The MRC's Autumn of Hunter Biden Derangement Topic: Media Research Center
Elon Musk's selectively released "Twitter files" is not the only Hunter Biden-related narrative the Media Resarch Center pushed in the final few months of 2022 (while whining that it was not inaccurately made into a right-wing obsession with Hunter's genitals). Its Hunter Biden Derangement Syndrome continued to reign at the MRC since the last time we checked in, with lots of complaining that the non-right-wing media was ignoring whatever minor development was blowing up in their right-wing media bubble.
Here's some of what the MRC was obessing over (and whining about) in the last few months of 2022:
We've already noted how the MRC keeps blaming the media for not embracing the right-wing narrative on the then-unverified Hunter laptop story (and not criticizing the New York Post for providing any independent verification at the time that would have kept the story from being treated as anything other than a partisan October surprise), as well as how that the MRC smeared not only Hunter but her daughter on her wedding day, how it lashed out at media outlets who won't push the right-wing anti-Hunter narrative as "liberal rags." and how it complained that interview with Hunter's ex-wife didn't dish enough sleaze for the MRC's prurient satisfaction.
We've also noted how the MRC loves to run up the numbers on purported Hunter Biden scandals, and it tried to add to that list with an Oct. 13 piece by Geoffrey Dickens declaring, "Eight Brand New Hunter Biden Scandals the Nets Are CENSORING." That inflated the number of MRC-declared Hunter "scandals" to 35.
But if there's anything the MRC really doesn't like, it's normal media people pointing out that Hunter Biden is a thing only inside the right-wing media bubble. Kevin Tober complained in an Oct. 9 post:
On Sunday's Meet the Press on NBC former Biden White House press secretary Jen Psaki dismissed the newsworthiness of the FBI's announcement that they now have collected enough evidence to charge President Biden's crack delinquent crackhead son Hunter with tax and gun-related charges. Psaki claimed that she looked online at the front pages of local newspapers around the country and didn't see the story. Therefore, according to her, it's just an inside-the-Beltway Washington story.
[...]
Psaki is only making NewsBusters point that the media is covering for Joe and Hunter Biden by not covering this story. Just because a handful of leftwing newspapers aren't covering the Hunter Biden scandal doesn't mean it's not a big story.
Mark Finkelstein whined even more in a Nov. 18 post:
Hypothesis:
CNN's Don Lemon is a shameless pro-Democrat hack.
Proof:
Just before the presidential election, theNew York Post broke bombshell stories, derived from Hunter Biden's laptop, indicating that he was trading influence with his father for big paydays from companies in Ukraine and China. And that on at least one of the deals, 10% of the payments had been earmarked for "the big guy," which one of Hunter Biden's partners has said was a reference to Joe Biden.
The liberal media, including CNN, and Big Tech, including Facebook and Twitter, circled the wagons, dismissing the New York Post story as "Russian disinformation."
But—after the election—the Washington Post and the New York Times admitted that the information on Hunter's laptop was authentic—not Russian disinformation.
So . . . you'd think that Don Lemon would have the journalistic integrity to acknowledge that a congressional investigation into the matter is very much justified, and indeed, necessary.
But no. On today's CNN This Morning, CNN's Pamela Brown reported on her interview with Rep. James Comer, the Republican chairman of the House oversight committee, who will be leading the investigation. Comer indicated that although Joe Biden will not be subpoenaed, this will be an investigation of the president.
Lemon, expressing skepticism, asked Brown whether there is any "there, there" to the investigation. Lemon suggested that the investigation is nothing more than "retribution" for the Democrats' investigations of Donald Trump.
And Lemon concluded the segment by scoffing at the importance of the investigation:
"The American people are dealing with a lot of things. I'm not sure this is one of them."
Right. Because who cares if the sitting President of the United States had been profiting from his son's influence-peddling?
Never mind, of course, that the Hunter laptop story looked enough like Russian disinformation for numerous intelligence officials to initially dismiss the story, coupled with the New York Post's failure to provide any initial independent verification. But in Finkelstein's eyes, that's not the Post's fault, apparently.
This is how desperate the MRC wants to take down President Biden, that it feels it must destroy his son in order to make that happen.
CNS Doing Word Counts On Biden Now Topic: CNSNews.com
CNSNews.com loves to do word counts on Democrats (though never on Republicans) -- heck, it's stilldoing that to Barack Obama even though he hasn't been president for years. President Biden is the latest nitpickingtarget, and CNS is obsessing over how he repeats certain words in his speeches. Susan Jones complained in a Oct. 5 article:
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris convened the second meeting of their reproductive rights taskforce on Tuesday, each giving introductory remarks and slamming pro-life views as "extremist."
Reading from a binder when his moment came, Biden used the word "extreme" or "extremist" six times in five minutes to describe abortion bans and the people who support such bans.
After citing each example and even putting it in boldface, Jones then went the gaslighting route (like its Media Research Center parent) to pretend that Democrats are the real extremists on abortion:
Some pro-life Americans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, have said Democrats are the real extremists on abortion:
In a speech on the Senate floor in May, McConnell accused Democrats of supporting "an extreme and radical abortion policy."
“Our Democratic colleagues want to vote for abortion on demand through all nine months, until the moment before a baby is born," McConnell said.
"Democrats’ radical bill is as extreme as extreme gets. It ignores modern science. It is tone-deaf to public opinion. Nothing about their bill merely codifies the current case law on this issue. Their extreme proposal goes way, way beyond codifying the status quo. It would roll back many existing laws.
"Democrats’ bill would functionally allow elective abortion through all nine months. Abortion until the moment of birth.
Jones cited no example of an abortion taking place at "the moment of birth."
Craig Bannister did his own word count for a Nov. 30 article:
President Joe Biden repeatedly promised his audience that he was being truthful on Tuesday, when he addressed a South Korean-owned computer chip manufacturer in Bay City, Michigan.
On 29 occasions during his speech, Biden reassured those in attendance either that “I mean it,” it’s “not a joke,” it’s “a fact,” or he was “serious” about what he said.
Biden said 13 times that he meant what he said. Three of those times, Biden revealed that he “really” meant what he said, and another three times he explained that he “seriously” meant it.
Four of his comments were “not a joke,” Biden explained.
Nine times, Biden declared that he was providing a “fact,” including three times he doubled down on the claim.
Biden said that three of his comments were “serious.”
On multiple occasions, Biden used more than one of the reassurances in the same sentence, such as when he declared union workers to be the world’s most highly skilled and trained:
We cannot recall an instance in which CNS called out how many times Donald Trump used a certain word or phrase, even though there are many opportunities for it to do so -- for instance, his multiple claims that "big, strong" men keep coming up to him and crying.
WND Pushed Conspiracy Theories Against Kari Lake's Opponent Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily has embraced Kari Lake's election denierism, so it's not surprising that it would launch attacks on the woman who defeated her for Arizona governor, Katie Hobbs. An anonymously written Nov. 14 article tried to build a conspiracy theory out of the idea that because Hobbs was Arizona secretary of state, she would be signing off on her own election:
It is a conflict of interest?
Democrat Katie Hobbs, the party's candidate to be governor of Arizona, is holding a small lead in the race over Republican Kari Lake as the last few percentages of precincts are counted – a week after the fact of the election.
And as the state's elections chief as secretary of state, she could be in the position to certify her own election.
Which has raised objections from Lake, who suggested Hobbs should recuse, because of the apparent conflict.
In fact, the secretary of state's role in certifying elections is largely ceremonial and there was no real reason for Hobbs to recuse herself.
Art Moore pushed another Hobbs attack in a Nov. 29 article:
As Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake challenges Maricopa County's certification of the 2022 election in court, the chairman of another county is declaring he voted to certify under duress.
"I found out today that I have no choice but to vote 'Aye' or I will be arrested and charged with a felony," said Ron Gould, chairman of the Mohave County Board of Supervisors.
Lake's opponent, Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, who is overseeing the election, has threatened felony charges for officials who don't certify the election.
