CNS Whines 'Ouija Board-Using Gay Poets Home' Named A Historic Site Topic: CNSNews.com
See if you can spot the anti-gay bias in the headline and lead paragraph of this Nov. 10 CNSNews.com article by Penny Starr:
Feds Name New National Historic Landmarks: Ouija Board-Using Gay Poet’s Home, ‘Under World’ Relic and ‘Utopian Society’
The Department of Interior (DOI) and the National Park Service (NPS) have announced 10 new national historic landmarks, including the home of a homosexual poet, a relic from Shamanism, and the location of a “utopian society.”
Notice Starr's fixation on the poet in question, James Merrill, being gay, and plays up his onetime fixation on a Ouija board to make him even more evil. Starr repeats that later in the article, making sure to also note he died of AIDS complications:
The poet James Merrill’s house in New London, Connecticut is on the list. Merrill, who died of AIDs [sic] in 1995, also wrote novels, plays and a memoir. He is described by the DOI and NPS this way: “Over time, he introduced more radical material into his poetry, including well-crafted examination about homosexuality, art and spiritualism. He wrote with subtlety and sympathy of gay life, illuminating its anxieties and fulfillments.”
Much of Merrill’s later writing, such as The Changing Light of Sandover epic, was based upon his use of the occult Ouija board and poetic expression of otherworldly voices.
This, of course, is all of a piece with CNS' anti-gayagenda. But Starr also complains that other things that are not right-wing Christian are being protected: The "Man Mound" in Wisconsin, a prehistoric effigy mound that likely depicts "either a shaman or a Lower World human/spirit transformation," and a historic district in Ohio that once was the center of a "utopian society,both of which she outlines at length.
By contrast, one of the new landmarks that warranted only a mention on a bullet list was the Mississippi State Capitol. She didn't mention that it was the seat of a state government that perpetuated racism for decades. You'd think that might be a tad more offensive than a gay poet, or at least merit mention as part of its history, but apparently not in Starr's eyes.
Mission Accomplished: Facebook Too Intimidated By Right-Wingers To Stop Fake News Topic: Media Research Center
Earlier this year, we detailed how Media Research Center chief Brent Bozell joined other conservatives in attacking Facebook for alleged bias on its "trending topics" feed, even taking part in a right-wing delegation to Facebook HQ to rant at them the error of their ways. The MRC censored the views of delegation member Glenn Beck, who portrayed the visit as a shakedown.
Well, the visit had its intended effect -- and proved Beck right. Gizmodo reports that Facebook's news feeds have been swamped by items from fake news sites designed to boost Donald Trump's presidential campaign, and sources said Facebook was afraid to do anything about it lest it offend Bozell's brigade again:
According to two sources with direct knowledge of the company’s decision-making, Facebook executives conducted a wide-ranging review of products and policies earlier this year, with the goal of eliminating any appearance of political bias. One source said high-ranking officials were briefed on a planned News Feed update that would have identified fake or hoax news stories, but disproportionately impacted right-wing news sites by downgrading or removing that content from people’s feeds. According to the source, the update was shelved and never released to the public. It’s unclear if the update had other deficiencies that caused it to be scrubbed.
“They absolutely have the tools to shut down fake news,” said the source, who asked to remain anonymous citing fear of retribution from the company. The source added, “there was a lot of fear about upsetting conservatives after Trending Topics,” and that “a lot of product decisions got caught up in that.”
Now that the election is over, Facebook is finally cracking down on fake news.
It looks Bozell and the MRC got what it wanted -- media outlets too intimidated by right-wing activists to something even so basic as fix a flaw that permits the dissemination of fake news. And as long as that fake news benefited a Republican, we have to assume the MRC is perfectly fine with that -- after all, we'd never hear the end of it from Bozell and Co. if the fake news Facebook wouldn't stop benefited Hillary Clinton.
As Its Readers Show Racism, WND Shuts Down Comments on Article About Racist Smear of Michelle Obama Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily rarely does much in the way of monitoring its comment threads -- it's much more interested in banning critics (we speak from experience) than banning anyone who says the most vile things about President Obama and his family. But, apparently, even WND has some standards every once in a while.
