MRC's DeSantis Defense Brigade Went Into Cleanup Mode After Botched Twitter Launch
Topic: Media Research Center

The Media Research Center all day on May 24, the day Ron DeSantis officially announced his presidential campaign on Twitter, in full DeSantis Defense Brigade mode, despite the fact that there was little that actually needed to be defended. But the launch turned out to be a mess -- the Twitter Spaces server that was to host it crashed repeatedly, and DeSantis gave served up rote right-wing talking points instead of having any sort of real conversation with voters. Which means the MRC had to seriously spin the disaster away the next day. First up was Alex Christy, who complained that DeSantis was fact-checked, first serving up the Soviet-esque claim that teachers are teaching critical race theory even if they don't know they are:

How many PolitiFact fact-checkers does it take to fact-check a presidential announcement? Apparently four, as that is how many reporters it took to assess seven statements from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s Wednesday campaign launch on Twitter Spaces.

The first claim the intrepid quartet checked was “We eliminated critical race theory from our K through 12 schools.”

PolitiFact responded by claiming Critical Race Theory is a non-controversy, “University of Missouri education professor LaGarrett King previously told us that the problem is blown out of proportion. ‘The majority of teachers are not even familiar with what critical race theory is, nor do they teach it in their classrooms,’ King said.”

That doesn’t debunk DeSantis at all. It doesn’t matter if the majority of teachers are unfamiliar with CRT, because that ignores that one does not need to use the literal words “Critical Race Theory” to teach its worldview and that there is more to schools than what goes on in classroom, such as teacher trainings.

Christy then baselessly ranted that anyone in themilitary who defends President Biden's miliary policies is by definition "Democratic" and that "wokeness" is a barrier to recruitment despite the fact that nobody can actually identify anyone dissuaded from joining because it was too "woke":

In non-education policy, DeSantis argued “Biden’s politicized the military and caused recruiting to plummet.”

Fact-checkers have used Democratic service secretaries to fact-check Republicans on military matters before, but PolitiFact did it again, citing Army Secretary Christine Wormuth, “wokeness in the military or the COVID vaccine mandate, for example, those were relatively low on the list of barriers to service.”

A low barrier is still a barrier.

Curtis Houck grumbled that the eminently newsworthy failures at DeSantis' launch were treated as news by news organizations:

On Thursday morning, the major broadcast networks of ABC, CBS, and NBC were ebullient at the initial technical failures of Twitter Spaces for Governor Ron DeSantis’s (R-FL) 2024 presidential campaign announcement, seeking to kill DeSantis’s campaign and clear the GOP field. 

Over five different segments, they barely touched on what DeSantis said and instead reveled in the “mess” that was “roundly mocked” and was a sign of “rough...waters” for his campaign against Donald Trump, who “[had] a field day.”

NBC’s Today was brutal. Co-host Hoda Kotb bragged in a tease of a “[r]ough rollout,” “troubled launch,” and “chaotic start to the Ron DeSantis presidential campaign, marred by technical glitches on Twitter.”

She added ahead of the first report that the server issues with Twitter left “the campaign scrambling on day one.”

[...]

Over on the Disney-owned ABC, there was never any doubt as to whetherGood Morning America would join in. 

After co-host and former Clinton official George Stephanopoulos described the launch as “marred” and “riddled with technical difficulties,” chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl conceded DeSantis is “the most formidable Republican challenger to Donald Trump” with some “advantages.”

Aside from that, it was more of the same.

[...]

Socialist CBS Mornings co-host Tony Dokoupil came with jokes: “[I]t was billed as a great American comeback, those are the words of Ron DeSantis and you could set your clock by it, but you could not set your clock by that Twitter event.”

Note that Houck did not criticize Musk for the botched launch, though it was arguably his fault that Twitter was not robust enough to handle the launch's traffic. (Houck has irrelevantly decided that Dokoupil is a "socialist" solely because he did a news report a few years back on income inequality. Really. That's it.)

Houck also didn't disclose his personal interest in DeSantis' candidacy. The day before the launch, he gushed about it on his Twitteraccount: "Great move making the announcement with @ElonMusk. Heads on all sides will explode." he also took place in a launch-related event the day of the announcement, which he also touted: "The great folks at @FLVoiceNews (led by @BrendonLeslie) are doing a Twitter Spaces after @RonDeSantis's 2024 announcement with @ElonMusk. I'll be joining the action -- lots to discuss!"

Kevin Tober was also on cleanup patrol -- this time for his fellow right-wing writers as well as DeSantis:

On Wednesday, Florida Republican governor Ron DeSantis made his long-awaited presidential campaign announcement during a Twitter space with Elon Musk followed by numerous appearances on cable news and radio. Later on Wednesday evening, DeSantis held a call with members of conservative media where they asked the governor questions about how he’ll beat Donald Trump and what he’ll do if he’s elected President. 

The call which was helpfully transcribed by Mediaite showed leftwing propagandists like The View’s Alyssa Farah Griffinand Puck News’s Tara Palmeri were wrong about DeSantis hiding from the press or simply only speaking to “friendly press” since the call with conservative reporters frequently challenged the governor on a wide range of issues. 

DeSantis kicked off the call by addressing the elephant in the room which was the Twitter space that crashed a few times during his announcement event with Musk: “We are at a internet-breaking start with Elon Musk. You know, he offered me the ability to do either a SpaceX rocket or Twitter. I just figured Twitter would be safer. Turns out that we had too many people that tried to join. So in some respects, you know, that’s a that’s a good sign.”

Despite not citing any actual challenging questions -- in fact, most were softballs and not very probing at all -- Tober insisted this was somehow a victory for right=wing media:

This call shows that conservative media by and large can be trusted to hold their own side’s feet to the fire and ask probing questions. 

That’s not something you see from reporters on the left who simply give their favorite candidates and politicians a foot massage.

Only in Tober's right-wing bubble can Farah Griffin -- whom the MRC irrationally hates -- be considered a "leftwing propagandist." And the fact remains that DeSantis refused to talk to anyone who wasn't from a right-wing media outlet, which that he is, in fact, afraid to venture beyond a "friendly press."

WND Attacks Wash. Post After Durham Report -- But Doesn't Back Them Up
Topic: WorldNetDaily

Bob Unruh complained in a May 17 WorldNetDaily article:

The Washington Post, the personal newspaper of Amazon billionaire and noted Democrat donor Jeff Bezos, says it is standing by its Trump-Russia stories, and the Pulitzer Prize they won.

That's even though a 300-page report from Special Counsel John Durham this week confirmed what President Trump has argued all along, that the reporting essentially was a "witch hunt," about a conspiracy theory based on zero evidence.

The now-debunked claims were begun and funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and contended that Trump, somehow, was obligated to Russia for his campaign. Actually, those on Clinton's payroll to create the allegations, to divert the public's attention from her own decision to post national secrets on an unsecure email system, used their own Russian sources to fabricate their claims.

The trouble is that the New York Times and the Washington Post both were given Pulitzers for their reporting on what now is known to be fiction.

