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Saturday, March 14, 2015
CNS Still Privileges Alveda King With Unearned 'Dr.' Title
Topic: CNSNews.com

CNSNews.com loves to privilege Alveda King with the "Dr." title, even though her doctorate is honorary (from Saint Anselm College) and not earned. It did so again twice this past week.

A March 9 CNS article by Penny Starr puts "Dr. Alveda King" right in the headline, and Starr herself gives her the "Dr." title in the article. There's also a photo of King with the grating caption "Dr. Alveda King, niece of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr."

A March 13 column by King carries the "Dr. Alveda King" byline, plus a bio tag at the end stating "Dr. Alveda King, niece of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr."

Actually, unlike Alveda King, Martin Luther King Jr. earned his doctorate, from Boston University.

If CNS had any journalistic integrity, it would reject Alveda King's blatantly dishonest efforts to inflate her credentials to portray herself as an equal of her uncle. But then, CNS' right-wing agenda has little to do with journalistic integrity.


Posted by Terry K. at 10:53 PM EDT
Updated: Sunday, March 15, 2015 9:53 AM EDT
Cocky Farah: 'I Am Kicking Papal Butt'
Topic: WorldNetDaily

We have not written the term "kicking papal butt" before, but we get to because WorldNetDaily Joseph Farah has a grudge against Pope Francis for claiming that evolution is not incompatible with creation. Farah writes in his March 12 WND column:

In a referendum on evolution between me and the pope taking place among Catholics since Thanksgiving, I am kicking papal butt.

Back in November, I took Pope Francis to task for saying: “God is not … a magician, but the Creator who brought everything to life. Evolution in nature is not inconsistent with the notion of creation, because evolution requires the creation of beings that evolve.”

A respected writer for the Wanderer, James K. Kilpatrick, defended the pope’s position. He was inundated with letters from fellow Catholics who support my position and question why the pope doesn’t just accept the Bible as true.

Of course, a popularity contest is the absolute worst way to determine the validity of a scientific principle, but Farah is presumably willing to overlook that as long as he's winning said popularity context.

Also of course (because he's a liar), back in November Farah falsely claimed that the pope's statement meant that he was denying the Bible's account of creation and insisting that Genesis is literally true:

The Genesis account isn’t just some Old Testament fairy tale. It is fundamental to Christian belief. It was thoroughly affirmed by Jesus. In fact, if the fall of man is just an allegory, one wonders why Jesus would have had to come to atone for man’s sin – a prophecy first revealed in Genesis.

[...]

I don’t understand Christians who discount Genesis. It makes no sense. Nothing in the Bible makes sense without the Creation account. If the pope doesn’t believe the foundational aspect of the Bible, does he believe any of it? If he does, he really owes the Christian world an explanation of which parts of the Bible he believes and which he discounts.

As I recall my trip this month to Jerusalem, the Holy City of God, I wonder just how small the remnant of believers will be when Jesus comes again.

I also wonder if the pope believes He will come again.

Farah doesn't mention that Pope Francis' statement is in line with the stance of previous popes.

In a Feb. 10 column, Farah highlighted how a Catholic publication picked up his attack on the pope, proudly noting how other self-proclaimed Catholics "rushed to my defense," adding, "if this were a popularity contest between my view of Creation and the pope’s, I win hands down – at least with his readers."

Then he lied again: "My commentary was not written in anger. Nor did I attack the pope. What I did was defend the inspiration and integrity of the Bible – including Genesis, the very foundation for the scriptures that follow." Really? There was no anger in suggesting that the pope doesn't believe Jesus will come again if he doesn't believe the evangelical Protestant interpretation of creation?

And Farah's declaration that he's "kicking papal butt" is also a clear sign he's making this very personal and very antagonistic.


Posted by Terry K. at 12:42 PM EDT
Friday, March 13, 2015
CNS' Starr Thinks It's News That Sexual Orientation Can Change Over Time
Topic: CNSNews.com

This is the entirety of a March 13 CNSNews.com article by Penny Starr:

Planned Parenthood Federation of America tells teens on its website that it “can take a long time” to determine one’s “sexual orientation or gender identity.”