Hobbs is suing Cochise County, which refused to certify by the Monday deadline.
But as a more responsible media outlet reported, there was a state-mandated Nov. 28 deadline for Arizona counties to certify the election , but county officials clung to a dubious claim that the county's voting machines weren't certified as an excuse to delay certification, adding that "County boards do not have the legal right to either change the results provided by their elections officials or refuse to certify them."
An anonymously written Dec. 2 article rehashed numerous pro-Lake, anti-Hobbs claims, including that "It was Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, who curiously 'won' that race, that sent an email to officials in Mohave County threatening to file felony charges against them."
Bob Unruh tried to manufacture a conspiracy theory in a Dec. 6 article:
Multiple people have called for an investigation into Katie Hobbs, the Democrat governor-elect of Arizona, after it was revealed that she colluded with Big Tech to censor information about the election in which she was on the ballot.
Republican attorney general nominee Abe Hamadeh's campaign issued a statement that, "The Secretary of State (Hobbs) was working with the federal government and Big Tech to silence free speech and political dissent in an election that she was on the ticket for. This needs to be fully investigated."
Also, firebrand U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., said, "The SOS of AZ and Gov candidate, Katie Hobbs, used the power of the AZ SOS to collude w/Twitter to unconstitutionally violate 1st Amendment rights of Americans for her own political gain. This is communism and Hobbs can not be governor. I'm calling for a Federal investigation."
It is a report at Just the News that explained Christinia Bobb, a lawyer for Donald Trump for President 2024, wondered, "What else did Katie Hobbs have removed? And how much censorship took place under her office?"
The report said Twitter removed several statements from the social media site after Hobbs' office contacted an organization called the Center for Internet Security, "which forwarded it to Twitter."
Unruh is lying. In fact, the Hobbs action in question did not try to "censor information about the election in which she was on the ballot" -- it was made on Jan. 7, 2021, months before Hobbs announced for governor, something even the dubious Just the News admits. The request specifically address the false claim made in those tweets that the state's voter registration system is controlled by foreigners. Unruh offered no proof otherwise, nor did he explain why lies should never be challenged or why it's "censorship" to remove verifiably false information.
Despite that, Andy Schlafly perpetuated this misinformation, delcaring in his Dec. 6 column that "In a story broken by The Gateway Pundit, Twitter censored tweets critical of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Katie Hobbs at her request" without mentioning important context like the untruth of the tweet being "censored."
NEW ARTICLE: The MRC Flips Over Elon Musk, Part 5 Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center continued to embrace the chaos Musk unleashed when he took over Twitter -- and even defending him over statements by Musk that appeared anti-Semitic. Read more >>
MRC Ramps Up Musk Hero Worship Over 'Twitter Files' Release Topic: Media Research Center
As the selectively released "Twitter files" continued to roll out to Elon Musk's handpicked journalists, the Media Research Center kept cranking out the stenography, as well as the usual whining that non-right-wing media outlets weren't parroting Musk's narrative:
This happened as even Fox News host Trey Gowdy downplayed the importance of the selectively released files.
In between, however, P.J. Gladnick served up a little hero worship in a Dec.12 post:
At just two minutes before 6 AM Eastern Time on Sunday morning, Elon Musk drove the left and their media allies nuts with a short tweet: "My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci."
This quickly resulted in a wall of fury to the extent that even media outlets that have been engaged in Censorship Denialism such as CBS News were forced into mentioning the Twitter Files.
Gladnick concluded by gushing over the prospect of Twitter releasing "COVID files": "The reaction to the Twitter Covid Files could be so extreme as to smoke out ABC and NBC News into joining CBS News by forcing them to also break out of their Censorship Denialism and mention the previously taboo topic of the Twitter Files."
Catherine Salgado cheered another Musk move in a Dec. 13 post:
New Twitter CEO Elon Musk has reportedly dissolved Twitter’s Trust and Safety Council, as the Twitter Files uncover details of Twitter’s previous biased censorship.
Forbes reported that the 100 “activists, academics and civic leaders” of the Trust and Safety Council were informed by email Monday of the council’s dissolution, hours before being set to meet with Twitter executives about supposed “recent issues” on the platform. The “About” link for the council on Twitter’s website now brings up the short message, “Nothing to see here.”
Reportedly, former Head of Trust and Safety Yoel Roth, who recently left Twitter, and former Twitter General Counsel Vijaya Gadde deliberately orchestrated the ban of then-President Donald Trump from Twitter in 2021, even though Trump broke no rules.
While the Trust and Safety Council was meant to advise Twitter about safety, Twitter’s censorship of conservatives while ignoring actual violent incitement indicates the council’s definition of safety might have been politically biased.
Of course, nobody imagined that the president of the United States would help to incite a violent insurrection, which is why there may not have been a prohibition against it. She also failed to mention that Musk disbanded the council about an hour before it was scheduled to meet with Musk and other Twitter officials, suggesting a bit of cowardice on his part.
Brian Bradley, meanwhile, complained that the crappy working conditions Musk is making Twitter employees work under was being exposed:
Instead of reporting honestly on the newsworthy revelations of the Twitter Files, The Washington Post continues to take personal shots at the platform’s new CEO Elon Musk.
On Dec. 9, Washington Post columnist Michelle Singletary released a “perspective” piece that hit Musk for such absurdities as requiring high work ethic from his employees and laying off workers to cut costs.
“Looking back at 2022 … Elon Musk emerged as the grand marshal of maniacal management,” Singletary wrote in a piece titled, “Here’s why Elon Musk is the worst kind of boss.”
Singletary continued: “Those who remained were told to commit, in writing, to a ‘hardcore’ workplace or quit. ‘This will mean working long hours at high intensity,’ Musk said in an email to employees. Hundreds chose unemployment, refusing to sign a pledge to perform at levels best reserved for robots.”
[...]
It appears that Singletary left a key part out of her commentary: There is a value in hard work, and bosses value it.
Bradley then whined about how the Post pointed out the right-wing leanings of the reporters Musk hand-picked for his "Twitter files" release:
Meanwhile, when The Post did write something of substance covering the Twitter Files, it attempted to smear the reporters breaking the story. The publication stealth-deleted a description of journalists Matt Taibbi and Bari Weiss – who have reported on the Twitter Files – as “conservative,” Fox News reported. Taibbi and Weiss have not identified themselves as conservative, and it appears that The Post had only included the reference initially to discredit the release of the damning Twitter Files.
Bradley offered no evidence to prove that Taibbi and Weiss are not conservative -- their denials mean nothing -- and the fat that he cited the decidedly right-wing Fox News to complain about this adds another level of irony.
NewsBusters has found liberal cable news networks CNN and MSNBC have almost completely ignored the first five installments of the Twitter Files, which revealed Twitter employees engaged in rampant censorship of conservatives. Since the first set of documents were published on the evening of December 2, less half of one percent of the coverage on either network has even bothered to mention the story.
MRC analysts examined all regular programming on both CNN and MSNBC between 7:00 p.m. Eastern on December 2 and 7:00 pm ET on December 13. Not including commercials, MSNBC aired approximately 133 hours of news during that period, of which only 0.26 percent (1,253 seconds) included any mention of the Twitter Files. Of the approximate 130 hours of non-commercial time on CNN during the same span, just 0.34 percent (1,574 seconds) dealt with this topic.
D'Agostino was silent on how much time Fox News spent on the story.
Alex Christy devoted a Dec. 15 post to lashing out at CNN for not adhering to the right-wing narrative on the files:
Thursday’s CNN This Morning had a peculiar take on the Twitter Files and revelations into what went into the decision to block the New York Post story on Hunter Biden’s laptop. Not only was it alleged that the Twitter Files actually made Twitter look good, but it was also claimed that it was Elon Musk that was violating the spirit of free speech.
Against a chyron headline that read, “Culture War Theater,” co-host Poppy Harlow began by asking senior media reporter Oliver Darcy, “the Hunter Biden laptop and the New York Post story that squashed weeks ahead of the election. What has come out of the Twitter Files on that?”
