The MRC's Squeeing Over Musk's Purchase Of Twitter Continues Topic: Media Research Center
As part of the Media Research Center's orgasming over the prospect of Elon Musk buying Twitter, Alexander Hall played the inevitable George Soros boogeyman card in a May 4 post:
Twenty-six organizations signed a letter warning that the Twitter takeover by Tesla founder and free speech advocate Elon Musk will ruin the platform.
How the tables have turned! Twenty-six organizations ranging from gay advocacy to pro-abortion demanded corporations boycott Twitter, warning that Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s “takeover of Twitter will further toxify our information ecosystem and be a direct threat to public safety, especially among those already most vulnerable and marginalized.” Many organizations that signed the letter, such as the Free Press, MediaJustice (formerly Center for Media Justice) and the pro-abortion NARAL Pro-Choice America, National Hispanic Media Coalition, were heavily funded by liberal megadonor George Soros. Identity politics-based organizations such as the Marxist Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, Empowering Pacific Islander Communities (EPIC), National Hispanic Media Coalition, Women’s March and GLAAD also signed the bill.
[...]
Musk responded to a CNN Business report on the letter, asking in a tweet: “Who funds these organizations that want to control your access to information? Let’s investigate.” He later added : “Sunlight is the best disinfectant.” A Daily Mail report published May 4 answered Musk’s inquiry: “[A]n assortment of 'dark money groups' like George Soros's Open Society Foundation; NGOs founded by former Clinton and Obama administration staffers; wealthy Democrat donors and their family foundations; labor unions; and the governments of European nations.”
In a May 5 post, Joseph Vazquez declared that a fact-check of Musk was "stupid" and "idiotic" because it followed Musk's words to their logical conclusion:
Tesla CEO Elon Musk correctly slammed NBC News for trying to bury the Hunter Biden laptop scandal. Phony fact-checker PolitiFact tapped into all levels of Pravda to pretend that wasn’t true.
The Facebook fact-checker ran an idiotic May 4 “fact check” headlined: “Elon Musk’s false claim that NBC News covered up Hunter Biden laptop story.” Musk went after NBC for having a conniption over his recently successful multibillion-dollar bid to purchase Twitter.
Musk stated on Twitter May 2 that NBC was the “[s]ame org that covered up Hunter Biden laptop story, had Harvey Weinstein story early & killed it & built Matt Lauer his rape office. Lovely people.”
Here was PolitiFact contributing writer Monique Curet’s pathetic reasoning for why Musk was awarded a “False” rating: “NBC News said its lack of in-depth reporting in 2020 on the laptop was due to people in Trump's circle trying to limit access to the information. That’s not the same as covering up the story.” So NBC did pathetic journalism and PolitiFact blames … Trump. In fact, Curet is not even located in the U.S. Her PolitiFact biography says she resides in Tokyo, which means the fact-checker had to outsource its shoddy business to someone located all the way across the Pacific Ocean.
Curet continued: “Musk’s tweet gives the impression that NBC News had all the relevant information and chose not to disclose it, and that’s not accurate.”
[...]
First: Musk never said NBC had “all the relevant information.” Curet inserted her own spin into Musk’s tweet and fact-checked a straw man. In addition, Musk’s insinuation that NBC covered up the story was broad and not limited to the initial 2020 bombshell.
NewsBusters has the receipts proving that NBC not only covered up the story for well over a year, but tried to spin it as a Russian disinformation op.
As we'venoted, the New York Post and its partisan pro-Trump sources provided no independent verification of the laptop or the information on it, making it journalistically reasonable to ignore that story since there was no reason to take these partisans at face value.
Meanwhile, the MRC kept cranking out other pro-Musk and Musk-critic-bashing content:
But the orgasms returned when Musk suggested he would allow Donald Trump to return to Twitter. Hall squeed in a May 10 post under the headline "Return of the King?":
Is he back? Maybe. Billionaire and free speech advocate Elon Musk declared he will reinstate former President Donald Trump when he buys Twitter. But will Trump return if the ban is reversed?
Musk said he would reverse Twitter’s Trump ban at a recent automobile event. “Musk, the Tesla CEO who is soon to own Twitter, said it was a mistake for the website to ban the former president,” The Washington Post wrote on Tuesday.
The article reported that Musk warned while speaking at a Future of the Car event sponsored by the Financial Times: “I think it was a morally bad decision to be clear and foolish in the extreme.” He continued: “I do think it was not correct to ban Donald Trump. I think that was a mistake … It alienated a large part of the country and did not ultimately result in Donald Trump not having a voice.”
Catherine Salgado followed up with a post headlined "Anti-Free Speech Twitter MELTDOWN After Musk Proposes Un-Banning Trump." She did not explain why supporting Twitter's decision to suspend someone who incited a riot and repeatedly violated Twitter's terms of service makes one "anti-free speech." Hall added a post quoting Twitter founder Jack Dorsey saying that Trump should not have been banned, though he did agree that Trtump deserved a "temporary suspension" for what Hall euphemistically and delicately described as his "behavior in the final days of his presidency."
None of these writers noted that, as other observers have noted, Musk's statement came on the same day that Tesla recalled 130,000 vehicles for issues with the cars' touch screens, making the timing of his announcement look a lot like a distraction from bad news.
The MRC has yet to tell its readers that Trump is contractually obligated to make Truth Social his primary social-media outlet, and he can't repost his musings elsewhere for a minimum of six hours. So even if Musk restores Trump's Twitter account, it can't be his primary one.
CNS' Double Standard On Book Sales Topic: CNSNews.com
CNSNews.comn managing editor Michael W. Chapman sneered in a May 2 article:
Jill: A Biography of the First Lady, written by two top journalists at the Associated Press, only sold 250 copies in its first week of release, reported the liberal news outlet Politico.
"A newly released biography about Jill Biden, by two well-respected Associated Press journalists, sold just 250 units in its first week, according to the company," said Politico on April 29.
The news outlet further reported, "NPD BookScan, which tracks book sales in the U.S., said that prominent books about [Donald] Trump released in his first two years of office outsold [Joe] Biden books during his first year and a half by, what an official there said was, 'essentially 10:1.'"
Apparently, for readers and book publishers, Trump is a far more profitable prospect than Biden.
Chapman provided no evidence that Politico is "liberal" -- to the contrary, he proved it isn't because a "liberal" outlet wouldn't have reported this story.
Meanwhile, CNS is indisputably a right-wing outlet because it hid stories about abysmal book sales among conservatives. For instance, you will find nothing at CNS about the abysmal sales for a book by right-wing Rep. Matt Gaetz -- selling as few as 2,200 copies over its entire run.
Chapman also dipped CNS' toe back into promoting Donald Trump's Big Lie about election fraud -- which it eagerly did after the 2020 presidential election -- snottily claiming that Joe Biden "won a historic election with reportedly 80 million votes." Chapman is suggesting there is legitimate dispute about the number of votes Biden received -- which there isn't.