A Nov. 15 WND article by Art Moore tells the story of the mayor of a West Virginia town who resigned following the backlash she received from approving of a Facebook post that called Michelle Obama an "ape on heels." But three hours after the article was posted, WND closed the comments section after just 114 comments were posted.
WND rarely closes comment sections on articles, and it's almost unheard of for it to do it so soon after an article is posted. Then again, the article's subject matter inspired WND's Obama-hating readers to new heights of racism. A sample of the comments:
Michael Obama always looks like hes chewing a tire
Heels actually fit on hooves?
THE MOVIE WASNT THAT GOOD EITHER -- WHAT WAS THE NAME OF IT ? "GORILLAS IN OUR MIDST" -- I ALWAYS JUST THOUGHT SHE WAS CHEWBACCAS YOUNGER GENDER CONFUSED SIBLING -- WELL WHATEVER - GOOD RIDDANCE TO BOTH OF THEM -- TRAITORS ALL
How are they wrong? Michael (Michelle) is a former male football linebacker. How disgusting can it be to have a tranny and a dope dealing, dog meat eating queer in the White House...
Is "Obviously a man and not fooling anyone" in heels better?
Moochie is a guy. "Everyone knows she's a tranny and he's gay." --Joan Rivers a few days before Obama had her whacked.
Google "michelle is a man",,,,, that's the real story.
Not an ape, but a Human, I mean Hu-Man, err, a Huge Man in heels!
The mayor should've resigned, everyone knows the current 1st Lady is a Wildebeest.
Oddly, while a few comments in the thread were listed as deleted, the above comments were not as of this writing. That's a big clue as to what's considered acceptable at WND -- racism toward the Obamas is perfectly fine, as long as the readers don't overdo it ... and expose the full nature of WND's audience.
MRC Suddenly Loves People Mag's Fluffy Profiles (When They're About Trump) Topic: Media Research Center
A Nov. 11 Media Research Center post by Sarah Stites detailed the hostile reaction some people had to the new issue of People magazine featuring Donald Trump and his presidential victory. Stites complained that "Many people are taking the hashtag #NotMyPresident seriously, believing that any endorsement or recognition of Donald Trump’s new role is an acceptance of the man himself," adding, "In the end, Donald Trump is the President-elect, whether the media world likes it or not. So yes, news coverage is to be expected."
But Stites revealed her hypocrisy on the issue of fluffy celebrity coverage, making sure to also complain: "However, prior to the election results, People’s pro-liberal bias was clear. In the election weekend issue, a Hillary Clinton interview revealed softball questions about such topics as the candidate’s coping mechanisms and her thoughts on being the first female president." Stites linked to a post by the MRC's Tim Graham complaining about said interview.
Indeed, the MRC regularly denounces People any time it includes a liberal on its pages, with Graham apparently serving as the MRC's designated People reader:
Graham ranted that People covered Trump's history of sordid sexual behavior.
He whined that "People magazine’s interview with Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine in the October 3 issue carried the usual hard-hitting questions from Sandra Sobieraj Westfall: 'Here’s one you probably won’t get in the debates: What emoji best describes you?'"
He also complained that the magazine did interviews with Huma Abedin, apparently mad that it noted Abedin tried to fix her marriage to Anthony Weiner before apparently finally giving the boot after another sexting scandal.
So if People covers Trump it's just "news coverage," but if it covers Clinton or Abedin it's "liberal media bias"? That's how the MRC mind works, it seems.
WND Hides That Farah Was The Original #NotMyPresident Guy Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily is a little concerned that Americans aren't accepting Donald Trump as their president:
A Nov. 13 article quoting far-right radio host Michael Savage advocating for the revival of the House Un-American Activities Committee expresses concern that "there is already a concerted effort to deny the legitimacy of Trump’s election, with 'Not My President' serving as a popular slogan for left-wing groups around the country."
Barbara Simpson's Nov. 13 WND column berates the "idiots are in the streets" protesting Trump's election and "screaming that he is not their president," adding: "Just for a moment, imagine what the reaction of the media would have been if conservatives reacted this way when Barack Obama was elected. Of course, that never happened, nor would it."
