WND's Farah Regurgitates An Attack On A Fact-Checker Topic: WorldNetDaily
Joseph Farah's Sept. 11 column is a lengthy tirade against fact-checker Snopes. It reads a lot like a December 2016 WND article on Snopes; both are based on a UK Daily Mail article and obsess over lurid details of the private lives of Snopes' founders and some of its employees, which have nothing to do with its veracity in fact-checking. Nevertheless, Farah tries to link this to "the question of whether Snopes can be trusted to be fair, balanced and unbiased."
That's rich, since the last thing anyone expects from Farah and WND is fairness, balance and a lack of bias.
Farah then regurgitated a post from an obscure blog attacking Snopes for purported double standards and whining that Snopes found thatthe Clintons did not "steal" thousands of dollars of furniture, china and art when they left the White House because intent could not be determined, huffing that "If taking things that do not belong to you is not 'stealing,' then we need a new definition of the word." Strangely, Farah didn't link to that blog post or to any of the Snopes articles it attacked.
Farah concluded:
Ultimately, bias is in the eye of the beholder, but even David Mikkelson admits most often it is conservatives and Republicans who detect bias in Snopes reports.
Is that surprising after learning the history of this enterprise?
And what does it tell you about the worldview of Snopes’ new partner – Facebook?
The fact that Farah and WND have a right-wing Christian worldview has not stopped them from publishing fake news and highly biased journalism -- which makes Farah a bad messenger for the idea that Snopes' "worldview" somehow makes it unreliable as a fact-checker.
CNS' Marching Orders On Catholic Sex Abuse: Blame The Gays! Topic: CNSNews.com
We've detailed how CNSNews.com refused to report for three days on a grand jury report detailing sexual abuse by Catholic clergy in Pennsylvania -- and that its first mention was a column by right-wing Catholic activist Bill Donohue of the Catholic League dismissing the report and blaming it all the abuse on gays. That has been the narrative CNS has mostly stuck with since.
CNS managing editor Michael W. Chapman used an Aug. 30 article to tout a bishop "prais[ing] the integrity of Vatican whistleblower Archbishop Carlo Vigano -- who has called for the resignation of Pope Francis and other bishops for allegedly covering up Archbishop Theodore McCarrick's reported homosexual abuse of a young boy and seminarians," going on to repeat other conservative Catholic clerics supporting Vigano's accusations. That was followed the next day with Chapman quoting more right-wing Catholic clerics to play up the gay angle:
Commenting on the recent revelations of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, specifically those of predator Archbishop Theodore McCarrick and the cases detailed in the Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report, several bishops and lay leaders have blamed a "homosexual subculture" in the hierachy of the Church and called for the removal of the priests, bishops, and cardinals involved in that subculture.
Bishop Robert Morlino, head of the diocese of Madison, Wisc., in an Aug. 18 letter, stressed that the Church must stop excusing sin "in the name of a mistaken notion of mercy" and must express more "hatred" toward sin. "What the Church needs now is more hatred!" he said. "It is an act of love to hate sin and to call others to turn away from sin."
"There must be no room left, no refuge for sin — either within our own lives, or within the lives of our communities," said the bishop. "To be a refuge for sinners (which we should be), the Church must be a place where sinners can turn to be reconciled. In this I speak of all sin. But to be clear, in the specific situations at hand, we are talking about deviant sexual — almost exclusively homosexual — acts by clerics."
Chapman went on to repeat Donohue's deliberate misreading of the John Jay report on sexual abuse in the Catholic Church that because most victims were post-pubescent males "homosexuality -- not heterosexuality or pedophilia -- was in play." In fact, as we've reported, the authors of the John Jay report specifically stated that no connection was found between homosexual identity and an increased likelihood of sexual abuseand that one does not have to have a homosexual identity to commit homosexual acts.
Chapman also touted one anti-gay Catholic activist who called for a "complete and thorough removal of all homosexual clergymen from the Church."