"Sexual orientation describes which gender(s) you're attracted to, sexually and/or romantically," says Planned Parenthood's "All About LGBTQ at a Glance" webpage. "Sometimes a person's sexual orientation changes over time, but people can't choose or decided to change who they're attracted to."

“It can take many years for people to understand their sexual orientation, and it can change over your lifetime — so a lot of people call themselves questioning, which means they aren’t sure about their sexual orientation and/or gender identity. This is common — especially for teens,” the website states.

"LGBTQ stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning," says the webpage.

That's it. There's no explanation why of Starr finds this to be "news," or even that it's somehow a change from previous information provided by Planned Parenthood or any other credible organization on the subject (it's not). 

The important thing about this article is what's not in it: It does contradict right-wing opinion that choosing to be something other than a heterosexual is a conscious choice and nothing more than a "lifestyle" that can be easily changed on a whim. It's nothing but a dog whistle for CNS readers, who have fulfilled their end of the deal by filling the article's comment thread with anti-gay vitriol.

Indeed, CNS gave away the game when it tweeted out a link to Starr's article with the added comment, "Homosexual by Choice?"

Just a few days ago, Starr's fellow CNS reporter Barbara Hollingsworth fretted that "Psychology Today announced last week that it will no longer accept ads from therapists who offer 'conversion therapy' or 'reparative therapy' to gays who want to leave the homosexual lifestyle." As could be expected, she devoted much more space to those who oppose the decision than to those who say such "reparative therapy" is harmful.

If Starr wanted to do real reporting, she would have done a lot more than she did. But these four paragraphs shows she's simply regurgitating her employer's anti-gay agenda rather than being a journalist. 


Posted by Terry K. at 6:01 PM EDT
Updated: Friday, March 13, 2015 6:09 PM EDT
WND's Hieb -- Who Lied About Vaccinaton Stats -- Fearmongers About Vaccination Again
Topic: WorldNetDaily

We've caught Dr. Lee Hieb lying about data to fearmonger that the measles vaccine is more deadly than actually having measles. Despite that (or maybe because of that), WorldNetDaily considers her a credible person. So Hieb is back to fearmonger again in a March 10 WND column attacking the idea of mandatory vaccination with every bit of speciousness she can muster.

First, she invents sinister motives for a federal five-year plan to push vaccination:

Is it just my sense of irony or is it a signal to fellow travelers that this is a “Five-year Plan”? Did they hire old Soviet central planners or come up with this all on their own? Anyway, the folks at HHS fully admit this is possible only through the implementation of the ACA, which we are learning is an unaffordable care act but one that allows data collection on every patient of every doctor who accepts federal funding.

Then, laughably, she says she's interested in "honest discussion over the science" of vaccination , though she's on record lying about vaccination data and spent the previous paragraph attacking vaccines by invoking communism, not addressing the science.

Still, she huffs, "I still await any actual scientific refutation of my concerns." Well, science isn't necessary to prove that Hieb lied about vaccination data.

And to further prove she's all about the "science" of vaccination, Hieb likens mandatory vaccination to mandatory sterilization:

Let me be clear. Public health does not trump individual liberty. End of story.

If you believe the opposite, you can ethically condone forced sterilization, because it improves the health and wholeness of the body politic. Think I’m exaggerating? Between 1897 and 1909 forced sterilization of mentally handicapped was approved into law in Michigan Indiana, Pennsylvania, Washington and, of course, California. And in 1927 such acts were deemed by the Supreme Court “constitutional.” No lesser light than Oliver Wendell Holmes himself justified the decision by saying, “It is better for all the world if, instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime, or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind.”

After the atrocities of the Holocaust, Americans briefly got a conscience about such things and reversed the policies of forced sterilization. But with time, creeping socialism and collective amnesia, old habits and human moral frailties resurfaced so that between 1973-1976 thousands of Native American women were sterilized without their consent by government physicians. And as late as 2010, in California, female inmates were sterilized involuntarily. Of course, these things always are done in the name of society or public health. When Ezekiel Emanuel proposes withholding money for medical care of the elderly he does so in the name of fairness – of using the money wisely, yada yada. We’ve heard this all so many times in so many guises.

