CNS' Hunter Finds Even More LGBT-Related Federal Spending She Objects To Topic: CNSNews.com
After a brief detour, CNSNews.com deputy managing editor Melanie Hunter is back to cherry-picking federal spending to find another example of LGBT-related spending she disagrees with.
In a Feb. 25 CNS article, Hunter complains that "The National Institutes of Health has awarded $251,173 in taxpayer funds to the University of California Los Angeles to use 'social-network based intervention' to promote the use of an HIV-prevention drug regimen among 'transgender women' in Peru."
This is the ninth article Hunter wrote has written since December highlighting LGBT-related federal spending, versus one article on spending that's not LGBT-related.
CNS' Starr Can't Stop Falsely Reporting That Emergency Contraception Is Abortion Topic: CNSNews.com
CNSNews.com haslongperpetuated the falsehood that emergency contraception is just the same as having an abortion. Apparently, CNS will continue to refuse to let the truth get in its way.
Penny Starr gives it another go in a Feb. 20 CNS article:
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) is advancing federal regulations that require federally funded organizations caring for illegal alien minors who are in the United States without their parents (Unaccompanied Children or UC) and who may have been sexually abused access to “emergency contraception” services.
“Emergency contraception” includes abortion-inducing drugs.
[...]
According to an HHS Fact Sheet, emergency contraceptives approved by the Food and Drug Administration include Plan B One-Step, Next Choice One Dose, My Way and Levonorgestrel Tablets and the IUD.
The label of one such emergency contraceptive--Plan B One Step—says: "this product works mainly by preventing ovulation (egg release). It may also prevent fertilization of a released egg (joining of sperm and egg) or attachment of a fertilized egg to the uterus (implantation)."
According to Web MD the hormonal IUD “changes the lining of the uterus, so implantation of a fertilized egg cannot occur.”
As we pointed out the last time Starr peddled this falsehood, failure of a fertilized egg to implant in the uterus is not an abortion under any medical definition. If that were so, Starr would have to count the more than 50 percent of a woman's fertilized eggs that do not implant naturally as an abortion as well.
But it appears that, given a choice between right-wing talking points and the truth, Starr sticks with the talking points.
CNS Notes High Beef Prices, Doesn't Bother To Explain Why Topic: CNSNews.com
A tagline at the end of CNSNews.com's economics articles states that they are "funded in part with a gift made in memory of Dr. Keith C. Wold." We have to wonder if Wold is spinning in his grave at the abysmal quality of so-called reporting his bequest to the Media Research Center is funding.
A Feb. 26 CNS article by Ali Meyer is an example of this. It's all about how "The average price of a pound of ground beef climbed to another record high -- $4.235 per pound -- in the United States in January." Even though Meyer slings a full complement of stats in her article, at no point does she explain why beef has become so expensive, implying that it's somehow the fault of President Obama.
In fact, as more responsible news outlets have reported, the high prices are the result of a years-long drought in Texas and the Midwest that shrank the U.S. cattle herd in 2014 to its smallest size since 1952.
Unless Wold's bequest specifically ordered Meyer and CNS to mislead about the economy to falsely smear the Oabma administration -- which may indeed be the case, given that many of CNS' misleading articles about monthly unemployment rates also contain the tagline crediting him -- we can't imagine that Wold's heirs are happy about how CNS is using his money.
Shocker: CNS' Hunter Writes Article That Doesn't Focus On LGBT-Related Federal Spending Topic: CNSNews.com
The subject matter of Melanie Hunter's Feb. 17 CNSNews.com article isn't all that interesting by itself --about a federal grant to study “models and control methods to coordinate fleets of self-driving vehicles in future transportation networks.”
What is interesting, however, is the fact that this is the first time in more than two months that Hunter has written an article about federal spending that didn't touch on LGBT-related issues. The implication of Hunter's hyper-focus on LGBT-related federal spending is that she believes it's a waste of money.
On Dec. 10, Hunter wrote an article detailing how "The National Institutes of Health has awarded $212,549 in taxpayer dollars to the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill to study how movies influence childhood obesity." In betrween that and her Feb. 17 article, Hunter wrote eight articles focusing on LGBT-related spending -- the onlyarticles focusing on federal spending she wrote during that time.
Hunter has not explained her disproportionate focus on suggesting that federal spending on LGBT issues is a waste of money.
Even A Mere $33,000 Spent On LGBT Issues Is A Waste, According To CNS' Hunter Topic: CNSNews.com
No amount of federal spending on LGBT issues, it seems, is too small for CNSNews.com deputy managing editor Melanie Hunter to portray as a waste.
