NewsBusters' Double Standard on Respect for Elected Officials Topic: NewsBusters
Noel Sheppard grumbles in an Aug. 11 NewsBusters post that far-right Republican Rep. Steve King -- who ranted for Newsmax about illegal immigrants being drug runners with calves the size of cantaloupes -- appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press" "to have host David Gregory, so-called Republican strategist Ana Navarro, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, and former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson (D) attack him for his immigration views." Sheppard huffed: "Now, regardless of what one thinks of the statements King made in July, he is still an elected official in this nation deserving of respect."
First, it can be argued that "Meet the Press" was merely following the template of Fox News, which regularly drowns out liberal opinion with shouting conservatives. In fact, Fox has an entire show based on the concept of a single liberal being shouted down by four conservatives.
Second, has Sheppard forgotten that his boss, Brent Bozell, wasn't exactly showing respect to President Obama when he likened him to a "skinny ghetto crackhead"? Sheppard might want to have a chat with Bozell before he makes this claim again.
Third, notice how Sheppard pivots from what King actually said to insisting he deserves respect no matter how crazy he sounds. Does Sheppard really believe that a Democrat who said crazy things should be treated with the same amount of respect he demands for King? Somehow we doubt it.
Also note Sheppard's attempt to Heather Ana Navarro by calling her a "so-called Republican strategist." He goes on to whine that "because of her regular disparagement of conservatives, she's now become a very popular guest on political talk shows."
Aaron Klein Anonymous Source Watch Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily's Aaron Klein has long hidden behind independently unverifiable anonymous sources to launch attacks on his political enemies. Here are some of the latest examples of Klein's anonymously sourced work:
A July 21 article claimed that "The Obama administration has quietly presented a plan in which the Palestinian Authority and Jordan will receive sovereignty over the Temple Mount while Israel will retain the land below the Western Wall," citing "a senior PA negotiator."
A July 22 article claimed that "A European Union boycott of financial dealings with Jews in the biblical West Bank, Golan Heights and eastern Jerusalem was fully coordinated with the Obama administration," citing "a senior Palestinian negotiator."
An Aug. 1 article claimed "The Obama administration is working behind the scenes in tandem with the European Union’s boycott of Israeli settlements, tying the seriousness of the EU’s future ban to the Jewish state’s actions during current U.S.-brokered talks with the Palestinians," citing "a senior Palestinian negotiator."
An Aug. 3 article claimed that "The current al-Qaida terrorist plot against U.S. and Western targets is a direct result of U.S.-supported efforts currently underway to purge al-Qaida affiliates from the ranks of the Syrian rebels," citing "informed Middle Eastern security sources."
An Aug. 6 article claimed "American compounds in Saudi Arabia and Egypt are now on high alert after the U.S. passed along information to both countries about credible al-Qaida threats," citing "an informed Middle Eastern security official."
As always, Klein offers no evidence why anyone should trust his "senior" and "informed" anonymous sources.
Huma Abedin Derangement Syndrome Topic: Accuracy in Media
In 1996, Huma Abedin became a White House intern working for first lady Hillary Clinton. They formed a close bond resulting in Abedin becoming Clinton’s chief of staff during her 2008 presidential campaign run and her top staffer and adviser when Clinton became secretary of State in 2009.
Having ties to Islamic extremist influences, Abedin should have been thoroughly investigated for a position requiring a high-level security clearance. But, again, inexplicably, she was cleared with minimal vetting.
Abedin married Weiner, who is a Jew, in July 2010. Interestingly, while Islam permits Muslim men to take non-Muslim spouses, it prohibits Muslim women from doing so. Thus, such a union should have generated outrage from a Muslim world prone to lash out over anything. But strangely, nothing was heard — not even from Abedin’s Islamist mother.
[...]
With Clinton’s departure from State, Abedin may only temporarily be out of the classified information loop. Standing by her man may well be driven by her desire to get back into it, hitching a ride either on Clinton’s 2016 presidential bid train or the constantly derailing Weiner train she still hopes may lead to higher office.
But that desire may well be Muslim Brotherhood-driven.
-- James G. Zumwalt, Aug. 8 Accuracy in Media column
WND Still Tell The Truth About Ex-Marine's Anti-Government Postings Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily devoted an Aug. 3 WorldNetDaily article to the case of a former Marine, Brandon Raub, detained for "controversial song lyrics and political views posted on his Facebook page," but it still won't tell readers what Raub wrote that got him into trouble.
