Topic: WorldNetDaily
The conspiracy-happy WorldNetDaily columnist hides facts to defend a Navy sailor convicted of killing a gay man -- and praised the death of an abortion doctor as "frontier justice." Read more >>
Thursday, March 4, 2010
New Article: Jack Cashill Endorses Murder
Topic: WorldNetDaily The conspiracy-happy WorldNetDaily columnist hides facts to defend a Navy sailor convicted of killing a gay man -- and praised the death of an abortion doctor as "frontier justice." Read more >>
Posted by Terry K.
at 2:38 AM EST
WND Still Misleading About Street Preacher's Protest
Topic: WorldNetDaily A March 2 WorldNetDaily article by Bob Unruh perpetuates previous false and misleading claims by WND regarding a 2007 incident involving a street preacher's disruption of a gay event in Elmira, New York. Unruh asserts that street preacher Julian Raven was merely "praying in a public park" when he was arrested for disorderly conduct. He parrots the Alliance Defense Fund's account of the incident, which claims that Raven and his followers "made their way to an area in front of the stage and began to pray silently while lying prostrate in the grass."Unruh made no effort to obtain new reaction to the story, though he repeats a quote from a police officer first gathered in 2007. In fact, as we've detailed, Raven has a history of disruptive behavior, and his preaching style has been described as "zealous and militant."And portraying the incident as merely "praying in a public park" is highly misleading -- it was done in front of a stage at the event with the apparent goal of disrupting it. Why else would you stage such a stunt in front of a stage? As we've also detailed, the fine Raven faces for his disorderly conduct is $100 plus court costs. The ADF has in all likelihood spent many times more than this defending an obviously guilty man than it would if it had paid the fine out of its (or WND's) petty cash drawer.
Posted by Terry K.
at 1:33 AM EST
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
AIM Chief Reads Us At CPAC
Topic: Accuracy in Media We've finally gotten a hold of video from Accuracy in Media's CPAC award ceremony in which Andrew Breitbart says he wants to hug us:
AIM president Don Irvine read our post on AIM's award during the ceremony, calling us AIM's "favorite little lefty." (Gee, we didn't think telling the truth was such a "lefty" position.) Irvine responded to our pointing out how honoring inaccuracy is "antithesis of its name. That's how depraved and irrelevant AIM has become" by asserting, "I wear that with a badge of honor, and I think everybody else in here should as well." Irvine then asked if we werein the audience (we weren't), and it was then that Breitbart, off-camera, said, "If Terry's here, I'll give him a hug." We remain wary of a hug from Breitbart -- we expect he wants to stab us in the back. But we now have confirmation that people at AIM read ConWebWatch. Is that going to keep Cliff Kincaid from lying about the anti-gay Uganda law? Probably not. But he knows we're catching every lie, and that will catch up with him.
Posted by Terry K.
at 3:06 PM EST
Updated: Wednesday, March 3, 2010 3:19 PM EST
CMI Writer Pretends She Can Read Reporters' Minds
Topic: Media Research Center In a March 2 MRC Culture & Media Institute item, Sarah Knoploh imparts emotions to a reporter she can't possibly know. Knoploh asserts that a USA Today reporter "lamented" a business slump in the "porn industry," assailing the reporter for writing about it "as though it was just another suffering business" and snarking, "The poor porn industry." How doesKnoploh knowthe reporter "lamented" the state of the porn industry? She doesn't -- she's merely invoking the Depiction-Equals-Approval Fallacy by essentially claiming that any reporter who reports on pornography must endorse it and may be an actual user of it. (That's not just a logical fallacy -- in this case, it may be libelous.) Knoploh further clamed that "This is not, however, the first time the media has pitied the porn industry." Again, Knoploh offers no evidence of "pity," just another article reporting on the industry's slump. Note to Sarah Knoploh: Reporters write all the time about things they don't personally approve of. Does every reporter who writes about a murder endorse it?
