is not an abortion under any medical definition. If that were so, Starr would have to count the more than 50 percent of a woman's fertilized eggs that do not implant naturally as an abortion as well.
But it appears that, given a choice between right-wing talking points and the truth, Starr sticks with the talking points.
CNS Notes High Beef Prices, Doesn't Bother To Explain Why Topic: CNSNews.com
A tagline at the end of CNSNews.com's economics articles states that they are "funded in part with a gift made in memory of Dr. Keith C. Wold." We have to wonder if Wold is spinning in his grave at the abysmal quality of so-called reporting his bequest to the Media Research Center is funding.
A Feb. 26 CNS article by Ali Meyer is an example of this. It's all about how "The average price of a pound of ground beef climbed to another record high -- $4.235 per pound -- in the United States in January." Even though Meyer slings a full complement of stats in her article, at no point does she explain why beef has become so expensive, implying that it's somehow the fault of President Obama.
In fact, as more responsible news outlets have reported, the high prices are the result of a years-long drought in Texas and the Midwest that shrank the U.S. cattle herd in 2014 to its smallest size since 1952.
Unless Wold's bequest specifically ordered Meyer and CNS to mislead about the economy to falsely smear the Oabma administration -- which may indeed be the case, given that many of CNS' misleading articles about monthly unemployment rates also contain the tagline crediting him -- we can't imagine that Wold's heirs are happy about how CNS is using his money.
Shocker: CNS' Hunter Writes Article That Doesn't Focus On LGBT-Related Federal Spending Topic: CNSNews.com
The subject matter of Melanie Hunter's Feb. 17 CNSNews.com article isn't all that interesting by itself --about a federal grant to study “models and control methods to coordinate fleets of self-driving vehicles in future transportation networks.”
What is interesting, however, is the fact that this is the first time in more than two months that Hunter has written an article about federal spending that didn't touch on LGBT-related issues. The implication of Hunter's hyper-focus on LGBT-related federal spending is that she believes it's a waste of money.
On Dec. 10, Hunter wrote an article detailing how "The National Institutes of Health has awarded $212,549 in taxpayer dollars to the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill to study how movies influence childhood obesity." In betrween that and her Feb. 17 article, Hunter wrote eight articles focusing on LGBT-related spending -- the onlyarticles focusing on federal spending she wrote during that time.
Hunter has not explained her disproportionate focus on suggesting that federal spending on LGBT issues is a waste of money.
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.
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.
CNS Misrepresents DC Anti-Discrimination Law Topic: CNSNews.com
CNSNews.com, like other ConWeb outlets, does not feel compelled to accurately or fairly report on something that contradicts its right-wing agenda.
In a Feb. 11 CNS article, Rudy Takala asserts as fact in the first paragraph that a new District of Columbia law "forci[es] Christian organizations to employ people who advocate abortion." It's not until the second paragraph that this view of the law is merely the opinion of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, not necessarily fact.
In actuality, the law -- the Reproductive Health Non-Discrimination Act of 2014 -- states that employers "shall not discriminate against an individual with respect to compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment because of or on the basis of the individual's or a dependent's reproductive health decision making, including a decision to use or access a particular drug, device or medical service, because of or on the basis of an employer's personal beliefs about such services."
Takala did not quote the language of the law in his article, nor did he explain the USCCB's reasoning behind how it concluded the law forces Christian employers "to employ people who advocate abortion."
Lauretta Brown does the same thing in her Feb. 11 CNS article, baselessly asserting as fact that the law "would force religious and pro-life organizations to employ people who advocate abortion. While Brown does quote some of thewording in the law, she presents the USCCB's interpretation as the only valid one.
That, of course, is simply not true, CNS has so far ignored the opinion of Catholics for Choice, which testifed that polling shows "91 pecent of US Catholic voters believe that a company should not be allowed to fire a pregnant, unmarried employee because of the owners' religious beliefs," adding that "one cannot use one's conscience to trample onthe rights of others."
CNS' mission statement states that it "endeavors to fairly present all legitimate sides of a story." Apparently, if one side of that story conflicts with right-wing ideology or Catholic doctrine, it must not be "legitimate" and, therefore, unworthy of coverage.
CNS Finds More Federal Spending On LGBT Issues It Considers A Waste Topic: CNSNews.com
CNSNews.com has long obsessed over federal spending on LGBT-related issues, eager to portray them as a waste of money (while failing to perform any similar analysis of other categories of federal spending). CNS deputy managing editor Melanie Hunter has beenthe leader in this highly biased campaign for CNS of late, and she's at it again in a Feb. 6 article:
The National Institutes of Health has awarded a $435,369 taxpayer-funded grant to the University of Illinois at Chicago to study cessation techniques for LGBT smokers.
“Our long-term goals are to increase smoking cessation in Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) smokers and to understand the processes related to cessation and relapse in this underserved population,” the grant stated.
The purpose of the study “is to develop and evaluate the benefits of culturally targeted smoking cessation intervention” for LGBT smokers.
Hunter obviously thinks this is a waste of money -- otherwise, she wouldn't have written this article.And as is usual for LGBT-related articles ath CNS, its comment section is littered with examples of vicious and vile anti-gay hatred that CNS' comment monitors apparently do nothing to counteract. It's almost as if CNS publishes such articles for express purpose of fostering homophobia.
All six of the articles Hunter has written about government spending in the past three months have focused on LGBT issues. Additionally, she wrote two more disdainful LGBT-related articles published on Jan. 30:
Hunter is simply acting out the anti-gay agenda of her employer, the Media Research Center.
UPDATE: Hunter has penned another article attacking LGBT-related spending, this time highlighting how "The National Institutes of Health has awarded $42,676 in taxpayer funds to the University of Pennsylvania to teach yoga to drug-abusing convicts with HIV to help them once they are released from prison."
No CNS articles so far, however, on themost visible critic demanding Williams resign for his falsehood, MRC (and CNS) chief Brent Bozell, lying for 15 years about writing the column that appears under his name.
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A tagline at the end of CNSNews.com's economics articles states that they are "funded in part with a gift made in memory of Dr. Keith C. Wold." We have to wonder if Wold is spinning in his grave at the abysmal quality of so-called reporting his bequest to the Media Research Center is funding.
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