Fred Lucas writes in an April 29 CNSNews.com article:
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has considered introducing a comprehensive immigration reform bill that would establish what proponents call a “pathway to citizenship” for some 12 million illegal aliens. Opponents of the legislation call it “amnesty.”
CNS has repeatedly and uncritically portrayed any form of comprehensive immigration reform as "amnesty."
Therefore, CNS opposes immigration reform.
Just a little something to keep in mind lest anyone think that CNS is a fair and honest arbiter of journalism.
Dick Morris uses his April 29 Newsmax column to falsely assert that the financial reform bill "guarantee[s] banks' survival by establishing a $50 billion rescue fund." In fact, the fund is designed to liquidate failing financial institutions, not "rescue" them.
Our president, Barack Hussein Obama, was bred by Marxists, raised by Marxists, schooled by Marxists and has chosen to associate with Marxists throughout his entire adult life and in his career. He has Marxists in his employ, in the form of Cabinet members and record number of czars – whose salaries are being paid by you and me. From the start, the goal of those who believe as Obama does has been one of tearing America down and rebuilding it in their image; what we see occurring right now is that very demolition.
Yet Americans, even many conservative commentators and politicians, are loath to brand such people, so stigmatized has the concept of making critical, authoritative statements become.
Well, there's too much at stake to play Mr. Nice Guy, so I'll say it: The power brokers in and behind the current administration and the congressional leadership are evil people. These aren't a bunch of stereotypical politicians who want to get rich and spend a few billion more on entitlements so that blacks or old folks will like them. They are a malevolent cabal who have conspired to subvert our laws, neutralize our personal liberties and undermine our economy, for the sole objective of attaining personal power and implementing a political system that has devastated or taken the lives of well over a billion people.
If they sound like comic-book villains, there's a good reason: That's the level at which they operate. All I can offer is, if the shoe fits …
WND Still Waging War on Soldier in Afghanistan Topic: WorldNetDaily
In reporting on the controversy over Franklin Graham being disinvited from the Pentagon's National Day of Prayer observance -- failing to tell his readers that the National Day of Prayer Task Force that Graham represents has grown increasing evangelical and intolerant of other religions and even other Christians who don't precisely share their right-wing views -- Bob Unruh used an April 27 WorldNetDaily article to revive a previous attack on an Army major serving in Afghanistan.
As we detailed at the time, Unruh falsely asserted in December that a research paper written by Maj. Brian L. Stuckert, a student at the School of Advanced Military Studies in Fort Leavenworth, Kan., "calls for Americans to lose the evangelical Christian belief of pre-millennialism because of the damage it does to the nation's foreign interests." In fact, Stuckert -- who was serving in Afghanistan when WND published Unruh's attack -- said no such thing. He examined how the hardline evangelical Christian belief of dispensational pre-millennialism has influenced American military policy, concluding that "millennialism has predisposed us toward stark absolutes, overly simplified dichotomies and a preference for revolutionary or cataclysmic change as opposed to gradual processes. In other words, American strategists tend to rely too much on broad generalizations, often incorrectly cast in terms of ‘good’ and ‘evil,’ and seek the fastest resolution to any conflict rather than the most thoughtful or patient one."
In his April 27 article, Unruh cites Stuckert's paper as alleged evidence of the military's hostility toward Christianity. Unruh misleads here too, asserting that Stuckert's paper "suggested Army officers should lose their evangelical Christian beliefs." Again, that's not what Stuckert wrote. Unruh then repeated his previous, utterly false statement that Stuckert "calls for Americans to lose the Christian belief of pre-millennialism."
Unruh later accurately quoted Stuckert's statement that "A proclivity for clear differentiations between good, evil, right, and wrong do not always serve us well in foreign relations or security policy," but he followed it with the misleading assertion that Stuckert "warned against the Christian beliefs espoused by many that the end times will involve Israel as God's chosen nation, a final 1,000-year conflict between good and evil and an ultimate victory for God."
Why is Unruh still waging war on an American soldier -- and still lying about him as well?
Ronald Kessler channeled the great political love of his life, Mitt Romney, in his April 26 Newsmax column.
Riffing on the title of Romney's book "No Apology," Kessler asserts that "Mitt Romney put his finger on the single most important reason Barack Obama will be a one-term president" -- "his habit of apologizing for America’s imagined sins, signaling that he really does not believe in the greatness of this country." In fact, the "apology tour" meme is a manufactured right-wing talkingpoint promoted by the likes of Fox News.
