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Saturday, November 5, 2022
Nine Days Later, MRC Finally Criticizes Ye's Anti-Semitism
Topic: Media Research Center

The Media Research Center spent years embracing Kanye West as a popular Black entertainer who embraced Trumpism -- to the point that when he started spewing anti-Semitism, it couldn't even be moved to criticize him. The MRC even praised Ye's purchase of social media site Parler (while, of course, hiding the fact that he's purchasing it from the MRC's biggest funder, Rebekah Mercer).

So if was a bit rich to see Nicholas Fondacaro's Oct. 18 post being outraged that someone was arguing that Ye's anti-Semitism is part of mainstream conservatism:

In an appearance with Chris Cuomo on NewsNation on Monday, singer Kanye “Ye” West doubled down on anti-Semitic comments about what he called “the Jewish underground media mafia.” But in the following hour, host Dan Abrams suggested during his eponymous show that West’s disgusting comments and interest in buying the social media company Parler were strategic movies to “create a right-wing brand.”

Abrams set the tone by kicking off the show with this question:

Kanye West or Ye will buy the right-leaning social media platform Parler after being kicked off Twitter and Instagram over anti-Semitic comments. But isn't this more evidence that he is not mentally ill but just trying to create a right-wing brand?

“But from Kanye’s perspective, it appears he's just doubling down on fringe right-wing positions,” Abrams added a little bit later.

Fondacaro's description of Ye's anti-Aemitism as "disgusting" is the first criticism of it in any MRC post -- a full nine days after Ye spouted it. That utter lack of rush to judgment would seem to indicate a certain amount of comfort with such anti-Semitism -- after all, the MRC has used anti-Semitic tropes to attack Geoge Soros and former CNN chief Jeff Zucker.Fondacaro also didn't mention that the main person who funds his paycheck is also the person selling Parler to Ye.

Fondacaro went on to be annoyed that Abrams wasn't dismissing Ye's anti-Semitism as mental illness, which is how he clearly wants to frame it:

Abrams also didn’t put stock in theories that Kanye’s recent actions and outbursts were signs that he was suffering from his diagnosed bipolar disorder.

“Now, many have refused to take Kanye’s comments seriously, expressing sympathy for what they believe are clear symptoms of severe mental illness, which I think is a cop-out,” he said. “And the people who think he's mentally ill, maybe aren't giving him enough credit for believing what he's saying, including his anti-Semitism.”

To him, “[i]t seems too easy and protective of him to just say he's mentally ill” and it was all part of a machination to appeal and profit off of bigotry on the right:

[...]

“To write off this gambit as some sort of manic episode is to completely downplay his business acumen,” Abrams added. “His apparel brand has been valued somewhere between 3.2 billion and 4.7 billion. He also has a deal with The Gap and industry experts value in excess of a billion dollars.”

At no point did Fondacaro prove that anything Abrams said was wrong -- he was just mad it was said. And he certainly did not distance the MRC away from its years of promoting West's alleged right-wing values and Trump bromance.


Posted by Terry K. at 10:54 AM EDT
Updated: Saturday, November 5, 2022 11:20 PM EDT
WND Columnists Fearmonger About Biden, Dems To Scare Right-Wingers Into Voting
Topic: WorldNetDaily

Wayne Allyn Root isn't the only WorldNetDaily columnist to engage in extreme rhetoric about Democrats in general and President Biden in pjarticular in order to scare right-wingers into voting. Here are some of the others.

Since January 2022, rapacious politicians, led by the most compromised and destructive president in our lifetimes, have failed us, our Western allies and our nation's future. The hopes and dreams of our progeny have been put at grave risk by the Biden regime's embrace of a far-left, domestic and foreign, globalist agenda.

On his first day in office, Sleepy Joe destroyed our nation's energy independence. Now, with the sabotage of the only undersea pipeline capable of supplying Germany and much of Europe with natural gas to heat homes and businesses in winter, the Biden regime is hoping to consummate a deal with the despotic ayatollahs in Tehran to get fossil fuel for European consumers.

Domestically, the Biden regime's plan to recruit, train and deploy 87,000-plus IRS officials will make biblical tax collectors look like benefactors. His White House has opened our southern border to millions of undocumented immigrants while ignoring an unprecedented nationwide crime wave and horrific overdose deaths from Communist Chinese-concocted fentanyl.

[...]

A far-left troika – Biden, Pelosi and Schumer – has declared war on Christians, conservatives, hardworking Americans, members of our Armed Forces and anyone unwilling to bow to their unfettered authority. Left unchecked, this terrible trio will convert America into a Third World country governed by unelected globalists thousands of miles from our shores. They are a threat to our Constitution and the Judeo-Christian principles upon which the United States of America was founded. Undeterred, their actions will prevent the USA from remaining the freest, most productive, prosperous and generous nation on Earth.

In just 35 days we can stop the Biden, Pelosi, Schumer Troika from destroying our constitutional republic. We the People have the power to end their reign of tyranny. Our founders gave us the weapon we need to avoid a catastrophe. It's called an election.

-- Oliver North and David Goetsch, Oct. 4 column

Biden has already stuffed the federal judiciary with 84 new leftist judges, more than any recent president at this stage, and another 57 Biden nominees are pending before the equally divided Senate. Only a GOP-controlled U.S. Senate can stop Biden's mad dash to change our laws through activist judges, as the GOP did in 2016 when Obama tried to replace Justice Scalia with Merrick Garland on the Supreme Court.

Roe v. Wade could even be reinstated if Biden and Democrats get their way in this election, and Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg just gave the ACLU $3 million toward that goal.

-- Anmdy Schlafly, Oct. 4 column

Unfortunately, the Constitution does not envision a situation wherein a president, a speaker of the House of Representatives and a Senate majority leader would form a far-left, treasonous cabal to govern the United States of America. Yet that is precisely what we have today in the Biden, Pelosi, Schumer Troika.

This terrible trio is why we forfeited energy independence and why we are in economic free fall with horrendous debt and runaway inflation. It's why we no longer have a southern border and millions of "migrants" have invaded our country. It's why an unprecedented violent crime wave is sweeping our nation. It's why tens of thousands of our countrymen are dying from Communist Chinese fentanyl. And it's why every law enforcement entity in our land is short-handed, reeling from the troika's "defund the police" movement. 

[...]

Finally, the questions about how ethically, physically and mentally compromised the head of the troika may be. Have Hunter Biden's dealings with the Communist Chinese made our president vulnerable to blackmail by Xi? Does Joe Biden have the stamina to deal with a collapsing economy here at home, Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine and the possibility of a nuclear exchange in Europe? Is his cognitive disarray so severe he cannot grasp why describing Putin's threats as a potential "Armageddon" is seen as "weakness"?

Strike back! On Nov. 8, take at least five voters with you to the polls.

-- Oliver North and David Goetsch, Oct. 11 column

On Joe Biden's first day in office, he signed an executive order that has become emblematic of his presidency, stopping the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, a conduit that would have transported more than 800,000 barrels of oil a day from Canada into the U.S. He has since canceled or halted leases for the production of oil in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico, as well as Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota. These decisions, along with other Biden policies and regulations, have contributed to spiraling energy prices. This past summer, the average price of gasoline hit $5 a gallon. In some parts of California, a gallon of gas has cost $8 a gallon this year.

[...]

This, in turn, has dramatically increased the prices of everything else, including production and transportation of goods.

Wages were rising under the Trump administration, while unemployment continued to decrease. Inflation was low.

In stark contrast, inflation has increased every month since Biden took office, and is now the highest it has been in 40 years, creating what some economists have calculated is an 8.5% reduction in Americans' "real wages."

-- Laura Hollis, Oct. 13 column

In the last major election, some sat out. Radicals won out. Now we must vote out those harming our nation before more damage is done.

Remember the words of warning from Thomas Jefferson: "All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent."

I beseech you with all the urgency and fervency I have to join millions of patriotic and principled Americans in what can be the most significant turnaround election in our history.

[...]

Today we face the brutal reality of recession, a tottering stock market, worst inflation in 40 years and the highest gas prices in history; sky-high mortgage interest rates; explosive violent crime in cities; unprecedented border chaos and the accompanying fentanyl deadly epidemic; CRT and radical LGBTQ indoctrination in schools, businesses and military; corruption in the media, Department of Justice and FBI; "woke" and "climate crisis" ideology undermining freedoms and justifying out-of-control spending fueling inflation; transgender mutilation, abortion (until birth), marijuana legalization and student loan absolution; massive government giveaways and underwriting of "illegals'" medical care, transportation, cellphones, food stamps and education; finally, an inept, increasingly incapacitated almost 80-year-old "accidental president" who called out a dead congresswoman in the audience as he regularly bumbles through prepared propaganda on the teleprompter.

