Barber Misleads on Gays, Blood and South Africa Topic: CNSNews.com
In a March 27 CNSNews.com column, Matt Barber essentially claims that gays are filthy, disease-ridden scum who are plotting to kill straight people by donating blood. On top of that, he misleads about a few things. One claim in particular is of note:
In South Africa, militant homosexual activists have been "protesting" by deliberately and surreptitiously violating that nation's blood ban, aiming to flood blood banks with 70,000 units. Who knows how much blood has been contaminated or how many innocent people have been infected. This isn't a protest; it's an act of violence.
Barber treats this as if it was a current story; in fact, the BBC first reported on it in January 2006. The BBC goes on to note that at the same time, the South African National Blood Services also banned blood donations from blacks, noting that "President Thabo Mbeki's blood was destroyed because he was black and because his doctor had refused to complete the personal history questionnaire used to screen donors." Does Barber approve of that ban as well?
Barber doesn't mention that South Africa has since lifted the blanket ban on gay men donating blood, allowing those who have been celibate for six months to donate.
While Barber makes a big deal in his column about HIV and AIDS being a "gay disease," that's not the case in South Africa. It's estimated that as many as one in five South African adults -- and nearly 30 percent of pregnant women -- have HIV.
Barber also doesn't mention that most countries test donated blood for HIV, making the actual threat much smaller than he purports it to be.
New Articles -- Anti-Obama Frenzy: Ronald Kessler and Aaron Klein Topic: Newsmax
Newsmax's Kessler peddles the inflammatory statements by Barack Obama's pastor while he downplays or hides Obama's criticism of them. WorldNetDaily's Klein hurls guilt-by-association attacks as he admits his hatred of Obama.
Unruh's New False Claim in Homeschooling Case Topic: WorldNetDaily
Bob Unruh -- still condoning child abuse by not reporting the truth about the dysfunctional family at the center of a homeschooling case in California -- is making a newly minted false claim about the case in a March 26 article:
The Longs say they have homeschooled because of an anti-Christian bias in public schools. The ruling stemmed from a juvenile proceeding that already had been closed by the court when court-appointed attorneys for their children appealed, specifically attempting to ban homeschooling. The ruling from Appeals Court Judge H. Walt Croskey granted the attorneys' wishes.
Unruh offers no evidence that the court-appointed attorneys for the children "specifically attempt[ed] to ban homeschooling" in their appeal. Indeed, the ruling mentions nothing beyond trying to get the Long children out of their homeschooling situation, which even the juvenile court admitted was “lousy,” “meager,” and “bad.” Croskey merely recited state law in "grant[ing] the attorneys' wishes" -- that there is no provision for homeschooling in state law and no expressed "right" to it in either the California or U.S. constitutions.
And again, Unruh fails to note that the court ruling stated that the Longs have made multiple claims regarding why they homeschool, including that "educating children outside the home exposes them to 'snitches.'"
Anti-Obama Frenzy, AIM Division Topic: Accuracy in Media
In a March 26 Accuracy in Media column, Cliff Kincaid declares that Barack Obama probably supports slavery reparations because ... a fictional character reportedly based on Obama supported reparations.
Seriously:
One of the liberals’ favorite television shows, “West Wing,” about a fictional White House, also examined the controversy in the context of a controversial nominee for assistant attorney general for civil rights who advocated financial reparations for slavery.
At the time, we noted that three veteran Democrats were advisers to the show. They were former Clinton White House press secretary Dee Dee Myers, former Carter official Patrick Caddell, and former Senate Democratic aide Lawrence O’Donnell. Time magazine reported that Conyers’ staff had sent along “200 pages of material on the issue of paying reparations to black Americans as compensation for slavery” to the producers.
Interestingly, it has now been reported by The Guardian that one of the characters in the show, a presidential candidate, was modeled by one of the Democratic writers after Obama. The character in the program wins the presidency.
If this happens in real life, we may finally find out where Obama really stands on the issue of reparations.
In a March 25 NewsBusters post, Ken Shepherd is upset that "a blog mocking Republican presidential candidate John McCain for his false teeth" appeared at a website "funded by left-wing megamillionaire George Soros."
Given that NewsBusters, funded by right-wing megamillionaire Richard Mellon Scaife, has recently defended the existence of a Hillary Clinton nutcracker, we'd say Shepherd has little room to complain.