This sort of snotty behavior by a member of management is not the way CNS builds journalistic credibiity.
The MRC's Issues With Women Continue Topic: Media Research Center
Media Resarch Center writer Nicholas Fondacaro has issues with women, particularly the co-hosts of "The View." Since the last time we checked, Fondacaro has continued to smear the hosts as a "coven":
One has to wonder that if Fondacaro really believes the "View" hosts are really a "pro-baby killing coven," that he also believes they use aborted babies in secret satanic rituals. He would be the kind of person who would believe it.
Fondacaro's issues with women also surfaced when his boss, Tim Graham, tagged him in a tweet in which he retweeted an image from a now-suspended account maliciously depicting "View" co-host Joy Behar as an ogre with the message "Can't unsee this." Fondacaro's response? "That's about right."
Those co-hosts are not the only women with whom the MRC has serious issues. Kevin Tober exposed his own issues with Hillary Clinton in a May 5 post under the headline "CBS's Norah O'Donnell Lets Hillary Clinton Shriek Over Abortion Rights." In it, Tober asserted that "Clinton returned to her infamous shrill angry screaming that makes her so unlikable," going to to complain that "There was no pushback from O’Donnell, who just sat there and nodded her head while listening to Clinton rant incoherently like a homeless person."
In reality, a fair view of the clip by a normal person indisputably shows that Clinton did not engage in "shrill angry screaming," nor did she "rant incoherently like a homeless person." She spoke like a normal person, which was apparently too much for Tober to handle. And he proved he's the real ranter with this closing tirade:
This interview surely reminded voters why she lost to former President Trump in one of the most stunning upsets in American presidential history and almost lost the Democratic nomination to a seventy-four-year-old socialist from Vermont. Her own party can’t even stand her. Norah O’Donnell isn’t much better for enabling Hillary’s insane ramblings.
Show us on the doll where Hillary touched you, Kevin. Or just get some professional help to address your vile misogyny.
NEW ARTICLE: The Root of Trump Idolatry Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily columnist Wayne Allyn Root can't stop gushing over Donald Trump and fervently wants him to run again in 2024, although he thinks Trump isn't as anti-vaccine as he should be. Read more >>
MRC's Graham Also Joined In Trying To Distract From Conservative Support For Replacement Theory Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center has been laboring to protect Fox News' Tucker Carlson from the fact that his replacement theory conspiracy found an echo in the Buffalo shooter. Leave it to Tim Graham go to on a campaign of misdirection by using a promotion for his May 16 podcast to try and mislead about what replacement theory is:
Bill Maher attacked the notion that the federal government would run an effort against "disinformation" broadly defined. When a racist teen shot up a Buffalo supermarket, disinformation broke out as liberal outlets raced to connect it somehow to Tucker Carlson and Fox News.
The New York Times and The Washington Post admitted they couldn't prove the Buffalo shooter had even watched or enjoyed Tucker's show, but they aggressively smeared the ten deaths on him anyway. "Measuring the extent of Mr. Carlson’s influence in spreading replacement theory may be impossible," admitted the Times. "But controversies around the host’s use of 'replacement' rhetoric appear to have at least helped drive public curiosity about the idea.
On the reliably liberal Reliable Sources, CNN host Brian Stelter brought on black journalist Wesley Lowery -- whose book on race was titled They Can't Kill Us All -- to insist that Tucker and Laura Ingraham often sounded like white supremacists, and tossed in Ben Shapiro and Andrew Sullivan for spice. Stelter suggested other conservatives were also responsible, but they can't help but suggest Fox is well, an Enemy of the People, at least the non-white people.
This anger at "replacement theory" energetically ignored that liberals have been delighting in the notion of a more multi-racial America for decades. The cover story in the April 9, 1990 edition of Time magazine happily projected that "in the 21st century -- and that's not far off -- racial and ethnic groups in the U.S. will outnumber whites for the first time. The 'browning of America' will alter everything in society."
Actually, Tim, pointing out demographic changes and claiming they're part of an evil conspiracy are two completely different things.
In the podcast itself, Graham managed to find humor in the Buffalo shooting, chortling that "they never to the gun range for a mass shooting," then asserted that the media "saw opportunity" in the shooting by blaming Carlson. Citing reporting that the shooter said he was radicalized online, "There's no indication that [the shooter] watched Carlson's program. Yeah, who needs proof?" going on to launch a whataboutism rant:
This is the game that they play, and that is that if you merely suggest that Democrats are interested in importing their voters, you're for killing black people in a supermarket. You don't have to prove Tucker Carlson is a mass murderer whisperer, you just find echoes and emanations and numbers of associations. Buffalo McCarthyism? I mean, you couldn't call people a communist if they praised Fidel Castro to the skies, hmmm, Barbara Walters? All these people who said the kindest possible things about communist autocrats -- you know, but you can't call them a communist, probably you couldn't really say there's no proof that the liberals wanted us all in the United State of Fidel Castro BUT dot dot dot.
[...]
If there is a clumsy Crayola conspiracy theory, this is it. "Supermarket shooter equals Tucker! I don't even have to spell Tucker correctly!"
Graham then rushed to defend Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik for spouting similar ideas:
And it's not just the Fox News hosts. The Washington Post also had a story coming in to the new week ripping Elise Stefanik -- yeah, they tweeted this out this notion: "Stefanik echoed racist theory allegedly espoused by Buffalo suspect." Smeary smeary guilty guilty! What do we actually find? Well, Elise Stefanik ran Facebook ads that claimed this about the Democrats: “Their plan to grant amnesty to 11 MILLION illegal immigrants will overthrow our current electorate and create a permanent liberal majority in Washington.” All right, that's a conspiracy theory, right? They're importing voters. But somehow this leads to "Stefanik echoes racist mass shooter." This isn't journalism, this is midslinging, this is a negative campaign commercial disguised as a news story.
Graham then exhibited a surprising lack of self-unawareness by accusing others of doing what the MRC has been doing for 30-plus years:
I just don'e like the energy that's out there right now. And it's the whole energy of we have to make Republicans quit, we have to shut Fox News down. Right? There's this whole lame-o thing -- if you go to the lame-o liberal sites, what are they out there saying? You know, "white supremacist shooting means you need to re-evaluate advertising on the Fox News Channel." We all know -- and this was all over conservative Twitter -- they cannot prove that this thug shooter has ever paid attenton to Tucker Carlson anywhere at any time, whereas theguy who shot at the Republicans on the softball field in Alexandria, Virginia, had professed his love for Rachel Maddow's show. Does that mean Rachel Maddow encouraged the shooting of Republicans? That was generally not the conservative spin.
So why is that Graham's spin now? Even the conservatives pushing that spin never found anything beyond a Facebook like, whereas the replacement theory promoted by Carlson -- who serves as the largest megaphone for it -- closely echoes the shooter's replacement theory.