Now it is vaccination.

If Hieb really thinks the "science" backs her up, she wouldn't need to resort to such cheap, lazy diversionary fearmongering.

Hieb's not the only documented WND liar to weigh in on the subject. Jerome Corsi -- who has spread numerous lies about President Obama -- frets in a March 12 WND article about "the sentiment to sue parents who choose not to vaccinate their children."


Posted by Terry K. at 10:34 AM EDT
Updated: Friday, March 13, 2015 10:42 AM EDT
CNS' Hunter Continues Her Obsession With LGBT-Related Federal Spending
Topic: CNSNews.com

Hey, look, CNSNews.com deputy managing editor Melanie Hunter has found yet another example of LGBT-related federal spending she has deemed wasteful:

The National Institutes of Health has awarded $228,425 to the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia (translated it means Cayetano Heredia University), a private university in Lima, Peru, to study syphilis among gay men in that country.

This makes 10 articles Hunter has written since December on supposedly wasteful LGBT-related spending, versus two articles on non-LGBT spending during that same time period.

Hunter has yet to publicly explain her disproportionate focus on LGBT-related spending or whether she has found any such spending she doesn't consider to be a waste of money.


Posted by Terry K. at 9:10 AM EDT
Thursday, March 12, 2015
WND's Loudon Plays Armchair Psychologist Again, Diagnoses Obama As Screwed Up
Topic: WorldNetDaily

Last year, WorldNetDaily columist Gina Loudon took to her armchair to invent a diagnosis of President Obama as going insane, then defended her armchair psychology by touting her invented "policology" and declaring that mental health professionals as she claims to be don't "surrender our First Amendment rights when we go to graduate school. If the leader of the free world is acting erratically, I would think it would be incumbent upon those who know the signs of instability the best to call out what they see, before something crazy happens, like the release of five terrorists in the exchange for a defector, or something!"

Well, Loudon is once again asserting her First Amendment right to baselessly speculate about Obama's mental state. In her March 8 WND column, Loudon insists that Obama growing up without his biological father made him into less than a real American, or something:

President Obama is affected by “father loss,” as we call it in my field, because his father left him as a baby and he longed his entire life for his return, and approval (“Dreams from My Father”). Even the very title of his book, “Dreams from My Father,” tells a story of a child damaged and forever impacted by a father who rejected him. Obama openly discusses his drive to continue his dead father’s legacy in his book.

Psychoanalysts have long studied the impact typical of boys in Obama’s situation. One analyst contends that a boy whose father has died forms a grandiose idea of him and strongly calls upon himself to replace the parent who has been thus idealized. But other theorists recognize that the rejection of the father while he was alive, coupled with the subsequent death and idealization of his image, evokes a powerful insecurity and emotional reconciliation that can continue through the lifespan of the child, and even stunt his emotional development. The child in that scenario can end up spending most of his life in a pattern of trying to reconcile that rejection throughout their lives, even long after the death of the father.

Obama’s protective attitude toward Islam, the faith of his father before he became an atheist, as well as his lack of a clear “American first” strategy of Reagan or Bush in international conflicts, is a logical extension of his father’s anti-colonialist Third World view of the U.S. This leaves Obama like a boat without a rudder, because he has found himself the leader of the very country his father hated. That is a huge internal conflict: How do you simultaneously love a country enough to govern it, while still hoping to win the love, even posthumously, of a father you need?

Benjamin Netanyahu, on the other hand, is a total stud because he had a father who loved him:

Netanyahu cares very little about who likes him. He is secure in his own strategy and leadership since he had a strong and loving father. Netanyahu is motivated by his own security, confidence and a sense of justice. Obama is motivated by his own insecurity, a lack of confidence and a need for approval. Thus, Netanyahu easily makes decisions based on conviction and leads decisively. Obama distrusts his own instincts, feels insecure about his ability to make good decisions and reacts often by overreacting.

