Covert vs. Classified Topic: Newsmax
NewsMax has a bee in its bonnet over the proper description of outed CIA operative Valerie Plame.
On Oct. 29 and again on Nov. 4, NewsMax insisted that special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, who is investigating Plame's outing, said that Plame was not "covert," meaning that any reference to her as such -- NewsMax came up with "more than 3,100" in a Nexis search -- is erroneous.
But the Fitzgerald quote NewsMax uses to support this claim, from his Oct. 28 news conference, doesn't say that Plame wasn't covert:
"I am not speaking to whether or not Valerie Wilson was covert. And anything I say is not intended to say anything beyond this: that she was a CIA officer from January 1st, 2002, forward . . . We have not made any allegation that Mr. Libby knowingly, intentionally outed a covert agent. We have not charged that. And so I'm not making that assertion."
In other words, contrary to what NewsMax is putting into his mouth, Fitzgerald has made no determination as to whether Plame was covert.
NewsMax did admit that Fitzgerald said that Plame had "classified" status -- a statement which NewsMax, for some reason, did not want to quote directly; it was replaced by the ellipsis in the above quote -- but then discounted it as "a security status enjoyed by almost everyone who works at the agency."
In the Oct. 29 article, NewsMax adds: "Surely the press will begin issuing its Leakgate retractions any minute now." That statement might have more resonance if NewsMax retracted its claim that it never reported that U2 was holding a fund-raiser for Rick Santorum. C'mon, NewsMax, set an example.
Balance! Topic: CNSNews.com
A Nov. 4 CNSNews.com article does something very few ConWeb articles do -- tell the other side of a story that has become a cause celebre for conservatives without setting it up as a straw man for conservatives to knock down.
The article, by Nathan Burchfiel, serves up the reaction of the superintendent of the California school district at the center of a lawsuit over a questionnaire of elementary-school students that included sexually oriented questions. That lawsuit resulted in the 9th U.S. District Court of Appeals dismissing the suit and ruling that "There is no fundamental right of parents to be the exclusive provider of information regarding sexual matters to their children."
Burchfiel's article quotes the superintendent as criticizing the motives of the parents who sued the school district over the survey, noting that the district had apologized to the parents and admitted that the questions weren't appropriate. It serves as balance to CNS' Nov. 3 article on the case, which carried the headline "Appeals Court Declares Parenthood Unconstitutional, Group Says."
WorldNetDaily, meanwhile, has reported only criticism of the ruling and didn't note the school district's apology or admissions prior to the lawsuit being filed.
No Vote, No Voice Topic: Newsmax
If you don't vote, your opinion doesn't count, NewsMax has decreed.
A Nov. 5 NewsMax article bashes a Gallup poll on Samuel Alito's stance on abortion -- if it becomes clear Alito would vote to reverse the abortion ruling Roe v. Wade, the poll states, Americans would not want the Senate to confirm him, by 53 percent to 37 percent -- for daring to include people who don't vote as part of its sample because, it claims, non-voters skew polls more liberal:
Surveys of "adults" are notorious for yielding more liberal results than surveys of "registered voters." Surveys of "likely voters" tend to trend more conservative still - and are considered the most accurate predictors of election results.
Since non-voting "adults" have opted out of the political process, they're really irrelevant. Their presence in any poll is likely to distort its findings - almost always in favor of the liberal candidate or issue at hand.
But abortion rights are not something that has not been put to a vote. So whether non-voters have been allowed to take part in a poll on the issue is as irrelevant as NewsMax claims non-voting Americans are.
Taking Criticism Topic: WorldNetDaily
A Nov. 4 WorldNetDaily "news" article -- in reality, a promo for David Kupelian's WND-published book "The Marketing of Evil" -- singles out negative reviews of the book on Amazon, inferring that the critics are only interested in lowering the book's Amazon rating, sarcastically dismissing such criticism as "brilliant literary critiques." Amazon reviewers who wax rhapsodic over the book, meanwhile, "sound a very different theme – in fact, it's hard to believe they're writing about the same book."
One thing you will not see from Kupelian is any response to his critics, since it's much easier to dismiss the most extreme critics and portray them as representative of all your critics and, therefore, not worth responding to.
Last December, ConWebWatch posted a critique of Kupelian's "media matrix" theory, which is the basis of a chapter of "The Marketing of Evil," which pointed out that WND creates the very same matrixes. Is it brilliant? I'd like to think so. It raises legitimate questions about WND's news operation and its reporting techniques, and it doesn't resort to the type of language you see in the typical Amazon review. To date, neither Kupelian nor anyone else at WND has responded to the article. Then again, Joseph Farah has never admitted, let alone apologized, for his blatant plagiarism, so such refusal to ackowledge even the existence of legitimate criticism of WND is not new.
Why doesn't Kupelian or Farah or anyone else at WND want to defend their website? Y'all know where to find me.
Racial Indignities Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily columnist Mychal Massie is among the Project 21 members lending his comments to a Nov. 4 press release calling for the repudiation of "racial indignities" targeted at politicians.
WND Smears Michael Schiavo -- Again Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily has finally abandoned all pretense of being fair to Michael Schiavo in a Nov. 4 article noting his endorsement of a candidate in the Virginia governor's race (the Democratic one; WND would be avoiding this like the plague had Schiavo endorsed the Republican). The article prominently states that Schiavo was "[d]ubbed 'America's most admired widower this side of O.J. Simpson' by American Spectator." WND even put the "America's most admired widower" in the headline.
