MRC Still Bummed About Carlson's Firing, But Excited For His Twitter Return Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center's overallsad over Fox News firing Tucker Carlson continued for weeks after his firing. Nicholas Fondacaro was overjoyed in a May 9 post when Carlson announced he was starting a new show on Twitter:
After Tucker Carlson was unceremoniously fired from Fox News two weeks ago, speculation swirled about where he would land. Many on the right thought he would be snatched up by a competitor like Newsmax, while detractors on the left fantasized about him going to a Russian-state media outlet. But on Tuesday, Carlson announced that he struck a deal with Twitter owner Elon Musk to bring the show to the free speech platform. This all comes as Carlson alleged fraud and contract violation by Fox News.
Tucker began his video announcement by declaring what many know to be true: “the news is full of lies” and notation that “you are being manipulated” by the news media.
Unmentioned by both Carlson and Fondacaro was the fact that Fox News has been a major source of those lies. The Dominion defamation lawsuit revealed how Fox News staffers and on-air talent knew that Donald Trump was wrong about the election being stolen but deliberately hid that from its viewers.Fondacaro only obliquely referring to this in noting that "Carlson’s lawyers delivered an 'aggressive letter' to Fox News alleging fraud and contract breaches stemming from their recent $787.5 million defamation settlement with Dominion Voting Systems."
Luis Cornelio spent a May 11 post noting that not everyone is as excited about Tucker's return as right-wingers like him are:
Twitter exploded with reactions over former Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s decision to take his new show to the Elon Musk-owned platform.
Leftists are triggered by Carlson’s announcement that he will continue his show amid his abrupt exit from Fox News. The news was, as expected, met with hilarious animosity from fringe Twitter keyboard-warrior leftists — including Occupy Democrats, the infamous Alex Vindman and anti-speech advocates — who apparently couldn’t handle the fact that Tucker won’t be silenced and now are railing at Musk for supposedly promoting racism and so-called “hate.”
After conceding that Twitter chief Elon Musk has "clarified" there is no deal between Twitter and Carlson, Cornelio tried to portray Tucker on Twitter as some kind of threat to non-right-wingers:
Leftist talking heads understand how Carlson and Musk could threaten their monopoly over online information, which could explain Jack Posobiec. “Bring back Twitter streaming,” Posobiec tweeted. “Launch Twitter Live apps for Roku, Fire, Apple TV, etc Become the greatest video platform in the universe.”
A May 17 post by Tim Graham complained that former CBS anchor Katie Couric pointed out that Carlson "can't really be rehabilitated" due to his penchant to "lie to the public."Of course, he used whataboutism to deflect from all that:
Earlier in the show, Couric brought up the Dominion suit against Fox, suggesting Carlson may have been canceled due to some "pretty gross communiques" that were revealed in discovery. Couric said John Ellis, a former Fox News employee who's part of the extended Bush family -- and who she said officiated her 2014 wedding to John Molner -- told her the anchors at Fox had an “outsized influence,” and she remarked “it sounds like the inmates are running the asylum.”
She added "The audience is programming Fox News, not the other way around. They were so craven and desperate for ratings, and so desperate for holding on to viewers that they sold their souls."
That's a little rich, all the preaching about pandering to an ideological audience, as if she never did that at NBC or CBS. As for misinforming people, in 2016, Couric had to apologize for mangling video of her interview with gun-rights activists in Virginia.
Recall that Graham complained less about Fox News getting caught lying and more about those lies giving Fox News critics a legitimate argument against it, then ultimately declared that it didn't matter because Fox News viewers like him put right-wing narratives ahead of reporting facts.
Kevin Tober used a May 22 post to hype a "Tucker insider" making unsupported claims about why Carlson was fired:
On Monday, former Fox News host Tucker Carlson retweeted a video by author and Spectator contributor Chadwick Moore who revealed the title of his new biography on the former Fox News star. Within the two-minute video, Moore revealed that his sources told him that Carlson was fired due to the demands of voting machine software company Dominion as a condition of their settlement with Fox.
“I have spent the last researching and writing this book and during that time, I’ve gotten to know Tucker, his family, his friends, and his staff very well. In fact, I’ve gotten to know Tucker the person, not the character that his enemies try to portray. I was working closely with Tucker when he was taken off the air by Fox,” Moore revealed when giving viewers details about his new book.
In addition, Moore also revealed he’s “seen the monologue that Tucker planned to deliver on Monday, April 24 before his show was abruptly taken off the air.”
“That monologue dealt with among other things, investigations around January 6 and particularly Ray Epps. The only person captured on video inciting people to violence at the capitol that day and allegedly an FBI informant who still hasn’t been arrested or charged,” Moore added.
Speculation from Carlson has previously given the MRC license to dabble in Ray Epps conspiracy theories. Tober did note that both Fox News and Dominion have denied that Carlson's firing was a condition of the Dominion settlement.
Newsmax Hides Full Truth About Its Serbia Deal Topic: Newsmax
An April 25 Newsmax article hyped a Newsmax deal in Europe:
Newsmax Media Inc., a leading U.S. cable news and digital media company, and Telecom Serbia, one of the largest fixed, mobile, internet, and multimedia service companies in Southeastern Europe, have signed an agreement for a multi-year license that will allow Telecom Serbia to broadcast Newsmax content to its customers.
“Newsmax is excited about its partnership with Telecom Serbia, which has become an impressive player in numerous European markets,” Christopher Ruddy, CEO of Newsmax Media Inc., said.
Ruddy added: “Newsmax saw this agreement as both an opportunity to join with a respected leader in multimedia, Telecom Serbia, but also to strengthen America’s ties with the people of Serbia and the Balkans. The United States and Serbia were allies in both World Wars, share a common desire to overcome the destructive legacy of communism in East Europe, and both continue to support democratic societies. We believe that millions of Americans, Serbs, and others will see us as an important source of information that they can trust.”
Newsmax had Telecom Serbia's director of multimedia on a Newsmax show the same day to tout the deal:
"I have to say that we are so proud that of our cooperation between Telecom Serbia and Newsmax and of the fact that Newsmax has chosen Telecom Serbia as a partner, Aleksandra Martinovic said Tuesday on "John Bachman Now.""The launch of the whole project is planned by the end of the year, and I'm completely, completely convinced that results will be significant."
Telecom Serbia reaches 11 million views and is "trying to enrich its media portfolio," Martinovic, said. "So besides Newsmax, we also have a partnership with Bloomberg, and with Euronews and in that way we provide to our users the most exclusive news from big business and from politics."
Currency and speed are vital, she noted "and that is the reason why Telecom Serbia chooses the best professional partners who can provide all of that."
But there's more to this story that Newsmax isn't telling you. Telecom Serbia is owned by the Serbian government, and Serbian Presient Aleksandar Vucic has been using it as a political weapon to squelch media criticism.One of Vucic's targets has been United Group, a privately owned company that operates a Telecom Serbia competitor, Serbia Broadband; a deal Telecom Serbia signed in 2021 had the apparent goal of reducing SBB's reach. United Group also happens to be the company with which Newsmax signed its initial distribution deal in the region in 2020 to create a channel called Newsmax Adria, which aired on SBB.