An anonymously written Aug. 31 piece took took a bizarre shot at McCarrick, complaining that he "gave a speech at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on June 8, 2001, when he was the archbishop of Washington, in which he noted the 'sense of humanity' found in 'all the holy books,' including 'the Koran.'" The anonymous writer (who we're guessing is Chapman) did not dispute McCarrick's claim, nor did he/she explain what it is relevant to anything that's happening now.
Chapman also reported on a Catholic laymen's group withholding a donation to the church over the sexual abuse scandal. And while Chapman couldn't be bothered to report on the Pennsylvania abuse report until Donohue told him how to frame it, he quickly jumped on a appropriately lurid (for his agenda, anyway) report about "two priests performing oral sex in a parked car."
Chapman went into full lecture mode in a Sept. 10 article, declaring "Contrary to the spin by the liberal media, the overwhelming majority of sexual abusers in the Catholic Church are homosexual priests, said Catholic Bishop Marian Eleganti in a recent statement." But Chapman never quotes Eleganti, a bishop in Swizerland, referencing the "liberal media" -- or even referencing the media at all. Nevertheless, Chapman concluded his post by huffing: "That the homosexual subculture in the Catholic Church is the fundamental source of the abuse problems is well documented. Numerous bishops and lay person have commented on this fact but it is a politically incorrect phenomenon that the leftist media and the homosexuals in the Church do not want to discuss."
CNS also gave more space to Donohue in full deflection mode, int he form of a Sept. 12 open letter to state attorneys general thinking of looking into Catholic Church abuses, demanding that "If you want to pursue molesters, you should begin by launching a grand jury probe of the public schools." Of course, Donohue can't point to any systematic, decades-long cover-up of abuse in public schools of the kind that existed in the Catholic Church.
Meanwhile, the Catholics at CNS have no problem exploiting their religion to make political attacks. An anonymously written Sept. 17 article groused that House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said that "she is a 'practicing Catholic' and that Catholics understand the church to be 'the body of Christ.'" After sneering that Pelosi "(contrary to Catholic teaching) supports abortion on demand and same-sex marriage," the anonymous writer effectively concedes that Pelosi got it right by quoting directly from the Catholic Catechism stating that "The Church is the Body of Christ." Not that CNS would ever forthrightly admit that Pelosi is right on a key matter of Catholic faith.
WND's Peterson Hates That His White-Spremacist Schtick Was Called Out Topic: WorldNetDaily
Earlier this month, Media Matters (disclosure: I used to work there) called out Jesse Lee Peterson for the "torrent of anti-Black, anti-gay, and misogynistic hate" that emanates from him on his various media platforms, including his WorldNetDaily column. We, of course, have repeatedlydocumented his use of white supremacist language, which he gets away with by being a black right-winger.
Needless to say, Peterson didn't take that well, and he spent his Sept. 9 WND column lashing out at Media Matters:
Far left website Media Matters did another hit piece on me. This time they’re calling me a “racist” and “white supremacist” (of all things!).
They’ve gone after Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson, men who love America and tell the truth. More than anyone else of their prominence in media, these hosts stand up for black people. They decry the crime, violence and lies that hurt the black community.
But Media Matters hates black people. Media Matters wants to keep blacks as slaves on the plantation of the Democratic Party – angry, brainwashed and miserable.
This anti-conservative site calls themselves “Media Matters for America,” but they’re against America. They pretend to correct “conservative misinformation,” but only push the lie of leftism.
So they attack me as a black man with a rising profile on Newsmax TV and YouTube. They can’t allow one man to go free, think for myself, love America and white people – because I might awaken others, as I am doing. Media Matters hates anyone, black or white, who is independent and unafraid to speak the truth – because they are children of the lie. Their father is Satan.
Media Matters makes phony complaints about “Trump’s war on the press,” but they’re truly free and independent press. That’s why they’ve gone after Alex Jones and InfoWars – and now me.
Of course, Media Matters is not the one who's using the racist "Great White Hope" insult to praise President Trump -- Peterson is. Media Matters is not the one who is embracing the idea of a "White History Month" (as if every month isn't already that) -- Peterson is.
Peterson also attacked the co-author of the Media Matters piece as "an angry pro-abortion feminist who hates men and hates God," and called both writers "evil people," then whined that "I’m not allowed to express my appreciation for the white people who made America great."
