Topic: NewsBusters
NewsBusters' Noel Sheppard is nothing if not a loyal, uncritical parroter of the Media Research Center's right-wing agenda. With marching orders to defend Herman Cain, the personal friend of his Media Research Center boss, Brent Bozell, Sheppard runs with it.
Sheppard dutifully repeats criticism by fellow right-winger Liz Cheney of the coverage of Cain's sexual harassment scandals, declaring her "the voice of reason" in asking why the media is covering "irrelevant issues" instead of "the economy is going off a cliff." Sheppard didn't mention thatcongressional Republicans are a major contributor to promoting issues irrelevant to the economy, such as last week's GOP-promoted resolution “reaffirming ‘In God We Trust’ as the official motto of the United States.”
Sheppard then highlighted criticism of Cain coverage by, of all people, Kathleen Willey, who according to Sheppard accused Bill Clinton of "sexually assaulting her back in 1993." Sheppard huffily writes that "everyone involved should be asking themselves why unnamed, unspecific accusers create such a media firestorm today when women that actually stepped forward with far more serious charges in the '90s were almost totally ignored by comparison." That supposed ignoring of Clinton's accusers, of course, is a lie.
Sheppard also laughably insists that conservatives really aren't playing the race card by claiming that liberals are playing the race card on Cain:
The racial element being expressed by the Right is that blacks are not allowed to be conservatives. We've seen this in the treatment of right-leaning blacks for decades.
As such, conservatives aren't playing the race card per se. Instead, they are rightly pointing out that black Republicans are treated extremely poorly by the Left and their media minions.[...]
This issue isn't that Cain's black. It's that he's a black conservative.
Of course, "playing the race card per se" is still playing the race card. Plus, the argument that reporting the truth about Cain's sexual harassment is racially motivated was severely undercut by Cain himself, who blamed one of his fellow Republicans, Rick Perry, for leaking the story.
This was followed by a pair of posts on Nov. 7:
- MSNBC Runs More Stories on Cain 'Scandal' Than it Did Obama's Ties to Ayers, Rezko and Wright Combined
- Networks Run More Cain 'Scandal' Stories in a Week Than They Did Obama's Ties to Ayers, Rezko or Wright
Missing of course -- as it is from pretty much every MRC analysis -- is any mention of how many stories Fox News has run about the Cain "scandal."
Then, in a Nov. 8 post, Sheppard launches a personal attack on one Cain accuser, Sharon Bialek:
CNN's Piers Morgan on Monday did the first interview with Herman Cain's accuser, but failed to ask Sharon Bialek - who was in the company of her liberal activist attorney Gloria Allred - any questions about her two bankruptcies, the paternity lawsuit her former husband filed against her shortly after their child was born, or exactly why she was terminated by the National Restaurant Association a month before the alleged actions by Cain took place.
[...]
So, a woman with two bankruptcies, a history of financial troubles as well as difficulty holding a job is now accusing someone of inappropriate sexual conduct fourteen years ago.
[...]
Wouldn't this have been a great opportunity to ask her about her current financial position as well as her history of not being able to hold a job and the two bankruptcies?
[...]
As you can see, Morgan chose not to ask Bialek why her previous husband filed a paternity suit against her shortly after this child was born.
Why were such topics ignored? Was it part of the terms of the interview set forth by Allred?
We don't recall Sheppard insisting that the pasts of Paula Jones, Kathleen Willey or Juanita Broaddrick be discussed upon the disclosure of their alleghations against Bill Clinton. Indeed, in the above-mentioned Kathleen Willey post, Sheppard made sure not to mention her credibility problems, which include repeatedly changing her story about what happened with Clinton to actually lying to the FBI. Even independent counsel Robert Ray didn't find Willey credible.
But that would have been too close to responsible journalism, which Sheppard doesn't do. He is, after all, a loyal lackey for Brent Bozell, and Cain is Bozell's personal friend, who must be defended no matter what.
