NEW ARTICLE: Dick Morris' Election Conspiracies Topic: Newsmax
The terminally wrong Newsmax pundit picked the wrong horse by sucking up to Donald Trump and pushing bogus claims that the election was stolen. Read more >>
MRC Revives False Narrative That Facebook Banned Trump For Calling For 'Peace' Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center has spent months misleading about Donald Trump's ban from social media outlets, falsely suggesting it was done because he called for peace after the Capitol riot -- deliberately hiding the fract that he was banned because he helped incite those riots by pushing bogus claims about election fraud. As Facebook's oversight board weighed whether to reinstate Trump, that false narrative surfaced again.
In a May 4 item prior to the board's announcement, Alexander Hall attacked the oversight board for have "damning affiliations" (read: they're not all right-wing activists like the MRC), adding "Facebook had suspended then-President Trump indefinitely, even as he called for peace amidst the U.S. Capitol riots." Gabriel Hays played the whataboutism cared in another post that day, complaining that "In light of the fact that a social media tribunal will decide on May 5 whether Trump can get his Facebook account back, it’s good to take note of all the famous people who should have had keys to their own accounts taken from them for promoting actual violence."
After the decision to keep Trump's account suspended, Kayla Sargent also made the false "peace" claim:
In a massive blow to free speech online, the Facebook Oversight Board decided to uphold the platform’s ban of former President Donald Trump. But with limits.
The Board “upheld” Facebook’s decision to ban Trump after more than three months of deliberation. The decision further solidified the Board’s role in strengthening Facebook’s censorship power. But it insisted that Facebook review the decision within six months.
[...]
Facebook decided to ban Trump following the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, after he called for “peace.”
Sargent also attacked thte oversight board, claiming that "many of the Board’s members are radical leftists."
Hall returned with a post filled with right-wing Trump sycophants -- whom Hall wants you to think are merely "conservative leaders and free speech advocates" -- criticizing the "notoriously liberal" for upholding Trump's suspension, And, yes, he wrote again that Facebook had suspended then-President Trump indefinitely, even as he called for peace amidst the U.S. Capitol riots."
Alec Schemmel touted Trump's unsurprisingly negative reaction to his continued ban; surprisingly, he didn't invoke the "peace" claim, instead declaring Trump was suspended for "purportedly inciting the chaos at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 with his social media postings." Sargent served up another post on the decision, this time on "liberal tech journalists" -- read: not right-wing activists -- purportedly being "upset" over the continued ban, again asserting that "Facebook decided to ban Trump following the Jan. 6 riot in Washington D.C. after he called for 'peace.'"
And the MRC wonders why it's not taken more seriously.
UPDATE: The MRC also made a May 10 "explainer video" complaining that "Facebook's overwhelming global oversight board made an overwhelmingly American ruling and blocked the former president, at least for now," going on to whine further about the non-American and "leftist" nature of the board and huffing, "And these people get to influence American elections!"
CNSNews.com has deeply drunk the right-wing Kool-aid on opposing mask mandates and masks in general, and it's not afraid to play a bizarre form of reverse mask-shaming on President Biden and others in his administration -- aswe'venoted, CNS enjoys taking shots at Biden for even briefly not following their own mask mandates, even though CNS opposes wearing masks -- for example, it has touted Republican Sen. Rand Paul insisting that mask questions are being driven by "emotionalism," and his strange declaration that "If you want more people to get vaccinated, Joe Biden should go on national TV, take his mask off and burn it" (no mention of the fact that Paul refuses to get vaccinated).
Let's look at a few more examples of that reverse mask-shaming. Melanie Arter served up an attempted gotcha in an April 27 article:
President Joe Biden, who is fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, wore a mask Tuesday while walking outside by himself to the podium to announce new CDC guidelines that vaccinated people can go without masks outdoors as long as they are not in big crowds.
According to updated guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, if you are fully vaccinated, “You can gather or conduct activities outdoors without wearing a mask except in certain crowded settings and venues.”
Arter deliberately waited until the final two paragraphs of her 14-paragraph to disclose the reason why Biden did that: so he could send a message by "watching me take it off and not put it back on until I get inside." That's dishonest journalism.
Patrick Goodenough tried his hand at mask-shaming in a May 3 article:
Asked why a fully-vaccinated President Biden still wears a mask outdoors despite amended CDC coronavirus precaution guidelines, a senior White House adviser said on Sunday she finds herself doing so too, out of “habit.”
“It’s interesting that you raise this,” Anita Dunn told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “I myself found that I was still wearing my mask outdoors this week, because it has become such a matter of habit.”
Goodenough then referenced how "During a visit to Duluth, Georgia on Thursday, Biden – in an outdoor setting – briefly misplaced his mask, leaving the state’s two masked Democratic senators waiting behind him on the drive-in rally stage as he and First Lady Jill Biden, also masked, looked for it" -- which CNS had previously made an issue of.
President Joe Biden, a stickler for mask-wearing, was not masked last week, nor was his wife Jill, when they posed for a cozy, indoor photograph with (maskless) former President Jimmy Carter, 96, and his wife Rosalynn, 93.
Other photos show the Bidens wearing their masks as they walked out of the Carters' home in Plains, Georgia.
Vice President Kamala Harris kissed her husband goodbye before she boarded Air Force Two on Tuesday – both wearing coronavirus masks, even though both have been fully vaccinated.
Harris was departing from Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland as she and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff kept their masks on their faces as they engaged in an on-camera kiss.
Harris and her husband received their first COVID-19 vaccination shots in December, with the vice president using the event as a photo-op. Then, in January, both received their second doses during a press event reported by People magazine[.]
Arter returned to attack Biden anew in a May 13 article:
CNN “New Day” host John Berman asked White House senior advisor for COVID response Andy Slavitt on Monday why President Joe Biden and congressional leaders he met with them at the White House on Wednesday all wore masks despite all being fully vaccinated.
[...]
