She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Serious
Topic: CNSNews.com
Most unintentionally funny commentary of the day: an Aug. 11 CNSNews.com piece by Jill S. Farrell, "a conservative communications and media relations professional," fretting that conservatives' constant attacks on Hillary Clinton are increasing her name recognition.

NewsMax Pirro Watch
Topic: Newsmax
What we're watching for tonight: When it issues an original report on Jeanine Pirro's official announcement of her campaign for Hillary Clinton's Senate seat, will NewsMax make note of Pirro's 32-second dead spot when she lost a page of her speech?

UPDATE: We have our answer. It's buried toward the end of an article by Jim Meyers and dismissed as a "minor gaffe" being turned into a "big deal" by "New York's notoriously liberal press." Meyers spends the rest of the article trying to portray any media mention of the legal and sexual indiscretions of Pirro's husband as a "full-scale assault" by said liberal press.

Violent Extremists
Topic: CNSNews.com
Susan Jones relies on the usual CNSNews.com labeling bias in an Aug. 10 article on NARAL Pro-Choice America's ad on Supreme Court nominee John Roberts -- "pro-life demonstrators" vs. "pro-abortion group" and "abortion advocate."

Jones also engages in a tortured defense of a brief Roberts filed in a case involving abortion protesters:

Moreover, Roberts' 1991 court brief did not support violent extremists; in that brief, Roberts argued against the use of an 1871 federal law to prosecute pro-life demonstrators. Those demonstrators included a man, Michael Bray, who previously (in 1985) had been convicted of conspiracy in connection with abortion clinic bombings.

So even though the defendants whose position Roberts supported in his brief were violent extremists, he was not actually supporting violent extremists. Got that?

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 ..."

-- Brent Baker, MRC CyberAlert, Aug. 8

"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."

-- MRC front page, Aug. 9

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."

In fact, Cohen has not had any involvement with Air America since May 2004.

Get your facts straight, Brent.

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 heavily promoting 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."

Rave, sure. Widespread? Not so much. Of the 14 people in the article quoted as praising the book, five -- Michelle Malkin, Hal Lindsey, David Limbaugh, Laura Schlessinger and Rebecca Hagelin -- are current WND columnists, six others -- Judith Reisman, Ted Baehr, Robert Knight, Don Wildmon, D. James Kennedy and Daniel Lapin -- have had articles published by WND on a regular basis or are regularly quoted in WND articles; one -- Gary DeMar -- has written a book that WND sells, one -- Michael Farris -- spoke at a conference that also featured WND editor Joseph Farah as a speaker; and one -- Joseph Farah -- runs the company that is publishing Kupelian's book.

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.