CNS' Jeffrey Forgets There Was A Recession, Makes Dumb Spending Claim Topic: CNSNews.com
CNSNews.com editor in chief Terry Jeffrey writes a lot about economic stuff. Perhaps he shouldn't, if his Nov. 14 article is any indication:
If Congress had frozen federal spending at the level it reached in fiscal 2008, the last full fiscal year before President Barack Obama was inaugurated, the federal government would have had a balanced budget from fiscal 2014 onward based on the actual revenues the federal government collected under the existing tax laws in those years.
However, rather than freeze federal spending after 2008, Congress permitted it to rise by $998 billion—or 33.5 percent.
Um, remember the recession that hit the U.S. during fiscal 2008? Jeffrey doesn't seem to -- he makes no reference to it in his article. He does, however, allude to recession-related things while complaining about the spending that has been associated with it:
But federal spending increased dramatically after fiscal 2008, jumping to $3,517,677,000,000 in fiscal 2009, driven in part by the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), which Obama voted for in the Senate and President George W. Bush signed in October 2008, and by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act stimulus bill, which Obama signed in February 2009.
[...]
In fiscal 2009 through 2012, federal revenues fell short of the $2,523,991,000,000 the federal government took in during fiscal 2008. But in fiscal 2013, federal revenues climbed to $2,775,105,000,000; then, in fiscal 2014, they climbed to $3,021,491,000,000.
Why was there a TARP and a recovery act? Because there was a recession. Why did federal revenues drop between 2008 and 2013? Recession. Why did federal revenues increase above 2008 levels in fiscal 2013 and 2014? In part because of TARP and the recovery act.
Since Jeffrey is ignoring the existence of the recession, he also ignores that his hypothesis has a huge hole in it: If federal spending didn't increase in response to the recession -- as Jeffrey seems to have wanted to happen, and which runs counter to generally accepted economic theory -- it's likely that the economy would not have recovered enough to increase revenues starting in 2013.
In short, there are consequences to not increasing spending during a recession, and Jeffrey makes sure not to examine any of them in order to stay resolutely on point and completely divorced from the last decade of economic reality: "Had federal spending been frozen at the fiscal 2008 level through fiscal 2017, the federal government would have run a surplus of $332 billion in the last fiscal year."
Such fantasy-based analysis will not help CNS with maintaining any sense of credibiility.
With 'Thank Trump' Campaign, WND Officially Becomes State Media Topic: WorldNetDaily
No discerning news consumer has ever mistaken WorldNetDaily for a real news operation that was fair and balanced and was concerned about the truth. It's always been among the most highly biased "news" operations, and it became even more so with the advent of Donald Trump's presidential campaign, selling out any moral prinicples to back a thrice-married adulterer and misogynist just because it wanted to be on the winning side.
WND has sealed its status as pro-Trump state media with a new website for sending thank-you cards to Trump. No, really.
The WND article promoting the campaign lamented that "every day brings new slurs, attacks, 'fake news,' unsubstantiated allegations, threats of impeachment" against Trump -- which, ironically, if you substitute the name of Barack Obama for Trump, is what WND had been dishing out for the previous eight years.
As a good state-media outlet would, WND insisted that Trump had "a staggering, perhaps unprecedented, list of accomplishments for a first year in the White House." Then it was time for a little self-aggrandizement:
It’s all the idea of Joseph Farah, founder of WND.com, the world’s first independent online news service – a unique and innovative opportunity to Americans, and, in fact, the people of the world, to send thanks and encouragement for what the president has accomplished in his first year in office.
There is no cost to participate in this campaign.
“While there are always going to be some disappointments in the imperfect art of politics, the Trump White House has fulfilled dozens of campaign promises, changed the tone of Washington, reversed the headlong plunge into socialism and raised the spirits of Americans like no one since Ronald Reagan in 1981,” said Farah. “Such an occasion should not go unnoticed or overshadowed by the angry and vitriolic response from his disgruntled opposition. It’s time for the president to hear from those who elected him – and those who have come around since Election Day.”
