Topic: The ConWeb
It's time to honor (as it were) the worst ConWeb reporting and craziest ConWeb opinions of the year, with the bonus opportunity for a literal ConWeb deadpool. Read more >>
Thursday, January 12, 2017
NEW ARTICLE -- Slanties 2017: Time to Make the Slantie Chimichangas
Topic: The ConWeb It's time to honor (as it were) the worst ConWeb reporting and craziest ConWeb opinions of the year, with the bonus opportunity for a literal ConWeb deadpool. Read more >>
Posted by Terry K.
at 8:42 AM EST
Wednesday, January 11, 2017
WND -- Which Likened Obama to Antichrist -- Gets Huffy Over Criticism of Trump-Messiah Comparisons
Topic: WorldNetDaily
Minor goes on to cite various isolated instances in which people have ascribed messianic qualities to Obama. He doesn't mention the rhetorical pro-Trump excess that has billowed forth from the place that published his article. The biggest Trump fangirl at WND has been Gina Loudon, who proclaimed that Trump is "the candidate we have been waiting for all these years since Ronald Reagan" and literally credited his election as president for saving Christmas, asserting that "It has never felt so good to say Merry Christmas, because I believe now that the overreaching government won’t take it from us and replace it with something agnostic or satanic." And she, like the RNC, also suggested that Trump was our new Savior. Numerous other WND writers, meanwhile, were quick to ascribe Trump's victory to divine intervention, apparently not considering that the opposite of their biased religious interpretations might be true: that Obama was the divine blessing and that Trump is the divine curse. And while Minor and WND have long been critical of Obama-Messiah comparisons, WND also has a record of portraying Obama as the Antichrist.
Posted by Terry K.
at 8:21 PM EST
MRC Pretends Trump Didn't Mock A Disabled Reporter
Topic: Media Research Center
First was to declare that she should not be listened to because she's a rich Hollywood liberal. For instance:
The second was a lame attempt to counter Streep's claim that Trump once maliciously mocked a disasbled reporter. Townsend and Coombs claimed Streep "accused Trump of mocking a disabled reporter for gestures he regularly uses." Whitlock dismissed the mocking as mere "comments and gestures Trump made about journalist Serge Kovaleski in 2016." Philbin insisted that the mocking was "something that didn’t happen" and that "the incident that gave Streep the genuine frowny face wasn’t itself genuine." The evidence Townsend and Coombs and Philbin cited to deny the mocking was a post by an obscure pro-Trump blog purporting to offer "The Catholic Case for Donald Trump" insisting that Trump mocks everyone like that so it's totally OK. In fact, as actual fact-checker Glenn Kessler of the Washington Post documents, Trump's claim that he did not know Kovaleski prior to the incident he mocked the reporter for -- pointing out that Trump's assertion that "thousands" of Muslims celebrated the fall of the World Trade Center on 9/11 lacked a factual basis -- was not credible, and "as the evidence shows, Trump clearly mocked Kovaleski." The MRC's Curtis Houck later mocked the Associated Press for doing a fact-check on Trump's tweet-storm dismissal of Streep as "overrated." He said nothing about the fact-checks proving the MRC wrong about Trump's mocking of Kovaleski.
Posted by Terry K.
at 2:01 PM EST
WND Repeats Discredited Climate Change Denier's Latest Claim
Topic: WorldNetDaily
This being Bob Unruh, no effort is made to talk to anyone else, such an actual climate scientist, on the issue -- he's simply taking Goddard/Heller at his word. (Goddard/Heller's degrees are in geology and electrical engineering.) He shouldn't. DeSmog Blog reports this detail about Goddard/Heller's background:
Meanwhile, PolitiFact debunked another assertion Goddard/Heller mad , that the hottest year on record was 1934, not 1998, and that NASA scientists were fudging data to claim otherwise. Unruh is such a terrible reporter -- er, stenographer that he gets a basic piece of information wrong. He claimed that Steven Goddard "blogs under the pseudonym Tony Heller," but the opposite is the true: Heller is the real name, Goddard is the pseudonym. These two peddlers of biased misinformation deserve each other, it seems. Unruh fills out the rest of his article with the usual denier propaganda, including that "Scientist Art Robinson has spearheaded The Petition Project, which has gathered the signatures of at least 31,487 scientists who agree that there is 'no convincing scientific evidence that human release of carbon dioxide, methane, or other greenhouse gases is causing or will, in the foreseeable future, cause catastrophic heating of the Earth’s atmosphere and disruption of the Earth’s climate.'" But as we've documented -- Robinson is a close buddy of WND managing editor David Kupelian -- very few of the signatories to Robinson's petition scientific background in climatology, there's no apparent verification mechanism to ensure that the signatories do in fact have the scientific qualifications they do claim, and the existence of millions of science graduates that makes the 31,000-plus signatories (a number that has stayed static for years) a drop in a fringe bucket.
