MRC Demands Media Bias Against Trump, Then Complains When It Happens Topic: Media Research Center
Nicholas Fondacaro devoted a Feb. 24 NewsBusters post to ranting about what he declared was NBC's Chuck Todd's claim that it's the job of opposing campaigns, not the media, to vet Donald Trump -- and get it completely wrong:
MSNBC’s Chuck Todd washed the media's collective hands on Wednesday evening by claiming the other campaigns could use all the previous media coverage to cobble together into attack ads:
“A common criticism you’ve heard is that Trump's rise is the media's fault, because we have enabled his rise. But, folks, you could argue that the media has also provided all the material that normally a campaign would want to put together an attack against Trump.”
[...]
Todd’s analysis feigned objectivity while barely scratching the surface. This kind of coverage of Trump is nothing new. A recent MRC study found that most coverage of Trump has little to do with his old, self-admitted, liberal positions or any vetting of his past of any kind.
A proper vetting is probably something they are waiting to do until after Trump is the GOP presidential nominee – all the better to assist the Democratic nominee – a technique that was unitized against past GOP nominees John McCain and Mitt Romney. During the 2012 presidential campaign the media dug into every corner of Romney’s past. They ran story after story about the Romney family dog being caged on the roof of their car during a road trip. The media even dug up a story about a bullying incident from when Romney was in high school.
For Chuck Todd to insinuate that it’s not the media’s job to dig into a candidate’s past or fully vet a candidate for the public is just plain ridiculous. Todd laid the this duty at the feet of the other candidates stating “Folks, those are all inconsistencies that a normal campaign that was running against Donald Trump would probably put together, into TV ads and try to see if it would leave a mark with voters.”
For a member of the media to advocate for campaigns alone to do the vetting is an abdication of journalistic duty.
Fondacaro's interpretation is wrong -- so wrong, in fact, that Todd himself complained to the Media Research Center, resulting in a editor's note added to the top stating that the post's headline had been changed from "Chuck Todd: It's not the media's job to vet Trump's past," agreeing with Todd that "it wasn't an accurate sense of his statements."
What Todd said is that the media has put critical information about Trump out there -- contrary to Fondacaro's assertion -- and the campaigns of Trump's opponents have plenty of ammuntion should they decide to use it. He's right; for instance, the Washington Post reported on the scammy nature of Trump University way back last September -- CNN was reporting on it as far back as 2013 -- but it was not until the most recent GOP presidential debate that any of his opponents called him out on it.
(Not that you'll see that mentioned at the MRC, which apparently thinks "the media" is just the evening news on the three broadcast networks, and put out a piece by Mike Ciandella following that debate whining about the lack of coverage there.)
Fondacaro is effectively demanding that the media be biased against Trump. So why is the MRC so mad when there's anti-Trump bias in the media?
Two days later, Tim Graham complained that a Washington Post editorial pointed out that Trump's campaign declaration to deport all illegal immigrants would be " a forced movement on a scale not attempted since Stalin or perhaps Pol Pot." You'd think that would be the kind of comparison Graham would favor since his boss, Brent Bozell, is avowedly anti-Trump.
But Graham instead laments the Post's "unhinged comparisons that make no historical sense," then quickly changed the subject to Clinton-bashing, perhaps remembering that it's not really company policy to be defending Trump at all.
The man who continually insists he’s a good Christian yet who rarely goes to church, who consistently avoids commemoration of Christian holidays, but who bends over backward to pay homage to Islam.
The man who made an official visit and speech to Georgetown University – a Roman Catholic University – yet insisted that every piece of art, crucifix, image and artifact that portrayed Christianity or Jesus be covered so that it wouldn’t be seen in any camera coverage of the man during his appearance and speech.
Yeah, that’s him. Barack Obama. The man who says one thing and does another – and does it with a straight face.
He indeed did it again!
Barack Obama made his first official visit to a mosque in this country.
[...]
There was no need to go to a mosque – a controversial one, at that – unless Obama’s political agenda concerning Muslims and Islam were the real reason.