This means Newsmax is moving its programming from an outlet targeted by an oppressive Serbian government to one owned by that very same oppressive government in an apparent bid for greater reach. Not exactly a good look.
MRC Again Hides Meta Using GOP Firm To Attack TikTok Topic: Media Research Center
In March, the Media Research Center claimed that "Eight Big Tech companies and one tech industry group all went radio silent when MRC Free Speech America asked whether communist Chinese government-tied TikTok should be banned in the U.S." One of those companies was Facebook. Luis Cornelio wrote a follow-up in a May 8 post:
Meta is finally speaking up about the dangers of the communist Chinese government-tied TikTok.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is seeking new restrictions on Facebook, one of the companies owned by Meta, after the Big Tech giant allegedly failed to adhere to a 2020 settlement worth $5 billion over data privacy violations.
In response, Meta instead pointed a finger at TikTok. The anti-free speech tech giant Meta broke its silence on TikTok five weeks after MRC Free Speech America sought the company’s takeon the communist Chinese government-tied app.
Meta conveniently dubbed the FTC’s push to impose new sanctions — including barring both Facebook and Instagram from profiting off data of users under the age of 18 — “a political stunt.” It then slammed the consumers' protection agency for attempting to thwart Congressional authority and giving the communist Chinese government-tied TikTok app cover.
[...]
The company’s surprising reference to TikTok echoes similar remarks made by another Meta executive. Meta’s head of global affairs Nick Clegg questioned TikTok’s values in an interview with Bloomberg TV on April 25. Clegg also criticized China for blocking companies like Meta from operating in their authoritarian nation.
In fact, it's not surprising at all. Corneliio didn't mention that -- as ConWebWatch has documented -- Meta has long been critical of its business rival, to the point that it paid Republican marketing firm Targeted Victory to spread fear about TikTok and its Chinese ownership. The MRC's own anti-TikTok coverage has hewed closely to that Facebook-purachased narrative, which suggests Targeted Victory may have had a hand in shaping it.
Meanwhile -- in apparent attempt to maintain plausible deniability -- Cornelio made sure to insert some criticism of TikTok:
MRC Free Speech America & MRC Business Director Michael Morris acknowledged Meta’s attempt to draw attention to the dangers of TikTok but also blasted Facebook for its anti-free speech record.
“Glad to see Meta is now on board with calling out TikTok for the dangers it poses to American citizens. The federal government would do well to take note,” said Morris. “But as for the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, its latest revelation on TikTok doesn’t absolve it from its radical anti-free speech past.”
Morris knows, or should know, that Facebook/Meta has been attacking TikTok for years using a GOP marketing firm, so it's dishonest of him to claim that it's only just now "calling out TikTok."
WorldNetDaily is a fan of Robert Kennedy Jr.'s anti-vaxxer nuttiness -- so much so that it censored his ludicrous comparison of vaccine mandates to the Holocaust -- so it's not a surprise it's a fan of his presidential bid. Not that it actually wants him to win, mind you, but because he's riding his family name to act as a spoiler to President Biden's re-election bid. An April 20 article by Peter LaBarbera touted his announcement speech while downplaying the anti-vaxxer conspiracy stuff:
In a nearly two-hour speech that was equal parts history lesson, bleeding-heart liberalism, criticism of "crony capitalism," and pro-liberty talking points that would find agreement among conservatives and libertarians, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. announced his candidacy for the Democrat nomination for presidency in Boston Wednesday.
[...]
The main theme of Kennedy's speech was that a "corrupt merger of ... state and corporate power" is abusing American freedoms, decimating the middle class, and causing a "toxic" polarization of society.
Kennedy is an acclaimed environmental advocate, receiving accolades for legal actions that forced the clean up of the Hudson River of pollutants. He is also chairman of the board and the chief prosecuting attorney for Children's Health Defense, a group he founded in 2011 under a different name. CHD gained significant influence and support during the COVID pandemic by questioning the safety and efficacy of the rushed vaccines. In August 2022, Facebook and Instagram de-platformed the group for alleged "misinformation" just when Americans were increasingly questioning the government's "misinformation" regarding the safety of the COVID shots.
[...]
The Hill reports on a new poll that shows Robert Kennedy, Jr. already has sizeable support among Democrat voters.
"In a USA Today/Suffolk University poll, 14 percent of surveyed voters who backed President Biden in 2020 said they would support Kennedy in 2024," the Hill reported Wednesday. Williamson, who ran for president in 2019, polled at five percent.
An April 27 column by Ilana Mercer fretted that Kennedy would be the next victim of the establishment after Tucker Carlson:
Fox News is an echo of the Republican Party, which serves the deep, warfare, industry-captured state.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., on the other hand, is "a choice, not an echo."
One need not agree with every word Kennedy spoke in a pellucid address announcing for president, almost two hours long, delivered extemporaneously, to grasp that, on the defining issues of our time, almost all of which he addressed in depth and in detail, Robert F. Kennedy is right and righteous.
Of the welter of words spoken so very beautifully – for a man with a disorder of the vocal cords – Kennedy Jr. underplayed perhaps two issues and failed to mention but one crucial matter, while delivering a riveting information-dense address, at once deep and philosophical, yet wise and pragmatic, undergirded by historic and constitutional truth. Tactical to boot.
[...]
On second thought, and for now, I retract my implicit insinuation that Kennedy had omitted to address the war on whites and on law-and-order – for he may have opted to do so tactically and indirectly. Kennedy is hardly sanguine about the "garrison and surveillance state" America has become, noting that, "Being an imperium abroad will destroy democracy, turn America into a garrison and surveillance state." Kennedy's condemnation and contempt for the fulsome, foul Democratic Party was complete, calling it deliciously the party of "fear, war and censorship … neocons with woke bobble-heads."
For now, I charitably conclude that this gifted man has simply hit on a way to approach the war on whites and on law enforcement in a less divisive and direct manner, using proxy issues. Kennedy thus spoke as passionately and deliberately about the impoverished whites of Appalachia – they were as much Kennedy constituents as the poor of Southeast Washington, D.C.
Daniel McCarthy hyped Kennedy's candidacy in his May 1 column:
Joe Biden is a nostalgia president. He's a link to the Obama era, of course. But he's also a living reminder of the days when Democrats were automatically the party of white ethnics, especially Irish Catholics.
For senior white voters in the Democratic coalition, the professed Catholic and Irish-ish Biden is an older, lesser Kennedy – but an heir to JFK nonetheless.
Only now Biden has to contend with a real Kennedy for next year's Democratic presidential nomination.
McCarthy then tried to hang Kennedy's conspiracy theories aroud Democrats:
Robert Kennedy Jr.'s penchant for "conspiracy theories" leads Biden-friendly commentators and political strategists to dismiss him.
He threatens to spoil their myth that Republicans are the crazy party, whether or not he poses any risk to Biden.
