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Tuesday, February 8, 2022
MRC Preemptively Whined About Capitol Riot Anniversary Coverage
Topic: Media Research Center

Like its "news" division CNSNews.com, the Media Research Center's coverage of -- or, more accurately, whining about -- the anniversary of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot began a few days earlier. A Jan. 4 post by P.J.  Gladnick, for instance, complained about "Politico reveling that the Democrats are attempting to use the occasion to engage in flat out partisanship by federalizing the elections at the state level so as to favor that party." Tim Graham preemptively whined further about the coverage in his Jan. 5 column:

On the cusp of an absolute glut of liberal-media anniversary coverage of the January 6 riot, CNN media reporter Brian Stelter was cranky. “We live in a world where Donald Trump's top supporters malign the media for being ‘obsessed’ with January 6.”

You don’t have to be a Trump supporter to see it. The media obsession with January 6 is easily quantifiable. Saying there’s not an obsession is like claiming the media didn’t do enough coverage of Princess Di’s car crash and funeral. The New York Times editorial board posted an article titled “Every Day Is Jan. 6 Now,” and the daily media coverage reflects that mentality.

You don’t have to be an election denier who thinks Trump won in a landslide to acknowledge it. But Stelter maligned everyone who thinks the pro-Biden media are overdoing 1/6 as a deranged kook: “We're not a single story or smoking-gun confession or criminal charge away from snapping back to a shared reality. Instead, we're experiencing something that might be best explained by psychologists or therapists or algorithm developers.”

Graham was unable to unequivocally criticize the insurrection, choosing to play whataboutism instead: "The riot at the Capitol was a horrible event, and every thug and goon that beat a policeman should be prosecuted. But everyone knows that when thugs and goons tried to set a federal courthouse on fire in Portland with federal employees inside it last year, these self-appointed 'reality' definers didn't find an 'insurrection.' They have a double standard on violent revolts against the government...when the thugs are on the left."

Graham originally disavowed whataboutism in the immediate wake of the riot, insisting that "this is not rioting at an Apple store. This is where our democracy lives." He appears to have gotten back in lockstep with his fellow MRC ideologues, and now apparently believes that destoying the Capitol is exactly the same as rioting in a Apple store.

The preemptive whining continued in a Jan. 5 post by Kyle Drennen:

In an effort to push the Democratic Party agenda on the federal takeover of elections and hype an anti-Republican campaign narrative ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, leftist media outlets have planned an avalanche of special coverage commemorating the one year anniversary of the January 6th Capitol Hill riot.

On Wednesday, network hosts eagerly announced plans to anchor live from Washington, D.C. on Thursday, while cable channels promised to devote hours of air time to the topic.

Bill D'Agostino kicked off the MRC's day-of coverage by constructing the right-wing talking point that any discussion of the riot is nothing more than a Democratic talking point:

After obsessing over the January 6 Capitol Hill riot for the past year, the media are now using its one-year anniversary to advocate for unprecedented, sweeping election reforms.

Democrats would have been foolish not to make political hay out of this anniversary, and so they've decided to wield it as a justification for federalizing America's elections. Naturally, their friends in the media quickly flooded the zone with articles and TV segments supporting the party's cause.

[...]

With the 6th now upon us, Americans are in for a day jam-packed with cynical political gamesmanship and overtures about Our Democracy™.

But don’t expect the press to stop haranguing about the Capitol riot once the fight over election laws is gone from the news cycle. January 6 has been the media’s favorite rhetorical cudgel for the past year, and they’re not likely to put it back on the shelf anytime soon.

And when the anniversary coverage they preemptively whined about actually happened, the MRC whined about that too. Curtis Houck huffed:

On Thursday, it was the liberal media’s Super Bowl and on the first anniversary of the January 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol as, according to a NewsBusters analysis of the major broadcast network morning newscasts, ABC’s Good Morning America, CBS Mornings, and NBC’s Today spent roughly 90 minutes dissecting, obsessing over, and painting the 75 million-plus Trump voters as enemies.

The networks specifically combined for 89 minutes and 31 seconds and, of that, a whopping 50 minutes and 28 seconds came from CBS Mornings with co-host Tony Dokoupil anchoring from outside the U.S. Capitol, introducing and/or leading ten of the 11 January 6-related segments.

Houck didn't explain to readers why the anniversary wasn't newsworthy -- he simply whined that it was covered.

Clay Waters similiarly complained: "The New York Times is making hay during the intense Democratic politicization of the one-year anniversary of the violent Capitol Hill riots of January 6, 2021, what an online headline called “the worst American attack in democracy in centuries.” (How many centuries are we talking about here?)" He also grumbled that the Times blew up the right-wing whataboutism narrative that Graham used, claiming without evidence that the reporter "tortured the data to downplay the summer 2020 riots over the police killing of George Floyd."


Posted by Terry K. at 9:18 PM EST
Updated: Thursday, February 17, 2022 4:57 PM EST
WND's Farah Gets Wildly Biblical Over U.N. Statue Display
Topic: WorldNetDaily

Joseph Farah began his Jan. 3 WorldNetDaily column by describing New York City as both "the most influential city in the world" as well as "the leading purveyor of pornography and also leads the globe in delivering prescription drugs to the world – as well as the COVID-19 vaccines." So life-saving drugs are on the same level as pornography? Only in Farah's mind. He then went Biblical with an assist from his favorite conspiracy-mongering messianic Jew:

With full tribute to Rabbi Jonathan Cahn in his book "The Harbinger," I was moved by the way the U.S. misunderstood a verse in the book of Isaiah, chapter 9 verse 10: "The bricks are fallen down, but we will build with hewn stones: the sycomores are cut down, but we will change them into cedars."

It was Israel's message to the Assyrians' initial attack before final destruction. It was also America's response to the 9/11 attack on New York, as the book relates. There was no repentance, only pride in the people's hearts.

I don't know if the parallels go any further. I just don't know. But I am thinking about them. I am praying about them. I am certainly seeking repentance for my country's forgetfulness and its wrongdoings and its recent treacheries.

Remember, we did rebuild after 9/11. After a day or two of thinking about it, that was our response – leaders echoed the words of Israel's leaders, not even recognizing what they were saying. We built the One World Trade Center tower.

Then we got several more warnings, which I won't go into here. But New York is now a hell hole of sorts.

This all led up to Farah melting down over a statue recently placed in front of the United Nations headquarters in, yes, New York:

Just when you think you've seen everything, think again.

"A guardian of international peace and security sits on the Visitor's Plaza outside #UN Headquarters. The guardian is a fusion of jaguar and eagle and donated by the Government of Oaxaca, Mexico," explains the caption above the image the United Nations tweeted recently.

WHAT? It's one of the beasts of Babylon. It resembles a lion, too.

The U.N. does not have a sense of humor. This is no joke. Let me remind you what this is.

You know who else doesn't have a sense of humor (or history or non-American culture)? Joseph Farah. After extensively quoting from the Book of Revelation, he ranted:

Not only is it in New York City, this abomination defies the Living God!

That's pretty much all the U.N. does in its full-time war on Israel – and everything else decent.

Repent. Get out of sin. Bring yourself in alignment with God. Pray and fast.

That is what we should all be doing now. All the world is lining up against us. The beast is alive and well on planet Earth. Beware, the time is short. You can't cope in this world without relying on Jesus-Yeshua, our One True Savior and Deliverer and King of Kings!