Do you think it had anything to do with the fact that Obama is in the midst of importing thousands of Muslim Syrian so-called refugees into the country and deliberately scattering them in every state, without notifying state officials as to where they’ll go or how to provide for them?
[...]
Obama may have made some political points with his Muslim buddies but free, thinking Americans know better.
Until Obama supports the U.S., Christians and Jews as fully as he does Muslims and Islam, we know exactly which side he’s on – and his constant telling us he’s a “Christian” becomes as transparent as he is.
In seven short years, he nearly doubled the national debt. He weakened our military. He kicked sand in the face of our friends and strengthened our enemies. He opened our borders and created an atmosphere of lawlessness. He further divided the races. He took over one-sixth of our economy. He kicked the rungs out from under the ladder of opportunity, put more people on the public dole and abused the power of his office.
With little or no push-back from the weak-kneed Republican leaders in Congress, it is little wonder there is a general feeling of helplessness among so many. They are willing to give up what’s left of their freedom to a leader who will promise to give them something – anything – for nothing.
Barack Obama’s perennially Orwellian rhetoric is not only a function of his political designs; it is an integral component to international socialist subjugation of the West. To the rational mind, it appears that this can only end in chaos, but the chaos itself is meant to give rise to the global socialist state – or at least a hard-line socialist collective of developed nations.
For my part, I can say that an insurrection in America – which would at least carry some hope of defeating the international socialists and their Islamist surrogates – would be far superior to Americans existing in the state of fear and increasing bedlam to which citizens are being subjected in Scandinavia and Germany, with the grimy followers of a verminous cult raping and pillaging at will, and the vile creatures who govern rushing to excuse this behavior at every available opportunity.
Try to imagine Obama having even one good friend with whom he had strong political disagreements. It’s hard to see, isn’t it? Obama’s not interested in free-wheeling debate. He’s not really intellectually curious. He doesn’t care about understanding why others have different points of view. He’s not even interested in understanding them. He’s ideologically rigid, genuinely intolerant, anti-intellectual and close-minded.
In other words, Obama and Scalia represent polar oppositions in many ways.
So it didn’t surprise me that Obama was a no-show at the funeral.
And yet, instead of seizing the day and reducing the divisiveness surrounding Scalia’s death and vacancy filling, like a dog that returns to his vomit, Obama couldn’t resist reeling back to his narcissistic and divisive modus operandi.
Since early in his presidency, Obama confessed that he’d like to “bypass Congress and change the laws on my own.” He added, “Believe me, the idea of doing things on my own is very tempting. I promise you.”
He doesn’t need to promise us. We believe him, because we’ve been watching his rogue and discordant behavior since the moment he entered office.
And we, conservatives, are the factional and close-minded fools?
At the risk of giving life to yet another wholly unfounded conspiracy theory, we’ve known for decades that people can be subtly manipulated through subliminal messages on television. Audiogenic seizures (those caused by sound) have been known to scientists for a long time, and some years back, they even discovered that the stroboscopic effects in some video games can induce seizures in humans.
So, what might the starry-eyed, nouveau riche elitist and Obamaphile [Mark] Zuckerberg have in mind for VR consumers – a segment that is likely to explode as VR equipment prices come down and the technology improves? In Barcelona, Zuckerberg announced that Facebook’s proprietary streaming technology would soon be incorporated into Samsung’s VR hardware and that Facebook had created a “social VR team” to explore how people can connect using VR technology.
Why, that sounds strikingly similar to announcements Obama has made about exploratory “teams” he has deployed to gather data on such things as mass scale behavior prediction. Should we be concerned that surreptitious mind control via virtual reality headsets is in store for our future?
MRC Responds To 'Union Propaganda' With Anti-Union Propaganda Topic: NewsBusters
Curtis Louder whines in a Feb. 23 NewsBusters post:
In this week's episode of Wal-Mart, I mean Superstore, we get to one of the issues we've all anticipated since the show's premiere: labor unions. As Cheyenne (Nichole Bloom) goes into labor at work, the chaos is comical but the dialogue is obviously meant to persuade the viewer that it's the store's responsibility to take care of the 17-year-old pregnant girl. Almost makes you think that having Cheyenne as a pregnant character was all about making political statements (i.e. abortion) and now paid maternity leave.
