CNS Reporters Spend More Time Touting Trump Than Reporting His Scandals Topic: CNSNews.com
The Media Research Center's "news" division, CNSNews.com, claims as its mission to "fairly present all legitimate sides of a story." But if that story is bad news about the Republican presidential nominee, there are few legitimate sides worth reporting.
ConWebWatch went into the CNS archives to examine the output of its three main news reporters, Susan Jones, Melanie Hunter and Patrick Goodenough. We looked at stories they wrote between Oct. 1 and Nov. 1 in which the main subject as indicated by headline was in three categories: the Wikileaks controversy in which emails were stolen from the Hillary clinton campaign; stories about any controversy related to Donald Trump; and stories that uncritically quote Trump or his running mate, Mike Pence.
Between them, these three reporters wrote only two stories in which the main focus was on Trump-related controversies: an Oct. 13 article by Hunter on women accusing Trump of touching them inappropriately (and even then, all Hunter does is uncritically repeating Trump's blanket denial) and an Oct. 31 article by Goodenough accusing the FBI of whithholding evidence of Trump's alleged ties between Trump and Russia (a balanced article that surprisingly examines the depths of Russian links to Trump).
That's two stories in an entire month in which there was no shortage of Trump controversies to report on, what with further accusations of sexual harassment, questions about how Trump's foundation raises and spends its money and his extensive record of falsehoods.
By contrast, these same three reporters churned out 15 stories regarding a Hillary Clinton controversy and a whopping 20 articles that uncritically quote the words of Trump or Pence.
While CNS is a subscriber to the Associated Press and publishes many AP stories on its website, including those about Trump controversies, very few of those stories make it to the CNS front page, which tends to prioritize the work of its own writers. Of course, the AP has published Wikileaks stories as well, but that doesn't keep CNS from redundantly writing their own versions.
If the Media Research Center is serious about combatting bias in the media, it should start within the halls of its own headquarters.
MRC's CNN Gotcha Was Kind Of A Fail Topic: Media Research Center
Curtis Houck thought he had the goods on CNN in an Oct. 31 post:
On Sunday night, Justin Baragona at Mediaite caught CNN red-handed nine days before the election in the highly unprofessional act of fabricating claims that Donald Trump told a Colorado rally that they should vote repeatedly on Election Day.
With time ticking away and the original story retweeted from @CNNPolitics over 900 times, Mediaite successfully shamed them into only a measly correction and deleting the original tweet with the false headline over two hours later.
But a couple hours later, Houck himself was forced to do a correction of his own, in a note that now resides at the top of his post:
Upon reviewing CNN’s on-air coverage of Trump’s Colorado rally at the center of these false claims, the network actually aired live the entirety of Trump’s comments on Sunday about voting in the Centennial State.
Somehow, the CNN Politics team still published the butchered and erroneous Trump quote. I’ve provided video below of Trump’s full comments that CNN’s reporters didn’t appear initially interested in following. The headline has also been changed to include the acknowledgement that this blog has been updated.
In other words, it was accurate on the air but apparently not in a story on the CNN website, and when that was pointed out, CNN corrected it. That seems to be exactly what one should do in that situation, and CNN did it. Granted, that throws a wrench in Houck's attempt to elevate this to fit the MRC's "rigged media" agenda it shares with Trump, but even major news organizations get things wrong in the rush to get a story posted, and there's not necessarily a huge conspiracy behind it -- in fact, there almost always isn't.
When a media outlet continues to push a false story even after it has been proven false -- as, say, the MRC-operated CNSNews.com did when it falsely claimed Democratic strategist Paul Begala said that Republicans are trying to kill him and his family, then adamantly refused to correct the falsehood -- then you can cry conspiracy.
One of the mud-slinging stories WorldNetDaily's Jerome Corsi has been clinging to as his anti-Clinton book continues to flop (No. 8,604 at Amazon as of this writing) is the Joel Gilbert-peddled tale of purported illegitimate Bill Clinton son Danney Williams, who is being cynically used by Gilbert as a political pawn for a last-minute smear in the presidential election. Because Corsi is gullible enough to believe anything and everything Gilbert peddles no matter how false, he's totally on board for this as well.
(It helps that Corsi's buddy and sleazebag Roger Stone also has a hand in pushing the Williams story.)
