NEW ARTICLE: Nobody Believes WorldNetDaily
Topic: WorldNetDaily
Joseph Farah frets that his website is being ignored -- but WND has so beclowned itself with promoting birtherism and conspiracy theories that the American public has no choice but to dismiss what it reads there. Read more >>

Newsmax Fearmongering About Economy to Boost Romney
Topic: Newsmax

Newsmax's Moneynews website has also been following the corporate line of working to get Mitt Romney elected.

An Oct. 23 article touted a claim by Robert Wiedemer that "Stocks could take a plunge if President Barack Obama is re-elected on Nov. 6; however, they could surge if GOP challenger Mitt Romney takes the White House."

You might recall that a couple years back, Newsmax built one of its money-making schemes around Wiedemer's book "Aftershock."

Moneynews is also fearmongering about the economy. An Oct. 26 article states that "A combination of rising taxes and cuts to government spending coupled with continued murkiness out of Europe could send the U.S. economy into a recession in the first quarter of next year, said Laurence Fink, CEO of asset management giant BlackRock.

WND Abets Joel Gilbert's Dishonest Defense Of His Anti-Obama Film
Topic: WorldNetDaily

You already know that Joel Gilbert and WorldNetDaily can't defend Gilbert's anti-Obama film, "Dreams From My Real Father," in an honest manner.

An Oct. 26 WorldNetDaily article notes the "strong reaction from establishment media" to Gilbert's film, but it ignores the substantive criticisms lodged against it.

For instance:

Barack Obama’s official website issued a response to Gilbert’s film Tuesday, charging it “peddles ridiculous conspiracy theories about President Obama.”

Gilbert told WND the campaign website falsely claimed Ann Dunham, the president’s mother, was only 15 years old in the nude photos, “copying a liberal blogger’s factually flawed attack on the film.”

In fact, this is what the Obama campaign actually said about the film:

Gilbert makes disgusting and false claims about graphic photos he says depict the President’s mother; they do not. In fact, the photos were published before she ever moved to Hawaii when she would have been only 15 years old.

See the difference? The campaign never acknowledged the pictures Gilbert used are of Obama's mother; it points out that that the only way Gilbert's claim could be true is if Ann Dunham was 15 years old when the pictures were taken and had arrived in Hawaii two years earlier than she did. And if you've seen the pictures, it's clear that the woman is much older than 15.

The campaign also links to the Orlando Sentinel article featuring Loren Collins pointing out that the pictures were published in fetish magazies two years before Gilbert claimed Frank Marshall Davis purportedly took them.

Gilbert offers no evidence to back up his claim that Collins' claim is "factually flawed" -- or even that Collins is a "liberal blogger." In the Sentinel article, Collins describes himself as "a conservative libertarian who does not support Obama politically."

Indeed, it seems that at this point, given Collins' detailed debunking, the onus is on Gilbert to prove Collins wrong, not just whine that he's getting fact-checked.

WND also states:

Gilbert granted an extensive interview and provided a DVD to The Daily Beast at the request of reporter Michelle Goldberg.

“I was amazed that in her article she had the audacity to call the president’s mother a ‘whore,’” Gilbert said.

Gilbert said he presented to the reporter personal photos of Obama’s mother at Frank Marshall Davis’ house to establish the possibility of an intimate relationship.

“The photos are covered up with black bars to be respectful,” Gilbert said. “I respect the right of women to choose to pose for personal photos, I would not judge someone in a sexist way as Michelle Goldberg has done in the Daily Beast.”

In fact, Goldberg did not  call Obama's mother a whore -- she was describing how Gilbert and otherswere describing her. From Goldberg's article:

After four years of invective, four years during which the right has called President Obama a traitor, a communist, a fraud, an affirmative-action case, a terrorist-sympathizer, and a tyrant, its shrillest voices have been reduced to the most primal insult of all. They are calling Obama’s mother a whore.

WND makes no effort to correct Gilbert's false depictions of what others have said about him. This makes WND a full partner in Gilbert's dishonesty.

Amid all this dishonesty, WND quotes Gilbert laughably talking journalists to task for ignoring his sleazy, dishonest film:

Gilbert noted that he challenged journalists in a speech at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on July 19 with a reading from the “The Journalist Creed,” a code of ethics for reporters.

The creed requires journalists to be unbiased public trustees, accurate and fair, and maintain a single standard of truth.