The unbylined article simply parrots the claims of Raub's attorneys at the right-wing Rutherford Institute that Raub's rights were violated. But WND doesn't quote anybody from Rutherford detailing what Raub wrote.
As we detailed the last time WND conveniently forgot to report all the facts, Raub had posted the line "Sharpen my axe; I'm here to sever heads." from the obscure Canadian hip-hop group Swollen Members. Raub also expressed truther beliefs on his website, as well as other far-right conspiracy theories in a rant that concluded, "WE MUST TAKE OUR REPUBLIC BACK."
But telling the full truth is inconvenient for the the agendas of both WND and the Rutherford Institute, so it goes unreported.
CNS Finds More LGBT-Related Spending It Considers A 'Waste' Topic: CNSNews.com
CNSNews.com is stillfinding federal spending on LGBT-related issues to be a waste.
The latest addition to CNS' "Waste Watch" section is an Aug. 9 article by Alissa Tabirian lamenting that "The final installment of a federal grant worth over $2 million has been awarded by the National Institutes of Health to a researcher studying how cultural stigmas affect the sexual behavior of homosexual men in China." For apparent maximum offense potential for its readers, CNS added a picture of two men kissing to the story.
Tabirian does not explain why she thinks this project is a "waste," though she does sound a little disappointed that she couldn't get an answer from the researchers as to " the benefits of the study for American taxpayers."
Obama also said he was considering undertaking a program that would help young blacks to improve their self-image. Apparently, he is unaware that in America, studies have shown that young black kids have such an inflated opinion of themselves that no other group even comes close. That shouldn’t come as too big a surprise. After all, the individual who holds himself in the highest possible regard is none other than the narcissist in the Oval Office.
President Obama has found a new way to foist communism upon the American people that I would like a lot, if I liked communism. Instead of the direct approach he’s used up to now – which translates into, “It’s time we tried what failed in Russia and 36 other countries since 1918!” – Obama speaks about American capitalism like the beloved family horse too tired to plow any more, or the way the CEO who won the power struggle speaks about his fallen rival at the latter’s “resignation” dinner.
And let’s all be honest here; more of us believe in the American hero Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s thorough investigation into your phony birth certificate and phony history than the phony media’s smoke and mirrors.
Didn’t the man who is president tell us that al-Qaida is on the run – something he took pride in accomplishing – so, what happened?
Did Obama lose control of his friends in the Muslim world?
Didn’t he tell them that we mean no harm and that while they might want to celebrate the end of their holy month of Ramadan, putting out what spears to be a “shoot to kill” fatwa on the rest of the world is not a civilized way to celebrate?
Apparently not, and it appears that our leader, the president, the commander in chief, has been totally silent on this massive threat to the world.
Those of us who don’t have a mistress like Marilyn Monroe to sing to us celebrate birthdays by blowing out candles.
But you have extinguished the lights of those who could adorn your cake, Mr. Obama.
[...]
What a shame. You could have had quite a birthday cake. I guess your day will be rather dark, like a lot of children’s birthdays around the U.S. for your policies of demise and death. I would say “Happy Birthday,” but how could you be happy knowing what you have done? I wish you a very deep, dark, gut-wrenching moment of clarification today, Mr. President. I wish you a moment so clear that you can see what you have done and begin to change it. I wish you a moment of hope and change, Mr. President. We can’t bring all of the 230,611,417 lights back, but we can hope for change next year. No, I don’t wish you a happy birthday at all.
As for those who are terrified that Obama is going to round them up and toss them into what the North Vietnamese used to call re-education camps, I suggest they use me the way coal miners use canaries to check for poison gas fumes. So long as I, who have devoted five years of articles and six months of weekly webcasts to insulting Obama, am still walking around loose, you probably have nothing to worry about.
We are now past the midway mark of Obama’s authoritarian presidency. It is hard to point to any one single failure (foreign or domestic) of Obama’s as the absolute most damaging, because his vow to “transform” America has resulted in myriad failures, including a number that are catastrophic. That’s not sarcasm or hyperbole; it’s a terrible reality that we (and our children) will have to live with.
Never will I forget the Obama election ploy in 2008 of enlisting innocent Jewish grandchildren up north to go south on their allowance money or their summer earnings money or their Bar-Mitzvah money to cuddle up and convince Grandma and Grandpa in Florida that they’d studied the whole case and it was absolutely the best deed for the survival, security and prosperity of Israel to vote for Obama.