On Oct. 31, Corsi penned a WND article claiming that Williams "will hold a press conference Tuesday at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., to make an announcement his supporters characterize as a .bombshell that will rock Hillary’s campaign,'" Corsi added that "Sources close to Williams who are planning the news event refused to divulge details of the announcement to WND," though it comes off as though Corsi knows exactly what the details are -- why wouldn't he, since he's buddy-buddy with Gilbert and is effectively Gilbert's PR agent on this.
Danney Williams, the black man from Little Rock, Arkansas, who has claimed since the 1990s to be the illegitimate son of former President Bill Clinton, is asking Monica Lewinsky for help in proving his parentage by providing DNA from the infamous blue dress.
In an announcement Williams was scheduled to make at a news conference Tuesday at the National Press Club in Washington, but released early at Radar Online, he said he wants Lewinsky to let him conduct DNA testing on the stain she testified came from a sex act she performed on Clinton at the White House on Feb. 28, 1997.
FBI documents confirmed it was a match for Bill Clinton’s DNA.
As befits an unethical reporter who's really colluding with his sources, Corsi does his best to sell Williams' case and doesn't bother to report what actually happened at this PR stunt of a press conference.
For that, we have to turn to the Washington Post's Dana Milbank:
“As you can see I’m the black son of former president Bill Clinton and the stepson of Hillary Clinton,” the young man, Danney Williams, read as Gilbert, off to the side, mouthed many of the words.
Actually, you could only see him as Clinton’s son if you imagined Clinton six inches shorter, with a different build and different facial features. But no matter.
“At this time I am reaching out to Miss Lewinsky, Monica Lewinsky,” Williams went on, looking to Gilbert for instruction and holding up a letter. “I’m asking that Miss Lewinsky allow me to borrow her blue dress in order to obtain a DNA sample of my father’s, former president Bill Clinton, in order to finally prove that he is my father.”
[...]
Williams seems unclear on his motives. He said Tuesday that he was seeking the former president’s DNA because “I want to know my dad.” But moments later he was calling Clinton a “deadbeat” and a “big felon.” Williams wants to raise $100,000 for his campaign but said he had only $2,800; Gilbert booked the room and said he funded the film.
Gilbert quickly lost control of the event. One woman declared she was going to baptize Williams and then, failing to find oil in her handbag, performed the ritual with bottled water. There were prayers and laying on of hands and shouts from the participants that the press is “racist” and “bought off.”
So it's pretty clear that Williams is reading whatever script Gilbert shoves in front of him -- but not what Gilbert, Stone or other dirty-tricks operatives have promised Williams in return for putting himself through this for their benefit.
But since Corsi is wallowing in the mud with Williams' exploiters instead of even bothering to even keep up the facade of the journalist he purports to be, we'll never learn the answer from him. No wonder WND is going down the tubes.
MRC Flips, Is Now Mad That Comey's Judgment Is Being Questioned Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center used to hate FBI director James Comey in the wake of his decision not to prosecute Hillary Clinton over her emails:
Brent Bozell and Tim Graham asserted that Comey's decision not to prosecute Clinton was "bizarre."
Graham complained that the media wasn't sufficiently reporting a poll showing "that a majority of Americans disagreed with the decision not to indict Hillary Clinton over her emailing of classified information."
Clay Waters pointed out that "Comey endured condemnation from conservatives for his weak-kneed decision not to prosecute Hillary Clinton for gross negligence in handling classified documents as Secretary of State."
Nicholas Fondacaro touted how Comey faced a hearing "where Congressional Republicans unloaded on him for giving immunity to people they accused of being liars."
The MRC published a column by Cal Thomas asserting that "Comey's refusal to recommend prosecution of Hillary Clinton for her deliberate mishandling of classified information seems to prove that the Obama administration is little more than an arm of her presidential campaign." It published another column by R. Emmett Tyrrell complaining that "Comey outlined a list of flagrant violations against her and then gave her a pass."
But now that Comey injected himself in the election process by announcing, a week and a half before the election, that the discovery of new emails meant he was reopening the investigation, the MRC has his back and his shocked -- shocked! -- that anyone would dare criticize him. Commence the whining, Geoffrey Dickens:
Ever since it was announced, on Friday, that the FBI was pursuing new leads into the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s e-mail server scandal, the Big Three (ABC, CBS, NBC) networks have gone into attack mode against James Comey, turning what should be a scandal about Clinton into a smear against the FBI director.
Beginning with the evening (October 28) of the announcement through Monday morning (October 31) MRC analysts reviewed all statements (by reporters, analysts, and partisans) that took a position on Comey and Clinton and found arguments against Comey (88) swamped those against Clinton (31) by a ratio of almost 3 to 1. There were a handful of statements that praised either Comey (10) or Clinton (4)[.]
