CNSNews.com is pretty much on board for whatever will advance President Trump's re-election. The fight over former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn is one thing it has decided is relevant.
After Flynn's attorney released notes from FBI agents that she claimed showed them trying to catch Flynn in a lie -- you know, like the one Flynn pleaded guilty to -- CNS flooded the over the next couple days:
None of them even hinted that there's another side to the story: that giving Flynn an opportunity to tell the truth or lie about his dealings is standard lawa enforcement procedure and that it was not entrapment. After all, if Flynn had simply told the FBi agents the truth, he could have avoided all this trouble.
When Trump's Justice Department announced that it would seek to dismiss its case against Flynn, CNS flooded the zone again:
That's eight more articles over another two-day span designed to push a pro-Flynn (and, thus, pro-Trump) narrative. This time, though, CNS did actually publish two articles noting that there's an alternate viewpoint:
Still, the bias is clear -- 14 articles pushing one viewpoint vs. two articles noting a different one.
And when the Trump White House began pushing the notion that then President Obama was behind all this, the CNS pro-Trump hype machine roared to life once again, with added Flynn-related content and attacks on the judge who won't immediately drop the Flynn case:
So, to sum up: Between April 30 and May 15, CNS published 33 articles related to the Flynn case, only six of which didn't push pro-Flynn (and, thus, pro-Trump) narratives. That would seemm to be a violation of its mission statement that it "endeavors to fairly present all legitimate sides of a story."
To whom does one complain at CNS about this violation?
Fake News: MRC Falsely Insists Whistleblower's Claim Of Retaliation Is 'Debunked' Topic: Media Research Center
In the eyes of the Media Research Center, President Trump can do no wrong and anyone who accuses him of wrongdoing is obviously lying. The case of Rick Bright, who says he was demoted as head of a federal agency because he refused to promote Trump's pet drug hydroxychloroquine, is one example.
Nicholas Fondacaro complained in an April 22 post that "the liberal media lit up with the new anti-Trump narrative about Dr. Rick Bright, who claimed without evidence that he was fired from his HHS position for opposing the use of hydroxychloroquine, the anti-malaria drug President Trump had touted as a possible treatment for the Chinese coronavirus," further grousing that the media did "no apparent vetting of what he claimed." Fondacaro then tried to play gotcha with a Politico article that he claimed "debunked the allegations" Bright made.
But that article claimed that "Three people with knowledge of HHS' recent acquisition of tens of millions of doses of those drugs said that Bright had supported those acquisitions in internal communications," and that "five current and former HHS officials" claimed that Bright's demotion "was more than a year in the making."Notice that none of those people are on the record -- they're anonymous sources of the kind that the MRC despises when they make claims against the MRC's favorite conservatives ... like Trump.
Hypocrisy aside, Fondacaro is simply wrong by claiming these anonymous sources have "debunked" Bright's story. There's no way to know that at this point, and an alternate telling of events does not "debunk" the first one -- even if you assumel ike Fondacaro apparently does that Trump and his administration never lies.
Nevertheless, Fondacaro insisted again the next day that Bright's allegations were "debunked." He made an even more false claim in another post the same day, declaring that "Bright’s accusations were discredited almost as fast as he made them." And on May 5, Fondacaro asserted that "Bright’s initial allegations were proven bogus within hours by Politico’s Dan Diamond."
Randy Hall took his own shot at boosting that anonymously sourced Politico article, claiming that a New york Times article "crumbled quickly" because of the Politico piece. Clay Waters dialed it back a bit in an April 29 post, linking to Hall's item to claim that "Politico made a compelling case that the Times' front-page scoop on Bright was bogus.
When Bright testified before Congess to make his claims, the MRC was ready to pounce again. Kristine Marsh linked to an earlier Fondacaro piece as proof of "evidence contradicting Bright's story," while Fondacaro returned to assert that Bright's claims "have already been disproven," even though he knows that's not true.
Do As I Say, Not As I Do: Typos Division Topic: CNSNews.com
Stelter has a bit of a hobby of reading a lot into Trump's tweets. He has on more than one occasion spent an inordinate condemning Trump's Twitter typos, arguing that if "When someone can't get the little stuff right, it makes you worry about the big stuff."
