MRC Complains Fringe Denier Views Aren't Treated Equally With Obama's Statements on Global Warming Topic: Media Research Center
A June 26 MRC Business & Media Institute item by Julia Seymour complained that the "opposition" was largely omitted from the TV networks' coverage of President Obama's efforts to combat climate change, grousing that "The uncritical coverage of the president’s speech is consistent with the networks’ bias on the issue of global warming."
Given that credible surveys have repeatedly found that the vast majority of climate scientists agree humans are changing the climate, it appears that the networks engaged in appropriately balanced coverage. After all, there's no sense in giving a fringe view equal footing with one rooted in scientific consensus and agreed upon by 97 of 100 climate experts.
Between Colin Flaherty's obsession with "black mob violence" and Jack Cashill's eagerness to exonerate George Zimmerman in the death of Trayvon Martin, WorldNetDaily has been a veritable font of race-baiting recently.
WND wants to make sure its readers stay in a race-baiting mood, asking in a June 27 poll question, "Should George Zimmerman be convicted to prevent race riots?"
Demonstrating that WND knows its readers all too well regarding preconceived notions trumping actual evidence, the winning answer so far by a wide margin is, "He should be cleared because there is not a shred of evidence he did anything but defend himself."
So, will WND ask if Zimmerman should be exonerated to prevent Colin Flaherty and Jack Cashill from rioting?
MRC Cherry-Picks A Poll To Claim Pro-Choice Side Is 'Losing' Topic: Media Research Center
Geoffrey Dickens writes in a June 28 Media Research Center item:
The Big Three (ABC, CBS, NBC) networks were so excited by Democratic Texas state senator Wendy Davis’s filibuster they failed to notice she is on the losing side of the abortion debate.
Anchors like NBC’s Brian Williams and ABC’s Diane Sawyer were so busy hailing Davis’s “epic” filibuster and her rise to “folk hero” status that they failed to report the findings of a National Journal poll showing her extremist pro-abortion stance is an unpopular one.
According to the latest United Technologies/National Journal poll, Americans favor a bill banning all abortions after 20 weeks by a 48 to 44 percent. The poll also found that younger respondents are even less accepting of the Davis stance, as it found those between the ages of 18 and 29 were in favor of a post-20 week abortion ban by a margin of 52 to 39 percent.
Not one of the Big Three networks mentioned the National Journal poll findings.
First: Dickens offers no evidence to back up his contention that Davis took an "extremist pro-abortion stance," and he fails to consider the possibility that the bill she was filibustering against is what is "extremist."
Second: Dickens is cherry-picking poll results that conform to his right-wing, anti-abortion agenda. A more relevant poll would be one that polls Texans about the specific bill in question, not a national poll on a general issue.
From a June 17-19 Greenberg Quinlan Rosner poll of Texas residents:
A majority of Texans oppose the legislation currently being considered by the legislature that imposes restrictions on abortion and 80 percent do not want abortion to be raised during the special session of the legislature called at the end of May by Governor Rick Perry.
Of registered voters, 63 percent say the state has enough restrictions on abortion and 71 percent thinking that the Governor and legislature should be more focused on the economy and jobs. A majority opposes the sort of legislation passed by the state Senate and being considered by the state House during this legislative Special Session, believing that it imposes further restrictions on abortion. Overall, only 34 percent trust the Governor and the legislature to make decisions about women's healthcare.
Why didn't Dickens report that poll, even though it's more directy relevant to the issue at hand? Because he wouldn't have a post otherwise.
WND's Cashill Hides Holes In Zimmerman Witness Claim Topic: WorldNetDaily
Jack Cashill -- whose biased "reporting" is enthusiasticallydefending George Zimmerman in the death of Trayvon Martin -- declared in a June 28 WorldNetDaily article:
The testimony of eyewitness John Good on Friday in the murder trial of John Good should have put to rest any doubts about George Zimmerman’s innocence on the charge of second-degree murder for the February 2012 shooting in Sanford, Fla., of Trayvon Martin.
Curiously, though, Cashill doesn't directly quote any of Good's testimony. That's because he backed off from the assertions he initially made to police after Martin's death -- the same assertions that Cashill previously said when Good testifies to them, "the case will be all but closed."
Cashill has been taking refuge in Good's initial statement to police that Martin "was pretty much just throwing down blows on the guy kind of MMA-style" on Zimmerman as the main hook of Zimmerman's exoneration. But he doesn't tell his readers that Good walked that claim back somewhat during his testimony, admitting he never saw an actual punch thrown.