So we're supposed to take Comey's word without question now after conservatives bashed him for months for failing to hew to the right-wing agenda?
Dickens is merely complaining that the media is covering both sides of the story, and he's ignoring the fact that the story really is about Comey. It's his announcement that's driving the story, not any actual evidence of further Clinton wrongdoing. And there isn't any -- the FBI hadn't even reviewed the emails, let alone obtained the proper legal permission to do so, at the time of Comey's announcement.
In other words, the MRC has flipped again like it has throughout the 2016 presidential campaign. It shows that the MRC has no fixed priniciples other than bashing the media at every possible opportunity, even if it has to twist itself into knots to justify doing so.
Maybe she thinks it makes her look warm – compassionate – human?
Actually, those toothsome grimaces that pass for a Hillary Clinton smile during the presidential debates are filled with messages that are less than kind.
She comes across as condescending, patronizing, self-satisfied, arrogant, disdainful, supercilious, haughty and shameless.
There are other words but not enough space to write them all.
Halloween is coming, and there’s nothing spookier than the thought of Hillary Rodham Clinton becoming America’s president.
Red-blooded American males should worry if she becomes Jezebel-in-Chief. Hillary hates you and fears your “toxic masculinity” (the feminist slur for almost any expression of male strength and principle). Her agenda will threaten your livelihood, limit your freedom and faith, endanger your children and misinterpret your motives.
Hillary’s presidency will cast a spell over normal gender expression, the natural family and new human life. Her aura emits decay and rebellion, starting with her hatred of God the Father and Jesus Christ.
We deserve God’s wrath and judgment as a nation for allowing this abortion holocaust to occur on our watch. In my estimation, Mrs. Clinton is a bloodthirsty monster who enthusiastically supports this barbarity. Her Supreme Court appointees will ensure that tens of millions of precious babies like the one in the video are murdered in the same brutal manner.
My conscience tells me that I must vote in such a way that exercising my civic duty will have the strongest net effect against Mrs. Clinton and ensure that she is stopped. She must not be elected president. To not vote – or to vote for a non-starter third party candidate, which is effectively the same thing – while not an actual vote for Mrs. Clinton, still puts this Mengele in a pantsuit one step closer to the White House and the Supreme Court.
If it is not a T-shirt that reads “Hillary for Prison,” then it is a yard sign. If it is not a Facebook page, then it is a Twitter account calling for Hillary Clinton’s indictment.
It is headlines in the media, as well. Across America, more people want Hillary Clinton (do not forget about the Bushes and the Obamas) indicted and charged than those who wish her to be put in office. And why wouldn’t America want this? She is a criminal!
If Hillary Clinton is elected president of the United States in November, you can expect an all-out war by her regime on freedom of religion in America – and particularly on those individuals and institutions that promote a Judeo-Christian worldview with devotion to the God of the Bible and His laws.
That’s what is at stake on the 2016 election – and much more.
So in the coming days, don’t be deceived by potentially kind words from FBI Director Comey toward Hillary, or by the corrupt media. Be strong in what you know, and tell all your sensible friends to vote. What we already know about Hillary should be more than enough to disqualify her from serving a term – at least as president!
No one can point to what Hillary has ever accomplished in the public sector that has earned her the presidency, and no one can point to what Hillary has ever accomplished in the private sector that has earned her hundreds of millions.
She has hocked the public trust and treasury to get what she wanted: power and money. She is an old dog, and there are no new tricks in store for her.
My prediction is that, in full Hillary style, she will grab her broomstick and race selfishly forward, because that is what she has always done, and that is what she will always do – her supporters, and the American people be damned. This will be a clear test to see if the DNC has the integrity to side with the American people against the power monger it fears most.
But to those Democrats who will vote for Clinton but who are nevertheless able to acknowledge her extraordinary ethical defects, I make the following appeal: Do not believe, let alone claim, that having her as president, if she is elected, will be a good thing for your daughters.
Quite the contrary.
The notion that Hillary Clinton is a role model for young American women is yet another testimony to the moral decline of America – not to mention to the moral state of the American left and the Democratic Party.
The sordid reality of Hillary’s plan is more sweeping indoctrination to firmly plant homosexuality and gender confusion as fully accepted behaviors even among grade school children.
Most American parents will shout a great big “NO” to such institutional child abuse.
