WND Selling John Hagee's Crazy Prophecy Book Topic: WorldNetDaily
John Hagee is apparently back in the good graces of WorldNetDaily.
WND editor Joseph Farah once described Hagee as "my friend," but after initially failing to report any of Hagee's controversial statements following his endorsement of John McCain in 2008 (a candidate WND managing editor David Kupelian also endorsed), Farah finally bailed on Hagee after his statement that Adolf Hitler was God's instrument to get the Jews back to the Middle East.
But it seems Hagee has done his time in WND's doghouse -- it's now selling Hagee's latest book, "Will America Survive?" The blurb for the book at WND's store states, "Carefully documented facts and powerful biblical teaching are the basis for the provocative claims and predictions outlined in this riveting book."
Hagee's book even got a fawning review from WND columnist Jim Fletcher (nostranger to slavishly parroting the WND corporate line), in which he slobbers that it's "a thoroughly absorbing book that reads almost like an action novel – the San Antonio pastor is clearly concerned for his home country. Hagee today is perhaps the quintessential prophetic pastor in America, a throwback not only to an early Billy Graham, or a Charles Finney, but also going all the way back to the fiery prophets of Judah."
Of course, the view from someone without a financial stake in selling the book has a somewhat different view. Ben Demiero at Media Matters details some of the craziness in Hagee's book that Fletcher and WND won't tell you about, such as:
Declaring "the very real fact that in the near future planet Earth is going to experience, on a specific day, global ecological disaster in which one-third of humanity will die."
Asserting that he on good authority from a "confidential source" that Al-Qaeda, working with Iran, is going to detonate nuclear weapons in seven American cities.
Stating as fact that "World War III is about to begin."
Insisting that anyone who criticizes his apocalyptic theories is simply more evidence that he is right.
It was worth Hagee getting back into WND's good graces for this?
MRC Shoots the Messenger Topic: Media Research Center
A Sept. 18 Media Research Center item (and NewsBusters post) by Brent Baker goes the shoot-the-messenger route in its continued protection of Republican Delaware Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell. In it, Baker dismisses Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington -- which has called for an investigation of O'Donnell for alleged "chronic abuse of campaign funds" -- as an "obviously liberal outfit" and "a left-wing organization staffed by veterans of Democratic congressional offices." Baker went on to huff that CREW's "Crooked Candidates 2010” list "features nine Republicans and just three Democrats, which suggests they are cover for the group's real agenda."
At no point does Baker make any effort to counter the charges CREW makes. This suggests once again that the MRC -- contrary to its demand for the media to "tell the truth" -- is much more interested in intimidating people from telling the truth when that truth is unfavorable to conservative candidates like O'Donnell.
AIM Tirade: 'An Ecofascist Crescent Moon Near Ground Zero' Topic: Accuracy in Media
Last year, we noted an Accuracy in Media column by Mark Musser likening environmentalists to Nazis because, hey, Hitler was an environmentalist too.
Now, Musser is back to the same thing to Muslims. In a Sept. 15 AIM column headlined "An Ecofascist Crescent Moon Near Ground Zero," Musser takes the opportunity to riff on a claim that the proposed Islamic center near Ground Zero would be a "green mosque" conforming with federal LEED standards to claim that "injecting environmentalism into Islam is hardly uncontroversial" because 'Both Islam and environmentalism loathe western financial institutions, all of which was best represented by the Twin Towers—the bastion of international free trade—before they came crashing down in flames on 9/11." Musser continues:
That environmental regulations have already played a large role in stalling the rebuilding of Ground Zero is not something that should go unnoticed, especially now with a green mosque going up nearby.
Blending environmentalism with Islam can only serve to strengthen the totalitarian ideals of the green movement. With modern environmentalism’s fixation on ecological holism that strictly views people and their economic activities as expendable, unbalanced, unsustainable and cancerous—this will only be greatly bolstered and strengthened by the totalitarian will of Allah. If modern western man is way out of line with regard to the environmental movement, just think what it will mean when Allah enters into the equation.
