Topic: Media Research Center
Brent Bozell and Terry Jeffrey began their Jan. 27 "MRC Live" webcast by hawking the Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews doormats they sell:
Friday, January 29, 2010
Brent Bozell, Informercial King
Topic: Media Research Center Brent Bozell and Terry Jeffrey began their Jan. 27 "MRC Live" webcast by hawking the Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews doormats they sell:
Posted by Terry K.
at 3:45 PM EST
WND Columnist: Chevy Volt Is 'Commie Car'
Topic: WorldNetDaily
-- Ilana Mercer, Jan. 29 WorldNetDaily column
Posted by Terry K.
at 1:32 PM EST
CNS Is Wrong, Obama Is Right
Topic: CNSNews.com A Jan. 29 CNSNews.com article by Fred Lucas carries the headline "Obama Was Wrong and Alito Was Right" -- a statement repeated in Lucas' lead paragraph. Lucas goes on to claim that "During his first State of the Union speech on Wednesday, President Barack Obama incorrectly stated that foreign nationals and foreign entities can now contribute unlimited amounts of money to U.S. political campaigns because of a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling lifting certain campaign finance restrictions." Actually, Lucas is wrong and Obama is right. Obama never claimed that the Supreme court decision allowed "foreign nationals" to contribute to American campaigns; according to the quote Lucas highlighted, Obama specifically stated "foreign corporations,"and his later reference to "foreign entities" can in context be presumed to refer to "foreign corporations." Which, it appears, is correct. Because the Supreme Court ruling makes no distinction regarding ownership, it can be reasonably interpreted to permit the U.S. subsidiaries of foreign-owned corporations to donate to U.S political campaigns. That's a point made in the dissenting opinion signed by four justices, but Lucas makes no reference to it.
Posted by Terry K.
at 11:20 AM EST
Updated: Friday, January 29, 2010 11:22 AM EST
'Avatar' Derangement Syndrome Watch
Topic: WorldNetDaily
-- Phil Elmore, Jan. 28 WorldNetDaily column
Posted by Terry K.
at 8:34 AM EST
Updated: Saturday, February 6, 2010 9:38 PM EST
CNS Whitewashes Anti-Gay Uganda Law
Topic: CNSNews.com A Jan. 28 CNSNews.com article by Karen Schuberg whitewashes the proposed anti-gay law in Uganda, strangely fixating on a provision that would permit the death penalty for "any HIV-positive person who willfully and knowingly engages in homosexual relations." Schuberg suggests that this is the only controversial provision in the law that is generating criticism of it, and asks Democratic members of Congress critical of the law what penalty they would apply to someone for "knowingly putting others at risk." But as the summary of the law Schuberg links to from Warren Throckmorton -- as well an AP article CNS published last month -- make clear, the bill has many other controversial provisions, such as imprisoning those who fail to report homosexual behavior to authorities and penalizing landlords who rent to gays. We've previously noted other harsh provisions that Schuberg doesn't mention. Also unmentioned by Schuberg: the facts that the number of gays in Uganda are "negligible," and by far the most prevalent method of HIV transmission in Uganda has historically been either heterosexual or mother-to-child. Throckmorton, by the way, has been critical of the bill's Draconian provisions, and he takes CNS to task for not only Schuberg's HIV-transmission fixation but also the slant of her questions to Democratic Rep. Tammy Baldwin:
Of course, if CNS has no interest in fixing such an obvious error as the defintion of "Christian Identity" in smearing Erroll Southers, addressing rank anti-gay bias is even less of a priority.
Posted by Terry K.
at 12:05 AM EST
Thursday, January 28, 2010
WND Still Biting The Google That Feeds It
Topic: WorldNetDaily WorldNetDaily is still attacking Google, this time in a Jan. 27 article by Chelsea Schilling complaining about the information Google gathers from its searches. Schilling makes no mention of WND's own relationship with Google -- namely, that it's a member of Google's AdSense network, as demonstrated by the ad in the lower left corner of the below screenshot: It's hard to "slay the Google beast" when you're allowing the beast to sell ads on your website -- and happily accepting the money those ads generate.
Posted by Terry K.
at 9:51 PM EST
Updated: Thursday, January 28, 2010 9:54 PM EST
Noel Sheppard on Obama Speech: 'Someone PLEASE Cue Joe Wilson!!!'
Topic: NewsBusters What was NewsBusters' Noel Sheppard desperately tweeting during President Obama's State of the Union address? Media Matters has the screenshots.
