MRC Elon Musk PR Watch
Topic: Media Research Center

There's lots of bad news about Elon Musk that the Media Research Center won't tell its readers. It has censored continuing criticism of Musk for bowing to censorship demands from foreign countries. Some of that criticism has come from Enes Kanter Freedom, whose criticism of Musk the MRC has previouly published -- then shoved down the memory hole when he showed interest in buying Twitter. And it's certainly not going to tell readers thatMusk's decision to no longer block anti-transgender hate could be a bad thing for transgender people -- it spent too much time haranguing Musk into doing so to ever admit that.Instead, it continued to suck up to him by serving as his PR operation. For instance:

• Elon Musk Burns Woke Target After Stock Downgraded
• Snopes Changes 'True' Rating After Citing No Scientists On Musk, Sub Comms
• Elon Musk’s Hilarious Response to 'Cage Fight' with Mark Zuckerberg

Luis Corneio spent a June 2 post portrayin the reluctance of Tweitter employees to spread anti-transgender hate from the likes of Matt  Walsh as an "internal revolt aghainst free speech," touting how Musk's interference in decision-making by allowing Walsh's anti-transgender film "What is a Woman?" had "amassed nearly 63 million views in less than 24 hours, marking a victory for free speech and common sense amidst a bevy of radicalized rainbow mafia propaganda sweeping across the United States and schools." In fact, Twitter's "views" metric is highly unreliable.

Meanwhile, Musk was still letting hand-picked writers promote selectively released "Twitter files" despite the diminishing returns. Ignoring all that, Joseph Vazquez brethlessly wrote in a June 7 post:

Just as CNN didn't blink twice when it described "fiery but mostly peaceful protests" in 2020, the joke of a media outlet is telling Twitter Files readers "don't believe your lying eyes" when it comes to Big Tech-Big Government censorship collusion.

CNN published what amounted to a Big Tech-Big Government press release June 6 headlined: “Twitter’s own lawyers refute Elon Musk’s claim that The ‘Twitter Files’ exposed US government censorship.” CNN’s sources? The lawyers for the censorship-obsessed, pre-Musk Twitter regime in Donald J. Trump v. Twitter, Inc.

Wow, who would have thought that people paid to defend pre-Musk Twitter would do just that! “Twitter’s own lawyers are disputing those claims in a case involving former President Donald Trump — forcefully rejecting any suggestion that the Twitter Files show what Musk and many Republicans assert they contain,” CNN claimed.

Talk about awful timing.

Just a day after CNN’s spin, The Grayzone News host Aaron Maté released a batch of “New Twitter Files” showing that the FBI actively assisted Ukrainian intelligence in censoring Twitter users and journalists accused of spreading so-called “disinformation” and “fear.”

Vazquez hyped how "Twitter Files journalist Matt Taibbi" hyped the latest release, but he failed to mention that not only has Taibbi stopped bieng a "Twitter Files journalist," he acrimoniously split with Musk over Twitter censoring links to Substack, where Taibbi mostly writes.

This was followed by another post that day, by Catherine Salgado, hyping Taibbi's comments. Like Cornelio, she  called Taibbi a "Twitter Files journalist" without mentioning that he no longer was.

Salgado returned for a June 13 post complaining about the guy who founded Twitter: "Anti-free speech Jack Dorsey just claimed that his pro-censorship tenure was generally characterized by 'fairness' and that the platform remains 'the most important public square.'" She concluded by touting and lecturing Twitter's current proprietor:

New Twitter owner Elon Musk arranged for the release of The Twitter Files to expose its previous heavy censorship. Musk has repeatedly affirmed his dedication to free speech, although censorship did initially increase under his ownership, and has still continued amongst the rank-and-file under his leadership. 

Is Salgado admitting that the "Twitter files" released are biased and designed to peddle a preferred narrative instead of telling the full truth? It appears that way.

Salgado touted another "Twitter Files journalist" in a June 21 post:

Twitter Files journalist Michael Shellenberger said the war on free speech has taken “the form of a world war.”

The Twitter Files and The Facebook Filesshowed direct government-tech collusion to censor free speech. MRC Free Speech America exposed a government anti-terror program, the “Targeted Violence & Terrorism Prevention Grant Program” (TVTP), weaponized against Christians, conservatives, and Republicans. Like the now-defunct Disinformation Governance Board, TVTP came out of the Department of Homeland Security.  In light of all this and global efforts to suppress speech, Shellenberger warned in a June 19 article on UnHerd of the fight against free speech. He said, “You can see its shadow in every Western country, from the US and Canada to Ireland and Australia, as well as in every multinational organisation, from the EU to the UN.”

Actually, that MRC Free Speech America report was so filled with misinformation that even Fox News felt compelled to debunk it. Salgado continued:

Much of the censorship work is justified by the claims that digital hate speech is sharply increasing, but that’s simply not true, Shellenberger argued. It’s an excuse for the suppression of information, often true information. Ultimately, Shellenberger insisted of leftists’ “misinformation” and “hate speech” cant that “[w]e need to train our ears to hear such language as pretexts for government censorship.”

An “elitist, anti-populist strain” is coming from governments and NGOs around the world, Shellenberger soberly noted. Even many private entities that are calling for censorship have received government funding, he explained. This created the “Censorship Industrial Complex,” partly exposed by The Twitter Files.

Salgado didn't mention that Shellenberger, like Taibbi, is no longer a "Twitter Files journalist." And she certainly didn't say a thing about reports showing that Musk is signing off on more "censorship" requests from other countries than pre-Musk Twitter did.

How Has WND's Brown Been Hating LGBT People Lately?
Topic: WorldNetDaily

Our catch-up on Michael Brown's anti-LGBT activism continues with a May 19 WorldNetDaily column complaining that gay activists wanted people not to hate them, which was "propaganda", citing the "gay activist book" "After the Ball: How American Will Conquer Its Fear and Hatred of Gays in the '90s":

As stated at the beginning of the book, the authors called for a "campaign of unabashed propaganda, firmly grounded in long-established principles of psychology and advertising."

This "propaganda" even included the spreading of what they knew to be falsehoods, such as the idea that 1 in 10 Americans were gay (they admitted plainly that this number was inflated). But, in their view, spreading such falsehoods was only fair, since all kinds of negative falsehoods had been spread about their community over the years.

As to the success of their strategies, which reflected some of the thinking of other key gay activists and organizations, not even Kirk and Madsen believed that marriage would be redefined. Not a chance. That wasn't even one of their goals.

But even that sacred institution was outrageously redefined in 2015 by the Supreme Court primarily because the thinking of so many Americans had already been changed. Without that massive cultural shift, it is much more unlikely that the Court would have ruled as it did. In the view of many legal pundits, the cultural shift provided sufficient wind in their sails for the justices to make the change (at least, for someone like Anthony Kennedy, who was the swing vote).

To be sure, some of the shifts in American views towards gay and lesbian-identified people have been positive, recognizing the many positive qualities they may have as individuals or couples and embracing our shared humanity. Many of the other shifts have been disastrous, contributing to millions of Americans losing their moral and societal bearings.

Our children and grandchild are paying the price today, with as many as 40% identifying as somewhere on the LGBTQ+ spectrum.

The takeaway from all this is that, while we labor tirelessly to enact pro-life, pro-family legislation – and we should – we must never take our eyes off the greater prize: the conversion of the hearts and minds of Americans, not by the spreading of propaganda but by the propagation of truth, grounded in the love, goodness and justice of God.

