CNS Op-Ed Writer: Donald Jr.'s Get-Together With Russian Lawyer Just A 'Silly Little Meeting' Topic: CNSNews.com
How in the tank is CNSNews.com for the Trump administration? It's even publishing op-eds seeking to exonerate Donald Trump Jr. for meeting with a Kremin-lnnked Russian lawyer who reportedly promised dirt on Hillary Clinton.
A July 21 CNS op-ed by Republican author Craig Shirley is headlined "How Could a Meeting Like Trump Jr.’s Happen? Easy: Campaigns Are Circuses," in which Shirley gives a pass to Donald Jr. because weird things happen during politcal campaigns:
What seems inexplicable on the outside looks like just the usual chaos to insiders.
Many years ago, a friend of mine — let’s call him Ed — was managing a congressional race. He was interviewing a young woman for a job with the campaign. While perusing her resume, Ed asked her if she had any special skills. Unhesitatingly, she replied, “Yes. I’m clairvoyant.”
Taken aback, Ed asked if she could give him a demonstration, and again she replied yes, and, as a demonstration of her talents, she said, “I see the two of us in that motel down the street making love this afternoon.”
Ed later told me, “And you know what? She was right!”
When I heard of the meeting Trump campaign staffers had with a Russian lawyer last year, like many of my brethren who have worked in campaigns, I was not surprised.
Weirdos and politics go together like peas and carrots: Strange, bizarre meetings. Strange, bizarre people. Clandestine operations. Inexplicable decisions. Things that in the light of day look strange, but in the heat of the moment seem perfectly rational. People often do things in politics that later can’t be explained. At least not always reasonably.
[...]
To paraphrase an old educator and philosopher, “Those who can, do, those who can’t, become over-the-top bell ringers.” Many will never know how fun it really is. Or how a silly little meeting with a Russian lawyer could possibly be just that — a silly little meeting and nothing more. The bystanders and alarmists scream the sky is falling, it seems, to give a little excitement to their otherwise mundane and limiting lives.
Stu Spencer, a longtime political adviser to Reagan, once said, “Working in politics is like running away and joining the circus.” And indeed, it is. It’s just not for everybody.
So the Trump campaign hands should pay these critics no mind. They will never know how much fun it is to be in the crazy arena, to know victory and defeat.
What would old educators and philosophers say about people who try to dismiss a get-together with a representative of an American adversary promising dirt on an opponent as a "silly little meeting"?
Obama Still Lives Rent-Free Inside Joseph Farah's Head Topic: WorldNetDaily
Obama says his birthday is tomorrow, Aug. 4.
Maybe it is. Maybe it isn’t. I just don’t know. To me, the jury is still out.
Obama says he was born in Hawaii in 1961. Maybe he was. Maybe he wasn’t. I just don’t know. To me, the jury is still out.
Why am I so stubborn on this point?
Two reasons:
The actual evidence is thin, and Obama did everything humanly possible to avoid proving his constitutional eligibility and human authenticity through the first three years of his presidency by producing a legitimate birth certificate.
Obama and his supporters have a lot of trouble being honest – telling the truth and knowing right from wrong.
[...]
I don’t believe a word that has ever come out of the mouth of Barack Obama.
I don’t believe a word he has ever written or was ghostwritten on his behalf.
I don’t believe any of the self-aggrandizement. I don’t believe a word of the hype.
Even if I believed his birthday is tomorrow, I wouldn’t send him a card, I wouldn’t wish him well, and I wouldn’t acknowledge any of his so-called accomplishments. For me, it will take a miracle to undo eight years of damage he inflicted on a great country.
Birthday shmirth-day.
I don’t wish him ill. I just don’t have any respect for him or his ideas. What he has decided to do in his post-presidency is even more contemptible than what he did with the reins of illegitimate power – serving, as he does, as a “shadow president,” intentionally undermining, at every turn, his duly elected successor.
I don’t think you can point to another U.S. president who ever did that.
It’s like he doesn’t know what else to do with himself except for being a national community organizer.
Pathetic.
Am I bitter?
You bet.
