CNS Still Letting Liberty U. Interns Write About Falwell
Topic: CNSNews.com

Last fall, we caught CNS letting an intern from Liberty University write an article about school president Jerry Falwell Jr. defending himself and the school from a bout of criticism -- a clear conflict of interest, even more so given Falwell's propensity for cracking down on any dissent about the school frm its students, even from the school newspaper.

Well, another CNS intern from Liberty has been giving her school even more favorable publicity. A July 20 article by Bailey Duran -- whose CNS bio describes her as "a rising senior at Liberty University" -- served up more uncritical praise of her school's president:

Liberty University President Jerry Falwell, Jr. said more Evangelical Christians are in support of President Donald Trump in 2020 than in 2016, adding, “It wouldn’t surprise me if it was higher than 90 percent.”

Falwell has been a vocal Trump supporter since 2016. He said that although some Evangelicals may have thought he was crazy to back Trump in 2016, he believes the Evangelical vote will be much higher this election year.

Durn even does some sucking up to Falwell about the political climate on campus:

Falwell vocally supports the president on the campus of Liberty University.  Students are able to register to vote and vote in-person on campus.

In addition, Falwell urges students to educate themselves about politics, policy, and government, and he usually invites political speakers to the school’s convocation, which reportedly is the largest weekly gathering of Christian young people in the world.

What Duran doesn't mention, however, is that the convocation guests are not politically diverse -- they are usually either Christian or conservative; one convocation last November featured Donald Trump Jr. and Fox News host-turned-Junior's girlfriend Kimberly Guilfoyle, where they discussed "President Trump’s success in the face of media attacks, the administration’s fight to support constitutional and conservative values, the pro-life movement, and support for the nation’s military" and "The incivility and hostility of the political Left Liberals are rarely invited to take part.

The article did not disclose that Duran is a Liberty student.

She followed this with an Aug. 4 article about alumni from the University of Lynchburg -- located in the same city as Liberty --  "calling for the removal of Pastor Jerry Falwell, Sr.’s name from one of the school’s dormitories -- which Falwell’s Liberty University donated money to build – because of allegedly 'offensive' statements made by the late pastor nearly 20 years ago," as well as to "stop receiving money and gifts of any kind from Liberty." Duran quoted Falwell Jr. responding that "“We had a deal. We struck the deal and it’s done. If they want to give the money back, they’re welcome to give it back," as well as adding a complaint that the petition asking for a severing of ties "is open to the public to sign, not just U of L alumni."

But when Falwell Jr. posted a photo of himself on Instagram with his pants unzipped joined by a woman who wasn't his wife also with unzipped pants -- an act that was the final straw for the Liberty board of trustees, which forced him to take an indefinite leave of absence from his Liberty duties -- neither Duran nor anyone else at CNS thought this was newsworthy, even though Duran is still writing other articles for CNS, with her most recent articles published yesterday.

So it appears that Falwell Jr. gets the Trump treatment at CNS -- only good news is reported.

MRC Gives Mark Levin A Platform To Attempt Cancel Culture
Topic: Media Research Center

The Media Research Center thinks "cancel culture" is a bad thing -- unless it's the ones trying to do it. Tim Graham tried to pull some cancel culture in a July 26 post, complaining that the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation's request that President Trump stop using a commemorative coin set featuring him and Reagan as a giveaway for donations to his re-election campign is somehow illegitimate because the head of the foundatioon's board, Frederick Ryan, is also the publisher and CEO of the Washington Post.

Graham quickly pushed for canceling Ryan: "This raises the question: why didn't the Post insist that Ryan drop his Reagan Foundation responsibilities when he became publisher of this very anti-Trump, anti-Reagan newspaper? And why didn't the Reagan Foundation see a liberal-media conflict?" He then sneered: "This makes about as much sense as the CEO of Fox News running the Jimmy Carter Center." This may be the first time Graham has admitted that Fox News has a right-wing bias.

Graham then called for cancel-culture backup from MRC buddy Mark Levin, who ranted of Ryan's employment that "given the Washington Post's leftist agenda, and the conservative legacy of the great Ronald Reagan, this appears to me to be a huge conflict" and huffing, "Mr. Ryan, decide who and what you want to be, but it's obvious you cannot be both the Washington Post publisher/CEO and the Reagan Library board chairman when there's a clear conflict."

What neither Graham nor Levin bothered to do, however, was  contact anyone who's actually close to the Reagan family or foundation for their opinion. Newsmax talked to the guy who's best known these days for keeping the Reagan flame alive, his adopted son Michael, and found that his view was different from the MRC cancel culture:

The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute is "100% correct" in its pushback against President Donald Trump's campaign for its use of a photograph of President Ronald Reagan and Trump shaking hands to market an embossed coin for prospective donors, the late president's son Michael Reagan told Newsmax TV on Monday.

"If you're going to use Ronald Reagan's likeness, you have to go to the [Reagan] library and get permission to use the likeness," Reagan said on Monday's "Greg Kelly Reports." "Nobody got permission to use that likeness."

Further, Reagan told Kelly, it would be illegal for the Reagan Foundation, as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization to become involved in a political campaign and look as if it is offering a "tacit endorsement" of a campaign.

Trump, he added, is "absolutely wrong" with his use of the likeness and even if one would "like to see them together," and even if the late president might have endorsed him, "you can't" use the likeness to imply an endorsement, Reagan told Kelly.

