Topic: Media Research Center
Bob Woodward's claim that a White House official intimidated him was discredited, but the Media Research Center keeps pretending it remains undisputed fact. Read more >>
Thursday, March 7, 2013
NEW ARTICLE: All The MRC's Hacks
Topic: Media Research Center Bob Woodward's claim that a White House official intimidated him was discredited, but the Media Research Center keeps pretending it remains undisputed fact. Read more >>
Posted by Terry K.
at 3:27 PM EST
WND's Kupelian Reports On Crime He Endorses
Topic: WorldNetDaily Should someone who endorsed a crime write a news story about it? Traditional journalistic ethics say no, but this is WorldNetDaily we're talking about.
In a March 4 WND article, Kupelian reports on the sentencing of a pastor who was conviced on a charge of aiding in international parental kidnapping in helping Miller leave the country. Needless to say, Kupelian's summary of the case is anything but objective:
Kupelian also references the testimony of "clinical therapist Sylvia Haydash" attacking Miller's former partner, failing to point out that Haydash was acting under Miller's direction, making her testimony suspect. Kupelian couldn't be bothered to practice actual journalism and tell the other side of the case, like how judges apparently found no merit whatsoever in the smears Miller launched against Miller. Nor does Kupelian mention the FBI affidavit, which details how Miller is staying in a vacation rental in Nicaragua owned by a wealthy donor to Liberty University. Kupelian does, however, uncritically parrot Liberty officials' blanket denials of involvement with Miller fleeing the country, despite the numerous unanswered questions and the documented evidence of Liberty's involvement with Miller. The next time you see that WND has published yet another piece of shoddy, biased journalism, remember that David Kupelian is the man in charge who makes sure its journalism is biased and shoddy.
Posted by Terry K.
at 1:40 PM EST
MRC's Graham Bashes Photos of Obama With Kids, Then Wonders Why Nobody Takes MRC Seriously
Topic: Media Research Center Tim Graham devoted a March 5 NewsBusters post to complaining that NPR ombudsman Edward Schumacher-Matos "attacked media watchdogs as a class as silly, uninformed nitpickers." Just four days earlier, however, Graham proved Schumacher-Matos correct by writing a post ranting that the Washingtonian magazine's website published "The Cutest Photos of President Obama With Kids." Graham raged that the Washingtonian "is a monthly for the Beltway crowd, and like many other D.C. organs, it’s in love with Obama," because what other reason could it have to publish photos of Obama with kids, which are "just a lot of mugging and Obama love"? This is the height of silly, uninformed nitpicking, but Graham is apparently too self-unaware to notice. Graham also takes offense at Schumacher-Matos' defense of the role of the newspaper ombudsman:
More self-unawareness on Graham's part. The reason the MRC has no connection to "serious, nonpartisan" is because it is neither. The MRC's so-called research is nothing but partisan hackery that fails even basic standards of professional research and is tailored to back up a predetermined conclusion. And really, should anyone take seriously an organization that posited that Matt Lauer wearing a checkered scarf meant that he was displaying Palestinian sympathies? We didn't think so. Graham might want to keep that in mind the next time he whines that the MRC isn't being taken seriously.
Posted by Terry K.
at 10:59 AM EST
Obama Derangement Syndrome, Larry Klayman Division
Topic: WorldNetDaily Once again, WorldNetDaily's Larry Klayman turns in a spasm of Obama Derangement Syndrome -- of which he is a longtime sufferer -- so extreme it warrants its own blog post. From his March 5 column:
On top of that, Klayman discloses that Bob Woodward met with him in the 1990s to find out what goods he had on Bill Clinton:
Of course, Klayman doesn't mention that Woodward's claim of being threatened has been discredited. And the fact that Woodward hung out with Klayman raises questions about his journalistic ethics.
Posted by Terry K.
at 8:20 AM EST
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
MRC Repeats Misleading '1,000 Scientists' Claim
Topic: Media Research Center Mike Ciandella uses a March 4 Media Research Center Business & Media Institute item to complain that National Journal is pointing out what an extremist Ken Cuccinelli -- the current Virginia attorney general who's running for governor this year -- is, particularly on the subject of climate change. Ciandella whined:
As we pointed out the last time he invoked the "1,000 scientists" argument, that's a very tiny number of total scientists, and it's not clear from the website Ciandella's link ultimately leads us to -- Climate Depot, run by professional global warming denier Marc Morano -- how many of those scientists have a background in climatology or another relevant discipline. Judging by the comments in Morano's article, very few. And as we pointed out when one of Ciandella's colleagues at NewsBusters made the same assertion, picking 1,000 "global warming skeptics" out of context ignores the fact that 97 percent of climate experts agree that global warming is manmade.