It's taken a while, but Ronald Kessler has finally figured out a way to work some of his trademark Bush administration fluffing into his attacks on Barack Obama: by claiming in his March 26 Newsmax column that Condoleezza Rice suffered more racism than Obama's former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
No, really:
Yet while Wright, 66, no doubt had brushes with discrimination growing up in Philadelphia, it was nothing compared with what Condoleezza Rice faced — or, for that matter, what six million Jews who were slaughtered by Adolf Hitler faced.
In contrast to Wright, who attended an integrated school, Rice grew up in segregated Birmingham, Ala. Denise McNair, one of Rice’s friends and classmates, was one of the four girls who was killed in the Ku Klux Klan bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church.
Rice's Unbridled Courage
Rice had to sit at the back of buses. When more whites got on, the driver would move a “Colored” sign farther back in the bus, making less room for blacks. Rice could not eat at the same restaurants as whites unless the restaurant had a separate room with a separate entrance for blacks.
She was not allowed to use the same drinking fountains or public restrooms as whites. But Condi Rice, a descendant of slaves and white slave owners, had something else going for her: Her middle-class black neighborhood had developed a culture separate from the rest of the city, one that shut out the racism all around and taught children they had to be “twice as good” to pull even with whites.
Instead of teaching Rice to carry a chip on her shoulder, as she has told me, Rice’s parents amplified those positive values, giving her a strong sense of self-worth.
Rice’s father, the Rev. John W. Rice Jr., instilled in his daughter the faith that she brought with her into the White House and the State Department.
While Rice is comfortable with her own heritage and often speaks before black groups, she does not dwell on the racism she experienced growing up. Above all, Rice is proud of America and the opportunities that everyone now has. Witness the fact that she is secretary of state.
What a contrast to the poisonous atmosphere at the church that Obama has chosen to attend for more than two decades and the demagoguery of the man he calls his friend, sounding board, and mentor.
In his March 25 WorldNetDaily column, Mychal Massie called Barack Obama's speech on race "a transpicuous opprobrium intended to obfuscate."
Massie also claimed that Obama's former pastor, Jeremiah Wright, "in effect said Natalie [sic: Natalee] Holloway got what she deserved." Actually, no. According to a Jan. 27 WND article, which first hyped Wright's statement:
"Black women are being raped daily in Darfur, Sudan, in the Congo and in Sub-Saharan Africa. That doesn't make news," Wright said in the August 2005 edition of Trumpet Magazine, a publication of his Trinity United Church of Christ.
But, "One 18-year-old white girl from Alabama gets drunk on a graduation trip to Aruba, goes off and 'gives it up' while in a foreign country, and that stays in the news for months!" he added. "Maybe I am missing something!"
Wright never said Holloway "got what she deserved" -- not even "in effect." Massie needs to do a little less thesaurus-mining and a little more fact-checking.
It's An Anti-Obama Frenzy! (And Naked Women!) Topic: WorldNetDaily
How much does WorldNetDaily hate Barack Obama? At this writing, WorldNetDaily has no less than six anti-Obama articles on its front page.
The lead article, by Jerome Corsi, proclaims: "Revealed: Obama's dad polygamist, alcoholic." But there's nothing new. As Corsi admits, his information is more than a year old, from a January 2007 article in London's Daily Mail.
The Daily Mail, by the way, is currently featuring nude photos of Carla Bruni, wife of French Prime Minister Nicolas Sarkozy. WND, if you'll recall, stopped linking to articles at Salon.com because the website contained "erotic art" -- you know, photos of naked women. Guess we can forget about that ban.
This is not the first time Joseph Farah and WND have abandoned their professed moral standards to indulge in hatred of a Democratic presidential candidate. In 2004, WND repeated never-verified rumors of a John Kerry affair, even though they originated with the British tabloid The Sun, notorious for its naked Page 3 Girls.
One Free Ride, Coming Right Up Topic: Media Research Center
A few weeks back, the MRC's Tim Graham was chortling at the idea that the then-upcoming book by David Brock and Paul Waldman of Media Matters (disclosure: our employer) claiming that John McCain has been given a free ride by the media wasn't conforming with current events (even though his and Brent Bozell's book claiming much the same thing about Hillary Clinton wasn't either). Graham added regarding the Brock-Waldman book: "It should be fun to rifle through their pages when we can locate a copy."