This is what a Hillary presidency will spend its time on. There’s an easy solution, however.
Elect a more conservative candidate – Donald Trump.
NEW ARTICLE: Rigging the Media at the MRC Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center laid the foundation for Donald Trump's "rigged media" rants -- but Brent Bozell and Co. won't acknowledge the threats of violence against journalists that toxic rhetoric generate, let alone tell Trump to dial it back before someone gets hurt. Read more >>
'WND Democrat' Bob Just Checks In Again Topic: WorldNetDaily
We've pointed out WorldNetDaily columnist Bob Just as a WND Democrat, someone who claims to be a Dem but spends his time bashing them.
Well, Just has checked in again with his pretend-Dem concern-trolling in an Oct. 27 WND column:
Many brave GOP candidates for House and Senate have stood with Trump through withering fire because they understand the alternative. Too many of us don’t. Too many voters ignore the ominous warning signs – based on the past and current behavior of my party, the Democratic Party – that a two-term HRC presidency may end up looking more like tyranny than democracy.
From there, Just rants against his purported fellow Democrats and "the PC left bureaucracy." Then he insists against all evidence to the contrary that he's really a Democrat:
I have stayed a Democrat all these years because I know we Democrats need to have a real conversation about how our party can recover from its Marxist transformation. This is why I’m launching my Democrats for America.com blog here in this column.
For sure, I’d prefer to have that conversation with PC Democrat leaders “out of power,” and so perhaps willing to listen. Otherwise, I’ll be talking to whoever will listen about the rise of tyranny and the loss of freedom – and how our country can recover by returning to what President Reagan called “tried and time-tested values.”
As Newsweek said all those many years ago, “Where PC reigns, one defies it at one’s peril.” This is the real choice we face. I’ll leave you with my favorite Reagan quote: “God bless America!”
Aside from the fact that the sole apparent content on his "Democrats for America" website is reprints of this WND columns, Just doesn't seem to realize that nobody listens to a fake Democrat.
When the outrageous remarks about women Donald Trump made in 2005 became known just before the second presidential debate, the press compiled exhaustive lists of Republicans far and wide who would no longer support the Republican presidential nominee.
Will the press compile similar lists of those who won't support Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in light of new developments during the past several days relating to her use of a private server and private email accounts for government business? Will they even ask anyone the question? It can now be reported that the won't-vote-for-Hillary list — and it certainly has more than one person, even if not yet admitted — has a member whose relationship with the Clintons goes back over two decades: Democrat pollster Doug Schoen.
In the Political Insiders segment of Harris Faulkner's Fox Report Weekend Show on Fox News, Schoen announced that "as of today, I am not a supporter of the Secretary of State for the nation's highest office":
[...]
Now we have the beginnings of a list of Democrats who did support Hillary Clinton who can no longer do so. What's more, he's a well-connected longtime friend of the Clintons. Will the press ask other key Democrats, especially those in tight House and Senate races, if they still endorse Mrs. Clinton? If not, why not? Are New Media outlets going to have to do the dirty work and compile a list on their own?
There will be no list because Schoen is so far the only self-proclaimed Democrat of prominence to withdraw support of Clinton, even after a few days of fallout from the remarks.
Additionally, Schoen is not a terribly loyal Democrat, and his ttepid support will barely be missed. He's what's called a Fox News Democrat -- professing to be a Democrat but appearing on conservative outlets (heck, he's a Fox News employee) to bash Democrats and espouse conservative positions.He and fellow Fox News Democrat Pat Caddell were scheduled speakers at right-winger David Horowitz's Restoration Weekend.
By contrast, the list of Republicans who withdrew their support after Trump's vile misogyny became public contains numerous sitting governors and members of Congress, with nary a has-been, disloyal strategist among them.
The meaninglessness of Schoen's abandonment of Hillary didn't keep WorldNetDaily from also pretending it meant something. An anonymously written Oct. 30 article stated that "Schoen’s announcement is a stunning about-face from remarks he made to Sean Hannity during a TV appearance on Fox News just 48 hours earlier," when he predicted a Clinton victory.
Like Blumer, WND ignores the fact that Schoen is on Fox News' payroll because he gives them cover for being "fair and balanced," even though he sounds no different than a conservative Fox News commentator.
Roger Stone's Lackey, WND's Jerome Corsi, Comes To His Defense Over Voter Intimidation Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily's Jerome Corsi has been Roger Stone's lackey throughout the 2016 election, serving as a willing, unquestioningconduit for whatever anti-Clinton sleaze Stone wants to vomit out into the public.
