NEW ARTICLE: Terry Jeffrey's Conflict-of-Interest Conflict
Topic: CNSNews.com
The CNSNews.com editor-in-chief has been pushing for Elena Kagan to recuse herself from Supreme Court deliberation over health care reform -- while being silent about a bigger problem with a conservative justice. Read more >>

MRC Frets Over "Pro-Gay Pop-Aganda"
Topic: Media Research Center

The professional prudes at the Media Research Center's Culture & Media Institute have always hated gays, to the point that saying anything at all nice about them is, in CMI's view, no different than "propaganda."

Paul Wilson does exactly that in a Nov. 15 CMI article denouncing Jessica Lowndes' song "I Wish I Was Gay":

Lowndes' single is part of a larger trend of gay themes being used in contemporary music. The Huffington Post notes that 'gay themes are quickly becoming a ubiquitous element of contemporary pop music.'

Female musicians in particular are promoting homosexuality and bisexual behavior. Pop star Lady Gaga is notorious for her advocacy of homosexuality, and included homosexual themes in songs such as ''Born This Way.'' Singer Katy Perry explored bisexual themes with her 2008 song ''I Kissed a Girl.'' X Factor competitor Simone Battle recently released a song and music video titled 'He Likes Boys,' which expressed a girl's unrequited desire for gay guys.

While the trend of increasing homosexuality in pop songs is certainly worrisome, Lowndes' latest propaganda effort would probably draw more of a following if her singing were competent. 

So not hating gays makes you "notorious"? That's the MRC's anti-gay mindset in a nutshell.

WND's Klein Rehashes His Previous Bogus Smears of Kagan
Topic: WorldNetDaily

When Elena Kagan was nominated as a Supreme Court justice, WorldNetDaily's Aaron Klein hurled a slew of false and misleading attacks on her. Klein's sliming ultimately went for naught, as she was confirmed easily.

Now that the Supreme Court has taken up the constitutionality of health care reform, Klein is rehashing many of those bogus attacks.

IN a Nov. 20 WND article, Klein claims that "a closer look at Kagan's academic writings and previous work history paints a picture of a woman who strongly supports court intervention." But he supports that mostly by repeating his earlier discredited sliming.

Klein asserts that Kagan "once helped shield Saudi Arabia from lawsuits filed by families of 9/11 victims seeking to target countries and leaders who helped finance al-Qaida." In fact, as we detailed, the federal government has long barred such lawsuits if the country being targeted has not been designated by the State Department as having provided material support for terrorist groups, which is the case with Saudi Arabia.

Klein also attacked Kagan for praising retired Israeli Supreme Court justice Aharon Barak, whom he declared was "one of the most extreme liberal activist high court justices in history." Klein asserted that Barak "famously ruled numerous times in favor of the Palestinians and against the IDF" -- without explaining why ruling in favor of Palestinians is inherently a bad thing -- and that Barak's rulings regarding a security fence "were blamed for scores of terrorist infiltrations from the very areas where Barak had stopped the fence from being built."

Klein offers no evidence to back up that claim. Further, Barak is on record as taking security into consideration in bulding the fence. Israeli National News reported:

To those who criticize the security fence, claiming that 'the damage outdoes the good', Barak responded: "Similar statements are made by others – one could call them the Israeli left – against the involvement of the High Court in matters pertaining to Judea, Samaria and Gaza. They say that the court overstepped its authority, viewing its ruling as negative. Why? Because most petitions are rejected, and they allege that this "legitimizes the occupation", and that therefore it would be best not to involve the court. I am of the opinion that this would be the most grievous of errors. The percentage of rejected petitions from Judea, Samaria and Gaza – is the same as the percentage of rejected petitions from inside Israel. The situation for Palestinians in the region would be far worse if it weren't for the High Court."

 

Klein's assertion that Kagan "shows strong beliefs for court intervention in speech" is contradicted in the very next paragraph, in which he quotes Kagan as favoring the "uncoerced disappearance" of certain types of offensive speech.