I like the United States of America. I like the idea of it. I like the concept – a nation under the rule of law, not the rule of men. I never liked the notion of a “fundamental transformation” of our country. Only someone who hates America could even hatch such a nightmarish thought. And his only notable accomplishment in life was coming very close to carrying it out.
Happy birthday?
Not from me.
Not this year, not next year nor the year after that.
No regrets from here on challenging everything Obama ever uttered, enacted or planned.
CNS Reporter Buries The Lead, Hides Fact Trump Is Wrong About Amazon Taxes Topic: CNSNews.com
Trump stenographer Susan Jones does her Trump stenography thing in a July 25 CNSNews.com article:
"The Amazon Washington Post fabricated the facts on my ending massive, dangerous, and wasteful payments to Syrian rebels fighting Assad....." President Trump tweeted Monday night.
Then came two more tweets:
-- "So many stories about me in the @washingtonpost are Fake News. They are as bad as ratings challenged @CNN. Lobbyist for Amazon and taxes?"
-- "Is Fake News Washington Post being used as a lobbyist weapon against Congress to keep Politicians from looking into Amazon no-tax monopoly?"
[...]
This is not the first time Trump has bashed the "Amazon Washington Post," the newspaper purchased by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in 2013.
On June 23, Trump tweeted: "The #AmazonWashingtonPost, sometimes referred to as the guardian of Amazon not paying internet taxes (which they should) is FAKE NEWS!"
Trump's criticism of Amazon dates back to the campaign. On Dec. 7, 2015, when he was running for president, Trump tweeted: "The @washingtonpost, which loses a fortune, is owned by @JeffBezos for purposes of keeping taxes down at his no profit company, @amazon."
But it's not until the very last paragraph of her article that Jones makes a surprising admission: "And for the record, Amazon.com states on its website that it does collect sales tax on items sold by it or its subsidiaries nationwide, except in the five states that do not levy sales taxes."
That's right -- Trump's attacks on Amazon and taxes are false. Shouldn't that have been the lead of Jones' article? "Trump falsely attacks Amazon over taxes" is far more newsworthy than "Trump tweets again," according to any standard of journalistic news judgment.
MRC Pretends Crisis Pregnancy Centers Don't Mislead Women Topic: Media Research Center
Storiesabound of crisis pregnancy centers -- typically run by anti-abortion activists -- misleading women who visit them with fearmongering about abortion and even emotional coercion. But the Media Research Center is actively trying to deny that fact.
In a May 31 MRC post, for instance, Sarah Stites claimed that "while outlets like MSNBC have questioned whether crisis pregnancy centers are 'misleading,' and host Rachel Maddow calls them 'fake abortion clinics,' these organizations provide women with help and support during difficult times."
A few days later, Stites asserted that it was a "false narrative" to point out the pretty well established fact that "crisis pregnancy centers are misleading, coercive and dangerous to women." She went on to play stenographer for a crisis pregnancy center fighting a law requiring that they post a sign stating that they don't perform abortions," whining that it was "compelled speech" and that "the receptionist says ‘we don’t provide abortions,’ but she says it with her own voice, not because she’s been forced to" is good enough. Stites framed this reasonable disclosure as "hostility to religion," even though she provided no evidence the law specifically singles out any religion.
In a June 23 post, Matthew Balan dismissed the documented tactics of crisis pregnancy centers as nothing but "left-wing spin."
The latest instance is a July 25 post by Tom Blumer complaining about an Associated Press article about a similar law in Seattle:
In this story, the AP's headline writer and the story's reporter wouldn't even allow the words "crisis pregnancy centers" to appear without including scare quotes which explicitly question the term's legitimacy — even though there are at least nine national networks of honest-to-goodness crisis pregnancy centers.
Crisis pregnancy centers typically provide women with the following free services: pregnancy tests, caring and confidentialcounseling from trained professionals, medical referrals, abortion and adoption information, information about medical insurance or government assistance, temporary shelter, and much more.
You ... can likely find a crisis pregnancy center near you in the yellow pages of your local phonebook (e.g., under "Abortion Alternatives" or "Pregnancy Counseling").
The supposed need for this regulation was an investigation by undercover "trained volunteer college and law students" claiming that "the centers give medically inaccurate information about abortion and some don't tell patients that they don't provide abortions or make referrals involving abortion and contraception."
