NEW ARTICLE -- Misfiring Back: WND And Todd Akin's Book Botch Topic: WorldNetDaily
Has there ever been a more ill-conceived book-publicity strategy then WorldNetDaily's attempt to re-litigate Akin's controversial "legitimate rape" gaffe with such transparent dishonesty? Read more >>
Aaron Klein Anonymous Source Watch Topic: WorldNetDaily
A July 22 WorldNetDaily article by Aaron Klein declares that "Officials in Jerusalem are quietly wondering whether the Federal Aviation Administration’s prohibition on U.S. flights to Tel Aviv is partially a tactic to pressure Israel into a cease-fire." His source: "several Jerusalem diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity." That, of course, is meaningless since Klein has given his readers no reason for anyone to trust the anonymous sources Klein loves to hide behind.
Incidentially, Klein doesn't reveal his anonymous sources until the 15th paragraph of his article; before that point, he quotes actual, named, "aviation experts" who point out that "the FAA and airliners are likely taking necessary precautions after a Malaysia Airlines jet was shot down by a missile over Ukraine while at cruising altitude, killing all 298 people on board."
In other words, by admitting the FAA is acting prudently, Klein undermines the entire premise of his article as an attack on the Obama administration. Oops.
CNS Claims Global Warming Has Ended Because Of Cool Weather In U.S. Topic: CNSNews.com
Can you spot the major science failure in the headline of Penny Starr's July 21 CNSNews.com article, "Global Warming? U.S. Temps Up 0.1 Degrees above 20th Century Average, 2014 Coolest Since 1993"?
That's right -- suggesting that global warming has been disproved because of a few cool months in the U.S. is utterly dishonest.
Starr herself confuses with her article:
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) 2014 weather highlights show that from January to June, the temperature in the U.S. has risen by only 0.1 degrees Fahrenheit compared with the average temperature for the 20th century.
NOAA highlights also show that recorded temperatures in the U.S. for the first half of 2014 are the coldest since 1993.
Starr doesn't tell you, however, that globally, last month was the hottest June in 134 years of record-keeping. That would seem to be an important fact to note in an article about climate -- especially since it's in the same NOAA data from which she pulls her U.S. weather data -- but Starr doesn't think so.
What Starr has done is written an article that is technically accurate but so absurdly narrow in focus as to be useless for anything other than political propaganda. Just the way CNS likes it, we presume.
WND Serves As Propagandist For Anti-Immigration Protests Topic: WorldNetDaily
Leo Hohmann writes in a July 18 WorldNetDaily article:
Call it the summer of discontent.
Or simmering anger.
As Central American children continue to illegally pour across the U.S. southern border, thousands of Americans poured onto the streets Friday in 319 cities and towns across the country.
Well, that's an unusually precise accounting of protests. How did Hohmann obtain this number? Did he count them himself? He doesn't say. Indeed, there's no evidence Hohmann did much to "report" his story beyond going to one protest in Oklahoma City and talking to anti-immigration activists.
Hohmann certainly won't report the truth about the protests, as Right Wing Watch found:
The protests were a bust. Local news reports and pictures posted on social media show anemic turnout, from about 40 people in front of the United Nations in New York to just three at a McClellan, Texas, border control station who wondered if they had gotten the wrong address.
That's a far cry from the "thousands" Hohmann claims attended but can't be bothered to substantiate. It appears Hohmann is just regurgitating what the protest organizers told him.
That's not journalism the way actual journalists practice it, but it's close enough for WND.
WND Promotes More Armchair Diagnoses of Obama's Mental State Topic: WorldNetDaily
Last month, Dr. Gina Loudon made an armchair diagnosis of President Obama as going insane, later defending her politically motivated ranting masquerading as pseudo-medicine. Loudon defends it once again in her July 20 WorldNetDaily column by declaring that we can trust her because she's a doctor, dammit ... or something:
I have a background in psychology. I am declaring the statists of America insane.
Statists were enraged when I went on Lou Dobbs’ show and said that Americans might want to question the sanity of the current president. My hate mail stacked up, as did threats, and other disparagements. I twirl my lipstick in anticipation of the vitriol I will incur from this piece, but someone has to point out the big, fat, cake-eating, poorly endowed, and yes, insane, naked emperor.