Still, we find it hard to believe Corsi could keep a straight face as he served up -- without question, like the good lackey he is -- Stone's defense in a Nov. 1 WND article for the voter intimidation campaign he's planning, under the name Stop the Steal, against Democratic lawsuits to stop it:
Stop the Steal. Inc., a non-profit 527 grassroots organization created by Stone, a longtime adviser to Trump, wants to post non-partisan “Vote Protectors” at some 7,000 polling locations in key precincts throughout the nation. The volunteers will be trained to take scientifically based exit polls to help determine whether or not the final totals reported from voting machines reflect the actual vote.
[...]
Stone told WND the lawsuit is without merit.
“Precincts are chosen base on one-party rule and past reports of irregularities, not racial make-up, as falsely reported in the alt-left media,” Stone said.
“Since it is our intention to interview voters voluntary after they vote, it is hard to see how voters would find this intimidating,” he insisted. “Our methodology is no different than that used in the network consortium exit polls.”
Stone told WND that Stop the Steal has not coordinated with the Trump campaign, the Republican National Committee or the individual Republican state committees.
“We seek only to determine if the election is honestly and fairly conducted and to provide an evidentiary basis for a challenge to the election if that is not the case,” he insisted. “I assume the purpose of this bogus lawsuit is to distract from the voter-fraud the Democrats have traditionally engaged in.”
In fact, as the Huffington Post reported, Stone's "Vote Protectors" organization created an official-looking ID badge for its volunteers to wear, and its volunteers planned to videotape voters and conduct fake "exit polls" -- efforts that election experts say risks intimidating and confusing voters. Stone quickly took the ID badge generator off his website after being questioned about it.
While Corsi let Stone deny he's coordinating with the Trump campaign, the vidence suggests otherwise. The Huffington Post also reported that Stone told far-right radio host Alex Jones that his so-called "exit polls" could be used by the Trump campaign to contest election results to the candidate, and that some Vote Protectors signees do, in fact, plan to indimidate voters.
Corsi then attempts to justify Stone's shady operation by explaining how exit polls work, but he doesn't provide evidence that this is how Stone plans to run his.
MRC Clinton Equivocation Watch, Pre-Election 'Dirty Trick' Edition Topic: NewsBusters
The Media Reserarch Center is seeking to justify the FBI's reopening the Hillary Clinton email case by taking a weird Clinton Eqivocation route: citing an earlier pre-election law enforcement action that may have helped Bill Clinton win the presidency.
NewsBusters blogger Tom Blumer lays out the case in an Oct. 29 rant:
FBI Director James Comey's letter to Congress indicating that the bureau has "learned of the existence of (Hillary Clinton) emails" which he concluded must be reviewed "to determine whether they contain classified information" has led to all kinds of people declaring the move an "unprecedented" October surprise.
Even some people who should know better have called it the "Mother of All October Surprises." Perhaps it ultimately will be, but as things currently stand, it's not really in the running for current champion.
The press's institutional memory is so weak, and its insistence on burying long-ago inconvenient truths is so strong, that no one I'm aware of has made a comparison to Special Prosecutor Lawrence Walsh's indictment of former Reagan Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger on October 30, 1992, and Walsh's obviously calculated decision to include a reference to incumbent President George H.W. Bush in his filing. MSNBC's Joe Scarborough, who one would expect to remember its brutality and dishonesty, failed to do so in a telephone interview Friday afternoon.
[...]
Additionally, though it's early, it also appears that a conscientious federal law enforcement officer reporting to Congress like Comey, having come across what he must believe is likely compelling new evidence, has little choice but to report what he knows as soon as he knows it, regardless of the election calendar.
By contrast, Lawrence Walsh, in his sixth year as Iran-Contra prosecutor, was under no compulsion to indict Cap Weinberger on October 30, 1992.
As it turned out, Walsh also had no basis to issue the indictment. What he appeared to have is an obsession with demonstrating that Bush 41 knew about Iran-Contra when he was Vice President under Ronald Reagan:
[...]
The October 30, 1992 indictment of Weinberger was thrown out just 43 days later. The reasons why prove that the indictment was a bogus preelection hit:
[...]
A lawyer as experienced as Walsh should have known, and I believe did know, that filing a charge past an established statute of limitations deadline rarely if every succeeds. The judge's reported reference to how the October 30 indictment "improperly broadened the original indictment" is likely more evidence that Walsh filed a Hail Mary indictment to smear the presidential incumbent.