Graham then insisted that it's not really racist to point out there there's a conspiracy by Democrats to import foreign voters, no matter how racist that actually sounds:
It's somehow -- if you suggest that Democrats want to import voters to win elections, this is somehow voila, white supremacy! We all understand that the Democrats really do believe that we're gonna -- yes, we're going to be aggresively pro-immigrant, we're going to be pro-immigration. They believe in what you might call Univision theory, which is the more -- yeah, the more people we import from Central and South America, the more Democratic voters they're sending in. Somehow they're not racist when they're supporting this theory because they're saying it in a positive way. If you say it in a negative way, it's bad. So for example, in 2008 if I suggest Rachel Maddow is a lesbian -- this is a factual statement, I got my head handed to me anyway at the time because I said it in a disapproving tone. This is the way it works, apparently.
Now, you can find examples of Fox News hosts suggsting that Democrats want to import voters, but how is this white supremacy? I mean, if Wesley Lowrey and his ilk suggest to us that black lives matter more than white lives -- 'cause don't you dare say all lives matter -- does that qualify as black supremacy? I know for a fact Welsey Lowrey does not get to run around claiming, "Oh, the other guys, they're are the racial dividers, they're the ones that are making life difficult in America. The other guys are disturbing the peace." No, Wesley Lowrey is a guy whose whole career is built on systemic racism, systemic racism, systemic racism, riding grievances all the way to the Pulitizer Prize.
As if Graham's entire career is not built on riding grievances to, well, maybe an MRC Bulldog Award and more Mercer money.
Graham went on to huff that liberals are the real racists for accurately noting America's changing racial demographics:
The reality is we can tell you as people who have been around for 35 years the liberal media have been gleefully pushing this idea of Amercia's white minority for decades. They've been delighting in the idea of "the browning of America," and they hever thought that sounded racist or racially hostile or racially inflammatory.
Graham then claimed that immigrants might change "white Western ideas" and declared that a legitimate concern, declaring that "yes, you can make concerned who might wear a hat that says 'Make America Great Again' -- I don't have that hat -- but the idea that you're going to import immigrants to change what America stands for, what America is, yeah, if you're a Republican that might concern you."At no point did Graham provide any evidence that there is a Democratic project, overt or clandestine, to import foreign peopel for the express purpose of replacing white conservatives but insisted this theory is "falling apart" because immigrants are becoming Republicans.
Graham didn't really help his case here. Whataboutism is a distraction, not an argument.
CNS Uses Roe Repeal Leak As An Excuse To Attack Biden On Abortion Topic: CNSNews.com
The leak of a draft opinion by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito that would overturn Roe v. Wade and, thus, the right to have an abortion, gave CNSNews.om yet another excuse to attack President Biden for not imposing his Catholic faith on the entire country.
A May 3 article by Craig Bannister repeated right-wing talking points in noting that "as multiple news outlets have reported, in 1981, as a Democrat [sic] Delaware senator, Biden voted for a constitutional amendment that – like the overturn of Roe v. Wade the Supreme Court is currently considering – would have enabled each state to pass a law regarding the legality, restriction or prohibition of abortion." Another article that day by Melanie Arter complained that Biden said if the Supreme Court does end up overturning Roe v. Wade, "it would mean that every other decision relating to the notion of privacy is thrown into question."
Susan Jones complained that "President Joe Biden said the apparent leak to Politico of a majority Supreme Court draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade means "we will need more pro-choice Senators and a pro-choice majority in the House to adopt legislation that codifies Roe, which I will work to pass and sign into law." She then groused in a May 4 article when Biden raised the prospect of conservatives desiring to separate LGBTQ children from classrooms:
President Biden is among the Democrats warning that dire consequences will flow from a Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, if such a ruling is issued later this year, as a leaked document suggests.
A number of Democrats have asked what else conservatives will attack -- the right to birth control? Same-sex marriage? Even biracial marriages?
[...]
Jones declared that "The draft majority opinion leaked to Politico specifically addresses the concerns raised by politically motivated Democrats," and that "Abortion, unlike birth control, marriage or even segregating LGBTQ children, involves a third party -- the unborn baby."
In fact, legal experts note that Alito's draft opinion also argued that there is no broad constitutional "right to autonomy," an argument that underpinned other legal decisions such as gay marriage and consensual sexual relations, and there's no reason why right-wing activists wouldn't use Alito's arguments to try to overturn gay marriage and contraception rights as well.
A May 5 article by managing editor Michael W. Chapman returned to an old tactic by quoting a Catholic bishop attacking Biden as a "heretic" and "apostate" for forcing all of America to abide by his Catholic faith, adding: "Although Presiden [sic] Biden is a Catholic, he supports abortion and Roe v. Wade, as well as 'gay marriage' and other practices that violate the teaching of the Catholic Church. By supporting those things and speaking in their defense, Biden is, in the objective order, backing heresy and causing scandal. An apostate is someone who has essentially abandoned their faith."
An anonymous CNS writer grumbled in another May 5 article:
President Joe Biden on Wednesday, answering a question about the possibility the Supreme Court may overturn Roe vs. Wade and recalling his role as Judiciary Committee chairman during the Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Judge Robert Bork, stated his belief that his rights come from God.
“‘I believe I have the rights that I have not because the government gave them to me, which you believe, but because I’m just a child of God,’” Biden recalled telling Bork during those hearings.
Biden then seemed to suggest that the “right to privacy,” under which the Supreme Court placed an alleged “right” to abortion, was one of the rights that comes from God.
The writer who refused toput his or her name on this piece did not explain why privacy is not a legitimate right.
President Joe Biden on Wednesday morning explained his position in favor of legalized abortion by recalling that he had once told Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork that he possessed the rights he had because he is a “child of God.”
Later that same day, Biden issued a statement declaring Thursday the National Day of Prayer.”
There was no explanation for why these two articles could not have been combined into one, which wold have been more journalistically efficient and convenient for its readers.
Yet another May 5 article by Chapman touted how the right-wing group CatholicVote "is calling on President Joe Biden and other public leaders to denounce the call by pro-abortion activists to protest at Catholic churches this Sunday and to rally outside the homes of Supreme Court justices. " Chapman identified CatholicVote as only a non-profit group" while he made sure to describe Ruth Sent Us, which made the protest call, as a "radical pro-abortion group."
Arter groused in a May 6 article that "When asked whether President Joe Biden supports any limits on abortion, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that 'he supports the right of a woman to make choices about her own body with her doctor.'"
Of course, dishonest Catholic Bill Donohue had to weigh in, using his May 9 column to lash out at various pro-choice protest at Catholic churches -- perpetrated by "vandals" and "fascists," in his telling, though forcing all Americans to adhere to Catholic theology is its own form of fascism -- huffing that "It is shameful that our 'devout Catholic' president has not said a word about any of these anti-Catholic incidents. ... This is another example of bigotry, yet Biden can't bring himself to call it for what it is — rank anti-Catholicism."