Musser seems to be trying to make a living smearing environmentalists with the worst smears he can think of. The fact that his most prominent media outlet for such smears is AIM suggets it's not much of a living.
Graham Rushes to D'Souza's Defense Topic: NewsBusters
Tim Graham uses a Sept. 17 NewsBusters post to defend Dinesh D'Souza's bizarre, error-ridden attack on President Obama in Forbes magazine, in which D'Souza declares that Obama's policies should be understood as a manifestation of his African father's "hatred of the colonial system." Graham's defense, though, is less about addressing anything D'Souza says and more about attacking the article's critics.
After the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz took D'Souza to task for highlighting Obama's upbringing "off the American mainland, in Hawaii" by noting that Hawaii "may be off the American mainland, but it is hardly out of the American mainstream," Graham huffed:
This is again, not a "fact," but a spin. Hawaii is clearly more than 2500 miles form the mainland. As much fun as reporters make of hicks in Kentucky or Alabama, suggesting they are out of the mainstream, it's just as fair game to question the "mainstream" cultural viewpoint of Hawaii. If the red states are "less than cosmopolitan," the blue states are "less than nationalistic."
When Kurtz highlighted the Columbia Journalism Review's criticism of D'Souza's piece, Graham didn't address any of those criticisms but instead retorted, "The Columbia Journalism Review is a left-wing rag." His evidence? The same CJR writer also criticized Rick Santelli's tea party-inspiring rant as, in Graham's word, "comical." No, Graham doesn't address anything the CJR writer actually said there, either.
Graham seems not to understand that ad hominem attacks are not actual media criticism.
A Sept 16 WorldNetDaily article by Joe Kovacs describes in its full glory Western Journalism Center chief Floyd Brown's tirade at WND's "Taking Back America" conference that President Obama should be impeached:
"The Obama presidency is a disease," said Brown. "Article 2, Section 4 (the impeachment clause of the Constitution) is the cure. And it's Obama's hatred of America that makes it absolutely imperative that we take action now."
"Barack Hussein Obama is not some do-gooder that has had his plans go astray," Brown added. "He is not a person of good will just trying his best to make America go the right direction. He is not. Barack Hussein Obama is a liar that absolutely knows what he's doing to the United States of America. He has a plan. He has an agenda. This man knows exactly where he's taking us."
A political innovator, writer and speaker, Brown is now running an online campaign to impeach the president.
"Barack Obama is a very dangerous man," said Brown. "Over the last two years, we have been watching the slow progression of what I call a bloodless coup."
Read all about the grounds for impeachment.
"For the international socialist movement of which Barack Obama is a card-carrying member," he added, "the U.S. must be brought to its knees, and I guarantee you that Barack Hussein Obama is doing everything he can to bring the country to its knees. He wants to bring it to its knees."
[...]
"Obama hates Christianity," Brown declared. "He is a Muslim. Others will say he's just a godless atheist. The bottom line is that this man hates Christianity."
He said at Georgetown University, Obama forced the school to cover the name of Jesus on the podium, and he paraphrased the president's comments suggesting the U.S. was no longer a Christian nation, but could now be considered a Muslim nation.
"Whatever we once were, we're no longer a Christian nation; we are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, a Hindu nation, and a nation of non-believers," Obama stated.
"He said it!" exclaimed Brown. "Have you read about it in the New York Times, the Washington Post, or the Wall Street Journal? There is a conspiracy of silence in the mainstream media to cover up this man's hatred of Christianity."
He quoted American leaders of the past, including President Andrew Jackson, who called the Bible "the rock upon which our republic rests," and Patrick Henry, who said, "It is when a people forget God, that tyrants forge their chains."
"Obama is that tyrant and he's working that anvil right now of forging our chains," said Brown.