Posted by Terry K.
at 5:34 PM EST
Paranoid Farah Whines About LA Times Story on WND
Topic: WorldNetDaily Is there a more thin-skinned and paranoid head of a supposedly major "news" organization right now than Joseph Farah? We don't think so. A Los Angeles Times profile of Farah and WorldNetDaily revealed that Farah "believes his life is in danger because of his occupation," and that he "agreed to sit down at a Starbucks in northern Virginia" for an interview "as long as the name of the town wasn't given." It accurately points out that he "runs a must-read website for anyone who hates Barack Obama," and notes that Farah claims that "Revenue is on track to hit $10 million annually," adding that this "comes in no small part from the storehouse of 'birther' T-shirts, books, DVDs and postcards for sale in his virtual 'superstore.'" (Which confirms what we suspected.) The Times piece is a generally balanced account of WND. But Farah doesn't agree -- he spent his Jan. 27 WND column ranting about it. He asserts that the original version of this article was "fair and unbiased." How would he know? The only way he would is if the original author, Peter Wallsten (whom Farah described as an "honest reporter"), allowed Farah to see it and sign off on it -- which would be a serious violation of journalistic ethics on Wallsten's part. Reporters aren't supposed to submit their stories to their sources for approval. Wallsten presumably knows that -- and Farah, as a self-proclaimed journalist himself, should know too. He should also know better than to not put reporters in the position of showing him what they've written about him so he can sign off on it, since we can't imagine he would let, say, President Obama sign off on WND's anti-Obama screeds. Farah goes on to claim that "the editors at the L.A. Times looked over the story and determined it made me look responsible, eclectic, maybe even, God forbid, likable. So they turned the story over to another reporter." Again, Farah offers no evidence of this. Farah then asserts that the reporter who was added to the story after Wallsten left the Times introduced "errors" into the story "with an eye toward making me look like some kind of irresponsible, opportunistic monster." But Farah doth protest too much, as he's prone to do. At the top of his list: a descripton of WND as "serving up a mix of reporting and wild speculation." Farah complains that no examples are offered. Let's see ... how about the fact-free speculation by Farah and others that Obama's call for a "civilian national security force" refers to the creation of a Nazi/Marxist police force. Farah is also upset by the article's claim that "The topic it pursues with tireless zeal, though, is the claim that Obama was born not in Honolulu but in Africa, and is therefore ineligible to be president." Farah responds: "Of course, actual readers of WND know that no allegation of an Obama foreign birth has ever been made by me or any other reporter in WND. I'm not even sure if any commentator has ever made that claim." As we've detailed the last time he asserted this, Farah is lying. Farah also engaged in his usual denigration of his critics, describing THe Next Right's Jon Henke -- who has advocated an advertiser boycott of WND -- as "a little blogger and 'Republican strategist' no one ever heard of until he started criticizing me and WND." Farah has previously denigrated Henke for criticizing WND. Farah then asserts that the article claims that WND believes "Obama would support concentration-camp-style detention centers for his political opponents" and would "build his own personal authoritarian civilian security force." But those direct quotes aren't in the article, at least how it currently appears on the Times website; rather, it states: "It was WorldNetDaily writers who suggested that congressional Democrats sought to build disaster-relief centers that could be used as Nazi-style concentration camps for political dissidents, and that Obama aims to build his own personal totalitarian civilian security force." Which, as noted above, is absolutely true. Farah closes by whining that the Times "assigned another reporter to give it the right slant – or should I say the left slant?" Like Farah would know a "fair and unbiased" story if he saw one -- they certainly don't exist in any significant number on his own website.
Posted by Terry K.
at 7:19 AM EST
MRC Contradicts Its Own Fox News Cheerleading
Topic: Media Research Center Is the Media Research Center on the Fox News payroll? It seems so. The MRC issued a Jan. 27 press release celebrating a study's determination that "Americans overwhelmingly trust the Fox News Channel more than any other network," featuring this statement by MRC chief Brent Bozell:
But didn't the MRC the other day note another study demonstrating that Fox News is not balanced inits coverage of President Obama? Yes, it did. But the MRC tried to spin that too, claiming that Fox News' obvious anti-Obama bias is nothing more than "historically normal scrutiny" of a president. Fox News is not "balanced news," and Bozell knows it. So why did he issue a statement saying otherwise? Perhaps because Fox News told/paid him to? UPDATE: We've expanded on this post at Media Matters.