Trump and others have also complained the move from the Reagan Foundation to block the use of the image was spurred by The Washington Post publisher Fred Ryan, who chairs the foundation and was the late president's chief of staff after he left the White House, but Reagan told Kelly that Ryan is not the issue.

"There's a million people who have taken photos of my father shaking hands," said Reagan, but those cannot be used as endorsements for political campaigns.

So  Ryan is not just some random guy at the foundation -- he was Reagan's post-presidency chief of staff. That's a connection neither Graham nor Levin noted.

Meanwhile, Ryan's Post bio shows he's eminently qualified for both jobs. Not only does it note that before he became Reagan's post-presidency chief of staff, he worked in the administration from 1982 until its end -- something that Levin, whom Graham touted as a "Reagan administration alumnus," almost certainly knows but chose not to mention in his rant -- he was for nearly 20 years president and chief operating officer of Allbritton Communications, which owned several TV stations, including one in Washington D.C., before selling them a few years back and also operates politically-obsessed publication Politico, for which he served as president and CEO.

We don't recall a whisper of complaint from conservatives about Ryan in either of those positions when he held them, or his current job at the Post until now -- and he's been at the Post since 2014. But now that it's been revealed, the MRC's cancel-culture squad has come for him.

The fact that absolutely nothing has happened on this front since -- even the MRC hasn't done anything further with it -- shows how weak the MRC's game is on this front.

Newsmax Columnist Gets His German History Wrong
Topic: Newsmax

James Walsh -- who in the past has been Newsmax's chief immigrant-basher -- wrote in his July 20 Newsmax column:

The death of George Floyd was the latest catalyst to provide an excuse for the leftist/communist/socialist/anarchist cadres to take to the streets in riot-mode. With the newsmedia support, academia support, Democrat support — naive, impressionable and malleable young people joined the hard-core, professional and well paid leftist/communist socialist/anarchist street-brawlers.

The street-brawlers are small in number, but have big results.

The news accounts by television, radio, or newspaper of July, show America in crisis — an un-American crisis. America of 2020 looks like and acts like a country at war with itself. To many citizens, America of 2020 is much like Germany in the years after World War I.

German street brawlers were the National Socialists — the Nazis, the communists, the anarchists, the regular socialists and plain criminals. Today, in America, it is the Socialist/communist faction that will win out. This faction has the money people, the news media and now the Democrat party as the pillars of its support.

Walsh clearly doesn't know his post-WWI German history. "The Nazis, the communists, the anarchists, the regular socialists and plain criminals" were not all the same thing, and were not all "National Socialilsts."

There were communist uprisings shortly after the end of the war, but they were crushed by something called the Freikorps, right-wing bands of former soldiers whose actions were effectively endorsed by the German government. The Freikorps -- after their own attempt to overthrow the government -- eventally saw many of its members and leaders join Hitler's Nazi party.

Walsh is trying the old right-wing trope of using the former "national socialist" name of the Nazi party as evidence that Hitler was a socialist, which isn't true.

One of WND's Dubious AAPS-Linked Doc Is Still Pushing Coronavirus Conspracy Theories
Topic: WorldNetDaily

When last we checked in on fringe-right Association of American Physicians and Surgeons-linked doc and WorldNetDaily columnist Marilyn Singleton, she was doing a lot of ranting about coronavirus-related conspiracies. Like her AAPS compadres, she stayed in conspiracy mode for her July 16 WND column, playing the Lenin card:

Vladimir Lenin recognized that the media are propagandists and their information presented should be "easy to digest, most graphic, and most strongly impressive." With COVID-19, the media create irrational fear with daily charts of deaths and case numbers without corresponding recoveries. They fail to mention that many deaths were of patients with serious underlying conditions or who were already in hospice, had weeks to live and coincidentally tested positive. The raw numbers are unaccompanied by the CDC's instruction to classify a death as COVID-19 even if merely suspected or, in some cases, with a negative test. There is no corresponding warning with blinking lights that the tests have false positives or that the daily report of "increases" includes old tests that were not previously reported.

As Lenin noted, "ideas are much more fatal than guns." Thus, where propaganda and media bias do not succeed, censorship will. Currently, a vocal physician is being silenced and investigated for questioning the motives and possible over-reporting of COVID-19 as the cause of death. Censorship is our polite version of "disappearing" dissidents.

That "vocal physician" is actually a Minnesota state senator -- who is also an anti-vaxxer -- who spread the Singleton-endorsed conspiracy theory that a state’s allocation of federal funds depended on the number of COVID-19 deaths in the state.

Singleton stayed in conspiracy mode, stating that "Censorship, corrupt scientific inquiry and media bias have no place in medicine," then asserting that "lockdowns in Western Europe had no effect on COVID-19 deaths" and that "Most reviews conclude that masks do not slow down the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus." Actually, most masks are effective at blocking the virus.

And it wouldn't be an AAPS column without an obsession over hydroxychloroquine, which Singleton delcared that "had been favorably studied during the 2003 SARS epidemic." (Earth to Singleton: COVID-19 is not the 2003 SARS virus.)She touterd how "Detroit's Henry Ford Hospital's large three-month observational study that showed a significant reduction in mortality in hospitalized patients with HCQ and validated HCQ's more-than-60-year record of safety garnered little media attention"; in fact, experts have pointed out that the Henry Ford study is flawed because it was an observational study that lacked a randomized control group.