Posted by Terry K.
at 3:57 PM EST
WND Can't Decide Whether Or Not It Hates Catholics
Topic: WorldNetDaily WorldNetDaily has had occasional spasms of anti-Catholic behavior in the past, and it's sneaking in again. On March 3, WND republished (read: stole) a UK Daily Mail article claiming that the real reason that Pope Benedict XVI stepped down is because he "voluntarily delivered himself up as a sacrificial lamb" for the priest sex scandals. On the other hand, a March 3 WND article by Joe Kovacs complained that "Saturday Night Live" "wasted little time mocking Pope Benedict" with an innocuous "hat hair" joke. That dichotomy shows how WND's far-right, ultra-orthodox evangelical Protestantism guides the organization -- a branch of which is heavily anti-Catholic, as personified by the likes of Robert Jeffress (whose hatred WND has whitewashed).
Posted by Terry K.
at 1:33 PM EST
Updated: Wednesday, March 6, 2013 2:02 PM EST
CNS-AP Headline Bias Addition Watch
Topic: CNSNews.com A March 5 Associated Press article was sent out with the headline "Newly Married Wash. Gay Couple Seeks Pot License." CNS regularly changes the headlines of AP articles to add right-wing bias. UPDATE: CNS has now changed the headline to the more neutral "Wash. and Colo. 'potrepreneurs' see opportunity."
Posted by Terry K.
at 11:11 AM EST
Updated: Wednesday, March 6, 2013 11:57 AM EST
WND Attacks Crimes of TSA Workers, Ignores Those of Arpaio's Posse
Topic: WorldNetDaily A March 2 WorldNetDaily article by Chelsea Schilling is very concerned about the kind of people hired by the TSA:
WND promoted this article at the top of its front under the headline "Obama won't trumpet this about his henchmen" -- even though President Obama is mentioned nowherein the article, and Schilling states that the report she's referring to details alleged TSA offenses dating back to 2005, four years before Obama became president. You won't, however, find that same level of concern about the kind of people accepted into the posse operated by Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio. As a Phoenix TV station reported:
You won't find this mentioned at all at WND -- but you will find that WND copied-and-pasted a Dec. 28 article from an Arizona TV station about how Arpaio "plans to deploy his armed volunteer posse" at area schools, as well as another copy-and-paste article from the Associated Press about how Arpaio, with the help of washed-up actor Steven Segal, "is planning a training exercise aimed at helping his volunteer posse members respond to school shootings." For the past couple of years, WND has been sucking up to Arpaio through fawning puff pieces and airbrushing him out of negative news as part of its birther crusade, which led to Arpaio assigning his "cold case posse" -- with WND's Jerome Corsi serving as a de facto posse member -- to conduct a discredited investigation of Obama's birth certificate. Once again, WND has decided to hide unpleasant news about one of its favorite sacred cows. Is that how a real "news" organization behaves? Of course not. WND won't trumpet this about Arpaio's henchmen.
Posted by Terry K.
at 7:47 AM EST
Updated: Wednesday, March 6, 2013 7:49 AM EST
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
AIM Gives Its Most Prestigious Award to the Dumbest Man on the Internet
Topic: Accuracy in Media
Herridge is the closest thing to an actual reporter AIM has honored. But remember that the main purpose of the Reed Irvine Award is not to honor fair and balanced reporting but to reward work that promotes conservatives and bashes liberals, especially that one in the White House. As Fox News' point person on turning the terrorist attack on a diplomatic facility in Benghazi into a cudgel her employer uses to bash the Obama White House, Herridge has certainly fulfilled that latter standard. But Jim Hoft? Really? Hoft is known as the Dumbest Man on the Internet, and for good reason. As Media Matters summed it up: "Hoft runs with (or spawns) almost every inane story that bubbles up in the conservative blogosphere, has proven that he has absolutely no vetting process for the sources he cites, and apparently has a hard time with basic reading comprehension." Just this week, in fact, Hoft uncritically repeated a claim from a survivalist blog under the headline "Obama DHS Purchases 2,700 Light-Armored Tanks to Go With Their 1.6 Billion Bullet Stockpile." As Little Green Football's Charles Johnson points out, they aren’t tanks and they aren’t being bought by the DHS (they're for the Marine Corps). This is the guy that AIM is giving an "Accuracy in Media Award" to. Media Matters also stated: "Hoft's ongoing position of influence in the conservative media is evidence that the entire movement is intellectually bankrupt." That AIM is giving Hoft its most prestigious award demonstrates the intellectual bankruptcy of AIM.