Well, this is Graham's lucky day: The book was released yesterday. Learn more about it here, and check out the nifty video introducing it:
WND Still Not Telling the Truth About Elmira Prayer Protest Topic: WorldNetDaily
A March 24 WorldNetDaily article stated that an appeal "has been filed on behalf of four Christians who were fined for praying in a public park in Elmira, N.Y." The article continues:
The case stems from a visit by seven Christians to a homosexual festival in a public park in Elmira last year. They were convicted of "disorderly conduct" even though the police officer who arrested them testified their actions were peaceful.
[...]
The Christians were arrested June 23 after they entered Elmira's Wisner Park with their heads bowed to pray for the participants of the homosexual festival going on. Materials advertising the event stated it was open to the public and all were invited to attend.
[...]
The Elmira Star-Gazette reported police Sgt. Sharon Moyer told the court she warned Julian Raven that his rights at the event were limited..
"He said he was there to preach the word of God," Moyer told the court, the newspaper reported. "I explained he was welcome to be there (at the festival), but he would not be allowed to confront the participants."
The officer accused the street preacher of being antagonistic.
[Street preacher Julian] Raven, however, said it was Moyer who was "aggressive from the get-go" and said her orders amounted to a deprivation of his rights.
WND, as it has previously done, fails to tell the full truth about the incident. Merely "praying," as WND repeatedly asserts, was not the issue here; nowhere does it describe the specific circumstances in which the group did so. According to the Elmira Star-Gazette: "The four protesters claimed their right to free speech was violated when they were arrested June 23 after laying prostrate on the lawn in front of a temporary stage in the park."
The article also repeated WND's previous false claim that "A local newspaper reported the judge determined Raven was reckless for going to the park." In fact, what the Star-Gazette stated that Elmira City Judge Thomas Ramich "said in his decision that Julian M. Raven, the leader of the protest group, was being reckless when he inserted the four into the midst of the event participants" -- that is, having them lay prostrate on the lawn in front of a temporary stage in the park, not simply the act of "going to the park."
St. John Cherry-Picks Stats to Attack Gays Topic: WorldNetDaily
In a March 25 column warning that homosexuals are "using the public airwaves, public parks and public schools to push deviant sexual practices into the faces of our innocent children," Olivia St. John writes:
Dr. Gene Abel, medical director of the Behavioral Medicine Institute of Atlanta, compared groups of self-confessed homosexual and heterosexual molesters. A sampling of molestation rates indicated that the homosexuals averaged molesting 150 children each, while the heterosexuals molested 19.8 victims each.
St. John falsely assumes that all same-sex pedophiles are homosexual. In fact, as Mark E. Pietrzyk points out, Abel has written:
[M]ost men who molest little boys are not gay. Only 21 percent of the child molesters we studied who assault little boys were exclusively homosexual. Nearly 80 percent of the men who molested little boys were heterosexual or bisexual, and most of these men were married and had children of their own.
This is a distortion of Abel's work that WND has propagated as far back as 2000. David Bresnahan wrote in an article "excerpted from an in-depth exploration of pedophilia, homosexuality and the Boy Scouts of America in the October edition of WND's sister publication, the monthly WorldNet Magazine [now Whistleblower]": "Based on data from a study of non-incarcerated child sex offenders, Gene G. Abel, M.D., has found that homosexuals 'sexually molest young boys with an incidence that is occurring five times greater than the molestation of girls.'" But Abel did not label all same-sex pedophiles as homosexuals.
The MRC's efforts to downplay inflammatory statements by right-wing preachers continues apace: A March 24 NewsBusters post by Justin McCarthy states:
['The View" co-hosts Joy] Behar and Whoopi Goldberg justified Barack Obama’s connection to Jeremiah Wright by pointing to Bush’s association with Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson and their many controversial remarks. It could be a valid point if Falwell or Robertson were Bush’s pastor for 20 years. Neither of them ever were.
As we've noted, the MRC has been apologists for Falwell's history of statements -- as well as those made by John McCain endorsers John Hagee and Rod Parsley, calling them insignificant (when they mention them at all) compared to those made by Wright.