Obama Derangement Syndrome Continues At The MRC Topic: Media Research Center
Even though Barack Obama left the presidency more than five years ago, the Media Research Center continues to have flare-ups of Obama Derangement Syndrome. When Obama paid a visit to the White House in April, Kevin Tober melted down in an April 5 post:
Hours after former President Barack Obama returned to the White House to tout the Biden administration’s efforts to expand Obamacare, the evening newscasts returned to their old habits of gushing over their first true love: Barack Obama. While they were drooling over the former President, they spent their entire broadcasts ignoring the latest layer of the ongoing Hunter Biden scandal.
The evening newscasts spent a combined three minutes and two seconds on the Obama visit to the White House. This compares to zero time spent on Hunter Biden.
Since the MRC is also obsessed with Hunter Biden, Tober devoted a good chunk of his post to highlighting how "Back in reality, Fox News Channel’s Special Report covered the latest news out of the rabidly metastatizing Hunter Biden scandal."
NBC's Al Roker simply teasing an upcoming interview with Obama was enough to set off Kyle Drennen in an April 6 post, whining about how "Roker was already swooning as he confessed that he was “so excited” for the softball chat that would preach climate activism and promote Obama’s upcoming nature documentary series on Netflix." Drennen then complained at length that Roker's "adulation for Obama has been equally strong over the years," going on to huff: "Given that history, viewers can expect similar Obama-gasms from Roker in next week’s interview with the former president."
During an interview with former President Obama conducted on Monday and aired on NBC’s Today show Wednesday morning, weatherman and climate activist Al Roker actually worried that the brutal war in Ukraine was distracting from pushing a left-wing environmental agenda. Obama replied by trying to use the conflict as an excuse “to wean ourselves off fossil fuels.”
[...]
During a portion of the friendly chat aired on the 3rd Hour Today show, in the 9:00 a.m. ET hour, Roker was shown wondering: “During your presidency, you protected more public lands, more waterways, than any previous administration. Now that you are a private citizen, is climate change and the environment one of your top priorities?” Obama declared: “I think it has to be one of the top priorities for all of us.”
The purpose of the interview wasn’t just to push the left’s radical climate agenda, it was also promote Obama’s latest project, as Roker explained: “Now, his new Netflix series, Our Great National Parks, showcases some of the world’s most spectacular settings....The former president serving as both executive producer and narrator.”
Tim Graham also complained about the Roker interview in his April 15 column:
Whenever Barack Obama grants an interview to one of his adorers in the media, one who arrives bathed in the glow of servility, everyone should be reminded that this is a major reason why people don’t trust the media.
In every interview, Obama is treated as a global celebrity and as the wisest of wise men. One can understand a journalist offering more tender inquiries to an ex-president, but there is no difference in tenderness between now and during his presidency.
Look no further than NBC’s Obama interview by weatherman Al Roker, which aired on April 12 and 13. “Scrutiny” or “accountability” are not words that apply. NBC and the other liberal media outlets seek to put Republican presidents on trial, and put Democrat presidents at ease.
Thern again, scrutiny and accountability were nowhere to be found when Graham gave a softball interview to former Trump press secretary Kayleigh McEnany -- who infamously abandoned her job after the Capitol riot -- a couple weeks later.
When Obama gave a speech calling for combatting online misinformation, the MRC unsurprisingly took offense. Graham played whataboutism in an April 10 post:
Naturally, CNN didn't find anything funny in David Axelrod and Jeffrey Goldberg honoring their hero Barack Obama with a spot at their conference on "Disinformation and the Erosion of Democracy."
This came during a week when Obama was honored for Obamacare, and the liberals all forgot Obama won the "Lie of the Year" from PolitiFact in 2013 for "If you like your health plan, you can keep it.
[...]
Usually, the "disinformation" cops and "fact checkers" think all of the dishonesty comes from the right wing. Obama was surprised after PolitiFact gave the "Lie of the Year" to "Death panels" (2009) and "Government takeover of health care" (2010).
Graham then seemed to endorse bogus anti-Obama birtherism because he took some literary liberties in his memoir:
The CNN team thinks Obama is uber-qualified because of the "infamous" birther theory promulgated by Evil Orange Man, and they aren't going anywhere near Obama making up his own fairy tale in his memoir about staying in Hawaii with Daddy until he was two (he left with Mommy for the mainland soon after he was born). He also made up "composite girlfriends," but he's the scourge of disinformation.
Two days later, Catherine Salgado complained about Obama's endorsement of exposing online haters hiding bnehind anonymity:
“I am close to a First Amendment absolutist,” former President Barack Obama said last week, even as he called misinformation potentially “fatal” and suggested “modifications” to online anonymity.
The Atlantic Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg interviewed Obama at his left-wing mag's “ Disinformation and Erosion of Democracy” conference. Obama more than once used seemingly pro-free-speech language during the event hosted by The University of Chicago’s law school.
“I believe in the idea of not just free speech, but also that you deal with bad speech with good speech,” he said. Obama added, however, that disinformation, or the “systematic effort to either [sic] promote false information [or] to suppress true information for the purpose of political gain, financial gain, enhancing power, suppressing others, targeting those you don’t like,” is a threat.
Obama added that “editorial choices…combined with any kind of ethno-nationalism or misogyny or racism can be fatal,” noting further “that is the media ecosystem that we now are occupying.”
Obama’s comment on anonymity was particularly relevant. “In some circumstances, it’s important to preserve anonymity, in terms of–so that there’s space in repressive societies to discuss issues,” he said. ”But as we’ve all learned, it’s a lot harder to be rude, obnoxious, cruel, uh—or lie when somebody knows you’re lying and knows who you are, and I think that there may be modifications there that can be made.”
There have been many recent attacks on online anonymity. The hacked private information of donors to the anti-COVID-19 mandate Freedom Convoy was spread across the internet. The Canadian government then froze some Freedom Convoy-connected cryptocurrency wallets.
Salgado did not explain why online haters must be allowed to hide behind anonymity.
Salgado also grumbled that Obama said that “If people are given different information, they can process differently," adding: "That sounds like what Big Tech and Big Media did before the 2020 election. Both restricted information unfavorable to then-Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden in a way that the Media Research Center found to have changed the election results." As we've documented, the MRC's conspiratorial findings were fueled by right-wing polls it puirchased, one of which came from Trump's own campaign pollster.
Graham rehashed much of his earlier Obama derangement in his April 22 column, going on to rant: "This underlines why the liberal media should not be trusted in a 'disinformation' fight. They have a frustrating tendency to put themselves on the side of 'information' and conservatives on the side of 'disinformation.' Don’t try to argue it’s more complicated than that. They’re not listening."
Graham and the rest of the MRC love to put scare quotes around "disinformation" when a non-conservative is calling it out, but never when a fellow right-winger is making the accusation. Graham also offers no evidence why he and the MRC should be trusted on this issue more than anyone else.