But as one fact-checker noted, half-lion-half-eagle have long been mainstays of Western culture, and this one is inspired by Latin American culture. Also, the beasts of Revelation and Daniel are considered by Christian scholars not named Joseph Farah to be metaphors for ancient empires. According to CBN, it was a temporary exhibit that was displayed for about two months and removed as planned on Dec. 20 -- two weeks before Farah's column appeared.In other words, not the "mascot" Farah claimed it to be in his headline.

But because Farah doesn't care about anyone else's culture but his own narrow one, he felt the need to go all biblical here. Taht not only led him astray, it demonstrates another reason why WND's content can't be trusted (and why it's going down the tubes).


Posted by Terry K. at 5:27 PM EST
Newsmax Columnist Wants To Strip The Right Of D.C. Residents To Govern Themselves
Topic: Newsmax

Home Rule is a legislative carveout granted to the District of Columbia that allows the city to govern itself by electing a city government with a mayor, city council, and various bureaucratic agencies. Congress first granted D.C Home Rule in 1973, devolving their constitutionally outlined power to govern D.C to the residents of Washington.

Since 1973, Home Rule has been an unmitigated disaster that has subjected the capital to crises of crime, corruption, and unhinged progressive activism. Though in steep competition with crack-smoking crook Marion Barry for distinction as worst mayor, Muriel Bowser's administration may soon surpass all prior D.C infamy.

Mayor Bowser began in 2020 by forcing the city into some of the strictest lockdowns in the nation, not fully re-opening D.C's businesses until this past summer. The result was catastrophe.

Hundreds of businesses permanently closed, and with it came the destruction to incomes, lives, and community that always accompanies the collapse of small businesses.

She followed up by subjecting the city to lawlessness in the wake of George Floyd's death, permitting Black Lives Matter to riot, loot, and burn. Rather than restore order, she used tax dollars to plaster "Black Lives Matter" on the street in front of the White House, grossly abusing her powers to play race politics in the heat of the 2020 election.

If the American people want to visit the White House today, they're forced to walk over gigantic, ugly yellow neo-Marxist propaganda. So much for the so-called people's capital.

[...]

If Republicans win the House back in 2022, they should restore dignity to the capital by ending the Home Rule charade. The chaos must end, and the only way is for Congress to strip the Mayor and City Council of their abused authority.

Stripping the city council and Mayor Bowser’s authority is well within congressional rights. The Constitution plainly states the power to govern D.C is Congress’s, and the District’s charter makes plain that Home Rule is a privilege.

A Republican House could clean up the streets by instating camping bans and offering the homeless and mentally ill the help they need and deserve. They could drastically reduce crime rates by fully funding the police and giving them the authority to enforce the law.

Republicans could save communities by ending COVID-19 restrictions and empowering citizens to make their own choices. Most importantly, they could restore the nation's capital to constitutionally intended governance and end Mayor Bowser's humiliation of the country.

-- Collin Pruett, Dec. 28 Newsmax column


Posted by Terry K. at 1:05 PM EST
CNS Coverage Of Capitol Riot Anniversary Switched To GOP Talking Points
Topic: CNSNews.com

CNSNews.com writer Susan Jones lashing out at President Biden's speech on the anniversary of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot was the climax of CNS' Jan. 6 coverage, but it was far from the end. An anonymously written article complaining that Vice President Kamala Harris was "likening the Jan. 6, 2021 riot that breached the Capitol building to the Pearl Harbor attack of Dec. 7, 1941 and the al Qaeda terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001." Jones followed that up with a Jan. 7 article quoting none other than Liz Cheney dismissing the comparison:

Republican Rep. Liz Cheney is as determined as any Democrat to make sure Donald Trump never again becomes president. She is one of two anti-Trump Republicans sitting on the House select committee to investigate the events of January 6, 2021.

And while she "agreed with" some of the remarks made by President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on the one-year anniversary of the attack, she wouldn't go as far Harris did in comparing the attack on the U.S. Capitol to the attack on Pearl Harbor and the September 11 attack on the United States.

Jones went on to grouse that "Cheney said the committee's goal is not to prevent Trump from running again, although that's certainly how it appears," adding a further complaint that "Democrats on Thursday used the January 6 anniversary to push their voting legislation, which would set federal election rules that are weaker than those set by some states."

Craig Bannister gave Donald Trump his say in an article:

“The Democrats want to own this day of January 6th so they can stoke fears and divide America,” former President Donald Trump said Thursday, reacting to President Joe Biden’s divisive speech attacking Trump and Republicans on the one-year anniversary of the riot at the U.S. Capitol.

“I say, let them have it because America sees through theirs lies and polarizations,” Trump added, in a statement released following Biden’s speech.

Bannister failed to mention the highly relevant fact that Trump helped instigate the riot.

CNS served up more Republican spin on Jan. 7 -- namely, that Democrats are focusing on the riot to distract from their purported current failures. Jones did her part:

President Joe Biden, looking backward on a day when he said the country should focus on "the way forward," mentioned "the former president" 16 times in his speech marking the one-year anniversary of the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

"They just want to continue talking about Donald Trump and anything else other than the problems that they created," House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) told Fox News on Thursday.

"Look, it was a day that nobody wanted to see happen," Scalise said.

Pat Buchanan's column pushed the same talking point: "Why cannot our liberal media let it go? Why does the distortion and hysteria about Jan. 6 seem to grow with each retelling?" He further whined: "Question: If the left is so terrified of Trump it feels it must prevent him from even running again, by imposing a criminal conviction, what does that say about the left's belief in American democracy? What does that tell us about the left's trust in the people?"

Melanie Arter served up another critic of Harris' 9/11 comparison, and Bannister featured a Republican congesswoman making an odd statement:

Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-AZ) says her office was prepared for the riot at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 – and that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and law enforcement leaders should have been, too.

“January 6th was an avoidable security failure that we can never let happen again,” Rep. Lesko says in a video posted on social media Thursday, the one year anniversary of the riot.

“I was in the Capitol complex that day – I made sure my office was prepared,” Rep. Lesko says, revealing that “We had enough food for the staff, and I told my staff to be prepared to spend the night, in case demonstrators blocked us in and we couldn’t go home after the vote.”

“It was common sense,” Rep. Lesko says.

Lesko went on to blame Nancy Pelosi for the situation at the Capitol, but Bannister failed to tell readers that Pelosi isn't in charge of the Capitol Police.  But if Lesko knew there was going to be a riot, why didn't she alert the Capitol Police herself? Bannister didn't seem interested in pursuing that line of questioning.

The coveraged was capped off with a Jan. 10 article by Bannister regurgitating a rant by right-wing radio host Mark Levin that, in Bannister's words, "The same radical leftists who tried to destroy the presidency by promoting conspiracy theories, impeachment and denying the legitimacy of the last president, Donald Trump, are now peddling the lie that the January 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol was, and is, the greatest threat to America since the Civil War," when "the greatest threat to the country is actually the Democrat [sic] Party, which has supported slavery and segregation in the past, and now wants to rig the system so that it can never lose another election."


Posted by Terry K. at 12:56 AM EST
Updated: Thursday, February 10, 2022 7:23 PM EST
Monday, February 7, 2022
MRC Stands With Rogan -- And COVID Misinformation
Topic: Media Research Center

When noted COVID misinformers Peter McCullough and Robert Malone appeared on Joe Rogan's podcast in December, the Media Research Center rushed to defend both Rogan and the misinformers, while censoring the fact that misinformation was spread. That defense mode continued well into January.

