MRC's Hatch Act Hypocrisy Topic: Media Research Center
Just like its former "news" division CNSNews.com, the Media Research Center cares only about Hatch Act violations by people in government when those people work for a Democratic administration. Kevin Tober complained in a June 12 post:
On Monday, NBC News had an exclusive report on their website revealing that President Biden’s incompetent press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre (KJP) was found to be in violation of the Hatch Act, a law enacted to strictly limit government officials from getting involved in campaigns. What made this ironic was that KJP frequently tied herself in knots to avoid answering questions due to her hiding behind the Hatch Act. Meanwhile, on Monday night, NBC Nightly News ignored their own network’s reporting.
Instead of reporting on KJP’s violation of the Hatch Act, NBC wasted air time on local weather reports and a tour boat capsizing in upstate New York.
According to reporting by NBC’s Katherine Doyle, “White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre violated a law intended to prevent federal employees from using their offices to influence elections when she repeatedly referred to “mega MAGA Republicans” in the run-up to the 2022 midterm elections.”
[...]
Despite finding KJP in violation of the law, Galindo‐Marrone wrote: “We have decided not to pursue disciplinary action and have instead issued Ms. Jean‐Pierre a warning letter.”
By contrast, the MRC did not find it newsworthy when members of the Trump administration were found to have violated the Hatch Act. In November 2021, the Office of Special Counsel issued a report stating that numerous Trump officials -- including press secretary Kayleigh McEnany and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo -- violated the Hatch Act during the Trump years. The report stated that the Trump officials “intentionally ignored the law’s requirements and tacitly or expressly approved of senior administration officials violating the law.” The MRC completely ignored the report.
A couple weeks before that report came out, however, the MRC published a column by Cal Thomas asserting that Vice President Kamala Harris violated the Hatch Act by appearing in a video played at a church in which she encouraged viewers to vote for the Democratic candidate for Virginia governor.and "even reminds them they can vote on Sundays and urges them to do so following their church service, presumably after worshipping an Authority higher than the state."
On top of that, a July 2020 post by Adam Burnett demonsdtrated the dismissive attitude the MRC took toward Hatch Act violations during the Trump years; when a commentator noted how Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway has repeatedly violated it, Burnett huffed in response: "It should be noted that Hatch Act violations are rarely prosecuted and there are deep questions still about the constitutionality of the law." Further, an August 2020 post by Scott Whitlock mocked MSNBC host Joy Reid for pointing out that Trump cabinet members who attended Trump's Republican National Convention acceptance speech. given at the White House, was likely violating the Hatch Act.
Jeffrey Lord dismissed the Hatch Act further in a June 2019 column: "The idea that the White House staff in any presidency is somehow 'violating' the Hatch Act is ridiculous. The presidency itself is a political institution - with all policy decisions always involving politics."
Going back before Trump, when there was a Democratic president, the MRC raged against a fictional violation of the Hatch Act. An October 2016 post by Karen Townsend attacked an episode of the TV show "Madam Secretary" for showing "a flagrant violation of the Hatch Act while politicizing the NFL. A two-for-one!" After describing the alleged fictional offfense, Townsend huffed: "Sounds like current election shenanigans, right? The rules only apply to some people, not all." We don't recall Townsend complaining about Hatch Act "shenanigans" under Trump.
The MRC didn't care about Hatch Act violations when Trump officials violated it, so it's hypocritical for them to suddenly care when a Democratic official is involved.
Newsmax Turning Trump Political Statements Into PR 'News' Articles Topic: Newsmax
Newsmax is nothing if not Trump sycophants and stenographers, and few things demonstrate that more than its touting -- by writing what are effective press releases -- about every detail of Donald Trump's so-called "Agenda 47," the list of things he claims he'll if he's re-elected. Here are some of them:
The most embarassing, though is a May 31 article by Eric Mackthat servd up straight Trump stenography about a national birthday party he plans to drag out for more than a year:
Continuing his Agenda 47, former President Donald Trump announced his plans for "Salute to America 250," a year-long 250th birthday celebration for the United States that will run from Memorial Day 2025 through July 4, 2026.
As part of the plan, Trump hopes the Iowa State Fair will welcome plans to host a year-long "Great American State Fair" to showcase America to the world.
"Three years from now, the United States will celebrate the biggest and most important milestone in our country's history — 250 years of American independence," Trump said in his latest 47th president agenda video released Wednesday. "That's why as a nation, we should be preparing for the most spectacular birthday party. We want to make it the best of all time."
[...]
Trump's announcement comes as he travels to Iowa for a barnstorming tour, where he will participate in a town hall and plead to Iowa caucus voters to keep him atop the Republican Party ticket for the 2024 presidential election.
"My hope is that the amazing people of Iowa will work with my administration to open up the legendary Iowa State Fairgrounds to host the Great American State Fair and welcome millions and millions of visitors from around the world to the heartland of America for this special one-time festival," Trump said, appealing to a potential boon for tourism.
"Together we will build it, and they will come," Trump added, using the famed quote from the classic American movie "Field of Dreams," filmed in Dyersville, Iowa.
Mack didn't discuss further Trump's attempt at vote-buying by promising to hold the fair in Iowa while campaigning in the state.He did, however, try to push a narrative about this by claiming Trump wanted this extended birthday party while president:
Trump first teased the 250th year of America in his first address to a joint session of Congress in February 2017.
"In nine years the United States will celebrate the 250th anniversary of our founding — 250 years since the day we declared our independence," Trump said then. "The 250th year for America will see a world that is more peaceful, more just, and more free."
"When we fulfill this vision," he continued, "when we celebrate our 250 years of glorious freedom — we will look back on tonight as when this new chapter of American greatness began."
Mack did not discuss how Trump's history of lies and crime fit into his "American greatness" claim.
WND Smears Chelsea Clinton For Advocating Childhood Vaccines Topic: WorldNetDaily
It took two articles for WorldNetDaily to fully attack Chelsea Clinton for advocating that children receive vaccinations. The first was a May 6 article stolen from right-wing fake-news content mill The People's Voice with the false headline "Chelsea Clinton: 'It's time to force-jab every unvaccinated child in America'." In fact, nowhere in the original People's Voice article is Clinton quoted as actually sayibng that, so it's a blatant lie to put those words in quotes.
Two days later, Bob Unruh wrote an article that was lighter on Chelsea Clionton slander but continued to fearmongered about vaccines, citing as a prime source the anti-vaxxer site Chiuldren's Health Defense:
Chelsea Clinton, daughter of ex-President Bill and two-time failed presidential candidate Hillary, now is campaigning to give all the children in the world many more vaccinations.
Following shortly after the catastrophic results of the COVID-19 vaccinations that many people were forced to get, resulting in injury up to and including death, a report at Children's Health Defense explains how Clinton, long an executive for her parent's foundation who attended a long list of elite schools, at one point taking a a master's degree in "public health" from Columbia, is pursuing her agenda.
And she's working with the World Health Organization and Gates Foundation, both ardently pro-vaccination ideologues, on the project.
It's called the "Big Catch-Up" initiative, and WHO said it's a "targeted global effort to boost vaccination among children…."
Chelsea Clinton, "via the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) — along with the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation" wants to make it the "largest childhood immunization effort ever."
She talked about her desires at a recent elite conference in Marina del Rey, California.
Note Unruh's portrayal of Clinton as some kind of "elite," as if vaccines are only the realm of rich people. Still, his anti-vaxxer fearmongering continued:
During the recent conference, Chelsea Clinton said there's a problem with "vaccine hesitancy" as well as those who simply reject vaccinations.
"No one should die of polio, measles, or pneumonia — including in this country, where we also need people to vaccinate their kid," she said.
In addition to traditional vaccinations, the program also is pushing the politically charged HPV vaccine and Gates Foundation spokesman Chris Elias said, "We must double down to reach all children…"
Unruh didn't explain why children shouldbn't be vaccinated against polio, measles, or pneumonia, nor did he explain why the HPV vaccine is "politically charged."