For example, in Netanyahu’s speech last week that Obama boycotted, he said, “The days when the Jewish people remained passive in the face of genocidal enemies, those days are over.” Congress erupted in applause. Then he continued, “We are no longer scattered among the nations, powerless to defend ourselves. We restored our sovereignty in our ancient home. And the soldiers who defend our home have boundless courage. For the first time in 100 generations, we, the Jewish people, can defend ourselves.”

[...]

We have a president who, by legacy, holds conflicted loyalty to the country he leads. By contrast, Netanyahu, like Jews born anywhere in the world, is fighting for the very land of his fathers going back thousands of years – land the Bible holds was actually given to them by God himself. Netanyahu betrays by losing the land, and Obama betrays by protecting it. Such a divide may be impossible to bridge. The reality is that by almost any account, freedom loses if Israel is threatened.

As we all know, WND editor Joseph Farah is proud of his columnists that make stuff up.


Posted by Terry K. at 7:39 PM EDT
CNS' Jeffrey Forgets Who Was President When Most Gitmo Detainees Who Returned To Terrorism Were Released
Topic: CNSNews.com

In a March 7 CNSNews.com article, CNS editor-in-chief Terry Jeffrey writes about how "The Director of National Intelligence released a report this week indicating that the United States has 'confirmed' that 116 detainees "transferred" out of the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, subsequently reengaged in terrorist or insurgent activities." Jeffrey then tries to blame President Obama for this, noting that "Two days after he first took office in 2009, President Obama issued an executive order calling for Guantanamo to be closed. That order also called for officials to review what should be done with each individual transferred from the prison."

But it's not until the 23rd paragraph of his article that Jeffrey admits (grudging, in parentheses) that the recidivism rate for detainees released under Obama is lower than it used to be:

(The percentage of Guantanamo detainees released after President Obama's executive order who have been confirmed to have returned to terrorist or insurgent activity has been less thus far--5.2 percent--than it has been for detainees released before the executive order, which is 17.9 percent.)

Jeffrey curiously doesn't mention who was president before Obama and, thus, the president with the higher recidivism rate: Republican George W. Bush. In fact, Bush's name appears nowhere in Jeffrey's article, even though he repeatedly names Obama and publishes Republican criticism of Obama's Gitmo release policy.

Jeffrey doesn't seem to want to let inconvenient facts interfere with his politically motivated attack on Obama disguised as "news."


Posted by Terry K. at 11:52 AM EDT
Updated: Sunday, January 10, 2016 2:00 PM EST
WND's Farah Obsessively Speculates Whether Obama Will Leave Office In 2017
Topic: WorldNetDaily

President Obama is living rent-free inside Joseph Farah's head.

That's been true for years. of course -- how else could he use his WorldNetDaily to perpetuate false birther conspiracies? -- but it has become especially apparent over the past week, in which Farah has written not one, not two, but three columns devoted to speculating whether Obama will voluntarily leave office when his term ends in January 2017.

Farah kicked off his baseless frenzy of speculation in his March 5 WND column, declaring that Obama "respects neither the law nor the American tradition of peaceful changes of power" and, thus, might refuse to leave the White House when his term ends. Farah huffed; "Again, do I think Obama will leave office in January 2017? Yes I do. But, with a track record like this – and, actually much worse – should we simply take it for granted?"

Farah followed up in his March 8 column, upset that Right Wing Watch highlighted his earlier column but proud that his buddy Rush Limbaugh enthustiastically endorsed his speculation. He continued to rant:

There’s simply no organized opposition to Obama’s illegal, criminal actions and behavior. He’s getting away with all of it. There are no serious repercussions. No political price. No major media opposition. Few judicial rulings that worry him. Not one political, religious or social institution that is holding him accountable – least of all the Republican Party.

A handful of vocal critics on the Internet and talk radio point out his violations of the law, American tradition, the concept of constitutionally limited government with a system of checks and balance, not to mention decency and basic morality. But there is no operating political mechanism to stop him from doing anything and everything he wants to do.

Yet Farah wasn't done speculating. His March 10 column invented an excuse why Obama would want to stay -- free vacations:

How many vacations have you taken in the last six years?

Have you taken six?