CNN’s Brian Stelter devoted an entire segment on Sunday’s edition of Reliable Sources to obsessing over President Trump’s spelling mistakes on Twitter. While he conceded that “everybody makes spelling mistakes,” Stelter seemed to think that the President’s Twitter typos deserve extra special scrutiny because “if you can’t get the small stuff,” such as spelling, “people worry about the big stuff.” The clear implication was that President Trump’s spelling habits have an impact on his ability to run the country effectively.
On the “Issues” page of her official congressional website, Rep. Ilhan Omar (D.-Minn.) says that there are “over 11 million undocumented immigrations [sic] living in the United States.”
The top issue listed on the page is: “Immigration.’
That heading is followed by a paragraph that says:
“In Congress, I am committed to doing all I can to help the over 11 million undocumented immigrations living in the United States come out of the shadows and get access to rights and privileges they deserve.["]
-- Anonymously written April 15 article at CNSNews.com, NewsBusters' sister organization
WorldNetDaily is keeping up its conspiratorial reputation by coming to the defense of the stars of conspiracy- and misinformation-laden videos that have been heavily criticized on social media.
IN an April 27 article, WND touted a video by "two California physicians with advanced degrees in microbiology," Dan Erickson and Artin Massihi, who "contend that their testing of more than 5,200 patients along with public data show the coronavirus is no more deadly than the seasonal flu and that the sheltering-in-place policy in the United States and most of the Western world not only is unnecessary, it's harmful." WND didn't fact-check the video and, thus, tell readers that, as we detailed, actual experts say the doctors' patient sample was not representative of the general population, with one likening it to "estimating the average height of Americans from the players on an NBA court."
The next day, Art Moore wrote about how YouTube removed Erickson and Massihi's video,conspiratorially suggesting that it was removed for going against "World Health Organization recommendations" and failing to mention any of the actual experts who have discredited the video. Michael Brown cited YouTube's removal of the video in his April 29 column, conspiratorially adding that "disputed opinions offered by medical doctors (in this case, emergency room doctors) will be banned." He too failed to mention the experts who discredited the video.
WND then found a new person to play victim: Judy Mikovits, who once worked with Dr. Anthony Fauci and has made a video that was similarly removed by YouTube. An anonymously written May 6 article benignly describes Mikovits' video as arguing that "the isolate-everyone policy is a big mistake and claims officials have a financial incentive to implement mass vaccinations."
Because Mikovits seems to be running in the history of video-making charlatans WND has promoted in the past, it's giving her a platform without any of that pesky fact-checking WND isn't exactly known for. The article claims that "Mikovits claims Fauci was among the top health officials who framed her and destroyed her career because of her contrary views," adding:
She published a "blockbuster" study claiming "the common use of animal and human fetal tissues were unleashing devastating plagues of chronic diseases."
"Big Pharma" then waged struck back, destroying her "good name, career and personal life."
Mikovits, interviewed by Mikki Willis, says she was framed and arrested at her home, falsely accused of stealing intellectual property.
In fact, the "blockbuster" study was retracted by the journal that published it because its results could not be replicated by other researchers and that it appears her samples were contaminated. Further, while theft charges against her were eventually dropped -- not necesariliy because they weren't true but, rather, because the institute she worked for was embroiiled in other legal difficulties -- a lab employee signed an affidavit that he had removed notebooks from the lab and eventually delivered them to Mikovits.
WND also noted that Mikovits claims that a coronavirus vaccine "will kill millions, as they already have with their vaccines," before adding, "Mikovits emphasizes, however, she is not against vaccines, noting she is an immunologist." In fact, Mikovits is part of the anti-vaxxer community and once wrote a book with anti-vaxxer Kent Heckenlively.
As per usual, WND couldn't be bothered to fact-check the video, even though it contains numerous false claims.
So ... business as usual for WND. Which is a bad thing for WND, since that kind of business is what drove WND to its current state of barely being in business.
CNSNews.com is pretty much on board for whatever will advance President Trump's re-election. The fight over former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn is one thing it has decided is relevant.