-- Larry Tomczak, Oct. 18 column

Who wants a cuddly, fluffy Biden hand puppet? Impress your friends and neighbors with this official three-letter-agency-crafted, heirloom-quality Biden look alike! Listen to entertaining, official words of folksy Biden family wisdom like, "Oh, come on, man! You know … the thing!"

Get one puppet FREE with each $70 billion taxpayer-sponsored donation to the NATO-Ukraine war effort, which when fully funded will obliterate both Mad Vlad Putin and his evil Russian military!

Craige McMillan, Oct. 21 column

But what about Russia? Biden is president. It is his duty to guide the nation away from nuclear war, not promote it. Why thrust himself out in front of his own failure? Everyone in America, left or right, knows the Democratic Party has been lashing out at Russia for six years. For Democrats, there is no threat greater than Russia, Russia, Russia.

So why threaten Americans with nuclear annihilation? Biden and his handlers must be convinced they can say and do anything and still sweep to victory on Nov. 8.

[...]

How will Americans react if the secret federal campaign to register people and get out the vote results in an overwhelming win for the people who blew up the economy, destroyed the border, abandoned Afghanistan and then rushed into Ukraine, focused the attention of kindergarteners on their sex organs and declared the United States of America racist to the core?

A Democratic victory would mean those obscenities are a winning strategy, and it also means it is only a matter of time before the nation goes kaput.

-- Mike Pottage, Oct. 27 column

Should we reform the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI leadership to ensure our law enforcement agencies provide "equal justice" for all Americans? Shouldn't the shutdown of America's energy independence and use of our Strategic Petroleum Reserves for partisan political purposes be unlawful? Should elitist demands for government to eliminate transportation powered by internal combustion engines be acceptable?

Do polls reflecting parental anger at government and teachers unions' collusion on indoctrinating children with phony, anti-white racism, gender transitions (with proper pronouns!) and revisionist history mean nothing? "Green Weenies" and anti-parent candidates do not represent us.

[...]

Will those we elect next week help make us – and our Asian allies – less vulnerable to perils posed by North Korea's nuclear weapons? Must we face a future where women are gunned down by Tehran's ayatollahs while they acquire nuclear weapons and the means of delivering them?

God-fearing, conservative Americans who want to preserve our constitutional republic know the answers to the questions above. Vote with them next week.

Strike back! On Nov. 8, take at least five voters with you to the polls.

-- Oliver North and David Goetsch, Oct. 31 column

One of our political parties has evolved into a left-leaning entity, excusing mob violence and anarchist conduct, and is unbelievably seducing a less-informed generation. That party has two goals:

1. Retain political power by any means necessary in concert with a corrupt media and politicians lacking any moral code.

2. Remove our Judeo-Christian foundations representing a bulwark to their plans to reconstruct America through a secular vision, embracing a globalist "Green New Deal" and Marxist/socialist way of life.

As we raise our children in today's confused culture, we're faced with politicians and positions that are unbiblical and dangerous. Conservatives are increasingly ostracized because of biblical standards we unapologetically embrace. Explain this to your children.

Voting for wrong candidates will affect ours and our children's future! We're directed by Jesus to be "salt" – not isolated but influential in preserving society from decay.

-- Larry Tomczak, Nov. 1 column


Posted by Terry K. at 3:18 AM EDT
Updated: Saturday, November 5, 2022 3:19 AM EDT
Friday, November 4, 2022
MRC Forced To Distract From Herschel Walker's OTHER Abortion Scandal
Topic: Media Research Center

If there's anything the Media Research Center doesn't want anyone talking about more than Herschel Walker's abortion scandal, it's Herschel Walker's other abortion scandal.

When a second woman accused Walker of paying for an abortion as well as offered proof of their relationship, the MRC rushed into action like it did the first time to try and tamp this one down too. Curtis Houck whined that the story was being covered in non-right-wing meda, writing in an Oct. 27 post under the dismissive headline "Here We Go Again":

With things continuing to break against their liberal pals running for office, the major broadcast networks chose Thursday to spend nearly eight minutes (seven minutes and 49 seconds) flaunting a second supposed abortion allegation against Georgia Republican senatorial candidate Herschel Walker with some help from far-left attorney Gloria Allred to boost incumbent Senator Raphael Warnock (D).

[...]

Despite the lack of solid evidence tying Walker to the act, Scott ran with hit because “[t]he woman is remaining anonymous because she says she fears retaliation” and she’s being represented by Allred. Further, the pair “released a voicemail, photo receipt, and card saying its evidence of her relationship with Walker, but did not provide evidence of the abortion itself.”

[...]

CBS Mornings led with these claims via co-host and Democratic donor Gayle King about these new claims hitting Walker “in the midst of a very tight race that could help determine control of the Senate.”

Congressional correspondent Nikole Killion hyped: “Herschel Walker is doubling down on this new claim, saying it's not true. But the accuser insists that this is not politically motivated and says she has proof.”

Citing Walker’s denials, Killion went onto treat the accuser’s claims as fact even though Allred “did not present receipts from the clinic” and instead “other evidence of the relationship.”

[...]

Jackson followed suit from those on the other networks by insisting “NBC News has not verified her allegations and the woman did not provide evidence Walker was involved in her abortion,” but if you spend more than a few seconds on something, isn’t that a suggestion you’re viewing it as fact?

Of course, lack of independent verification didn't stop the MRC from heavily hyping Hunter Biden's laptop. 

Tim Graham complained about the accusation as well in his Oct. 28 podcast -- not because it will cause him to disqualify the heavily anti-abortion MRC from abandoning Walker (it's more than shown its cynical hypocrisy on the issue), but that the scandal was being reported, insisting without evidence that the story was being pushed by the "liberal media" to "help their side."He went on to whine: "My problem with this is that once again, we have an anonymous woman quote-unquote "coming forward." Is that really coming forward? ... The whole problem here is you can't really verify this at a very sensitive time in the election." He then brought up, yes, the Hunter Biden laptop and whined that it was dismissed by non-right-wing media, then blamed the non-right-wing media again: "They can't stand that Herschel Walker is running."

He then deflected, insisting that any criticism of Walker is politically motivated because "the media ... don't want two or three black Republicans in the Senate. They don't want five or 10 black Republcians in the House, because they want to sell this idea that the Republican party is a pile of white nationalist males."

Graham returned for an Oct. 30 post complaining that "Saturday Night Live" lampooned Walker's penchant for buying abortions for his girlfriends:

The fake PBS anchor asked about Walker paying for abortions and holding a gun to his ex-wife's head, and asked why he was doing so well: “Look, if you want to get on a Jumbotron at the Falcons game, you don’t throw on a cardigan and start making sense. You take your shirt off and shake your belly around. That’s what I’m doing, and people love me, no matter what. Like the great Trump Donald said, I could pay for an abortion in the middle of Fifth Avenue, and not lose any voters. And that's a promise from me, Herschel Wickapotamus.”

Graham was silent on the fact that the MRC is very much giving Walker a pass for his love of abortions.

The same day, Mark Finkelstein grumbled that MSNBC host Tiffany Cross said that "Georgia Democrats in general, and Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock in particular, have gone too easy on Herschel Walker, specifically with regard to allegations that he urged two former girlfriends to have abortions." Rather than explain why he and the MRC are still supporting Walker despite his egregious violations of right-wing anti-abortion orthodoxy, he simply sneered that if Warnock "he had taken her advice and worked abortion allegations against Walker into virtually every answer, voters would surely have soon been turned off by such a tiresome and transparent ploy."

But is it any less tiresome than the MRC continuing to aggressive support and defend Walker despite growing evidence of his immorality?


Posted by Terry K. at 8:37 PM EDT
Updated: Tuesday, November 8, 2022 10:51 PM EST
CNS Unsurprisingly Cheers DINO Gabbard Officially Leaving 'Democrat Party'
Topic: CNSNews.com

CNSNews.com has long been a fan of Democrat-in-name-only Tulsi Gabbard because it could quote her attacking Democrats while pretending she legitimately was one. We saw that yet again in a July 26 article by Craig Bannister that approvingly quoted Gabbard appearing on Fox News sounding like a Republican:

“Our Department of Justice is being weaponized as a political hit squad,” Former Democrat [sic] congresswoman (Hawaii) Tulsi Gabbard said Monday, commenting on how Democrats held in contempt of Congress have not been indicted, but former Trump White House official Steve Bannon has.

[...]

“This is the telltale sign of an authoritarian regime and directly undermines our democracy. That is really what's at the core of what's wrong here,” Gabbard warned.

“It's mind-blowing to see this double standard at play,” Gabbard said. “And, again, the more serious issue is how directly this threatens and undermines our democracy and the faith that we need to have in these public institutions and public officials.”