Care Net of Puget Sound, which has six crisis pregnancy centers in the region and is mentioned in the AP report, blasted that contention as "an absolute lie." Of course they don't provide abortions (and I'm sure they clearly tell patients that), and of course, as pro-life-driven, they won't make such referrals. The obvious question about this "investigation" should be: Where's the James O'Keefe-level video proof, with all the raw footage?
Given how O'Keefe's "video proof" has been demonstrated to be misleadingly edited, nobody wants that kind of "proof," and Blumer shouldn't either.
Also, Blumer's description of "what crisis pregnancy centers do" is copy-and-pasted directly from the website of the Christian Medical & Dental Associations, which arguably has a bias on the issue in promoting such groups. And some of those "trained professionals" -- as trained by Care Net, at least, are apparently trained how to shepherd "broken" women toward Christ, which certainly seems far afield from its stated mission of helping pregnant women.
That sounds a lot like misleading women to us. The MRC should stop pretending crisis pregnancy centers don't do this, or that it's "left-wing spin" to point that fact out.
WND Buries The Collapse Of Its Seth Rich Conspiracy Theories Topic: WorldNetDaily
We've noted that WorldNetDaily is highly reluctant to discuss the fact that its Seth Rich conspiracy theories are imploding even more than they have in the past, thanks to a lawsuit by private investigator Rod Wheeler against his Republican benefactor, Ed Butowsky, claiming that Butowsky worked with Fox News and the Trump White House to published a discredited story on the case that misquoted him.
Alicia Powe's Aug. 2 WND article is a prime example of this. It leads by stoking the collapsing conspiracy with an unsubstantiated "bombshell" from "Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh" that "the DNC emails obtained by WikiLeaks stopped pouring in after the mysterious murder of DNC staffer Seth Rich in 2016."
It's not until the 15th paragraph of her article that Powe gets around to mentioning the Wheeler lawsuit. And it's not until the 41st paragraph of her article that Powe mentions that "numerous public statements made by Wheeler appear to contradict key claims the former homicide detector alleged in the lawsuit he filed."
Shouldn't that be a bombshell article by itself instead of being deeply buried in another article? Or is Powe afraid toplay this up, since Wheeler has been such a key source for her in pushing the Rich conspiracies despite the fact that he has a history of making contradictory claims?
Given that the Trump White House has been brought into this via Wheeler's lawsuit, Powe and WND should admit any contact they might have had with Trump administration officials or with Butowsky to push this story. But they won't.
This is dishonest journalism in the extreme. Powe and WND know the jig is up and the story is dead -- collapsed under the weight of the bogus conspiracy theories they've heaped upon it -- but they refuse to honestly admit that to their readers. As far as they're concerned, the conspiracy must continue, and the collapse of the story is part of the conspiracy.
Apparently addicted to the conspiracy crack of the Obama birther stuff -- and conveniently ignoring how it made WND a journalistic laughingstock -- WND committed to the Seth Rich story. And it's making WND even more of a joke than it already is.
CNS' Bannister Is Mad Celebrities Invoked God to Praise McCain's Health Care Vote Topic: CNSNews.com
It seems CNSNews.com blogger Craig Bannister saw the petulant, butthurt reactions to John McCain voting against the Republican health care bill from his fellow CNS writers and said, "Hold my beer."
In a July 28 post, Bannister actually complains that "liberal Hollywood celebrities" are invoking God to praise McCain's vote:
Liberal Hollywood celebrities are showering Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) with love for casting a decisive vote as one of three Republican Senators who derailed a bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act health care law (Obamacare).
Rosie O’Donnell and Cher actually invoked God to bless McCain for turning on his party and voting against the bill to undo major financial burdens and requirements mandated by Obamacare.
McCain returned to Congress after being diagnosed with a deadly form of brain cancer to cast the deciding vote in a 49-51 loss for Republicans.
Rob Reiner and Elizabeth Banks hailed McCain as a “hero,” while other liberal celebrities heaped gratitude and respect on the Republican who voted their way.