After Flynn's attorney released notes from FBI agents that she claimed showed them trying to catch Flynn in a lie -- you know, like the one Flynn pleaded guilty to -- CNS flooded the over the next couple days:
None of them even hinted that there's another side to the story: that giving Flynn an opportunity to tell the truth or lie about his dealings is standard lawa enforcement procedure and that it was not entrapment. After all, if Flynn had simply told the FBi agents the truth, he could have avoided all this trouble.
When Trump's Justice Department announced that it would seek to dismiss its case against Flynn, CNS flooded the zone again:
That's eight more articles over another two-day span designed to push a pro-Flynn (and, thus, pro-Trump) narrative. This time, though, CNS did actually publish two articles noting that there's an alternate viewpoint:
Still, the bias is clear -- 14 articles pushing one viewpoint vs. two articles noting a different one.
And when the Trump White House began pushing the notion that then President Obama was behind all this, the CNS pro-Trump hype machine roared to life once again, with added Flynn-related content and attacks on the judge who won't immediately drop the Flynn case:
So, to sum up: Between April 30 and May 15, CNS published 33 articles related to the Flynn case, only six of which didn't push pro-Flynn (and, thus, pro-Trump) narratives. That would seemm to be a violation of its mission statement that it "endeavors to fairly present all legitimate sides of a story."
To whom does one complain at CNS about this violation?
MRC Portrays Abortion Doctors And Women Who Have Abortions As Nazis Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center has this thing where it freaks out over any remotely positive reference to abortion in the media, yet it defends anyone who argues in favor of opening the economy even though it would likely expose more people to the coronavirus -- and, thus, kill a number of those exposed. That former part is continuing.
Gabriel Hays started an April 28 post by ranting that the hypocrisy was really on the other side: "It’s really sickening to think that the folks weaponizing a natural disaster’s death toll to bash conservative policies are also seeking to make abortion as accessible as making a phone call or ordering medication online." Yet, Hays apparently thinks it's not "sickening" to let more people die of coronavirus that could be avoided.
Hays complained that the New York Times did a story on doctors prescribing abortion medication online, with the goal of shaming those medical professionals and the women who seek abortion, sneering at one point about a report of more than 600 abortions completed by this procedure: "Wow, 600-plus dead babies in a week? Science is amazing, isn’t it?"
Because he can't help himself and apparently sees those people as less than human, Hays plays the Nazi card: "So, it’s not perfect ease of access, but you know lefties consider this to be pretty innovative. Yeah, innovative in the way Nazi doctor Josef Mengele was 'innovative.'"
On April 30, Alexa Moutevelis similarly played the hate-and-shame card by attackinga woman featured in a CBS report on abortion during the pandemic:
[Correspondent Kate] Smith also profiled a 20-year-old woman who is almost 19 weeks pregnant – that’s well into the fourth month of pregnancy. Weeks ago, her abortion appointment was canceled because non-essential procedures were banned in Texas. There was no explanation as to why she waited until her second trimester to seek an abortion except she was “out of work and unexpectedly pregnant” and “keeping the pregnancy wasn't an option.”
"I have rights," the woman groused. "I can't be a mother right now, and right now, I have the right not to be."
Sadly for her, an abortion doesn't stop her from being a mother, it just makes her the mother of a dead baby.
Moutevelis also attacked Smith as "biased" and "pro-abortion," apparently because she wouldn't shame that woman the way Moutevelis did.
Hays returned for another meltdown on May 7 because RuPaul's appearance on a special edition of "The Price Is Right" was a fundraiser for Planned Parenthood. In his tirade, Hays huffed that Planned Parenthood is "America’s largest baby-killing organization," that the program has "the suggestive themes of drag culture and the knowledge that more money is being raised for the killing of unborn children" (Hays absolutely hates drag queens) and the MRC hates and that the money "will go to the dismemberment of children."
On May 8, Brad Wilmouth declared that Samantha Bee was "sick" and "abortion-obsessed" for offering advice on how women can get abortions at home. As ifthe MRC wasn't "abortion-obsessed" and likening women who get abortions to Nazis isn't "sick."