We have the ultimate, lasting, winning argument.

In other words, he wants anti-LGBT propaganda to spread to restore the hommophobic right-wing order.

Brown spent his May 22 column insisting that gays and lesbians were supposedly fighting  back against transgender people:

As the resistance to transgender activism continues to rise and millions of Americans push back against the transitioning of children and males competing against females in sports, an increasing number of gays and lesbians are raising their voices as well. They are saying, "This is not who we are, and this is not our agenda. In fact, trans-activism is actually erasing our very existence."

Examples of this phenomenon would be online groups such as, "Gays Against Groomers," described in 2022 as "the newest crusader in the fight against radical LGBTQ activists said to be grooming young children in a sexual, indecent manner." They have joined other conservative voices in speaking up against things like Drag Queen Story Hours for children.

In fact, Gays Against Groomers is little more than a group of right-wing grifters seeking to profit on the anti-gay hate of people plike Brown. He went on to cite gay right-winger Andrew Sullivan for his claim that LGBT activists have purportedly overplayed their hand, then got mad at him over the idea that children shouldn't be taught to hate LGBT people:

To be sure, I applaud Sullivan's call to leave the children alone, and I affirm his calling out of the growing wave of what can only be called transanity.

At the same time, I must differ with Sullivan strongly.

First, gay activists have most assuredly targeted children for decades now, in particular in children's education, as I documented at length already in 2011 in "A Queer Thing Happened to America." They may not have targeted children's bodies the way trans activists have, but they have surely targeted their hearts and minds.

Second, the progression from LGB to T and Q is inevitable, a natural part of the deviation from the God-established, biologically essential, heterosexual norm. The long-predicted slippery slope was not a figment of the imagination of the radical, fundamentalist, fear-mongering, bigoted, Christian right. It was a logical, biblically based deduction.

[...]

Sullivan is also quite wrong in thinking that the gay revolution was all about, "Live and let live."

To the contrary, it became clear to me already in 2004 that for many of the key players who had come out of the closet, their ultimate goal (in fact, it was a necessary goal for their success) was to put conservative Christians (and other conservatives, both religious and non-religious) in the closet.

And so I warned that "if cross-dressing and, more radically still, sex-change surgery are fine – after all, we have to be true to ourselves, and, in the end, 'it's my life' – then the day will soon come when the mutilation of other body parts will be considered fine if it makes the person feel happy and whole. Why not?

[...]

The irony of this all is that, in the years to come, it could well be that the very reason the gay revolution ultimately fails is precisely because it succeeded so well. Metaphorically speaking, given enough rope, it hung itself. Andrew Sullivan's dream has become his nightmare.

Brown's May 25 column was devoted to a mandated right-wing complaint that the Los Angeles Dodgers were honoring the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence during a pride celebration, even as he complained he really didn't want to write another anti-LGBT column (though that's his thing):

I can't wait to go a week or a month or – who could imagine? – a year without writing a single article on LGBTQ+ activism. I imagine you can't wait to go a week or month or year without reading another article on the subject either. But here we are in 2023 in the midst of a cultural implosion, and common sense, decency, the fear of God and a deep love for people cause me to cry out. Again.

In the aftermath of the Los Angeles Dodgers reinviting the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence drag team to their June Pride Night celebration, CatholicVote opined on Twitter, "The @Dodgers have instantly become the @budlight of baseball."

But this is a gross understatement. The Dodgers have gone far beyond Bud Light, which has reportedly lost billions of dollars after making Dylan Mulvaney (a male) into an online poster girl.

Brown went on to repeat misinformation and falsehoods about right-wing anti-LGBT attacks on Target from chief homophobe Matt Walsh, taking the out that what Target was doing was "offensive" even if Walsh is lying about it, and it's all good because anti-LGBT hate is spreading:

As for Target, after years of declaring war on gender distinctions and fostering radical transgender activism, they have upped the ante now by allegedly targeting children with their obscene "tuck" bathing suit line.

Yes, these are female bathing suits that allow males who think they are females to "tuck" in their privates. And although both Politfact and Snopes have stated that the swimsuits are only available in adult sizes, contrary to Matt Walsh's claims, even if this were true, it is still grossly offensive. (According to Walsh, "What @Target is doing is far worse than anything Bud Light did. They are selling chest binders & 'tuck-friendly' bathing suits for children." For Megyn Kelly's pointed response, see here.)

Target also came under fire for featuring the products of an overtly Satanic, radical LGBTQ+ supplier. (Snopes branded this charge to be True.) The giant retail company suffered immediate financial losses and, under alleged threats against its employees, decided to remove a limited amount of LGBTQ+ Pride Month items.

[...]

As for the millions of offended customers, the vast majority of whom are presumably fair-minded, non-fanatical, decent people, there is no mention of them. But of course!

No wonder Americans in droves are saying enough is enough. Good for them. The pushback continues!

So it's OK for Walsh to lie as long as it fiurthers anti-LGBT hate? That doesn't seem very biblilcal.

Brown concluded with more misinformation, repeating his usual claim that he doesn't hate LGBT people, only LGBT "activism":

As for the millions of people who identify as gay or lesbian or trans or queer and are just seeking to live their lives without conflict, I say to each of you: You are not my enemy, I do not despise you, I do not look down on you, and I offer you the same divine love that transformed me more than 50 years ago. It is the radical activism that I will wholeheartedly confront.

Of course, he's lying here too. In Brown's world it is inherently "radical" for LGBT people to want (or even be allowed) to "live their lives without conflict" -- which means as long as he attacks "activism," he is also attacking people. Contrary to these words, he really does despise them, is looking down on them, and he considers them his enemy.

MRC-Fox News Revolving Door Watch
Topic: Media Research Center

There are more names to add to the list of former Media Research Center staffers who now work for Fox News -- bringing the total to at least nine.

Alexa Moutevelis left the MRC at the end of 2021, and she wrote her first article for Fox News in March 2022. Her most recent article was in June, so it's unclear if she's still working there, though her Fox News bio suggests she still does through the lack of any past tense. It doesn't mention her MRC stint, however, instead vaguely claiming that she has "previous experience covering politics, entertainment and culture."

Ken Shepherd had a bigger gap. The former NewsBusters managing editor left the MRC in April 2016, then worked for the conservative Washington Times. He joined Fox News in September 2022, his Fox News bio does admit his NewsBusters work but doesn't note that it was for a partisan right-wing organization.

Since for some reason the MRC doesn't like to tout how many of its former employees now work for a major right-wing "news" organization it aggressively defends, we typically have to stumble across them before we know. While it seems that neither Fox News nor the MRC want to talk about this robust pipeline, one has to assume that the MRC is internally proud of this.

WND's Farah Touts Bible Verses He Doesn't Follow
Topic: WorldNetDaily

We generally try not to get too much into examining WorldNetDaily editor Joseph Farah's religious-themed columns, but we've noted a couple recent ones that run at odds with how he actually lives his life -- just like his calls for repentence when he has no intention of ever repenting for all the wrongdoing he used WND to perpetrate. He wrote in his May 16 column:

Even many people who have never read the Bible know Jesus, or Yeshua, instructed us to "love our neighbor as ourselves." Was that a new commandment? No, it is found in Leviticus 19:18: "Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself: I am the Lord."

It had always been a tough law to follow. Jesus reiterated it, of course, in Matthew 5:43-48 – but, as usual, He didn't lower the bar. He didn't dumb it down. He didn't make it easier. Instead, he raised the standard.

"Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; hat ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."

[...]

The Leviticus prescription to love thy neighbor as thyself is also pretty sweeping, extending from family matters to business matters to courts of law to proper treatment of the poor and disadvantaged. It means sharing the Gospel, pursuing reconciliation, extending mercy and seeking justice – in other words, living as we will be expected to live in God's Kingdom.

Loving one's neighbor, of course, is the opposite of everything we know about Farah,  who loves to spew hate at anyone who's not as far-right as he is.

Farah pushed views that were similarly at odds to his reality in his June 20 column, headlined "What is truth in a world full of lies?":

Did you know that the word "truth" is found 224 times in the King James Bible? Did you know that even one of the names for our God is Truth? Truth is what the entire Bible is about.

Here's just a small sampling of verses about truth:
• "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth …" Ex. 34:6
• "He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he." Deut. 32:4
• "Into thine hand I commit my spirit: thou has redeemed me, O Lord God of truth." Ps. 31:5
• "He who blesseth himself in the earth shall be blessed himself in the God of truth; and he that sweareth in the earth shall swear by the God of truth; because the former troubles are forgotten, and because they are hid from mine eyes." Isa. 65:16
• "When he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth." John 16:13
But truth is controversial today as it always has been. There are still many people walking around the world today asking the same question Pilate asked of Jesus: "What is truth?" (John 18:38). They wonder if there is any truth – because they wonder if God is real. I often say, "You want to know if God is real? Just ask Israel."

It doesn't mean that all Israel currently knows the truth – the whole truth. But it does mean they are still the chosen people. Look at your Bible. What does it tell the story of – beside truth? Israel, of course. You can see it by dividing it up into the "Old Testament" and the "New." What are they both about? Israel, of course.

But Farah and truth have never gone together, from WND's years of Obama lies to its fake news about COVID. He is responsible for putting a lot of lies into the world, which he now ironically claimed is "filled with" them.

Farah concluded by declaring, "Knowing Jesus is, of course, knowing the Truth with a capital 'T.'" If Farah is unable to tell the truth, how can he know the Truth?

MRC's Jean-Pierre-Bashing, Question Evasion (And Toilet Reference) Edition
Topic: Media Research Center

Bill D'Agostino test-drove a new line of attack on White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre in a July 5 article:

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has been widely criticized for her inability to field even basic inquiries about the scandals plaguing President Biden. Despite the President’s January 2021 pledge to “bring transparency and truth back to the government,” Jean-Pierre has failed to answer practically every such question she’s faced.

MRC analysts examined official White House transcripts of every briefing Jean-Pierre conducted between January 1 and June 30, 2023, recording every time she was asked about one of the scandals facing President Biden — specifically, the corruption allegations being investigated by House committees, and his mishandling of classified documents from his time as Vice President. Analysts found that while reporters asked Jean-Pierre 252 questions about either of these topics, only six received a definitive answer.

Of those 252 total questions, 217 (86%) were about the President’s misplaced classified documents, only five of which (just 2%) were concretely answered. The remaining 35 questions (14%) dealt with the various allegations of corruption against the President, with only one receiving a substantive response.

D'Agostino huffily concluded:

During the last administration, clips of White House correspondents grilling press secretaries about the latest Trump scandal were commonplace on evening newscasts. Now that they’ve disappeared following the decline in coverage of the document scandal, it’s a wonder why reporters even bother to raise such issues during the briefings.

D'Agostino conveniently forgets the actual history of press secretaries in the Trump White House. Its press secretaries once went more than a year without holding a briefing, and the final one, Kayleigh McEnany, was notorious for dodging questions and being mostly propaganda pieces that the MRC absolutely loved (and she also refused to do her job in the final weeks of the administration following the Capitol riot).So it's more than a little hypocritical for D'Agostino to criticize Jean-Pierre for not answering questions when his MRC cheered McEnany for doing the same thing.

Curtis Houck, meanwhile, spent his writeup of the July 5 briefing complaining that Jean-Pierre, yes, wouldn't answer questions involving the right-wing outrage du jour:

Whether it’s the Biden documents scandal, allegations of Biden family corruption, or the latest twist in Hunter Biden’s life of ruin to name a few, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has consistently stuck to the theme of playing dumb when faced with even gentle questions from the liberal White House press corps. Such was the case Wednesday concerning the bag of cocaine found in the West Wing.

In the case of the pedestrian, the AP’s Josh Boak had the first question on it: “[P]er the intrigue over the holiday: Can you give any more details on where the Secret Service found cocaine in the West Wing and how it got there?”

This time, Jean-Pierre said “this is under the purview of the Secret Service” except to reiterate President Biden and his “family were not here this weekend” as well as the excuse that “this was discovered is a heavily traveled area where many...West Wing visitors come through.”

Reuters’s Steve Holland followed up to no avail, “Has the President said, ‘Hey, let’s get to the bottom of what happened here’ with the cocaine?”

Jean-Pierre didn’t budge, kicking the can to the Secret Service.

Tim Graham decided to tag Jean-Pierre with a disgusting toilet reference, sleazily referring to her as "Latrine Jean-Pierre" in the headline of his July 7 column:

White House briefings in the Biden years are often sleepy meetings compared to the Jim Acosta shriek-fests we remember under Trump. Joe Biden pledged he would be so much nicer to the press corps. He promised to “bring transparency and truth back to the government.” But the press is much nicer to him than the other way around.

Biden provides far less access than Trump did. He avoids press conferences and one-on-one interviews like the plague. He only surfaces for softball interviews with Nicolle Wallace or Drew Barrymore – and you could be forgiven if you’re not sure which interviewer was tougher, the cable “news” host or the movie star from 50 First Dates.

[...]

It’s common for press secretaries to defer tough questions to other departments or agencies, but Jean-Pierre is accomplishing some kind of Olympic-level record of blowing off questions. While many question her competence at the podium, her denials are clearly doing exactly what Team Biden wants – to bluster past the scandal questions without answering them. They’d like to pretend there’s no such thing as a Biden scandal.

Graham, like D'Agostino, failed to disclose that the Trump White House went more than a year without holding a briefing or mention McEnany's legacy of dodging questions.

In his writeup of the July 7 briefing, Houck cheered a right-wing reporter advancing a right-wing narrative:

Friday marked only the second White House press briefing of the week in which reporters could question Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre about the bag of cocaine found in the West Wing. While 13 reporters pressed Jean-Pierre on Wednesday about it, only one would on Friday (and a second to National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan).

This was despite the fact that the bag of cocaine’s tale had evolved from seemingly blaming tourists to an area enveloping tourists, staff, and cubbies near the Situation Room. New York Post’s Caitlin Doornbos asked whether “the cocaine belonged to the Biden family,” which drew a hissy fit from Jean-Pierre that “ask[ing] that...is actually incredibly irresponsible.”

A relative newbie to the Briefing Room, Doornbos first wondered what was up with (the cartoonish partisan) Biden aide Andrew Bates ducking a question Thursday about the cocaine probe during an Air Force One gaggle by citing the Hatch Act.

That aside, she cut to the chase: “Can you say once and for all whether or the not the cocaine belonged to the Biden family?”

Houck went on to complain that "nearly two dozens questions [sic] wereallegedly "skipped over" by Jean-Pierre that allegedly didn't need to wait for Secret Service clearance; needless to say, he was silent on his beloved McEnany's history of dodging questions.