Posted by Terry K.
at 1:07 AM EST
Tuesday, January 10, 2017
Newsmax Doesn't Understand Difference Between Weather And Climate
Topic: Newsmax A Dec. 30 Newsmax article on an upcoming cold snap carries the headline "Coldest Snap in US in 15 Years Coming, Climate Change or Not." The article itself, by Clyde Hughes, does not reference climate change.
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We'll leave it to Neil deGrasse Tyson to school Newsmax on the difference between weather and climate, and how one can have a cold snap even as the overall climate is warming.
Posted by Terry K.
at 2:45 PM EST
Updated: Tuesday, January 10, 2017 2:46 PM EST
WND's Corsi Cites Another 'Trusted' Source, Flip-Flops on Turkey to Bash Obama
Topic: WorldNetDaily
In other words, beware whenever Corsi claims his sources are "trusted." Which means there's a big red flag on this Dec. 26 WND article by Corsi:
Yes, WND seems to be cozying up to another dictator -- in this case, Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan. But wait: Hasn't WND been critical of Erdogan, particularly in the wake of his actions in the failed coup attempt of last year? Yep -- a couple weeks before Corsi's article came out, WND's Leo Hohmann was misleadingly painting Erdogan as the "best friend" of President Obama after a Christian U.S. pastor was jailed in Turkey purportedly as part of Erdogan's "brutal crackdown on religious minorities and dissidents in the wake of a failed coup five months ago." On Dec. 10, a WND article by Art Moore claimed that Wikileaks showed that Erdogan's son was importing oil sourced to ISIS. And an October article by Bob Unruh rehashes criticism of Obama for having "quickly sidled up to Erdogan when he was elected." But WND doesn't like Gulen either, despite his alleged link to the coup attempt. After the coup attempt failed, WND reported that Gulen "has links to the Clintons."In November, Corsi cited "sources close to the Turkish government" (not identified as "trusted") to claim that "The Clinton Foundation was engaged in a pay-to-play scheme to obtain Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s support for giving asylum to the Turkish Muslim preacher the Erdogan government holds responsible for the attempted coup, Fethullah Gulen." Never mind the fact that Gulen has lived in the U.S. since 1999, predating the existence of the Clinton Foundation. Corsi rehashes the purported Clinton links in his Dec. 26 article, as well as a claim that "Also, military intelligence sources in Turkey continue to tell WND that Obama administration officials have consistently 'looked the other way' regarding terrorism in Turkey, refusing to budge on Turkey’s requests to extradite Gulen." Corsi uncritically uses the Erdogan terminology for Gulen-linked groups in Turkey by calling the Fetullah Terrorist Organization or FETO, though Corsi cites no instances of "terrorism" FETO has committed. Indeed, Corsi's only source for his article are those purportedly "trusted sources close to the Turkish government" who are presumably anti-Gulen and are eager to paint him as a "terrorist." Corsi doesn't mention the close ties between Obama and Erdogan WND has been concurrently reporting on, or why WND is suddenly flip-flopping to cozy up to Erdogan. But we can guess: Corsi's simply taking whatever side he thinks will do the most political damage to Obama at a given time. Has Corsi told his "trusted" Turkish government sources that WND has bashed Erdogan? Probably not. And that placement of Obama-hating over all means Corsi can't be "trusted" any more than his sources.