Blumer is simply engaging in malicious speculation about Walsh's purported motives; he can't possibly know that Walsh planned a "bogus preelection hit." And Blumer curiously omits the fact that Bush, on his way out of office, pardoned Weinberger and five other Iran-contra defendants. If Weinberger did nothing wrong, as Blumer wants you to believe, he wouldn'd need a pardon, right?
Blumer also doesn't mention that Walsh was a lifelong Republican, which further dampens the idea of a partisan "dirty trick" motive.
It seems that Blumer is willing to accept Comey's abrupt reopening of the email investigation as a sort of revenge for 1992.
No, WND, The McAuliffe-Hillary 'Scandal' Did Not 'Explode' Topic: WorldNetDaily
The Media Research Center wasn't the only ConWeb outlet to pounce on the bogus story of Terry McAuliffe-controlled PAC donating money to a Virginia legislative candidate whose FBI agent husband was later named to lead an investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails. WorlddNetDaily's Bob Unruh tried riding this story in an Oct. 26 article, with the screaming headline "MCAULIFFE-FBI-HILLARY 'PAYOFF' SCANDAL EXPLODES":
The WikiLeaks revelation that the wife of the FBI official who supervised the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s off-the-books email server got a major campaign cash infusion from one of Clinton’s friends just took a stunning new turn.
The London Daily Mail is reporting Hillary Clinton had raised funds for the political action committee that steered the contributions to the unsuccessful campaign of Democrat Jill McCabe.
McCabe’s husband, Andrew McCabe, was promoted to FBI deputy director and supervised the investigation of Clinton not long after Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, who through his PAC Common Good VA, contributed a total of $675,000 to Jill McCabe’s long-shot bid for a congressional seat.
The Daily Mail reported Hillary Clinton headlined a major fundraiser for McAuliffe’s PAC shortly before the group steered nearly $500,000 to Jill McCabe.
No, really. That's the "explosion."
Unruh, like the MRC before him, obscures one significant fact: McCabe's husband wasn't assigned to the Hillary email investigation until three months after she lost her election.
Unruh also fails to report the fact that McAuliffe's PAC gave out money to lots of candidates that year, two of whom received more money than McCabe.
Like the MRC, Unruh and WND are assuming that McAuliffe (and Clinton, apparently) knew future events months before they happened. Instead, they're just promoting another crazy Clinton conspiracy theory.
CNS Rushes Out Op-Eds Defending AT&T-Time Warner Merger Topic: CNSNews.com
After the proposed merger between AT&T and Time Warner was announced last week, CNSNews.com quickly rushed out a pair of right-wing op-eds, both published Oct. 27, pre-emptively complaining that federal officials might block the merger.
In the first, the Cato Institute's Daniel Mitchell insisted that "monopoly power generally exists only when government intervenes," insisting that the feds shouldn't judge whether the merger raises any antitrust concerns:
In other words, let the merger proceed. It may be a wise business decision. Or it may be a foolish business decision.
But that outcome should be determined by the preferences of consumers in a competitive marketplace.
The heavy foot of government shouldn’t play a role. Especially since, as noted by this cartoon, antitrust laws are so broad and vague that companies can get in legal trouble for charging more than their competitors, less than their competitors, and the same as their competitors.
In the second, the Heritage Foundation's James Gattuso made a similar argument, insisting that "AT&T and Time Warner do not compete with each other" and "despite popular rhetoric to the contrary, there has been no general trend toward mergers in the telecom and media marketplaces."
He goes on to complain that "the knowledge that government may intervene in mergers without regard to their likely competitive effects will prompt wasteful expenditures by special interests opposing particular transactions, causing a further diminution in economic welfare," adding that "by arbitrarily intervening in proposed mergers that are not anti-competitive, government disincentivizes firms from acting boldly to seek out new opportunities to create wealth and enhance the welfare of consumers," and asserting that "Absent a strong showing of likely harm to the competitive process (which does not appear to be the case here), the government has no business interfering in corporate acquisitions."
We don't have an opinion on the merger -- we just found it interesting that CNS would rush out these op-eds making ideological snap judgments on the merger before the full ramifications have even been examined. That's another reminder that CNS is much more about pushing an ideology than reporting news, despite its pose as a "news" organization.