Actually, Barbara, it kinda did, and the guy who publishes your column -- WND editor Joseph Farah -- led it.
In a June 2009 WND article promoting a Farah appearance on Savage's radio show, a picture of President Obama is captioned not with "Preeident Obama but with the cumbersome "Barack Obama, the man elected president."
And in a June 2014 column, Farah made it very clear: "Obama has never been my president. I have steadfastly refused to acknowledge him as such. He is undeserving of the honorific. To this day, I am unconvinced he is even eligible for office."
So, it's rather rich for WND complain that some won't acknowledge Trump as president when WND's leader still refuses to acknowledge that Obama currently is. Had Twitter been around in 2008, Farah would have created the #NotMyPresident hashtag.
WND Flip-Flops on Trying to Influence Electoral College Topic: WorldNetDaily
A Nov. 10 WorldNetDaily article by Art Moore expresses concern that "more than 1 million people have signed a petition urging members of the Electoral College to vote for [Hillary Clinton] when they meet next month." He spends part of the article and defending it against a campaign to replace with the popular vote (which Hillary won).
WND previously had no problem with people messing with the Electoral College when election results didn't go its way -- in fact, it led a campaign to do just that.
A December 2008 article announced that "WND announced a historic first in its quest to establish Obama’s qualifications for office – a similar FedEx letter drive directed at individual electors" to one WND previously used to target the Supreme Court. The issue: birtherism, of course. The article continues:
As WND has reported, there remain serious questions as to whether Obama is “a natural born citizen,” as specified in Article 2, Section 1 of the Constitution. While he claims to have been born in Hawaii in 1961, two Obama family members have told WND they were present at his birth in Mombasa, Kenya.
Further, Obama has steadfastly refused to release publicly his full birth certificate that would identify the hospital of his birth, the attending physician and other details. Instead, the campaign posted a document purporting to be a birth certificate devoid of these details. It has also come under fire as a possible forgery.
The article stated that "WND was able to track down addresses for all 538 electors. With the new 'FedEx the Electoral College' program, you can reach all of them with a one-page pre-written letter, with your name and address attached, delivered overnight for less than it would cost you to FedEx one member – if you had the address." That cost was $10.95 -- one of WND's many attempts to skim money off its readers to send letters in bulk to politicians regarding certain issues despite never offering any evidence that the letters had any effect.
WND editor Joseph Farah wrote a column promoting the campaign, declaring that "unless we’re going to live under an honor system in the future, one that relies solely on what a candidate says about his own eligibility, there is no reason to believe Obama is. There is simply no valid evidence to prove it, and there is plenty to raise doubts."
A later WND article indicated that just 3,653 readers paid WND for the privilege, meaning WND grossed $40,000 on the effort.
In other words, WND is now looking disdainfully at something it happily did eight years ago. Expect a lot more of this behavior.
MRC Plays Dumb About Trump's Anti-LGBT Connections Topic: Media Research Center
In a Nov. 11 Media Research Center post, Sarah Stites dismissed reports of an increase in suicides by transgender youth as probably not true and tried to downplay the idea that a Donald Trump presidency will be any sort of threat to the LGBT community as president:
This anxiety-ridden reaction to Trump’s ascendency is concerning, especially in consideration of the fact that the president-elect has not voiced strongly conservative views on LGBT issues. In fact, in an April 21 interview with Matt Lauer, Trump recommended leaving the bathroom situation “the way it is.” "People go, they use the bathroom that they feel is appropriate,” he explained, “There has been so little trouble.” When Lauer pressed, “So if Caitlyn Jenner were to walk into Trump Tower and want to use the bathroom, you’d be fine with her using any bathroom she chooses?” Trump’s answer was telling: “That is correct.”
Based on his historically unpredictable policy positions, it is probably safe to assume that Trump is no solid social conservative. Additionally, he has discussed his open employment of LGBT people and has voiced no ill will against them. If transgender youth have anything to worry about regarding America’s 45th president, it should be his caprice—not his ideology.
While Trump himself may not care about LGBT issues, he has surrounded himself with people who care about them very much, and not in a positive way.
