CNS Turns Another Jay Leno Joke Into A 'News' Article Topic: CNSNews.com
The NewsBusters-ization of CNSNews.com is continuing apace, for reasons nobody's sure of.
For the second time this month, CNS has made a "news" article out of a Jay Leno joke. From the Jan. 23 article by Eric Scheiner:
Tonight Show host Jay Leno took a jab at the attendance levels for President Barack Obama’s second inauguration.
“On the news they made a big deal out of the fact that four years ago there were twice as many people at his first inauguration as there was at this one, “ Leno said on Tuesday night’s broadcast, “Well, yeah, that was because four years ago twice as many people could afford to stay in hotels.”
According to USA Today and other news reports, attendance was significantly lower for Monday’s inaugural ceremonies than for the inauguration in 2009.
Yes, that's a "news" story. Apparently, CNS has stopped caring about journalism and just wants to do right-wing stenography.
Colin Flaherty Can't Find A Black Mob To Blame, But Does So Anyway Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily's resident race-baiter, Colin Flaherty, is back again with yet another "black mob violence" article. Only he can't find a "black mob" to blame. But he does anyway.
This time, Flaherty has latched onto a case in which the city of Chicago has agreed to pay millions to the family of a white woman who had been taken into custody for causing a disturbance at an airport but later released -- despite exhibiting signs of mental illness -- into a crime-infested black neighborhood, where she was sexually assaulted and fell from a 7th-story window, leaving her incapacitated.
Because the victim is white and her alleged perpetrators are black, Flaherty stops his investigation right there and declares this "racial violence" even though he offers no evidence that race was a driving factor behind any of the events that occurred.
But who needs facts when there's race-baiting to be done? Not Colin Flaherty.
MRC Falls for Fake Video Game Targeting NRA Topic: Media Research Center
Matthew Balan uses a Jan. 17 Media Research Center item to defend the honor of National Rifle Association president David Keene from CBS' Norah O'Donnell, who purportedly "barely contained her contempt" for him. Balan went on to complain that O'Donnell "also failed to mention a new online video game that lets users simulate assassinating Keene."
Just one problem with that: It's a hoax.
As Salon reported the day before Balan's item was published, this "online video game" is in reality a slapped-together demo created for the express purpose of trolling right-wingers. The MRC is just one of many right-wing outlets that fell for it.
Balan should considered himself trolled. But will he correct the record and apologize for taking the bait? we shall see.
WND's Farah Bails on Prayer Breakfast After All Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily has been in a uproar over editor Joseph Farah being disinvited from an inauguration day prayer breakfast -- until he was re-invited as prayer breakfast organizer Rev. Merrie Turner abruptly repudiated what she told Media Matters (disclosure: my employer) about Farah's involvement. WND, meanwhile, made no effort to hold Turner accountable for her changing stories.
So the big day came and went -- and Farah was a no-show.
Right Wing Watch reports that most of the special guests -- including Pat Robertson, Michele Bachmann and Pat Boone as well as Farah -- failed to attend, though "Robertson, Farah, and Pat Boone sent messages that were read out loud." Among those who did show up was Wiley Drake, a birther who has prayed for President Obama's death.
WND's article on the breakfast, meanwhile, is curiously silent on Farah's failure to attend or the controversy it tried to manufacture about his invitation. Instead, the unbylined article documents the words of Jonathan Cahn, "author of 'The Harbinger' – the startling New York Times bestseller that suggests the U.S. is in the shadow of judgment from God for its rejection of Him." Farah is mentioned only once in the article, as the producer of a video accompanying Cahn's book.
How very like WND to put marketing ahead of the truth.
Jill Stanek's Empty Words On Anti-Abortion Activists And The Children Of Their Enemies Topic: NewsBusters
In a Jan. 20 NewsBusters post, anti-abortion activist Jill Stanek complains that a new real-housewives reality show includes the daughter of an abortion doctor, then oddly says, "We in the pro-life movement don’t believe children should be punished for the sins of their fathers."
As Stanek's attack shows, that's simply not true. Additionally, given one recent chance Stanek had to denounce targeting children of an anti-abortion activist's enemy, she punted.
