Aaron Klein's War Fever; Undermining Continues Topic: WorldNetDaily
It appears that with the escalation of the conflict in Israel, WorldNetDaily's Aaron Klein has dialed down his undermining of Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert. Meanwhile, Klein has found somebody (anonymous, natch) to claim that Israel should expect "a provocation of some kind from Damascus."
This doesn't mean the undermining has stopped, however: WND is still featuring on its front page a pre-escalation article by Klein calling Olmert's policies "failed."
Ignorance Confirmed Topic: NewsBusters
A July 14 NewsBusters post by Mithridate Ombud appears to confirm what we suspected earlier: Because all Ombud apparently understands about the media is filtered through his/her hardcore conservative lens, the only possible reason he/she can come up with to explain a drop in profits for newspaper companies is because of their hopelessly liberal bias.
If we thought like that, we wouldn't use our real name, either.
CNS Tells Only One Side of Judicial Nomination Story Topic: CNSNews.com
A July 14 CNSNews.com article by Kate Monaghan took a conservative group at its word in describing the opposition to federal appeals court nominee William G. Myers III.
Monaghan repeated, without offering an opposing view, the contention by Manuel Miranda -- former possibly illegal leaker of congressional memos-turned-conservative judicial activist -- that "The opposition to William Myers is entirely about trial lawyers and profits. ... His principle [sic] fault is, like most of the other Bush judges that have been opposed, is who his clients have been, and unfortunately he has made the fateful error of feeding his family by working for what some people would consider to be the 'wrong' clients."
In fact, critics of Myers' nomination point out not only that Myers worked as a lobbyist for ranching and mining interests (to translate Miranda's description into English), but also that Myers has no judicial experience nor any significant courtroom experience.
WND Still Undermining Olmert Topic: WorldNetDaily
Even as the conflict in Israel escalated dramatically over the past several hours, WorldNetDaily is still working to undercut the authority of Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert. At this writing, WND's front page still features an article by Aaron Klein quoting former defense minister Moshe Arens calling Olmert's policies "failed."
Of course, Klein neglects to mention that Arens was a member of the conservative Likud party, whose interests Klein promoted (while attacking Olmert) in his coverage of Israeli elections earlier this year.
Dear Ian Schwartz: Topic: NewsBusters
When you and your NewsBusters cohorts admit that Kenneth Starr and Robert Ray's decision not to charge the Clintons in the Whitewater investigation means that the Clintons are innocent, we will then take seriously your complaint that Patrick Fitzgerald's decision not to charge Karl Rove means that he "did nothing wrong."
New Article: WorldNetDaily Undermines Olmert Topic: WorldNetDaily
Biased WND reporter Aaron Klein is portraying the Israeli incursion into Gaza negatively in order to attack Israel's prime minister. Read more.
Rather Repetitive Topic: NewsBusters
Ho-hum -- another insistence by Dan Rather that his Bush National Guard story, dubious documents aside, was mostly true and corroborated, another dismissal by Brent Baker of the story as "discredited."
Hey, Brent, we have an idea: Instead of going through this stimulus-response kabuki dance every time Rather brings up the issue, how about the MRC engaging in some actual media research and provide a detailed analysis of Rather's story -- the entire story, not just the part involving the documents -- telling us once and for all what is "discredited" and what is not. (Much of the story did not hinge on those documents and has not been disproved, as we've noted.)
Ah, but it's just too easy to regurgitate long-memorized conservative talking points instead, isn't it, Brent?
UPDATE: Today's MRC front page linking to the CyberAlert version of Baker's item goes even further, calling the Bush National Guard story "bogus" and "thoroughly discredited." Prove it, Brent.
Credit Where It's Due Topic: NewsBusters
A July 12 NewsBusters post by Noel Sheppard on the latest press release by the Republicans on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee -- which attacks an upcoming Discovery Channel program by Tom Brokaw on global warming -- does what Tim Graham failed to do when he cited the committee's previous release: note that one of the persons behind it was Marc Morano, formerly a reporter for MRC's CNSNews.com.
We can't imagine why the MRC would be reluctant to tout the fact that someone who previously "put a higher premium on balance than spin" is now dishing partisan propaganda.
Corsi the Alarmist Topic: WorldNetDaily
In a July 12 WorldNetDaily article, Jerome Corsi (last seen telling terrorists how to blow up New York with a nuclear weapon) gets all alarmist about a Texas statewide highway expansion project called the Trans-Texas Corridor. While his main objection appears to be that non-Americans (specifically, a "capital consortium based in Spain") are helping to build it, its contractors have made political donations, and its purported role to "movement to integrate the U.S., Mexico and Canada," Corsi describes the project only in the most apocalyptic terms:
The TTC project at full development will involve the removal of as much as 584,000 acres of productive Texas farm and ranchland from the tax rolls permanently, while displacing upwards of 1 million people from their current residences.
[...]
The 11 separate corridors planned will permanently cut across some 1,200 Texas roads, with crossover unlikely for much of the nearly quarter-mile-wide corridor planned to be built. Dozens of small towns in Texas will be virtually obliterated in the path of the advancing Trans-Texas Corridor behemoth.
Corsi also calls the TTC "a four-football-fields-wide highway."
