AIM's Kincaid Rushes to Beck's Defense Topic: Accuracy in Media
Cliff Kincaid loves his dubious right-wing fringe figures (Scott Lively, Jared Taylor, Joel Gilbert), so it's not a surprise that he would rush to the defense of another one, Glenn Beck.
Kincaid's May 8 Accuracy in Media column is dedicated to echoing Beck's very narrow defense that he really wasn't depicting New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg as a Nazi during his NRA speech, he was trying to depict Bloomberg as a communist, and that there is a huge difference between the two. Kincaid insists that any claim that Beck was invoking Nazi imagery is "demonstrably false" and huffed that one writer who did make that claim would not "retract his charge after he was informed by Accuracy in Media that his account was flatly inaccurate."
But Kincaid conveniently overlooks the fact that while Beck did apparently model the image on what Kincaid insisted is a "very famous" pose by Vladimir Lenin, it's Naziism, not communism, that's infamous for the raised-arm salute, and it's not a shock that that people not steeped in Soviet propaganda -- that is, the vast majority of America -- would see Beck's image as echoing Nazis, not communists.
Nevertheless, after quoting a writer who pointed that out, Kincaid insisted that the image "is clearly not the same thing as the Nazi salute given by Hitler."
Kincaid was also offended that Jewish groups were calling on Beck to apologize, and that Media Matters (disclosure: my employer) "clearly hoped to resurrect the controversy over Beck, when he was with Fox News, having identified George Soros as having been a Nazi collaborator in his youth." But Kincaid didn't mention that Beck's attack on Soros is, to coin a phrase, demonstrably false.
AIM's Kincaid Still Promoting The Discredited Joel Gilbert Topic: Accuracy in Media
Accuracy in Media's Cliff Kincaid was one of the chief promoters of Joel Gilbert, whose film claming that Barack Obama's real father is Frank Marshall Davis has been thoroughly discredited, continuing to defend Gilbert even after the debunking surfaced.
You'd think Kincaid would have learned his lesson by now. Apparently not, for in his May 3 AIM column, he approvingly cites Gilbert again:
Other fugitives on the FBI list include members of the May 19th Communist Organization.
Joel Gilbert, director of the film, Dreams from My Real Father, describes the May 19th Communist Organization as “an above ground support group for the Weather Underground” that was based in New York City from 1978-1985. He says Obama was “likely” a member of the group during his time at Columbia University in the early 1980’s.
The major media have consistently refused to cover the indisputable evidence of Obama’s communist connections, including a relationship with Communist Party member Frank Marshall Davis, featured in the film.
Apparently, as long as Gilbert stands by his discredited smears of Obama, Kincaid will continue to stand by him. Sad, isn't it?
AIM's Kincaid Promotes Debunked Saudi-Boston Conspiracy Topic: Accuracy in Media
The fact that the idea of a Saudi national having participated in the Boston bombings has been discredited apparently isn't going to keep Cliff Kincaid from ranting about it.
So Kincaid starts his April 30 AIM column this way:
The possible involvement of a Saudi in the Boston terror attacks is being curiously ignored or downplayed by most of the mainstream media. Steve Emerson, Glenn Beck, and others have pressed for answers, however. Beck has issued a full report with updates on the controversy.
Nothing like picking the even more conspiracy-addled Beck to vouch for your own conspiracy, Cliff.
Nevertheless, Kincaid continues:
Fox News reporter Bret Baier looked into the alleged Saudi role in the bombings and said the Saudi student became the subject of an “internal document” and put on the “no fly list” because of “an abundance of caution and out of diligence,” according to U.S. officials. However, Baier echoed officials as saying there was no evidence of the man’s involvement in the bombings.
Columnist Diana West says we can’t trust Fox News on this matter, since it is part-Saudi-owned.
West is another conspiracy-addled birther dead-ender who's not exactly the most trustworthy person Kincaid could have chosen. Unless Kincaid was looking for people who make him look sane, that is.
AIM's Kincaid Can't Let Go Of His Discredited Anthrax Conspiracy Topic: Accuracy in Media
Cliff Kincaid has been pretty much silent about his conspiracy theory that Al Qaeda was responsible for the 2001 anthrax since authorities revealed that government scientist Bruce Ivins was likely behind it.
