Topic: Media Research Center
Matt Hadro's job at the Media Research Center involves getting upset every time a gay person appears on CNN. Read more >>
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
NEW ARTICLE: A Cog In The MRC's Anti-Gay Outrage Machine
Topic: Media Research Center Matt Hadro's job at the Media Research Center involves getting upset every time a gay person appears on CNN. Read more >>
Posted by Terry K.
at 9:28 AM EDT
WND Falsely Suggests Obama Stealing From Your Smartphone
Topic: WorldNetDaily An Aug. 24 WorldNetDaily article by Bob Unruh carries the headline, "Is your smartphone donating to Obama's campaign?" The implication, of course, is that Obama is stealing money from you through your smartphone -- a shocking allegation if it were in any way true.Needless to say, it's not. Not even Unruh accuses Obama of theft. Rather, it's about potential scams perpetrated by gaining access to personal information stored in smartphones. Unruh's only mention Obama doesn't come until the 17th paragraph of his article, and it's limited to noting that "Barack Obama’s campaign already uses a campaign app to identify registered Democrats by first name, last initial and age." Once again, WND has stuck a highly misleading, potentially libelous headline on an article that doesn't support the allegation being made.
Posted by Terry K.
at 12:37 AM EDT
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
MRC Spending $300,000 Preaching To the Choir At RNC
Topic: Media Research Center The Media Research Center is dropping some serious coin to promote its anti-media message at the Republican National Convention. From an Aug. 27 CNSNews.com article by Pete Winn:
Does the fact that the Media Research Center has to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to get its message out to a highly targeted audience that should theoretically already be receptive to it indicate the weakness of that message? If the MRC thinks so, it certainly won't say so in public. Winn's boss, Brent Bozell, is quoted as making this curiously worded statement:
Bozell has to say that the MRC's efforts are not intended "to attempt to elect or defeat a candidate" -- the MRC would be violating its 501(c)3 nonprofit status if Bozell wasn't tossing out that disclaimer and keeping up the pretense that it's not an arm of the Republican Party and the Romney campaign. However, Bozell is simply lying when he says that "we want the rules to apply to both sides." The MRC has never applied the same rules to, say, Fox News that it applies to the "liberal media." And the MRC's "Tell the Truth!" campaign is hostile to media outlets that tell the truth about conservatives.
Posted by Terry K.
at 8:39 PM EDT
WND's Farah: Obama's The Real Birther!
Topic: WorldNetDaily Joseph Farah is blaming Obama for birtherism. No, really. From Farah's Aug. 27 WorldNetDaily column:
Well, it's easy to claim that "every expert who has looked at [the birth certificate] agrees [it] is fraudulent" when you blacklist the experts who agree that it's authentic. WND even solicited one expert, Ivan Zatkovich, who failed to conclude that the document was "fraudulent," but cherry-picked his findings and refused to publish his full report. That, of course, is just the latest lie Farah has told his readers. Speaking of lies, providing two different birth certificates apparently does not qualify as "the most rudimentary documentation of his eligibility for office" in Farah's paranoid, hate-filled little world. Farah unsurprisingly approves of Mitt Romney's birther dig at Obama, lamenting that "I’m only sorry he apologized for it later." Farah laughably goes on to claim that his rapidly self-destrructing birther conspiracy is "a story bigger than Watergate and the Teapot Dome scandal combined." Again, that's easy to believe if you deliberately ignore all evidence to the contrary, which appears to be WND's official editorial policy.
Posted by Terry K.
at 11:50 AM EDT
NewsBusters: Only Conservatives Should Review Anti-Obama Films
Topic: NewsBusters Mike Bates spends his Aug. 27 NewsBusters post having a conniption over a less-than-favorable Los Angeles Times review of the factually challenged Dinesh D'Souza film "2016: Obama's America." Bates largely ignores the substance of the review -- in which review Betsy Sharkey points out how the numerous re-enactments in the film "play like badly scripted sitcoms" and dhow D'Souza's "quiet, scholarly sensibility ... works against him on screen" -- to obsess over how Sharkey unfavorably compared the film to the works of liberal filmmaker Michael Moore. Bates concludes: "Reviews are by nature subjective. But couldn't the LA Times have found an analyst who's not an unabashed fan girl for Michael Moore to report on a conservative movie?" So only conservatives -- who, presumably, would be more predisposed to giving favorable reviews to films that promote views they agree with -- should be allowed to review a conservative movie? Isn't that the kind of media bias the MRC argues against? Oh, we forgot -- conservatives are exempt from bias allegations at the MRC.
Posted by Terry K.
at 9:48 AM EDT
Right-Wing Doctor Agrees With Akin on Rape Pregnancy
Topic: WorldNetDaily Jane Orient is the executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, a right-wing group that 's known for its extremist views on medicine. Thus, it's the group you'd expect would come to the defense of Todd Akin's discredited claim that rape rarely causes pregnancy because "the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down." And given that Joseph Farah himself agreed with Akin, it's no surprise that WorldNetDaily would be the one to publish Orient's defense:
Actually, the person injecting politics into the issue is Orient. What do doctors who aren't pushing an agenda have to say?