In a Jan. 8 post, Christian Toto gushed over how Malone, during his Rogan appearance, talked about "mass formation psychosis" (which isn't actually a thing), adding; "Twitter subsequently banned Dr. Malone, forcing him to move to GETTR. YouTube similarly yanked Dr. Malone’s recent interview with Rogan, heard by the podcaster’s massive Spotify audience. Toto then approvingly quoted right-leaning podcaster Dr. Drew Pinsky gushing, "The Fourth Estate needs a revolution … and it might be Joe Rogan. He might end up the head of the Fourth Estate."

It took both Autumn Johnson and Gabriela Pariseau to complain in another Jan. 8 post that Malone "has been banned from LinkedIn reportedly because of his controversial views on COVID-19 vaccines." They touted how "Malone told Joe Rogan that he believes the government is conspiring against him because of his dissenting views" but didn't mention that what they're referring to as "dissent" is actually misinformation.

Alexander Hall huffed in a Jan. 13 post that "President Joe Biden called for social media companies to censor American citizens online during a speech Jan. 13, amidst a presidency marked by censorship and government crackdowns" -- actually, he asked them to deal with "misinformation and disinformation" -- going on to huff further: "It may be hard for some to even imagine Big Tech censoring more on behalf of Biden and the COVID-19 narrative. YouTube recently made headlines when it purged an interview between world famous podcaster Joe Rogan and Texas-based cardiologist Dr. Peter McCullough about the COVID-19 pandemic." He censored the fact that McCullough was also called out for spreading misinformation.

Johnson complained in a Jan. 14 post that numerious actual medical experts called out Malone's information, though she insisted on putting the word in scare quotes:

Hundreds of doctors called on Spotify to target Joe Rogan’s podcast because of alleged Covid-19 "misinformation."

Rogan was criticized for hosting Dr. Robert Malone on his podcast. Malone, a vaccine scientist, was banned from Twitter for his tweets that questioned the efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccines. Now physicians want Spotify to remove the episode.

In an open letter, 270 doctors asked the audio streaming service to remove Rogan’s podcast to stop so-called “misinformation” about the virus. Rogan has also been censored because of his views on treatments for COVID-19.

Infectious disease epidemiologist Jessica Malaty Rivera warned people not to believe Malone simply because of his medical credentials.

Johnson did note that "A fact-check in the letter rated the veracity of the claims Malone made in the interview," but she did not dispute any of the claims in it, meaning she has no factual basis to justify putting "misinformation" in scare quotes.

Johnson returned to put misinformation in scare quotes again for a Jan. 16 post to deny that Rogan was spreading it, even though it's documented that he was:

Leftists are calling for platforms to ban famous podcast host Joe Rogan and political and social commentator Jordan Peterson to prevent the spread of so-called “misinformation.”

[...]

Rogan is also in the left’s crosshairs after he challenged the narrative on COVID-19. Rogan has hosted COVID-19 skeptics on his show and has opposed government mandates regarding the virus.

Clay Waters used a Jan. 18 post to whine that the New York Times was criticizing actual media censorship in Serbia, while "The Times has long embraced Big Tech squelching supposedly offensive viewpoints cross the pond, with their reporters taking the role of self-appointed hall monitor of internet speech." He cited as an example of the latter "Calls for media personalities that offer independent viewpoints on Covid, like uber-popular podcaster Joe Rogan, to be squelched in the name of public health." Waters didn't epxlain why Rogan deserves to be exempt from consequences merely because he's "uber-popular."

Hall complained in a Jan. 19 post that YouTube pulled another podcast featuring McCullough, huffing that "Censors now appear to nix videos before they are even published." He added: "McCullough had told host Joe Rogan there was a 'suppression of early treatment' in order to “create acceptance for, and then promote, mass vaccination.'" Hall failed to tell his readers that a fact-check of McCullough found that he offered no evidence whatsoever to support this claim.

Toto returned to lie in a Jan. 22 post: "Liberals also want to silence Joe Rogan. He’s not a journalist but someone eager to let multiple sides of a story be heard." Toto censored any mention of the misinformation spread on Rogan's podcast -- he apparently believes that's just a legitimate side of a story.


Posted by Terry K. at 10:10 PM EST
Updated: Tuesday, February 8, 2022 9:28 PM EST
WND Promotes Editor's New Book Without Telling Readers He Works For WND
Topic: WorldNetDaily

An anonymously written Jan. 2 WorldNetDaily article gushed:

A month before its official release, an exciting new book revealing hundreds of mysteries from the Bible and your personal life soared this week to the top position in more than one best-seller category on Amazon.com, ahead of books by Joel Osteen, Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen.

Scheduled for release Jan. 25, "Reaching God Speed: Unlocking the Secret Broadcast Revealing the Mystery of Everything" by Joe Kovacs hit the top spot in "Musical Philosophy & Social Aspects" as well as #1 and #2 (Kindle edition) in Spiritual Self-Help, and #5 and #11 in Christian Personal Growth.

"I am so inspired and humbled to see that despite all the turmoil in our present world, many people have a strong desire to learn hidden truths about God and their own glorious future," said Kovacs, known for his best-selling "Shocked by the Bible" series.

"Perhaps the exponential spread of evil and persecution we're seeing are actually awakening ordinary folks to find truthful answers that have not been forthcoming from the dark powers that be. This book has the answers that people today are hungering for."

This article makes one curious omission: At no point does it tell readers that Kovacs is WND's executive news editor. In other words, this article is essentially an ad for a book written by a WND employee. The book isn't published by WND -- its book division shut down a few years ago in the wake of WND's financial problems and the Paul Nehlen debacle -- but by Fidelis, an imprint of Simon & Schuster that publishes right-wing authors. And, weirdly, Kovacs' bio on the website promoting the book (presumably set up by Kovacs himself) also downplays his WND connection. It starts off by touting Kovacs as "an award-winning American journalist and broadcaster who's run newsrooms in television, radio, and online for more than 30 years" and lists places where he worked -- but not WND. It's not until the second section of the bio that WND gets a mention, despite the fact that he was worked their for many years and is his current gig:

Does he have the 'write' stuff?

On a daily basis, Joe's work appears on the internet news powerhouse WND, known as "A Free Press for a Free People," a pioneer of online journalism since the 1990s. He has become well-known in his career for publishing thousands of compelling news stories with dazzling headlines and photos.

We, on the other hand, are more familiar with Kovacs being a liar and pushing anti-Obama conspiracy theories. Apparently, being "compelling" and "dazzling" is more important to Kovacs than being fact-based.

Every few days after that (as well as a few days before), WND published more articles promoting the book and the concepts therein, again hiding the fact that the author is a WND employee:

We can probably assume that Kovacs wrote all these promos masquerading as "news" articles under the "WND Staff" byline -- remember, WND's ongoing financial crisis means it has very little staff to speak of -- meaning that he's putting being "compelling" and "dazzling" ahead of journalistic ethics.

There's also a Jan. 24 article that touts "sparkling acclaim" for Kovacs' book that is pulled from the promotional website. Of the four people listed as supplying blurbs, two -- Joseph Farah and David Kupelian -- are his bosses (undisclosed, of course). A third, Chuck Norris, is a WND columnist. The fourth, Bob Barney, is Kovacs' brother-in-law. That's a very small world, even for blurbs.