“Unfortunately, I have experienced first hand what we all knew – the media has collapsed as a public watchdog, and only propagates misinformation,” he said.

“How is this different than Pravda’s reporting in Soviet Russia?” he asked.

How indeed. With WND, Gilbert has his own personal Pravda.And he certainly doesn't expect WND to abide by "The Journalist's Creed," since doing so would further discredit him.

Pot, Kettle, Black
Topic: Media Research Center

The headline on an Oct. 26 NewsBusters post recounting MRC chief Brent Bozell's latest appearance on Sean Hannity's Fox News show reads, "Bozell: After 'Delusional' Rantings, It's Pretty Clear Chris Matthews Is 'Bully' and 'Unmitigated Liar'."

Really? The guy who called President Obama a "skinny ghetto crackhead," tried to sic Congress on Comcast because NBC did something he didn't like, and is inventing a "lie" that Obama purportedly told is calling someone else a bully and a liar?

My goodness.

WND's Klein Tries to Commit Identity Fraud As Anti-Obama Stunt
Topic: WorldNetDaily

WorldNetDaily's Aaron Klein is getting some serious Drudge attention for his Oct. 29 article claiming to have made a donation to President Obama's re-election campaign under the name "Osama bin Laden" using " a Pakistani Internet Protocol and proxy server, a disposable credit card and a fake address."

In addition to being late to the game -- RedState's Erick Erickson tried this same stunt a few weeks ago -- Klein, or the "WND staff" member he claims actually did the deed (perhaps Joshua Klein, who is credited with "additional research"), is admitting to identity fraud. Isn't that illegal?

Klein also exhibits a fundamental misunderstanding of how credit card verification works. As Media Matters points out, the Obama campaign has explained that it has anti-fraud protections in place to stop fake or illegal donations and that just because a fraudulent donation "may initially appear to a donor to have been accepted," such a donation will soon be rejected.

So, what we have here is Klein (or his lackey) committing identity fraud for the purpose of trying (and failing) to embarrass Obama on the eve of an election and, it seems, to get a Drudge link. Klein can ultimately take heart in the fact that most people are too preoccupied with the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy to pay much attention to his failed stunt.

UPDATE: Remember that a couple years ago, WND was so unconcerned about online security that anybody could -- and did -- pad WND's  anti-Obama birther petition. And it has yet to release the names of those 500,000-plus signatories it claims signed it, or subject the petition's counting methods to any sort of outside auditing.

NewsBusters Falsely Smears Maddow As 'Baghdad Bob' to Defend Romney
Topic: NewsBusters

An Oct. 29 NewsBusters post by Jack Coleman unleashes a torrent of hate against MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, under the headline "It's Official: Rachel Maddow Completes Conversion to Baghdad Bob":

"The Rachel Maddow Show" really shouldn't air weeknights on MSNBC. It is much better suited for Saturday mornings, you know, along with the other cartoons.

Maddow is so deep in the tank for the Obama administration at this point that she no longer cares how ludicrous she appears in her melodramatic inveighing against the staggering mendacity of one Willard Mitt Romney, a man who clearly haunts her fitful dreams and restless nights.

What did Maddow do that made Coleman so mad? She caught Romney in a lie -- his statement that "I saw a story today that one of the great manufacturers in this state, Jeep, now owned by the Italians, is thinking of moving all production to China." In fact, as Maddow pointed out, Chrysler is adding workers at U.S. plants that make Jeeps, and that production in China would be to serve that market, not shift production out of the U.S. Romney apparently got a right-wing blog's distorted view of a Bloomberg story stating that Chrysler owner Fiat "may eventually make all of its models" in China. Coleman then writes:

Still unclear to me where Romney lied about this. Chrysler is majority-owned by Fiat and hence it is within Fiat's power to move Jeep production wherever it wants. Since the company "may eventually" make all its Jeeps in China, as Bloomberg reported, citing a company executive as its source, one can only conclude that Romney's lying about this, as far as Maddow is concerned, stems from him not actually reading a story about it as he claimed, but getting his information elsewhere.

But Coleman overlooks a statement in the Bloomberg story, made by Mike Manley, chief operating officer of Fiat and Chrysler in Asia: "Manley referred to adding Jeep production sites rather than shifting output from North America to China."

Meanwhile, Chrysler itself has stated:

Let’s set the record straight: Jeep has no intention of shifting production of its Jeep models out of North America to China. It’s simply reviewing the opportunities to return Jeep output to China for the world’s largest auto market. U.S. Jeep assembly lines will continue to stay in operation. A careful and unbiased reading of the Bloomberg take would have saved unnecessary fantasies and extravagant comments.

In other words, Maddow is correct to say that Fiat "wants to build Jeeps for China -- in China," and Romney is wrong.

So who's Baghdad Bob now? Hint: It's not Maddow.

David Kupelian's Obama-Hating Crystal Ball
Topic: WorldNetDaily

WorldNetDaily managing editor David Kupelian begins his Oct. 22 column -- headlined "My crystal ball" -- by stating, "I’m not a prophet. In this world of wall-to-wall deception, it’s hard enough for a journalist to figure out what’s going on right now, let alone predict the future."

We'll agree Kupelian is not a prophet. We'll also argue that he's not a journalist -- these days, he's nothing but an anti-Obama propagandist.

And Kupelian does a fine job of delivering on the propaganda in his column, which argues that "should Obama be re-elected, some things are almost certain to happen, in my view."

Among them, he writes, include political violence:

If Obama in a second term accelerates his relentless assault on the American system, there may be some who conclude all is lost and that their only response is to commit violent acts in the misguided belief they are channeling America’s founding generation – refreshing “the tree of liberty,” as Jefferson said, with “the blood of patriots and tyrants.”

Of course, such miserable actions will fail to achieve any good result, innocent people will suffer, the perpetrators will rightly be reviled (along with millions of others), and the net result will be a level of government repression unprecedented in the modern age.

Of course, Kupelian doesn't mention that the type of person who would be prone to anti-Obama violence is also likely an avid reader of the anti-Obama propangada at WND.

Another purported consequence is "Depression and mental illness":

One could jest that another four years of Obama is enough to give anyone a case of depression, but it’s no laughing matter. Presidential character is enormously important, especially during difficult times. While things were very tough during the Great Depression, America was basically unified and citizens respected and looked up to their president (first Hoover and then FDR). Today’s president, in contrast, is neither a unifying nor inspiring figure, but quite the opposite – a grossly unqualified, polarizing, ideologically driven and jarringly narcissistic politician widely perceived as dragging the nation downward.

Let’s remember that a president of the United States is a lot more than chief executive of a gigantic “corporation” and commander in chief of the armed forces. He is also, in a very real sense, the “father of the country” during his time in office. Just as fathers exert an immeasurable, almost cosmic, influence on the well-being of their family, so is the national family similarly influenced by its presidential “father.” During Reagan’s presidency, for example, more Americans became pro-life, because he was pro-life; they became confident, because he was confident; and they became more hopeful (“It’s Morning in America”), because he was hopeful. And it was all real: Unlike Obama’s “hope” campaign slogan, Reagan exuded genuine hope and confidence – rooted in a deep understanding of, and love for, America and an enlightened determination to enact policies that would lead to greater freedom, prosperity and security.

The influence of a good presidential “father of the country” is like sunshine; though far away, it warms everybody with its life-giving rays. Likewise, a troubling father figure like Obama – who himself has never matured, but rather is a profoundly broken person and has developed into a ruthless and deceitful Chicago politician with a winsome persona – exerts a malignant “radiant” effect on the American mind and culture. Thus, while ours is already a nation of drug-takers, with approximately one in 10 adults currently taking dangerous anti-depressant drugs, I believe psychiatric drug dependency – and much more to the point, the mental-emotional conditions that lead to their use – will increase under a second Obama term. He’s one stress Americans really don’t need.

Recall that Kupelian baselessly blamed antidepressants for Andrea Yates killing her five children, ignoring that she and her husband were in thrall to an ultra-fundamentalist Christian preacher who believed that women should be subsurvient to men and who berated her Catholic upbringing.

This would apparently be followed by "de facto secession":

By de facto, I mean that actual, legal secession will not happen. We fought the Civil War over this issue and the secessionists lost, costing over 600,000 lives (and recent authoritative research shows the number of Civil War dead was probably closer to 750,000). Secession from the union is extremely unlikely simply because the national government won’t allow it.