Graham had D'Agostino on his July 7 podcast to discuss Jean-Pierre's question-dodging, while not similarlyh calling out the Trump administration's question evasion, in part by not holding press briefings at all.

Newsmax Continues To Exploit Tucker Carlson's Firing For Its Benefit
Topic: Newsmax

Newsmax has been aggressively covering the firing of Tucker Carlson by Fox News, in no small part because it would love to hire him for its own TV channel (and in fact has reportedly offered to give him total control over it), as well as giving it an excuse to tweak its much larger and more popular competition. That coverage has continued:

• Tucker Carlson Returns With Inaugural Twitter Broadcast
• Fox: Carlson Breached Contract With Twitter Show
• Tucker Carlson: 'Don't Know' Why Fired by Fox
• Tucker Carlson's Twitter Show Garners Nearly 80M Views (in fact those numbers are untrustworthy as an accurate metric)
• Tucker Carlson's Lawyer to GOP Lawmakers: Boycott Fox
• Tucker Carlson: Fox Caved on 'Wannabe Dictator' Chyron
• Tucker Carlson Hires Fox News Chyron Castoff
• Fox Fires Tucker's Staff as Replacement Named
• Tucker Carlson Interviewing GOP Candidates at Iowa Event

Also, it wouldn't be Newsmax if it wasn't trying to profit off Carlson's firing -- we've already noted how it was wrapped into a promotion for David Horowitz's Newsmax-published book. It also issued an "urgent poll" for readers to weigh in on the issue that included questions like "What is your view of Fox News?" and "Should Tucker Carlson join Newsmax as a prime-time host?" It has also created a promotion around an upcoming Tucker bio in order to sell subscriptions to Newsmax magazine:

He was the most powerful conservative voice in America.

And then, in a moment, he was gone.

At least from his perch at Fox News.

Now bestselling author Chadwick Moore reveals what really happened to Tucker Carlson in his new book, TUCKER  — set to be released on August 1.

Tucker Carlson has endorsed TUCKER — and Newsmax will be among the first to have copies — check out the FREE Offer Here Now.

[...]

Your FREE copy of TUCKER comes with a one year introductory subscription to Newsmax Magazine (with both print and digital editions) for only $19.95 — a savings of $30 at a regular rate.

Even more surprising than a promotion for a book about a man who long so long ago it was trashing for taking Russia's side in its invasion of Ukraine is that Newsmax isn't even publishing the book; promotions like this typically involve books published by its book division, Humanix.

WND Publishes More False Fearmongering Over A Federal Digital Currency
Topic: WorldNetDaily

WorldNetDaily just loves falsely fearmongering about governmental plans to explore getting involved in digital currency. The latest attempt is a June 9 column by Glenn Guest (which was promoted on WND's front page using the same stock photo art it used for previous fearmongerings). He started ominously:

At this moment powerful forces are constructing an economic system that will destroy our way of life and our God-given liberties. Once the architects of this economic system have completed and implemented their digital control system, they will rule over us in what can only be described as absolute despotism.

Even as you read this, they are working hammer and tongs forging the chains and shackles of your bondage, not of iron or steel, but of electronic ones and zeros that will form a digital currency. The global digital currency they are creating will result in the elimination of cash, with digital currency being the only one accepted in the new world economic order. This digital currency will be the mechanism by which they will control your finances and the finances of every person on earth – and by controlling your finances they will control you.

In March of 2022, Joe Biden issued Executive Order 14067 in which he ordered the federal government to begin the process of creating an electronic digital currency called "Central Bank Digital Currency," or "CBDC." In some White House documents this new electronic currency is referred to as "digital dollars."

Statements in Executive Order 14067 and other associated White House documents make it clear that our government has put the pedal to the metal in its effort to create a cashless economic system. Terms like "highest urgency," "whole of government approach" and "we must" are used throughout the White House documents.

As we and others have pointed out, the executive order merely asked the Federal Reserve to explore whether a digital currency should be created and that the impact of such a currency on financial stability and national security should be studied.

But Guest -- who is not an expert on finance but, rather, "pastor of Shiloh Baptist Church in Danielsville, Georgia" -- is here to baselessly fearmonger, not tell the truth. And baselessly fearmonger he does:

When the cashless CBDC monetary system is put in place your "money" will no longer be possessed or controlled by you. It will exist only in the computers of banks and government. Physical cash will be eliminated, and those who control the CBDC system will have control over your "money" in your account. Banks and the government will decide if and how you may use your "money." In fact, you will not be able to make any decision on your own, financial or otherwise, because all transfers of "money" (CBDC) will be subject to approval by whoever controls the cashless monetary system.

Every decision you make, whether great or small, economic or otherwise, will have to be in line with government policies if it is to be approved. Whoever controls the new system of electronic currency will have the power to decide what you may buy or sell and even if you will be allowed to buy or sell anything at all.

Your choices in life must yield to the whims of those who will exercise this tremendous power over you, or else. To attempt to exercise your will over theirs will mean that you could be declared an economic non-entity. If this happens, you will be banished from the new economic system. You will be unable to access to your financial accounts, unable to purchase even the basic necessities of life. To fall out of favor with those who control the system will mean that you will not be able to be paid by your employer or anyone else because your direct deposit will be deactivated. Any wealth you may have accumulated in digital currency will be stored out of your reach behind an impenetrable wall preventing you from accessing what is rightfully yours. If you are in this situation you will be unable buy food, pay rent or make a house payment. You won't have the option to use cash to make necessary purchases because cash will no longer be accepted.

In fact, FedNow is an infrastructure designed to speed financial transactions and is not linked to any sort of digital currency, real or imaginary. But, again, Guest wants to scare people, not tell the truth, so the fearmongering continued:

Indeed, the "Holy Grail" of tyrants is to have the ability to force the populous to comply with every command. Though control of the masses has been attempted many times throughout history, no government has ever achieved this goal by the use of police and military powers. However, the goal will be reached when government can control all buying and selling by the elimination of cash and its replacement with the digital CBDC monetary system. When the cashless economic system is fully implemented, you will find yourself living in a global gulag.

So, is there really a global conspiracy to destroy our God-given liberty and to to enslave us?

Well, almost 2,000 years ago, God gave us a warning that such a system would indeed exist one day. In Revelation chapter 13, God warns us of a one-world government and a global economic system wherein a person must yield to the dictates of a ruthless tyrant, one who will have almost absolute power. God also warns us that this tyrant will use his control of the world's economic system to compel people to worship him as God. God tells us that he will attempt to destroy those who believe in Jesus Christ. This dictator will rule over this world for a brief period of time and all those who do not believe on Jesus will worship him as God.

I believe that the cashless economic system that is being developed and will soon be forced upon us will play a essential part in the fulfillment of these prophecies.

As you consider what is coming upon our nation, the world and upon you personally, you might be thinking, "What must I do to be saved?" Your question has been asked before, and the answer is the same today as it was almost 2,000 years ago. This question was asked by a jailer in Philippi. He asked Paul and Silas, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" The answer to his question and to yours is, "And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house."

The only place of safety is in Jesus Christ.

Search these things out for yourself and seriously consider the ramifications of a completely cashless economic system.

Guest needs to some searching for himself and ask himself why a pastor is repeatedly violating one of the Ten Commandments by lying to his readers.