Hunter adds to her pile of obsession over LGBT-related federal spending -- she has written no federal spending articles on any other subject -- with a Feb. 13 article:
The National Institutes of Health has awarded $33,037 in taxpayer funds to the University of South Florida to study factors that can increase vaccination among gay men for the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) to prevent them from developing anal cancer.
Yep, even a mere $33,000 is considered to be a waste by Hunter if it goes toward LGBT-related issues.
Hunter has yet to explain her obession on this subject.
CNS Doesn't Want Any Gayness In Statuary Hall Topic: CNSNews.com
See if you can guess Lauretta Brown's main concern from the headline and opening paragraph of her Feb. 12 CNSNews.com article:
Gay Lawmaker Wants to Replace Statuary Hall Figure of Missionary Headed for Sainthood With Lesbian Astronaut
An openly gay State Senator in California has introduced legislation to replace a statue of Catholic missionary Father Junipero Serra in National Statuary Hall with a statue of Sally Ride, the first female U.S. astronaut and a lesbian.
The move by State Senator Ricardo Lara comes just weeks after Pope Francis announced plans to elevate Serra to sainthood.
Yep, it seems Brown (and, by extension, her CNS overseers Terry Jeffrey and Michael Chapman) doesn't want any gayness in Statuary Hall -- especially if means removing the statue of a Catholic.
Brown then goes on to defend the honor of Serra by quoting a Catholic monsignor who has written a biography of him:
But Monsignor Francis J. Weber, an author and historian of the 18th century missionary, has rejected the characterization of Serra as “controversial.”
“You see all of these accusations against Serra, but not one of them can be validated by a responsible historian,” Weber told the Catholic News Agency.
Weber described Serra as a hero to the Native Americans. “California today is what he started it out to be,” he said, “Things have progressed a lot in 200 years, but he set the foundation.”
“The Native Americans, I think, are being utilized by these people who have a rather warped view of what evangelization is all about,” he said. “I’m convinced that the questions about Junipero Serra are really not about Serra himself, who simply epitomized Catholic evangelization. I’m convinced that this is an attack on all of Catholic evangelization throughout the world.”
That seems like a strangely specific defense. Meanwhile, the Associated Press notes that Serra "supported flogging converts who tried to escape the mission," and that in Serra's wake, the Native American population in California dropped by one-third and fragmented tribes lost touch with their traditional languages, beliefs and way of life.
So, yes, Serra is controversial -- as is Brown's idea of journalism, where all gays must be labeled prominently as such, seemingly to engender homophobic comments on the article from CNS readers.
CNS Misrepresents DC Anti-Discrimination Law Topic: CNSNews.com
CNSNews.com, like other ConWeb outlets, does not feel compelled to accurately or fairly report on something that contradicts its right-wing agenda.
In a Feb. 11 CNS article, Rudy Takala asserts as fact in the first paragraph that a new District of Columbia law "forci[es] Christian organizations to employ people who advocate abortion." It's not until the second paragraph that this view of the law is merely the opinion of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, not necessarily fact.
In actuality, the law -- the Reproductive Health Non-Discrimination Act of 2014 -- states that employers "shall not discriminate against an individual with respect to compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment because of or on the basis of the individual's or a dependent's reproductive health decision making, including a decision to use or access a particular drug, device or medical service, because of or on the basis of an employer's personal beliefs about such services."
Takala did not quote the language of the law in his article, nor did he explain the USCCB's reasoning behind how it concluded the law forces Christian employers "to employ people who advocate abortion."
Lauretta Brown does the same thing in her Feb. 11 CNS article, baselessly asserting as fact that the law "would force religious and pro-life organizations to employ people who advocate abortion. While Brown does quote some of thewording in the law, she presents the USCCB's interpretation as the only valid one.
That, of course, is simply not true, CNS has so far ignored the opinion of Catholics for Choice, which testifed that polling shows "91 pecent of US Catholic voters believe that a company should not be allowed to fire a pregnant, unmarried employee because of the owners' religious beliefs," adding that "one cannot use one's conscience to trample onthe rights of others."
CNS' mission statement states that it "endeavors to fairly present all legitimate sides of a story." Apparently, if one side of that story conflicts with right-wing ideology or Catholic doctrine, it must not be "legitimate" and, therefore, unworthy of coverage.