Kovacs' book may not actually be a WND-published title, but it sure feels like one.


Posted by Terry K. at 5:16 PM EST
Wow: MRC's Graham Accuses Dem Congressman Of 'Milking' Son's Suicide
Topic: Media Research Center

Media Research Center executive Tim Graham has trouble feeling empathy for anyone who is not as right-wing as him -- even when they face tragedy. He amply demonstrated that last fall when he viciously trashed Alec Baldwin after the tragic gun accident on the set of a movie he was working on. And he did it again in his Jan. 7 column, when he lashed out at Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin, bizarrely accusing him of "milking" his son's death -- as stated in the headline of his column -- by invokling it in discussions about the Capitol riot:

As the establishment media solemnly marked January 6 with all of the rehearsed Democrat talking points about democracy hanging by a thread, one man best represents the liberal media’s relentless political marketing. It’s radical Rep. Jamie Raskin, who has a new book that came out two days before the anniversary called Unthinkable, conflating the Capitol riot with the suicide of his adult son Tommy.

That sounds like a terrible blow for any parent. But Raskin is now marketing it, and pairing it with warnings about fascism. Does that sound odd? He’s done it more than once.

In an interview with Rachel Maddow, Raskin said “I fault myself for not talking about suicide to Tommy. And I liken not talking to a depressed person about suicide to not talking to a teenager about sex. You think somehow you are being clever, and you are suppressing a reality that you don’t want to materialize.”

He added: “But in fact, you are making it worse because when you don’t speak these words, it endows them with more power. I likened not talking about suicide to not talking about fascism.”

[...]

On the afternoon of January 6, Raskin’s book was the number two best-seller on Amazon.com. Grief sells.

Here's how one-sided this was. Nowhere in any of these 11 interviews – no matter how lengthy – did anyone note that for all of the outrage over challenging the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election, no one said a thing about Raskin challenging the legitimacy of the 2016 presidential election on the House floor on January 6, 2017.

There was no rioting at the Capitol back then – although there were violent protests around the Inauguration – and he was shut down by Vice President Biden. But this fact might put a crimp in lecturing any Republicans who challenged the 2020 election on the House floor as somehow riot plotters or enablers.

Graham didn't mention that Raskin's son died a week before the riot, so the two traumas are clearly linked for him. Apparently, this offends Graham more than the riot itself.

The "milking" headline Graham put on it, though, is what pushes the column over the edge -- to the point that even normal MRC allies are calling it out. Former MRC intern Jackson Richman denounced Graham's column at Mediaite; he criticized Raskin by claiming that "One can decry the challenges to democracy without invoking personal loss," but he added: "And, with all due respect to Graham, one can criticize Raskin’s analogy without using an extreme and despicable label such as 'milking' when it comes to what is the worst thing for a parent to experience: the loss of his or her child. Tone matters."

While Graham never apologized for his hostile column -- the MRC never apologizes, ever -- the MRC did get the message. When Graham's column was posted to its "news" division CNSNews.com later that day, the headline was changed to "Dem Lawmaker Conflates Jan. 6 Riot With Son's Suicide in New Book." The column's content, however, was unchanged.


Posted by Terry K. at 1:48 PM EST
NEW ARTICLE: CNS Fights Conservatives' Reduced LGBT Hate
Topic: CNSNews.com
CNSNews.com and its LGBT-hating managing editor have been lashing out at a popular conservative conference and even the Republican Party itself for not banning gays and atheists. Read more >>

Posted by Terry K. at 1:23 AM EST
Sunday, February 6, 2022
MRC Sports Blogger Keeps Pushing Anti-Vaxxer Talking Points
Topic: Media Research Center

We've documented how Media Research Center Media  Research Center sports blogger John Simmons has leaned hard into far-right anti-vaxx and and anti-mandate narratives, and he hasn't stopped doing so. 

Simmons dredged up an old complaint about the very name of the virus in a Oct. 27 post, complaining that Houston Texans chairman Cal McNair got busted for calling COVID the "China virus" and huffing, "Isn’t it a pathetic state of affairs in our country when anytime someone claims the facts of the situation they are deemed as racist and insensitive?" Ofcourse, given that COVID is a well-established name, there's really no legitimate reason outside of racism or insensitivity to call it the "China virus."

Simmons found another dubious victim of a vaccine mandate to tout in a Nov. 16 post:

In the book of Daniel, three young men by the name of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were thrown into a fiery furnace after refusing to worship a gargantuan golden god created and instituted by the tyrannical King of Babylon Nebuchadnezzar. While we don’t have a government that is forcing Christians to bow to idols of metal, Christians are increasingly being punished for not bowing to the god of COVID.

Teryn Gregson was a PGA Tour host and reporter as of Monday but was terminated after the company refused to provide her a religious exemption from it's  testing and mask mandates for unvaccinated employees.

Gregson, who is an outspoken Christian and is also carrying a child, made an emotional online speech detailing her viewpoint on the vaccine and mandates in general:

A few weeks earlier, Simmons took the side of another pregnant sp[orts reporter who lost her job for refusing to get vaccinated. Meanwhile, it has since been proven that the COVID vaccine is safe for pregnant women and their children, and that the face more risk by remaining unvaccinated. Simmons has not updated his post to reflect this accurate medical information.

Further, Simmons censored the fact that the PGA said in response it didn't have a vaccine mandate and, thus, no reason for Gregson to seek one, though it does have health and safety protocols and PGA employees in Florida were required to report to work in person starting Nov. 1 after working from home since the pandemic began. Finally, we thought facts-not-feelings right-wingers like Simmons weren't supposed to be swayed by an "emotional online speech."

Simmons concluded his post by melodramatically rehashing the Bible theme: "In the Bible, the three men were rewarded for their loyalty to God by surviving being thrown into the fiery furnace. Hopefully, Gregson will experience a similar experience of salvation from her enemies in the near future."

Two days later, Simmons lashed out NFL safety protocols:

Stop me if you’ve heard this before: the NFL is instituting a COVID-19 safety policy that makes no sense whatsoever.

Unfortunately, the latest chapter in the NFL’s COVID insanity novel is being written, as the NFL will now require stricter COVID-19 protocols for players once they return from Thanksgiving.

It’s the standard craziness you’ve heard before for players and staff once they return from the holiday: increased testing and mask-wearing, with all football personnel required to be tested the Monday and Wednesday after Thanksgiving and mask-wearing at all team facilities from November 25 to December 1, regardless of vaccination status.

[...]

The overreaching, nonsensical, and fear-based protocols the NFL has implemented throughout the year have ignored science, disregarded personal choice, and divided the league between the good (vaccinated) and bad (unvaccinated) people. While the new memo is simply a reflection of the insanity that has ruled the league, it is still disheartening to see the NFL trying to exercise its power over families and encroach on the holidays.

The emergence of the Omincron variant a few weeks later would seem to make the NFL's protocols prescient rather than oppressive.

Simmons went full anti-vaxxer in a Dec. 2 post expressing glee that NBA star LeBron James tested positive for COVID, with a little backhanded sympathy thrown in:

The Left has championed the COVID-19 vaccine as the magical potion by which we can all be saved from ever having to deal with the effects of the virus again. However, LeBron James showed us on Wednesday that is not entirely true.

[...]