I think the Obama team called it “Operation Shalom,” or some other such clever obscenity.
You’re late by a generation and a half, Obama. We Jews are no longer seduced by enemies of the Jews who can mouth a few words of Hebrew or Yiddish. Adolf Eichmann, Hitler’s hands-on architect of the “Final Solution” of the “Jewish Question” spoke fluent Hebrew!
CNSNews.com does a reversal of its recent attempts to portray late-night comics' jokes as "news" with an Aug. 8 article by Michael W. Chapman that attacks a joke CNS does not approve of.
Chapman uses the article to complain about Conan O'Brien doing a gay-priest joke, giving the Catholic League's William Donohue free rein to attack it. Chapman, however, fails to mention one significant conflict of interest: his boss, Brent Bozell, is on the Catholic League's board of advisers.
After uncritically repeating Donohue blaming the Catholic Church's child sex scandals on "gay priests," Chapman writes:
The John Jay College of Criminal Justice report on sexual abuse of minors by Catholic priests and deacons, 1950-2002, found that 81% of the victims were male, and 78.2% of the victims were ages 11-17. (Specifically, 50.9% of victims were age 11-14 and 27.3% were age 15-17.
But Chapman fails to report that the John Jay researchers have warned against using their report to link homosexuality and pedophilia as Donohue was doing:
"What we are suggesting is that the idea of sexual identity be separated from the problem of sexual abuse," said Margaret Smith, a researcher from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York, which is conducting an independent study of sexual abuse in the priesthood from 1950 up to 2002. "At this point, we do not find a connection between homosexual identity and an increased likelihood of sexual abuse."
A second researcher, Karen Terry, also cautioned the bishops against making a correlation between homosexuality in the priesthood and the high incidence of abuse by priests against boys rather than girls -- a ratio found to be about 80-20.
"It's important to separate the sexual identity and the behavior," Terry said. "Someone can commit sexual acts that might be of a homosexual nature but not have a homosexual identity." Terry said factors such as greater access to boys is one reason for the skewed ratio. Smith also raised the analogy of prison populations where homosexual behavior is common even though the prisoners are not necessarily homosexuals, or cultures where men are rigidly segregated from women until adulthood, and homosexual activity is accepted and then ceases after marriage.
Of course, reporting that truth conflicts with the MRC's anti-gay agenda.
WND: Real Americans Didn't Vote For Obama Topic: WorldNetDaily
It seems WorldNetDaily still can't get over the fact that President Obama won re-election. But it seems to have moved on from portraying it as a harbinger of the apocolypse to merely denigrating anyone who voted for him.
An Aug. 2 WND article promoting WND writer Jerome Corsi's book "What Went Wrong" portrays those who voted for Obama is not real Americans, starting with the headline "How Obama won with demographics, not Americans":
When Barack Obama won the 2012 presidential election many in mainstream America wondered just what was going on with their friends and neighbors – who must have voted for the left-leaning agenda-driven Democrat.
Now some answers are coming out, amidst the release of “What Went Wrong: The Inside Story of the GOP Debacle of 2012… and How it Can Avoided Next Time,” a ring-side seat to an election many pundits thought was an easy victory for Republican Mitt Romney.
[...]
For example, instead of assembling a campaign and agenda that would appeal to all Americans, Corsi notes, Obama put together a package that capitalized on identity politics, appealing to African-Americans who overwhelmingly picked Obama, Hispanics who chosen the incumbent 71 percent to 27 percent, union workers, unmarried women and the lesbian, homosexual, bisexual and transgender crowds.
Last time we checked, however, blacks, Hispanics, union workers, unmarried women and "the lesbian, homosexual, bisexual and transgender crowds" were all Americans.
WND also makes clear that Corsi is a highly biased reporter:
Corsi’s work recalls Phyllis Schlafly’s warning decades ago that establishment Republican candidates – like Romney in 2012 and Sen. John McCain in 2008 – are destined to lose.
The reason? “Centrist” Republican presidential candidates offer voters nothing more than an “echo” of their liberal Democratic opponents, not the “choice” voters want – the choice that exists only when conservative Republican presidential candidates run hard-fought contests on conservative principles, directly challenging leftist presidential contenders like Barack Obama.