But in fact conspiracy theories have as much of a home in the Democratic Party as in the GOP, if not more of one.
The difference is that Democratic conspiracy theories, such as those alleging Russian responsibility for the election of Donald Trump in 2016, often come with the imprimatur of prestigious media outlets.
RFK Jr., on the other hand, is a Democrat whose conspiratorial beliefs don't dependably align with the elite media's prejudices. He's long believed that vaccines contribute to autism. And he's a fiery critic of Anthony Fauci and the response by government and the medical establishment to COVID-19.
Views like those are supposed to be the province of QAnon, not Democratic primary voters, according to the commentators who routinely burnish the party's image – and tarnish the GOP's.
Just a couple problems with that: The only people actively promoting Kennedy's candidacy are right-wingers like McCarthy, Mercer and WND -- because they want him to be a Biden spoiler, not because they actually want him to be president -- and the rest of the Kennrdy family has rejected his conspiracy theories.
A May 1 "news" article by LaBarbera helped Kennedy play victim by complaining that non-right-wing media called out Kennedy's anti-vaxxer lies:
ABC News refused to air a portion of its interview with Robert Kennedy, Jr., the recently announced Democrat primary challenger to Joe Biden, because it disagreed with his criticism of COVID vaccines.
Rather than play the full interview so that viewers could evaluate Kennedy's own words, ABC chose to censor them, with reporter Linsey Davis giving what Kennedy said was a "defamatory disclaimer" on air: “[W]e should note that during our conversation, Kennedy made false claims about the COVID-19 vaccines. We’ve used our editorial judgment in not including extended portions of that exchange in our interview,” she said in the interview published April 27.
Davis added, “[Kennedy] also made misleading claims about the relationship between vaccination and autism. Research shows that vaccines and the ingredients used in the vaccines do not cause autism, including multiple studies involving more than a million children and major medical associations like the American Academy of Pediatrics and the advocacy group Autism Speaks,” according to an Epoch Times report on the manipulated interview.
[...]
As WND and others have reported, there is a growing skepticism in the medical field of the government's COVID vaccine narrative that the shots are "safe and effective" — repeated ad nauseam in the last two years and now again by Davis. Dissenting doctors like Peter McCullough have earned the respect of many millions worldwide by bucking the government line on COVID and simply informing the public of the risks associated with the shots, including a spike in "sudden deaths" and myocarditis injuries thought to be a product of the vaccines.
McCullough, of course, is another anti-vaxxer WND has promoted, which means he has not "earned the respect" of anyone notable.
Joe Kovacs gave Kennedy space to spout yet another conspiracy theory in a May 7 article:
Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made a bombshell claim Sunday in connection with the assassination 60 years ago of his uncle, President John F. Kennedy.
Kennedy, who is now challenging President Joe Biden for the Democratic presidential nomination, blamed the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency for the murder and "cover-up" of the tragic motorcade killing on Nov. 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas.
Kovacs didn't explain how this (debunked) claim makes anyone want to vote for him for president.
MRC Continues Campaign Of Rage Against Abortion Pills Topic: Media Research Center
The anti-abortion extremists at the Media Research Center have long been hostile to the existence of abortion pills, exaggerating their alleged risks and denigrating them as "chemicals" designed to kill. Chief extremist Tieri-Rose Mandelburg ranted in a Feb. 24 post:
Isn’t it great when the leaders of our country lie to us? Okay, this is about Kamala Harris so "leader" is too strong a word. Still, she's the vice president, so can't we expect a modicum of honesty from her?
Harris has yet again lied about not only a woman’s “need” for an abortion but, more detrimentally, about how medication abortion pills should be considered a good option.
Numerous people have written and warned about these pills on countless occasions but still Harris and the Biden Administration only like to tout ideas that push their pro-abort narrative.
Harris made that abundantly clear in her talk on February 24 at the White House, where she came to the defense of the mifepristone abortion pill.
[...]
“That medication is called mifepristone, it is a drug that is used to perform medication abortion. It is FDA approved.” Okay lady … so is the COVID-19 shot and we see how that turned out.
FDA approved is about as reliable as “organic” vegetables. Barely any requirements or checks are needed. Plus, these medication abortion drugs are NOT safe.
Taking a medication abortion pill results in a multi-day progression of bleeding, cramping, pain, and contracting to slowly end the life of an unborn child. The process can take 30 days to complete, is “four times more dangerous” than surgical abortions and has reportedly increased abortion-related ER visits by 500 percent from 2002-2015.
So no Mrs. Harris, it’s not safe.
Tim Graham went on a tirade about the pill three days later: "For more of the pro-life case about the dangers of mifespristone abortions, see the Charlotte Lozier Institute report. But again, they're describing killing a baby as 'safe and effective.' It's not like taking a Tylenol. It's like taking rat poison that kills your somehow un-human baby."
In a March 6 post, Mandelburg defended anti-abortion activists threatening pharmacies into being afraid to dispense abortion pills even though they are still legal for now:
The SCOTUS Dobbs decision returned the question of abortion legality to the individual states. But now the White House is encouraging private companies to break state laws and sell abortion pills in states where they are illegal.
But After Walgreens stated it would not distribute abortion pills in states where GOP AG’s opposed, White House press secretary said such a move was “dangerous and just unacceptable.”
Right, because saving kids lives is somehow dangerous.
On Thursday, March 2, Walgreens released a statement that it would not dispense abortion pills by mail or in any of the store locations in states where state officials have threatened legal action over the pill distribution. This statement came after a letter from nearly two dozen Republican state attorneys general who threatened legal action.
Walgreens made the right decision. Republican leaders should get just as much a right to say they don’t want babies killed as Democratic leaders have to say that they do want babies killed.
She then parroted right-wing rhetoric against the pills when White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre criticized the activism:
Interesting, then, why a group of doctors and medical groups are suing to overturn the FDA’s approval of the drug. Why? Because it's incredibly dangerous. Not only does it end at least one child’s life but the drug is also harmful to the mother. It facilitates an up to 30-day process of contracting, bleeding and cramping and is “four times more dangerous” than surgical abortions. As a matter of fact, the lette rto the FDA mentioned that these drugs increased abortion-related ER visits by 500x from 2002-2015. So no, KJP, the fact that these pills have been around for so long doesn’t mean that they are safe.
That letter Mandelburg is talking about is not from unbiased medical professionals but from Repuiblican politicians, as she summarized in an earlier post.
The next day, Clay Waters complained about PBS and NPR offering factual information about how to obtain the pills:
Who says the liberal media is anti-business? Taxpayer-assisted PBS and National Public Radio are eager to promote at least one product: Companies that mail the pregnancy-terminating pill mifepristone across state lines to states where abortion is being made illegal, in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision. And a pro-life group is suing claiming the FDA wrongly approved the pill. Now, tax-funded media outlets are giving out tips for getting abortion pills.
If the Second Amendment was endangered via state gun regulation, would PBS provide tips on how to get a gun anyway? It’s hard to imagine.