New Article: Smears Before and After Topic: Newsmax
NewsMax didn't wait for Scooter Libby's indictment to start attacking his prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, as a partisan crony. Read more.
The Peddler Topic: Accuracy in Media Atrios reminds us of the dubious, rumor-peddling history of Joseph DiGenova, who's currently working through Accuracy in Media's Cliff Kincaid to peddle a new rumor: that sending Joseph Wilson to Niger investigate purported sales of uranium yellowcake to Iraq was actually a "covert operation" against President Bush to undermine the administration's Iraq war policy.
Conspiracy! Topic: Horowitz
In a Nov. 2 entry on the Moonbat Central blog, Richard Poe suggests that commies are conspiring with Democrats to impeach Bush. He has no actual evidence of this, of course, just a couple circumstancial coincidences that cause him to "suspect coordination."
Poe is big on conspiracies, though not real big on actual evidence to support them, as ConWebWatch has detailed.
Defending Student, AND What He Said Topic: CNSNews.com
CNSNews.com picks up on the story of the student facing sanctions at a Catholic university for calling homosexuals "subhuman." A Nov. 1 article by Randy Hall notes that the student's defenders have ceased being offended by the remark and are now describing it as an accurate description of homsexual behavior. quoting Patrick Reilly, president of the Cardinal Newman Society, a national organization dedicated to renewing Catholic identity at the church's colleges and universities,
"No doubt Catholic teaching on this subject is unpopular and offends many people who disagree with it," he stated. "But if gay sex is gravely sinful and opposed to the natural order of human sexuality and family life, then to argue that it is beneath human dignity is as accurate as it is provocative."
CNS has used the Cardinal Newman Society as a source before, reproducing a press release from the group back in May that complained that commencement speakers at Catholic colleges weren't Catholic enough.
New BizNetDaily Partner Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily is in the midst of revamping its BizNetDaily financial news site. It has dumped its old parter, Christian business mag Business Reform, for Real Money Perspectives, a newsletter published by longtime WND business partner Swiss America. A Nov. 1 article announcing the change states that BizNetDaily will focus more on precious metals and commodities -- which just happens to be the business Swiss America deals in.
ConWebWatch has noted the increasing synergy between WND and Swiss America, to the point where WND editor Joseph Farah threw in a gratuitous plug for Swiss America in an unrelated article that he plagiarized.
Massie Lies About Ginsburg Topic: WorldNetDaily
Project 21's Mychal "Bull Connor" Massie falsely smears Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in a Nov. 1 WorldNetDaily column, claiming that "had argued there is a constitutional right to prostitution and polygamy" and "has argued the age of sexual consent should be lowered to 12."
In fact, Ginsburg never endorsed legalizing prostitution and said only that it could "arguably" be legalized, which was raised during her 1993 confirmation hearing and which then-Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Orrin Hatch clearly understood as an "academic point."
Also, Ginsburg has never "argued the age of sexual consent should be lowered to 12"; her comment was in regard to a child-rape law in which she never spoke to the age aspect but approved the fact that the law's language was gender-neutral.
Sadly, we're used to false smears emanating from Massie.
Reality Check Reality Topic: Media Research Center
A Nov. 1 Media Research Center "Media Reality Check" needs a little reality check itself, failing to tell the entire story of Ruth Bader Ginsburg's nomination to the Supreme Court.
Claiming that Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito's career "is not that of an activist," Rich Noyes claims that Ginsburg "had solid activist credentials as director of the Women's Rights Project for the ACLU, but reporters were loath to assign her a liberal label." But Noyes fails to mention that for the 13 years immediately preceding her nomination, Ginsburg was a member of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, where she compiled a moderate record. In fact, examinations of voting records have found that she frequently voted with fellow conservative judges such as Robert Bork, Kenneth Starr and Laurence Silberman.
Fake Smear Campaign Grows Topic: Newsmax
NewsMax's Steve Malzberg jumps on the bogus Alito-smear bandwagon in a Nov. 1 article, headlined "Howard Dean Plays Mafia Card on Judge Alito." Malzberg manages to go even further, claiming that to call a person of Italian descent a "fascist" is an ethnic slur too:
This isn't the first time that a prominent Italian-American has been linked in some obscene way to the mob, or victimized by some other vulgar stereotype. The left liked to call Rudy Giuliani a fascist. He laughed it off as I'm sure the good Judge will do with Dean's bigoted implications.
Like his NewsMax bretheren, Malzberg offers no evidence that pointing out that Alito was unable to obtain convictions against a Mafia crime family while serving as a prosecutor is false, let alone an ethnic slur.
Proof? Topic: The ConWeb
Both WorldNetDaily and NewsMax are flogging MSNBC's Chris Matthews' complaint that a Democratic fact sheet about Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito is somehow racially inflammatory because it notes that as a prosecutor, Alito failed to obtain convictions against Italian mob figures. Alito is of Italian descent.
One thing you won't find in those stories: actual evidence of this alleged racism, i.e., what the fact sheet actually says. That's because it doesn't support Matthews' accusation.
Tim Chapman of Townhall has posted the talking points at issue. The word "Italian" doesn't even appear. If there's an ethnic slur here, we couldn't find it.
Don't expect WND or NewsMax to set the record straight; telling the truth about non-conservatives isn't one of their strong points.