Singleton concluded with another conspiracy theory:

These (purposefully) chaotic times are an opportunity for a movement toward government control and the suppression of individuality. Lockdowns keep us apart and stifle the free exchange of ideas and social communion. As Eric Hoffer explained in "True Believer," a mass movement deliberately makes the present "mean and miserable. … People whose lives are barren and insecure seem to show a greater willingness to obey than people who are self-sufficient and self-confident." Becoming a psychological cripple is not an option.

Is this chaos a new form of plastic surgery? When the bandages (masks) are removed will you be a changed person?

In her Aug. 3 column, Singleton stayed in hydroxychloroquine conspiracy mode:

Concurrently, physicians trying to save their patients' lives are being "canceled." YouTube removed as "misinformation" videos of the physicians who advocated for the use of hydroxychloroquine for early treatment of COVID-19, based on their extensive personal as well as treatment successes. Hydroxychloroquine is an FDA-approved medication with a 65 year history of safety.

With all the garbage on Twitter, the removal of the physicians' video based on the justification that it did not comport with World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations seems extreme. Recall that WHO also did not recommend wearing masks, the new Holy Grail of COVID-19 prevention. And are we to believe the same crowd who excoriated President Trump as racist for blocking travel from China at the end of January while they were encouraging people to frolic in crowded Chinatown in late February?

The physicians she's referring to here are the ones representing a right-wing who appeared in front of the Supreme Court to make a video -- the lead person of which believes that gynecological problems are caused by people having sex in their dreams with demons and witches and has pushed conspiracy theories that scientists are cooking up a vaccine to prevent people from being religious and that the government is run by aliens and "reptilians."

(Also: Just because hydroxychloroquine has a "65 year history of safety" doesn't mean it's safe and effective against COVID-19.)

Singleton also invoked Attorney General William Barr's grilling before a congressional committee, which caused her into again going into the Soviet version of the Godwin rule by claiming that questioning from "unfriendly lawmakers" she doesn't like "officially crosses into Stalin's henchman's 'show me the man and I'll show you his crime' territory." She then ranted:

The vitriol and disregard for fact-finding on the part of members of Congress and the dissembling on the part of the social media giants leaves one wondering: Do the people who savaged Attorney General Barr and gave Big Tech a pass want people to live in fear of living life? Do they want people to be unemployed and dependent of the government for survival? Do they want children to stay home from school and regress from normal childhood development? Do they want the country's economic boom to remain in the rear view mirror? Would they allow people to needlessly die in order to gain political power?

The "allow people to needlessly die" claim was linked to a July 27 WND column by fellow AAPSer and HCQ conspiracy-monger Elizabeth Lee Vliet, who cited the dubious Henry Ford study to assert that "we can reasonably consider that 16,000 lives could have been saved since July 1" if HCQ had been approvedby the FDA.

The italics-happy Vliet echoed Singleton by ranting that "It is appalling that so many more Americans have died, while the physician who is head of the FDA has dawdled on approving HCQ for an urgent new use in this pandemic. Dr. Hahn knows full well the 65-year track record of safety worldwide in patients of all ages, all ethnic groups, and even pregnant women and nursing mothers."

MRC: How DARE The Media Treat AOC Like An Actual Human!?!
Topic: Media Research Center

Right-wingers hate Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and think she deserves everything bad that happens to her and that she's making up some of that. When CBS' Gayle King suggested that people can learn from her tough response to a crude slur from a fellow male (Republican) congressman, the Media Research Center's Kyle Drennen had a meltdown in a July 24 post, in which he insulted AOC merely for existing, expressed doubt that the slur actually happened, and threw a couple insults at King for good measure:

Just a couple weeks after CBS This Morning co-host and Democratic donor Gayle King proclaimed that “we all need to take a class” from a radical Black Lives Matter activist who supported rioting and property destruction, on Friday, the left-wing anchor demanded that everyone take “decency class lessons” from unhinged socialist Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

[...]

Remember, this is the same Ocasio-Cortez who in 2019 labeled immigration detention centers along the U.S. southern border “concentration camps.” It was so wildly offensive that even members of the Democratic Party press, like NBC’s Chuck Todd and CNN’s Jake Tapper, hammered her for the comment. Even so, this is who King thinks we should look to as a beacon of civility.

King’s education mandate came in reaction to Ocasio-Cortez taking to the House floor on Thursday to accuse Republican Florida Congressman Ted Yoho of calling her a “f**king bitch” during a heated argument on the steps of the Capitol on Monday. The exchange has been highly disputed and Yoho has flatly denied using any such language.

Of course that doesn’t matter to the leftist media, they so want the far-left Democrat’s account of the incident to be true that reporters on NBC, ABC, and CBS all eagerly ran with the story Thursday evening and Friday morning.

[...]

Ocasio-Cortez is a left-wing bomb-thrower who delights in attacking her political opponents with outrageous rhetoric. The leftist media are no better. No one needs a civility lecture from radical Democrats or their cheerleaders in the press.

Drennen made sure not to quote any of what Ocasio-Cortez said in response to Yoho's crude slurs so his readers would have an idea of why King thought it was so powerful, but he did excerpt a paragrpaph from Yoho's non-apology and his claim that he was "strongly denying use of any profane or vulgar language." He then whined that "the tone of the reports" about the incident "made it clear that Ocasio-Cortez was the hero of the story and Yoho was the 'sexist' and 'misogynist' villain representing a pattern of dehumanizing women that is all too familiar in our society and even in the halls of Congress.'"