Darcy began by reporting, “that Jack Dorsey admitted that suppressing the New York Poststory was a mistake, so that he did, I think, last year.”
Beyond that, he also added that these things happen because of the nature of the business, “So, the Twitter Files, though, they really showed the-- I think the messy content moderation that was happening behind the scenes and I think we're seeing and it's probably no surprise but we're seeing that not everyone agrees, is on the same page when they're making these complex decisions.”
That conveniently ignores the mental gymnastics Twitter had to perform to justify the ban, but Darcy nevertheless continued, “I will say on this specific Twitter Files drop, I thought what was really noteworthy was Elon Musk’s handpicked reporter, Matt Tiabbi [sic], said that there was no evidence of government involvement in trying to suppress this story and that was a big claim that Elon Musk had made earlier when he was hyping these Twitter Files. I think that's very important to point out here.”
Christy further complained that CNN pointed out that Taibbi was Musk's "handpicked" journalist chosen to put out Musk's preferred narrative, huffing in response, "Even if Musk had given the materials to Darcy for a traditional news story, he would still be a 'handpicked' journalist, just one that CNN approves of."
CNS Keeps Up Hateful Biden-Is-Senile Narrative Topic: CNSNews.com
For the past three years, CNSNews.com hashighlighted gaffes and misstatements by President Biden for the partisan purpose of making him look senile -- something it refused to do to Donald Trump despite a similar record of gaffes. That malicious narrative continued in 2022. Susan Jones sounded quite conspiratorial in an April 6 article under the headline "Watch As Barack Obama Returns to White House, Stealing the Limelight From 'Vice President Biden'":
Was former President Barack Obama kidding when he referred to President Joe Biden as "vice president" at a White House event on Tuesday? Obama called it a "joke," but...
Why did Biden feel the need to explain his wife's absence from the event celebrating Obama's signature achievement -- the Affordable Care Act?
And why did everyone, including Obama, ignore Biden, leaving him to wander alone in a room now dominated by his former boss?
Those are the questions. Here's the video:
An anonymously written April 22 article was provocatively headlined "President Biden: “The Caption Underneath the Picture Was, ‘Biden Molests Another Child’” -- though the article was about Biden criticizing the picture, which was actually of him comforting a grandchild after the funeral for his son Beau. Talk about burying context.
The smears and deliberate out-of-context quotes continued:
Biden: 'Which Way Are We Going?' (in which Jones sneered: "As he frequently does, President Joe Biden needed someone to tell him which way he was supposed to go, right on the grounds of the White House.")
A Sept. 27 article by Peyton Holliday, meanwhile, hyped a poll claiming that 56% of respondents "say they 'have doubts' about the president’s mental fitness for office." There was also an implicitly snarky and anonymously written Oct. 31 article on Biden issuing a proclamation for National Alzheimer’s Disease Awareness Month, in which he "call[ed] on Americans 'to recognize their fellow citizens with Alzheimer’s Disease.'"
Concurrent with this was the occasional article about Republicans engaging in performative outrage over Biden's gaffes (again, despite the fact they never fretted over Trump's gaffes). For instance, Craig Bannister wrote in a March 30 article:
President Joe Biden’s constant gaffes, especially those regarding classified information, emboldens the Deep State to keep him in the dark and make important decisions without him, Rep. James Comer (R-KY) warned Wednesday.
Discussing how the administration has had to walk back Biden’s recent remarks, suggesting that Americans are training Ukrainian troops in Poland and that Russian President Vladimir Putin should be removed from office, Rep. Comer told Fox & Friends First that the gaffes endanger American citizens, not just U.S. troops:
[...]
The more public gaffes Pres. Biden makes, the more likely it is that the Deep State will cut him out of the loop and start making decisions without consulting him, Rep. Comer said:
None of that actually happened, of course; Comer was just saying what he thought would get him on Fox News.
Similarly, an Oct. 10 article by Jones reported that "President Joe Biden's comments last week about the world facing the 'prospect of Armageddon' were 'reckless' and dangerous, former (Trump) Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Sunday."
On the "opinion" side, Pat Buchanan (whose presidential campaigns CNS editor Terry Jeffrey worked for in the 1990s) has been the leader in pushing the narrative of Biden's purported senility:
President Joe Biden may be making trips to New Hampshire, but few believe he will be running again in 2024, as the manifestations of his cognitive decline appear more frequent and disturbing. -- April 26
Biden has himself become a drag on the party. His low poll numbers, verbal foot faults, visible frailty and perceived "cognitive decline" all handicap efforts to portray him as a strong, engaged and decisive leader. -- May 3
Does Biden, with his shuffling gait, regular gaffes, and physical and cognitive decline manifest that attribute of which Hamilton wrote ?-- May 24
It is not too much to infer from this stunning piece on the front page of the Times that America's newspaper of record, a citadel of liberalism, has decided it is now fair game to confront Biden on the age-and-infirmities issue. Nor is it too much to say that the Times is giving its own belated validation to claims made for many months by conservative media that Biden is neither physically nor cognitively capable of handling the duties of his office, let alone to serve a second term, which would end in 2029 with Biden at 86 years of age. -- July 12
But in a hilarious counterpoint to all of this, a Dec. 2 article by Jones quoted none other than Newt Gingrich conceding that Biden might not be so senile after all and criticizing his fellow Republicans because "We dislike Biden so much, we pettily focus on his speaking difficulties, sometimes strange behavior, clear lapses of memory, and other personal flaws. Our aversion to him and his policies makes us underestimate him and the Democrats":
"Republicans must learn to quit underestimating President Joe Biden," says former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who admits he's no fan of Biden or his policies
[...]
He credits Biden with waging war in Ukraine without any troops; and successfully "polarizing Americans against Donald Trump supporters," resulting in a strong midterm showing for Democrats, despite Americans' concerns about the economy, crime and the border.
Gingrich concludes:
"Today there is not nearly enough understanding (or acknowledgement) among leading Republicans that our system and approach failed. We need to rethink from the ground up how we are going to Defeat Big Government Socialism – including almost inevitable second-time Democrat Presidential Nominee Biden."
Is that a tacit admission that CNS' petty obsession with cherry-picking Biden statements to make him look senile has failed? Perhaps.
MRC's Graham Hypocritically (And Lazily) Bashes The 'Meathead Media' Topic: Media Research Center
For years, the Media Research Center hasrepeatedlyhurled the lazy "Meathead" insult at any statement made by actor and director Rob Reiner, even though "All In The Family" ended nearly 50 years ago -- as if the MRC cannot separate an actor from a role he hasn't played in literally decades. Tim Graham used his Nov. 4 column to lazily spread the "Meathead" description to all non-right-wing media in an pre-election attempt to deflect from the extremism of Republicans:
We don’t have a Mainstream Media. We have a Meathead Media.
Actor and director Rob Reiner captured the paranoid style of the press in summarizing the latest nationally televised Republican-smearing speech by our president.
[Embedded tweet from Reiner: "President Biden couldn’t have been clearer. These midterms will determine whether we want to preserve our 246 year Democratic experiment in self rule or surrender to the Tyranny of Fascism."]
This kind of deranged speech is treated as conventional wisdom. Everyone is supposed to understand that you should feel compelled to vote straight-ticket for the Democrat Party [sic], because the Republicans are the Tyranny Of Fascism Party.
“Democracy is on the ballot,” our president says, which heavily implies voting against his wishes is voting for the end of the American experiment. It would be a vote for autocracy, or monarchy. Democrats somehow cannot see that this carries the echoes of autocracy, or monarchy. They tell voters they don’t have actual choices on the ballot. It should be a one-party state, or democracy dies.
That's simply a rehash of ConWeb criticism of Biden for calling out MAGA extremism -- which Graham never actually rebuts but merely complains was said aloud. He then rehashed another right-wing grievance about the Capitol riot hearings:
They want to run our country exactly the way they have run the House January 6 Committee. There are two legitimate political parties, the Democrats, and the Cheney-Kinzinger Republicans. Both are deeply committed to the belief that the actual Republican Party should be dismantled.