Only the Pulitzers weren't in the "fiction" category.

Unruh's report is essentially a rewrite of a right-wing Daily Mail article making the same claim. But Unruh offered no evidence of anything in the Post's reporting that was proven wrong by Durham's report -- not even anything claimed in the Daily Mail story. Further, Unruh is falsely claiming that the investigation into Trump was "begun and funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign." As Washington Post writer Philip Bump documented, a timeline of events shows that there were plenty of shady events -- Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort giving campaign data to a Russian operative, Trump saying surprisingly nice things about Vladimir Putin -- that didn't involve the Clinton campaign at all, and Bump argued that the Durham report actually undermines right-wing efforts to blame Clinton for the investigation. But Unruh continued to whine anyway:

Durham's conclusion was blunt: "Neither U.S. law enforcement nor the Intelligence Community appears to have possessed any actual evidence of collusion in their holdings at the commencement of the Crossfire Hurricane investigation."

Yet the prize-winning reports were based on the false assumption there was evidence.

Unruh offered no proof of this.

Unruh also noted that "A Post spokesman claimed a Pulitzer board review claimed no elements of the stories 'were discredited by facts' at that time," but said nothing more about it. In fact, Unruh misled about who the Pulitzer board review said. Here's a fuller quote as reported by the Post:

In an unusual move, it authorized two independent reviews of the articles submitted by the newspapers — and essentially recertified the results.

“The separate reviews converged in their conclusions: that no passages or headlines, contentions or assertions in any of the winning submissions were discredited by facts that emerged subsequent to the conferral of the prizes,” it said in a statement.

Unruh also claimed that "Not not ago, the Columbia Journalism Review released a scathing report that specifically targeted the Times for its reporting." But as critics have pointed out, that report was little more than revisionism that ignored inconvenient facts while advancing Trump's self-serving criticism of the investigation.

We know that WND these days is little more than a content mill and that Unruh just rewrites stuff and doesn't do any actually reporting, but this is a serious hack job even for him -- he just repeats partisan assertions and provides no evidence to back them up. Is this laziness what WND News Center donors are paying for?

MRC Does Guest Ideology Counts For Late-Night Shows -- But Not Gutfeld
Topic: Media Research Center

Alex Christy's main job at the Media Research Center is to complain that late-night TV isn't right-wing enough. this meams that, in addition to be a comedy cop, he's also complaining about the guests who appear on the shows. So when late-night hosts departed their shows in recent months, Christy was quick to churn out posts complaining their guests were somehow too liberal. When Trevor Noah left "The Daily Show," Christy had his complaints ready for a Dec. 9 post:

During his seven-year tenure as host of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show, Trevor Noah brought a reliably liberal bias to the program, a NewsBusters study has found.

MRC analysts found that from when Noah began hosting The Daily Show on September 28, 2015 through his final show on December 8, 2022, Noah had on 159 partisan guests including 109 unique individuals. Of these 159 guests, 137, or 86.16 percent, were Democrats or in some way affiliated with the Democratic Party.

When James Corden's late-night show ended, Christy had a very similar complaint ready:

During his eight-year stint as host of CBS’s The Late Late Show, James Corden could be counted on to use the show to advance the electoral interests of the Democratic Party, a NewsBusters study has found.

MRC analysts found that from March 23, 2015, through April 27, 2023, Corden had on 26 partisan guests including 17 unique individuals, 100 percent of whom were Democrats or in some way affiliated with the Democratic Party. At CBS, Stephen Colbert is far more aggressive in booking Democrat politicians, but Corden has a "perfect record."

The most memorable of these softball sessions was Nancy Pelosi’s April 2020 appearance where Corden fell in love with her freezer full of expensive ice cream. It ended with him asking Pelosi about her opinions of individual Republicans, holding up their pictures. He ended with a picture of Darth Vader, and Pelosi quipped “Even the party has gone beyond Darth Vader.” Corden shot back: “Darth Vader? I thought it was Dick Cheney!”

The British transplant would also give solemn monologues trashing America for a lack of gun control, declaring the country to be "one of the most backward places in the world,” and on abortion, declaring Dobbs to be "the biggest rollback of human rights in modern U.S. history."

It's worth noting that the MRC dishonestly plays both sides of the fence here: It has a history of encouraging conservatives to not appear on shows deemed too "liberal," then attacking those very same shows for not having conservatives on.

When the late-night shows shut down production due to the writers' strike, Christy had another guest count in a May 19 post under the headline "Good Riddance":

With the Writers Guild of America going on strike, it is likely that America has seen the last of the first half of 2023’s late night comedy shows. Whether America wants them to return is an open question as 95 percent of their 2023 guests have been liberal, a NewsBusters study has documented.

MRC analysts found that from January 3 through May 1 (the last night of shows before the strike ended production of new episodes), liberal guests outnumbered conservative guests by 77 to 4.

The study looked at the daily six late night comedy shows: ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live!, NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers and The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, CBS’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and The Late Late Show with James Corden (up through its April 27 termination), and Comedy Central’s The Daily Show. FNC's Gutfeld! was not included.

That's right -- Christy once again excluded Gutfeld's show from scrutiny, even though his job is presumably to evaluate all late-night snows. That's presumably because he doesn't want to be caught demonstrating the fact that Gutfeld is at least as biased to the right as he claims the other shows are to the left.

Christy also laughably whined that "Zero guests from Fox News appeared on any of the programs" -- though he identified no person associated with another network who ever appeared on Fox News.He also put "comedy" in scare quotes in the headline of his post because he has decided that these comedians are making fun of right-wingers like him, they cannot possibly be funny. That makes him a good right-wing activist, but a poor judge of comedy.

FAKE NEWS: WND Republishes False Infowars Story About London Mayor
Topic: WorldNetDaily

WorldNetDaily has an unfortunate tendency to publish fake news, but even it should know better than to republish anything from the notorious conspiracy site Infowars. Yet that's exactly what it did with a May 23 article:

London Mayor Sadiq Khan revealed in his new book, Breathe, he suffered a heart attack during the 2021 COP26 climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland.

Khan explained as he spoke to the COP26 crowd, “out of nowhere, I felt a knot in my chest – a kind of tightening” and he had to be “carried off the stage” while “barely conscious.”

The book stated, “My shirt was drenched with sweat and I felt like I was on fire.”

That's all of the article WND published -- indicating that it was stolen from Infowars -- but it still contains a major error. As a fact-checker pointed out Khan did not suffer a heart attack at the conference -- and there is no mention of a cardiac arrest in Khan's book, from which this story is derived.

It's also mentioned in the headline of WND's version of the article that Khan's purported cardiac event "days after [a] COVID booster." The Infowars article pushed a baseless conspiracu theory:

Just twelve days after taking both a Covid booster and flu shot on the same day, Khan suffered the heart attack.

It’s likely the health scare was kept from the public until now as it would have surely created more skepticism of the experimental mRNA jabs.