I doubt most Americans have been able to do that. For families, it might be even tougher.

Do you know how many Barack Obama has taken?

38.

That’s right. That’s more than six vacations per year – all expenses paid by you the taxpayer. And these are not your routine week-at-the-beach excursions. These would almost all be vacations of a lifetime for even very wealthy Americans. He and the first family, God love them, are living it up on your dime.

[...]

No doubt Obama will be in a position to make lots of money after the presidency, whenever he decides to end it. But it’s hard to imagine him enjoying six all-expense-paid vacations every year at his venue of choice. Not too many people live that kind of life – even with the “endowments” recent past presidents often get from their oil baron friends in the Middle East.

Do you think Obama’s about to give that up and move out of the White House to make room for Hillary Clinton?

I don’t know. The more I think about it, the less convinced I am.

Farah seems to have overlooked the fact that as of the same point in their presidencies, George W. Bush had taken more than three times as many vacation days as Obama has. Yet we don't recall Farah ever complaining about the amount of vacation time Bush took.

Yep, Obama's living rent-free in Farah's head. And it must kill Farah to know that -- after all, he destroyed what little journalistic reputation WND had with his obsessive drive to personally destroy the president.

Yet after all this time and the destruction of his own reputation, Farah just can't evict the president from his head. Sad, isn't it?


Posted by Terry K. at 1:06 AM EDT
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
CNS' Starr Apparently Thinks Researchers Use Rats Off The Street
Topic: CNSNews.com

A March 6 CNSNews.com article by Penny Starr is about a biotech firm that "transplants organs from aborted babies into lab rats with the goal of growing them for use in patients who need organ transplants." But look at the photo accompanying Starr's article:

Yes, that's a picture of street rats rummaging through a garbage bag. Apparently Starr thinks those are the kind of rats researchers use.

Actually, laboratory rats are notably different from wild street rats, if Wikipedia is to be believed; scientists have bred many strains or "lines" of rats specifically for experimentation.

So, no, Ms. Starr, rats in the street are not running wild with organs from aborted babies on them, however much you and other anti-abortion activists believe in your heart that is true.

Also, note that CNS is once again misusing Associated Press content by sticking this completely unrelated photo on this story. CNS has a habit of rewriting AP headlines to make them more biased.


Posted by Terry K. at 8:10 PM EDT
WND's Klein Serves As Netanyahu Press Aide, Censors His Campaign Problems
Topic: WorldNetDaily

Aaron Klein is continuing his unpaid role (near as we can tell) as a public-relations agent for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's re-election campaign in a March 9 WorldNetDaily article:

In an interview with Hebrew media over the weekend that received no English-language news media attention, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned of what he called a foreign-funded election plot to mobilize Israeli Arab voters in a bid to replace him at next week’s polls.

WND exposed the purported scheme last month in an article documenting a State Department-financed nonprofit based in Israel is currently engaged in a major effort to get young Arab citizens to the voting booths in the upcoming Israeli elections.

Israeli election trends have long demonstrated that Arab citizen’s vote overwhelmingly for left-wing and Arab parties. Any increase in the Arab vote would clearly come at the expense of the Likud Party and other right-wing parties.

Can't have Israeli citizens exercise their voting rights if they're voting for the wrong candidate, can we?

Klein goes on to repeat his claim that an anti-Netanyahu campaign "a consulting firm whose senior leadership is comprised mostly of former top staffers for President Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign," ignoring the fact that American conservative political strategists have been routinely hired by Netanyahu's campaign.

While Klein does his biased duty in protecting Netanyahu, he has shown no interest this far in reporting the problems Netanyahu and his party are having in this campaign. As Bloomberg reports:

  • Powerful former Mossad director Meir Dagan said that Netanyahu's conduct of the conflict with the Palestinians would lead Israel to being either a binational or an apartheid state.
  • A Likud campaign commercial showing "people in a self-help group, all there due to Netanyahu's policies" included supposedly lazy workers and a Hamas terrorist. Bloomberg noted: "In a country with deep socialist roots, the nasty portrayal of lazy workers was edgy enough. But depicting a Hamas terrorist in the same group as laborers went way too far."
  • A leaked document allegedly indicating that Netanyahu had agreed in principle to return to the 1967 lines in a deal with the Palestinians, something he has said publicly he would never do.