The one-sided January 6th Committee investigation is further proof of how Congress is more concerned with power than with serving the American people, Gabbard said:

So when Gabbard officially admitted she wasn't a real Democrat by finally disassociating herself from the party, Bannister returned to cheer in an Oct. 11 article whose headline falsely identified her party as the "Democrat Party":

Former Democrat [sic] congresswoman and presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbbard says she has left the radical, “woke” Democrat – and she’s inviting other “common-sense” Democrats to do the same.

“I can no longer remain in today’s Democratic Party that is under the complete control of an elitist cabal of warmongers,” Gabbard says in a Twitter video posted Tuesday, denouncing today’s Democrats, who she says:

  • “are driven by cowardly wokeness,
  • “divide us by racializing every issue and stoking anti-white racism,
  • “actively work to undermine our God-given freedoms that are enshrined in our Constitution,
  • “are hostile to people of faith and spirituality,
  • “demonize the police, but protect criminals at the expense of law-abiding Americans,
  • “believe in open borders,
  • “weaponize the national security state to go after their political opponents.”

“And above all,” Gabbard warns, the Democrat elitists “are dragging us ever closer to nuclear war.”

Note that Gabbard actually said "Democratic Party," and that Bannister deliberately misquoted her for his headline. Bannister didn't mention that Gabbard had long ago given up any credibility as a Democrat by making dozens of appearances on Fox News, many of which were on the show of far-right host Tucker Carlson -- after all, Fox News does not let actual Democrats have that kind of access to its airwaves.

This was followed later that day by an article from intern Peyton Holliday compiling how "many Republicans and conservatives praised her decision and applauded her for her 'courage' and commitment to working for a better America." Like Bannister, Holliday failed to note that Gabbard his been a de facto Republican for years and that no actual "courage" was needed to make the party switch. That article also used the false "Democrat Party" descriptor in its headline.

Bannister and Holliday were also silent on the fact that the same day Gabbard's party switch was announced, one of the few actual Democrats on Fox News, Jessica Tarlov, pointed out not only that Gabbard long ago ceased being a real Democrat, she's also beloved by Russian state media, which went so far as to call her "our girlfriend." She got shouted down by other right-wing Fox hosts, of course. There was also no mention of how, a few days later, Gabbard endorsed far-right Republican Joe -- who pals around with white nationalists like Nick Fuentes -- in a House race.


Posted by Terry K. at 4:02 PM EDT
Updated: Friday, November 4, 2022 4:07 PM EDT
COVID Misinformer Risch Runs To WND For Softball Interview
Topic: WorldNetDaily

Harvey Risch is yet another COVID misinformer WorldNetDaily has promoted, and he got the full interview treatment with Art Moore in an Oct. 16 article. Because Risch had to be puffed up to give his misinfo some gravitas, Moore led things off by reciting his qualifications:

Dr. Harvey Risch has a distinguished career as a professor of epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health, with more than 300 original peer-reviewed publications that include advances in cancer research. He's the editor of the International Journal of Cancer, associate editor of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute and for six years was on the editorial board of the American Journal of Epidemiology.

But over the past two and a half years, establishment media have labeled him a purveyor of "misinformation" for his criticism of the public health response to the pandemic and his advocacy – including in Senate testimony – for treating COVID-19 with drugs that have been shown to be safe and effective, such as hydroxychloroquine (367 studies) and ivermectin (92 studies). Further, the government and scientific establishment have suppressed and dismissed his scientific contributions to the global crisis with little or no engagement, adopting the media's "disinformation" narrative.

In a one-hour video interview with WND (embedded below) that includes his reaction to the FDA's new COVID booster shot, Risch was matter-of-fact about the current state of medical science.

"All of this censorship, all of these claims of misinformation, disinformation, is purely a statement of: We cannot fight on the playing field of ideas, of argument. We do not have the ability to fight back against those positions, and so we are using the tool of censorship instead," he told WND.

Risch, describing the "misinformation" tactic as "totalitarian," said the pandemic has opened the eyes of Americans to longstanding corruption in the medical establishment that has shattered trust. He discussed the fundamental problem of government serving the big pharmaceutical companies instead of the people, with influential figures in a revolving door between the governmental and private worlds.

Moore is not about to admit that Risch has, in fact, been caught spreading misinformation. And those studies he referenced purportedly proving the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin are all listed on websites that, as we documented, are anonymously run and may actually be secretly run by the fringe-right Association of American Physicians and Surgeons.

Indeed, Risch has lowered himself to doing interviews with less-than-credible outlets like WND precisely because he knows he'll never be exposed as a misinformer and always be celebrated as someone with a "distinguished career" who can be portrayed as a "victim" whenever his misinformation gets called out by more credible media outlets. And he knows that an anti-vaxxer reporter like Moore will always suck up to him and hype that "distinguished career" and never ask him challenging questions that threaten the narrative he's trying to push.

There are reasons WND is perpetually on the edge of extinction, and Moore's sycophancy is just one of them.


Posted by Terry K. at 2:11 PM EDT
NEW ARTICLE: The MRC's War on Brian Stelter
Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center was filled with joy when CNN fired the "Reliable Sources" host and canceled his show -- mainly because he was a leading critic of the right-wing media bubble the MRC resides in. Read more >>

Posted by Terry K. at 1:30 AM EDT
Thursday, November 3, 2022
Gaslighting: MRC Pretends Dems Are The Real 'Extremists' On Abortion
Topic: Media Research Center

Through this election season, theMedia Research Center has been trying to gaslight readers by pretending that Democrats are the real "extremists" on abortion, not those on the right -- even though the MRC wants to create an Orwellian surveillance scheme to monitor women lest they cross state lines to have an abortion. Kyle Drennen complained in a May 20 post:

NBC, ABC, and CBS were in full panic mode over Oklahoma passing “the most restrictive abortion law in this country.” ABC’s Good Morning America went so far as to wail that there was “a race among the states to pass the most extreme law restricting abortion.” However, none of network coverage examined some of extreme pro-abortion laws in leftist states across the country.

[...]

While the networks were eager to throw around words like “extreme” or phrases like “the most restrictive law in the country” when it came to regulating abortion in red states, the left-wing media never seem to show any concern for pro-abortion laws in blue states going too far.

When Colorado passed a radical law just last month that would allow abortions to be performed right up to the moment of birth, Politifact rushed to defend the measure from criticism and The Washington Postspent it’s time exclusively denouncing “extreme” pro-life laws.

The "abortion up to the moment of birth" claim right-wingers like the MRC love to tar pro-choice supporters with is little more than a canard. As Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler detailed, only 1.3 percent if abortions happen over 21 weeks of gestation, and many of those are done as a result of discovery of catastrophic birth defects other fetal anomaly. Drennen did not name a case in which an abortion of a viable fetus was done "at the moment of birth."

Scott Whitlock cheered a CNN anchor who bought into the right-wing narrative in an  Aug. 29 post:

The networks are eagerly pushing the idea that support for abortion rights against an extreme GOP is powering a Democratic comeback in the midterms. What they aren’t telling you about is just how radical many of the Democratic Senate candidates are. For instance, Tim Ryan in Ohio supports abortion up to the day of birth. And yet this hasn’t been a story on the network newscasts. His name has only come up twice in the month of August. 

Yet, shockingly, it was CNN and anchor Dana Bash who committed journalism and grilled the Democrat on Sunday. Interviewing the candidate on State of the Union, she demanded, “You’re criticizing your Republican opponent for not supporting abortion exceptions. So, I want to ask about your position. What restrictions, if any, do you believe there should be on abortion?”

[...]

Journalists have a responsibility to cover both ends of the abortion spectrum. If Republicans supporting most or all restrictions is extreme, so are opposing all restrictions. 

Like Drennen, Whitlock did not cite any case in which a woman aborted a healthy fetus at "the time of birth."

Whitlock pushed the narrative again the next day:

CNN on Tuesday spent over seven minutes hyping Republicans trying to hide their allegedly extreme position when it comes to abortion. Reporter Kyung Lah spotlighted GOP senatorial candidates changing their website now that they have the nomination. But nowhere in the segment was there anything on the extreme stance of Democrats when it comes to abortion. 

Host Brianna Keilar parroted the Democratic talking points about radical Republicans: “The Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade has energized voters and made abortion rights a flashpoint in the midterm elections. It's given Democrats a boost. Now, some Republican candidates who were strongly opposed to abortion are suddenly softening their stance.”

Whbitlock went on to rant in a Sept. 7 post:

In the month of August, Joe Biden’s approval rating climbed back into the low 40s and the Democrat/Republican congressional preference poll closed to a statistical tie. The liberal network newscasts are eager to promote a new narrative: Democrats are making a comeback in the midterms and it’s all because Republicans are extreme on abortion. 

