Another Brick in NewsMax's Wall Topic: Newsmax
As it did with Winter Soldier, NewsMax can't stop lying about Jamie Gorelick.
An Aug. 9 article blames Gorelick, former deputy attorney general in the Clinton administration who NewsMax claims "was reportedly installed in her post at the insistence of then-first lady Hillary Clinton," for allegations that federal investigators did not act upon intelligence that had identified in 2000 four men who were eventually among the 19 hijackers who perpetrated 9/11, because she allegedly implemented a "wall" that prevented sharing of information between intelligence officials and criminal investigators.
In fact, as ConWebWatch has noted, Gorelick did not create that wall; it was created in 1978. And while NewsMax quotes former attorney general John Ashcroft claiming that Gorelick "built that wall" (based on a memo that Ashcroft had conveniently declassified in time for his testimony before the 9/11 Commission), NewsMax fails to note that Ashcroft's own deputy reaffirmed the guidelines Gorelick advocated a few months before 9/11.
More Michael Schiavo-Bashing Topic: CNSNews.com
CNSNews.com just can't stop smearing Michael Schiavo.
An Aug. 10 article by Jeff Johnson detailed that Schiavo received a group's "Distinguished Guardian of the Year" award, then rounded up not one, not two, but three critics to bash Schiavo and hurl accusations that Schiavo was not given an opportunity to respond to.
Small favors, though: Johnson somehow managed to avoid calling Michael's now-deceased wife "Terri Schindler-Schiavo," the name Terri's parents insisted on and which CNS used throughout most of the Terri Schiavo case.
Getting It Wrong About Winter Soldier (Again) Topic: Newsmax
A documentary about the Winter Soldier investigation will receive some screenings across the country -- which provides a new opportunity for NewsMax to lie about it.
An Aug. 10 article by Dave Eberhart claims that Vietnam veterans "believe the film was thoroughly discredited" and quotes anti-Kerry activist B.G. Burkett as saying, "It's pretty much settled now that much of the so-called atrocities was the product of outright fabrications and some even offered by persons with criminal records." Eberhart also calls the film "a campy favorite on the nation's college campuses" but doesn't explain how people confessing to war atrocities could be considered "campy." Another Aug. 10 article claims that the film "has been discredited by many vets."
But as ConWebWatch has previously noted, the Winter Soldier investigation has never been seriously discredited. Burkett's claims to that effect rely on a Navy report (which nobody can seem to find now) detailed by author Gunther Lewy, who now claims that he does not recall if he actually saw a copy of the report or was briefed on its contents.
Vox Does It Again Topic: WorldNetDaily Amanda at Pandagon has performed a fine takedown of WorldNetDaily columnist Vox Day's latest weirdly anti-women's rights column.
When last we saw Mr. Day, he was calling Hillary Clinton a Nazi.
Then and Now Topic: Media Research Center
"The MRC's archive is packed with documentation of liberal bias from Peter Jennings, who was frequently cited in CyberAlert ..."
"The Media Research Center offers its condolences to the family, friends, and colleagues of Peter Jennings upon learning of his passing. His was as full a career as any network journalist could hope to have in an industry that is known for constant turnover. Mr. Jennings’ journalistic accomplishments and longevity at the height of his profession will always command honor and respect."
It took a day, but the MRC ultimately showed some class regarding Peter Jennings, which is more than we can say for David Horowitz.
Even as Baker used his Aug. 8 CyberAlert to remind readers how allegedly biased Jennings was, he took a revisionist tack on a statement Jennings made in 2002, suggesting that Jennings' claim that he was raised "with anti-Americanism in my blood, or in my mother's milk at least" was "a bit of humor."
But if you go back to Baker's original CyberAlert item on it, there's no evidence he found humor in Jennings' remarks; in fact, he saw it as a confirmation of Jennings' purported liberalness. After quoting Jennings later saying that "I sometimes forget I'm not American because I've got America in my soul now," Baker added: "Politically liberal America, that is."
Bozell Lies About Air America Topic: Media Research Center
If the Media Research Center is going to be running around accusing people of not reporting a story, it should be a little more accurate about what's not being reported.
An Aug. 9 statement by MRC chief Brent Bozell claims that there is a "media blackout" on financial irregularities at a New York City Boys & Girls Club because of allegedly loaning money to liberal radio network Air America. Bozell describes Evan Cohen, the figure named in the club's irregularities, as "the chairman of Air America."