However, the Internet plays a crucial role here. Just as commerce, communications, recreation, education, the news and information media and many other areas of life have been revolutionized by the Internet, the same amazing technology – which allows unfettered free communication with basically anyone on earth, without middlemen or gatekeepers – will enable society to re-align over new lines of force: common values. In other words, people of like mind, who believe in traditional American constitutional values, will be able to find each other over the Internet – and if they wish, move to a common geographic location. They can pick a state – Texas, South Carolina, North Dakota, wherever – and do what the Mormons did in moving en masse to Utah. Utah didn’t secede, but the massive influence of the LDS church there sure made it a great state to live in if you’re a Mormon.

Kupelian doesn't mention that WND has promoted actual efforts at secession.

What Kupelian is peddling here is not "crystal ball" thinking but more anti-Obama paranoia.

CNS Sneers That Obama Returning To Washington To Monitor Storm Is "Optics"
Topic: CNSNews.com

For part of today, the front page of CNSNews.com carried a sneering banner at the top of the page reading: "Optics: Obama, in Fla. to campaign, suddenly cancels, now returning to D.C. to storm-watch."

 

 CNS made no mention of the "optics" of Mitt Romney trying to take political advantage of Hurricane Sandy by having his campaign volunteers using a Romney campaign bus to collect relief supplies.

CNS has long despised Obama and is shilling for Romney.

Lying Preacher Bradlee Dean Strikes Again
Topic: WorldNetDaily

Bradlee Dean just can't stop himself from lying.

While ranting against President Obama's alleged promotion of "abortion and radical Islam, both of which are destructive to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," Dean declares in his Oct. 25 WorldNetDaily column that "Decades of medical evidence have revealed that abortion carries significant psychological risks; including increased risks of depression, anxiety and suicide."

In fact, according to the American Psychological Association, "the prevalence of mental health problems observed among women in the United States who had a single, legal, first-trimester abortion for non- therapeutic reasons was consistent with normative rates of comparable mental health problems in the general population of women in the United States." While "some women do experience sadness, grief, and feelings of loss following termination of a pregnancy, and some experience clinically significant disorders, including depression and anxiety," the APA concluded that there is "no evidence sufficient to support the claim that an observed association between abortion history and mental health was caused by the abortion per se, as opposed to other factors."

Dean then writes another lie-filled paragraph, as he's prone to do:

Obama and his criminal syndicates have advocated for the murder of children in the womb 241 times since he took office. This “grown-up fetus” even went so far as to block the protection of a child born alive during an abortion to be sure the child is snuffed out. He has declared a “war on women” by attempting to force all Americans to fund Planned Parenthood. Obama also wants to force the church in America to supply birth control for women as well, because he wants to promote the church’s doctrine of a moral, healthy lifestyle for women … right?

Dean provides no evidence for his "241 times" claim; it appears to be some sort of internet meme promoted by anti-abortion website LifeNews, whose list really desperately stretches things to inflate numbers. For instance, the appointment of Hillary Clinton as secretary of state is on this list, as is funding for Planned Parenthood even though no federal money pays for abortion beyond Hyde Amendment restrictions.

Dean's claim that Obama tried to "block the protection of a child born alive during an abortion to be sure the child is snuffed out" is false, and he falsely implies Obama did this while president. In fact, Obama took those purported actions as an Illinois state legislator, and as we've pointed out, Illinois already had a law requiring medical care for a viable fetus that survived an abortion. What Dean is 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.

Dean's claim that "Obama also wants to force the church in America to supply birth control for women" is also false. Churches are exempt from the mandate to cover birth control under the health care reform law, though religious-affiliated organizations are not. And even then, religious organizations who object to that mandate many have their insurance companies pay for the contraceptive coverage.

Dean also claims:

Barack Hussein Obama gave $1.5 billion to Muslim-led Egypt in foreign aid, shortly after the Muslim Brotherhood declared war on the United States. The Muslim Brotherhood is dedicated to the governmental implementation of Shariah law, which wages the worst war on women known to the world.

PolitiFact has found that claim to be misleading: "In fact, the aid package was for the nation of Egypt, not the Brotherhood. The Brotherhood may control the largest bloc of seats in parliament, but it's not even a majority. Not only that, the country itself continues, for now at least, to be controlled by the military. And more than 80 percent of the aid package is military aid."

Doesn't the Bible warn about deceivers like Dean? And how does Dean square his record of filth and lies with the God he purports to be preaching on behalf of?