MRC's Graham Lashes Out Again At NPR Media Reporter Topic: Media Research Center
For some reason, the Media Resarch Center's Tim Graham loves to pickfights with NPR media reporter David Folkenflik. Graham got huffy with Folkenflik again in an Oct. 27 post:
NPR’s media correspondent David Folkenflik loves to report negative stories about Fox News, over and over again. Since July 6, he’s filed 16 negative reports on Fox News and the sexual-harassment lawsuits, leading to the departure of longtime boss Roger Ailes.
But try to find him mentioning anything about the media sucking up to the Clinton campaign in the Wikileaks emails. He skipped that, just like he skipped Gawker’s trove of suckup emails going to Hillary press aide Phillippe Reines back in February. One might rightly conclude bashing Fox News is a favorite pastime.
Those 16 reports on Fox News and Ailes are, as we've noted, approximately 16 more than the MRC has devoted to it. Fox News is the MRC's favorite news outlet, and Brent Bozell and crew appear there regularly, so they didn't want to jeopardize that by reporting such unpleasant things.
Graham went on to whine: "The least surprising story on Wednesday night’s All Things Considered was Folkenflik enjoying the Tuesday night Fox News fight between Megyn Kelly and Newt Gingrich. Like the other leftists, Folkenflik took the side of Kelly, scorning Gingrich as a finger-wagging old man who specialized in cheating on his wives losing voters for Trump."
But criticism of Gingrich was not coming solely from "leftists" (and Graham does not prove Folkenflik is one). For instance, Katie Pavlich and Cheri Jacobus -- no "leftists" they -- also criticized Trump.
Stranger than Graham's attempt to pick another bogus fight with Folkenflik is how the MRC promoted it. A post on its NewsBusters Twitter account carried the introduction "GEORGE SOROS GRANT NEWS."
Graham didn't even mention Soros in his post, nor did he engage in a "defund NPR" rant that is usually a staple whenever Graham writes about NPR.
The NewsBusters tweet was apparently a reference to a donation Soros' Open Society Institute made to NPR back in 2010 -- but that was earmarked for NPR's "Impact on Government" project and apparently not to Folkenflik's salary.
But, hey, when has anyone ever accused Graham and the MRC of caring about inconvenient facts?
What Is Joseph Farah Lying About Today? Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily editor Joseph Farah is an unrepentant liar -- one of the many, many reasons WND is going down the tubes. Farah demonstrates his disregard for the truth again in his Oct. 28 column, which is devoted to ranting about how "Hillary Clinton hates America and Americans." He adds:
However, thanks to the 2016 presidential campaign and WikiLeaks emails, we now know that even Hillary Clinton’s top aides agree that Hillary hates America and Americans – especially “average Americans.”
That deliciously and brutally honest email came from John Podesta, her campaign manager, in a moment of candor to another member of her campaign team. It said: “I know she has begun to hate everyday Americans.”
That is an incredible indictment and one that needs to be in the ears of every everyday American as he or she makes his or her way to the polls Nov. 8.
Actually, it's a lie. As we pointed out when WND first reported this claim, the words are taken out of context. The reference was to the "everyday Americans" slogan that Clinton used when she first launched her presidential campaign; when Podesta says "I know she has begun to hate everyday Americans," he's saying she hates the phrase in relation to her campaign.
But Farah doesn't let the facts get in the way of his Hillary-hating bile:
It’s so important.
Think of it.
Who in their right mind would vote for a president who hates everyday Americans?
What other qualification could possibly overcome such contempt for those she is supposed to serve?
Experience more of Joseph Farah’s no-nonsense truth-telling in his books, audio and video products, featured in the WND Superstore
That’s clearly not the kind of “first” we can afford in 2016 – electing a president who hates not just Republicans, not just conservatives, not just independents, not just Democrats who don’t vote for her, not just Bernie Sanders supporters, but plain, old “everyday Americans,” according to no less an authority than her own campaign manager – with tacit confirmation from her other staff, who understood exactly what he meant.
WND has made no impact whatsoever on the 2016 election -- even Jerome Corsi is resorting to lame mud-slinging since his anti-Hillary book is tanking (No. 21,850 at Amazon at this writing). That must be eating at Farah, since WND is resorting to increasingly desperate measures to get attention, rather like a petulant child (wacky tabloid editor claiming to be Hillary's "fixer," anyone?).
If this keeps up, expect to see another sad plea for money from Farah in the very near future.