The press has presented this argument in a very undemocratic way. No one questioning the committee’s hearings or rulings deserves to be heard. No one suggesting the committee is a partisan enterprise should be acknowledged -- even when it’s obvious to everyone that Democrats believe January 6 is somehow the best partisan argument they can make for themselves in these midterms.
Bu Graham never explains why MAGA Repubicans are more legitimate than the "Cheney-Kinzinger Republicans," or why there should be no accountability for anyone involved in instigating or participating in the insurrection. Instead, he did more grievance-hopping:
The Democrats and their repeaters in the press don’t actually want the Cheney-Kinzinger Republicans to succeed, either. See how Cheney and Kinzinger won’t be in the House in 2023, and how the Democrats cynically supported what Biden calls the “extreme MAGA Republicans” in primary contests against Republicans who voted to impeach Trump over January 6. Of ten Republicans vote to impeach, four retired and four were defeated in primaries. Only two are on the ballot.
One of them is Rep. David Valadao of California. Before his primary in June, Democrats spent $110,000 on ads criticizing his impeachment vote. Now a Democrat PAC called the Voter Protection Project has created a website, traitordavidvaladao.com, calling Mr. Valadao “A Traitor Who Turned His Back On President Trump To Serve His Own Interests.”
This project claims to be “holding Republicans accountable for their attacks on the ballot box.” But in reality, It’s not about accountability. It’s about putting each and every Republican in the Tyranny of Fascism box, regardless of their actual votes and beliefs. Any Republican who seeks the approval of the press should see the dead end.
As we've documented, Graham and his MRC repeatedly freaked out over cross-party primary meddling when Democrats did it, but had no problem with Rush Limbaugh's "Operation Chaos," which encouraged cross-party primary meddling by Republicans. He also forgot to mention that his MRC cheered Cheney's primary loss.
Graham went on to complain that "There was no 'fact-checking' and no opposing view" of Biden's speech -- but neglected to mention that he hates fact-checkers because they have a bad habit of exposing the falsehoods of Republcians, or that his employer's own "news" division, CNSNews.com, is not big on offering opposing views to statements made by Republicans.
Graham concluded by whining:
["Ex-Republican" Matthew Dowd] compared Republicans to a devastating hurricane, and the media are like a weather man saying “oh, by the way, a hurricane is gonna hit in three days. Good night, and [I'm] not telling you what damage it's gonna do, what you can do to prevent it."
That’s the deranged sound of the Meathead Media, slanting everything in favor of Biden’s vote-for-us-or-else “democracy.”
Graham is hypocritically criticizing the "meathead media" for doing exactly what the MRC does. Who's the real meathead here?
WND Still Whining About Election, Complaining That Voting Is Too Easy Topic: WorldNetDaily
The midterm elections may have taken place in November, but WorldNetDaily has continued to whine about the outcome -- and, of course, manufacture conspiracy theories about elections being stolen from Republicans. Brad Lyles -- who has pushed voter fraud conspiracies before -- did so again in his Dec. 2 column:
The obvious diagnosis is: Democrats cheat.
And if Democrats don't cheat, Democrats don't win. And since Democrats are so fantastically skilled at cheating, they win even when everyone hates them and hates everything they're doing.
Cheating wins.
Of course, as outlined earlier, multiple factors in addition to cheating played a significant role in neutralizing Republicans' Red Wave – but it is the cheating that is foundational. Because none of the multiple other factors pertinent to our defeat, or victory, have relevance as long as cheating remains. Cheating defeats them all. Cheating is the ultimate hole card; merely consider Maricopa County this very week.
Cheating will always defeat even the most aggressive efforts to win elections – even if every such effort is executed perfectly. Even if Mitch McConnell were really a Republican.
The most recent example of efforts – beyond those to prevent cheating – include Republicans' newfound awareness of Democratic success – legal success – at capitalizing on their assault upon election integrity in 2020. And it is clear that Republicans must achieve success in this new world as well, understanding that collecting ballots is more important than winning hearts and minds or having well-attended rallies. Winners now win with ballot harvesting, ballot boxes, focused canvassing, early voting, mass ballot mailing, etc. Mastery of these new election mechanics is crucial to any future Republican success.
However, even if Republicans achieve success in this new arena, their electoral victories will be short-lived, because no matter how many votes or ballots Republicans deliver, Democrats will always find more – because Democrats will manufacture more – because Democrats cheat, and they do it well.
The same day, Josh Hammer insisted that Donald Trump should still be an example for Republicans to follow, even though most of his candidates lost on Election Day and nobody really likes him:
Trump's manifold personal flaws and recent headline-grabbing self-inflicted wounds aside, there is still much to learn from his dominance of the 2016 Republican presidential primary field. Trump ran to the "right" of his median competitor on some issues, such as immigration, but he ran well to the "left" of his median competitor on other issues, such as trade, health care and entitlements. On foreign policy, he was the most critical of all candidates on the debate stage of the instinctive ultra-hawkishness that had become post-Cold War GOP orthodoxy.
While it is impossible to ignore the dominant halo effect of Trump's global celebrity status, GOP primary voters also rallied to Trump's nationalist, populist strand of conservatism. He broke through the Democrats' Rust Belt "blue wall" in the general election, upsetting Hillary Clinton in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin (not coincidentally, all states that were disproportionate victims of globalization). He narrowly lost those same states in 2020, but all of them – along with Wisconsin's western neighbor, Minnesota – are now considerably closer each election cycle, in the age of this more nationalist and populist GOP, than they were during the "dead consensus"/"zombie Reaganism" years of the 1990s through the mid-2010s.
Joseph Farah spent his Dec. 5 column ranting that a push in some localities to lower the voting age to 16 is part of an evil democratic plot:
Beyond potentially gaining more votes by lowering the voting age, some observers see the Vote 16 push as part of Democrats' broader effort since the 2020 election cycle to change a host of voting rules, such as instituting universal mail-in voting.
Just last year, 125 House Democrats voted in favor of an amendment to the For the People Act, which included several Democrat-backed election rule changes, to add a provision to the legislation lowering the voting age for federal elections to 16.
It's coming. They're serious. They just never give up.
Andy Schlafly was still parroting Donald Trump's discredited election fraud narrative in his Dec. 6 column and ranting about early voting, basically arguing that Republicans can't win if more people are allowed to vote:
The unjustified suppression of free speech on social media and the exploitation of rampant early-voting ballots have severely tainted the last two elections. The sooner both problems can be rectified, the sooner election integrity will be restored.
Donald Trump's tweetstorm, not on Twitter but on his platform Truth Social, hit a nerve. Trump pointed out that "steps must be immediately taken to RIGHT THE WRONG. Only FOOLS would disagree with that and accept STOLEN ELECTIONS. MAGA!"
[...]
A record number of early ballots were cast in Georgia this year, more than during the pandemic in 2020, plus another 2 million early votes in the runoff. Some conservatives mistakenly think that the record early turnout in Georgia is the way of the future, when the real future for our nation is returning to one Election Day.
No wonder Republicans are losing Georgia. Republicans cannot win an election that has "record early voter turnout." As The Western Journal's Floyd Brown told Steve Bannon on "The War Room," there is no path for Republicans to win statewide elections in Arizona, Georgia and other must-win states without a return to in-person voting on Election Day.
Richard Blakley spent his Dec. 8 column similarly lashing out at early voting, effectively declaring that states who can't elect Republicans be kicked out of the union:
Florida's outcome, with its legal voting system, is in line with pre-election polling. But now, with the weeks of counting all the votes and the eyebrow raising "42 million" early votes, and stunning record-breaking numbers of absentee ballots being dropped off on Election Day, we are expected to believe that Republicans lost the U.S. Senate, and nearly failed to take the U.S. House, and many state legislatures and local elections flipped blue! That almost makes you think that someone counting Democratic ballots might have been messing with the figures, where if someone did a thorough check behind them they just might say, "Look, twins … again and again and again!"
