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Monday, July 3, 2023
MRC Can't Stop Spewing Hate At Brittney Griner
Topic: Media Research Center

The Media Research Center rooted for WNBA player Brittney Griner to rot in a Russian prison on wildly trumped-up drug charges simply because she exercised her First Amendment rights (which purportedly makes her "un-American") and failed to be heterosexual -- even as it fretted over the plight of Russian athletes facing the consequences of their home country launch war on Ukraine -- then it petulantly whined that the U.S. government negotiated her release. It has continued to whine ever since:

  • A Jan. 17 post by Kevin Tober complained that one network newscast offered "a news brief on anti-American lesbian athlete Brittney Griner appearing at a Martin Luther King Day rally" rather than reporting on the right-wing outrage of the day.
  • A March 16 post by Jay Maxson grumbled about criticism of homophobia at Baylor University: "Homosexuality is a campus taboo, though the lesbian Brittney Griner formerly played basketball at the school. Left unsaid by [the writer] is that Griner’s lesbian WNBA world more than makes up for her sexual orientation having been a closeted no-no at Baylor."
  • Maxson groused some more in a March 27 post: 'Everyone knows the story of a very tall, woke Women’s NBA player and social justice warrior who played basketball in Russia. Brittney Griner, right? No, this is a story about the other annoying person fitting that description: Brianna Turner, who penned a Houston Chronicle op-ed dismissing the problem of  transgender men in women’s sports. ... And we all thought Griner was the loudest SJW on the Phoenix Mercury team."
  • Tober returned for an April 27 post whining that the right-wing outrage du jour was ignored in favor of "news that anti-American athlete Brittney Griner held a press conference to discuss her experience in a Russian prison after breaking the law by bringing illegal drugs into a foreign country." Griner had had two vape cartridges of cannabis oil in her luggage when she was arrested in Russia, which hardly makes her the major drug trafficker Tober wants you to think she is.

Nicholas Fondacaro devoted a May 1 post to huffing that other people don't hate  Griner as much as he does:

If there’s anything more annoying than journalists and media types hyping up the White House Correspondents Dinner, it’s them blowing smoke about who they invited to be their guests. Viewers of Monday’s CBS Mornings were treated that to grotesque display as everyone gushed about them inviting anti-American basketball player Brittney Griner to be their guest of honor; even bragging about how her presence meant there were at “the cool people's table.”

“It was the weekend much of Washington waits for all year long as reporters, politicians, celebrities, all kinds of familiar faces gathered on the red carpet at the White House Correspondents Dinner, one of Washington’s biggest social events of the whole dang year,” co-anchor Tony Dokoupil touted at the top of their FIRST segment about the dinner.

Chief White House correspondent Nancy Cordes noted that Griner and her wife Cherelle “were guests of CBS News” and boasted that they were “one of the night’s biggest draws.” “President Biden met privately with Griner before the dinner. She described the moment to Gayle King,” she added before playing a video of Griner’s reaction King apparently shot with her phone.

Later that hour, CBS went to King directly so she could personally gush about having Griner at her table. “I couldn't stop smiling. I think my face hurt from smiling so much,” she described her evening with the Griners.

Fondacaro didn't explain what drove his rage.

John Simmons spewed his own rage at Griner in a May 15 post, even starting by bizarrely calling her an "entitled brat" for some reason:

We all remember that WNBA star and entitled brat Brittney Griner got released from a Russian prison in the most lopsided prisoner exchange in American history - the one where we released the most infamous arms dealer of the past 50 years to get back a clueless social justice who didn’t know Russia’s rules on weed possession.

Putting all that aside - and the fact that we left behind a former U.S. Marine and a school teacher - Griner is back in America and enjoying life. Perhaps unironically, her perspective on America has changed after the Biden administration made sure she didn’t have to face nine-and-a-half years in a Russian prison.

We remember that Simmons was all about wishing that Griner would rot in a Russian prison, and we also remember that the  "former U.S. Marine" Simmons wishes was released by Russia instead of Griner received a bad-conduct discharge from the Marines for committing offenses much worse than Griner was ever accused of.

Simmons' whining continued:

Before Griner and the Phoenix Mercury played their preseason game against the Los Angeles Sparks on Friday (the game that no one probably watched), Griner was in awe of how powerful the singing of the “Star Spangled Banner” was.

“Hearing the national anthem, it definitely hit different,” Griner said. “It’s like when you go for the Olympics, you’re sitting there, about to get gold put on your neck, the flags are going up, and the anthem is playing, it just hits different.”

Well isn’t that funny, because in 2020 she couldn’t be bothered to even be on the court for the national anthem before WNBA games.

"I honestly feel we should not play the National Anthem during our season," Griner said. "I think we should take that much of a stand. I'm going to protest regardless," she said. "I'm not going to be out there for the National Anthem. If the league continues to want to play it, that's fine. It will be all season long, I'll not be out there.”

Simmons curiously failed to mention why Griner chose to do this; according to the link he supplied, it was related to the police shooting of  Breonna  Taylor. He also reused to note what Griner also said: ""I don't mean that in any disrespect to our country. My dad was in Vietnam and a law officer for 30 years. I wanted to be a cop before basketball. I do have pride for my country."

In the right-wing bubble of the MRC, saying such things and taking a stand against injustice makes one "un-American." But Simmons continued to sneer:

My oh my, America sure looks pretty good to Griner now that we got her idiotic self out of a Russian prison. Gosh, what a difference that makes!

Maybe Griner - and all her self-centered, America-hating peers - will shut up and realize that they have it pretty good on American soil. Maybe they’ll be more appreciative fo a country that allows them to act like spoiled children and make more money than the average American playing a sport. I guarantee you countries like Saudi Arabia, China, and Pakistan wouldn’t put up with their bullcrap.

But knowing Griner, she’ll likely hop back on the social justice train soon. She’ll just needs some time.

It's quite entertaining to watch privilged writers like Simmons rage from their right-wing bubble, smearing anyone who commits the offense of not agreeing with them as "entitled brats" and "spoiled children." Simmons also seems to want the U.S. to become like other countries where people who express "bullcrap" -- that is, any opinion that deviates from mandated government speech -- to be harshly treated; he's inadveretently demonstrating the authoritarianism that underlies right-wing politics. It seems that Simmons would have Griner rot in prison until she is "re-educated" and becomes a loyal government zombie. Creepy, huh?

Simmons wasn't done, though. He gleefully crowed in a May 22 post that Griner's WNBA return wasn't a sellout:

Brittney Griner’s first WNBA game after being brought back home from Russia was on Friday night - not that many of you cared.

Griner’s Phoenix Mercury played against the Los Angeles Sparks, losing 94-71 to open up the WNBA regular season. But Mercury head coach Vanessa Nygaard wasn’t just miffed that her squad had a nearly 20-point loss to start the 2022-23 campaign.

She was annoyed because in her mind, not many people showed up to support Griner’s homecoming, as only 10,396 fans attended the game at Crypto.com Arena. She wanted all 19,068.

Simmons declared that Griner somehow deserved every bad thing that happened to her:

The WNBA star and part-time social justice warrior was threatened with nine-and-a-half years in a Russian prison for possession of marijuana vapes. While the sentence was certainly overkill, she brought the trouble on herself and should have known better. Maybe people weren’t willing to treat Griner like a hero because she isn’t one?

One Twitter user perfectly summed up why so many people chose to do something better with their Fridays than watch social justice warriors play a basketball game.

Then again, Simmons thinks a disgraced criminal ex-Marine is a "hero," so maybe his judgment shouldn't be trusted.


Posted by Terry K. at 9:51 PM EDT
Despite Indictment For Sexual Misconduct, Michael Letts Still Published At Newsmax, WND
Topic: Newsmax

Right-wing columnist Michael Letts is currently under indictment on charges of incest and sexual misconduct, yet the ConWeb continues to publish his work. We've doucmented how CNSNews.com was an enthusiastic publisher of Letts' column before it was shut down in April, but Newsmax and WorldNetDaily have published him as well. Letts ranted in a May 4 column published at Newsmax:

Democrats see no difference between law-abiding Americans who were shown into the U.S. Capitol (on Jan. 6, 2021) wandering around like sightseers, and those who forced their way in and causing damage and stealing property.