In the midst of all this hate-spewing, Peterson has the nerve to claim: "Every day on my show, I tell people to let go of anger, which is hate. Anger is evil. It’s of your father the Devil." But the only angry, hateful person we see is Peterson, who apparently has no intention of following his own advice.
NEW ARTICLE -- The MRC's War on Journalists, Part 2: Jim Acosta Topic: Media Research Center
Endless insults and cheering on hecklers at Trump rallies: That's how the Media Research Center conducts "media research" on CNN's White House correspondent. Read more >>
WND Touts Fake-News Claim of Muslims 'Proselytizing' In School Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily still can't wean itself off pushing fake news.
An anonymously written Sept. 9 WND article is in large part a rewritten press release from the right-wing Freedom of Conscience Defense Fund accusing Muslim groups -- including the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which right-wingers hate -- to "proselytize" to students in a California school district in the wake of reports of discrimination and bullying against a Muslim student. The FCDF has no evidence that any "proselytizing" ever took place; it just wants to go on a fishing expedition through the school district's emails.
WND made no attempt to contact the school district in question for a response -- that would require work that takes away from rewriting a press release -- though it did soften FCDF's wording to state the district is "suspected of proselytizing." Still, WND is reporting fake news because there's no evidence to back up the claim. It appears the FCDF is merely reacting to an article in a local newspaper on the bullied student and apparently not from any firsthand knowledge of what the groups said at the school, since none is cited in the FCDF press release announcing the email fishing expedition.
What FCDF (and WND) are effectivley arguing is the lie that letting Musilm groups explain to students that Muslims are not the evil peopleright-wingers portray them as is the same thing as trying to convert students. We doubt the FCDF would similarly claim that a Christian group going to a school to counter anti-Christian discrimination had the goal of converting students.
It's this sort of fake news promotion, lazy press-release journalism and baseless anti-Muslim fearmongering that shows WND is not serious about fixing the editorial problems that are leading it to its grave.
CNS Obsesses Over Abortion In Its Kavanaugh Hearing Coverage Topic: CNSNews.com
CNSNews.com spent the first few days of the Supreme Court confirmation hearing for Brett Kavanaugh obsessing about its favorite subject, abortion.
A Sept. 5 article by Susan Jones seemed to be upset that Kavanaugh said that Roe v. Wade is "an important precedent of the Supreme Court that's been reaffirmed many times."
An anonymously written article the same day -- credited only to "CNSNews.com Staff" grumbled that Kavanaugh called outgoing Justice Anthony Kennedy "a mentor, a friend and a hero," disdainfully adding that "Kennedy co-authored the court’s opinion in Planned Parenthood v. Casey—which upheld Roe v. Wade’s declaration that abortion is a constitutionally protected right" and that "In 2015, Kennedy wrote the court’s opinion in Obergefell v. Hodges, declaring same-sex marriage a constitutional right."
Another anonymously written article huffed that "Lisa Blatt, a pro-abortion attorney who backed Barack Obama and then Hillary Clinton for president and who says she wished Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg had '“all nine votes” on the Supreme Court, introduced Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Judiciary Committee.' The headline on the article called Blatt a "pro-abort" -- a derogatory slang term within the anti-abortion movement, of which CNS is a part.
A Sept. 6 article, also anonymously written, focused on Kavanaugh's role in a case earlier this year in which a federal appeals court on which Kavanaugh sits allowed an underage "illegal alien" to obtain an abortion. CNS complained that Kavanaugh "accepted the conclusion that Planned Parenthood v. Casey did apply to the detained illegal alien’s case" and that "Kavanaugh did not contest that she had a right to an abortion in the United States. He argued that she did not have a right to get the abortion 'immediately,' only 'expeditiously.'"
Meanwhile, CNS editor in chief Terry Jeffrey spent half of his Sept. 5 column on abortion, grousing that Kavanaugh quoted Kennedy, who wrote the Casey decision that upheld the right to abortion, saying that "Justice Kennedy established a legacy of liberty for ourselves and our posterity," to which Jeffrey sneered, "Unless your posterity happens to be unborn." Jeffrey also declared that the appeals court judge who opined that the "illegal alien" teenager who sought an abortion did not have a right to one "answered it correctly."