The head of domestic policy for Trump's transition team, Ken Blackwell of the right-wing Familiy Research Council, believes that being gay is no different from being a kleptomaniac or arsonist and is a "lifestyle" that "can be changed." He has also compared same-sex couples to farm animals.
Trump also named several anti-gay leaders to a campaign advisory council, including Michele Bachmann, James Dobson and Robert Jeffress.
Trump's apparent disinterest in LGBT issues may very well mean that the anti-gay leaders riding his coattails will have free rein to impose their agenda. Stites, however, thinks LGBT people haven't been paying attention to that and is simply playing dumb about the threat.
Earlier this year, we noted how WorldNetDaily tried to perpetuate the conspiracy theory that Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was murderered. It seems some aren't quite willing to let go of the conspiracy just yet.
Craige McMillan began his Oct. 21 WND column by asserting, "At least now we know why Justice Scalia was murdered. Democrats do not want a repeat of Bush/Gore in the Florida recounts if they can somehow move a close election to the U.S. Supreme Court."
McMillan engages in the usual anti-media ranting expected from an avid Trump supporter and Hillary-hater -- Democrats are plotting to steal the election, the media is claiming polls show Hillary ahead in order to discourage Republican turnout -- before hopping to this:
In the event you don’t think that Scalia was murdered, what did the autopsy report show? That’s your answer, isn’t it? A U.S. Supreme Court justice dies unexpectedly, at a private retreat owned and operated by a prior administration’s “fix it” man, and there is no attempt to determine the cause of death?
As we noted, the owner of the "private retreat" where Scalia died was likely showing his appreciation for the Supreme Court not taking up a case involving his company by letting Scalia stay there for free (which, somehow, McMillan doesn't find scandalous). Further, there was no evidence of foul play, Scalia had heart trouble and high blood pressure among other health problems, and his family felt no need to conduct an autopsy.
McMillan shows his lack of interest in facts later in his column when he rants, "Get a clue, America! The war on poverty has failed. The trillions spent fighting poverty have enriched only the ruling class now encamped in Washington, D.C., the richest ZIP code in the nation."
in fact, there are dozens of ZIP codes in the District of Columbia. And as the Washington Post reports, none of the five "richest" ZIP codes, as ranked by average income, are in the District of Columbia; three are in New York City, one's in Miami Beach, and one is in Wilmington, Del. All of those have an average income of more than $1 million; by contrast, the ZIP code with the highest income in the District of Columbia tops out at just $191,818.
McMillian is a WND columnist, after all, so why wouldn't he peddle falsehoods and promote conspiracy theories?
CNS Keeps Up Post-Election Stenography for Trump Topic: CNSNews.com
As we've documented, CNSNews.com thinks that simply regurgitating whatever Donald Trump has to say is the same thing as "reporting." With Trtump's victory, the stenography continues.
A Nov. 9 article by Susan Jones repeats Trum's victory speech, uncritically claiming that "He offered reassurance to racial, ethnic and religious minorities, promising that his movement will be 'comprised of people from all races, religions, backgrounds and beliefs who want and expect our government to serve the people -- and serve the people it will. Working together we will begin the urgent task of rebuilding our nation and renewing the American dream[']." Jones, who loves to inject snide editorial comments about President Obama and other things she doesn't agree with into her "news" articles, didn't see fit to note that Trump's claim of "reassurance" directly contradicts the rhetoric of his campaign, in which he insulted racial, ethnic and religious minorities (Muslims and Mexicans among them).
CNS Patrick Goodenough did slightly better in a Nov. 9 article noting Trump's post-election claim that "We will get along with all other nations, willing to get along with us." But instead of noting that it diverges from the much harsher tone of his campaign rhetoric, Goodenough states that Trump's "views on issues ranging from free trade to climate change to the Iran nuclear deal were sharply at odds with those of the Obama administration and many of its international partners."
But it was back to fawning stenography for a Nov. 11 article by CNS managing editor Michael W. Chapman that reads like a three-month-old Trump campaign press release:
As presented on the campaign trail and detailed on the Trump-Pence website, President–elect Donald Trump wants to implement school choice programs in all 50 states that will allow students and their parents to pick the school that works best for them, and the money to pay for it will follow the student, not the school bureaucracy.