They want both thrown into prison for years. Some of them have been incarcerated for doing nothing more than obeying a police officer who waved them into the Capitol.

But for Democrats, there is no excuse for people being in the Capitol. Period.

As the they see things, they are no varying levels of crime, and the maximum penalty must be imposed, beyond misdemeanor or infraction levels. 

That's an interesting statement for someone currently awaiting trial to make (not that he mentioned that relevant fact, of course). It's also highly dishonest for Letts to claim that Captiol rioters were nothing but sightseers, but that's part of a right-wing narrative to whitewash the riot.

In a May 31 column published at WND, Letts complained that the IRS has weapons and ammunition:

And I'm wondering … why? We're talking about a tax agency here. If someone breaks the law, agents usually don't come banging on the door demanding collection. But it appears something has changed – aggressively – over the past couple of years.

While the IRS hasn't commented back yet, OpentheBooks broke down the numbers further, indicating that 4,500 guns and over 5 million rounds of ammunition have already been stockpiled by over 2,000 of its agents.

Oh, but that isn't all. With these reported numbers, there are "now more federal agents with arrest and firearm authority (200,000) than U.S. Marines (186,000)." That's simply insane.

Once again, it's a tax agency – one that works in an entirely different range than the FBI or the Department of Justice. And here they are, arming themselves like crazy and potentially banging down the doors of U.S. citizens who are struggling to make ends meet as it is.

In fact, the IRS' criminal division has been armed for more than a century, and only about 2,100 IRS employees actually carry firearms.

In a June 28 column published at WND, Letts demanded the release of an alleged manifesto by the shooter in a gun massacre in Nashville, for no other apparent reason than that the shooter was allegedly transgender:

These are documents that should have already been released. The assumption is that because Audrey was transgender, it has become a political hot potato, and the writings will be harmful to the transgender cause.

It's hard to believe that their release could do more damage than the people who are trying to suppress it have already done to their cause.

In the wake of the shooting, many media pundits and people on social media either tried to downplay the fact that Hale was transsexual or that Hale's actions were somehow justified. In doing so, the victims were sometimes made to look as if they were partially to blame.

Letts did not disclose his own alleged criminality in any of these columns. and both WND and Newsmax have yet to report on the criminal charges against Letts.


Posted by Terry K. at 6:48 PM EDT
How Has The MRC Been Attacking Google Lately?
Topic: Media Research Center

The Media Research Center has been waging war against Google for wanting to improve the quality of its search results by downgrading lies and misinformation in its search results, which the MRC dishonestly portrays as "censorship" (even though by doing so, the MRC also seems to be conceding that right-wing websites are of poor quality). Let's look at how that politically motivated war has been going, shall we? A Feb. 13 post by Catherine Salgado raged that Google still wants to improve search quality:

As Meta expands its prebunking efforts, Google has jumped on the bandwagon with new prebunk ads in Germany.

Google’s “prebunking” test efforts in countries like Poland apparently showed "promising results" and now the company is expanding its efforts to target photos and videos in Germany and India, according to the Associated Press (AP). AP claimed that prebunking so-called misinformation is more effective than direct censorship or fact checks because censorship is naturally slammed and fact checkers are understandably distrusted now.

Google will reportedly expand prebunking through instructive ads, which supposedly made people less likely to believe alleged “misinformation” in a test pilot. The project launches Feb. 13 for Germany and is reportedly in development for India.

Salgado made sure to insert her employer's anti-George Soros propaganda and the MRC's own pet conspiracy theory about the 2020 election:

AP noted that the George Soros-funded Poynter Institute already praised Google’s efforts. Poynter Institute’s MediaWise director Alex Mahadevan enthused about Google’s project, “This is a good news story in what has essentially been a bad news business when it comes to misinformation.” Mahadevan called prebunking a “pretty efficient way to address misinformation at scale.” Radical leftist billionaire Soros’s Open Society Foundations gave Poynter’s International Fact Checking Network $492,000 between 2016 and 2020, as MRC Business noted in its Jan. 2023 report: George Soros: Propaganda Powerhouse.

AP’s list of topics that might trigger the spread of  “misinformation” shows both the outlet and Google’s leftist bias: “COVID-19, mass shootings, immigration, climate change or elections.” MRC found Big Tech censorship helped steal the 2020 U.S. election.

Salgado is lying. All the MRC did is buy two polls from highly biased pollsters -- including Donald Trump's campaign pollster -- who supplied the results it paid for. Salgado then huffed: "Users don’t trust social media censors anymore for good reason." Because well-funded right-wing operations like the MRC spend millions of dollars annually lying their fellow right-wingers that fighting lies and misinformation in social media is "censorship"?

In a Feb. 21 post, Autumn Johnson whined that Google exercised its rights and funded a group that spoke out on a political issue:

A group with financial ties to Google is trying to convince the United States Supreme Court to strengthen the company’s liability protections—and censorship powers—under Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act.

Politico reported Friday that “prominent internet influencers and the nonprofit Authors Alliance filed an amicus brief ” in support of Google in Gonzalez v. Google. The groups responsible for the brief have financial ties to leftist Google, according to Politico:

[...]

While Google did not respond to the online publication’s multiple requests for comment, Ben Berkowitz, an attorney for Authors Alliance, insisted that none of the signatories were paid by Google to sign the brief, according to the report. Berkowitz also claimed that Google and its affiliates in no way contributed funding to the brief. 

Johnson didn't explain why Google is apparently not allowed to do this. But she did write some more about the Supreme Court case two days later after arguments were presented in court. When the case was decided in Google's favor in May, Salgado was sad oveall but cheered that the ruling was so narrow that that it didn't address Section 230 concerns, which she declared to be "unexpected good news for free speech advocates."

The MRC also conducted another one of its dubious "search bias" studies -- but this time about itself -- detailed in an April 27 post by Luis Cornelio headlined "IT'S PERSONAL":

Big Tech giant Google has taken to suppressing MRC Free Speech America in an apparent vendetta to punish the Media Research Center division for its work exposing its explicit anti-conservative bias and censorship.

MRC Free Speech America analyzed Google search results for “mrc free speech america” and found scathing evidence of Google’s censorship against the organization. “It looks like there aren’t many great results for this search,” Google warned at the top of the first page of search results. “The results below match your search terms, but some of them may not have reliable information on this topic.” The warning appears to be an attempt to dissuade users from the organization's sites and thwart its reach, page engagement and interactions.

Cornelio went on to huff:

MRC researchers made a clean environment search on April 14, 2023, for leftist outlets BuzzFeed, Mother Jones, and Jacobin — all of which have presented unreliable information on their sites. MRC publishes reliable content, while BuzzFeed and Mother Jones still have published on their sites the discredited Steele Dossier. Meanwhile, Jacobin ’s Marxist writings call for the destruction of America’s economic and political systems. Unsurprisingly, Google did not warn or alert users as to reliability concerns for these leftist outlets.

We've repeatedly documented the MRC puiblishing unreliable information. And as we've noted, BuzzFeed never claimed the Steele dossier was accurate. Cornelio also documents no specific evidence of "unreliable" information at Mother Jones beyond more Steele dossier allusions and complaining that Jacobin supports the idea of socialism (which should not be a suprise to anyone). 

Further, it's interesting that Cornelio is positioning the MRC as being as far-right as Mother Jones and Jacobin are "leftist."  By ranting that Google's purported suppression of Free Speech America is "personal," it could very well be that Google deprecates search results for all partisan organizations, not just the MRC. Then again, given all the hate and slander the MRC has hurled Google's way over the past few years, Google would be entirely justified in making things personal.


Posted by Terry K. at 3:57 PM EDT
NEW ARTICLE: WND's Obsession With Ray Epps
Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily desperately wants to believe that a protester at the Capitol riot was a secret government plant, despite the utter lack of credible evidence to prove it. Read more >>

Posted by Terry K. at 12:41 AM EDT
Sunday, July 2, 2023
MRC Helps Musk Frame Soros As The Jew Right-Wingers Are Allowed To Hate
Topic: Media Research Center

The Media Research Center got rather touchy when it was pointed out that Elon Musk's attacks on George Soros leaned into anti-Semitism. Tom Olohan helped Musk pivot away from that in a May 18 post:

After Twitter owner Elon Musk’s tweets about leftist mega donor George Soros drew heavy criticism from across the leftist media, Musk was not only undeterred but tripled down on his earlier comments. 