Posted by Terry K.
at 1:34 PM EST
Kupelian Condemns Abusive Behavior (When It's Not Christian)
Topic: WorldNetDaily WorldNetDaily published an excerpt from WND managing editor David Kupelian's new book "How Evil Works" in which he explores "what causes an innocent child to morph into an instrument of great evil":
Yet WND once defended a man calling himself a Christian who behaved in a very similar way. As we detailed, WND repeatedly lionized a man who, according to court records, "has a long history of physically abusing the children." More evidence of the man's authoritarianism from the court records:
And yes, there was sexual abuse -- one of the children was allegedly abused by a family friend. Why did WND praise such a vile man? Because he claimd to be a Christian and he homeschooled his (terrified) children -- never mind that the court found the "education" being provided to be horribly inadequate. Even after these revelations about this man were made public by ConWebWatch, WND continued to defend him -- because he homeschooled. The man claimed he homeschooled because, in WND reporter Bob Unruh's words, "he won't allow the pro-homosexual, pro-bisexual, pro-transgender agenda of California's public schools ... to indoctrinate his children." (WND's defense of a man who refused to provide his children with birth certificates is highly ironic given WND's current obsession with Barack Obama's certificate.) Is there any real difference between this man Kupelian's organization defended and the Islamic extremism Kupelian claims to deplore? We don't see it. If there is one, perhaps Kupelian can enlighten us. UPDATE: Kupelian also purports to condemn the "toxic programming" of indoctrination, adding that "for such outrageous and counter-intuitive falsehoods to be both believed and acted upon, those being indoctrinated must be kept in a very emotional state." That's something Kupelian's website has regularly done by repeatedly likening President Obama to Nazis and even the Antichrist -- not to mention the incessant hate WND's columnists spew (prison rapist, anyone?). Could it be that Kupelian is such an expert on the subject of dehumanizing indoctrination because his entire career is built on disseminating it?
Posted by Terry K.
at 11:52 AM EST
Updated: Wednesday, March 3, 2010 12:00 PM EST
Geller Still a Newsmax Columnist After All
Topic: Newsmax It seems we spoke too soon. Last week, we wrote that it appeared Newsmax had dumped Pamela Geller as a columnist, presumably in response to her repeated hateful rhetoric. But Geller has since published a new column at Newsmax, this time on the Rifqa Bary case. This means it's clear that Newsmax has no problem with Geller's anti-Muslim hate-fest at CPAC a couple weeks ago or, apparently, with very little of the hate she spews. The column in which she smears President Obama as "jihad-enabling" and "President L-dopa," which Newsmax had deleted, remains off the website, however (it's still in Google cache). Newsmax needs to explain why -- after dumping a columnist who advocated a military coup against Obama -- it continues to provide space to a writer whose hateful rantings it has had to remove at least once before.
Posted by Terry K.
at 11:06 AM EST
WND's Latest Pack of Anti-Obama Lies
Topic: WorldNetDaily The new issue of WND's Whistleblower magazine carries the theme of "STEALING THE NEXT ELECTION," in which President Obama is personally accused of aiming to maintain "permanent power." IN other words, it's your usual pack of anti-Obama lies and scaremongering that we've sadly come to expect from WND. Here's the scary bullet points, followed by the truth unlikely to appear in the magazine:
WND has already caught the leading proponent of the "universal voter registration" conspiracy, John Fund, in a lie on the subject -- he had falsely claimed that Barney Frank was involved in planning such a scheme. And WND has yet to present evidence beyond Fund's conspiracy-mongering that the bill purporptedly being "secretly prepared by at least two prominent members of Congress" would in fact contain universal voter registration. Illegal immigrant registration: Since government databases contain names of non-citizens, not to mention mentally incompetent individuals and felons – factors that would ordinarily disqualify a person from voting in most states – universal registration would open the floodgates to fraud. And since many people own property in more than one location and pay taxes to numerous government entities, they would be afforded the opportunity to vote in multiple locations.Again, since this is tied to universal voter registration -- the existence of which WND has yet to prove -- this is empty scaremongering.
