In a Dec. 17 Newsmax article repeating Republican Sen. Kit Bond's assertions about what the National Intelligence Estimate on Iran "should have emphasized," Ronald Kessler wrote:
Even more disturbing to Bond are votes by Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama last August against revising the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to take account of technological changes.
“The country was at risk last summer,” Bond says. “We were not able to go up on new targets and obtain new information. The FISA court said in a classified letter to the intelligence community—and I was authorized to say it on the floor—that the FISA process for intercepting communications had been brought to a stop.”
As a result, if Clinton and Obama had prevailed, “We would not have been able to collect signals intelligence from key al Qaeda and other terrorist leaders abroad, calling to their allies in Iraq or perhaps in the United States. Essentially they would’ve shut down the program,” Bond says. “We’d have been out of business.”
In fact, Clinton, Obama, and other Democrats who opposed the bill passed in August did not do so because they opposed revising FISA "to take account of technological changes." As the New York Times reported and Media Matters noted, the main point of contention was court oversight of the warrantless wiretapping program. Democrats wanted meaningful court oversight; Republicans didn't.
Kessler has a longhistory of misleading his readers about FISA provisions and Democrats' views on them.
WND Still Mum on Iraq Correspondent's Gay-Porn Past Topic: WorldNetDaily
A Dec. 17 WorldNetDaily article by Matt Sanchez about pregnancies among female American soldiers serving in Afghanistan reminds us that even after several months of Sanchez's employment by WND, WND has never told its readers about his career as a gay porn star, which would seem to conflict with WND editor Joseph Farah's assertion that "WorldNetDaily hires only serious and experienced journalists with the highest standards of ethics – both in their professional lives and their personal lives."
Will Sanchez be weighing on on the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy anytime soon? We shall see.
NewsBusters Is Inconsistent On Using Single Example to Make Blanket Generalizations Topic: NewsBusters
A Dec. 17 NewsBusters post by Justin McCarthy suggests that because Fox News did a "softball interview" with Hillary Clinton, it can't possibly be a "right-wing" channel.
Meanwhile, a Dec. 17 NewsBusters post by Mark Finkelstein noted that Chris Matthews "derided" supporters of Hillary Clinton as "castratos" and a "eunuch chorus." But, strangely, he did not follow in McCarthy's footsteps by declaring that this means that MSNBC isn't a liberal channel.
As we've noted, Finkelstein and others at the MRC believe Matthews is a rabid liberal despite copious evidence to the contrary. Indeed, the evidence continues to mount: Media Matters reports that Matthews' negative comments about Hillary far outnumber his positive comments, while his positive comments about Rudy Giuliani outnumber his negative ones. Will Finkelstein and the rest of the MRC ever admit the truth?
Will FrontPageMag Admit Conservative Student's Beating Hoax? Topic: Horowitz
A Dec. 18 FrontPageMag item repeats a Dec. 17 New York Sun article about Francisco Nava, a Princeton student described as "leading a movement to instill conservative moral values among undergraduates" who claimed he was assaulted and had received email threats.
But the Sun has since issued an update, linked to from its original article, stating that Nava "has said that he fabricated the assault, and that he sent e-mail death threats to himself, three other Princeton students, and a prominent conservative professor at Princeton."
A search of FrontPageMag indicates that it has not informed its readers that the alleged beating of Nava was a hoax. Will it ever tell its readers the truth? We'll see.
UPDATE: Media Matters has more details. Also, the Horowitz group Students for Academic Freedom similarly repeats the original Sun article but not that the story is a hoax.
Shocker: Unruh Talks To Someone Associated With Gays! Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily's Bob Unruh seems to be expanding his horizons: He includes an entire paragraph in a news article in which it appears he talked to someone who works for a group associated with gays.
In a Dec. 18 article featuring yet another attack on a California law that requires that applies anti-discrimination laws to students -- which, of course, he deliberately misconstrues as "advocating homosexuality, bisexuality, transgenderism and other alternative lifestyle choices" -- includes the following paragraph:
And Ali Bay of Equality California told WND the new law "doesn't require that any specific curriculum be included in California's classrooms."