“Well, look, I think people who have been vaccinated are starting to get a little bit impatient with what can I do? Can I go indoors? Can I take masks off, et cetera? And I think the CDC is getting there step by step. So right now you can do pretty much everything outdoors without a mask, everything indoors if you're around vaccinated people without a mask,” Slavitt said.
“So why were they all wearing masks?” Berman asked.
“I'm not sure the president is the average person. I personally think there's a lot of protections around the president. Why does he need lots of Secret Service agents?” Slavitt said.
That's how hard CNS has to work to continuously crank out negative anti-Biden content -- by turning masks into a political issue.
Graham Buries The Lede In PolitiFact Attack: MRC Screwed Up Data In A Graphic Topic: Media Research Center
Media Research Center executive Tim Graham began an April 21 post by intoning:
PolitiFact is well known for hammering conservatives far harder than liberals. We have offered a series of snapshots of their pro-Democrat tilt. What happens when they attempt to flag a conservative group for falsehood...and then walk away? Let us speak from some of our own recent experience.
What followed was a tale that started with PolitiFact -- whom Graham hates with a passion -- contacting the MRC for substantiation of numbers it used in a graphic it posted on Facebook (which the MRC still insists is biased against conservatives despite all evidence to the contrary) attacking President Biden's claims about immigration. Weirdly, the person at the MRC who handled PolitiFact's request was not Graham or any of the researchers under his stead but, rather, the head of marketing, Ed Molchany.
Graham then rather vaguely wrote: "Then Molchany noticed that the chart needed an update, because it was an estimate. The Facebook page was updated." In other words: The MRC got a number wrong, and he's trying to soft-pedal it -- something he would never do if someone in the "liberal media" had done something similar.
PolitiFact ended up doing nothing further regarding the graphic, which set Graham off:
So what happened? Nothing! Kertscher and PolitiFact never posted a ruling that the MRC chart was acceptably truthful. It might have helped PolitiFact to show good faith after this exchange of facts. I contacted Kertscher for comment, and Kertscher said he forwarded to PolitiFact editor Angie Drobnic Holan. There has been no comment sent back.
Instead of ruling on our chart, on Monday, Kertscher posted a "fact check" that warned about a Facebook claim that the Bidens wanted to remove gender terms.
[...]
So when you see that the Democrats get the most True and Mostly True ratings on PolitiFact, it might just be because they won't give them to conservatives when their facts add up.
Graham didn't explain why PolitiFact should act in good faith -- despite not proving any lack of such -- when Graham and the MRC has never acted in good faith toward PolitiFact, seeing it only as just another target for his partisan right-wing agenda. Graham is the one who should be acting in good faith by not raging at PolitiFact over any perceived slight and not trying to make it a target of his wrath and assume "liberal bias" where none may actually exist.
Indeed, Graham should really be thanking PolitiFact -- after all, would it have fixed that incorrect number in its graphic if PolitiFact hadn't asked about it? And shouldn't Graham be grateful that PolitiFact didn't pounce on the MRC for that false number the way the MRC attacks mistakes in the "liberal media"?
Show good faith and you get good faith. Haven't you learned that yet, Tim? Why do you think you're exempt?
Parler Is Back -- And The MRC Still Won't Tell You It Shares A Funder Topic: Media Research Center
We've documented how the Media Research Center has aggressively promoted and deended the right-wing social media app Parler without telling its readers that its main funder, Rebekah Mercer, is also a major funder of the MRC. Now, Parler is trying to make a comeback after getting losing hosting and distribution following the Capitol riot -- some participants plotted the attempted insurrection on the app -- and the MRC is still hiding important information.
Because the MRC is hiding the basic information of shared funding, it must also hide behind-the-scenes turmoil at Parler. It had previously taken the side of current Parler management against co-founder John Matze, who had been ousted from the company in a power move by Mercer, in part because Matze wanted more robust moderation procedures and Mercer didn't.. Thus, the MRC will never tell you that Matze has sued Parler over his firing, claiming his 40 percent ownership stake in the company was stripped from him, and also noting that Mercer initially hid her involvement in Parler by using a holding company. Matze's lawsuit also claims that right-wing radio host Dan Bongino was brought in to Parler as a way to attract his right-wing followers to the platform -- but that Mercer has refused to do the paperwork to give Bongino the ownership stake he was promised (and claims he has).
That's not the only controversy. Parler's lawyers disclosed in a letter to a congressional committee that it wasn't the "free speech" platform the MRC insisted it was because it "has acted to remove incitement and threats of violence from its platform," the company worked with the FBI to investigate those violent threats.
But those facts don't matter -- and they certainly should not be spread around too much -- because the MRC has a bogus "censorship" narrative to push. Thus, we have dumb gotcha things like a March 24 post by Joseph Vazquez harrumphing that not only is the head of Amazon Web Services --where Parler was hosted until the fallout from the Capitol riot -- is in line to become Amazon CEO, his replacement at AWS had donated to Joe Biden's presidential campaign. "The fact that Amazon was willing to hire a blatant partisan to control its massive internet service apparatus is alarming given the Big Tech company’s disgusting history of censoring conservatives," Vazquez huffed, even though he could not possibly link the new CEO's donation to Biden to Parler's removal from AWS.
The next day, Casey Ryan served up revisionist history while writing about tech CEOs testifying to a congressional committee. After the Google CEO noted that it removed apps from its Google Play store "for inciting violence," Ryan declared, "Google removed the free speech platform Parler from its app store after Trump’s supporters began moving to the platform." Ryan then sounded like a Parler PR rep: "Up-and-coming free speech platform Parler gained greater exposure after social media giants, including Twitter, banned Trump. The free speech platform reportedly saw exponential growth following Big Tech’s actions. Twitter’s censorious moderation policies appeared to drive people away more than help attract new users."
After Apple CEO Tim Cook defended Parler's removal from its app store, Kayla Sargent tried to manufacture some outrage in an April 5 post:
Apple has, once again, reaffirmed its commitment to silence conservative voices and so-called “hate speech” on the company’s platforms.