A March 9 post by Nicholas Fondacaro complained that the pills were talked about on "The View":
With Walgreens announcing that they will stop selling certain brands of abortion pills in states that prohibit them, California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom launched a campaign against them with what the pharmacy chain called “false and misleading information.” Of course, the liberals of ABC’s The View adhered to Newsom’s marching orders and opened Thursday’s show by parroting his talking points, later being forced to read a legal note with Walgreens’ response to the lies.
Fondacaro didn't mention how he and his fellow MRCers were parroting right-wing talking points against the pills.
A March 17 column by Graham was filled with anti-abortion spin, starting with insisting on maliciously calling abortion pills "homicide pills":
In the same way, it sounds cruel to report that supporters of the pill “say it’s safe and effective,” when it’s obviously not safe for the baby. MSNBC’s Joy Reid touted “the extremely safe and effective medication is used to induce abortion and to manage miscarriage or early pregnancy loss, which can, by the way, be life-threatening.” Mifepristone isn’t “life-threatening”?
This inhumane approach to the unborn came crashing through a CNN.com article on drug safety: “Data analyzed by CNN shows mifepristone is even safer than some common, low-risk prescription drugs, including penicillin and Viagra....It is also a safer option than both procedural abortion or childbirth.” They can’t acknowledge how it’s safe for only half of the humans in this equation.
MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle warned this decision could have “major repercussions for abortion care,” as if “abortion care” isn’t a soulless term.
If Graham is going to insist on using the "homicide pill" line, he should also be demanding that every woman who has ever had an abortion be arrested and imprisoned -- maybe even executed -- for murder. But he's clearly afraid to take his rhetoric to its logical endpoint. Nevertheless, Graham repeated his incendiary logic in a March 26 post whining about fact-checkers who pointed out that abortion pills are, yes, safe and effective:
"Independent fact-checkers" sound like they're funded by Planned Parenthood. Have you ever noticed that leftists who want to ruin someone's career for "misgendering" someone who's in denial of their true gender endlessly demean unborn babies as "a pregnancy"? Why is that terminology not seen as ideological and dehumanizing?
He concluded by ranting that the fact-checkers "were all babies the size of a kidney bean once. Now they favor the side of crushing the unwanted babies into hummus."
Newsmax's Attack-And-Defend Strategy Over Trump's (Latest) Indictment Continues Topic: Newsmax
Newsmax flooded the zone with attack-and-defend articles upon donald Trump's latest indictment, and that continued June 10-11, the weekend after the indictment was confirmed:
As usual, criticism of Trump was hard to find; one article quoted Alan Dershowitz noting that Trump made it easy to get caught by touting a classified document on tape. Another article highlighted former Trump Attorney General Bill Barr saying that Trump "is toast" if the indictment is proven true, but that was followed by articles featuring Trump and right-wing radio host Mark Levin attacking Barr for saying it. There was also an article touting that Trump would give a speech after his arraignment.
Trump also spoke at Republican state conventions on June 10, and Newsmax unsurprsingly gave them blanket coverage, as well as airing them live. Eric Mack gushed in one article about them:
Undaunted by attacks from the Democrats, the media, and yet another indictment, former President Donald Trump is keeping up his fight for the American people, speaking at a pair of Republican Party state conventions in Georgia and North Carolina.
"I've put everything on the line — and I will never yield," Trump told the North Carolina GOP delegation Saturday night in a speech that aired live and in its entirety on Newsmax. "I will never be deterred, and I will never stop fighting for you. Never.
"If I wasn't leading in the polls so much, we'd have no difficulty."
WND Revives 10 Commandments Billboard Campaign Topic: WorldNetDaily
Back in 2013, WorldNetDaily -- flush off a campaign of buying billboard space to promote its Obama birther conspiracies -- began a new campaign of buying billboard space to display the Ten Commandments (never mind that his WND regularly violates the commandment against bearing false witness by publishing falsehoods and misinformation). That campaign fizzled out a few months later with WND reduced to promoting billboards placed in tiny rural hamlets.
Well, WND has decided that this needs to be inflicted on Americans again. Apparently inspired by right-wing efforts in Texas to force displays of the Ten Commandments in public schools -- Bob Unruh lovingly wrote about one effort in Texas in an April 22 article -- a new billboard campaign has begun, announced in an anonymously written April 26 article:
In these difficult times for America when so much evil abounds – and where more and more people “call evil good and good evil” (as the Bible puts it) – a new national billboard campaign is being launched, featuring the Ten Commandments. The campaign is intended to help awaken believers and non-believers alike to the wickedness and corruption that abound in America today.
The campaign is a project of WND.com, the pioneering Christian online journalism organization founded in 1997.
The problem is acute, but not just because there are so many atheists, agnostics, non-believers, cults, ideological crazies and sociopathic elites in America. The more fundamental problem America has is with those millions who call themselves Christian believers, yet who act no differently than the worldliest individuals on the planet. You can call these people false converts, or backsliders, or pretenders, or undiscipled nominal believers. But what they all have in common is that they are not living in obedience to God. They are not even trying to follow the most basic moral law, as Jesus and the biblical prophets all instructed.
The article noted WND's 2013 campaign, adding that since then, "we have been “canceled,” attacked, mocked, lied about, suppressed, demonetized and blacklisted by Big Tech and other entities, threatened with extinction because we try to follow God’s ways as a Christian news source." Apparently, WND thinks the "thou shalt not bear false witness" part is an optional commandment.
The new campaign recycles the 2013 billboard design -- WND is slowly going out of business, after all -- and while WND's name does not appear on the billboard itself, the billboard URL of "thetencommandments.com" redirects to the above WND article.
Even though he really should be doing things that keep his website from going out of business, WND editor Joseph Farah touted the campaign in his April 28 column:
America has turned from God and has forgotten right from wrong.
But it's even worse – the Lord is showing us that in no uncertain terms. The same nation that was founded on the Ten Commandments is now experiencing some of its worst divine judgments ever, as a result of falling away so profoundly.
Anyone can see it. It's all around us.
Half the nation is officially marginalized and demonized. Violent criminals are pampered while the innocent are arrested and incarcerated. We wave the rainbow flag, not in celebration of our Creator but as a grotesque insult to Him. We maim and mutilate our children in obeisance to false gods. We sacrifice babies – the unborn and even the born – to "convenience." We demonize and "cancel" good, decent American citizens, and even indict the last president of the United States for no legitimate reason, but only because some people fear he will win election again.
That's why, even in these times that are extremely tough for all, WND is standing up and embarking, on faith, on a new national billboard campaign featuring the Ten Commandments to help awaken believers and non-believers alike to the evil and corruption that abound in our country today.
Since WND doesn't actually have money to spend on this frivolous campaign, Farah followed with a money beg:
The hour is late. Can you give as little as $25 to this cause, which should appeal to all Christians and Jews, all worshipers of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to erect the messages on public billboards from coast to coast? If you are able to give more, even much more, that would be wonderful and would ensure our success.
