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Thursday, December 21, 2017
Tim Graham, Hypocritical Media Concern Troll
Topic: Media Research Center

The Media Research Center's Tim Graham spends a Dec. 10 post huffing about the use of anonymous sources by the news media, this time complaining about how, in his words, "The Washington Postenjoys playing the game “Heads We Win, Tails You Lose” when anonymous sources lead journalists into looking stupid" in defending CNN's use of anonymous sources in a story that later had to be corrected. Let the huffing begin (boldface is his):

But here’s the “heads we win” part: since the sources are still anonymous, there can be no “evidence” -- unless either the sources or the source-exploiters own up to their little secret racket. We are prevented from knowing these are “Democratic sources” – most likely, because they’re Democratic sources, and that would make the story look more -- to use the Post term -- “vocally partisan.”

The “tails you lose” part is when the Post hides all their conservative-hating sources’ identities and then boasts the motto “Democracy dies in darkness.” The Post surely believes reporters are never manipulated by “puppet masters.” They’re always the smartest people in the room. Until it becomes obvious they trusted someone to just read them an email without looking at it themselves. That’s not what smart people do.

As @JohnSalmon859 tweeted: “Either CNN ‘got played’ - or it was purposeful. Trump Jr's being charitable here.” But in CNN's excuse-making, absolutely everyone had the best intentions, their journalists and their sources. The spin is furious, but not convincing.

It will not surprise you to learn that Graham has a double standard on the subject of anonmous sources in news stories. As we've docutmented, just before the 2016 election, Fox News heavily pushed a story -- sourced only to "two separate sources with intimate knowledge of the FBI investigations into the Clinton e-mails and the Clinton Foundation" -- suggesting that an indictment of Hillary Clinton was imminent and that her email server had been hacked. The MRC hyped this story to the point that MRC chief Brent Bozell himself ranted about the "media cover-up" and declared, "We will report developments on this continuing cover-up every hour from here on out."

One of those developments, however, turned out to be that the story was bogus; Fox News anchor Bret Baier, who first reported the story, retracted his claims. Not only wasn't Graham concern-trolling about how poor Fox News got burned by anonymous sources, the MRC never bothered to correct the story it had been relentlessly hyping despite Bozell's promise to report developments "every hour."

So, Tim, spare us your fake concern. If you actually cared about journalism, you wouldn't be exempting Fox News from criticism for doing the same thing you've bashed others for doing.


Posted by Terry K. at 9:28 PM EST
Jesse Lee Peterson Has Issues With Women, Alabama Election Edition
Topic: WorldNetDaily

After 98 percent of black female voters (96 percent of black voters overall) rejected a good man, Judge Roy Moore, in favor of wicked Democrat Doug Jones for senator of Alabama, it appeared evil won the night. Hollywood celebrities rejoiced and mocked Christians, saying, God is “a black woman.”

[...]

Even if I were into my blackness the way most blacks are, seeing the godless children of Satan applaud the black female vote would give me pause. Blacks with any sense should recognize these attempts at flattery as a major red flag – a warning that most blacks are on the wrong track.

Black celebrities – including Barack Obama, Charles Barkley, Deval Patrick and Cory Booker – pushed blacks to vote for Doug Jones. Decades ago, Jones prosecuted KKK members involved in a 1963 church bombing that killed four black girls. He’s done nothing good since, but only deceived blacks and others. Whatever happened way back then, today it is black-on-white violence and murder that’s far more rampant than the reverse. But pretending that “racism” is a problem spurs black hatred and hostility toward whites. Both deceivers and deceived will suffer.

[...]

The liberals put gullible and brainwashed blacks into a hypnotic trance by using the word “racist” against Judge Roy Moore, who told the truth that America was greater when families were together, even though we had slavery.

The unchecked daily massacre of blacks around the country by black gang members, drug dealers and abortions, year after year, dwarfs the few thousand or so lynchings blacks suffered before the so-called “Civil Rights Movement.”