The goal, Farah says, is to get millions of Americans participating in the campaign in a genuine display of sincere thanks and encouragement to Trump and his team for a “breathtaking” record of accomplishment in the face of unprecedented adversity and enraged opposition from Democrat politicians, the entrenched Washington establishment, what Trump calls the “fake news” media and street thugs, some paid and some violent, who have sought to disrupt and subvert the will of the people.
Farah is hoping the campaign will catch on fire with the help of social media activists spreading the word and the promotion of the campaign by alternative media outlets and talk radio.
“I don’t expect much help from the ‘fake news’ cartel,” said Farah. “But it wasn’t the ‘fake news’ cartel that helped elect Donald Trump president. It was the new independent press, including the pioneer in that area, WND.com. Now, Donald Trump needs encouragement to stay the course, turn up the heat, open up the throttle and continue fulfilling campaign promises one by one. That’s what this campaign is all about, in addition to demoralizing and defusing the angry, thuggish opposition led by the Democrats and establishment Washington.
How ironic that Farah is complaining about "fake news" when his website is one of the foremostpurveyors of fake news in America.
WND also slipped in this bit of self-promotion:
WND has run other innovative political campaigns in the past, including the famous “Pink Slip” project, which sent 9 million messages to Congress on pink paper threatening members with rejection at the polls in November 2010 if they did not act on their campaign promises. The campaign was so successful, it exhausted supplies of pink paper in North America. Republicans gained control of the House of Representatives in that election by picking up a historic 63 seats and another six in the U.S. Senate.
Some credit the “Pink Slip” campaign with the birth of the tea party movement, which followed in its wake.
As we documented, the "pink slip" campaign was a way for WND to cash in on its readers, which paid it a whopping $29.95 to send 535 letters to members of Congress in large boxes with hundreds of other identical letters, which presumably diluted any impact WND hoped to have. And the "some" that credit the campaign "with the birth of the tea party movement" is none other than WND itself; the link on those words goes to a 2014 WND article stating only that "Ultimately the pink slip campaign presaged the tea party movement and one of the biggest voter revolts in American history in 2010" -- not that it was an inspiration.
(Unlike the pink-slip campaign, WND isn't charging anyone for the Trump thank-you cards; apparently the only tangible benefit it gets is the email-harvesting aspect.)
Accompanying the campaign is a lengthy list of what WND claims are Trump's accomplishments since his election. There are 149 of them, so you can be sure there's lots of padding going on.For instance, the very first one on the list -- "After his election, Trump met with top tech leaders, including Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, Bill Gates of Microsoft and Jeff Bezos of Amazon. According to Gates, it was 'a good conversation about innovation, how it can help in health, education, the impact of foreign aid and energy, and a wide-ranging conversation about power of innovation'" -- is utterly meaningless as an "accomplishment"; it's just a meeting.
And No. 150 -- "Trump issued a memorandum Nov. 16 determining that the U.S. has enough petroleum coming from countries other than Iran to permit 'a significant reduction in the volume of petroleum and petroleum products' purchased from the mullah-led nation" -- has a factual problem; the memorandum was actually issued on May 17, not Nov. 16. WND hides the fact that the U.S. currently prohibits U.S. purchases of crude oil from Iran, so this memo is utterly meaningless as well; indeed, it appears to be a reiteration of current U.S. policy as required by law than any new action by Trump.
Apparently, the only way WND thinks it can get any credibility (or revenue) of any kind is to become a "made man" in the form of pro-Trump state media. But WND has always been a joke; this will make it even more so.