Hollingsworth has to qualify by not only insisting on it being a "major hurricane" -- that is, category 3 and above -- but that it also has to make U.S. landfall at that strength. The recent Hurricane Matthew doesn't count, she insists in that last article, because "Matthew had weakened to a Category 1 by the time it made landfall near McClellanville, S.C. on October 8th with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph." Nor does thte storm best know as Superstorm Sandy, because "Hurricane Sandy had been downgraded to a post-tropical cyclone by the time it made landfall in New Jersey on Oct. 29, 2012." She does concede those storm caused substantial damage in the U.S., though.
Since CNS is not normally interested in weather, there has to be a right-wing political angle to this. And there is, as Hollingsworth explains in that last article: "Many climate scientists have predicted that anthropogenic global warming caused by an increase of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere would result in an increase in the number and intensity of hurricanes."
What Hollingsworth is much less likely to promote: the "hurricane drought" doesn't really mean anything. As Jason Samenow. the Washington Post Capital Weather Gang's chief meteorologist, explains:
The major-hurricane metric both leaves out significant storms because of its narrow definition and is misleading as an overall indicator of storm activity.
Climate-change doubters point to the lack of major-hurricane landfalls as evidence that global warming is not affecting the storms. But, in reality, nine of the last 11 Atlantic hurricane seasons have produced more storms than normal. It’s just that those with the strongest winds have remained over the ocean — something researchers have ascribed to dumb luck.
The major-hurricane-landfall drought is an interesting statistic, and that’s about it. It is a fine metric to track and report as a curiosity, but it cannot be used to say anything useful about how hurricanes are affecting society or how their behavior may or may not be changing over time.
Hollingsworth tried to play gotcha with a couple of climate scientists in that last article, but they both did a fact-slap on her:
“You and many other climate scientists have predicted an increase in hurricane activity due to anthropogenic global warming. But with carbon dioxide levels at a record high, why are we now seeing the longest major hurricane drought on record here in the U.S.?” CNSNews asked [MIT atmospheric science professor Kerry] Emanuel.
“One must be aware that the North Atlantic has only 11 percent of the world’s hurricanes, and that we do not expect the global warming signal to be seen in global statistics for several decades,” he replied. “By the time one drills down to major U.S. landfalls, a tiny percentage of total activity, it may be decades to detect a signal.
“As you know, Matthew was a very near miss. That would have ended the drought, but not solved the problem of trying to detect a climate signal in a very tiny subset of global hurricane activity,” Emanuel said.
CNSNews posed the same question to oceanographer and Climate Progress founding editor Joe Romm, who also predicted an increase in hurricane activity due to climate change, and who recently wrote that “Hurricane Matthew is super strong – because of climate change.”
“You have fallen into a mostly semantic trap,” he replied, referring to an article he wrote for ClimateProgress arguing that NOAA’s criteria for defining a major hurricane is flawed.
“The media should be reporting that in a world where storm surge is causing most of the devastation for the most destructive hurricanes, defining a ‘major’ hurricane around its wind speed (at landfall) is archaic at best and wildly misleading at worst,” Romm wrote.
For balance, Hollingsworth called in climate denier and non-scientist (and former CNS reporter) Marc Morano to assert that, in her words, "those who predicted more major hurricane activity due to climate change now want to change the definition of a major hurricane because their predictions have fallen short of reality."
The Media Research Center's "news" division, CNSNews.com, claims as its mission to "fairly present all legitimate sides of a story." But if that story is bad news about the Republican presidential nominee, there are few legitimate sides worth reporting.
Curtis Houck thought he had the goods on CNN in an Oct. 31 
One of the mud-slinging stories WorldNetDaily's Jerome Corsi has been clinging to as his anti-Clinton book continues to flop (
The Media Research Center used to hate FBI director James Comey in the wake of his decision not to prosecute Hillary Clinton over her emails:
Maybe she thinks it makes her look warm – compassionate – human?
We've 
Horribly
WorldNetDaily's Jerome Corsi has been Roger Stone's lackey throughout the 2016 election, serving as a willing, 
The Media Reserarch Center is seeking to justify the FBI's reopening the Hillary Clinton email case by taking a weird 
The Media Research Center wasn't the only ConWeb outlet to pounce on the 
After the proposed merger between AT&T and Time Warner was announced last week, CNSNews.com quickly rushed out a pair of right-wing op-eds, both published Oct. 27, pre-emptively complaining that federal officials might block the merger.
For some reason, the Media Resarch Center's Tim Graham loves to 
WorldNetDaily editor Joseph Farah is an 
See if you can detect a theme being pushed by CNSNews.com, mostly by reporter Barbara Hollingsworth, over the past year or so:
