Newsmax' Hirsen Misleads About Soros, Ignores Right-Wing Entertainment Mogul Topic: Newsmax
In his Jan. 19 "Left Coast Report," Newsmax's James Hirsen makes a big deal out of how a Jewish group critical of Glenn Beck "gets its money from [George] Soros’ Open Society Institute." Hirsen added that "Soros is increasingly becoming a player in the media, particularly within the film industry," citing as evidence that "In 2006 Soros shelled out $900 million for 59 films that constitute the DreamWorks SKG library, obtaining a valuable set of film rights while gaining a power position as an entertainment media mogul."
What Hirsen forgot to mention: About a year ago, Soros sold its majority interest in the DreamWorks library to Viacom, from which it purchased the stake in 2006. So that wipes out that talking point.
In touting how Soros "can pull a lot of strings" through his stakes in entertainment ventures, Hirsen failed to mention the political moneybags with the biggest entertainment industry stake: Right-wing billionaire Philip Anschutz. His company, Walden Media, is the producer of films such as the "Chronicles of Narnia" series, his Anschutz Entertainment Group owns numerous sports teams and arenas, and his Regal Entertainment Group is the largest theater chain in the country. Nothing Soros has done in the entertainment sphere approaches Anschutz.
Corsi Puts Words In Hawaii Gov's Mouth Topic: WorldNetDaily
Jerome Corsi's increasingly fact-free obsession with Barack Obama's birth certificate continued on its plodding path with a Jan. 18 WorldNetDaily article in which he claimed that Hawaii Gov. Neil Abercrombie "uggested in an interview published today that a long-form, hospital-generated birth certificate for Barack Obama may not exist within the vital records maintained by the Hawaii Department of Health."
Except Abercrombie did no such thing. As Media Matters noted, Abercrombie actually said that he was told there is a recording of Obama's birth in the state archives.
Corsi went on to attack Snopes.org and FactCheck.org -- which have respectivelydebunked claims that the birth certificate released by Obama's campaign in 2008 is fake -- as "two purportedly independent websites that have displayed a strong partisan bias for Obama." Corsi offers no evidence to support his assertion of "partisan bias."
Of course, WND is a unambiguously non-independent website that has displayed a strong partisan bias against Obama, so by Corsi's own definition, it -- and he -- can't be trusted either.
Shortly after the midterm election in November, the host of a news-analysis show asked me if I thought that President Obama would move to the center – or at least appear to do so – given the outcome of the election, or if I thought he didn't have it in him.
I responded emphatically that I believed the latter was the case, likening the president to some sort of B-movie genetically engineered creature who was bred expressly for the purpose of rendering the coup de grâce to a wounded America.
President Barack Hussein Obama and his band of socialist comrades in the media got a "gift" last Saturday. Dancing with glee on the "graves" of those shot in Tucson, like a congresswoman, federal judge and beautiful young girl, the mullah in chief, along with his venomous ultra-leftist allies at MSNBC and the New York Times in particular, wasted no time in exploiting the tragedy.
Why the need to continue to link Obama's political opponents with the massacre in Tucson? Because silencing opposition is a prerequisite to preparing public opinion for an intensified Obama dictatorship.
[...]
Obama is nothing if not bold. He is disciplined, focused and always on agenda. Regardless of election setbacks, court rulings, laws passed by Congress (or not passed), Obama charges ahead to transform the country from a free market, constitutional republic to a one-party, government-directed economy.
To accomplish this transformation and make a majority of Americans accept it, the opposition must be silenced. Opposition political figures must be ridiculed and demonized. Opposition media figures must be demonized and, better yet, taken off the air in the name of "fairness."
This president's admirers tell of his admiration for Abraham Lincoln. By his actions, Obama's role model is closer to Hugo Chavez.