NEW ARTICLE: The MRC vs. Dylan Mulvaney
Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center had already hated Mulvaney for the sin of being a transgender person popular on TikTok. But when Bud Light did a promotion with her, the MRC petulantly decided that the company must be destroyed too. Read more >>

MRC Keeps Pretending Right-Wing-Promoted Book Bans Aren't Really Book Bans
Topic: Media Research Center

The Media Research Center has long been in denial that right-wingers seeking to ban a book from a library are book-banners, insisting that any book ban pushed by a right-winger is automatically justified. Tim Graham kept up that narrative in his March 29 column:

The Left is in an uproar. Parents opposed to their indoctrinating ways are forming a resistance movement. One uproar is over books – assigned books in the classroom and available books in the school library. Disagree with the content of the books? You’re for “book bans.”

Technically, this is accurate inside the school, but the leftist press makes it sound like you’re banning books entirely from public view. They get to pose as the defenders of books and “book learning” and as compassionate defenders of the book-reading needs of the “marginalized.”

[...]

This is how the leftist media operate. They are all about channeling outrage about “book bans,” and spend no time explaining the pornographic passages and images that stoke the controversy. It’s all posing, and no disclosing.  

Curtis Houck whined the same day when it was pointed out that conservatives care more about guns than books:

On Wednesday’s CBS Mornings, co-host, Democratic donor, and Obama family friend Gayle King used the normally light-hearted “Talk of the Table” segment to lambaste Americans (and especially gun rights supporters) for “valu[ing] guns over children” and “the lives of fellow human beings” in light of the Nashville school shooting, adding in another veiled shot at conservatives and Republicans that they should stop “banning books” and work to ban “assault rifles”.

[...]

“Guys, they’re banning books in schools,” King bemoaned, ruling “books can’t kill your children,” but “they” are nonetheless “banning some books in schools, but yet, the rules are very different when it comes to guns.”

And there it is. Conservatives are fine with children being slaughtered, but are over their skis in wanting graphic sexual material kept out of schools for young children.

A May 5 post by Clay Waters complained that the "library lobby" was pointing out book bans:

The PBS show Amanpour & Co. went on an aggrieved rant Monday evening over the supposed threat of book banning. Host Christiane Amanpour set up the interview with the president of the notoriously liberal American Library Association, a group always eager to see dangerous book bans coming from the right, while ignoring squelching of both fiction and non-fiction from the left via Amazon, “sensitivity readers,” and posthumous editing.

The library lobby has put out yet another misleading report on “book bans” in America and Amanpour & Co. were ready to spread hysteria:

[...]

Yet peer behind the rhetoric and it’s clear that most book challenges involve parents being concerned about the age-appropriateness of sexually explicit material, often in picture form.

Waters offered no evidence to back up that claim.

Alex Christy issued a similar complaint in a May 17 post:

The cast of CNN Tonight was all in agreement on Tuesday that conservative attempts to “ban books” are “fascist,” similar to Nazism, and worse than the current trend of leftists re-writing books they did not write. At no point could anyone point to a book that was actually banned.

The genesis of the conversation was Salman Rushdie condemning both the attempts to control school library content on the right and revisionism on the left. For, The Atlantic’s James Surowiecki, the revisionism is wrong, but “But I think the bigger thing is the bans on books in school libraries and in schools that-- places like Florida, Tennessee, Texas, where some libraries, they've talked about shutting down libraries. I think that's far more consequential and far, far grimmer. So I'm glad he was, went after that.”

Re-writing books is actually “far, far grimmer,” because the original book disappears and sometimes for the dumbest reasons, such as the promotion of gender neutralism. Any book that is removed from a school library can still be accessed elsewhere and in its original state.

[...]

Another reason why lefties re-writing books is far worse is that these conversations rarely touch on the kind sexually explicit books that are being removed while ignoring all the fake news on books like Roberto Clemente biographies.

The link Christy supplied to support his claim of "fake news" about a Roberto Clemente bio being removed actually admitted that the book (along with many others) was removed from one school district's library pending approval by a "certified media specialist."

A WND Columnist Who's Not A Putin Apologist
Topic: WorldNetDaily

There may be a lot of pro-Russia apologists at WND, but they're not all Putin puppets. James Zumwalt used May 24 WND column to liken Vladimir Putin to the subject of the Jim Croce song "Bad Bad Leroy Brown," declaring that in invading Ukraine, Purin "bit off more than he could chew, having started a bar fight with someone tougher. Croce's description of Brown at fight's end is not too dissimilar to that of Putin's military today – looking 'like a jigsaw puzzle with a couple of pieces gone.' At least Brown's fight is over; Putin's is still ongoing." Zumwalt went on to complain in a very WND way about this as well, noting that Russians trying to avoid getting conscripted into the war are claiming to be transgender:

Not until months later, however, did members of Russia's legislative branch (Duma) discover a ploy some draft dodgers, perhaps preferring to remain in Russia or simply unable to get out, were using to avoid the draft. In 1997, the Duma had passed a law authorizing transgenders to change their gender identity simply by modifying it on their passport with a medical permission slip. In an ultimate slap in the face to Putin's war, at least 3,000 Russian males have recently changed their gender identity under that law. Finally recognizing this loophole, the Duma is working on legislation to mandate more than just a gender identity declaration and medical note by requiring body-altering surgery as well.

Zumwalt further took Putin to task for botching things in Ukraine:

Putin, who came to power in 2000 as a democratically elected president, has manipulated the government machinery to basically establish an autocracy. In 2020, the country's constitution was manipulated to keep him in power until 2036. There is no way the Russian people will tolerate this should the war in Ukraine not end soon.

The conflict now boils down to an unbending Ukrainian resolve and a tyrant's ego. Absent a major battlefield change – such as Putin pressuring Belarus to open a new front in Ukraine – or Ukraine's weapons suppliers withdrawing, a gambling man would bet Putin's days are numbered. Similar to Russia's last czar, Nicholas II, who violently learned the hard way over a century earlier, not listening to your people comes at a very high price.

Just because Zumwalt did one thing right doesn't mean we've forgotten things he's done wrong, like pushing nasty attacks against Alexandria Osasio-Cortez. He and WND also face legal peril after a Zumwalt column (which is still live at WND) promoted a far-right podcaster's false claim that an official with voting-tech company Dominion confessed to changing vote totals and worked with Antifa; that official is suing the podcaster and others for defamation.

MRC Annoyed By SCOTUS Ruling Striking Down Alabama Congressional Map
Topic: Media Research Center

Just because the Supreme  Court has a right-wing tilt these days doesn't mean that the Media Research Center will be pleased with everything it does. Ineeed, it was annoyed that the court struck down a congressional district map in Alabama for violating civil rights because it failed to apportion a second black-majority district. Kevin Tober complained in a June 8 post:

On Thursday, the Supreme Court struck down Alabama’s congressional map on the basis that it was a violation of the 1964 Voting Rights Act. The partisan decision was even more head-scratching when it was revealed that so-called conservative justices John Roberts and Brett Kavanaugh joined the three leftists on the court. As was expected, the three evening news broadcasts gloated over the ruling. 

ABC’s World News Tonight was the most obnoxious with justice correspondent Terry Moran breathlessly hyping the “Supreme Court stunner.”

“Two conservative Justices, Chief Justice John Roberts, and Brett Kavanaugh joined the court's liberals in striking down Alabama's congressional map that critics said diluted the power of black voters,” Moran gushed.

Yes, Tober thinks it's "obnoxious" to preserve the voting rights of people.

