Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily goes all-in on defending Roy Moore without telling readers that, as the publisher of his autobiography, it has a vested financial interest in doing so. Read more >>
Monday, December 18, 2017
NEW ARTICLE: Protecting The Perv -- And The Revenue
Topic: WorldNetDaily WorldNetDaily goes all-in on defending Roy Moore without telling readers that, as the publisher of his autobiography, it has a vested financial interest in doing so. Read more >>
Posted by Terry K.
at 8:50 AM EST
Sunday, December 17, 2017
Tim Graham Pretends The MRC's Millions Don't Influence Media-Bias Debate
Topic: Media Research Center A Dec. 5 Media Research Center post by Tim Graham highlights a new poll showing that Republicans and Trump supporters hold extremely negative views of the media, which survey leader Brendan Nyhan of Dartmouth University interprets as "reflecting a recognition of the role of the media in holding an opposition president accountable, especially when his party controls both chambers of Congress." Graham sneers in response:
Graham doesn't mention this, but it can also be interpreted as the result of a concerted, partisan Republican and conservative effort in which organizations like Graham's employer spend millions of dollars every year to push the message that the media has a liberal bias. Indeed, Graham makes a nice six-figure salary from the MRC to spread that very message, so it's no surprise that he's staying on point -- which involves pretending that criticism of the "liberal media" is completely organic and not motivated at all by people like the MRC's biggest funders, the Mercers. Of course, Graham and the MRC only care about certain types of media bias; Fox News is free from their partisan scorn, if only because such scorn could jeopardize the the frequency of appearances by MRC talking heads on the channel.
Posted by Terry K.
at 8:47 PM EST
WND Had Link to Pastor Accused of Molesting Teen
Topic: WorldNetDaily Dan Johnson, the Kentucky state legislator who committed suicide after being accused of sexually molesting a teen girl, has a WorldNetDaily link. Blogger Richard Bartholomew details how a 2011 WND article by Bob Unruh uncritically repeats Johnson's tale of having set up a morgue near Ground Zero on 9/11 and performed last rites as part of a legal action by WND columnist and terrible lawyer Larry Klayman for clergy to be represented 9/11 memorials in the city. Johnson also spoke at a 2013 anti-Obama rally headed by Klayman and at which WND editor Joseph Farah also spoke. (Johnson's story about ministering at Ground Zero on 9/11 appears to be bogus, like a lot of things he has claimed to have done.) Despite that connection to WND, Bartholomew noted, the only coverage Johnson's scandal and suicide got from WND was a copy-and-paste story stolen from a Kentucky TV station, Klayman's latest WND column, published on Dec. 15, didn't mention Johnson at all despite having a relatively close relationship.
Posted by Terry K.
at 7:59 PM EST
Saturday, December 16, 2017
MRC Portrays Telling The Truth About Trump As An 'Attack' On Him
Topic: Media Research Center The Media Rsearch Center's Kyle Drennen writes in a Dec. 4 post:
Wait -- how was Bush "attacking" Trump? He was simply pointing out that, contrary to Trump's recent suggestions otherwise, that is indeed him on the "Access Hollywood" tape. From Bush's Times op-ed:
That's not an attack -- that's pointing out that Trump is lying. That's telling the truth. If Trump wasn't engaging in revisionist history and trying to tell a blatant lie, this wouldn't be a story, but Drennen didn't concede that point. Only in the world of the MRC -- where facts not favorable to its right-wing agenda or that make Trump look bad must be deflected and denounced -- is it an "attack."
Posted by Terry K.
at 10:15 AM EST
WND Managing Editor Pretends He Doesn't Publish Fake News, Or Have An Agenda
Topic: WorldNetDaily The monthly appeal from WorldNetDaily managing editor David Kupelian to try and get WND readers to send him money for free content carries the headline "1 simple way to kill fake news and drain the swamp." In it, he makes this claim:
The first example Kupelian cites, the Fusion GPS funder, is the Washington Free Beacon. The second example is apparently a reference to Peter Singer, who is a major funder of the Free Beacon. But is the Free Beacon's paying Fusion GPS for oppo research any different from WND's claimed hiring of private investigators to dig up dirt on Hillary Clinton, or using its lawyers to draft an affidavit to bolster its Obama birther conspiracy theories? Not really. Interestingly, Kupelian inserts a bit of fake news here by claiming the "Trump dossier is "infamously fraudulent." In fact, a lot of it has been corroborated elsewhere. That doesn't bode well for Kupelian's quoting of Farah's instenc that WND is on "an independent truth-seeking drive with a God-centered worldview." Of course, WND's lengthy history of publishing fake news puts the lie to its claim that it's "truth-seeking" (just ask Clark Jones). And what "God-centered worldview" caused Kupelian to sell out his sense of morality to back an thrice-married adulterer and misogynist as his preferred presidential candidate? Indeed, Kupelian uses his column to tout "the stunning election of Donald Trump, sparing [Americans] the unthinkable horrors of a Hillary Clinton presidency." If Kupelian is really looking for "1 simple way to kill fake news," he might want to try not publishing so much of it.