Blacks’ displacement in the workforce and their neighborhoods by the flood of low-skilled immigrants and illegal aliens is worse than Jim Crow or segregation. Democrats and RINOs helped bring about fights and “hate crimes” between blacks and Hispanics, and the continued dependence and competition for government welfare, “health care” and low-quality education.

The absence of men, God, or love in black homes – allowing the unfettered anger of single black mothers and grandmothers and abuse toward children – is more oppressive, traumatic and mentally debilitating than slavery.

[...]

Blacks went from being moral, respectful, hard-working and employed, with good families to immoral, lazy, unemployed, complaining, excuse-making, disrespectful and criminal – with non-existent families, angry women, weak men and out-of-control children.

Blacks attend vacuous churches, regurgitate scripture, sing, dance, whoop and holler – pretending they believe in God. They don’t. In 2014, Pew Research reported 83 percent of black Americans said they believed in God. Time for honesty: They lied.

-- Jesse Lee Peterson, Dec. 17 WorldNetDaily column


Posted by Terry K. at 3:38 PM EST
CNS Managing Editor Lets Donohue Lie About Catholic Sexual Abuse
Topic: CNSNews.com

CNSNews.com has a new client for its stenography services: The Catholic League's Bill Donohue. Remember that CNS' publisher, Media Research Center chief Brent Bozell, is on the Catholic League's board of advisers probably has something to do with the whole stenography thing -- not that CNS is disclosing this conflict of interest to its readers.

CNS managing editor Michael W. Chapman is Donohue's personal stenographer. In a Dec. 14 post, he let Donohue rant about  a son succeeding his father as New York Times publisher, making the bizarre complaint that "no women were interviewed for the top spot." No women were interviewed either for the top spot in the Catholic Church the last time that job opened up, but we don't recall Donohue complaining about that.

On Dec. 18, Chapman was the servile stenographer for another Donohue rant, this time about the Boston Globe -- who in Chapman's words "has turned stories about child sexual abuse by Catholic priests into a cottage industry-- not publishing the names of staff members accused of sexual harassment. Donohue ultimately huffs, "We need Hollywood to do a 'Spotlight' film on the corruption within the Boston Globe," forgetting that a couple instances of sexual harassment at a newspaper have nothing whatsoever in common with the decades of systematically covering up sexual abuse of children in the Boston diocese.

Speaking of which, Chapman was the silent stenographer again for another post in which Donahue ranted about too many gays in the priesthood and blaming them for the sexual abuse crisis:

"Though it is not considered polite to say so, most people know that homosexuals are responsible for the lion's share of the problem in the Catholic Church," said Donohue.  "This includes those who insist they are gay-friendly."

"We do know that in the U.S., 81 percent of the clergy victims were male, and 78 percent were post-pubescent, meaning that homosexuals committed most of the abuse," said Donohue,  "less than 5 percent of the abusers were determined to be pedophiles (see the John Jay College of Criminal Justice reports on this subject)."

In fact, as we've repeatedly documented, Donohue is lying about this. The John Jay report not only found no correlation between homosexuality and the child sex scandals, the report's researchers explicitly warned against doing exactly what Donohue is doing:

"What we are suggesting is that the idea of sexual identity be separated from the problem of sexual abuse," said Margaret Smith, a researcher from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, which is conducting an independent study of sexual abuse in the priesthood from 1950 up to 2002. "At this point, we do not find a connection between homosexual identity and an increased likelihood of sexual abuse."

A second researcher, Karen Terry, also cautioned the bishops against making a correlation between homosexuality in the priesthood and the high incidence of abuse by priests against boys rather than girls -- a ratio found to be about 80-20.

"It's important to separate the sexual identity and the behavior," Terry said. "Someone can commit sexual acts that might be of a homosexual nature but not have a homosexual identity." Terry said factors such as greater access to boys is one reason for the skewed ratio. Smith also raised the analogy of prison populations where homosexual behavior is common even though the prisoners are not necessarily homosexuals, or cultures where men are rigidly segregated from women until adulthood, and homosexual activity is accepted and then ceases after marriage.