Posted by Terry K.
at 1:12 PM EST
MRC's Graham Hypocritically Attacks Wash. Post for Exposing TV Station Owner's Right-Wing Bias
Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center's Tim Graham was mad about this, becuase he is a terrible media critic and doesn't think right-wing media should face the same scrutiny as the "liberal media" the MRC pays him to attack. So he ranted about it in a Dec. 25 post:
Needless to say, Graham offered no evidence that any of those "liberal media" outlets he cited issued "must run" orders from corporate on stories attacking Trump, like Sinclair did for anti-Hillary stories. Graham also defended Sinclair's softball questions to former presidential candidate and later Trump surrogate Ben Carson: "How does Farhi think these questions are remarkably biased? They might not be hardballs, but they’re not kissing Carson’s ring. They’re bland and open-ended inquiries. It's nothing like Gayle King (from the "giant TV company" CBS) gushing to the Obamas about her favorite Obama inauguration photos." Graham didn't mention how Farhi rep orted that Sinclair "managers have been particularly close to Carson, who practiced medicine in Baltimore for many years," and "aired his hour-long autobiographical promotional film, called 'A Breath of Fresh Air, A New Prescription for America,' just before Carson’s official announcement [of his presidential campaign]. The Carson infomercial was produced by a company run by Armstrong Williams, which paid Sinclair an undisclosed fee for the airtime." Neither Graham nor Farhi noted that Williams, who is also Ben Carson's handler, is in business with Sinclair. His Howard Stirk Holdings owns several TV stations that are operated by Sinclair through "sidecar" LMA agreements. If any of this bias and cozy self-dealing happened with a non-conservative owner of TV stations, Graham would be screaming bloody murder. But Sinclair's bias is the kind of bias he likes.
Posted by Terry K.
at 1:26 AM EST
Monday, January 9, 2017
WND Is Back to Likening Obama to Hitler
Topic: WorldNetDaily
Scott Lively writes in his Jan. 3 WND column, headlined "OBAMA'S HITLERIAN DEPARTURE":
WND columnist Michael Brown once declared that "This horrific name-calling needs to stop, not only because it defames the living but also because it mocks the dead – specifically, the victims of Hitler and his henchmen." He was talking aboutTrump-Nazi comparisons, of course. He might want to send a copy of his column to his fellow anti-gay activist Lively.
Posted by Terry K.
at 4:21 PM EST
CNS Unemployment Numbers Distortion Watch, Last Licks Edition
Topic: CNSNews.com
The main story by Susan Jones focuses, as usual, on the labor force participation rate, telling us that "the number of Americans not in the labor force has increased by 14,573,000 (18.09 percent) since January 2009, when Obama took office." Jones surprisingly concedes the dishonesty of that number, admitting that it is "continuing a long-term trend that began well before Obama was sworn in." It's not until the seventh paragraph that Jones reports that there is also a record number of Americans who are employed, and she buried in the 17th paragraph the fact that 156,000 jobs were created in December. The first sidebar, by editor in chief Terry Jeffrey, bemoaned that manufacturing jobs continued to decline, glossing over the fact that -- as the chart accompanying his article illustrates -- manufacturing jobs have been on a general downward slope for a good 30 years. Jeffrey further bemoaned that there are more government jobs than manufaturing jobs. The second sidebar, by managing editor Michael W. Chapman, once again played up relatively high black unemployment, implicitly blaming Obama while leaving out the important contextual fact that black unemployment has always been roughly double that of white unemployment. Theh final sidebar, also by Chapman, repeats his imaginary claim that the U-6 number is the "real unemployment" figure, grousing that "it is not often reported by the mainstream media." As we've explained, it's a factual misnomer since that particular number counts people are employed part-time but seeking full-time work. Next month will bring the first report of job numbers under Donald Trump. Will CNS be as diligent at cherry-picking numbers under Trump as it has been under Obama? We shall see.
Posted by Terry K.
at 1:45 PM EST
WND's Hohmann Attacks Newspaper For Not Hating Muslims As Much As He Does
Topic: WorldNetDaily
Actually, the headline is wrong in one key respect: Hohmann admits the "refugee named Mohamed" was convicted not of sexual assault but, rather, attempted sexual assault. But it's the "media silent" part that Hohmann is really hammering this time around:
Hohmann did not name any other instance where a case of attempted sexual assault warranted blanket media coverage. The next day, Hohmann was in full attack mode against the Aberdeen newspaper for not hating Muslims like he does:
Hohmann went on to rant that no picture of "the convicted sex offender" has been released ("South Dakota is one of the few states where mugshots of convicted criminals are not considered public record," he huffed), and went after a social-services group involved in resettling refugees for not addressing "how it could leave a man from Somalia, in the country for only a week, on his own to wander the streets looking for a vulnerable female." Hohmann also complained that "The U.S. State Department and its federal contractor, Lutheran Social Services, have sent 939 Somali refugees to South Dakota since 2002, all of them being placed in Sioux Falls. More than 99 percent of all Somali refugees are Muslim." If this crime is the only one Hohmann can come up with in 14 years of Somali resettlements in South Dakota, isn't that a pretty good record? Bizarrely, both of Hohmann's articles are illustrated with pictures of Somali refugee camps in Keny, which is nowhere near South Dakota. Apparently that's an acceptable substitute when you can't get a picture of the perp to reinofrce the otherness that's a key to Hohmann's anti-Muslim obsession.