Democrats in swing states have transformed vote fraud and abuse into an ongoing process in a never-ending political campaign that can be challenged only by the passage of vigorous voter ID programs.
In fact, voter fraud does not exist to any meaningful extent and is already illegal, and Corsi's support for "vigorous voter ID programs" demonstrate that Republican and conservative support for such laws is rooted in voter suppression, not protecting voting integrity.
Bozell Almost Admits Conservative Papers Don't Make Money Topic: Media Research Center
Brent Bozell writes in his Aug. 9 column of the Washington Post's sale to Amazon.com's Jeff Bezos:
Obviously, many expect (or just hope and pray) that Bezos can find a way to make newspapers profitable again. That might explain why the Post Company's stock jumped almost $25 a share. But if Bezos can't manage that, he'll get credit as a pro-journalism philanthropist. After all, the other Washington newspapers, the Times and more recently the Examiner, have been labors of love, not money.
That may be the closest Bozell has come to admitting that conservative newspapers don't make money. But notice a key omission: Bozell never describes the Times and Examiner as conservative.
Which makes Bozell's suggestion that the Post was losing money because it's a part of the dreaded "liberal media" utterly disingenous. Unlike the Post, which was profitable until the digital revolution and overall newspaper industry downturn, the Times and Examiner have never made money. So by Bozell's reasoning, doesn't that mean those papers' conservative message is responsible for them being money pits?
Of course, it doesn't work that way in Bozell's world -- anything that goes wrong in the "liberal media" is always the fault of ideology, even when there are more obvious and logical explanations.
Bob Unruh does a fine job of stenography in an Aug. 7 WorldNetDaily article:
House Republicans suspect election officials joined with the Internal Revenue Service in a strategy that curbed the effectiveness of conservative organizations in the 2012 election.
The allegations were revealed in a letter from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Report, which has been holding hearings and seeking evidence about the extent of the IRS targeting of conservative and Christian organizations.
[...]
It cites as an example a Feb. 3, 2009, email from William Powers, an FEC official in the Office of the General Counsel, to Lois Lerner, then-director of the IRS Exempt Organizations Division, seeking information about the American Issues Project and the American Future Fund.
Powers asked about the status of the groups’ applications for tax-exempt status and the IRS review process. He referenced prior conversations with Lerner regarding American Future Fund.
Since Uhruh is serving as a right-wing stenography, you won't learn that the IRS has denied that any confidential information was exchanged or -- more importantly -- House Republicans have provided no evidence of confidential information being exchanged.
And Unruh is certainly not going to tell you that he's offering nothing but a suggestion of wrongdoing from selectively leaked emails from partisan sources that don't actually establish any malfeasance.
Newsmax Keeps the Peter King Presidential Boomlet Going Topic: Newsmax
Newsmax is doing its best to try and keep its manufactured Peter King presidential boomlet alive by highlighting his opinions on the news of the day. Some headlines from the past few days:
And, apparently making sure it's not putting all of its eggs in one basket, Newsmax does a shout-out to a benificiary of a previous manufactured presidential boomlet:
NEW ARTICLE: Going Out In A Blaze of Bias Topic: CNSNews.com
CNSnews.com's Fred Lucas is taking his talents for biased and misleading reporting to Glenn Beck's The Blaze. Read more >>
WND's Resident Limbaugh Sycophant Cranks Out More Stenography Topic: WorldNetDaily
Rush Limbaugh sycophant and stenographer Joe Kovacs captured the latest pearls of wisdom from Limbaugh's mouth for an Aug. 7 WorldNetDaily article:
Radio powerhouse Rush Limbaugh says American newspapers are dying not because of a flawed business model or the influence of the Internet, but for one reason left-leaning journalists don’t wish to admit.
“When are you people gonna realize it is your content that’s being rejected? It’s your content that is your problem as much as anything else,” Limbaugh said Wednesday on his top-rated program.
“You’ve got shrinking circulation, shrinking ad pages, shrinking ad revenue, and you wonder why your readers don’t even patronize your sponsors – and you don’t even think to look at the number one reason why people would open a newspaper, and that’s what’s in it! The content.”
Since Kovacs is a stenographer, he's certainly not going to challenge Limbaugh's claims. Kovacs won't tell you that the country's major conservative papers have always lost money and would be out of business if they were subject to a free market instead of propped up by right-wing billionaires.