Originally, to be a state in the union, there were a series of criterion, among which the petitioning territory had to show governance that prevented lawlessness, making it such that this territory had the capacity to interact lawfully with other states. If states cannot use their governance to insure legal voting, the most important aspect of being a part of a republic, then perhaps their statehood should be reexamined. Maybe it is time to drop some stars off the flag. At the very least, perhaps a probationary period needs to be instituted for states, whereby they can lose their statehood if they cannot get their act together and correct their lawlessness.
[...]
Maybe we can reconstruct some of the voting systems, by having strict voter ID requirements, strict laws against voter fraud, severe prison terms for anyone caught trying to commit voter fraud, no mail-in ballots sent to every voter, no ballot drop boxes, no ballet harvesting, no ballots accepted for days after Election Day and no counting relentlessly for days on end. This would be like putting the figures back where they need to be in a manger scene that has been dismantled. Perhaps by doing this, no one examining ballots in the future will have to say, "Look, twins."
Like Schlafly, Blakley is arguing that Republicans can't win if too many people are allowed to vote.
MRC Keeps Musk PR Machine Rolling To Promote 'Twitter Files' Topic: Media Research Center
Given how enthusiastically the Media Research Center promoted the first release of Elon Musk's "Twitter files" selectively released to hand-picked journalists, it was again more than willing to serve as Musk's servile stenographer to promote the second installment. Curtis Houck did the usual MRC thing of complaining that non-right-wing networks wouldn't take the bait while praising Fox News for falling into line:
On Thursday night, journalist Bari Weiss released the second batch of the Twitter Files that showed unequivocally that Twitter has not only blacklisted conservative and opposing views, but lied repeatedly to the world about shadowbanning. Not surprisingly, the major broadcast networks ABC, CBS, and NBC censored this story from their flagship Friday morning shows and continued to purposefully live in denial.
In turn, the tally for network coverage of the Twitter files remained at 26 seconds courtesy of Monday's CBS Mornings regarding first Twitter Files, which were releasedDecember 2 by Matt Taibbi.
The Fox News Channel’s Fox News @ Night provided an alternative approach by spending eight minutes and 53 seconds on Weiss’s reporting. Host Trace Gallagher shared in a tease on how they revealed “not only were conservative accounts blacklisted, but the highest levels of the company were involved in the censorship.”
Well, yes, "alternative approach" is one way to describe Fox's parroting right-wing talking points. Speaking of which, Joseph Vazquez served up exactly that:
Twitter owner Elon Musk dropped another batch of files exposing his predecessors for lying about the existence of the platform’s elusive shadowbanning operation.
Former New York Times editor Bari Weiss, who first reported on the second batch of Twitter files Dec. 8, noted that they show how Twitter employees “build blacklists, prevent disfavored tweets from trending, and actively limit the visibility of entire accounts or even trending topics—all in secret, without informing users.”
“Twitter executives have been lying to Congress and to the American public,” MRC Free Speech America Vice President Dan Schneider said. “This is an illegal fraud on all of us. DOJ, SEC, FTC and the FEC should immediately investigate for criminal and other violations of law.”
But as others have pointed out, there was nothing secret about any of this -- Twitter's terms of service specifically state that it may "limit the distribution or visibility" of any content on its site. And as others have also noted, this release actually shows how "Twitter spent years finding new and creative ways to keep large conservative and right-wing accounts on the site despite some pretty egregious behavior" -- something Houck and Vazquez will never admit.
Also note how Vazquez cites Weiss' former employment at the Times to boost her credibility. In fact, the MRC has been trying to promote her bid for victimhood after she made a show of quitting the Times because of criticism of her work, suggesting that she is very much a right-wing writer who is politically invested in the biased narrative Musk is pushing.
The MRC kept the PR campaign going while hiding reality:
Vazquez was back in PR mode for the third selective release of documents:
Twitter owner Elon Musk released through journalist Matt Taibbi yet another batch of documents revealing the sordid decision process by former executives to ban former President Donald Trump from the platform.
Taibbi, who reported on the new batch Dec. 9, said the documents reveal an “erosion of standards within the company in months before [the Capitol Hill riot], decisions by high-ranking executives to violate their own policies, and more, against the backdrop of ongoing, documented interaction with federal agencies.” The most damning was revealed when Taibbi noted that the “intellectual framework” behind banning and censoring Trump“was laid in the months preceding the Capitol riots.”
This was followed, of course, by the requisite whining that non-right-wing outlets weren't getting suckered into Musk's narrative. Alex Christy performed that duty:
The Saturday editions of the network morning shows concealed round three of The Twitter Files, where it was revealed that Twitter’s decision to ban former President Trump was the culmination a process that began well before January 6. Other things that ABC’s Good Morning America want to conceal include your face as prepare for your upcoming holiday festivities during flu season.
Christy didn't mention that Musk treating this release like a Friday news dump -- the time when bad news typically gets released because most journalists are done for the week and are slow to report on it -- pretty much guaranteed that coverage would be minimal. Yet the PR machine continued:
The MRC was also still complaining that people were pointing out that people really wanted to use the Hunter biden laptop story as an excuse to post pictures of Hunter Biden's penis. Jorge Bonilla was the designated whiner this time (also in Spanish):
Over two years have passed since Twitter censored the New York Post's story on Hunter Biden's "Laptop From Hell". We continue to learn about the internal processes behind the censorship, but CNN En Español insists on trying to avoid any substantive coverage of the story while gaslighting the public it claims to serve.
Whereas Univision and Telemundo simply avoided mention of the laptop and made their Twitter Files reporting all about Donald Trump, CNN En Español attempted to redirect the story by suggesting that the story was primarily about the sexually suggestive photos found in the laptop, as opposed to details about the peddling of influence while Joe Biden was Vice President of the United States.
[...]
[CNN En Español anchor Juan Carlos] Lopez' redirection is something to behold. Not only does he claim that there was nothing new in the first installment of the Twitter Files, but that the New York Post wasn't really censored, and that the decision to censor was about Hunter's skin pics.
Bonilla refused to acknowledge that people like right-wing actor James Woods were very much trying to post pictures of Hunter's schlong on Twitter, which does in fact violate policies against posting nude photos without the subject's consent.
CNS Calls On Right-Wing Jewish Group For Cleanup After Trump Leans Into Anti-Semitism Topic: CNSNews.com
CNSNews.com loves the right-wing Zionist Organization of America -- and, more specificially, ZOA's love of Donald Trump -- so much, it ran two separate articles on Trump receiving the exact same award from the group. So when CNS had to do cleanup after Trump leaned into anti-Semitism by claiming that American Jews aren't loyal enough to Israel at a ZOA event, managing editor Michael W. Chapman knew exactly who to call on to rebut the criticism in a Dec. 6 article:
The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), an American Jewish organization that defends the interests of Israel and Jewish people, denounced a letter from 12 Democrats that called on GOP congressional leaders to condemn alleged “anti-Semitic remarks” by former President Donald Trump.
The ZOA also praised Trump’s comments stressing that “there are many American Jews who are not doing the right thing for Israel, and some of them are even serving in Congress.”
After noting that the letter -- led by Rep. Steve Cohen, who is Jewish -- stated that Trump furthered an "anti-Semitic trope" by portraying Jews as having dual loyalty to the U.S. and Israel (as well as Trump's whining that American Jews tend to support Democrats), let ZOA attack Cohen without actually rebutting the specific claim:
Commenting on the letter, ZOA Director of Government Relations Dan Pollack said, “It is inappropriate for Congressman Cohen to use antisemitism as a political weapon. The fight against anti-Semitism is too important, with real victims in the United States, to deploy it like a hammer whenever a political rival speaks.”
“The comments of former President Trump are true,” said Pollack, “there are many American Jews who are not doing the right thing for Israel, and some of them are even serving in Congress.”