But Kincaid is back on the case in his April 18 Accuracy in Media column, spurred by the ricin mailings that are reminicent of the anthrax attacks:
It is still not known, officially and by adjudication in a court of law, who sent the post-9/11 anthrax letters because the FBI completely mishandled the case. They ended up paying $6 million in damages to an American scientist, Steven Hatfill, who was falsely termed a “person of interest” and hounded by federal agents. The FBI later argued that another U.S. Government scientist, Bruce Ivins, was the lone culprit, and “closed” the case. But Ivins was also hounded by federal agents, and took his own life. His attorney, Paul Kemp, has strongly argued that the FBI falsely blamed Ivins and never proved its case against him. No charges were filed in what the FBI called the “Amerithrax” case.
In fact, the evidence suggests the letters were linked to the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the al-Qaeda operatives behind them.
The 2011 book "The Mirage Man" by David Willman persuasively argues that Ivins was the man who perpetrated the anthrax attacks. Willman states that the letters were mailed from a New Jersey mailbox located outside the offiices of a college sorority Ivins was obsessed with, that Ivins made a career as a civilian microbiologist for the Army despite a history of mental instability -- a psychiatrist confied that Ivins was the "scariest" patient he had ever known -- and that Ivins had created the batch of anthrax that matched the material in the letters and had unrestricted access to it.
Kincaid has apparently never addressed Willman's conclusions in his work for AIM, and he makes no mention of Willman in this column.
Meanwhile, Kincaid is quick to blame Al Qaeda for the Boston Marathon bombings, apparently solely based on the fact that "an al-Qaeda magazine had recommended the use of the same kind of bomb used in the Boston massacre." He continues:
Equally important, terrorism expert Steve Emerson said on Sean Hannity’s Fox News program on Wednesday night that the Saudi national with a student visa apprehended after the bombing is being deported on “national security grounds” in what may be shaping up as a high-level cover-up of Saudi, or other foreign involvement, in the Boston massacre.
“This is the way things are done with Saudi Arabia,” Emerson said. “You don’t arrest their citizens. You deport them. Because they don’t want to be embarrassed…”
Before the bombings, Emerson’s Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) had drawn critical attention in a report to Obama’s recent decision to allow some Saudis to “bypass normal passport controls at major U.S. airports.”
Walid Shoebat reports that the Saudi national who was being detained belongs to a clan that consists of several al Qaeda members and that high-level Saudi government officials have intervened on his behalf.
There are powerful political and foreign interests who do not want such reports to be highlighted or pursued by U.S. authorities. That is why the liberal media will now begin attacking Emerson, Shoebat, and others questioning the official handling of the case.
Emerson is an anti-Muslim activist whose deportation claim has been discredited. Shoebat is an even more virulent anti-Muslim activist who has been credibly accused of lying about his past as a self-proclaimed former Islamic terrorist.
The question is not why the "liberal media" would legitimately question the veracity of Emerson and Shoebat. The question is why Kincaid still thinks they are credible.
Great Moments In AIM Self-Unawareness (With Bonus Attacks on Us) Topic: Accuracy in Media
James Simpson purports to expose "Illegal Alien Propaganda: A Critical Lesson in Terminology and Tactics" in his April 12 Accuracy in Media column. But Simpson's opening salvo is, well, propaganda:
As we once again face the specter of illegal alien amnesty, and the permanent Democratic majority it will guarantee, it is critical to understand how the Left plays. They are unethical to the core, but we are so frequently deluded by their tactical use of language and emotion, that we are unequipped to deal with them effectively. The result: they win. This cannot happen again, unless we are all willing to start calling Obama “President for Life,” and Democrats, the “Commissars.”
Simpson is apparently oblivious to the irony -- not to mention very thin-skinned about criticism. Read the comments at the end of the column and you'll find us innocuously pointing out Simpson's misuse of the word "amnesty," following by Simpson hurling insults and false attacks at us for doing so.
Another Day, Another Cliff Kincaid Anti-Gay Freakout Topic: Accuracy in Media
Time magazine's dual cover photos of homosexual couples kissing has sent Cliff Kincaid, Accuarcy in Media's resident homophobe, off on yet another anti-gay rant:
Offending the moral sensibilities of millions of Americans, Time Magazine is featuring cover stories showing two white homosexual couples kissing. The Right Scoop blog ran a “censored version of the offensive covers.”