In a pernicious example of selective quoting, Klein asserted that "in her undergraduate thesis at Princeton, Kagan lamented the decline of socialism in the country as 'sad' for those who still hope to 'change America.'" In fact, she did no such thing; her thesis simply explored historical questions about socialism, and at no point did Kagan portray herself as a socialist.

Klein also claimed that in a 1996 paper, "Kagan argued it may be proper to suppress speech because it is offensive to society or to the government." But that's another highly selective quoting of Kagan's work. In that very same paper, Kagan said that government "may not restrict" speech "because it disagrees with ... the ideas espoused by the speaker."

Klein even asserts -- without providing any evidence whatsoever to back it up -- that "Kagan was also heavily involved in promoting the health-care policy of the Clinton administration."

Klein has never reported fairly or accurately about Kagan. There's no reason to think he would start now.

CNS Tries to Justify Booing of Michelle Obama
Topic: CNSNews.com

In a Nov. 21 CNSNews.com article, Matt Cover bizarrely defends the booing of Michelle Obama and Jill Biden at a NASCAR race, since after all NASCAR fans are conservatives who liked George W. Bush:

First Lady Michelle Obama was booed at a NASCAR Race in Miami, Fla.,  on Sunday, after she appeared with Second Lady Jill Biden to give the traditional “Gentlemen, start your engines!” command to begin the race. In contrast, when President George W. Bush launched a Daytona Beach NASCAR race in 2004, he was cheered by the crowd.

Some liberal media outlets, including the Gawker Web site which first reported the story, were critical of the booing against Michelle Obama, with Gawker calling it an “ugly reminder of how personally some have taken the political divisions in our country.” YahooSports derided NASCAR fans as “disgusting bozos” and “redneck fools” over the incident.

However, that NASCAR fans are largely conservative, and thus probably are not Obama fans, should not come as a surprise. In 2004, many of the sport’s top drivers publicly endorsed President George W. Bush for reelection.

Cover offers no evidence that Gawker is a "liberal media outlet."

MRC's Graham Angry That Truth About Right-Wing Emails Are Exposed
Topic: NewsBusters

The Media Research Center's Tim Graham just can't stand it when the hate and craziness of the right wing is exposed for what it is.

Graham's target in a Nov. 20 NewsBusters post is a Washington Post article by Paul Farhi highlighting how the vast majority of political email chains come from the right, and that President Obama has been the subject of most of them, and many of those are misleading or false.

Graham began by challenging the premise:

Farhi quoted Ari Fleischer as the only feint toward conservatives or Republicans in the piece but Fleischer wasn't quoted challenging the Farhi thesis. How scientific is Snopes, for example, in "turning up" false political e-mails? Do they rely on tips, and sent by whom? Can a "nonpartisan" site be an easy mark for partisan sources?

Graham is also put that "Farhi links to that Soros-funded group run by David Brock." How immature is Graham that he can't refer to Media Matters by its proper name? (Disclosure: I work for that Soros-funded group run by David Brock.)

While Graham concedes that "Wacky e-mails making demonstrably ridiculous and unsubstantiated claims about Obama are despicable" -- not that the MRC has any demonstrated record of debunking said emails -- he complains about the "familiar liberal media-elite thesis" that "The 'gatekeepers' have lost their power to dominate, meaning the lies run wild now, when they never did when the liberam [sic] media dominated."

But the lack of a dominant media is exactly what Graham and the MRC want. The MRC online store is replete with T-shirts and bumper stickers that read"I Don't Believe the Liberal Media" and "Impeach the Liberal Media." And if the MRC was really interested in media outlets that were truly fair and balanced, its CNSNews.com wouldn't be such a respository of right-wing hackery, would it?