Last year, anti-abortion activists started handing out fliers depicting the landlord of an abortion clinic as akin to Nazis. Stanek wrote that she was asked to condemn it, "but I couldn’t. I responded by asking what was inaccurate about it."
That was followed by anti-abortion protesters picketing the school that the landlord's 11-year-old daughter attends. Rather than condemn such behavior -- as her NewsBusters statement suggests she would -- Stanek instead expressed no opinion and threw the question out to her readers: "Do you think involving the children of either abortion proponents or opponents is fair game?"
It seems that when it actually comes down to proving that she believes that children of their targets shouldn't be targeted, Stanek can't back up her words.
A Jan. 16 WND article by Bob Unruh details Wenzel poll results claiming that 73 percent of respondents said that they didn't mind that state and local governments were acquiring "military-style equipment and armaments." Unruh then quotes Wenzel offering up his own invented interpretation of the results:
“This is perhaps because, the survey shows, a wide majority of Americans doubt their local or state police would ever engage in the imposition of some sort of martial law. Such imposition would severely restrict personal freedoms, but 59 percent said they just don’t think such a thing would happen here in America,” he continued.
“That is largely because 51 percent said they cannot conceive of any circumstances or actions by government that would so cause them to agree it is time for a citizen revolution against the government. Just 18 percent said they could conceive of something the government could do to cause them to want to revolt.
“This is a testament to the longstanding stability that the country has known, but also spells a risk of tyranny. If government leaders know the citizenry is unwilling to revolt and they know their law enforcement agencies are well-equipped to put down any uprising with military-style weaponry, one could argue that those leaders might be tempted to impose tyranny on the country in some form or another,” he said.
The next day, Unruh served up some more Wenzel results, this time claiming that "one in seven Americans believes that the nation eventually will be ruled by a dictator." But the questions are decidedly leading:
In world history, whenever a democratic society similar to ours has failed, it has been followed by a dictatorship – usually a brutal dictatorship. If the current American federal government were to fail, what do you think would be the most likely outcome?
Some opinion leaders in America today say the current federal government of the United States is so badly in debt and is so bloated as a dysfunctional bureaucracy, and faces such grave threats from foreign enemies, that it is unlikely to last much longer. How likely do you think it is that our national government will collapse during your lifetime from the combination of these serious problems facing the country?
How likely do you think it is that the country will collapse during the next 20 years?
How likely do you think it is that the country will collapse during the next 10 years?
Then, in a Jan. 19 article, Unruh quotes Wenzel going rogue from the facts again:
“At the beginning of a second presidential term, you generally expect the country to be in full-bore optimism, in part as an endorsement of the re-elected president and in part a reflection of the nation settled in its current course,” said Fritz Wenzel, president of his strategies organization.
“We saw that with Reagan, we saw that with Clinton, and we saw that with George W. Bush. But that is not what we find with Obama,” he said.
“The country is already in full-on depression, as just 34 percent said they think things in America are headed in the right direction. Even among Democrats, just 62 percent said they think things are headed in the right direction, an abysmal figure for the president’s own fellow party members.”
He continued: “There is just no sugar-coating this – America may have liked Obama more than Romney, but they have no confidence in his leadership. This spells nothing but tough sledding for the nation over the next four years. Politically, it’s bound to get very ugly as the nation continues in a downward spiral and leaders in Washington point fingers across the political aisle. Forget solutions and reform for the next four years – the only thing coming from Washington will be blame for our sorry condition. This survey finding reflects that the nation is in the process of giving up hope.”
Wenzel somehow manages to extrapolate all of that from a single poll finding that 34 percent of respondents say the country is moving in the wrong direction.
Way to put partisan politics ahead of scientific polling, Fritz.
CNs' Jeffrey Puts 'Love' In Scare Quotes When Referring to Gays Topic: CNSNews.com
A particularly nasty example of the Media Research Center's anti-gay agenda pops up in a Jan. 21 CNSNews.com article by editor in chief Terry Jeffrey, who puts "love" in scare quotes when referring to gays:
President Barack Obama opened his second inaugural address by quoting the statement from the preamble to the Declaration of Independence that all men “are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights."