And if Klein has anything to do with it, he will never report on negative developments for Netanyahu unless he can somehow put a positive spin on it.


Posted by Terry K. at 1:03 PM EDT
Compare and Contrast
Topic: WorldNetDaily

You can hang him from a tree, but they'll never sign with me. There will never be a ni**** at SAE.

-- Chant by Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity members at University of Oklahoma, March 7 video

Jim Crow died in 1964. 

-- Mychal Massie, March 9 WorldNetDaily column

Massie also writes:

Once again the specter of race has reared it ugly head displaying five undeniable truths: 1) blacks love to be victims; 2) whites, regardless of their intentions or motivations, will always be accused of harboring deep-seated prejudice toward blacks; 3) only blacks, Hispanics, homosexuals and Muslims are permitted to be proud of what they are; 4) whites do not enjoy freedom of speech unless it is politically correct and liberal; and 5) numbers 1 through 4 are always true.

Massie forgets another undeniable truth: Black conservatives like him have special privilege to say things would be considered racist if said by a white person, but he has not demanded similar treatment.


Posted by Terry K. at 1:06 AM EDT
Updated: Wednesday, March 11, 2015 1:08 AM EDT
Tuesday, March 10, 2015
CNS Portrays Extremist Pastors As 'Conservative Black Leaders'
Topic: CNSNews.com

CNSNews.com is devoting another article to its homophobic obsession with the cherry-picked, out-of-context reference President Obama made to gays during last weekend's speech in Selma, Alabama. In it, Lauretta Brown obtains reaction from what she claims are "conservative black leaders" to the reference, giving no indication she provided the correct and complete context of the statement to them.

So who are these "conservative black leaders"  that Brown thinks are worthy of perpetuating this manufactured controversy?

-- Bishop E.W. Jackson is a notorious homophobe, declaring that gays are “very sick people psychologically, mentally and emotionally” and asserting that God will punish America for advancing marriage equality. and Obama-hater. He's also a rabid Obama-hater, stating last month that Obama may be mentally ill.

-- Jesse Lee Peterson is a Sean Hannity-backed pastor and WorldNetDaily columnist who has issues with women. He's also a rabid Obama-hater who once claimed that the president is "committed to spreading evil."

In his comments to CNS, Peterson went even farther off the Obama-hating rails by likening Obama to a Ku Klux Klan leader. No, really:

Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson of BOND (The Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny) was similarly critical of the president’s speech.

“There was no hope in that rally,” Peterson said. “Just think about this: 50 years later we have a black president in the United States of America. This country has done more than any other country to make amends for slavery in this country and yet there was no appreciation of that. There was no praise of America, thanking America for what it had done. It was as though it was still 1955.”

“It was disgusting, it was evil, it was wrong,” said Peterson.

“That rally was a klan’s rally, was no different than the KKK, it was a hate rally, a hateful rally,” said Peterson.

The third "leader" Brown quoted, C.L. Bryant, has complained that Obama isn't a real black American and his election is a "slap in the face" to those who are.

These are who Brown and CNS consider "conservative black leaders." Actual conservative black leaders should be insulted.


Posted by Terry K. at 9:27 PM EDT
Updated: Tuesday, March 10, 2015 9:35 PM EDT
WND's Geller Flings Poo At Jon Stewart
Topic: WorldNetDaily

Pamela Geller's March 8 WorldNetDaily column is ostensibly about how hw poo emoticon somehow reflects liberal society. But then Geller goes on a poo-flinging tirade of her own against Jon Stewart:

Sharing their disdain for America is Jon Stewart, to whom they should have given the “Most Disgusting Jew on the Planet Award.” No contest. After Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ground-breaking speech to Congress last week, Stewart scoffed at the many standing ovations Netanyahu received as the “longest bl-wjob a Jewish man has ever received.”

This vicious traitor, smug and self-righteous, has long been working for the other side under the guise of comedy. Vile. Jon Stewart defines self-loathing Jew. But that’s not enough. He means to take us down with him.