On the other hand, WND appears to have accepted the fact that Chelsea is Bill Clinton's child, after years of suggesting that Webb Hubbell is her real father, so that's something.
NEW ARTICLE -- The MRC Flips Over Elon Musk, Part 11: The Wavering Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center continued to promote "Twitter files" releases -- but it also fretted that Elon Musk wasn't doing enough to help right-wingers escape accountability for their hate and misinformation on the platform. Read more >>
MRC Transgender Hate Watch, Cooking Show Edition Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center continuesto wagewar on transgender people. TIm Graham had a meltown over a cooking show in an April 15 post:
Even food shows have to be woke. On the April 9 episode of CNN's the Desperate Housewives star promoted "two-spirited" trans women in the province of Oaxaca.
You could consider this the P.C. antithesis of the Great British Baking Show doing a brief cheesy comedy routine in sombreros to kick off "Mexican Week," which was greeted on the Left like a hate crime.
[...]
After some prep cooking, Longoria, speaking in Spanish with subtitles, asked "And what's your love life like? Can you go out with someone?"
One of the muxes replied "Yes, our custom, our culture is different. We have partners, but in secret. We go out with heterosexuals because they're more manly."
They're "heterosexuals"? Another man in a dress added "If he doesn't want to, then he's a coward and I don't want him." Longoria laughed heartily. What a silly heterosexual!
Graham concluded by sneering, "LGBT advocacy is obviously a crucial part of CNN." And vicious hatred of LGBT people is obviously a crucial part of the MRC.
Two days later, Graham played comedy cop over a non-binary "Saturday Night Live" cast member:
When NBC's Saturday Night Live made the dramatic announcement that they'd hired their first "non-binary" cast member, you could guess that the lectures would follow. Molly Kearney unloaded a sermon for "trans kids" on the fake-news "Weekend Update" segment on Saturday.
Over giggles, "Weekend Update" co-host Michael Che tried to be earnest: "Since the start of this year, over 400 anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced across the country, many of which target trans youth. Here to talk about it is someone with their own introduction."
Then over rock music, an announcer yelled "Introducing SNL's first nonbinary cast member. It's Molly Kearney!" Kearney was lowered down from above in a harness.
[...]
"That's an awesome transition," said Che, smirking at the double entendre. "As of this week, there are now over 14 states that have passed bills restricting health care for trans kids."
Kearney responded: "Listen to that, Michael, restricting health care for kids. For some reason, there's something about the word trans that makes people forget the word kids. If you don't care about trans kids' lives, it means you don't care about fricking kids' lives!" The audience cheered wildly.
Amputating a teenager's breasts or penis is "health care for kids." If you don't want the amputations, then you don't care about kids!
Then Kearney made a joke about how she was left in the harness too long, but said "we have a code word for emergencies," "trans rights." Then confetti fell from the ceiling. "That was the code for confetti! My bad!" Har har har.
In another April 17 post, Clay Waters tried to gaslight people by blaming transgender people for being hated by his fellow right-wingers:
Which came first, the chicken or the egg? When it comes to the transgender agenda, only the opposition is "mobilizing." On the front page of Sunday's paper, The New York Times falsely cast conservatives as the culture-war instigators over the controversy of transgender children on Sunday’s front page: “How a Campaign Against Transgender Rights Mobilized Conservatives.”
The subheadline oozed anti-GOP cynicism:
Defeated on same-sex marriage, the religious right went searching for an issue that would re-energize supporters and donors. The campaign that followed has stunned political leaders across the spectrum.
In the Trump years, the Times thrilled its liberal readership with the motto "Truth: It's more important now than ever." But obviously, when it comes to transgender issues, the feelings of people are Truth, and the biological realities are somehow just a sad excuse for a conservative crusade.
Reporters Adam Nagourney and Jeremy Peters (both of whom are gay activists in their work) wrote as if defeated social conservatives cynically went out to pick a fight against an imaginary foe, as if the left didn’t start the transgender fight through demands for “gender-affirming care,” howls about unsubstantiated epidemics of trans suicides, and invading women's spaces, especially sports for women and girls.
[...]
The Times never considers the idea conservatives are fighting for children not to be subject to irrevocable surgical operations at a vulnerable age, or trying to protect women’s spaces like locker rooms and restrooms from male intrusion and possible violence.
Waters doesn't explain why the conservative war against transgender people should be assumed to have only pure motives and not the result of a search for a new target designed to generate hate and donations.
Similarly, an April 20 post by Alex Christy didn't want people to think the right-wing anti-transgender war has any ill effects on the transgender people they're targeting:
MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell teamed up with Politico White House correspondent Eugene Daniels to reduce the integrity of women’s sports to GOP “red meat” with Daniels taking it a step further, accusing Republicans of villainizing people and implying such bills lead to suicides.
Mitchell’s “red meat” remarks about Republicans playing to their base came as she simultaneously condemned them for not doing what the Democratic base and the media—but we repeat ourselves— want, “And Eugene, Republicans today also passed a transgender sports ban for schools. Now, this is red meat for the base, but it’s going to be vetoed, you know, if it got through the Senate. Meanwhile, they are not doing anything about guns or a lot of other issues.”
[...]
Daniels then played the suicide card, “And when you talk to these advocates, this is what they were worried about and most importantly, I think they are worried about the numbers, the vast numbers, disproportionate numbers of young trans people who either kill themselves or feel scared living in this country as folks try to pass bills like this and so it’s red meat for the base, it’s not going to go anywhere and also it’s—it’ll will be interesting how the politics of this plays out in general elections, right?”
Ignoring that public opinion is on the GOP side, Daniels concluded, “People don't typically--have not gone to the ballots in strong waves against transgender people, that is something Republicans have been trying to do but it doesn't seem like it will try to work. So how they do that as it moves forward in a presidential when you have Democrats painting this Republican Party as extremists and pretty extreme on this issue in particular.”
Mitchell would follow up by agreeing, telling USA Today’s “I'm not sure it has the constituency” to win a general election.” Meanwhile, MSNBC’s position polls in the twenties and thirties.
Destroying the lives of people because it's politically popular to do so is quite the take. The next day, Christy complained that someone argued the issue of transgender athletes isn't as black-and-white as right-wingers like himself want you to believe:
In theory, Alyssa Farah Griffin is supposed to be one of CNN’s conservative commentators, but in the real world that conservatism is often missing. On Friday’s CNN This Morning, Farah Griffin lamented that Republicans don’t appreciate the “nuance” of “transwomen in sports” and condemned the GOP and the White House for not compromising on a dichotomous issue.
Co-host Poppy Harlow began by telling Farah Griffin that “We were really intrigued by this sort of tweet thread you posted yesterday referring to polling about LGBTQ support. There is a distinction here, as you want to point out, between support for transgender women and girls playing in male sports. But my question to you is what is the bigger picture you're trying to point to here?”
[...]
As for the sports question, Farah Griffin claimed “The transwomen in sports issue is a very nuanced issue and Congress is where nuance goes to die. I mean, the breakdown of that vote just shows that there was absolutely no effort to try to meet in the middle and find something that works for both sides.”
It isn’t nuanced. Running, swimming, and other sports are not like the chess club and the fallacious argument to moderation does not change that. Nevertheless, Farah Griffin continued, “I have talked to a lot of parents, mostly, you know, who have female daughters, who have concerns over this issue. But there is certainly something that I think is a step below a federal bar on trans athletes competing in women's sports that could be reached.”
Now Christy is opposed to"moderation" when it comes to transgender people -- they must be hated with all the partisan force he can muster.
WND's Orient Fishes For New Right-Wing Narratives Post-Pandemic Topic: WorldNetDaily
As the COVID pandemic winds down, right-wing grifters who peddled conspiracy theories and misinformation about COVID and its vaccines, must move on to something else. And so it is for Jane Orient of the fringe-right Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, whom we last saw here pushing the fact-free conspiracy theory that the on-field collapse of NFL player Damar Hamlin was caused by a COVID vaccine. Her last COVID-related gasp was a Feb. 13 WorldNetDaily column defending a fellow fringe doctor who had a patient die after she was prescribed hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID:
I am not acquainted with the physician, Dr. Medina Culver. Some people seem to disapprove of her because she has long hair, a flamboyant personality and a large following on social media, none of which seem relevant or newsworthy to me. Neither does her membership in America's Frontline Doctors (AFLDS) – which is also being sued for allegedly promoting the drug improperly.