“If we can put a man on the moon, dig out the Panama Canal, and win two World Wars, then I have no doubt that we, as a nation, can provide school choice to every disadvantaged child in America,” said Trump in a Sept. 8 speech in Cleveland, Ohio.
Remember that as the Media Research Center criticizes journalism that criticizes Trump, it runs a "news" division that is an arm of the Trump campaign.
WND Begs for Advertisers By Exaggerating Its Alexa Stats Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily is now running house ads on its website begging for advertisers, insisting that "WND Works!" Here's the pitch:
At WND (formerly WorldNetDaily), we LOVE working with our valued advertisers and have a true passion to drive consistent, real results that help them grow!
Ranked by Alexa.com as the No. 1 Internet destination for “conservatives,” WND is the leading independent news source on the Internet–and, founded back in 1997, one of the most well-established and trusted.
With between 25–30 million page views each month, WND attracts more traffic than seven of the 10 top newspapers sites–including the L.A. Times, Wall Street Journal and the New York Post!
WND consistently ranks among the largest 500 websites of any kind in the U.S.–and among the top 10 news providers!
Well, as we've previously demonstrated, a lot of what WND claims about itself regarding its popularity is exaggerated or misleading, and that seems to be case here.
Traffic-wise, WND is doing well right now according to Alexa, but that's a function of the election cycle -- it's currently at a peak, and its traffic will decline as we get away from election time. It also derives more than 13 percent of its traffic from the Drudge Report, which seems like a weakness.
There is no straight "conservative" category on Alexa; it's a subgroup under "politics," which itself is a subgroup under "society." And the lead website under Society/Politics/Conservatism right now is actually Alex Jones' Infowars.com; WND is second.
Also, according to Alexa, the L.A. Times, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post are all currently ranked higher than WND, which tells us that WND is lying about its traffic being higher than theirs.
The pitch concludes by claiming that "we’re growing every day!" But wasn't WND editor Joseph Farah begging its readers for money just a few short months ago?
Bozell's Trump Sellout Is Complete Topic: Media Research Center
Brent Bozell wrote in the National Review in February:
Longtime conservative leader Richard Viguerie has a simple test for credentialing a conservative: Does he walk with us?
For the simple reason that he cannot win without conservatives’ support, virtually every Republican presenting himself to voters swears so-help-me-God that he is a conservative. Many of these politicians are calculating, cynical charlatans, running as one thing only to govern in a completely different direction. See: McConnell, McCain, Hatch, Boehner, et al. And for decades it’s worked. Conservatives look at the alternatives — Reid, Pelosi, Obama, Clinton, et al. — and bite the bullet. We so often “win” — only for nothing to come of it.
The GOP base is clearly disgusted and looking for new leadership. Enter Donald Trump, not just with policy prescriptions that challenge the cynical GOP leadership but with an attitude of disdain for that leadership — precisely in line with the sentiment of the base. Many conservatives are relishing this, but ah, the rub. Trump might be the greatest charlatan of them all.
A real conservative walks with us.
How times change. In May, Bozell flip-flopped and threw the full resources of his Media Research Center behind Trump, later enthustiastically endorsing and parroting Trump's anti-media strategy (which, after all, was based on that of the MRC).
Now, it appears that Bozell's sellout to Trump is complete. A Nov. 9 article at Bozell's CNSNews.com by Matthew Hrozencik uncritically quotes Bozell, at a press conference of conservatives, fawning over Trump's skills as a businessman:
I told [Trump] that the only way you’re going to fix broken government, I believe, is to bring a businessman into Washington. And the only way that you’re going to manage this kind of level of financial output is somebody with business sense, who brings in people who have management experience. I would hope that he would do that and I think he will.
Curiously, Hrozencik first describes Bozell only as "president and treasurer of ForAmerica," not mentioning his MRC connection until the final paragraph.
Hrozencik didn't mention Bozell's previous attack on Trump, let alone provide an explanation of why Bozell made a complete 180 on him.He did note, though, that among the other conservatives at this little presser was none other than Richard Viguerie, who inspired Bozell's earlier rejection of Trump.