Apple CEO Tim Cook appeared on Sway, a podcast hosted by far-left Recode co-founder and New York Times contributor Kara Swisher. The two defended Apple’s decision to remove Parler from its App Store and proceeded to at least operate under the pretense that Apple cares about privacy rights.
Cook called the App Store’s removal of Parler “a straightforward decision, because they were not adhering to the guidelines of the App Store,” according to the podcast transcript. Cook further specified: “You can’t be inciting violence or allow people to incite violence. You can’t allow hate speech and so forth. And they had moved from moderating to not being able to moderate.”
Apple and Google both removed Parler from their app stores following the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. Amazon then booted the platform from its web hosting services in a move that temporarily shut down Parler’s website.
Cook said that he wanted Parler to “put in the moderation that’s required to be on the store and come back, because I think having more social networks out there is better than having less.”
Neither Cook nor Swisher mentioned the fact that “[i]n court documents about the pro-Trump riots at the Capitol, Facebook is cited far more than any other social network,”according to Business Insider.
Sargent didn't mention the fact that Parler had been doing some moderation of content, even though it would have helped her case against Cook. Her claim that Facebook was cited more than Parler is just whataboutism to hide the fact that Parler was, in fact, used by rioters. Sargent also offered no evidence to back up her claim that Swisher is "far-left."
When Apple finally did allow Parler back into its app store, Sargent cheered on April 19 that it was "a win for free speech," then complained that "Apple still took the time to bash Parler when it could. Apple claimed that some posts on Parler 'encouraged violence, denigrated various ethnic groups, races and religions, glorified Nazism, and called for violence against specific people.' Apple also claimed that Parler’s 'moderation practices were clearly inadequate to protect users from this harmful and dangerous content.'"Sargent didn't dispute the factual accuracy of those claims, just complained that they were made.
Sargent then tried to slip through an admission that Parler wasn't as "free speech-oriented" as advertised int he mddie oftaking another shot at Apple amid more Facebook whataboutism: "In a blatant act of hypocrisy, Apple banned Parler following the riot, but did not ban Facebook, despite the fact that Facebook reportedly played an outsized role in fueling the riot. Parler claimed that it had warned the FBI 'more than fifty times' before the riot."
In an April 23 post, Alexander Hall tried to reframe the moderation issue: It's not "censorshi" if Parler does it, and it's only censorship when Apple is forcing them to do it:
Parler Interim CEO Mark Meckler explained in an interview that Parler’s app is returning to Apple’s App Store on the condition it comply with the platform’s rules. Mecklerr said that there will be alternate versions with different sets of rules.
Fox Business host Stuart Varney opened the interview with Meckler by inquiring: “I believe you've agreed to more aggressive patrolling of users' posts.” Meckler “push[ed] back very strongly,” claiming “we’re actually not doing content moderation at all, Stuart.” Meckler then admitted, however, that “what allowed us to get back on the App Store was that Apple requested that the version of the app … will have a particular kind of content censorship that is required by Apple.”
Meckler illustrated further "[The app] will censor content that is aimed at peoples’ inherent characteristics, immutable characteristics: race, gender, sexual orientation." Meckler went on to explain: "Apple doesn’t think people should be able to see that kind of content."
Parler does not appear happy with Apple’s requirements and has negotiated with the company to allow people to speak their minds freely. "We disagree vehemently," Meckler noted.
It appeared that Parler accessed outside the app, such as via computer or Android, would be entirely different: “If folks want to see that content, they’ll still be able to go to Parler.com and look at their account there and see that content. If people want to see that kinda stuff, it’s available on their Android app. But in order to get back on the App Store, Apple required that particular version of censorship on that particular app.”
Hall didn't explain why Meckler would not be "happy" with having to moderate content that attack people for their "immutable characteristics," or why such content is apparently crucial to Parler's operations. Hall ultimately conceded, however, that Parler does "censor" some content:
Meckler explained that Parler, aside from its Apple-compliant version, does not censor content unless it breaks the law:
“Unless it is considered illegal, if it is actual incitement to violence, then it is considered illegal, and obviously, we would have lawyers look at that. Anything that's illegal is not welcome on Parler. If it's protected by the First Amendment, it’s welcome on Parler, but we draw the line at illegal acts.”
No mention, of course, of the moderation battles inside Parler, Matze's firing, his lawsuit or even the name Rebekah Mercer (or that she also funds the MRC).
MRC Defends Tucker Carlson's Death-Threat-Inducing Attacks On Another Journalist Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center loves targeting journalist -- and it loves even more when Fox News' Tucker Carlson does so too, to the point that Carlson's viewers send the journalists death threats, as New York Times writer Taylor Lorenz has learned. Another target of both MRC and Carlson has been NBC tech reporter Brandy Zadrozny.
Last September, the MRC's Alex Christy complained that Zadrozny "trash[ed] Facebook for not being bossy enough with its stupider (i.e. conservative) consumers" by pointing out that its policy to stop election ads a week before the election was meaningless, huffing in response: "Nobody in this conversation acknowledged that candidates have been airing controversial ads on television for decades, and no one needed a moderator like Facebook to rule one side was airing 'disinformation.' That was hashed out by the opposing candidates."
NBC investigative reporter Brandy Zadrozny is one of the internet's most famous Cancel Vulture journalists ruining the lives of everyday Americans. She blasted Fox News and right-wing commentators in an interview with the Nieman Journalism Lab.
On Thursday, Zadrozny was introduced by Nieman Lab writer Brad Esposito in an interview as a “librarian turned reporter,” and she indeed has no qualms about nagging Americans to hush. While Zadrozny claimed that “[t]here’s so few monsters in the world,” she said she has “never felt so secure in my critique of a place” as calling Fox News “trash.” She mentioned “Fox” seven times during the interview.
One segment that oddly enraged her was when former Fox News host Eric Bolling used “doughnuts” to explain the crisis of America’s national deficit= under then-President Barack Obama. “That was actually an Eric Bolling segment that actually aired and I remember just screaming at the TV — like, we had all of these TVs, and I was like, nooooooooooo. So a lot of screaming.”