Posted by Terry K.
at 12:09 AM EST
Updated: Monday, January 9, 2017 9:01 AM EST
Sunday, January 8, 2017
Is Cliff Kincaid Trying to Make AIM A White Nationalist Group?
Topic: Accuracy in Media
He ranted that groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center focusing on white nationalism "is designed to further demonize white Americans who are waking up to what President Obama has done to them during his eight years in office," addin, "Rather than admit that Obama’s legacy turned many white Americans against the Democrats, groups like the SPLC are attempting to portray racial consciousness among white people as something to fear. ... According to the SPLC, whites are just supposed to take it." Kincaid then quotes his favorite white-nationalist buddy:
Of course, "pro-white journalism" is arguably another phrase for "anti-black journalism." Maybe Colin Flaherty could sign up for that. Or Cliff Kincaid. Is AIM chief Don Irvine OK witih Kincaid pushing his organization into a white nationalist direction? Kincaid still has a job there, so apparently not.
Posted by Terry K.
at 9:25 PM EST
CNS Still Shilling for Trump -- and Russia -- on Russian Election Meddling
Topic: CNSNews.com
On Dec. 29, CNS managing editor Micahel W. Chapman proudly quoted Republican Rep. Trent Franks declaring that the Russians "merely did what the media should have done." Chapman quickly added that Franks meant "reported accurate information to the American people" instead of hacking into other people's email, though the full context is unclear since Chapman included only a 9-second clip of Franks saying those words instead of the entire conversation he had on MSNBC on the subject. But the full segment reveals what Chapman didn't report that would place things in context -- Franks calling Vladimir Putin a "KGB thug" who should be punished for his involvement in the election, as well as backing away from sharing Trump's criticism of the intelligence community. In a Jan. 3 article, chief stenographer Susan Jones uncritically quoted Trump spokesman Sean Spicer suggesting that President Obama's expelling Russian diplomats in response to the Russian meddling was a "political retribution" instead of a "diplomatic response." CNS' pro-Republican, anti-Hillary response to the Russian meddling continued in a Jan. 5 article by Melanie Hunter approvingly quoting Republican Rep. Paul Ryan declaring that while Russia “clearly tried to meddle in our political system,” they did not put the server in Hillary Clinton’s basement or tell her not to campaign in Wisconsin or Michigan. In covering Director of National Intelligence James Clapper 's congressional testimony on the meddling, CNS did what it usually does: quote only Republican congressmen asking questions and ignoring Democrats. Hunter pushed Trump-approved spin in another Jan. 5 article, leading with Clapper's statement that no "vote tallies" werealtered by the Russians and focusing on Republican Sen. Tom Cotton spinning that Vladimir Putin would not want to help Trump get elected because Trump proposed increasing the defense budget "to accelerate nuclear modernization, to accelerate ballistic missile defenses, and to expand and to accelerate boosting missile defenses, and to expand and accelerate oil and gas production, which would obviously harm Russia’s economy" and other "contrary evidence despite what the media speculates that perhaps Donald Trump is not the best candidate for Russia." Jones followed the template with an article quoting Republican Lindsey Graham saying he's "ready to throw a rock" at Russia, but framed it as criticism of Obama, who only threw a "pebble." (In contrast to Jones' stenography, actual reporters at the Washington Post noted that Cotton was among the GOP senators who "seemed keen to avoid drawing links between President-elect Donald Trump and the Russian government.") So it seems CNS is joining WorldNetDaily and Accuracy in Media as becoming Putin's newest friends in defense of Trump. UPDATE: There's even more shilling: A Jan. 7 article by editor in chief Terry Jeffrey repititiously recycles the claim that "Russia did not target or compromise systems used in counting votes in U.S. elections," a Jan. 9 article by Susan Jones uncritically quotes a Republican congressman (though curiously not identified as a Republican) bashing Obama for purportedly not doing anything about the hacking sooner, and another Jones article plays stenographer for Mitch McConnell insisting that Trump's national security picks are "clear-eyed people who understand fully that the Russians are not our friends."