Musk responded directly to a “Squawk Box” clip criticizing his tweets May 18. While Musk conceded that comparing Soros to a comic book character was an imperfect choice, he quickly pivoted to directly state some of Soros’ misdeeds.  Musk tweeted, “Anyway, my actual concern with Soros is that he has funded so many politicians & DAs who are soft even on violent crime, which has caused great damage to many cities imo. Also, while I am very much in favor of expanding legal immigration, we must have some vetting of who comes in, so that we do not allow dangerous felons to prey upon innocent Americans.”

[...]

Elon Musk’s latest tweet on Soros, follows several earlier ones on Soros’ political motives and funding of radical leftist DA’s, as well as a quote comparing Soros’ to the fictional supervillain Magneto. 

CNN, Forbes, and MSNBC all smeared Musk for his tweet comparing Soros to Magneto. Musk was also questioned about his tweets in a CNBC interview before he responded to a “Squawk Box” clip about them. Despite this, the free speech advocate did not back down, standing by his criticism of Soros’ criminal justice views and spending. He even doubled down in a response to his initial tweet, writing, “I’d like apologize for this post[.]” He tweeted again, “It was really unfair to Magneto.”

Yes, Olohan really wants you to think the top business news network and the top business magazine are "leftist."

Joseph Vazquez used a May 22 post to hype a poll by a notoriously right-wing pollster claiming Americans agree with Musk's attack on Soros:

A majority of Americans are rejecting the media’s attempts to shield leftist billionaire activist George Soros from criticism and cast his opponents as anti-Semites.

A new survey by Rasmussen Reports and Ron Coleman’s ColemanNation podcast of 1,002 U.S. likely voters revealed that “Most American voters have a negative opinion of liberal billionaire George Soros, and nearly half agree with [Twitter owner] Elon Musk’s words comparing Soros to a comic-book villain.” Specifically, 51 percent of respondents reported viewing Soros “unfavorably,” which included 39 percent who had a “very unfavorable” impression of the billionaire. This poll’s release comes days after Musk set Twitter on fire for comparing Soros to Marvel supervillain Magneto, saying Soros "hates humanity" and for criticizing Soros for seeking to “erode the very fabric of civilization.”

Despite all the media bluster to make Soros into some kind of a victim, Americans clearly aren’t buying it. “Forty-seven percent (47%) of voters agree with [Musk’s] quote, including 35% who Strongly Agree that Soros ‘hates humanity,’” according to the survey taken between May 16-18, 2023.

Outlets like Forbes and CNN tried to cast Musk as being “anti-Semitic” for his tweets, though Soros’ ethnicity had nothing to do with what Musk was saying.

As we've noted before, Vazquez cannot possibly know Musk's intent in attacking Soros, unless the MRC has endowed him with long-distance mind-reading abilities.

A May 23 post by Olohan declared "VINDICATION" because Alan Dershowitz declared Soros to be a Jew right-wingers are allowed to hate, a key anti-Soros narrative at the MRC:

Harvard Law School Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz has weighed in to defend Elon Musk’s criticisms of George Soros and offered a few scathing remarks of his own. 

Dershowitz published a May 21 op-ed in The Wall Street Journal pushing back against leftist media hacks who have called Musk’s tweets on Soros “antisemitic.” Dershowitz wrote, “But Mr. Musk stands falsely accused. Mr. Soros is an active participant in politics, and his Jewishness shouldn’t shield him from criticism.” Following these remarks, Dershowitz went into detail on how George Soros has acted to harm not only America, but also the Jewish state of Israel. “[N]o single person has done more to damage Israel’s standing in the world, especially among so-called progressives, than George Soros,” Dershowitz rebuked.

Dershowitz lists two anti-Israel groups, Human Rights Watch and J-Street, which Soros has donated massive amounts of money to in the past.

But criticism of Israel is not, in and of itself, anti-Semitic, and Dershowitz and Olohan are being dishonest by claiming it is. Olohan cited criticism of Human Rights Watch by its founder over "the Israeli-Arab conflict," but it's not anti-Semitic to criticize Israel's treatment of Palestinians. He also attacked J Street for trying to "counter the work of the pro-Israel group, AIPAC," but he didn't mention that AIPAC is very much a right-wing organizaiton that supports  Republican can didates and spends money to defeat Democratic candidates, especially if they criticize Israel and have expressed support for Palestinians. It's also false for Olohan to call J Street "anti-Israel," and J Street has an entire list of myths about its purported lack of support for Israel it will happily disabuse people of.

Olohan went on to tout how "Dershowitz also quoted an article from the Jewish News Service to emphasize that he wasn’t the only “Jewish American” to be wary of Soros’ radicalism," adding:

The Harvard Law professor also agreed that Soros has had “a pernicious influence” on America, citing leftist Soros-backed candidates for district attorney across the country. Dershowitz also stated that he agrees with Musk that, “Mr. Soros’s acts contribute to fraying the ‘fabric of civilization.’” Ideally, America would have a media that would be curious about the magnitude of Soros’ influence in global politics. Instead, the nation is left with a bloated, Soros-funded propaganda media mill that is intent on nefariously denigrating those who dare to criticize him.

That's a highly ironic statement, given how the MRC works as a propaganda media mill for Musk.


Posted by Terry K. at 7:46 PM EDT
How Has WND's Brown Been Hating LGBT People Lately?
Topic: WorldNetDaily

Michael Brown has unspurprisingly continued to heap hate and scorn on LGBT people since we last checked in. He spent his Jan. 23 column raging against bans on anti-gay conversion therapy:

It doesn't matter what your religious beliefs might be. It doesn't matter if you were sexually abused and became confused about your sexual identity. It doesn't matter if you would really like to be heterosexual simply to marry and have a natural family.

No! You must stay gay (or trans, as the case may be), and it is illegal for anyone to help you explore the roots of your same-sex attractions with the view toward change.

Tragically, this "conversion therapy" ban is in place for minors in multiple states in America as well as abroad, while a complete ban for people of all ages, similar to that in Malta, exists in several countries as well.

Talk about extreme overreach. Talk about the exact opposite of live and let live. Talk about making a mockery of "tolerance and acceptance." That street only goes one way.

Brown didn't explain why people must be forced not to be gay, despite the fact that conversion therapy harms LGBTQ people.

Brown lamented in his Jan. 27 column that it's hard to demonize LGBT people when they are actually just like the rest of us:

It's easy to oppose "the LGBTQ+ agenda" when it is brazen and vulgar, marching down our city streets in open display. Or when it supports the genital mutilation and chemical castration of children. But what do you say to that very nice, same-sex couple who lives next door, the ones raising the abandoned child they adopted? Are they also a part of an evil agenda? Should they be demonized and condemned?

[...]

The fact is that there are countless thousands of gay couples whose lives are very similar to the lives of heterosexual couples. They go to work. They spend time with their friends. They have hobbies. And although they are half as likely as heterosexual couples to be raising children, thousands of them are, in fact, devoted parents.

Oh, the horror of having to find ways to demonize people you don't like. The struggle continued:

What do we say to a gay man like [former Rep. Sean Patrick] Maloney, or to the many, loving same-sex couples?

It's easy to point to the gay couples arrested for raping their adopted children or pimping them out for sex. It's also easy to point to the higher levels of promiscuity in the gay community, in particular among men, even those in "committed" or "monogamous" relationships.

[...]

But, to repeat, there are plenty of gay couples where partner swapping is not the norm (in fact, a 2018 study claims that monogamy is becoming more common among gay couples). And there are plenty of gay couples who would die for the kids they are raising.

I could also mention the fact that plenty of heterosexual couples commit sexual sin. Some of them abuse their children too.

Homosexual couples and individuals hardly have a monopoly on sin.

Still, Brown concluded, they ultimately must be belittled as "fallen" and subjected to conversion tactics:

As followers of Jesus, then, who know what the Bible says about homosexual practice, what do we say to our gay neighbors, friends and family members? And how do we relate to them?

In the end, it's quite simple.

We treat them like any other neighbor, friend or family member.

We love them. We take a genuine interest in their lives. We treat them as our equals in that we are all created in God's image, we are all fallen, and we are all in need of redemption.