We commend Unruh for screwing up his courage to deign to actually speak to someone who is not like him and works for a group that has close ties to gay people. That's one step to becoming a real journalist, which you would nearly three decades with the Associated Press, where he worked before joining WND, would have taught him by now. (As we've documented, it hasn't.)
That and the two preceding paragraphs, though, are the only paragraphs in the article in which an alternative view is permitted. Unruh spends the rest of the article repeating alarmist claims by opponents of the law and suggesting that specific books that he claims "advocat[es] homosexuality, bisexuality, transgenderism and other alternative lifestyle choices" -- an invocation of the depiction-equals-approval fallacy -- are imminent, despite his quoting of Bay that no specific curriculum is required. And Unruh immediately countered the above paragraph by writing:
Technically it is correct that the law doesn't "require inclusion." But opponents say it does now ban anything that can be "perceived" as being discriminatory, up to and including references to "mom" and "dad" or "husband" and "wife."
Unruh, of course, does not permit Bay to specifically address these claims -- perhaps because they are based purely on speculation and Bay would undermine that.
ConWeb Duels Over Global Warming Conerence Topic: Accuracy in Media
For many months, NewsBusters has informed readers that when it comes to current events involving global warming, if you have any interest in learning the facts, or at least a close approximation of them, you must rely upon foreign press outlets.
What transpired on Saturday is a perfect example of this maxim: after the United States got virtually everything it wanted from the United Nations climate change conference in Bali, it gave in to a relatively minor demand from delegates of developing countries.
[...]
As NewsBusters mentioned yesterday, this was a HUGE victory for America and the Bush administration, as such nations have been refusing for years to participate in carbon emissions cuts. By holding to its position all day Friday, and threatening this conference with resulting in absolutely nothing after almost two weeks of deliberations, the U.S. forced developing nations to finally accept their responsibility in this matter.
Our national “news” programs have been preoccupied with baseball players on steroids, but they should devote some attention to the Bush Administration’s approval of a plan to put the United Nations on steroids. Apparently looking to leave office with the blessings of the “international community,” the Bush Administration just sold out American interests at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Bali, Indonesia.
[...]
As usual, Americans will pay and get nothing in return. This time, it is worse―a U.S. administration is giving away our sovereignty to unelected bureaucrats and global elitists.
-- Cliff Kincaid, Dec. 17 Accuracy in Media column
Mark Finkelstein threw out some red meat for the Hillary-haters at NewsBusters in a Dec. 16 post, hurling all sorts of invective her way, asserting that she was "at her platitudinous worst," that she "exuded all the joie de vivre of an undertaker in a cold December rain," and concluding, "Can a presidential candidate so lacking in the basic tools of the politician's trade be successful?"
Finkelstein can certainly bash the heck out of Hillary if he wants, but how does this fit in with the MRC's purported mission of ferreting out liberal bias? (Unless, of course, Clinton-bashing is now an official MRC mission.) The excuse Finkelstein gave for his diatribe is that news outlets are being critical of Hillary or airing unflattering clips -- which contradicts the thesis of a new book by a certain MRC president.
Finkelstein bashed Hillary again in a Dec. 17 post, asserting she "was in full cackle." He then adds at the end, referring to his earlier post: "To those who might say I'm being unfair, criticizing Hillary for her mirthlessness yesterday and now for her madcap laughter today, I say let's hear it for authenticity . . . and the happy medium." We say the guy hates Hillary so much he's constantly on the prowl for any flimsy excuse to attack her.
Has Corsi Betrayed His 'Minutemen' Co-Author? Topic: WorldNetDaily
A Dec. 15 WorldNetDaily article by Jerome Corsi features numerous figures in the Minutemen anti-immigration movement attacking Minuteman Project founder Jim Gilchrist's endorsement of Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee. But Corsi offered no in-depth examination on controversies involving the Minutemen and the split between its two factions and fails to disclouse his own conflict of interest.
Nowhere does Corsi mention that he co-wrote a book with Gilchrist promoting the Minutemen's efforts. Further, while Corsi gave Gilchrist a chance to discuss the reasons behind his endorsement, they consititute only three paragraphs of Corsi's 23-paragraph article; the vast majority of the remainder are attacks on Gilchrist by others in the anti-immigraiton movement. That would seem to be a betrayal of sorts of Gilchrist by Corsi and a choosing of sides with Gilchrist's former Minuteman partner, Chris Simcox, whom Corsi prominently quotes attacking Gilchrist.