CBS, CNN, and other outlets have pushed the idea of a “flashpoint” over supposedly rigid Republicans holding outrageously severe positions on abortion. But Democrats in Congress this summer supported legislation that would dismantle most, if not all, restrictions.

(According to CNSNews.com, the Susan B. Anthony List denounced a vote on the bill as the “Abortion on Demand Until Birth Act.”) 

Additionally, Democratic senatorial and gubernatorial candidates hold radical views on the issue, supporting abortion right up until birth. Only 34 percent of Americans support abortion in the second trimester and just 19 percent in the third. So this position is the definition of extreme.

And the Orwellian surveillance state the MRC wants is not?

MRC executive Tim Graham pushed the narrative in a Sept. 12 TV hit: "On Monday's Spicer & Co.  on Newsmax, NewsBusters executive editor Tim Graham took on Chuck Todd's softball questions for Vice President Kamala Harris on NBC's Meet the Press. Todd lamely asked Harris if the border was secure, as if everyone doesn't know the answer, and didn't in any way find the Democrats were extreme on abortion." Graham made sure not to mention his employees' extreme advocacy of Orwellian surveillance.

Alex Christy spent a Sept. 22 post attacking Kessler's above-noted fact-check, and his further statement that "the GOP attacks are disingenuous at best. They imply that late-term abortions are common — and that they are routinely accepted by Democrats," huffing that "If Kessler wants to argue for radical and unpopular abortion positions, he should take it the opinion page, because that isn’t a fact-check." But like his co-workers, Christy cited no case of an abortion of a healthy, viable fetus "at the moment of birth," and he did not otherwise counter Kessler's facts.

Whitlock played whataboutism to distract from Herschel Walker's abortion stance in an Oct. 10 post:

The leftist partisans posing as political journalists at ABC want you to think that the candidate in Georgia with an extreme position on abortion is Herschel Walker. On Monday, Good Morning America allowed Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock to slam his opponent as the only ideologically rigid candidate. No mention of the fact that Warnock opposes ANY restrictions right up until birth. 

Reporter Rachel Scott insisted, “Walker opposes abortion, no exceptions. His opponent, Senator Raphael Warnock making it clear he supports abortion rights.” She then played a clip of Warnock attacking, “I support reproductive choice. My opponent, on the other hand, is talking about a nationwide ban.”

ABC, yet again, failed to note just how radical Warnock is on abortion. Saying he “supports abortion rights” is an understatement.  As noted by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on June 30, the Democrat refused to mention ANY restrictions he supports:

Whitlock refused to address his hypocrisy in defending Walker's anti-abortion stance while also joining the MRC in shielding him from responsibility for the fact that he paid for a girlfriend's abortion. Instead, he whined that "the networks only want to focus only on the allegations that Walker paid for an abortion in 2009, devoting over 27 minutes by last Friday. 

Tim Graham spent an Oct. 22 post complaining that "PolitiFact tried to claim that "codifying Roe" isn't the same abortion without limits. But Barnes was endorsed by NARAL Pro-Choice America and touted he supports the "Women's Health Protection Act." These people really need to absorb the no-limits text of that extreme bill." Like his minions, Graham named no case in which a woman aborted a healthy fetus "at the moment of birth."

Tierin-Rose Mandelburg -- one of the MRC writers who advocates that Orwellian survelliance state for pregnant women -- went full gaslight in an Oct. 28 post:

In today’s episode of things that make no sense, people who want laws that permit the slaughter of innocent children are celebrated while those who support someone’s right to life are considered “extremists.”

The life-affirming group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America recently released a video regarding the left’s views on unrestricted abortions which furthered the point that the media celebrates pro-abortionists and their views yet likens pro-lifers as villains.

[...]

To help these candidates, the media spends time glorifying people who support unrestricted abortion rights. Whether it’s in their approval and promotion of the views of pro-abortionists or their negligence in asking about abortion limits, left leaning media aims to prop up candidates in favor of unlimited abortion. 

Unrestricted abortion is barbaric and evil.

Picture this: a baby girl presently weighs 7 pounds, is roughly 19 inches long, is fully capable of breathing on her own, is due tomorrow and is presently just a few inches up the birth canal. People who support unrestricted abortions would have no problem injecting that innocent child with poison to kill her and then ripping out her remains.

That view is NOT considered “extreme” by todays thought police.

Like the rest, Mandelburg did not name a case in which that actually happened -- probably beause it's ridiculous and nonsensical to think that a woman who carried a healthy baby to term would suddenly decide to abort it because, well, who knows what bizarre reason Mandelburg would ascribe to this mythical person for purposes of hate and partisan gain. Instead, she continued to whine:

And then there’s the media that has a history of likening pro-lifers to “extremists.” ABC’s Good Morning America once said that there’s “a race among the states to pass the most extreme law restricting abortion.” The Washington Post titled a piece “Just how extreme are these new red-state abortion laws?” MSnBC’s “Deadline White House” claimed that pro-life laws are from “far-right extremists.”

It’s obvious that the media has conducted biased reporting. They want to push the narrative that abortion is good and widely accepted. They want abortion supporters to be promoted and glorified while at the same time falsely calling life supporters “extremists.”

Remember, Mandelburg thinks creating an Orwellian surveillance state for women isn't extreme at all, so maybe she's a tad biased and her opinion shouldn't be trusted.


Posted by Terry K. at 10:49 PM EDT
Irony: WND Columnist Frets Over Right-Wing Grifters (Like, Um, WND)
Topic: WorldNetDaily

Rachel Alexander fretted in her Oct. 10 WorldNetDaily column:

It's becoming more and more apparent that grifters are hijacking the conservative movement, people more concerned with making money than helping the cause. They've figured out that inflammatory rhetoric disguised as news, combined with outrageous comments from famous figures on the right, gets clicks and opens wallets, so this now drives the right's agenda. Instead of measured, calculated steps being taken to accomplish a conservative agenda, those who scream the shrillest set the platform.

The grifters are fond of throwing around certain important words like the Constitution, patriot, MAGA, God, America First and RINO – our favorite words, so they sound like they're one of us. But they frequently misuse them. They'll declare that the Constitution requires whatever they say it does, even if they're not constitutional experts and haven't bothered analyzing years of case law.

It doesn't matter how lengthy your conservative credentials are, how much you've studied constitutional law, or how much your position aligns with Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas over theirs; if you don't go along with their determination of what the Constitution says, you're now a RINO who doesn't care about the Constitution.

These loudmouths do outrageous things to get attention, which leave the rest of us stuck defending them since we all realize there's a slippery slope; if we allow the left to make inroads into defeating them, it will make it easier for them to come after the rest of us. But it wastes valuable time; it puts us constantly on the defensive, treading water instead of making advances.

It's highly ironic that she's making this complaint at WND, which has been involved in a years-long grift to stay alive. Remember that bogus cybercurrency giveaway scam it ran a few years back?

Alexander's unintentional irony continued:

One of the most damaging areas where this is happening is election integrity. Hysterical outlets on the right constantly run blaring headlines declaring there has been voter fraud and that people should go to prison – but a quick perusal of the law often finds that there wasn't any crime. Often there is a civil violation, or a body in charge of investigating such as the Arizona Senate decides not to take any action due to a single RINO legislator impeding the effort.

We saw this happen with COVID-19 vaccines. What started out as advocating for freedom of choice when it came to the vaccine got hijacked by loud, angry voices asserting what had traditionally been more of a fringy left position championed by Robert Kennedy Jr., anti-vaccine. This left people on the right in the strange position of disagreeing with Donald Trump on the vaccine, more evidence something was off. And the left happily went along with rewriting the debate for us.

An accountant for what's become known as "scam PACs'' went to prison for his role in raising $2.2 million using Ken Cucinelli's name. The PAC donated only $10,000 to Cucinelli's gubernatorial campaign in Virginia, according to Cucinelli. This Conservative StrikeForce PAC raised more than $2.8 million between January 2013 and June 2014, but only $82,000 of that went to candidates or campaign committees.

WND has been an avid promoter of Donald Trump's Big Lie about election fraud as well as the highly debunked film "2000 Mules." WND has also been a prime source of misinformation about COVID and its vaccines, even trying to make money off dubious doc Vladimir Zelenko and his highly questionable "protocol." We also remember a super PAC endorsed by WND editor Joseph Farah and then-reporter Jerome Corsi and funded largely by WND itself -- and gave no money at all to candidates.

Alexander then struck a little closer to home:

Grifters are taking over conservative media, too. Good journalism never was expected to make money – that's why the left has gotten away with PBS for so many years; people realize there's a disconnect. The leading conservative magazine of the 20th century (before it became much more moderate during this century), National Review, was the product of William F. Buckley Jr. who came from wealth. When it launched, everyone who was a part of the magazine was expected to either be supported financially by their family or have another job. It didn't turn a profit for years. In 2015, its editor at the time, Rich Lowry, converted the magazine into a nonprofit, stating, "[P]ublishing a serious opinion magazine has never been a profitable business, and never will be."

