Topic: Accuracy in Media
In two new projects, Accuracy in Media confuses shilling for John McCain with exposing "liberal media bias." Read more >>
Thursday, October 23, 2008
New Article: When Criticism Becomes Campaigning
Topic: Accuracy in Media In two new projects, Accuracy in Media confuses shilling for John McCain with exposing "liberal media bias." Read more >>
Posted by Terry K.
at 1:54 AM EDT
Corsi's Memogate: Will He Retract His Articles?
Topic: WorldNetDaily As we've documented, WorldNetDaily's Jerome Corsi made several claims regarding Barack Obama's relationship with Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga using clearly fake documents as the only disclosed evidence to support them. Corsi has so far been silent, refusing to either defend his claims or retract them due to the discredited evidence; he has hinted at a "fake but accurate" defense, claiming that criticism of his documents didn't counter the "substantive point" of his accusations. Actually, it does if there's no other evidence -- which, if it exists, Corsi has yet to present to his readers. Corsi is in a corner here. Will he supply non-fake evidence, or retract his claims altogether? The world is waiting.
Posted by Terry K.
at 1:13 AM EDT
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Obama Derangement Syndrome Watch
Topic: WorldNetDaily
-- Matt Barber, Oct. 22 WorldNetDaily column UPDATE: CNSNews.com publishes Barber's derangement as well.
Posted by Terry K.
at 10:08 PM EDT
Updated: Friday, October 24, 2008 9:20 AM EDT
Softball CNN Interview of Palin Not Fluffy Enough for MRC
Topic: Media Research Center George Zornick at Altercation detailed how the softball interview of Sarah Palin by CNN's Drew Griffin was "shameful" in being so "McCain-friendly," burying questions about Troopergate and almost apologizing for asking about it at all, even though there's clear wrongdoing documented on Palin's part. But it wasn't sycophantic enough for the Media Research Center: One of those softballs took a National Review article out of context. And that's what has Brent Bozell's knickers in a twist. From an Oct. 22 MRC press release:
Yeah, CNN is out to get Palin all right, what with those harsh, biased questions from Griffin, like:
The man's a liberal media buzzsaw, that Drew Griffin.
Posted by Terry K.
at 5:36 PM EDT
Updated: Wednesday, October 22, 2008 7:28 PM EDT
NewsBusters Whitewashes Bachmann's Statements
Topic: NewsBusters NewsBusters is desperately trying to play down Republican Rep. Michelle Bachmann's suggestion that all Democrats and liberals are anti-American and called for a "penetrating expose" in the media of what members of Congress are "anti-American." Tim Graham wrote that "the media should be investigating [Obama's] associations with very anti-American voices" and claimed that Bachmann was "ducking [Chris] Matthews’ attempts to have her declare all liberals are anti-American," even though it's clear by the transcript he attached to his post that she had suggested exactly that. Justin McCarthy wrote only that Bachmann "stated that Obama has associated with anti-American individuals," adding, "Is this a case of labeling one anti-American for a simple disagreement?" Geoffrey Dickens claimed that "Matthews pushed Bachmann to say Obama and liberal members of Congress were anti-American," but didn't note that Bachmann had already suggested as much. Mark Finkelstein, meanwhile, didn't address Bachmann's words but, rather, attacked a Minnesota columnist the "Today" show had on to talk about Bachmann words as "a hyper-partisan Democrat." Finkelstein then bizarrely claims that when the columnist referedd to Power Line as "the biggest link in a daisy chain of right-wing blogs," he was making an "indecent" reference, helpfully linking a link to the "vulgar" Urban Dictionary definition of "daisy chain," conveniently ignoring the fact that there are more common and benign interpretations. I guess we know what's on Finkelstein's mind...
Posted by Terry K.
at 5:05 PM EDT
Calling Aaron Klein ...
Topic: WorldNetDaily Certainly WorldNetDaily's dauntless tracker of terrorist endorsements will get right on the story and tell his readers all about Al Qaeda endorsing John McCain. Uh, right?