Hrozencik also edits out a telling statement from Bozell. If you look at the full video of the event, Bozell prefaced the above statement by saying, "My first in an endless number of miscalculations in this campaign was when I told Donald Trump he couldn't win, and -- which was in May of last year. But I told him that I thought he should run anyway, because with his money, why not."
That's a step toward a mea culpa, but it's not a full explanation. It also suggests that Bozell is not operating based on any fixed set of principles but on "calculations" -- in other words, craven politics.
In short, Bozell sold out his claimed values to stay on the correct side of the Republican Party and remain a player in the conservative movement.
No, Jeff Roorda, There Is Not A 'Genocide On Police' Topic: WorldNetDaily
Jeff Roorda's main gig is as the business manager for the police union in St. Louis, a platform he has used to bash anyone who dares criticize the police, especially after the death of Michael Brown in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson, Mo., and insisted that those progesting police brutality want "dead cops." He also lost a job as a police officer in another Missouri town for lying on a police report. He was also accused of assaulting a woman at a contentious public hearing on a civilian oversight board for St. Louis police (he won't be charged).
Roorda is also author of the newly released WorldNetDaily book "The War on Police" -- which appears to be an rewritten version of his self-published "Ferghanistan" --which denounces "a growing movement, fueled by a biased news media and Black Lives Matter, to demonize police across the country." This means WND has given him space to write op-eds. In September, for instance, Roorda attacked Colin Kaepernick's kneeling protest, ranting that "Kaepernick hates cops" and is "a special sort of treasonist" committing a "seditious act."
In a Nov. 8 WND column, Roorda begins by asking, "It’s a fair question: Are we witnessing a war against police or an act of genocide against police?" Unsurprisingly, he answers yes:
Genocide, constabulicide, the great blue massacre … whatever term you choose to use, you should consider – strongly – the possibility that what we’re witnessing now has escalated into something beyond just a war on police. If Dallas, Baton Rouge and Palm Springs didn’t convince you of that, the eight police officers that have died in a recent eight-day span should. The ambush-style execution of police has become a common occurrence in 2016, and now the cowardly assassination of the two Des Moines area police officers on Nov. 2 culminated a bloody spree of anti-police violence that took the life of an average of one American hero in blue per day starting on Oct. 26.
In fact, as the Washington Post points out, the number of police officers killed in the line of duty has been steadily declining for 40 years, and it has hit a record low under thte Obama administration, despite the uptick this year.
Roorda complains that Black Lives Matter are falsely claiming that "the real genocide is being carried out against young black men by police," but he omits the fact that the "cowardly assassination of the two Des Moines area police officers" came at the hands of a white man who was kicked out of a high school football game for waving a Confederate flag and had a Trump sign in his yard.
Roorda also writes, "I was on the streets of Ferguson and I heard the seething words of hatred that came from the mouths of the antagonists who overthrew an American city." Again, he's hiding something: a Justice Department report found that that Ferguson was a place that used its police and courts as moneymaking ventures, where officers stopped and handcuffed people without probable cause, hurled racial slurs, used stun guns without provocation, and treated anyone as suspicious merely for questioning police tactics.
In other words, what happened in Ferguson did not happen unprovoked. We suspect Roorda doesn't cover that in his WND book.
This is why the pundits got it all wrong. They believed the media and their spin, not just on the coronation of Hillary Clinton, but more important, on America’s repudiation of Donald Trump.
They saw Trump’s voters just as the Clinton campaign saw them: a basket of deplorables. All season long the pro-Hillary press treated Trump’s followers with utter contempt. At the same time the leftwing media were giving aid and comfort to Hillary Clinton, covering up her scandals when they could, spinning them in her favor when they couldn’t.
Don’t anyone here deny it. We documented it all season long. What we saw is what the public saw. In fact, conservatives heard top leftist reporters like Jorge Ramos calling on the news media – yes, the news media – to take sides against Donald Trump.
Needless to say, Bozell won't talk about what we saw:
How his MRC cravenly flip-flopped from Trump-bashers to Trump defenders without telling its readers why. Part of that was its conspiracy theory that "the media" wanted Trump to win the primary so he could be torn down in the general election.