Jonah lectures the other employees, "This is ridiculous. She shouldn't have to kill herself to have a baby. Did you guys know that in every other first-world nation, paid maternity leave is just automatic?"
And how will the employees force the company to pay? By starting a union, of course!
This is how the left always works. Create problems, build sympathy, then propose a solution.
Is Louder saying that Cheyenne got pregnant in order to create the "problem" of needing maternity leave? Weird.
Louder then peddles well-worn right-wing tropes against labor unions:
Wal-Mart is the largest employer in the universe. Over a million people collect a check from wallyworld and sure it isn't always $15 an hour but it isn't brain surgery either. And if it was $15 an hour then Wal-Mart wouldn't be the biggest and cheapest retailer. It's called capitalism. Not perfect, but better than anything else.
Labor unions are not inherently evil. They may have done some great things a century ago but they have also stymied innovation. For example, Uber has had to fight taxi unions in order to serve in certain areas. They have also led to violence at times and we all know they are a giant Democratic Super PAC.
Labor unions haven't done anything for a century? Really? Others beg to differ.
Louder concludes by cheering that the Cloud 9 superstore in "Superstore" acted like its real-world doppelganger, Walmart, when faced with employees seeking better treatment from their employer: by firing them all. "Harsh truths for the Cloud 9 employees. Certainly not the result they were all expecting," he smugly adds.
Do Kathleen Willey And WND Endorse Roger Stone's Sleazy Sexism? Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily's Jerome Corsi gave Kathleen Willey's latest rantings an uncritical platform in a Feb. 22 article that touts the unsubtly named "Rape PAC," which has a goal of attacking Hillary Clinton's campaign. Corsi adds: "Roger Stone, a confident of former presidents Nixon and Reagan, and author of the 2015 bestselling book 'The Clintons’ War on Women,' has been working with Willey to create the anti-Clinton Rape PAC."
Rsther than explain on what planet Stone's book is "bestselling" -- Amazon ranks it at No. 5,359, hardly a bestseller -- Corsi then quotes Stone whining about "the Clintons’ chronic abuse of women and how Hillary has destroyed any woman who has potentially gotten in the way of their lust for power and wealth.
Corsi failed to mention Roger Stone's own abuse of women, which makes him a very ironic representative of Kathleen Willey.
Just this week, Stone was banned from appearing on CNN for his vicious attacks on Republican strategist Ana Navarro, whom he has called a "Diva Bitch" and "Borderline retarded," and insulting her looks by stating that "Black beans and rice didn't miss her."
Stone has also hurled sexist epithets at other women, including "muff-diver," "elitist c*nt," "professional Negro," and "all around bitch."
And we haven't even gotten to his proud swinger lifestyle which includes possibly more sexual partners than Bill Clinton.
Or that the co-author of Stone's book, Robert Morrow, has some bizarre and creepy sexual fantasies about Hillary. By associating herself with Stone, Willey is associated with this guy too.
How does Willey feel about teaming with a sleazy political operative who has waged his own war on women? Corsi doesn't seem very interested in finding out the answer, and Willey -- whose latest campaign to get Clinton-haters to buy her a house to make up for her apparently terrible financial management skills has stalled out at a paltry $6,795 of the $100,000-plus she wants -- hasn't publicly addressed the issue.
MRC Uses Man-In-Women's-Restroom Incident To Freak Out About Transgenders Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center has a habit of freaking out about transgenders in general, as well as pushing the right-wing "bathroom myth" -- in which allowing transgenders to use the restroom or locker room of their gender identity will somehow create perversion and danger to women -- regardless of the facts.
Mairead McArdle gives the myth another go in a Feb. 19 NewsBusters post, derisively referring to the issue as "confused commodes." She howled about how "a cisgender man invaded a women’s locker room last week" in Seattle. But the article McArdle cites about the incident does not describe the culprit as "cisgender" -- indeed, McArdle later flip-flops and admits that "this particular man seemed only to be making a clumsy statement about the new rule and did not try to identify himself as a woman."