Three minutes later, Cassandra DeVries served up her own complaint:

MSNBC asked three Democrats to discuss the Supreme Court’s ruling on Alabama’s redistricting plan, neglecting to acknowledge any alternate view point. NBC senior legal correspondent Laura Jarrett, president and CEO of the Brennan Center for Justice Michael Waldman, and former Alabama Democratic Senator Doug Jones expressed surprise that the conservative Supreme Court would uphold Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act when they previously “gutted the 65 [Voting Rights] Act.”

“While the court isn't breaking new ground by just simply reaffirming what the law has been for the better part of several decades, it was a surprising decision, especially from this conservative majority,” Laura Jarrett said, alluding that a conservative court would traditionally choose to ignore the Voting Rights Act.

Michael Waldman, author of The Super Majority: How the Supreme Court Divided America, agreed with Jarrett’s assessment and added, “Overwhelmingly, that population growth comes in communities of color, and they are not being represented in the maps that legislatures have drawn. So this will have an impact beyond this one case as these rulings often do, though it is upholding what had been the law for decades.”

Waldman portrayed the court as doing the bare minimum in its ruling, which fits the narrative of his new book.

[...]

Even when MSNBC agreed with the Supreme Court’s verdict, it still portrayed the conservative court as corrupt. If this is how they treat decisions they support, one can only imagine their response to a decision they dislike.

In a delightful aside, DeVries' post was promoted on the NewsBusters front page with a headline claiming that the MSNBC folks were suggesting the court had "allterior motives" behind their decision. Doesn't anyone copy-edit anything over there before posting?

WND Defends Trump Again After Second Indictment
Topic: WorldNetDaily

WorldNetDaily was an aggressive defender of Donald Trump after his first indictment. When his second indictment came, WND was just as aggressive. A June 8 "news" article by Joe Kovacs was heavy on uncritically quoting Trump's rantings about the indictment. Then the columnists weighed in with their pro-Trump sycophancy. Wayne Allyn Root ranted in his more-unhinged-than-usual June 9 column:

re you getting the subtle impression that Democrats don't want former President Donald Trump to win in 2024; that they're scared to death of Trump; that they're so desperate to stop him from winning again, they want him to rot in a prison cell for life?

Congratulations. You're not a complete moron.

The feds just indicted Trump on fake, lame, trumped-up charges. But didn't Democrats just try this trick in New York? It didn't work then. It won't work now. And it won't work next week when Trump appears in court in Miami. And it won't work next month when a Georgia grand jury indicts Trump. This is Groundhog Day.

[...]

Lastly, God is great. God always wins. This is God's plan. The Democrats in power and the people who run our government are evil. Demonic. Satanic. This isn't normal. The things they're doing are Nazi Gestapo-like, Soviet KGB-like, East German Stasi-like. God has done us a favor: He's revealed what Democrats are really like.

This is war. This is life or death. This is the end of America if we don't fight fire with fire.

But Democrats have picked a fight with the wrong crowd. America beat Hitler. America defeated the Soviet Empire. You think we're going to let a brain-dead old man with dementia and diapers trample our rights and freedoms? You're going down.

Joseph Farah ranted in his June 12 column:

Today's the day Donald Trump gets indicted – again.

This is not the first time. And it probably won't be the last.

Call it what it is. It's the U.S. Injustice Department's plan for election interference next year. They'll just keep indicting him till they get it right. Joe Biden explained it this way: "I may not be the only one, but I know him well, and I know the danger he presents to our democracy. We've been down this road before."

Yes, like in the 2020 rigged election when we were supposed to believe that Biden received 81 million votes – far more that any candidate in U.S. history. It's a day that will live in infamy, as a another Democratic president said about the day Pearl Harbor was attacked in 1941 – a "strong condemnation as the result of a shameful, criminal, or outrageous act." The 2020 fraud will never be forgotten.

Neither will this national abomination brought to us by Special Counsel Jack Smith, Merrick Garland and Biden.

He concluded: "Pray for Trump. That's all we can do."

Rachel Alexander served up her own defense in her June 12 column:

Conservatives who say we need to go with someone for president other than Donald Trump due to the left targeting him with political prosecutions are missing the larger picture. This is one of the most frightening eras in America's history, where the left has weaponized politics to the point of putting our most powerful, leading conservatives in prison. It is not the time to desert them.

If we complacently allow the fascist left to take down Trump, it will become far easier for them to take down others, having set a precedent. It's just a matter of time before they turn their sights on prosecuting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis; if he gets the nomination, they'll proceed with a criminal fishing expedition against him.

[...]

While many of us may get annoyed at Trump's sharp attacks on others, including fellow Republicans, deserting him would be a Pyrrhic victory. The left will launch multiple criminal investigations of DeSantis if he gets the nomination. Let's stop ignoring history and face reality. They are coming after Trump because he is the leading candidate to challenge their incumbent president, and sweeping it under the rug and choosing DeSantis instead solves nothing, especially since the left will engage in as much election fraud against him too.

Farah returned to fret in a column the next day:

Think about it. Is this justice?

Donald Trump, the 45th president of the United States, could receive up to 400 years in prison related to this latest indictment. Is this America? He's the leading candidate to become the 47th president. And he should have served as "45" for eight years, but for a fraudulent election.

In any case, if he is convicted, Merrick Garland and Joe Biden, the Torquemadas of our time, will be sure that he serves the rest of his life in prison and does not ever see the presidency again.

To avoid prison, all he would have to do is return, quietly, to a private life of luxury and sign a pledge to eschew politics. But he could not do that, because he's fighting for you and me. He's determined to eliminate the Deep State, to return America to its promise, like a shining city on a hill.

Andy Schlafly used his June 13 column to build conspiracy theories and spew hate at government workers:

Few Americans would base their vote on where President Trump stored boxes of documents relating to his presidency when he moved out of his residence at the White House. Many public officials take copies of documents with them when they leave office, as Joe Biden did when he left the White House in 2017, and Biden has not been charged with anything.

But many federal workers in D.C. are too virulently anti-Trump to allow the democratic process to work without interference by fanatical federal prosecutors. They have no employable skills outside of government and yet are bankrolled by an unlimited spigot of taxpayer dollars, which would have been shut off had the debt ceiling been enforced on June 1.

The timing of this federal indictment to be less than one week after suspension of the debt ceiling, which keeps the money flowing to them, seems to be more than a coincidence. The GOP majority in the House does not have to allow taxpayer millions to be spent on biased investigators taking pictures of boxes of obscure documents stored in an unused bathroom.

Schlafly conlcuded by ranting: "This new indictment proves how vindictively the Deep State will retaliate. It needs to be defunded."

WND also published a June 13 article by Bob Unruh alarmingly headlined "Corruption confirmed on team prosecuting Trump!" which was a repeat of dirt-digging by far-right outlet Just the News that found something untoward a memver of the prosecution team allegedly did 14 years ago.

GDP Turned Positive -- But MRC Can't Stop Talking Down Biden Economy
Topic: Media Research Center

We've documented how the Media Research Center continually talks down the economy under President Biden, particularly when it comes to reporting on GDP. Last summer, it heavily hyped that two quarters of negative GDP that occurred meant there was a devastaing recession and that other economic data should be ignored -- but when GDP turned positive in the fourth quarter, it denied that this meant anything. The MRC was still pushing that narrative at the start of this year; a Jan. 10 post by Joseph Vazquez complained that New York Times economic columnist Paul Krugman called Republicans (like Vazquez) "economy deniers," huffing that "Krugman’s elitism clearly precludes him from seeing economic danger signs that don’t comport with his leftist politics."