Needless to say, no evidence was presented to link the two events. Like WND, Infowars doesn't need no stinkin' facts when there are malicious and false narratives to promote.

Even Before Twitter Campaign Launch, MRC DeSantis Defense Brigade Was Fully Mobilized
Topic: Media Research Center

In a May 14 post, Mark Finkelstein complained that "Rick Wilson of the disgraced Lincoln Project" besmirched Ron DeSantis' chances in a presidential race, and took particular offense to a prediction of how Donald Trump will treat him:

Wilson began by attacking DeSantis's personality, claiming that he "doesn't like humans, has to pretend to be human." He insisted DeSantis has a "mean streak." Yes, Rick Wilson said that, without any introspection about his own behavior.

In contrast, despite being sure to get on record that he dislikes everything about Trump, Wilson argued Trump does have "charisma" and "energy." 

In a particularly gruesome metaphor, Wilson then predicted that in a debate, Trump would "tear Ron DeSantis's head off and kick it around like a soccer ball."

Again, this could well just be Wilson trying to tear down DeSantis because he and the Dems see him as the biggest threat to Biden.

Note: Imagining DeSantis's head being torn off and kicked around is in keeping with Wilson's creepy penchant for violent fantasies about Republicans.

Turns out DeSantis didn't need an assist from Trump on his campaign launch -- he and Elon Musk botched things all by themselves. On the day DeSantis' campaign was to launch his campaign in an Twitter event, on May 23, Finkelstein returned to defend both DeSantis and Musk:

Morning Joe was on brand as a daily DNC messaging board. There wasn't a positive word on tonight's anticipated Ron DeSantis campaign announcement on Twitter this evening with Elon Musk. From Mika Brezinski to Jonathan Lemire, Willie Geist, Katty Kay, and Elise Jordan, all expressed their energetic reservations and criticism of the DeSantis strategy.

Sykes also mocked DeSantis for somehow going "all in on Elon" and described Musk as displaying "brain worms"—whatever that means.

[...]

Sykes did see one upside to DeSantis making his announcement with Musk, claiming that it will "throw a certain amount of chaos into MAGA world." 

One thing Sykes failed to mention was the contrast in announcement styles between DeSantis and Biden. When the latter announced his re-election bid, he did so via a carefully scripted and produced video. No live speech in which Biden's inevitable fumbles would be on full display. In contrast, DeSantis will reportedly be doing a live chat with Musk: no training wheels necessary!

Finkelstein also complained that Sykes said that DeSantis was "bowing the knee to a tech oligarch, somebody who has been very publicly decompensating, an erratic narcissistic megalomaniac like Elon Musk."

Curtis Houck tried to pre-frame criticism of DeSantis' launch plans in a post headlined "They're Terrified," with a particular obsession about the Trump-related books the correspondents had written:

On Wednesday morning ahead of Governor Ron DeSantis’s (R-FL) 2024 presidential announcement with Twitter owner Elon Musk, the “big three” networks of ABC, CBS, and NBC lambasted DeSantis from the left and touted former President Trump’s attacks, all in an attempt to bury DeSantis before he officially enters the race.

CBS chief campaign and elections correspondent Robert Costa — whose stock rose culminated in a book with Bob Woodward — painted a picture on CBS Mornings that DeSantis’s campaign is already on death’s door: “Our latest polling shows Governor DeSantis trailing former President Donald Trump by more than 30 points. The question now is can he close that gap. But doing so will not be easy.”

[...]

Over on Disney-owned ABC, Good Morning America had chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl on the case.

Karl — who cashed in on the Trump hysteria with two New York Times bestsellers about Trump (here and here) and recently announced plans for a third — made sure to downplay DeSantis’s unique launch: “But DeSantis’s campaign team says the official statement will come with an audio-only discussion on Twitter with Elon Musk. The first campaign appearance not planned until next week[.]”

Noting DeSantis has already made stops in early-voting states, Karl jabbed the Florida governor as having spent time in Iowa and New Hampshire “trying the person-to-person campaigning he is not known for” and, on a trip overseas, “he awkwardly avoided questions about running for president.”

Likely fearful of losing his money spigot, Karl again attacked: “His challenge now is to try to find a way to beat Trump without alienating Trump supporters. In his first campaign for governor, DeSantis ran as a clone of Donald Trump.”

Karl even closed with the Trump team’s response and how “Trump has already spent millions of dollars on television ads attacking DeSantis” to the point of “having spent more money attacking DeSantis than they spent in the entire 2022 midterm cycle supporting Republican congressional candidates.”

Nicholas Fondacaro had his daily meltdown over "The View" in another pre-announcement post, unable tounderstand that Whoopi Goldberg was joking when she suggested that an image of DeSantis in a teaser video shot almost entirely from behind was a body double, then ranted at her further:

She even had a Luddite moment and shared her irritation that DeSantis was going to announce his campaign via Twitter. “And look, you know what, this idea of announcing on Twitter, I’m – I'm old and I'm okay being old, do that on television. Okay?” she shouted. “I want to see you do it on television. I want to see you actually take real Americans' questions. That's what I want.”

Goldberg’s comments spiraled into the unhinged as she stoked the audience’s hatred of DeSantis, suggesting he “dislike[d] people of color.” She even seemed to threaten him, saying “gay folks” would rise up and come for him:

Then in his podcast recorded before the actual Twitter debacle, this was all rehashed, with the help of Fondacaro.

The MRC also published a May 24 column by Ben Shapiro headlined "Will Elon Musk Break the Legacy Media Stranglehold?" in which he crowed that DeSantis’ decision to launch his campaign on  Twitter "represents yet another blow to the power of the legacy media." He concluded by gushing further: "Conservatives no longer need the approval of reporters at The New York Times. They no longer need to suffer the indignities of skewed grilling at the hands of partisan hacks who work for the alphabet networks. Times have changed. And DeSantis’ Twitter launch is just the latest evidence." What that actually means, of course, is that Shapiro and other Republicans don't want their candidiates to face any scrutiny outside the right-wing bubble, even though they must eventually face voters who don't live there.

Newsmax Gives Congressman's Falsehood A Pass
Topic: Newsmax

Sandy Fitzgerald wrote in a May 17 Newsmax article:

This week's House Administration Oversight subcommittee hearing on the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol revealed an "absolute failure of leadership with the Capitol Police on that day," Rep. Greg Murphy, one of the congressmen grilling Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manger, said Wednesday on Newsmax. 

Murphy, a North Carolina Republican, also told Newsmax's "Wake Up America" that he thinks some of the "obstruction of justice" by then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office on that day became "almost like an invitation for a riot to occur."

"There was a refusal to allow the National Guard to come in with the anticipation that this could get rowdy," said Murphy.

However, he said he thinks with new leadership in place, including with the Capitol Police, "a lot of those mechanisms of the line of order have been corrected. ... I'm a lot more optimistic about the role of the Capitol Police as we move forward, but the last leadership was absolutely derelict in their duty."