McArdle goes on to baselessly claim that the incident -- even though it had nothing to do with gender identity and may, for all we know, been perpetrated by a right-wing activist protesting the idea of using the bathroom of one's gender identity -- as a "dangerous precedent" and "The man could just as easily have been a predator pretending to identify as a woman."
Well, no. McArdle refuses to acknowledge that there's simply no evidence to support the right-wing claim that allowing transgenders to use facilities consistent with their gender identity opens the door to predators.
But, apparently, hating transgenders gets clicks at the MRC, so expect McArdle and others to keep forwarding their factually deficient propaganda.
WND's Still Kinda Pushing Scalia Conspiracy Theories Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily's attempt to promote conspiracy theories about Antonin Scalia's death may be fizzling out, but that doesn't mean it's stopped nudging the thing along.
This time around, Cheryl Chumley does the honors. She writes in a Feb. 24 article that a doctor whotreats members of Congress pointed out that Scalia died from "his many medical conditions" and that "there was nothing suspicious to see and those who thought otherwise were not fully informed."
But WND dog-whistles the conspiracy with the headline "Scalia death: Nothing to see here, doctor says" (which remains in the URL but has since been changed on the article itself). And Chumlmey herself highlighted "the failure of authorities to perform an autopsy that could confirm or deny much of the information put forth by law enforcement and medical officials," as pointed out by Donald Trump, and quoted a "close friend" of Scalia who was "stunned and shocked" at his death.
Chumley followed that up with an article credulously quoting comedian Dick Gregory effectively repeating the conspiracy theories that WND has tried to promote: "You know they murdered him, right? ... They said they found him with a pillow over his face. That place where he was, it’s a place where money folks go and do their freak stuff. One of the most powerful people in the world and he ain’t got no bodyguard, man?"
Chumley added that "Gregory’s quips underscore the questions that still remain over Scalia’s February 13 death, despite the findings from authorities that nothing unusual or suspicious occurred, as WND reported."
We shouldn't be surprised -- WND did continue to push Obama birther conspiracies for years after the facts undermined them.
MRC's Baker Unhappy Scalia's Questionable Ethical Behavior Is Reported Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center's Brent Baker whines in a Feb. 19 NewsBusters post:
A story topic so enticing, they ran it twice. Apparently, not even dying is enough to deter media hostility – if you’re a conservative. Headline on page A6 in Thursday’s Washington Post: “Justice Scalia’s free stay at luxury ranch highlights judicial ethics questions.” Subhead: “Should judges socialize with people who could have cases before them?” (Online version: “Why Justice Scalia was staying for free at a Texas resort”).
Page A2 of Friday’s paper: “Justices travel often, but it’s not always clear who pays.” Subhead: “Scalia was staying free at the resort in Texas where he died.”
Both stories led with plenty of innuendo about Scalia, only getting to other justices deep in the articles.
Baker offered no evidence to contradict the claims made in the article, which means he's upset those claims were made at all. That seems to make him a would-be censor.
And it's quite hilarious that the the MRC, which can'tstopbringingup Chappaquiddick even though Ted Kennedy's been dead for years, has now declared any mention of possible ethical breaches by Scalia to be verboten because he just died.
WND Takes The Side Of Another Tax Protester Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily has a soft spot for scofflaws and activists who refuse to pay the taxes they owe. After all, one of WND's early financiers was a businessman who's currently in prison for tax evasion (not to mention threatening a judge and fleeing the country to avoid an earlier attempt at justice).
In that spirit, Alex Newman wrote a lengthy Feb. 21 WND article on Doreen Hendrickson, who he claims is now "sitting behind bars" for "sign a form under penalty of perjury that she believed to be inaccurate" -- her tax returns.
