Topic: CNSNews.com
CNSNews.com reporter Penny Starr's propensity for slanting stories covers many subjects beyond art and abortion. Read more >>
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
NEW ARTICLE: All-Starr Bias
Topic: CNSNews.com CNSNews.com reporter Penny Starr's propensity for slanting stories covers many subjects beyond art and abortion. Read more >>
Posted by Terry K.
at 12:16 AM EDT
Monday, July 4, 2011
Tim Graham Has Another Anti-Gay Freakout
Topic: Media Research Center The Media Research Center has spoken: The Washington Post is not allowed to write about gays on Sunday. In the tradition of the MRC's history of dictating what can be covered and when, the increasingly homophobic Tim Graham complains in a July 3 NewsBusters post that the Post used "Sunday, the Lord’s Day," to publish an article about gay-themed art. Graham wrote in his headline that Post art critic Philip Kennicott is claiming that "'Overt Bigotry' in the Overwhelmingly Gay Art World Must Be Banned," but it's clear that what Graham wants banned is gay art itself. Graham smears an exhibit of gay-themed art at the Smithsonian last fall as "tawdry" because it was "often pornographic, or at least nude." Graham repeated the MRC's contention that a video removed from that exhibit was "mocking Jesus," ignoring the fact that the artist himself said it wasn't. Graham also failed to discloses that it was his employer that manufactured the controversy that led to censoring that piece of art. Graham is really offended, though, at the idea that gay artists have had influence in art history, and that Kennicott had the temerity to point that out and state that it is an "overt sin of omission" not to acknowledge such themes in art. Graham huffed: "See how the notion of 'sin' gets turned upside down?" Graham then went nuts over Kennicott's claim that as a result of the manufactured controversy over the Smithsonian exhibit resulted in an "emerging consensus" that "the acceptable level of anti-gay bigotry at an institution such as the Smithsonian is now zero." That prompted Graham to rant:
Meanwhile, the emerging consensus is that the acceptable level of anti-gay bigotry at the MRC is 100 percent.
Posted by Terry K.
at 10:00 AM EDT
Updated: Monday, July 4, 2011 9:34 PM EDT
Another WND Birther Attack Falls Apart On The Slightest Examination
Topic: WorldNetDaily Bob Unruh dedicates a July 1 WorldNetDaily article to uncritically repeating a claim by Carl Gallups, "the senior pastor at Hickory Hammock Baptist Church for more than 24 years with a long history of community and law enforcement involvement," that since 2003 there has been an "organized strategy" to install Barack Obama in the presidency through attempts by members of Congress to explicitly define, or remove, the constitutional requirement that the president be a "natural born citizen" that was occurring "during the years Barack Obama was developing a power base and running for president." Since Unruh is regurgitating instead of reporting, it comes as no surprise that any actual look into the claim shows how flimsy and fraudulent it is. For instance, the first four efforts Unruh and Gallups cite occurred during the 2003-04 session of Congress, before Obama had even run for a U.S. Senate seat. Unruh also does some selective editing of the sponsors of those resolutions. For instance, the only sponsor Unruh lists for H.J. Res. 59 (which Unruh incorrectly identifies as "HJR 59") is Democratic Rep. Vic Snyder, failing to mention that another sponsor was Republican Rep. Darrell Issa -- hardly the kind of congressman who would be interested in paving the way for a Democrat to be president. Similarly, the only sponsor Unruh lists for S. 2128 (which Unruh incorrectly identifies as "S.B. 2128") is Republican Sen. Don Nickles, not mentioning that a co-sponsor was his fellow Oklahoma senator and notoriously right-wing James Inhofe. Unruh makes no mention of what was going on in 2003 that was the actual motivation for such bills. It has more than a little to do with a certain famous actor who had just been elected California governor as a Republican. Snyder said during a October 2004 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the proposals (retrieved from Nexis):
Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, who sponsored another related resolution, had this to say during the hearing:
And so, another birther conspiracy completely implodes upon the slightest examination. The main goal of those bills was to elect a Republican -- not a Democrat -- who didn't current presidential standards. And Joseph Farah wonders why WND is being ignored on the birther stuff. It couldn't possibly have anything to do with his repeatedly embarrassing himself by his insistence on publishing laughable tripe like this.
Posted by Terry K.
at 8:23 AM EDT
Sunday, July 3, 2011
CNS Body Count Watch
Topic: CNSNews.com It wasn't the end of the month when CNSNews.com's Edwin Mora wrote a body-count article last week to attack President Obama's announcement of withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, so Mora had to churn out another one to adhere to his monthly body-count mandate. Check out the headlines on Mora's article from last week and this week:
Gotta love the faux-peacenik sentiments CNS is promoting here, eh? Needless to say, the word "Iraq" is nowhere to be found, which means that Mora has failed yet to explain that the casualty rate in Iraq at the height of that war is more than double that of the current casualty rate in Afghanistan.
Posted by Terry K.
at 9:25 PM EDT
Newsmax's Fond Farewell to Beck
Topic: Newsmax David A. Patten, Newsmax's go-to guy for slavish adherence to right-wing talking points, serves up a fawning farewell tribute to Glenn Beck's Fox News show in a June 30 article. Patten uncritically repeats Beck's claim that he wasn't fired from Fox News, and goes on to sycophantically tout Beck's accomplishments:
Patten claimed that "by some accounts" Beck's 8/28 "Restoring Honor" rally "attracted more than half a million people." In fact, that "some accounts" are largely that of Beck himself; professional crowd-counters estimated that between 78,000 and 96,000 attended. Patten went on to noted that Beck "unveiled a list of names written on his iconic chalk board, speaking from a now-barren set and sharing the credit for the program’s remarkable accomplishments with all those who helped him to produce it" without mentioning that Beck misspelled the name of his own production company on the blackboard.
Posted by Terry K.
at 12:57 AM EDT
Updated: Sunday, July 3, 2011 1:02 AM EDT
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Bozell Falsely Claims Chris Matthews Would Never Insult Hillary
Topic: Media Research Center During his complaining about Chris Matthews' criticism of Michelle Bachmann, Media Research Center chief Brent Bozell said on the July 1 edition of "Fox & Friends": "He would do that to Hillary Clinton. He would never in a million years wage that kind of insulting attack on Hillary Clinton." Of course, Matthews has insultingly attacked Hillary Clinton -- which Bozell would have known if he had read his own website. A January 2008 NewsBusters post by Geoffrey Dickens notes that "Matthews spent the first five minutes of Thursday night’s 'Hardball' personally apologizing to Hillary Clinton for insinuating that she owed her political success to sympathy derived from having endured Bill Clinton’s unfaithfulness." And a November 2008 post by P.J. Gladnick highlighted how Matthews, during a train trip, complained about President Obamaselecting Clinton as his secretary of state: "Why would he pick her? I thought we were done with the Clintons. She'll just use it to build her power base. It's Machiavellian. And then we'll have Bill Clinton, too. I thought Obama didn't want drama. ... She's just a soap opera. If he doesn't pick her, everyone will say she's been dissed again, we'll have to live through that again." Bozell's false statement about Matthews, needless to say, wasn't noted in the NewsBusters post about Bozell's appearance. Then again, given that he hates Hillary even more than Matthews, maybe Bozell didn't consider Matthews' remarks to be insulting.
Posted by Terry K.
at 10:20 AM EDT
Obama Derangement Syndrome Watch, Joseph Farah Edition
Topic: WorldNetDaily Joseph Farah rants in his July 1 WorldNetDaily column:
Well, let's see ... because it's not? Because WND has no credibility? Because WND hates Obama so much that its work can't be trusted? Because WND is ignoring the evidence of experts who say the PDF isn't fake? Because WND is looking at an electronic file and not the physical certificate? That about covers it.
Posted by Terry K.
at 8:45 AM EDT
Friday, July 1, 2011
MRC Seems Fine With Calling Obama A Dick (But Can't Spell It Out)
Topic: Media Research Center Writers for the Media Research Center has said a lot of things about Mark Halperin calling President Obama "kind of a dick" on the June 30 edition of MSNBC's "Morning Joe." None of them criticized Halperin for doing so, and all of them were unable to spell out the word "dick." In the first NewsBusters post on the incident, Mark Finkelstein -- who spelled it "d--k" -- appeared to react to Halperin's insult the way he attributed to "Morning Joe" hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski: "shocked amusement." In a follow-up NewsBusters post noting that Halperin had been suspended from MSNBC over the remark, Tim Graham went the euphemism route, substituting "[Short for Richard]" and "[male appendage]" for "dick." The MRC then went the usual equivocation route, with Geoffrey Dickens complaining that nobody on MSNBC was suspended for "particularly distasteful things to say about a then sitting President George W. Bush." But Dickens joined his MRC in colleagues in censoring Halperin's word, this time as "d-ck," while did not censor any of the "particularly distasteful things" he claimed were said about Bush. Noel Sheppard, meanwhile, completely avoided any sort of direct quote, saying only that Halperin made "an intemperate remark."Then he ranted that MSNBC is "the leading television propaganda outlet for this White House" and that "MSNBC was making it quite clear that until Election Day has passed, MSNBC personalities and contributors better be very careful what they say about the current White House resident."