WND's Farah Tried To Blame Biden For Russia's Invasion of Ukraine Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily editor Joseph Farah hasn't written a lot about Russia's invasion of Ukraine -- he's still too busy promoting election fraud conspiracy theories to devote much time to it -- but when he has, it's generally and unsurprisngly been centered on blaming President Biden. Right after the invasion, Farah ranted in his Feb 24 column:
We saw war break out in Ukraine yesterday.
It's understandable, while the news is focused on it, that our eyes should be diverted there. But that may be where our enemies want us looking.
Maybe we should be instead focused on what's coming next.
What are we missing because of America's gross incompetence?
[...]
So what is Biden still missing? What's his next misstep? What's his next incomprehensible move?
He's seemingly doesn't see the fact that there is an alliance between Russia, China and Iran that could quickly develop into WORLD WAR III.
Don't doubt for a minute that Putin invaded Ukraine without the approval of China's leader, Xi Jinping. He may choose to take on Taiwan in the next three years while Biden and his vice president, Kamala Harris, are still in power. What about Iran? Iran understands that the Russian operation gives it a blank check to continue attacking countries in the region – possible even Israel.
[...]
And now Joe Biden has made it all-too-possible to become a reality – or at least a prequel – for a world-ending nightmare scenario.
What else should we expect from hapless Joe Biden?
Anything less?
We have just less than three years left before he leaves office. Three years – it's an ominous amount of time.
Can we sustain the world as we know it in the meantime?
We are on the brink of the most dangerous period the world has possibly ever known – thanks to Joe Biden.
It's time to pray and repent!
Farah expanded that blame to all liberals in his column the next day for purportedly blocking discussion of China:
No one in the United States bothers to talk about the China virus anymore – especially the radical left. It's one of the topics you can't talk about in polite company.
Nor can we talk about the Uighurs, a people living in Chinese concentration camps and marked for extinction through forced abortions.
Why can't we talk about it?
Because we don't have a free press anymore thanks to Big Tech – another one of the allies of the Chinese Communists.
All Joe Biden would say about the Chinese insofar as their position on Russia and Ukraine is that they will be "stained" by it. He was careful to say nothing further because Beijing has the goods on him. He was former business partners with Russia, China and Ukraine.
Also, China may have helped Biden to pull off his BIG STEAL of the 2020 election.
Joe Biden is thoroughly compromised.
But so is GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell. He's owned by China. So is Nancy Pelosi. So are many, many Democrats and a fair amount Republicans.
When Russia first assaulted the Ukraine in 2014, Barack Obama, the great humanitarian, sent Ukrainians blankets. The second time he attacked them, Joe Biden, the man who had taken bribes from Ukraine, diddled, waffled and did virtually nothing. He's still spending weekends in Delaware. Who knows who's in charge?
In fact, by 2015 the Obama adinistration had sent $120 million in security assistance to Ukraine, including weapons, armored vehicles and medical supplies.
Farah used his March 7 column to praise Ukrainian leader Volodomyr Zelensky as a proud "Hebrew warrior," apprently oblvious to his own columnists trashing Zelensky as a failed leader for not capitulating to Russia.
In his April 5 column, Farah called on Henry Kissinger, of all people, to back up his anti-Biden take, which also leaned a bit into supporting Russia (and repeating the Obama blanket falsehood):
I'm hardly a fan of Henry Kissinger.
I've never thought that much of the man while I was on the right or the left.
The former secretary of state is a globalist at best. But he explained the correct path for Ukraine while both Barack Obama and Joe Biden were doing nothing about Russia's threat until it was too late.
His words were prescient, given that he was writing this in 2014, when Russia was preparing to gobble up Crimea on the eve of its invasion and occupation.
[...]
To sum up his evenhanded approach to this long simmering catastrophe, Kissinger advised that Ukraine should have the right to choose freely its economic and political associations, including with Europe.
Ukraine should not join NATO. And it should be free to create any government compatible with the expressed will of its people.
Kissinger was also cognizant that both the U.S. and Europe need to show greater appreciation for the historical and ethnic ties binding Russia and Ukraine while never ceding Ukraine's sovereignty to Russian control.
In retrospect, the war could have been avoided – by statecraft, if the "grown-ups" didn't ignore all the signs and dangers.
The U.S. should have done more sooner, for example, preparing the Ukrainians militarily – as Donald Trump did after Obama sent them blankets. And if Biden was the "expert" on Ukraine in the Obama administration, he should not have seen it as his personal honeypot with Hunter preying on it.
Farah hasn't dedicated a column to the Ukraine situation since. Since silence is arguably assent, we can presume that even a Biden Derangement Syndrome sufferer like Farah has decided he approves of Biden's overall handling of the situation.
MRC Psaki-Bashing, Doocy-Fluffing Watch: The Finale Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center's Curtis Houck kicked off his final week of having Jen Psaki to kick around as White House press secretary by writing about an "exit interview" she did with Fox News' Howard Kurtz, cheering how Kurtz hit right-wing talking points by asking about "media access to President Biden, rumors about her move to MSNBC, and Twitter being a liberal echo-chamber." Houck didn't mention that his beloved Kayleigh McEnany would never have sat for an exit interview with CNN's Brian Stelter (or that she didn't do her job at all in the final two weeks of Donald Trump's presidency).
Houck returned to anti-Psaki hostility in writing about the May 10 briefing, maliciously interpreting Psaki's words while fluffing the latest person in the briefing room's Fox News seat:
Filling in for Fox’s A-Team of Peter Doocy and Jacqui Heinrich, correspondent Alexandria Hoff joined The Psaki Show on Monday and Tuesday, as Jen Psaki began her final week at the podium, and Hoff made it count by joining other reporters in grilling her on the threats to Supreme Court justices due to the leaked draft opinion on abortion.
Starting with Tuesday, Hoff called out the Biden administration’s double standard when it comes to what they claimed were threats to the lives of school board members as “the Department of Justice was very swift in responding” and whether they’ll do the same toward (actual) threats to Supreme Court justices like Samuel Alito.
In response, Psaki predictably claimed Biden opposes “violence, threats, and...intimidation of any kind,” but then droned on about how Republicans are raging hypocrites when it comes to (alleged) school board threats, Michigan election officials, women seeking abortions, or January 6. Interspersed with that, Psaki said the administration “continue[s] to encourage” such protests and intimidation tactics.
[...]
Psaki defended the mental terrorizing of justices and their innocent families, boasting that “the protests...have not turned violent” and “[j]ust because people are passionate” and< “fearful about their own healthcare,” “it does not mean they’re violent.”
"Mental terrorizing"? Isn't that what Houck has been doing to Psaki for the past year and a half?
Houck used his summary for the May 12 briefing to tout the latest manufactured right-wing outrages:
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki went before reporters Thursday for her penultimate press briefing and she made it one to remember as she falsely claimed it’s “a conspiracy theory” taxpayer dollars are funding free crack pipes despite intrepid reporting from the Washington Free Beacon that government-funded “safe smoking kits” contain crack pipes.
