Topic: Media Research Center
If former CBS correspondent Sharyl Attkisson really played her reporting straight, would the conservative Media Research Center be so effusively singing her praises? Read more >>
Monday, November 17, 2014
NEW ARTICLE: With A Little Help From Her Friends (At the MRC)
Topic: Media Research Center If former CBS correspondent Sharyl Attkisson really played her reporting straight, would the conservative Media Research Center be so effusively singing her praises? Read more >>
Posted by Terry K.
at 9:09 PM EST
WND Spreads Lies About DOJ Peacekeepers
Topic: WorldNetDaily A Nov. 13 WorldNetDaily article by Paul Bremmer (a former NewsBusters blogger) has no other purpose other than to peddle right-wing lies about the Department of Justice's Community Relations Service:
Fitton is lying. PolitiFact rated Judicial Watch's claims about CRS' work in Florida after the Trayvon Martin shooting to be "mostly false":
Despire the utter lack of a factual basis for such attacks, Bremmer pushes them anyway, uncritically repeating similar comments by race-baiters like Colin Flaherty and Jack Cashill. At no point does Bremmer make an effort to contact CRS and permit them to respond to the racially charged attacks by Fitton, Flaherty and Cashill. In fact, the CRS' record in Ferguson is that it has brought nearly all conflicting sides in Ferguson to the table to talk about their differences and try to develop a peaceful way forward. The fact that Bremmer is peddling known lies -- or what he should know are lies, had he bothered to do even the most basic research into his subject -- is just another reason why nobody believes WND.
Posted by Terry K.
at 10:46 AM EST
Sunday, November 16, 2014
CNS Promotes Catholic Vaccine Conspiracy Theory
Topic: CNSNews.com Michael W. Chapman spends a Nov. 14 CNSNews.com article lavishing attention on a Catholic-generated conspiracy theory that a tetanus vaccine being used in Kenya "by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is laced with a hormone that causes miscarriages and infertility." While Chapman does concede that "UNICEF denies that the vaccine is tainted and the WHO says the 'allegations are not backed by the evidence,'" the bulk of his article isconcerned with presenting the claims made by "the Catholic Bishops of Kenya, along with the Kenya Catholic Doctors Association," as true and WHO and UNICEF as trying to hide something. Chapman also brings in Donna Harrison, "an OB/GYN and executive director of the American Association of Prolife Obstetricians and Gynecologists," to bolster the Catholics' case. He doesn't mention that Harrison is an anti-birth control activist who peddles the myth that morning-after pills cause abortions. While Chapman does eventually tell bothh sides of the story, he waits until the 31st paragraph of his article to note WHO's and UNICEF's evidence that the vaccines are not laced with infertility drugs. Chapman's promotion of this anti-vaccine conspiracy theory is ironic because other branches of CNS' owner, the Media Research Center, have railed against those who promote anti-vaccine conspiracy theories (when they don't involve Gardasil, anyway). We're aware of CNS' pro-Catholic leanings and reputation for unbalanced reporting, but can't Chapman -- who, remember, is CNS' managing editor -- try to attempt some actual journalism by fairly presenting both sides of the story instead of putting his thumb on the scale in favor of the Catholics, no matter how crazy their conspiracy theory sounds? Apparently not -- to him, the political narrative is more important than the facts.
Posted by Terry K.
at 9:44 PM EST
Updated: Sunday, November 16, 2014 9:46 PM EST
WND Can't Find Anyone Who Will Defend Ted Cruz On The Record
Topic: WorldNetDaily Garth Kant writes in a Nov. 12 WorldNetDaily article:
Notice that all of these aides to conservative senators that Kant quotes in his article are anonymous. Kant does not explain why he has granted them anonymity to defend Cruz and bash Politico. How sad is it that WND can't find anyone willing to speak on the record to defend Cruz and the conservative strategy to defend Obamacare? Consider it just another reason nobody believes WND.