Posted by Terry K.
at 12:35 AM EST
Friday, December 15, 2017
Time For Another Bogus MRC 'Study' of Trump Coverage
Topic: Media Research Center It's another month, so it's time for yet another bogus Media Research Center "study" of media coverage of President Trump. Manufacture some outrage, Rich Noyes:
As we have before, let's rehash the ways in which this study is bogus:
But who cares about crappy methodology that wouldn't pass muster among genuine research analysts when the bogus stuff gets so much coverage? The MRC was tickled to death that White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders cited the study's headline number, and the MRC's "news" division CNSNews.com published an op-ed by right-wing activist Tony Perkins that promotes the study. That self-promotion tells us that actual research isn't the point of the MRC's work -- and that supplying a number to its fellow right-wing activists to tout on friendly media outlets, however bogus and ridiculous, is.
Posted by Terry K.
at 3:07 PM EST
Dubious WND Doc Does Armchair Exams of Politicians
Topic: WorldNetDaily Dubious WorldNetDaily doc Elizabeth Lee Vliet devoted a Nov. 6 column to concern-trolling over the health of politicians she doesn't like:
Vliet's armchair doctoring does have a blind spot, though, for politicians she does like:
Vliet wrote this was a few weeks before Trump was, in fact, caught slurring his words. Vliet went on to demand that politicians make "proper medical disclosures" and she "suggests requiring all politicians holding or running for office to release their medical records and disclose any medical or mental conditions for which they are being treated with prescription medications." That's not necessarily a bad idea, but it's an ironic one coming from her because her idol Trump has made no such disclosures about his own health. Trump's doctor issued a hastily written statement before the election declaring that "If elected, Mr. Trump, I can state unequivocally, will be the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency." Vliet certainly understands that's not an informative or even helpful statement for a physician to make. Right?
Posted by Terry K.
at 12:46 AM EST
Updated: Friday, December 15, 2017 12:47 AM EST
Thursday, December 14, 2017
MRC Demands Coverage of Unemployment Numbers It Used To Suggest Were Faked
Topic: Media Research Center The Media Research Center's Aly Nielsen complains in a Dec. 5 post:
Perhaps because economic predictions that go more than a year out are pure speculation. Perhaps, also, because the MRC was disparaging this same low unemployment number under President Obama. We documented how MRC blogger Tom Blumer suggested in a March NewsBusters post that unemployment numbers under Obama were "phony," claiming that "there was reason to believe that BLS [Bureau of Labor Statistics] may have changed its criteria for whether a person was in the labor force and began excluding more people who were legitimately looking for work" though citing no evidence to support that assertion beyond lame attempts to smear the then-BLS director as a partisan because she once co-wrote an op-ed arguing to end some exemptions to federal regulations. If the unemployment number was so trustworthy under Obama, how can the it be suddenly trustworthy now under Trump, especailly when no evidence has been produced to support the claim that the numbers were ever skewed under Obama? And why should the Goldman Sachs prediction be taken at face value when the Trump administration has hired numerous Goldman Sachs executives and, arguably, as a vested interest in putting forward rosy predictions? Perhaps Nielsen could answer these questions before demanding that the media report said rosy predictions about a number the MRC used to think was bogus.
Posted by Terry K.
at 9:14 PM EST
WND Not Taking Roy Moore's Loss Well
Topic: WorldNetDaily If the initial wave of post-election columns is any indication, WorldNetDaily will not be taking the loss of Roy Moore in the Alabama Senate race well. As expected, WND editor went on a huge conspiratorial rant (as if he goes on any other kind) over Moore's loss:
Needless to say, Farah didn't mention the fact that, as the publisher of Moore's autobiography, he had a vested financial interest in Moore's victory. Ethical journalists -- which history does not show Farah to be -- are supposed to disclose conflicts of interest. Scott Lively declared that Moore was the victim of a "borking":
Being the shameless type, a note at the end of Lively's column adds that "Lively is a Republican candidate for governor in the deep purple state of Massachusetts in the 2018 election." Given that Lively is as much of a right-wing extremist as Moore, that election won't go well for him. Jack Cashill's spin on things was to try and prove Moore's innocence by recounting the case of Clarence Thomas:
Cashill's main evidence was a claim in an Anita Hill-bashing book by then-conservative David Brock that the author has renounced. And Michael Brown tried to play both sides of the fence, casting doubt on the claims on Moore's accusers while also questioning why evangelicals would support a man accused of perving on teenage girls in the first place:
Remember, Brown hates transgenders while pretending to have sympathy for them, so fence-riding is kind of his specialty.