John Aravosis, the homosexual activist who runs Americablog.com, said this is part of a propaganda campaign to normalize homosexuality. He said, “The kiss has been quite a powerful political weapon in the gay arsenal for a while now. And checking our archives, it’s rather amazing how important the ‘gay kiss’ has been to our political struggle over the years.”
The purpose is to desensitize people to homosexuality and increase acceptance of the lifestyle.
Wwe're not sure why Kincaid felt the need to inform us of the race of the cover couples. Then again, this is a guy who thinks white supremacist Jared Taylor is a suitable person to quote on racial issues.
There's more, if you want to read Kincaid descending into his usual conspiracy mode, complete with mentions of the "Gay Mafia" and whining that Fox News' Bill O'Reilly dismissed opponents of gay marriage as "Bible-thumpers."
AIM Tries to Spin Away Bachmann's Falsehoods Topic: Accuracy in Media
Right-wingers like the employees of Accuracy in Media love Rep. Michele Bachmann, and they don't like it when she's held accountable for what she said. Thus, we have a March 22 AIM column by Roger Aronoff desperately trying to spin away Bachmann's falsehoods in her CPAC speech.
Aronoff begins by channeling what Bachmann said to CNN's Dana Bash after Bash pursued a briskly walking Bachmann to confront her with her falsehood about the White House having a dog walker:
In a clear case of the media’s double standard, CNN has been chasing Congresswoman Michele Bachmann around regarding her CPAC comments on the President’s lavish lifestyle. This, when the majority of her speech focused elsewhere: on Benghazi, the federal debt, medical innovations, and cyber attacks.
Aronoff doesn't explain Bachmann should get a pass for making a false statement because it wasn't the main focus of her speech.
Aronoff goes on to complain that the Washington Post's four-Pinocchio takedown of Bachmann's claim didn't quote Bachmann conceding that the president and his family "deserve the best security and the very best protection that we can get them." That's because it's irrelevant to Bachmann's false claim -- including it doesn't make her claims less false.
Aronoff is further annoyed that both the Post and CNN's Anderson Cooper dismissed a book Bachmann's office cited as a source for her claims because "it is self-published and without sources." Isn't that enough reason to dismiss it? Apparently not for Aronoff.
Aronoff then tried to parse Bachmann's claim about the dog walker, insisting that "Bachmann didn’t say 'he has a dog walker'" but, rather, "We are also the ones who are paying for someone to walk the President’s dog," which is true because the White House groundskeeper also walks the dog: "In other words, she never asserted that someone had been hired for this purpose, but that they were paid to do it." It's a distinction without a difference -- if you're paying someone to perform a job, doesn't that mean you've hired them? Bachmann's statement can easily be interpreted as describing a White House position consisting solely of walking the dog.
That's the kind of ideology-before-facts approach that makes AIM a lousy media watchdog.
As the planet enters its seventeenth year in which temperatures have been steadily falling in response to a natural cooling cycle, the result of reduced solar radiation, the global warming hoax is finally being revealed as an instrument of the United Nations and individual governments, including our own, to impose “carbon taxes” that would raise billions of dollars for everyone involved.
NEW ARTICLE: Accuracy In Media Honors Inaccuracy In Media Topic: Accuracy in Media
AIM's Reed Irvine Awards have an unfortunate tendency to be given to right-wing activists known more for their mendacity than for telling the truth. Read more >>
AIM's Kincaid Desperately Tries To Paint All Gays as Marxists Topic: Accuracy in Media
Accuracy in Media's Cliff Kincaid is a fairly notorious gay-basher -- so much so that he promoted the proposed law in Uganda that would permit the death penalty for mere homosexuality -- so pretty much all you need to know about where he's going in his March 6 AIM column is contained in the first two paragraphs:
The term “gay conservative” is being used by some news outlets in connection with the upcoming Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) and whether certain homosexual groups should be invited to appear. There is no such thing as a “gay conservative,” unless the term “conservative” has lost all meaning. But there is a homosexual movement that has its roots in Marxism and is characterized by anti-Americanism and hatred of Christian values.
Two of this movement’s members, Bradley Manning and Floyd Corkins, have recently been in the news. Manning betrayed his country in the WikiLeaks scandal, while Corkins has pleaded guilty to trying to kill conservative officials of the Christian Family Research Council in Washington, D.C.
You can figure it out from there. Spoiler: Kincaid keeps bashing gays.