The plain facts are that the patient had a telemed appointment with Dr. Culver in August 2021, at which time Dr. Culver reportedly prescribed hydroxychloroquine and/or ivermectin for COVID-19 treatment or "preventative therapy." Dr. Culver never performed a physical examination of Mr. Parker – it was a telemed visit, remember.
[...]
HCQ has been used by hundreds of millions of people worldwide, is available without prescription in many places and is safer than many over-the-counter drugs such as Tylenol.
Telehealth is touted as a great answer to physician shortages and difficult access to care – despite the inability to do a physical examination. Unless it involves an "off-label" prescription for COVID.
People die, often after taking a treatment. If it happens after a COVID vaccine, correlation doesn't prove causality, and beware of the post hoc, ergo propter hoc ("after this, therefore because of this") logical fallacy. But different rules apply to early, officially disparaged COVID treatment.
More than 1 million U.S. deaths have been attributed to COVID. Very few of those patients probably received early treatment with a repurposed drug. More than 34,000 deaths have been reported in association with COVID vaccines, but causation has not been proved.
Finally, someone is suing because a patient was given HCQ or ivermectin, instead of because a hospital denied a patient ivermectin. Doctors who prescribe a potentially life-saving drug despite vilification by authorities, hospitals and medical associations had better take notice: malpractice attorneys may target you. Ditto for entities that organize telehealth services and/or provide favorable information on a repurposed drug.
Of course, that logical fallacy never stopped Orient from blaming Hamlin's collapse on a COVID vaccine, even though she had no evidence he ever had one.
From there, it was time for Orient to move on to other things in a bid to stay relevant. So she spent her March 30 column attacking transgender people:
The whole concept of a transition is bogus. A person of one sex does not turn into one of the opposite sex, either suddenly or gradually. One can only remove characteristic male or female features, say, by shaving the Adam's apple or amputating breasts; inducing changes such as a deep voice or beard or breast development with cross-sex hormones; or trying to surgically mimic anatomic parts of the opposite sex.
[...]
Some adults with gender dysphoria are evidently living successfully as a member of the opposite sex. They have had elaborate, expensive plastic surgery and expert medical management of their hormones and health complications. Persons who do not know them intimately may not suspect what sex they really are. Though such treatment may help some deeply troubled patients cope, surgery does not cure delusional thinking.
Heavy makeup is a vain, superficial attempt to cover up reality. Powerful hormones can unleash real, deeper problems. One of the only two lone female school shooters in U.S. history, killing six innocents this week, used the pronouns he/him. Will we ever learn how much testosterone this angry, suicidal person was given? Will we blame the person who sold the gun – or deadly transgender and rage-inciting ideology and the $5 billion industry that prescribes mind-altering therapy to mentally ill patients?
Happiness depends on accepting who you are – not on trying to force others to pretend that you are what you really aren't.
Orient spent her April 11 column shifting her conspiracy theories from medical to political over the (first indictment of Donald Trump:
The triumphant anti-Trump crowd loves to say, "No one is above the law."
Most Americans have, however, felt safe from the dreaded knock on the door from the Gestapo or the KGB, from the "show me the man and I'll find you the crime" principle of Lavrentiy Beria, Stalin's secret police chief.
Law-abiding Americans assume that since they have not assaulted or robbed anyone or deliberately disobeyed a regulation, they will never come in contact with the criminal justice system. After all, mens rea – criminal intent – is required. Americans are presumed innocent until proved guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, and they have a right to a prompt trial before an unbiased judge and jury.
But those are constitutional rights, and our "archaic" Constitution is being rewritten. Ordinary Americans, especially doctors who prescribe pain relief, have experienced the reality of politicized prosecutions for many years. But the Russian proverb has applied: "You'll know it's true when it happens to you."
Now that a former president has been criminally charged, the sordid process is at the top of the news.
[...]
Perhaps the Left wants Trump to win the primary, keeping out a younger person without the baggage, especially baggage from the COVID debacle. Other indictments may come down; lawfare and other attacks will continue; and electoral fraud has not been fixed, so Trump could well lose. Bragg's actions might stem from pure hatred, without strategic considerations. In any event, the theatrics are drowning out concerns such as deteriorating foreign policy and the destruction of the dollar.
Whether you love Trump or hate him, the weaponization and politicization of the criminal justice system and the shredding of the Constitution affects you, too.
Orient had a pronoun meltdown in her May 8 column:
Pronouns do not define your identity or create or solve social injustice.
Using an incorrect pronoun used to get you a red mark on your essay. Today, the red mark might be considered racist – a sign of white supremacy, implying that there is a correct answer. Or it might make someone feel unsafe or excluded.
Instead, there's now a permanent Scarlet Letter, or job loss and cancellation, for not using a person's preferred pronouns, no matter how ungrammatical.
[...]
Language is our tool for thinking, and even the smallest words count. Activists do not own pronouns, or English grammar, or our thoughts. They have no right to dictate our opinion of their gender or to force us to allow them access to our private spaces.
And they cannot change the reality of sex.
When in doubt -- and when fishing for a new right-wing narrative to latch onto -- going after people you don't like is always good clickbait, and Orient is playing that same game.
CNS Continues Selective Reporting On Hatch Act Violations Topic: CNSNews.com
We've documented how CNSNews.com loved to make a big deal over alleged Hatch Act violations -- but only when they involved people in Democratic administrations. That biased tradition is continuing to CNS' current deprecated right-wing blog. Intern Emma Campbell wrote in a June 13 post:
A government watchdog agency determined this month that White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre violated the Hatch Act by repeatedly saying “mega MAGA Republicans” in a press conference leading up to the 2022 midterms.
The Office of Special Counsel (OSC), in a letter shared with NBC News, said that Jean-Pierre’s word choice when referring to Republican candidates while acting in her official capacity violated the Hatch Act — a federal law that sets limits on federal employees to prevent them from influencing or interfering with elections.
“Because Ms. Jean-Pierre made the statements while acting in her official capacity, she violated the Hatch Act prohibition against her using her official authority or influence for the purpose of interfering with or affecting the result of an election,” Ana Galindo-Marrone, leader of the Office of Special Counsel’s Hatch Act Unit, wrote in a letter June 7.
The letter continued on to say that the OSC wouldn’t pursue any disciplinary actions against Jean-Pierre aside from a warning letter. Part of the reasoning, Galindo-Marrone wrote, was that the White House legal team “did not at the time believe Ms. Jean-Pierre’s remarks were prohibited,” and that it was “unclear” if Jean-Pierre knew that the phrasing “MAGA Republicans” was not allowed.
Campbell failed to mention that numerous Trump administration officials, including press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, were found to have violated the Hatch Act when in office, which would have been important to put such alleged violations in perspective.
NEW ARTICLE -- The MRC's DeSantis Defense Brigade: Education Division Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center continues to serve as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' PR division, this time defending his efforts to put a right-wing spin on education in the state. Read more >>
MRC Report On DHS Anti-Terror Program Filled With Misinformation Topic: Media Research Center
A May 25 Media Research Center post by Luis Cornelio and Tim Kilcullen claimed to have a huge scoop:
MRC Free Speech America, as part of its new Freedom of Information Act investigations, has learned how the Biden administration is weaponizing a government-funded anti-terrorism grant program in an effort to destroy conservatives, Christians and the Republican Party.
Under the Trump administration, the “Targeted Violence & Terrorism Prevention Grant Program” (TVTP) was used to prevent terrorism, but it was revamped under the Biden administration and renamed to provide funding for localities to combat “all forms of terrorism and targeted violence.” Instead of focusing on preventing actual violence and terrorism, the program is now being used to target the entire spectrum of the political right and Christians through “media literacy and online critical thinking initiatives” and other so-called training seminars as part of a coordinated effort to make America into a one-party system.