MRC Attacks Nat Geo Over Seal Team Six Doc, Won't Say Who Owns Channel
Topic: Media Research Center

The Media Research Center issued an Oct. 26 press release demanding that the National Geographic Channel "delay the airing of 'SEAL Team Six: the Raid on Osama bin Laden' until after Election Day." According to the MRC, it was produced by The Weinstein Company, "co-chaired by Harvey Weinstein, a major donor to the Democratic Party and long-time fundraiser for Barack Obama" and because it allegedly has "recut to enhance Obama’s role at the request of Weinstein."

The release also quotes MRC chief Brent Bozell claiming, "We don’t want to pass judgement on the content, because we haven’t watched the film." When has that ever stopped the MRC before?

Nowhere in the press release, though, is it mention who the majority owner of the National Geographic Channel is: none other than News Corp., also the owner of the MRC-friendly Fox News Channel.

An Oct. 24 MRC item by Matt Hadro on Bozell's appearance on CNN to register his protest of the scheduled program also fails to mention that Nat Geo is owned by News Corp.

It's not as if the MRC is shy about going after the corporate owners of broadcast entites -- remember, earlier this year Bozell was trying to get Congress to harrass Comcast, owner of NBC, because of some things on NBC he didn't like.

Then again, Bozell appears every week on Fox News as part of Sean Hannity's show, and he certainly doesn't want to jeopardize that gig by pointing out how Fox is linked to a sister network he's criticizing.

WND Selectively Notices Criticism Of Gilbert's Discredited Film
Topic: WorldNetDaily

An Oct. 25 WorldNetDaily article is headlined "Media finally notice 'anti-Obama' film 'Dreams.'" But WND is being very selective about noticing the media that has "noticed" the film.

The article focuses on a Denver TV station  that called Joel Gilbert's "Dreams From My Real Father" an "anti-Obama film full of false claims." OF course, it is, but WND will never admit that; in this case, WND complains that the reporter "presents no evidence to back his assertions."

Unmentioned by WND was the fact that the Orlando Sentinel published an article about Gilbert's movie that backs up its claim that the film is fraudulent.

Whereas WND complained that the Denver TV report "made no mention of Davis’s relationship with Obama’s mother, Ann Dunham, and the photographic evidence that she posed nude for him about the time she became pregnant," the Orlando Sentinel article does, and it features Loren Collins -- who has extensively debunked the film -- pointing out that the photos Gilbert claims are of Obama "were actually published in a magazine two years before Dunham arrived in Hawaii."

And thus, WND continues its pattern of ignoring any legitimate, documented criticism of Gilbert's flim, just as it has ignored any documented debunking of birther conspiracy theories.

UPDATE: WND's article is even more dishonest than we first thought. Contrary to WND's assertion that the Denver TV station's report "presents no evidence to back his assertions," an article accompanying the video on the station's website provides that evidence -- quoting not only Collins but Obama biographer David Maraniss refuting Gilbert's claims. WND made no mention of this article.

The article also notes this: "Gilbert would not agree to an interview regarding his film unless 9News agreed not to use clips from his film. 9News did not agree to those parameters for an interview." That seems to fit with Gilbert forcing Collins to remove a excerpt of Gilbert's video for his own video debunking Gilbert.

Newsmax Promotes Dinesh D'Souza Film, Ignores His Sex Scandal
Topic: Newsmax

The loss leader of the month at Newsmax is Dinesh D'Souza's discredited anti-Obama film "2016: Obama's America," based on D'Souza's discredited book about how President Obama is an anti-colonial Marxist, or something.

Newsmax's promotion for it -- which involves its usual scheme of selling the DVD for $4.95 (plus shipping and handling) while throwing in a few "free" issues of Newsmax's magazine that you must cancel before you're automatically charged for a full year's subscription price of $39.95, which Newsmax benevolently describes as "convenient automatic renewal" -- includes this hyperbolic introduction:

Do you really know Barack Obama?

He's been president of the United States, the most powerful man in the world.

Yet a blockbuster new movie — 2016: Obama's America — proves that we don't know the real Obama.

This movie has broken records at box offices nationwide despite a major media blackout.

2016: Obama's America takes audiences on a gripping visual journey into the heart of Obama to reveal whether one man's surprising past will redefine and change America over the next four years.

What Newsmax won't tell you: how D'Souza's personal and professional life is currently in shambles because of a sex scandal.

A couple weeks back, the evangelical magazine World reported that D'Souza showed up at a recent speaking engagement with a woman he described as his financee -- which people there took as a little strange since he's still married to (albeit separated from) his first wife.