And on more conventional topics, Psaki squared off with a number of journalists over the administration being caught flat-footed amid a nationwide baby formula shortage and an increasing hostility by President Biden and the White House toward the 70-million-plus non-Democrats as dangerous, “ultra-MAGA” fanatics.
Houck kicked off Psaki's last day, on May 13 by lashing out yet again at Psaki (while backhandedly admitting she did a good job) while praising Peter Doocy and all the other right-wing reporters who lobbed biased questions at her:
Friday marked the end of an era with White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki departing the Biden administration after over 200 editions of The Psaki Show, filled with humorous and tense moments. Simply put, Psaki was effective in having served as the chief spin officer and lying propagandist for President Biden amid a litany of crises as he himself has spent much of his presidency hiding from sustained questioning.
Hired away from CNN, Psaki is poised to move to MSNBC and NBCUniversal’s streaming platform Peacock, which itself has been wrought with ethical concerns.
Fox’s Peter Doocy became a household name alongside Psaki for their many exchanges on everything from hot dogs to horses to inflation to sex ed in schools. As we’ve coined it here at NewsBusters, Doocy Time was appointment viewing for the Fox correspondent’s uncanny ability to ask questions the liberal journalists around him weren’t asking and in a way that was brief, respectful, and tough.
Doocy wasn’t the only person who stood out during Psaki’s tenure. Softball artists included usual suspects such as Yamiche Alcindor, Andrew Feinberg, and April Ryan while journalists who often joined Doocy in tough questioning included the Steven Nelson, Real Clear Politics’s Philip Wegmann, former Fox colleague Kristin Fisher, and current colleagues Jacqui Heinrich, Alexandria Hoff, Edward Lawrence, and wife Hillary Vaughn.
This was followed by a Doocy-heavy list of top "moments" from Psaki's tenure.
Houck waited three days before writing up the final Psaki press briefing, spending much of it complaining about her making "gooey platitudes" and an "emotional, eye-rolling series of thank you’s" before going on to seemingly endorse disruptive "heckling" from a reporter from Today News Africa.
Houck was silent on the fact that this was a much classier way of ending a tenure than McEnany, who read a statement the day after the Capitol riot, fled the podium and never held another presser in the final two weeks of Trump's presidency. Then again, he was too busy tossing softballs to mention it in his interview with McEnany in April.
Highly Biased WND Laughably Bashes Newspaper For Not Being 'Neutral' Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily judging the alleged neutrality of journalism of another news outlet breaks the irony meter -- neutrality being one of the many words that can't ever be used to describe WND's work. Yet that's what WND did in an anonymously written May 8 article:
It's likely few people still believe newspapers are neutral providers of "news," after the legacy media's agenda to suppress bad information about the Biden family's international business schemes and portray everything President Trump accomplished as bad over recent years.
The few who still held on to that ideal now likely are having their beliefs shattered, as the Denver Post has given up any pretense of neutrality with an article that promotes abortion, and directs readers where to donate money for the operations of the lucrative industry.
A report at Campfire Colorado pointed out, "The Denver Post has taken liberal activism in the press to a whole new level tonight – the newspaper is literally directing donors to an Act Blue page supporting 'Abortion Funds and Pro-Choice Groups.'"
That Act Blue organization is a donation platform for Democrats that lets donors "contribute online to Democratic campaigns, political action committees and outside groups…"
The report charged, "It’s time for everyone to acknowledge the Denver Post is a liberal activist organization."
WND didn't explain why informing its readers about such issues breaks "neutrality" principles. In fact, it arguably enhances them by proving such information and not forcing people to go elsewhere -- abortion is still a legal procedure after all, and it's simply providing information about a legal service.
WND, of course, would censor this information from its readers -- and it proudly declared its bias at the top of the article. A money beg proclaimed how WND is staffed by "Christian journalists" purportedly offering "uniquely truthful reporting." If one defines falsehoods, misinformation and conspiracy theories to be "uniquely truthful reporting," then sure. And the fact that it's criticizing another media outlet for providing factual information is more evidence of WND's heavliy slanted bias.
And if this article was so neutral and factual, why did the reporter refuse to put his or her byline on it? Where they afraid they were going to be criticized or mocked for writing such a ridiculous piece? That's a definite lack of transparency on WND's part, which makes readers not trust its brand of journalism even more. No wonder WND is continuing its slide toward oblivion.
On Thursday night, Fox News anchor Bret Baier filed a short item on wealthy gay California Democrat mega-donor Ed Buck being sentenced to 30 years in prison for the methamphetamine overdose deaths of two black men. ABC, CBS, NBC, and PBS broadcasts haven't touched it. Buck had donated $500,000 to mostly Democratic causes since 2000.
This story was on the front page of the Los Angeles Times on Friday, but the networks were absent on the story, just as they were when Buck was convicted in July of 2021. You can find the story online at the network news sites. They are much more detailed that Baier's anodyne brief.
Graham might have a point ... if his organization wasn't systematically censoring mention of notable conservatives caught in sleaziness.
In February 2021, Ruben Verastigui -- who had worked as an aide for the Senate Republican Conference and as a digital strategist for the Republican National Committee, worked for anti-abortion groups (also speaking at the antiabortion March for Life in 2013) and designed social media ads for Donald Trump's 2020 presidential campaign -- was arrested on charges of possessing and distributing child pornography; prosecutors said that Verastigui graphically discussed his love of videos depicting child abuse in a group chat. A week before Graham's post, Verastigui was sentenced to more than 12 years in prison. None of the Media Research Center's three main online outlets -- NewsBusters, CNSNews.com and MRCTV -- mentioned Verastigui and his crimes.
A couple months after Verastigui's arrest, Josh Duggar -- reality TV star and onetime official at the right-wing Family Research Councl whom the MRC's "news" division, CNSNews.com had promoted but attempted to ignore when allegations of child molestation surfaced in 2015 -- was arrested on charges of possessing child porn. Last month, he was sentenced to more than 12 years in prison for his crimes. Again, CNSNews.com and MRCTV, though NewsBusters briefly alluded to it in a December 2021 post by Kristine Marsh bashing a cohost on "The View" for pointing out -- or, in marsh's words, making a "garbage analogy" -- that initial supporters of Jussie Smollett's claim of being a victim of a hate crime before the allegation was disproven were no different than "Republican politicians who took photos with Josh Duggar, when he worked for the Family Research Council, years before allegations of molestation and child pornography came out," offering up the odd defense that "Duggar wasn’t accusing others of a hate crime against him before the truth came out, as in Smollett’s case." As if being a child molester didn't conflict with the "pro-life" narratives of the FRC.
Don't expect Graham to actually whether Fox News covered the Verastigui and Duggar stories. Despite the organziation's name, "media research" isn't Graham's job -- and he's afraid to criticize Fox News in any case -- but manufacturing biased talking points is.