Posted by Terry K.
at 7:29 PM EST
Updated: Monday, January 9, 2017 8:54 AM EST
Saturday, January 7, 2017
Obama Derangement Syndrome Watch, Supersize WorldNetDaily Edition
Topic: WorldNetDaily
-- Mychal Massie, Dec. 26 WorldNetDaily column
-- Wayne Allyn Root, Dec. 28 WND column
-- Larry Kayman, Dec. 30 WND column
-- Barbara Simspon, Jan. 1 WND column With less than three weeks from the inauguration of the new president, God only knows what further destruction Obama will wreak. We need to stay in prayer, be vigilant and give our full support to President-elect Trump as he dismantles Obama’s mess. Thank God for His mercy upon America. -- Jesse Lee Peterson, Jan. 1 WND column
-- Gina Loudon, Jan. 1 WND column
-- Mychal Massie, Jan. 2 WND column
-- Jane Chastain, Jan. 4 WND column
-- Joseph Farah, Jan. 4 WND column
-- Erik Rush, Jan. 4 WND column
-- Bradlee Dean, Jan. 5 WND column
Posted by Terry K.
at 10:40 AM EST
Friday, January 6, 2017
Newsmax's Ruddy Staying Buddy-Buddy With Trump
Topic: Newsmax
The article then quickly runs to Trump's defense, noting that Hurt had written a book that "published divorce allegations made by Trump's first wife Ivana that while married she had been 'raped' by her husband," adding, "Ivana later recanted the comment, said she never meant to imply a legal definition of rape. She strongly supported her ex-husband in his presidential bid." That was followed by a section we're pretty sure did not come from any wire service Newsmax subscribes to:
So not only is Newsmax close enough to the right-wing Koch billionaires to get a quick response from a "Koch source" for this story, Christopher Ruddy is hosting parties for Trump. We've noted that Ruddy has long been a Trump buddy, and that he and then-Newsmax reporter Ronald Kessler played a major role in feeding Trump's presidential ambitions in the runup to the 2012 campaign, which set the stage for his 2016 run. Newsmax and Trump even tried to co-host a GOP presidential debate during the 2012 campaign, which fizzled when only two candidates showed interest in participating. Newsmax is headquarted in West Palm Beach, so the closeness to Trump is geographical as well. Ruddy's closeness with Trump doesn't bode well for any effort to portray Newsmax as a fair and balanced news organization and not a Trump shill with conflicts of interest.
Posted by Terry K.
at 1:53 PM EST
WND Returns to Smearing Obama Over U.S. Aid to Kenya
Topic: WorldNetDaily
Peacock actually disappeared from WNBD for several months after we documented that; we'd like to think it was from shame. Whatever the reason, Peacock got over it and returned to contributing articles to WND -- and to obsessing over U.S. aid to Kenya. Peacock wrote in a Nov. 16 WND article that "A joint venture between the government of Kenya and private investors soon will receive a million-dollar grant from the Obama administration solely to study whether to build a solar power plant in Gitaru, Kenya." Peacock touted his own past reporting:
Peacock doesn't mention that, as he had earlier admitted, that $674 million figure is still well below the $830 million Kenya received under Bush's 2009 budget. Peacock followed up with a Jan. 1 article complaining:
Peacock omitted the pertinent fact that according to the U.S. Agency for International Development procurement document he cites, that money is spread over five years. Peacock has also previously expressed disdain for federal money helping gays or HIV victims. As before, the unspoken assumption Peacock is feeding with these articles is that Obama is giving special attention to Kenya because of his familial ties there or that he has proved more aid to Kenya than to other countries -- something Peacock has never provided a shred of evidence. He's content to be a lazy, Obama-hating reporter willing to write biased articles for cash to aid WND's pathological Obama-hate.
Posted by Terry K.
at 12:43 AM EST
Updated: Friday, January 6, 2017 8:49 AM EST
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