Racial Indignities Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily columnist Mychal Massie is among the Project 21 members lending his comments to a Nov. 4 press release calling for the repudiation of "racial indignities" targeted at politicians.
WND Smears Michael Schiavo -- Again Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily has finally abandoned all pretense of being fair to Michael Schiavo in a Nov. 4 article noting his endorsement of a candidate in the Virginia governor's race (the Democratic one; WND would be avoiding this like the plague had Schiavo endorsed the Republican). The article prominently states that Schiavo was "[d]ubbed 'America's most admired widower this side of O.J. Simpson' by American Spectator." WND even put the "America's most admired widower" in the headline.
New Article: Smears Before and After Topic: Newsmax
NewsMax didn't wait for Scooter Libby's indictment to start attacking his prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald, as a partisan crony. Read more.
The Peddler Topic: Accuracy in Media Atrios reminds us of the dubious, rumor-peddling history of Joseph DiGenova, who's currently working through Accuracy in Media's Cliff Kincaid to peddle a new rumor: that sending Joseph Wilson to Niger investigate purported sales of uranium yellowcake to Iraq was actually a "covert operation" against President Bush to undermine the administration's Iraq war policy.
Conspiracy! Topic: Horowitz
In a Nov. 2 entry on the Moonbat Central blog, Richard Poe suggests that commies are conspiring with Democrats to impeach Bush. He has no actual evidence of this, of course, just a couple circumstancial coincidences that cause him to "suspect coordination."
Poe is big on conspiracies, though not real big on actual evidence to support them, as ConWebWatch has detailed.
Defending Student, AND What He Said Topic: CNSNews.com
CNSNews.com picks up on the story of the student facing sanctions at a Catholic university for calling homosexuals "subhuman." A Nov. 1 article by Randy Hall notes that the student's defenders have ceased being offended by the remark and are now describing it as an accurate description of homsexual behavior. quoting Patrick Reilly, president of the Cardinal Newman Society, a national organization dedicated to renewing Catholic identity at the church's colleges and universities,
"No doubt Catholic teaching on this subject is unpopular and offends many people who disagree with it," he stated. "But if gay sex is gravely sinful and opposed to the natural order of human sexuality and family life, then to argue that it is beneath human dignity is as accurate as it is provocative."
CNS has used the Cardinal Newman Society as a source before, reproducing a press release from the group back in May that complained that commencement speakers at Catholic colleges weren't Catholic enough.
New BizNetDaily Partner Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily is in the midst of revamping its BizNetDaily financial news site. It has dumped its old parter, Christian business mag Business Reform, for Real Money Perspectives, a newsletter published by longtime WND business partner Swiss America. A Nov. 1 article announcing the change states that BizNetDaily will focus more on precious metals and commodities -- which just happens to be the business Swiss America deals in.
ConWebWatch has noted the increasing synergy between WND and Swiss America, to the point where WND editor Joseph Farah threw in a gratuitous plug for Swiss America in an unrelated article that he plagiarized.
Massie Lies About Ginsburg Topic: WorldNetDaily
Project 21's Mychal "Bull Connor" Massie falsely smears Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in a Nov. 1 WorldNetDaily column, claiming that "had argued there is a constitutional right to prostitution and polygamy" and "has argued the age of sexual consent should be lowered to 12."
In fact, Ginsburg never endorsed legalizing prostitution and said only that it could "arguably" be legalized, which was raised during her 1993 confirmation hearing and which then-Senate Judiciary Committee chairman Orrin Hatch clearly understood as an "academic point."
Also, Ginsburg has never "argued the age of sexual consent should be lowered to 12"; her comment was in regard to a child-rape law in which she never spoke to the age aspect but approved the fact that the law's language was gender-neutral.
Sadly, we're used to false smears emanating from Massie.
Reality Check Reality Topic: Media Research Center
A Nov. 1 Media Research Center "Media Reality Check" needs a little reality check itself, failing to tell the entire story of Ruth Bader Ginsburg's nomination to the Supreme Court.
Claiming that Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito's career "is not that of an activist," Rich Noyes claims that Ginsburg "had solid activist credentials as director of the Women's Rights Project for the ACLU, but reporters were loath to assign her a liberal label." But Noyes fails to mention that for the 13 years immediately preceding her nomination, Ginsburg was a member of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, where she compiled a moderate record. In fact, examinations of voting records have found that she frequently voted with fellow conservative judges such as Robert Bork, Kenneth Starr and Laurence Silberman.
Fake Smear Campaign Grows Topic: Newsmax
NewsMax's Steve Malzberg jumps on the bogus Alito-smear bandwagon in a Nov. 1 article, headlined "Howard Dean Plays Mafia Card on Judge Alito." Malzberg manages to go even further, claiming that to call a person of Italian descent a "fascist" is an ethnic slur too:
This isn't the first time that a prominent Italian-American has been linked in some obscene way to the mob, or victimized by some other vulgar stereotype. The left liked to call Rudy Giuliani a fascist. He laughed it off as I'm sure the good Judge will do with Dean's bigoted implications.