If the door is open, we share the Gospel with them, recognizing that their same-sex attractions are not the root of their fallen nature but simply a manifestation of their fallen nature. And if they come to faith, we seek to disciple them, which, of course, will mean major life changes.

But this is often the cost of following Jesus.

[...]

As for the children raised by that caring gay couple, again, we don't doubt the devotion of the two moms or two dads. And if we are not asked for our opinion, we keep it to ourselves.

But if we are asked how we feel about same-sex parenting, we make clear that we don't doubt the love and devotion of these parents. Yet we restate, without apology, our belief that God's best plan is for a child to have a mother and father, since the world's best dad is not a mom and the world's best mom is not a dad. And there is something unique and irreplaceable in the roles that moms and dads play.

If we are branded bigots and haters and homophobes, so be it. We will do our best to overcome those negative judgments with genuine, long-term love.

We will not demonize these couples, and we will not celebrate them.

Instead, we will join grace and truth together with the goal of introducing them to the priceless, transformative love of God. That's what disciples do.

Acturlly, if you're hectoring them for being gay -- as Brown clearly seems to want despite his expressions of faux compassion -- you are, in fact, demonizing them.

Btown's Feb. 13 column was spent raging at a major church for not hating gay people as much has he does:

With all respect to the responsibilities carried by the leadership of the Church of England, and in recognition of the history of this branch of the universal Body, I make this heartfelt appeal.

Just as Elijah the prophet urged the people of Israel to stop wavering between two opinions, I urge you to stop wavering between the Word of God and the spirit of this age. As Elijah said, "If Yahweh is God, serve Him. If Baal is God, serve him" (1 Kings 18:21). It can only be one or the other.

Your current decision to "bless" same-sex unions while at the same time forbidding your churches from hosting same-sex weddings is not just a deep and fundamental departure from the biblical faith. It is also a hopeless compromise, seeking to play both ends against the middle in a way that can only frustrate, if not infuriate, the principal parties involved.

How can you bless something you will not sanctify? How can you invoke God's favor on something at which you cannot officiate? How can you claim to uphold the church's historic definition of marriage if men or women involved in same-sex relationships can receive "prayers for God's blessing"? And how can you "apologize for the ways in which the Church of England has treated LGBTQI+ people – both those who worship in our churches and those who do not" while barring same-sex weddings from your churches?

How can you repent to the LGBTQ+ community "for the times we have rejected or excluded you, and those you love" and lament for "the occasions on which you have received a hostile and homophobic response in our churches are shameful and for this we repent," while allowing your clergy to refuse to bless same-sex unions, at their discretion?

This is as hypocritical as it is self-contradictory. Why not simply come out and say, "Our views are changing, and we are well on our way to fully embracing practicing 'gay Christians'?" Why the wavering?

[...]

Will you uphold the plain teaching of Scripture and the historic doctrine of the church, namely, that all same-sex relationships, no matter how loving, are sinful in God's eyes? Or will you fully embrace and endorse these relationships as holy, not only blessing them but performing same-sex wedding ceremonies in your church buildings? What will it be?

I appeal to you to choose this day whom you will serve. It is either the Lord or the spirit of the age. It cannot be both.

Brown is unsurprisingly framing his anti-LGBT hate as holy and ordained and that anyone who doesn't share that level of hate cannot possibly be a "real" Christian.

Brown's Feb. 20 column was headlined "An insight about how Gen Zers approach LGBTQ issue," which was largelycomplaining that young people don't see LGBTQ people as an "issue":

If you know anything about the younger generation, you know that many of these teens and young adults have a real passion for justice, even if misguided at times. Many of them are also highly empathetic, commonly siding with the perceived underdog and outcast. That's why so many Gen Z young people stand with the LGBTQ+ community or even identify as such. It is an essential part of who they are. 

[...]

Recently, I was speaking to hundreds of multi-national, Gen Z ministry students on this very topic, and as always, I did my best to speak with sensitivity and compassion.

I pointed to the hurt and rejection suffered by LGBTQ+ individuals over the years. I said that the vast majority of them are not activists and are simply trying to live their lives in peace. I emphasized that many of them feel hated by God and the church. And I explained that some of our Gospel cliches are highly offensive to them. For example, when we say, "Love the sinner and hate the sin," they hear, "You hate me, since this is not what I do. This is who I am."

[...]

I shared with tears stories of young people "detransitioning" after having life-altering hormone and surgery treatments as teens. And even when I showed shocking examples of LGBTQ+ indoctrination of little children, I explained that those involved, be it the parents or the teachers, really thought they were doing a good thing.

So, the presentation was as caring as could be, spoken with a heart of love.

Yet when most of the students laughed out loud when I read off lists of the latest preferred gender pronouns, a small minority of the students were offended. They felt as if everyone was laughing at one of their friends or loved ones and as if I was ridiculing one of their friends or loved ones.

Brown concluded:

But we must not underestimate the degree to which they have grown up in a radically different world than we did, one in which same-sex "marriage" is the law of the land. In which trans is trendy and gay is cool. In which any rejection of LGBTQ+ activism is perceived as hateful. And in which, even for some Gen Z Christians, there is a deeper sense of solidarity with LGBTQ+ people than with the ways and Word of God.

And so, just as the older generation focused so much on LGBTQ+ issues that we lost sight of the people, the younger generation has focused so much on LGBTQ+ people that they have lost sight of the issues.

If Brown continues to insist that LGBTQ people are "issues" instead of humans who deserve basic respect and rights regardless of who they love, he's only preaching to the choir.


Posted by Terry K. at 11:24 AM EDT
Updated: Sunday, July 2, 2023 11:29 AM EDT
Saturday, July 1, 2023
MRC Lashes Out At CNN's Darcy Over Trump Town Hall
Topic: Media Research Center

The Media Research Center's defense of Donald Trump following the CNN town hall included taking shots at a CNN reporter the MRC obsessively hates. Nicholas Fondacaro started things in a May 13 post:

Following the airing of CNN’s town hall with former President Trump Wednesday evening, many bloviating pontificators in the liberal media registered their outrage at the network for daring to give the Republican candidate a platform. A surprising voice to register their disproval came from inside CNN’s house in the form of senior media reporter Oliver Darcy via the so-called “Reliable Sources” Newsletter. According to reporting from Puck News on Friday, CNN boss Chris Licht responded to Darcy’s insubordination by putting “the fear of God into him.”

With the dust still settling from the rowdy event, Darcy clutched his pearls into diamonds as he fired off the newsletter proclaiming this at the top: “It's hard to see how America was served by the spectacle of lies that aired on CNN Wednesday evening.”

He touted the performance of his colleague Kaitlan Collins by calling her “as tough and knowledgable [sic] of an interviewer as they come. She fact-checked Trump throughout the 70-minute town hall.”

[...]

Darcy even called Licht out by name. “CNN and new network boss Chris Licht are facing a fury of criticism — both internally and externally over the event,” he stated, airing their laundry and leaving it an open-ended question of how Licht would respond to criticism.

Well, according to former CNN media reporter Dylan Byers, Darcy would soon learn how Licht dealt with critics firsthand.

[...]

What’s obvious from Puck’s reporting was that the Jeff Zucker weed runs deep and it would require a lot of work from Licht to pluck it out root and branch.

Only an authoritarian-adjacent right-winger like Fondacaro would think that honest, factual reporting (he cited no inaccuracies in Darcy's work) should be treated as "insubordination."

The MRC's chief Darcy-hater, Curtis Houck -- who loves to smear Darcy as a "Benedict Arnold" because he escaped the right-wing media bubble -- doubled down in a May 15 post:

Two days after Puck's Dylan Byers reported that CNN’s Oliver Darcy was shaken by the proverbial call to the principal’s office for insubordination, Darcy defenders pushed back Sunday night and comically tried to downplay the notion that it was bad news for Darcy to have been called to CNN boss Chris Licht’s office to discuss his analysis trashing his own employer for hosting a town hall with former President Trump.

Darcy’s allies and Semafor may try to have you think otherwise, but other than being told you were being promoted, receiving an award, or discussing, say, a loss in the family, receiving a summons to the office of the president of your company with other executives is never a good sign.