Donohue frequently lies about this, so you'd think Chapman would want to fact-check his claims instead of playing the servile stenographer. But we know fact-checking the things conservatives say -- particularly conservatives who are friends with the boss -- is not a big priority at Chapman's CNS.


Posted by Terry K. at 1:36 AM EST
Wednesday, December 20, 2017
WND Forgets How Money Talked With Clinton's Accusers
Topic: WorldNetDaily

An anonymous WorldNetDaily reporter writes in a Dec. 15 WND article:

Amid a flood of claims of inappropriate sexual behavior against men in Hollywood, sports, the media and politics, allegations about President Trump have resurfaced.

And now a new report suggests some of Trump’s accusers were “compensated.”

The details come from The Hill, which reported it reviewed relevant documents and interviewed some of the principals.

The Hill reported Lisa Bloom, a “well-known women’s rights lawyer,” sought “to arrange compensation from donors and tabloid media outlets for women who made or considered making sexual allegations against Donald Trump.”

This all happened during the 2016 presidential race, the report said.

Bloom’s mother is celebrity attorney Gloria Allred, who represented one of the women who made sexual-misconduct allegations against Roy Moore when he was running for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

The report said Bloom’s efforts “included offering to sell alleged victims’ stories to TV outlets in return for a commission for herself, arranging a donor to pay off one Trump accuser’s mortgage and attempting to secure a six-figure payment for another woman who ultimately declined to come forward after being offered as much as $750,000.”

The anonymous WND writer seems to have forgotten there's precedent for women who accuse powerful men of sexual harassment of getting compensation for it or at least trying to.

Gennifer Flowers, for example, cashed in handsomely after accusing Bill Clinton of having an affair with her. Not only was she paid $150,000 by a tabloid newspaper to tell her story, Republicans in Arkansas paid her another $50,000 and she was paid an additional $250,000 by Penthouse magazine for an interview and nude photo shoot. Kathleen Willey was at one time trying to shop her story of Clinton harassment to New York literary agents in order to get a book deal (they refused to bite). Paula Jones ultimately got an $850,000 payday in the form of an out-of-court settlement from Clinton, though her lawyers got most of it and ended up having nude photos published in Penthouse in order to pay the bills, her Clinton-hating conservative promoters having abandoned her after she ceased being useful to them.

Indeed, WND has no problem with cashing in on those very same accusers, having published a book on the subject (and we suspect little of that money ever made its way back to the accusers).

WND might want to make an accounting of all the money it made of Clinton's accusers -- and remember how the accusers themselves tried to cashh in -- before it lectures about Trump's accusers.


Posted by Terry K. at 9:37 PM EST
Old News: MRC Ramps Up Ancient Attacks on Anita Hill
Topic: Media Research Center

The Media Research Center, it seems, just can't stop obsessing over Anita Hill, whom it has spent the past 25 years smearing and bashing for making sexual harassment allegations against conservative icon Clarence Thomas. If anything, the attacks are ramping up.

MRC executives Tim Graham and Brent Bozell took a minor potshot at her in their Dec. 8 column: "Anita Hill had no photograph of Thomas grabbing her; she never claimed that he did. He was accused of talking dirty, and for that alone, the Democrats wanted him voted down."

News that Hill has been named by a group of entertainment executives to lead a commission tasked to address sexual harassment and inequality in the entertainment and news industries, however, really cranked up the MRC's wrath.

Kyle Drennen denounced Hill as "discredited" and having "credibility problems" who made "disputed accusations." The only evidence Drennen provides for these claims is a less-than-objective blog post at MRC "news" division CNSNews.com that, as we've noted, has as its chief source an attack website started by a personal friend of Thomas who was a lawyer for the team assembled by George H.W. Bush to push Thomas' nomination through the Senate.