Accuracy in Media will honor Catherine Herridge of the Fox News Channel for her outstanding achievements in investigative journalism, and Jim Hoft of Gateway Pundit for his groundbreaking contributions to New Media in a ceremony taking place at the 2013 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on March 14th.
Herridge is the closest thing to an actual reporter AIM has honored. But remember that the main purpose of the Reed Irvine Award is not to honor fair and balanced reporting but to reward work that promotes conservatives and bashes liberals, especially that one in the White House. As Fox News' point person on turning the terrorist attack on a diplomatic facility in Benghazi into a cudgel her employer uses to bash the Obama White House, Herridge has certainly fulfilled that latter standard.
But Jim Hoft? Really?
Hoft is known as the Dumbest Man on the Internet, and for good reason. As Media Matters summed it up: "Hoft runs with (or spawns) almost every inane story that bubbles up in the conservative blogosphere, has proven that he has absolutely no vetting process for the sources he cites, and apparently has a hard time with basic reading comprehension."
Just this week, in fact, Hoft uncritically repeated a claim from a survivalist blog under the headline "Obama DHS Purchases 2,700 Light-Armored Tanks to Go With Their 1.6 Billion Bullet Stockpile." As Little Green Football's Charles Johnson points out, they aren’t tanks and they aren’t being bought by the DHS (they're for the Marine Corps).
This is the guy that AIM is giving an "Accuracy in Media Award" to.
Media Matters also stated: "Hoft's ongoing position of influence in the conservative media is evidence that the entire movement is intellectually bankrupt." That AIM is giving Hoft its most prestigious award demonstrates the intellectual bankruptcy of AIM.
AIM's Kincaid Freaks Out Over Al Jazeera's Purchase of Current Topic: Accuracy in Media
That sound you heard when Current TV announced it was being sold to Al Jazeera was Cliff Kincaid's head exploding.
The Accuracy in Media writer has been a longtime advocate of censoring Al Jazeera, and the Current deal gives the channel what Kincaid has fought against: a space on many cable TV systems. So it's no surprise that the deal has launched Kincaid into another censorious AIM rant:
Al-Jazeera, once considered the voice of Osama bin-Laden and known for anti-American and anti-Semitic rhetoric, has announced the purchase of Al Gore’s low-rated cable channel, Current TV, in a transparent attempt to buy access to the U.S. media market for operatives of the pro-terrorist Muslim Brotherhood. Gore has reportedly made $100 million from the $500 million deal.
Kincaid also complains that "Al-Jazeera promoted conspiracy theories that Muslim terrorists were not really behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks," ignoring his own promotion of discredited anti-Obama conspiracy theories and his touting of racists as credible sources.
AIM's Kincaid Thinks Conservatives Should Emulate British Hate Group Topic: Accuracy in Media
Cliff Kincaid uses his Dec. 10 Accuracy in Media column to argue against Republicans embracing gay marriage, claiming that the British offer up an alternative:
This British Conservative Party has watered down traditional conservatism to such an extent that some conservatives have formed an alternative, the English Defense League (EDL), which has spawned the British Freedom Party.
This group has been strongly attacked in the media, here and abroad, as “far-right” or worse. But I had the opportunity to meet their leaders, Kevin Carroll and Tommy Robinson, at the 9/11 conference in New York City sponsored by Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer which was designed in part to organize resistance to global Islam and safeguard our right of free speech against the advance of Sharia, or Islamic law. You can watch the speeches by Carroll and Robinson and draw your own conclusions. Carroll and Robinson want a patriotic alternative to the British Conservative Party that will promote traditional values.
As Right Wing Watch points out, the EDL is "strongly linked with violent actions and whose members terrorize Muslims and often espouse Nazism." So, yeah, "Far-right" seems pretty accurate. Of course, Kincaid thinks the white nationalist American Renaissance is a perfectly fine source on issues of race, so his perspective is a tad skewed.
Kincaid goes on to lament how EDL officials have been arrested:
American conservatives and their media should take a hard look at what is really happening in Britain. We had to turn to a relatively new conservative channel in Canada, Sun TV, for important news and information about how Carroll and Robinson and their supporters are being targeted by the “conservative” government there. Carroll was actually imprisoned for exercising his political rights. Robinson is still in prison on charges that he entered the United States illegally and has sent Pamela Geller a letter about his plight, which is published on her website.
