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Saturday, February 4, 2006
Bankrolling
Topic: Newsmax
The headline on a Feb. 4 NewsMax article sure sounds sinister: "Teresa Heinz Bankrolling Hillary Clinton." Well, not exactly.

In fact, as the article describes, Teresa Heinz Kerry donated $2,100 to Clinton's campaign. Hardly a "bankrolling" for for a campaign that, according to an Associated Press article NewsMax posted the same day, raised $6 million in the last three months of 2005.

Note to NewsMax: This is not bankrolling. Richard Mellon Scaife's financing of NewsMax? Now that's bankrolling.

Posted by Terry K. at 10:55 PM EST
Selling It
Topic: WorldNetDaily
A Feb. 4 WorldNetDaily article introduces WND's newest advertisers; unlike last time, this article actually names them.

The article, which touts how advertisers support WND, starts off this way:

Do you like getting your news for free?

How about hard-hitting reporting with no sacred cows?

Yes, we do. Too bad that "hard-hitting reporting with no sacred cows" is not what WorldNetDaily provides.

Posted by Terry K. at 10:49 AM EST
Friday, February 3, 2006
Mychal Massie, Hypocrite
Topic: WorldNetDaily
Poor Mychal Massie ... he doesn't know when to stop condemning behavior he engages in himself. First, we caught him denouncing Rep. Charles Rangel for saying that "George Bush is our Bull Connor" when Massie himself has a history of making the comparison.

Well, he's at it again. A new Project 21 press release attacking NAACP chairman Julian Bond for, among other things, likening Republicans to Nazis, saying, "The Republican Party would have the American flag and the swastika flying side by side." According to the Project 21 press release:

"Julian Bond's tirades serve only to further reduce the once-great standing of the NAACP in our society," added Project 21 member Mychal Massie. "Bond's rank partisanship must call into question the legitimacy of the NAACP's political neutrality and its charitable tax status."

Massie's response would be much less hypocritical if he didn't have his own history of comparing Democrats to Nazis:

-- "So, not unlike Hitler prior to his demise or Saddam Hussein as he fled Kuwait, the liberal special-interest groups have instructed their public personifications to scorch the earth with absolute lies, distortion and a zeitgeist of intimidation and calumny." -- May 24, 2005

-- "George Banzhaf and the cigarette/fast-food Nazis complain and litigate against tobacco companies and MacDonald's [sic] because of alleged health risks. But where is their rancor at the depletion of community resources due to the uncontrolled numbers of anchor babies born here?" -- Aug. 2, 2005

Just who, exactly, appointed Mychal Massie anyone's moral arbiter?

P.S. Let's not forget conservatives' long history of comparing liberals and Democrats to Nazis, further upping the hypocrisy factor in criticizing Bond.

UPDATE: WorldNetDaily repeats Massie's hypocritical Project 21 quote in its Feb. 4 article on reaction to Bond's statements.

Posted by Terry K. at 11:01 PM EST
Updated: Saturday, February 4, 2006 1:20 AM EST
WND Joins Sada Bandwagon
Topic: WorldNetDaily
In a Feb. 2 WorldNetDaily column, Kevin McCullough joins the Georges Sada bandwagon (following WND editor Joseph Farah a few days earlier). McCullough issues a challenge:

Now, for every liberal who claimed Bush lied. For every printed article that passed on the claim, and every TV channel that did as well. Will you devote yourself to pursuing the claims of Gen. Sada as aggressively as you passed on the disinformation about Bush's truthfulness?

Only if you explain why the Bush administration has not expressed any support of Sada's claims and why Sada appears to be hanging out only with right-wing Christians who won't challenge his claims.

Posted by Terry K. at 12:18 PM EST
NewsMax, CNS Ignore Boehner's Ethics Problems
Topic: Newsmax
A Feb. 2 NewsMax article by Paul Rodriguez plays up newly elected House majority leader John Boehner's claims to be a reformer on ethics. Missing from the article are any references to Boehner's own ethicial problems, such as passing out checks from tobacco lobbyists on the House floor or receiving $32,500 from Indian tribes linked to Jack Abramoff, a problem since the tribes dramatically increased their donations to Republicans after hooking up with Abramoff.

Two articles at CNSNews.com also fail to mention Boehner's ethics problem, though one obliquely refers to DNC chairman Howard Dean being critical of Boehner's "ties" to Abramoff.

Posted by Terry K. at 11:26 AM EST
Thursday, February 2, 2006
When Automated Content Goes Bad
Topic: The ConWeb
From the MSNBC TV front page at around 12:30 p.m. ET today:



The box is promoting an entry on Scarborough's blog with that as a headline.

A larger screen shot of the page is here.

Posted by Terry K. at 10:38 PM EST
CNS Fulfills Low Expectations
Topic: CNSNews.com
In her Feb. 2 CNSNews.com article on Georges Sada's claims regarding Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, Sherrie Gossett does exactly what we predicted she would -- presents his claims without challenge (beyond previous reports on the issue that Sada was contradicting), doesn't bring up Sada's affiliation with conservatives or his Christian-oriented publisher.

As good as it feels to be proven right, CNS had a very low bar to clear. It's still just stenography, not journalism.

Posted by Terry K. at 5:42 PM EST
Updated: Thursday, February 2, 2006 5:43 PM EST
Heh
Topic: Newsmax
This NewsMax missive clogged up our inbox, too.

Posted by Terry K. at 3:26 PM EST
Then and Now
Topic: Media Research Center
"How much did Baldwin believe in the 'legal process' during the impeachment effort? Recall how on NBC’s Late Night with Conan O’Brien on December 11, 1998 he jumped up from his chair and shouted: 'I'm going to stone Henry Hyde to death!'"