MRC: Trump Wants To Investigate Sec. of State Hillary, Not The Hillary Who Ran Against Him Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center's Kristine Marsh writes in a Nov. 14 post (random bolding is hers):
It seems the media can always find a new excuse as to why the Clintons’ numerous scandals over the years should be overlooked. Tuesday morning, the networks dismissively treated reports that Attorney General Jeff Sessions would be looking into hiring a special prosecutor to investigate the Clinton Foundation’s dealings with Uranium One and Hillary Clinton’s e-mails, casting blame on Sessions instead. All three networks also characterized the potential investigation as a partisan hack job orchestrated by President Trump against his former election “rival,” instead of against the former Secretary of State.
We hate to break it to you, Kristine, but the Hillary Clinton that was secretary of state is the very same Hillary Clinton who ran against Trump in 2016. If Trump is going after Secretary of State Clinton he is, by definition, going after candidate Clinton.
We're not seeing how Marsh thinks those are two separate people -- unless, of course, she's trying to justify an investigation because, you know, the Clintons.
We Want The Perv: WND Editor, Writers Stand Behind Roy Moore Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily's writers are making it clear: they want the pervert to win in Alabama.
A couple of WND writers have already come to the dubiousdefense of Roy Moore against allegations of a long history of perving on teenage girls. Now more are getting into the act, starting with WND editor Joseph Farah.
In his Nov. 14 column, Farah pleaded ignorance of the "nuances" of the Moore scandal beause he was "out of the country for the past two weeks." He claimed we "know very little" about Moore's Democratic opponent, Doug Jones, then contradicted himself by later asserting that "We know Doug Jones is pro-abortion, a defender of Planned Parenthood, a supporter of Obamacare, a politician who believes in man-made catastrophic climate change and wants to reorder our economic system to decrease levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, someone who thinks economic justice demands we raise the national minimum wage, a Democrats’ Democrat who opposes proof of eligibility to cast votes in national elections." Farah contradicted himself further by saying he somehow knew the claims against Moore are "unproved and unsubstantiated" and therefore should be ignored and that the accused perv is better than the Democrat:
We know the choice in the Alabama Senate race is between Doug Jones and Roy Moore.
We know that many prominent Republicans are distancing themselves from Roy Moore because of the unproved and unsubstantiated accusations against him because it’s difficult to defend against such charges – reckless though they seem to be.
With what we know and don’t know today, the choice is 100 percent clear. Roy Moore is a flawed human being, like all of us, but he is indisputably the best candidate for the job.
I would never defend or support a candidate for office I believed to be guilty of such serious moral offenses; there is simply no evidence they are real.
Since we know Democrats and the media have demonstrated over decades that they will happily discount even well-documented offenses against their own candidates and will use the flimsiest of accusations against their opponents, we should expect them to desperately slime Judge Roy Moore just as they are doing.
[...]
To me the Alabama Senate race is a referendum on fake news and corruption.
If it turns out some of the allegations against Roy Moore are true, there is a process for removing him from office. But we know enough about his opponent, by his own record and his own positions, that he is part of the problem, not part of the solution.
Therefore, I urge Republicans in Alabama – and Republicans everywhere – to support Roy Moore for the Alabama Senate seat. We should do so enthusiastically.
Farah didn't mention that as the publisher of Moore's autobiography, he and WND have a personal and corporate financial interest in the success of Moore's campaign.
Barry Farber's Nov. 14 WND column complained about the rush to judgment against Moore and the alleged lack of proof he did anything wrong:
Because it seems to me that if such a sexual allegation is leveled in the middle of a political campaign 40 years after the alleged depravity, and if those 40 years in the life of the alleged perpetrator were jam-packed with elections of various kinds and a prolific public life and if there’s absolutely zero proof of guilt, then maybe the party that leaked the matter to the Washington Post ought to try winning the oncoming election by other means, you know, issues and the like!
[...]
A famous New York-based media personality, who professes adoration for the Bill of Rights, couldn’t quit complimenting a popular talk host for asking Judge Moore if he ever dated a girl in her teens while he was in his 30s. The talk host wasn’t seeking any special credit for that question, but the famous personality just couldn’t quit. He kept repeating something like, “That was brilliant. You’ve personally ended the campaign of Roy Moore. Moore answered that brilliant question of yours three different ways!” I didn’t notice Moore shifting his answer three different ways. But then again I don’t want to see anybody executed out of “revolutionary conviction.” Where’s the proof?