“Most of the signers of this letter by Rep. Cohen are reliable opponents of everything Israel does and have also signed letters threatening to reduce our strategic cooperation with Israel unless they adopt the policies advocated by Israel's enemies,” he added.
From there, Chapman helped ZOA play whataboutism by spouting old talking points:
In relation to perceived anti-Semites in Congress, Mort Klein, the ZOA’s national president, said, “ZOA strongly applauds Leader Kevin McCarthy for sending a clear and powerful message that there will be negative consequences to Jew-hatred and unwarranted Israel-bashing which undermine America’s longstanding position of maintaining strong U.S.-Israel relations as a bulwark of our Mideast policy.”
“We urge Leader McCarthy to remove other bigots Rashida Tlaib, AOC, Jamal Bowman, Cori Bush and Betty McCollum from their committees as well,” added Klein.
ZOA Board Chairman David Schoen noted the “classic anti-Semitism espoused by Rep. Omar,” and said Rep. Cohen’s “time would be much better spent clearing out the bigotry among his colleagues than playing politics with such an important subject.”
Chapman did not allow Cohen or anyone else respond to ZOA's attacks.
Interestingly, Chapman and CNS did not call on ZOA for cleanup duty after Trump dined with anti-Semites Kanye West and Nick Fuentes. Then again, CNS has been trying to censor that story.
Despite the fact that his recent forays into right-wing politics have notgone well, Chuck Norris is taking the next logical step: promoting films laden with false claims and conspiracy theories. Norris began his Dec. 5 WorldNetDaily column by touting:
Candace Owens is an amazing and insightful African American commentator on culture and politics. In 2020, she won Salem Media Group's prestigious national "Culture Warrior of the Year" Award.
In her recent documentary, "The Greatest Lie Ever Sold: George Floyd and the Rise of the BLM," she begins by quoting Malcolm X: "The media is the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent."
That's the truth. But it's only the initial descent down the rabbit hole of how Americans are being cheated, hoodwinked and controlled to believe what influential liberal powers in mainstream media and among the social elite want them to believe.
"The Greatest Lie Ever Sold" is about 80 minutes long and was released on Oct. 12. It has been hailed by many as "the best documentary of 2022." I highly recommend everyone watch it and make up your own mind about the evidence Candace and firsthand eyewitnesses reported. Watch just this official trailer and you'll wonder, "Was I duped, too?"
Meanwhile, actual film reviewers have a less generous view of Owen's screed:
Coming in at around 1 hour and 20 minutes, The Greatest Lie Ever Sold spends 40 of those minutes with Candace Owens attacking George Floyd’s character and repeating Conservative talking points about the man dying of Fentanyl poisoning and not Chauvin’s knee cutting off his air supply.
She then goes out of her way to paint Chauvin as this “good decent man who loved his mommy” and implies (heavily) that he’s an innocent man being sacrificed on the cross by “the system.” She talks to his mother, his co-workers, and friends, and literally does everything aside from showing him walking old ladies across the street and praying over homeless people. Meanwhile, she details Floyd’s life like he was a monster who needed to be put down.
Like most political propaganda, The Greatest Lie Ever Sold builds its case through lies by omission. Conspiracy theories that are able to take hold rest on small kernels of truth; facts that are exploited and decontextualized.
[...]
What seems to eat at Owens the most is that so many people across the country had compassion. She genuinely can’t believe that so many took to the streets on behalf of a flawed human being, a stranger. This solidarity—fighting for someone you don’t know—seems foreign to her. It can only be explained by manipulation.
[...]
In the end, Candace Owens is doing exactly what she thinks she’s exposing: lying to profit off a Black man’s untimely death.
In other words, hardly a fair and balanced portrayal. Yet Norris' levels of gush over the film got embarrassingly high: "When my wife, Gena, and I viewed the documentary film, our jaws dropped, our heads spun, and our hearts were inspired to tell others about this insightful exposé." Needless to say, there was no mention of Owen's palling artound with anti-Semite Kanye West or her attempt to unload failing social media site Parler (run by her husband, George Farmer) onto Ye which was abandoned after he went full anti-Semite.
If Norris proved himself to be a right-wing mark for gushing over Owen's film, he proved to be absolutely gullible in his praise for another film:
The second documentary film I encourage everyone to watch and investigate for themselves is "Died Suddenly," which was released on Nov. 21 and is produced by the Stew Peters Network, the same award-winning team that brought us "Watch The Water" and "These Little Ones."
Stew Peters is a former bounty hunter turned American media personality. His radio show is simply called the "Stew Peters Show," which airs weekdays.
The core of "Died Suddenly," a one-hour engaging documentary, is this: 68.5% of the world population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. 13.01 billion doses have been administered globally, and 2.37 million are now administered each day. At least 262,908,216 Americans, or 79% of the U.S. population, have received at least one dose, according to USA Facts.
The crazy thing is this, and it's a global phenomenon: Healthy adults are dropping dead everywhere. There has been a rise in "sudden deaths" around the world, both in younger and older people, and vaccines might be largely to blame.
Actually, that's not happening. "Died Suddenly," meanwhile, is a discredied rehash of anti-vaxx conspiracy theories, featuring footage of people who didn't die but merely fainted and footage of people taken before the COVID pandemic started, and Stew Peters is a guy who loves to spew conspiracy theories.
Before vouching for thefilm, though, Norris attempted a disclaimer of sorts:
Please don't misunderstand. I know there are a lot of polarities regarding vaccines, and I respect those on each side of the debate. But I truly believe this information I share here is critical for those on both the right and the left in making medical decisions for themselves and their loved ones. Please hear out what I say and Stew Peter's film conveys before making a judgment.
But Norris simply recited claims from the film and censored any of the criticism of bogus fottage and bogus claims. Rather than tell his readers the truth, Norris concluded with more gushing:
One could rightfully say, if Candace Owen's documentary is about "The Greatest Lie Ever Told," Stew Peter's film might just be about "The Second Greatest Lie Ever Told."
The fact is, especially when it comes to the bias teamwork of mainstream media and government officials, we need to do what the Bible says: "Test all things and hold fast to that which is good."
Don't believe something just because one so-called "government expert" said it. Don't let politicians or pundits sway your opinion. Do your own homework, and don't rely on biased algorithms to yield your searches. Weigh the pros vs. the cons. Don't be medically forced to make decisions by peer or social pressure. Most of all, don't check your will and brain in at the door, especially when so many people are mysteriously dying around the world.
Listen also to the firsthand testimonies and experts from many fields in the film, "Died Suddenly"; then make up your mind about yours and your loved ones' health.
No rationl human being would subject themselves to such dishonesty. But Norris chose to go down that conspiracy rabbit hole -- and now he demands that you do as well. No wonder he's stuck writing columns for WND.
NEW ARTICLE: The MRC's Childish Ratings War Against CNN Topic: Media Research Center
If you're immaturely gloating that CNN's ratings are bad (and smearing its leader with anti-Semitic tropes) while cheering about how much better Fox News' ratings are, you're not involved in doing "media research" -- you are partisan hacks. Read more >>
MRC Served As DeSantis' Campaign Press Agent Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center's DeSantis Defense Brigade was keptquitebusy in 2022 putting out various fires the right-wing Republican Florida governor started and proving that, as with Donald Trump, there is nothing so offensive that DeSantis can do that the MRC won't try to defend. And given that DeSantis was running for re-election, the Defense Brigade stepped things up on the way to the midterms to shout down criticism and opposition. Curtis Houck served as DeSantis' press agent in an Oct. 3 post praising the governor for lashing out at criticism of his handling of recovery efforts after Hurricane Ian hit the state:
Over the weekend, the liberal media made the pivot to pin blame for Hurricane Ian’s catastrophic destruction and loss of life in Florida n Governor Ron DeSantis (R) and Lee County officials. CNN was naturally part of this campaign Sunday afternoon as they sent correspondent Nadia Romero to confront DeSantis. Spoiler alert: It didn’t go well for them as DeSantis wiped the floor with the assembled journalists.