Indeed, Good -- originally known to the public as Witness 6 -- had walked that claim back in another law enforcement interview three weeks after Martin's death. Has Cashill told his readers about that?
Joseph Farah and The Goverment's Secret Underground Maglev Railway Topic: WorldNetDaily
Joseph Farah uses his June 27 WorldNetDaily column to rant about "today’s surveillance state." As part of a slightly paranoid list of "the hard, cold facts" of how Americans allegedly can be surveilled, Farah adds:
To ensure continuity of government (COG), one or more buildings in the nation’s capital are linked to an underground railway network over a mile below ground using magnetic levitation (maglev) trains, interconnected to over a dozen military installations in the U.S.
Say what?
We have no idea what Farah is talking about. The closest thing we've seen in poking around on the 'net that even remotely comes close to what Farah is describing is from this website:
There are numerous witnesses who speak about a subterranean highway through America just like our own Interstate highway system, except it’s underground. It seems this underground highway uses trucks, cars, and buses driven by electric motors. (You wouldn't want gasoline fumes polluting tunnels.) They also mention another style of transport for freight and passengers that are linked together in a worldwide network called the "Sub-Global System." It has checkpoints at each country entry. There are shuttle tubes that "shoot" the trains at incredible speed using a maglev and vacuum method. They travel in excess of the speed of sound.
Farah's paranoid beliefs explain a lot. If you believe that the government is running a secret maglev subway a mile below ground, it's an easy leap to lying in your readers' faces and peddling bogus claims about the president's purported lack of "eligibility" to hold the job.
Newsmax's image rehabilitation project for the chronically wrong Dick Morris rolls slowly forward by giving him a June 27 column to rant about NSA surveillance.
Newsmax has been providing Morris withseveralopportunities to redeem his career after getting canned by Fox News for, among other things, predicting Mitt Romney would defeat President Obama in a landslide.
WND Can't Stop Keeping Arpaio Out of Homeschool Story Topic: WorldNetDaily
For more than a year, WorldNetDaily has been reporting on a homeschooling family, the Loudermilks, who filed a lawsuit against a law enforcement agency over a search of their house after an anonymous complaint. And for all of that time, WND's Bob Unruh hasrepeatedlyendeavored to obscure the fact that the law enforcement agency in question is the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, led by WND birther buddy Joe Arpaio.
Unruh's memory hole strikes again in a June 26 WND article on the case. While Unruh notes that the Loudermilks live in Maricopa County, he waits until the 22nd paragraph of his 25-paragraph article to mention that "six uniformed sheriff’s deputies" took part in the search of the Loudermilk home. Not only does Unruh fail to identify the deputies as members of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, he fails to tell his readers that Arpaio is one of the defendants in the Loudermilks' lawsuit.
Unruh quotes only the legal representatives of the Loudermilks in his article -- from one of WND's favorite groups, the Home School Legal Defense Association -- and he makes no mention of the defense's version of the story, nor does he explain why he does not find the other side of the story newsworthy.
That's right -- CNS is playing gotcha, ambushing senators (but only Democratic ones, it appears) with questions about an obscure provision in the immigration reform bill.
Is springing gotcha questions on senators whose ideology the reporters oppose about an obscure provision of a bill said reporters also oppose really responsible "journalism"? We have our doubts.
CNS has a notable history of treating gotcha questions as journalism, as CNS bete noire John Holdren knows all too well. In honor of that, let us relive CNS' greatest gotcha failure, when Barney Frank mocked the CNS videographer for asking him whether gay soldiers should be able to shower with straight ones.
WND Laughably Calls Pam Geller A 'Media Star' Topic: WorldNetDaily
A June 26 WorldNetDaily article by Chelsea Schilling on Great Britain's refusal to allow anti-Muslim activists Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer into the country carries the laughable headline "U.K. bans another U.S. media star."
The only claim to media "stardom" Schilling cites for Geller is that she's a WND columnist.
Schilling -- whose history of making false and misleading claims at WND is legion -- goes on to describe the English Defence League only as the group "which invited Geller and Spencer to its event," failing to mention the EDL's history of violence and Islamophobia. Schilling also didn't mention that EDL leader Tommy Robinson was recently convict of entering the U.S. under a false identity to attend an anti-Islam event with Geller.
That "another" person referenced in the headline as having been banned from Britain is Michael Savage, who apparently is also a "media star" in the eyes of WND. Of course, Schilling fails to disclose that WND hosts Savage's website.
In a companion piece, Geller used her WND column to rant about the ban, claiming that anyone who criticizes her and Spencer for their anti-Muslim activism supports jihad and Sharia law.