People in my field have a convenient “out” when it comes to their profession staying dominated by statists. You see, if you are a “professional” in a mental health field, you aren’t “allowed” to “diagnose” a public official (ostensibly because you haven’t personally analyzed the individual, and regardless of how obviously insane the daily behavior of the person becomes. So I guess Hitler was of a sound mind. Good to know).
Not only that.
You laymen out there aren’t allowed to diagnose insanity, either. After all, you aren’t professionals. We are. So be quiet, you, or we will label you insane. After all, we are the professionals. But we only diagnose you. Makes for better tyrann… uh, therapy. Yes. You understand? Do you need another blue pill?
That makes it simple for the ladder-pulling statists to facilitate radicalism in every facet of culture and society. If no one can call the leadership insane, then the only people labelable are the ones screaming that something is wrong. Smile for the cameras, crazy one. That’s YOU! And it is easy to dismiss the ranting of a crazy person, so the statists marginalize those who aren’t lockstep with their view.
That, my friends, is how insanity is institutionalized and instituted.
Obviously, Loudon couldn't possibly be the one who's demonstrating mental issues. She's a doctor, dammit!
Loudon's not the only armchair psychologist at WND. Andrew G. Hodges -- a self-proclaimed forensic profiler who got a lot of WND press a couple years back when he purported to read Obama's mind through a pseudo-scientific method purports to uncover "secret" confessions in the president's words -- is back, and he insists that Obama is "slipping mentally":
“On June 27, he said that Republican inaction ‘drives you nuts … and it drives me nuts.’ He reveals his enormous internal pressure – far greater than his conscious mind knows.
“Appreciate his casual psycholinguistic reference to ‘madness’ in a deeper scarier way. Obama is warning us that he’s slipping mentally,” Hodges wrote.
[...]
He said at the recent Minnesota speeches, Obama was under pressure from various groups over the “the IRS lying about ‘lost’ emails about persecuting conservative non-profits, the NSA spying on everyday Americans, Benghazi cover-ups, setting free five brutal terrorists from Club Gitmo to gain back a deserter” and “fostering the onslaught of unaccompanied illegal immigrant children on the southern border.”
“Obama declared, ‘I’m not sure which of the things I’ve done they [Republicans] find most offensive,’” Hodges said. “Denial represents a classic way of telling the truth. A person rationalizes his behavior consciously – yet unconsciously he admits his actual actions. When we read through his denial confession, we can see that he really means ‘Deep down I’m sure of the many offensive things I’ve done to Americans.’ Note his word, ‘offensive.’ Secretly Obama confesses, ‘I’ve been on offense – to the extreme.’ It fits with reality – his behavior has been shocking, far beyond mere political fuss.”
You know WND is desperate to smear Obama when they have to resort to political hacks and charlatans to filter their smears through.
Terry Jeffrey's Immigration Metaphor Misfire Topic: CNSNews.com
Terry Jeffrey writes in his July 16 CNSNews.com column:
Sam, the wealthiest man in his neighborhood, lives in a big beautiful house with a massive backyard punctuated by a large, deep swimming pool.
While Sam is personally not very fond of children — he supports abortion on demand and believes the government should force all employers to offer female workers free sterilizations — he nonetheless lives in a neighborhood that teems with little ones.
The children are particularly attracted to Sam's beautiful pool — and, on those rare occasions when Sam is actually in his backyard, he frequently finds himself shooing these children away.
Worried relatives have repeatedly warned Sam that he ought to build a fence around his yard — or at least around his pool — to guard against the awful possibility that a neighborhood child might otherwise drown.
But Sam does not want a fence. He objects that it would mar the aesthetics of his yard, and that if some kid really wanted to get into the pool he could climb over the fence.
So, should Sam build one? If he went out one morning and found a boy had drowned in his pool, would he have some culpability for that child's unnecessary death?
The answers are yes and yes.
And, although it is not a perfect analogy, Sam's pool is a little like Uncle Sam's territory near our border with Mexico.
There is no doubt people are tempted to enter U.S. property without the permission of the U.S. government. There is also no doubt this can be a dangerous, even deadly, thing to do.