When the GDP numbers for the fourth quarter showed it to be in positive territory, the MRC cranked up the spin, with a Jan. 26 post by Kevin Tober insisting that the growth was "anemic":

Forget about the recession and rampant, crippling inflation that has soared to 40-year-highs, MSNBC's All In host Chris Hayes was here to assure you that the Biden economic recovery has been  "one of the most successful, remarkable recoveries in all of American economic history." Sadly for Hayes, the large eyeglasses on his face won't make him seem smart with economically illiterate comments like that. The pollyannaish host made these comments on the heels of Thursday's GDP report which showed the economy grew by an anemic 2.9 percent. 

Hayes began by ironically complaining about the negative media coverage of the Biden economy: "If you've been watching the news over the past few weeks, you might get the sense the U.S. is hemorrhaging jobs, as high-profile companies from Amazon to Meta, to Goldman Sachs, and IBM lay off thousands of workers." 

"But one of the constants of the Biden economy is that there's a weird, persistent gap between the media’s coverage of the economy, which is almost always everything’s terrible, and what the data show about its actual state," Hayes whined.

Apparently, when there were layoffs in major American corporations, it means nothing for the state of the overall economy, and the media was supposed to ignore the news to help Biden's electoral prospects. 

He then pointed to a chart that showed a graph of the direction the economy was headed and bragged that "the U.S. economy grew by 2.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2022."

Tober didn't mention that GDP had been in negative territory for two quarters of 2022, whcih mean the recovery (and postive GDP) really is remarkable. But Tober doesn't get [paid to admit that Democrats are doing a good job, so he had tocherry-pick other numbers that adhere closer to his narrative, despite having insisted just a few short months earlier that GDP numbers were the only thing anyone should be looking at.

When GDP turned in another positive number for the first quarter of this year, the MRC had to spin further -- this time by hypocritcally accusing others of spin. An April 27 post by Vazquez dropped the "anemic" line without mentioning the two quarters of negative GDP last year:

Leave it to the propagandists at The New York Times to try to sprinkle some sugar over an anemic GDP report. 

The Times economics writer Ben Casselman broke out some confetti for the latest economic report showing a lackluster 1.1 percent GDP growth in the first quarter, which was notably slower than the 1.9 percent forecast. But look on the bright side, bleated Casselman in his sub-headline, “[t]he gross domestic product increased for the third straight quarter as consumer spending remained robust despite higher interest rates.” Casselman’s own headline was heavy on nuance and lacking on context: “U.S. Economy Grew at 1.1% Rate in First Quarter.” Contrast the headline with how other outlets reported the GDP story and The Times’s gambit to protect President Joe Biden’s image from the bad economic news becomes clear. Here was CNBC’s headline: “GDP report points to dreaded stagflation, but these stocks can still work in this environment.” Here was Bloomberg News: “US Economic Growth Slows to 1.1% While Inflation Accelerates.” [Emphasis added.]

Casselman’s spin might even give Looney Tunes character Tasmanian Devil a run for his money.

A post that day by Tober again repeated the "anemic" line (while not admitting last year's two quarters of negative GDP) while praising Fox News for advancing the Republican narrative:

On Thursday, Americans awoke to yet another sign our economy was barreling toward a recession caused by reckless government spending and 40-year-high inflation as the U.S. Commerce Department reported that the U.S. economy grew at a pathetic 1.1 percent in the first quarter of 2023. This was well below the two percent growth economists were expecting, and a far cry from the 2.6 percent GDP growth in the final quarter of 2022. Given this news was released just days after President Joe Biden kicked off his 2024 reelection campaign touting his belief that he's "never been more optimistic about America's future," it was predictable that the "big three" evening news broadcasts would ignore the fact that Biden's economy was teetering on recession. 

While millions of Americans were struggling to afford basic necessities due to sky-high inflation, and living in constant fear of losing their jobs, ABC's World News Tonight, CBS Evening News, and NBC Nightly News, all wasted time on local weather reports, and news that anti-American athlete Brittney Griner held a press conference to discuss her experience in a Russian prison after breaking the law by bringing illegal drugs into a foreign country.

In contrast, Fox News Channel's Special Report reported on the anemic GDP numbers when noting Biden's cratering approval numbers on the economy. "Fox News polls show voter concerns about the economy are more pervasive. 78 percent rating the economy negatively after today's GDP report came in below expectations with sluggish growth at an annual rate of 1.1 percent for the first quarter," Fox News White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich reported. 

She then read Biden's out-of-touch statement on the economic figures: "We learned that the American economy remains strong as it transitions to steady and stable growth." These comments from Biden, according to Heinrich are "out of sync with how many really feel."

Vazquez spent a May 2 post complaining that CNN was evolving on the possibility of a recession:

CNN apparently can’t get its talking points in order after wantonly lecturing people to “chill” with the recession talk back in February. 

CNN’s May 2 headline didn't mince words about the current precarious state of America’s economy. “Why a US recession is probably coming,” the headline read. That’s the exact opposite of what the same outlet pushed nearly three months prior. “It’s time to chill with all the recession talk,” read the competing Feb. 6 CNN headline. Make up your mind, CNN.

[...]

MRC Business Vice President Dan Schneider called out CNN for its 180-degree turnaround: "The narrative is changing on the state of our economy and our Republic." In Schneider's view, "The legacy media has previously been doing everything they could to protect Joe Biden for his reelection efforts. But recently, you see signs that the media is offering the backdoor to let Biden escape in place of a Democratic candidate in a stronger position to win another term as president."

Vazquez and Schneider didn't mention that the MRC's own recession thinking had also evolved: When there were two quarters of negative GDP, it insisted that this was the only possible definition of a recession, but it had to change that when GDP turned positive in order to keep up its talk-down-the-Biden-economy narrative. And they certainly didn't disclose that their job is to talk down the economy to hurt Biden's re-election chances.

Other Newsmax Columnists Also Serve As Trump Sycophants
Topic: Newsmax

Dick Morris may be the most prominent Donald Trump sycophant at Newsmax, but he isn't the only one. Other Newsmax columnists have pledged their loyalty to Trump as well. Here's a sampling from recent weeks:

Recent weeks have been replete with betrayals in the Republican Party, from the treatment of James O’Keefe to Tucker Carlson’s abrupt firing. The most insidious and shameful of betrayals, though, is the quasi-official pro-life movement opting to work against the re-election of President Donald J. Trump in 2024.

One prominent pro-life organization, Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, is leading the charge against Trump. They have the audacity to demonize his stance on abortion: that it is an issue that should be left to the states.

[...]

Enter Donald J. Trump, a brash billionaire who was not steeped in pro-life ideology, but as winner and a doer who vowed to live up to his mandate after evangelicals, many of whom had serious reservations about his character and his ability to lead, got behind him during his 2016 presidential victory.

Trump delivered a victory that no other Republican president could accomplish. He did what none of his predecessors could do, not even the vaunted and idolized Ronald Reagan: He went 3-for-3 in nominating strong, conservative, rule-of-law justices to the Supreme Court. He fulfilled the promise of voting for the Republican Party to support judges, one of the popular canards used over the years to cajole angry conservatives into showing up to support Republicans who repeatedly stab them in the back.

[...]