Posted by Terry K.
at 6:25 PM EST
Saturday, November 15, 2014
Obama Derangement Syndrome Watch, Supersize WorldNetDaily Edition
Topic: WorldNetDaily
-- Christopher Monckton, Nov. 9 WorldNetDaily column
-- Barbara Simpson, Nov. 9 WND column
-- Pamela Geller, Nov. 9 WND column
-- Phyllis Schlafly, Nov. 10 WND column
-- Erik Rush, Nov. 12 WND column
-- Michael Brown, Nov. 12 WND column
-- Tom Tancredo, Nov. 14 WND column
Posted by Terry K.
at 8:24 PM EST
Friday, November 14, 2014
Meet CNS' Resident Mark Levin Fanboy
Topic: CNSNews.com Michael Morris is CNSNews.com's assistant editor for commentary. He's also the website's chief Mark Levin fanboy. Over the ast couple weeks, he cranked no fewer than five CNS blog posts transcribing the right-wing ranter's latest alleged pearls of wisdom:
Needless to say, none of Morris' transcriptions disclose the fact that Levin has a business relationship with CNS' parent, the Media Research Center -- a relationship the MRC seems to have repaid by giving him its William F. Buckley Jr. Award for Media Excellence. Morris claims to have a law degree, so you'd think he'd be sensitive to issues like conflict of interest. Apparently not -- which may be why he's working as an assistant editor for a right-wing website instead of as a lawyer.
Posted by Terry K.
at 4:19 PM EST
Updated: Saturday, November 15, 2014 5:47 PM EST
Another WND Reporter Misleads About Non-Discrimination Ordinances
Topic: WorldNetDaily It's apparently WorldNetDaily's policy to deliberately mischaracterize nondiscrimination ordinances as meaning that high school students can shower together. Alex Newman echoes Bob Unruh's anti-gay scare tactics in a Nov. 11 WND article:
Needless to say, Newman ignores evidence that experts in 12 states that have banned discrimination in public accommodations based on gender identity have reported no problems whatsoever with sexual assaults or any other crimes in connection with accom,modating transgenders. Indeed -- echoing another Unruh tactic -- Newman interviewed only critics of nondiscrimination ordinances for his article, making no effort whatsoever to give supporters a chance to respond. And, as per usual for WND's anti-gay agenda, Newman's article is accompanied with a picture of a screaming Janet Leigh in a still from the film "Psycho." Such pathetic, counterfactual gay-baiting is just one more reason why nobody believes WND.
Posted by Terry K.
at 2:19 PM EST
Thursday, November 13, 2014
Sharyl Attkisson Gets The Brent Bozell Endorsement
Topic: Media Research Center Just a few days after getting the coveted Joseph Farah endorsement, Sharyl Attkisson is getting a big thumbs-up from another right-wing activist. The Media Research Center's Brent Bozell and Tim Graham devote their Nov. 12 column to singing Attkisson's praises. The first clue that they don't intend to tell the full truth is their shading of the MRC's past criticism of Attkisson:
Bozell and Graham have apparently forgotten -- or decided to forget -- about Attkisson's advocacy of anti-vaccine conspiracy theories, which the MRC also dinged her for. But you see, Bozell and Graham all about bolstering Attkisson's supposed journalistic bona fides:
Needless to say, Bozell and Graham don't mention that Attkisson's post-CBS journalism has appeared almost exclusively in conservative-leaning media outlets. And they refuse to admit one glaring fact: If rabid right-wing political operatives like Bozell and Graham are running to Attkisson's defense, she cannot possibly be "playing it pretty straight" or be "a fairly objective journalist." That's something the MRC would never understand. But Bozell and Graham aren't the only MRC employees trying to ignore inconvenient facts about Attkisson. In a Nov. 10 NewsBusters post, Melissa Mullins fawns over the party being held for Attkisson's book, which included "members in the media, whistleblowers from other scandals, and the outgoing House Oversight committee chairman, Rep. Darrell Issa." Mullins highlighted Issa's speech lavising praise on Attkisson:
Mullins expresses no curiosity about why a powerful congressman is attending the book part for a reporter. She doesn't mention that Attkisson uses her book to praise Issa and defend him against the not-unreasonable accusation that Issa's targeting of the Obama administration is politically motivated -- or that much of Attkisson's recent reporting has depended on leaks from Issa's office. If Issa were a Democrat and he attended the book party for, say, Chuck Todd, the MRC would be howling about the unseemly mingling of media politics. But because this is Darrell Issa and Sharyl Attkisson, the MRC looks the other way. Again: If Attkisson wasn't doing conservative-friendly things, the MRC wouldn't be so eager and desperate to defend her.