CNN chief carnival barker Jim Acosta tossed to Romero in the 4:00 p.m. Eastern hour after he led off his newscast by insisting Florida officials “are facing mounting questions about the timing of their mandatory evacuation orders” in Lee County.
Romero began with snark: “Why do you stand behind Lee County's decision to not have that mandatory evacuation until the day before the storm?”
Showing why he’s more polished than anyone in politics and seen by many conservatives as their top 2024 pick, DeSantis promptly wiped the floor: “[W]here was your industry station when the storm hit? Were you guys in Lee County? No, you were in Tampa. So, that's — yeah, they were following the weather track and they had to make decisions based on that.”
DeSantis added that, 72 hours from landfall, the area wasn’t “even in the cone” and “the periphery” at 48 hours, “[s]o, you’ve got to make the decisions the best you can.”
Alex Christy served up more post-Ian cleanup for DeSantis in a Oct. 5 post, complaining that PolitiFact called DeSantis' complaint about Lee County not being in the cone until three days before the hurricane hit was "mostly false" because part of the county actually was; Christiy whined that this part is merely "an uninhabited state park." Kathleen Krumhansl, meanwhile, huffed in an Oct. 6 post (also in Spanish):
The want for a steady audience to ensure their networks' survival got the best of Univision and Telemundo’s newsrooms during their reports this week about four looters -- three of whom are undocumented migrants -- that were arrested in the hurricane-ravaged community of Fort Myers, Florida.
As part of their efforts to portray Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) as anti-immigrant -- and imply the lootings were justifiable -- the scripts at both networks went from accusing DeSantis of seizing on the arrest of the looters in order to trash undocumented migrants, to hinting that the thieves were acting on their emotions, to saying for a fact that DeSantis had not seen “the recovery efforts involving tens, hundreds of Hispanics”.
[...]
In effect, the takes were a colossal insult for the hard-working, law-abiding Latinos watching the news reports that aired as part of Telemundo and Univision's coverage of President Biden's visit to Florida on Wednesday, October 5th.
To make matters worse and drive the corporate media's talking points of DeSantis being anti-migrant, Telemundo reporter Rogelio Mora-Tagle lumped all immigrants -- legal and illegal -- into one group.
Krumhansl then cranked out a statement that was worthy of a DeSantis campaign ad:
Missing from the report: the fact that since day one, Governor DeSantis has been on the ground (including in Ft. Myers) coordinating and participating in recovery efforts involving tens, hundreds of Hispanics, along with people of all races and backgrounds that have come together as one to help their fellow Americans in a moment of tragedy.
That should be the focus at Univision and Telemundo in applauding the good deeds and calling out crime for what it is: punishable by law.
Houck spent an Oct. 25 post raging that TV news dared to mention DeSantis' opponent:
On Tuesday morning, the “big three” of ABC, CBS, and NBC engaged in a comical and hopeless rescue mission to convince viewers that turncoat and Congressman Charlie Crist (D-FL) has a chance to retake Florida’s governorship against incumbent Governor Ron DeSantis (R) thanks to a debate in which Crist attacked the “firebrand” DeSantis over his “controversial policies” and possible 2024 bid for president.
ABC’s Good Morning America was most enthusiastic about Crist. Co-host and former Clinton official George Stephanopoulos boasted in a tease: “Florida face-off. Overnight, Governor Ron DeSantis and Charlie Crist in their only debate in the race for governor. The economy and abortion take center stage with polls in the Sunshine State open.”
After Stephanopoulos said at the onset of the segment that it was “an explosive debate,” chief White House correspondent Cecilia Vega insisted DeSantis has “a commanding lead in the polls,” but nonetheless tried to make a mountain out of a mole hill.
"That "mole hill" was DeSantis refusing to say that he would fill out his entire term and not quit in the middle of it to runfor president in 2024. Houck's whining continued:
CBS Mornings had an extended news brief on the foray. Co-host and Democratic donor Gayle King lamented in the “Eye Opener” that DeSantis was “running for a second term, but refusing to say if he'll run for president.”
Co-host Nate Burleson boasted of “fireworks” in which “DeSantis sparred with...Crist on issues like inflation, immigration, and the state’s response to Hurricane Ian.”
Again doing Crist’s bidding, Burleson made the only soundbite about Crist’s desperate focus on 2024 and praised it as “heated.”
Houck unironically claiming that the shows were " simping for liberals," apparenly oblivious to the fact that he's simping for DeSantis.
Clay Waters whined about the New York Times' coverage of the DeSantis-Crist debate in an Oct. 28 post:
New York Times reporters Patricia Mazzei and Maggie Astor reported on Monday evening’s one and only debate in the Florida governor’s race, pitting sitting Republican Ron DeSantis against Democrat and former state governor Charlie Crist.
But under the guise of fighting misinformation on abortion and transgender issues by Ron DeSantis, the reporters spread their own.
They even questioned the moderator’s impartiality (dimissed as “working the referees” when done by conservative candidates) noting the moderator’s connection to Sinclair, a television news conglomerate (regularly targeted by the Times) that doesn’t follow conventional liberal media wisdom.
[...]
They half-heartedly tried to boost Crist’s ridiculous assertions that DeSantis “ignored science” by defying the liberal lust for lockdowns during the height of the Covid crisis, and that DeSantis’s impressive response to Hurricane Ian was grievously flawed.
Houck served up more DeSantis simping in a Nov. 3 post:
For anyone who’s been censored, dismissed, mocked, and trashed for opposing the initial, conventional wisdom on the coronavirus pandemic, Thursday’sCBS Mornings brought about some schadenfreude as co-host Tony Dokoupil went to Florida and found that Governor Ron DeSantis’s (R-FL) policies on the virus were not only popular, but even admitted that he might have been right.
Dokoupil said on one of two teases that COVID-19 “hit Florida hard, but Governor Ron DeSantis says he took the right approach for the state’s economy,” adding he would “show how pandemic politics are playing into the race for governor.”
He explained at the onset that “we are going to begin this hour with the legacy of COVID” as Florida “had the 12th highest death rate in the country, 382 fatalities for every 100,000 people, according to the CDC” while, “at the same time, Governor Ron DeSantis says he was right to reopen the state’s economy and remove restrictions long before many of his more cautious peers.”
Having a higher COVID death rate than 37 other states is hardly anything to brag about, let alone evidence that DeSantis was "right," but you be you, Curt.
Tim Graham spent a Nov. 7 post whining about supposed "hit pieces in the last weekend of the campaign" in both the New York Times and the Washington Post. Houck returned for another simping post on Nov. 8 gloating that a newscast apparently "couldn’t find a single hater of Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) and open supporter for his opponent, Congressman Charlie Crist (D-FL)."
The MRC also made sure to simp and gloat when DeSantis handily won re-election. Nicholas Fondacaro cheered that "DeSantis winning a majority of Latinos in his runaway victory against Democrat Charlie Crist" was "a bright spot in what turned out to be wet blanket Election Day for Republicans," while Christy complained that Republican strategist Ana Navarro pointed out that DeSantis "gamed the system" by changing election laws, huffing in response: "Sounds like DeSantis won because of a combination of his own strengths and Democratic weakness, not gaming the system, but that Navarro just doesn’t want to admit it."
By now millions of Americans well-informed about the pandemic know that the cheap, safe and effective generic medicine ivermectin (IVM) was blocked for wide-scale use from the very beginning by the federal government. It was a critical but medically wrong tactic within the wait-for-the-vaccine strategy. Preventing early use of IVM has surely killed and harmed hundreds of thousands of Americans. A few courageous doctors have successfully been using IVM during the pandemic, but most feared punishment as they lost their medical freedom.
Now comes a mind-boggling statement from an attorney defending the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in a lawsuit brought by three doctors. The following statement should be copied and used by both doctors and individuals to freely prescribe and use IVM in the earliest stage of COVID infection as an antiviral. It always should have been seen as an alternative to experimental, unsafe and ineffective COVID vaccines.