In a side issue, Karen Townsend complained in a May 15 post that an episode on ABC's "Station 19" featured an explosion at a clinic doing embryonic stem-cell that one character blamed on "anti-choice" activists. She declared it a "cheap shot," insisting that "Pro-life people want to save lives – all lives, including the lives of the unborn" -- but she didn't mention that there's a lengthy history of "pro-life people" bombing clinics and committing other acts of violence, including murder.
CNS Hypes Tara Reade -- But It Censored Rape Accusation Against Trump Topic: CNSNews.com
We've documented how the Media Research Center has hypocritically promoted the sexual assault allegations Tara Reade made against Joe Biden, though it trashed E. Jean Carroll, the woman who made sexual assault allegations against Donald Trump. The contrast is even more stark at the MRC's "news" division, CNSNews.com.
CNS also served as a conduit for its parent's obsession with Reade. It touted MRC chief Brent Bozell's accusation that CNN is "colluding" with Biden to suppress coverage of Reade and his claim (on his buddy Mark Levin's show, natch) that the media is "refusing to investigate" Reade's claims. It also published twocolumns by Tim Graham repeating the MRC narrative.
CNS and the MRC want you to believe that the comparison on media coverage is with Christine Blasey Ford, who leveled sexual misconduct claims against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. But ther more accurate and direct comparison is with Carroll -- and that's where CNS' bias is most blatant.
CNS completely censored Carroll's claims, devoting absoultely no news articles to it. The only reference to Carroll at the time her claim was made public in mid-2019 was a column by Graham and Bozell attacking her claim: "Carroll's allegation, made after roughly 24 years of silence, comes with no photos or videotapes. There is no date for the encounter. No one could say whether Trump was in New York on whatever day that was. She says that at the time, she told two unnamed girlfriends in TV news about being assaulted. It would be nice if someone among them could find an actual date of this alleged attack."
As is the case with the MRC, CNS doesn't give a damn about Tara Reade -- she's only a tool to harm Biden. If CNS actually cared about reporting news instead of trying to be a pro-Trump propaganda operation, it would have treated Carroll the same way it's treating Reade.
MRC Finds Its Own Pandemic Silver Lining -- While Still Attacking Others Who Do Topic: Media Research Center
We'vedocumented the Media Research Center is raging against anyone who dares to find a "silver lining" in the coronavirus pandemic -- mostly environmental effects -- while its "news" division, CNSNews.com, keeps finding its own silver linings -- mostly that people are feeling more religious. That pattern is continuing ... but with a twist.
Scott Whitlock complained in a April 25 post that "The journalists at CBS This Morning on Wednesday celebrated Earth Day by finding the upside to a global pandemic killing hundreds of thousands and destroying the economy" by noting "the rapid and amazing environmental improvements taking place during the pandemic." He declared this to be "tone deaf" (like another MRC writer) and huffed: "To underline, 180,000 people are dead. The journalistic excitement over this COVID-19 'silver lining' is tacky at best and ghoulish at worst."
Whitlock grumbled again on May 13 about another CBS segment that is "finding the environmental 'silver lining' to a global pandemic that has killed almost 300,000 people and is destroying the economy" in which it "described the environmental rebound (less pollution, more animals moving freely) as a response to humans 'mucking everything up.'" He raged: "Do journalists not see how unseemly all this 'silver lining' talk sounds?"
Well, Whitlock might want to have a talk not only with his CNS co-workers down the hall, but also with his officemate Matt Philbin, who found his own silver lining in a May 5 post:
The left is salivating about using the pandemic crisis to force massive changes to American society. Average Americans, of course, just want to go back to work or to the mall or to … church. And those desires -- in particular the last one -- could present a formidable stumbling block in the sprint to the new progressive future. Despite years of eager predictions to the contrary, “the opiate of the masses” is not dead. In fact, it’s feeling better.
Since the pandemic began, secular progressives in the media have been spewing venom at Evangelical Christians, blaming their purportedly anti-science mindset for every setback in combating the virus and aghast at anyone worshipping something other than the environment or the state. (The communist Chinese government gets a pass, but fellow Americans trying to exercise religious liberty are smeared without mercy.)
All for naught, it seems. New Pew research published on April 30 found that “Some Americans say their religious faith has strengthened as a result of the outbreak, even as the vast majority of U.S. churchgoers report that their congregations have closed regular worship services to the public.”
Is Whitlock going to attack his co-worker for being "tone deaf" or acting "unseemly" for pointing oiut this "silver lining"? Unlikely -- the MRC is not exactly known for holding itself to the same standards it demands from everyone else.
WND's Cashill Tries To Run His Trayvon Playbook On Ahmaud Arbery Topic: WorldNetDaily
Jack Cashill begins his May 8 WorldNetDaily column like this:
"The video is clear: Ahmaud Arbery was killed in cold blood," tweeted presidential candidate Joe Biden in regard to the recently released video of the February shooting death of 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery in Brunswick, Georgia.
In his shameless rush to judgment, Biden has taken a page straight out of Barack Obama's Trayvon Martin playbook.
The page reads as follows: In an election year, ignore all contrary evidence and recklessly indict a white (or white Hispanic) in the shooting death of an unarmed black man in the hope of stoking up the black vote.
Biden is in good company. All the usual suspects have rushed in to the judgment game, from LeBron James to Martin family attorney Benjamin Crump to the shameless propagandists of the mainstream media.
Of course the video is pretty darn clear regarding Arbery's death, and it's unclear what "contrary evidence" Cashill is talking about. But he's eager to play his own Trayvon Martin playbook on Arbery.
If you'll recall, Cashill trashed Martin as a wannabe thug and lionized George Zimmerman, the man who killed him, as a civil rights martyr. As Zimmerman's misbehavior and criminal acts continued, Cashill still stood by him and helped evade responsibility for his acts.
In following his playbook, Cashill takes faith in the district attorney who initially decliined to prosecute Arbery's killers:
A letter sent by George Barnhill, the district attorney for the Waycross Judicial Circuit, to the Glynn County Police, explains why Barnhill chose initially not to arrest the suspects.
Wrote Barnhill, "It appears Travis McMichael, Greg McMichael, and Bryan William were following, in pursuit burglary suspect, with solid firsthand probable cause, in their neighborhood, and asking/ telling him to stop."
As Barnhill explained, this was perfectly legal under Georgia law. Neither of the McMichaels was a felon, and both were openly and legally carrying.
William was following the McMichaels' truck in his vehicle and shooting the video in question, an unlikely strategy for the participant in a cold-blooded murder.
[...]
The media are portraying Arbery as an innocent jogger. Barnhill thought otherwise. He wrote, "Arbery's mental health records & prior convictions help explain his apparent aggressive nature and his possible thought pattern to attack an armed man."
Cashill didn't mention that Barnhill needlessly doggedly pursued a case against a black woman accused of committing vote fraud by showing a first-time voter how to use a voting machine, so his judgment appears to be a little skewed.Barnhill has since been criticized by a national organization of district attorneys for his refusal to prosecute the case and releasing the letter from which Cashill quoted, saying that it could influence possible jurors.
Cashillalso got the name of the man shooting the video wrong -- his name is William Bryan, and he now won't talk about why he shot it.
Cashill then calls on an old friend: "Filmmaker Joel Gilbert has been watching this case with interest. In his 2019 film, 'The Trayvon Hoax,' Gilbert showed how Attorney Benjamin Crump allegedly produced a false witness to get George Zimmerman arrested for shooting Martin in what was transparently self-defense." Yes, it's the charlatan filmmaker who made a film about Martin that nobody should trust given Gilbert's track record.
That's pretty much all Cashill has to offer -- his old tricks of race-mongering and sketchy supporting characters.
The MRC Gushes Over Catholic Bishop's Endorsement of Trump Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center normally hates it when Catholic religious leaders get involved in politics --when it's not conservative, anyway. For instance, itlovestoattack Jesuit priest James Martin for not advancing right-wing Catholic orthodoxy, Heathering him at one point as a "sorta-Catholic."