If the MRC can't even fully enunciate what Halperin said because they think it's so distasteful, doesn't that definitively demonstrate the offensive nature of the remark and justify Halperin's suspension? Apparently not -- after all, the MRC won't criticize Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter over their long records of offensive statements.
Posted by Terry K.
at 3:06 PM EDT
CNS Falsely Claims Durbin Supports 'Amnesty'
Topic: CNSNews.com A June 29 CNSNews.com article by Penny Starr carries the headline "'Thou Shalt Not Steal': Durbin Concedes 10 Commandments is Perfect Law--In Push for Amnesty." But Starr does not quote Durbin using the word "amnesty" -- in fact, that word appears nowhere in Starr's article. What Durbin is discussing is the DREAM act, which, in Starr's words, "would allow an illegal alien to gain legal status if he came to the United States with his parents at age 15 or younger; if he has been in America for at least five years prior to the bill’s enactment; and if he meets certain education or military service requirements." Because the DREAM Act imposes certain conditions on acquiring citizenship through it -- and it imposes further conditions that Starr did not identify -- it cannot by definition be "amnesty," as we've documented, and CNS is perpetuating a falsehood by doing so.
Posted by Terry K.
at 11:54 AM EDT
Les Kinsolving's Stupid Question
Topic: WorldNetDaily Les Kinsolving's June 28 WorldNetDaily column was devoted to recounting a pair of "senior-citizen sex scandals" -- a professor a New Jersey's Fairleigh Dickinson University (which Kinsolving misspells) who was allegedly running a prostitution ring in New Mexico, and a former president of the University of New Mexico who was arrested as part of the prostitution sting. Kinsolving concluded by stating, "This begs the question: How much in federal funding goes to Farleigh-Dickinson University and to the University of New Mexico? And will either of these institutions lose any such money because of their professor's and their former president's involvement in prostitution?" But Kinsolving doesn't explain why either university should lose any federal funding, which he seems to be rooting for. He provides no evidence that either man used university resources in their alleged prostitution ring, or that university officials had any knowledge whatsoever of the men's alleged activitites. Given the apparent absence of both, the only logical answer to Kinsolving's question is no. Kinsolving, of course, would have known this had he bothered to do even the most basic research into answering the question he raised.
Posted by Terry K.
at 8:47 AM EDT
MRC Insists That Obama Apologized For America
Topic: Media Research Center President Obama went on an apology tour, and nobody's going to tell Matt Philbin any differently. In a June 28 MRC Culture & Media Institute article ostensibly about how the "liberal media" is just not that into American exceptionalism, Philbin asserted that "resident Obama has shown ambivalence toward the notion that America is exceptional" and "is as comfortable apologizing for its sins as touting its virtues," then scoffed at the idea that Obama wasn't apologizing for America because he never used any form of the word "apology":
What's this attack on the president doing in what's supposed to be a critique of the media? Isn't that a violation of the MRC's nonprofit tax status as a 501(c)3 organization? Somebody might want to check into that.
Posted by Terry K.
at 12:20 AM EDT
Thursday, June 30, 2011
ConWebWatch On the Radio
Topic: WorldNetDaily ConWebWatch's Terry Krepel be on Reality Check Radio tonight at 9 p.m. ET to talk about yesterday's WorldNetDaily press conference, among other things. Listen here.
Posted by Terry K.
at 8:04 PM EDT
More Misinformation from WND Columnists
Topic: WorldNetDaily Remember when WorldNetDaily's Joseph Farah admitted his columnists publish "misinformation"? Well, here's some more. Larry Klayman screeches in his June 25 WND column:
First, Klayman is trying to have it both ways -- he attacks Obama for not doing anything to "curb the increase in gasoline prices," and also attacks him for doing something. Klayman also claims that the release will "jeopardize our emergency reserves"; in fact, the release is only 5 percent of the total amount of the reserve. Meanwhile, Henry Lamb writes in his June 25 column, after first becoming the latest WND columnist to play the Nazi card in recent days by saying that Obama's invoking of the Commerce Clause to require Americans to have health insurance "is the same power exercised by the governments of Hitler, Stalin and all other despots who have denied freedom to their citizens":
In fact, incandescent light bulbs have not been outlawed; they have simply been ordered to be more efficient. The new bulbs, whether they be incandescent or fluorescent, might cost more at the outset, but they pay for themselves in lower energy usage over the life of the bulb, meaning that they cost less in the long run. Apparently, saving money and energy is something Lamb is opposed to.