Posted by Terry K.
at 6:25 PM EST
Updated: Sunday, December 17, 2017 10:15 PM EST
MRC's Graham: Megyn Kelly is Too Rich To Complain About Sexual Harassment
Topic: Media Research Center Media Research Center director of media analysis Tim Graham has a history of dismissing sexual harassment allegations when they're made against conservatives. He's declared Anita Hill a liar who made her accusations against Clarence Thomas in order to score a book deal and a law-school teaching gig, suggested former Fox News anchor Gretchen Carlson made her sexual harassment allegations against Roger Ailes -- the late former head of the channel that's like a second home for MRC talking heads -- in order to get a settlement payday and, yes, a book deal, and he along with MRC chief Brent Bozell have implied that Roy Moore's accusers shouldn't be believed because theres no physical evidence of their claims (which didn't keep the MRC from believing Bill Clinton's accusers). Now he's taking a shot at another former Fox News anchor -- Megyn Kelly, who has also claimed that Ailes sexually harassed her.Graham whines in a Dec. 6 post that Kelly was featured among Time magazine's "silence breakers" that were named the people of the year. Graham sniped that for Time, Kelly didn't talk "about sexual harassers on her current show, but on Fox News." (Kelly currently hosts the fourth hour of the "Today" show, which recently jettisoned co-host Matt Lauer over harassment claims.) Perhaps because she was sexually harassed at Fox News and not in her short time at NBC? Graham then argued that Kelly shouldn't be complaining about sexualharassment because she has a fat NBC contract:
The point Kelly is trying to make -- which seems to have completely eluded Graham -- is that sexual harassment happens to popular TV anchors as much as to hotel housekeepers making $15 an hour. Perhaps Graham can enlighten us as to the maximum amount of money a woman can make and still complain about sexual harassment, since $23 million a year is too rich for his blood. If anyone's sounding out of touch here, it's Graham, who has apparently decided that the degree a sexual harassment accuser can be believed is inversely proportional to how closely the accused adheres to conservative ideology.
Posted by Terry K.
at 1:18 AM EST
Wednesday, December 13, 2017
WND Still Won't Report That 'Pagan' Artifact Reconstruction Is Driven By ISIS Destruction
Topic: WorldNetDaily WorldNetDaily's obsession with an architect group's reconstruction of the arch to the temple of Palmyra -- which it insists on calling the temple of Baal and that it is a manifestation of a revival of pagan worship and not, as is the actual case, a poke in the eye of ISIS for destroying ancient relics -- has advanced to the next level with another reconstruction job. According to an anonymously written Dec. 9 WND article:
This time around, though, WND is enlisting its own employees to denounce the reconstruction in addition to the usual suspects like Jonathan Cahn and Carl Gallups:
Farah and Kovacs are lying when they suggest that the goal of the arch and statue reconstructions are get people to worship pagan gods and the occult. The Breaking Israel News article that was the apparent inspiration for the anonymous WND writer admits that both the Athena statue and the temple of Palmyra were destroyed by ISIS -- something the anonymous WND writer didn't think was important enough to include, like numerous WND writers before. (A picture caption of the Palmyra arch does concede it was taken before ISIS destroyed it.) And since it's censoring a key element oft his story, WND certainly isn't going to give the Institute for Digital Archeology space to explain why it's doing this: to preserve cultural heritage destroyed by ISIS. This means that once again, WND is complaining that the Institute for Digital Archeology is undoing the handiwork of ISIS in destroying ancient artifacts for the advancement of their own extremists ideology. And, thus, it also means that WND is effectively endorsing ISIS' work in destroying the artifacts. WND is too cowardly to admit that's what it's doing, though.