WND Flips, Now Admits Burmese Attacks on Rohingya Is A 'Genocide' Topic: WorldNetDaily
Last year around this time, WorldNetDaily reporter Leo Hohmann was seething that the media had become part of the "Rohingya propaganda machine" by telling "heart-wrenching stories of Burma’s persecuted Rohingya Muslims." Hohmann went on to justify the Burma Army's persecution-bordering-on-genocide of the Rohingya, purportedly based on revenge for a single incident in 2012 and because "The Burmese government consider the Rohingya to be illegal aliens from Bangladesh," and he was adamant that the U.S. not take in Rohingya refugees.
What a difference a year makes. WND is now conceding what is happening to the Rohingya is a "genocide" -- albeit to apparently attack Myanmar leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi for letting it and attacks on other minorities (particularly Christians) continue. From a Sept. 8 article by Art Moore:
Burma has been under the leadership of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi for more than two years, but the Burma Army continues its seven-decade war with the nation’s ethnic groups.
While global attention is focused on the persecution of Burma’s Rohingya Muslims, the campaign against majority Christian ethnic groups hasn’t stopped, despite cease-fires, with at least 100,000 displaced in the jungle during the current monsoon season.
Moore does eventually concede that the military, not Suu Kyi, runs the country and there's not a lot she can do. Gut contrary to Hohmann's quoting of an anti-Muslim activist justifying the Rohingya crackdown by asking "Should we be surprised that the Buddhists want Burma to be a Buddhist country?" Moore goes into detail on the persecution of various ethnic groups by the Burma Army.
The MRC's Thomas the Tank Engine Freakout Topic: Media Research Center
A beloved children's TV show decided it wanted to expand its audience, and the Media Research Center was not having it. From a Sept. 5 post by Melissa Mullins, who argued that "whining SJW’s" somehow bullied the franchise into it:
The beloved British children’s television show Thomas The Tank Engine has jumped on the PC culture bandwagon by incorporating more gender-balanced characters with a multi-cultural flavor.
After being accused by whining SJW’s of sexism, classism and racism for years, the show is hoping a “major strategic brand refresh” with the addition of three new female characters as well as the introduction of 14 new friends from countries such as Brazil, China, India and Mexico. They hope this will help give the show a more updated and “inclusive” look and feel.
[...]
But remember, you can’t please everyone. Some are worried of the cultural stereotyping the show portrays, such as a “feisty, strong and agile” train from Brazil named Raul, or a “proud” Mexican train named Carlos who always smiles and sports bushy eyebrows that seem inspired by Frida Kahlo.
Others take a more traditional stance on the revamped show, arguing its original identity will be lost; say goodbye to the sleepy and scenic town of Sodor and the much loved Thomas music tune, and say hello to a more “energized” theme song, international travel and trains of various cultural backgrounds.
[...]
Actually, if you put all that aside and look a little further, you will find that toy manufacturer Mattel is behind the big brand refresh. The toy giant purchased the Thomas & Friends production company in 2012 and already brings in over $500 million in revenue per year, the most of any toy range, but they want to expand their Thomas empire and make it more appealing to the rest of the world. Not that the current success of the show or sales are worth any measure of success (note sarcasm), making it seem the brand refresh is more about the bottom line than inclusivity and equality.
As much of a freakout as this is, it comes off as relatively reasonable compared with the take offered by Dana Loesch of the National Rifle Association's news division, who for some reason felt the need to superimpose Ku Klux Klan hoods on the engines to protest the idea of the franchise trying to appeal to more people.
Bernard Kerik has lived an extraordinary life by any standard. Abandoned at age 2 by his alcoholic mother, he dropped out of high school, became a military policeman and martial arts specialist, then rose through law enforcement from patrolman to become a highly-decorated undercover narcotics officer in New York and then the city’s top cop before it was attacked by terrorists on Sept. 11, 2001.
