Topic: NewsBusters
Jeff Poor writes in a July 12 NewsBusters post:
Surprises come unexpectedly sometimes.
No kidding. Most of the time, you see those surprises coming a mile away...
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Quote of the Day
Topic: NewsBusters Jeff Poor writes in a July 12 NewsBusters post:
No kidding. Most of the time, you see those surprises coming a mile away...
Posted by Terry K.
at 6:16 PM EDT
CNS Columnist Praises Silly Documentary
Topic: CNSNews.com A July 12 CNSNews.com column by Ken Connor touts a documentary called "Generation Zero," which he claims is "based upon the premise that the indulgent parenting style of the Greatest Generation produced the self-centered risk-takers ultimately responsible for the collapse of 2008." Actually, as Media Matters points out:
nevertheless, Connor thinks this biased, ahistorical little film is Very Important.
Posted by Terry K.
at 12:29 PM EDT
NewsBusters Offended That 'Only Pro-Gay Side' of Story Was Told
Topic: NewsBusters The headline of a July 12 NewsBusters post sums up Scott Whitlock's lament: "No Balance Required? MSNBC Features Only Pro-gay Side of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Debate." Interestingly, Whitlock didn't describe the other side of the debate as "anti-gay." Nor can we remember any Media Research Center employee describe opposition to repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell as "anti-gay" even though it appears to consider support of repeal as "pro-gay," as Whitlock demonstrates.
Posted by Terry K.
at 8:33 AM EDT
WND Headline: 'Obama Hates America. Why?'
Topic: WorldNetDaily A promotion for the latest issue of WorldNetDaily's Whistleblower magazine carries this headline: That, of course, is a bald-faced lie, and they know it. Perhaps the headline should be: "WND can't do a story about Obama without lying. Why?"The lying continues in the article itself by taking Obama quotes out of context to make a false conclusion: "America is – is no longer, uh, what it could be – what it, it once was. And I say to myself, I don't want that future for my children." – Barack Obama to a 7-year-old girl asking why he wanted to be president, Elkhart, Indiana, Aug. 6, 2008 The purported antidote is not telling the truth -- as one might expect from a self-proclaimed "news" organization, but this very issue of Whistleblower, which managing editor David Kupelian describes as "the antidote to Obama and his vision of a dependent, enfeebled, American socialist utopia. ... It transports readers to the real America – the nation they loved as a child, the 'shining city on a hill' our founders gave us and the Pilgrims dreamed about and courageously pursued." The funny thing is, Kupelian shares the same idea about the country as Obama, as expressed in the first out-of-context quote -- that America is no longer "what it once was." Actually, there's another funny thing going on here. As one of the premiums for subscribing to its overpriced magazine, WND will give you ... a copy of Glenn Beck's ridiculous novel, "The Overton Window." Which makes it only slightly more ridiculous than WND's compulsion to lie about Obama.
Posted by Terry K.
at 12:05 AM EDT
Monday, July 12, 2010
CNS' Starr Still Hiding Facts on Crisis Pregnancy Centers
Topic: CNSNews.com A July 9 CNSNews.com article by Penny Starr offers another skewed view of crisis pregnancy clinics, this asserting that a new congressional bill will "restrict the speech of pro-life crisis pregnancy centers by regulating the advertising they do." In fact, all the bill does is forbid ads that "create the impression that such person is a provider of abortion services if such person does not provide abortion services." While Starr quotes this provision in herarticle, at no point does she or any of the "pro-life" people she quotes explain how that provision equates to "restricting the speech of pro-life crisis pregnancy centers." As she has before, Starr omits the fact that numerous crisis pregnancy centers have been found to give out misleading or false information about abortion or even acted in a "controlling and intimidating" manner to the client. Starr did quote from the websites of NARAL Pro-Choice America and Planned Parenthood for their views on crisis preganancy clinics, as well as a press release from the member of Congress who introduced the legislation, but she appears not to have actually talked to anyone who supports the legislation.