Corsi offers no evidence to support things like the obliterated-small-town claim, nor does he offer any evidence that the TTC will block or reroute any more roads than existing interstates do. And, of course, he's completely wrong about it being a "a four-football-fields-wide highway." According to the TTC website, while the TTC corridor would be as much as 1,200 feet wide, it would not be paved end to end with concrete; it would contain interstate highways, separate interstate lanes for trucks, passenger and freight rail lines, and transmission lines for electricity and communications. The TTC also states: "As much as possible, TTC routes will incorporate existing highway, railway and utility corridors." So some of those thousands of acres that Corsi claims will be taken off "the tax rolls permanently" already are off the tax rolls.
Graham Speaks Out Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center's Tim Graham fired off a letter to Romenesko to rebut a Philadelphia Inquirer editorial that, in part, attacked the MRC for being part of "an anti-Times frenzy whipped up by Republican strategists, then echoed ad nauseam by Pavlovian talk shows and blogs." It's telling of the MRC's modus operandi that each of Graham's first three sentences contains either the terms "media elite" or "liberal media elite."
It's also kinda cute how Graham insists that conservatives aren't "entirely focused on election politics" in their attacks on the Times, while assuming that the Times is a "public menace" whose only motivation for its reporting is animus against the Bush administration.
NewsBusters Nonsense Topic: NewsBusters
-- Ian Schwartz is irked that the New York Times' "sycophantic" profile of Keith Olbermann "discusses Countdown's ratings only by its growth and not by actual numbers."
-- Matthew Sheffield insists that those who entered derogatory statements about ex-Enron chief Ken Lay upon his death last week were "liberals."
-- Sheffield buys into the spin from Ann Coulter's publisher that charges of plagiarism against her are "illegitimate," complains that the media has "failed" to report on "a litany of charges made by critics against the equally vocal (but liberal) Michael Moore."
Misinterpretation Begets Misinterpretation Topic: NewsBusters
From a July 10 NewsBusters post by Tim Graham:
New York Times columnist Frank Rich assembled for his Sunday column all the standard cliches of the liberal narrative of Bush vs. Heroic Liberal Press, including the old cartoon that Ari Fleischer was somehow telling the press to shut up when he suggested late in a news briefing in 2001 that Bill Maher might have watched his mouth before praising the courage of al-Qaeda.
Of course, Maher wasn't "praising the courage of al-Qaeda"; he was opining that flying an airplane into a building wasn't a cowardly act.
If you're criticizing someone's alleged misinterpretation, it's generally best if you don't create another in the process.
Is CNS Likening Gays to Terrorists? Topic: CNSNews.com
A July 10 CNSNews.com article by Jeff Johnson seems unusually eager to create a connection between gays and terrorists. The article is an attack on gay lawmaker Barney Frank, claiming that a provision he sponsored to "eliminate a long-standing ban on homosexual foreigners entering the U.S." had the effect of permitting the 9/11 hijackers to be allowed entry into the country -- a charge being promoted chiefly by Frank's Republican opponent for his House seat.
Johnson quotes other conservatives, such as Gerald Posner and WorldNetDaily's Samuel L. Blumenfeld, as evidence to support his claim. Johnson also cites a panel discussion at the Center for Immigration Studies without noting that the CIS is a conservative group that favors heavy restrictions on immigration.
What's interesting here is Johnson's attitude toward gays in general and Frank as a gay man in particular. CNS follows its usual style of sticking to the word "homosexual," using "gay" only in scare quotes or the quoted words of others. Johnson also describes Frank as an "avowed homosexual lawmaker" and notes "his participation in the homosexual lifestyle." Johnson also adds in an aside, without evidence to support his claim: "Frank uses the term 'homophobic' throughout his writing to refer to any person or group that objects to the homosexual lifestyle." Johnson seems to be buying into the conservative assumption that homosexuality is a choice. (And we know what they say about assumptions.)
Johnson paints Frank's effort to repeal immigration restrictions based on ideology as a larger effort to disguise his main goal to overturn immigration restrictions on gays because that restriction would allegedly not have been repealed by itself. But Johnson never addresses the specific issue the ban on gay immigration other than a tacit acknowledgment that it existed. Does CNS favor restoring restrictions against gay immigration in the same manner that it appears to favor restoring ideological restrictions? Johnson never answers, let alone asks, that question.
But by suggesting a link between terrorism and the so-called "gay agenda," Johnson has set up an odious comparison that he doesn't have the courage to take to its logical conclusion.
We Do Not Think It Means What You Think It Means Topic: Media Research Center
According to a July 6 Media Research Center press release, "the NYT’s story on the anti-terrorist financial monitoring program has generated the following damage to the United States:"
a federal class-action lawsuit against the program, alleging violations of financial privacy laws;
complaints filed in 32 countries alleging that the program violated European and Asian privacy laws;
and, the Belgian prime minister is calling for a Justice Ministry investigation into whether the program, based in Belgium, violated Belgian law.
So, according to the MRC, the Bush administration being called to account for possible violations of U.S. and international law is somehow "damage" to the U.S., but those violations themselves, apparently, were not. Yet, if the U.S. had followed the law in the first place, there would be no such "damage."
Very peculiar definition of the word "damage," Mr. Bozell.