What apparently doesn’t outrage Zadrozny though? Antifa and Black Lives Matter rioters, it seems.
Despite a history of reporting on extremism on social media platforms, Zadrozny only mentioned Antifa in the context of paranoia by certain “Facebook groups.” She also merely described Black Lives Matter protestors as people “saying the names of Black men and women who were killed for no reason.” Meanwhile, she described white counter demonstrators, who likely came to prevent the destruction of the local area, as an “army of white people [in fatigues] with huge guns everywhere.”
Esposito brought up the January 6 Capitol riot. Neither Esposito nor Zadrozny mentioned the Black Lives Matter riots that destroyed property in multiple cities including $500 million in damages in Minneapolis alone, according to Fox News. The two journalists also failed to mention the more recent Capitol attack where an aspiring Nation of Islam member reportedly attacked multiple police officers, resulting in the death of one officer and himself.
Hall didn't mention that Bolling's doughnut-deficit analogy did not reflect reality (or why he's a former Fox News host). Nor did Hall explain why he does not find the Capitol riot offensive. He then touted how the right-wing website Revolver News described Zadrozny as "The Woman In Charge of Doxxing and Destroying Trump Supporters" (no comment on the underhanded methods of the right-wing Project Veritas for comparison).
Then, it was Carlson's turn to target Zadrozny, citing the Revolver News report and having one of the writers of that story, Darren Beattie, on to talk about it. No mention that Beattie got fired from the Trump White House for hanging out with white nationalists.NBC responded by stating that Carlson's "smear" of Zadrozny "ha[s] shamefully encouraged harassment and worse."
After that the Washington Post did an article on how Carlson targets journalists, prompitng Tim Graham to complain:
Friday’s Washington Post splashed a big headline on the front of the Style section with a picture of number-one Fox News host Tucker Carlson and the words “The bully pundit: Fox News host Tucker Carlson often launches attacks on journalists. And once he’s off the air, the zealots who follow him start lobbing hate tweets and death threats.”
Radio host Chris Plante made fun on his Friday morning radio show with the obvious point: So it’s dangerous to launch attacks on journalists, but what is this story but a 43-paragraph attack on a journalist? Apparently, no Fox News host can be identified as a journalist. The Washington Post implies conservatives are propagandists, not journalists.
This is just the latest in a pile of stories campaigning for Carlson to be canceled by Fox.
Wait -- Graham thinks Carlson is a "journalist"? And that right-wingers like himself and Carlson are not propagandists? They both get paid quite well to push propaganda. And if Carlson is not an effective propagndist -- er, journalist, why is he and the MRC so concerned that Carlson is being held accountable for what he says and obsessing about what the Post is saying about him?
Graham then decided to wilidly read into the Post reproducing Fox News' defense of Carlson as "legitimate criticism": "They printed that like it was hate speech, like it was offensive. This is a common liberal-media tactic: disparaging conservative media criticism by saying it only encouraged violent Twitter trolls. CNN commonly claimed any attempt to criticize them or chant 'CNN sucks' at Trump rallies encouraged violence against journalists." Graham gets paid well to disparage any legitimate criticism of conservative media.
Graham then complained of the "threatened liberal journalists" listed in the article, including Zadrozny and Lorenz who got death threats as a result of Carlson's targeting, then whined: "So getting a Twitter death threat is serious, but a mob outside your home is just a 'boisterous protest'? Was it 'mostly peaceful'? His wife called the cops." Graham forgot the part about Carlson lying that his front door was damaged by the protesters, suggesting that calling the cops may have been an overreaction -- or was done so right-wing defenders like Graham could attack the protesters as more dangerous than they actually were.
Graham concluded by huffing: "The point of this article is that Fox News is a menacing threat, not a news network. It's as anti-Fox as a Brian Stelter rant at CNN."? Stelter, of course, is another MRC (and Fox News) target.
LIARS: MRC Pushes Facebook 'Censorship' Narrative -- While Bragging About How Popular Its Facebook Content Is Topic: Media Research Center
We'vedocumentedhow the Media Research Center's narrative that Facebook loves to "censor" conservatives and only conservatives is bogus, given how much Facebook has reached out to conservatives -- including Mark Zuckerberg having secret dinners with Brent Bozell -- in an attempt to stop the attacks. Indeed, the evidence that Facebook gives conservatives a more-than-fair shake continues to pile up:
Facebook posts from pages promoting content far-right screamer Alex Jonesand his Infowars operation urging a violent response in advance of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot (despite Jones himself being banned from Facebook) got more than a million interactions.
Facebook has been pushing content from right-winger Ben Shapiro on users who have previously shown no interest in him or related content despite his Daily Wire breaking Facebook rules by using purportedly unrelated pages to promote its content, reportedly out of fear Shapiro will whine about being "shadowbanned" if he faces any restrictions.
Yet the MRC's false narrative has continued, pushing every example of a conservative being "censored" (even if they are actually far-right extremists). A few recent examples:
But the MRC is lying to you about conservative "censorship." How do we know? Because not only does the MRC use Facebook, it brags about how well it's working. On April 6, the MRC sent out an email tellings its readers about how essential a tool Facebook is (overenthusiastic bold and colored type in original):
We have big news that brings immense insight to conservatives who believe in spreading the messages of freedom.
The news?
Last week, the MRC was second only to NewsMax for interactions on social media.
The insight? This information informs us that we’re having an effect INSIDE the arenas of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and more, and it will be wise to continue spreading the word on traditional social media—even as conservatives join great new alternatives.
A recent study by CrowdTangle, a social media analytics app that Facebook recently purchased, shows that the Media Research Center (which includes brands such as MRCTV, NewsBusters, and CNSNews) had 2.13 MILLION interactions last week alone!
This is a testament to the devotion, hard work, and principles of those who help gather all this important conservative information and who share it.