We've picked up a copy of the recently released WJC book "A Case For Impeachment" -- written in the same tone and factual veracity as Brown's tirade -- and we'll be writing about it shortly.
CNS' Gotcha Interview of Holdren Topic: CNSNews.com
CNSNews.com, on top of their gotcha FOIA requests, has a new gotcha tactic: plucking a random quote of a book by a liberal, then ambushing them with it.
Here's how this worked in a Sept. 16 CNS article by Nicholas Ballasy, in which the victim was longtimeright-wing target John Holdren:
CNSNews.com asked Holdren about this passage on Tuesday after he participated in an Environmental Protection Agency forum celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Clean Air Act.
CNSNews.com asked: “You wrote ‘a massive campaign must be launched to restore a high quality environment in North America and to de-develop the United States’ in your book Human Ecology. Could you explain what you meant by de-develop the United States?”
Holdren responded: “What we meant by that was stopping the kinds of activities that are destroying the environment and replacing them with activities that would produce both prosperity and environmental quality. Thanks a lot.”
CNSNews.com then asked: “And how do you plan on implementing that?”
“Through the free market economy,” Holdren said.
As Media Matters notes, this quote was plucked from a book Holdren co-wrote in 1973 -- nearly 40 years ago -- and was asked apropos of nothing.
Melissa Clouthier turns NewsBusters into a supermarket tabloid for a Sept. 16 post, pouncing on a claim that Michelle Obama told French first lady Carla Bruni that life in the White House is "hell":
It's tough being the wife of the most powerful man in the world, just ask Michelle Obama. Carla Bruni, who seemed to reveal her distaste for the First Lady in previous pictures, reveals Michelle's whiny comments in her recent book [Aside: why is a sitting world leader's spouse writing a tell-all? What tawdriness.]
Well, of course the job is difficult-prepared meals, jet-setting, specially designed clothes, lecturing the American people on eating apples is exhausting work.
Also, it's awful. Not out-of-a-job awful. Not repo awful. Not foreclosure awful. Not hungry awful. But, yeah, being First Lady is awful.
Michelle Obama and that husband of her's just don't quite cast an empathetic image, do they?
[...]
When an entitled person feels perpetually ripped off, they tend to feel less empathy for those they perceive as ripping them off. So, that lack of empathy; that attitude of being put-upon? That's genuine no matter how the lib press wants to rationalize it away.
[...]
Michelle Obama is not burdened. The woman doesn't know from burden. And Barack Obama is not mis-perceived by the American people. They are seeing his cold nature for what it is: hard hearted. No amount of fawning press can obscure what is becoming more obvious.
Apparently, this story provided so perfect an opportunity for Clouthier to spew her hate that she couldn't be bothered to check the facts.
And what are those facts? Both Obama and Bruni deny the statement was made, and the claim comes from an unauthorized biography, not from Bruni herself. The report Clouthier is quoting comes from a British tabloid, not from an American publication.
Apparently, the MRC's "Tell the Truth" campaign doesn't apply to itself.
MRC Launches Campaign to Bully Media Topic: Media Research Center
All week, the Media Research Center had been teasing a "major announcement" by Brent Bozell and the Media Research Center. Well, it finally happened on Sept. 15 via webcast. The MRC has not seen fit to put up the video of the announcement, but we watched it and took notes.
The "major announcement," presented as Bozell was fake-interviewed by CNS' Terry Jeffrey, really isn't all that major: this year's version of the "Tell the Truth" campaign it has previously run.Bozell began by claiming he doesn't want a conservative media, he just wants balance. And toget that, he plans to orchestrate "the most public display of national outrage you've ever seen" over the so-called "liberal media," which includes signs to be given out at tea party rallies as well as moving billboards they plan to drive around the headquarters of the various networks. The Twitter feed of the MRC's Brent Baker has a picture of one of the moving billboards outside MRC headquarters.
The ultimate goal of the campaign, Bozell said, is to have the media make one of two choices -- continue this and go out of business, or go back to real journalism.