CNS Finds More Federal Spending On LGBT Issues It Considers A Waste Topic: CNSNews.com
CNSNews.com has long obsessed over federal spending on LGBT-related issues, eager to portray them as a waste of money (while failing to perform any similar analysis of other categories of federal spending). CNS deputy managing editor Melanie Hunter has beenthe leader in this highly biased campaign for CNS of late, and she's at it again in a Feb. 6 article:
The National Institutes of Health has awarded a $435,369 taxpayer-funded grant to the University of Illinois at Chicago to study cessation techniques for LGBT smokers.
“Our long-term goals are to increase smoking cessation in Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) smokers and to understand the processes related to cessation and relapse in this underserved population,” the grant stated.
The purpose of the study “is to develop and evaluate the benefits of culturally targeted smoking cessation intervention” for LGBT smokers.
Hunter obviously thinks this is a waste of money -- otherwise, she wouldn't have written this article.And as is usual for LGBT-related articles ath CNS, its comment section is littered with examples of vicious and vile anti-gay hatred that CNS' comment monitors apparently do nothing to counteract. It's almost as if CNS publishes such articles for express purpose of fostering homophobia.
All six of the articles Hunter has written about government spending in the past three months have focused on LGBT issues. Additionally, she wrote two more disdainful LGBT-related articles published on Jan. 30:
Hunter is simply acting out the anti-gay agenda of her employer, the Media Research Center.
UPDATE: Hunter has penned another article attacking LGBT-related spending, this time highlighting how "The National Institutes of Health has awarded $42,676 in taxpayer funds to the University of Pennsylvania to teach yoga to drug-abusing convicts with HIV to help them once they are released from prison."
No CNS articles so far, however, on themost visible critic demanding Williams resign for his falsehood, MRC (and CNS) chief Brent Bozell, lying for 15 years about writing the column that appears under his name.
Employment Numbers Are So Good, CNS Can't Find A Way To Make Them Look Bad Topic: CNSNews.com
When the employment news is as good as it was in January, even CNSNews.com can't figure out a way to make it look bad.
Thus, Ali Meyer was forced to play it pretty much straight in her Feb. 6 CNS article:
The labor force participation rate increased from 62.7 percent to 62.9 percent in January as the number of people not in the labor force declined from 92,898,000 in December to 92,544,000 in January, and the unemployment rate ticked up from 5.6 percent to 5.7 percent.
However, Meyer does show her bias in one way: she refused to note that 257,000 jobs were created in January. Instead, she complained that "The number of unemployed and employed both increased in January," failing to explain to her readers what significance, if any, those numbers have.
CNS Censors Probe That Discredits Attkisson Topic: CNSNews.com
Brittany Hughes was eager to serve as Sharyl Attkisson's stenographer in a Jan. 30 CNSNews.com article, uncritically repeating her claims at a confirmation hearing for attorney general candiate Loretta Lynch that "she was subjected to numerous phone calls from federal officials attempting to keep her quiet; had her Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests 'stonewalled'; was denied access to government buildings; and she even believes the government 'compromised' her personal computer."
Hughes won't report, however, that Attkisson's claim about her computer being "compromised" has been completely discredited.
A report by the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General found no evidence to support Attkisson's claim of her computer being compromised, noting that a video Attkisson posted purporting to show the hacking take place instead showed a stuck backspace key and"a standard error prompt."
Despite the fact that the DOJ IG report was made public the same day as Attkisson's testimony -- and, in fact, was put into the public recoprd as part of her testimony -- Hughes makes no reference to it in her article, instead sticking with simple stenography of her discredited claims.
But then, the MRC lovesAttkisson (and vice versa), so she will not be the subject of critical reporting at CNS as long as she's following the MRC's anti-Obama agenda. So the IG report must remain censored.
CNSNews.com editor in chief Terry Jeffrey writes in a Jan. 28 article:
Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told attorney general nominee Loretta Lynch at a confirmation hearing today that the fact that, in support of Planned Parenthood, she had advocated for partial-birth abortion did not "disqualify" her from serving as attorney general of the United States.
But Lynch did not "advocate for partial-birth abortion," as Jeffrey himself concedes in his very next paragraphs:
"In 2006, you signed an amicus brief supporting Planned Parenthood's opposition to partial-birth abortion ban; is that correct?" said Graham at Lynch's confirmation hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
"Yes," said Lynch, "I was one of a number of former Department of Justice officials [who signed it]."
"Although, the amicus brief that we signed was focused on the issue of the facial issues of the law, and how it might impact the perception of law enforcement's discretion and independence," she said.
Signing onto an amicus brief opposing a law banning "partial-birth abortion" does not equal "advocating" for the practice. And it's clear she was discussing issues of the law, not defending the practice.