Semafor’s Max Tani had the details in co-founder Ben Smith’s weekly media newsletter: “Two people with knowledge of the meeting told Semafor that Darcy was not pleased with the depiction of the meeting, which noted that Licht told Darcy that he was emotional and had ‘put the fear of God’ in the CNN media correspondent.”

Earth to Darcy: How does it feel to perhaps have received a taste of your own medicine? Not so fun having anonymous sources denounce you, is it?

Houck concluded by begging Licht to make an example of Darcy:

Tani did have a kicker in which he shared “Darcy has wondered to colleagues whether he should resign or if he will be fired.”

And there it is. If Darcy were to be fired, it’d be a strong signal to CNN employees, media watchers, and viewers that Licht is intent on materializing calls from his Warner Bros. Discovery bosses to haul CNN back to the center and away from obsessions with Fox News and anti-conservative venom.

Houck, of course, was silent about Fox News' obsession with CNN, and he did not demand that Fox News tone down its anti-liberal venom.


Posted by Terry K. at 10:20 AM EDT
WND's Lively Imagines Election Fraud
Topic: WorldNetDaily

In addition to being a homophobe and a Vladimir Putin stan, Scott Lively is also a Trump dead-ender who believes the conspiracy theories about election fraud. He pushed the bogus narrative again in his May 8 WorldNetDaily column:

A few days ago, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton gave a brilliant short talk at the Heritage Foundation explaining how the Democrats pulled off the election coup of 2020/21 and why the most insidious element of it can't technically be proven. In appreciation for his courage and to help that video get more attention, I am dusting off and refreshing an article I first published two weeks after the (literally unbelievable) "Biden landslide." Sarcasm alert, here goes:

Election fraud is the art of stealing or trying to steal an election by cheating.

When it is done by an individual it is called voter fraud. When it is done by a group of extremely powerful people conspiring together to take down Donald Trump it is called "the most secure election in U.S. history."

Conspiracies are usually very difficult to prove because the people doing them work super hard to hide the evidence so they don't get caught. The best way to get away with it is to do it in places where all the people who could expose or punish you, such as the police, judges, news reporters, election officials, etc., are your friends. Groups of friends with expertise in election fraud all networking together are called "Defenders of Our Democracy."

Democrats really, really like having those kinds of friends, so the places that have the most election "intervention" are cities which have the most Democrats in power.

Lively then listed the ways he thinks elections are stolen: voting lists that are not continally purged (though overagressive purging tends to remove eligible voters as well as dead ones), mail-in voting (which doesn't actually increase election fraud no matter what Lively wants you to think), and electronic voting. Regarding the latter, Lively claimed without evidence that one can "stop the vote counting in the middle of the election night and change the software to help your guy catch up – AFTER everyone saw that the other guy won." He concluded:

But, that won't really matter much in the long run so long as you get that election "certified" by Congress with the help of strategically placed co-conspirators. It might cost you a few pence you didn't expect to spend, but once you've firmly taken dominion over the seats of power there will be lots more ethically flexible people who will want to be your friends. And eventually you'll be SO strong that no one can stop you even if they know exactly how you're cheating.

So, that's how it works. Happy voting!

Nope, that's not how it works at all. But then, Lively isn't being paid to tell the truth.


Posted by Terry K. at 1:37 AM EDT
Friday, June 30, 2023
MRC's Jean-Pierre-Bashing, Doocy-Fluffing Watch
Topic: Media Research Center

Kevin Tober served up the Media Research Center's ritual hatred of White HOuse press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre over the June 5 press briefing:

They say politics makes strange bedfellows. Monday’s White House press briefing held by the always incompetent White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre (KJP) and National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby proved that when both Daily Caller White House correspondent Diana Glebova and CBS senior White House correspondent Ed O’Keefe asked about the allegations that then-Vice President Joe Biden was involved in a bribery scheme. 

Along the way, Tober embarassingly gushed that biased Newsmax reporter James Rosen displayed a "line of questioning worthy of an Ivy League lawyer" (no mention that Rosen was forced to ply his skills at Newsmax because he got canned from Fox News for serial sexual harassment) and sneered that there was "what WMAL radio host Vince Coglianese refers to as the children’s press briefing hosted by KJP" that involved questions that don't advance right-wing narratives.

For the next day's briefing, Tober hypocritically cheered a Fox Business writer for going the children's briefing route:

At Tuesday's White House press briefing, the inept Biden White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre (KJP) was grilled by NewsMax’s James Rosen on Biden’s frequent falls. What started as a simple question turned into a full blown argument over whether Biden frequently stumbling is an issue to Americans. 

The briefing started off on a humorous note with Fox News White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich asking KJP if humans are alone on planet Earth: 

On UFOs, real quick though. This whistleblower report, alleging that the US military has been retrieving craft of non-human origin for at least several decades. Are we alone? And if we were not, would you even tell us?

There were chuckles in the room from the other reporters. As per her usual arrangement, KJP dodged the question. “I would refer that question to Department of Defense and let them answer that question for you,” she replied.

Tober then devoted four paragraphs to gushing over how Rosen "wasn’t playing around" in his biased questioning, whining about Jean-Pierre's response: "KJP once again played dumb: 'you've paid a lot of attention to that particular situation. I Actually, did not see that. I was with him in Hiroshima so this is something that I was not aware of, so I can't speak to that particular moment.' She then listed off a number of Biden’s accomplishments in an attempt to deflect from Rosen’s actual question." He then complained when Jean-Pierre had enough of Rosen's bias:

KJP then got nasty and sneered: “You're asking me if we're going to change anything from here, the Chief of Staff has asked for it to change anything from here. And here's the thing, here's the thing. We are not. Things happen. Other Presidents have had similar situations.” 

She then walked off and ended the press conference like a petulant child.

Funny, we recall when the MRC called them "mic drops" and cheered when Kayleigh McEnany did that.

Curtis Houck returned for more Karine-bashing in writing about the June 7 briefing, attacking a Voice of America reporter for asking about Pride Month:

Along with PBS and NPR, there’s another taxpayer-funded outlet in the White House Briefing Room many Americans probably forget about: Voice of America. And why it matters is, in part, Wednesday’s briefing revealed how they’re just as far to the left as VOA reporter Anita Powell put a softball question about Pride Month on the tee for Press Secretary (and heralded lesbian) Karine Jean-Pierre.

Powell mentioned that Thursday would feature a Pride Month event at the White House, but fretted this would “provoke some political or politicized pushback, especially from, you know, some of the states that have passed legislation targeting sexual minorities or from countries that have done the same.”

In turn, Powell askedif she “could...just hear from you why does the White House feel that this event is important, especially in this context.”

Puketastic. Worthless media we have.

Houck apparently believes that media outlets have worth if they share his right-wing bias and hate LGBT people as much as he does.

Houck's writeup of the June 13 briefing complained that Jean-pierre called out a biased reporter for using a question to attack transgender people:

Transgenderism was the center of attention for key moments in Tuesday’s White House press briefing as Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre denounced the “disrespectful,” “not appropriate,” and “unacceptable” behavior of a transgender woman (a man pretending to be a woman) flashing their upper region at a White House pride event, while also trashing pro-life reporter Owen Jensen for an “irresponsible” question about girls being forced to compete against biological men.

The Jensen exchange came near the end of the briefing, starting with Jensen citing a tweet from Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) that “having biological males in women’s sports is unsafe, unfair, and wrong” and a letter from “72 elite female athletes” denouncing being forced to compete “against biological males is not only unfair, it is discriminatory and illegal.”

“So, in the light of this administration’s proposed changes to Title IX, does the White House worry about the physical safety of females directly competing against males in sports,” Jensen asked.

Jean-Pierre insisted this was “a complicated issue” with “a wide range of views,” but nothing was set in stone to have the Department of Education force schools into putting men who identify as women in women’s sports.

Jensen pushed back:

[...]

Jean-Pierre was incensed, blasting him for “saying that transgender kids are dangerous.” Jensen repeatedly denied it, but Jean-Pierre didn’t care: “Well, you’re saying — you’re saying that their safety is — isn’t — is at risk?”

She added that Jensen was “laying out a broad — kind of broad example or explanation of what could potentially happen” and thus describing transgender people in a way that was “dangerous” to them.