The information is spread through you, your family, your friends, your neighbors, co-workers, and clients. Hour after hour, day after day, the signal of freedom propagates across Big Tech, thanks to all who continue to maintain their voices on those sometimes difficult “social media” platforms.
[...]
As long as we can have this kind of impact within the lair of the left, we can win new friends, gain allies, and spread information to millions.
It’s fundamental. The MRC wants you to know how much we appreciate your principled efforts to defend freedom and truth. This news about the power of that impact offers us a key tactical reminder that we should not retreat into an echo chamber, but, instead, keep participating in the conversation!
Keep spreading the word, even in what we might think are hostile environments. Being present is half the battle. The other half is making sure your voice is heard.
Remember: “The MRC Effect” is clear. Your work, your news—your principles—are being seen.
Keep it up, and keep spreading the word—on ALL the platforms!
The email also includes a link to a video -- hosted on Facebook, natch -- that tells people howto keep MRC content in their Facebook newsfeed. Still, it laughably insisted, "we know that Facebook and other media platforms are censoring the right."
Lying to people to push a false narrative is clearly a key part of "the MRC effect."
CNS Offers Negative Coverage Of Another Biden Speech Topic: CNSNews.com
CNSNews.com penchant for negative, nitpicky and cherry-picked coverage of President Biden continued with a speech he have in Georgia the day after his address to Congress (which received the same treatment). The big news, as far as Susan Jones was concerned, was Biden misspeaking:
"End detention now! End detention now!" cried protesters who interrupted President Joe Biden's speech in Duluth, Georgia on Thursday.
"Abolish ICE," they shouted, holding up a large orange banner that read, "communities not cages." Biden could not read the banner because it faced the crowd.
Biden, distracted, paused several times to listen to the protesters. He also responded to them:
"I agree with you. I'm working on it, man. Give me another five days," Biden told them. "Folks, y'all know what they're talking about. There should be no private prisons, period. None, period. That's what they're talking about. And private detention centers. They should not exist. And we are working to close all of them."
Jones went on to complain that "his administration ordered ICE and Border agents to change their language as it relates to illegal aliens" -- which, of course, CNS framed as "censorship"; an April 19 article by Craig Bannister summarized in the headline: "Biden Censors ICE, CBP Vocabulary; Bans Words Like ‘Alien’ and ‘Immigrant Assimilation’." Bannister further complained that the new terms suggest that, instead of expecting illegal aliens to 'assimilate' to U.S. laws and culture, American society must change in order to “integrate” and accommodate the newcomers."
After saying hello to the crowd, Joe veered into an (unscripted) wife joke:
"Well, I'm ready to go home, because she never says that to me at home. I was--this was worth the trip, hearing that. I am Jill's husband. It's obvious to everybody. I never get introduced as 'she's my wife.' I'm her husband. And, you know, I'm proud to be..."
Shortly after he started speaking, Biden was interrupted by -- and distracted by -- protesters screaming, "End detention now! Abolish private detention centers!" He tried to mollify them by agreeing with the need to get rid of private prisons.
Jones went on to whine that "Biden then launched into a recitation of his jobs program, his intention to halve child poverty through new tax credits and social programs, his climate change agenda, and his intention to raise taxes on the rich for the benefit of the poor -- and so much more. Biden made the same points he outlined in Wednesday night's speech to a sparsely populated, well-masked, joint session of Congress."
"I'm looking for my mask. I'm in trouble," President Joe Biden explained to a drive-in rally in Duluth, Georgia on Thursday when he remained at the podium after ending his speech and after introducing Georgia's two senators.
Democrat Senators Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock waited awkwardly behind the president, as he scrambled to find his mask.
Nope, it wasn't in his speech folder. No, it hadn't fallen to the floor. Where could it be?
First Lady Jill Biden walked over to help her husband look, as the music ("Your love keeps lifting me higher") played on.
In a remarkable moment, Biden, helped by Jill, finally found his mask -- whipped it out of his pocket -- just as the song reached the line, "I'm so glad I finally found you."
Watch the video. It's funny.
Jones only thinks it's "funny" because it gives her an opportunity to depict Biden as a doddering old man -- something she would never have done of Trump despite his similar mock-worthy behavior.
MRC Defends Joe Rogan's Vaccine Misinformation Topic: Media Research Center
If podcaster Joe Rogan is not an actual right-winger, he's definitely right-wing-adjacent -- which is good enough for the Media Research Center. Last year, after Rogan moved his "massively popular" show to Spotify, the MRC's Alexander Hall highlighted criticism of him for the right-wing guests he has had, including Alex Jones, Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes and an anti-transgender author. But Hall also touted how Rogan interviewd more mainstream right-wingers like Ben Shapiro and Jordan Peterson. In Jnauary, Christian Toto gushed over Rogan's "refreshing take on Big Tech censorship," which basically came down to being opposed to banning Donald Trump from social media for his legacy of incitement. And in March, P.J. Gladnick defended Rogan from accusations of being a right-wing host -- hey, Bernie Sanders was once a guest!
So when Rogan started peddling misinformation about the coronavirus vaccine, the MRC rushed to his defense over this "hot take." Kayla Sargent wrote in an April 28 post:
Intellectual Dark Web member and podcast host Joe Rogan, once again, appears to have angered the left with recent comments on the COVID-19 vaccine in his podcast,The Joe Rogan Experience.
Some on the left, however, seemed to not only be displeased with Rogan’s COVID-19 commentary, but also with the fact that Spotify has not taken action in response to the episode. Spotify holds an exclusive contract with Rogan.
During the podcast, Rogan said: “I think, for the most part, it’s safe to get vaccinated. I do. I do. But if you’re like 21-years-old, and you say to me, ‘Should I get vaccinated?’ I’ll go ‘no.’” He continued: “If you're a healthy person, and you're exercising all the time, and you're young, and you’re eating well, like, I don't think you need to worry about this.”
Of course, the left panicked over the fact that Rogan dared to question the vaccine in any capacity.