Despite being a public figure who has a knack for saying things he shouldn’t (i.e. criticizing Kyle Rittenhouse for crying during his trial) and for being silent on China’s forced labor camps, it is sad to see that athletes like James are still put through unnecessary precautions to protect against the virus. Men in their peak physical prime should not have to wait 10 days to get back to work just so others can feel safe. No one would blame Michael Jordan – who played one of the best games of his career with the flu – for being disgusted with how soft the league has become.

It is also ironic that a vaccinated player is the one who contracted the virus. Yes, it continues to prove the point that jabbing yourself does not automatically guarantee that you’ll be safe from ever getting COVID again (which is what people with a shred of common sense have been saying all along).

But it also would be nice if the vaccine worked as advertised. If you believe that taking the vaccine is the most logical way to protect yourself against the virus, by all means, take it.

[...]

James’ situation should be another reminder that we should not blindly take the vaccine because the government says so. Do your research, draw your own conclusions, make a decision, and live with the results, but do not take the jab just because the government tells you to.

There was no mention of the fact that the Omicron variant is much more contagious than previous variants, and that while the vaccine is less effective at preventing infection, they do make it much more likely that you will get severely ill or die from an infection.

Nevertheless, Simmons lashed out against vaccines again in a Dec. 14 post:

The NFL seems to think that vaccinating their employees out of the wazoo is going to solve all their problems and make COVID cases go down or disappear. The NFL had 37 positive tests yesterday, which is high because those numbers reflect the results of the vaccinated players and personnel, who only get tested once per week. Ironic that vaccinated team personnel is still showing multiple cases of getting sick with COVID; it’s almost like the vaccine does not work as advertised.

But enough with the right-winged conspiracy talk, let’s talk about how the guardians of society in the NFL are handling the situation.

[...]

The NFL should have taken a lesson from this situation: vaccination does not equal ultimate safety. It might lower the number of cases and give them peace of mind for a little bit, but it does not solve the root problem of living life with COVID.

Injecting booster shots won’t take it away and firing “un-boosted” employees won’t solve the problem, just ask the 37 people whose Mondays got off to a worse start than most of ours. We live in a COVID world now, and we have to stop acting like it’s a disease we know nothing about and that savagely destroys the majority of our country’s population.

Again, Simmons failed to mention how contagious Omicron is.

On Dec. 23, Simmons complained that sports commentators complained about NBA star Kyrie Irving -- whom Simmons previously praised for being an anti-vaxxer despite his selfishness in harming his team -- was being allowed to play again despite remaining unvaccinated. He went on to cheer that "it seems like Irving, who was widely criticized by sports talking heads and writers alike, will get the last laugh."

In a Dec. 27 post, Simmons gushed over pro golfer Phil Mickelson for "not buying into the Left's fear-mongering" and asking in a tweet why, since Omicron purportedly hadn't been killing anyone, we shouldn't let COVID run amok and let "natural immunity" take its course, adding: "Mickelson naturally received a lot of flack for having a level of common sense, but he’s onto something. If this is a disease that has symptoms comparable to the common cold and has a far lower death rate than the first edition of COVID-19, why is there so much panic surrounding it?" Simmons didn't mention all the sensible answers Mickelson got in response to his query; instead, he declared, "Mickelson is right in saying that if the disease is so low risk, we should just trust that our bodies will adapt to the sickness and protect us naturally. But since there is no money for or control in this approach, he will likely be dismissed as irrational."

In that same post, Simmons again unusually praised James, this time for posting a meme to his Instagram page equating COVID, flu and the common cold, asserting that "just this once his thoughts were trending in the right direction." In fact, NBA legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar called out James' false conflation of those viruses and demonstrated how he was wrong. But Simmons was much more happy with sports figures spouting right-wing talking points on COVID:

Yes, people have died from COVID, which is a sad and unfortunate reality of the past two years. But the reality is that a majority of people are not seriously affected by COVID in the long run and the symptoms are mild in most cases. Shutting down our businesses, sports leagues, and our entire country – all while living in fear – will accomplish no good.

Mickelson and Lebron get it. The question is, when will the rest of us?

Well over 800,000 people were "seriously affected" by COVID through being killed by it. Meanwhile, mnore than half the people who catch it suffer from "long COVID" -- symptoms that persist for at least six months after recovering from the virus. That sounds like they're being "seriously affected," but Simmons will never admit it.

We get it. The question is, when will Simmons?


Posted by Terry K. at 9:13 PM EST
Updated: Tuesday, February 8, 2022 9:37 PM EST
CNS' 'News' Coverage Lashes Out At Those Marking Capitol Riot Anniversary
Topic: CNSNews.com

CNSNews.com started its coverage of the anniversary of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot a few days before the actual event. Susan Jones complained on Jan. 3:

This is a big week for people intent on keeping alive memories of the disgraceful January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), chair of the select committee investigating the events of that day, told CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday that he fears a repeat of the attack:

Host Dana Bash asked Thompson, "Are you worried that an attack on our democracy like we're seeing right there with our own two eyes on January 6 last year could happen again going forward?"

"Yes, I am," Thompson replied:

Jones went on to whine that "The Democrat-led House of Representatives is now preparing to commemorate (or politicize) the events of January 6 with a "historic perspective," "Members' testimonials," and a prayer vigil, among other events." She did begrudgingly concede, though, that Trump watched the insurrection on his behalf unfold but did nothing: "Horrified Americans watched the events in real time on television, and so, apparently, did President Donald Trump."

An anonymous CNS writer grumbled the same day that "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) sent a letter to her Democratic House colleagues on Dec. 30 informing them of the events that have been scheduled for the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 (when the House will not be in session). One of these events is a 'prayer vigil.'" Jones used a Jan. 5 article to complain that a member of the House Jan. 6 committee "endorsed the idea of holding committee hearings in prime-time so more Americans can watch the Trump vilification unfold."In another article the same day on a preview of President Biden's speech agout the attack, Jones huffed:

Biden, speaking four days after the 2020 election, pledged to be "a president who seeks not to divide, but unify" the country. But more than a year later, the country is more divided than ever.

And continuing to this day, Democrats have seized on the January 6 attack by angry Trump supporters to disparage Republicans in general and all Trump supporters in particular.

[...]

Schumer and other Democrat [sic] activists are hoping that memories of the attack, and video replayed on cable-TV outlets, will produce momentum for their voting legislation, which would set federal rules for elections that are run by the states.

And, again, this is all before the eventa of the actual anniversary began. You can imagine how she and the rest of the CNS crew would ramp that up. Indeed, she began the day with an article quoting from then-Vice President Mike Pence's remarks that day denouncing the riot, adding:

As Democrats and their allies in the leftist media fall all over themselves today blaming Republicans for crimes committed at the U.S. Capitol one year ago, it is worth remembering that the nation's Republican vice president not only condemned the violence -- he noted that the subsequent election certification showed "the resilience and strength of our democracy."

Conspicuous by its absence is any mention of what the nation's Republican president said or did that day. Another article by Jones, meanwhile, played whataboutism on the riot:

Tom Manger, the top cop entrusted to protect members of Congress and the Capitol, believes the best deterrent for crime is "consequences."

But around the country, leftist district attorneys are going soft on criminals, as is now the case in New York City, where a growing number of citizens are afraid to walk the streets in broad daylight. The new Manhattan District Attorney has exacerbated those concerns (more on that below).

This is a "news" article, by the way, not a marked opinion piece.

