Topic: WorldNetDaily
WND drops Coulter as a speaker for its big conference, setting off a war of words that shows just how anti-gay Joseph Farah and crew really are. Read more >>
Thursday, August 26, 2010
New Article: Ann Coulter Doesn't Hate Gays Enough for WorldNetDaily
Topic: WorldNetDaily WND drops Coulter as a speaker for its big conference, setting off a war of words that shows just how anti-gay Joseph Farah and crew really are. Read more >>
Posted by Terry K.
at 12:40 AM EDT
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Oops! Koch-Defending NewsBusters Doesn't Disclose MRC Accepted Koch Money
Topic: NewsBusters An Aug. 23 NewsBusters post by P.J. Gladnick attacks New York magazine for publishing a "hit piece" article on businessmen Charles and David Koch over the alleged "thought crime" of "contributing to conservative causes." Gladnick fails to mention that his publisher has taken Koch money as well. According to Conservative Transparency, the Media Research Center has accepted nearly $10,000 from the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation and the Koch Family-controlled Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation. Gladnick also insists that the Center for Public Integrity is "a left-wing group which is funded by the aforementioned George Soros." But that supposed poolitical affiliation is doubtful -- as we documented, CPI underwrote the reporting that went into WorldNetDaily dubious hit job on Al Gore in the 2000 election, which drew an actual $165 million libel lawsuit from a Tennessee car dealer smeared in the article series. WND eventually admitted that the charges were false and settled the case out of court for an undisclosed sum.
Posted by Terry K.
at 3:32 PM EDT
AIM Admits Wash. Times' Coverage Is Ideology Driven
Topic: Accuracy in Media An Aug. 25 Accuracy in Media blog post by Don Irvine on the possibility that Rev. Sun Myung Moon will take over the Washington Times from his son led to some reminiscing on Don Irvine's part, who spills the beans on just how ideology-driven its news coverage was:
Of course, it's not news that the Washingto Times is heavily conservative. But Irvine's admission that there were issues with some journalists who were apparently more interested in reporting the news instead of pushing Moon's "ideology" -- and that AIM apparently endorses ideology over news -- reveals a lot about the Times (and a little about how AIM doesn't really care all that much about accuracy in media).
Posted by Terry K.
at 2:13 PM EDT
Klein Puts Words in Rauf's Mouth
Topic: WorldNetDaily An Aug. 24 WorldNetDaily article by Aaron Klein carries the headline "Ground Zero imam pushes 'eradication' of Jewish state." But Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, who wants to build an Islamic cultural center near the Ground Zero site in New York, never said "eradication." In fact, the only person using it in the article is Klein himself:
Klein fails to offer the full context in which Rauf made his statement -- all that is quoted, in text and in the audio, is only the supposedly offending claim. Klein also offers no evidence that the idea Rauf forwarded is "widely regarded" as "promoting the eradication of Israel" -- in fact, he quotes no one specifically reacting to Rauf's idea. Further, Klein fails to note, as Media Matters does, that former right-wing Likud Party official Moshe Arens has pointed out that Israel is "already a binational state, and also a multicultural and multi-sector state," and that Likud, which currently leads Israel's ruling coalition, is discussing alternatives to a two-state solution. But remember, Klein is a sympathizer of far-right Israeli politics and has declared that he "agree[s] with some of the sentiments of Rabbi Meir Kahane" -- the most prominent of which was expulsion of all Arabs from Israel, as well as Gaza and the West Bank.
Posted by Terry K.
at 1:19 PM EDT
CNS' Catholic Conflict of Interest
Topic: CNSNews.com An Aug. 24 CNSNews.com article by Pete Winn touts criticism of President Obama's upcoming speech at New Orleans' Xavier University, a Catholic school, by Patrick Reilly, president of the Cardinal Newman Society, which Winn describes as "a lay Catholic educational organization." But Winn doesn't disclose that his boss, Media Research Center chief Brent Bozell, is on the board of directors of the Cardinal Newman Society. We detailed how CNS similarly failed to disclose this important fact when covering the group's criticism of Obama's speech at Notre Dame last year.