No, Mr. Jeffrey, your analogy isn't perfect -- heck, it's not even remotely analogous. The act of crossing the border isn't deadly, and America is not an "attractive nuisance" like an unfenced pool where something could go wrong simply by being in the presence of it.
Jeffrey goes on to cite the example of a teenager from Guatemala whose body was found in Texas. But the United States didn't kill him; the trip from Guatemala likely played a factor.
If Jeffrey wants a more perfect analogy, he should have that unfenced pool surrounded by miles of barbed wire, thorns and a few land mines thrown in for good measure.
If Jeffrey thinks America is an unfenced pool in need of a double-layer fence with armed border guards, he clearly doesn't understand anything about immigration. But given his previous attempt at analogy, we already knew that.
Jesse Lee Peterson complains in a July 20 WorldNetDaily column:
Fatherless homes – combined with the left’s policies and attacks on free speech – are creating thugs and cop killers.
The murder of 23-year-old Jersey City Police Officer Melvin Santiago and the death of 43-year-old Eric Garner, who died while resisting arrest by NYPD officers, have put the national spotlight on police and black relations.
The cop killer’s wife inflamed the situation by saying that her black thug husband – who was shot and killed after executing officer Santiago – should have shot more cops.
[...]
Progressives of all colors have intimidated most white Americans with the “R” word (racist), and now whites rarely comment on black criminality. These same progressives are perpetuating the fatherlessness and anti-police attitude that is wreaking havoc on America’s inner cities.
But wait -- wasn't the highest profile cop-killing prior to the Garner incident a case of Jerad Miller, a right-winger with an unhealthy anti-police attitude that WND encourages? Miller did like a couple of WND fellow travelers, after all.
It's utterly hypocritical for WND to publish a column decrying an "anti-police attitude" it has done much to promote.
WND Tries To Profit Off Israel-Hamas Violence Topic: WorldNetDaily
Leave it to WorldNetDaily to be so amoral and money-grubbing that it would exploit the current violent skirmishes between Israel and Hamas as a money-making opportunity.
WND really did headline a July 20 article "Hamas rockets boon to Israel tour":
The article goes on to present the violence as a reason to sign up for a tour to Israel hosted by WND editor Joseph Farah and WND author Jonathan Cahn:
During the week Hamas fired thousands of rockets on Israel, interest in WND’s Israel tour with Joseph Farah and Jonathan Cahn spiked, with 68 signups in seven days, the most in a one-week period since registration began in February, WND announced.
“I thought news of thousands of rockets raining down on Israel would be a deterrent to Americans who were thinking about joining us on WND’s Israel tour,” said Farah. “It wasn’t at all. In fact, it seems like Americans are eager to show solidarity with the Jewish state at this time.”
The second annual tour is on pace to match last year’s size, with nearly 400 participants, most originating in the U.S.
“I really thought registrations would be down during a week in which there was so much attention on the attacks in Israel,” said Farah. “I even thought some registrants might change their mind and cancel. Instead, it turned into the biggest week for tour registrations by far.”
Farah, who has been to Israel dozens of times over the last 35 years, said the Jewish state remains one of the safest places in the world for tourists – safer, he suggests, than many American cities.
The deadline for signing up for the tour featuring “The Harbinger” author Jonathan Cahn and WND founder Joseph Farah is approaching quickly.
The tour is set for Nov. 10 through 20, with departures from New York City and Newark, New Jersey, and the renewed support of Coral Tours, coordinators of last fall’s trip.
The deadline for registration is July 31.
Perhaps Farah will repent for his shameless profiteering on the blood of the dead on his upcoming 9/11 Day of Prayer and Repentance. But don't count on it.
AIM, Newsmax Also Promoting Discredited Charlatan Joel Gilbert's New Film Topic: Accuracy in Media
WorldNetDaily isn't the only ConWeb outlet that's strangely eager to promote discredited charlatan Joel Gilbert's new anti-Obama film, "There's No Place Like Utopia."
Cliff Kincaid slobbers over Gilbert's film in a July 17 Accuracy in Media column:
The film is both serious and entertaining. It makes you laugh and almost want to cry, as he skillfully describes what seems like the planned destruction of America.
[...]