The headline on Bannister's post reads, "Hollywood Invokes ‘God’ to ‘Bless’ John McCain for Saving Obamacare." Yes, "God" is in scare quotes, as if to claim Bannister's God would never have voted to keep health insurance for millions of Americans.
Al Gore Derangement Syndrome, Gina Loudon Edition Topic: WorldNetDaily
If you can get beyond the irony of the title of Al Gore’s new film, “An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power,” you start to see the meager remnants of a man who once held some power and hoped to hold more.
Every morning, the shadow of a man named Al Gore has to wake up to Donald J. Trump as president. President Trump is even richer than Al Gore; he didn’t make it off the backs of lies and sheeple. And Trump is the most effective president, perhaps in U.S. history.
In a short six months, with little to no help from Congress, this president has managed to cut illegal immigration by 70 percent by the force of sheer will, catapult the stock market to all-time highs, open pipelines and create more than 1 million private-sector jobs, set virtually every economic indicator at an all-time high, change the Supreme Court back to reason for generations, and more.
President Trump is working to dismantle not only every policy lie that Al Gore ever helped to put in place, but this administration is single-handedly dismantling Gore’s lying mechanism and dissemination apparatus.
The failing New York Times will print any amount of crazy that Gore drools on it. What happens when it’s gone?
The fake news media will repeat Gore’s lies, make him look sane and logical and, most importantly, sell his baseless movies and books, which no one would see or read otherwise. How will Al Gore maintain his millions without them?
There is little more insulting to a man who has shrunk from relevance and power than being a smaller man in every way than your worst enemy. There is little more insulting and enraging than having someone like Donald Trump, who didn’t even need politics to have money, power and relevance that Al Gore so deeply desired, dismantle his entire house of cards without ever laying a hand on Gore. That is the worst kind of defeat. No wonder Al Gore is desperate.
[...]
On Aug. 18, an angry, defeated mob – composed of former journalist wannabes and people who just want to belong but aren’t smart enough to know how to be in demand – will rush to dutifully take in Gore’s film and pay for his jet fuel to emit more carbon in one trip than they will in their Priuses in a lifetime.
So at least Al isn’t alone in his last stand. He will go down with others.
MRC Attacks Ex-Fox News Host for Dissing Her Former Employer Topic: Media Research Center
It seems the Media Research Center will not allow anyone to criticize Fox News -- not even a longtime former employee who would know more about the channel's inner workings than anyone at the MRC.
And that explains the MRC's odd attacks on Alisyn Camerota, who left Fox News a couple years back to work for CNN.
On June 15, Tim Graham insisted that Camerota's upcoming novel about a morning news anchor working for an outlet called FAIR News was actually about "a CNN-like network" -- despite citing a description of the fictional network that includes "misogynistic emails from viewers, social-media backlashes and the cold shoulders of Brooklynites who despise the worldview of FAIR News" that sure sounds a lot like Fox News.
Because Graham makes up for in cattiness what he lacks in insightful media criticism, he makes sure to note that "Fox & Friends is usually higher-rated than New Day," the CNN show Camerota currently co-hosts.
After that, someone finally figured out which channel Camerota's book is about -- then attacked her for writing it. In a July 25 post, Alex Xenos complained that Camerota's book was taking a "jab at the network that made it possible for her to succeed," adding: "Camerota worked for the Fox News Channel for 16 years before moving to CNN in 2014. Yet, it is strange she is now constantly criticizing her old employer for skewing reporting when her new network's boss has all but declared war on the President."
Interesting that Xenos is effectively admitting Fox News is biased, but he won't hold it accountable for its bias the way he attacks CNN.
Brad Wilmouth followed up in a July 31 post, grousing that Camerota "has been showing this past week a greater willingness to criticize her former employer" in promoting her book, "which is a fictional work that is nevertheless based in part on her past experiences working as a FNC host for the weekend edition of Fox and Friends." Wilmouth further grumbled that Camerota was "going so far as to charge that her old FNC show 'unnecessarily stoked outrage' and 'took a really myopic view of, say, President Obama or the current administration.' She even suggested the show has sometimes been 'toxic" or 'foxic.'"