He then went on to say that if men were in fact created equal, then homosexual “love” must be equal as well.
[...]
A bit later in his speech, Obama returned to the theme of God creating all men equal, and this time tied it directly to his belief that the “law” should extend equal treatment to “the love” of homosexuals.
Jeffrey does not explain why "love" is in scare quotes, or why he apparently doesn't believe that homosexuals can love each other.
Rick Santorum Shows His Obama-Hating Hypocrisy Topic: WorldNetDaily
In his Jan. 20 WorldNetDaily column, Rick Santorum complained that President Obama issued "23 executive orders to be signed by the president to attempt to address gun violence in the wake of the Sandy Hook tragedy. Once again, rather than respect the rule of law and the checks and balances in our system, President Obama is unilaterally implementing public policy without the normal process that involves legislation, debate and passage by a vote of Congress."
In fact, Obama did not sign "23 executive orders." As Slate's Dave Weigel details, Obama 23 executive actions on various issues connected to gun massacres and asked Congress to consider a few reform bills.
Santorum goes on to cite as evidence that Obama "has found ways to circumvent our system and impose his views and vision":
Two days after he took office, President Obama rescinded by executive order the “Mexico City policy,” which prevents foreign aid going to organizations that perform or promote abortions. No legislation passed, no debate, just an executive order.
But the website for Santorum's 2012 presidential campaign lists under the "Executive Orders, Rulemaking and other Executive Branch Actions" he would take if elected is "Reinstitute the Mexico City Policy to stop tax-payer funding or promotion of abortion overseas."
No mention of putting it to a debate.
In other words, Santorum is criticizing the very same behavior he vowed to engaged in if he was elected president. What a hypocrite.
Terry Jeffrey's Anti-Obama Sour Grapes Topic: CNSNews.com
Despite his utter hatred for President Obama, CNSNews.com editor in chief Terry Jeffrey couldn't keep President Obama from getting re-elected. So, to mark Obama's inauguration, Jeffrey has penned a trio of sour-grapes articles expressing his displeasure with the president by using cherry-picked statistics:
That last number is rather egregiously cherry-picked. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, long-term demographic trends are responsible for about half of the decline in labor force participation, which are factors out of Obama's control. Needless to say, Jeffrey makes no mention of this, though he does concede that about half of the decline he cites is due to an increase in retired workers collecting Social Security benefits.
Remember that Jeffrey isn't really all that interested in reporting the full truth; he just wants to destroy Obama.
Meanwhile, the Obama-hate at CNS is so pervasive that its employees can't (or won't) take any joy in the inauguration ceremony itself. Penny Starr pulled one of CNS' trademark word-count nitpicks to complain that the invocation didn't not mention God sufficiently to her liking.
I’ll bet the parents and families of our Afghan dead and injured are so pleased to know that their loved ones gave their all so we can hear our president tell the world that we have fallen short.
But then again, it’s probably because the audience that Obama is aiming at is not American citizens but Middle Eastern peoples who share his sympathies for Islam and Islamic beliefs.
Keep in mind that 63 percent of the nation bitterly opposed Obama’s Erebusic health-care plan. Yet by using blackmail, lies and Chicago strong-arm tactics, Congress passed the hated legislation.
His purpose is to keep the evil Republicans on the hot seat over their threat not to raise the debt ceiling and over revenue “fairness,” all the while claiming he’s pushing for a balanced approach, by which he means a completely unbalanced, one-sided approach that focuses on tax increases only, ignores spending cuts and entitlements and even includes new spending. If his ploy were to succeed, it would guarantee that America would go bankrupt, yet Obama is masquerading as the responsible one. It’s surreal, and I swear I wouldn’t believe it is occurring if I weren’t witnessing it with my own eyes.
Linking Obama with Hitler and Stalin will, indeed, win them over, provided they’re sufficiently stupid. It is thoroughly possible to be: a) the worst president in American history; b) a dreadful fraud and a liar; c) a deliberate saboteur of America’s well-being; d) a blood-drainer of America’s military capacity; e) a friend of America’s most dangerous enemies and an enemy of America’s most valuable ally in the Middle East; f) the kind of narcissist whose personal priorities could endanger American security … need I go on? It’s possible to be all those and many more and still fall far short of ranking up there with the two most murderous and evil dictators of the last century.