The University of Dayton, one of several grantees, targeted groups including The Heritage Foundation, Fox News, Christian Broadcasting Network, Turning Point USA, PragerU, the National Rifle Association (NRA), Breitbart News, the American Conservative Union Foundation and the Republican National Committee.
This program at the University of Dayton was the supposed key to this so-called investigation:
The University of Dayton PREVENTS-OH was among the most radical grantees within the TVTP “media literacy and online critical thinking initiatives.” In Ohio, DHS awarded the University of Dayton $352,109 to establish the PREVENTS-OH program, which promised to “draw on the expertise of the University of Dayton faculty” to fight “domestic violence extremism and hate movements.” For example, a chart used by DHS and its grantee in a training program equates mainstream groups with militant neo-Nazis, including: The Heritage Foundation, Fox News, the National Rifle Association (NRA), Breitbart News, PragerU, Turning Point USA, the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), the American Conservative Union Foundation (ACUF) and the Republican National Committee, among others.
The seminar also compared former President Donald Trump to Pol Pot and suggested Florida Governor Ron DeSantis might wish to start a second Holocaust.
The PREVENTS-OH seminars (including one headlined by a DHS agent) feature lectures by University of Cincinnati Research Fellow Michael Loadenthal, a self-proclaimed member of Antifa whose Twitter feed is rife with posts celebrating acts of left-wing violence (often against police officers). Loadenthal used PREVENTS-OH to explain in detail how to create dummy accounts on free speech social media platforms like Telegram, Gab and Rumble in order to “destabilize” political movements. “A lot of things we’re doing are illegal,” he boasted in the lecture. “A lot of it involves breaking the law,” he continued.
Cornelio and Kilcullen also complained about an image that was used:
During the seminar, Loadenthal shared an outrageous “Pyramid of Far-Right Radicalization” that he claimed depicts the “modern far-right” and extremism in America:
Among the organizations and movements displayed on the pyramid were the Republican Party (RNC), The Heritage Foundation, the American Conservative Union, Fox News, Breitbart News, the National Rifle Association (NRA), PragerUniversity, Tea Party Patriots, the MAGA (Make America Great Again) movement, the pro-police Blue Lives Matter movement and the Christian Broadcasting Network.
Also on the pyramid, as if somehow comparable to the aforementioned reputable organizations and movements, were rabidly hateful groups like the militant neo-Nazi gang The Base and pro-Nazi publication The Daily Stormer.
Just one problem: the MRC's attack is bogus. Fox News, of all media outlets, surprisingly looked deeper into the MRC's claims and found them wanting (h/t Right Wing Watch). This presentation took place before the school received TVTP funding, despite the MRC's suggestion otherwise, though the grant application linked to video of the conference. Fox News, unlike Cornelio and Kilcullen, actually talked to Loadenthal, who pointed out that the MRC is demonizing the pyramid graphic:
According to Loadenthal, the MRC is "misinterpreting and misrepresenting" the diagram as well as his role with it. He sent Fox News Digital a full copy of the image, which included text underneath the pyramid describing the bottom tier with the GOP, the NRA, and the Heritage Foundation as "mainstream conservatism."
"The chart is meant to show that what is termed 'the right' is not monolithic and that some individuals travel to a path of radicalization, beginning with more mainstream sources," said Loadenthal. "This point is not controversial nor is it deterministic; it is NOT meant to imply that engaging with level 1 inherently leads to level 4. That would obviously be false."
Cornelio and Kilcullen apparently never took a college psychology class that involved pyramid graphics such as Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, that explains how they work; if they had, they would understand that this particular pyramid is obviously not equating Fox News with Nazis.
Despite this, Cornelio and Kilcullen promised more misinformation would be forthcoming; "This report only scratches the surface of the Biden DHS’s nefarious TVTP grant program. MRC Free Speech America has obtained more documents from other DHS grantees and other organizations through our concentrated FOIA initiative and will be presenting further evidence of the Biden administration’s efforts to target conservatives, Christians and the Republican Party going forward."
Despite this report being rife with misinformation, the MRC promoted the heck out of it anyway, its release seemingly designed to take advantage of a relatively slow news week before Memorial Day weekend. Indeed, withintwo hours after the bogus report was published, MRC chief Brent Bozell appeared on Fox Business to hype it, where he also misrepresented the pyramid. It's as if Fox Business coordinated with the MRC to manufacture coverage. The MRC flooded the zone with its misinformation over the next couple days:
None of these articles made any effort to correct the record. And the misinformation continued after Memorial Day weekend": A May 30 post by intern Peter Kotara falsely touted how "MRC discovered that the Biden DHS was using taxpayer-funded antiterrorism programs not to fight ISIS or gangs or foreign actors, but to try to classify all right-leaning citizens and organizations as Nazis and domestic terrorists." Cornelio returned for a May 31 post touting how the right-wing noise machine had an effect:
The DHS-funded anti-terror program at the University of Dayton targeting Christians, conservatives and Republicans worked overnight to scrub its website.
The University of Dayton’s PREVENTS-OH removed the controversial videos of seminars that featured a self-proclaimed Antifa member recklessly associating the conservative movement, Christians and Republicans with neo-Nazis and other hate groups in an infamous “Pyramid of Far-Right Radicalization.”
The seminar, first exposed by MRC Free Speech America, included a presentation from Nicole Widdersheim, a deputy Washington director for the Human Rights Watch, and Alexander Hinton, a member of the Rutgers University faculty, who compared former President Donald Trump with genocidal Cambodian dictator Pol Pot and accused Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) of planning a second Holocaust.
Cornelio again falsely claimed the presentation was "DHS-funded," and he again misrepresented the pyramid. The MRC added more manufactured outrage into early June:
When a Republican-controlled House committee axed funding for the DHS program based onthe MRC's dishonest report, a June 21 post by Michael Morris was quick to declare "VICTORY!":
The House Appropriations Committee took an important step to restoring free speech in America, but today’s efforts are just the beginning.
Today, the House Appropriations Committee voted to zero out the funding for the Department of Homeland Security’s nefarious “Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention” (TVTP) grant program from the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Bill 2024.
“Talk is cheap. Hearings without action are meaningless. But today's action shows that the House is more serious than ever before to restore freedom and take back our country from the radicals who hate what America stands for,” said MRC Free Speech America Vice President Dan Schneider. “Defunding DHS's censorship scheme is the start of a broader effort to respect the First Amendment again.”
Like the rest of his MRC colleagues, Morris refused to correct the record regarding the misinformation in Cornelio and Kilcullen's original report. The MRC must be proud of misinforming its readers in the service of pushing right-wing narratives.
Root Silent On His Failed Prediction Of Chaos With End Of Title 42 Topic: WorldNetDaily
Wayne Allyn Root raged in a May 5 WorldNetDaily column headlined "Title 42 ends in days – get ready to witness the fall of Saigon":
Our nation is in grave danger. If you thought the invasion of Ukraine was bad, wait until May 11, when the full-scale invasion of America begins.
As many as 1 million foreigners have amassed on our southern border, ready to invade the moment Title 42 ends on May 11. Tens of millions more will soon follow.
Our nation is under attack. Our nation is under invasion. Our nation and economy are in danger of collapse. Your family is in grave danger. America will never recover.
[...]
Title 42 was implemented by former President Donald Trump as part of the federal Public Health Emergency (PHE) for COVID-19 under section 319 of the Public Health Service Act (PHS). Title 42 gave border patrol agents the right to expel migrants trying to enter this country illegally. They had to go back to their home country or wait in Mexico.
This kept America safe. This kept you and your family safe. This kept our country from being overrun.
But Biden wanted to lift Title 42 and wave the entire world in.
The only thing standing in his way was the Supreme Court. They accepted the case. Republicans control the Supreme Court 6-3. They would have undoubtedly upheld the legality of Title 42. Biden's plans to open the borders and wave the whole world in would have been halted.
This being Root, he diverted himself to indulge in Biden derangement:
Biden is a typical socialist/Marxist/communist tyrant. Biden believes he has the right to control every aspect of our lives.