WND, Sperry Mislead to Attack CPAC Board Member Topic: WorldNetDaily
A Jan. 18 WorldNetDaily article by Brian Fitzpatrick tries to escalate one of its attacks on CPAC by pushing accusations that CPAC is "tied to terror" through board member Suhail Khan. Khan has responded to the accusation by issuing an email to "his fellow ACU directors." Fitzpatrick writes:
Khan denied that his family mosque in Santa Clara, Calif., hosted al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri during a 1990s fundraising tour, a charge raised by Sperry in a New York Post column last week.
"In the NY Post op-ed," wrote Khan, "Frank's [Frank Gaffney] colleague Paul Sperry falsely claims the Islamic center my family attends in Santa Clara hosted/raised money for al-Qaida. … The fact is, no individual connected to al-Qaida was ever hosted by the center in Santa Clara much less was there any connection to my late father."
However, Sperry told WND, "Khan's denial that his father's Santa Clara, Calif., mosque (An-Noor, owned by the Muslim Community Association) never hosted Zawahiri is verifiably false. There are several articles (San Francisco Chronicle, etc.) that reported these visits by Zawahiri, then with Egyptian Islamic Jihad, and they have never been retracted."
(Did Sperry really speak in italics? How does Fitzpatrick know?)
Missing from Fitzpatrick's article is any further quoting of Khan's email or any link to the compete message. There's a reason for that: It doesn't make Sperry look good.
First, Sperry and Fitzpatrick mislead about what Khan is denying. They claim that he's denying that Zawahiri was hosted by the mosque; in fact, nowhere in Khan's email -- posted by blogger Deborah Corey -- does he use Zawahiri's name but, instead, specifically says "no individual connected to al-Qaida was ever hosted by the center in Santa Clara." As Sperry admits, at the time of the alleged visit, Zawahiri was not with al-Qaeda, he was with Egyptian Islamic Jihad, which later merged with al-Qaeda. Yes, it's parsing, but WND should have acknowledged it instead of trying to put words in Khan's mouth.
Second, Sperry and Fitzpatrick offer no evidence that Khan or his father knew that Zawahiri was raising money for Islamic extremism. Indeed, Fitzpatrick writes that Zawahiri was raising money "under the pretense of raising money to support victims of the Afghan-Soviet war."
Third, Khan's quote has been edited by Fitzpatrick to eliminate embarrassing information about Sperry. The ellipsis in Fitzpatrick's quoting of Khan removed this statement:
This false assertion was proved untrue in 2006 when Sperry leveled the same false assertion on the pages of Investor’s Business Daily (IBD), and IBD, after an investigation, published two embarrassing retractions withdrawing these accusations as categorically untrue.
Whoops! That seems like relevant information, but Fitzpatrick and Sperry don't want you to know anything about it.
Catfight! NewsReal's Fox Offended By Us Topic: Horowitz
NewsReal's Megan Fox is shocked -- shocked! -- that I would refer to her as a "hateful catty bitch" over her claim that the media is making insufficient fun of Michelle Obama's looks. Fox insists that I "displayed typical leftist etiquette when talking about a conservative woman."
My answer to that is that I do not show respect to anyone who has not earned it, conservative or otherwise. Making catty remarks about someone's looks, whether or not she is the first lady, is the epitome of bitchiness. It can be argued that I merely told the truth about Fox; it's not my fault that she finds offense.
Fox then proved the accuracy of my analysis by reacting in the manner we have come to expect from her -- more catty, bitchy remarks, this time about me and the kind of person she imagines I am. Because I am a gentleman, I will not sink to her level by responding in kind but will, instead, expand my analysis of her: it seems she's not only a bitch, but an immature one as well.
Fox again insists that the media really does need to make fun of Michelle Obama's looks:
I expect the first lady of the United States to conduct herself with propriety and elegance, which includes taking a basic protocol class that covers not touching the Queen of England inappropriately or wearing a shlumpy cardigan to Buckingham Palace. And I expect the media not to compare anyone to Jackie O who wears such hideous things as that rag above, and if they do, I reserve the right to call them on it. If that makes me a hateful, catty bitch, carve it in stone and nail it to my office door. (I may have cards printed.)