[...]
There’s one “hero” whose name I unfortunately missed on the news. He told a profound truth, namely, “Even without this sexual allegation, the nomination of Judge Roy Moore is a bridge too far.” Aha! There you have it. Judge Moore and his right-wing, pro-God and pro-Ten Commandments beliefs are simply the wrong fit for far too many Americans.
It will be interesting to watch the result of so many non-Alabamans storming to choose the next senator from Alabama. You’ve heard the battle cry, “What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger!” If Judge Moore isn’t blown away by the prevailing firestorms, he may very well out-poll what he would have scored if this had never come up! Next time, the Washington Post might even demand proof!
Mason Weaver, meanwhile, likened Moore to famous perpetrators of misdeeds throughout history. Oh, and Doug Jones is bad:
The Republican leadership would rather have Doug Jones than Roy Moore to vote on our next Supreme Court justice. They would rather Doug Jones vote on tax reform, the wall, trade and the illegal invasion of America. The cry from weak Republicans can truly turn the easy victory of Moore into a Democratic victory and momentum change.
[...]
King David the murderer could not be king today. Moses and Saint Paul would have no place in our government. The people called Jesus a drunkard. There is no pleasing or appeasing them; there is no comforting them; they will never be satisfied. Rahab, the Madam in Jericho, could not be a heroine today. If all the left needed to do is to find imperfection in imperfect men, then they will rule over us.
Think about the eight years under Obama. Consider the misery we all suffered. Consider the cost going forward with his regulations, lifetime judges and the massive debt. Donald Trump is flawed, I am flawed, and you are flawed. But the people must be governed by humans, thus all candidates are flawed.
Let’s get the wall built, renegotiate international trade, build up our military, free America from Obamacare slavery and Make America Great Again, strong again and for the people again.
There is a lot of money, power and influence in poverty and slavery. Many people want to totally control you, but they can only influence you because they have no real power over you. Let’s not allow them to hypnotize or con us. Ignore the noise and support the candidate that will benefit your great-grandchildren.
Jane Chastain had no problem with Moore perving on teens because the girls' mothers approved so it couldn't possibly have been wrong:
In building a case against Judge Moore, the Washington Post relied on interviews with three women who claimed to have had dated or been asked for a date by Moore as teenagers when he was in his early 30s, with the full knowledge of their mothers. The worst the Post could come up with is that Moore, while dating the teens, was a gentleman, or in the case of the 14-year-old, stopped the alleged seduction attempt and took her home when asked.
So why would a young man who was well-known in the community risk everything he had worked for by attacking a teenager in his car behind the restaurant where she was working? By all accounts this eligible young man had no trouble getting dates. According to the Post, Moore was considered “good husband material” by their mothers.
In light of the somewhat sketchy dirt in the Post story, the Allred allegation staggers the imagination! It is completely out of character for what we know about Moore or what the Post even alleged.
It is no secret that men, more often than not, pursue younger women. If that were declared a crime, most men would be behind bars. Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell and the late Ted Kennedy are three high-profile examples – well-known politicians who snagged much younger and considerably more attractive wives.
[...]
My point is this: If Moore is guilty of sexual impropriety with a 14-year-old back in 1979, I would expect a man of his character to step aside. Moore has denied it, so unless it can be proved, the Republican Party should let him alone.
Is it possible that the political left may have deemed that some among their own are worth sacrificing if the result includes the successful neutralization of people such as Roy Moore and their ability to sustain ongoing distractions from crucial political developments? Taking the aforementioned contours of the political landscape into account, it is clear that there are crucial developments taking place nearly every day. Perhaps they began with Hollywood because, given the abysmal moral character thereof, it was simply an easy place to start.