Some Americans are already calling for a “third term” for Obama. Others are calling for impeachment. I seek enlargement of the anti-Obama segment of the American population. I fear the Hitler-Stalin play will bring additional people to Obama’s side, people disgusted with Obama’s enemies’ willingness to jettison all sense of proportion.
A senior official of the Obama “administration” has gotten himself into hot water by telling Britain what to do. Obama’s view, apparently, is that it is in the interests of the United States that Britain should remain a mere satrapy or vassal state of the hated European tyranny-by-clerk, and should not think of leaving.
So let me introduce your Kenyan president to Thomas Jefferson.
Far more dangerous and terrifying than Obama’s utter disregard for the Constitution is the abject treason of this president; this also remains largely unknown due to the mass media. While Americans have been encouraged to perceive Obama as just another president muddling through during a challenging period (apart from his historic First Black President status), it doesn’t take much digging to determine the direction in which he is taking us.
Throw in the testimony of proven, reliable sources some highly suspicious phenomena, and the situation becomes truly petrifying.
Now, some of you may say, “But wait, Obama knows exactly what he’s doing. He’s no buffoon.”
I both agree and disagree. Yes, the “progressive” dogma that courses through his veins – a mind-altering hallucinogen that gives liberals the munchies for power – is, indeed, inherently sinister.
Still, he believes it with every ounce of his nicotine-shriveled heart.
By deliberately deconstructing America’s constitutional republic – our free-market form of government – and replacing it with a Euro-socialist, moral relativist amalgam of his liking, this misguided anti-colonialist radical thinks – truly believes – that he’s doing the right thing.
So, just as occurred in 1776 with King George III, its time to legally remove the tyrant Obama from our body politic and cleanse the nation of his evil and destructive march to abolish our liberty and freedoms.
We may not as yet have found the best and final way to this end, but we must open our hearts and minds to our God, seek his guidance and press on. No one wants to see violence, so we must solemnly pray that we can achieve the tyrant Obama’s removal peacefully before it is too late.
One story is currently consuming the American media, and not just the sports media. That story, of course, is whether Notre Dame All-American linebacker Manti Te’o conspired to fabricate his seemingly tragic relationship with imaginary girlfriend Lennay Kekua or whether he is a victim of a cruel hoax.
Much is at stake – or so we are told. If Te’o proves to be a participant, NFL scouts will question his character and downgrade his stock in the upcoming NFL draft. For those who care, Deadspin has some excellent reporting on this story, better reporting in fact than anyone in the major media has done on that other Hawaiian fabricator of girl friends, President Barack Obama.
President Obama is hellbent on using his 23 executive orders not only to take away America’s guns, but he is deputizing all doctors to snitch on any of their patients who are gun owners. Obama’s progressive plan to eradicate the Second Amendment is systematic – first by registration, second by regulation, third by confiscation, and finally by mass extermination.
Still, Obama has more secrets than any would-be gun purchaser I have ever met in my life. Yet he has Secret Service protection. He obviously sees the value of armed defense or he would dispatch those agents tout suite. He obviously cares about the safety of his own children because they are provided with armed security, too. He just doesn’t think your kids should have any – even if his is provided courtesy of the taxpayers of the U.S. and yours is provided with your own money and time.
So, I say it’s time for Obama to submit to some public background checks.
How is it that with so many secrets regarding his life and identity, he has the cojones to demand background checks on Joe Q. Citizen, who simply wants to exercise his constitutional rights to protect his life, liberty and property?
Where's Noel Sheppard's Balance on Media Outrage? Topic: NewsBusters
NewsBusters associate editor Noel Sheppard is a fine-tunedmachine of hypocrisy.
The latest example comes in a Jan. 18 NewsBusters post approvingly quoting Rush Limbaugh's manufactured outrage that CBS host Bob Schieffer's comparison of "President Obama taking on the gun lobby to America defeating the Nazis in World War II" isn't the target of more outrage.