Graham, meanwhile, continues to despise Hill so much that he needed two posts to vent his rage. In the first, he actually calls Hill's allegations "fake news" then spins his own version of the Hill-Thomas controversy, in which he once again pushed his unproven conspiracy theory that Hill came forward because she was chasing a book deal and a cushy law-school job:

After months of trying to defeat Thomas, the Democrats were about to lose the confirmation fight. So at the last minute, NPR and Newsday introduced Anita Hill and her unproven story. Hill testified, and Clarence Thomas strongly rebutted her allegations. When the weekend of hearings were over, a New York Times poll found the American people strongly believed Thomas over Hill, even women:

[...]

Politically, that’s a fiasco for Hill. But all of the mythical treatments of Saint Anita ignored what the American people concluded. The liberal elites have spent the last 25 years trying to revise history and reverse public opinion.

Few remember troubling details that made Hill's account less credible. For example, she followed Clarence Thomas around from job to job in the federal government, from the Education Department to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which doesn't exactly sound like someone seeking a less hostile working environment. Hill denied she was making the charges for her own personal benefit, but liberals raised an endowment to get her a job at the University of Oklahoma. After five years, she gained a prestigious professorship at Brandeis University. In 1993, she signed a two-book deal estimated to be "well over $1 million."

In his second rant, Graham rails against Hill over her 1998 comments regarding allegations against Bill Clinton, in which she reacted the same way that some conservatives have regarding the similar accusations against Donald Trump: it was known before the election, and the voters elected him anyway. Graham didn't mention that parallel of course; instead, he huffed, "If you are a true fighter against any and all sexual harassment, why would one refuse to acknowledge the women accusing Clinton as experiencing sexual harassment?"

(Of course, Graham himself is not a true fighter against any and all sexual harassment, given that he and the rest of the MRC have a certain Fox News-shaped blind spot on the issue.)

Graham also whined that Hill "also poured a bucket of disdain on the Paula Jones lawsuit," but the reason why she did so is why Graham has been attacking Hill's claims: there's no evidence, and her backers are politically motivated. Graham's ranting obscures that relevant point.

Graham concludes by delcaring that Hollywood looks "desperate and preposterous" by appointing Hill to this effort. But is that more or less desperate and preposterous than Graham and the rest of the MRC look in their quarter-century Hill-trashing obsession?

Graham, of course, won't answer that question.


Posted by Terry K. at 4:05 PM EST
Updated: Friday, December 22, 2017 12:33 AM EST
WND Editor's Daughter Is The Vice President's Press Secretary
Topic: WorldNetDaily

In September, it was reported that Alyssa Farah, an adviser to the hardline conservative House Freedom Caucus, had been named press secretary to Vice President Mike Pence.

What most reports of the promotion didn't note: Farah's father is Joseph Farah, founder and editor of WorldNetDaily, the right-wing website notorious for its conspiracy theories, most famously forwarding the notion that President Obama wasn't born in the United States and has no valid birth certificate.

Curiously, the elder Farah has never publicly touted this great achievement by his daughter -- something you'd think he would be proud to tout. (He is, however, currently running a campaign encouraging Americans to thank Pence's boss, President Trump, for his "tireless efforts to change America for the better.")

Alyssa Farah's career path did not follow that of her conspiratorial father, though it was in many ways just as right-wing. She first served as communications director for the College Republicans National Committee and Young Americans for Liberty -- which grew out of Ron Paul's 2008 presidential campaign -- before becoming communications director for Republican Rep. Mark Meadows; her House Freedom Caucus gig was added onto that.

She's a graduate of Patrick Henry College, a conservative Christian school in Virginia outside Washington, D.C., that caters to homeschoolers. It was founded by Michael Farris, who earlier this year became the president and CEO of the anti-gay legal group Alliance Defending Freedom. Patrick Henry had a crisis a few years back involving how the school treated students who were victims of sexual assault (a story WND ignored, by the way).