Why orchestrate an industrial-sized sex scandal that might touch off witch hunts, paranoia and fear across an untold number of sectors? Well, what are the political left’s most ready go-tos? I’ll answer that: Race and sex. Race because of our national history and the sensitivities that have been cultivated around it, sex because those on the left are base-natured swine who have sex on the brain in perpetuity. It bears mentioning that we have also seen a significant increase in the left fomenting racial tension over the last few years, and race-related issues have highlighted the last several news cycles.
Plausibility of the theory aside, one would have to admit that this would certainly be true to form.
Larry Klayman manages to avoid mentioning Moore, but he doesn't have to as he pushes the idea that women who raise allegations of sexual harassment may be lying:
The hard reality is that there are plenty of legitimate claims by women about sexual harassment and abuse, but there also are multitudes of false claims conjured up by women to strike back at men. This occurs frequently, for example, in our corrupt and compromised family courts, where sleazy divorce and child custody lawyers, to win judgments for their female clients, conspire with them to make false claims that the husband sexually abused or molested his own children. And, statistics show that in about 90 percent of all such cases, these claims were manufactured for strategic reasons. What happens when these women are exposed as having borne false witness against their estranged husbands? The answer is nothing. They just walk off into the sunset with no legal repercussions.
In many of these cases, the aggrieved men live with the stigma of these false claims for the rest of their lives, and some, given the severe emotional distress, have even gone to the length of committing suicide, as their children and society had become alienated from them. But despite this, the women who made these claims generally couldn’t care less and just go on their merry way in life.
And then there are the false claims of sexual harassment, running so rampant in the last few weeks in particular. Today, despite the documented and serious crimes of the Harvey Weinsteins of the world – and now Sen. Al Franken – “Girls Are Now Running Wild,” “remembering” male crimes against females 30 and 40 years after the offenses are alleged to have occurred. And, for the most part these stale allegations, where the statute of limitations has run decades ago, are generally believed.
Yes, the “Feminist Salem Witch Trials” are now in full swing! And while some of the women coming forward have legitimate claims, I urge you not to prejudge men as guilty before they have been given the chance to be proven innocent.
Michael Brown tried to excuse the hypocrisy of evangelicals continuing to stand with Moore, insisting that it's mostly a "display of distrust of the left":
But before you condemn Moore’s Alabama supporters, and before you write off other conservatives who have stood with him, bear in mind that double standards are not the whole story (or, perhaps, even part of the story). Rather, there is extreme suspicion of the left and deep recognition of how many enemies someone like Judge Moore really has. And with some claiming there is clear evidence that the yearbook signature is a forgery, everything else becomes questionable.
For those on the left who think I’m trying to excuse the inexcusable – meaning, giving Moore any benefit of the doubt even for a moment – just ask yourself how you would have responded if Fox News and Rush Limbaugh claimed to have evidence of Barack Obama sexually abusing minors. To my readers on the left, what would your first reaction be?
We all agree that if the charges against Moore are true, then what he did is terribly ugly and evil, especially since he did so as a professing Christian and as someone in power. But let’s not get carried away with double-standard accusations right now, especially against conservative Christians in Alabama. There’s a lot more to the story that must be factored in.
For decades, feminists and their supporters in the Democratic Party have been engaged in a scorched-earth strategy to destroy white, Christian, conservative men with power. While they still engage in political attacks and target good men like Judge Roy Moore, they’re also taking down their own.
But the left doesn’t really care about truth, nor women for that matter. Most don’t care about due process, because for them, it’s not about justice – it’s about removing men from positions of power, dividing men and women and exploiting that division to advance their leftist political agenda.
In this highly charged environment, Christian men and women must step back so we don’t get caught up in the emotions and hysteria stirred up by feminists and the media. We need to discern and judge these allegations on a case-by-case basis.
We suspect the political orientation of the accused will be a big factor in which cases Peterson judges to be perpetrated by the fake allegations of evil women.