Sargent went on to cite Dr. Anthony Fauci -- who is definitely not part of "the left" -- criticizing Rogan's advice.But Fauci wasn't alone: a group of doctors denounced Rogan's misinformation, pointing out that "Rogan demonstrates that he lacks a simple, fundamental understanding about how infectious diseases — including Covid-19 — spread," adding that "While scientists and doctors are generally more trusted, competing messages like Rogan's can be confusing and affect people's behaviors with regard to their health."
The MRC has yet to mention that Rogan later tried to clarify his misinformation, denying that he's an anti-vaxxer but still (falsely) insisting that young, health ypeople don't need the vaccine.
Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a domestic terrorist group, that has done more to factually harm and promote the regressive rejection of modernity than the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) did in an 86-year period, and that includes being responsible for the deaths of black people. From 1882 to 1968, there were 3,446 blacks lynched in America by the Democrat-controlled terrorist group.
BLM exists to extort massive sums of money and blackmail corporate America into doing the bidding of the rabid, demonic hordes holding elected office and the satanic demigods existing in the political shadow world, who fund and dictate the actions of BLM et al.
Nothing BLM has done or will do benefits anyone apart from its leadership and the godless entities responsible for the terrorist organization's existence.
[...]
At no time in American history have white supremacists burned down and/or instigated the burning down of entire neighborhoods in America. But BLM has fomented racist animosity toward law enforcement and entire police departments, which led to the destruction of neighborhoods in New York, Philadelphia, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Texas, California, Missouri, Maryland and numerous other cities nationally, even spreading the spores of their malcontent to cities around the world.
-- Mychal Massie, April 19 WorldNetDaily column (who is apparently unware of Tulsa)
Many of the hyphenated-folks are celebrating as if they just won the lottery, because former Police Officer Derek Chauvin received what was a fait accompli.
Appearing as a guest on a West Coast talk show the day after the guilty verdict was rendered, I said: "Mr. Chauvin was always going to be found guilty." Mr. Chauvin's fate was sealed from the moment Floyd breathed the last breath of his shockingly wasted life. But, I digress.
Maybe one of these preening children of Belial would care to explain why they are celebrating Mr. Chauvin's conviction? What good does his conviction do them? Is Mr. Chauvin's conviction going to put food on their tables? Is his conviction going to rebuild the neighborhoods they burned to the ground, the stores that they looted or even put a table in the ashes of the slums they once called home so they can put food on it, assuming they had food?
[...]
At the time of his death, Floyd's body was all dope. In what community in America are heroin, fentanyl, methamphetamine and morphine legal? These aren't recreational pharmaceuticals people use when they're just chillin' around the house breaking open 40s and watching "Low-Bron" James dribble.
These are death-inducing drugs, and the neighborhoods where they're purchased and manufactured are cesspools of uninterrupted generational violence.
Streets are being renamed after this person, a 6-foot-6, 245-pound pariah when he was alive. Schools are being renamed after him; statues and monuments are in the works. Practically every wall in the ghetto has Floyd's likeness on it.
But, what about the people he molested and assaulted? What about his contribution to moral decay and the villainous example he lived? What about the pregnant woman whose apartment he staked out and then led others in breaking into? Do these smiling people who are happy because Mr. Chauvin was convicted give a rat's tail how that woman feels today? What about her nightmares caused by having a loaded gun with hammer cocked, pushed into her pregnant belly and told unless she gave him her money he was going to shoot her baby? Has anyone asked her what she thinks? Are we to conclude that his other seven convictions should be ignored? What kind of responsible role model fathers a half-dozen children all from different women, not marrying any of them? Should we conclude he wasn't a reprobate father because the women could have killed the babies?
Floyd is just another example of godless commonality and evil his kind embody.
The Republican Party is dishonest, spineless and without question deceitful on every quantifiable level; but that notwithstanding, the Democratic Party is the most existential proof that evil exists, since the serpent entered the Garden.
The singular difference between the political constructs is: Republicans try to hide/deny they are wicked; while Democrats are brazenly unapologetic and demonstrative in making it clear their evil is without bottom. They are indeed the progeny of Satan. Following in the footprints of the devil himself, everything they represent is evil and anti-God. This is a fact that goes unaddressed. Even more condemnable is the fact that it goes unaddressed by the Christian church. But I digress.
The depth of Erebusic duplicity openly displayed by Democrats is beyond belief. They lie and embrace duplicitous double standards with impunity.
[...]
But their standards of propriety and their condemnation of morals don't extend to the likes of Biden's so-called assistant secretary for health, Richard Levine. Levine is praised for being a transgendered whatever. In reality he is a selfish individual suffering from a mental illness that has him convinced he's a woman. This motivated him to abandon his natural family and seek an environment where his sexual dysphoria perversion could be openly practiced – the only requirement being that he convince people to call him Rachel.
Specific to that is more evidence of the depth of Democrats' embracing of anti-God agendas. They use threat of law to assure someone like Richard Levine be referred to as a "she" and called by his assumed female name.
There was a time witches were burned at the stake to the joyous applause of the villagers, because doing same was one specific avenue of ridding the village and the surrounding countryside of their evil. Today witches (and no I didn't misspell the word) are celebrated by factions only marginally less demonic than the malefic witch, herself. Take, for example, the Obama woman.
Obama may not exhibit the oft-mentioned eccrine bromhidrosis of Hillary Clinton; but the woman is grotesquely more unattractive in appearance and much less accomplished. However, she is able to play the skin-color and "white people out to get me" card. And play it she does – at every opportunity, especially in situations she is able to co-opt and prostitute skin-color animus that undermines civility and promotes a toxic environment for law enforcement.
[...]
Obama spread it on thick, saying: "But every time they get in the car by themselves, I worry about what assumption is being made by somebody who doesn't know everything about them – the fact that they are good students and polite girls, but maybe their playing their music a little loud. Maybe somebody sees the back of their head and makes an assumption."
She was conveying the message that white people, and white police officers specifically, are waiting on every corner to kill blacks. I would say she's confusing V.F.W.s and police departments with the Planned Parenthood industrialized extermination centers strategically located in the ghettos.