As one can imagine, D'Souza's behavior is a bit disconcerting (if not exactly surprising) from someone who simultaneously has been complaining that Obama is “attacking the traditional values agenda.” Oh, and did we mention that D'Souza's new woman got married (to someone else) just last December?

It also got the attention of the folks at King's College in New York, an evangelical school where D'Souza is president. He had already faced criticism for promoting his own anti-Obama work, including his film, while ignoring the needs of the college. That situation resolved itself on Oct. 18 when D'Souza resigned as college president.

Yet Newsmax has not reported any of this to its readers -- we found no story about any aspect of the scandal on Newsmax's website. It did, however, find the time to report on the dismissal of a lawsuit against D'Souce by one of the film's producers over profits being made from the film.

Why doesn't Newsmax consider this news? It's a nice, juicy sex scandal, but Newsmax apparently doesn't want it to interfere with its (and D'Souza's) Obama-hating.

WND's Corsi Is Still Traveling On The Romney Press Plane
Topic: WorldNetDaily

It's almost kinda cute how Jerome Corsi is pretending to be a real reporter.

In an Oct. 26 WorldNetDaily article, Corsi uses his perch on the Mitt Romney press plane -- where he has been hanging out for the past week or so --  to bash President Obama and peddle more Ronald Kessler-esque Romney-fluffing. He lovingly describes how the crowds he claims are turning out for Romney's rallies:

On Tuesday, Romney drew a crowd the Secret Service put at 12,500 – the maximum fire marshals would allow – at the Red Rocks Amphitheater in Morrison, Colo., north of Denver.

People of all ages began arriving at noon, ready to make the high-altitude climb from the facility’s many parking lots to the tiered seats of the famed outdoor music venue.

Romney campaign workers handed out red, blue, yellow and white T-shirts to those seated in the center of the audience in a pattern designed to form the logo on the Colorado flag.

The applause for Romney and Ryan in the amphitheater was thundering as the candidates promised supporters that this year the Republican ticket would beat Obama in Colorado, something McCain failed to do in 2008.

By contrast, according to Corsi, Obama is drawing only "modest crowds" while he focuses on "causes of the far left that are calculated to motivate the Democratic Party’s base in an apparent decision to deemphasize the large mass of independent voters to Romney."

Corsi has been filing more "Traveling with the Romney campaign" datelines in the past few days:

An Oct. 25 article enthuses about how Romney has been attracting "enthusiastic, overflow crowds in Ohio from Cincinnati in the south to Toledo on Lake Erie" and features an interview with Romney campaign manager Scott Jennings.

An Oct. 26 article fawns over Romney's "major policy address" that day, in which he "presented his vision for achieving genuine economic growth in the next four years, while charging Barack Obama with a record of failure in his stewardship of the economy."

An Oct. 27 article keeps up the Romney cheerleading, literally:

“Ten more days!” the crowds at the Florida Romney rallies chanted today, ready to count off the days until Barack Obama is defeated and President-elect Mitt Romney begins preparing for a new administration in the White House.

Romney spoke to three large overflow crowds, delivering a positive message of real economic recovery and jobs brought on by a renewed faith in the private enterprise system.

Meanwhile, Corsi did take time out while traveling on the Romney press plane to publish an article citing the discredited Joel Gilbert to claim that Obama had a nose job. Surprisingly, Corsi appears not to have asked Scott Jennings about that.

NewsBusters Upset (Again) That A Republican Got Fact-Checked
Topic: NewsBusters

The Media Research Center has never been a stickler for context -- when it comes to claims about liberals, anyway. By contrast, it demands proper context when it comes to conservatives.

We see that again in an Oct. 19 NewsBusters post by Randy Hall, who's upset that PolitiFact Ohio put a claim made by a Republican candidate in its proper context.

What happened is that PolitiFact Ohio rated as "mostly false" a claim by Republican Senate candidate Josh Mandel that his Democratic opponent, incumbent Sherrod Brown, "missed over 350 official votes" as a congressman. PolitiFact points out that the claim ignores the facts that the number of missed votes is a small number compared to the more than 10,000 or so votes Brown did take part in, and that most of those missed votes were due to injuries suffered in a car accident.

But Hall doesn't care about context -- he insists that the claim is "true" and that PolitiFact Ohio is engaging in "media bias" by telling the full truth about Mandel's claim. He goes on to repeat claims by a Mandel spokesman that "Brown's missed-vote ratio is higher than the median rate for all members of Congress, which is 2.5 percent, while Brown's rate is 3 percent."