One could say that Fox is displaying typical right-wing etiquette when talking about a liberal woman.
Fox then huffed that I misinterpreted her:
Clearly, I am commenting on Michelle’s wardrobe, not her looks. She has the ability to dress well. Here’s a perfect example. Notice no pulling, bulging or awful leather and metal studded belts. (There’s no need to have a perfect body if you dress it well.) This is stunning.
Of course, a wardrobe is part of one's look. It's silly to pretend, as Fox does, that the two are completely separate things. But who died and made her Anna Wintour? Fox's Photoshopping work notwithstanding, I have no opinion to offer about Michelle Obama's looks -- besides, it's Fox's opinion on the subject, not mine, that are of issue.
Then she's back to making more immature, catty remarks about me -- thus obliterating any high-road sympathy she may have had in pretending to be victimized by this big ol' meanie -- ultimately concluding:
The real hater is Krepel who has attacked a woman he doesn’t know by using misogynistic and vitriolic profanity to dehumanize and victimize his target. Ass.
In fact, I made my judgment about Fox -- accurately, I would proffer -- based on what she wrote. Her response only confirms the accuracy of my assessment. Yes, "bitch" is an undeniably vitriolic word, but is it really worse than what Fox wrote about Obama (and me)? It's a harsh word that should be used sparingly and only when appropriate. I believe I did so. I chose that particular word for one reason and one reason only: becuase it accurately described the tone of what Fox was writing.
Also, let's not pretend that Fox was offering cogent political analysis in her hit piece. Her goal was the same one she acribes to me: to dehumanize and victimize her target, in this case the Obamas. Projecting much?
To sum up, Megan: If you're not actually the person your writings show you to be, perhaps you should stop writing like that.
Prove you're a better person than the vitriol you spew at NewsReal, Megan. I would love to see it, even if it would prove me wrong.
Kessler Keeps Quiet About CPAC Controversies Topic: Newsmax
Newsmax's Ronald Kessler is very tight with David Keene, head of the American Conservative Union, which operates the annual CPAC conference for conservatives. He has repeatedly interviewed Keene for his column and fawningly promoted CPAC, and Keene has returned the favor by awarding Kessler the inaugural "Robert Novak Journalist of the Year Award" at last year's CPAC.
So why is Kessler not covering the current controversies surrounding CPAC?
Newsmax rival WorldNetDaily has been repeatedly attacking CPAC over the past few months -- as we noted, in apparent retaliation for CPAC refusing to allow WND editor Joseph Farah to put on a birther panel at last year's convention. (Farah essentially admitted as much in his Jan. 15 column, relating how his animus was motivated by CPAC officials "boasted publicly about turning down my private request in an interview with the Los Angeles Times – using insulting and degrading language in an apparent effort to ingratiate themselves with the media elite.") WND has been touting how some right-wing groups are refusing to take part in this year's CPAC due to the participation of the "homosexual activist organization" GOProud and playing guilt by association by attacking CPAC board member Suhail Khan as an "Islamist" who is "infiltrating" CPAC.
WND, interestingly, has also suggested that Keene's ex-wife, who WND says was the bookkeeper for the ACU, embezzled "hundreds of thousands of dollars in donor money" from the group.
If ever there was a time for Kessler to run to the rescue and do some fluffy interviews of Keene -- as he loves to do -- this would be it. But Kessler hasn't written a word about the controversies. Instead, he's been focusing on such weighty matters as Donald Trump's presidential prospects and the "secrets" of a long-retired Washington restauranteur.
Why won't Kessler get involved on behalf of his friend Keene? This seems like the perfect opportunity to flex those "Robert Novak Journalist of the Year Award" muscles and get at the truth.
Is Kessler simply too close to CPAC and Keene that he won't bite the hand that gives him awards?