Kovacs' Limbaugh sycophancy is so complete, he dutifully and uncritically transcribes Limbaugh's boasting about how own show's revenue:
Regarding the economics of the news media, Limbaugh said while newspapers across the nation are dying, his radio program is soaring.
“We’re not losing money here at EIB (the Excellence in Broadcasting Network). We’re thriving,” he said. “We are continuing to grow. We use the same business model.”
Needless to say, Kovacs made no mention of a major radio station owner planning to dump Limbaugh's show from dozens of its stations in part because of decreased revenue it has experienced in the wake of Limbaugh's tirade of misogyny against Sandra Fluke.
WND Is Tweeting Race-Baiting's Greatest Hits Topic: WorldNetDaily
Yesterday, we noted that WorldNetDaily tweeted out a link to an race-baiting article that was published more than a year ago. WND's trip down race-baiting's memory lane continues with today's Twitter flashback:
This story is slightly newer than yesterday's -- it's an article by WND's resident race-baiter Colin Flaherty originally published last October. So there's that.
As it just so happens, WND is publishing an updated edition of Flaherty's self-published race-baiting tome "White Girl Bleed A Lot."
Newsmax Hides Otto Reich's Link to Newsmax Topic: Newsmax
Andrea Billups writes in an Aug. 2 Newsmax article:
A former U.S. ambassador has sued three Venezuelan executives, accusing them of racketeering, bribing authorities for energy contracts, and defamation.
The 48-page lawsuit on behalf of Otto Reich, who was Venezuelan ambassador under President George H. W. Bush, was filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan on Tuesday. The suit claims the men paid kickbacks to government employees in Venezuela in exchange for lucrative contracts for power plant construction.
But as you go deeper in the article, the lawsuit is really all about Reich complaining that the people he's suing cost his consulting firm business by allegedly spreading rumors about who he was working with.
In other words, it's a pretty arcane lawsuit. Why should we care? Billups does a lot of resume citation to try and make us care:
Reich, 67, who served as ambassador from 1986-1989, and later assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere Affairs under President George W. Bush, now heads his own Washington, D.C., consulting firm, Otto Reich & Associates (ORA).
[...]
Reich, who served a year as a temporary assistant secretary of state, resigned from the Bush administration in 2004. He has been described in media accounts as a rock star in Latin America where he hosted a Spanish-language version of CNN's popular "Crossfire" program. He also served as a foreign policy adviser to presidential candidates John McCain and Mitt Romney.
But Billups overlooks a few things. As we've detailed, Reich ran a pro-contra propaganda operation during the 1980s with the American public being the target of said propaganda -- U.S. government agents targeting Americans with propaganda is generally frowned upon. Reich was also a champion for a convicted terrorist, Orlando Bosch, being allowed to enter the U.S.
For all of Billups' touting of Reich's resume, though, she fails to report the one thing that likely explains why this story exists in the first place: Reich is on the advisory board of LIGNET, a "global intelligence and forecasting" service operated by ... Newsmax.
This is nothing more than in-house promotion disguised as "news."
Noel Sheppard grumbles in an Aug. 11 NewsBusters post that far-right Republican Rep. Steve King -- who ranted for Newsmax about illegal immigrants being drug runners with calves the size of cantaloupes -- appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press" "to have host David Gregory, so-called Republican strategist Ana Navarro, Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, and former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson (D) attack him for his immigration views." Sheppard huffed: "Now, regardless of what one thinks of the statements King made in July, he is still an elected official in this nation deserving of respect."
WorldNetDaily's Aaron Klein 
In 1996, Huma Abedin became a White House intern working for first lady Hillary Clinton. They formed a close bond resulting in Abedin becoming Clinton’s chief of staff during her 2008 presidential campaign run and her top staffer and adviser when Clinton became secretary of State in 2009.
WorldNetDaily devoted an Aug. 3 WorldNetDaily 
CNSNews.com is 
CNSNews.com does a reversal of its recent attempts to portray late-night comics' jokes as "news" with an Aug. 8 
It seems WorldNetDaily still can't get over the fact that President Obama won re-election. But it seems to have moved on from portraying it as a 
Brent Bozell writes in his Aug. 9 
Bob Unruh does a fine job of stenography in an Aug. 7 WorldNetDaily 
Newsmax is doing its best to try and keep its 
Rush Limbaugh sycophant and stenographer 
Andrea Billups writes in an Aug. 2 Newsmax 