MRC Complains Historic Gay-Marriage Decisions Are Described As Historic Topic: Media Research Center
Apparently, in the eyes of the Media Research Center, it's "liberal media bias" to portray a historic event involving gays as historic. In April, for instance, the MRC's Matt Hadro complained that CNN portrayed Jason Collins' coming out as the first openly gay professional basketball player as a historic event.
That same attitude prevails in a June 26 MRC item by Kyle Drennen:
During live coverage of the Supreme Court's gay marriage rulings on Wednesday, NBC legal analyst Lisa Bloom could barely contain her enthusiasm at the decisions overturning the Defense of Marriage Act and Proposition 8: "There is no question that this is a sweeping historic decision for gay rights....I think this is only the beginning, by the way. This is the decision today, but this is going to engender many more cases to come to further protect gay rights."
Drennen offers no evidence that these Supreme Court decisions are not historic -- he's simply annoyed they were described as such.
Drennen has apparently also decided he can read minds. In a June 26 NewsBusters post under the headline "NBC Reporter Gushes: Gay Marriage Rulings 'Very Personally Satisfying' for Obama," Drennen writes that NBC correspondent Peter Alexander touted how the decisions were "very personally satisfying for the President, who it was only about a year ago during the course of the campaign...came out and said that he has had this personal evolution on the topic..."
Drennen offers no evidence that Alexander's reporting of the White House's approval of the Supreme Court decisions equates to him "gushing" over it.
NEW ARTICLE: Getting Schooled On Context Topic: The ConWeb
The ConWeb takes President Obama's remarks on religious schools in Northern Ireland out of context -- and they find themselves getting called on it by an unlikely critic. Read more >>
ConWeb Takes Gay Marriage Decisions Poorly, As Expected Topic: The ConWeb
The ConWeb reacted to the Supreme Court decisions overturning the Defense of Marriage Act dismissing a challenge to the overturning of California's anti-gay marriage Proposition 8 pretty much the way you'd expect.
Accuracy in Media chairman Don Irvine tweeted, "The country just went to hell in a handbasket.'
Purportedly objective CNSNews.com reporter Penny Starr ranted: "Sad day for our nation -- already on the path to a fallen civilization. If Obama gets another left-wing SCOTUS judge America is doomed."
WorldNetDaily responded with a heavily biased article by Bob Unruh, with the demeaning headline "Black robes 'delegitimize' Supreme Court," that quotes a plethora of anti-gay activists lamenting the decisions.It's not until the final four paragraphs of his 39-paragraph article that Unruh bothers to quote anyone expressing support for the decision.
In fact, there was no real effort at making a constitutional case against a duly enacted piece of legislation, passed overwhelmingly by the House and Senate with strong bipartisan support and signed by a Democratic Party president, Bill Clinton.
What actually happened at the Supreme Court was that five justices decided – and wrote in their opinion – that anyone who opposes same-sex marriage does so for no other reason than bigotry against homosexuals.
[...]
What’s next?
It’s obvious, isn’t it?
The Supreme Court virtually declared an open season on those with whom the 5-4 majority disagree.
We are no longer relevant. What we think no longer counts. We are, after all, bigots who only want to demean homosexuals.
But Farah is a bigot who demeans homosexuals (except for that one he hired to cheerlead for the Iraq War). Remember his paranoid rant about "the forced homosexualization of America" that came in response to a critic who called him out on WND's dishonest reporting on LGBT-related bills in California?
Farah appears to be demonstrating one again that there's no reasoning with a person who thinks anyone who issues a legitimate criticism of his and WND is out to get him.
WND's Gun Columnist Tries To Bring Back Waco to Attack Hillary Topic: WorldNetDaily
Jeff Knox -- who we last saw promoting "pork-infused" bullets as a final insult to dead Muslims -- goes back to the '90s to try and dig up some dirt to attack Hillary Clinton in his June 20 WorldNetDaily column:
Could they end the reign of Obama?
Could the tragic events of Waco in 1993 bring down the president and the Democratic machine after 20 years? Mike McNulty, producer of the Emmy Award winning, Academy Award nominated documentary “Waco: Rules of Engagement” and its follow-up films, “Waco, A New Revelation” and “The FLIR Project,” believes it could. McNulty says that the close ties between the Waco atrocity and members of the Obama administration – including Hillary Clinton, Eric Holder and powerful congressional Democrats – could unravel the administration and the entire Washington Democratic power structure.
[...]