Of course, WND manages to lose money and have terrible journalism. Alexander isn't going to mention that, of course -- she wants to keep WND as an outlet for her writing, after all. Instead, she unironically continued:

As the former Maricopa County Elections attorney (when it was under better leadership), who has written more about voter fraud than almost any other reporter, I can tell you there's a lot of fake news accompanying the valid evidence of wrongdoing. So when little happens in terms of consequences, patriots feel worse than they need to. Yes, our country is in a bad place, going downhill fast, but adding in fake news leads to unnecessary confusion, anxiety and makes our side look like the boy who cried wolf or ignorant when we get caught repeating the fake news. Look what happened to QAnon.

This from a writer who hyped Seth Rich conspiracy theories. Yes, the irony is quite thick here.


Posted by Terry K. at 8:41 PM EDT
MRC Embraces Story Of Assaulted Campaign Worker (Who's Also A White Supremacist)
Topic: Media Research Center

The Media Research Center's Kevin Tober huffed in an Oct. 24 post:

A canvasser for Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) was reportedly assaulted and seriously injured late Sunday night while going door-to-door for Rubio’s reelection campaign, according to a statement put out by Rubio’s campaign. On Monday, all three evening newscasts ignored the vicious politically motivated attack on an innocent Republican volunteer.

Instead, ABC’s World News Tonight, CBS Evening News, and NBC Nightly News had plenty of time to report on local weather forecasts, the Powerball Jackpot numbers hitting $625 million, and a recall of various dry shampoo products.  

“Last night one of our canvassers wearing my T-shirt and a DeSantis hat was brutally attacked by 4 animals who told him Republicans weren’t allowed in their neighborhood in Hialeah, Florida,” Rubio said in a tweet Monday morning. 

“He suffered internal bleeding, a broken jaw &amOn Fox News’s Jesse Watters Primetime, host Jesse Watters and radio host Dana Loesch tore into the media for their failure to report on this horrific political attack.

According to The Daily Wire, “Hialeah Sgt. Jose Torres revealed that the victim was “an unidentified 27-year-old,” and was struck “multiple times in the face and the head causing the injuries.” 

[...]

If this was a Democrat campaign volunteer who was assaulted like this by a Republican, the media would be howling over it nonstop, and it would be on the front page of every newspaper in the United States. 

Tober noted that the victim was unidentifed, and it turned out there was a good reason for the victim being unidentified at this ppoint -- one that made Tober's anufactured outrage age very poorly very quickly. A few hours after Tober's post went live, it was revealed by the Miami New Times that the victim was identified as Christopher Monzon, who is well known in the area of Florida where he was canvassing as a white supremacist who was known as the "Cuban Confederate," and that he attended the 2017 far-right protest in Charlottesville, Va., that ended with a counterprotester being killed. (He has clamed to have expressed regret for some of his racist hate.) And contrary to Tober's parroting of Fox News types who portrayed Monzon's assault as politically motivated, no such motivation was mentioned in the police report on the incident.The New Times also reported that members of the far-right Proud Boys were guarding Monzon's hospital room.

This seems like something Tober would want to add to his post to avoid looking liike he's defending a white supremacist. But, no, his post remains live, uncorrected, and non-updated.

And after these unsavory revelations about the victim, you'd think the MRC would steer clear of the story -- but you'd be wrong. Kathleen Krumhansl doubled down in a post the next day, asserting reporting Monzon's white supremacist background amounted to victim-shaming (no, really):

A volunteer for Senator Marco Rubio (R) Fla., was in the hospital after being brutally attacked during a midterm campaign event, and just like Rubio predicted over a Univision interview following the incident, the very network ended up victim-shaming the Republican to the point of implying that perhaps he deserved to be beaten.

The assault, which happened in Hialeah over the past weekend, left canvasser Jesús López with a broken jaw and internal bleeding. Yet the viciousness of the attack, as Rubio anticipated, mattered little to anchor Satcha Pretto, who made sure to emphasize that “the victim had previously been involved in some protests and had publicly spoken out in favor of white nationalism.” 

Watch as the main national Spanish-speaking network covers up political violence from the left - like Rubio warned would happen.

[...]

Note how the anchor uses ´alleged´, ´appears to´ and ´allegedly´ when referring to the attacker, who in Pretto´s words, was apparently “upset that the victim was handing out Republican flyers in his neighborhood while wearing a Governor Ron DeSantis cap and a Senator Marco Rubio T-shirt.”

In contrast, when talking about the victim, Christopher Monzón, there is no ´alleged´, ´allegedly´, or apparently: instead, as per the anchor, it is a given fact that the Republican volunteer “had previously been involved in some protests and had publicly spoken out in favor of white nationalism.” No ifs, ands or buts.

Krumhansl offered no evidence that Monzon wasn't a white surpremacist -- the public record is pretty clear on that, to the point that no "allegedly" is required.And we thought that one of the few things people across the political spectrum could agree on is that white supremacists deserved to be shamed; Krumhansl didn't explain why she thought Monzon shouldn't be. Then again, she's clearly not someone who's into facts, given that she went on to push the unsupported narrative tha tMonzon was the victim of a political attack:

Like Rubio noted, “The difference that exists here today is that when there is political violence from someone who they say is a supporter of the right, they devote hours and hours of coverage to it. When it comes from the left, either it is not covered, or the victim is blamed, or it is not talked about anymore.” Rubio has a point, given Univision’s non-coverage of the Congressional baseball practice shooting once it became known that the shooter was a deranged Sandernista.

On mark: So far at Univision, the violent beating of Monzón has been granted exactly 1:02 minutes of air time, and this during their morning kaffeeklatsch. Most probably, that will be all that Univision audiences will hear about the leftist political violence that left López seriously injured and in need of facial reconstruction surgery, simply for being a Republican.

The MRC was somehow so proud of Krumhansl giving a pass to white supremacism that her post was translated into Spanish

Meanwhile, the Rubio narrative the MRC parroted continued to fall apart -- Florida Republicans had paid thousands to Monzon for get-out-the-vote efforts, and it turned out that Monzon started claiming the attack was politically motivated only after Rubio tweeted the claim, the alleged assiliant has nevervoted, and the assailant's mom said the attack had nothing to do with politics.

Not only has the MRC not told its readers about this, it hasn't addressed the story since. Even it can see no benefit in pushing this story further -- though, apparently, also no benefit in correcting the record.


Posted by Terry K. at 2:35 PM EDT
CNS Continued To Promote Kanye West's Right-Wing, Pro-Trump Turn
Topic: CNSNews.com

When last we left off, CNSNews.com had fully embraced Kanye West for his bromance with Donald Trump. It continued to crank out the Kanye praise and stenography later in 2018:

When CNN panelists in October 2018 criticized West's embrace of Trump as "what happens when Negroes don’t read," CNS was not only there to document the atrocity, it even called in Herschel Walker to criticize it (which, in retrospect, may not have been the best idea, though at the time Walker was being built up by right-wing media like CNS to be a political candidate). CNS columnist came out in force to defend West:

  • Allen West complained not only about this but also that "Even Saturday Night Live could not resist in making the Kanye West Oval Office visit the brunt of its jokes" and that any criticism of Kanye is just part of "the tyranny of collectivism."
  • David Limbaugh insisted that "Democrats have no solutions anymore and thus are reduced to crass, divisive identity politics ... This explains why they demonize Kanye West and any other black person who dares to stray from the prescribed liberal dogma."

By 2019, CNS was giving space to West's more esoteric ideas, like a July 2019 piece by Craig Bannister headlined "Kanye West Designing 'Star Wars'-Themed 'Living Spaces for the Homeless'." In September of that year, Michael Morris was touting West's then-wife, Kim Kardashian, saying that Kanye "had an amazing evolution of being born again and being saved by Christ." More pontification was given a platform in an October 2019 article: "Songwriter and record producer Kanye West said his parents fought for the right to express their opinion, not the right to vote for politicians the “white liberals” said blacks are “supposed to vote for.” West added that Democrats have pushed policies that compel blacks to abort their children."

In November 2019, managing editor Michael W. Chapman cheered how "Evangelical leader Franklin Graham praised singer/songwriter Kanye West for using his talent to 'point thousands of people to Jesus Christ,' especially young people, and urged Christians to pray for West, stressing that liberals will oppose him and the Devil will try to discourage and 'destroy him.'"A couple weeks later, Melanie Arter served up related pontification:

Rapper Kanye West joined Pastor Joel Osteen’s congregation on Sunday and gave his testimony on how God had a calling on his life that he had been ignoring for a long time, and that even in his lowest moments, God was sending him visions and inspiring him.