Posted by Terry K.
at 10:43 PM EDT
Sheppard Baselessly Ridicules Maddow
Topic: NewsBusters Noel Sheppard asserts in a July 11 NewsBusters post: "Channeling her inner Nancy Pelosi, Rachel Maddow on Sunday actually said extending unemployment benefits is 'the most stimulative thing you can do' to help the ailing economy." Sheppard went on to call Pelosi's original claim to that effect "one of the most inane statements ever uttered by a House Speaker in American history," adding, "Does Maddow actually BELIEVE that unemployment benefits stimulate the economy, or was she just mimicking Pelosi and repeating Democrat talking points?" But Sheppard is too busy ridiculing Maddow and Pelosi to mention that economists agree that, yes, unemployment benefits do in fact stimulate the economy. Another thing Sheppard was too busy doing to tell the truth was attacking Maddow for "falsely stat[ing] that Obama inherited a $1.3 trillion deficit." Sheppard contorts the facts thusly:
Of course, Sheppard doesn't mention that Bush could have vetoed any of those bills, but chose not to. Bush had the final say, and that was to sign those spending bills, thus making them his responsibility.
Posted by Terry K.
at 6:55 PM EDT
Pat Boone Regurgitates Kagan Distortions
Topic: WorldNetDaily Pat Boone's July 10 WorldNetDaily column is largely a regurgitation of false and misleading right-wing talking points about Elena Kagan. For instance:
Wrong. Kagan never "tossed military recruiters off campus"; she prohibited them from using the law school's careers office. Students had access to military recruiters during that semester via the alumni office, and military recruiting at the school was not affected. Further, Kagan did not act "in violation of federal law during that one-semester prohibition; the Solomon Amendment had been overturned by an appeals court, which gave her the legal rationale to institute the prohibition. There's also this:
In fact, Kagan did not "express sympathy for the plight of the Socialist Party"; she merely wrote a historical examination about the decline of socialism in New York in the early 20th century. And then there's Boone's curious description of Kagan as an "otherwise nice woman who likes her softball." Playing the gay-baiting dog whistle, are we, Pat? UPDATE: Newsmax has also posted Boone's column, but it deletes the reference to Kagan being an "otherwise nice woman who likes her softball."
Posted by Terry K.
at 8:57 AM EDT
Updated: Monday, July 12, 2010 10:42 AM EDT
Kessler's Unverifiable Attack: An Update
Topic: Newsmax A few weeks back, we wrote about a column by Newsmax's Ronald Kessler, which he and John M. Palatiello, president of the Business Coalition for Fair Competition, attack the Obama administration for allegedly "changing government rules to prevent agencies from using private firms in order to reduce costs." Palatiello cited "a small business man up in Peekskill, New York, who is a food service catering company. ... And he had a contract pulled from him and brought in-house," but offered no other identifying information in which his story could be verified. Well, we heard from a man who claims to be the guy in Peekskill. He didn't want the email reprinted, but he assures us he exists and his situation is real. We're willing to take him at his word, but we're also willing to venture this situation is not unique under, or even a direct result of, the Obama administration; there are likely other instances of similar contract issues that happened under previous administrations. And Kessler and Palatiello could have avoided letting their partisan agenda show by offering verifiable evidence that the Obama adminstration is behaving in a fashion different than other administrations.
Posted by Terry K.
at 12:48 AM EDT
Sunday, July 11, 2010
WND Promotes Hate Group's Attack on Kagan
Topic: WorldNetDaily A July 10 WorldNetDaily article by Drew Zahn promotes an attack on Elena Kagan by the far-right anti-gay group MassResistance. WND, of course, didn't mention that MassResistance is far-right or anti-gay. And it definitely didn't mention that the Southern Poverty Law Center placed MassResistance among "anti-gay" groups on its list of active hate groups. As we've detailed, WND has regularly served as the press agent for MassResistance.
Posted by Terry K.
at 12:59 PM EDT
Updated: Sunday, July 11, 2010 10:11 PM EDT
Reagan Doesn't Get NASA's Diplomacy Mission
Topic: Newsmax Michael Reagan writes in his July 9 Newsmax column:
But as Slate's Christopher Beam points out, NASA has always had a diplomacy mission:
Reagan also claims that "this story is also going to fuel the rumors that abound when it comes to the president and affinity for and preferential treatment of the Islamic world." So if Reagan knows the rumors are false, what, if anything, is Reagan doing to debunk them? Nothing, we suspect.