Orient then deviated even more from medical reality to launch an even more explicit political attack:
Remember, this is the woman who was accusing others of replacing medical science with "political demagoguery." Or was she talking about herself?
Posted by Terry K.
at 12:28 AM EDT
Monday, August 27, 2012
The Kessler-Keene Lovefest Returns
Topic: Newsmax We've detailed the logrolling relationship between Newsmax's Ronald Kessler and David Keene, former head of the American Conservative Union (which gave Kessler its "Robert Novak Journalist of the Year Award") and current head of the National Rifle Association. Well, this dynamic duo is back together again in an Aug. 27 Newsmax article, in which Kessler gives Keene a platform to opine that "Mitt Romney is well positioned to win the presidency and should pull it off by five to seven percentage points." Kessler even serves up some of his trademark slobbering, declaring that "Keene is one of the country’s sharpest political observers." Weirdly, though, Kessler doesn't mention Keene's current NRA job, identifying him only as "former chairman of the American Conservative Union."
Posted by Terry K.
at 4:39 PM EDT
WND Race-Baiting Watch
Topic: WorldNetDaily Colin Flaherty's latest race-baiting opus at WorldNetDaily is an Aug. 26 piece on how he determined a fight at a warehouse party was "black mob violence." Apparently, if there's more than one black person involved in a violent incident, that qualifies as "black mob violence" as far as Flaherty's concerned. Flaherty never explains why he's so driven to prove that all black people are violent thugs. And, thus, WND's long, hot summer of race-baiting continues.
Posted by Terry K.
at 3:22 PM EDT
NewsBusters Misleads About Obama and Abortion
Topic: NewsBusters Matthew Sheffield uses an Aug. 24 NewsBusters post to try and deflect fro the Todd Akin controversy by purporting to tell "the actual position of President Barack Obama" on abortion. But he misleads in doing so, asserting that Obama has come out "in favor of allowing an abortionist to let a born alive infant die outside of his/her mother's womb." Sheffield claims this demonstrates "who the real extremist on the subject of abortion is." That same day, a NewsBusters post by Chuck Donovan echoed Sheffield in claiming that Obama opposed "a law guaranteeing equal treatment for children born alive after failed abortions." In fact, Illinois already had a law requiring medical care for a viable fetus that survived an abortion. What Sheffield and Donovan are apparently referring to are efforts in 2001, 2002, and 2003 to expand that law with a "born alive" clause requiring that any fetus that survived an abortion, even ones that could not survive outside the womb, receive medical care. Obama has said he opposed those bills because the law would likely have been struck down in the courts for giving legal status to fetuses, a requirement that a second doctor be present at abortions, and their lack of a "neutrality clause" to make sure the bill would not affect current abortion laws. Taking Obama's votes out of context -- context that demonstrates Obama is not the "extremist" Sheffield claims he is -- shows the extremes Sheffield and Donovan will go to smear Obama and defend Akin's extreme no-exceptions rule on abortion.
Posted by Terry K.
at 10:17 AM EDT
Molotov Mitchell Downplays His Anti-Gay Hate
Topic: WorldNetDaily Molotov Mitchell doesn't want to admit how much he hates gays. In his Feb. 22 WorldNetDaily video, Mitchell claims that he ended up by the Southern Poverty Law Center's "crazy bad guy list" becuase "I had the audacity to disagree on gay marriage." Mitchell is lying. Here's what the SPLC said about Mitchell:
So, yeah, there's a lot more going on with ol' Molotov than merely disagreeing on gay marriage. He apparently wants to be treated like a victim. (We've previously written about Mitchell's fondness for the anti-gay Uganda law and gay-bashing in general, as well as his similar fondness for playing the some-of-my-best-friends-are-gay card.) Mitchell also uncritically repeats Family Research Council chief Tony Perkins' discredited assertion that his organization was targeted by a shooter because the SPLC put it on a hate-group list merely for opposing gay marriage, "right up there with real white supremacists." Speaking of which, that link to "real white supremacists" isn't as far-fetched as Mitchell want you to think. In the 1990s, Perkins was the manager for the campaign of a Senate campaign in Louisiana that rented a mailing list from former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke. Perkins has also spoken before a chapter of the Council of Conservative Citizens, a white supremacist group descended from the anti-integration White Citizens Councils of the 1950s and 1960s. Mitchell doesn't mention any of that in his video, of course, but he does makessure to point out that Robert Byrd was a former Klansman (never mind that he recanted his membership decades ago, and is also dead).