CNS Revives Old 'Catholics vs. Convicts' Meme After Miami Thrashes Notre Dame Topic: CNSNews.com
Somebody at CNSNews.com either really likes Notre Dame or hates the University Miami (or both).
CNS commentary editor Michael Morris cranked out a mean-spirited Nov. 13 blog post after the Notre Dame-Miami football game:
The Miami Hurricanes, also known as the “Convicts” in their rivalry game “Convicts vs. Catholics” with the “Catholics” of Notre Dame, roundly humbled the third-ranked Fighting Irish 41-8 on Saturday, Miami head coach Mark Richt saying about the win, “[P]raise God.”
“Both sides of the ball did play very well, and specials as well,” said Miami head coach Mark Richt after his team defeated the Irish. “And I want to say, praise God.”
[...]
According to the ESPN summary of the game, the “Convicts” (374 total yards) outgained the “Catholics” (261 total yards) in total yards, in time of possession (ND: 26:01 and Miami: 33:59), in first downs (ND: 13 and Miami: 18), in turnover margin (ND: four turnovers, none recovered and Miami zero turnovers, four recovered) and ultimately in the final score ( ND: 8 and Miami: 41).
Miami also clinched the ACC Coastal division Saturday when Virginia lost to Louisville. The Canes (“Convicts”) will play Clemson (8-1) for the ACC title.
Now, the "Catholics vs. Convicts" meme is an old one, coined in 1988 by T-shirt-making students at Notre Dame to hype a game between the two schools at a time when both were undefeated and after a couple of Miami players had gotten into legal difficulties.
Further, it doesn't really apply to the situation between the two schools (or is it a "rivalry" in a traditional sense despite what Morris claims, since the teams have met only four times since 1990). As SB Nation points out, the phrase didn't apply all that well back then (Notre Dame wasn't exactly a clean team either) and applies even less today.
It seems Morris is mad that Miami thrashed the Fightin' Irish on the field, and also apparently that the Miami coach said "Thank God" about the victory. How petty of him.
'It's OK To Be White' Trolls Make WND Happy Topic: WorldNetDaily
An anonymous WorldNetDaily writer is way too cheerful about some racially charged trolling in a Nov. 1 article:
There’s a manhunt on – or womanhunt, if that’s your gender preference – for “racists” in Massachusetts, Ohio, Louisiana, Washington, Alabama and Canada who had the audacity to terrorize by posting signs and stickers that read, “It’s OK to be white.”
It all started out as an idea on the 4chan and endchan online forums to troll the left, universities and the media and demonstrate a double standard when the issue of discrimination is involved.
Would-be trollers were encouraged to print out signs and anonymously post them, particularly on campuses, while wearing Halloween costumes to avoid being identified.
According to the plan: “The next morning, the media goes completely berserk. Normies tune in to see what’s going on, see the posters saying, ‘It’s okay to be white,’ and the media & leftists frothing at the mouth. Normies realize that leftists & journalists hate white people, so they turn on them. Credibility of far-left campuses and media gets nuked, massive victory for the right in the culture war, many more /ourguys/ spawned overnight.”
Basically, it worked. The intended targets took the bait – hook, line and sinker.
WND is no stranger to race-baiting, and it seems to be ramping up again lately, so this embrace of pro-white trolling is no surprise.
MRC Remains Offended By Mere Existence of Gay TV Characters Topic: Media Research Center
Foryears, the Media Research Center has been offended that gays -- real ones or fictional characters -- appear on their TV. Recent outrage has been focused on the fictional variety.
Callista Ring is scowling about a gay character on "Star Trek: Discovery":
Sunday’s episode of CBS's liberal propaganda-filled Star Trek: Discovery gave the first real glimpse of its much-anticipated "groundbreaking gay romance,” as described by Huffington Post.