Posted by Terry K.
at 1:37 AM EDT
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Meanwhile ...
Topic: NewsBusters Media Matters details how NewsBusters, with an assist from Media Research Center chief Brent Bozell, piled up the smears and misinformation about new Medicare head Donald Berwick.
Posted by Terry K.
at 1:33 PM EDT
Robert Ringer Derangement Syndrome Watch
Topic: WorldNetDaily What sort of goofy thing is Robert Ringer saying this week? Why, it's term limits for the Supreme Court! Oh, and also strip voting rights from government employees:
How, exactly, is Ringer "A Voice of Sanity"?
Posted by Terry K.
at 1:28 AM EDT
Friday, July 9, 2010
NewsBusters Ignores Exoneration of Scientist It Repeatedly Attacked
Topic: NewsBusters NewsBusters has an entire category dedicated to climate scientist Michael Mann -- and not because it likes him. Instead, it's filled with attack after attack on Mann; for instance, an April 28 post by Jeff Poor describes him as "a central figure in the Climategate scandal" and "best known for his discredited "hockey stick graph." Noel Sheppard, meanwhile, promoted a parody video built around a misrepresentation of Mann's statement in a stolen "Climategate" email referring to a method to "hide the decline" in certain data. Sheppard also touted how Mann is "being investigated by his University as a result of his involvement in ClimateGate." Well, that investigation has been completed at the beginning of. What did it find? CBS News' Wyatt Andrews explains:
You'd think that NewsBusters would want to report such serious news to its readers, but no -- more than a week after theMann report was released, NewsBusters has yet to acknowledge its existence. Oops! NewsBusters should want to correct the record and admit its attacks were bogus. But so far it won't.
Posted by Terry K.
at 11:55 AM EDT
Inaccuracy in Academia: Kline Misleads on New Deal Unemployment
Topic: Accuracy in Media Accuracy in Academia's Malcolm Kline writes in a July 8 Accuracy in Media article:
This is a highly misleading generalization. As we've previously noted, unemployment peaked in 1933 at 24.9 percent and had dropped to 14.3 percent in 1937 -- de facto evidence that the New Deal worked. While unemployment increased in 1938 and 1939, many experts believe that it was because Roosevelt cut spending and raised taxes in an effort to reduce the deficit. Further, government statistics at the time did not count those in government work projects as being "employed," even though they technically were. Kline has a history of making misleading claims. So much for "accuracy in academia."
Posted by Terry K.
at 10:49 AM EDT
Updated: Friday, July 9, 2010 11:06 AM EDT
WND's Farah, Rush Promote Bogus New Black Panther Case
Topic: WorldNetDaily Joseph Farah used his July 8 WorldNetDaily column to promote the dubious and unsubstantiated claims of J. Christian Adams that the Obama administraiton "dropped the voter-intimidation case against the New Black Panther Party because Obama's Justice Department refuses to prosecute black defendants accused of victimizing whites." Farah adds: "It's a shocking case – given the overwhelming evidence against the radical, revolutionary racists in the center of it." What Farah won't tell you: the Bush administration -- not the Obama administration -- declined to press criminal charges against the New Black Panthers, and Adams has no firsthand knowledge of the claims he's making. Nevertheless, Farah goes on to whine: "Think about this: The Obama Justice Department refused to prosecute the New Black Panther Party. The Obama Justice Department has refused to prosecute ACORN. But the Obama Justice Department is prosecuting the state of Arizona for enforcing U.S. laws against illegal immigration!" Farah was joined in promoting Adams' bogus claims by Erik Rush, who ranted:
Of course, the Obama administration isn't the one playing the racism card since they weren't the ones who declined to prosecute the case. But nobody ever said that Farah and Rush care about telling the truth.
Posted by Terry K.
at 2:24 AM EDT
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