Kessler provided as an example of such purported "apologizing" Obama’s comment that "whether we like it or not, we remain a dominant military superpower." But Kessler is taking that statement out of context. Far from being an apology, it was part of an answer to a question about U.S. involvement in the world's "trouble spots"; Obama was pointing out that because America is the "dominant military superpower," it gets pulled into world conflicts that are "costing us significantly in terms of both blood and treasure."
Nevertheless, Kessler rants that "no president in American history has been so out of step with the most basic American values, reluctant to see this country as 'America the Beautiful.'"
New Article: Professional Prudes Topic: Media Research Center
The Culture & Media Institute serves as the Media Research Center's base of supporting "traditional values" -- which typically translates into anti-gay rants, defending Sarah Palin, and tacitly condoning the deaths of abortion doctors. Read more >>
WND Columnist Makes Baseless Assumption in Rancher's Death Topic: WorldNetDaily
Chrissy Satterfield asserts in her April 28 WorldNetDaily column that Robert Krentz, an Arizona rancher, "was slain by an illegal alien in March."
In fact, no suspects in Krentz's death have been arrested, so Satterfield's assertion that he was "slain by an illegal alien" is presumptous at best, let alone Satterfield's implication that the typical illegal immigrant who is working long hours for low wages is the same person who killed Krentz. The New York Times reported that "investigators are working on the assumption that he encountered a smuggler, possibly heading back to Mexico."
Newsmax's Selling of Hyperinflation Faces Scrutiny Topic: Newsmax
Alex Jones, director of the Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University, has harshly criticized the Newsmax practice of attacking the Obama administration's policies to stoke readers' fears about the economic outlook, and then urge those readers to purchase Newsmax's financial schemes, with the help of the likes of Dick Morris. Jones calls it "quasi-journalism mixed with promotion."
Shapiro: Obama Wants to Kill Jews, Emanuel Is A Nazi Thug Topic: CNSNews.com
In his April 28 syndicated column, published at CNSNews.com, Ben Shapiro has unleashed his mosthatefulattack on President Obama yet.
Presented as an "open letter to American Jews," Shapiro begins by declaring himself to be "a charter member of the tribe. I'm not only Jewish, I'm religious." But that word does not mean what Shapiro thinks it means; unless he was born several thousand years ago, Shapiro is not "a charter member of the tribe."
Then the hate begins: "American Jews, I have one request of you: please pull your heads out of your posteriors." Shapiro goes on to smear the Obama administration as "openly anti-Semitic" and asserts that Obama "seeks the destruction of your co-religionists." Most offensively, Shapiro asserts that White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel "is a kapo."
What is a kapo? Dictionary.com defines it as "a Nazi concentration camp prisoner who was given privileges in return for supervising prisoner work gangs: often a common criminal and frequently brutal to fellow inmates."
That's right -- Shapiro called Emanuel a Nazi thug.
Newsmax Ignores Full Story on Day of Prayer Controversy Topic: Newsmax
An April 26 Newsmax article by David Patten is a retelling of the controversy over Rev. Franklin Graham being removed from the Pentagon's observance of the National Day of Prayer that's heavy on criticism of the decision, nearly bereft of supporters of it, and completely silent on the real issue.
Patten makes a big deal out of the National Day of Prayer Task Force apparently also be excluded from the even (according to a"well-placed source at the National Day of Prayer task force"), but he doesn't explain why that might be.
The National Day of Prayer Task Force is not the ecumenical group Patten suggests is; according to Wikipedia, the task force is based at Focus on the Family headquarters in Colorado Springs, and Focus on the Family founder James Dobson's wife, Shirley Dobson, is its chairwoman. John Bornschein, the group's executive director, is also affiliated with Focus on the Family. A co-chairman is Vonette Bright, co-founder of Campus Crusade for Christ. Franklin Graham is an honorary chairman.
Those groups are all hardline evangelical Christian groups. While the vast majority of Americans call themselves Christian, evangelical Christians make up as little as 7 percent of or as much as one-quarter of total Christians, defending on how you define it. Unsurprisingly, the National Day of Prayer has been criticized for not only excluding non-Christians but also non-evangelical Christians. Indeed, NDP volunteer coordinators are required to indicate whether their lives reflect a belief statement that begins: "I believe that the Holy Bible is the inerrant Word of The Living God. I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the only One by which I can obtain salvation and have an ongoing relationship with God."
The task force's list of "Vision and Values" begins with a goal to "Foster unity within the Christian Church." That arguably has no place in government-observed days of prayer.