Even by her low standards of propriety, this performance was a disgrace. The circus atmosphere and the unchallenged claims are typical of a Gayle King interview. I guess something could be said for her not wallowing around on the floor, doing pushups and jumping jacks, as she once did to the perverse pleasure of lesbian Ellen DeGeneres.
MRC Psaki-Bashing, Doocy-Fluffing Watch Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center's Curtis Houck clearly thinks that Jen Psaki's White House press briefings are nothing more than an show for his amusement -- an opinion we're pretty sure he never offered about the press brieefings of his old crush, Kayleigh McEnany. Thus, we're treated to things like a May 4 post headlined "The Psaki Show Is Back":
The White House press briefing returned on Tuesday following a week-long hiatus and, with plenty to talk about, Fox News’s Kristin Fisher burst out of the gate and asked Press Secretary Jen Psaki whether teachers unions hold sway over CDC recommendations for school reopenings as well as what the White House thinks Americans should be allowed to do once vaccinated.
[...]
Though there hadn’t been an episode of the Psaki show in a week, it was the same old, same old with Psaki providing next to nothing [.]
If there's nothing of interest but the "same old, same old," why does Houck continue writing these posts? Because they're not about the actual content -- his goal is to trash Psaki at every opportunity and gush over the hostile questioning of right-wing Fox News reporters like Fisher and Peter Doocy.
Perhaps Houck took his own advice, for he didn't cover briefings for the next few days. His next post was on May 10, which began with a shot at Fisher suggesting that she's a traitor to the right-wing ideological cause by leaving Fox News for CNN -- which Houck hates with a psychotic passion -- but his man-crush Doocy was on the job in her stead to push right-wing talking points:
With Kristin Fisher having left to join the evil empire, Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy soldiered on during Monday’s briefing and found success in repeatedly questioning Press Secretary Jen Psaki over the fallout from Friday’s jobs report and whether increased unemployment benefits are keeping people from wanting to rejoin the labor force.
Doocy pointed to the fact that “employment only rose about 266,000 jobs in April out 7.4 million or so jobs openings” before asking whether the Biden administration knows “that people are just choosing not to apply for jobs because the extra unemployment benefits are so good.”
Psaki insisted Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and the rest of Team Biden had “looked at the data” and they insist things were going swimmingly with unemployment having nothing to do with the increased welfare state.
Instead, she blamed a lack of affordable childcare, “the need” for more employers to pay workers “a livable, working wage,” the number of vaccinations when the jobs numbers were put together, and yes, schools still being closed.
That would be stem from the preferences of the teachers unions, so if only that was a group the White House could have influence over and not the other way around.
Doocy came prepared for this kind of answer, so he shot back: “But Bank of America economists, who are cited in a Bloomberg story say, anybody making less than $32,000 a year is better off financially just taking unemployment so is the White House creating an incentive just to stay home?”
Psaki hit back that it’s not the belief of “the majority of economists, internally and externally of the White House” and instead defending the increased payouts due to the “very difficult economic downturn.”
Psaki's actually right, but the MRC is not paying Houck to say she's ever right about anything. His job is to push right-wing narratives regardless of their accuracy, bash Psaki and lionize Doocy.
Farah Marks WND's 24th Anniversary With Recounting Of Its Biggest Lies And Bias Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily recently marked its 24th anniversary, and editor Joseph Farah used that occasion to go down memory lane touting WND's alleged "accomplishments." He wrote:
One of the proudest moments for me was our sustained coverage of the Terri Schiavo case. WND was the only news outlet that covered the saga of this young, disabled woman, who was eventually starved to death by court order, for two years before it became, for a short time, the biggest story in the world. I am convinced that without that coverage, few would even know the name Terri Schiavo today. She might have died in obscurity, and the great debate over the sanctity of life that her sacrifice inspired might have been limited to local backwater courtrooms.
Now, we've been following WND's journey for much of that time, and we know when Farah is BSing you. We documented how WND's coverage of the Terri Schiavo story washighlybiased, effectively serving as the PR agent for her family while repeatedly suggesting that her husband murdered her, first witih the brain injury that left her in a persistent vegetative state and then going through the legal process to have her life support cut off after years of no change in her condition. A book by a WND reporter on the case perpetuated much of that unfair and defamatory bias.
Farah continued:
More recently, WND set the standard – and is still doing so – in coverage of the killing of another innocent: Miriam Carey, a young black dental hygienist from Connecticut who was gunned down by Secret Service and Capitol Police on the streets of Washington for making a wrong turn near the White House. WND did the kind of journalism in this case that inspired me to become a reporter, to devote my life to news, to feel like I had the best job in the world. This case isn't over – and won't be – until the cover-up is fully exposed and her family receives justice.
Actually, WND was using the Carey story to attack President Obama. Farah caresnothing about Carey the person, only Carey the anti-Obama cudgel.
Farah added:
I can't forget WND's dogged pursuit of Barack Obama's eligibility issue, culminating in its book "Where's the Birth Certificate?" going to No. 1 at Amazon, forcing the White House to retrieve what it claimed was the legitimate document from Hawaii a day later. The pursuit of this story, it should be recalled, got Donald Trump involved in arguably his first major controversial political act.
This was a turning point for the nation!
Why would Farah think that his operation's eight-year promotion of a lie was such an accomplishment? That, more than anything, is responsible for the current financially challenged state of WND. And if Farah was so proud of turning Trump into a birther, why did it downplay Trump's birtherism before the 2016 election?
Of course, Farah will never admit his history of shoddy journalism has brought WND to the brink; instead, he complained that "Google, Facebook and Amazon had their way with us." He concluded by tying a predicted WND renaissance with that of Trump:
We're down but not out. I see a renaissance on the horizon. Trump will be back after being cheated out of reelection.
At 67, I'm not a kid any more. But I'm giving WND my all for the time I have. Pray for us. Pray for Donald Trump, who has proven to be the only man capable of taking on the Tech Tyrants. Join with us. Support us. We're not through. We're still here. We plan on ushering in better times for America!