I don't know what the result will be. But I know our country and our people desperately need a reminder of Who guides the universe and the affairs of men and what He requires of us all. Americans need awareness of their sins before they can repent of them. And until we repent of our sins, America's fate has been cast to the wind. America needs the Ten Commandments – and they need to be seen dramatically and boldly throughout this country.
[...]
This isn't about publicity for us. While we are fighting for our very survival as a news organization, these billboards don't even mention WND, as you can see. A small tagline only credits TheTenCommandments.com. That represents all of you who donate – and the heart of our heavenly Father.
Farah hyped the Texas effort to impose religious ideology on public schools in his May 4 column:
Whereas every state once permitted posting the Decalogue in an official capacity, only Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Tennessee are among the states that "allow" the Ten Commandments to be displayed as such.
Can you imagine not even permitting the Ten Commandments to be officially displayed in the vast majority of states? That's how low we've fallen. That's how much we have allowed the character of our nation to be defaced. Do you see why we need this revival so badly nationwide?
This is our moment. Let's capture it – before it's too late!
The Scripture reads, in Hosea 4:6: "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children."
Have we not given God license to forget our children by forgetting the law if God [sic]?
Farah used his May 12 column to complain about critics of the proposed Texas law (and, of course, shamelessly promote his billboard campaign):
Take, for instance, state Rep. James Talarico, a Democrat from Austin. He calls a bill to place the Ten Commandments in Texas elementary schools "deeply un-Christian." He's a former middle school teacher, a proud progressive and accuses Republicans of "trying to force public schools to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom."
They are not only hostile to children being exposed to God's laws, they are all for forcing them to see sexually explicit, raunchy, sick books in schools.
[...]
There's no denying it. America is clearly on the verge of descending into a thoroughly lawless society. We can't say whether we will pass the point of no return – if we'll fall into the abyss or find our way back home.
Only God knows for certain. We are literally on the brink of judgment.
That's why we at WND are stepping out in faith with the Ten Commandments campaign.
Farah ashed out at more critics of the Texas plan (and, again plug his billboard campaign) in his May 18 column:
Why is it the greatest set of laws, which the Holy God handed down on Mount Sinai, causing such consternation in 2023?
Is it because they might be taken seriously? The fact they still offer us the greatest supernatural and divine wisdom? That they still offer us truth with a capital T?
That's why they engender abject fear and loathing among the know-it-all press..
And why are the Ten Commandments so controversial today – at a time when our nation is so lawless? Mass shootings of citizens occur every weekend. Children are murdered every day. Our streets are filled with blood.
The Texas Legislature is trying to remind people today of the Ten Commandments. That's all. They are not trying to impose them on anyone.
And neither are we at WND.
In these difficult times for America when so much evil abounds – and where more and more people "call evil good and good evil" – a new national billboard campaign is being launched, featuring the Ten Commandments. The campaign is intended to help awaken believers and non-believers alike to the wickedness and corruption that abound in America today.
Farah used his May 24 column to lamely respond to a reader who pointed out that America is a secular society and one need not be a Christian to have morals and ethics:
That's what we're up against, folks. I want you to know what we're contending with when we operate in this realm – belief in the One True God. But we must persevere.
To remind you, all we want to do is post the Ten Commandments on billboards for God. We don't want to argue. The time for arguing is running out. If you wish to help me, please do so. If you don't, then don't.
Farah didn't mention the fact that he repeatedly violates at least one commandment by publishing false and misleading information on WND.
The ultimate failure of the Texas bill, however, was left only to a May 24 article republished from the Daily Caller. As of this writing, WND has published no articles about any billboards being bought and displayed.
NEW ARTICLE: The Fox News Defense Center vs. Dominion, Part 1 Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center is one of Fox News' biggest cheerleaders -- which means it had to find ways to distract from unflattering revelations about the channel in the defamation lawsuit filed by voting-tech company Dominion. Read more >>
The MRC's Winter (And Early Spring) Of Hunter Biden Derangement Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center's Hunter Biden Derangement Syndrome continued into March and April of this year the way the year started -- with lots of whining that the story hasn't quite escaped the right-wing bubble and lots of complaining about the lack of actual evidence being pointed out:
The MRC also continued to lash out at anyone who pointed out the holes in Hunter-haters' logic. Tim Graham whined in a Feb. 2 post:
The Washington Post’s Glenn Kessler runs their shop called “The Fact Checker.” But often, they’re just expressing hostilities – and tossing the Pinocchios – at Republican opinions they don't like. They should just be honest and call themselves “The Opinion Checker.”
Kessler’s latest attack is a “Three Pinocchios” analysis of Senators Ron Johnson and Ted Cruz for their opinion that a 2014 Hunter Biden email sounds sophisticated enough to suggest he was getting a Ukraine briefing from his vice-president dad or affiliated staffers. Kessler implies that’s basically lying Pinocchio-land:
For nine years [2002-2010], The Fact Checker was diplomatic correspondent for The Washington Post.I’ve seen my share of backgrounders, State Department cables and even the odd classified document. Far from being especially sophisticated, Hunter Biden’s email appears to be largely the product of diligent reading of recent newspaper and magazine articles.
So it’s opinion vs. opinion. Not fact versus falsehood.
Then Kessler’s guesswork gets a long workout: “Let’s take a tour through the first 11 of 22 enumerated points in the email and see if the main facts in them could be found in news reports of the time.” That’s NOT a fact check.
Actually, it's educated opinion vs. partisan opinion, and Graham is not going to admit that Johnson and Cruz are too partisan for their opinion to be taken at face value. Instead, he complained further that Kessler pointed out that neither Cruz nor Johnson offered factual evidence to support that partisan opinion.
Curtis Houck used a March 17 post to sputter rage that Hunter is fighting back:
Hunter Biden and his family’s team of high-powered attorneys amended their lawsuit Friday, against the former Delaware computer repair shop owner at the center of Hunter’s laptop scandal that exacerbated and illustrated for the world the First Son’s life of ruin.
Not surprisingly, the liberal media — ranging from ABCNews.com to Delaware’s top newspaper to The Washington Post — were so favorable in covering this filing against John Mac Isaac that they rhetorically camped themselves inside Hunter’s colon.
And seeing as how we’ve repeatedly shown that the major broadcast networks of ABC, CBS, and NBC have displayed barely any interest in the story on their flagship AM and PM shows, this provides a glimpse into how they’d report on it if they were forced to.
ABCNews.com’s Lucien Bruggeman was shameless in her acceptance of Team Hunter’s framing:
[...]
Bruggeman added that the new filing was “the latest turn in an increasingly offensive legal tack” for Hunter as he had “until recently...largely avoided public confrontations about his business dealings.”
Gee, wonder how he was able to duck “public confrontations”?!
Houck and Graham, of course, are on Team Hunter-Hater.