Joel Gilbert is a brave filmmaker who is not interested in “debating” the likes of Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn as they demand rehabilitation and acceptance. Gilbert wants to expose them and put them behind bars, where they belong.
Just as Gilbert bought Jerome Corsi's loyalty by putting him in his film, he did something similar to buy Kincaid's promotional skills: Much of his column is devoted to lovingly detailing how the late anti-communist obsessive (and Kincaid buddy) Larry Grathwohl is "one of the stars" of the film.
Gilbert appears not to have done anything to cozy up to Newsmax. Nevertheless, a July 15 Newsmax article by Andrea Billups serves as a fine press release for Gilbert. It's based in part on a WND article by Corsi; Billups doesn't disclose that the author of the article she's cribbing from is also in the film she's promoting.
Needless to say, neither Newsmax nor AIM make mention of the fact that Gilbert's previous anti-Obama film has been utterly discredited. Indeed, no alternative view of Gilbert is presented at all.
WND Promotes Alex Jones-Linked 'Expert' Paul Craig Roberts Topic: WorldNetDaily
In a July 18 WorldNetDaily column relaying "Gold News," Mark Leibovit's lead item is an interview with "expert" Paul Craig Roberts about how "the entire United States gold hoard, including gold supposedly held at the Fed for other countries, is now gone."
At least in the excerpt Leibovit reproduces, Roberts offers no evidence to back up his claim. Perhaps that's because he hasn't had to in the company he normally pals around with.
Roberts is a favorite of conspiracy-obsessed radio host Alex Jones, where there is an extensive archive of his interviews and columns. Roberts also has a lengthy archive at the white-nationalist website VDARE.com.
You'd think being linked to both Alex Jones and VDARE would be an automatic disqualifying factor for any supposed "expert." But this is WND we're talking about here.
While Newsmax has endeavored to moderate its conservativism to gain greater appeal (it's trying to launch a TV network, after all), it's still providing a forum to extremists and their bizarre views.
President Barack Obama is remaking the world according to his vision of a less influential America, and one result is chaos abroad that leads to disasters like the apparent shootdown this week of a passenger jet over war-torn Ukraine, conservative author and filmmaker Dinesh D'Souza told Newsmax TV on Friday.
"This downing of the airplane is a small indication of what happens when American power is subtracted from the world," D'Souza told "MidPoint" host Ed Berliner.
[...]
D'Souza said President Obama, in withdrawing from the international stage and conceding management of global affairs to others, is helping to make the movie's point.
"For the past 60 years, we have been living in the American era, in which nothing important can happen in South America, in the Middle East or in Asia without America having a big say-so, if not actually determining the outcome," said D'Souza. "People all over the world — from Somali pirates on the high seas to Iranian mullahs to Russian separatists — have always had to worry, 'If we do this, what will America do?' Except now, under Obama."
According to D'Souza, that suits the president.
"He has an ideology that is opposed to an active American presence in the world," he said.
Having D'Souza spout such nonsense without allowing an opposing view -- no evidence is offered that one was provided -- just makes Newsmax look like the outlet for those who think Fox News is too liberal.
Last week we witnessed four denominations emboldened by this criminal, “sodomite-advocating” administration, joining the ranks of the apostate in America. Namely, the United Church of Christ (that claims 1 million members with about 5,200 congregations), the Presbyterian Church USA, the Moravians, who voted to ordain gay clergy, as well as the Pentecostal Church International (1 Timothy 4:1).
J. Bennett Guess, United Church of Christ’s first openly gay church executive, said that he was, “being a bold voice for progressive Christianity.” This would be like a criminal with a police badge trying to convince everyone that he is upright simply because of his man-ordained title.
This is spitting toward Heaven; and rest assured, they (along with whoever tolerates their crimes) will fall on their own backs.
[...]
When it comes to the issues at hand concerning our culture, we can clearly see that the majority of professed Christians are guilty of contributing to America’s state of moral anarchy (which they so boldly proclaim), proven by their support of antinomianism and the effeminate lifestyles they perpetuate.
It is revealing that these “churches” are “coming out” and exposing “what” and “who” real Christians have always known them to truly be: counterfeits that open doors wide to the gates of hell.