When it finally came time to report on Biden's actual speech, Jones whined that "Biden's tone was forceful, even angry," and that he said unflattering things about Trump and Republicans as a whole:

"I believe the power of the presidency and the purpose is to unite this nation, not divide it," President Joe Biden said in a stern -- and at times almost angry -- speech marking the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Biden made 16 references to "the former president," blaming him for rallying the mob to attack the Capitol; mocking him as "not just a former president but a defeated former president" who lost by 7 million votes; and saying Trump's "bruised ego matters more to him than our democracy or our Constitution."

Biden did not spare Trump's "followers" or even Republicans: He said "too many" Republicans are "transforming the party" by supporting "a single man." "They seem no longer to want to be the Party of Lincoln, Eisenhower, Reagan, the Bushes," Biden said.

Jones tried to rebut Biden's statement that "This was an armed insurrection" by parenthetically adding, "The only shot fired on that day came from a Capitol Police officer's gun, killing a protester" -- as if fire extinguishers and flagpoles weren't weapons when the insurrectionists used them to attack police officers.

Jones' complaining continued:

Then Biden launched into a discussion about truth and lies, suggesting that Republicans, especially Trump and his supporters, have cornered the market on "big lies."

[...]

Then Biden attacked Republicans, saying "too many" are "transforming the party" by supporting "a single man." "They seem no longer to want to be the party -- the party of Lincoln, Eisenhower, Reagan, the Bushes," Biden said.

Biden also accused "the former president's supporters" of "trying to rewrite history."

"Here's the truth," he said. "The election of 2020 was the greatest demonstration of democracy in the history of this country...over 150 million Americans went to the polls and voted that day, in a pandemic."

Then came Biden's political pitch for passage of partisan Democrat [sic] legislation that would allow federal rules to pre-empt and weaken state rules governing elections:

Written like someone who gets paid to insert biased editorial comment into her "journalism."


Posted by Terry K. at 2:08 PM EST
Saturday, February 5, 2022
MRC's Tech-Bashing Year-End List Shows How It's Beholden To Trump, Misinformation
Topic: Media Research Center

A Dec. 16 Media Reserarch Center post by Brian Bradley was a year-end roundup of the "12 worst cases big tech censorship" that sought to reinforce the MRC's victim narrative:

Big Tech and social media platforms censored conservatives in 2021 with a ruthlessness and standardization never seen before.

Silicon Valley Big Tech giants like Twitter and Facebook appear to have adopted an explicit policy to suppress conservative views and encourage the spread of leftist dogma, as several media reports have revealed.

Bradley parroted the talking point that "Before banning former President Donald Trump following the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, Twitter had censored Trump and his campaign 625 times, without censoring Joe Biden at all." The accurate way to say it is that Trump violated Twitter's terms of service 625 times, while Biden didn't violate them at all. Bradley's distortion makes it totally unsurprising that the first item on this list is Trump's ban from social media:

The first notable examples of prominent censorship in 2021 are also, distinctly, the worst.

Facebook, YouTube and Twitter acted in chorus to censor the former president in January, days after the Jan. 6 Capitol Hill Riot.

The collective action to silence the head of the world’s leading republic stands apart as a show of force by the Big Tech overlords, apparently to present themselves as a dominant societal force and to use the Jan. 6 event as a scapegoat for their agenda.

Bradley made sure to censor the fact of exactly why Trump was banned: he used those social media accounts to help incite the Jan. 6 "event."

Let's look at a few more on this list. Bradley helps the MRC to once again come donw on the side of misinformation for No. 2:

In December, Twitter’s terms of service adopted new totalitarian language, including claims that certain speech about COVID-19 “may lead to harm” and that “persistent conspiracy theories” and “alarmist rhetoric unfounded in research” can threaten people and communities.

In addition to this Orwellian virtue-signaling, the platform informed users that they can expect to be permanently banned from the platform if they get five “strikes” for spreading purported COVID-19 “misinformation.”

Penalties extend to factual claims, tweets that are “demonstrably false or misleading, based on widely available, authoritative sources”; as well as language deemed likely to affect “public safety” or “cause serious harm.”

Only at the MRC would efforts to promote factual, life-saving health information be seen as "totalitarian."

Bradley merged both of the above for No. 4, in which he endorsed misinformation about elections:

The three Big Tech platforms quickly acted to suffocate any breath questioning the legitimacy of the November 2020 election.

On Feb. 1, Twitter banned the account of My Pillow, a week after the platform banned company CEO Mike Lindell’s account. Both accounts had been tweeting claims of election fraud. Shortly thereafter, on Feb. 5, YouTube deleted Lindell’s documentary “Absolute Proof” about election fraud amid fears Dominion Voting Systems would sue for defamation. Dominion had already sent Lindell a cease-and-desist letter. 

On Feb. 5, Twitter censored a quote-tweet by journalist Tim Pool of Gateway Pundit journalist Cassandra MacDonald (formerly Cassandra Fairbanks), who had tweeted a video showing a van arriving at a Detroit voting location several times in the morning and apparently unloading dozens of boxes each trip. Twitter labeled Fairbanks’ tweet with its most restrictive label, which reads: "This claim of election fraud is disputed, and this Tweet can't be replied to, Retweeted, or liked due to a risk of violence."

Brfadley is leaving out important facts: 1) The MyPillow account was "banned" because Lindell violated Twitter policy by using it to evade the ban on his personal account. 2) The video MacDonald tweeted out did not show evidence of election fraud, and her claim that it did was a lie.

Bradley's No. 5 again endorsed the fringe:

While plain censorship has striking real-world impacts, terminating someone’s access to finance has uniquely practical and invasive effects.

Wells Fargo shut down the account of former Republican Senate candidate Lauren Witzke of Delaware in June, telling her only that the action was a “business decision,” and that the bank can close her account at any time, giving apparently no further explanation.

Bradley censored the fact that, as we've documented, Witzke has a history of promoting QAnon conspiracy theories, praising the right-wing thugs in the Proud Boys for providing security at a pre-election rally, and hanging out with anti-Semites. Bradley didn't explain why Wells Fargo, as a private business, has the right to choose who it does business with just like the folks who run that cake shop.

No. 8 on Bradley's list is an attack on an old bogeyman:

The Wall Street Journal released a trove of internal Facebook files showing the company’s internal debates about how far it can go in censoring conservatives in October. The Journalcalled attention to two censorship tools used to suppress content. One tool, called “Sparing Sharing," allegedly reduced the reach of frequent posters who "disproportionately shared false and incendiary information,” The Journal wrote.

A second tool, “called ‘Informed Engagement,’ reduced the reach of posts that people were more likely to share if they hadn’t read them," reported The Journal. When combined, the two censorship tools greatly impacted the reach of conservative news content shared on Facebook. Facebook’s own “political ideology analysis” indicated that multiple conservative outlets would do far better if strict moderation tools were removed, “with Breitbart’s traffic increasing an estimated 20%, Washington Times’ 18%, Western Journal’s 16% and Epoch Times’ by 11%.”

Bradley didn't mention that the Journal obtained those files from a former executive named Frances Haugen, whom the MRC has been trying to discredit for holding "leftist" views and insisting that she's not a real whistleblower -- which just so happens to be the script that Facebook fed to right-wing media.

No. 10 is another fun MRC friend:

YouTube removed videos from the channel of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro in July, after he provided his opinions on COVID-19. Bolsonaro had been publishing weekly addresses on his channel where he talks about issues important to Brazil, but YouTube removed 15 of his videos for so-called misinformation regarding COVID-19, according to the BBC.