Kevin Tober spent an April 23 post getting overly excited (headline: "IT'S HAPPENING!") that one non-right-wing show referenced "the bombshell revelation from an IRS whistleblower that the Biden administration is allegedly giving Hunter Biden preferential treatment and has tried to stonewall the investigation into his alleged tax and business related crimes." Still, he grumbled that "ABC’s This Week, NBC’s Meet the Press & CNN’s State of the Union never mentioned this week’s revelations about the Hunter Biden tax fraud investigation."
WND Censors Capitol Rioter's Violent Record To Falsely Portray Him As A Victim Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily's counterfactualcampaign to whitewash the offenses of participants in the Capitol riot continued in a May 7 article by Joe Kovacs:
A Kentucky welder who never entered the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was sentenced Friday to a stunning 14 years in prison, the longest sentence to date for any Jan. 6er, and longer than the term of his convicted murderer prison mate.
Peter Schwartz, a 47-year-old Army reservist, gave a phone interview Saturday to the Gateway Pundit, recalling his arrest when he was with his wife in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, on Feb. 2, 2021.
Some 30 agents "assaulted him with flashbang grenades, armored vehicles, and more than 10 assault rifles aimed at his chest," the Gateway Pundit indicated.
"At no point did either my wife or I resist but we were both roughly handled and forced/dragged up the stairs after being shackled and handcuffed as we were shoved around," Schwartz said.
At no point in the article did Kovacs list what Schwartz was charged with or what he as accused of doing -- a egregious omission -- instead just lazily and uncritically repeating his self-proclaimed sob story with the help of the highly unreliable conspiracy site Gateway Pundit.So one must turn to a real news organization to learn the truth about what Schwartz did:
A Pennsylvania man who threw a folding chair at law enforcement and repeatedly used pepper spray on police during the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol was sentenced Friday to more than 14 years in prison – the longest of any January 6 defendant so far.
Peter Schwartz, 49, was found guilty on 10 charges in December 2022 during a jury trial, including four felony charges of assaulting, resisting or impeding officers using a dangerous weapon. Schwartz’s prior criminal history of 38 felony convictions dating to 1991 was a significant factor behind his sentence.
“Mr. Schwartz, dare I say, there are not many people who have come to this court with a criminal history like yours,” District Judge Amit Mehta said during a sentencing hearing on Friday.
On January 6, 2021, prosecutors allege that Schwartz thew the first folding chair at police that opened the police line and enabled hundreds of rioters to impede the officers.
Schwartz, according to prosecutors, found an abandoned Metropolitan Police Department-issued canister of pepper spray. He then used the irritant to spray officers, causing them to retreat and put on gas masks, and found a second can of pepper spray that he sprayed at officers, they said.
Schwartz was on probation during the time of the offenses, according to court documents. During his arrest, law enforcement found that he had at least one firearm in his possession at his residence in Pennsylvania. Schwartz has two prior convictions of possessing a firearm after being convicted of a felony.
Prosecutors said Schwartz has bragged about his participation in the riot, shown no remorse and claimed that his prosecution was politically motivated. He referred to the Capitol attack as the “opening of a war” in a Facebook post a day after the riot.
“I was there and whether people will acknowledge it or not we are now at war,” Schwartz wrote.
Schwartz was on probation when he joined the Jan. 6 riot. His criminal record includes a “jaw-dropping” 38 prior convictions since 1991, “several of which involved assaulting or threatening officers or other authority figures,” Bond wrote.
Kovacs made no mention whatsoever of Schwartz's extensive criminal history, let alone that it was a likely factor in the show of law enforcement during his arrest.
Instead, Kovacs simply copy-and-pasted large chunks of the Gateway Pundit propaganda piece, in which the only allusion to his violent past and present came from Schwartz trying rather lamely to defend himself:
I read an article in the Huffington Post today where if you read the article, you can see that it's saying that I sprayed mace. I didn't hit anybody, and I was accused of throwing a chair that also hit the ground safely, they said. And I never went inside the Capitol building. But they gave me 14 years and two months. Oh, my God. They're basing that off of what they say is they're saying I have a horrible criminal record, which they don't mention because they're talking about stuff from 30 to 35 years ago, which is predominantly traffic offenses. A few little incidents along the way where I've just pled out to some things, but 90 plus percent of it is traffic offenses, and they don't mention that. And I wish I would encourage anybody listening that look up my record. It's not criminal stuff.
Schwartz is lying, of course -- it's nearly impossible to rack up 38 felonies on traffic offenses, but Kovacs couldn't be bothered to do basic research to find this out. Indeed, those prior offenses include a 2019 conviction for terroristic threats "for threatening police officers who placed him under arrest for domestic assault" and a 2020 conviction for domestic violence after he bit his wife on the forehead and punched her multiple times, and on the day of the riot he was on probation for at least one other case that involved both assaultive conduct and illegal firearms possession.
Kovacs uncritically served up more of Schwartz's sob story, then concluded by linking to a crowdfunding account that "has been set up to donate to Schwartz's cause."
Even by WND standards, the total censorship of inconvenient facts is egregious -- and done in the service of trying to present a cop-hating thug as a victim. Kovacs should be ashamed of himself -- at least if he was capable of shame, which he probably isn't given that he works for WND.
MRC Melts Down Over Gender-Fluid Prom Royalty -- But Silent About Threats Against Them Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center's resident homophobe and transphobe, Tierin-Rose Mandelburg, had yet another meltdown in a May 5 post:
At Kettering Fairmont High School in Ohio, a queen and king were selected for prom royalty. This year, however, they were both gender-fluid.
Both royals wore gowns to the prom and had longer, girl-ish hairdos. Rosita Green was hailed as the king and Dai’sean Conley won queen. Frankly, it’s unclear what actual genders these two are, but according to the jawline and wide shoulders of Conley, it’s safe to guess he's a biological man and Green, with what looked like real boobs, is a biological woman.
Supposedly, gender fluid people are those that can pick from any of the imaginary 97+ genders at any given moment, so one day they may decide they’re a boy in the morning and then a girl in the afternoon. You can see how this could be complicated and confusing, but that pretty much sums up the woke mob as a whole.
After the royals were selected, controversy and chaos erupted within the Ohio town and now the story is reaching national headlines.
It's a sign of Mandelburg's willful, hate-driven ignorance that she believes being transgender means someone "may decide they’re a boy in the morning and then a girl in the afternoon." But the MRC pays her to hate, not to educate.
When the person who was named queen noted that some booed her, Mandelburg sneered, "Please, spare me the drama. What about all the actual girls who’d dreamt of getting crowned as prom queen one day that once again lost to someone mocking them." No evidence was provided that this person was "mocking" anyone. When some random person demanded that prom candidates "run from a position linked to their biological sex," Mandelburg cheered, "You can say that again gf. " She concluded by whining:
Unfortunately, as for this Ohio school, the school board isn’t going to intervene or make any changes about prom court as they’re decided by students and the student council. While the idea of prom king and queen titles being passed to anyone and everyone doesn’t necessarily harm anybody, it does further the leftist narrative that this type of delusion is normal and that alone is damage enough.
Mandelburg didn't explain why a high school prom vote is any of her business given that, as far as we know, she did not attend this school and has presumably been out of high school for a while now.