Make America Great Again, indeed – in the name of God!
It's unlikely that anyone would agree with Farah that the lies he and WND have spread over the past 24 years have made anyone great again, let alone America.
Job growth was slower than expected during April, so CNSNews.com was eager to use the occasion to yet again, in Susan Jones' main story, tout how much better the economy was under Trump pre-pandemic:
Friday's jobs report reflects a reopening economy that still has a long way to go to match its Trump-era strength.
Contrary to bullish expectations, the unemployment rate actually ticked up a tenth of a point to 6.1 percent in April, and the economy added 266,000 jobs, far fewer than the 770,000 (revised) added in March and the 536,000 added in February.
Notably, the number of employed Americans increased in April for the 12th consecutive month since the economy tanked under COVID pressure in April 2020. Last month, BLS said 151,176,000 Americans were employed. That is 318,000 more than in March, and 1,145,000 more than when Joe Biden took office in January.
But the number of unemployed American also increased (+102,000) to 9,812,000 last month, boosting the unemployment rate slightly.
Jones concluded by huffing, "President Joe Biden will speak about today's jobs report later on this Friday, no doubt taking another opportunity to promote his American Jobs Plan."
Terry Jeffrey served up his usual sidebar complaint about government jobs, grousing this time that "Federal, state and local governments in the United States increased their employment by a combined 48,000 workers in April." But he knew who to blame; the article was illustrated with a picture of Kamala Harris and Nancy Pelosi bumping elbows, as if to (falsely) suggest they were celebrating more govenrment unemployment. Jeffrey tried to distort numbers further by comparing them to 20-eary-old numbers: "Even with the significant decline in government employment that occurred when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, government employment is still up 1,020,000 in this century, rising from 20,571,000 in January 2000 to the current 21,591,000."
MRC Serves As The Babylon Bee's PR Division Yet Again Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center loves to play defense for satire site Babylon Bee whenever anyone points out that right-wingers have a bad habit of promoting its articles as actual news (which says a lot about the "satire" it publishes that it's so unrecognizable as such to its target audience). It's also serving as the Bee's PR arm.
In an April 24 post, Autumn Johnson parroted the Bee's criticism of Facebook for having "penalized" a post "making fun of leftist rioters and looters," ominously adding, "This is not the first time that Facebook has targeted The Babylon Bee."
The Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon told Fox News he was considering taking legal action against The New York Times after it labeled the satirical news site “misinformation.”
Babylon Bee has an established history as a popular satirical website, and Dillon said the company was considering serious action: "We are contemplating and discussing with our counsel what the next move should be. Should we sue them or not? And that's an open question." Dillon suggested that the “misinformation” label could pose a serious threat to his website. “They put this stuff out there and if they can get it to stick, then then we have no platform remaining,” he said. “There's not going to be anybody who wants to host our stuff. ... It’s an effort to try and cancel us."
Dillon also claimed that liberals question whether The Babylon Bee’s content qualifies as satire: "These liberal media outlets and personalities have tried to create this narrative about us where we're not actually a satire site, but a disinformation site and where we're putting out fake news on purpose to mislead people.”
This is in regard to a Times article that the MRC's Clay Waters lashed out against in March. Both Pariseau and Dillon apparently forgot to mention the main issue: that right-wingers -- even Donald Trump and Ted Cruz -- tweet the alleged satire at the Babylon Bee as realnews.
The same day, Heather Moon attacked a study of who shares fake political news (turns out Republicans do, a lot), complaining that it listed the Bee as fake news: "Listing satire and comedy as 'fake news' is ludicrous." But if those Repubicans are sharing Bee articles as news, does that not make it fake news?
On April 29, the MRC posted an "explainer video" purporting to blame social media operations for the fact that the Bee's readership has trouble telling news and satire apart, and it includes a whopper fairly early: "The Bee's comedy is clear to literally everyone, except the censorship bigots who work for social media companies." As proven above, that is literally a lie. The rest of the video is just rehashes of the MRC's previous pro-Bee defense work. In short, it didn't explain much, since it completely censored the main point of contention.
NEW ARTICLE -- Out There, Exhibit 77: Denial of Reality Attack, Immigrant Crime Division Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center's Brad Wilmouth clings to another lost cause: the right-wing narrative that illegal immigrants commit more crime, despite all the evidence indicating otherwise. Read more >>
The Media Research Center has 
CNSNews.com has deeply drunk the right-wing Kool-aid on opposing mask mandates and masks in general, and it's not afraid to play a bizarre form of reverse mask-shaming on President Biden and others in his administration -- 
Media Research Center executive Tim Graham began an April 21 
We've 
The Media Research Center loves targeting journalist -- and it loves even more when Fox News' Tucker Carlson does so too, to the point that Carlson's viewers send the journalists death threats, as New York Times writer 
CNSNews.com penchant for negative, nitpicky and cherry-picked coverage of President Biden continued with a speech he have in Georgia the day after his address to Congress (
If podcaster Joe Rogan is not an actual right-winger, he's definitely right-wing-adjacent -- which is good enough for the Media Research Center. Last year, after Rogan moved his "massively popular" show to Spotify, the MRC's Alexander Hall 
Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a domestic terrorist group, that has done more to factually harm and promote the regressive rejection of modernity than the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) did in an 86-year period, and that includes being responsible for the deaths of black people. From 1882 to 1968, there were 3,446 blacks lynched in America by the Democrat-controlled terrorist group.
The Media Research Center's Curtis Houck clearly thinks that Jen Psaki's White House press briefings are nothing more than an show for his amusement -- an opinion we're pretty sure he never offered about the press brieefings of his old crush, Kayleigh McEnany. Thus, we're treated to things like a May 4 
WorldNetDaily recently marked its 24th anniversary, and editor Joseph Farah used that occasion to 
Job growth was slower than expected during April, so CNSNews.com was eager to use the occasion to 
The Media Research Center 