Alyssa Farah wrote some articles for her dad at WND during her college years and for a couple years after, and they weren't exactly stellar by most journalistic standards (though quite acceptable by WND's lower standards):

  • An April 2008 article creatively reinterpreted a debate over Internet content filters on public-access computers as being solely about pornography.
  • A February 2010 article falsely claimed that a New York Times article on a controversial speaker at the conservative confab CPAC said that the speech "turned racist"; in fact, the Times reported that the speech used "racial stereotypes."
  • A June 2010 article repeated misleading right-wing attacks on Elena Kagan after her nomination as a Supreme Court justice.
  • A March 2013 article went the anti-vaxxer route, as Farah -- billed at this point as a "special Washington correspondent for WND" -- fearmongered about the "thousands of adverse reactions" and "serious side effects" of the human papillomavirus vaccine Gardasil. She also understated the effectiveness of the vaccine.

Alyssa Farah has undeniable right-wing credentials, a family connection to politics that are even further to the right, plus a little experience generating fake news -- which would seem to make her the perfect person to be Mike Pence's press secretary.


Posted by Terry K. at 12:15 AM EST
Updated: Wednesday, December 20, 2017 12:30 AM EST
Tuesday, December 19, 2017
Brent Bozell's Fox News-Shaped Blind Spot on Sexual Harassment
Topic: Media Research Center

The Media Research Center's Brent Bozell blusters again in a Dec. 18 statement:

It is evident NBC has been breeding a culture of deviancy for decades and doing everything in its power to cover it up along the way. Two major on-air personalities and a top executive have already been fired from the network for sexual misconduct and now a fourth is being accused of the same. While at this time we do not know the full story behind these allegations against Chris Matthews, NBC’s history of covering for deviants creates suspicion.

[...]

Lauer’s lecherous behavior was well-known throughout the NBC hierarchy and went unchecked for years before they were forced to fire him. I can only speculate the same applies to others. If NBC wants to redeem any semblance of credibility they should be transparent and launch an independent investigation into their issues with sexual misconduct in the workplace.

If you substitute Matt Lauer for Roger Ailes or Bill O'Reilly (or Eric Bolling or Charles Payne), you can easily be talking about Fox News, which has also fired two on-air personalities and a top executive and has had a "culture of deviancy for decades." Their behavior was certainly known throughout the Fox News hierarchy and went unchecked for years before the company were forced to fire them.

Yet Bozell never called for Fox News to "launch an independent investigation into their issues with sexual misconduct in the workplace" as he is currently demanding from NBC.

How come? Perhaps because Fox News is the go-to TV outlet for Bozell and other MRC talking heads when they need a little TV exposure. Bozell and Co. don't dare put that free publicity in jeopardy. That's why they have virtually ignored the entire sexual harassment crisis at Fox News.

It's just another Fox News-shaped blind spot at the MRC.


Posted by Terry K. at 9:30 PM EST
WND's Farah Brings Up His Old Obsession With (Female) Teachers Having Affairs With Students
Topic: WorldNetDaily

You might remember that WorldNetDaily has had a longstanding, prurient obession with teachers who have sexual encounters with their students -- but only the female teachers. Male teachers who have sex with students received nowhere near the same scrutiny. WND even considers this creepy obsession part of its "path to greatness." Yet to this day, WND has never explained the purpose of keep such an extensively detailed list of such narrowly focused incidents.

In the midst of pondering the idea of sexual harassment in his Dec. 8 column, WND editor Joseph Farah brings it up again:

Is the only kind of wrongful sexual harassment when a man is the villain and a woman is the victim?

I ask this in all seriousness.

I would wholeheartedly agree that this kind of victimization represents the majority of cases – maybe even the overwhelming majority. But is it the only kind?

For instance, has a powerful woman ever sexually harassed a less powerful, perhaps younger, man? If so, why don’t we ever hear of such cases? After all, since it’s obviously more rare than the other way around, wouldn’t this be what we call in the news business a man-bites-dog story? By definition, doesn’t that make it more newsworthy and more interesting?

On that front, there has been a rising epidemic of women teachers sexually victimizing their students. However, the only news service I know of that has chronicled this trend is WND.com. No others seem interested.

Those cases are taking place in school, where there should be high standards and extra accountability. I think it’s wrong for older men and older women to take advantage of children. Don’t you?