On a related front, a March 24 NewsBusters post by Seton Motley (reprinted at Human Events) accuses the media of engaging in a "Plan to Protect Obama" without noting the MRC's own Plan to Protect McCain by downplaying remarks by the pastors who have endorsed him. In fact, Motley doesn't mention Hagee, Parsley or any other right-wing pastor at all. And Tim Graham complained that, during an interview with Obama, CNN's Larry King "didn’t ask a single question about [Wright] until 32 minutes had elapsed on the show, and then devoted just 20 minutes to it." Which, of course, is 20 minutes more than Graham has spent on Hagee and Parsley.
WND Adds Reporter Who Shares Its Bias Topic: WorldNetDaily
A March 23 WorldNetDaily article announced that it has added Chelsea Schilling, a former WND reporting intern and current (apparent part-time) assistant commentary editor, "as a full-time general assignment reporter upon her graduation from college in May." The article touts her "perfect 4.0 grade point average in pursuit of her journalism degree."
So, what can we expect from Schilling? Will her work be any more fair and balanced and accurate than that of, say, Bob Unruh? A perusal through the ConWebWatch archives during the time of Schilling's WND reporting internship suggests not:
Schilling has unquestioningly parroted Alliance Defense Fund press releases without making an effort to gather the full story.
Schilling called Hillary Clinton a "clown" for having purportedly "cried three times to gain voter sympathy." Schilling claimed Hillary answered one questioner with "a pathetically contrived tremble" and anonther with "crocodile tears," as if she could divine Hillary's true emotions. Schilling also tossed out a casual smear of John Edwards as "Miss Sunshine Breck."
Further, the other two news outlets with which Schilling has claimed professional experience -- USA Radio Network and the Sacramento Union -- are both conservative (the latter with its own bias problems).
That's what you have to look forward to when Schilling goes full-time -- in other words, exactly what we've come to expect from WND. A perfect GPA doesn't make you less biased.
AIM Tries Playing the Manchurian Card on Obama Topic: Accuracy in Media
A March 18 AIM Report tries to play the Manchurian Candidate card against Barack Obama. It carries the headline, "Is Barack Obama A Marxist Mole?" and claims there is "mounting public concern about a candidate who has come out of virtually nowhere" that he's, well, a commie.
It's largely a rehash of a Feb. 18 column by Cliff Kincaid making a big deal out of the claim that an Obama mentor, Frank Marshall Davis, was purportedly an unrepentant commie. The AIM Report builds on that by ramping up the anti-communist paranoia with subheads like "Fellow Travelers" and "The Nature Of The Threat" and, most ominously, "OBAMA’S SECRET SOCIALIST CONNECTIONS."
Kincaid and AIM seem a tad desperate to portray Obama as a secret commie, since portraying him as a secret Muslim didn't work out so well.
WND Repeats Personal Smear of Schaeffer Topic: WorldNetDaily
A March 21 WorldNetDaily article by Art Moore is aimed at attacking Frank Schaeffer, son of late "evangelical thinker" Francis Schaeffer, and Moore is not afraid to throw a personal smear or two in the mix.
Moore was responding to an article by Frank Schaeffer "in the Baltimore Community Times" -- in fact, it first appeared at the Huffington Post -- stating that the controversial statements made by Barack Obama's former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, are no different from those made by "thousands of right-wing white preachers," who say, "as my dad often did, that we are, 'under the judgment of God.' They call America evil and warn of imminent destruction. By comparison Obama's minister's shouted 'controversial' comments were mild."
Moore makes no apparent attempt to contact Frank Schaeffer to explain himself or respond to criticism -- a practice familiar those who have observed his whitewashing of professional Clinton-bashers Peter Paul and Kathleen Willey. Indeed, Schaeffer's basic point is never rebutted. Rather, he cites a personal attack "evangelical writer and social critic Os Guinness," who panned Frank Schaeffer's book on his break with the evangelical movement in a Christianity Today article:
Guinness says the "real truth is that Franky, as he then called himself, was spoiled. He was more like a poster child for Benjamin Spock than the son of 'fundamentalist missionaries.'"
"Having been born well after his sisters, and having survived polio as a child, he was rarely challenged, disciplined, or denied," he writes. "As a result, he grew up a 'little Napoleon,' as some of the L'Abri students called him. He would boast that he could twist his parents around his little finger, and time and again he proved it."
That's right -- personal attacks, not intellectual arguments, are an acceptable form of rebuttal in a WND "news" article.