In summary, the “gay” agenda is to eliminate the existing Judeo-Christian model of civilization, grounded in marriage-based procreative sexuality, to make way for an irrational and impossible cultural Marxist model which imagines family-less, unlimited “sexual freedom” (anarchy), while somehow preserving orderliness in every other aspect of human society. It reflects an insane and Satanic delusion that breeds chaos, and can only be stopped by unceasing reaffirmation of biblical values and the natural family by the rest of us.
According to its leftist proponents, ENDA would merely insulate people who choose to engage in homosexual conduct (sexual orientation) or those who suffer from gender confusion (gender identity) against employment intolerance. In truth, however, this legislation effectively would codify the very thing it purports to combat: workplace discrimination.
Though in its current form ENDA contains an extremely weak religious exemption that might – and I mean might – partially protect some churches and religious organizations (until they’re sued by “gay” activists), this so-called exemption would leave most others, such as Bible bookstores and many Christian schools and para-church organizations, entirely unprotected. It would additionally crush individual business owners’ guaranteed First Amendment rights.
As the recent Hobby Lobby decision reaffirmed, the government cannot legislate away religious free exercise. Where your desire, intense though it may be, for me to employ you despite your antagonistic values system, pay for your abortion, or host, photograph or otherwise bake a rainbow cake for your faux “wedding,” comes into conflict with my absolute right to religious liberty, the result is a forgone conclusion.
Are 3 percent of the news stories you read about “gays”?
Is homosexuality the theme of 3 percent of the TV shows you watch?
Are 3 percent of the characters in movies and television shows “gay”?
Is 3 percent of the talk from people like Barack Obama about homosexuality or “LGBT issues,” as they like to call them?
Hardly.
In fact, you’d be hard-pressed to avoid being bombarded by the amount of agitprop about homosexuality from the press, Hollywood, government and even your kids’ schools.
So why is that?
Why is the cultural tale wagging the dog?
Why is less than 3 percent of the population having its way with 97 percent?
Why is the “gay” agenda rammed down the throats of the more than 97 percent?
It’s hard to understand. I can’t think of any other minority this small that is so powerful. Can you?
Joel Gilbert Buys Positive WND Coverage Of His New Film By Putting Corsi In It Topic: WorldNetDaily
Joel Gilbert may be an utterly discredited filmmaker, but he knows one of the oldest tricks around that: Put a reporter in your next film, and make sure they are lacking in scruples and ethics so they will mindlessly generate positive press coverage.
Gilbert found his stooge -- er, reporter in WorldNetDaily's Jerome Corsi, who's one of the featured performers in his latest factually challenged anti-Obama smear piece, "There's No Place Like Utopia." A screenshot from Gilbert's website is to the right. (For good measure, he stuck WND conspiracy-monger Jack Cashill in it too.)
Corsi, meanwhile, is upholding his end of the bargain by fawning over the film. We've already noted back in May how Corsi gushed over the film despite not only Gilbert's record of lies but Corsi himself getting suckered by a fraudulent claim about Barack Obama's wedding ring that his fellow birthers felt compelled to debunk.
Gilbert clearly knows Corsi has his back -- there was no mention of Gilbert's history of mendacity, let alone a correction of the fraudulent ring claim Corsi gullibly swallowed.
Corsi devoted another fawning WND article to the film on July 14. While Corsi admits he's in the film, he's also delivering the rah-rah coverage Gilbert knew he could count on. Corsi talked only to Gilbert and the film's distributor, again making sure he adequately repaid Gilbert for the screen time by pretending his substantial history of fraud doesn't exist.
WND is complicit in the cheerleading -- what self-respecting news organization would let a so-called reporter present as a "news" article gushing PR pieces on a film he appears in?
Of course, it's not as if anyone expects ethical, accurate journalism from anyone at WND, especiallyCorsi. This is just another reason why nobody believes WND.
Finally! MRC Discloses Its Link To Catholic League Topic: NewsBusters
Matthew Balan devortes in a July 17 NewsBusters post to the latest rant from the Catholic League's Bill Donohue, this time complaining about David Letterman "making light about Pope Francis's recent remarks about priestly celibacy." For the first time that we've noticed, Balan makes an important disclosure: "it should be pointed out that MRC President Brent Bozell serves on the board of advisors for the Catholic League."