Farah Just Can't Stop Lying About WND's Birther Coverage Topic: WorldNetDaily
Joseph Farah seems to think that if you repeat a lie enough times, it becomes true.
So it is with Farah's Jan. 17 WorldNetDaily column, in which he complains yet again about the Los Angeles Times doing something other than uncritically praising his work. This time, Farah is annoyed that the Times reported that WND is "a prime force in the movement that claims President Obama was born abroad." Farah huffed: "I have never once said Obama was born abroad. No one at WND has made such an allegation."
That, of course, is a bald-faced lie. As we've detailed, Farah has repeatedly invoked the false claim that Obama's grandmother said he was born in Kenya, and WND's heavy promotion of the "Kenyan birth certificate" it couldn't be bothered to authenticate before publishing it is most certainly an allegation that "Obama was born abroad."
Farah also rehashed his whining about a previous Times article about him, calling it "a sleazy, unethically prepared hit piece." In fact, as we noted at the time, the article was accurate.
If the editor of a publication is so amoral as to lie to your face about things that can easily be fact-checked, why should you trust anything else he publishes?
UPDATE: And don't forget that a WND banner headline called Obama "undocumented," synonymous with illegal/born abroad.
In Latest Anti-Gay Freak-Out, MRC Attacks Book Blurb Topic: Media Research Center
How much does the Media Research Center's Tim Graham hate gays? He's attacking a writer for contributing a blurb to a book by a gay author.
Yes, Graham dedicated an entire Jan. 16 NewsBusters post to attacking a Washington Post staffer for contributing a blurb to a new book by the "editor of the DC gay news magazine Metro Weekly." He finds no bias, though he complains that the staffer isn't identified as a Post staffer but, rather, as the author of two books. Instead, he's upset that the staffer's blurb included "a hurrah for gay 'equality' of respect."
Apparently, respecting gays is against MRC policy, and Graham is nothing if not a slavish follower of MRC policy -- so much so that he must attack book blurbs to enforce it.
WND's Lamb Defends AmRen -- But Not By Name Topic: WorldNetDaily
Henry Lamb uses his Jan. 15 WorldNetDaily column to channel Accuracy in Media's Cliff Kincaid in defending a certain organization:
What's far more dangerous and damaging than anything Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck or any other conservative has said is the irresponsible actions of the Department of Homeland Security when they issued a memo to law-enforcement officials that said there may be a "possible" connection between the Tucson shooter and an organization they labeled as "anti-government, anti-immigration, anti-ZOG (Zionist Occupational Government), anti-Semitic."
When asked by Accuracy in Media, the group's leader, Jared Taylor, said:
"That is complete nonsense. I have absolutely no idea what DHS is talking about. We have never used the term 'ZOG.' We have never thought in those terms. If this is the level of research we are getting from DHS, then Heaven help us."
DHS has backed away from its memo, saying that it has no direct connection or linkage between the Tucson shooter and the group mentioned, but the damage is done. The group's reputation has been damaged beyond recompense. The DHS should be liable for those damages, but will not be held accountable.
Note that Lamb never mentions the name of the group he's talking about. That, of course would be American Renaissance, the group for which Kincaid insisted there was "no evidence" that it "by any objective standard is a racist organization." Of course, that's not true, and Kincaid walked it back a few days later.
Lamb went so far as to name AmRen's leader, but not the name of the group itself. Is Lamb afraid to be associated with the group he's defending? Doesn't that make it hard to do a proper defense?
Lamb also gets his facts wrong about the memo. He claim it was issued by DHS, which is what Fox News initially reported; it later stated -- and does so in the Fox News story to which Lamb links -- that it was "a law enforcement memo based on information provided by DHS." Politico later reported that the memo was issued by the Arizona Counter Terrorism Information Center, was meant as a hastily prepared internal status report on what center employees were working on, and it was never meant for public dissemination.
Yet Lamb insists on blaming DHS for the memo, even though DHS had no role in its preparation.