“I know that God’s been calling me for a long time, and the devil’s been distracting me for a long time. And when I was in one of my low points, God was there with me and sending me visions and inspiring me, and I remember sitting in the hospital at UCLA after having a mental breakdown, and there’s documentations of me drawing a church and saying—writing ‘start a church in the middle of Calabasas,’ and even after that, I went and made the Life of Pablo album,” he said.

In January 2020, Chapman returned to cheer that "During a press conference about the upcoming Super Bowl, Kansas City Chiefs defensive end Frank Clark wore a sweatshirt displaying a photograph of President Donald Trump and musician Kanye West. When asked about his sweatshirt at the Jan. 24 press conference, Clark said, 'Never forget man! Y'all know the moment when Donald Trump met Kanye, a very historical moment in our history!'"

In April 2020, CNS published a column by its favorite dishonest Catholic, Bill Donohue, headlined "Kanye's Christian Rebirth Really Does Seem Genuine":

He says he has given his life to Christ, crediting Jesus as his "anchor" and saying he is "definitely born again." He recognizes that there are those who have done things "with the word of Christ that were bad," but, he hastens to add, "that's not going to stop my love for Christ. I'm going to keep on expressing what God has done for my life."

Jesus, West says, has been a source of "healing," noting that his succumbing to alcohol—he wound up drinking Grey Goose in the morning—was the work of the devil. He began rebounding the day he said, "Devil, you're not going to beat me today." He says he hasn't had a drink since. 

[...]

Perhaps the most surprisingly astute observation West made—it is shared by many devout Catholics and evangelicals—is his comment on surrender.

"Now all of that energy and that creativity that I have channeled and put on track comes from me surrendering to God and saying that everything is in God's will."

That is the voice of a mature Christian. 

Kanye West is his own man. He is also a man at home with the Creator. He should be welcomed, not disparaged, for going against the grain of the dominant culture.

West continued saying more right-wing-friendly things for which CNS served as a dutiful stenographer in the runup to the 2020 presidential election:

These were joined by a November 2020 column by James Ensor parroting right-wing support for West's stated position on abortion:

Kanye West’s  recent tearful call for the black community to reject abortion as child-killing gives us hope that a wave of black Americans will flood into the pro-life movement. If so, it means the end of abortion as a business! 

West’s plea erupted from a contrite heart. It was public and loud. Recalling the pressure he put on his pregnant wife, he shouted, “I almost killed my daughter!” His own words hit him and he broke down weeping, “I almost killed my daughter.” The raucous crowd went silent.

When painful truths rise up on the tears of repentance like this, it tends to crash through all our defenses. In that silence, I suspect hearts and minds were undergoing radical transformation regarding abortion.

Ensor went on to repeat a right-wing myth about the locations of abortion clinics in black neighborhoods and falsely equated Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger's  onetime support for eugenics to "white supremacy."

CNS didn't reference West again until last month. We'll get into that soon.


Posted by Terry K. at 1:32 AM EDT
Updated: Friday, November 18, 2022 1:09 AM EST
Wednesday, November 2, 2022
MRC Continued to Exploit Fetterman's Stroke For Oz's Gain
Topic: Media Research Center

We've shown how the Media Research Center held off on attacking Democratic Pennsylvania Senate candidate John Fetterman until it decided that his stroke could be exploited as a partisan issue to help his Republican opponent, Mehmet Oz. Curtis Houck spent an Oct. 17 post, headlined "CLOWN SHOW," coimplaining that a Philadelphia newspaper endorsed Fetterman over Oz, despite the former being "mentally and physically incapacitated":

Major newspapers are prone to endorse Democrats. It’s almost as predictable as Joe Biden liking ice cream or Donald Trump posting on social media. 

But one published Sunday in The Philadelphia Inquirer caught our eye, as while it wasn’t surprising that they endorsed the mentally and physically incapacitated Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (D) for Senate, but rather how they ironically claimed that it’s Fetterman’s opponent, Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz, who’s the “wholly unprepared” person to assume office.

The subhead was comical: “The Republican nominee, Mehmet Oz, is wholly unprepared to be the commonwealth’s U.S. senator.”

[...]

Only two paragraphs in the middle were spent on his stroke and, predictably, the paper dismissed concerns and argued it “should not be inherently disqualifying” as sitting Senate Democrats Ben Ray Lujan (NM) and Chris Van Hollen (MD) have recently suffered strokes.

“There is no reason Fetterman cannot serve effectively after his stroke. Fetterman said that one of the most significant challenges of his recovery involves auditory processing — a condition in which his comprehension of certain words and phrases is occasionally delayed,” they argued.

Adding that it only took him “a few seconds to ensure that he has understood a questioner correctly” and then a few “more to collect his thoughts and find the right words,” the left-wing rag insisted such a level of incapacity won’t keep him from “know[ing] what his values are and...communicating them.”

Houck huffed in an Oct. 20 post that one TV segment "wrapped on the Pennsylvania Senate race and ignored Lt. Gov. John Fetterman’s (D-PA) mental incapacity."

Clay Waters played a bizarre round of whataboutism in an Oct. 21 post comparing Fetterman to ... Herschel Walker?

The New York Times drips with understanding when it comes to the health problems plaguing Pennsylvania Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman, but their sympathy turns to snideness when it comes to the dissociative identity disorder diagnosis of Georgia Republican Senate candidate Herschel Walker.

Sheryl Gay Stolberg’s Friday edition story on Walker, a football legend, appeared under this snide headline: “Walker Says He Has ‘Overcome’ Mental Illness, but It’s Not So Simple, Experts Say.”

Stolberg seemed to hint that Walker was using his mental illness as a convenient excuse.

[...]

The problem is that when the impaired Democrat Fetterman faced questions, the media, including the Times, circled the wagons in his defense. Some outlets even went after mainstream media reporters who dared question Fetterman’s fitness for office.

The same paper that pushes “Long COVID” and demands surgery for “transgender” teens to cure gender dysphoria has suddenly recovered its skepticism about medical disorders.

Waters didn't mention how his employer, along woith the rest of the right-wing media, circled their wagons around Walker after he was credibily accused of paying for an abortion.

(Bill D'Agostino similarly complained that "the media eagerly flooded the airwaves with the latest tidbits about Walker’s scandal, they have been incredibly protective of another embattled Senate candidate: John Fetterman, who’s running as a Democrat in Pennsylvania.")

Rich Noyes spent an Oct. 21 post noting that "Alone among the three broadcast morning shows, only ABC’s Good Morning America covered President Biden’s campaign appearance with Democratic Senate candidate John Fetterman in Pennsylvania on Thursday, and correspondent Rachel Scott admitted the President is unpopular with voters and unwanted by most Democratic candidates," grumbling that "while ABC at least talked about the President’s problems, Scott neglected to mention Fetterman’s ongoing health problems which have put the race in peril for Democrats, and showed no clips of Fetterman speaking."

Houck returned to claim in an Oct. 25 post that CBS is trying to "pull Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (D) across the finish line" (you know, like how the MRC is trying to pull Walker across the finish line):

Just as the liberal broadcast networks tried to keep former Gov. Charlie Crist’s (D-FL) campaign afloat, CBS Mornings did its best to pull Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. John Fetterman (D) across the finish line in his close race against Republican Dr. Mehmet Oz. Thanks to chief campaign and election correspondent Robert Costa, CBS had one simple message for voters weighing Fetterman’s health in their vote: let it go.

Costa spent the second half of his piece on Fetterman’s health, leading with a clip of the mentally and physically limited Fetterman stammering his way through one of his rare stump speeches.

[...]

Costa added that “Fetterman’s use of a captioning device will be on display during the debate” and posed the question to passerby’s in State College, Pennsylvania this past weekend.

After one person said no one “should be shamed for using things that makes things more accessible” and another seemed indifferent, Costa brought in an expert from the left-wing Poynter and cited a CBS News poll to argue alleged talk about issues with Fetterman’s health need to end[.]

This was all setup before a debate between Fetterman and Oz, which the MRC exploited too. More on that soon.


Posted by Terry K. at 9:16 PM EDT
Updated: Wednesday, November 2, 2022 9:19 PM EDT
Newsmax's Favorite Right-Wing Pollsters Push Narrative Of Red Wave
Topic: Newsmax

Newsmax loves right-wing pollsters John and Jim McLaughlin so much -- they also served as pollsters for Donald Trump's 2020 re-election campsign -- that they have their own column at Newsmax. And they're so biased that they offer advice to Republicans on how to message so they poll better. In their Aug. 29 column, for example, they huffed:

Shouldn’t the Republicans be challenging the Democrats on the future of America? Do we really want to allow the Joe Biden big government socialists to continue to transform America?