The platform appeared to target the Brazilian president for mentioning alternative treatments to combat COVID-19. “‘Our policies don’t allow content that claims hydroxychloroquine and/or Ivermectin are effective to treat or prevent Covid-19, claims that there is a guaranteed cure for Covid-19, and claims that masks don’t work to prevent the spread of the virus,’” YouTube reportedly told the New York Times in a statement.

The MRC just loves it when right-wing authoritarians who suppress and censor dissent in their own countries complained about being "censored" on social media.

Bradley touted another COVID misinormer for No. 11:

Continuing social media’s trend of censoring views straying from COVID-19 orthodoxy, Twitter permanently suspended New York Times journalist and author Alex Berenson in August, alleging “repeated violations of [the platform’s] COVID-19 misinformation rules.”

In “the tweet that did it,” as Berenson described it, he claimed that the controversial COVID-19 vaccines should not be thought of as vaccines but rather as “therapeutic[s].” Berenson posted a purported picture of the tweet in his online Substack newsletter, Unreported Truths: “Don’t think of [the COVID-19 vaccine] as a vaccine. Think of it - at best - as a therapeutic with a limited window of efficacy and terrible side effect profile that must be dosed IN ADVANCE OF ILLNESS. And we want to mandate it?”

As we've noted, Berenson has been busted numerous times for spreading misinformation.Funny how the MRC suddenly thinks identifying Berenson as a "New York Times journalist" is needed to boost his credibility (he hasn't worked for the Times for a while, so Bradley suggesting he still worked there is false).

Bradley's list does nothing but reinforce how wrongheaded (and just plain wrong) the MRC's flaining war on "big tech" is.


Posted by Terry K. at 10:09 AM EST
Updated: Sunday, February 6, 2022 11:13 AM EST
WND Columnist Cheered Putin Bashing U.S.
Topic: WorldNetDaily

CNSNews.com wasn't the only ConWeb outlet to fawn over a foreign leader attacking America in a speech. Hanne Nabintu Herland echoed CNS in lovingly recounting Vladimir Putin's attacks in an October speech in her Nov. 3 WorldNetDaily column:

Since Russia is now our much talked about enemy, one would assume that the Western media would scrutinize every word said by President Putin at the influential 2021 Valdai Discussion Club in Russia. But not so.

As the Valdai event in Sochi focused on the individual, values and the role of the state, sharing the vision of modern Russia, negative focus on COVID-19 in Russian hospitals was seemingly the only popular topic the same week in Western mainstream media.

This, of course, effectively halted any intelligent discussions in the West on topics such as conservatism versus progressivism, totalitarianism versus citizens' rights, the importance of not focusing on race and skin color, the need to combat racism, inequality and important topics such as the dire situation in Afghanistan, all addressed at the Valdai Discussion Club.

President Putin held talks with journalists for over three hours at Valdai, rivaling his well-known annual St. Petersburg International Economic Forum open talks.

In fact, the Valdai Discussion Club is little more than a pro-Putin think tank, meaning there's little actual "discussion" going on there, and any journalists who failed to toe the party line were likely strongly encouraged to do so lest they get the Navalny treatment.

Herland first highlighted Putin's remarks on Afghanistan, then moved to what she really wanted to hype:

The second main topic at the 2021 Valdai Discussion Club was President Putin preaching Russian conservatism as a remedy against the extreme progressive, left-wing wokeness that now destabilizes the Western hemisphere. Putin noted: "It is with puzzlement that in the West today we see practices that Russia has left in the distant past."

The president said that it is very surprising to see how Western countries turn to an aggressive dogmatism in the struggle for equality against discrimination that borders on absurdity. While opposing racism is a noble cause, the culture of abolition turns into a reverse discrimination based on skin color.

"People who dare to say that men and women still exist as a biological fact are almost ostracized. … Not to mention the simply monstrous fact that children today are taught from a young age that a boy can easily become a girl and vice versa. Let's call a spade a spade: This simply verges on crimes against humanity under the banner of progress," he said, as quoted by The Moscow Times.

Putin added: "In the coming era of global readjustment, which may last quite long and whose final outlook is unknown, moderate conservatism is the most reasonable line of conduct," stating that Russia will be guided by the ideology of healthy conservatism. This is seen as opposed to the extremism that leads to political collapse.

Herland apparently doesn't believe that Putin's crackdown on political opposition and even freedom of religion is not "extremism."

Herland went on to gush: "He described the current worldwide political and social upheaval by quoting a Chinese proverb: 'God forbid living in a time of change,' which is precisely what we are now experiencing." She didn't mention that Putin forbids his countrymen to change if it involves him losing power. Perhaps she wants his corrupt authoritarianism to take over in America.


Posted by Terry K. at 1:02 AM EST
Updated: Sunday, February 6, 2022 6:20 PM EST
Friday, February 4, 2022
The MRC's Abrupt Flip-Flop On Elon Musk
Topic: Media Research Center

The Media Research Center -- specifically writer Joseph Vazquez -- spent a good part of late last year slobbering over Elon Musk for saying all the proper right-wing things.

Joseph Vazquez used an Oct. 28 post to gush over how "the world’s richest man ... dismantled the logic behind the Democratic Party’s latest class warfare tax-the-rich scheme." On Nov. 1, Vazquez wrote that "CNN tried to sell a false headline alleging that a fraction of the world’s richest man’s wealth could solve world hunger" but got the math wrong.

Vazquez used a Dec. 14 post to cheer how Musk was named Time magazine's person of the year:

Too bad for the left, they can't mandate who wins “Person of the Year.” So TIME magazine decided to give the world’s richest man Elon Musk that honor, though he’s become a vocal critic of vaccine mandates and the left.

In TIME’s write-up of its decision to christen Musk, the outlet stated that “Musk has spent a lifetime defying the haters; now, it seems, he’s finally in position to put them in their place.” Musk certainly has been ruffling leftist feathers as of late. He slapped down the idea of government-imposed vaccine mandates as the “‘erosion of freedom in America,’” according to Yahoo! Finance.

In addition, Musk repudiated President Joe Biden’s leftist infrastructure plan during the Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council Summit: “‘Honestly, I would just can this whole bill. Don’t pass it.’” He continued to hammer the left’s spending spree: “‘In general, if we don’t cut government spending something really bad is going to happen. This is crazy. Our spending is so far in excess of revenue it’s insane.’”

The selection of Musk would seem to blow a hole in the MRC's longtime portrayal of Time as irredeemably liberal, but Vazquez decided that drooling over Musk was more important than ideological inconsistency.

The next day, Vazquez touted a supposedly sick burn from Musk:

Elon Musk used his Twitter account like a battering ram to troll the left for their hypocritical pontificating about class warfare.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) took to Twitter Dec. 13 to express disgust at the world’s richest man being chosen as TIME magazine’s 2021 “Person of the Year.” Warren spewed, “Let’s change the rigged tax code so The Person of the Year will actually pay taxes and stop freeloading off everyone else.”

Musk clapped back: “[I]f you opened your eyes for 2 seconds, you would realize I will pay more taxes than any American in history this year.” Then Musk dropped the truth bomb: “Don’t spend it all at once … oh wait you did already.” Ouch.