Corsi only lightly touches upon the split between Gilchrist's Minuteman Project and Simcox's Minuteman Civil Defense League, noting only that the groups "split two years ago over funding" and that they are "completely separate organizations of citizen volunteers seeking to curb illegal immigration."
But there's a lot more to the sitution than a "split" over "funding." As the Washington Post reported earlier this year:
Former leaders of the Minuteman Project accuse founder Jim Gilchrist, 58, of using $300,000 of the group's money to support his pet causes, including promoting a book he co-wrote and funding an unsuccessful run for Congress in a 2005 special election. Last month, saying they are the group's board of directors, they took over the Minuteman Project Web site and bank accounts, and fired Gilchrist as president.
Gilchrist fired back with a lawsuit accusing his former associates of defamation. He maintains that they have no standing to fire him from the California-based organization. He also accuses them of hacking into the Minuteman Project's Web site, stealing a donor database and pilfering his personal stationery, all of which the organization relies on to raise money.
[...]
This is not the first time the group has fractured. The Minuteman Civil Defense Corps has operated separately from the Minuteman Project since December 2005, after a bitter internal dispute over funding.
David Neiwert has more details on that 2005 dispute.
Meanwhile, Simcox is embroiled in his own funding controversy, as we've noted. Simcox's group has been attempting to build a border fence, promising to its funders that it would be 14 feet high and topped with razor wire. The fence the group has built, however, is a mere cattle fence-like five-strand barbed-wire fence.
WND has not previously reported on these controversies in detail, and Corsi's article appears to be the first instance in which WND has mentioned them at all. Since it looks like Corsi has taken a position against his old co-author, we may see more WND attacks on Gilchrist. But given the prominence that Corsi gave Simcox's attacks on Gilchrist, we may not hear a peep about Simcox's scandal.
In an apparent attempt to make up for all this Gilchrist-bashing, a Dec. 16 article by Corsi is devoted almost entirely to Gilchrist's point of view, in which he explains that his endorsement of Huckabee is conditional, "based on a tough understanding of the former governor's 'Secure America Plan' to oust all illegal aliens, or put them behind bars." But again, Corsi fails to note that he co-wrote a book with Gilchrist.
More One-Sided Reporting by Unruh on Homeschooling Topic: WorldNetDaily
A Dec. 16 WorldNetDaily article by Bob Unruh uncritically repeats allegations made by a Utah woman who homeschools her children, telling only her side of the story without any apparent effort at verification or giving state officials a fair opportunity to respond.
Unruh reported that Denise Mafi claimed that a judge issued a "threat" that the state "would order her children taken away from her" over a homeschooling dispute purportedly centering on a paperwork issue. Unruh offers no evidence that he verified Mafi's claims; he merely notes that "A WND call to the prosecutor in the case did not get a response, nor did other judicial officials respond to inquiries about the situation." In other words, Unruh did not bother to wait until officials were available to tell their side of the story before publishing his one-sided article.
Unruh went on to liken these state officials to Nazis, stating that "such threats are becoming more and more common in Germany, but that nation still lives by a Nazi-era law that makes homeschooling illegal." This is in reference to a German case in which, as we detailed, Unruh similarly denied officials a fair opportunity to respond and treated homeschoolers' claims as unassailable fact.
Unruh has a history of this kind of unbalanced, unfair reporting, particularly on the issue of homeschooling; Unruh's own children are homeschooled, which makes him clearly biased on the subject (and apparently prone to likening anyone who disagrees as Nazis).
Dan Riehl writes in a Dec. 12 NewsBusters post: "That's the way the [liberal] Netroots play - fast, dirty and cheap, as in shot."
Riehl, of course, knows from fast and dirty cheap shots, having falsely accused S.R. Sidarth of racist behavior in order to get back at him for being called "macaca" by George Allen. (Has Riehl ever apologized to Sidarth for that? We don't think so.)