The MRC has been getting more shrill and hateful of late, and Drennen's post is an example of how that tone has changed for the worse.

CNS Finally Pins Deficit Blame on Republicans -- Yet Still Finds A Way To Blame Pelosi Too
Topic: CNSNews.com

For months, CNSNews.com -- and in particular, editor in chief Terry Jeffrey -- has been trying to implicitly blame House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for this year's record federal deficit spending, even though she leads only one-half of one branch of government and all that spending was also approved by a Repubican-controlled Senate and a Republican president (which CNS somehow never identifies by name).

This reached an absurd level in a July 23 article by intern John Jakubisin, which was actually straightforward by CNS standards on the deficit issue:

Since Donald Trump took office in 2017, federal spending has soared to record highs, pushing the federal debt up more than $6.5 trillion to a total of more than $26.5 trillion. Some conservative leaders denounced this spending as “deadly” and appalling and stressed that GOP members of Congress are not serious about the debt or reducing the size of the government.

Over the last few days, CNS News sent the following question to numerous conservatives across the country: “Republicans have controlled both the White House and the Senate for the past 42 months, but during that time the federal debt has climbed more than 6 and a half trillion dollars--rising from about 19.9 trillion to $26.5 trillion. Do you believe the Republicans are serious about rolling back the federal debt? What should Congress do to roll it back?”

The article is actually fairly decent and well focused. The issue is the image that was chosen to promote it, as noted above. Look who's pictured: President Trump, Senate leader Mitch McConnell, and ... Pelosi. Who is not even mentioned in the article at all.

That's right: CNS finally calls out Republicans by name for all the deficit spending, and it still finds a way to blame Pelosi as well. Can we stop taking CNS seriously as a "news" organization now?

MRC's Double Standard On Anonymous Sources, Mark Levin Edition
Topic: Media Research Center
In a July 21 Fox Business appearance, Media Research Center chief Brent Bozell "trashed the liberal media’s shameless overreliance on anonymous sources, noting that they have no interest in 'journalism 101' and 'have nothing to do with the news.'" But as we've documented, Bozell's a shameless hypocrite on this issue; the MRC will enthusiastically embrace anonymous sources as much as the "liberal media" it despises when doing so advances its right-wing agenda.

Indeed, the MRC did so exactly one week before Bozell's appearance. Alexander Hall breathlessly wrote in a July 14 article:

A former Wikipedia editor blasted Wikipedia for not being neutral, and slammed the platform for a multi-year scorched-earth campaign against popular conservative talk radio host Mark Levin.

A massive exposé accusing Wikipedia of having biased editors was put out by Breitbart News. “Localemediamonitor” and “Snooganssnoogans,” according to Breitbart, have been allowed to run rampant on conservative Wikipedia entries. That included their jihad against Levin.

The banned Wikipedia editor wrote at Breitbart under the alias T.D. Adler.

That's right -- the author is anonymous. The Breitbart article claims that the writer is hiding behind a fake name because of "previous witch-hunts led by mainstream Wikipedians against their critics," but no evidence is provided of this -- and, more importantly, no evidenceis provided that "Adler" is who he says he/she is, or that Breitbart did any sort of fact-checking to verify his/her identity or claims.

Funny how the MRC is treating "Adler" so credulously despite lacking proof the author's veracity. It's especially funny coming after it ranted so hard about the media failing to fact-check Mary Trump's claims about her uncle, Donald Trump, despite the fact that she's not hiding behind a fake name and she clearly lived much of what is in the book she wrote about it.

And, of course, Hall failed to disclose that the MRC has had -- and perhaps still has -- a cross-promotion deal with Levin, and that Levin is a close personal friend of Bozell, meaning that this post falls somewhere between a personal favor to Levin and a contractual busines deal. That seems relevant to disclose, no?

Newsmax TV Gives Shows To Right-Wing Extremists
Topic: Newsmax

Newsmax had a couple announces to make on Aug. 7. First up was this article by Bill Hoffmann:

She's powerful, she's provocative and she never pulls her punches — and now award-winning journalist Michelle Malkin is ready to rock America with her new weekly show on Newsmax TV.

Tune in every Saturday, beginning Aug. 8, at 7 p.m. ET for "Michelle Malkin Sovereign Nation." The program re-broadcasts on Sunday at 11 a.m. ET.

Every weekend, the best-selling author and outspoken media entrepreneur will bring you stimulating commentary and detailed analysis of the news from her uniquely "American" point of view.

Since he's paid to be a shill and not an actual reporter, Hoffmann failed to mention that Malkin's "uniquely 'American' point of view" involves embracing white nationalism, elevating racists and fearmongering about vaccines.

That was joined a few minutes later by this gushy piece from Hoffmann:

They're opinionated, they're outrageous, and they're always on the money — and now America's beloved dynamic duo Diamond and Silk are coming to Newsmax TV.

"Diamond and Silk Crystal Clear" debuts Saturday, Aug. 8, at 7:30 p.m. ET, only on Newsmax TV, America's fastest-growing cable news network.

Lynette "Diamond" Hardaway and Rochelle "Silk" Richardson exploded onto the political scene in 2015, when they shed their Democrat roots to go Republican and began a livestream video blog in support of President Donald Trump.

[...]