UPDATE: Brent Baker keeps up Graham's childish refusal to identify Media Matters by name in a Nov. 22 NewsBusters post, blaming "a blog post by a far-left group devoted to silencing Rush Limbaugh" for an ABC report on Rush Limbaugh sliming Michelle Obama by blaming her "uppity-ism" for being booed at a NASCAR race. Baker links to a Media Matters audio clip (not a blog post) of Limbaugh's remarks but offers no actual evidence that ABC's report was actually inspired by the clip. Indeed, ABC does not reference Media Matters at all in the report, and its clip of Limbaugh is taken from his video web feed, compared with the audio-only clip at the Media Matters website.

WND's Washington Is Not Comparing Obama to Hitler, But...
Topic: WorldNetDaily

... yeah, he's comparing Obama to Hitler, no matter how much he denies it. From Ellis Washington's Nov. 18 WorldNetDaily column:

Desperate people do desperate things. What would you do for your daily bread? How low would you go for gainful employment? What religious, ethical or constitutional principles would you disregard to allow the government under a demagogue leader, a cowardly Congress and corrupt courts to enact policies and laws that in effect steal money from one group of people (the so-called "rich") and give the stolen trillions of dollars to others who didn't earn it and don't deserve it (the so-called "poor") all in the name of the grand, failed Marxist polices repackaged as redistribution of wealth, "fair share" and social justice?

The Weimar Republic (1919-33) and the German people made that fateful decision on Jan. 30, 1933, when they elected the genocidal megalomaniac Adolf Hitler and a few months later gave him dictatorial powers. Will America make that same fateful decision on Nov. 4, 2012, by re-electing President Barack Obama? While I am not equating Obama to Hitler, I am making the legitimate philosophical distinction that liberal fascism (e.g., progressivism) – a worldview by which both leaders governed, under the Democratic Socialist Party and National Socialist Party, respectively – has by design driven society into global, political anarchy and economic catastrophe, which continues to this day.

Can President Obama force 300 million free American citizens into a concentration camp euphemistically called government-controlled health care under the "Individual Mandate" by 2014 or face severe tax penalties? If so, then are we truly still free citizens endowed by God with unalienable rights under natural law, or are we in essence de facto, voluntary slaves to an ever-evolving, ever-expanding leviathan State called the federal government under positive law?

Don't even bother with the pretense, Ellis. We all know you want to compare Obama to Hitler like your WND buddies.

Will MRC Apologize For Trying to Link WH Shooting Suspect To Occupy Movement?
Topic: Media Research Center

The Media Research Center's Kyle Drennen wrote in a Nov. 17 NewsBusters post how some media outlets had reported that authorities "searched the Occupy DC protest camp" for evidence that alleged White House shooter Oscar Ortega-Hernandez had spent time there, adding in bold, "NBC, ABC, and CBS left that fact out of their evening and morning coverage of his arrest."

Drennen also wrote that some in the media were "thrilled with the idea" that the Occupy D.C. protest had "rules and regulations," adding, "One wonders if Ortega-Hernandez filled out such a document if he did spend time in the encampment."

Just one problem: As Salon's Alex Pareene points out, no one has turned up any link whatsoever between Ortega-Hernandez and the Occupy movement.

You might recall how the MRC was apoplectic that some tried to link the shooter of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords to right-wing causes -- MRC chief Brent Bozell declared, "Shame on the reporters and media outlets that entertained these outrageous accusations and who are now responsible for spreading the lies."

Any chance the MRC feels similar shame at perpetuating a link it has no evidence to support to the point that it will apologize for doing so? Doubtful.

WND's Mercer Likens Liberals to Holocaust Deniers
Topic: WorldNetDaily

Ilana Mercer is unhappy that views she doesn't agree with are presented to her on Fox News. She kicks off her Nov 17 WorldNetDaily column: by insulting those liberals she doesn't agree with:

The one parallel universe is represented on Fox Business by the likes of Nancy Skinner, Caroline Heldman, Tara Dowdell, Carl Jeffers, Joe Sibila, Erika Payne and others.