In WND tradition, Newman is highly biased toward Hendrickson's plight, to the point that he leaves out inconvenient facts. At no point in his 77-paragraph article does Newman bother to quote from the prosecution's case (though he claims that "The Justice Department did not respond to repeated requests by phone and email for information from WND") or even to describe exactly what Hendrickson did, let alone demonstrate what was supposedly false about the amended tax returns she was allegedly compelled to sign.
Apparently, Newman was incapable of performing a simple Google search that would have quickly uncovered the DOJ press release on Hendrickson's sentencing (which occurred last April, meaning Newman had many months to work on this story) that explained exactly what Hendrickson did:
According to court filings and evidence presented at trial, Hendrickson and her husband, Peter Hendrickson, filed federal income tax returns for the years 2002 and 2003 on which they falsely claimed they earned zero wages. Based on these false returns, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) issued the Hendricksons more than $20,000 in income tax refunds that they were not entitled to receive. In 2006, the Tax Division sued the Hendricksons to recover these refunds. As part of that litigation, Judge Edmunds ordered the Hendricksons to file corrected amended tax returns for 2002 and 2003 that reported all of their income, and further ordered them to repay their fraudulently obtained refunds to the IRS. Judge Edmunds also barred the Hendricksons from filing additional false tax returns.
In 2009, Peter Hendrickson was convicted of filing multiple false income tax returns, including the 2002 and 2003 returns that he filed jointly with his wife. The tax returns at issue were based on the false and frivolous tax theories that Peter Hendrickson promoted in his book, “Cracking the Code,” and on his website, Lost Horizons. Peter Hendrickson was sentenced to serve 27 months in prison in that case.
The evidence presented at Doreen Hendrickson’s trial showed that she violated the injunction issued by Judge Edmunds when she failed to file amended 2002 and 2003 tax returns. Also, in direct violation of Judge Edmunds’s order, Hendrickson filed a false income tax return for 2008 on which she falsely claimed that wages she earned as a movie extra were not taxable. This tax return was submitted while her husband was under indictment for filing false tax returns.
Newman never explains why Dorren Hendrickson's claim that she made no money in 2002 and 2003 is accurate, given that the DOJ apparently provided evidence that she did, in fact, have income. He also fails to mention that Pete Hendrickson spent time in prison for filing false tax returns.
And even though Newman had months to write this story, the only thing he says of Pete Hendrickson's anti-tax screed is that "WND has not reviewed the book nor its arguments" and quotes him as asserting "This entire affair is an effort to discredit my book."
Newman went on to repeat Pete Hendrickson's assertion that "many Americans had successfully used the arguments he advances and posted the evidence of success online." Well, that's notquite true: there's at least one case in which someone using his arguments was fined $2,500 for doing so.
That case also noted that Pete Hendrickson has a previous conviction for conspiring to blow up a mailbox on tax day, and it exposes the tricks he pushes in his anti-tax book, such as an "unduly narrow -- indeed, wholly unreasonable -- definition of 'person.'" It adds that "Mr. Hendrickson has been enjoined 'from filing any tax return, amended return, form * * * or other writing or paper with the IRS that is based on the false and frivolous claims set forth in Cracking the Code that only federal, state or local government workers are liable for the payment of federal income tax or subject to the withholding of federal income, social security and Medicare taxes from their wages.'"
The ruling sums up Hendrickson's book as "an antitax screed, short on substance and long on invective" and is "largely an exercise in twisting the meaning of words into what the author wants them to mean, even if statutes, regulations, and case law define those words otherwise."
The fact that Newman could not or would not find any of this information tells us he's serving as a stenographer and propagandist, not a reporter.
CNS Serves Up Ridiculous Anti-Hillary Bias As 'News' Topic: CNSNews.com
The mission statement for CNSNews.com states in part that it tires to "cover stories that are subject to the bias of omission and report on other news subject to bias by commission."
And how does it do that? By engaging in a lot of bias by commission.
Take, for example, this Feb. 17 "news" article by Susan Jones on a Hillary Clinton speech:
Repeating the same promises and platitudes that African-Americans have heard for years from the Democrats who claim to represent them, Hillary Clinton on Tuesday went a step further: She mentioned her (white) "privilege"; and she said Democrats need to hold candidates accountable, "not just every two or four years...but every single day."