Of course, Schieffer didn't actually do that -- as the MRC itself transcribed it, Schieffer said a long list of things, including "defeating the Nazis," were "a much more formidable task than taking on the gun lobby."
But why quibble with facts when Sheppard has a political enemy to attack? He called Schieffer's statement an "absurd tirade." Well, Sheppard does know from absurd tirades, having defended the honor of Richard Nixon just a couple of weeks ago.
As far as media outrage of absurd tirades go: Where was Sheppard when his boss, Brent Bozell, called President Obama a "skinny ghetto crackhead"? To our knowledge, Sheppard is not on the record denouncing this vicious insult, even as he decries the lack of civility in political discourse.
Does the Media Research Center keep Sheppard employed despite regularly exhibiting such utterly blatant double standards, or because of them?
WND Keeps Up Prayer Breakfast Deception Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily isn't going to tell its readers the full truth about the inauguration prayer breakfast WND editor Joseph Farah was briefly removed from.
A Jan. 19 WND article by Drew Zahn repeats the discredited company line that Media Matters (disclosure: my employer) maliciously reported that Rev. Merrie Turner, prayer breakfast organizer, had removed Farah from the guest list. As we've detailed, Turner never asked Media Matters for a correction or to change what he had previously said, and Farah had been, in fact, briefly removed from the guest list on the breakfast's website.
Zahn makes no mention of the fact that Media Matters responded to WND's previous attack, instead presenting Turner's current story as the truth and failing to question his discrepancies further.
The remainder of Zahn's article is carefully written to keep up the fiction that the prayer breakfast is not attacking Obama specifically -- merely praying that "America will not continue its path of defiance unto judgment" -- ignoring the fact that the guest list includes two of the most vicious Obama-haters in America in Farah and pat Boone, and the remainder are either Republican politicans or right-wing activists.
Armstrong Williams Doesn't Want Lance Armstrong To Get The Public Forgiveness He Got Topic: Newsmax
In his Jan. 15 Newsmax column, Armstrong Williams bemoans the idea that Lance Armstrong will get a pass for his misdeeds:
Lance Armstrong should be held fully accountable and we shouldn’t be so quick to forgive the horrible offenses that he has committed. He can only look skyward for true forgiveness.
We owe it to today’s youth not to so quickly forgive Lance Armstrong and not to just sweep this whole sordid saga under the rug and let him move on with his life.
Americans are a remarkably forgiving society and everyone makes mistakes, but this is something altogether different. A lie of this magnitude cannot be permitted to be trivialized.
Lance is just the last in a string of public figures who let us all down and then are given a free pass. Bill Clinton violated one of the 10 commandments, inside the Oval Office and then lied under oath and to the public about it.
Today he has been redeemed, and is revered by the Democratic Party.
Tiger Woods admitted to a series of infidelities and, while his golf name has never returned to the same stratospheric levels, has largely moved on.
If we give Lance Armstrong a pass then the real message we send our children that you can make hundreds of millions of dollars in sponsorships and achieve world-wide fame by cheating — you just have to make sure that you don’t get caught or you might be embarrassed.
Williams doesn't mention that he himself has benefitted from that very same "remarkably forgiving" American society.
Back in the previous decade, Williams accepted $240,000 from the Bush administration to promote its No Child Left Behind education policy on his syndicated TV show and in his columns, something he unethically failed to disclose to his viewers and readers. His career suffered a temporary setback, but today, not only is Williams continuing to write his column, he has a daily show on satellite radio.
As with Tiger Woods, the public has largely moved on from Williams' shady dealings. Why doesn't he want Lance Armstrong to take part in the benefit of public forgiveness that he received?
Erik Rush's Chinese Conspiracy Topic: WorldNetDaily
Erik Rush has been veeringoff the deep end of late with epidemic levels of Obama derangement. He's cranking it up again with his Jan. 16 WorldNetDaily column that cites that old WND staple, the untraceable, unverifiable anonymous source.