As with WND obsession with "black mob violence," a series of random, isolated anecdotes do not an "epidemic" make. Farah, it seems, is merely engaging in titillation disguised as prudishness.

But Farah wasn't done pondering, moving on to LGBT sexual harassment:

We also hear a lot about homosexuality these days – mostly how wonderful and cool and even heroic it is. It would seem there is a rising number of homosexuals, bisexuals, lesbians, transgenderism and so on as more and more people seem willing to come out of the closet and into the light. My question is: Is there any sexual harassment and victimization going on within these communities? If so, why don’t we hear about it?

After all, from my own experience, Hollywood, the media, government and politics has more than its fair share of such LGBT activity. Does any of it result in sexual victimization? It strains credulity to say it doesn’t. Do you really think Kevin Spacey is the only person in Hollywood or Washington victimizing men and boys? Do any lesbian women ever use their power to sexually harass young or less powerful women or girls?

I’m just asking because I hear so often that as much as 10 percent of the population is LGBT. Do none of them ever use coercion to seek sexual gratification?

If so, where is the attention? Where are the whistleblowers? Where is the #MeToo crowd? Will it take a generation to hear from them?

That's some really dumb pondering on Farah's part. Same-sex inappropriate behavior is being called as well, as director Bryan Singer is learning.

Farah concludes his column by pondering "the legal age of consent for consensual sex," adding: "shouldn’t we be calling the victimization of young girls what we once called it – statutory rape?" Farah might want to have a chat with his buddy Roy Moore about that.


Posted by Terry K. at 5:22 PM EST
Updated: Tuesday, December 19, 2017 5:28 PM EST
MRC Fearmongers About Birth Control Cancer Risk
Topic: Media Research Center

The Media Research Center's Katie Yoder began her Dec. 8 post by complaining, "Network health experts reported on a finding that contraception was associated with a 20% increased risk of breast cancer – by reassuring women that they needn’t stop their birth control." Yoder went on to highlight how "The study found a 20% “increased risk of breast cancer” with current and recent use of contraceptives, according to the Associated Press/USA TODAY. That number increased to 38% for women taking such contraception for more than 10 years."

What Yoder didn't tell her readers: According to the very article she cited, the overall increased risk was small, and that some forms of contraception actually lower the risk of some cancers, creating a "net cancer benefit."

Yoder also linked to a New York Times article that, unlike Yoder, also explained just how low the actual risk is: "The new paper estimated that for every 100,000 women, hormone contraceptive use causes an additional 13 breast cancer cases a year. That is, for every 100,000 women using hormonal birth control, there are 68 cases of breast cancer annually, compared with 55 cases a year among nonusers," adding: "Even if the relative risk increases 20 percent, it remains less than one-tenth of 1 percent."

The Times also pointed out (again, unlike Yoder) that the study is not comprehensive because it didn't account for "factors like physical activity, breast feeding and alcohol consumption, which may also influence breast cancer risk."

Yoder is not trying to inform here -- she's trying to fearmonger, and she's mad that the media stuck to the facts and didn't follow her lead. Then again, Yoder has a history of putting agenda before facts, falsely suggesting that federal money to Planned Parenthood pays for abortion, even though it's federally prohibited from doing so, by making the unproven claim that the group's money is "fungible." She also falsely portrayed the PBS Kids channel airing a "sex-ed" program when, in fact, a PBS news program had merely aired a segment on sex education for children in the Netherlands.


Posted by Terry K. at 12:40 AM EST
Monday, December 18, 2017
State Media: WND Pushes Trump Spin on Flynn Arrest
Topic: WorldNetDaily

We've documented how CNSNews.com, as a loyal Trump stenographer, made sure to regurgitate the administration's spin on the arrest of Michael Flynn for lying to the FBI that it had nothing to do with any other controversy facing Trump, such as the investigation by Robert Mueller into allegations of Russian collusion.