Posted by Terry K.
at 9:11 PM EST
Updated: Sunday, November 16, 2014 8:37 PM EST
Jerome Corsi's Diseased-Immigrant Fearmongering Fail
Topic: WorldNetDaily Jerome Corsi -- who wants us to think he's some kind of expert on Ebola, even though all he does is fearmonger about it -- plays the filthy-immigrant card in a Nov. 10 WorldNetDaily article:
Corsi is implying that Chagas did not exist in the U.S. until this year, which is completely false. In fact, as Wired reported, Chagas was documented in New York City in the early 1980s and has been prevalent in Texas for years. Wired also warns against doing what Corsi is doing:
Corsi goes on to cite Elizabeth Vliet -- a fearmongering-obsessed doctor affiliated with the fringe group Association of American Physicians and Surgeons -- blaming illegal immigrants for "bringing diseases the U.S. had controlled or virtually eradicated," including Chagas. Given the AAPS' history of falsely blaming illegal immigrants for spreading illnesses in the U.S., Vliet is simply not a credible source. Not that it will stop Corsi from citing her, of course. (In the AAPS article by Vliet that Corsi cites, Vliet laments that "Vaccine-preventable diseases like chicken pox, measles and whooping cough spread like wildfire among unvaccinated children." She doesn't mention that the AAPS opposes mandatory vaccination of children, which probably contributes much more to the spread of such diseases.) Corsi found another disease to blame on filthy immigrants in a Nov. 11 WND article:
Again, Corsi is falsely implying that there was no dengue fever in the U.S. before this year. In fact, the Centers for Disease Control reported cases in the U.S. in 2012. Neither Corsi nor Hieb -- another factually challenged AAPS-linked fearmongerer -- present any actual evidence that the presence of dengue-spreading mosquitoes is the direct result of those filthy "unaccompanied minors," only mentions of "suspicion" and Hieb ranting about "the big picture." They don't mention that dengue fever is starting to become a problem in Key West, Florida, an area not known for problems with illegal immigration. In short, these two articles are all about fearmongering and nothing about informing. He never proves that the unaccompanied minors have resulted in any actual increased risk of these diseases spreading in the U.S. Thus, he has failed in his fearmongering mission. Corsi is just another reason why nobody believes WND.
Posted by Terry K.
at 1:59 PM EST
Wednesday, November 12, 2014
NewsBusters: Google's Veterans Day Doodle Not White Enough
Topic: NewsBusters In a Nov. 11 NewsBusters post, Mark Finkelstein was heartened that Google marked Veterans Day with one of its special "doodles" in its logo, but he had a sad that there weren't enough white people in it:
Yes, Finkelstein really is bothered that there are too many minorities in Google's honoring of Veterans Day.
Posted by Terry K.
at 5:02 PM EST
WND Lets Coward Attack Idea Of An Ethnically Diverse Military
Topic: WorldNetDaily A Nov. 10 WorldNetDaily article carries the byline of "Otway Burns," which WND tells us is "a pseudonym for an officer currently serving in the United States military. He is a combat veteran with tours in Iraq and Afghanistan." (It's also the real name of a military privateer during the War of 1812.) The fact that "Otway Burns" is so cowardly as to hide behind a pseudonym tells us all we need to know about the value of what he has to say. And what is it that he has to say? He's attacking the idea of increasing the number of minority officers in the military:
Of course, the reason "Burns" is cowering behind a pseudonym is because it's against military regulations to publicly speak out on political issues while an active member of the military. That gives us a clue as to the kind of coward "Burns" is: He wants to hang onto his career and all its perks while voicing his unpopular opinions under a fake name. The fact that "Burns" quotes only "legal experts" who have made a career of opposing affirmative action and not sociologists who would know more about the issue conveniently reflects the bias of WND, which has a long history of telling only the side of the story that advances its right-wing agenda. The fact that WND let someone hide behind a fake name to deliver "news" is just another reason why nobody believes WND.