He is leaving Comedy Central, thankfully. But don’t get too happy; they’ll turn the show over to another leftist radical. When does Dennis Miller or someone like that get an HBO or Comedy Central gig? The cultural landscape is under siege by these killers.

Geller apparently missed the fact that Miller did, in fact, have an HBO show for eight years.

Between this, her defense of cop-killing "sovereign citizens" and slurring a rabbi as a "kapo" simply for disagreeing with her hate, Geller is a one-woman excrement-flinging factory.


Posted by Terry K. at 2:36 PM EDT
MRC's Graham Twists Evidence To Perpetuate 'Liberal Media' Conspiracy
Topic: Media Research Center

Here's the genius of the Media Research Center's anti-media agenda: Any evidence that disproves their claims of "liberal bias" can be portrayed as evidence of bias.

On March 8, the MRC's Tim Graham helped feed right-wing speculation that the New York Times deliberately cropped former President George W. Bush and his wife out of a photo of a march in Selma, Alabama.

This manufactured outrage was enough for Times public editor Margaret Sullivan to investigate. Her finding: The Times itself never cropped the photo; the photographer stated that in the photo he took, "Bush is super-overexposed because he was in the sun and Obama and the others are in the shade" and that the photo is a bad photo technically.

How did Graham respond to this reasoned investigation? By reframing it as more evidence of the conspiracy:

The paper didn’t alter a photograph. But the Bushes were “cropped” out – metaphorically. Their presence didn’t have “impact.”

[...]

Obviously, conservatives disagree there’s “no evidence of politics” here. Announcing the photo the Times used “has impact” is code for “makes Obama look good on a notable day in U.S. racial history.”

By contrast, consider the Times on January 12, 2015. They had two large color photos with “impact” on the front page from the unity march after the Charlie Hedbo murders by Islamists. Obviously, there was no Obama in that picture to “crop” out. But the front-page news account by Liz Alderman never used the name “Obama” and waited to mention Attorney General Eric Holder being in Paris until paragraph eight.

In fact, a review of front pages from that Monday through Friday showed no focus on Obama on the Times front page that week. This story ended up on page A-12: “White House Acknowledges Error in Not Sending a Top Official to March in Paris.”

Everything the Times decides is “news” seems very carefully reviewed for its “impact” on Obama.

See? Lack of proof of any actual cropping becomes proof of "metaphorical" cropping. Any evidence that disproves Graham's conspiracy can be twisted to mean the opposite.

Even if the Times had run that bad photo with the Bushes in it, Graham would have, in all likelihood, complained that the Times ran a poor image of the Bushes to make them look bad.

The Times just can't win -- which, presumably, is the way Graham and the MRC like it.


Posted by Terry K. at 11:58 AM EDT
Updated: Tuesday, March 10, 2015 11:59 AM EDT
Monday, March 9, 2015
Molotov Mitchell Is Jacked That Obama Dies In New Movie
Topic: WorldNetDaily

WorldNetDaily's Molotov Mitchell is already on record as advocating the "abolition of homosexuality." Now he's on record cheering the abolition of President Obama.

Mitchell's March 3 WND video is a review of the new film "Kinsgman: The Secret Service." He's especially giddy that Obama dies in the film, proudly proclaiming that the film is "the first Hollywood film to kill Barack Obama, on-screen no less."

You can hear the joy in Mitchell's voice as he describes how in the film, Obama's head "pop[s] like a pinata to the triumphant sounds of 'Ode to Joy.'" Ol' Molotov serves up his own low-res version of said head-popping:

Mitchell then intones: "He tries to kill America, and dies for it."

Mitchell concludes by delcaring that "other than 'The Interview,' this is the only film this year where you get to see a real-life dictator's head blow up."

Mitchell's unabashed fervor for Obama's fake death could easily translate to fervor for his actual death. Something tells me ol' Molotov should be expecting a visit from the nice fellows at the Secret Service pretty soon.


Posted by Terry K. at 9:17 PM EDT
Updated: Monday, March 9, 2015 9:18 PM EDT

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