But if a prominent Catholic praises President Trump, the MRC is all for it. Gabriel Hays gushed in an April 29 post:
New York's Cardinal Dolan seems to think that President Trump is doing a good job at leading the country through the coronavirus crisis, and though we know there are many Catholics who would never do such a thing (the Obama-voting ones, we’re sure) Dolan also praised the pro-life and pro-religious freedom President for his outreach to religious communities during his administration.
The leader of the Archdiocese of New York appeared on Fox News on Monday, April 27, to relay the issues facing the Catholic community, in particular parochial schools. But he also took time to thank President Trump for his leadership.
“I really salute his leadership,” Dolan told the hosts of Fox & Friends. He also thanked New York leaders, Governor Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio but went out of his way to mention that Trump had really been supportive of the religious community during this pandemic.
“Everybody has really come through, but the President has seemed particularly sensitive to the, what shall I say, to the feelings of the religious community,” the cardinal mentioned.
Dolan’s comments come after a conference call between Church leaders including the New York cardinal himself, the President of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops Los Angeles Archbishop Jose Gomez, Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley and President Trump. The discussion covered a number of Church and community issues following the outbreak of the pandemic, in particular Catholic education.
Weirdly, Hays didn't embed the video from Dolan's "Fox & Friends" appearance in his post. Is he secretly ashamed of it?
Hays went on to tout the intertwining of Catholic hierarchy with Trump:
President Trump has also made acquiring Catholic voter support a bigger focus for his re-election bid. Earlier this month, the Trump re-election campaign launched the “Catholics forTrump” initiative aimed at courting more catholics with his “religious-freedom record and anti-abortion policies.”
At the end of their conference call, the President referred to Dolan a “great friend of mine,” and the cardinal replied “the feelings are mutual.” And while we can write it all off as political, it is a welcome change from the usual scene of liberal Catholic leaders ignoring Trump’s great pro-life record to hit his attitude on immigration and climate change.
The uber-Catholics at the MRC wouldn't be doing this if Dolan was endorsing a Democratic poiltician.
CNS' Chapman Praises Another Right-Wing Authoritarian For Hating Gays As Much As He Does Topic: CNSNews.com
Remember that time CNSNews.com heavily lectured Bernie Sanders about praising some positive aspects of authoritarian regimes, followed by managing editor Michael W. Chapman praising Russia's authoritarian leader, Vladimir Putin, for hating the LGBT community as much as he does? Well, Chapman did it again.
You might recall that one of CNS' favorite right-wing authoritarian leaders is Viktor Orban of Hungary, whom it wants you to believe is just a misunderstood populist who's pursuing a heavily xenophobic anti-immigrant policy. But even CNS had to concede that Orban is such an authoritarian that he's exploiting the coronavirus pandemic to make a power grab that would allow him to rule by decree.
Chapman seems to be pretty cool with Orban's stranglehold on power, particularly if he uses it to spread the LGBT hate. Chapman gushed in an April 29 article:
Legislation making its way through the Hungarian Parliament and expected to become law would legally define a person's sex or gender as "sex at birth," meaning later in life a person could not legally change their gender. The proposal has angered many European Union leaders and LGBT activists.
As explained by Human Rights Watch, the bill would amend the Registry Act to "include a clarification regarding the word 'nem,' which in Hungarian can mean both 'sex' and 'gender,' to specifically refer to the sex at birth ('szuletesi nem') as 'biological sex based on primary sex characteristics and chromosomes.'"
Also, once the "sex at birth" is recorded, it cannot be changed.
Yep, right up Chapman's alley.
Chapman did note some criticism of the planned law -- in which he hinted that Orban is just a wee bit authoritarian -- but highlighted only that coming from LGBT sources in an apparent attempt to delegitimize it:
Prime Minister “Viktor Orban is using the Covid-19 health crisis as cover to push through discriminatory legislation that will be devastating to the lives of transgender people in Hungary,” Graeme Reid, the director of LGBT rights at Human Rights Watch, told The Independent.
“It is typical of the autocrats playbook to consolidate power by attacking the most marginalised," said Reid. "The EU should act.”
[...]
The pro-homosexual Pink News said that Orban's government is "brazenly homophobic" and had already banned gender studies from universities.