God is using President Trump, deemed a fool by the sophisticates and the intellectuals and the elites, to shake the rotten system of government to its core, just like God used King David, a shepherd of diminutive stature from a modest background who was considered weak by his rivals, to defeat the Philistine fighter Goliath, become the King of Israel, and rise to be the eternal standard against which all leaders are measured.

Trump exposed the rotten fruits of this system to the world. He revealed its evils and put a strain upon the demonic forces guiding its machinations. Trump deserves four more years to finish the job and continue making his providential progress, and pro-life activists must be on the front lines in helping him overcome the massive institutional impediments to achieve victory in 2024.

-- Gavin Wax, April 28 column

Then-candidate Trump started the War on Woke in June of 2015, boldly declaring, "When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. . . . They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people." 

In that now-famous moment, he spoke of how Americans must address the ills brought to our country by our open border.

To protect our nation, he announced that it is "way past time to build a massive wall to secure our southern border." He added, "A country without borders is, quite simply, not a country."

President Trump proceeded to launch a fight against political correctness that reshaped the Republican Party.

[...]

President Trump is fully aligned and committed to unabashed America First values. He will shamelessly pursue them.

He has shown us his strength of character and fortitude.

The right team will uplift him to achieve heightened levels of success. Other candidates, namely DeSantis, will claim to be the "anti-woke candidate."

They are just a tribute band. Americans want the real deal.

-- Gavin Wax, May 23 column (Newsmax insisted on putting a disclaimer on this column stating that "The following commentary is not an endorsement for any political party or candidate, on the part of Newsmax," even though it is unabashedly pro-Trump)

Just take a look at the indictment of President Trump. No former president has ever had to go through this kind of mockery, and it is setting up a dangerous precedent that could affect future leaders.

 

I believe Donald Trump was a man who was set in place by God to lead our nation, which I discuss in my book, "God and Donald Trump," and our country was better because of his presidency.

Is it possible God has a plan for this nation? Is it possible He has a plan for His people? I've tried to make the case that President Trump won the evangelical vote by the largest margin in history. I haven't tried to analyze his spiritual condition — only God knows the heart.

[...]

I personally believe Donald Trump is being led by the Spirit and will survive this as he has nearly everything thrown his way by the woke crowd. Join me in praying for this.

-- Stephen E. Strang, June 5 column

Love or hate the guy, it shouldn't be entirely surprising to witness Donald Trump's 2024 election polling advantage surging despite transparently desperate Democrat and complicit media attempts to discredit and disqualify him through dubious criminal investigations and legal charges as provably far worse offenses by Joe Biden are ignored.

Included are two failed sham Trump impeachments, a banana republic style Capitol "insurrection" kangaroo court show trial that omitted key information and disallowed cross examination of witness testimony, and an armed raid on his private Mar-a-Lago residence in search of documents he was authorized to declassify.

-- Larry Bell, June 7 column

How do you continue to support this guy?"

A stranger on Twitter asked me this in the wake of the recent indictment of former President Trump on three dozen felony counts regarding possession and sloppy handling of classified documents. After I made the mistake of responding, the stranger retorts: "BS and you know it. That’s not what happened. You’re lying."

The frustrated liberal’s ever-present fallback.

One reason this writer continues to support "this guy" Trump is because so many other people hate him, so many authorities and politicians and institutions are working so diligently to destroy him.

[...]

So much of the fight about Trump ignores policy and focuses on him personally — his character flaws, alleged misbehavior 25 years ago, mean tweets, his chiropractic talent for bending the truth — that we forget his record as president.

In his first three years in office, the economy grew 50% faster that the average growth of the previous ten years. Employment for blacks, Hispanics and women hit all-time highs.

Under President Trump, the U.S. was the largest producer of oil and natural gas in the world, and prices at the pump were below $2 a gallon. On the global stage, we were respected… and feared, because the same traits his haters decry also give our enemies pause.

Trump doesn’t take static from anyone.

That’s one of the main things many of us love about him.

-- Dennis Kneale, June 22 column

In politics today, the biggest rock star remains Donald Trump and it is not even close. At the “Faith and Freedom” conference last weekend, President Trump received thunderous applause.

Among Americans, Trump is the main attraction, the candidate with the most support and the unquestioned leader in the 2024 race for the White House. According to the latest Harvard CAPS-Harris poll, Trump leads President Joe Biden by a margin of 45%-39%.

What is amazing is that Trump leads despite a dizzying array of hurdles placed in front of him by his Deep State enemies. The latest challenge is a 37-count federal indictment stemming from the investigation into classified documents recovered from his Florida estate.

The Deep State has tried everything to derail Donald Trump from the day he descended the “golden escalator” in 2015 to announce his presidential candidacy.

[...]

Americans understand that President Trump has been treated unfairly from the beginning. Despite being surveilled, constantly investigated and marred with false allegations of “Russian collusion,” his administration was extremely successful.

The Trump record of achievement stands in stark contrast to the disaster known as the Biden administration. A new NBC News poll shows that only 20%< of Americans believe the country is going in the “right direction,” while an astounding 74% believe our nation is on the “wrong track.” Even worse for Biden, 68% of Americans believe he does not possess the necessary mental and physical health to be president.”

While Biden is faltering on every level, and his radical policies are failing, President Trump is looking much better in comparison. Americans remember that Trump achieved energy independence, a secure border, a strong economy, a strong military and respect throughout the world. Under President Trump peace deals were being reached while our country entered no new wars.

-- Jeff Crouere, June 28 column

WND Rants That Real News Orgs Won't Call Being Transgender An 'Ideology'
Topic: WorldNetDaily

An anonymous writer complained in a June 6 WorldNetDaily article:

The Associated Press, which stunningly still claims to be a source of "unbiased" news, now has banned journalists from using the word "transgenderism," a new report says.

It's because that "frames transgender identity as an ideology."

It is Tyler O'Neil who has explained in a commentary at the Daily Signal that the organization, which publishes a stylebook used by many journalists, is demanding journalists abide by the transgenderism ideology, but they are not allowed to think of it as an ideology.

The AP, he said, recently updated its requirements, and moves way beyond "bathrooms or pronouns."

"In a classic example of '1984'-style doublethink, good journalists are required to abide by transgender ideology, while denying that such an ideology exists," he explained. "AP's most recent style guide update—published Thursday—instructs them to use a person’s 'preferred' pronouns, deny that sex is a biological fact recognized at or before birth, and use the euphemism 'gender-affirming care' when describing experimental medical interventions that leave patients stunted, scarred, and infertile."

O'Neil explained, "The most recent update to the AP style guide is quite clear: 'Do not use the term transgenderism, which frames transgender identity as an ideology.' Yet the entire document is dripping with this ideology."

[...]

Transgenderism is been put in a spotlight in recent months because of the fact that the Joe Biden administration has made promoting the ideology, along with abortion, a main agenda point for his tenure in office. Further, economic disasters that Anheuser-Busch and Target have brought on themselves in recent weeks – each corporation losing tens of billions of dollars in value – have been over their advocacy for the transgenderism ideology.

But despite all this complaining, the anonymous WND writer doesn't quote O'Neil or anyone else to explain why "transgenderism" is an acceptable word (let alone a "key" one) or how, exactly, being transgender is an "ideology." As the Media Diversty Institute points out, the "ideology" term is used by anti-transgender activists, but it "makes no sense because there is no unified ideology that all trans people believe in. That is, not all trans people experience or understand their identity in the same way and we cannot therefore say that there is a transgender ideology."

It seems our anonymous writer is mad that biased and inaccurate right-wing labeling is being called out.