Tonight’s episode, “Choose Your Pain” ends with an intimate conversation between gay partners Lt. Stamets (Anthony Rapp) and Science Officer Dr. Culber (Wilson Cruz) brushing their teeth before bed. Watch the exchange the liberal writers are patting themselves on the back for here:
As if the show were a cute sitcom rather than space age science fiction, the two utter sweet nothings to each other, like “One tends to worry when they’re doomed to love a brilliant but reckless maniac,” and “I also knew you’d leave me if I let anything else endanger that creature.”
That so-called "liberal propaganda," by the way, is having non-white characters as leads and a Klingon leader character the MRC has decided to interpret as an attack on Donald Trump.
When the Disney Channel show "Andi Mack" decided to add a gay character, Tim Graham was in full anti-gay rant mode:
Parents have realized that the Disney Channel brand isn’t about traditional family programming…it’s about Hollywood using every channel to promote “inclusion and respect for humanity,” which is code for forcing LGBT acceptance. Shred the Bible, sin is in. Your “tweens” – and younger -- need to hear the gospel of the gay movement.
[...]
The least surprising element of this story is the involvement of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), which almost always works hand-in-glove with any Hollywood production to promote homosexuality.
[...]
Entertainment journalists don’t find any space in their story for any critics of pushing this homosexual revolution in children’s programming, or critics who might suggest that GLAAD-approved plotting won’t allow any “inclusion” of a sincere religious objection to their politically correct party line.
Why would journalists what to insert ignorant, manufactured outrage that adds nothing?
And Lindsey Kornick complained that the ABC show "Scandal" "cramed [sic] several PC elements into one plot by introducing the lesbian Muslim university student striving to be the next Gloria Steinem. Can we get anymore to the left at this point?"
Kornick makes sure to get in some gratuitious Muslim-bashing as well, claiming that "we should probably be encouraging countries in the Middle East to do things like, let’s say, not stone victims of rape or throw acid at girls wanting to get an education. Sadly, that may not be politically correct enough for a show with the gay Muslim girl."
WND Brings Race-Baiting -- And Its Favorite Race-Baiter -- Back For Another Round Topic: WorldNetDaily
A few years back, Colin Flaherty was WorldNetDaily'sresidentrace-baiter, obsessing about "black mob violence" committing crimes and effectively portraying all blacks as potential violent criminals. It got so bad that Google threatened to pull ad revenue over all the race-baiting; WND ultimately backed off, agreeing that its ad revenue was more important than all the race-baiting.
Still, WND has brought Flaherty back on occasion to dance his little race-baiting jig, such as in August to awkwardly rant some more about "black mob violence" just a week after the white supremacist rallies in Charlottesville, Va.WND has brought him back yet again in a Nov. 2 article -- unbylined, of course -- to let him grouse about one of his favorite things to blame on black people: "knockout game" attacks on unsuspecting victims.
Even then, he has problems getting facts to conform to his preconceived narrative, having to admit that one alleged perpetrator was Hispanic -- shades of Flaherty's history of inserting white people and pets into his "black mobs" -- before resuming his racial rant:
Flaherty identifies the “knockout game” as mostly driven by black attackers. However, this is not true in every case. Last month, police in Rosenberg, Texas, reportedly feared the “knockout game” had reached their community after a viral video showed a man being knocked unconscious in an unprovoked attack.
The suspect was a Hispanic man, 18-year-old Alejandro Maldonado.
Still, Flaherty argues the overwhelming majority of attackers in these cases over the past few years are black. He says this should cause Americans to view the eternal victimhood claims of groups like Black Lives Matter with suspicion.
“Black Lives Matter and its allies in the press and among politicians claim blacks are always the relentless victims of white racism, all the time, everywhere, and somehow that explains everything,” said Flaherty.
“But this isn’t true. The answer is close to the opposite. The hard reality is blacks are driving an enormous amount of violent crime and crimes against property in this country and both victims and law enforcement know that. And we should also start recognizing the disturbing pattern in these episodes of joyful violence.”
But is that violence any more "joyful" than Flaherty's obsession over it? We suspect not.