Skinner is a Democratic talk-show host. The description is self-explanatory. Heldman is a professor at Occidental College whose considered opinion is that "the "private sector" put us in "the economic position we are in." Heldman, who resembles the popular caricature of Marie Antoinette, calls regularly for the heads of business people. Dowdell is one of many fast-talking Democratic strategists to plump for every imaginable assault on private property issued by Washington. Sibilia is a successful CEO who – in his monumental ignorance of the benefits that redound to society when "both capital and labor are … permitted to make their own free choices" – is demanding that corporations "be designed for the common good." Erika Payne, among other evils, is the author of what Jonathan Alter of Newsweek endorsed as "a blueprint for a progressive conspiracy to help save the country."

The philosophical filth spewed by such characters – almost nightly on freedom-promoting programing, no less – is that government can spend and lend to good effect; that it can tax without discouraging and disrupting production; and that our overlords in D.C. can regulate "better" (read energy-squandering) industries into being by steering capital and labor away from bad (energy-efficient) industries (oil and gas).

You expect such illusionary presentations in the liberal media. But those whose fidelity is to reality, the founders' Constitution, and the natural laws of economics should not have to vie for precious seconds with central planners and thieves-by-proxy on magnificent libertarian programs like the John Stossel show or the Judge's "Freedom Watch."

Mercer declares that "there is but one economic reality": that government is bad and its spending is worse. Anyone who doesn't agree with that is just like a Holocaust denier.

No, really. She did indeed go there:

The truth is that truth is immutable, never relative. The little truth there is in mainstream media should not be diluted or presented by its adherents as dueling with untruth.

The above Fox News fixtures no more represent truth or promote it than does your average Holocaust denier.

With an exception: Libraries have long since engaged in a robust debate as to how to classify Holocaust-denying literature. While admirably advocating for unfettered free access, Professor of Library Services John A. Drobnicki has suggested moving Holocaust denial out of the History section in U.S. libraries and closer to the "Bigfoot books," so that Holocaust denial's Dewey Decimal designation is with "hoax materials."

Indeed, hacks are not historians. Although the dueling-perspectives panel format would suggest it is – the economic bunk spewed by the likes of Skinner, Heldman, Dowdell, Jeffers, Sibila and Erika Payne is no version of the truth, but a perversion of it.

Mercer also believes that Michael Vick had the right to do whatever he wanted to with his dogs, so maybe she isn't the best judge of what truth is.

AIM Lets Cliff Kincaid Out of the Attic
Topic: Accuracy in Media

Since Accuracy in Media created the Center for Investigative Journalism last year and named Cliff Kincaid to run it, Kincaid has largely been absent from AIM's regular website, popping up for the occasional right-wing rant.

AIM seems to have let him out of the attic, though, and he's been quite prolific over the past week.

In a Nov. 15 column, Kincaid complained that during a recent Republican debate, CBS' Scott Pelley "maneuvered two Republicans, Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich, into defending the Obama Administration on one of the most important and sensitive foreign policy issues—killing American citizens abroad." Why? Because leftists have criticized the policy, that that could have been used against him as a wedge issue. Instead, Kincaid laments, "An issue the Republicans could have used against Obama, in order to alienate the President from his left-wing political base and illustrate his power-hungry manner, was taken off the table."

The next day, Kincaid published a column explaining the previous one:

My column about Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney endorsing President Obama’s premeditated murder of an American citizen working for al-Qaeda was designed to make the point that the Republican candidates had fallen into a trap laid by Scott Pelley of CBS during last Saturday’s debate. Gingrich, who has made criticism of the media a hallmark of his resurgent campaign, should have sensed the trap. Instead, he fell into it, along with Romney.

One reader missed the point about the media and responded, “Despite all the harm this president has done, it is not wrong to support him when he is right.”

But Obama was wrong before he was “right.” He came into office opposed to the use of executive power in this manner. This is the point that Pelley ignored in his question to the Republicans but which should have been central to the discussion.

Again, Kincaid lamented: "Gingrich and Romney had the opportunity to put the Obama Administration on the defensive over a policy that its top officials opposed before Obama took office. They blew it. Obama has to be breathing a sigh of relief."