Rather than defend "Fox & Friends" -- something even he surely knows he cannot do with a straight face -- Wilmouth went on a Camerota-bashing tirade, declaring that "Since she joined CNN in 2014, Camerota has built up quite a record of left-leaning journalism and bias against the conservative point of view."
The headlines on presidential approval polls have become repetitive, with “Independent voters sour,” “Trump’s approval at 40%,” “Trump’s approval rating plummets” and “Majority disapprove of President Trump.”
But an analysis of media polling practices by McLaughlinOnline suggest the media isn’t give you the real story.
[...]
A recent survey by McLaughlin took into account the “gotcha” pitfalls in polling practices, concluding Americans have a higher view of Trump than reported and want to move away from President Obama’s agenda.
McLaughlin’s poll, taken a few weeks back, found 4 in 10 voters said America is going the right direction, a significant improvement over the past four years and “by a 5 to 4 ratio, 48 percent-41 percent, voters prefer the country change and move away from the policies of Barack Obama over continuing Obama’s policies.”
Further, the results showed more people approve of Trump’s agenda and their priorities for Congress are to create jobs and keep America secure from terror.
Also, a majority, 53 percent, believe the economy is getting better, and “in spite of Congress’ failure to act yet, the majority of voters still favor repealing and replacing Obamacare.”
And, they want smaller government.
Unruh makes sure not to mention that the McLaughlin poll was taken in April -- a full two months before he wrote his story, making its results less than timely.
Unruh also makes sure not to mention that that McLaughlin describes itself as a "Republican pollster," making any claim to accuracy and nonpartisanship highly dubious. Indeed, the press release accompanying the McLaughlin poll pretty much admits it's skewing things in order to benefit Trump and his agenda while denouncing any other methodology as "media polling bias for the Democrats."
Unruh even invokes a bogus, meaningless "unscientific Internet poll by the Drudge Report" in which "92 percent of respondents said Trump was doing a 'great' or 'good' job six months into his presidency."
WND editor Joseph Farah took his own shot at poll reinterpratation in his July 23 column:
First, there’s the Reuters poll, which was portrayed as a disaster for Trump. If you run the numbers, though, they also show if the election were held today, Trump would win bigger over Hillary Clinton, even taking the popular vote bragging rights away from his opponent.
That’s right. You heard it here first.
Just look at all the numbers.
Hillary Clinton won 66 million total votes.
Donald Trump won 62 million total votes.
The Reuters poll shows, based on what respondents say now, some 12 percent of Trump voters would no longer cast their votes for him, while 88 percent would. His defectors, however, virtually all said they would not have switched their votes to Hillary Clinton.
Meanwhile, 86 percent of Hillary voters said they would vote for her again if the election were a do-over, while 3 percent of that total said they would indeed have switched to Trump.
When you do the calculations, here’s what you get: Hillary with 56.7 million votes and Trump with 57 million – meaning today Trump would win the popular vote against Clinton.
Curiously, Farah doesn't provide a link to the Reuters poll he's reinterpreting, so it's difficult to double-check his work. That's probably what Farah intended.
Farah goes on to laughably whine: "Do I need to add that no president in my memory has been beaten up by the media as badly as Trump has been in his first six months? Is there any dispute about that?" He doesn't mention the quarter-century of media-bashing Hillary Clinton has endured, in no small part from his own media outlet.
Farah's column was accompanied by a bogus opt-in WND poll in which 61 percent of respondents declared Trump earned a A+ for his first six months in office. Farah probably wants you to think it's unbiased.
CNS Touts 'Trump's Promised Pipeline,' Ignores Trump Cronies' Financial Ties To It Topic: CNSNews.com
CNSNews.com reporter Zenny Phuong was in quite the Trump-fluffing mood for her July 28 article. Under the headline "Trump’s Promised Pipeline Passes Final Environmental Impact Review," Phuong writes:
Building the Atlantic Coast Pipeline will have a “less than significant environmental impact,” a final regulatory assessment released Friday concludes. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s report will play a major role in the Commission’s decision this coming Fall to allow construction of the infrastructure project President Donald Trump promised to deliver.