Amnesty implies no preconditions before becoming a citizen. Recent efforts to reform immigration laws have focused on establishing a "path to citizenship" that would establish preconditions; Obama has previously endorsed the idea of "a system that allows undocumented immigrants who are in good standing to pay a fine, learn English, and go to the back of the line for the opportunity to become citizens." Thus, "comprehensive immigration reform" is not amnesty. Convicted felons voting: The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals late last year cleared the way for inmates to vote from prison. The court overturned a Washington state law prohibiting felons from voting until they are released and off parole, arguing state restrictions unfairly penalized minorities since they have a higher incarceration rate. Polls show felons overwhelmingly prefer Democrats. There's no evidence provided that Obama himself, let alone Democrats, are personally involved in this lawsuit, as WND implies. WND also misinterprets the ruling. The argument was not that "state restrictions unfairly penalized minorities since they have a higher incarceration rate"; it was that, in the words of one of the judges in the case, attorneys for the defendants "have demonstrated that police practices, searches, arrests, detention practices, and plea bargaining practices lead to a greater burden on minorities that cannot be explained in race-neutral ways."
It appears that Matthew Vadum is writing this article. As we've noted, Vadum was promoting this conspiracy during the Minnesota Senate recount, where the Minnesota secretary of state, Mark Ritchie, received campaign money from this "subversive, Soros-backed group." But Vadum has never proven that Ritchie did anything wrong during the recount process -- even the Minnesota Supreme Court stated that "[n]o claim of fraud in the election or during the recount was made by either" Al Franken or Norm Coleman. We somehow suspect that Vadum and WND won't bring up the impropriety of the secretary of state in Florida in 2000 also being a state chairperson of George W. Bush's presidential campaign at a time when it was embroiled in a recount battle. Then again, WND published Katherine Harris' book.
Posted by Terry K.
at 2:18 AM EST
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Mychal Massie On the Word 'Negro'
Topic: WorldNetDaily Presented without comment:
-- Mychal Massie, March 2 WorldNetDaily column
Posted by Terry K.
at 3:29 PM EST
Molotov Mitchell ... Raps?
Topic: WorldNetDaily First, there was Hi-Caliber. Now, Molotov Mitchell drives another stake into the art of rap music with his new ditty, "OTP (One Term President)." Yes, ol' Molotov and his crew have torn themselves away from hating gays long enough to rap about how much they hate President Obama under the name Wolverines!:
Yes, that's Molotov's wife, D.J. Dolce, being auto-tuned beyond recognition. The whole enterprise feels like an attempt to create a right-wing, hard-core version of this song. And then there's "Constitution Kate," who drops this hateful little rhyme:
And someone unoriginally calling himself The MZA unleashes a birther rap:
And Molotov hismelf raps about losing a job at a bakery
Needless to say, WorldNetDaily thinks this little ditty is the bee's knees, declaring the video to be "momentous" (or maybe Molotov himself wrote this -- after all, the entire WND article reads like a press release).
Posted by Terry K.
at 12:29 PM EST
The State of 'Media Research' At NewsBusters
Topic: NewsBusters What passes for "media research" at NewsBusters these days: -- Anthony Kang uncritically regurgitating an attack on President Obama by Mark Levin. -- Noel Sheppard bashing the New York Times' Frank Rich for criticizing the tea party movement without really contradicting anything he wrote. -- Tom Blumer purporting to claim that he "emphatically does not approve of" a prank call made to MSNBC by someone pretending to be Team USA hockey goalie Ryan Miller, then approving of it anyway because it "did the nation two small favors:"
Behold, "media research."
Posted by Terry K.
at 10:40 AM EST
The Kessler-Keane Logrolling Continues
Topic: Newsmax We've detailed the history of logrolling between Newsmax's Ronald Kessler and the American Conservative Union's David Keene -- Kessler gives Keene a platform, Keene gives Kessler an award at CPAC. The logrolling continues with a March 1 article by Kessler giving Keene yet another platform this time to rebut complaints that CPAC isn't conservative enough, as allegedly evidenced by allowing the gay group GOProud to participate. "Keene sees the divergent views as being emblematic of the conservative movement and a sign of its health," Kessler wrote. He didn't mention, however, that he had just received an award from Keene at CPAC.