Drawing on these incredible experiences, the 63-year-old former commissioner has just penned an explosive new thriller, "The Grave Above the Grave."
"I’ve spent 30 years in policing and security, 10 of which was in the Middle East, and people constantly ask me what are my fears, and whether I believe we could suffer another 9/11 attack," Kerik tells Newsmax. "Writing this book gave me the opportunity to educate people in a fictional way what rolls around in my head daily."
In "The Grave Above the Grave," published this month by Humanix Books, Kerik tells the story of NYPD Commissioner Rick Raymond who, while battling a cop killer with Islamic terror ties, uncovers a plot to launch another devastating attack on the city. As he races against the clock, Raymond also must juggle the pressures of a grandstanding mayor, a disreputable reporter and a secret love — who just happens to be the district attorney.
What Hoffman doesn't mention: Humanix Books is a division of Newsmax -- which makes his article an in-house promotion, not "news."
Hoffman dismissed Kerik's criminal record in a single paragraph as nothing more than book fodder: "Kerik has had his share of scandals, including a stint in federal prison for tax fraud. That became the basis for his 2015 nonfiction best-seller, 'From Jailer to Jailed.'" Then he quickly returned to the business of plugging Kerik's new book and touting his pro-Trump, right-wing views, which presumably would help sell his book to Newsmax's core audience.
CNS' Really Dumb Football Attendance Comparison Topic: CNSNews.com
CNSNews.com blogger Craig Millward wrote in a Sept. 10 post:
The number of fans who attended games featuring NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) teams this weekend was nearly 4 times the number attending NFL games.
The total number of attending FBS college games, according to attendance numbers published by ESPN, was 3,513,235. The total number attending NFL gameswas 931,721.
That means there were 3.77 times as many fans--in the stands--personally watching FBS college games this weekend than there were fans in the stands watching NFL games.
FBS college football teams played 78 games this past weekend while NFL teams played 14--with two NFL games remaining to be played on Monday night (the New York Jets vs. the Detroit Lions and the Los Angeles Rams vs. the Oakland Raiders).
Overall, there are 130 NCAA FBS teams, while there are only 32 NFL teams.
Note that Millward's post discredits itself as he goes along, as the absurdity of comparing the raw attendance numbers of a small group of NFL teams and a much larger group of college football teams makes itself manifest.
Of course more people attend college football bames than NFL games -- there are more teams. Millward also avoids doing the logical statistical thing and offering an average attendance figure, since it would prove him even more wrong. For the record:
931,721 divided by 14 NFL games = average attendance of 66,651 per NFL game.
3,513,235 divided by 78 FBS games = averange attendance of 45,041 per FBS game.at
In other words, NFL teams are attracting more fans per game than FBS teams are -- blowing an even larger hole in the point Millward is trying to make about the NFL's purportedly declining popularity.
These numbers also fail to take into account the facts that NFL teams are largely confined to large cities while college football teams are in many more areas of the country, or that some people who attended a college football game may have also attended an NFL game.
We can call Millward's post dumb even by CNS standards.
WorldNetDaily's promotion for its sparsely read Whistleblower magazine has the theme of "Mass Hysteria," and it's promoted thusly:
Americans are living through an era of mass hysteria, in which Democrat politicians, entertainment celebrities and media pundits daily compare the president of the United States to Adolf Hitler and his supporters to Nazis, fascists and white supremacists.
[...]
After all, if Donald Trump actually were another Hitler, virtually no form of “resistance” would be morally off-limits in the heroic quest to save the world from another Holocaust. Indeed, all-out resistance would become a moral imperative.