The pro-Trump state-media outlet that is WorldNetDaily also hewed to the Trump spin on Flynn's arrest in an article by Art Moore, who called in another pro-Trump spinmeister to help him do the deed:

It’s significant that Michael Flynn, President Trump’s former national security adviser, pleaded guilty Friday to the “process crime” of lying to FBI agents rather than to a conspiracy of collusion, contends a former assistant U.S. attorney.

Flynn’s plea in federal court centered on his conversations with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S. in December 2016, during the presidential transition period. ABC News reported Flynn plans to testify that Trump himself directed him to reach out to Russians.

But Andrew McCarthy, a former assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, argues Special Counsel Robert Mueller would not permit Flynn to settle the case with a single count of lying to FBI agents if his conversations with Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak had provided evidence that the Trump administration would ease or eliminate sanctions on Russia as a payback for Russia’s cyber-espionage against the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic Party.

He pointed out that the only major case Mueller previously has brought was against former Trump-campaign chairman Paul Manafort and an associate, which had nothing to do with the 2016 election.

Moore also made sure to report that "Donald Trump lawyer Ty Cobb contended Friday that Flynn’s guilty plea hasn’t implicated the president in any wrongdoing. ... 'everybody knows there was no collusion’ between his campaign and the Kremlin.'"

The dedicated Trump stenographers in the ConWeb sure know how to stay on message.


Posted by Terry K. at 9:05 PM EST
CNS Tries, Fails To Blame 'Sanctuary Cities' For Homeless Crisis
Topic: CNSNews.com

CNSNews.com reporter Susan Jones' attempt to be a stenographer for the Trump administration goes a little awry in a Dec. 7 article:

On a single night in January 2017, more than half a million people -- 553,742 of them -- were homeless, based on the the government's national estimate.

That's an increase of 0.7 percent from January 2016, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development says the increase is largely attributed to the jump in unsheltered homeless people in larger cities in the West Coast (some of them sanctuary cities, by the way).

Jones' reference to "sanctuary cities" is apropos of nothing. The HUD press release from which Jones takes her article makes no reference to "sanctuary cities"-- let alone to immigration -- and Jones offers no proof to support her claim that immigration and "sanctuary cities" are contributing to the homeless problem in America.

(Jones loves to make snarky, snide parenthetical asides in her purported "news" articles.)


Posted by Terry K. at 6:29 PM EST
NEW ARTICLE: Protecting The Perv -- And The Revenue
Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily goes all-in on defending Roy Moore without telling readers that, as the publisher of his autobiography, it has a vested financial interest in doing so. Read more >>

Posted by Terry K. at 8:50 AM EST
Sunday, December 17, 2017
Tim Graham Pretends The MRC's Millions Don't Influence Media-Bias Debate
Topic: Media Research Center

A Dec. 5 Media Research Center post by Tim Graham highlights a new poll showing that Republicans and Trump supporters hold extremely negative views of the media, which survey leader Brendan Nyhan of Dartmouth University interprets as "reflecting a recognition of the role of the media in holding an opposition president accountable, especially when his party controls both chambers of Congress." Graham sneers in response:

Nice “interpretation,” professor. It can also be interpreted as the Democrats recognize the importance of the media in promoting the success of the Democratic Party in a Republican-majority government. Is it impossible to deduce that increasingly polarized opinions about the media might naturally flow from increasingly polarized reporting that reflects fear and loathing of President Trump?

From Brian Williams to Brian Ross, conservatives and Republicans have witnessed some of the least fair and accurate coverage emerging from the media's liberal biases. Having a daily knowledge of media content leads to informed (and polarized) opinion.

Graham doesn't mention this, but it can also be interpreted as the result of a concerted, partisan Republican and conservative effort in which organizations like Graham's employer spend millions of dollars every year to push the message that the media has a liberal bias. Indeed, Graham makes a nice six-figure salary from the MRC to spread that very message, so it's no surprise that he's staying on point -- which involves pretending that criticism of the "liberal media" is completely organic and not motivated at all by people like the MRC's biggest funders, the Mercers.