Here are the amazing words of the federal attorney:
"The cited statements were not directives. They were not mandatory. They were recommendations. They said what parties should do. They said, for example, why you should not take ivermectin to treat COVID-19," Isaac Belfer, a lawyer defending FDA, told the court. "They did not say you may not do it, you must not do it. They did not say it's prohibited or it's unlawful. They also did not say that doctors may not prescribe ivermectin."
Imagine that! So, let truth prevail. Let national access to IVM begin!
As we've pointed out, the doctors who brought the lawsuit were never actually barred from prescribing ivermectin (despite the fact that there's little credible evidence that it works on COVID) and that the FDA lawyer's statement does not constitute a change in position.
Nevertheless, Hirschhorn managed to twist this to his own person anti-Fauci obsession: "No matter what is now being said as some type of excuse for killing people, what should remain a priority is criminally prosecuting Anthony Fauci."
Hirschhorn had more bogus claims to peddle in his Dec. 12 column:
Dr. Eric Nepute is the very first doctor the federal government has come after, accusing him of violating the 2020 COVID Consumer Protection Act. His case takes the form of civil action by the Federal Trade Commission.
According to the commission's complaint, Nepute and his company marketed vitamin D and zinc products under the brand name "Wellness Warrior" and claimed they were as effective – or more – than vaccines that are currently available.
The FTC said among Nepute and Quickwork's bogus claims were that "COVID-19 patients who get enough vitamin D are 52% less likely to die," those who get enough vitamin D are 77% less likely to get the disease and that his Wellness Warrior vitamin D product is more effective at preventing COVID-19 than approved vaccines.
It's not until the seventh paragraph of his column that Hirschhorn mentions in passing one significant issue (not that he sees it as one, of course): Nepute is a chiropractor, not a medical doctor. Hirschhorn never asks any anyone should take advice on infections from a chiropractor whose field of study has nothing whatsoever to do with treating COVID. Meanwhile, here in the real world, actual medical doctors say zinc and vitamin D in and of themselves cannot prevent or treat COVID, though maintaining recommended levels of them may helpreduce disease severity.
Further, Hirschhorn's overly narrow focus on what Nepute said about vitamin D and zinc (though no evidence is provided to back up the numbers they cite) hides the fact that Nepute has spread many other lies as well. According to FactCheck.org, Nepute has falsely claimed thatthe Delta variant was not more contagious than original COVID (in fact, it was twice as contagious), falsely claimed that children were being taken from their parents in Australia over COVID safety and spread misinformation about mask mandates and masks themselves.
If Nepute is willing to lie and mislead about so many other things, why should anyone trust that his pills work against COVID? Hirschhorn doesn't answer that, of course; instead, he called for readers to read the FTC complaint against Nepute, adding: "See how your government works so hard to defend COVID vaccines against effective and safer alternatives. What a disgrace. Meanwhile, COVID vaccines will keep harming and killing people."
Of course, linking to the complaint doesn't exactly help Nepute's (or Hirschhorn's) cause, given how it documents how the claims he makes about his pills aren't supported by the evidence.Hirschhorn also made no mention of the fact that Nepute is in further trouble because he continued to make false claims about his pill despite having previously agreed in a consent decree with the FTC not to claim his pills could treat or cure COVID.
Then again, when has Hirschhorn ever been constrained by facts and reality about COVID?
MRC Whines That Hate Speech At Musk's Twitter Is Being Called Out -- But Doesn't Disprove It Topic: Media Research Center
As part of the Media Research Center's Elon Musk hero worship and defense operation, Catherine Salgado complained in a Dec. 6 post:
The New York Times cited leftist groups to bash Elon Musk’s Twitter, claiming more free speech has led to a supposed escalation of “hate speech” online.
In its Dec. 2 article, “Hate Speech’s Rise on Twitter Is Unprecedented, Researchers Find,” The New York Times cited leftist groups the Center for Countering Digital Hate and the Anti-Defamation League(ADL) to allege that hate speech has skyrocketed on new Twitter CEO Elon Musk’s watch.
Musk previously challenged the claim that hate speech increased under his watch when he tweeted a graph Nov. 23. “Hate speech impressions down by 1/3 from pre-spike levels,” he tweeted. “Congrats to Twitter team!” Researchers admitted that the supposed surge of hate speech began before Musk loosened Twitter’s speech restrictions, according to The Times.
One of the “experts” The Times cited to bash Twitter is the UK-based Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH). The biased and discredited CCDH released a February report urging more censorship called “ The Toxic Ten” of supposed “climate change denial.” The list targeted conservative outlets including Media Research Center, Breitbart, and The Daily Wire.
Actually, the MRC never "discredited" the CCDH's report exposing how it and other right-wing media outlets spread misinformation about climate change -- the MRC's over-the-top reaction to being named in the report demonstrated how it cannot handle criticism. Salgado continued:
“Problematic content and formerly barred accounts have increased sharply in the short time since Elon Musk took over,” The Times claimed. The outlet specifically mentioned anti-Semitism in connection to CCDH and ADL research and Kanye “Ye” West, whom Musk suspended.
Salgado went on to complain: "'Problematic content and formerly barred accounts have increased sharply in the short time since Elon Musk took over,' The Times claimed. The outlet specifically mentioned anti-Semitism in connection to CCDH and ADL research and Kanye 'Ye' West, whom Musk suspended." Salgado didbn't mention that Ye's anti-Semitism surfaced in early October (which her co-workers had trouble denouncing) but it wasn't until Dec. 2 -- just a few days before her post -- when Ye tweeted out a swastika, that Musk suspended his account.
Salgado whined further about the CCDH, adding whataboutism to the mix:
Further, the article seemingly equated “QAnon” and “Islamic State” accounts, which The Times noted have resurfaced or purchased verification on Twitter. The Times did not complain about Iran’s anti-Semitic Ayatollah Khamenei, who has not been banned on Twitter and never was prior to Musk’s takeover. But bias is expected in an article citing the CCDH.
“Elon Musk sent up the Bat Signal to every kind of racist, misogynist and homophobe that Twitter was open for business,” said Imran Ahmed, the chief executive of CCDH. “They have reacted accordingly.”
At no point in all her complaining, however, did Salgado even bother to make an effort to disprove anything the CCDH said about the growth of hate speech at Twitter under Musk. Similarly, she complained that "Yael Eisenstat, a vice president at the ADL, whined that Musk didn’t seem interested in the group’s pro-censorship proposals when they met" -- but she didn't disprove anything he said either.
Then again, bias is expected when the MRC is defending Musk and lashing out at his critics -- even if it can't prove they did anything wrong or offered incorrect information.
Elon Musk's selectively released "Twitter files" is not the only Hunter Biden-related narrative the Media Resarch Center pushed in the final few months of 2022 (while whining that it was not inaccurately made into a right-wing obsession with Hunter's genitals). Its Hunter Biden Derangement Syndrome continued to reign at the MRC since the last time we checked in, with lots of complaining that the non-right-wing media was ignoring whatever minor development was blowing up in their right-wing media bubble. 
CNSNews.com 
WorldNetDaily 
As the selectively released "Twitter files" continued to roll out to Elon Musk's handpicked journalists, the Media Research Center kept cranking out the stenography, as well as the usual whining that non-right-wing media outlets weren't parroting Musk's narrative:
For the past three years, CNSNews.com 
For years, the Media Research Center 
The midterm elections may have taken place in November, but WorldNetDaily has 
Given 
CNSNews.com loves the right-wing Zionist Organization of America -- and, more specificially, ZOA's love of Donald Trump -- so much, it ran 
Despite the fact that his recent forays into right-wing politics 
The Media Research Center's DeSantis Defense Brigade was 
Prolific
As part of the Media Research Center's Elon Musk hero worship and defense operation, Catherine Salgado complained in a Dec. 6 