Posted by Terry K.
at 11:36 AM EDT
MRC's Hypocritical Attack on Left-Wing Radio Hosts
Topic: Media Research Center The Media Research Center has issued a report by Rich Noyes asserting that liberal radio hosts are "The Real Radio Hatemongers," as opposed to conservative radio hosts. Of course, the MRC has to overlook a few things to reach that conclusion. First, Noyes complains:
Missing from Noyes' report is any attempt to disprove those criticisms, or even any specific quote from those conservative hosts. Noyes continues:
But the MRC has done the exact same thing -- demonize liberal hosts while giving conservative hosts a pass for their offensive words. As we've detailed, the MRC -- despite its own anti-obsenity agenda -- couldn't get worked up about Rush Limbaugh's repeated references to anal sex on his show. Further, none of the liberal hosts the MRC is attacking has anywhere near the audience or corporate promotional backing of the top right-wing hosts. The highest-rated hosts targeted by the MRC -- Ed Schultz and Thom Hartmann -- have only one-sixth the audience of the top right-wing talker, Rush Limbaugh. Their syndicator, Dial Global, has a much smaller presence than Premiere Radio Networks, the syndicator of the top three radio hosts, Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity. The report's biggest target, Mike Malloy, self-syndicates his show. The MRC seems to have overlooked that the reason liberal talkers get so little attention in the media is because their audiences are proportionally small. That, coupled with the MRC's refusal to hold conservatives accountable for their words -- or even to acknowledge that they make controversial remarks too -- shows that this report is too hypocritical to be taken seriously.
Posted by Terry K.
at 1:53 AM EDT
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Obama Derangement Syndrome Watch
Topic: WorldNetDaily
-- Dave Welch, Aug. 21 WorldNetDaily column
-- Ellis Washington, Aug. 21 WorldNetDaily column
-- Chuck Norris, Aug. 23 WorldNetDaily column
-- Barbara Simpson, Aug. 23 WorldNetDaily column
-- Mychal Massie, Aug. 24 WorldNetDaily column
Posted by Terry K.
at 9:05 PM EDT
Better Late Than Never: Newsmax Endorses McCain
Topic: Newsmax An Aug. 24 Newsmax editorial endorses John McCain in his Republican primary for his Arizona Senate seat over J.D. Hayworth. But Newsmax is a little late to the party -- the election is today as well. Newsmax endorsed Bill McCollum for the Florida governor's race over Rick Scott in the Republican primary -- which is also today -- on Aug. 9. That allowed Newsmax to slant its coverage in favor of McCollum and against Scott, something it has not noticably done in the McCain-Hayworth race. Newsmax' tardy endorsement of McCain, at a time when it could not possibly affect the race, suggests that it was not an enthusiastic one -- after all, it is endorsing the establishment candidate over a relative outsider.
Posted by Terry K.
at 2:52 PM EDT
MRC's Baker Misleads About Iraq War Coverage
Topic: NewsBusters An Aug. 21 NewsBusters post by Brent Baker purports to detail how "The peaceful departure of the last U.S. combat forces from Iraq this week was another milestone towards the successful end of a war that many liberal journalists declared lost four years ago." Baker adds, "Since early 2009, the war in Iraq has been a relatively low priority for the national press, which has focused on decrying the war in Afghanistan and cheerleading the Obama administration’s aggressive domestic agenda." Baker is careful to avoid one notable question: If the war was so successful as a Republican venture, why did Fox News largely refuse to cover the withdrawal of the final combat unit from Iraq? The Associated Press reported that while MSNBC "devoted its entire prime-time footprint to the story" on Aug. 19, Fox News "devoted just under 10 minutes to the story, much of it during Shepard Smith's 7 p.m. newscast." As we've previously noted, MRC's studies of Iraq war news coverage largely have avoided any examination of Fox News, presumably because its war coverage isn't any better, and may actually be worse, than other news outlets. The so-called liberal media isn't the only outlet for which war coverage became a "relatively low priority." Just don't expect Baker or the MRC to admit that.
Posted by Terry K.
at 2:06 PM EDT
AIM's Kincaid: Gay = Treason
Topic: Accuracy in Media Accuracy in Media's Cliff Kincaid keeps up the goofy crusade of equating homosexuality with treason with his Aug. 20 column attacking Bradley Manning, suspected of leaking classified war documents to WikiLeaks. "In addition to being openly gay, he was a humanist and atheist," Kincaid writes, adding, "The new information adds to the case, made by Accuracy in Media, that the much-criticized “Don’t ask, Don’t tell,” homosexual exclusion policy was not being strictly enforced under the Obama Administration." Kincaid goes on:
See? For Kincaid, gay = treason. Perhaps instead of examining Manning's childhood for the " lack of a father figure in his life," Kincaid should examine what makes him such a hateful, bitter man.
Posted by Terry K.
at 8:26 AM EDT
Newsmax's Last-Minute Attacks on Rick Scott
Topic: Newsmax Newsmax has already skewed its news coverage of the Republican primary for the Florida governor's race around its endorsement of Bill McCollum over Rick Scott, so it's no surprise that as election day neared, Newsmax gets in a few more licks of bias:
The election is today; we'll find out soon enough what effect Newsmax's biased coverage had on the race.