MRC's Gainor Retweets Terrorist Sympathizer Topic: Media Research Center
Media Research Center of president for business and culture Dan Gainor issued this retweet:
While the message being conveyed isn't controversial, the person who originally made it very much is.
As we've detailed, David Ha'ivri is a far-right Israeli activist who has organized numerous protests at Jerusalem's Temple Mount, the ancient site of a Jewish temple that is now the site of a mosque. Eden Natan-Zada -- the AWOL soldier who slaughtered four people on a bus in Gaza in 2005 -- joined in one of those protests before he committed his massacre.
Ha'ivri was a follower and sympathizer of the Kach/Kahane Chai movement -- he's also a brother-in-law to the son of movement founder Meir Kahane. which has been outlawed in Israel for its links to anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian violence. And Ha'ivri refuses to condemn such violence; Ha'ivri appeared in a 2007 CNN documentary on religious extremism in which he refused to criticize a plot by Jewish extremists to detonate a bomb outside a Palestinian girls' school.
Additionally, according to the New York Times, Ha'ivri celebrated the assassination of Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and has served a six-month jail term in connection with the desecration of a mosque.
In short, Ha'ivri is a terrorist sympathizer, if not an actual terrorist. This is hardly the kind of person who deserves attention. Too bad Gainor didn't check him out before retweeting him.
Ben Stein: 'Most' Muslims 'Don't Wish Us Well' Topic: Newsmax
In arguing against cuts in defense spending in a Jan. 14 Newsmax column -- insisting that while the United States "is by far the most heavily armed nation in the world" yet 'we are grossly underarmed for what faces us" -- Ben Stein decides to smear Muslims in the process.
One of the reasons that we are "grossly underarmed," Stein writes, is: "Facing us are over 1 billion extremely unsettled Muslims, most of whom, according to polling data, do not wish us well."
WND Presents MLK Smearmonger As Victim Topic: WorldNetDaily
Brian Fitzpatrick uses a Jan. 13 WorldNetDaily article to paint a sympathetic portrait of a radiostation owner who, he says, is guilty of merely broadcasting "a commentary acknowledging the smudges on the character of Martin Luther King, Jr.":
Death threats. Character assassination. Public repudiation. Demands to quit the local school board. Infringement on his right to bear arms. A pressure campaign against his advertisers. All for daring to broadcast a commentary acknowledging the smudges on the character of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Greeley, Colo. businessman Brett Reese, a real estate investor and owner of radio station KELS and the Greeley Gazette newspaper, has been weathering the storm since last Friday, when he began twice-daily broadcasts of a listener's commentary questioning whether America should celebrate Martin Luther King Day.
"To me it's a First Amendment right, but apparently in our society you can't pee on the altar of political correctness. That is enough to get you death threats," Reese told WND.
As with most sympathetic profiles WND publishes, a lot of the truth is being left out. For one, the size of Reese's media empire. KELS is a low-power radio station broadcasting at 100 watts, which has a broadcasting radius of around three miles. As for the Greeley Gazette, it appears to be little more than a self-published free publication available at a handful of locations around the city, with a related website.
For another, Fitzpatrick writes about those "smudges":
The controversial five-minute commentary raises a set of historically accurate but rarely acknowledged facts about King, including his repeated sexual infidelities and plagiarism. The commentary refers to King as an "America-hating communist," a charge that is disputed. It also describes King as a "sexual degenerate."
The commentary initially referred to a website that Reese subsequently discovered was linked to a racist organization. After Reese found out about the racism, he removed any mention of the website.
In fact, the entire commentary is derived from a "racist organization." As the Greeley Tribune reported, the commentary, called "The Beast As Saint," was pulled from a website using King's name that is in fact operated by the neo-Nazi group Stormfront. It's disingenous for Fitzpatrick to assert that Reese "removed any mention of the website" from his commentary when the entire commentary is from that same website.