Vazquez concluded by trying to loop Time back into the MRC narrative: "Warren’s complaining perfectly illustrates how the left can’t handle the fact that a notoriously liberal magazine decided to think for itself and honor a billionaire who doesn’t genuflect to the leftist hive-mind." He seems to have forgotten that Time has named numerous conservatives as person of the year, including Donald Trump after he won the presidency in 2016, so this is not the huge leap that Vazquez wants you to think it is.

Vazquez then devoted a Dec. 17 post to right-wing talking heads Steve Forbes and Larry Kudlow proclaiming that Musk should be named chairman of the Federal Reserve because he has been "mocking the left’s nonsensical multitrillion-dollar economic agenda."

With all that fawning over Musk, one would think the MRC's Musk-fluffing would go on forever, right? Well, it seems to have come to a screeching halt thanks to a Jan. 11 post by Jay Maxson:

Last week, China fanboy/parasite Elon Musk got verbally slapped down by NBA player Enes Freedom Kanter for sucking up to China. Completely overlooking China’s innumerable human rights abuses, Musk opened up a Tesla showroom in China's Xinjiang province, drawing the ire of the Boston Celtics’ center Kanter, who has been waging an ongoing campaign against China.

Those monster profits from China evidently look just as good to Musk as they do to LeBron James, Nike and the NBA. All of whom enjoy doing business with China, despite one of the world’s worst human rights records.

[...]

Buddying up with China is nothing new for Musk, as Breitbart's Warner Todd Huston pointed out. In 2019, the nutty Musk declared China the future for humanity. Which humanity he was talking about was a mystery because the words China and humanity don’t belong in the same sentence.

[...]

Not only did Musk unveil his autos in China, he also engaged in bizarre dance moves on the showroom floor, which he found quite hysterical. Maybe acting like a crazy bat constitutes some of the China version of happiness.

As Vazquez might say, ouch. Kanter has been a cause celebre for Maxson, touting his criticism of the NBA's willingness to overlook China's human rights record to promote the sport there, as well as his right-wing-friendly decision to add "Freedom" to his name after becoming an American citizen.

Interestingly, Vazquez hasn't dedicated a post to Musk since Maxson's item went live -- nor has anyone else at the MRC.


Posted by Terry K. at 8:55 PM EST
Updated: Friday, February 4, 2022 9:08 PM EST
WND Quiet On Death of Race-Baiter Colin Flaherty
Topic: WorldNetDaily

When Colin Flaherty died last month, WorldNetDaily was silent about it, even though he did his most prominent work there. He was the guy who wrote for WND between 2012 and 2014 about his obsession with "black mob violence" -- even when those mobs involved no actual black people -- and published an edition of his race-baiting book "White Girl Bleed A Lot." It was bad enough that Google threatened in 2014 to pull the plug on its ad services to WND because of all the race-baiting; WND eventually capitulated and agreed not to serve Google ads on its race-baiting pages, and Flaherty left WND shortly thereafter.

But you know who did more Flaherty's death? The white nationalists at VDARE, offering no fewer than five tributes. Lead white nationalist Peter Brimelow mourned him this way: "Colin, like me, was once a Contender in the Corporate Media, from which he was progressively extruded because he refused to Get The Memo that he wasn't supposed to discuss a forbidden topic—in his case, black crime." Actually, if WND thinks you're too race-baity, you were never a contender.

John Tremain, meanwhile, highlighted how "Future PC Enforcers seeking to sanitize the past for the Ministry of Truth will have their work cut out for them trying to erase Colin’s massive content footprint. He leaves behind thousands of hours of videos, podcasts, and interviews, countless articles on rogue sites like American Thinker, VDARE.com, and American Renaissance" -- thus showing the bigoted crowd with which Flaherty ran. Tremain also claimed that Flaherty had been "befriended by many black conservatives," among them Jesse Lee Peterson, who uses his black-conservative privilege to sound like a white supremacist.

Speaking of American Renaissance, Jared Taylor also served up a tribute that mostly stuck to recounting his life story (though he did link to a piece we wrote in complaining that "Huffington Post, of course, called his reporting 'race-baiting'). Another fun racist friend, John Derbyshire, touted in his Jan. 14 podcast how "At one of my encounters with the late Colin Flaherty I impressed him by knowing the Irish spelling of his name."

Finally, a coward writing under the pseudonym "A Southerner" served up a more gushy tribute, serving up revisionist history at one point by claiming that Flaherty "told me that in 2014, Google even threatened to demonetize WND if all ads weren’t removed from Colin’s pieces, because they drove so much traffic." The writer concluded:

My friend Colin Flaherty made a difference.

Our cities can be rebuilt. Statues to those who came before us can be recast.

Heroes who, in dark times, defended what was undefendable, can be celebrated.

But it’s only because those who lived bravely and without fear dedicated their lives to truth, in a time of universal deceit, that what once was can be again.

Colin Flaherty risked everything. And he made a difference.

Rest in peace, Big Man.

It's telling of the person Flaherty actually was that this coward feels he must hide behind a fake name on a white nationalist website to pay tribute.


Posted by Terry K. at 6:03 PM EST
MRC Melts Down Over Nonbinary Olympic Skater
Topic: Media Research Center

Once again, the Olympics are not heterosexual enough for the Media Research Center. After spending the 2018 Winter Olympics lashing out at figure skater Adam Rippon for being gay and disapproving of Republican anti-LGBT stances and last year's Summer Olympics actively rooting for the U.S. team to fail becuase there weren't enough right-wing heterosexuals on it, the MRC's coverage of the 2022 Winter Olympics kicked off on a similar note, with Jay Maxson spending a Jan. 10 post melting down over a nonbinary Olympic skater:

Can we ever have a gender-normal Olympiad again? Last summer in Tokyo, it was all about the transgenders. Next month in Beijing, the United States will feature its first-ever non-binary winter athlete.

Since this gender craze is all about the pronouns, we’re about to see someone who looks an awful lot like a “he,” but who goes by “they.” Oh, for the good old days of the thrill of the sport and the agony of defeat again. When men were men and women were women!

Timothy “they” LeDuc is one of four persons named to the 2022 U.S. Olympic Figure Skating team Sunday morning. In 2019, he was one of the first openly homosexual athletes to win gold in a U.S. pairs' event. This year, LeDuc took gender confusion a step further by publicly coming out as a so-called "non-binary" and the first such U.S. athlete to win a championship in any discipline. In another four years, he'll probably compete as a house plant.

Maxson went on to complain: "LeDuc’s Christian family is from a traditional evangelical church that tried to change their son, and the NBC story portrays them as the weird people." Maxson clearly doesn't see that as weird at all -- he (or she) seems to believe everyone must be forced to be heterosexual, given how much he (or she) hates LGBT people.

Actually, LeDuc's family's attempt to change them was much more harsh than the way Maxson

Maxson concluded by spewing more hate at LeDuc and the LGBT community in general:

At least today, LeDuc is fantasizing as outside the binary world. So naturally, he’s going to be looked at as odd, as peculiar by the greater public. But the strange, the unusual is already acceptable to the wide, wacky media world. NBC and others that are so quick to give in and go along with anything LGBT, no matter how radical it is. No questions asked. 

It's weird that a NewsBusters blogger whose presence is so devoid of basic details that we can't even determine what sex he (or she) is, lket alone if his (or her) name is genuine is so concerned about the sex and sexuality of others.


Posted by Terry K. at 1:32 PM EST

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