He wants to silence all dissent. He sends FBI SWAT teams to arrest peaceful Jan. 6 protesters. His attorney general wanted to arrest parents at PTA meetings. He wants to arrest his political opponents (like Trump). He wants to expand the Supreme Court from 9 to 13 justices so he can violate the Constitution any time he wants. He tried to force-vaccinate the entire U.S. population. And trust me, he is dying to force lockdown all of us for either another pandemic, or a climate change lockdown.
So, think about this question. Why would a tyrant who craves total control willingly give up his tyrannical emergency powers?
That's the scam.
Tyrants never give up their emergency powers. But this time Biden did. By letting the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency expire on May 11, it automatically ended Title 42. Which automatically killed the case in front of the Supreme Court. Which automatically allowed the invasion of America on May 11.
Anyway, back to the hysterical alarmism:
D-Day is here. On Thursday, May 11, America officially becomes a third-world craphole. On that day, Biden will wave the whole world in. That day will start the process of making America foreign to Americans. You will never recognize this country again. And this enormous bill for tens of millions of foreign invaders will fall on you: the American taxpayer.
All because we let a communist tyrant rig and steal the 2020 election, then proceed to methodically destroy the economy with the worst inflation in history and open the borders with a world-class scam.
[...]
All hell breaks loose in a few days. And what are we doing about it? As far as I can tell, nothing.
The scenes we are all about to witness will shock and horrify the nation. You won't believe your eyes. You're about to see mass chaos and anarchy on American soil.
Do you remember what "The Fall of Saigon" looked like? We're all about to experience it.
So what happened after May 11? The number of migrant crossings dropped. There was no D-Day, no "fall of Saigon," no " third-world craphole." But rather than admit his error, Root wrote a May 12 WND column continuing to freak out about brown people at the border and ranting that it's all a grand Cloward-Piven conspiracy:
The world is filled with such terrible, miserable poverty that Americans can't even imagine it. The poor in America are rich compared to the rest of the world. And that is why the whole world is coming. They know the border is open. The whole of Africa is coming. The whole Middle East is coming. China is sending millions of military-age males. Haiti is coming. Latin America is coming. Prisons are being emptied. An invasion of America is underway.
If you were poor ... if you were starving ... if you had nothing ... if you were a criminal ... if you were sick ... if you were pregnant ... if you had 10 kids ... if you were a child with no future ... wouldn't you come to America?
Trust me; everyone is coming.
[...]
They will tip us into mass poverty, crisis, anarchy and a crime wave you can't even imagine. They will bring disease. The schools and health care systems will collapse. The national debt will explode, the budget will be overwhelmed and the economy will collapse.
This is Cloward-Piven updated for 2023.
It all happened because Democrats (i.e., socialists, Marxists and communists) rigged and stole a presidential election. Then they banned even the mention of rigged and stolen elections – with the full cooperation of mainstream media and social media.
For the next two years they opened the border to let millions in. Now they've managed to end Title 42 for the final explosion that ends America and American exceptionalism forever.
You will not be surprised to learn that this is the only reference to Title 42 in his column. But he has a new conspiracy theory to peddle:
Trust me, a brain-dead zombie puppet with diapers and dementia is not the brains behind this brilliant plan.
This is the Cloward-Piven plan that I learned at Columbia. And the man carrying it all out to perfection is the real president of the United States: Barack Obama. He is back for his third term to finish the job he started – to fundamentally change America forever.
And I would not be surprised if the next phase of the plan is to replace corrupt, mentally failing President Joe Biden with Michelle Obama in 2024. That would be Obama's fourth term.
And the official end of America.
For Root, conspiracy theories are always more important than the facts. And he hasn't mentioned Title 42 since.
Newsmax Tweaks Fox News To Lure Viewers Mad That Tucker Carlson Was Fired Topic: Newsmax
Amid its wooing ofTucker Carlson and a claimed surge in viewers after Fox News fired him, Newsmax has been a little more aggressive in tooting its own horn of late:
Newsmax even touted the widow of longtime Fox News leader Roger Ailes trashing the Murdochs over how Fox News is run these days.
This is all part of Newsmax's attempt to capitalize on Carlson's firing by trying to attract right-wing viewers upset that Fox News fired Carlson, in part by being more loyal Trump stenographers than Fox. But this has happened before -- in the aftermath of the 2020 eleciton, when Fox News (accurately) called a key state for Joe Biden instead of Donald Trump, while Newsmax fed its viewers a steady diet of bogus right-wing conspiracy theories about the election. But as the Washington Post points out, Newsmax couldn't keep those viewers, though Newsmax claims it can it can now because, in the words of chief Christopher Ruddy, "we’re a much more mature as a news organization."
Except, not so much. In the wake of a mass shooting in Texas in May, Newsmax repeatedly showed a picture of a man it claimed was the shooter but was not, and it discussed a drone strike in Russia while showing footage of a building collapse in Iowa. Publishing paid propaganda from indicted Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui doesn't help its credibility either. It's also still facing lawsuits from Dominion and others over its false claims about the 2020 election, though it's slightly desperate to insist that the issues in those lawsuits are "materially different" from the lawsuit Dominion fiiled against Fox News, which resulted in Fox News paying Dominion $787 million to settle things before the start of a trial.
Newsmax may have a brighter future ahead, but it has to reckon with its careless past first.
NEW ARTICLE: CNS Flips For Elon Musk, Part 2 Topic: CNSNews.com
CNSNews.com stuck close to the Musk-fluffing agenda of its Media Research Center parent in serving as the billionaire's PR agent, with only its shutdown interfering with that mission. Read more >>
MRC's DeSantis Defense Brigade Attacks Disney For Him Topic: Media Research Center
The DeSantis Defense Brigade at the Media REsearch Center has been working so hard, we're still trying to keep up. The MRC has been giving DeSantis' partisan war against Disney special attention. Tierin Rose Mandelburg did her best DeSantis PR job in an April 18 post:
“Don’t mess with Texas” should change to “don’t ef with Florida.” Governor Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.) just cracked down against Disney … again.
Desantis and the Disney company have been in a feud for quite some time now. The increasingly woke entertainment conglomerate tried to interfere with Florida politics when it objected to a DeSantis-backed bill to protect kids from hypersexualized content in schools.
Most recently DeSantis has cracked down on Disney's fantasy financial situation. Walt Disney World resides in a special tax district called Reedy Creek and in essence, has been serving as its own government since 1967. DeSantis ended that and appointed the Central Florida Tourism Oversight Board to replace the Disney-run Reedy Creek Improvement District that formerly oversaw Disney World infrastructure.
Disney tried to outmaneuver DeSantis when it “cut a special deal with the old oversight board it controlled before the new board, appointed by [DeSantis], took over,” Daily Mail noted.
It became known that Disney secured approvals for the next 30 years for zoning, infrastructure and air-rights if the company chose to expand -- without approval from DeSantis’ selected board and without meeting the rules DeSantis had set.
[...]
DeDantis went so far as to drop a casual mention of building a prison next to the amusement park.
Disney owns undeveloped land near its current residence but DeSantis confirmed that Florida also owns that land. He toggled with a couple of ideas with suggestions from others like a state park or an extension of the amusement park. DeSantis added, “Someone even said, like, maybe you need another state prison. Who knows? I just think that the possibilities are endless.”
The House of Mouse might want to start playing nice, if you ask me, since Disney’s development is going to be up to DeSantis’ hand-picked board if the new resolution takes effect.
Mandelburg didn't explain why Disney must be punished simply for "objecting" to DeSantis' "don't say gay" law. She went on to huff that "Disney has clearly overstepped and abused its privileges," but she didn't explain why exercising First Amendment rights is suddenly a "privilege" when used to advance views she doesn't like.
The same day, Alex Christy complained that commentataors pointed out DeSantis' partisan nastiness:
Occasionally, the cast of MSNBC will view themselves as qualified to opine on what is and is not conservative and Tuesday’s Chris Jansing Reports was one such occasion. Not only did nominal Republican Tara Setmayer declare Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s fight with Disney to be “petulant” and “not conservative,” but also “un-American.”