NewsMax's Double Standard on Scandals Topic: Newsmax
We learn from an Aug. 9 NewsMax article that the fact that Jeanine Pirro's husband was convicted of tax fraud and fathered an out-of-wedlock child is "old news" and "dirty laundry."
Despite this sudden turnabout on the propriety of reporting on the personal scandals of a public figure, don't expect NewsMax to repudiate its reporting of every scandalous thing it could find about the Clintons, regardless of its veracity. Heck, it won't even admit that Ed Klein's anti-Hillary book has factual errors in it.
New Article: Accuracy in Spin Topic: Accuracy in Media
The only accuracy that Accuracy in Media seems to care about these days is accurately repeating conservative talking points. Read more.
NewsMax's New Favorite Politician Topic: Newsmax
To nobody's surprise, NewsMax is heavilypromoting Jeanine Pirro's planned candidacy for Hillary Clinton's New York Senate seat -- heck, it was doing that back in June.
What do you think the chances are that NewsMax will tell its readers about Pirro's extremely well-paid (by taxpayer money) driver-slash-bodyguard (even as she was laying off attorneys from her DA office due to budget cuts)? We're thinking somewhere on the slim-to-none side of the spectrum.
Joseph Farah, Minuteman Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily editor Joseph Farah has declared his fealty to the Minutemen border-watcher group, proudly proclaiming in an Aug. 1 column that "I volunteered to join this courageous band of American patriots as a volunteer border watcher this fall."
Is Farah aware that he will be spending his Minuteman stint with white supremacists and neo-Nazis? David Neiwert tells all about it.
Perhaps Farah should spend a column explaining why he has chosen to associate with white supremacists and neo-Nazis.
New MRC Blog Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center has a new group blog, NewsBusters, headed by Matthew and Greg Sheffield, described on the "about" page as "the creators of the creators of the influential web site RatherBiased.com." Um, OK...
We can see that ol' MRC bias slipping in already: Dead conservative-friendly journalists are getting a better sendoff than dead journalists the MRC doesn't like. Thus, NewsBusters serves up headlines like "Pro-war Iraq journalist Steven Vincent, RIP" ("Unlike many (most?) journos covering the war in Iraq, Vincent supported the invasion," poster Clay Waters of MRC's TimesWatch noted) and "David Shaw, RIP" (Shaw wrote a series claiming that news coverage of abortion was tilted toward the "pro-choice" view), the death of ABC's Peter Jennings gets only the headline "Peter Jennings Dead."
Apparently, the MRC doesn't want Jennings to rest in peace.
Logrolling In Our Time Topic: WorldNetDaily
An Aug. 8 WorldNetDaily article pimping WND managing Editor David Kupelian's new WND-published book "The Marketing of Evil" claims on the front-page link blurb that the book has received "widespread, rave reviews."
Kupelian, you may recall, wrote the loopy "Media Matrix" essay that somehow overlooked WND's own matrix of lies and deceptions presented as truth, as ConWebWatch has noted.
WND Hides Identity of Shooting Victims Topic: WorldNetDaily
From the Washington Post, we learn something else that WorldNetDaily Jerusalem reporter Aaron Klein has not told WND readers about the case of Eden Natan Zada. Of the four people that AWOL Israeli soldier Zada killed on a bus in Gaza Aug. 4 (whom Klein has described only as "Arabs"), two of them were Christians.
WND Breast Alert Topic: WorldNetDaily
Another WorldNetDaily article on something overly sexy, this time an Aug. 6 article about a large-breasted mermaid sculpture. With a picture, of course. And a bonus shot, too: a picture of former attorney general John Ashcroft standing in front of a topless statue at the Justice Department.
Condemnation Topic: WorldNetDaily
An Aug. 5 WorldNetDaily article by Art Moore notes the Council on American-Islamic Relations' condemnation of the killing of four people and wounding of a dozen others on a bus in Gaza by AWOL Israeli soldier Eden Natan Zada -- then quotes two "terrorism experts"-cum-bloggers, Robert Spencer (last seen around these parts trying to whip up anti-Islamic sentiment in the death of a family that turned out not to be Islamic-related at all) and Steven Emerson, attacking CAIR for not sufficiently condemning Islamic terrorism to their satisfaction.
A quick check of these so-called experts' blogs, Jihad Watch and Counterterrorism Blog, shows that neither Spencer nor Emerson have condemned the Zada killings.