Hall also ranted that "PolitiFact Ohio has often trumpeted information and statistics that favor Brown over Mandel, such as stating that the Democratic candidate supposedly tells the truth two-thirds of the time while the Republican lies two-thirds of the time," adding that "fact-checking is rapidly becoming just another way for liberals to vent their venom regarding Republican candidates." In reality, right-wingers like Hall and his fellow NewsBusters have engaged in a war on fact-checkers simply for having the audacity to fact-check what Republicans say.

Hall seems rather desperate to take refuge in a misleading claim. It's just another example of how the MRC really doesn't want anyone to tell the truth about Republicans.

Obama Derangement Syndrome Watch, Supersize WorldNetDaily Edition
Topic: WorldNetDaily

While the examples of President Obama’s kingly indulgences are numerous, only a few need be mentioned for foundation, i.e. executive orders as law (part of his overt “We Can’t Wait” program admittedly designed to cut out Congress), voiding entire statutes via decree (e.g. U.S. naturalization code and the work-requirement provisions of the landmark 1997 Welfare Reform Act), making war without legislative authorization (which Abraham Lincoln understood to be the “worst of all kingly oppressions”), making agreements with other nations absent popular ratification and assent (Law of the Sea Treaty and his many unsanctioned foreign policy experiments with Islamic states), illegally transferring the power of Congress to unelected and unvetted “czars,” assassinating and indefinitely detaining American citizens without due process, and finally, taxing the people without legal pretext (arguably the abortion mandate, the individual mandate and the various fees introduced by this president). Other earlier offenses include, but are not limited to, threatening banks with “pitchforks,” firing the heads of private companies and dictating their wages, requiring that a company create a slush fund for his czars to distribute to the masses, etc.

This is a KING.

-- John Griffing, Oct. 14 WorldNetDaily column

Looking back at the facts that were/are undeniable regarding now-President Obama’s pre-presidential life, nothing leading up to the election of 2008 would have given anyone the reality on which to base an argument as to why Barack Obama was up to the task of fixing the problems that existed within the world’s largest economy, managing the most powerful military ever known to man or successfully dealing with a host of other concerns that were and in most cases still are of great importance to many in our society. To formulate a decision based solely on the grounds of fundamental logic would have told anyone that an individual who possessed no academic legacy, had authored no significant piece of legislation at the state or federal level, functioned at the rudimentary task of “community organizer” in his not-too-distant past, while having strong ties to known terrorists such as Bill Ayers and America-hating characters such as Jeremiah Wright, could not aptly perform the duties that would be demanded.

Yet, while considering the many facts that should have made this man an almost laughable candidate, against all logic he was elected our 44th president. So why, or more importantly how, has a man who has draped himself in mediocrity his entire existence risen perhaps to the pinnacle of mankind?

-- John Rocker, Oct. 15 WND column

Communists hate democracy. Obama is with them on that. What has he done to eradicate the widespread voting fraud – nearly all of it perpetrated by “Democrats” – that is now endemic? Let us hope that when the splendid sheriff of Maricopa County, Ariz., has finished investigating the Mickey Mouse “birth certificate” on the crime scene that is the White House website he will turn his gallant, unpaid cold-case posse on the voter fraud some say gave Obama the White House.

-- Christopher Monckton, Oct. 16 WND column

The title of my latest book, “Barack Obama, You’re Fired! (And Don’t Bother Asking for a Letter of Recommendation),” is more than an example of wishful thinking. I am convinced that this year, Christmas will fall on Nov. 6 when Santa Claus, recognizing who’s been naughty and who’s been nice, will do the right thing and fill our Christmas stocking with Mitt Romney and a Republican Senate.

-- Burt Prelutsky, Oct. 16 WND column

In 2008, the majority was wooed by a youthful, good-looking, energetic, slick-talking newcomer who spoke in broad generalities. I received a letter from a female friend who (obviously) does not read my columns, in which she included a picture of herself proudly wearing an Obama T-shirt. When I asked her why she voted for Obama she said, “I’m for ‘hope and change.’” When I asked her what kind of change, she responded, “I don’t know. I’m not political.” Oooh!

-- Jane Chastain, Oct. 17 WND column

So, yes, our immediate task in November is to oust the dictator in chief and pray that the damage he has done to the republic can be ameliorated. 