Diamond and Silk are a hurricane force to be reckoned with — a force that already has proved too edgy for one cable outfit.

Hoffmann didn't bother to flesh that last part out, of course. Otherwise, he'd have to admit that Diamond and Silk lost their gig at Fox News' Fox Nation division earlier this year for spreading conspiracy theories and disinformation about the coronavirus pandemic. That's not being "too edgy" -- that's being malicious liars.

Hoffmann clearly isn't going to do this, but someone at Newsmax should explain why it gave such medacious and sleazy extremists their own TV shows.

Kupelian Mad That WND Is Accurately Described
Topic: WorldNetDaily

WorldNetDaily managing editor David Kupelian continued his routine of pretending that nobody knows what WND is really about in a July 23 email to readers addressed to the "Pro-Family American" Kupelian likes to think is WND's readership. After proclaiming that "FIVE black conservative candidates won their primaries in Maryland!" -- something he didn't provide a link for to back up the claim -- huffed that these candidates were being ignored by the "diversity-obsessed leftist media" because the "elite media’s goal in 2020 is to paint conservatives as racist reactionaries." he then huffed (bolding in original):

Here at WorldNetDaily, we believe in telling the truth to the American people… not a far-left “narrative.”

But right now, WND is struggling … because Big Tech and the far left are doing everything they possibly can to suppress, censor and ban us, to defame us as “bigots” and “conspiracy theorists,” to wipe out our advertising revenue, to silence our truthful reporting and shut us down – and ultimately to brainwash the American people.

No, David -- WND is described as "bigots" and "conspiracy theorists" because that's what you are, and that's how you got here.

Kupelian wants people to forget it has published racial bigots like Paul Nehlen, Colin Flaherty and Scott Greer, among others. WND directly employed racial bigots like Michael Thompson and Kevin DeAnna.

Kupelian also wants us to forget that for the eight-plus years that Barack Obama ran for and held the presidency, WND pursued the never-proven conspiracy theory that he was not eligible to be president and possibly born in Kenya. The chief proponent of that conspiracy theory at WND, Jerome Corsi, was employed by WND for mroe than a decade and was so comfortable in his bigotry that he appeared on a white nationalist radio show to promote his anti-Obama work. Kupelian has yet to apologize for that credibility-destroying obsession, just as he has yet to apologize for its pursuit of conspiracy theories over Seth Rich's death.

If Kupelian doesn't want WND to be dismissed as bigots and conspiracy theories, he should stop publishing bigots and conspiracy theories and apologize for the ones he has published over the years. Simple, really.

Kupelian concluded by begging readers for money so WND can "continue reporting honestly, factually and fearlessly, something America needs now more than ever." America does need that more than ever, but it's never going to get that from WND.

MRC Flails In Trying To Discredit Book By Trump's Niece
Topic: Media Research Center

The Media Research Center had itself a big ol' meltdown over a book highly critical of President Trump written by his niece, Mary Trump -- so much so it tried to discredit the book as unverified, despite the fact that, as a member of the Trump family, Mary lived a lot of what is in the book.

In a July 9 post, Duncan Schroeder ranted that CNN hosts "brought on political correspondent Sara Murray to salivate over the supposedly tell-all book authored by President Trump's niece, Mary Trump. Scrapping all pretense of being journalists, the Democratic hacks eagerly lapped up the book's “revelations” without even questioning the truth of the wild accusations (like calling Trump a "sociopath")." He went on to huff that host John Berman "clearly does not care whether or not the book is true. He only cares about making Trump look bad with the presidential election looming."

Schroeder then went full whataboutism: "Berman loved the claim that the President paid someone to take his SAT, but conveniently forgot Joe Biden’s disreputable academic reputation. ... Speaking of the election, if Berman were to be an actual journalist instead of a Democratic mouthpiece, he could discuss Joe Biden’s academic record. Biden has plagiarized multiple speeches and was caught cheating in law school. He also lied about finishing in the top half of his class in law school."

Schroeder expressed his purported concern over the accuracy of Mary Trump's memoir in a July 15 post complaining that a CNN anchor's interest in former Trump lawyer's upcoming memoir "must be like the allegedly tell-all books CNN has eaten up from John Bolton and Mary Trump without any reservations for ascertaining the truth of their claims."

In another post the same day, Schroeder further complained about Mary Trump's book:

Without any fact checking, the hacks took the claims that Mary Trump makes about President Trump at face value in an effort to make it a campaign issue. Louis also venomously declared that Trump supporters are white “supremacists” and that they are “those who were always opposed to all of the civil rights movement from the 1960s forward.”

[...]

Are any of the claims in this “devastating portrait” verified? Would it not be the job of a news organization to determine whether or not such claims about the President are true or not? Oh wait, CNN is not a news organization, it is the propaganda arm of the Democratic Party.

After one anchor pointed out that Mary Trump "has a certain amount of credibility and insight" into her uncle, Schroeder raged: "'Credibility?' Literally not a single claim in the book is verified."

For the first time in these three posts, Schroeder offered something approaching evidence to bolster his claim that Mary Trump is a liar: "It’s also interesting that they did not bring up Mary Trump’s allegation that Trump cheated on his SAT. When Berman and Camerota last discussed it, they mocked Trump over it. But the reason that they did not bring the claim up is that the wife of the man who allegedly took the SAT for Trump said it was false."