Posted by Terry K.
at 12:03 AM EDT
Updated: Monday, August 27, 2012 12:11 AM EDT
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Another MRC 'Special Report' That Isn't
Topic: Media Research Center the Media Research Center's long history of not-so-special "special reports" continues with an Aug. 8 "special report" by Tim Graham and Geoffrey Dickens, "The Media's Obama Miracle," in which they complain about the "the stunning lack of coverage" of certain Obama administration "scandals" in the media (well, only "the morning and evening news shows" on network TV). But really, they're just complaining that the media isn't parroting right-wing anti-Obama talking points. Graham and Dickens write:
As we pointed out the last time the MRC did this, that's a ridiculous comparison. Enron was a huge company using impenetrable and deceptive accounting methods to obscure massive corruption and market manipulation, and its bankruptcy was the largest in history at the time. Solyndra was a small company making solar panels that fell victim to a change in the market -- a rival method of building the panels suddenly became much cheaper than Solyndra's -- and nobody has accused Solyndra of Enron-level fraud or corruption. The authors continue with a little conspiracy mongering:
Perhaps that's because the other guitar makers weren't breaking the law. As NPR reports, Gibson continued to import wood from Madagascar despite knowing the risk that it might be improper to do so. In settling the case, Department of Justice officials said that "Gibson has acknowledged that it failed to act on information that the Madagascar ebony it was purchasing may have violated laws intended to limit overharvesting and conserve valuable species." Do Graham and Dickens think Repubicans should be above the law? As for the rest of Graham and Dickens' so-called Obama "scandals"... Fast and Furious? A Republican-manufactured attack. MF Global? Not even Graham and Dickens claim Obama is involved, only that former MF head Jon Corzine was "a major Obama fundraiser." Reverend Wright? The authors make the mistake of trusting the word of the notoriously unreliable Ed Klein. That's all they have. Again, nothing special about this "special report."
Posted by Terry K.
at 10:33 PM EDT
Obama Derangement Syndrome Watch, Supersize WorldNetDaily Edition
Topic: WorldNetDaily
-- Phil Elmore, August 8 WorldNetDaily column
-- Mychal Massie, Aug. 13 WND column
-- Burt Prelutsky, Aug. 14 WND column
-- Christopher Monckton, Aug. 14 WND column
-- Robert Ringer, Aug. 15 WND column
-- Joseph Farah, Aug. 20 WND column
-- Mychal Massie, Aug. 20 WND column
-- Robert Ringer, Aug. 22 WND column
-- Tom Tancredo, Aug. 24 WND column
Posted by Terry K.
at 12:31 AM EDT
Saturday, August 25, 2012
Newsmax's Walsh Tries His Hand At Media Criticism
Topic: Newsmax James Walsh takes a break from hating immigrants in his Aug. 24 Newsmax column, devoting it instead to bashing a Tampa-area newspaper prior to the Republican National Convention in that city next week. Walsh asserts that the Tampa Bay Times (formerly the St. Petersburg Times) is "nown locally as the 'Florida Pravda,'" something he provides no evidence for. He also insists that it's "an ultra-liberal anti-Republican paper," though Walsh demonstrates only that it has criticized Republicans, which hardly makes it "ultra-liberal." The paper's actual record belies Walsh's smear attempt. Would an "ultra-liberal" newspaper have investigated a Democratic member of Congress for accepting a car from a West African financier for whom the member of Congress had mounted a lobbying campaign to keep the him out of prison? Probably not. After first going back to the 1960s for things to attack the Times over, Walsh jumps to opinion columns published in the past week. He nitpicks one Times columnist for daring to criticize Paul Ryan:
Walsh omits the fact that Maxwell pointed out that Ryan is hiding his devotion to Rand now that he's a VP candidate:
Walsh's unsubstantiated claims and selective quoting in the service of pushing the "liberal media bias" meme would make him an ideal employee at the Media Research Center.
Posted by Terry K.
at 10:26 PM EDT
Updated: Sunday, August 26, 2012 12:16 AM EDT
CNS Ignores Kris Kobach's Romney Connection
Topic: CNSNews.com An Aug. 24 CNSNews.com article by Penny Starr promotes a lawsuit by sseveral Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers against the Obama administration to halt a directive that delays deportation of illegal immigrants who came to the United States as children. In noting that Kris Kobach is the ICE agents' attorney, Starr writes that "Kobach also serves as Secretary of State in Kansas and he is the author of SB 1070, the Arizona immigration law that was partially upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court earlier this year." Starr fails to mention, though, that Kobach is also an adviser to Mitt Romney's presidential campaign, raising the specter of a partisan political motive behind the lawsuit. That seems like something significant to report, but Starr ignored it.
Posted by Terry K.
at 1:37 PM EDT
Friday, August 24, 2012
MRC Claims It's Irrelevant That Akin, Ryan Voted The Same on Anti-Abortion Bills
Topic: Media Research Center The Media Research Center's Clay Waters is desperately trying to ignore reality on the Todd Akin controversy. In an Aug. 23 MRC TimesWatch item, Waters complains that the New York Times is "trying to change the subject from the bad economy to social issues, for Obama's sake" by trying to "tie controversial comments by Republican Senate candidate Todd Akin to Mitt Romney's running mate Paul Ryan." How far in denial is Waters? He huffs that the Times "irrelevantly noted that Paul Ryan and Todd Akin voted the same way" on several anti-abortion bills. How is that irrelevant? Waters never explains. Inconvenient to Waters' right-wing agenda? Sure. But hardly irrelevant. This appears to be another example of the MRC violating its own "Tell the Truth" mantra by attacking anyone who dares to do so about conservatives.
Posted by Terry K.
at 3:25 PM EDT
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