We've previously noted the MRC's 2004 campaign, in which the goal wasn't to get the media to "tell the truth" at all but, rather, to bully the media into repeating conservative talking points. Indeed, that appears to be the goal here as well.
A Sept. 16 MRC press release illustrates this bullying approach. It highlights five quotes regarding new Tea Party darling Christine O'Donnell that Bozell portrays as "mudsliging at its ugliest. Pure character assassination." Bozell goes on to harangue: "These networks have never treated a viable Democratic candidate with this level of contempt. How dare they lecture anyone on manners or decency ever again."
Of the five quotes Bozell cites, two are news reports quoting the state Republican chairman in Delaware calling O'Donnell a liar who couldn't get elected dog catcher. A third is a news report stating, "Democratic officials are gleeful and called her an ultra right wing extremist." That is a fact, and the state Republican chairman's statement is a fact. At no point does Bozell dispute the accuracy of this.
What Bozell is doing is relabeling facts as smears in order to intimidate the media into not reporting them.
The other two are statements by Mike Barnicle and Joy Behar -- commentators who expressing opinions, not reporters fowarding news.
It seems that Bozell wants only positive coverage of Tea Party candidates. That's not telling the truth.
Jack Cashill's Double Standard on Violent Nutcases Topic: WorldNetDaily
Jack Cashill's Sept. 16 WorldNetDaily column is devoting to grousing that the media has ignored that a student who slashed the throat of a Kansas community college president "seems to have absorbed just about every animus in the left-wing ether: environmental extremism, radical Islam, anti-capitalism, anti-Zionism and Christophobia, among others." Cashill claimd that "comparable demons drove 'environmental activist' James Lee to storm the headquarters of the Discovery Broadcasting Channel. His inspiration too went largely unexamined." Cashill concluded that "For the last century or more, it is the progressive fever swamps that have nurtured most of the world's hate and virtually all of its violence, including, paradoxically, radical Islam."
But Cashill frets much less about violence with right-wing origins. As we've detailed, Cashill found nothing radical about Scott Roeder, convicted of murdering Kansas abortion doctor George Tiller in church -- in fact, Cashill praised Roeder for administering "frontier justice." And Cashill has repeatedly served as apologist for Steven Nary, convicted of killing a gay man, by demonizing the victim and ignoring incriminating evidence against Nary.
Rove Gets Heathered At NewsBusters Topic: NewsBusters
If there's one thing the boys at the Media Research Center and NewsBusters believe (beyond the increasingly dubious claim that the media has an insidious liberal bias), it's ideological purity. Hence its embrace of Heathering, in which snippy remarks are sent the way of any conservative who has committed the offense of not marching in lockstep with the right-wing party line.
Even stalwart conservative Republicans are not immune from the Heathering treatment if they offend the MRC ideology police. So it really shouldn't be a shock that none other than Karl Rove found himself on the receiving end, despite NewsBusters' long history of praising Rove's genius.
Rove's crime? Saying that Christine O'Donnell could not win the general election for Joe Biden's old Delaware Senate seat because she does not "evince the characteristics of rectitude and truthfulness and sincerity and character that voters are looking for."
Criticizing a tea party darling, no matter how truthful the criticism, is simply not permitted by the MRC. And so the Heathering began. Mark Finkelstein looked askance at "rip the winner" O'Donnell, which continued even as host Sean Hannity "defended O'Donnell staunchly."
Finkelstein followed up by what may be a grave insult by NewsBusters standards -- he tied Rove to frequent Heathering victim Joe Scarborough by highlighing how Scarborough said that he agreed with Rove's criticism.
Scott Whitlock then claimed that "liberal journalists" were using the comments to "highlight Karl Rove as an authoritative voice."
On Sept. 16, Finkelstein portrayed Rove's remarks as part of "the trashing of Christine O'Donnell."