“[T]hat’s something that I have to call out. And that is — that is — that is — that is irresponsible. I have just laid out how complicated this issue is.  I have just laid out why it’s complicated,” she said.

Houck also hyped another anti-LGBT question from a different right-wing reporter: "Heinrich also had a question about how they displayed of the pride flag at said event in a way that violated the U.S. flag code, but Jean-Pierre brushed that aside as a discussion meant to 'distract us from' supporting LGBTQ people."

Because Houck and Tober care only about trashing Jean-Pierrre and promoting right-wing reporters without identifying their ideological bias, so they failed to write about the June 14 briefing in which she mocked Fox News for its ridiculous chyron calling Biden a "wannabe dictator," laughing and declaring that "there are probably about 787 million things that I can say about this."


Posted by Terry K. at 8:47 PM EDT
Newsmax Still Defended Trump After Arraignment
Topic: Newsmax

Newsmax aggressively defended Donald Trump on arraignment day for his latest indictment, though it had to throw in some actual news for balance. Afterward, Newsmax returned to being mostly about being in attack-and-defend mode. Here's what it published on June 14 and 15 the two days after the arraignment:

Newsmax did slip in a few articles noting the other side of the story:

Newsmax columnists rushed to Trump's defense as well. Jeff Crouere huffed in a June 14 column:

Eight years of abuse of President Donald Trump culminated in the 37 felony count indictment that was unsealed on Friday. The 49-page document alleges the mishandling of classified documents after he left the White House.

President Joe Biden was found to have classified documents at his home, in his garage and in his office, which received communist Chinese donations, and nothing has happened to him. In fact, the special counsel named to investigate this issue has been quiet and has not even interviewed Biden.

In contrast, Trump's special counsel, Jack Smith, has been aggressive and subpoenaed dozens of employees at Trump's Mar-a-Lago home. At his press conference on Friday, Smith ludicrously said that "We have one set of laws in this country. They apply to everyone."

Really? Hillary Clinton was not prosecuted for sending and receiving 33,000 emails, including top secret and classified materials, using an unsecured computer.

While former President Trump faces 400 years in prison, Clinton received a pass from former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director James Comey who infamously claimed that "Although there is evidence of potential violations regarding the handling of classified information, our judgment is that no reasonable prosecutor would bring such a case."

In fact, there is no reasonable comparison between Trump and Hillary on this issue. Neverthless, he continued whining:

He was charged under the Espionage Act, which has never been used against a president in our 247-year history. Yet, unhinged prosecutors in the Biden administration do not care about precedent or dividing the nation. They are determined to prevent Trump from getting elected president again.

In contrast, House Republicans are too scared to impeach a President who deserves it more than any other in our nation's history. If Biden is not impeached, House Republicans should abdicate their power and turn it back over to the Democrats.

The one disruptor is facing the mighty weight of the federal government against him. His only true allies are the 75 million Americans who voted for him.

The latest witch hunt will only embolden his voters. Too bad House Republicans do not possess similar courage.

It's not a "witch hunt" if there are actual witches -- and again, there are tapes.


Posted by Terry K. at 6:45 PM EDT
Updated: Friday, June 30, 2023 7:16 PM EDT
WND Joins MRC Touts Dubious AllSides Work To Push 'Liberal Media Bias' Narrative
Topic: WorldNetDaily

One big way you can tell that "media solutions company" AllSides has a right-wing bias is by looking at who is promoting its work. The Media Research Center is a big promoter, of course, but another is WorldNetDaily. An anonymously written May 4 article stated:

Conservatives looking for an alternative to Google news to escape the leftist ideological bent need not look at Bing for an answer, according to a new report.

The Daily Signal, citing an AllSides study, said Bing skews even further left than Google.

"People completely underestimate the dangers of bias when it comes to search engines. They think they are getting balanced information, and they’re not," John Gable, co-founder and CEO of AllSides, the organization that conducted the study, explained to the Daily Signal.

"Instead, they’re being thrown into divisive filter bubbles that make them confidently ignorant."

AllSides dedicates itself to presenting balanced news, and analyzed Bing during March.

"The analysis found that 83% of the articles on Bing News’ homepage came from media outlets AllSides rates as Lean Left or Left, while only 13% came from media outlets rated Center, and 0% came from sources rated Lean Right or Right," the Daily Signal reported.

As we documented when the MRC promoted this same "study," AllSides 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 it doesn't like -- and it proclaims major news outlets as the New York Times, CNN, CBS, ABC and Politico to be "left-leaning,"  something it even admits is subjective.

Joseph Farah invoked this study in his May 5 column as an excuse to whine yet again how WND has been demonetized:

Slowly but surely, the leftists got their way and happily and effectively destroyed the First Amendment in one lifetime. Poof, and it was gone.

They did this through monopolizing advertising and search results for leftist sites while denying conservative ones. When that didn't work, sites like WND were PERMANENTLY DEMONETIZED, severely inhibiting our ability to participate in the online advertising world.

Google not only controls the flow of advertising and search results, but its No.2 competitor, Bing, the Microsoft-owned search engine, is arguably worse, according to a recent study.

[...]

This fascinating portrait of the state of the cyber media was done by Tyler O'Neil, the managing editor of the Daily Signal.

Is this what the Founding Fathers had in mind when they crafted the Constitution and made the First Amendment the shrine of our bill of rights, the most important of our freedoms? No.

It cannot be an accident or chance. WND does not come up at all in Bing searches. We're considered fringe – though we arguably speak to the biggest populous movement in the U.S., the MAGA community.

Farah then cited another AllSides work offering similar results (which we've also debunked):

In March, a Google spokesperson countered the earlier survey's results, claiming AllSides' "methodology is deeply flawed" and arguing that the study "cherry-picked a few topics and ran for a very brief period of time, presenting a misleading picture of Google News."

Google News is a very important tool of the search engine. Before Donald Trump became president as the "biggest threat to freedom in the United States," WND often found its news reports prominently placed in those Google reports. Obviously, not anymore as our nation continues marching toward fascism.

[...]

Google is failing the nation. Period. And Bing skews even further left than Google.

Farah concluded:

To quote Gable, again: "People completely underestimate the dangers of bias when it comes to search engines. They think they are getting balanced information, and they're not. Instead, they're being thrown into divisive filter bubbles that make them confidently ignorant."

That's the state of the nation – becoming confidently ignorant. And that's the intent. Better to manipulate us. They're having their way with America.

Given the amount of fake news and misinformation WND publishes -- which is the real reason WND has been demonetized by people like Google who don't want to be associated with such shoddy work -- it seems that Farah is the one who wants his readers to be "confidently ignorant."


Posted by Terry K. at 1:33 PM EDT
Updated: Friday, June 30, 2023 1:42 PM EDT
NEW ARTICLE: The MRC's Winter of Hunter Biden Derangement
Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center continued to be mad that its Hunter Biden obsession hadn't escaped its right-wing bubble -- and it repeatedly whined that the the media was covering actual Donald Trump scandals instead. Read more >>

Posted by Terry K. at 1:07 AM EDT
Thursday, June 29, 2023
MRC Defends Trump After CNN Town Hall
Topic: Media Research Center

The Media Research Center's main complaint about Donald Trump's town hall on CNN last month was that it didn't suck up enough to him. Afterwards, it defended him from all criticism. A May 11 post by Alex Christy nitpicked a CNN fact-check of Trump because it "did not accurately portray" Hillary Clinton's beliefs on abortion -- but had to put words into Hillary's mouth to do so:

Washington correspondent Sunlen Serfaty joined Thursday’s CNN This Morning to fact-check some of the claims former President Donald Trump made on Wednesday night’s town hall including the claim that Hillary Clinton supports late third trimester abortions. Serfaty would defend Clinton against the charge, but she did not accurately portray Clinton’s beliefs.

Serfaty claimed that Trump’s “comments were very misleading” for accusing “Democrats and specifically Hillary Clinton of supporting abortion late into the third trimester.”

[...]

First, what Roe allowed is not necessarily the same thing as what Clinton supported. Secondly, Serfaty omitted half of Clinton’s position. In 2016, Clinton did indeed say that third trimester abortions should be legal for reasons relating to the health and life of the mother, but she also added:

I have met with women who have, toward the end of their pregnancy, get the worst news one could get. That their health is in jeopardy if they continue to carry to term. Or that something terrible has happened or just been discovered about the pregnancy. I do not think the United States government should be stepping in and making those most personal of decisions. So you can regulate if you are doing so with the life and the health of the mother taken into account. 