Riehl goes on to accuse the "netroots" of having "no regard for accuracy." Oh, the irony.
Clinton Derangement Syndrome Watch Topic: WorldNetDaily
Maybe the question should not be whether Jesus and the devil are related, but Hillary and the devil.
I mean, let's face it, when you talk about the characteristics of Satan, they seem similar in a lot of ways to folks closely watching the actions of the Clintons.
[...]
There is no evidence that Satan and Jesus are brothers. Their words, actions and desires are completely opposite of each other. But, at the very least, one can build a strong circumstantial case that Hillary and Satan could well be siblings.
Two WorldNetDaily articles, on Dec. 13 and Dec. 14, prominently feature a sex scandal involving Kansas attorney general Paul Morrison (who has since resigned because of it). Neither story mentions the investigation of improprieties -- including failure to live in the county where he works as mandated by law and allegations that he's not putting in all that many hours at work -- by Phill Kline, whom Morrison defeated for the attorney general post in 2006 and who succeeded Morrison as Johnson County, Kansas, district attorney after leaving office.
As we noted, WND columnist Jack Cashill mentioned the controversy around Kline but got the facts wrong and ignored key accusations.
A Dec. 14 Accuracy in Media column by Cliff Kincaid continues to profess to be outraged that "being pressured to stop sponsoring" Michael Savage's radio show "because he dares to exercise his First Amendment right of free speech and to criticize Islam." Again, Kincaid fails to note his previous support of boycotts of people or causes he opposes, and he fails to note Savage's lawsuit against the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which is spearheading the Savage boycott, or Savage's previous efforts to pursue litigation against his critics.
Kincaid goes on to smear gays, suggesting that all gays are like the ones who participate in San Francisco's Folsom Street Fair -- in which, Kincaid asserts, ther were "naked homosexuals masturbating and having sex in public as children walked down the streets near them. Some were dressed up as animals being led around by leashes. Others were dressed in leather and being whipped" -- and therefore undeserving of federal hate-crime protection. (Kincaid has a thing against gays.)
And apparently just to prove that he's a classy guy like Savage, Kincaid beats the dead horse of Ted Kennedy and Chappaquiddick, calling waterboarding, which Kennedy opposes, is merely "a few seconds of discomfort," that Kennedy "let a young girl die in the bottom of his submerged car," which "was a fate much worse than waterboarding," and that Kennedy purportedly believes terrorists "should enjoy more rights than Mary Jo Kopechne, who died in that car struggling to breathe as the water enveloped her." Kincaid went on to insist that "In [Kennedy's] warped world view, real people and real victims such as Mary Jo Kopechne have no rights."
No wonder Kincaid is defending Savage so zealously -- he wants to be just like the guy. Does this mean that he believes, like Savage, that "90 percent of the people on the Nobel Committee are into child pornography and molestation"?
WND Explains Away Shooter's Homeschooling History Topic: WorldNetDaily
Remember when we predicted that WorldNetDaily, having finally conceded the fact that Colorado church shooter Matthew Murray was homeschooled, would endeavor to explain it away to protect homeschoolers? It has begun.
A Dec. 14 WND article plays up the claim that Murray "apparently boasted in an e-mail that he had discovered and practiced the teachings of controversial British occultist Aleister Crowley, called during his lifetime 'the wickedest man in the world.'" WND even tacitly admits its motive in doing this article:
Pastor Joe Schimmel told WND he recalled the October e-mail when he read the postings, included in WND stories, attributed to Murray. He said he thinks it's important for people to know what the attacker himself was feeling and thinking prior to his homicidal attack, especially since he's been described in the media as a homeschooled student from a religious family.
[...]
"What he really is, is a Satanist, subscribing to the teachings of Aleister Crowley," said Schimmel, who told WND other leaders in the Crowley image have included Timothy O'Leary and Alfred Kinsey.
Alfred Kinsey was a Satanist? Look for Judith Reisman to start reciting this as fact soon.
WND ties this story in with today's opt-in poll, which asks, "Who do you think is the 'wickedest man on Earth' today?" Leading the poll at this point are George Soros and Hillary Clinton, who are both far ahead of Osama bin Laden. Insert your own joke about WND's target audience here.