Jansing’s original question to Setmayer had nothing to do with Disney, but was more about 2024 horse race analysis and how it relates to the GOP’s relationship with Donald Trump, “if you're a congressional Republican, how worried are you about the fallout from the former president if you show up at a DeSantis event?”
After a long-winded answer about Republicans being scared of Trump, DeSantis being a former “C-lister” and a “wimp,” Setmayer declared, “And his behavior taking on Disney is not only petulant, but should be concerning to people who claim that they're free market conservatives because political retribution against a private company is definitely not conservative and quite frankly un-American.”
Apparently, breaking cronyism is simultaneously anti-free market, un-conservative, and un-American. This is why MSNBC needs actual conservatives and not members of The Lincoln Project.
Christy didn't mention that his MRC colleague thinks free speech is a "privilege." Isn't that un-American?
In yet another April 18 post, Curtis Houck grumbled that there was accurate reporting about DeSantis and Disney:
Amid stories meant to inflame racial tensions, the Fox News vs. Dominion Voting Systems case, and rallying to TikTok’s defense over a Montana bill to ban the app, NBC’s Today found time Tuesday to bemoan Governor Ron DeSantis’s (R-FL) daring to “doubl[e] down on a fight against an American icon: Mickey Mouse.”
“Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is making headlines on several fronts this morning. A high-profile trip to Washington, D.C., his escalating feud with Disney, now floating the idea of building a state prison next to Disney World,” co-host Craig Melvin began.
Houck then tried to reframe DeSantis's threat to build a prison next to Disney World: "After pointing out “[t]he clash last year when Disney opposed Florida’s Parental Rights in Education law,” Gutierrez bemoaned how DeSantis used an appearance to (jokingly) propose the “developing land next to Disney World” to include a prison." Houck offered no evidence that DeSAntis was joking.
That was followed by comedy cop Christy complaining that others didn't get DeSantis' (unproven) joke:
CBS’s The Late Show host Stephen Colbert and Comedy Central’s The Daily Show temp host Jordan Klepper condemned Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on their Tuesday shows for joking about possibly putting a new state prison next to Disney World and it was unclear if these professional joke tellers knew DeSantis was joking.
Referencing Disney’s attempt to wiggle around state law, Colbert introduced a clip of DeSantis by declaring that he “couldn't take control of Disney World, so now he's talking about what he can do to the land around the park.”
Colbert may be celebrating prematurely, but as for DeSantis, the clip showed him musing over what do with the land around Disney World, “People have said, you know, maybe have another-- maybe create a state park, maybe try to do more amusement parks. Someone even said, like, maybe you need another state prison. Who knows? I mean, I just think that the possibilities are endless.”
Based off his tone of voice, body language, and facial expressions, DeSantis was clearly joking, but Colbert still replied, “Yeah, a state prison next to Disney. He’s about to run for president, and his latest proposal is ‘I'm going to put Florida convicts next to your children.’”
Christy regularly ignores the voice, body language, and facial expressions of comedians to declare that their jokes aren't funny, so maybe he's not a very good judge of such things.
Houck returned for an April 19 post whining that someone pointed out DeSantis' weak position against Disney:
MSNBC’s Morning Joe has, in part, been defined by co-host Joe Scarborough’s jealousy for Florida Republicans who had a more successful political career and following than he did.
Such was the case Wednesday when he and his crew of middle school bullies spent over 25 minutes smearing Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) as “anti-business,” “anti-conservative,” “insecure,” and “stupid” for fighting woke Disney and working to undo the state’s crony arrangement with Reedy Creek.
With 2024 on their mind, they also made sure to fawn over Donald Trump linking with Disney to attack DeSantis.
[...]
The ever-pompous goon later quipped: “You know, Willie, as a Florida guy, I am a Florida man, it’s never made sense these attacks on Disney.” He explained that “Floridians take great pride in” Disney and he has “friends” across the spectrum, so DeSantis doing anything to fight the multi-billion dollar corporation was “a great example...of Republicans overrplaying.”
Nowhere in these 25 minutes of hate did they care to admit DeSantis was reelected in November by nearly 20 points, Republicans swept state row offices, and the GOP gained super-majorities in the legislature.
If Houck thinks Scarborough is jealous of DeSantis' success, does that mean we can claim Houck is jealous of the success of CNN's Oliver Darcy, given how he can't stop maliciously slandering Darcy as a "Benedict Arnold" for the offense of escaping the right-wing bubble?
The next day, Houck baselessly insisted that Disney treats ABC the way the MRC treated its former "news" division CNSNews.com:
Acting on behalf of its parental overlords in Ron DeSantis-hating Disney, ABC’s Good Morning America ran a 62-second segment on Thursday trashing the Florida Republican Governor’s Board of Education for having “expanded the Don't Say Gay bill” “critics warn...is dangerous”to the lives of students.
ABC had a helping hand as Wednesday’s NBC Nightly News also bemoaned the change while touting members of Florida’s congressional delegation endorsing former President Trump over DeSantis in the 2024 GOP presidential primary.
Houck offered no evidence to back up his claim that Disney is mandating the content of ABC News reports.
Houck used the word "whore" in the headline of an April 27 post to disgustingly smear any news coverage critical of DeSantis:
On Wednesday night and Thursday morning, the “big three” of ABC, CBS, and NBC banded together under the banner of corporate liberalism to rally behind ABC’s parent company/"economic heavy hitter" Disney and even some 2024 GOP presidential candidates against Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) for having created a “long-running feud” and “power struggle” for Florida supremacy.
So as not to lose their jobs, ABC’s newscasts were stenographers for the people who sign their paychecks. World News Tonight anchor David Muir boasted in a tease: “Our parent company, Disney tonight filing a lawsuit against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, accusing the governor of a ‘targeted campaign of government retaliation.’”
Again, Houck has no evidence of coordination -- he simply assumes that Disney treats ABC like his employer treated CNS. Despite a complete lack of proof, HOuc concluded by repeating the slander again, asserting that the "liberal media" was "playing whores for corporate liberalism."
DeSantis must be paying the MRC well for it to so viciously smear anyone who tells the truth about him.
MRC Continues To Rage About Abortion Pills Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center is continuing to rant against abortion pills. When a Trump-appointed judge approved a ban on them over alleged problems with the FDA approval process, it defended the ruling and attacked anyone who criticized it. Alex Christy complained in an April 8 post:
Friday’s edition of CNN Tonight reacted to the news that a federal judge suspended the FDA’s approval of the abortion drug mifepristone with horror, claiming the judge was inserting his “theological opinion” and seriously wondering why pro-lifers don’t target drugs like Viagra or Tylenol.
[...]
Michaelson began by explaining the concept of “judge shopping,” where liberals and conservatives alike seek judges who they are certain will rule the way they desire, “Thtat’s not controversial. What's shocking -- so, I've been writing about Matthew Kacsmayrk for many years. He has said outrageous things over the years, and there's outrageous things in this opinion. This is a garbage opinion from open to shut.”
He further accused Kacsmaryk of playing to pro-lifers “He calls mifepristone chemical abortion. That's sort of that sort of a dog whistle.”
Mifepristone, like every other pill, is a chemical compound, so it a literally correct description, but even if liberals still object, abortion is still abortion whether you use “chemical” or “medication” as your preferred adjective.
Yet we don't recall Christy ever calling Tylenol a "chemical" when he takes one for a headache. Christy then huffed that mifepristone shouldn't be treated the same as other drugs, because abortion:
It’s one thing for CNN liberals to not understand pro-lifers, but the Republican strategist should know the difference between abortion and Viagra, Tylenol, and penicillin. It should also be noted that Kacsmaryk did not outright ban mifepristone, he simply said the FDA didn’t follow proper bureaucratic procedure.