Schroeder cited a New York Post article quoting the widow of the man, Joe Shapiro, denying the claim. But Mary Trump has since said it was another Joe Shapiro who took the test for Trump (though she has no documentation to prove it).

The next day, Michael Dellano joined in the attack, complaining that MSNBC host Lawrence O'Donnell "expressed his unwavering belief in the unhinged screed from Donald Trump’s niece, specifically the wild and hateful assertion that the President cannot feel human emotions," further whining that "O’Donnell and the rest of the partisan hacks in the media read the Mary Trump book as if it’s the Gospel, not because it is true, only because it fits their leftist narrative."

(You know who also pushes things because they fit a narrative, not because they're true? The MRC.)

Joseph Vazquez followed up with a post declaring that Trump has a "glaring bias" because she "had been a Democrat donor for years, donating to the party, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama," adding: "Had a responsible unbiased media reported this information, it would have made Mary Trump look as she is — extremely biased concerning her wild claims about her uncle."

Kristine Marsh, in a July 23 post, even attacked late-night host Stephen Colbert for having Mary Trump on as a guest:

After having a meltdown on live television on election night, Late Show host Stephen Colbert revealed Wednesday that he might still need therapy to recover from the shock he experienced four years ago. Psychologist Mary Trump should’ve been charging Colbert, as the late-night host spent 38 minutes (with breaks) trashing the president and whining about how he's traumatized the country, to Trump's Democrat donor niece.

Marsh dismissed Trump's book as a "gossipy tell-all," ultimately pivoting to whataboutism: "Will Colbert or the media also do a deep dive into Joe Biden’s family history to find skeletons in his closet? Well considering how the media dismissed and mocked the former VP’s corruption scandal with his son on the board of Ukraine company Burisma and that was recent history, I think we know the answer to that question."

Marsh tried to follow in Schroeder's footsteps in making lame attempts to discredit the book in another post the same day, cheering how in an appearance on "The View." Trump "was unexpectedly grilled by co-host Meghan McCain, over allegations she makes in her salacious tell-all book. While the liberal hosts took the Democrat donor and Trump critic’s wild claims at face value, McCain called her out, asking if she was just doing this to 'get a paycheck.'" Marsh didn't reveal what part of her MRC paycheck was received in exchange for writing that post.

Dellano returned to exhibit the MRC's usual craven callousness toward the safety of anyone who's not a Trump dead-ender in a July 30 post bashing MSNBC's Joy Reid for expressing concern that "Trump supporters may physically attack the President’s niece, Mary Trump, over her book bashing her uncle." He declared that "Reid’s clear objective was to incite fear into her viewers by thinking that the President and his supporters will act violently against Mary Trump' and that "Reid’s statements only incite fear and create division, which has been exactly the goal of the left-wing media since Trump took office."

As if Dellano the rest of the MRC are not trying to incite fear and create division by viciously attacking anyone who dares criticize Trump.

Allen West, Useful Idiot
Topic: CNSNews.com

Allen West ranted in his July 13 CNSNews.com column:

“Useful idiots” is a phrase attributed to Vladimir Lenin, who supposedly used it to describe communist sympathizers in Western Civilization.

It is a very appropriate descriptor when it comes to the so-called “woke” mob of the so-called “resistance” that has overtaken the streets of America. Well, let me rephrase that: They have overtaken the streets of major population centers in America. The infestation of wokeness and idiocy seems concentrated in the very places where progressive socialist policies have failed in America.

[...]

America’s useful idiots want to embrace a philosophy of governance that is the antithesis of the liberty and freedoms that they enjoy. Do not believe me? Well, how about our woke little temper tantrum kids take a trip to Hong Kong. There you will find young people resisting the very ideology that our young people want to live under. How about our useful idiots talk to those Venezuelans who now reside in the United States, like former Miss Venezuela Carmen Maria Montiel, and learn just how awesome socialism truly is.

America’s useful idiots are busy searching and destroying anything that they claim is connected to systemic racism. Then why are these little cherubs aligning themselves with the Democrat [sic] Party? If we were to do a truly historical analysis of the Democrat [sic] Party, you would find the real purveyors of systemic racism in our country. I could go on, but think about the history of a political party that voted against the 13^th, 14^th, and 15^th Amendments. A political party that created our first domestic terrorist organization, the Ku Klux Klan -- oh, yeah, they created the second one also, Antifa.

As fact-checkers have pointed out, the Democratic Party did not not create the KKK, and West provides no evidence that Antifa is a Democratic Party creation. But as his deliberate misnaming of the Democratic Party demonstrates, the real useful idiot here is West.

His main function in the Republican Party is as a black man in an overwhelmingly white party, and it's unlikely that CNS' parent, Media Research Center, would name him a "senior fellow"(despite having no relevant experience in the "media research" realm) or give him a weekly column if he didn't hold that rare distinction -- something he has tried to exploit to benefit Republicans.

In his June 22 column headlined "A Black Man’s Letter to Black Lives Matter," West self-aggrandized: "There is a high possibility that I have forgotten more black history than some may ever learn -- or certainly know. I just authored a book titled, “We Can Overcome, An American Black Conservative Manifesto.”I do not need to “qualify” my being Black based upon some pre-determined ideological agenda." He went on to huff:

I am tired of our Nation cowering, appeasing, acquiescing, and surrendering to this absurd organization calling itself Black Lives Matter (BLM). There is nothing true or sincere about this ideologically aligned progressive socialist, cultural Marxist organization.