Posted by Terry K.
at 12:05 AM EST
Updated: Thursday, January 28, 2010 5:32 PM EST
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Corsi's Lame, Mendacious Defense
Topic: WorldNetDaily Last week, the Cato Institute's Daniel Griswold penned an attack at NRO on Jerome Corsi's latest anti-globalism book "America for Sale," assailing its conclusions (claiming Corsi's protectionism makes him sound like Dennis Kucinich) and his factual errors. After an initial response at WND that included no actual rebuttal of any of the claims Griswold made, choosing to instead bash "free-trade Republicans" for daring to criticize him. As we noted, Corsi forwarded an initial response at WorldNetDaily that included no actual rebuttal of any of the claims Griswold made, choosing to instead bash "free-trade Republicans" for daring to criticize him. Corsi has followed up with a lengthier, if only slightly more detailed, Jan. 26 WND column. Kicking off with attacks on Griswold, defending his own credentials, and highlighting what Griswold didn't write -- mendacious tactics repeated during his defense of his error-laden anti-Obama book -- it's not until the 24th paragraph that Corsi gets around to rebutting something Griswold actually did write, and a healthy chunk of that is defending his definition of when the current recession started because it conveniently absolves President Bush of most responsibility for it:
Just as convenient as Corsi's use of the Shiskin recession definition is Corsi's overlooking criticism of Shiskin's definition as simplistic and outmoded:
That's why Corsi has so little respect among actual economists -- politics is more important to him than facts.
Posted by Terry K.
at 11:09 PM EST
New Article: Mistaken Identity
Topic: CNSNews.com CNSNews.com thinks an official's reference to "Christian Identity" refers generically to Christianity, even though context makes clear he's talking about the extremist group. Is CNS getting this wrong on purpose? Read more >>
Posted by Terry K.
at 11:01 AM EST
What Was Once Bias Is Now 'Historically Normal Scrutiny'
Topic: Media Research Center The Media Research Center has historically presented overly negative news coverage of Republicans presidents and their causes, like the Iraq war, as evidence of liberal bias. But what happens when the MRC's favorite news channel, Fox News, is accused of overly negative news coverage of President Obama? Why, that's just "historically normal." A Jan. 26 MRC item by Rich Noyes highlights a study by the Center for Media and Public Affairs (which he describes as "non-partisan" despite admitting that he's a former employee) noting Fox News' highly negative coverage of President Obama. But rather than admitting that Fox News has a bias, Noyes framed it as, according to the headline, "historically normal scrutiny," claiming that Fox News merely offered "scrutiny roughly equal to that provided by the old networks in the past." Indeed, the word "bias" appears nowhere in Noyes' item. Nor does Noyes use the word "balance," even though the CMPA found that overall coverage of Obama was almost evenly split between positive and negative coverage, demonstrating further how far out of the mainstream Fox News' coverage of Obama is.
Posted by Terry K.
at 10:14 AM EST
Morris' 'Secret Plot' Not So Secret
Topic: Newsmax A Jan. 24 Newsmax column by Dick Morris carries the headline "Pelosi and Reid Plot Secret Plan for Obamacare." In it, Morris claimed that "Highly informed sources on Capitol Hill have revealed to me details of the Democratic plan to sneak Obamacare through Congress." But as Media Matters points out, this "secret plan" is not "secret" at all -- the plan Morris describes has been reported in the media since the Democrats lost their Senate supermajority with the victory of Scott Brown.
Posted by Terry K.
at 9:46 AM EST
WND, Klein Falsely Impugn J Street Again
Topic: WorldNetDaily The headline of Aaron Klein's Jan. 26 WorldNetDaily article reads, "'Anti-Israel' group recruiting across nation." But at no point does Klein quote anyone saying, or does Klein himself assert, that the group in question, J Street is "anti-Israel." The closest Klein gets is his longtime, one-sided smear that J Street has been "accused of working against Israel," again failing to note that the charge comes from right-wingers like himself who have an agenda of marginalizing any perceived critics of Israel. As per usual, Klein refuses to allow J Street to rebut the charge.
Posted by Terry K.
at 1:03 AM EST
WND Gives Conservative Propagandists A Pass
Topic: WorldNetDaily A Jan. 25 WorldNetDaily column by Andrea Shea King carried the headline "Feds controlling media? It's been done before." King highlighted a claim that "the Department of Justice has hired bloggers as propagandists and sock puppets," likening it to the 1940s "Operation Mockingbird" as an example of "behind-the-scenes media manipulation." Unmentioned by King were examples of "media manipulation" under the Bush administration:
Interesting how conservatives get a pass for disseminating propaganda from King and WND, while others don't.
Posted by Terry K.
at 12:03 AM EST
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