A transgender "woman," Amanda Malovics, said that Orbn and his Fidesz Party "believe being transgender is -- along with the whole LGBT+ community -- something that goes against the Hungarian Christian society and breaks fundamental values (such as children can have only heterosexual, cisgender parents)."
As before, Chapman didn't explain why it's OK for him to praise authoritarian leaders for things he thinks is positive while Sanders must be criticized for doing the same thing.
MRC's Fondacaro Makes Up Stuff Again Topic: Media Research Center
They apparently teach creative writing at the Media Research Center, and it seems Nicholas Fondacaro has taken some classes. He wrote in an April 24 item:
Possibly still raging from when her heated outburst during a coronavirus press briefing was shot down by President Trump last week, CBS White House correspondent Paula Reid flashed her hatred for the President during Thursday’s CBS Evening News. She kicked off the video portion of her report by boasting about how radical leftist protesters had laid out “empty body bags” outside the Trump International Hotel in Washington D.C.
The direction Reid took with her report was obvious from the beginning. Bitterness radiated as she declared: “[T]he Trump administration continues to send out mixed messages, new CBS News polling shows more Americans are looking to their state governors for guidance on what to do as top White House officials can't even agree on basic facts!”
As her report began to play, Reid immediately boasted about the ghoulish display. “Empty body bags dumped outside the Trump Hotel this evening, a morbid protest of the President's response to the coronavirus. A new CBS News poll reveals Mr. Trump's decision making is being called into question,” she touted.
Very little of Fondacaro's purple prose reflects actual reality. As the video accompanying Fondacaro's item demonstrates, Reid did not "radiate bitterness"; she was not "raging"; she did not "flash her hatred" for Trump; and she did not "tout" the body bags. Fondacaro is projecting -- his hatred for anyone working in the "liberal media" is so unhinged that he assumes everyone who works in the media is as hateful as he is. He's pretending to read Reid's mind, ascribing motives to her he can't possibly know, but the MRC has inculcated that fact-free attitude within him.
He's simply making up stuff here, and he has a longstandingproblemwith that. The fact that MRC apparently doesn't have a problem with that hurts its credibility.
NEW ARTICLE: At CNS, Trump Stenography Is Job 1 Topic: CNSNews.com
Not only does CNSNews.com publish statements by President Trump and his White House that are false (which it would know if it ever bothered to fact-check him), Trump may actually be CNS' assignment editor. Read more >>
MRC Is Mad Athlete's Controversial Tattoo Got Exposed Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center's mysterious sports blogger, Jay Maxson, tried his best to put an imaginative frame on an uncomfortable situation in an April 28 post:
As a teenager, Justin Rohrwasser had a symbol tattooed on his arm that has since been adopted by a white supremacist group. The former college place-kicker was drafted by the New England Patriots over the weekend, and said Saturday he does not associate with that group and he will cover up the controversial tattoo. Not good enough, says Jemele Hill, who's refusing to accept his denial of racism.
In fact, the tattoo -- the Roman numeral three -- predates Rohrwasser's tattoo as a symbol of a white supremacist group, in this case the Three Percenters, a militia group that played a role in the Charlottesville protests defending Confederate statues. Rohrwasser has claimed the tattoo was a show of support for the military and was unaware of any white supremacist connotation when he got it and says he will have the tattoo removed.
Hill busted Rohrwasser pretty cleanly. But Maxson has credulously accepted his explanation, and is mad at Hill for painting Rohrwasser as a white supremacist, huffing: "As 'judge' and 'jury,' Hill is not to be confused with the facts; her mind is made up. Rohrwasser is a white supremacist and the case is closed." But Maxson doesn't actually know what the facts are; he/she has merely accepted Rohrwasser's explanation at face value while making no effort whatsoever to look further.
Maxson was further angered that a "left-wing media source" looked into Rohrwasser's social media history and found that he apparently shows an affinity for people like Jordan Peterson.We last saw the right-wing-leaning Peterson here in the form of the MRC promoting his "free speech" website (where, conveniently, the MRC was a beta tester) that appeared to be little more than a cash grab for Peterson -- and about which we've heard basically nothing since.