Posted by Terry K.
at 9:18 PM EST
Updated: Wednesday, December 13, 2017 10:39 PM EST
MRC Writer Mad Someone In Media Is Doing Exact Same Thing His Boss Does
Topic: Media Research Center Chris Reeves huffs in a Dec. 8 Media Research Center post:
Reeves didn't mention that his boss, MRC chief Brent Bozell, has tried to cast doubt on the women who accused conservative Republican Roy Moore of sexual misconduct. We noted as part of our documentation of how the MRC downplayed the accusations against Moore, Bozell and Tim Graham argued in their Nov. 17 column that the accusations against Moore be treated less seriously than those against Franken, if they should even be considered at all, because "there's no photograph" or "admission of guilt." Then, in their Dec. 8 column, Bozell and Graham sought to grade sexual harassment scandals, making sure to place Moore's in the lower tier while moving on to Clinton whataboutism and working in a conspiracy theory to boot:
These, by the way, are the only two times Bozell and Graham -- two top leaders at the MRC -- have mentioned Moore in their column. If Moore was a Democrat, they would undoubtedly be saying much more about it. If Reeves is so upset about people downplaying and casting doubt on sexual harassment accusers, he might want to have a chat with his boss before he writes further.
Posted by Terry K.
at 3:17 PM EST
WND's Farah Again Hypocritically Denounces Attacks On A President
Topic: WorldNetDaily WorldNetDaily editor Joseph Farah devoted his Dec. 5 column to a big ol' whinefest:
One: As we pointed out the last time he whined about this, we don't recall Farah's concern when the website he leads was hurling volatile, inflammatory, incendiary and dangerous attacks at President Obama -- up to and including likening Obama to the Antichrist and, yes, Hitler. Two: Farah might want to look into the experience of NBC reporter Katy Tur, who required Secret Service escorts after the Trump rallies she covered because of Trump's direct attacks on her from the podium. She was obviously worried about being hurt due to Trump's anti-media rhetoric -- as was the Secret Service. Farah went on to huff:
It's also an accurate characterization of WND -- not that Farah will ever admit that, of course. Who's the real disingenous phony here?
Posted by Terry K.
at 12:26 AM EST
Tuesday, December 12, 2017
CNS Unemployment Coverage Distortion Watch
Topic: CNSNews.com After a blip last month in which it was forced to acknowledge reality, CNSNews.com is back to its old pro-Trump bias when reporting on monthly unemployment statistic. Susan Jones' main story on November's jobless numbers was in full rah-rah mode, cheering that "The economy added 228,000 jobs in November and the employment rate stayed at 4.1 percent -- a 17-year low." The inconvenient fact that the number of people out of the labor force hit another record high under Trump didn't get mentioned until the fourth paragraph. She then empahsized a different cherry-picked number, claiming that the number of people working part-time but desiring a full-time job "was down by 858,000 over the year." The only other story was the usual Terry Jeffrey sidebar on manufacturing jobs vs. government jobs, cheering that "Employment in manufacturing in the United States has increased by 189,000 in the year since Donald Trump was elected president" while "employment in the federal government has declined by 3,000 since Trump was elected." No mention of what it claimed was the "real" employment rate, a staple of CNS reporting under President Obama.
Posted by Terry K.
at 11:21 AM EST
Updated: Tuesday, December 12, 2017 11:24 AM EST
WND Pushes Pro-Moore Framing of Accuser As A Liar
Topic: WorldNetDaily WorldNetDaily's double standard in its treatment of those who accused Roy Moore of perving on teenage girls vs. accusers of non-conservatives of sexual harassment continues in a Dec. 7 article by Art Moore eagerly embracing the pro-Moore narrative that a woman who says she wrote an annotation of the date and place Moore wrote in her high school yearbook -- but still stands by her claim that Moore wrote that note -- is a liar:
Contrast that to WND's treatment of evidence that Juanita Broaddrick -- who has accused Bill Clinton of sexually assaulting her -- has lied. In 1998, Broaddrick submitted a sworn affidavit to independent counsel Ken Starr stating that nothing happened between them. A January 2016 WND article reprinting a chapter from a WND-published book about women of have accused Clinton of misdeeds -- a book WND will never give Moore's accusers the opporunity to write -- author Candace Jackson complained that Clinton's lawyers "smugly pointed journalists" to the affidavit uncritically repeated a quote from Broaddrick that she signed the affidavit because "I didn’t want to be forced to testify about one of the most horrific events in my life." Jackson added: "But signing the affidavit hadn’t called off the hounds and there she was, reliving it all over again on national TV." Jackson continued to portray Broaddrick getting caught in a lie as somehow normal, asserting that a Clinton lawyerswho noted that Broaddrick has a credibility problem over flip-flopping on the affidavit "might have been a bit more convincing if we hadn’t watched a similar affidavit signed by Monica Lewinsky go up in smoke just six months earlier." Jackson then tries to justify Broaddrick's lying, in part by invoking her own claimed experience of having been sexually assaulted:
Being triggered by her attacker's rise to political prominence is a defense WND will grant to Broaddrick -- but not Moore's accusers. That's the very definition of a double standard.
Posted by Terry K.
at 10:33 AM EST
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