Like his NewsMax bretheren, Malzberg offers no evidence that pointing out that Alito was unable to obtain convictions against a Mafia crime family while serving as a prosecutor is false, let alone an ethnic slur.
Proof? Topic: The ConWeb
Both WorldNetDaily and NewsMax are flogging MSNBC's Chris Matthews' complaint that a Democratic fact sheet about Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito is somehow racially inflammatory because it notes that as a prosecutor, Alito failed to obtain convictions against Italian mob figures. Alito is of Italian descent.
One thing you won't find in those stories: actual evidence of this alleged racism, i.e., what the fact sheet actually says. That's because it doesn't support Matthews' accusation.
Tim Chapman of Townhall has posted the talking points at issue. The word "Italian" doesn't even appear. If there's an ethnic slur here, we couldn't find it.
Don't expect WND or NewsMax to set the record straight; telling the truth about non-conservatives isn't one of their strong points.
NewsMax Corrects Itself, Sorta Topic: Newsmax
Could this be? NewsMax issuing a correction regarding a conservative foe?
As part of its effort to discredit Plamegate special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald as partisan, an Oct. 30 NewsMax article claimed that Fitzgerald, as U.S. attorney in Chicago, indicted more than 60 people in connection with wrongdoing connected to former Illinois Republican Gov. George Ryan, compared with two indicted in a probe of Chicago Democratic Mayor Richard Daley. Or, as NewsMax put it: "For those keeping score on Mr. Fitzgerald's political targets, the count currently stands at 60-plus Republicans vs. 2 Democrats - not counting Mr. [Lewis "Scooter"] Libby."
But in an Oct. 31 article, NewsMax corrected its numbers -- though it didn't call it that, of course. In what it called an "update," NewsMax noted not only that Fitzgerald "has prosecuted even more people associated with former Republican Gov. George Ryan than the 60 we noted yesterday," but that "it's also true that Fitzgerald has done a better job going after Democrats than media reports we cited yesterday would indicate."
NewsMax then proceeded to spin the Ryan case as a "mini-scandal," making a point of Ryan being "long retired," compared to the "cesspit" regarding the Daley case.
More CNS Labeling Bias Topic: CNSNews.com
CNSNews.com's labeling bias on abortion continues in an Oct. 31 article by Nathan Burchfiel calling Planned Parenthood a "pro-abortion group."
Who's Discredited? Topic: Media Research Center
An Oct. 31 NewsBusters post by Clay Waters cites the conservative Power Line blog as evidence that former ambassador Joseph Wilson is "discredited."
But the Power Line post Waters cites, which dates from July 2004, is wrong in its first assertion that Wilson's wife, outed CIA operative Valerie Plame, "did recommend him for the Niger investigation." In fact, the Senate Intelligence Committee report never came to an official conclusion as to Plame's role, if any, in the selection of Wilson, and the CIA's position is that Plame did not recommend her husband.
Tells you something about the MRC's research standards, doesn't it?
Defending Student, But Not What He Said Topic: WorldNetDaily
Conservative groups are rushing to the defense of a student, even though they purportedly don't agree with what he said. (Isn't this what conservatives attack the ACLU for doing?)
An Oct. 29 WorldNetDaily story by Jon Dougherty notes that the American Family Association of Pennsylvania is defending Dusquene University student Ryan Miner, who wrote in an Internet forum that homosexuals are "subhuman." The university, a private Catholic school, is seeking to impose sanctions on Miner for the remark, even though it appeared in a forum not operated by the university, because the school has a student code of conduct that applies both on and off campus.
Dougherty, unsurprisingly, merely regurgitates what the parties say and doesn't examine the inherent contradictions in what they say. The AFA spokesman is quoted as saying that "We cannot support Mr. Miner's description of homosexuals as 'subhuman,' but he has a First Amendment right to express those views on an off-campus blog. " But many religious private schools have rules governing off-campus behavior; Bob Jones University -- where students aren't allow to go to movies and all student dates are chaperoned -- is just one example. Will the AFA fight to overturn all school rules on off-campus student behavior?
And, of course, there's the "we don't agree with what he says but he has a right to say it" contortion. Come on; would the AFA getting involved in this if the student hadn't made an anti-gay remark? Nope; Dougherty also quotes the AFA official as saying that the student was merely following the example of Pope John Paul II in "publicly defending traditional family values in modern society."
The student himself gets his own chance to contort:
For his part, Miner maintains he's no bigot.
"I don't discriminate against homosexuals and I don't hate them. I just don't approve of the actions, especially at a Catholic university," he told the Duke.
Huh? Calling gays "subhuman" isn't an example of bigotry?