Hillary Clinton’s role in the assault on the Davidian campus and its subsequent cover-up has never been fully disclosed. McNulty says that his information indicates that Mrs. Clinton was not only involved, but in command, directing the FBI’s actions from the White House and leading the subsequent cover-up. The Texas Rangers have said that their objections to the destruction of the Waco evidence were squelched directly by the White House.
Knox doesn't explain why Clinton is responsible for the deaths of people so brainwashed by cult leader David Koresh that they didn't have the sense to flee a burning building.
NewsBusters Doesn't Think Fox News Is Biased Topic: NewsBusters
In a June 22 NewsBusters post, Tom Blumer takes offense at the idea, forwarded by Salon's Alex Seitz-Wald in the wake of the channel hiring Howard Kurtz as a media critic, that Fox News has become "a stable for journalists who have fallen on hard times." Blumer then confirms what we've suspected all along, that nobody at the Media Research Center thinks Fox News is biased:
Overall, what Seitz-Wald doesn't get is that what looks "conservative" to him is more often than not "fair and balanced."
If that's true, the the opposite must be as well: What looks "liberal" to Blumer is more often than not "fair and balanced."
Blumer then goes on to prove just that, as he defended Sean Hannity's attacks on Rep. Keith Ellison:
Congressman Keith Ellison is an Islamic radical, and sharia law treatment of non-Muslims is in many ways comparable to the KKK's enforced treatment of Negroes in the South as second-class citizens and even non-citizens. Ellison's "rabid support for the anti-semitic views of Nation of Islam leader Pastor Louis Farrakhan and the late Black Militant leader Khalid Muhammad" definitely qualify him as an Islamic radical.
Blumer offers no evidence to back up any of this, of course. To the contrary: While Ellison did some work for Farrakhan's Nation of Islam in support of its Million Man March, he pointed out that he has "long since distanced myself from and rejected the Nation of Islam due to its propagation of bigoted and anti-Semitic ideas and statements, as well as other issues." Further, numerous Jewish organizations have defended Ellison against Hannity's Islamophobic attacks.
Apparently, in Blumer's eyes, every Muslim is a radical.
WND Discovers Bono Is A Christian Topic: WorldNetDaily
Most casual music fans were aware of this a long time ago, but it's apparently news to WorldNetDaily: U2 singer Bono is a Christian.
A June 24 WND article by Drew Zahn sure treats this as a massive revelation:
Bono, the lead singer of the Irish rock band U2, is declaring that Jesus Christ of Nazareth is indeed the Son of God.
In a brand-new interview with Focus on the Family set to air Tuesday, the rock star and activist sounded like “Mere Christianity” author C.S. Lewis who argued Jesus was a lunatic, liar or Lord.
“When people say ‘Good teacher,’ ‘Prophet,’ ‘Really nice guy,’ … this is not how Jesus thought of himself,” Bono said. “So, you’re left with a challenge in that, which is either Jesus was who He said He was or a complete and utter nut case.”
“And I believe that Jesus was, you know, the Son of God,” Bono said, according to a transcript provided to Religion News Service. “I understand that for some people and we need to … if I could be so bold, need to be really, really respectful to people who find that ridiculous.”
This is all news to Zahn? Apparently, for he also includes referenes to some of the band's "many songs that include lyrics about God and His coming kingdom," like "Gloria" and "40."
As for Bono sounding like C.S. Lewis, that's nothing new either. In the video for U2's 1995 song "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" (which includes Bono's devil-inspired alter ego, MacPhisto), a cartoon Bono is shown reading Lewis' "The Screwtape Letters" (about a demon's advice to his apprentice nephew) as he gets hit by a car.
Bono and U2 have injected spiritual and Christian elements into their music all along. We're surprised it took WND this long to notice.
Geoffrey Dickens writes in a June 28 Media Research Center 
Jack Cashill -- whose biased "reporting" is 
Joseph Farah uses his June 27 WorldNetDaily 
Newsmax's image rehabilitation project for the 
For more than a year, WorldNetDaily has been reporting on a homeschooling family, the Loudermilks, who filed a lawsuit against a law enforcement agency over a search of their house after an anonymous complaint. And for all of that time, WND's Bob Unruh 
Notice the common thread in the headlines of these CNSNews.articles:
Apparently, in the eyes of the Media Research Center, it's "liberal media bias" to portray a historic event involving gays as historic. In April, for instance, the MRC's Matt Hadro 
Jeff Knox -- who we last saw 
In a June 22 NewsBusters 
Most casual music fans were aware of this a long time ago, but it's apparently news to WorldNetDaily: U2 singer Bono is a Christian.