[...]
She made all the old, familiar promises: expanding pre-school; dismantling the "school-to-prison pipeline"; ending "excessive incarceration"; addressing re-segregation in the nation's schools; making college affordable; ending "gun violence"; ending the "epidemic of African Americans being killed by police or dying in custody"; banning the box on federal job applications; ending income disparities; and creating jobs in America's inner cities.
Again: This is a "news" article from a "news" organization that purports to loathe "bias by commission."
If a reporter for the so-called "liberal media" used a "news" article to dismiss a Republican presidential candidate's speech as nothing but "promises and platitudes," CNS' parent, the Media Research Center, would be screaming bloody murder. But the MRC apparently has no problem with such a heavy political slant as long at its own right-wing agenda is being furthered in the process.
If someone from CNS can explain why such egregious bias is not just permitted but encouraged on its pages when it's run by an organization that attacks media bias, feel free to contact me.
WND Not Even Bothering To Do Real Birther Reporting Anymore Topic: WorldNetDaily
How much does WorldNetDaily notwantto cover birther stories involving people other than Barack Obama? It's not even assigning reporters to write about it anymore.
The last bylined birther-related story at WND was a Feb. 12 article by Douglas Ernst on Donald Trump's threats to file a lawsuit challenging Trump's eligibility. It's a relatively balanced article -- not somsething that happened when WND covered the issue of Obama's eligibility.
Since then, WND has simply copied-and-pasted (read: stolen) the works of others in reporting on new birther issues:
A Feb. 18 article on a Cruz birther case heading to court was stolen from CNN.
A Feb. 22 article on Trump now going after Marco Rubio's eligibility was stolen from Politico.
By contrast, WND assigned reporter Paul Bremmer to cover Glenn Beck's declaration that he's fasting to benefit Cruz's campaign. Priorities!
MRC Loves That Spanish-Language Channel Is Spreading Anti-Clinton Sleaze Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center couldn't be more psyched that a news program on the Spanish-language network MegaTV spread a sleazy report about Hillary Clinton. From a Feb. 22 post credited only to "MRC Latino Staff":
A few days ago, we covered a one-sided pro-sanctuary cities story on Mega Noticiero and wondered aloud whether this new national Spanish-language newscast was going to do anything to differentiate itself from the rest of the market. Boy, were we wrong.
Interesting things happen when your network is not partially owned by a top Clinton Foundation donor who has pledged his “full might” to electing Hillary Clinton to the presidency. Case in point: Mega Noticiero actually went there and covered a fresh story regarding Hillary Clinton’s alleged lesbian proclivities:
MARIA ELVIRA SALAZAR, ANCHOR, MEGA NEWS: Now, the supposed ex-lover of former President Bill Clinton is assuring that Hillary is a lesbian. Miss Sally Miller, who was once Miss Arkansas, says she had a romance with Bill in 1983, and that the then Governor of that state told her that Hillary didn't like having sex with him, because she preferred sex with women.
The story aired during the newscast’s new “Political Circus” segment, a daily roundup of the varied goings-on of the campaign trail and highlight, per Salazar, “what goes on under the tent.”
The story has yet to air on any other major national television newscast, in English or Spanish. Mega Noticiero was evidently willing to take the risk involved, trust its viewers to watch the reporting and let them decide for themselves.
The item signals the beginning of what appears to be real market differentiation in the national Spanish-language media space.
So it's good that a media outlet is expressing "real market differentiation" by acting like the obsessive Clinton-haters at WorldNetDaily -- which, unsurprisingly, promoted the same claim -- by promoting a woman who's widely considered to have no credibility? Apparently it is at MRC Latino.
When we pointed it out to MRC Latino on Twitter, he/she/they responded, "the post simply observes, takes note of the dynamics of the coverage out there." They later added: "focus is not promotion or endorsement, but analysis of what's already out there and going on in media segment."