Thus it is that Americans daily witness the surreal spectacles of leftwing mobs in action – of White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Trump aide Steven Miller and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen all being harassed by frenzied, screaming mobs while trying to eat dinner in various Washington, D.C.-area restaurants (in Sanders’ case, actually being ejected from the premises). Florida’s pro-Trump Attorney General Pam Bondi is similarly abused and chased out of a Tampa movie theater (ironically there to see the new Mr. Rogers documentary, “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”). All the while, Rep. Maxine Waters hysterically urges angry Trump-haters to ambush the president’s staffers everywhere, Obama CIA chief John Brennan accuses Trump of treason, Rep. Steve Cohen calls for a military coup to oust the president, antifa members openly brag to video journalists that they would “murder” the president if he showed up at their rally, actor Peter Fonda tweets “We should rip Barron Trump from his mother’s arms and put him in a cage with pedophiles,” MSNBC contributor Jill Wine-Banks compares the president’s meeting with Vladimir Putin to Pearl Harbor, the Cuban Missile Crisis and Kristallnacht, while another MSNBC pundit, Donny Deutsch, thunders on-air that every single Trump voter in Americais – quote – a “Nazi.”
This is textbook mass hysteria, approaching that which led to the Salem witch trials.
In reality, Hitler murdered 11 million people, while Trump has murdered none, so obviously Trump is not Hitler.
This is all projection, of course. President Obama never murdered a single person, let alon 11 million people, but that didn't keep WND from spending eight years likening Obama to Hitler, and it certainly never worried about the "mass hysteria" it might cause in doing so.
And as far as accusing Trump of treason goes, WND did that on a regular basis. For example:
In a 2012 WND column, headlined "Impeach Obama for treason," Tom Tancredo demanded that "Congress must consider removing Barack Obama for giving aid and comfort to America’s enemies – and that is treason against the United States."
WND columnist Larry Klayman ranted in another 2012 column: "Our so-called president must not only be quickly removed from office by all legal means, but he must also be prosecuted for treason. If the Justice Department or a military tribunal won’t act, then the “citizen’s grand jury,” which the Supreme Court has acknowledged exists in principle in the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, must now be taken out of the legal closet to indict Obama for these treasonous acts."
In 2013, WND columnist Erik Rush argued that Obama was guilty of treason, adding that "In most countries, including the United States of America, there remain provisions for the execution of those convicted of treason."
In 2015, Matt Barber wrote of Obama: "Just a few short decades ago this anti-American Marxist would not only have been accused of treason, he would have been tried for it."
WND managing editor David Kupelian repeated much of this in an Aug. 30 column, including the part about how Donny Deutsch said "that every single Trump voter in Americais – quote – a 'Nazi.'" (That's not quite what he said.) But Kupelian seems to have forgotten how he denigrated people who voted for Trump. Here's his description of them following the 2012 election:
As a nation – and I’m speaking now of the voting majority, not all of us, obviously – we have squandered the priceless inheritance of our forefathers. We have wandered off into a far country and wasted our substance on immorality and profligate spending. We mock the faith of our fathers. We ignore the Constitution they bequeathed to us. We spit on the moral code they gave us, on which America and Western Civilization were founded. Our wealth – once the natural reward of the mighty engines of industry and innovation that thrive in a free country – is largely an illusion today, based on debt.
[...]
Remember, America’s problem is not Barack Obama. Our problem is that half of our population, after watching a lying, supremely demagogic president methodically unravel America for four excruciating years, could see fit to elect him a second time. Our problem is that millions of us think it’s perfectly fine to rip apart innocent children before they’re born, and to steal from those who work hard and “redistribute” their goods to others. Our problem is that millions of us think it’s wonderful and proper for men to marry men and women to marry women and to persecute those who rightly point out that this is both immoral and mad.
Our problem is that millions of us – and more to the point, virtually the entirety of government, academia, popular culture and “mainstream media” – embrace the most absurd, preposterous and destructive lies as though they were great and enlightened truths.
Millions of people living in American today are, quite literally, madly in love with lies, deception and selfishness.
Kupelian does manage to avoid calling Obama voters Nazis, but he certainly goes up to that line by finding almost every other derogatory term in the thesaurus.
Once again, WND is complaining that other people are doing to Trump what it did to Obama. The hypocrisy is staggering.
MRC's Maxson Doesn't Know What A Buyout Means Topic: Media Research Center
As part of his ESPN derangement, mysterious Media Research Center sports blogger Jay Maxson has long despised ESPN commentator Jemele Hill for tweeting that President Trump is a "white supremacist." For example, Maxson raged when Hill received an award from a group of black journalists that she didn't deserve it after a year of "failure, suspension and demotion."
