The Great CNS Pile-On

When a Democrat or liberal commits a politically exploitable peccadillo, CNSNews.com floods the zone. It doesn't do that for negative stories about conservatives.

By Terry Krepel
Posted 4/2/2020

Patrick Goodenough wrote disdainfully in a Feb. 5 article:

As President Trump completed his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) slowly and deliberately tore in half what appeared to be her copy of the speech, before tossing the bits of paper onto the desk.

“The American age, the American epic, the American adventure has only just begun,” Trump said. “Our spirit is still young. The sun is still rising. God’s grace is still shining. My fellow Americans, the best is yet to come. Thank you. God bless you, and God bless America.”

Scarcely had the words left his mouth when Pelosi held up a sheaf of papers. She tore them in two, then – as seen from various camera angles – repeated the action three more times, before throwing down the stack of ripped pages.

Goodenough encapsulated CNS' right-wing bias by quoting three politicians commenting on Pelosi's act -- two of whom were Republicans but only one (Rep. Liz Cheney) was identified as such; the other, Dalia al-Aqidi, is identified only as running to unseat Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar -- and, as it turns out, about whom Goodenough had penned a fawning profile the month before.

CNS followed up with more biased reporting in the form of attacks on Pelosi for her act:

• Trump fangirl Susan Jones dutifully transcribed Trump's tweetstorm bashing Pelosi, touting how Trump was "retweeting some of the #PelosiTantrum criticism."
• Melanie Arter featured how Trump White House official Kellyanne Conway claimed on Fox News that Pelosi's act "demonstrates that the Democratic Party has devolved into a petty, peevish and partisan party." In her lengthy summary of Conway's appearance, Arter did note whether Conway was ever asked if Trump's anti-Pelosi tweetstorm was an example of him being "petty, peevish and partisan."
• Craig Bannister repeated how Jody Jones, who earned an invitation to the State of the Union address because his brother "was shot and killed by an illegal alien," went for the full-drama effect by declaring (on Fox News, natch) that Pelosi's speech-ripping "ripped our hearts out ... it just tore us up."
• Managing editor Michael W. Chapman cheered how House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy "mocked" Pelosi's "stunt" and responding with a "video on Twitter, in which he declares, 'Acquitted for life' and tears up what, presumably, are the articles of impeachment."
• Bruce Truax wrote that "In reference to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) tearing up the president's speech on national television after the State of the Union on Tuesday, Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del) said he was surprised that Pelosi did not 'hit' Trump with the speech."
• Chapman followed up on Goodenough's reference to Cheney by giving her her own article to rant that the speech-ripping allegedly showed that Pelosi is "unfit for office."
• Finally, for some reason, editor in chief Terry Jeffrey felt the need to hunt down a Republican senator from North Dakota for his opinion of Pelosi's speech-ripping and then devote an article to said opinion, which could largely be summarized by his calling it "very, very, very odd."

That's a total of eight articles focused on a couple seconds of Pelosi ripping up a speech -- six of which were devoted exclusively to attacking Pelosi. Good thing CNS doesn't have to live up to the standards of fairness and objectivity its parent, the Media Research Center, demands from other media outlets.

CNS did it again a few weeks later, after Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer said at an abortion-rights rally while the Supreme Court was hearing a case on the issue that Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh "have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price." CNS dutifully toed the Republican line by portraying Schumer's words as a threat against the lives of the justices and flooded the zone accordingly with the usual suspects for maximum right-wing outrage:

• Sen. Schumer Threatens Pro-Life Supreme Court Justices; Rep. Scalise Asks: 'Where’s the Media Outrage?'
• Chief Justice Roberts: SCOTUS Won't Be Intimidated by Schumer's Threats
• Republican Senator Says He'll Try to Have Schumer Censured for SCOTUS Threat
• McConnell Reads Schumer's 'Shameful' Threats Into the Record; Schumer: 'I'm From Brooklyn'
• Rep. Collins on Schumer’s SCOTUS Threat: “The Only Ones ‘Paying the Price’ are the Unborn”
• Pelosi Says She Agrees With Schumer That His Remarks About SCOTUS Justices Were ‘Not Appropriate’
• Landmark Legal Requests Senate Ethics Investigation of Schumer for Threatening Supreme Court Justices
• Mark Levin: Schumer Should Be Disbarred, Admonished by Senate, Investigated by Ethics and DOJ
• Rev. Graham: Schumer's Threats 'Can Feed Hate and Can Lead to Violence'

Five days after that, CNS pulled its usual trick of sending interns out to pester congressmen in a March 9 article by Bruce Truax in which he was forced to ask a Democratic senator what he thought of Schumer's remarks.

That's a total of 10 articles -- none of which note the fact that Schumer was simply repeating language that the justices themselves have used. As an actual news outlet (and Wonkette) pointed out, Kavanaugh attacked Democrats who opposed his nomination, claiming that they have "sowed the wind for decades to come. I fear that the whole country will reap the whirlwind."

Seems like relevant context, but CNS didn't tell its readers about it. Nor did it apparently report Kavanaugh's original remarks, let alone treat them as a threat.

By contrast, CNS published nothing about a threat by Republican Rep. Ken Buck in a video showing him holding an assault rifle and daring Joe Biden and Beto O'Rourke to take it away from him -- heavily implying he would shoot them dead if he did so.

When Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib -- whom it already despises and targets with highly biased reporting -- retweeted Parkland massacre survivor David Hogg criticizing a national day of prayer regarding coronavirus and calling for "immediate comprehensive action" instead, using a swear word in doing so, CNS was quick to flood the zone. Under the headline "Rep. Tlaib Retweets: ‘F**k a National Day of Prayer’," Patrick Goodenough highlighted the tweet and noted that Hogg's original tweet included a clip of HUD secretary Ben Carson lecturing that "we’ve gotten away from prayer and faith a lot in this country."

Goodenough followed up the next day with an article featuring CNS friend and dishonest right-wing Catholic activist Bill Donohue attacking Tlaib and demanding that the House of Representatives reprimand her.

It was two days after that that CNS finally got around to telling more than one side of the story, in a blog post by Craig Bannister on Tlaib's "response to backlash over her retweet of a vulgar condemnation of the Sunday’s National Day of Prayer for coronavirus victims declared by President Donald Trump." He also touted Donohue's demand for the House to reprimand her.

Finally, Donohue was granted his own column to rant further about Tlaib, insisting her walkback was not sincere:

Let me be clear, Rep. Tlaib: You are fooling no one. You not only have a record of offending people, your anti-Semitic comments have mobilized friends of mine like Rabbi Aryeh Spero to hold a sit-in at Rep. Nancy Pelosi's congressional office to protest your bigotry (and that of your fellow "Squad" member, Rep. Ilhan Omar). Your record of hate speech is incontestable.

You say your retweet "was not an attack on prayer." How lame. What you manifestly chose to do is attack the one day when Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Mormons, Muslims, and others come together in a national day of prayer. Your point was to insult us. Mission accomplished.

By contrast, when then-candidate Trump sent out a tweet with a picture of Hillary Clinton accompanied by a six-pointed star with the phrase "most corrupt candidate ever!" -- widely viewed as anti-Semitic -- CNS did only a single article (that apparently is no longer online) dedicated to Trump denying the image was anti-Semitic.

Now you know what passes for "news" at CNS.