In fact -- as we documented when WorldNetDaily pushed this same claim -- the conservative website the Dispatch reported that Donald Trump gave no order to deploy the National Guard, and not only did Pelosi not reject a request to deploy them, she was not in a position to because she wasn't in the chain of command -- in Washington, D.C., the National Guard can be deployed only by the president.

Not only did Fitzgerald refuse to fact-check Murphy's false claim, the Newsmax TV host didn't either, responding only, "Yeah, absolutely." Not exactly a good sign for journalism at Newsmax.

WND Touts A Dubious Study Attacking Masks
Topic: WorldNetDaily

If there is a study that touches on COVID vaccines or face masks, it's pretty much a certainty that any reporting WorldNetDaily does on it will be highly misleading or false in a way that falsely demonizes them and ignore flaws in the study that have been identified by others. For one recent study, WND started off with an April 23 article it stole from the Daily Mail, with the provocative claim that "Face masks may raise the risk of stillbirths, testicular dysfunction and cognitive decline in children." This was so alarming -- and so clickbait-y -- that Bob Unruh cranked out his own article on the study on May 10:

A new study suggests that those COVID masks, pushed on the American public by the likes of Biden medical adviser Anthony Fauci and multiple state and local officials, actually caused problems with high blood pressure.

And they "reduced thinking ability."

And "increased respiratory problems."

And more.

Essentially, they were having people "effectively poisoning oneself by breathing in too much carbon dioxide."

"What can breathing too much carbon dioxide do to you? The authors write that 'at levels between 0.05% and 0.5% CO2,' one might experience an 'increased heart rate, increased blood pressure and overall increased circulation with the symptoms of headache, fatigue, difficulty concentrating, dizziness, rhinitis, and dry cough.” Rates above 0.5 percent can lead to 'reduced cognitive performance, impaired decision-making and reduced speed of cognitive solutions.' Beyond 1 percent, 'the harmful effects include respiratory acidosis, metabolic stress, increased blood flow and decreased exercise tolerance,'" explained a City Journal report.

It was based on a study from Germany that quantifies "the harms" from wearing masks.

You will not be surprised to learn that the study's results are being overstated and may not actually hold up. As a fact-checker found:

Experts told us the article is flawed.

Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, said the review article relied partly on studies of animals that are chronically exposed to carbon dioxide. 

Those studies are not applicable to humans intermittently wearing face masks, he said.

Jeremy Howard, a scientist at the University of San Francisco, said the review article overestimates by 60 times the amount of carbon dioxide people breathe when wearing masks.

[...]

Scientists have found little evidence that the kind of masks worn by schoolchildren negatively affect oxygen or carbon dioxide levels. Scientists also say contamination levels on masks are no worse than contamination levels on other common objects.

Studies have not found significant health problems even from prolonged mask wearing.

But Unruh cares about fearmongering, not facts, so he uncritically repeated partisan claims from the right-wing City Journal that "Evidence continues to mount that mask mandates were perhaps the worst public-health intervention in modern American history" and that wearing masks "ignored centuries of Western norms, the best medical evidence, and common sense."

NEW ARTICLE: The Soros Deflection In Service Of Trump
Topic: Media Research Center
As prosecutor Alvin Bragg geared up to indict Donald Trump, the Media Research Center labored hard to tie him to George Soros -- then got mad it was pointed out that doing so was arguably an anti-Semitic dog whistle. Read more >>

MRC Continued To Peddle Lies About Target's Pride Merchandise
Topic: Media Research Center

We've shown how the Media Research Center repeated and amplified lies from vicious transphobe Matt Walsh to start a phony attack on Target over selling pride-related merchandise. Tim Graham repeated those lies in a May 26 column that tried to blame the victim, insisting that it's somehow Target's fault for making right-wingers lie about it:

Some might claim that Rupert Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal is part of his “right-wing media machine,” but not when it comes to the news pages. The front page on May 25 included an article headlined “Target Is in Bull’s-Eye Of the Culture Wars.” Inside the paper, it’s “Culture Wars Snare Target.”

One of the most annoying tendencies of liberal journalists is defining the term “culture wars” as conservative resistance to the left-wing war on America’s Judeo-Christian heritage. Target has lowered itself from typical progressive “Pride Month” pandering to partnering with a British Satanist to push an agenda in their stores.

Satanists aren’t culture warriors, only the Christians are? Target isn’t engaging in culture war, but Hobby Lobby is?

“Trans man” Erik Cornell’s Abprallen brand sells apparel that includes satanic imagery, including pentagrams, horned skulls, and references to the devil. One design on their T-shirts and pins carries the message: “Satan respects pronouns.”

Last year, Cornell wrote on his brand’s Instagram account: “Being called a demon is something I can cope with, and the idea of a trans demon is pretty damn cool, most of my work focuses on gothic or dark and satanic imagery juxtaposed with bright colours and LGBT+ positive messages.”

Cornell is not a Satanist, but Graham couldn't be bothered to telling his readers that. He did grudgingly admit that "The edgy Satanic gear isn’t on sale at Target," but insisted on blaming Target or it anyway: "Are their executives so dense that they can’t imagine this Satanist-adjacent promotion might be a publicity problem?" Graham also failed to mention that this war on Target was not organic but manufactured by people like Walsh -- a fact one of his writers gleefully touted.

Graham also conceded that no "tuck-friendly" swimsuits were ever marketed to children, but Target was again somehow to blame because someone under the age of 18 might wear one:

The Target story first kicked into prominence when the Associated Press and PolitiFact “fact checkers” rushed in to defend Target against those anti-groomer right-wingers who were spreading “misinformation.” They insisted that the swimsuits being sold with “tuck-friendly construction” were only in adult sizes. But it should be obvious that many teenaged children would fit into adult sizing.

Then it was also shown that swimsuits for younger children were tagged in the store as “thoughtfully fit” for “multiple gender expressions.” Obviously, young male children don’t have as much need for a “tuck-friendly” suit.

Graham concluded by raging that not hating transgender people is somehow making people want to be transgender:

The number of youth identifying as transgender has doubled in recent years, and all these leftists want to pretend that none of this happened because of their crusades waged on the Internet and their urgent “Pride” marketing from “woke” corporations.

The Left pretends this surge of gender confusion and amputation is “organic,” that it’s just people finding their “true selves” by the thousands. But it’s the result of a gender-denying culture war.

In fact, social contagion is not causing more youths to be transgender. Graham didn't explain why transgender people must always be hated and vilified in the media.

Alex Christy tried to play whataboutism with right-wing attacks on  Target in a May 26 post:

Apparently, colleges just hand out PhDs to anyone who wants one because on Thursday’s The 11th Hour on MSNBC, economics Prof. Justin Wolfers wondered if Target is “cowardly” for backing off slightly on the store’s display of LGBT products for children or simply the victim of “economic terrorism.” Meanwhile, the pot called the kettle black as senior reporter Ben Collins called the Target boycott a “terminally online” phenomenon.