What is Clinton’s definition of “terrible” and what could be discovered that justify a third trimester abortion? Clinton didn’t say.

Nicholas Fondacaro complained it was pointed out that the town hall audience was too biased in favor of Trump:

The liberal ladies of ABC’s The View were in a tailspin from the get-go during Thursday’s episode, as the majority of them fumed over CNN’s town hall with former President Trump the previous evening. But instead of keeping her animosity trained on Trump, co-host Joy Behar immediately started taking swings at the average Americans in the audience. Their crime? Being Republicans and fans of the former President, or as she called them “not American.”

P.J. Gladnick also groused that Politico (accurately) predicted that Trump would lie:

"Litany of lies."

Is there any way that you would ever hear Politico describe any Democrat, such as Adam Schiff of the  fake news Trump-Russia collusion hoax fame, that way?  Of course not.

However on Wednesday, just hours ahead of Donald Trump's town hall on CNN, Politico Playbook used another alliteration to brand him as a liar. "Farrago of falsehoods."

Kevin Tober was upset that even other CNN anchors didn't like how the town hall turned out:

Exactly twenty-four hours after CNN’s town hall with former President Donald Trump Wednesday night, CNN host Anderson Cooper responded to the unhinged leftist outrage that immediately spread on Twitter in the immediate aftermath of the town hall. Instead of trying to calm his left-wing audience down, Cooper poured gasoline on the fire during Thursday's AC360 by telling them they'd be right if they wanted to ditch CNN for good. 

“Many of you have expressed deep anger and disappointment. Many of you are upset that someone who attempted to destroy our democracy was invited to sit on a stage in front of a crowd of Republican voters to answer questions, and predictably, continued to spew lie after lie after lie,” Cooper opened his show. 

Adding: “I get it. It was disturbing. It was disturbing to see and hear that person refer to a black law enforcement officer as a thug, an adjective he used many times to describe black men and called Kaitlan Collins, the moderator nasty, which is what he calls any woman who stands up to him."

[...]

Cooper's rant showed that CNN boss Chris Licht had a major problem on his hands as the on-air talent was seemingly attempting something of a mutiny. The Hill's media and politics columnist, Joe Concha urged for heads to roll at CNN once again, and not just Cooper's.

Strange that Tober thinks the problem is with longstanding CNN personnel who understand the network and not with the new guy.

Fondacaro raged at "The View" hosts again, this time for pointed out how CNN host Kaitlan Collins got steamrolled by Trump:

In the opening theme music of ABC’s The View, the lyrics proclaim: “This is for my girls all around the world. Stand up with your head up. Own your power. Speak your truth.” But on Friday’s edition of the show, fill-in moderator Joy Behar and racist co-host Sunny Hostin toss the women empowerment mantra out the window as they lashed out at CNN town hall host Kaitlan Collins for not being imposing enough to stop former President Trump. Hostin went as far as to hint a man would have done a better job.

Fondacaro didn't mention that the reason he seems to be going easy on Collins is because her background is in right-wing media as a writer for the Daily Caller, where whe wrote pieces about hot Syrian refugees and her bylines there have largely been removed (a la Alyssa Farah's work for WorldNetDaily).

Tim Graham ran to the defense of Trump in his May 12 podcast:

It was a banner week for bias, with a lot of shameless behavior. Media liberals were outraged at CNN's Trump town hall (including CNN liberals),  with the constantly interrupting questions and the MAGA-pleasing answers. We predicted Kaitlan Collins could come in with her hair on fire, and we were right. She didn’t shriek, she tried to remain calm. But on many questions, the former president was not really allowed to finish a sentence.

During his last tour of Fox News, Trump was allowed eight-minute answers. CNN didn't want to give him more than eight words. 

The CNN town hall with Trump roughly breaks down to three portions. The first 25 minutes obsessed over scandals: Election denial, January 6, the E Jean Carroll rape allegations. Then came a half hour on issues: Inflation, debt ceiling, guns, abortion, immigration, and Ukraine. At the end, there was more election denial, and a squabble over the Mar-a-Lago documents. Collins couldn't mention the federal raid. Then in the aftermath, CNN stars line Anderson Cooper and Jake Tapper whined about all the lies....that they just platformed.

Jeffrey Lord spent his May 13 column complaining about "the fury vented by CNN staffers in the wake of the CNN Town Hall with former President Donald Trump," declaring that "it is, it is very safe to say, representative of the mindset of so many elites not just inside CNN but well beyond into the larger media. It might be said that while this episode appears to be about CNN employees versus America, in reality it is emblematic of the liberal media versus America."

A May 14 post by Tober touted a Fox News talking head coming to Trump's defense:

Fox News Channel’s MediaBuzz host Howard Kurtz used the opening monologue of his show to slam the leftist media for melting down over CNN hosting a town hall for former President Donald Trump. Proving again that those at media outlets like MSNBC, The Washington Post, New York Times and others want total subservience to the radical left-wing agenda, Kurtz even aired a clip of MSNBC’s resident racist demagogue Joy Reid who lashed out at CNN. 

[...]

He then made the obvious point that it’s not like Trump went unchallenged during the event, in fact, quite the opposite: “This wasn't a rally where he just gets to pop off. And whatever you think of Trump and his stormy tenure, shouldn't journalists question him as part of the campaign?”

“As it turned out, the town hall turned into an absolute train wreck, even many people at CNN being sharply critical. But the alternative, banning Trump from the airwaves, is suppression of speech, and that is not journalism,” Kurtz said.

Tober didn't mention that Kurtz works for a network that wants total subservience to the right-wing agenda.


Posted by Terry K. at 9:51 PM EDT
Updated: Thursday, June 29, 2023 9:53 PM EDT
WND Still Shilling For Tucker Carlson
Topic: WorldNetDaily

WorldNetDaily continued to be Tucker Carlson's PR division as it touted everything it could about his plans after Fox News fired him. In addition to publishing articles it took from the right-wing Western Journal, it has published its own articles as well:

  • An April 26 article by Peter LaBarbera claimed that Carlson's firing "has drawn renewed attention to one of his detractors, the self-proclaimed 'Never Again Trumper' and former Republican House Speaker, Paul Ryan, who sits on the Fox Corporation's Board of Directors."
  • An anonymously writen May 4 article hyped that Carlson "has considered running his own GOP candidate forum for the 2024 presidential election."
  • A May 9 article by Joe Kovacs touted Carlson's decision to post videos to Twitter. WND has linked to nearly every Carlson video posted since they began appearing in early June.
  • A May 11 article by Kovacs cheered that Carlson "did, in fact, tell a reporter this week that he would be running for president and announcing his candidacy this week. But then, within moments, Carlson admitted he was just joking." Kovacs attacked the reporter Carlson pranked as having a "leftist ideological slant" for no actual reason beyond that he accurately reported on leaked internal text messages showing Carlson to be the jerk we all knew him to be.
  •  
  • An article it stole from right-wing site Just the News hyped that Carlson's first video "had more than 100 million views in less than two days since its launch." In fact, Twitter's "tweet view" counter is so broad that it counts merely scrolling past a tweet as a "view," making it utterly unreliable as a viewing metric.
  • A May 16 article by Bob Unruh touted: "An undercover video obtained by OMG News, run by James O'Keefe, shows a Fox insider revealing that Tucker Carlson's dismissal was part of the settlement with Dominion Voting Systems."
  • A June 8 artlcle by Unruh noted the legal wranting between Carlson and Fox News, followed by a June 12 article complaining about a cease-and-desist letter Fox sent to Carlson.

Then there was a May 25 article by Peter LaBarbera carrying the declarative statement "Tucker is Americans' most trusted news source." But the poll LaBarbera said nothing about "trust," as he seemed to concede in his opening paragraph: "A new survey by Gallup and the Knight Foundation reveals that Tucker Carlson, recently ousted by Fox News despite being their top show host, is the 'most followed or watched public figure in the United States for information,' dominating legacy media news names like NBC's Lester Holt and ABC's David Muir." Being "followed or watched" does not equal trust. LaBarbera went on to botch his version of the list, getting a couple numbers wrong and list NBC's Lester Holt twice. (Apaprently, having a competent copy editor is an expense WND can no longer handle.)