And as you might expect for a rant plucked from a racist website, the factual accuracy of Reese's commentary is somewhat less than "historically accurate." From a letter signed by several Greeley-area pastors (h/t World O'Crap):
As suggested, we did our own research and found the website he referenced is owned by Stormfront, the Internet’s largest forum for racists, white supremacists and Neo-Nazis. Our research also showed that Dr. King’s doctoral thesis was heavily plagiarized and there are in fact conflicting accounts about his infidelity.
However, we also found that contrary to Mr. Reese’s broadcast, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was ordained a Baptist minister in 1948, a real “reverend.” His name was legally changed by his father from Michael to Martin Luther when he was 5.
Boston University did not take away his doctorate degree. The bulk of his “I Have a Dream” speech is his own but the conclusion is borrowed from a family friend’s earlier speech, and while he was wiretapped and investigated for communist ties by the FBI, the documents that have been released through a Freedom of Information Act request show no such ties.
Fitzpatrick, of course, makes no mention of the pastors' letter.
Fitzpatrick goes on to quote one writer for Reese's newspaper fluffing his employer:
Greeley Gazette writer Jack Minor noted that Reese has been broadcasting the commentary for three years, but encountered no complaints until this year.
"This year the only thing that's different is the Gazette," Minor told WND. The conservative-leaning paper is a new publication, and Minor said Colorado politicians have told him the Gazette's presence has forced the rival Greeley Tribune to provide more balanced political coverage.
Minor suggested the MLK tempest is not inspired by genuine outrage over the commentary, but by a desire to discredit the Gazette by smearing Reese. In addition to influencing local news coverage, the Gazette covers the Obama presidential eligibility issue extensively."
What's left out: the fact that Reese was so dumb as to run his commentary for three years without realizing it came from a racist neo-Nazi website. Fitzpatrick also doesn't question why any writer would want to work for an editor so clearly unable to do basic research.
While Fitzpatrick makes a big deal about the purported death threats, he also notes that "Reese declined to describe the threats in detail." Unmentioned: The Greeley police have no record of any death threats against Reese.
It appears Fitzpatrick interviewed only Reese and his supporters for his article. There's no evidence he made any effort to contact any of his critics.
Oh, and one more thing Fitzpatrick doesn't report: According to the Greeley Gazette, "In 2008, [Reese] pleaded guilty to one count of possessing child pornography in a plea bargain. He served slightly less than two years in prison for the conviction."
Yep, WND picked another winner. Place him on the wall next to Phillip Long, Johnathon Irish, and WalterFitzpatrick as poster boys whose disturbing backgrounds WND had to whitewash.
P.S. Since Fitzpatrick's article was first published, Reese has been stripped of his concealed-weapon permit and had a restraining order placed against him by the owner of another local radio station who claims Reese threatened "shoot-out" over allegations of stealing advertisers. Fitzpatrick has so far not seen fit to write a follow-up.
WND Still Pushing Loughner Book List Lie Topic: WorldNetDaily
Once WorldNetDaily gets a hold of a misleading claim, it just doesn't let go, regardless of the actual facts. Here's Tim Daughtry in his Jan. 15 WND column writing about Jared Loughner:
Furthermore, the suspect listed "The Communist Manifesto" and "Mein Kampf" as favorite reading.
Marx and Hitler advocated big government, control of any speech they did not like, and gun control. Those ideas are repugnant to the tea party, but they are apple pie for liberals. So, if the suspect has any discernible political beliefs at all, he seems to have far more in common with the left than with the mainstream.
As we detailed, there are 19 other books Loughner listed at "favorite," including Ayn Rand's "We The Living." Why doesn't Daughtry want to mention that?
MRC Ignores Own Out-of-Context Attacks To Bash NY Times Topic: Media Research Center
NewsBusters' Lachlan Markay penned an open letter to the New York Times demanding a correction of columnist Paul Krugman's claim that Rep. Michele Bachmann once said that she wants her constituents "armed and dangerous." That was taken out of context, Markay wrote: "Clearly, Ms. Bachmann was not stating her desire for a constituency that is literally 'armed and dangerous.' She used the phrase as a metaphor -- she wanted her constituents 'armed' with information so that they would be 'dangerous' to cap and trade legislation and Democrats' energy agenda."