How he and his MRC studiouslyavoided criticizing anything Fox News did in covering the election -- even when Trump criticized it -- in order to preserve the channel as an outlet for Bozell and other MRC staffers to pontificate about the terrible "liberal media."
Bozell's feigned outrage about Ramos was actually part of a calculated war against the Univision anchor to get him fired for daring to be critical of Trump.
The MRC further protecting Trump by insisting that any bad thing he was accused of doing was done first and worse by a Clinton.
The MRC embracing Trump's "rigged media" rants -- based on the MRC's own work -- and remaining silent about the threats of violence against journalists such rhetoric generates.
Bozell went on to show that his mission is only about destruction:
This was a massive repudiation of the press. Our message – “Don’t Believe the Liberal Media” succeeded, and in the next few days we will be unveiling a massive amount of polling data that will document this empirically.
The Gallup organization released a poll recently showing that the trust in the national news media has dropped to an all-time low, and dropped 25% in the last year alone. This is devastating.
The public now knows it is not getting news from the “news” media. It’s getting leftist propaganda, just as we’ve maintained.
The liberal media were the second-biggest losers last night. But as opposed to Clinton, their loss continues. Their credibility is shot, quite possibly for good. It is unfortunate for the honorable, professional journalists working – yes, they do exist – but it’s an incredible win for the American people.
Bozell never mentions the fact that his anti-media crusade has the effect of hurting the credibility of all media, not just the ones he deems "liberal."
And he never says what he wants this destroyed "liberal media" replaced with. That's because his preferred replacement is a right-wing media that just as biased. That's why the MRC stayed silent about right-wing media guy Steve Bannon going straight from Breitbart to running Trump's campaign -- something a member of the "liberal media" has never done for a Democratic candidate. That makes Bozell's complaint about "how these leftist reporters were working side by side with the Clinton campaign" incredibly hollow.
Bozell said nothing new here -- his only goal is to remain a right-wing political player.
WND Eager to Credit God for Trump Victory Topic: WorldNetDaily
Four years ago worldNetDaily was despondent over President Obama's re-election, over which it destroyed its credibility in a failed effort to prevent. WND editor Joseph Farah was particularly despondent, calling Obama's re-election "God's judgment" against America (apparently not considering that it might be God's judgment against WND's atrocious journalistic record) and smearing Obama voters as having "gone awhoring."
How four years and a change in political fortune changes one' attitudes. WND couldn't be happier that America elected the amoral Donald Trump as president, and it's incredibly eager to credit God for it.
Farah declared that "I like to think God smiled on America, maybe because of the prayers of so many forgotten people – people who began to wake up and realize they just didn’t recognize their country any more. They thought about their kids and their grandkids and what kind of world would be left for them if we kept going down the same road at 70 mph," adding: "The Lord does indeed work in mysterious ways. He doesn’t always use the people you would expect him to use to exercise His will. He often uses people who are, shall we say, a little rough around the edges to bring justice, bring relief to the persecuted and answer the prayer of His saints. He answered mine on Tuesday."
Columnist Michael Brown echoed Farah: "Yet there are times when there are so many odds against something happening, when it so greatly defies logic, that it is easier to recognize God’s involvement. That, I believe, is the case with Donald Trump winning – and remember, this comes from someone who endorsed Ted Cruz and was one of Trump’s stronger conservative critics during the primaries."
Pat Boone chimed in as well, asserting that Obama was a "God-ordained authority the last eight years" as a result of how Americans "have collectively shoved Him aside, disregarded His Word, His expressed will, and let him know we’d rather do things our own way." And Trump is our salvation, apparently:
In the last year, as we faced a stark choice and a likely descent into more unbridled rebellion against God’s will for America, millions of us repented of our sinful apathy and permission of perversion in our midst, and sought God’s face and prayed for Him to heal our land!
And, as He promised, He heard from heaven and has given us authority to heal our land. He chose a most unlikely man to lead us and bestowed authority on him, and on us, to begin the healing and restoration of America to former greatness.
[...]