Host Stephanie Ruhle led Wolfers by warning, “if you’re Target and you cave here, this is a slippery slope because this anti-LGBTQ movement, they’re not going to stop here. They want to sue every company out there that has any sort of diversity and inclusion initiative.”

Wolfers agreed, “I think there is something really quite scary here and it comes from the Target CEO saying the reason they were backing off is they were worried about the safety of their employees.”

For Wolfers, there are only two options, “it could be they're cowards and used that as protection and a smokescreen so they could make a cowardly decision, or it could be that they're actually genuinely concerned about the well-being of their employees and have had credible threats.”

[...]

Wolfers almost certainly did not refer to the left pressuring Target to remove Abigail Shrier’s Irreversible Damage from their website as “literally terrorism” or "cowardly." Only conservative-inspired boycotts get such treatment.

Christy didn't mention that Schrier's book is a poorly written work that advances right-wing anti-transgender narratives at thet expense of actual science.

Christy then trampled on his employer's messaging, complaining that  Collins(accurately) identified Walsh as the "leader of the movement," though he did make sure to tout Walsh as a "MRC Bulldog winner." But then he complained that "Collins’s entire job is to submerse himself in the deepest backwaters of the internet and claim those weirdos represent and have outsized influence on the Republican Party." If Walsh is such a fringe "weirdo," why did the MRC see fit to give him a major award?

Another May 26 post, by Nicholas Schau, attacked non-right-wibng media outlets for reporting accurately on the furor while repeating those right-wing lies (again):

While the rest of America was busy being appalled, leftist media hacks celebrated Target’s disturbing line of LGBTQ-themed merchandise designed by an avowed Satanist.

Various news outlets, including TheStreet, NBC, CNN and Forbes, went to bat for Target and its woke antics. TheStreet provided an absurd defense of Target’s CEO and the Satanic designer it partnered with, saying that the CEO thinks that “inclusion is just good business.” NBC came out in full support of the disgusting merchandise. CNN’s coverage of the situation zeroed-in on the right-wing backlash, mourning that it harms Target’s cause. Forbes tried to attack reasonable laws against drag shows for kids, which the outlet cites as a reason that Target tries to sell its despicable merchandise.

Target’s despicable merchandise advertised for “pride month” included onesies, “tuck-friendly” swimsuits, mugs, books with LGBTQ messages for babies, and t-shirts with the word “queer,” sometimes featured with obscene messaging. This is consistent with Target’s past  wokeness, including the 2016 “transgender” bathroom policy. Fortunately, common-sense Americans kicked back against the evil attack on children, and the woke corporation is beginning to pull some of this grotesque merchandise. Target losta whopping $9 billion in market value following the controversy. But media outlets seemed more intent on erroneously painting Target as some kind of victim.

Schau's lies continued:

CNN similarly wrote a blatantly biased piece claiming that “Target is being held hostage by an anti-LGBTQ campaign.” In its absurd article, CNN blames “right-wing personalities” for creating this campaign which “became hostile.” CNN defended Target’s actions and claimed that “the campaign misrepresented Target’s ambitions,” adding that much of the totally reasonable criticism was based on “misinformation.”

In another report, CNN buried Target’s partnership with the Satanist in the ninth paragraph. The outlet also buried any mention of the abhorrent pride-themed merchandise marketed to children in the tenth paragraph.

Only in the MRC's right-wing bubble is it "absurd" for a media outlet to report facts. Indeed, despite all his ranting, Schau did not dispute a single fact in any article he attacked.

WND's McMillan: 'Deep State' Is 'Fighting Against God'
Topic: WorldNetDaily

The Deep State is desperately trying to create chaos around the globe, whether by pestilence or war. Chaos and its accompanying "emergencies" are their best friends: They love to sidestep constitutional processes and govern by emergencies (which appear nowhere in the Constitution, because the founders were smarter than that). They also love big wealth transfers, from those who earned it to those who steal it, because that is who they are. They are not going to love this wealth transfer God has in store for them. The devil is going to begin the tribulation woke and broke.

All the front-lines turmoil the Deep State has been working on to steal the world and humanity from our Creator God is now being turned against them and will cause their ultimate destruction. God's game plans were already available to them in the Old Testament, but perhaps they thought, "That was then and this is now!" God's view is, "There is nothing new under the sun." I guess we will see which view prevails.

The Deep State does go back a long time. When Nehemiah received permission from the Babylonian king to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, Deep Staters appeared to stall the work, even if it meant killing the rebuilders. The rebuilders stationed guards on the wall at the building sites, ignored pleas for meetings and instead continued on with the rebuilding work.

I don't think today's Deep State is smart enough to realize they have ended up fighting against God. Let's not the rest of us make that same mistake in judgment. God intends to finish off these people and annihilate their efforts to take over the earth, humanity and the rest of His creation. Don't let the gates of hell hit you in the a** on your way inside, boys. Eternity is a very long time, indeed.

-- Craige McMillan, May 5 WorldNetDaily column

Newsmax Promotes RFK Jr.'s Presidential Campaign Because It Might Hurt Biden
Topic: Newsmax

Like other ConWeb outlets, Newsmax is trying to boost the presidential campaign of Robert Kennedy Jr. Not because it actually wants him to be president, of course -- he's running as a Democrat, despite spouting right-wing views and conspiracy theories -- but because he could act as a spoiler to President Biden's re-election by running on his family name. (Also, Newsmax is sympathetic to his anti-vaxxer conspircy theories; for example, a 2015 article uncritically forwarded them.)

When Kennedy made his ambitions known, Newsmax surprisingly published an April 10 article noting that the rest of the Kennedy family opposed his candidacy because of penchant for conspiracy theories involving vaccines and other things. But that was quickly forgotten as it became clear how useful he to be to the right-wingers at Newsmax. Shortly after announcing his candidacy, Kennedy landed an interview on a Newsmax TV program to bash Democrats:

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a 2024 Democratic candidate for president, told Newsmax that the party appears to have lost its will and capacity to fix the United States.

Joining "The Record with Greta Van Susteren" on Tuesday, Kennedy Jr. criticized the direction of the party his family has contributed to for over 100 years.

[...]

Kennedy Jr. further lambasted the Democratic Party's role in ignoring the country's heartland, like East Palestine, Ohio, and facilitating the destruction of the middle class.

"The Democratic Party seems to have lost its bearings and, you know, lost its will or even the capacity to think about changing the system," Kennedy Jr. explained.

Newsmax gave Kennedy another platform to bash Democrats on May 2:

Democrats are engaging in censorship and enveloped in a "woke" culture that's "about canceling people rather than engaging them in discourse and having no boundaries on the things we're allowed to talk about," said Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

"I feel like I'm a traditional Democrat," Kennedy said Friday during an appearance on Newsmax's "American Agenda."

Kennedy appeared again on May 4:

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a 2024 Democratic presidential candidate, told Newsmax that the party should allow primary debates even with President Joe Biden running again.

Joining "Rob Schmitt Tonight" on Thursday, Kennedy said he should be able to challenge Biden publicly on foreign wars, Wall Street regulations, and the censorship of ordinary Americans.