Meanwhile, Joseph Farah and Wayne Allyn Root weren't the only WND columnists who weighed in on Carlson's firing. Jim Darlington's April 28 column was "An open letter to Tucker haters about the truth he taught us" in which he repeated not "truth" but Carlson's misinformation and propaganda:

You know the election of 2020 was an exercise in treason. You were there. You saw what was done. We all did. You can say there is no God, but He will disagree. You can say the election was fair and honest. Or you can say the vaccines were safe and effective.

You know that Joe Biden is a corrupt and thoroughly compromised puppet, who was selected as our presidential figurehead solely by virtue of his willing ascent to every lie placed before him and his unique and in-your-face talent for delusional embellishment. You know his presence in the White House is a purposeful mockery, telling us of our impotence to even know who is truly governing us.

You know that it is impossible for us to avoid the most obvious. That every policy of this administration has been directed at our destruction and that every implausible justification is pure rot.

[...]

We didn't need to gift the Taliban with $80,000,000,000-plus worth of U.S. military equipment. We didn't need to gift the Chinese the biggest military airbase in the region, fully equipped. We didn't need to move the military out before securing the evacuation of American civilians and the Afghans who had been our allies.

[...]

You know Ukraine was one of the prime troughs of corruption, at which the Biden crime family fed. You know that the U.S. State Department squashed efforts, early in the war, for a cease-fire, then amenable to both sides in the conflict. You can't pretend to be ignorant of the unbeatable odds that millions, if not billions of the U.S. "aid" going to Ukraine are finding their way back into the coffers of the American left, for the purposes of buying additional elections.

We didn't need to become a nation confused over what a man is and what a woman is, or whether 7-year-olds need an insane rationale for choosing which sex to be, training manual to follow.

[...]

We didn't need the House speaker's refusal to honor the president's request for the National Guard to control the expected protests January 6. We didn't need the incitement of the Capitol Police lobbing stun grenades into peaceful crowds. We didn't need for a host of coordinated operatives to lead the breach of the Capitol. We didn't need the unanswered killing of U.S. citizens, by those same police. We have not needed the attribution of "white supremacy" to a racially mixed crowd of protesters, for whom the Capitol Police opened doors. We didn't need two and a half years of political persecution and unlawful imprisonment of those who stood in the gap against the coup that has taken us to the brink of chaos.

To correct just a couple of Darlington's falsehoods: Ther U.S. didn't leave $80 billion in military equipment to the Taliban, Trump made no request to Pelosi to activate the National Guard the day of the Capitol riot (and it was not in her power to activate them even if he had), and Ashil Babbitt was committing an act of domestic terrorism when she was killed by law enforcement inside the Capitol.

WND also posted a May 3 video by messianic Jew and onetime WND gravy train maintainer Jonathan Cahn titled "Was Tucker Carlson actually removed by the spirits?" After a lot of gobbleldygook about spirits and "demonic powers" and transphobic ranting, he declared that Carlson "stood in [the spirits'] way" and, thus, was targeted, citing Carlson's anti-abortion rantings likening abortion to "child sacrifice" and alleged exposure of the "dark trinity." Cahn also shoehorned in lots of promotion for his latest book.


Posted by Terry K. at 7:15 PM EDT
Updated: Friday, June 30, 2023 10:27 AM EDT
Another Gun Massacre, Another MRC Deflection
Topic: Media Research Center

With the May gun massacre at an outlet mall in Texas, the Media Research Center continued its pattern of refusing to actually talk about the gun's central role. Nicholas Fondacaro tried to steer things toward mental health, not guns, in a May 8 post:

Following yet another mass shooting where the shooter showed warning signs of struggling with his mental health, on Monday, the ladies of ABC’s The View denied that there was a mental health crisis in America as they turned their nose up at efforts in Texas to address it. They even went so far as to suggest mass shooters weren’t mentally ill and wildly assert that “war weapons” and murders only exist in America.

After playing a soundbite of Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott vowing that his state was “working to address that anger and violence by going to its root cause, which is addressing the mental health problems behind it,” the cast sat silently in disgust.

First to speak up was faux conservative co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin, who chided that “[t]here's a disconnect between what the American public wants to see on gun safety and what elected officials in Washington and states want to see.”

Fondacaro then played games with polls:

Citing an outlier poll from Fox News, Farah Griffin opined that “87 percent of Americans support background checks for guns.” Background checks already existed and are required in all states, they're federally mandated. She also boasted that “81 percent support raising the minimum age to get a buy a firearm to 21,” which would effectively make many adults second-class citizens who can’t exercise their constitutional rights.

Meanwhile, a recent ABC News Washington Post poll lost month showed growing oppositionto so-called “assault weapon” bans. Interesting how they ignored that one.

That's right -- Fondacaro is trusting a poll from the hated "liberal media" instead of his beloved  Fox News because it better fits his narrative. Oh, and he also raged at co-host Sunny Hostin for being "mentally unstable and racist" because he doesn't understand how metaphors work.

A few hours later, he lashed out at "The View" again, this time for pointing out reports of the shooter's  white supremacism despite apprently being of Hispanic heritage:

As a follow-up to their earlier conversation on Monday where they denied that mental illness played a key role in mass shootings, even proclaiming that the mentally ill were immune from committing mass shootings, the radical cast of ABC’s The View dove to a new level of lunacy as faux-conservative co-host Ana Navarro proclaimed that blacks and Hispanics were not “immune” from “being a white supremacist.” It’s an accusation that has been leveled at black and Hispanics just for voting Republican.

Returning from a commercial break that ended a heated shouting match between co-host Sara Haines and Sunny Hostin, moderator Whoopi Goldberg whined about the focus on mental health. “We're talking about the insanity of people not recognizing that there are very specific issues,” she said. Of course, the issue she wanted to focus on was race.

“Race apparently turns out to be an issue in a lot of these killings,” she proclaimed, citing the Charleston, South Carolina church shooting from 2015. “We've seen it. People getting shot because they're black. We've seen people getting shot because they're there. We've seen them getting shot because they're Latina.”

[...]

Hostin, a taunch racist, was “glad” Goldberg “brought up the race” angle. And without providing evidence, she pushed the narrative that the Hispanic man responsible for the Allen, Texas shooting was a white supremacist. “But this shooter who happened to be Hispanic and Latino, which is very bizarre to me, had a white supremacy moniker on him,” she said.

Fondacaro then whined that an authority on law enforcement was referenced:

Before doing her habitual quotation of FBI Director Christopher Wray, she lashed out at those who call out her racism. “And so, you know, Christopher Wray – These are not my words. So people don't start with the I’m a race-baiter crap!” she spat.

“Christopher Wray said the biggest threat to our democracy is white supremacy and domestic terrorism. He testified before Congress,” she declared before lashing out again, this time at Republicans for trying to tackle mental health instead of curtailing gun rights, saying they “should be ashamed of themselves.”

Also latching onto the race angle, Navarro made her proclamation on white supremacy. “Look, being Hispanic or being black does not – or being anything, does not make you immune from being racist, from being radicalized, from being a white supremacist, from being evil, from being homicidal,” she asserted.

Fondacaro waited until the final paragraph of his post to concede that Navarro "was right that non-white people can be most of those other horrible things she listed; particularly racist." But he immediately played whataboutism by whining that "she wouldn’t dare call out Hostin for her history of making racist remarks."

In fact, the shooter had Nazi tattoos and a fascination with neo-Nazi ieology, so Fondacaro looks like slightly less of a clown for making his concession. Fondacaro didn't want to talk about that any further, though.

Then it was time to move on to other anti-gun control narratives, with a post by Curtis Houck cheering how a Republican congressman enter the "far-left lair" of "CBS This Morning" to spout those narratives. Houck even dismissed the fact that one massacre victim's face was blown off, callously declaring that it "would be the case with any gun if they’re shot point blank or enough times."

The vast majority of Americans are not as weirdly blase about gun violence as Houck.


Posted by Terry K. at 12:53 PM EDT
Updated: Thursday, June 29, 2023 1:05 PM EDT

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