So when Hill announced she was leaving ESPN, Maxson couldn't be happier. Maxson raranted in an Aug. 27 MRC post that Hill is a "bombastic race-baiter" who "talked, tweeted and finally bought her way out of ESPN."
"Bought her way out of ESPN"? Actually, according to the Sports Illustrated article (Maxson falsely states it's from the Sporting News, making this the second error in his/her piece) from which Maxson quotes, Hill's departure from ESPN "includes a buyout" of her contract. Typically, that means ESPN paid Hill an agreed-upon amount to be released from her contract -- not that, as Maxson appears to assume, Hill paid ESPN for the contract release. Indeed, ESPN reportedly paid Hill $6 million.
Maxson is not the sharpest knife in the MRC drawer. Last year, he/she tried to insult Caitlyn Jenner but couldn't figure out what "nee" means.
CNS Joins MRC's Bid To Make Jordan House Speaker Topic: CNSNews.com
We've highlighted how CNSNews.com is heavily promoting the idea of conservative Republican Jim Jordan as House speaker (or minority leader should the Democrats retake control of the House). Now it's clear that it's an effort backed by the entire Media Research Center, which runs CNS.
A Sept. 12 CNS article by managing editor Michael W. Chapman touts how "Recent surveys by five conservative grassroots organizations show that their members overwhelmingly support Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), a founding member of the House Freedom Caucus, as the next Speaker of the House should the Republican Party retain its majority in the November midterm elections." Two of those polls are MRC-linked groups: MRC Action, the political action divsion of the MRC that Chapman describes as "the grassroots army of the Media Research Center," and ForAmerica, whose chairman is MRC chief Brent Bozell and which is run by Bozell's son David. (The article did disclose most of this.)
That's not the only Jordan-fluffing CNS has been doing of late:
An Aug. 29 article by Susan Jones portrays Jordan in Trump-fanboy mode (and Jones once again in Trump fangirl mode), touting how Trump has had "an amazing year and a half."
A Sept. 13 article by Emily Ward details a Facebook Live conversation between Bozell and Jordan, in which Jordan signs onto the MRC's narrative of "conservative censorship" by social-media companies.
None of these articles, by the way, mentioned allegations that Jordan knew about sexual abuse of athletes by a team doctor but did nothing about it. They clearly don't want to hurt Jordan's chances by reporting facts.
Speaking of which, the MRC itself ran to Jordan's defense over the accusations. An Aug. 10 item by Alec Sears complained that some media outlets didn't report that one Jordan accuser "recanted" his accusations. Sears himself didn't report that Jordan's allies have reportedly been running a pressure campaign to get his accusers to recant.
And in an Aug. 17 item, Kyle Drennen took offense to reporting on an ad by a Democratic political action committee that "compared Republican Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan to disgraced Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, who helped cover up child sexual abuse for years." Drennen didn't rebut the claims but instead played whataboutism, whining that the reporting lacked "acknowledgment of the numerous scandals Democrats have been embroiled in over the past two decades."
While ForAmerica operates under different nonprofit tax codes that allow them to engage in more political activity (501(c)4, specifically), it's unclear whether MRC Action is under a different tax status than the 501(c)3 status of the rest of the MRC, which restricts political activity -- and defending Jordan and promoting his efforts to be House speaker, as CNS and the main MRC are doing, are nothing if not political.
The MRC ought to make sure that Bozell's political ambitions aren't jeopardizing its tax status.
Newsmax Doesn't Disclose It Published Corsi's Book Topic: Newsmax
When right-wing conspiracy theorist and former worldNetDaily writer got subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury looking into Russian election interference, Newsmax was quick to exploit it:
Jerome Corsi, author and investigative writer, has been served papers to appear before the Mueller grand jury in Washington this Friday to answer questions about his longtime Trump confidante Roger Stone, according to a report in The New York Times.
Corsi is the author of “Killing the Deep State: The Fight to Save President Trump,” a New York Times bestselling book that has been harshly criticial of the probe of special counsel Robert Mueller.