Mere attacks on Islam by Graham would seem to not be the only issue -- there's also the question of the evangelical litmus test the NDP task force imposes on its supporters, which would seem to run counter to a day of prayer that's supposed to be inclusive of all religions.
It was a little over a year ago that CNSNews.com published a column by Ben Shapiro trashing the denizens of Hollywood as "empty-headed line-readers" and "simpleminded Hollywoodites indulging their egos."
But those were liberal Hollywoodites Shapiro was trashing. When the celebrities are conservative, however, CNS is all too eager to indulge their egos.
Which is apparently why CNS devoted not one but two articles in the same day to the deep thoughts of actress Janine Turner. In one, CNS asked her the pressing issue of "the environment in Hollywood for conservative actors and actresses such as yourself"; in the other, Turner opines on health care reform. CNS' Edwin Mora, author of both articles, offers no evidence of Turner's qualifications to speak authoritatively on the issue.
These were preceded by an article by Penny Starr quoting screenwriter Andrew Klavan complaining that conservatives in Hollywood "have to meet in secret. They talk in whispers. It’s a very disturbing kind of culture." Two months ago, Starr uncritically quoted Klavan trashing the movie "Avatar" as "anti-American and anti-military." She made no mention of the possibility of professional jealousy on Klavan's part.
CNS, it seems, is willing to put up with "empty-headed line-readers" after all -- but only if they're reading the lines it wants to hear.
The following teaser headline (at botom) appeared on the Newsmax front page on April 27:
That's strange, because the words "domestic terrorism" appear nowhere in the AP article that Newsmax headline links to noting the "refried beans in the shape of swastikas on the state Capitol's windows" in a protest against a hardline anti-illegal immigration law in Arizona -- heck, even the headline at the top of the article doesn't mention it.
It's also strange because the last time Newsmax referenced swastikas, it was criticizing Nancy Pelosi for mentioning that they were anti-health care reform protesters at congressional town hall meetings.
An Aug. 6 article by Dave Eberhart huffed that Pelosi "alleged this week that some of the hecklers at the pro-Obamacare town hall meetings around the country with carrying swastikas." And an Aug. 7 article complained that "The mainstream media were quick to jump all over conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh when he likened President Barack Obama's healthcare logo to a swastika and compared the Democrats to the Nazi" but "were much quieter about Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's reference to a swastika when she claimed that hecklers at a pro-Obamacare town hall meeting were carrying swastikas." Though Newsmax was loath to admit it, Pelosi's allegation was absolutely true.
Newsmax didn't call those protesters "domestic terrorists," however.
Dick Morris Shills for Newsmax's Financial Schemes Topic: Newsmax
Over the past year, Dick Morris has repeatedly used anti-Obama rhetoric and stoked fears about the economy on Fox News, in his latest book, and in videos for Newsmax that are used to promote the financial-services products it sells.
WND Falsely Portrays Right-Wing Think Tank As 'Independent' Topic: WorldNetDaily
An April 26 WorldNetDaily article by Drew Zahn summarizes a report by Canada's Fraser Institute claiming that the average patient in "Canada's socialized medical system" spends "over 16 weeks ... waiting for health-care treatment." Zahn quotes only from the report and makes no apparent attempt to contact any Canadian health officials for a response -- a violation of journalistic ethics we've sadly come to expect from WND.
Zahn also describes the Fraser Institute as "independent," apparently merely repeating the institute's self-description. In fact, the institute is clearly right-leaning; it has accepted thousands of dollars from right-wing foundations, and it has also accepted funding from tobacco and oil companies (unsurprisingly, it's a provider of research for global warming deniers).
In other words, it's no more "independent" than WND itself claims to be.
NewsReal may appear to be just another forum, but it's really just another tool in the aggrandization of David Horowitz.
First, there's the actual name of the blog in the nameplate: David Horowitz's NewsReal Blog. Since it's run by the David Horowitz Freedom Center, that's perhaps understandable.
Then there's the Litle Red Book-esque "From the Writings of David Horowitz" category at NewsReal, which hands out daily nuggets of Mao-like wisdom from Horowitz, complete with the ever-more-Lenin-like visage of Fearless Leader. These readings from the master are punctuated with actual blog posts from the man himself.
On top of all this, NewsReal's managing editor, David Swindle, says he's writing a book about "the ideas of David Horowitz." Gee, you think that's how he got the job?
It almost seems as if the Horowitz organizaiton is more a cult of personality than a political machine.