Jeffrey does not provide a link to the amicus brief in question so his readers can see for themselves what, exactly, she supposedly was "advocating."
In other words, Jeffrey is lying about Lynch. Is that something the editor of a self-proclaimed news organization should be doing?
CNSNews.com, it appears, just doesn't care about journalism anymore, increasingly dedicating itself to being a right-wing propaganda outlet.
The headline of a Jan. 21 CNS article by Penny Starr reads, "Planned Parenthood’s Cecile Richards: ‘We Proudly…Provide Abortions’." But Starr actually quotes Richards in the second paragraph of her article as saying, "We proudly provide safe and legal abortion."
Not only did CNS improperly pluralize "abortion," it put ellipses in the wrong place for its dishonest removal of "safe and legal."
Starr is an anti-abortion crusader, and her bias shows in her article by irrelevantly noting Richards' salary as Planned Parenthood president. By contrast, we can't recall any CNS article that disclosed the compensation package of its boss, Brent Bozell.
CNS Doesn't Want To Talk About Rape And Abortion Topic: CNSNews.com
CNSNews.com was eager to report that House Republicans scuttled a proposed bill to outlaw abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy. It was much less eager to tell readers why.
A Jan. 22 CNS article by Melanie Hunter highlighted how "Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the pro-life group Susan B. Anthony List, said Thursday she was 'disappointed' that the Republican-controlled House delayed a vote on the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act." Another article by Hunter the same day detailed how "Family Research Council President Tony Perkins on Thursday said despite the House delaying debate on the late-term abortion bill Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, GOP House leadership has not abandoned the 'pro-life effort.'"
Interestingly, neither of those articles saw fit to explain to readers why the vote on the "Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act" was scuttled: Female Republican House members objected to a provision that allowed an rape exception only if that rape was reported to law enforcement.
Later CNS articles mentioned the reason the bill was scuttled, but really didn't want to talk about it much further. A Jan. 22 article by Susan Jones noted that "a few Republicans objected" to the rape provision, then huffed, "Expanding the bill's exemption to cover all claims of rape would allow more abortions." But none of the people Jones quoted in her article expanded on the issue of the rape provision.
A Jan. 23 article by Lauretta Brown reported on "A crowd of pro-life millennials" who gathered outside the office of one of the House Republicans who objected to the rape provision, Rep. Renee Ellmers, "to express their anger with her for delaying and attempting to dilute the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act." Brown noted that the "pro-life millennials" were "angered" by the scuttling of the vote, but strangely, she did not ask any of those protesting "pro-life millennials" thought of the rape provision.
Why doesn't CNS want to get into the meat of the rape provision, even though it's at the center of the controversy over the anti-abortion bill, so much so that even normally pro-life Republicans find it objectionable? Perhaps it's following Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham's advice to conservative to keep from letting such controversies over definitions "become the issue." But by censoring the issue, CNS can only make sure it becomes an issue.
Wait, doesn't CNS pledge to "fairly present all legitimate sides of a story"? Yes, but it's hard to do that by pretending that one prominent side of a certain issue doesn't actually exist.
CNS Back To Its Old Gotcha Game Topic: CNSNews.com
It's been a while since CNSNews.com hurled a "gotcha" question at members of Congress - apparently taking in the lesson learned when Barney Frank decided he didn't want to play and turned the tables on a hapless CNS reporter.
Apparently, the sting of the reverse gotcha has faded enough that CNS is back in the gotcha business, hurling a certain loaded question at Democratic members of Congress being ambushed by CNS reporters. See if you can detect a pattern:
After a brief detour, CNSNews.com deputy managing editor Melanie Hunter is back to cherry-picking federal spending to find another example of LGBT-related spending she disagrees with.
CNSNews.com 
A tagline at the end of CNSNews.com's economics articles states that they are "funded in part with a gift made in memory of Dr. Keith C. Wold." We have to wonder if Wold is spinning in his grave at the abysmal quality of so-called reporting his bequest to the Media Research Center is funding.
See if you can guess Lauretta Brown's main concern from the headline and opening paragraph of her Feb. 12 CNSNews.com 
CNSNews.com, like other ConWeb outlets, does not feel compelled to accurately or fairly report on something that contradicts its right-wing agenda.
CNSNews.com has 
Brittany Hughes was eager to serve as Sharyl Attkisson's stenographer in a Jan. 30 CNSNews.com 
CNSNews.com editor in chief Terry Jeffrey writes in a Jan. 28 