Posted by Terry K.
at 12:04 AM EDT
Monday, August 23, 2010
Joseph Farah Is Morally Superior To You
Topic: WorldNetDaily Joseph Farah returns to the WND-Ann Coulter imbroglio by asserting his moral superiority over us lowly folks and even his fellow evangelicals. Why? Because we don't hate gays as much as he does, of course. After starting his Aug. 23 column by saying that "I don't have any intention of beating to death my personal dustup with Ann Coulter," he declares that some of the email he has received on the subject "requires further exploration." That would be how some evangelicals aren't as anti-gay as they should be:
Farah concludes with another shot at Coulter and his fellow evangelicals:
Perhaps if Farah didn't act so arrogant about his perceived moral superiority (WND's army of lies amply demonstrate that he's not), he might be a little more persuasive.
Posted by Terry K.
at 9:31 PM EDT
Updated: Monday, August 23, 2010 9:33 PM EDT
Pat Boone Calls Obama White House A 'Mosque'
Topic: WorldNetDaily Pat Boone's latest anti-Obama screed, published Aug. 21 at WorldNetDaily, begins this way:
Oh, somehow we're pretty sure Boone had no problem whatsoever writing such a thing, given his factually challenged animus toward the president -- after all, this is the same guy who thinks Obama is a rodent who must be fumigated out of the building. Speaking of factually challenged, Boone spreads a few whoppers in his column, such as claiming: "One of his close friends took him on a prolonged visit to Pakistan during those years, and the question remains about Obama's passport. If it was American, he would not have been allowed in Pakistan – so what was it?" In fact, as we've detailed, Obama could have easily -- and, accepting the most likely explanation, probably did -- travel to Pakistan on a U.S. passport, since the State Department and the New York Times were advising Americans on how to do it. Boone also claims that Obama's "support team has spent close to $2 million suppressing all that information." That's not exactly true either; as we've noted, that's the amount of money that was spent on attorneys, and there's no evidence that amount was spent only on birther lawsuits. And then there's this statement: "On Friday the 13th, ironically, the president hosted his second Ramadan dinner at the White House. He was not the first to do so; Hillary Clinton did the same in 1996, and a Ramadan occasion has become an expected annual affair since." Um, Hillary Clinton was never president, Pat. Boone also makes the baseless claim that "Muslims and homosexual activists have been invitees at the White House more than any Christian or Jewish representatives have." He offers no evidence to support this claim.
Posted by Terry K.
at 5:23 PM EDT
Mediaite Guesses Correctly
Topic: NewsBusters A Mediaite article by Michael Triplett examines the New York Times' coverage of gays and related issues, writing that while "few papers cover the LGBT community as extensively as the New York Times, but it is far from perfect"" and concluding, "And, of course, conservative critics of the paper will always contend there is a strong pro-gay bias, not matter the facts on the ground." How right Triplett is. An Aug. 21 NewsBusters post by Tim Graham quotes from Triplett's article, including the above statement. And what is Graham's headline onhis post? ''So-called Gay Mafia' Adding Bias to the New York Times." Why, it's as if Triplett was reading Graham's mind. Or, more likely, he was so familiar with right-wing attacks on the Times that he knew that any non-negative coverage of gays is seen by the likes of the MRC as axiomatic of bias.
Posted by Terry K.
at 1:20 PM EDT
WND Solves 'Mystery' of Why People Think Obama Is Muslim
Topic: WorldNetDaily An Aug. 20 WorldNetDaily article carries the headline; "Mystery solved! Why Americans think president is Muslim." And what's the solution that WND comes up with, via right-wing writer and radio host Chuck Morse? Obama secretly is Muslim. No, really:
WND has tried to push the secret-Muslim thing at least once before, in a column by Pieder Beeli. And like Beeli, Morse gets the idea of taqiyya completely wrong. As we've previously noted, Hussein Ibish, senior fellow at the American Task Force on Palestine, has said that the idea promoted by people like Beeli that taqiyya "constitutes a carte blanche for all Muslims to lie to all non-Muslims" is false; rather, it permits Muslims to lie about their faith in order to save themselves from imminent harm or death. "If there is a major religion that does not contain a doctrine that might permit someone to recant at the stake or before the axe, I am not aware of it," Ibish adds. Of course, the fact that right-wingers like Morse and WND love to perpetuate a lie couldn't possibly have anything to do with why people think this about Obama.
Posted by Terry K.
at 8:16 AM EDT
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