In an April 9 post, Kevin Tober raged at NBC's Chuck Todd for pointing out the judge's partisan activism:
On Easter Sunday, NBC's Chuck Todd used the opening segment of his show Meet the Press to lash out at political activists for apparently causing a Texas court to order the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to halt the approval of the abortion pill mifepristone. Todd was clearly upset at the ruling and claimed there was no reason for a challenge to the use of the drug since it has been approved since the "end of Bill Clinton's presidency." As if that matters. It's obvious that Todd sees no problem with defending a demonic drug that kills the unborn on a religious holiday. We all know the leftist media is Godless, but Todd made it all too obvious.
"The national divide was crystallized on Friday night in those dueling abortion rulings," Todd proclaimed. "Less than an hour apart on specifically the abortion pill over federal judges, these are legal efforts that were pushed by political activists seeking a decision by the Supreme Court."
Todd claimed that "there was no actual medical event, no misuse of this pill to trigger this look at the drug. It was simply political activists."
"No actual medical event." Well, that's partially true since abortion isn't medicine, it's murder. This is why it was rightfully challenged.
Todd then bemoaned how "this was a drug that was approved at the end of Bill Clinton's presidency, four presidencies ago." He seemed to think that evil procedures should be allowed to continue and should not be challenged simply because they've been in existence for decades.
Tober's reference to "evil procedures" gives away the game that this legal action is driven by partisan activism and not medicine. He then whined that another judge issued a ruling to preserve the status quo on the drug:
Todd ended by noting that "obviously the Supreme Court has to weigh in on this one."
That is the fault of the leftist judge in Washington state who randomly reacted with a contradictory ruling in an attempt to save the left's abortion blood lust. Now the Supreme Court has to weigh in to solve the dispute between the two lower court rulings.
Todd is pointing fingers in the wrong direction.
Tober didn't explain why Kacsmaryk's ruling must be considered so perfect that it shouldn't even be appealed -- but then, he's a partisan activist, not a legal expert.
When the (conservative-controlled) Supreme Court issued a stay of Kacsmaryk's ruling, the MRC didn't take it very well. Christy used an April 22 post to effectively argue that the lives of women are worth less than that of a fetus:
Senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joined CNN This Morning Weekend on Saturday to react to the Supreme Court issuing a full stay on Friday night that allows the abortion pill mifepristone to remain on the market by repeating one of the network’s favorite and silliest talking points: mifepristone is “way, way less deadly” than Viagra.
[...]
With the help of an on-screen chart that showed that mifepristone is responsible for five deaths per one million users as compared to 20 and 49 deaths for penicillin and Viagra respectively, Cohen added “In fact, if you're going to look at deadly side effects, penicillin: way more deadly, Viagra: way, way more deadly.”
Safety or deadly for whom? One million successful abortions are responsible for one millions deaths.
Resident MRC anti-abortion extremist Tierin-Rose Mandelburg raged against the Supreme Court in an Apriul 24 post using anti-abortion talking points instead of facts:
Last week, less than a year after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, the court debated the decades-long decision of the FDA to approve a chemical abortion drug called mifepristone for sale at retail pharmacies. Unfortunately, despite the FDA’s inadequate research, the Supreme Court ruled to keep mifepristone on the market.
The news of this is shocking and heartbreaking for those in the pro-life movement.
Prior to the announcement, numerous pro-lifers were prayerfully hoping the deadly drug would be pulled.
[...]
The fact of the matter is that mifepristone is an extremely harmful drug. On top of the fact that it ends at least one life - the life of the child in the womb - it also poses significant threats to the health and even life of the mother. Mifepristone, the first of a two-pill abortion-inducing regimen, chemically kills an unborn baby and can cause the mother to experience up to a month of cramping, bleeding and severe pain. As a matter of fact, the drug is “four times more dangerous” than surgical abortions and has reportedly increased abortion-related ER visits by 500 percent from 2002-2015, according to Republican Sen. James Lankford's office.
But anti-abortion exremists like Mandelburg want to outlaw surgical abortions too. Make up your mind, Tierin-Rose! Still, she whined: "Even still, Friday's news that the Supreme Court decided to keep the drug legal and available shows just how pro-abortion our nation has become. These people aren't pro-woman, they're pro baby death, as evidenced by many of the people who fought to keep the deadly pill on the market."
Tim Graham spent a May 11 post complaining that a Reuters article on mifepristone accurately identified conservatives at conservatives, going on to grumble further about more accurate reporting: "Reuters also employed the usual formulation on the science: 'Scientific studies have overwhelmingly concluded that the drug, which has been used by millions of women, is safe.' Safe for aborting women, but 'scientific studies' apparently don't consider the unborn baby to be a human, or someone whose safety you consider. That's liberal thinking, but there are no 'liberals' identified in this story."
For a May 17 post, Tober bizarrely chose to interpret a news story as a guide to breaking the law:
How desperate were the cast of CBS Mornings to promote the left’s abortion-on-demand agenda? Well, the fact that they were openly promoting an abortionist in Amsterdam who openly admits to providing abortion pills to women seeking abortions in American states where it was illegal. Even openly advertising how their viewers can get illegal abortions wasn’t off-limits for the leftist media.
Correspondent Haley Ott spoke to a foreign abortionist Dr. Rebecca Gomperts whose organization “Aid Access helps Americans get abortions, even though they are thousands of miles apart.”
Tober is spouting the Depiction-Equals-Approval Fallacy, regularly used in the ConWeb to falsely assume that because a news outlet runs a particular story, it endorses the content of that story.
How Has The MRC Been Freaking Out Over Drag Lately? Topic: Media Research Center
It's been a while since we last checked in on how viciously the Media Research Center hates drag performers, so it's time to take a closer look.
Comedy cop Alex Christy took issue with Stephen Colbert calling out a sweeping Tennessee ban on drag shows in a March 2 post, responding to his jokes with right-wing talking points -- even the joke about an old picture of the Tennessee governor in drag:
Stephen Colbert voiced his displeasure at Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee’s announcement that he plans to sign bills that will prohibit “gender-affirming care” for minors and drag shows for children on Wednesday’s edition of The Late Show on CBS. Colbert was so disgusted by the moves that he addressed Lee as “you dick.”
Colbert began by announcing the news, “There's some troubling news from Tennessee, thanks to Republican Governor and dad's friend saying ‘Wow, you really grew up over the summer,’ Bill Lee. Lee announced he will be signing Tennessee's sweeping new anti-LGBTQ bills, which, among other things will ban gender-affirming treatment for transgender youth.”
Expressing his opposition, Colbert continued, “Come on. Transgender or not, I don’t care who you are, all teens struggle with figuring out relationship to their bodies.”
Colbert is exactly right, but his conclusion is completely backwards. Teenagers do struggle with their relationship with their bodies which is why it is highly irresponsible to encourage boys to think they that they are girls and vice versa.
Moving right along, Colbert also reported that, “Tennessee isn't just coming for the young ones. The governor has said he'd sign a bill that would restrict drag shows. Yes, he wants to severely limit drag. Our Founding Fathers did not create this country so men could wear frilly shirts, silk stockings, and powdered wigs!”
The Founding Fathers did not wear dresses or parade around in front of children in a hyper-sexualized manner.
For, Colbert the biggest problem was trying to define “sexualized entertainment,” as he argued Lee doesn’t have a good answer, “You know who else can't define what drag is? Governor Bill Lee. Because the day before he announced he'd sign the bill, a picture of him emerged dressed in drag in high school. Okay, okay. Okay, okay, admittedly those are some great gams, but I'm sorry, those pearls?”
The photo in question is from a high school yearbook and shows Lee in a cheerleader’s uniform, but if Colbert was trying to portray Lee as a hypocrite, he failed because Lee wasn’t performing in a sexual manner in front of children.
[...]
Again, Colbert got it backwards it is people who are preying on the confusion and innocence of children who are appealing to their political base at the expense of real human beings. That is something someone who claims to be a devout Catholic should be able to understand.
So a guy in a cheerleader uniform is not acting "hyper-sexualized"? Weird.