Markay was soon backed up by NewsBusters' publisher, the Media Research Center, whose MRC Action division launched an email campaign attacking Krugman's "blatant omission of key words":
This kind of hate-inspired assault against conservatives -- especially in the wake of the shooting massacre in Tucson cannot be tolerated. That's why we've sounded the alarm for the MRC Action team to email key members of The New York Times demanding the following:
An admission of guilt and wrong-doing
An immediate, public retraction
A public apology to Rep. Bachmann
A commitment to properly and responsibly vet quotes used by columnists to ensure this kind of egregious action cannot repeat itself.
Of course, for all its fulmination about the Times, the MRC can't be bothered to be as circumspect about its own work.
As we've detailed, the MRC and its employees have repeatedly taken out of context a quote from a 2003 magazine profile of Ted Kennedy to falsely accuse the profile's author, Charles Pierce, of being a Kennedy sycophant. The full quote in context, however, shows that Pierce was criticizing Kennedy, not praising him. Yet the MRC named this its "quote of the year" and repeatedly invoked it as a cheap shot ever since -- Brent Baker most recently did so in April 2010. And, of course, there's the MRC's infamous quoting from former New York Times editor Howell Raines' book that presented two selectively chosen excerpts 28 pages apart as a single quote with an ellipses that misportrayed what Raines wrote about Ronald Reagan. It took the MRC nine years to issue a "clarification" on that.
If Markay is really serious about correcting the record on out-of-context quotes, he might consider starting with his hypocritical employer.
A Jan. 11 WorldNetDaily article by Michael Carl begins:
Agree to do abortions or you can't go to school here.
That's the message from Vanderbilt University's nursing residency program, where the school requires applicants to sign a pledge stating they'll participate in abortions.
Just one problem: That lead is a lie.
Carl goes on to write that the Alliance Defense Fund "has filed a complaint with the federal Department of Health and Human Services in response stating the policy violates federal law," asserting that "federal law states that any institution that receives federal grants cannot require students to do abortions in violation of their religious beliefs."
Carl makes no apparent attempt to contact Vanderbilt for a response, instead quoting form a media statement it released pointing out that "A Vanderbilt University Medical Center policy has been in place for years for employees, including nurse residents, so they may be excused from participating in activities due to religious beliefs, ethical beliefs or other associated reasons." ButCarl then allowed an ADF representative to claim that despite the policy, theschool requires nursing students "to assist in abortions."
In fact, it does nothing of the sort. As the Tennessean reported (h/t Right Wing Watch), a Vanderbilt spokesman points out that the school does not require any student to participate in an abortion procedure, but students "will be asked to provide care to women who have had, or are seeking, abortions." Carl didn't mention that in his article.
When the ADF claimed that the school "modified" its nurse residency application "so that it no longer requires applicants to pledge that they will participate in abortion procedures," WND uncritically reported in an unbylined Jan. 13 article. But the only source for the new information in the article appears to be an ADF press release; WND made no apparent effort to obtain a response from Vanderbilt.
Perhaps that's because they knew ADF was lying again. As Right Wing Watch points out, Vanderbilt did not "modify" its policy; it merely issued a "clarification" that restated existing policy that "no health care provider is required to participate in a procedure terminating a pregnancy if such participation would be contrary to an individual’s religious beliefs or moral convictions."
As we've previouslydetailed, WND has served as a willing vessel for ADF's questionable "War on Christmas" claims, uncritically reprinting its press releases, and it has even apparently secretly collaborated with ADF to promote legal action regarding a book by WND managing editor David Kupelian.
WND is so far in the tank for ADF that it can't be bothered to tell its readers that it's telling outright lies.