That's a disingenous defense. MRC Latino could have distanced itself from the content of the smear it was promoting has it talked about "market differentiation," but it didn't. And MRC Latino is not afraid to judge content, at least when it comes to content that doesn't mesh with its ideology: Five days earlier, "MRC Latino Staff" dedicated a post to attacking the very same news show for a story on sanctuary cities, declaring that it was "breathtaking, to say the least, in the scope of its bias."
MRC Latino, meanwhile, chearly has no problem with the breathtaking bias of the Hillary smear promulgated by the very same people.
That's some very shoddy "media research" there. But that's what you get when people who aren't very fond of Latinos monitor Latino media.
Jeb Bush is out of the presidential race now, though Newsmax editor Christopher Ruddy shilled hard for him of late, writing two columns in the past few weeks to boost him.
There’s a reason Florida is one of the most desired places to live: it’s Jeb Bush.
There is a reason that Florida is a strong, Republican-controlled state: Jeb Bush.
There is even a reason Marco Rubio is running for president today: Yep, Jeb again.
As New Hampshire voters come down to the wire, I think Republican voters there and across the country need to take a serious, second look at Jeb.
While I think we have a remarkable field — from a brilliant businessman like Donald Trump, a conservative champion like Carly Fiorina, a charismatic Rubio, and respected governors like Chris Christie and John Kasich, Jeb may fit the bill of what Americans want this November.
[...]
With all of the noise in the current campaign, it’s vitally important we conservatives look for a leader with a strong track record, a real leader.
Surely the American people will look for these qualities come November — and Jeb has them in spades.
Ruddy went to bat for Jeb again on Feb. 17, doing his best to spin Bush's electoral problems:
Bush has had his share of stumbles, but he has shown resiliency for several reasons.
First, he has had a powerful conservative record as governor in Florida. No candidate in the race comes close to Jeb’s record on taxes, spending, pro-life, pro-gun, state’s rights and other issues conservatives are about. It’s indisputable.
Second, he has a national organization ready to fund and sustain him though a primary with either Trump or Cruz, and later through a fierce general election campaign against Hillary.
Third, while appearing rusty in early debates, Bush has risen to the occasion, having given a strong performance in Charleston.
[...]
So far, Jeb Bush has outperformed. The pundits said he would be an asterisk in New Hampshire. But he came in a solid fourth place, ahead of Rubio.
If he comes in second or third in South Carolina, he will be positioned as the leading establishment candidate through Super Tuesday.
After that, he will have an even stronger hand in primary states ahead like Florida, California, New York, Illinois, to name a few.
And, if day one of a Jeb Bush presidency happens, the country will be in very good hands.
Remember, Ruddy is a player in Florida Republican politics, where Bush is from and where Newsmax is headquartered. He's tried to playkingmaker for various Republican candidates there, and at one point was a possible candidate for the Senate seat currently held by Democrat Bill Nelson.
Of course, in between thouse two columns on Bush, Ruddy wrote one praising Donald Trump, gushing, "Donald Trump is a born winner."
Logrolling In Our Time, Jim Fletcher Edition Topic: WorldNetDaily
We've documented that one of Jim Fletcher's duties as a WorldNetDaily columnist is to crank out rave reviews of WND-published books. He does this yet again in his Feb. 14 WND column:
America has endured epic crises in her history: the Great Depression, world wars, even internal strife. Perhaps none, though, compares with the current Thing in the White House. David Kupelian has it right in his spot-on new book, “The Snapping of the American Mind: Healing a Nation Broken by a Lawless Government and Godless Culture.” Kupelian, whose books are correctly defined by an endorser as “fearless,” has that rarest of virtues: he doesn’t care what critics think when he says things that need to be said.
In fact, Kupelian starts off early in “Snapping” by correctly defining the agenda of the Obama administration, calling it a “largely concealed agenda.” This key understanding, of course, is markedly different from those in the majority who lament the “incompetence” of Obama.
If only.
[...]