The same day, Kevin Tober went on a hateful tirade after MSNBC's Joy Reid pointed out the ridiculousness of the Tennessee drag ban:
On Thursday night’s The ReidOut on MSNBC, host Joy Reid once again lashed out at Republicans for wanting to protect children from degenerate groomers who want to genitally mutilate children and inflict sexually explicit drag shows on them. The latest source of Reid’s rage came as Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed two bills that would ban sex-change procedures and sexually-explicit drag shows.
This was a problem for Reid who cried that “Republicans in Tennessee are moving full speed ahead in their quest to undo the thing they hate the most, the 20th century. With Governor Bill Lee signing a bill today that would restrict drag performances.”
Reid then claimed that drag was simply an art form that has been around since Shakespeare. She wants you to think Shakespeare’s kids went to drag queen story hour where a mentally ill man in a dress twerked and read to them.
“If Governor Lee knew the history that Republicans don't want you to learn, he’d know that drag is an art form that goes back, literally, centuries. It's been around since Shakespeare,” Reid falsely claimed.
Christy tried to defend the Tennessee governor again in a March 4 post:
A heavily imbalanced CNN Tonight panel declared on Friday that Republicans and specifically Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee is a hypocrite for banning gender transitions for minors and to overly-sexualized drag shows for children are hypocrites, first for claiming to believe in limited government and second because he has been photographed in drag. Neither criticism holds up under factual review.
[...]
The photo of Lee is of him in a cheerleader uniform, he was not practically naked or doing any of the overtly sexual acts that are featured in some of the viral videos that served as the inspiration for this law that everybody, Hyde included, on this CNN panel ignored.
Christy also whined that the panelists didn't interpret the Tennessee law to his liking, insisting that dressing in drag for "prurient interest" is what is outlawed. Does he really think a guy dressing as a cheerleader does not spark prurient interest in some people?
In a March 13 post serving up the MRC's ritual bashing of the Academy Awards, Stephanie Hamill complained that Oscar-winning director Daniel Scheinert thanked his parents for "not squashing my creativity when I was making disturbing horror films or perverted comedy films or dressing in drag as a kid, which is a threat to nobody":
I think it safe to say that many parents would disagree with this sentiment. There are many out there who would likely take issue with the drag queen agenda being pushed on kids, especially when children are being exposed to inappropriate shows in public places and even in some schools.
There's a "drag queen agenda" now? Who knew?
Thge MRC's chief transphobe, Tierin-Rose Mandelburg, melted down yet again in a March 16 post over a planned "Drag Story Hour," then cheered fellow a fellow transphobe attacking it:
The March 19 event is being sponsored by James and a nonprofit called "Drag Story Hour NYC." Supposedly, said non-profit has been “showered” in over $200,000 in taxpayer funds to shove drag queens in the faces of the city's children.
[...]
As a counter to the blasphemous drag event James is hosting, LibsofTikTok owner Chaya Raichik - who's also the author of a great, wholesome children’s book called "No More Secrets" - is hosting her own story hour down the street from James’ drag show, co-hosting the truly family-friendly event with Trent Talbot, author of “Fight For Freedom Island."
These conservative voices are right. It’s disgusting that New York’s taxpayer money is helping drag queens groom kids, but it's even more disgusting that James thinks this is something to be “proud" of.
There is nothing "wholesome" about Raichik's hate and homophobia, and "grooming" has become a meaningless slur from right-wingers like Mandelburg.
Nicholas Fondacaro spent a March 21 post demeaning "gay actor" Billy Porter -- whom the MRC hates for his flamboyant manner of dress -- for defending drag queens:
In the latter half of Tuesday’s edition of The View, gay actor Billy Porter screamed like a banshee as he denounced Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis for cracking down on child exploitation at drag shows. The unhinged Porter screamed that DeSantis had launched a “civil war of the mind” and conspiratorially shouted about how investigators needed to “follow the money.” His manic tirade received nothing but strong approval from the rest of the cast.
Joy Behar noted that, in the eight months since Porter was last on the show, “things have only escalated” in terms of DeSantis’s legal challenges to kids being at drag shows. “What do you make of the fact that we're still talking about this, and that it’s happening in other states too, not just Florida?” she wondered. “There's this war against trans people,”she answered for him.
Things immediately dipped into the conspiratorial as Porter shouted about the need to “follow the money” like it was Watergate:
[...]
Failing to explain why kids needed to take part in drag shows or attend them at all, Porter made the asinine deflection that “the leading cause of death in children are GUNS!” “They're guns! I know it's the morning and I'm not supposed to be screaming, but they're guns!” he screamed.
“Not drag queens,”Whoopi Goldberg added. “Not drag queens! LEAVE US ALONE!” Porter shrieked at the top of his lungs.
[...]
“It's a distraction on purpose. We don't know what to pay attention to … What's happening?! … What are we talking about, and what are we doing?!” he continued to come off the rails. “We're already in a civil war, y'all! It's a civil war of the mind! They're messing with our minds! We're already in it!”
This crazed hyperventilating by Porter got nothing but praise from The View cast. “But you're making the right points,” Hostin said, with Behar proclaiming: “The civil war on the mind is a very good point.”
Fondacaro made no effort to rebut anything Porter actually said -- presumably because he knew he couldn't. That's why he chose to distract from that by trying to ridicule him instead.
Christy defended anti-drag laws yet again in a March 24 post:
Benjamin “BenDeLaCreme” Putnam of RuPaul’s Drag Race and Comedy Central The Daily Show temp host Al Franken not only alleged that Republicans in Tennessee had no idea what they’re talking about when they passed their “insidious” ban on children attending drag shows, but such laws contribute to high suicide rates.
Franken began by declaring that “I think there are a lot of people objecting to drag without even having any idea what it is.”
[...]
Putnam also found it offensive that drag shows would be labeled “as adult entertainment,” claiming that “is insidious within itself to say that someone dressing this way is only appropriate for adults when they’re not doing anything that is adult-oriented and the idea that children are somehow going to be made more queer by access to queer culture.”
If Putman genuinely believes that drag shows do not qualify as adult entertainment, his anger would be better directed towards those in the viral video that inspired this law that featured little children rubbing their hands against a performer’s crotch.
Christy didn't explain why a context-free video from a right-wing website should serve as a credible explanation of anything.
Christian Toto spent his March 25 column trying to defend anti-drag hate from a Hollywood industry publication (which Toto inexplicably insists is "far-Left") that brought the the Tom Hanks-starring '80s drag comedy show "Bosom Buddies":
The far-Left outlet brings back “Bosom Buddies” to suggest that conservatives are suddenly, inexplicably outraged by drag performers.
Why do they hate people who are different? Why can’t they leave drag performers alone? That’s not written in the piece, but it’s implied from start to finish.
In doing so, the site ignores the key reason for the Sturm und Drang.
Some drag queens are performing highly sexual material for very young children … even toddlers. It’s being encouraged across the culture, including by New York’s Attorney General, Letitia James.
The media is downplaying this element of the story as much as possible, but platforms like Twitter abound with footage showing drag queens interacting with children in highly sexual ways.
Hanks and Scolari did no such thing. Nor did other famous drag performers like Milton Berle, Flip Wilson and, famously, Robin Williams in “Mrs. Doubtfire.”
They dressed in drag, while drag queens add more dimension to the art form. It’s often sexual in nature and has been aimed directly at adult audiences for decades. The practice has had its detractors, but their voices were small and on the boundaries of the culture.
That’s no longer the case.
Toto didn't explain why he insists that the mere act of dressing in drag for public performance must automatically be presumed to be "highly sexual," or why Hanks and Berle deserve a carve-out from the hate. Drag is drag, is it not?
Just like its former "news" division CNSNews.com, the Media Research Center cares only about Hatch Act violations by people in government when those people work for a Democratic administration. Kevin Tober complained in a June 12 post:
Newsmax is nothing if not Trump sycophants and stenographers, and few things demonstrate that more than its touting -- by writing what are effective press releases -- about every detail of Donald Trump's so-called "Agenda 47," the list of things he claims he'll if he's re-elected. Here are some of them:
It took two articles for WorldNetDaily to fully attack Chelsea Clinton for advocating that children receive vaccinations. The first was a May 6 
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