NewsBusters' Heathering, though, is fairly tame so far compared with the freak-out other right-wing bloggers have been engaging in, hurling insults at Rove and other conservative former allies insufficiently supportive of O'Donnell with a frequency normally reserved for members of the so-called liberal media.
How long will Rove stay in NewsBusters' doghouse? Perhaps not for much longer, now that Rove has backpedaled.
Joseph Farah headlined his Sept. 15 column, "Where is truth?"
The answer, of course, is not at WorldNetDaily, which publishes lieafterlieafterlie.
Farah, of course, will not tell you that. He's actually complaining about the New York Times being insufficient respectful of WND's birther conspiracy theories and yet again blaming President Obama for ignoring said conspiracy theories.
Given Farah's own lies about the birther stuff, it's no wonder he's searching for truth -- he apparently can't find it anywhere within his own news organization.
UPDATE: Speaking of FArah's inability to tell the truth, Farah writes in his Sept,. 16 column, complaining about a Wall Street Journal blogger who called WND "a media outlet that says Barack Obama is foreign-born and can’t be president":
"If you can't find one reference anywhere in WND's extensive archives in which anyone at WND concludes, claims or states that Obama is foreign born, I want a retraction and correction issued by you," I told him. "I'll save you the trouble. There aren't any such references."
Actually, there are. As we've pointed out, WND columnist Craige McMillan hasrepeatedlycalled Obama an "illegal alien," which sounds an awful lot like a statement that Obama is foreign born, and the whole of WND's coverage is designed to portray Obama as a foreign entity. No correction necessary.
The WSJ blogger also tweaks WND for referring to a stop on its upcoming cruise as being in "Hispanola" when it's actually in Haiti (located on the island of Hispanola). Farah is upset about that, too.
Posted by Terry K.
at 9:21 AM EDT
Updated: Thursday, September 16, 2010 10:15 AM EDT
New Article: The Color of Money, The Color of Bias Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center makes increasingly desperate and logic-defying attempts to spin away News Corp.'s $1 million donation to a Republican group. Read more >>
Remember that endorsement Newsmax made of Chris Cox in the New York 1st District Republican primary? That didn't work out so well.
Cox ended up third in the three-man race, getting just 23 percent of the vote. The winner, Randy Altschuler, received 45 percent, with George Demos receiving 30 percent.
So this worked about as well as Newsmax's endorsement of Bill McCollum, and it didn't even have to grossly slant its coverage of the race in the process or send Christopher Ruddy and Dick Morris to quietly raise money for him.
Walsh Peddles Fistful of Unsubstantiated Claims Topic: Newsmax
The Sept. 13 column by anti-immigration activist James Walsh is headlined, "Federal Figures on Illegal Aliens Misleading." But Walsh appears to be the one doing the misleading by making a slew of unsubstantiated claims.
Walsh writes:
Unfortunately, federal government estimates of illegal alien numbers tend to rely on flawed data based on erroneous assumptions. Flawed in one is flawed in all.
Contrary to the Pew study, the downturn in the U.S. economy has not stopped the flow of illegal aliens across the southwest border. The only “change” is that illegal aliens who once came for jobs now come for social and health entitlements.
What evidence does Walsh cite to back up this claim? None.
The Obama administration early on created DHS Fusion Centers located across the nation purportedly to assist federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies in sharing intelligence and thwarting terrorism such as the 9/11 attacks.
Instead these Fusion Centers have become mechanisms for domestic spying, political chicanery, and labeling as suspect those who support enforcement of existing U.S. immigration laws. Secretary Napolitano stands by DHS reports that question the patriotism of U.S. citizens who question Obama's policies.
What evidence does Walsh cite to back up this claim? None.
Meanwhile, many announcements by federal agencies appear to be originating in the White House war room, with the input of radical left groups, such as the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Center for American Progress. These groups are leading advocates of open borders and amnesty for all.
What evidence does Walsh cite to back up this claim? None.