After claiming "the testimony of proven, reliable sources" back up his attacks on President Obama, he then writes of one who isn't proven or reliable:
Let me share that which was related to me via one international business interest with strong ties to the nations highlighted in the following scenario:
According to this source, President Obama had a mid-level U.S. official meet with a Chinese officer in 2011 to find out if the Chinese were open to a land and resource swap for debt forgiveness. The upshot of this is that the Chinese are now engaging in experimental “farming” and “scientific” studies in several locations in the U.S. (in various states). The personnel involved are all Chinese military, and the plan is to use these as the base for the expansion of “land settlements” in payment of the U.S. debt to China.
Also in 2011, the Bank of China reportedly sent a team to the U.S. to do land analysis and valuations based on resources that have been identified on federally held lands. The group was tasked to visit various preselected sites, including some on the Gulf of Mexico, and arrive at resource-based values between $2 trillion and $5 trillion (enough to satisfy America’s debt to China). According to this scenario, the issuing of new drilling licenses in the U.S. have been stopped on federally held land until the Chinese can be in position to take over new oil production.
As reported on Jan. 14, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke urged U.S. lawmakers to lift the country’s borrowing limit, citing scant weeks until a potentially disastrous debt default. According to my source, the United Nations and the World Bank have been given signals that they will be called upon to broker the deal with America defaulting on debt that it cannot satisfy. This is not to be a fire sale, but is to appear as the great economic rescue plan for the U.S. Thus, it will be eagerly accepted by media-addled Americans and Obama supporters.
So Obama has sold America out – literally – which will come as little surprise to many readers, this plan apparently being the brainchild of Obama’s senior adviser, Valerie Jarrett, and members of China’s Politburo Standing Committee. Thus, the under-reported but long-standing goals of Jarrett, Obama, David Axelrod and a host of communist Obama cronies to bring America under communist sway will finally come to fruition.
Such activities have been rumored over the last couple of years, but had not been substantiated. However, this data has been verified by sources I know to be reliable; in fact, I have reported on their information previously, much to the consternation of the Chinese government.
It is the Chinese who are pushing for the disarming of the American populace. They do not want to bear the brunt of the backlash from the American public when their work and aspirations are exposed. Three weeks ago, I was told that “this will happen in weeks, not months,” and it is now occurring.
Rush then writes that impeachment is not enough for Obama, despite the unsubstantiated nature of his allegations:
At this juncture, I think that impeachment is incredibly unlikely despite his treason, given what he has succeeded in getting away with under the noses of the Republican leadership. As I have been informed, there are key Republican leaders who are aware of what is transpiring between China and the Obama administration. These have been sold the notion that America is bankrupt, but that they can work with our debtors to see that an equitable settlement is reached.
The question to which this gives rise, of course, is: Equitable for whom?
Is this the precursor to the Second American Revolution, or have gun sales gone through the roof for no apparent reason and toward no apparent objective (such as “to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution”)? Are heretofore sane, sober citizens of this republic taking leave of their senses en masse, or are they quietly and methodically preparing to stop our Union, to which thousands have given their lives, from being torn asunder?
I lean toward the latter. God help us all, and God bless America.
Does James Garrow, executive director of Pink Pagoda Girls -- where Rush is the "Vice-President Administration and Strategic Alliances" -- think Rush's hateful and conspiratorial rantings reflect well on his organization? Apparently so, since he's still employed there.
MRC's Clay Waters Doesn't Know What Amnesty Means Topic: Media Research Center
We've documented how CNSNews.com insists on calling any attempt at immigration reform "amnesty" even though none of the proposals forwarded do not fit the definition of the word. Now, another MRC employee wants in on that action.
Clay Waters complains in a Jan. 14 MRC TimesWatch item that the New York Times "has long been pushing for immigration 'reform' that would include amnesty for illegal immigrants and a path to citizenship." Earth to Waters: If there's a path to citizenship, it is by definition not amnesty, which implies no preconditions.
Waters followed that up with a Jan. 16 item again insisting that the Times backs "immigration 'reform,' involving mass amnesty for illegals in the United States. " Again, Waters offered no evidence that what the Times supports fits the dictionary definition of amnesty.