Posted by Terry K.
at 12:49 PM EST
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
MRC Denounces Colbert Joke, Omits The Setup
Topic: Media Research Center Joseph Rossell is all in a huff in his Nov. 7 Media Research Center item over a "Colbert Report" segment on climate change:
Rossell is so angry with Colbert over his joke that omits the setup for it that puts it in context.The statement that climate deniers "don’t know what the fuck we’re talking about" comes after a video clip of climate deniers who admit they're not scientists. That setup is in the clip accompanying Rossell's post, but he doesn't mention it. And indeed, Inhofe has no scientific background he can bring to his job as a senator. Before becoming a politician, he worked as a real estate developer and an insurance executive. And his anti-global warming book, "The Greatest Hoax," was published by WorldNetDaily, not exactly known for their rigorous peer review in scientific publishing. Rossell then insists that it really isn't true that the vast majority of people who understand climate science believe global warming is happening and is at least partially human-caused:
Rossell is misleading. The issue isn't what "scientists" believe, it's about what climate scientists believe, and Rossell is falsely conflating the two. And as we've also noted, relatively few of the "scientsts" on Morano's list have any demonstrated expertise in climatology. Which means Morano's count is at least as "massively doctored and inflated" as he claims the consensus count is.
Posted by Terry K.
at 8:13 PM EST
Updated: Tuesday, November 11, 2014 8:14 PM EST
Sharyl Attkisson Gets The Coveted WND Endorsement
Topic: WorldNetDaily Joseph Farah praises his new favorite reporter in his Nov. 9 WND column:
The fact that Farah just loves Attkisson tells you all you need to know about both of them. And this line from Farah is even more telling:
Of course, one of the leaders in undermining the worthy institution of journalism is Farah himself, who runs a "news" website that nobody believes. Indeed, while he was writing that column, his ace reporter, Aaron Klein, was writing an article that attacked the wrong Loretta Lynch, confusing a California lawyer who supported President Clinton with a New York prosecutor nominated as attorney general. While Klein's bogus article was ultimately deleted, WND's version of a similarly false Breitbart article that inspired Klein is still live on WND's website. If Farah really cared about journalism, he would clear his WND payroll of all the unworthy practitioners he employs. But he won't because he's one of those unworthy practitioners he purports to despise. Needless to say, Farah is mum about Attkisson's numerous factual errors. Also needless to say, despite all of Farah's bluster about Attkisson supposedly doing her job "without fear or favor," if Attkisson had gone after a Republican president the way she has President Obama, Farah would not be singing her praises.
Posted by Terry K.
at 12:41 PM EST
Monday, November 10, 2014
CNS Adds Scare Quotes To 'Gay Marriage' In AP Headline
Topic: CNSNews.com CNSNews.com has a bad habit of rewriting headlines for Associated Press articles to conform with its right-wing ideology. It does so again in a Nov. 6 article on gay-marriage bans being upheld in four states. CNS feels the need to put "gay marriage" in scare quotes in the headline: The last time we checked, it was not AP style to put scare quotes around "gay marriage." Indeed, even the conservative website The Blaze ran the very same AP article and did not use scare quotes. Rather lazily, CNS' re-editing did not extend to the article itself, where references "gay marriage" and "same-sex marriage" appear without scare quotes. CNS has not publicly explained why it feels the need to use such scare quotes, or why it feels it must alter AP copy to conform to its policy.
Posted by Terry K.
at 10:14 PM EST
WND's Version of Breitbart's Article Attacking Wrong Loretta Lynch Is Still Posted
Topic: WorldNetDaily WorldNetDaily's massive fail in attacking the wrong Loretta Lynch is even worse than we thought. While WND has deleted Aaron Klein's (and Brenda J. Elliott's) attack piece confusing Loretta Lynch the California lawyer and Clinton supporter with Loretta Lynch the New York prosecutor and attorney general nominee, a Nov. 8 WND article quoting from a Breitbart article making the same erroneous attack is still posted at WND's website. Here's a screenshot (for when WND reads this and disappears that article from its website): The article links to the now-deleted Breitbart article, which was finally pulled (like WND's, without explanation or retraction) after first posting a ridiculous non-correction correction at the end of it that basically stated the article that came before is completely false yet left that article intact. It seems Elliott, who was credited with "research" on Klein's article, really didn't do any research beyond copying Breitbart's erroneous piece. That's just another reason why nobody believes WND.
Posted by Terry K.
at 6:34 PM EST
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