However, Mandelburg is curiously silent about threats the students and the school have received since all this happened. The Washington Post reported "controversy, violent threats and the arrest of a 42-year-old man accused of threatening all LGBTQ+ students at the high school":
Around 9 the morning after the board meeting, a man called the main phone line at the high school, threatening LGBTQ+ students, according to an email the district sent to parents that afternoon. Although a school resource officer was notified, the Kettering Police Department advised school officials that sticking to their routine would be helpful as they tried to home in on the caller.
Meanwhile, investigators determined that the call had come from Beavercreek, about five miles away. Forty-two-year-old Brandon Moore was arrested and charged with making threats over the phone and inducing panic. He’s pleaded not guilty to both charges.
Silence equals assent, they say, and Mandelburg's silence suggest that she condones anti-LGBTQ violence that fits with her ideology.
Newsmax Goes Into Attack-And-Defend Mode Over Trump's (Latest) Indictment Topic: Newsmax
When Donald Trump announced (again) that an indicment of him was forthcoming, Newsmax did what it did the last time this happened: helped him play victim. Luca Cacciatore cranked on a June 8 article on Trump's pronouncement:
Former President Donald Trump said Thursday that the Department of Justice informed his legal team that a federal grand jury in Miami, Florida, had indicted him.
Through his social media platform Truth Social, Trump asserted that he was summoned to appear before the David W. Dyer Federal Building and United States Courthouse on Tuesday at 3 p.m. ET.
The former president did not confirm whether the indictment was related to the sensitive files discovered at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Palm Beach, but suggested it was likely the case.
Multiple sources told The New York Times that Trump was charged with a total of seven counts, including willfully retaining national defense secrets in violation of the Espionage Act and conspiracy to obstruct.
Unlike last time -- when several days passed after Trump's proclaimed "arrest" date before he was actually indicted -- the new indictment was confirmed quickly. So Newsmax moved quickly into its usual pattern of hurling defend-and-attack articles with the aid of the usual gang of right-wing talking heads. Here's what it posted on June 8 alone:
As usual, journalistic balance was nearly nonexistent. On June 8, it was limited to one article claiming that special counsel Jack Smith "has a history of prosecuting politicians from both parties — with mixed results, and another quoting GOP presidential candidate Asa Hutchinson saying that Trump should quit his campaign.
the following day, on June 9, there were even more attack-and-defend articles:
There was one negative article featuring former Trump national security adviser John Bolton calling for Trump to quit the race.There was also an article by John Gizzi quoting Republican officials touting how the indictment will play well with the MAGA Repubican base, with one saying he will get a "hero's welcome" at state GOP conventions he attends.
Meanwhile, the first hot take from Newsmax's stable of columnists came in a June 9 column by Larry Bell whining that President Biden hasn't been arrested over his handling of classified documents and that Hunter Biden hasn't been sufficiently persecuted, concluding that "Such egregiously blatant political weaponization of government institutions we count on to protect us are intolerable in a constitutional Republic that values 'equal justice for all.'" Of course, Bell doesn't consider his partisan demands to prosecute anyone named Biden to be "egregiously blatant political weaponization."
MRC Complains CNN Didn't Suck Up Enough To Trump At Town Hall Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center is loyal to Donald Trump -- almost as much as it hates CNN -- so it was thrilled that Trump was granted airtime on CNN for a live town hall. First, it had to bash any critic of it. A May 4 post by Nicholas Fondacaro whined that "On Wednesday’s edition of ABC’s The View a majority of the liberal cast voiced outright disgust or some form of frustration with CNN’s planned town hall with former President Trump next week." He further huffed that one co-host complained that CNN's Kaitlan Collins "wouldn’t make for a good host because Trump would simply talk over her and drown her out. She said this while talking over co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin and drowning her out."
A May 6 post by Tom Olohan touted the head of CNN's parent company defending the town hall, portraying anyone who criticzied it as a "leftist":
Despite leftist criticism, the CEO of CNN’s parent company said Trump’s upcoming town hall with the network will not be canceled.
During a Friday appearance on CNBC’s Squawk Box, Warner Bros. CEO David Zaslav, responded to leftist squawking about the Trump town hall. When asked about former President Donald Trump’s May 10th town hall on CNN, Zaslav responded, “He should be.” Later on in the interview, Zaslav added, “He’s the front-runner, he has to be on our network,” before continuing that he was happy to have Trump on the network.
Zaslav is responding to widespread condemnation from other leftist media figures. ABC News’ hosts Sunny Hostin and Whoopi Goldberg both criticized CNN for allowing former President Trump to speak to their audience. Political commentator Keith Olbermann hysterically tweeted that CNN “was committing journalistic suicide.” Journalist Scott Dworkin dubbed the town hall as “trash” and “absolutely ludicrous.” Similarly, leftist MSNBC host Chris Hayes said that inviting Trump on CNN was “hard to defend”.
On May 10, the day of the town hall, Alex Christy complained that a commentator accurately pointed out how young voters hate Trump anddon't like Republican transphobia, huffing in thresponse that the commentator "should’ve informed these young people that other people vote too."
For the event itself, Kevin Tober whined that it wasn't sycophantic enough to Trump:
Wednesday night’s CNN Town hall meeting at St. Anselm College in New Hampshire with former President Donald Trump was just as ridiculous as you would have guessed. From the very first moments until the end of the hour and a half long event, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins served not so much as a moderator for the town hall but more as a sparring partner with the former President. The night was so hostile to Trump that NewsBusters could have easily simply uploaded the entire event for you to watch. That would have been much easier than trying to decide the worst moments to bring to you.
After spending over 25 minutes arguing with Trump over the January 6 riots at the Capitol and relitigating the results of the 2020 presidential election, Collins finally got around to asking Trump real questions that normal Americans care about. The first was from a Republican voter about the out of control southern border.
[...]
This town hall hosted by CNN was a giant waste of time for all involved. Especially voters in the room and watching at home. Very few substantive questions were asked and instead it essentially became a debate between Trump & Collins.
Hours before this dumpster fire of a town hall began, Puck News published a piece titled “The Kaitlan Era Begins Tonight.” This "era" isn’t off to a good start, if tonight’s performance was any indication.
Newsmax Tried To Defend Trump Over Carroll Trial Topic: Newsmax
Before the civil trial of Donald Trump over author E. Jean Carroll's accusations that he sexually assaulted her and defamed her, Newsmax did its best to bolster Trump's side of the story by attacking the victim. An April 28 article claimed that Carroll "admitted to sexually harassing the late Roger Ailes, and a May 3 wire article noted Trump's denials of attacking her in a video deposition. An April 27 column by Debra Saunders also attacked Carroll: "If Carroll's accusation is true, she should have spoken out at the time and called the police instantly. ... Instead, she waited until 2019 when she was hawking her memoir." As the trial itself was going on, Trump sycophant Dick Morris went on Newsmax TV to declare that "What Trump needs to do is to defame her a little bit more."