We've documented how the MRC has regularly failed to disclose Bozell's links to the Catholic League in uncritically echoing whatever new outrage Donohue felt compelled to issue a press release about.
Balan is correct that Bozell's link to the Catholic "should be pointed out," which raises the question about why the MRC hasn't felt compelled to point out this blatant conflict of interest until now.
WND's Unruh Censors How Todd Akin Was Challenged During Fox Interview Topic: WorldNetDaily
Bob Unruh is a good corporate lackey, doing his part for WorldNetDaily's ill-fated decision to relitigate Todd Akin's "legitimate rape" remarks as a promotion for his WND-published book. His July 15 WND article on Akin's interview with Fox News' Megyn Kelly is a thinly disguised PR piece:
Eighteen months ago, then-Missouri Republican Senate candidate Todd Akin made an admittedly awkward description of rape, was abandoned by his own party and eventually lost to Democrat Claire McCaskill.
Monday night, on Megyn Kelly’s “The Kelly File” on the Fox News Channel, he broke his silence and charged that members of both parties were eager to make sure a true Reagan conservative wasn’t in Congress and asserted Democrats imposed a double standard.
He pointed out to Kelly that the Democrats own convention speaker, Bill Clinton, had a long history of facing claims of assault from women.
His own party’s leaders, he said, displayed arrogance, using his plight to argue social conservatives of his kind couldn’t get elected.
[...]
Akin clarified for Kelly that there are stress factors that can affect whether a victim gets pregnant, and he said that by “legitimate rape” he meant a “legitimate rape claim.”
And that's all Unruh has to say about Akin's discussion with Kelly about his previous remarks -- which conveniently leaves out all the parts where Kelly challenged Akin's narrative. More honest reporting of the Akin-Kelly interview took place at TPM:
Fox News host Megyn Kelly took failed Missouri GOP Senate candidate Todd Akin to task Monday night for his infamous claim that the female body could terminate a pregnancy in a case of "legitimate rape."
Akin appeared on "The Kelly File" to promote his new book, "Firing Back," in which he defends his original remarks on the grounds that stress can decrease fertility. Kelly challenged that defense, arguing there is no conclusive evidence tying the two together.
"But the thing that got people so upset was that you seemed to be putting the onus on rape victims, saying if yours was a legitimate rape, if you actually were raped, then your body will shut down the pregnancy," Kelly said. "And if your body doesn't shut down the pregnancy, then you are not the victim of rape."
"I think you're putting words in my mouth, I didn't say that," Akin responded.
"I'm just saying this is what people heard," Kelly said.
"I think that's what they heard, and that's why we did the apology," Akin said.
"See I get that, that's why you did the apology, but you seem to be dialing it back now," Kelly pressed.
Akin later said that he never meant to diminish women or the seriousness of rape as a crime in his comments.
"But you now acknowledge that a woman who is legitimately the victim of rape does not have a medical way of getting rid of -- an emotional way of getting rid of the pregnancy," Kelly said.
"No, I never believed that," Akin said. "That wasn't what I was trying to say, or I don't think I did say that. But people perceived that, and that's why we did the apology."
Unruh's article does include the video of the Akin-Kelly interview, so it's clear he had access to the full interview. He simply chose to not accurately report what was said.
A July 22 WorldNetDaily 
Leo Hohmann writes in a July 18 WorldNetDaily 
Last month, Dr. Gina Loudon 
Terry Jeffrey writes in his July 16 CNSNews.com 
Jesse Lee Peterson complains in a July 20 WorldNetDaily 
WorldNetDaily
In a July 18 WorldNetDaily 
While Newsmax has endeavored to moderate its conservativism to gain greater appeal (it's trying to 
Last week we witnessed four denominations emboldened by this criminal, “sodomite-advocating” administration, joining the ranks of the apostate in America. Namely, the United Church of Christ (that claims 1 million members with about 5,200 congregations), the Presbyterian Church USA, the Moravians, who voted to ordain gay clergy, as well as the Pentecostal Church International (1 Timothy 4:1).
Joel Gilbert may be an 
Matthew Balan devortes in a July 17 NewsBusters 
Bob Unruh is a good corporate lackey, doing his part for WorldNetDaily's 