[...]

Why did the Republicans allow President Biden a vacation from the campaign?

Why are they allowing the Democrats in Congress who voted for his failed agenda to hide those votes? September needs to be the month where Republicans aggressively challenge the Biden big government socialists on inflation and higher prices.

[...]

If the Republicans want to regain majorities in Congress, it’s time to follow President Trump’s example and play offense against the Biden Democrats.

The McLaughlins' Sept. 28 column hyped their own midterm polling that "Republicans seem to have an edge, but — the trends are mixed." They then displayed their bias -- and, thus, their lack of credibility -- for all to see by openly rooting for Republicans and offering them advice on how to win:

GOP opposition leaders need to make a more effective case, that the U.S. is on the wrong track and that it's President Joseph Robinette Biden’s fault!

Biden needs to be on the ballot — not Trump as the Democrats would like project.

Biden is the president. Biden is on the ballot, and our nation's condition is Biden’s fault.

There’s still plenty of public sentiment that Republicans can make that case.

[...]

The 2022 midterm madness is upon us.

Everyday counts.

The Biden big government socialists are fighting for their majorities. The Republicans must fight to take them away and restore America to the right direction. 41 days.

Should anyone who's not a rabid right-winger trust anything the McLaughlins do as being credible or trustworhy after that rant? Probably not. On the other hand, the Media Research Center bought a McLaughlin to try and prove its own version of Trump's Big Lie about election fraud.

The McLaughlins, unsurprisingly, also receive airtime on Newsmax TV and on the Newsmax website to promote the narrative that Republicans are trouncing Democrats in the runup to the midterm elections. Here's a sampling of the promotion the McLaughlins have gotten just in the past month or so:

OIthers have noted this sort of right-wing pol-hyping, done in an attempt to flood the zone and create the perception of a "red wave" for the midterms. Democratic adviser Simon Rosenburg has noted this flood-the-zone strategy, which obscures that there are polls that show Democratic candidates doing well, as has MSNBC host Joy Reid.Newsmax didn't like that story, and neither did the McLaughlins. Thus, Jim McLaughlin made a Nov. 2 Newsmax TV appearance to lamely play whataboutism:

Pollster Jim McLaughlin, pushing back at a report from MSNBC host Joy Reid that Republican pollsters are inflating polls in favor of GOP candidates, said Wednesday on Newsmax that left-leaning media organizations and universities are the ones who are skewing the polls by including fewer Republicans. 

"This is the typical example of the left, accusing Republicans of what the left is doing," McLaughlin said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America." "You are still seeing a lot of these national polls right now done by the media and these colleges and universities where Republicans are only represented in their surveys by about a quarter of the vote."

Earlier this week, Reid said on her program, "The ReidOut," that polls suggesting GOP candidates are surging ahead were part of an "insidious and seemingly intentional campaign from Republican-backed polling firms to flood the zone and tip the balance of polling averages in favor of their candidates, to create a narrative that Republicans are surging and that a red wave is imminent and inevitable."

But McLaughlin noted, for example, that an Emerson College poll scored Rep. Lee Zeldin, the GOP nominee in the New York governor's race, down by 8 percentage points against Democrat incumbent Gov. Kathy Hochul. 

"The problem is with the survey again," said McLaughlin. "They oversampled Democrats at about 53% and undersampled Republicans at only about 23% or 24%."

Not only did writer Sandy Fitzgterald not disclose the McLaughlins' right-wing bias, she gave McLaughlin a platform to display that bias again:

McLaughlin also commented on President Joe Biden's speech in Florida, where he referred to Republicans as extremists. 

"The truth of the matter is, it's the Democrats who are the extremists," said McLaughlin. "They've spent $6 trillion we didn't have that cause this crazy inflation. They're not even getting hit on all these tax increases in the Inflation Reduction Act. These are the same folks that have given us open borders."

Again: Not the guy anyone who's not a right-wing ideologue should trust with their polling.


Posted by Terry K. at 6:05 PM EDT
WND Spreads COVID Vaccine Misinfo, Florida Man Division
Topic: WorldNetDaily

Art Moore, WorldNetDaily's leader in spreading falsehoods and misinformation about COVID treatments and vaccines, gets some help from a Florida man in an Oct. 10 article:

Breaking ranks with the CDC, Florida Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo is urging men aged 18 to 39 not to get a COVID-19 vaccine.

In a tweet censored by Twitter, Ladapo cited a Florida Department of Health analysis that found the mRNA jabs raise the risk of cardiac-related death by 84% in young males.

[...]

In March, Ladapo announced the state had become the first to recommend against vaccinating healthy children for COVID-19. The announcement came at the end of an 85-minute roundtable of epidemiologists and other medical scientists hosted by DeSantis titled "The Curtain Close on COVID Theater." The governor posed questions regarding the effectiveness of the vaccines in reducing infection and transmission as well as the crucial issue of safety. Among the participants were Drs. Robert Malone, Harvey Risch of Yale, Jay Battacharya of Stanford, Sunetra Gupta of Oxford and Martin Kulldorf, formerly of Harvard.

The new Florida Department of Health analysis analysis was criticized by some scientists, but Ladapo countered Monday on Twitter with a point-by-point rebuttal.

The surgeon general said he welcomed the debate.

"Isn't it great when we discuss science transparently instead of trying to cancel one another?" he wrote on Twitter.

Except that few of the "rebuttal" points Ladapo issued, as copy-and-pasted by Moore, addressed the many issues legitimate medical professionals have identified with the study -- starting with the fact that it was anonymously written, unlike virtually every other research study in exixtence. As a media outlet that cares about honest reporting detailed:

More than a dozen experts interviewed by The Washington Post — including specialists in vaccines, patient safety and study design — listed concerns with Florida’s analysis, saying it relies on information gleaned from frequently inaccurate death certificates rather than medical records, skews the results by trying to exclude anyone with covid-19 or a covid-related death, and draws conclusions from a total of 20 cardiac-related deaths in men 18 to 39 that occurred within four weeks of vaccination. Experts noted the deaths might have been caused by other factors, including underlying illnesses or undetected covid.

“We’re talking about a very small number of deaths. An extra death or two would potentially change these results,” said Robert Wachter, chair of the department of medicine at the University of California at San Francisco and co-author of a patient-safety textbook used in many medical schools. “I’m hesitant to even call it a paper; it isn’t published anywhere. The idea that [the analysis] … is being used to change policy — it does not have the scientific chops to do that.”

“If you submitted that to a peer-reviewed journal, unless you were paying them to publish it, it would get rejected,” added Daniel Salmon, who leads the Institute of Vaccine Safety at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “Putting out half-baked reports from a department of health is a dangerous thing to do.”

By contrast, Moore talked to no experts and merely regurgitated Ladapo's claims about the study without bothering to fact-check anything he said. He did, however, admit the study has not been peer-reviewed, so he gets a brownie point for that. He also added a video of an interview Ladapo did on Steve Bannon's far-right webcast "War Room: Pandemic," which also does not inspire confidence in anything Ladapo has to say. Not that Moore will tell you any of that, of course; his job is to fearmonger and misinform, not report honestly.


Posted by Terry K. at 2:30 PM EDT
NEW ARTICLE: The MRC's Double Standard on Political Donations
Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center doesn't like it when people's financial contributions to right-wing causes are exposed -- even though it regularly exposes the donations liberals (and not just George Soros) make to their favorite causes. Read more >>

Posted by Terry K. at 1:29 AM EDT
Tuesday, November 1, 2022
MRC Obsesses Over Biden Gaffe
Topic: Media Research Center

The Media Research Center M.O. is to cherry-pick an issue (or follow orders to cherry-pick one), flood the zone with outraged posts about it, with the goal of forcing the story up the right-wing media food chain -- a ploy that usually works, given how slavishly devoted people in the right-wing bubble are to regurgitating established narratives.

And so it is with President Biden's gaffe of calling on a congresswoman for recognition who had died a few months before. We've noted the MRC's Curtis Houck berating White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre for doing her job in taking questions "after President Joe Biden called out to Congresswoman Jackie Walorski (R-IN) at a global hunger event despite the fact that Walorski died nearly two months ago" and being mad that she wasn't furthering the right-wing narrative that the gaffe was "a sign of cognitive decline."

Because the MRC (or whatever shady Right-Wing Narrative Production Office that dictates what the MRC must cover) decided this was a story that could be exploited by pushing the narrative that he's mentally incapacitated, this was just the beginning. A Sept. 28 item by Kevin Tober pushed the usual the-non-right-wing-media-aren't covering-this-story-that-advances-our-narrative angle (but praising Fox News, of course, for sticking to the narrative):

On Wednesday, President Joe Biden proved once again he's not mentally with us anymore when he called out for Congresswoman Jackie Walorski (R-IN) during a speech on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health despite the fact that Walorski died in a car crash in August. While Biden may not be capable of remembering events that far back, we know he was notified of her death since he and the First Lady both put out a statement and lowered the American flag in her honor when she passed along with two staffers. 