The Obama administration would reshape U.S. immigration as a transnational right, which is not surprising with a president who was touted by the German press as a “citizen of the world.” Amnesty was the Obama campaign promise that won him the Hispanic vote. Whether he achieves it by federal legislation or executive policy, unauthorized-immigrant advocates are holding him to that promise.
What evidence does Walsh cite to back up this claim? None.
But Walsh isn't done misleading. He writes:
In laying the groundwork for amnesty, the Obama administration claims that the southwest border is “as secure as it’s been in 20 years.” If based on border apprehensions, such claims are fallacious.
Current apprehensions at the border may well be down to 1990 levels, but the explanation is not fewer border crossers, but more U.S. Border Patrol agents detailed to offices miles from these “too dangerous” borderlands.
By focusing on border apprehensions, Walsh ignores other indicators that border enforcement is up. As PolitiFact details, the number of people removed from the U.S. via deportation or other means has dramatically increased. Further, according to PolitiFact, the reason border apprehensions are down is because the number of people attempting to cross the border from Mexico has declined -- contrary to Walsh's unsubstantiated assertion that it hasn't.
Walsh even dragged out the hoary old freakout that a report issued by the Department of Homeland Security 'question[ed] the patriotism of U.S. citizens who question Obama's policies" and depicted "military veterans" as "suspect" for becoming "adherents of right-wing extremism." In fact, an FBI report issued under the Bush administration was cited as evidence that "White supremacist extremist Web sites tend to view the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as an opportunity to recruit new members." Walsh also conveniently fails to mention that DHS issued a similar report on left-wing extremism.
CNS' Starr Offended City Spending Tourism Money to Attract Gays Topic: CNSNews.com
A Sept. 14 CNSNews.com article by Penny Starr begins:
The Richmond Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau (RMCVB), which is funded in part by hotel taxes, is promoting an initiative by local businesses to attract homosexuals to Virginia’s capital.
But Starr never explains why this is a bad thing, beyond the implication that spending tax money on gay people is inherently a bad thing. Starr's laughable attempt to find something wrong with a city expanding its tourism reach is best exemplifiedby this section, in which Starr details her incisive questioning:
Erin Bagnell, public relations manager for the RMCVB, and Jennifer Carnam, vice president of marketing, confirmed that although White and other sponsors are funding the Rainbow Over Richmond campaign, hotel tax funding is used to pay for all of the RMCVB’s operating costs, including its Web site and the pages it hosts and promotes.
Bagnell and Carnam told CNSNews.com that this mission of RMCVB is to promote and support all efforts to increase tourism in the Richmond region, be it an item added by a local arts group on its Web site calendar or by hosting a landing page on its Web site for initiatives like Rainbow Over Richmond.
CNSNews.com asked Bagnell and Carnam, “According to your Web site, your organization is funded in part by lodging, a portion of the lodging taxes from people who come and stay in hotels in Richmond, correct?”
Carnam answered, “Yes.”
CNSNews.com also asked the following: “If you go to Rainbow Over Richmond, you end up on your Web site [a landing page for Rainbow site], so your organization is funded – everything you do, whether it’s your personnel, office space, your Web site, your utilities – that a portion of what you do as a group, as a non-profit, a portion of your income is from lodging taxes? Correct?”
Carnam answered, “Correct.”
“That’s what we’re charged with at the convention and visitors bureau; to drive people to this area,” Bagnell said.
“We’re a welcoming destination,” Bagnell said. “We are welcoming to all.”
“Our goal is to promote the Richmond region as a welcoming destination, whether you’re coming for a family with your kids from the Washington, D.C., area or whether you’re bringing your family reunion, or whether you have a religious conference,” Carnam said. “We’re one of the top destinations for religious organizations who come here and use our convention center.”
This is nothing more than a failed attempt at homophobia. Starr has previouslyrelayed anti-gay sentiments in her CNS articles.