Posted by Terry K.
at 9:40 PM EST
Updated: Tuesday, March 5, 2013 9:41 PM EST
WND Columnist's Bob Woodward Fantasy
Topic: WorldNetDaily In his March 1 WorldNetDaily column, Craige McMillan displays a very lively imagination regarding the purported fate of Bob Woodward for "coming to terms with the Chicago machine":
Needless to say, McMillan fails to mention that Woodward's claim that the White House threatened him over his reporting on the sequester has been completely discredited.
Posted by Terry K.
at 6:23 PM EST
CNS' Matt Cover Caught Spinning Another Falsehood
Topic: CNSNews.com In a Jan. 31 CNSNews.com article, Matt Cover wrote: "In a final regulation issued Wednesday, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) assumed that under Obamacare the cheapest health insurance plan available in 2016 for a family will cost $20,000 for the year." That's not true at all. FactCheck.org points out that "the IRS made no such declaration about the future cost of health insurance plans":
Will CNS issue a correction? Don't count on it. Cover has a notable history of false and misleading claims in his CNS work, the most notorious being his untrue insistence that onetime TSA nominee Erroll Southers was claiming that some domestic terrorists have a "Christian identity." In fact, Southers was referring to the far-right extremist movement known as Christian Identity. CNS never bothered to correct that, either.
Posted by Terry K.
at 12:07 PM EST
WND's Farah Plagiarizes From One Of His Reporters
Topic: WorldNetDaily If Joseph FArah's March 3 WorldNetDaily column looks a little familiar, it should: Farah plagiarized parts of it from a WND article published two months ago. In the below excerpt of Farah's column, the parts that are lifted verbatim from a Dec. 25 WND article by Jack Minor are highlighted in red:
While Farah does include a link to Minor's in his column, it's placed only with the first Eidsmoe quote, and Farah does not credit Minor for his work or admit that much of his column is a copy-and-paste job. WND has had a longtime problem with committing plagiarism -- and no wonder, when the head of the company is setting such a poor example. Ironically, last week Farah was lecturing us about "moral relativism" and how it compelled him to begin his Ten Commandments billboard campaign. It seems that he needs to stare at one of his billboards until he finds the words "Thou shalt not steal." (h/t reader L.C.)
Posted by Terry K.
at 7:57 AM EST
Monday, March 4, 2013
Newsmax's Walsh Goes On Name-Calling Tirade Over Immigration Reform
Topic: Newsmax Immigrant-bashing is what James Walsh does. Now that comprehensive immigration reform is back on the front burner, Walsh is expanding his bashing to President Obama. In his March 1 Newsmax column, Walsh attacks Obama as "a true disciple of Saul Alinsky" and "is using Alinsky tactics in addressing the immigration issue." Walsh's ranting ramps up:
Walsh also claims that Obama's presidential campaign was designed to "appeal to fainéant entitlement “takers,” feminist nihilists, and naïve youths." Walsh seems not to understand that name-calling is not the way to entice people to your side.
Posted by Terry K.
at 10:20 PM EST
MRC's Waters Joins In Ignoring That Woodward's 'Threat' Was Discredited
Topic: Media Research Center The Media Research Center's deception about the nature of the dispute between Bob Woodward and a White House official continues in a March 1 MRC TimesWatch article by Clay Waters. Waters highlighted Woodward's claim that he considered his "disagreement" with White House adviser Gene Sperling to be a "veiled threat," lamenting that the Times "followed most of the mainstream media in taking the side of the government." But Waters ignored the fact that Woodward backtracked on the threat in the wake of the release of the emails proving there was no threat -- even though he copies-and-pastes from a Times article that points that out. Is Waters really that stupid, or is he so slavishly dedicated to right-wing talking points that the truth doesn't matter?
Posted by Terry K.
at 11:47 AM EST
Erik Rush Endorses Ilana Mercer's Lament That Apartheid Has Ended
Topic: WorldNetDaily The increasingly unhinged Erik Rush uses his Feb. 28 WorldNetDaily column to endorse fellow WND columnist Ilana Mercer's lament that apartheid has ended in South Africa.
Rush also uncritically parrots Mercer's claim that "condemnation of the new racist South Africa is not advocacy for the racist old." But given that Mercer has never explicitly condemned apartheid in her WND writings and has lionized the leader of the white supremacist, militant Afrikaner Resistance Movement -- whose logo echoes that of Nazi Germany -- there's really no other interpretation of what Mercer does. So why is Rush signing on to it? Maybe it's a side effect of his full-blown Obama Derangement Syndrome.
Posted by Terry K.
at 7:59 AM EST
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