Posted by Terry K.
at 4:20 PM EDT
The Week In CNS Gay-Baiting
Topic: CNSNews.com Sticking close to its parent organization's anti-gay agenda, CNSNews.com has been making a notable effort in recent days to highlight what it apparently considers excessive gayness in the world. A June 24 article by Katie Bell highlights how grocery chain Food Lion "is celebrating June as "LGBT Pride Month" by inserting a message championing the 'Lesbian/Gay/Bisexual/Transgendered (LGBT) community' in flyers advertising a weekly list of product deals." More importantly, Bell highlights a right-wing organization's efforts to "e-mail Food Lion’s president, Cathy Green, to let her know that they object to the food chain endorsing homosexuality." A June 27 article by Penny Starr stated that "Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Monday that the State Department played an instrumental role in 'sealing the deal' for pop-rock star Lady Gaga to perform at a gay pride rally in Rome, Italy." Starr goes on to quote lyrics from Lady Gaga's song "Judas," which she said "sparked controversy." Starr followed that up with an article the next day quoting Clinton as saying that "officials meeting with 'sex workers' in the cause of protecting LGBT rights is an example of 'people-to-people diplomacy at its best.'" Meanwhile, a June 30 article by Fred Lucas begins: "At the urging of homosexuals gathered at the White House on Wednesday, President Barack Obama praised gay 'spouses' in his speech marking lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender 'Pride Month.'" These articles were written not because CNS isinterested in celebrating gay rights; rather, it opposes gay rights, and is simply attempting to rile up homophobia in its readers. That's all too clear in the comment threads on the articles. One comment on the Food Lion story reads: "Will they support 'shoplifter pride' next? Kleptomania, as well as LGBT-lifestyles, should be remedied, not celebrated." Is fomenting hatred something a responsible news organization should do? We don't think so.
Posted by Terry K.
at 8:53 AM EDT
Updated: Thursday, June 30, 2011 8:56 AM EDT
The WND Birther Lawsuit Dog and Pony Show (And The Question Joseph Farah Won't Answer)
Topic: WorldNetDaily From left: Larry Klayman, Joseph Farah, Mara Zebest and Jerome Corsi.
We've noticed the increasing irrelevance of WorldNetDaily, due to the overall vengeful yet factually dubious nature of its reporting. We saw firsthand another example in the press conference WND held June 29 to formally announce its defamation lawsuit against Esquire magazine over a piece of satire WND didn't find funny. To put a patina of credibility on the proceedings, WND rented a small conference room (this one) at the National Press Club in Washington. Pretty much anyone can rent a room there -- remember, the utterly discredited Larry Sinclair discredited himself even more there. WND paid a few hundred bucks for a room with a flat-screen TV in order to make its little dog and pony show look professional. Indeed, WND tries to ride the supposed credibility of location in its own article on the press conference, with the headline "Eligibility takes center stage at National Press Club." In fact, there were much larger events going on at the NPC at the same time, one of which was using the actual "center stage" of the NPC ballroom. Inside the Bloomberg Room, members of the press were far outnumbered by people affiliated with WND. In fact, there were only two members of the press there: a writer for AdWeek and myself. (AdWeek's article on the press conference is here.) Another person appearing to be a reporter asked questions, but she was apparently affiliated with WND as well. Before anyone could ask any questions about the lawsuit, though, WND felt it had to push its birther agenda in order to provide what WND editor Joseph Farah called "very important background" to the lawsuit. First up was Jerome Corsi, who took credit for forcing President Obama's release of his long-form birth certificate, going on to declare that "a person we've had in the Deartment of Health in Hawaii who has been a mole to us, giving us information, said that the birth certificate had been forged and was now the logbook." Corsi asserted that "with the release of that document, the entire future of the Obama presidency depends on the authenticity of that document." Corsi went on to declare that the patient records of Obama's mother or the doctor that delivered him because they "remain under seal as part of a continuing cover-up" -- apparently unaware that all American's health records "remain under seal" because of federal privacy laws for health records. Next up was Mara Zebest, who had produced an analysis of the PDF file of the birth certificate released by the White House that WND had promoted earlier that day. After a bit of fumbling around on the laptop computer for the proper files, Zebest served up examples of why she thinks the certificate was "manufactured digitally." (The Obama Conspiracy blog has a quick overview of why she's wrong.) Zebest was introduced as an expert on Adobe software, but like WND's previous Adobe "expert" Gary Poyssick, the three books listed under her name at Amazon.com (where's she's also listed as Mara Zebest Nathanson) are about Photoshop, not Adobe Acrobat or the PDF format. (Zebest claimed later in the press conference, in answer to a question from me, that she has expertise in Acrobat and PDFs.) Corsi and Zebest try to solve an computer issue with Zebest's presentation on why the long-form birth certificate Obama released is a fraud.