Richard Bartholomew details that Robinson -- who has a long criminal record that would normally prevent international travel -- used a passport with a namethat was neither his real name nor his nom de plume of Tommy Robinson. Carroll was arrested along with 53 other EDL members as part of a police sting relating to a "planned disturbance," which sounds a litle more serious than Kincaid's benigh description of "exercising his political rights."
AIM's Kincaid Baselessly Blames Soros For Romney Loss Topic: Accuracy in Media
Cliff Kincaid's Nov. 26 Accuracy in Media column is headlined "Where the Conservative Media Went Wrong," despite the fact that he doesn't really answer the question. Instead, he complains that Mitt Romney wasn't conservative enough -- or, more to the point, that he didn't hate gays enough. The closest Kincaid gets to answering his headline question is noting that the election "was a disaster in the making that many prominent conservatives in the media did not see coming. Some still do not want to grasp the magnitude of the defeat."
In other words: Conservatives bought their own BS and put defeating Obama at all costs -- a mindset AIM completely bought into with its silly anti-Obama "Day of Truth" featuring people not known for telling it -- ahead of putting up a candidate that could win. Why doesn't Kincaid say that? We have no idea; perhaps he's unwilling to admit his own role in a conservative media that went wrong.
Kincaid also complains:
Bombarded with messages from the Obama campaign and the Soros-funded propaganda machine, including the Super PACs he funded, voters found Romney’s private sector experience on Wall Street and wealth more objectionable than Obama’s record as a Marxist president.
Just one problem with that: George Soros didn't spend all that much money on the 2012 election, compared with certain right-wing billionaires.
As Business Insider pointed out in late September:
So far in 2012, his single largest contribution has been $1 million to American Bridge 21st Century PAC, a Super PAC run by Media Matters founder David Brock, which primarily focuses on opposition research. According to a review of data from the Center for Responsive Politics, Soros' contribution comprises about 12% of the organization's contributions. He also gave $1 million to America Votes, which does not endorse candidates.
Besides that, Soros gave $175,000 to House Majority PAC and $100,000 to Majority PAC. He's also given $55,500 to various individual campaigns and PACs.
That's way down from his donations in 2004, and way lower than the $36.5 million commitment made by Casino Magnate Sheldon Adelson and his family so far, and other Republicans trying to unseat the President.
But blaming Soros is apparently some kind of knee-jerk reflexive action on Kincaid's part, no matter how false it is.
AIM's Kincaid Ignores His Own Role In Bad Conservative Media Topic: Accuracy in Media
The re-election of President Obama prompted some soul-searching on the part of Accuracy in Media's Cliff Kincaid -- though, sadly, not enough.
In a Nov. 7 column, Kincaid noted how "prominent conservative news personalities made major miscalculations about where the election was heading and the nature of the two candidates and their campaigns,' and took Fox News to task since "the personalities on Fox News were wildly off the mark in their predictions for the election."
Kincaid followed up with a Nov. 9 column in which he noted: "Conservative use of flawed polling data has played into the hands of the liberal media. In order to recapture credibility in covering politics, the conservative media will have to acknowledge not only the bias on the other side, but the bias on their own."
But Kincaid has yet to acknowledge his own role in advancing conservative misinformation. As we pointed out, Kincaid laughably claimed on Nov. 1 that anti-Obama filmmaker Joel Gilbert "has nothing to hide" -- even as he refused to divulge who was funding the mass mailing of his film "Dreams From My Real Father" to households in swing states.Kincaid also ignored the fact that Gilbert's film has been discredited by Loren Collins, who has detailed Gilbert's falsehoods and deceptions.
If Kincaid can't admit his own failings and deceptions, it's not really that much of a mea culpa.
Kincaid's May 8 Accuracy in Media column is dedicated to echoing Beck's very narrow defense that he really wasn't depicting New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg as a Nazi during his NRA speech, he was trying to depict Bloomberg as a communist, and that there is a huge difference between the two. Kincaid insists that any claim that Beck was invoking Nazi imagery is "demonstrably false" and huffed that one writer who did make that claim would not "retract his charge after he was informed by Accuracy in Media that his account was flatly inaccurate." 
Accuracy in Media's annual "Reed Irvine Accuracy in Media Awards" have gone in recent years to people not exactly known for accuracy in media, such as 