Posted by Terry K.
at 12:40 PM EDT
Clinton Derangement Withdrawal Syndrome
Topic: Accuracy in Media We figured some members of the ConWeb would have problems getting over the fact that they don't have Hillary Clinton to kick around anymore for this presidential campaign. That seems to be the logical explanation for Roger Aronoff's Oct. 21 Accuracy in Media column. Declaring that "It is an open secret, despite the protestations, that the Clintons do not want Obama to win," he constructs his own little Clinton conspiracy:
In the full conspiracy spirit, Aronoff buys into the birth certificate canard despite acknowledging that both FactCheck.org and WorldNetDaily have debunked it and even stating that "We at AIM looked at it at the time, and didn’t feel there was enough to go on to run with the story." But that means nothing when there's a Clinton involved, however tangentally:
So even though Aronoff doesn't think the birth certificate lacks evidence and even though it's been debunked by third-party sources he appears to consider authoritative, it must still be "resolved." Is Aronoff really that desperate to indulge in some nostalgic Clinton conspiracy-mongering?
Posted by Terry K.
at 9:22 AM EDT
Ponte Pushes Obama Birth Certificate Lie (Among Others)
Topic: Newsmax In an Oct. 20 Newsmax article ostensibly trying to prove that what the obama campaign calls "smears" against their candidate are in fact "mostly true," Lowell Ponte focuses on one that is utterly false -- questions about Obama's birth certificate:
Ponte fails to note that FactCheck.org proves the critics (and Ponte) wrong:
Ponte further fails to note that even his right-wing fellow travelers at WorldNetDaily agree (even if WND forgets that it did so):
(Ponte's not the only Newsmax writer embracing the birth certificate lie; Geoff Metcalf insisted in an Oct. 20 column that a "Certified copy of original birth certificate" has not been released.) Ponte also perpetuates other falsehoods under the guise telling the "truth." Ponte writes of the Obama website's statements regarding William Ayers: "It does not mention that Obama and Ayers worked together on the board distributing millions of dollars with the aim of radicalizing Chicago schoolchildren. Nor does the site acknowledge that Obama kicked off his first political campaign in the living room of Ayers, the former Weather Underground leader." Ponte fails to mention that the Chicago Annenberg Challege, on which both Obama and Ayers worked, was funded by prominent Republican Walter Annenberg, and contrary to his claim that it had "the aim of radicalizing Chicago schoolchildren," educational reviewers found that the project, in fact, "reflected ... mainstream thinking among education reformers." Further, according tothe Chicago Sun-Times' Lynn Sweet, "Obama's formal kick-off to announce his run for state senate was at the Hyde Park Ramada Inn on Sept. 19, 1995," and the coffee reception in Ayers' living was one of several held around the same time. -- Ponte also claims that Obama "pocketed more than $105,000 in political contributions, the third-highest amount given to any lawmaker, directly from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac." But he fails to mention that McCain McCain has accepted at least $169,000 from "directors, officers and lobbyists" connected to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac during the 2008 election cycle. -- Ponte repeats his previous false claim that Project Vote was run by ACORN when Obama ran an operation for the group in 1992. -- Ponte falsely suggested that when Obama said of his daughters, "[I]f they make a mistake, I don't want them punished with a baby. I don't want them punished with an STD at the age of 16," that he was referring to abortion. In fact, Obama was answering a question on sex education.Ponte also claims that "Nurses have reported instances in which surviving aborted babies were left by abortionists to die without water, food, or warmth," without also noting that the claims made by that nurse, Jill Stanek were never substantiated. -- Ponte suggested that the reason that Obama canceled a planned visit to wounded soldiers in a German military hospital was because Pentagon officials said he "could not have his visits with hospitalized soldiers videotaped by the media," adding, "Prominent liberal mainstream media reporters such as NBC’s Andrea Mitchell rushed to defend Obama, saying that the press had never planned to cover his visits to military sickbeds." But Ponte never disproves Mitchell's claim.
Posted by Terry K.
at 1:21 AM EDT
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Obama Derangement Syndrome Watch
Topic: WorldNetDaily
-- Janet (Folger) Porter, Oct. 21 WorldNetDaily column (with video!) Sadly, No! has more.
Posted by Terry K.
at 11:06 PM EDT
Meanwhile, Over At HuffPo...
Topic: WorldNetDaily In case you haven't read it yet, our expose of Jerome Corsi's dubious documents is now up at Huffington Post.