“He fully intends to comply with the subpoena,” Corsi’s lawyer David Gray told the Times, adding that his client anticipated “it has to do with his communications with Roger Stone.”
A mainstay on talk radio and TV shows, including Newsmax TV, Corsi has claimed Mueller has overreached his legal authority. Corsi has stated that President Trump’s recent tweet that a “criminal deep state” is seeking to end his presidency emanated from evidence and charges he makes in his new book.
Despite touting his appearances on its TV channel, Newsmax failed to disclose that it published Corsi's book through its Humanix Books division. That lack of disclosure came as Newsmax used the article to promote the book. One promotion stated: "Corsi’s “Killing the Deep State” was published last February and has been the #1 bestselling conservative critique of the Mueller investigation. [Editor’s Note: Get Jerome Corsi’s “Killing the Deep State” at bookstores everywhere or get the FREE Offer – Go Here Now." That's your usual Newsmax loss-leader offer, in which it basically gives away the book and a free, short subscription to Newsmax's magazine in the hopes that people will like the magazine or forget to cancel it before the free offer ends to keep from automatically being charged $39.95 for a full year's subscription.
Newsmax also failed to mention that since early 2017, Corsi has been employed by fellow conspiracy-monger Alex Jones at Infowars, where he served as its White House correspondent. According to the New York Times, which broke the news of Corsi's subpoena, he apparently no longer works there.
The article also gushed: "Corsi’s book has sparked serious interest among Trump’s most loyal supporters. And TV host Bill O’Reilly has stated that the left “hates” Corsi’s book because of its strong defense of President Trump." In fact, the book is full of Corsi's usual conspiratorial claptrap that has been his stock in trade for years.
WND Just Can't Quit Fake News Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily lovespublishingfakenews, and its current financial problems haven't stopped it from doing so.
An Aug. 28 WND article by Art Moore is a rewrite of an anonymously sourced Daily Caller report that "the private email server through which Hillary Clinton transmitted classified information as secretary of state was hacked by a Chinese-owned company."
Just one problem: it appears not to be true. The FBI pushed back on the cloaim, saying that it had found no evidence that Clinton's servers had been compromised.
Nevertheless, Joe Kovacs wrote an article the next day touting right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh's repeating of the report and "wondering where the denials are from the former U.S. secretary of state and former President Obama." It's not until the 14th paragraph of his article that Kovacs got around to noting that "The FBI, meanwhile, told NBC News Wednesday the bureau 'has not found any evidence the (Clinton) servers were compromised.'" Then he returned to quoting Limbaugh some more.
Yes, Kovacs led with the bogus story and buried the debunking. WND has apparently not learned its lesson about its dubious content driving it down the tubes (again); instead, Kovacs and Moore demonstrate once again why nobody believes WND.
Joseph Farah's Sept. 11 column is a lengthy tirade against fact-checker Snopes. It reads a lot like a December 2016 WND article on Snopes; both are based on a UK Daily Mail article and obsess over lurid details of the private lives of Snopes' founders and some of its employees, which have nothing to do with its veracity in fact-checking. Nevertheless, Farah tries to link this to "the question of whether Snopes can be trusted to be fair, balanced and unbiased."
We've 
Earlier this month, Media Matters (disclosure: I used to work there) 
WorldNetDaily still can't wean itself off pushing fake news.
CNSNews.com spent the first few days of the Supreme Court confirmation hearing for Brett Kavanaugh obsessing about its favorite subject, abortion.
Last year around this time, WorldNetDaily reporter Leo Hohmann 
A beloved children's TV show decided it wanted to expand its audience, and the Media Research Center was not having it. From a Sept. 5 
Bill Hoffman gushes in a Sept. 4 Newsmax 
CNSNews.com blogger Craig Millward wrote in a Sept. 10 
WorldNetDaily's promotion for its sparsely read Whistleblower magazine has the theme of "Mass Hysteria," and it's 
As part of his 
We've 
When right-wing conspiracy theorist and former worldNetDaily writer got 
WorldNetDaily 