BLM is just another leftist organization created by the same ilk of progressive socialists who created the NAACP. When one reviews the goals and objectives of BLM, they have nothing to do with the real issues facing the Black community in America. The focus of BLM is to cleverly advance the leftist ideological agenda under the guise of a witty name that forces people into guilt, shame.

I do not need any white person in America to kneel before me, apologize, wash my feet, or as the insidious comment of Chick-fil-A CEO, Dan Cathy, shine my shoes. I did a doggone good job of shining my own boots during my career in the US Army -- that was my individual responsibility, in which I took great pride.

West also went on a tirade against Planned Parenthood: "Planned Parenthood was founded by a known white supremacist, racist, a woman who spoke at Ku Klux Klan rallies -- Margaret Sanger. Planned Parenthood has over 70 percent of their “clinics” located in black communities across America." West is lying' Sanger was not a "known white supremacist," and most of its clinics are not in "black communities."

But West gets away with those lies because it benefits his political ideology and his fellow ideologues will not hold him accountable for it.

IN his July 6 column, West condescendingly wrote:

If American Blacks are to truly overcome, the time has come for them to stop being driven into irrational emotionalism.

Somehow, in the Black community, reason and rational thought have taken a backseat to the acceptance of thoughts, perspectives, and ideologies that are not consistent with the “proclaimed” principles and values over which many in the black community shout “hallelujah” on one particular day of the week -- Sunday.

Why are we watching a community self-implode but go right along “whistling past the graveyard” in addressing its real, true issues.

One of those issues, West claimed, is black-on-black crime. West chose to attack the NAACP over the issues, claiming that "I have yet to hear the NAACP voice any concerns about the rampant shootings, black on black, in our American urban population centers." West obviously couldn't be bothered to do basic research, because the NAACP has spoken out numerous times on black-on-black crime.

West served up more right-wing talking points: "The bottom line is that the left has once again coopted a title for an organization that dupes Blacks into believing that white liberal progressive socialists care. The only thing they care about is power. The only thing they care about is maintaining a victim class for political patronage."  Because that, ultimately, is what the MRC is paying him to do.

MRC Embraces QAnon To Own The Libs
Topic: Media Research Center

We've already caught the Media Research Center siding with far-right extremists at Reddit because they claim to be pro-Trump, whitewashing their hate and endorsement of violence as being merely "politically incorrect." The MRC is finding more extreme right-wingers to defend.

In a July 20 post, Duncan Schroeder complained about how CNN analyst John Avlon "hypocritically accused the Republican Party of promoting extremism and conspiracy theories through discussing the QAnon conspiracy theory." Rather than concede that QAnon followers are pretty extreme, Schroeder shifted into whataboutism mode, ranting that "CNN has promoted multiple “nonsense” conspiracy theories about Trump," declaring that "If Avlon was not a Democratic hack, he would discuss how Democrats have directly pushed misinformation and conspiracy theories," and whining that "CNN was also involved with awarding the bogus 1619 Project a Pulitzer," which he declared to be "leftist fan fiction."

Schroeder's ranting was not done: He concluded by ranting, "CNN has become an enabler of dangerous, radical, far-left extremism, but will hide that fact by attacking a few extreme right wingers. Facts do not matter for the network, it has an election to win."

That's a rant written by someone who feels like he has an election to win -- and his silence about QAnon speaks volumes.

Two days later, Alexander Hall had a sad that QAnon-related accounts were deleted by Twitter. He actively downplayed their extremism, declaring these deleted accounts to be "pro-Trump":

Twitter declares war on QAnon theorists! Thousands of Pro-Trump accounts have been purged as Twitter targets theorists on the right while ignoring radicals on the left. 

“We’ve been clear that we will take strong enforcement action on behavior that has the potential to lead to offline harm,” Twitter declared in a July 21 post. It specified that “this week we are taking further action on so-called ‘QAnon’ activity across the service.” A Twitter spokesperson told NBC News that around “150,000 accounts” will be affected in one form or another. The same article explained that the company has removed 7,000 QAnon accounts in the past few weeks for allegedly breaking Terms of Service rules about targeted harassment.

Twitter wrote that, going forward: “We will permanently suspend accounts Tweeting about these topics.” The company made clear that it will “[n]o longer serve content and accounts associated with QAnon in Trends and recommendations.” It will even “Block URLs associated with QAnon from being shared on Twitter.”

The closest Hall got to noting what QAnon actually does is repeating a New York Times description of the "ideology" of the group as being that Trump "ran for office to save Americans from a so-called deep state filled with child-abusing, devil-worshiping bureaucrats." Hall censored the Times' further description of QAnon's extremism and serial harassment of their targets, regarding how they believe that "the president’s enemies are prominent Democrats who, in some telling, extract hormones from children’s blood" and their link to the Pizzagate conspiracy theory, which led to a "vigilante gunman" showing up at a Washington, D.C., pizzeria and firing an assault rifle inside it.

Instead, Hall went the whataboutism route, complaining that "The presence of far-left extremists like Antifa groups is strangely tolerated online" while not presenting any compelling evidence that they are.

Andy Schlafly's Mask Meltdown
Topic: WorldNetDaily

A stark difference between the approach of President Trump and the newly radicalized Democratic Party is revealed by the issue of mandatory face masks. The "mask police" mentality of the Dems is inciting an Orwellian society of snitches and bullies.