Orban-Friendly CNS Censors Story Of CPAC Gathering In Hungary Topic: CNSNews.com
Last year, CNSNews.com repeatedly lashed out at the Conservative Political Action Conference for committing the offense of not hating LGBT as much as it does. This year's main conference in February, there apparently wasn't enough non-hateful LGBT-related contemnt for CNS to get worked up about, so instead it ran two articles doing stenography for CPAC speakers:
In May, CPAC did something that most people would considermore offensive than failing to hate LGBT foplks -- it held a conference in Hungary, which is 1) not the United States and 2) led by a notorious right-wing authoritarian, Viktor Orban.
CNS, however, remained silent about the conference -- not even to report on speakers appearing there, even though they included Fox News' Tucker Carlson, former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows and a special pretaped message from Donald Trump.
Then again, Orban is one of CNS' favorite right-wing authoritarian leaders for lating immigrants and, yes, LGBT people. But even CNS had to concede that Orban engaged in a power grab at the start of the COVID pandemic. But CNS cheered Orban's additional hatred for LGBT people last year. An article last October noted that "A new natural gas contract between Russia and Hungary has sparked protests from Ukraine, which says that the agreement will undermine its national security.
CNS has since reported a little about Orban's semi-friendliness toward Vladimir Putin despite Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Pat Buchanan cheered in a February column praising nationalism movements how Orban "does not regard Putin's Russia as an enemy of his country, and provides economic incentives for Hungarian families to have more children," while an April column by Ted Galen Carpenter tried to portray Ukraine as less free than Hungary, "which is a frequent target of vitriolic criticism among progressives in the West because of Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s anti-globalist stance and his conservative domestic social policies."
So CNS still loves its some right-wing authoritarianism in the form of Orban -- it's just a lot more quiet about that these days.
MRC Continued To Deny That Replacement Theory Is Racist Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center still wasn't done defending the honor of replacement theory after the Buffalo massacre. Tim Graham's May 18 column served up a whitewashed definition then -- as is Graham's style -- played whataboutisim over it:
In the wake of the horrible Buffalo supermarket shooting, liberal journalists lunged at the opportunity to blame the mass murder on conservative and Republican messengers.
On CNN, S.E. Cupp was especially egregious in accusing the right-wingers of “amplifying” a “white replacement theory,” claiming the Democrats expected the influx of immigrants (largely illegal) would eventually lead to red states turning blue. Whites are not being replaced. Democrats just hope they’re outnumbered.
[...]
These attacks seem completely blind to the notion that their own liberal media outlets stir up racial animus, ethnic animus,and religious animus. They turn neighbor against neighbor. They thrive on getting people angry and afraid. They have ratcheted up the political tension for ages.
[...]
There’s nothing wrong with being combative. Being divisive is essential to politics: vote for Us, not Them. But there is something transparently ridiculous in crusading against “divisive vitriol” in politics while you spray it with a fire hose.
A post by Bill D'Agostino pretended that noting that demographic changes might benefit Democrats was exactly the same thing as right-wingers portraying it as a racist conspiracy theory in an attempt to take the heat off Fox News host Tucker Carlson for obsessing over it -- and besides, Carlson isn't saying the quiet part out loud so it can't possibly be racist:
If speaking candidly about Democrat-engineered demographic change causes mass shootings, then the media are culpable for the tragedy in Buffalo.
In the wake of a racially-motivated mass shooting that killed more than ten innocents over the weekend, leftwing journalists have heaped blame onto Fox News’s Tucker Carlson, as well as politicians like Congresswoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY) and Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-FL) for promoting what they call “replacement theory.”
Though it’s hard to find a universally accepted definition of replacement theory, its central tenet appears to be that reducing the proportion of white Americans, relative to the total population, is an outcome that some in power are seeking deliberately. But if that’s a conspiracy theory, it’s one that both the media and the Democratic Party have subscribed to for decades:
It’s indisputable that America’s demographics are changing — the percentage of white Americans has been declining since the ’70s — and that Democrats view nonwhite or minority voters as a key constituency.
Since even the media will happily acknowledge those facts, it appears the magical ingredient turning this data-based reality into a full-blown white supremacist “conspiracy theory” is the notion that the demographic change is being orchestrated. Indeed, there are ugly interpretations of this theory that attribute the phenomenon to nebulous groups like “the elites,” or “the Jews,” or simply some shadowy “Them.”
But Carlson and Republican members of Congress have made it abundantly clear that they believe America’s shifting demographics are the intended outcome of the Democratic Party’s immigration policies. That’s no white supremacist theory; at worst, it’s a cynical political talking point.
[...]
Given Democrats expect the growing nonwhite population of America to support them, how can anyone argue their incredibly lax immigration policies aren't aimed at securing an electoral majority? Did they not expect to benefit from their proposed “pathway to citizenship” for illegal immigrants?
[...]
In the context of immigration, it seems the term “replacement” only became a dirty word once those in power realized voters didn’t view it as favorably as they did.
It’s no secret that the Democratic Party expects to benefit from America’s changing demographics (although some recent data calls that theory into question). But regardless of whether the “demographics are destiny” thesis proves true, the establishment media can’t run away from their track record of endorsing it as a strategy for their favorite political party.
Kyle Drennen complained that on MSNBC, "unhinged leftist and supposed marketing expert Donny Deutsch" called out the racism of replacement theory, going the whataboutism route in response:
He urged Democrats not to “run from this fist fight” and pleaded: “Call out Tucker Carlson, call out the politicians, and make this – make them own it. This is a Republican platform. It’s the racist Republican replacement theory.”
Deutsch was almost identically repeating the same screed he performed on Tuesday afternoon’s Deadline: White House, when he told host Nicole Wallace that Democrats should make the GOP “the party of Tucker Carlson” and horrendously tried to blame Republicans for the mass shooting at a grocery store in Buffalo: “You see the 10 people who got killed in Buffalo, you own that.”
[...]
Despite MSNBC defensively accusing Republicans and Fox News of promoting “replacement theory,” it’s the leftist media that have routinely stirred up racial tensions by cheering demographic changes across the country as a political advantage for Democrats and doom for Republicans.
Drennen linked to D'Agostino's post as apparently the definitive statement on what the MRC narrative is on replacement theory, as did Nicholas Fondacaro in bashing "The View" co-hosts for talking about it:
As NewsBusters research analyst Bill D’Agostino reported, Democrats have viewed immigration policy as a means to achieve their policy agenda and it’s something we know liberals and the media have been vocal in touting for years. But it has since found its way to the Ministry of Truth for deletion.
But as the rest of the cast of The View were simply trying to paint the theory as a racist conspiracy theory, Goldberg didn’t seem to understand what was being discussed. On Monday, as they were going to a commercial break, she scoffed: “well, if it was that easy, wouldn’t your friends have disappeared?” “Think about it,” she requested.
Now Goldberg could just be being facetious in that she’s taking an issue that they claim is of dire importance to iron out and making a joke of it. She could also be trying to lie to viewers about what the theory is about and what people believe. The least morally objectionable is that she simply is that ignorant.