In a Nov. 17 column, Kincaid was upset that "President Obama is being portrayed as a 'peace through strength' Ronald Reagan Republican as he travels abroad" and that Obama's speeches on his Pacific tour were insufficiently hateful of China.

Perhaps it's time to send Kincaid back to the attic.

WND Tries to Blame Penn State Scandal on Homosexuality
Topic: WorldNetDaily

As one would expect given its anti-gay agenda, WorldNetDaily has been working to blame the child sexual abuse scandal involving former Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky on homosexuality.

David A. Noebel wrote in a Nov. 15 WND column:

Homosexuality in America is now out of the closet, front and  center (and has been for some time). Now homosexual man/boy activity (pederasty) is under the microscope, its normality, genetic implications and social acceptance being examined.

From what we are witnessing at Penn State and the firing of its president, Dr. Graham Spanier, and beloved head football coach, Joe Paterno, it appears that the public in general and the university trustees in particular are voting against man/boy activity – the same kind of activity being promoted in our society within NAMBLA (North American Man/Boy Love Association) and the American Psychiatric Association (APA).

In other words, our libertine culture is in the process of making pederasty as acceptable as the lavender revolution itself.

Noebel goes on to blame the American Psychiatric Association for removing homosexuality from its list of mental disorders, repeat discredited claims about former Obama administration education Kevin Jennings, falsely claim that Jennings is still working in the administration (he left in May), and assert, "Only morally deficient individuals would allow Kevin Jennings within a million miles of children!"

WND editor Joseph Farah joined the fun, as well as the blaming of the APA, in his Nov. 16 column:

Some may find this hard to believe, but even through the 1960s sexual revolution, homosexuality was perceived as sexual perversion. That began to change only in the 1970s, when the American Psychological Association, under political pressure, changed the very definition of homosexuality from a disorder to an identity.

No longer did God decide for America what was sinful behavior. Ever since, every man and woman has done what is right in his own eyes.

We may not fully understand the details of what Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky did or didn't do to young boys in locker rooms and showers, though he does admit inappropriate behavior. But the real question is how he did it for so long without consequences.

But now that being accused of homophobia is considered an offense, while practicing homosexuality is considered a virtue, should it really surprise anyone that such behavior would go unreported or unchallenged for so long?

Even Alan Keyes weighed on the subject in his Nov. 17 WND column:

Why would higher-ups be willing to risk their reputations and life-long careers to cover for the wrongdoing of one of their subordinates? Despite the almost religious promotion of homosexuality now in evidence at all too many of America's institutions of so-called "higher learning," it's hard to believe that they would thus willingly sacrifice themselves to the gods of "political correctness," especially given the fact that the zealous advocates of homosexual rights are still pretending to draw the line at the sexual abuse of children.

Unmentioned by these WND writers: There's no credible link between homosexuality and pedophilia.

CNS: Those Penguins Aren't Gay!
Topic: CNSNews.com

Penny Starr wants you to know those penguins aren't gay.

Starr -- who has a history of anti-gay bias -- devotes an entire Nov. 17 CNSNews.com article to insisting that, according to the Toronto Zoo, "two male African penguins, Buddy and Pedro, which have been portrayed in some media reports as 'gay' are actually part of a breeding program for endangered species and that their bond is 'social,' not 'sexual.'" Starr adds: "Buddy, in fact, had a female mate for 10 years and they produced baby penguins until she died."

Well, we wouldn't want any gay penguins to conflict with CNS and its parent organization's anti-gay agenda, would we?

WND's Farah Likens Occupy Movement to Nazis
Topic: WorldNetDaily

Phil Elmore isn't the only WorldNetDaily columnist who utterly hates the #Occupy movement.

Following Elmore's incitement to violence against #Occupy,  Joseph Farah picks up the hateful baton in his Nov. 17 column:

I know what you may not understand because once upon a time – a long while ago – I was one of them. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, I would have been out there with the vociferous miscreants currently making a nuisance of themselves on Wall Street and in other major cities across the country.

These are the shock troops, the storm troopers, the beer-hall kampfbund, and the lumpen proletariate of previous revolutions and attempted socialist coups of the past.