Of course, Graham and the MRC only care about certain types of media bias; Fox News is free from their partisan scorn, if only because such scorn could jeopardize the the frequency of appearances by MRC talking heads on the channel.


Posted by Terry K. at 8:47 PM EST
WND Had Link to Pastor Accused of Molesting Teen
Topic: WorldNetDaily

Dan Johnson, the Kentucky state legislator who committed suicide after being accused of sexually molesting a teen girl, has a WorldNetDaily link.

Blogger Richard Bartholomew details how a 2011 WND article by Bob Unruh uncritically repeats Johnson's tale of having set up a morgue near Ground Zero on 9/11 and performed last rites as part of a legal action by WND columnist and terrible lawyer Larry Klayman for clergy to be represented 9/11 memorials in the city. Johnson also spoke at a 2013 anti-Obama rally headed by Klayman and at which WND editor Joseph Farah also spoke.

(Johnson's story about ministering at Ground Zero on 9/11 appears to be bogus, like a lot of things he has claimed to have done.)

Despite that connection to WND, Bartholomew noted, the only coverage Johnson's scandal and suicide got from WND was a copy-and-paste story stolen from a Kentucky TV station, Klayman's latest WND column, published on Dec. 15, didn't mention Johnson at all despite having a relatively close relationship.


Posted by Terry K. at 7:59 PM EST
Saturday, December 16, 2017
MRC Portrays Telling The Truth About Trump As An 'Attack' On Him
Topic: Media Research Center

The Media Rsearch Center's Kyle Drennen writes in a Dec. 4 post:

In its desperation to avoid any discussion of a potential major legislative win for the Trump administration and congressional Republicans, Monday’s NBC Today devoted an astonishing 15 times more coverage to the morning show’s fired co-host Billy Bush attacking President Trump in a New York Times op/ed than to the GOP tax bill working its way through Congress.  

“Now on to that scathing on op/ed from Billy Bush in this morning’s New York Times. In it, he takes the President to task over their notorious exchange during a taping for Access Hollywood,” co-host Hoda Kotb hailed as she introduced 4 minutes 49 seconds of coverage on the rehashing of the year-old controversy (Another full minute of coverage came at the top of the 8 a.m. ET hour, making the show total 5 minutes 49 seconds).

Correspondent Kristen Welker followed by eagerly reminding viewers: "Everyone remembers that now-infamous Access Hollywood tape that nearly cost then-candidate Trump the election.” Noting anonymous sources claiming that “in recent weeks, Mr. Trump has reportedly been questioning the authenticity of the tape,” Welker touted how “Billy Bush, who lost his job over the controversy, is speaking out.” She proclaimed: “His message, the tape is real and the President’s denials have hit a raw nerve.”

Wait -- how was Bush "attacking" Trump? He was simply pointing out that, contrary to Trump's recent suggestions otherwise, that is indeed him on the "Access Hollywood" tape. From Bush's Times op-ed:

He said it. “Grab ’em by the pussy.”

Of course he said it. And we laughed along, without a single doubt that this was hypothetical hot air from America’s highest-rated bloviator. Along with Donald Trump and me, there were seven other guys present on the bus at the time, and every single one of us assumed we were listening to a crass standup act. He was performing. Surely, we thought, none of this was real.

We now know better.

[...]

President Trump is currently indulging in some revisionist history, reportedly telling allies, including at least one United States senator, that the voice on the tape is not his. This has hit a raw nerve in me.

I can only imagine how it has reopened the wounds of the women who came forward with their stories about him, and did not receive enough attention. This country is currently trying to reconcile itself to years of power abuse and sexual misconduct. Its leader is wantonly poking the bear.

That's not an attack -- that's pointing out that Trump is lying. That's telling the truth. If Trump wasn't engaging in revisionist history and trying to tell a blatant lie, this wouldn't be a story, but Drennen didn't concede that point.

Only in the world of the MRC -- where facts not favorable to its right-wing agenda or that make Trump look bad must be deflected and denounced -- is it an "attack."


Posted by Terry K. at 10:15 AM EST

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