In summary, Maxson is mad that some folks he happens to not like reported facts that he finds inconvenient. Which means there's no real reason for this post to exist other than to give Maxson a chance to rant and fulfill his/her post quota.
Is Trump Working As CNS' 'News' Assignment Editor? Topic: CNSNews.com
The Washington Post reported regarding President Trump's April 19 press briefing:
During the White House’s daily coronavirus news briefing Sunday, President Trump took a shot at the presumptive Democratic nominee for this year’s presidential election, former vice president Joe Biden.
“I do want to read something that I just saw today on television,” Trump said. “I was looking and I just said, ‘That’s an interesting statement.’ We talk about the Democrats, and it was a statement made by Bret Baier, good guy, smart.”
“'On February 19th, there was a Democratic debate in Las Vegas,' Trump read. “That was February 19th. That’s way after I closed entrance from China into our country. So Bret goes, ‘On February 19th there was a Democratic debate in Las Vegas. Three words weren’t said during the debate — virus, coronavirus or covid-19. Those three words never came up.’”
“That was — I just thought it was a very interesting,” Trump added, “because, you know, you hear these people, some of the people, the Democrats said, oh, this, that. It never even was a part of their dialogue.”
The very next day, CNS reporter Patrick Goodenough cranked out an article designed to flesh out that Trump talking point -- almost as if CNS was working as an arm of the Trump re-election campaign:
The first three Democrat presidential debates held this year – on Jan. 14, Feb. 7, and Feb. 19 – contained a single, passing reference to the coronavirus outbreak that had emerged in China weeks earlier and was starting to spread.
That sole reference came from former South Bend, Ind. Mayor Pete Buttigieg, during the Feb. 7 debate in Manchester, N.H., who said, “The next president is going to face challenges from global health security, like what we’re seeing coming out of China.”
None of the other candidates raised the issue, and neither did the ABC News moderators. The word “coronavirus” was not mentioned. (Neither was “COVID-19,” although the World Health Organization only came up with that name for the disease on Feb. 11.)
After noting that Trump had brought up the Democratic debate the day before, Goodenough added more pro-Trump talking points:
“Coronavirus” first featured in a Trump tweet on Jan. 24, when he thanked China for “working very hard to contain the Coronavirus.” At the time the CDC had reported two confirmed cases in the U.S.
On Jan. 29, the White House announced the formation of the coronavirus task force, and on Jan. 31 Trump declared the outbreak a public health emergency. When he delivered his State of the Union on February 4, Trump said the administration “will take all necessary steps to safeguard our citizens from” the coronavirus threat.
This is what happens when you make Trump -- and not, say, an actual journalist -- the assignment editor on your "news" desk.
CNSNews.com is pretty much on board for whatever will advance President Trump's re-election. The fight over former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn is one thing it has decided is relevant.
In the eyes of the Media Research Center, President Trump can do no wrong and anyone who accuses him of wrongdoing is obviously lying. The case of Rick Bright, who says he was demoted as head of a federal agency because he refused to promote Trump's pet drug hydroxychloroquine, is one example.
Stelter has a bit of a hobby of reading a lot into Trump's tweets. He has on more than one occasion spent an inordinate condemning Trump's Twitter typos, arguing that if "When someone can't get the little stuff right, it makes you worry about the big stuff."
WorldNetDaily is keeping up its conspiratorial reputation by coming to the defense of the stars of conspiracy- and misinformation-laden videos that have been heavily criticized on social media.
The Media Research Center 
We've 
We've
Jack Cashill begins his May 8 WorldNetDaily 
The Media Research Center normally hates it when Catholic religious leaders get involved in politics --when it's not conservative, anyway. For instance, 
Remember that time CNSNews.com heavily lectured Bernie Sanders about praising some positive aspects of authoritarian regimes, followed by managing editor Michael W. Chapman 
They apparently teach creative writing at the Media Research Center, and it seems Nicholas Fondacaro has taken some classes. He wrote in an April 24 
The Media Research Center's mysterious sports blogger, Jay Maxson, tried his best to put an imaginative frame on an uncomfortable situation in an April 28 
The Washington Post 