Phuong went on to repeat press-release claims from the companies involved in the pipeline, such as a claim that "the pipeline will create 17,000 new jobs and almost $3 billion in economic activity across three states."
What Phuong doesn't mention: the financial ties of some members of the Trump administration to the pipeline. DeSmogBlog reports:
One is Dan DiMicco, who served as a Senior Economic Adviser to Trump’s campaign and led the new administration’sU.S.Trade Representative transition team. He also sitson the Board of Directors of Duke Energy, one of the pipeline project co-owners.
DiMicco, the formerCEOof steel giant Nucor,metwith Trump in Trump Tower in mid-December, when he was considering DiMicco for the position ofU.S.Trade Representative. Eventually, former DeputyU.S.Trade Representative Robert Lighthizergotthe job.
Another tie can be seen between Trump presidentialcampaign adviser, U.S.Rep. Richard Hudson (R-NC), and his former chief-of-staff Pepper Natonski. Since the fourth quarter of 2015, Natonski has been lobbying on behalf of Dukeand its stake in “natural gas utilities regarding pipeline safety legislation and any regulatory regime affecting natural gas utilities” and serves as Director of Federal Affairs for the company,according to Politico Influence.
[...]
Yet another connection between the Atlantic Coast project and the Trump White House is Rosario Palmieri, wholobbieson behalf of the pipeline for the National Association of Manufacturers. He formerlyworked as a stafferforVice President Mike Pencewhen he served in the House of Representatives.
Apparently, such apparent favor-granting for Trump's supporters is not news at CNS, though one can easily assume it would be if Trump was a Democrat.
Of course, CNS has has always had a thing for uncritically promoting the fossil-fuel industry.
Will WND Admit It's Deceiving Readers With Seth Rich Conspiracy Theories? Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily is still reliably flogging the dead, discredited Seth Rich conspiracy theory story -- for instance, this July 27 article by Alicia Powe spinning a conspiracy theory roping in such disparate elements the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington, D.C., and Imran Awan, the congressional aide who's the subject of a completely different set of right-wing conspracy theories.
Still, the Seth Rich conspiracies kep blowing up in spectualar ways. The latest way is an article by NPR's David Folkenflik detailing a lawsuit private investigator Rod Wheeler -- one of WND's key sources for its conspiracy stories, whom Powe falsely insists has worked for the Rich family -- against the man who actually funded him, Republican donor and Trump supporter Ed Butowsky. In the suit, Wheeler alleges that Butowsky worked with officials in the Trump White House, including President Trump himself, to get a story on the case that prominently featured Wheeler published by Fox News as a distraction from bad news about Trump -- a story that kickstarted the latest round of conspiracy theories from WND and others. But that story was pulled a week later for making false claims, and Wheeler claims it included made-up quotes attributed to him.
This story pretty much blows up the Seth Rich story as nothing but politically motivated and factually challenged conspiracy-mongering with the Trump White House's hands all over it. Needless to say, that's not how WND has chosen to interpret it.
An anonymously written Aug. 1 WND article serves up this spin:
The controversy over the unsolved murder of Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich one year ago reached a new level this week when an investigator looking into the Washington, D.C., homicide sued Fox News over an allegedly “fake news” report.
The move now gives the federal courts a role in sorting out a quagmire of innuendo and supposition.
Rich was murdered July 10, 2016, on a street near his Washington home. Some have speculated that Rich – who worked in the voter analysis division of the DNC – was a source of the leak of Democratic Party emails to WikiLeaks during the 2016 presidential race.
In an August 2016 interview, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange appeared to suggest that Rich was one of his sources.
On July 22, just 12 days after Rich’s death and three days before the Democratic Party Convention in Philadelphia, WikiLeaks began publishing 44,053 emails and 17,761 attachments from top DNC officials. Some of the emails showed DNC officials conspiring to sabotage Sen. Bernie Sanders’ candidacy to help secure the party nomination for Hillary Clinton
Now, private homicide detective Rod Wheeler, who previously investigated the Rich murder for the family, has filed a lawsuit against Fox News, Fox reporter Malia Zimmerman and Ed Butowsky, alleging they created a false narrative and tried to spread false news about the death.