Chief MRC replacement theory defender Clay Waters was at it again in another May 18 post:
If “replacement theory” requires an unnamed cabal, it’s interesting that Republicans specifically blame not some “cabal” but Democrats. Also, Republican concern is less about culture per se than voting power: The fear is that Democrats are indeed trying to change the demographics of the country by importing new Democrat voters from Latin America, thus possibly changing the electorate in their favor (though with the recent trend in Hispanic voting patterns toward Republicans, who knows?) Many also favor voting rights for illegal immigrants. No “replacement theory” necessary.
CBS Mornings kept up its race-baiting campaign Wednesday in reaction to the act of terrorism against the black community of Buffalo, New York with a segment about the great replacement theory that tied Fox News and “many conservative politicians” to the racist alleged gunman and included the fear that black men might now be gunned down at random if they live in the Midwest.
[...]
Co-host and Democratic donor Gayle King fretted that the “Buffalo shooting highlights once again how a once-fringe, racist, and anti-Semitic conspiracy theory is accepted by many Americans” with the great replacement theory being the “belief that there is a plot to replace white people with people of color.”
King then painted conservatives and Republicans (of which there’s over 70 million Americans) as riddled with white supremacists: “Now, it was first presented among white supremacists and on extremist websites. Now, many conservative politicians and pundits promoting some form of replacement theory.”
CBS then played clips from Tucker Carlson, Newt Gingrich, and Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) that ranged from talking about the “theory” to merely opposing the Democratic Party’s immigration policies.
Waters returned to complain that thte New York Times wasn't following right-wing definitions of what replacement theory is and isn't: "Of course, Tucker Carlson was a target, accused of spreading 'replacement theory,' which has come to mean anything race- or immigration-related that a hostile liberal wishes it to mean." He then played his own version of whataboutism by referencing the shooting of three Asian-American women in Dallas in which the alleged perpetrator was "a 36-year-old black man." Who's the one playing the race card now, Clay?
Jeffrey Lord played historical whataboutism in his May 21 column, pretending that the Democratic Party of 100 years ago -- no, really, he cited a century-old New York Times editorial that criticized allowing blacks to vote and the party's platform from 1840 -- is exactly the same as the party of today:
So what do we have here in the wake of the Buffalo shooting?
What we have is a liberal media that is studiously stone cold silent on the Left’s and the Democratic Party’s 200-year plus history of the most vividly blatant racism imaginable. The very racism that the Buffalo shooter absorbed and used to murder ten human beings solely because of their skin color.
And so the liberal media projects the Left’s own history on race to….Tucker Carlson and Fox News.
Laughable? Yes. Disgraceful? Certainly. Will they stop projecting their own history on others?
Will they even stand up and demand Joe Biden and his party apologize for that history?
Not a prayer.
Lord seems not to have noticed that it's no longer 1840 and that the parties have changed places on racial issues.
WND's Moore Misrepresents Another Vaccine Study Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily writer Art Moore justloves to misrepresent scientific articles to advance conspiracy theories against COVID vaccines. He did it again in a May 12 article:
A new peer-reviewed analysis of data published in the prestigious British scientific journal Nature found a 25% increase in emergency calls for cardiac arrest and other sudden-onset coronary issues among young adults.
The researchers compared data for ages 16 to 39 years old for the same time period in 2019 and 2020, the Epoch Times reported.
Significantly, the researchers concluded the increase in emergency heart issues was associated with COVID-19 vaccination, not with COVID-19 infections.
The team – led by Drs. Christopher Sun of the MIT Sloan School of Management, Eli Jaffe of Israel's National Emergency Medical Services and Retsef Levi of MIT – analyzed data collected by Israel's National Emergency Medical Services between 2019 and 2021.
"An increase of over 25% was detected ... compared with the years 2019–2020," they wrote. "[T]he weekly emergency call counts were significantly associated with the rates of 1st and 2nd vaccine doses administered to this age group [16 to 39] but were not with COVID‐19 infection rates."
The scientists concluded: "While not establishing causal relationships, the findings raise concerns regarding vaccine-induced undetected severe cardiovascular side-effects and underscore the already established causal relationship between vaccines and myocarditis, a frequent cause of unexpected cardiac arrest in young individuals."
Moore omitted a lot from that description -- which he rather lazily lifted from an eight-day-old article at the right-wing Epoch Times, a longtime misinformer about COVID vaccines. Both Moore and the Epoch Times got the journal's name wrong -- the study appeared in Scientific Reports, not Nature, though the journal is hosted on Nature's website. Moore did leave a clue in noting that two of the researchers were associated with the MIT Sloan School of Management and not a medical organization; as a fact-checker pointed out, this was a statistical analysis not a clinical one, meaning that data and not patients were examined. The fact-checker also highlighted other issues with the study:
The study analyzed EMS call data, meaning that people who went to the hospital by themselves were excluded -- which account for about half of similar cases.
Vaccine-induced myocarditiscould have been more accurately diagnosed from clinical data instead of the EMS data the study used.
The EMS data did not distinguish myocarditis cases between those induced by COVID infection or the vaccine.
The study authors stated that they did not establish "causal relationships" between vaccines and heart problems.
The authors also stated that an increase in heart problems could have been created by other non-vaccine-related issues, including delay of care due to pandemic fear or lockdowns.
Moore also censored mention of an editor's note added to the study: "Readers are alerted that the conclusions of this article are subject to criticisms that are being considered by the Editors. A further editorial response will follow once all parties have been given an opportunity to respond in full." Instead, Moore hyped "a growing body of scientific and clinical evidence of severe side effects from the COVID-19 vaccines."
NEW ARTICLE: The MRC's Loud And Lame War On NewsGuard Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center enjoys ranting at the website rating service for pointing out that conservative websites aren't very credible -- but it doesn't actually disprove any of NewsGuard's findings. Read more >>
As part of the Media Research Center's orgasming over the prospect of Elon Musk buying Twitter, Alexander Hall played the inevitable George Soros boogeyman card in a May 4 post:
CNSNews.comn managing editor Michael W. Chapman sneered in a May 2 
Media Resarch Center writer Nicholas Fondacaro has 
The Media Research Center has been 
The leak of a draft opinion by Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito that would overturn Roe v. Wade and, thus, the right to have an abortion, gave CNSNews.om 
Even though Barack Obama left the presidency more than five years ago, the Media Research Center continues to have flare-ups of Obama Derangement Syndrome. When Obama paid a visit to the White House in April, Kevin Tober melted down in an April 5 
WorldNetDaily editor Joseph Farah hasn't written a lot about Russia's invasion of Ukraine -- he's still too busy 
The Media Research Center's Curtis Houck kicked off his final week of having Jen Psaki to kick around as White House press secretary by 
WorldNetDaily judging the alleged neutrality of journalism of another news outlet breaks the irony meter -- neutrality being one of the many words that can't ever be used to describe WND's work. Yet that's what WND did in an anonymously written May 8 
Tim Graham complained in an April 16 
Last year, CNSNews.com 
The Media Research Center 
WorldNetDaily writer Art Moore 