Posted by Terry K.
at 9:57 PM EDT
WND Misleads on GOP Voter Fraud Arrest
Topic: WorldNetDaily An Oct. 20 WorldNetDaily article by Drew Zahn reports on the arrest of a Republican activist for alleged voter fraud but reported only the man's defense, curiously omitting the evidence against him. Zahn largely relies on the claims of Hector Barajas, communications director for the California Republican Party, in defense of Mark Jacoby, uncriticially reporting Baraja's claims that Jacoby was within his rights to claim his "childhood home" as his legal residence. But that was not the charge against him; rather, that the address he put down as his legal address in California was not where he resided:
Zahn does not indicate that Barajas provided any evidence that Jacoby's "childhood home" is, in fact, the "legal residence" he declared. Zahn buries the much more serious charge against Jacoby -- that, according to the Los Angeles Times, registrants were they were tricked by Jacoby's firm, Young Political Majors, into switching parties to Republican while signing what they believed were petitions for tougher penalties against child molesters -- by portraying it as a distraction from voter registration fraud allegations against ACORN. Indeed, five paragraphs of Zahn's article reference ACORN -- even though his article is not about ACORN -- while only two paragraphs reference the voter-duping charge against Jacoby's firm.
Posted by Terry K.
at 4:17 PM EDT
Obama Derangement Syndrome Watch
Topic: WorldNetDaily
-- Linda Harvey, Oct. 20 WorldNetDaily column
-- John L. Perry, Oct. 20 Newsmax column
Posted by Terry K.
at 2:50 PM EDT
Where Is Kessler's -- And Newsmax's -- Moral Compass?
Topic: Newsmax An Oct. 20 Newsmax column by Ronald Kessler accuses Barack Obama of 'lack[ing] a moral compass." We would argue that, by his flip-flop embrace of a candidate he despises out of an apparent desire to stay on the good side of his Republican buddies, Kessler has demonstrated the same lack of moral compass he accuses Obama of having. Kessler cites Obama's "being 'friendly' with admitted domestic terrorist William Ayers" as evidence of Obama's purported lack of moral compass. The question thus arises: What's Ron Kessler's relationship with unrepentant domestic terrorist G. Gordon Liddy? There doesn't appear to be much of one. Kessler and Liddy appeared twice together on CNN in May 2005 to discuss the revelation that Mark Felt was the Watergate scandal's "Deep Throat," and while they didn't appear to agree on whether Felt was a hero, neither did Kessler take the opportunity to condemn Liddy for his actions in Watergate, as well as the murders and bombings he planned. Liddy earned only a passing mention in Kessler's book on the FBI, "The Bureau." But Kessler's employer, Newsmax, has had closer ties-- and even less criticism of Liddy's domestic terrorism:
None of these articles make mention of Liddy's terrorism and, indeed, seem eager to whitewash the criminal acts of Liddy's that they do mention. It looks like Kessler's employer has lost its moral compass too. Does Kessler have the integrity call them out on it? History suggests he won't.
Posted by Terry K.
at 9:21 AM EDT
AIM Embraces Andy Martin-Citing Author
Topic: Accuracy in Media An Oct. 19 Accuracy in Media "briefing" by Irene Warren ("an intern at the American Journalism Center, a training program run by Accuracy in Media and Accuracy in Academia") features the book "Obama: Why Black America Should Have Doubts," which appears to be yet another right-wing attack book. It also appears to be self-published; author William Owens Jr. seems to be the same William Owens who runs iTouch/Higher Standard Publishers, or it could be his father. There are a couple things that raise questions about Owens' book. The first is the blurb page, whichfeatures the usual right-wing suspects -- Jerome Corsi, Jesse Lee Peterson, Alveda King, Star Parker. The second is treating Andy Martin seriously, which Warren does as well. Warren wrote:
Warren fails to mention that Martin is a discredited anti-Semite who shouldn't be trusted just because he says nasty things right-wingers like to hear about Obama. Indeed, Warren writes nothing at all about Martin's background, let alone what it says about Owens for his embrace of Martin. So, for her ignorance of Martin, does AIM and AIA give intern Warren a failing grade for this story -- or a passing one?
Posted by Terry K.
at 12:52 AM EDT
Monday, October 20, 2008
The Truth Makes Them Unhappy
Topic: WorldNetDaily Some folks over at RightNation.us don't like the idea that we've exposed Jerome Corsi's fake documents. Rather than addressing the evidence, they're attacking us. One choice comment: "Krepel's mother was inseminated by the same leaking colostomy bag that Paul Krugman's and Michael Moore's were. Must have been some party." Stay classy, guys...
Posted by Terry K.
at 4:18 PM EDT
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