Wheeler also claims President Trump knew of the false statements and tried to spread false news, according to the London Daily Mail.
Talk about burying the lead -- the bombshell claim that Trump himself was involved in pushing the story is relegated to the seventh paragraph. And it's funny that WND portrays the lawsuit as "a quagmire of innuendo and supposition" when that description more aptly applies to the entire narrative WND has been pushing about Rich.
Also note that WND chose to rely on a Daily Mail writeup of the NPR story, not NPR itself (though the Daily Mail, unlike WND, did lead with the claim that Trump pushed the story).
After summarizing the lawsuit for a while, WND then fills out its article with a rehash of its conspiracy theories -- including the even more dubious Inwan Awan angle -- conveniently ignoring the fact that the political power plays outlined earlier in the article severely damages those conspiracies.
Completely missing from the article, however, is any comment from anyone at WND regarding the accusations. Joseph Farah, Alicia Powe and Co. have continued to push the story long after it was discredited, after all. WND's readers deserve to know whether it too was a player in the Fox News-Trump White House negotiations over the story.
More importantly, WND needs to explain to its readers the implications the story will have on its reporting. Will it continue to pursue a story that has been thoroughly discredited, or will admit it was deliberately misleading its readers by pushing these conspiracy theories?
Unfortunately, we suspect it's the former. The article contains a prominent link to WND's floundering GoFundMe campaign to fund its continued pushing of Seth Rich conspiracy theories. There's a consipracy to exploit, after all.
CNS Takes Shots At McCain For Health Care Repeal Vote Topic: CNSNews.com
Like a good adequately servile pro-Trump "news" outlet, CNSNews.com took some shots at Republican John McCain for voting against a Republican bill designed to undo the Affordable Care Act while offering nothing in its stead.
The headline on Susan Jones' article after the vote read, "McCain Comes Through for Democrats, Casts Deciding ‘No’ Vote on GOP Health Care Bill." For her part, Jones pointedly noted "the 49 Republicans who kept their promise to their constituents" by voting for a largely empty bill.
Jones devoted a separate article to highlighting Trump's tweet that "3 Republicans and 48 Democrats let the American people down.
CNS hurled another spiteful zinger at McCain in the form of a video compilation by Craig Millward of "times when McCain called for Obamacare to be repealed and replaced."
Looking so spiteful and butthurt is more than a little unprofessional, but that's never stopped CNS before.
WND Drags Out That Malicious 'Transgender' Photo Again Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily justloves to maliciously smear transgenders by illustrating stories about them with a photo it stole from the Associated Press of a guy in a dress and heels who is not transgender (which makes its usage fake news).
The latest example comes from WND's coverage of President Trump's substance-free decree that transgender should not serve in the military. A July 26 article by Greg Corombos interviewing Peter Sprigg of the anti-LGBT hate group Family Research Council praising the decision includes, yes, that malicious photo:
Note that the photo has no credit. WND surely owes the AP a lot of money for its use given how many article WND has attached it to.
MRC Is Mad Media Reported Facts About Where Trump Products Are Made Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center's Aly Nielsen spends a July 24 post complaining that the "liberal media" ruined President Trump's "Made In America Week" by letting the facts get in the way:
The White House declared the week of July 16, “Made in America” week to celebrate U.S. manufacturing -- a continuance of President Donald Trump’s “America First” campaign focus. But ABC, CBS and NBC evening news shows minimized the administration’s focus, mentioning it only one night of the week and used it to criticize Trump.
Products manufactured in the 50 states, including golf clubs, donuts, cowboy hats, blankets and firetrucks, were displayed on the lawn and throughout the White House on June 17. Trump also signed a declaration making July 17, “Made in America Day” to celebrate goods manufactured in the U.S.
But for ABC and CBS, “Made in America” was just Trump trying to distract people from Russia. CBSEvening Newsinterim anchor Anthony Mason accused Trump of using “Made in America” as a way to “change the subject today from Russia to America,” on July 17.
[...]
Only NBCNightly Newsfocused on “Made in America” without bringing up Russia.
“President Trump today kicked off his ‘Made in America’ week to promote U.S. manufacturing. It was the president’s ‘America First’ messaging that helped him win the election,” NBCNightly Newsanchor Lester Holt said.