A May 6 article by Nick Koutsobinas hyped how Kennedy "will make his debut appearance as a presidential candidate at a cryptocurrency conference in Miami later this month." A day later, Newsmax noted Kennedy claiming that there's "overwhelming evidence" that the CIA killed his uncle, President John F. Kennedy.

Newsmax even hyped Repubican Devin Nunes complaining that Democrats and the "propaganda fake news" were ignoring Kennedy. It also promoted polls that made Kennedy look good:

• Emerson Poll: RFK Jr. Nets One-Fifth of Voters
• Rasmussen Poll: Dems Like RFK Jr., but Would Vote for Biden

Trump sycophant and terminally wrong Newsmax pundit Dick Morris basically gave away the game by using a May 2 Newsmax appearance to explain how Trump should exploit Kennedy's campaign for his own benefit:

A campaign for the 2024 Democrat presidential nomination by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has "struck a chord" with the establishment's left and is making people nervous, and former President Donald Trump would do well to use that to his advantage, including in his upcoming CNN town hall, political strategist Dick Morris said Tuesday on Newsmax.

"I think the anger is just nervousness," Morris, a former presidential adviser and host of Newsmax's "Dick Morris Democracy," said on "John Bachman Now." "I have some advice for Trump that I'd like to give you over the air and I'll give to him over the phone. I believe that Robert Kennedy has struck a chord that could be enormously attractive to potential voters for Trump, particularly those who watch CNN."

Morris said Kennedy is using the "same rhetoric" against the deep state, Big Government, and high tech that conservatives use.

"He talks about genetic engineering, genetically modified foods, pesticides, forced vaccinations, and all kinds of stuff like that," said Morris. "These are issues that Donald Trump believes in. Those are issues where he would agree with Robert Kennedy, and they're issues that cut completely across the political spectrum."

Morris that while most assume that the political spectrum is flat, "it's not. It's round."

"The left and the right join against the center, and I think that is the formula that Trump needs to use to attract the 'anti-Trumpers' who are not really anti-Trump," said Morris. "They watch CNN and could well be persuaded because he's willing to go with other studies," including on big pharma.

On May 10, though, Newsmax had to report Kennedy's denial that he might share a ticket with Trump.

WND's Lively Still Simping For Russia
Topic: WorldNetDaily

WorldNetDaily homophobe Scott Lively is still a self-proclaimed Putin apologist, and the fact that the war Russia started in Ukraine is not going well for Russia isn't stopping him from continuing to be one. Lively began his May 15 column this way:

I haven't seen anyone else offer this opinion, but I believe the flood of illegal immigrants who have been coming over our southern border for the past decade – mostly military-age young men – may actually be intended to serve as cannon-fodder for the now-admitted American-run Ukraine war of attrition against Russia. Their status as non-citizens of the U.S. would allow them to become foreign mercenaries to Ukraine identified only by their country of origin, theoretically preserving the ability of our corrupt elites to plausibly deny that their actions constitute direct U.S. war with Russia (triggering all the serious complications of constitutional and international law that would entail).

These young men would be recruited/conscripted in the U.S., perhaps in conjunction with the threat of deportation/prosecution (in carrot-and-stick fashion), then trained and equipped in the U.S. or Europe alongside native Ukrainian soldiers, but paid by U.S. tax-money laundered through the Ukrainian government in the form of wages. Conversely, we might openly declare war and institute a draft to do pretty much the same thing. (Interestingly, even illegals are legally required to register with Selective Service.)

Is this a plausible theory? The corrupt elites whose minions rule us from their deep-state bunkers in the Defense and State departments of our government love fighting wars with proxy armies. They learned a hard lesson during the Vietnam War that Americans would no longer tolerate forever wars in which large numbers of their own children died for ideological pretexts masking mega-corporate, geopolitical strategies. So proxy wars became necessary to keep the military-industrial complex humming and Anglo-American global hegemony intact.

Lively doesn't seem to consider the possibility that nobody else has offered this particular opinion because it's stupid and has no basis in reality. He then went into pro-Putin mode again:

The Russian Federation, with its hopeful championship of pro-family normalcy and rightness of cause in defending its legitimate national interests in the face of relentless NATO aggression, will not be the salvation of the world but only play its role as global scapegoat in the looming great collapse and great reset. The current, unsustainable partnership of Orthodox Russia with Islamic nations and Communist China would inevitably devolve into conflict, even if it survived World War III intact, which it won't and neither will we. The Antichrist kingdom will be the temporary victor pending Christ's second coming, and all the world will suffer that evil rule together.

Lively seems to have missed the part about NATO being a defensive alliance, not one interested in "aggression."

Lively served up more Ukraine-related conspiracies in his May 22 column:

For years I have been in correspondence with an American ex-pat who shares my respect for Russia. I have appreciated this man for introducing me to information sources outside of the U.S./U.K. media bubble. By having learned about and regularly monitored these sources, I believe I am one of the better informed Americans on the Russian perspectives of the issues.

Unfortunately, this man has become increasingly hostile to Israel over this same period, and particularly scornful toward "Christian Zionists." I've given up trying to reason with him on the matter because he's become ideologically entrenched. Essentially, while I remain simply a truth-seeker anchored by a mature biblical worldview, he has become a "team player" for the Russian Federation, which has responded to NATO aggression/sanctions by building alliances with the Islamic nations and Communist China. Its new worldview is thus laced with coalition-affirming arguments from Islamic and Communist perspectives in the same way U.S. propaganda has traditionally included pro-Saudi themes for the same reason (even after 9/11).

Russia's "marriage-of-convenience" geopolitical partnerships are ultimately incompatible with the Russian Orthodox theology at the core of post-Soviet Russia and will eventually produce schisms, but in the meantime the nascent anti-Semitic inclinations of Orthodox believers (rooted in the doctrine of supersessionism – or "replacement theology" – which it shares with Roman Catholicism and some Protestant denominations), has been rekindled by close relations with the Muslims. That has manifested in a strong and growing anti-Zionist sentiment among both Russian nationalists and Orthodox Christians (even here at home). It is made much worse by blatant anti-Torah perspectives and policies of the Israeli government, symbolically represented recently by its outrageous equation of hostility toward the morally reprobate George Soros with anti-Semitism.

Hey, if people use anti-Semitic tropes to attack Soros, they are going to be credibly accused of anti-Semitism.

The rest of his column was a lot of convoluted explaining of how all this supposedly affects Israel, complete with a claim that ultra-orthodox Israelis "are the true 'Zionists'" and ranting about how "the (Soros-like) Synagogue of Satan that brings in the Antichrist Kingdom right before our eyes."