“The Snapping of the American Mind” is the kind of book that mavericks write and produce, and I dare say if we didn’t have independent outlets, the average American would know next to nothing. Because people do know what’s going on, thanks in large part to researchers like Kupelian, the country has a chance to survive the Marxist-in-chief. In fact, Kupelian also keenly understands what other fighters like David Horowitz understand: Our opponents have contempt for the “niceness” that has gripped the Republican Party.
Kupelian is having none of it. An example of how he skillfully dismisses ideological opponents: “To my liberal friends: Do me a favor and don’t tell me, ‘But the ’50s had racial segregation.’ Yes, and today we dismember, poison, vacuum, crush the skulls of, chemically burn, or decapitate three thousand beautiful human babies every single day. So just drop it.”
[...]
Every single chapter in “Snapping” is gold. The reader will learn not only why we are where we are, but also he points to the ultimate solution: not the false messiah so many are embracing, but the Real One.
(One final note: I love books with an index. This one has one; just an added reason to get it, read it, absorb it.)
Fletcher fails to mention even once that not only is the book published by WND, Kupelian is WND's managing editor. Yet every single mention of the book's title in this purported review is linked to WND's online store. Hype over substance!
MRC-Mark Levin Business Arrangement/Love Affair Watch Topic: Media Research Center
It says something about the business relationship the Media Research Center has with right-wing radio host Mark Levin that the lead story on MRC's "news" website CNSNews.com yesterday was Levin starting a TV channel, with the giant patriotic handout shot of Levin that being the lead story entails (screen shot above). And CNS managing editor Michael W. Chapman has all the fawning details:
Best selling author, talk-radio giant, and conservative leader Mark Levin is branching out further in the digital media world by launching LevinTV, through the media company CRTV. The first episode of LevinTV will air on March 7.
Levin, who reaches millions of people daily through his radio program, The Mark Levin Show, will expand his audience through this digital based television platform, which is described as “America’s new televised Town Hall meeting,” in a statement from CRC Public Relations.
“I have the greatest audience in the world and I give them my best every night,” said Mark Levin. “I am thrilled we are expanding our Town Hall meeting place for patriots, by taking TV broadcasting to a new level on multiple platforms where I will speak directly to my audience -- uncensored, without middlemen, and commercial free.”
Chapman didn't mention that the MRC is apparently one of those platforms where Levin can speak "uncensored, without middlemen, and commercial free." Nor did he mention that Levin's PR firm, CRC Public Relations, also does work for the MRC.
But that wasn't enough Levin boosterism for CNS. It followed up with an article by Susan Jones that's nothing more than a transcription of a speech by Levin.
WND's Farah Denounces Jewish Profiling, Hides That WND Columnist Did It Topic: WorldNetDaily
Joseph Farah writes in his feb. 16 WorldNetDaily column:
It’s been going for decades in Washington – especially in the military and intelligence sectors.
Jews and former Israelis continue to be negatively profiled for government employment and contractor positions, especially those that involve security clearances.
Impossible you say?
No, it’s a dirty little fact and hardly a secret in Washington.
How can this be so when Barack Obama and the Washington establishment consistently denounce the idea of “profiling” people?
[...]
The sad fact is there is a growing bias against Israel in Washington, under the Obama administration, on college campuses where Israel defenders are often denied a forum to speak, in short, wherever so-called “progressives” reign supreme.
Farah didn't mention that one of his own WND columnists engaged in a more vile form of Jewish "profiling" -- to the point that it's arguably anti-Semitism.
WND columnist Ted Nugent proclaimed earlier this month that gun control was some kind of Jewish-led conspiracy, posting on his Facebook page pictures of Jewish politicians that included a small Israeli flag stamped on each individual’s face. He later defended the post, ranting, "What sort of racist prejudiced POS could possibly not know that Jews for guncontrol are nazis in disguise?" White nationalists loved it.
Yet Farah and WND has been silent about this offensive behavior by one of its columnists. Then again, Farah is too gutless to drop Ann Coulter's column no matter how offensive she gets gecause WND needs the clicks she brings.
(P.S. Two days after Farah's column appeared, Nugent finally apologized for the post, though it's still live on his Facebook page. WND hasn't mentioned that, either.)