-- Tom Tancredo, Oct. 19 WND column

Obama assumed Americans were so soured on everything that vapid promises for the future were enough for victory.

He told us he was promising “fundamental change” for our country.

Strange isn’t it, that not one enterprising reporter thought to ask him just exactly what that meant?

They didn’t ask, and there weren’t enough thinking voters to press the issue.

But enough voters bought the Democrat Kool-Aid and elected Obama, and he’s spent the last four years steamrolling that hidden agenda on the country with more in store if he’s re-elected.

-- Barbara Simpson, Oct. 21 WND column

Have you noticed how the Obama campaign has stepped up its class-warfare rhetoric as we draw closer to Election Day?

Obama is constantly resorting to this tactic because he’s simply unable to defend his own record in office as 23 million Americans are out of work or underemployed and the economy remains in distress.

Class warfare is all he has left.

-- Chuck Norris, Oct. 21 WND column

Now, I was incorrect about my outlandish prediction that Obama would retire rather than face the possibility of only his second-ever electoral defeat. But I was correct to notice his lack of interest in winning a second term. Throughout what has passed for his campaign, Obama’s detachment has been so readily apparent that even the mainstream media have finally noticed it. He clearly wants nothing more than to move gracefully on to the next stage of his career, which will consist of traveling around the world being paid to hear how wonderful he is, only this time without the pressure of actually having to do anything.

-- Vox Day, Oct. 21 WND column

The body count piles up under Obama’s pro-jihadist policy. The attack on our embassy was an act of war. The slaughter of our ambassador and three diplomats in Libya was an act of war. But instead of taking decisive action against our enemies, the president blamed America. The president blamed the Constitution. Obama blamed the First Amendment.

The more he fails … the more he fails. This is high treason. The enemedia exalts treason as patriotism, while demonizing freedom-lovers and patriots. America, it is past midnight.

-- Pamela Geller, Oct. 23 WND column

The Obama administration had crafted a flimsy edifice of nothing but lies. There may as well have been a neon sign flashing, “I am nothing but a lie. Touch me and I will implode.”

And Romney ignored the whole thing.

Pro-Romney players like Pat Buchanan said with satisfaction after the debate that Romney preferred to “look presidential.” I still want to throw the piano through the plate-glass window.

Do all these unlicked chops of mine go into the freezer, the fridge or the garbage?

-- Barry Farber, Oct. 23 WND column

I doubt very much if Obama will ever allow me to interview him – or even ask one tough question. After all, who am I? I’m only a guy running the first and largest independent news source on the Internet, with an audience of 8 million. I’m only a guy who before launching WND 15 years ago, when he was a freshman state senator from Illinois, was running daily newspapers in major metro markets, having spent 25 years doing everything one can do in the media world.

So I will ask my rhetorical question right here.

“Barack Obama: You appeared recently on a Comedy Central show and said repeatedly that the cold-blooded murders of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens, Sean Smith, Glen Doherty and Ty Woods in a Libyan terrorist attack was ‘not optimal.’ Your administration, in a program called ‘Fast and Furious,’ announced in the White House with some fanfare, sold automatic weapons and other firearms to Mexican drug lords resulting in the deaths of possibly hundreds of Mexican citizens and several U.S. citizens, including two law enforcement officials. As a state senator in Illinois you sponsored legislation that would deprive babies that survived abortion attempts any lifesaving medical treatment or nourishment – leading to their slow agonizing deaths. With a record like that, can you stand before God and the American people and tell us honestly that you place a high value on human life?”

I don’t expect an answer – not even from Obama’s snotty, little, self-righteous, know-nothing spokesmen.

But the question needs to be asked.

-- Joseph Farah, Oct. 24 WND column

If Barack Obama wins re-election, any questions about capitalism will, of course, become moot. Given that he would not have to be concerned about winning another election, his second term would bring about a rapid end to what is left of the American Empire. He would simply ignore both Congress and the Constitution even more than in the past and seamlessly implement a de facto dictatorship.

That, in turn, would plunge us into a collectivist dark ages that would extinguish initiative, entrepreneurial activity and wealth creation. The only “solution” would be to have the Fed increase its efforts to ramp up the money supply in order to cover the rapidly increasing deficits, with the resulting runaway inflation being the perfect excuse to declare a state of emergency and suspend future elections.

-- Robert Ringer, Oct. 24 WND column