MRC Helps Transphobe Walsh Spread Lies About Target
Topic: Media Research Center

The Bulldog Award it gave to vicious transphobe Matt Walsh shows how virulent the Media Research Center's anti-LGBTQ agenda has become. It's been a promoter and defender of Walsh for a while, of course:

• In the aftermath of a Novmeber gun massacre at a gay nightclub, Jason Cohen defended Walsh from suggestions by "twits on Twitter" who suggested thatWalsh would like to have seen more dead gay people: "Just because someone is critical about something does not mean they want violence." But he never quoted Walsh explicitly disavowing the sentiment.
• An April 13 post by Tim Graham complained that PolitiFact ruled Walsh to be "mostly false" in trying to directly link gender-affirming care to suicide, maliciously framing such care as "gender-denying care" and complaining that PolitiFact used facts he didn't like: "Debating causation is tricky, but it's weird that radical activist groups like the Trevor Project constantly warn that the "trans" kids are much more likely to commit suicide, but it's constantly blaming that on "transphobia," not on gender dysphoria." Graham made no effort to actually disprove any of those "radical activist groups."
• Catherine Salgado touted Walsh's pronoun meltdown in an April 25 post:

The Daily Wire host Matt Walsh blasted YouTube for attempting to force him to use Dylan Mulvaney's preferred pronouns last week.

In a speech at the University of Iowa, Walsh described YouTube’s draconian policy that barred him from using biological pronouns. “YouTube has decided that I’m not allowed to use biologically accurate language when discussing Dylan [Mulvaney] or presumably any other trans-identified person,” Walsh said, later adding, “Basically what they've told me is '[If] you want to keep the money that's fine, keep the platform, just give up your integrity and your soul in its place.' And to that I say, 'Hell no.'"

In that same speech, Walsh also said, “I would rather be demonetized than use someone’s preferred pronouns one time. I’d rather you kick me off of every platform and banish me to Mars than use someone’s preferred pronouns.” Hence he will no longer post his full show on YouTube, despite the considerable amount of revenue he previously received from YouTube ads.

Quite the petulant child, isn't he? Yet the MRC decided that this immature rant was award-worthy -- and it eagerly signed on to promote a new anti-trans rage campaign. Tom Olohan merged hate with rah-rah in a May 24 post:

Conservative podcast host Matt Walsh is calling on conservative women to launch a Bud Light-style boycott to rebuke another woke company pushing the rainbow mafia agenda on children.

On May 23, The Daily Wire host Matt Walsh issued a call to action, asking conservative women to boycott Target after the chain store promoted “pride” month merchandise from a Satanist designer to children, including “tuck-friendly” swimsuits. Walsh responded to an account encouraging women to boycott Target by tweeting, “Yes. Women need to get in the fight. Some of them have but not nearly enough. It’s time to get serious. There’s only so much men can do to defend womanhood. You all need to step up.” He added: “It’s up to conservative women to make the Target boycott work. If you guys mobilize, you could crush Target. It’s up to you.”

[...]

Prior to his call-to-action tweets, Walsh condemned Target’s “pride” merchandise on “The Matt Walsh Show” on May 16. Walsh highlighted how Target not only marketed “pride” clothing and other merchandise to children, but also placed them in the front of the store to make a statement. As for the small “tuck-friendly” bathing suits, Matt didn’t mince words:

“We can clearly see that the bathing suits, though not in the kids section, are available in kid sizes. Either those are sizes for kids, or for very, very, very small adults,” Walsh said before brutally mocking Target. “Which I guess is the excuse they are going to go with, ‘No it's not, this is just for extremely undersized adults, I mean you could buy it for your kid, but that’s not what it's meant for’. That’s obviously what it is meant for.”

Olohan and Walsh are lying about the designer, Erik Carnell, by calling him a "Satanist" -- he considers himself an atheist, and none of his vaguely Satan-adjacent stuff (done to make a political point, not to promote Satan) was ever sold by Target. They are also lying by claiming that "tuck-friendly" swimsuits were being marketed to children; kids' swimsults are constructed differently.

But facts don't matter when there are people to be demonized and companies to attack for a partisan hate agenda. Kevin Tober explaned on the lies later in the day:

On Wednesday, NBC Nightly News dedicated an entire segment of their newscast to Target being forced to remove some of their clothing from their stores which visibly worship satan. In addition, Target announced they were reviewing some of their other clothing which caused a national uproar. Most notably, their "tuck friendly" bathing suits in which men are able to "tuck" their private parts in their bathing suit bottoms to pretend they're women. 

In fact, not even the MRCTV post to which Tober linked offered evidence that anything sold at Target "worshipped Satan." He went on to whine that "The left-wing correspondent parroted leftist gender ideology vocabulary like “gender-affirming operations.” --though he didn't explain how being transgender is an "ideology" -- then complained that things were fact-checked and others admitted they felt threatened by the hate campaign:

He then spoke to Ben Collins, NBC’s senior reporter who proclaims he’s on the so-called “dystopia beat.” 

“The misinformation here was that kids were being targeted with this stuff,” Collins proclaimed. “They realize if they can threaten enough people. If they can scare enough people in real-life locations that maybe support for the LGBTQ community will diminish among corporations.”

He provided no evidence that anyone has been “threatened” over this controversy.

Not to be outdone, Sarah Kate Ellis of the LGBTQ group “GLAAD” parroted the leftist line that different opinions from theirs constitute “violence.” 

“I think there's this really small group who has an outsized voice at this moment in time and it's of hate and it's of discrimination and it's violent,” Ellis cried. 

NBC allowed her to cry discrimination and allege violence without any pushback.

Alex Christy managed to avoid repeating any of the lies from Walsh and his co-workers in a May 25 post, but he complained that a transphobe didn't get enough airtime on CNN:

The View’s Alyssa Farah Griffin and Rolling Stone’s Jay Michaelson teamed up on Wednesday’s CNN Tonight to attack conservatives for wanting to boycott Target for certain Pride-themed merchandise aimed at children. In things never said about liberal boycotts, Farah Griffin labeled it “very totalitarian,” while Michaelson warned of “stochastic terrorism.”

CNN did have an actual conservative voice in Joe Pinion to go up against Farah Griffin, Michaelson, and senior political analyst John Avlon. However, the three-on-nature of the panel—four-on-one if you count host Alisyn Camerota—meant that after references to various insanities coming out of Washington and New York he was sidelined as the other three ganged up on him.

Chrsity went on to dismiss Michaelsen as a "liberal rabbi and former Merrick Garland clerk," then tried to play whataboutism: "One wonders if Michaelson, who once accused Antonin Scalia of all people of inciting terrorism, thinks Nashville was “stochastic terrorism” or does that label only get applied to hypothetical right-wingers? Either way, people aren’t going to suddenly believe that boys can suddenly become girls because that’s not hate, that’s just science." Christy is referencing the Nashville gun massacre, which Christy and the MRC care about only because the shooter was allegedly transgender, not because guns were used to kill both adults and children.