When a jury found Trump guilty of sexual abuse and defamation and ordered him to pay her $5 million, Newsmax published only a May 9 wire article about it. This was followed two days later by a wire article noting Trump's appeal of the verdict. A May 14 article by Sandy Fitzgerald repeated a TV appearance by a Trump defender who blamed the jury:
Former President Donald Trump has a solid appeal case against a federal jury's findingsin the E. Jean Carroll rape and defamation case, as an appeals court is likely to be less politically motivated, America First legal board member and former acting U.S. Attorney General Matthew Whitaker told Newsmax on Sunday.
Trump has difficulties in New York City in getting a fair jury trial, Whitaker told Newsmax's "Wake Up America," noting that with a civil trial, findings are based on whether the jurors believe there was more than a 50% chance a defendant had acted wrongly.
"I think it's important that a court that is a little bit away from the emotions of the trial courtroom hears what the evidence is and looks to make sure that the law was applied appropriately," said Whitaker.
A May 11 article by Jeffrey Rodack quoted evangelist Franklin Graham complaining that the verdict "was another attempt to "tarnish" the former president," while a May 16 article by Rodack touted how "President Donald Trump continues to receive strong support from women voters, despite a jury finding him liable for sexually abusing E. Jean Carroll."
And then there was a May 12 column by Paul du Quenoy claiming that Trump was being victimized by Trump:
Carroll admitted that she did not scream, seek medical attention, report the alleged assault to the police, or, until she published her book in 2019, discuss it with anyone other than her two witnesses, who also have no record of it other than their own hearsay, even though a significant part of Carroll’s career involves writing a romance advice column for Elle magazine.
No party to the case could account for the absence of security measures or sales staff during the alleged incident at Bergdorf’s, which normally has both in abundance and is hardly the sort of place that would look favorably upon a man accompanying a woman alone into one of its dressing rooms.
[...]
It is no coincidence, however, that Trump described the proceedings with considerable understatement as a "very unfair trial" and immediately announced his intention to appeal.
In the meantime, he should consider a defamation suit of his own against Carroll.
After all, in addition to her court complaint, which is legally privileged, for some four years now she has loudly and publicly claimed that Trump "raped" her, only to have even a biased jury in a biased court find that allegation to be not credible.
Regardless of the results, this latest "circus," as Trump’s lawyer Joe Tacopina describes it, is unlikely to derail Trump’s steady march back to the nomination in a country weary of seeing its institutions of justice weaponized by a fading professional-managerial caste terrified of losing power.
Quenoy's column was prefaced by an disclaimer stating that "The following does not constitute a legal opinion by Newsmax.
MRC Touts Another Attack On A Search Site From Biased AllSides Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center is a bigfan of AllSides because it echoes the MRC's partisan narrative that any media outlet that isn't explicitly right-wing is somehow on the "left," which falsely most mainstream media outlets as partisan players. Joseph Vazquez hyperbolically touted a new AllSides "analysis" that echoed MRC narratives in a May 5 post:
A new study just obliterated any doubts that Microsoft’s Bing is just as leftist and radical as its top competitor Google.
Media solutions company AllSides conducted a new analysis of the news articles displayed on Bing News’ homepage “were from media outlets on the left.”
But here’s the kicker: “Bing’s homepage displayed rated Right or Lean Right by AllSides,” and only 13 percent of the sources displayed were from the “center.”
The top 6 outlets that Bing comnmonly curated were sources that AllSides rated as “Lean Left.” The top sources on Bing News’ homepage included “The Associated Press (Lean Left)(17% of the content), USA Today(Lean Left)(15%), and ABC News (Lean Left)(13%).”
It's absurd for Vazquez to describe the AP or USA Today as "leftist and radical" -- the fact that he believes this shows just how far-right he is. Also note that Vazquez is trying to hide AllSides' bias by describing it with its own "media solutions company" euphemism. More shilling for AllSides followed:
Bing’s egregious bias showed through even more explicitly when AllSides applied certain search terms. Unironically, AllSides noted that the search term which unveiled the most left-wing results was none other than “abortion.”
News items that the group identified as "left" made up 63 percent of Bing’s curated results on abortion while only a paltry 9 percent of the results came from sources identified as “right.” The search term “economy” yielded the least amount of right-leaning sources at only 6 percent, according to AllSides, compared to 34 percent of the results being from sources on the “left.”
AllSides didn’t mince words when it noted the dangerous implications of its assessment::
Bing News gave users an unbalanced perspective on major news stories. Biased search results have a grave impact on our understanding of the world around us. When we don’t have the full picture and cannot access the full scope of views, we are more likely to polarize against one another. Heavily biased search tools harm our democratic society, our communities, and our families.
But the AllSides "analysis" offers no evidence that the content of the individual stories themselves have any sort of bias -- it's just a broad-brush attack on outlets. Indeed, the AllSides chart of political leanings conveniently places major news outlets as the New York Times, CNN, CBS, ABC and Politico in the "left-leaning" category -- something it even admits is subjective -- which is made even more subjective and less scientific by including public opinion into the calculation.
Vazquez repeated the MRC's praiser of a similar AllSides report on Google News -- which we've similarly debunked -- he gushed meshed with his employer's partisan research: "The most explosive of MRC’s findings involved Google engaging in election interference in the 2022 midterm elections to benefit Democrats." Actually, those "findings" involved search terms normal people don't use and no explanation of why those search terms should have delivered the results it demanded.
Vazquez concluded by huffing: "It looks like Bing News is following Google News’ lead with its demonstrably nonexistent veneer of neutrality." AllSides clearly has a demonstratably nonexistent veneer of neutrality, but Vazquez won't complain about that.
The Media Research Center's overall sad over Fox News firing Tucker Carlson continued for weeks after his firing. Nicholas Fondacaro was overjoyed in a May 9 post when Carlson announced he was starting a new show on Twitter:
An April 25 Newsmax 
In March, the Media Research Center 
WorldNetDaily is a fan of Robert Kennedy Jr.'s anti-vaxxer nuttiness -- so much so that it 
The 
Newsmax flooded the zone with attack-and-defend articles upon donald Trump's latest indictment, and that continued June 10-11, the weekend after the indictment was confirmed:
Back in 2013, WorldNetDaily -- flush off a 
The Media Research Center's Hunter Biden Derangement Syndrome continued into March and April of this year 
WorldNetDaily's 
The Media Research Center's resident homophobe and transphobe, Tierin-Rose Mandelburg, had yet another meltdown in a May 5 
When Donald Trump announced (again) that an indicment of him was forthcoming, Newsmax did what it did 
The Media Research Center is loyal to Donald Trump -- almost as much as it hates CNN -- so it was thrilled that Trump was granted airtime on CNN for a live town hall. First, it had to bash any critic of it. A May 4 
Before the civil trial of Donald Trump over author E. Jean Carroll's accusations that he sexually assaulted her and defamed her, Newsmax did its best to bolster Trump's side of the story by attacking the victim. An April 28 
The Media Research Center is a 