We now realize God gave us what we said “we” wanted. And He let us see where that would lead us, as it had the rebellious people of Israel when they demanded “a king like the nations around us.” They got what they wanted – and wound up in Babylonian captivity for 70 years. But when they came to their senses and cried out to Him, God brought them back to their land and re-established their nation.
In America, God’s people who are called by His name have repented, sought His face and prayed, and He has given us a new opportunity for leadership and liberty. Let’s not blow it again!
Meanwhile, on the so-called "news" side, WND reporter Garth Kant provided this dramatic interpretation of God's intevention in the election, starring Michele Bachmann:
At 7 p.m., there was no sign of a popular uprising led by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. There was no sign at 8 p.m. There was still no sign as time inexorably marched on.
Something would have to break.
And then it did.
Like a scene out of the film “It’s a Wonderful Life,” people had begun to pray.
But not just in one small town. Across America. And around the world.
Simple acts of faith heralded the first faint wisps of a breeze that would soon become a storm that would shake the world.
It began in Jerusalem.
Christians from many nations gathered in the heart of Israel to pray and fast for the fate of the United States. Americans knelt on stage as the faithful prayed. Organizers instructed them to pray like never before for a just God to deliver his most Christian nation. They called it the Jerusalem Global Gathering.
Christians also gathered to pray for the nation outside the U.S. Capitol. As WND reported, pastor Dan Cummins of the small rural East Texas town of Bullard led prayers for a return to biblical principles.
And it was in Texas that the prayers for deliverance were sent around the world, using modern technology.
A large prayer group had gathered in Dallas, hosted by Ken Copeland ministries. It was broadcast by the Daystar channel. Presenters David Barton and former Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., invited viewers to join in prayer.
Daystar has a global reach of 400 million potential viewers.
As they prayed, something began to stir.
“At the precise moment we began broadcasting on Daystar,” Bachmann told WND, “as the polls were still open, and a national audience of believers joined together and prayed in concert, we literally saw the race break in favor of Trump.”
“At that very minute.”
None of these people have apparently considered that the opposite of their biased religious interpretations might be true: that Obama was the blessing and that Trump is the curse, the one who will lead America into the wilderness.
MRC Binges on Schadenfreude Over Trump Win, Forgets How It Acted in 2012 Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center was in full schadenfreude mode, detailing critical media reaction from others to Donald Trump's win. "Meltdown" was a prettyheavily used word.
Curtis Houck wrote: "By Wednesday morning, the on-air, online, and print meltdowns by liberal media types were exploding at an exponential rate with CNN’s New Day facilitating a few as senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin shrieked at the idea of conservatives on the Supreme Court while chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour lost it over 'far-right' European figures being 'eager and jubilant' about President-Elect Donald Trump."
P.J. Gladnick touted "Perez Hilton's mental meltdown last night when it became obvious to him that Donald Trump would be elected president. I am sure there will be other mental meltdowns over this election but this one should definitely be placed in the top 10 of this category as you can see in the following video."
Matthew Balan highlighted one blogger's "extended diatribe in reaction to the election of Donald Trump." And Scott Whitlock featured how "the liberal sulking over Donald Trump’s win on election night continued on MSNBC, Wednesday."
But we remember how MRC staffers reacted to President Obama's re-election in 2012, and, well, it looked a lot like the behavior they're mocking now. For example, Whitlock showed his right-wing sulking when he flatly declared, "America is screwed." Then-MRC writer Liz Thatcher said she was "Sick to my stomach about what the future of the country may be."
In contrast to his 2016 post-election column cheering the death of facts, which the MRC helped throw under the bus to deflect from Trump's continual lies, MRC chief Brent Bozell devoted his entire 2012 post-election column to ranting about how "The media lauded Obama no matter how horrendous his record, and they savaged Obama’s Republican contenders as ridiculous pretenders."
(It's also worth noting that the MRC spent a lot of the 2012 election attacking Nate Silver's poll predictions as being too Obama-friendly -- and, thus, driven by liberal bias -- but couldn't be bothered to apologize when the election results proved him right.)
So, yeah, the MRC was in total meltdown mode four years ago. Which probably means it shouldn't be so gleeful about indulging in the politial meltdowns of others, since it should know that what goes around comes around.