NBC chief White House correspondent Hallie Jackson said Trump was “focusing on what got him there: jobs and manufacturing.”
“On Made in America week, critics counter, the president never put his money where his mouth is while running his own business,” Jackson also said referring to Trump family products often imported from outside the U.S.
At no point does Nielsen dispute the accuracy of the "liberal media's" reporting on how Trump's own goods are not manufactured in America or the week's fairly obvious attempt to use the week to distract from the growing scandals surrounding the Trump White House. She's merely complaining they were reported at all -- and, by extension, complaining that the media isn't serving as loyal stenographers for Trump.
Perhaps Nielsen should turn her eyes to the MRC's "news" division, CNSNews.com, where Trump stenography is Job 1.
Scaramucci On The Job Just Long Enough for ConWeb Tributes To Him Topic: The ConWeb
The abrupt departure of Anthony Scaramucci as White House communications director after just 10 days on the job meant that the digital ink was barely dry on ConWeb tributes to his arrival.
Jerry Cave enthused in a July 29 Accuracy in Media column:
If you work in the White House and do not have the message yet,Scary Muchois there to scare people straight on the issue of leaking. And he is not messing around.
He is sending a message to the staff that none are above suspicion or scrutiny. This is not the Obama Justice Department, where anything went, nor the Hillary Clinton State Department, where bribes and lawlessness reigned. It’s illegal to leak, and if you do so from the Trump White House now, you will be gone…no matter who you are.
Scaramucci is not in Washington to make friends. He is here to clean up the operations of the White House and clean out those who are not on the president’s side.
He correctly identified Priebus as a leaker and as someone who did not support the candidate and brought people into the White House who also were neverTrumpers. Those people are now on the shortest of leashes.
[...]
Washington thinks it can beat anybody, even these brash, rude New Yorkers. These New Yorkers get things done. I like their chances.
Cave offers no evidence that Scaramucci or anyone else "correctly identified" Priebus as a leaker.
Not to be outdone in the suck-up department was Ray Negron, who wrote in a July 27 Newsmax column:
Anthony Scaramucci now walks with President Trump. We are better off for it.
Whenever I reached out to Mr. Scaramucci he was always there for me. He helped to make my radio show on ESPNDeportes a better and more interesting show.
[...]
Selfishly I will miss him. I will miss his knowledge in sports that he brought to the show. I will miss how he could give and take fun-loving banter with Reggie Jackson.
I know how busy he will be but I hope he can find the time to come on the show again.
Anthony really was a big fan favorite on ESPN "Impact." Even though he was always on demand at Fox and CNBC, he always found the time to come to our show and have fun with us. He never saw us as the little guy.
Thank you Anthony Scaramucci, we will always be grateful for that. I know our country needs you more.
It looks like Scaramucci will suddenly have plenty of time to appear on Negron's show.
How in the tank is CNSNews.com for the Trump administration? It's even publishing op-eds seeking to exonerate Donald Trump Jr. for meeting with a Kremin-lnnked Russian lawyer who reportedly promised dirt on Hillary Clinton.
Obama says his birthday is tomorrow, Aug. 4.
Trump stenographer Susan Jones does her Trump stenography thing in a July 25 CNSNews.com 
Stories
We've 
It seems CNSNews.com blogger Craig Bannister saw the 
If you can get beyond the irony of the title of Al Gore’s new film, “An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power,” you start to see the meager remnants of a man who once held some power and hoped to hold more.
It seems the Media Research Center will not allow anyone to criticize Fox News -- not even a longtime former employee who would know more about the channel's inner workings than anyone at the MRC. 
President Trump isn't polling very well, and WorldNetDaily wants you to believe that's because the polls are biased.
CNSNews.com reporter Zenny Phuong was in quite the Trump-fluffing mood for her July 28 
WorldNetDaily is still 
Like a good adequately servile pro-Trump "news" outlet, CNSNews.com took some shots at Republican John McCain for voting against a Republican bill designed to undo the Affordable Care Act while offering nothing in its stead.
The Media Research Center's Aly Nielsen spends a July 24 
The 