-- Brent Baker, MRC CyberAlert, Nov. 11, 2000

"Tasteless, perhaps, but clearly not to be taken literally."

-- MRC's Tim Graham, in a Feb. 2 NewsBusters post on a New York Times report that noted a blogger writing about the producers of the Christian-oriented film "End of the Spear" who cast a gay actor in a lead role that "it would probably be an overreaction to firebomb these men’s houses."

Posted by Terry K. at 2:46 PM EST
Updated: Thursday, February 2, 2006 2:48 PM EST
NewsBusters Schadenfreude
Topic: NewsBusters
Wow -- Mithridate Ombud (aka Bruce Rheinstein) really wants to see the video ABC's Bob Woodruff was shooting before the bomb went off. Or does he just want to take a little sadistic pleasure in watching a journalist get blown up?

We've added this to our new article on NewsBusters' extreme rhetoric.

Posted by Terry K. at 11:04 AM EST
New Article: Going to Extremes
Topic: NewsBusters
Writers and commenters at the MRC's NewsBusters blog dehumanize journalists and whitewash terrorist acts. Is this any way for a division of a multimillion-dollar organization to behave? Read more.

Posted by Terry K. at 1:26 AM EST
Wednesday, February 1, 2006
WND Rented House for Klein in Gaza
Topic: WorldNetDaily
Well, this is interesting. In an interview with Jewish Press on the implication of wearing (or not wearing) yarmulkes in Israel, WND Jerusalem reporter Aaron Klein drops this little factoid in reference to his coverage of the Gaza disengagement:

Several months before the Gaza evacuation, WorldNetDaily rented part of a house in Gush Katif and I went there regularly.

So WND can afford to rent houses in Gaza -- presumably from the same settlers Klein got to be so buddy-buddy with to the point that he whitewashed their violent extreme-right backgrounds in his articles on the Gaza disengagement. Such a relationship indicates further that he has no intention of reporting a straight story; as we've noted, he's doing the same thing in his coverage of conflicts in the West Bank.

Jewish Press calls itself "the largest independent Jewish newspaper in the United States," though it appears to be a right-leaning publication. It considers Meir Kahane, he of the right-wing, violence-linked Kach/Kahane Chai movement, as merely one of its "colorful and thought-provoking writers." Klein writes a column called "Quick Takes" for Jewish Press, which, judging by his Feb. 1 column, are summaries of his WND work.

Klein also adds: "I have been privileged with the opportunity to report news accurately to millions of people every day. I'd rather get to the areas so that I can report and people can read what is really going on and not what CNN is reporting." Of course, as we've documented, "reporting news accurately" is not what Klein is doing.

Posted by Terry K. at 6:32 PM EST
Updated: Wednesday, February 1, 2006 6:35 PM EST
Kerry Hostility
Topic: NewsBusters
In a Feb. 1 NewsBusters post, Rich Noyes used the following words to describe John Kerry's appearance on NBC's "Today":

rant
complaining
sarcastically shot back
plowed on
finally paused for air
screed

But where's the reference to Kerry being haughty and French-looking? In a companion post by Mark Finkelstein.

So, this is "media research," huh, guys?

Posted by Terry K. at 5:49 PM EST
NewsMax, Malzberg Lie About Ginsburg
Topic: Newsmax
A Feb. 1 NewsMax article accepts at face value a claim made by New York radio host (and NewsMax columnist) Steve Malzberg that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg "favored lowering the age of consent for women to 12."

This is false. As we've previously pointed out, Ginsburg has never "argued the age of sexual consent should be lowered to 12"; rather, she merely discussed a child-rape law in which she approved the fact that the law's language was gender-neutral and never spoke to the age aspect.

The same goes for Malzberg's false claim that Ginsburg is in favor of "legalized prostitution"; Ginsburg merely said that an argument for legalized prostitution could be made but has never made one herself.

Malzberg forwarded yet another falsehood: denying that Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch recommended Ginsburg's nomination. Wrong again.

NewsMax was more concerned with pointing out that National Organization for Women president Kim Gandy said "That is such bullshit" on the air when Malzberg made the false claim about Ginsburg wanting to lower the age of consent. The article also falsely attributes the source of Gandy's anger, claiming it was because Samuel Alito was confirmed as a Supreme Court justice even though the transcript of the Malzberg-Gandy exchange included in the article makes it clear that it's over his false statements about Ginsburg, not about Alito.

This puts NewsMax and Malzberg in the company of Mychal "Bull Connor" Massie in making this false claim.

Posted by Terry K. at 1:20 PM EST
Updated: Wednesday, February 1, 2006 1:35 PM EST
Negativity = Bias?
Topic: NewsBusters
NewsBusters (and, presumably, the rest of the MRC) is employing a new standard in "liberal bias" detection: If you say or write negative things about the Bush administration, no matter how truthful they are, you're biased. A few State of the Union-related posts on NewsBusters illustrate the concept:

-- In a item headlined "ABC the Most Negative Before SOTU Address: State of the Union 'Sour,'" Brent Baker criticized ABC for offering "downbeat take on the public attitude facing President Bush."

-- Michael Rule criticized the "negative tone" purportedly used in a CBS interview with Bush White House attorney Dan Bartlett.

-- Baker took another whack at news outlets for using the word "sour."

Such criticism is all situational, of course -- we suspect the MRC thought the press wasn't negative enough during the Clinton years.

Posted by Terry K. at 12:28 PM EST

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