All three evening newscasts ignored the latest gaffe from our apparently senile President and instead focused on a reported Methane spill in the Baltic Sea (CBS Evening News), and Katie Couric's cancer diagnosis (ABC's World News Tonight). meanwhile, NBC spent the entire half hour of NBC Nightly News covering Hurricane Ian. 

During Fox News Channel's Special Report White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich covered Biden's latest gaffe and the subsequent firestorm at the White House press briefing on whether Biden even remembered that Walorski died.

[...]

The terrible combination of Joe Biden's almost daily gaffes and Karine Jean-Pierre's stunning inability to put together a coherent sentence makes it obvious why the leftist news networks have no interest in covering the administration's never-ending list of incompetence and failures. 

That was followed by Alex Christy praising Trevor Noah of "The Daily Show" for noting "Biden’s latest moment of indignity" and whacking other late-night hosts for not doing so.Scott Whitlock quickly followed that with another lack-of-coverage-of-our-narrative post headlined "Biden Gaffe Watch Day #2":

As we noted on Wednesday night, the networks avoided the cringe-inducing moment when the President asked where a recently deceased Congresswoman was, wondering of Jackie Walorski: “Jackie, are you here? Where’s Jackie?” All three evening newscasts censored the President’s latest awkward moment.  

How about Thursday? Despite an available six hours of air time, ABC’s Good Morning America, CBS Mornings and NBC’s Today all avoided it as well. But what about Hurricane Ian threatening Florida, you might ask? Would there be time? The networks rightly offered detailed coverage on this dangerous storm and all who were impacted by it.

But there was still time to cover Biden’s latest example of being confused in public. For instance, ABC’s Good Morning America managed to devote five minutes and six seconds to Hocus Pocus 2. Sounding like a commercial for his Disney overlords, co-host George Stephanopoulos enthused that the original has “come to define Halloween for a generation of kids and their parents.” Shilling for his corporate parent, he reminded, “[Hocus Pocus 2] starts streaming tomorrow on Disney+!” 

At least Whitlock managed to restrain himself from (hypocritically) calling ABC "whores" for promoting Disney content.

Curtis Houck tried to mix in another narrative to Biden's "mental flatulence" regarding Vice P{resident Kamala Harris misspeaking, whining that "Naturally, the broadcast networks of ABC, CBS, and NBC all ignored this story despite the fact that all three had at least three segments of other stories not related to the devastation caused in Florida by Hurricane Ian."

Nicholas Fondacaro lashed out at "The View," as he is wont to do, for calling out the MRC-pushed anti-Biden narrative:

President Biden’s cognitive decline was catapulted into the spotlight on Wednesday after he called out for a member of Congress that had been dead for nearly two months, with White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre getting grilled by the liberal likes of the Washington Post and ABC. But ABC’s The View was in full gaslight mode Thursday as they suggested the questions were attacks launched by the “right-wing” media trying to “weaponize” Biden’s “brain fart” because America was evil and “ageist.”

[...]

Co-host Sara Haines also spoke out in Biden’s defense claiming he had a “brain fart” or “mommy brain” moment and tried to blame Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre for how badly it went over:

I think her explanation made it worse though because in that moment, I probably would have just said, “Okay, guys. He had a moment. Who in this room hasn't?” And then just move on. The fact she kept kind of repeating the same words –

Behar interjected to defend Jean-Pierre, suggesting she was dealing with hostile media that “has weaponized his gaffes!” “I mean, they have weaponized the gaffes, They’ve said that he’s senile,” she raged.

[...]

According to [Alyssa] Farah Griffin, Biden’s constant mental slips weren’t a cause for concern but they were instead “endearing.” And she too thought Jean-Pierre was the problem:“The cover-up was worse than the crime.”

Farah Griffin also used the incident to pose the question to the table: “Do you think Joe Biden is the strongest candidate to beat Donald Trump in 2024?” “If this is any indication, I do,” Goldberg proclaimed.

Tim Graham devoted a Sept. 30 post to complaining that a non-right-wing writer wasn't parroting the MRC's right-wing spin by parrotingh a fellow member of his right-wing bubble:

John Sexton at Hot Air identified some terrible spin trying to defend Biden forgetting Rep. Jackie Walorski is dead. USA Today columnist Jill Lawrence, a longtime political reporter and a former editor of the paper's Commentary section, suggested the memory lapse demonstrated Biden's decency, unlike Trump.

[...]

The headline in Friday's paper is "President's lapse says volumes about his generosity: Biden recognizes his 'duty to care' for all."  Barf. 

Yes, Graham's slavish devotion to his narratives is quite barf-worthy. Indeed, later that day, he devoted his podcast to rehashing the MRC's narrative thus far as "a week of Biden-Harris gaffes -- and the media energetically ignoring Biden-Harris gaffes."

Tober returned for an Oct. 2 post of more whining that right-wing narratives weren't being parroted in non-right-wing media:

On Sunday’s NBC Meet the Press, anchor Chuck Todd excused the latest example of President Biden’s mental incapacity when this week he called out for Congresswoman Jackie Walorski (R-IN) at an event, despite the fact that she died in a car accident a month prior. According to Todd, it wasn’t a big deal because “people make mistakes.” 

[...]

Illustrating that she’s nothing but a Biden apologist, [Symone] Sanders-Townsend advised everyone “just acknowledge he had a slip of the tongue, move on, it's unfortunate, again, life is here. He understands, and empathizes,” adding “that's what’s most important here.” 

Instead of pushing back and saying this shows Biden has serious cognitive issues, Todd agreed with Sanders-Townsend that “people make mistakes and you try to go from there.” 

A mistake would be forgetting someone’s name for a split second or something similar. Forgetting that a member of Congress died in a well publicized car crash isn’t a mistake. It is yet another long list of evidence of Biden’s rapidly declining brain function. 

Chuck Todd is only fooling himself.

Graham whined the next day: "On Sunday'sMediaBuzz on Fox News, host Howard Kurtz discussed President Biden's Jackie gaffe with Brian Kilmeade and Democrat strategist Laura Fink. Kurtz underlined CNN and MSNBC completely ignored the gaffe, but Fink claimed ABC, CBS, and NBC all covered it. That is false." Mark Finkelstein took his shot at advancing the narrative in an Oct. 4 post complaining that "Morning Joe" didn't advance his preferred narrative.

That makes 11 posts over a seven-day period, with at least one post every day but one -- and the MRC still wasn't done. Graham devoted his Oct. 7 column to complaining that his anti-Biden nbarrative wasn't followed, and then oddly played Trump whataboutism:

By now, everyone who follows politics should recognize that the liberal media will deliberately ignore embarrassing gaffes by Joe Biden, especially if they suggest he’s not mentally sharp enough to be the president. Biden asking “Where’s Jackie?” about a congresswoman killed in a car crash two months ago was a TV black hole: nothing on the morning and evening newscasts on ABC, CBS, NBC, and PBS, and nothing on CNN or MSNBC.

This week offered a tidy contrast, and an inevitable reminder that these same networks can never stop obsessing over Trump tweets – even after he was banned by Twitter.

The taxpayer-funded PBS NewsHour took after Trump on Monday in a segment with two liberal political pundits – NPR’s Hillary-coddling reporter Tamara Keith and Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report.

PBS White House reporter Laura Barron Lopez read from a Trump post on “Truth Social,” his Twitter imitation, where he said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell “has a death wish and must immediately seek help and advice from his China-loving wife, Coco Chow.” This mysterious outburst is referring to Elaine Chao, who Trump named his Secretary of Transportation.

Lopez added: “Today, Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney said that rhetoric like that could cause violence. She also called it racist. But the vast majority of Republicans have not condemned this. So, Tamara, what does this silence among the GOP say about the party today?”

Rather than admit the simple fact that Trump is being kinda racist -- and, thus, have to explain why he and the rest of the MRC  still remains a devoted supporter of such a vile man -- Graham attacked PBS for bringing it up, huffing that "PBS is always making sure Trump’s trash talk is in the news, and Biden babbling like he’s lost a marble or two is spiked." Of course, Graham would never have mentioned Trump's sleazy remark at all if he couldn't play whataboutism with it. But he's also making a hollow and hypocritical criticism, given that the MRC runs a highly biased "news" division, CNSNews.com, that completely censored the "Coco Chow" story and any other story that reflects badly on Republicans, such as the Herschel Walker abortion scandal.


Posted by Terry K. at 10:25 PM EDT
Updated: Tuesday, November 1, 2022 10:28 PM EDT

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