Democrats are now insisting that everyone be required to wear masks and that anyone seen not wearing a mask be reported to the authorities. This is despite how leading liberal television commentators, including Chris Cuomo of CNN, were spotted outside without masks while they were being quarantined for COVID-19.

The wearing of masks in public places causes harm beyond COVID, which is why face coverings have long been against the law in many U.S. states and in other countries. There is no substitute for seeing the faces of strangers on the street and in stores.

A witness cannot give proper evidence in court while masked, for example. Reading a witness' face is essential to determine his credibility.

The idea of a faceless society has long symbolized descent into totalitarian control, but that is where we are headed. The mask police are determined to exploit the COVID crisis to turn us into a faceless society.

A woman with a medical condition preventing her from wearing a mask recently entered a Walmart in Summit County, Utah, where masks are mandatory. In that Utah county, residents are required not only to wear masks, but to report on anyone seen without a mask so that the police can rush out and give the person a summons or ticket.

Is this what our society should become? With all the violent protests occurring, one would think that local authorities have better ways to spend their scarce resources than to be mask police.

[...]

President Trump is right to reject wearing a mask in most places. Bandits and anarchists wear masks, not the leader of the free world.

-- Andy Schlafly, July 21 WorldNetDaily column

MRC's Houck Still Lacks The Courage Of His Convictions
Topic: Media Research Center

Media Research Center writer and NewsBusters managing editor Curtis Houck is pretty vocal on Twitter, usually in meltdown mode over some imagined slight on CNN. But he's also a coward -- he refuses to translate his opinions into NewsBusters content when they deviate from right-wing orthodoxy, like the slightest, entirely justified criticism of President Trump.

One thing Houck has been vocal about on Twitter is his struggles with depression. That's a courageous thing for him to do -- he even has a thread about his struggles pinned to the top of his Twitter feed. In an Aug. 5 tweet, Houck noted a CBS report on Michelle Obama talking about her current struggle with depression, and responded somewhat sympathetically: "Even though she's very well off with places to live, things to do, and resources to help, I still think it's great @MichelleObama spoke out about her feelings of depression during this coronavirus pandemic. Good on @MargBrennan for covering it. We need all voices to #EndTheStigma."

Because we've been observing Houck and the MRC for as long as we have and understand how it works, we tweeted in response: "Yet you’ll still probably have @gabrieljhays write a @newsbusters post mocking Obama for being a “very well off” woman who’s complaining about being depressed, right?"

Sadly, it turns out we were right. The very next day, Gabriel Hays had a post sneeringly headlined "Michelle Obummer: Former First Lady's Podcast Blames Trump for Her ‘Depression,’" and he did exactly what we said he would do:

Michelle Obama may be many things, a mega-millionaire, emerging media personality, bestselling author and former White House resident, but complete happiness has been eluding her lately, and shocker, it’s because of a certain sitting president. 

During the latest episode of her fancy new Spotify podcast, the former first lady told her guest that President Trump has given her a mild bout of “epression” due to his unrelenting “hypocrisy.”

Cue up the melancholic violins for this Zoloft-sponsored performance of “Orange Man Bad.”

[...]

Oh and there it is. Though when it comes to helping along some of her depression for the racial strife, she could look at some crime stats to reassure herself that cops aren’t out hunting black people, or take a breather and realize that America isn’t an inherently racist country, as the left/BLM wants us all to believe. As far as the Trump problem goes, well she might have to sit tight. 

“So I’ve kind of had to give myself that,” Mrs. Obama stated, demonstrating that she’s allowing herself to feel “dispirited” over Trump and racism that’s not really occurring. Again. Isn’t that wonderful? America is under assault from vicious lies about its character and a street mob physically enforcing them. But rather than Michelle seeking the balanced approach, she’s letting leftwing talking points encourage her depression. How is this Trump’s fault exactly?

That's right -- Houck allowed Hays to make a mockery of a very personal issue to him. It's almost as if he's not actually managing anything at all as managing editor and just obediently taking marching orders from Brent Bozell and Tim Graham. Being forced to be a rage-bot and apparently forbidden to inject a little humanity into the increasingly hate-driven NewsBusters can't be helping Houck's mental health.

CNS Complains That Drag Queen Got Federal Relief Money, Censors That It Did Too
Topic: CNSNews.com

Craig Bannister complained in a July 17 CNSNews.com article:

Walter Cole, aka “Darcelle,” says that not even the coronavirus and Black Lives Matter riots in his city can force his Darcelle XV Showplace theater to close after 53 years in business – thanks to the coronavirus relief loan he got from the government.

“We’ll never close,” Cole, thought to be the world’s oldest drag queen, told The Oregonian on Thursday, responding to local news reports that his Portland, Oregon theater might have to shut its doors:

[...]

But, thanks to the federal pandemic relief loan, Cole says he’ll be able to continue to pay his staff, which has been cut by nearly two-thirds, and keep his nightly drag show going.

What Bannister didn't tell his readers: His employer, the Media Research Center, took more than $1 million in Paycheck Protection Program money -- the same program, apparently, that Cole took advantage of.

That means the same federal funding that's keeping Cole's theater alive is also keeping Bannister employed. It also means that Bannister has no moral standing to attack Cole. And it also means that CNS' frequent complaints of excessive government spending ring increasingly hollow since it's now on the record as directly benefiting from that very same spending.