Communists and Nazis often used such ruffians as tools to create chaos, instill fear and anxiety and bully their way to power.

When I saw Oakland burning, it reminded me of the Kristallnacht pogrom of 1938. It may have seemed like senseless acts of random violence, but there was a point to it.

This is the beginning of America's intifada. And while many Americans are expecting these hooligans to go quietly into the night as the weather gets colder, I know better. This is orchestrated at the highest levels of American power – not with the idea of violently overthrowing the government, in this case, but in expediting a coup that has been under way, in earnest, since Jan. 20, 2009.

If you want to understand the occupy movement, just think of Adolf Hitler's "brown shirts" or Benito Mussolini's "black shirts."

WND just loves likening people it doesn't like to Nazis.

MRC Falsely Portrays Obama's 'Lazy' Remark
Topic: Media Research Center

The Media Research Center is not terribly interested in the truth -- not when it doesn't conform to its right-wing agenda, anyway.

In a Nov. 15 NewsBusters post, the MRC's Scott Whitlock hufs that TV networks "have yet to investigate Barack Obama's arrogant assertion that America has gotten 'lazy' in regard to foreign investments." In a Nov. 16 MRC item, Kyle Drennen asserted that President Obama "call[ed] America 'lazy'" in a speech, then criticized an NBC reporter for having "dismissed the gaffe." Geoffrey Dickens followed up the next day by lamenting that Obama's "'lazy' gaffe" received "grand total of just 36 seconds on the Big Three (ABC, CBS, NBC) morning and evening news shows."

Just one little problem: Obama didn't call Americans "lazy." As FactCheck.org details in reporting the full statement Obama made: "Obama didn’t call you lazy. He said the U.S. has gotten lazy about promoting and attracting new business to America. In fact, he called you 'outstanding U.S. workers.'"

The MRC's Matt Hadro mostly gets it right in a Nov. 18 NewsBusters post referencing "President Obama's statement that Americans have 'been a little bit lazy' in getting foreign investors to come to America," but tries to twist things anyway after it was discussed on CNN: "What [CNN's Erin] Burnett did not admit was that President Obama was still tossing blame at certain Americans for a slow economy which could doom his re-election bid in 2012."

When the facts don't fit the agenda, the MRC must twist them. That's a partisan political operation, not "media criticism."

CNS Can't Stop Shilling for Oil Industry
Topic: CNSNews.com

On the same day we examine in detail CNSNews.com's history of serving as public relations agents for the oil and gas industry, CNS does it again.

A Nov. 17 CNS article by Elizabeth Harrington features a press conference in which "Republican lawmakers criticized the Obama administration’s recent decision to delay approval of the Keystone XL pipeline," going on to assert that the project "would create an estimated 20,000 jobs."

Harrington repeats the jobs claim later in the article: "Its construction would employ 20,000 Americans and 118,000 spin-off jobs would be created along the pipeline route through increased business, adding $5 billion in property taxes, according to TransCanada."

Harrington doesn't mention, however, that TransCanada's job estimates use an opaque and suspicious "person-years" job claim, and that analysts claim that the pipeline would create only about 5,000 construction jobs and less than 50 permanent jobs.

Also unmentioned is the money CNS' parent, the Media Research Center, has received from oil and gas interests.

Noel Sheppard Lack Of Self-Awareness Watch
Topic: NewsBusters

As we've amply demonstrated, self-awareness is not one of the skills Noel Sheppard possesses.

Sheppard puts his epic lack of self-awareness on display yet again in a Nov. 15 NewsBusters post in which he rants about  praise by NBC's Brian Williams for new NBC hire Chelsea Clinton. Sheppard concluded his tirade by declaring: "This level of idolatry and sycophancy from the anchor of America's leading news broadcast though not surprising really is sick-making."

Sheppard's huffy statement comes just a day his own sick-making display of idolatry and sycophancy in the form of a slobbering interview with Ann Coulter.

And this guy holds a formal title at NewsBusters.