WND's Brown Goes Soft On Trump Again
Topic: WorldNetDaily

Along with hating LGBTQ people, Michael Brown is also known for trying to sell Donald Trump to evangelicals, imploring them to ignore his amorality because he delivered on right-wing agenda items, though the Capitol riot caused him to waver. So as we play catch-up with Brown's hating on non-heterosexuals, it's worth noting another example of Brown's wishy-washiness over Trump's growing extreme rhetoric. He wrote in his March 10 WorldNetDaily column:

Former President Trump's "I am your retribution" comments at CPAC have created the expected firestorm. For his loyal supporters, this was vintage Trump, as once again, he stood up boldly to fight for "us" against "them." To paraphrase, "They may have hurt you, but I will make them pay!" For Trump critics, this was Trump at his arrogant and dangerous worst, pledging a holy war against those who stood in his way.

To quote Trump in full, "In 2016, I declared I am your voice. Today, I add I am your warrior, I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution. I am your retribution. Not going to let this happen. Not going to let it happen. I will totally obliterate the deep state."

To repeat those central words: "I am your retribution."

What are we to make of this?

Weirdly, Brown didn't reference Trump's name again in this column, even though the column was a response to Trump. Instead, he ruminated on the biblical aspects of retribution, concluding by arguing that retribution is for God alone but, again, not calling out Trump for trying to substitute his judgment for  God's:

So, rather than try to destroy our enemies or bring retribution on them, our goal should be their conversion and transformation. That is the radical Jesus way.

Of course, some of us will immediately try to rationalize our way out of this command, saying that such efforts are a sign of compromise. Or we'll create ridiculous scenarios, asking, "So, if a killer breaks into my house, am I supposed to cook him a nice meal?"

That is obviously not what the Word is saying.

But God is calling us to crucify our flesh, to put down our carnal desires for retribution, and to make it our goal to overcome evil with good, thereby following in the footsteps of the Lord.

As for vengeance and retribution, we do best to leave that to God.

Which may be true. But if Brown won't specifically address Trump with that admonishment, his words are meaningless in this context. If Trump is claiming retribution where he shouldn't Brown needs to actually say so. Otherwise, he's just serving up more wishy-washiness over someone whose agenda he loves too much to be completely turned off by his severe character flaws.

MRC Trots Out Bogus, Made-Up 'Secondhand Censorship' Numbers Again
Topic: Media Research Center

"Secondhand censorship" is a completely made-up and meaningless metric, but that's not going to keep the Media Research Center from treating it with gravitas, if only because it generates absurdly huge, clickbait-worthy numbers it can promote to advance its right-wing victimhood narrative. A May 10 post by Heather Moon and Gabriela Pariseau promoted the latest manufactured numbers:

Big Tech has sent conservatives a clear message through its outrageous censorship practices: There is no room for worldviews that contradict the leftist version of reality, and real people are being harmed as a result.

Since MRC Free Speech America began tracking secondhand censorship in the first quarter of 2022, we have counted a total of 396,571,484 times that users have been harmed through the silencing tactics used by Big Tech platforms. And the year 2023 is off to a much worse start than most of 2022. MRC Free Speech America researchers recorded 363 documented cases of censorship in the first quarter (Q1) of 2023, which amounted to 82,249,700 times Big Tech harmed users. That’s more than triple the fourth quarter of 2022 when Big Tech harmed users 25,280,704 times by keeping information from them.

Several notable issues raised the ire of Big Tech companies in Q1 2023 more than others. Most notably, Big Tech censors targeted content regarding “transgenderism,” COVID-19 vaccines and the January 6, 2021 events at the U.S. Capitol. In particular, Big Tech made it a point of going after efforts by conservatives to bring attention to the infamous so-called “Trans Day of Vengeance.”

Big Tech’s 82,249,700 times of keeping information from social media users in the first quarter follows the 314,321,784 tallied times that users were harmed through secondhand censorship in all of 2022. Nearly half of the 2022 number was just in the first quarter alone at 158,641,918. In Q2 of 2022, the figure was down to 62,030,798, and by Q4, MRC Free Speech America counted 25,280,704 times users were harmed by Big Tech, who kept them from seeing information they had deliberately requested to see by following censored user accounts.

Moon and Pariseau are lying. Nobody was "harmed by Big Tech" because of content moderation, which they dishonestly insist is "censorship." And in case it wasn't already clear that the metric is a partisan tool and not a scientific one, note the subjects Moon and Pariseau focus on: the Capitol riot, COVID vaccines and "transgenderism" (complete with scare quotes). On the first item, they complained that Tucker Carlson's cherry-picked riot footage -- which dishonestly portrayed things as much more benign than they actually were -- saw reducted exposure:

Fox News host Tucker Carlson devoted several of his Fox News programs to this issue as he was granted access to previously unreleased security footage taken on January 6. Facebook slapped the page with fact-checks at least two times when the Tucker Carlson Tonight page posted video from his evening show discussing what his team found in some of that footage, labeling them both “Partly false information.”

Additionally, the Glenn Beck Facebook page posted a link to a clip from his radio program in which he discussed Carlson’s findings. Facebook’s fact-checkers labeled this video “Partly false information” as well.

Moon and Pariseau didn't dispute the accuracy of the fact-checker's assessment, nor did they explain why readers shouldn't have been alerted to the videos' dishonesty. That's because they appear to be Capitol riot truthers themselves, given their laughable reference to "the politburo-styled Jan. 6 Committee."

On the COVID front, Moon and Pariseau claimed:

Undercover journalism outlet Project Veritas took a major blow from Big Tech over this issue when it released a series of videos allegedly showing a Pfizer executive speaking about its mRNA COVID-19 vaccine. Multiple platforms, including YouTube, Google, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter censored the outlet. The total harm to users across the five platforms amounted to at least 7,923,000 times Big Tech prevented users from viewing Project Veritas’ exposé.

Again, they failed to mention that the video has been debunked or explain why those platforms must be forced to make misinformation available.

On the "transgenderism" issue, Moon and Pariseau began by huffing that "Big Tech has been targeting content that refuses to affirm the unreality of so-called “transgender” ideology for some time." They didn't explain why they put "transgender" in scare quotes or how a person's identity is an "ideology."  They then rehashed fretting that right-wing rants about a planned "Transgender Day of Vengeance" were removed -- but they censored the fact that Twitter stated it blocked all tweets posting a flyer of the (ultimately canceled) event regardless of the ideology of those posting it.But the important thing for Moon and Pariseau is that the incident goosed its metric: "The 'Trans Day of Vengeance' censorship event alone accounted for no less than 14 million times that users were harmed from Big Tech censorship."

Moon and Pariseau concluded by invoking a serial misinformer:

Even Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. noted that censorship is “a direct assault on our democracy.” He further explained that “without free speech, democracy just withers and dies,” while “democracy’s advantage is that through the free flow of information, the best policies can triumph in the marketplace of ideas.”

The longer that national policymakers wait to take action against the grave threat posed by Big Tech censorship, the more that our American republic and free speech are threatened.

MRC Free Speech America calls on the American public to push tech companies to end their authoritarian suppression of viewpoints.

They didn't mention that Kennedy is an anti-vaxx conspiracy theorist -- and they still didn't explain why they demand that lies and misinformation must never be countered.