Later, in an attempt to portray Zebest as something other than politically motivated, Farah said that Zebest "is a lifelong Democrat. In 2008 she was a Hillary supporter." Farah didn't mention that birther lawyer Philip Berg was a Hillary supporter too, which undercuts his argument. Finally, 21 minutes into the press conference, it was time for the main event. Larry Klayman, WND's lawyer, took the podium to pontificate about the lawsuit. Klayman asserted about the Esquire article: "It was amateur. It was rank. It hurt." Klayman then dramatically read through the entire Esquire post, than asserted that the satire piece "was obviously calculated with malice to destroy not just the book and its sales but to destroy the reputations of Mr. Corsi and Mr. Farah. The stupidity of this is beyond belief. The legal actionability of this is believable." Klayman claimed that the book "hasn't nearly sold as well as it would have soldif the damage had not been done by Esquire and [blog post author Mark] Warren." Klayman then explained the charges under which he's seeking damages: defamation, invasion of privacy, false light, tortious interference with business, and violation of the Lanham Act for "false advertising." WND is seeking a total of at least $225 million from Esquire for actual and punitive damages on the five counts. (We didn't get a chance to ask how that figure related to the still-secret amount of money WND had to pay Clark Jones in an out-of-court settlement to settle a libel lawsuit, in which WND also admitted it published numerous false claims about Jones.) Klayman also claimed that "neither Mr. Farah or Mr. Corsi or WorldNetDaily Books or WorldNetDaily wished to engage Esquire, Mark Warren, or the Hearst Corporation on any of these issues. They were forced into this." But later in the press conference that he made no effort to contact Esquire or Hearst regarding the issue before filing the lawsuit, stating that Farah's threats to sue Esquire "was an invitation for Mr. Warren, Esquire and Hearst to contact us and say, hey, you know, we did something wrong here."Finally, it was question time. In addition to claiming that she has experience in Acrobat and PDFs, Zebest claimed in another question from me that she examined the PDF file in the program it was originally created in. But has Obama Conspiracy noted, Zebest stated in her analysis that "she believed that the document was created in Adobe Photoshop, ignoring that the document properties say it was made by Mac OS X Quartz PDFContext, an inexcusable omission and mark of a sloppy analysis." Farah said that 65,000 copies of Corsi's book were printed and distributed. He claimed that one retail shop returned its copies of the book in response to the Esquire article. Klayman asserted that the fact the Esquire blog post was tagged as satire was not a mitigating factor in his lawsuit. Farah said the post's reference to "Capricorn One" -- a movie about a faked moon landing -- was not a sufficient clue to the satirical nature of the post because so much of the article was untrue. This led to a mini-rant by Klayman about the falsehoods in his Wikipedia profile "which we have not been able to correct." (Note to Klayman: That's not how Wikipedia works.) I asked Klayman why he thinks he will do better in this lawsuit than he did in the lawsuit he filed on WND's behalf last year against the White House Correspondents Association over its refusal to sell WND as many tickets as it demanded for the annual correspondents' dinner, a lawsuit that was swiftly tossed out of court. Klayman brusquely replied: "Well, first of all, we decided not to pursue that. But the issue here is this case, not that case, so if you want to relive that case, we'll do that some other time." I pointed out to Corsi that, his and Farah's assertions to the contrary, there are people who will defend the authenticity of the PDF birth certificate or at least rebut its attackers, such as Dr. Conspiracy's detailed rebuttal of the Ken Vogt analysis that Corsi devoted three WND articles to. Corsi's response was a curious one: After calling Dr. Conspiracy "one of my favorites," Corsi said, 'I'll be writing about Dr. Conspiracy in the next few days. I'll be exposing his background, his entire credentials, his involvement with his company. I've got a detailed -- I just haven't had time to write it up." When I asked Corsi why he's personally attacking his critics by digging into their backgrounds, Corsi suddenly softened his tone: "I'm sorry, I said I would evaluate his credentials. It's not a personal attack, but we're going to evaluate his credentials in his point-by-point." Finally, I tried to ask Farah if he could confirm Tim Adams' assertion that the affidavit he signed claiming that he had been told that no copy of Obama's birth certificate existed in state files was created by WND-affiliated lawyers. Here's how that exchange went:
And with that the press conference came to an abrupt end. Given Farah's abject refusal to answer such a simple question, we suspect Farah really doesn't appreciate the kind of attention from us that forces him and his website to be held accountable for their actions.
Posted by Terry K.
at 12:09 AM EDT
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