Posted by Terry K.
at 2:28 AM EST
Monday, March 1, 2010
Will Kincaid Report the Truth About Bruce Ivins?
Topic: Accuracy in Media Cliff Kincaid has taken himself away from lying about the anti-gay law in Uganda long enough to pen a Feb. 26 Accuracy in Media column running to the defense of Bruce Ivins, whom the FBI declared to be the perpetrator of the 2001 anthrax attacks. Kincaid declared that the evidence against Ivins "is unconvincing and the case should still be considered unsolved," and that the FBI "hounded him until he committed suicide." Kincaid insist that the real culprits behind the anthrax attacks "were Al-Qaeda operatives who were part of a second wave of attacks on the U.S. homeland. But because the FBI went on a media-generated wild goose chase after Hatfill, precious time, leads and evidence were lost. The perpetrators fled the country, were deported for immigration law violations, or are still here." Kincaid, unsurprisingly, offers no evidence that al-Qaeda did it or that Ivins didn't. Kincaid might not want to get to close to Ivins, however. The Smoking Gun has obtained FBI documents on its investigation of Ivins:
Why, it seems that Ivins is almost Henry Hay, whom Kincaid despises with a passion. Expect Kincaid to either ignore these revelations or defend them as private -- and, more importantly, heterosexual -- proclivities.
Posted by Terry K.
at 3:14 PM EST
Newsmax's Patten Follows GOP Script
Topic: Newsmax David Patten's Feb. 25 Newsmax article on last week's heath care summit carries the headline, "Democrats Move to Ram Healthcare Into Law." That echoes Republican talking points on the issue -- portrayal of a plan to pass heath care reform that has been discussed for months with a majority vote as somehow "ramming it through."
Posted by Terry K.
at 11:20 AM EST
Brent Bozell, Fascist
Topic: Media Research Center Brent Bozell went nuts -- even by the standard of typical right-wing outrage -- over the withdrawal of an invitation for Family Research Council president Tony Perkins to speak at a prayer luncheon at Andrews Air Force Base. From amarch 1 CNSNews.com article by Pete Winn and Karen Schuberg:
Really? Withdrawing an invitation is "fascism"? If that's the standard, then Bozell himself is engaging in fascism by demanding that President Obama fire administration official Harry Knox -- that is, censoring Knox for his views. In an interesting sidebar, both articles CNS has done on this issue -- the Winn-Schuberg article and a Feb. 26 article by Winn -- note that the disinvitation came after Perkins issued "his position on the military policy on homosexuality." Specifically, Winn wrote on Feb. 26, "the comments that got him in trouble were published on the FRC Web site on Jan. 27, after President Obama delivered his State of the Union address," during which he expressed his desire to repeal the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy regarding gays in the military. But neither article quoted what Perkins actually said:
So Perkins wasn't disinvited for merely expressing opposition to DADT; he engaged in a rant that willfully distorted the intention of Obama's words. Further, if supporting repeal of DADT is all it takes to be a member of "the radical homosexual lobby," as Perkins suggests, then Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and even Dick Cheney are a part of it. Is Perkins willing to condemn Mullen, Gates and (most especially) Cheney as harshly as he attacks Obama? We'll beleive it when we see it.
Posted by Terry K.
at 1:09 AM EST
Another Torrent of Obama Derangement from WND's Ringer
Topic: WorldNetDaily Robert Ringer spews forth yet another torrent of Obama-hate in his Feb. 26 WorldNetDaily column, calling President Obama a "Duplicitous Despot" and taking extra care to smear Michelle Obama. Ringer asserted that Michelle Obama was "given strict instructions to suppress the Angela Davis rhetoric and play the Hillary Makeover Card" during her recent interview with Fox News' Mike Huckabee, and that Huckabee "lobbed her set-up questions specifically aimed at giving her the opportunity to override just about every angry, anti-American statement she's ever made":
Not that Ringer is one of those "refined persons," of course. Ringer then goes on to assert that this interview has disqualified Huckabee from running for president:
How does Ringer live with all the hatred that's raging inside him? He's going to turn into the next Norman Liebmann if he's not careful.
Posted by Terry K.
at 12:49 AM EST
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