CNS Goes All In on Franken Allegations, Continues To Bury Moore Topic: CNSNews.com
We documented how CNSNews.com waited a full four days before reporting on Republican senatorial candidate Roy Moore's history of perving on teenagers. But when an allegation of groping surfaced against Democratic Sen. Al Franken, CNS -- in yet another display of media bias -- went all in.
In the eight hours after the news about Franken broke on Nov. 16, CNS cranked out three "news" articles and a blog post on it:
The next morning brought an article about President Trump's tweets on Franken, with added whining fron reporter Susan Jones that "reporters at the White House wanted to talk about Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore"; the usual statement of manufactured outrage from Brent Bozell (first identified as "ForAmerica chairman" instead of the head of the Media Research Center); and the column Tim Graham hastily wrote for him and Bozell on Franken, proof that they can address sexual harassment when it helps their political agenda.
The column shows why Bozell (via Graham, his once-anonymous ghostwriter) has been silent on Moore so far -- he apparently has no problem with a grown man perving on teenagers, because he can't be moved to raise an objection. Here's what they wrote:
As the Franken scandal unfolds, the media and Democrats have insisted that Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore cannot win the seat due to allegations that he had sexual contact with teenagers. There's no photograph here either. There is no admission of guilt like Franken's. But journalists demanded the voters of Alabama tar and feather Moore.
Apparently, if you deny the accusations, Bozell is cool with that -- well, if you're a conservative, anyway. Bozell and Graham rant about how Bill Clinton accusers like Paula Jones and Juanita Broaddrick were treated by the media even though they, like Moore's accusers, have offered no evidence to back up their claims. That makes this yet another example of the MRC' inability to unequivocally critizize Moore's behavior.
(Meanwhile, the only other CNS article to focus on Moore is a blog post by managing editor Michael W. Chapman complaining that Stephen Colbert called out evangelicals who continue to support Moore. Chapman protested that "Only one woman alleged that Moore molestd [sic] her, not 'four teenage girls'" and that "Moore has not been charged with any crime and none of the allegations against him have been proven in a court of law.")
Bozell and Graham complain about the "rampaging liberal hypocrisy" on media coverage, but they will never admit their own rampaging right-wing hypocrisy, and that of the "news" operation they run.
WND's Hohmann Just Loves Right-Wing Actor's Anti-Muslim Tweet Topic: WorldNetDaily
Anti-Muslim WorldNetDaily reporter Leo Hohmann loves it when other people hate Muslim as much as he does. So he clearly couldn't have been happier to devotea Nov. 15 article to promoting right-wing actor and cradle-robber James Woods' tweet a video of people in Muslim garb at the Mall of America. The headline on Hohmann's racist comment, "Looks like Somalia," though that quote appears nowhere in the article itself.
After rehashing a recent stabbing and a groping incident involving people wiht Muslim-y names, Hohmann finally concedes in the 10th paragraph of his article that there's no context provided by the video since "it is unclear when the video was originally captured."But he cheerfully added: "Wood has more than 1 million followers on Twitter. His tweet of the mall video helped make it viral."
Hohmann also tried to perpetuate the racist myth that all Muslis are violent, declaring that "'peaceful' was not the operative word for what happened" the stabbing incident at the mall. Because that's the kind of biased and prejudiced "reporter" Hohmann is.
MRC Falsely Portrays Jon Stewart As 'Enabler' of Louis C.K. Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center's Tim Graham rushed to judgment in a Nov. 10 post to portray Jon Stewart as an "enabler" of Louis C.K. after giving a noncommital answer when asked on a podcast about allegations against the comedian last year:
Now that comedian Louis C.K. has admitted to egregious sexual harassment, like pulling out his sex organ and masturbating in front of women, it might be worth remembering that this man has some powerful fans and promoters, starting with Jon Stewart, who called him “one of my all-time favorite comedians.”
Liberal sites from Slate to the Daily Beast are revisiting Stewart’s bumbling answers last year when asked during a live podcast with former Obama campaign manager Jim Axelrod about allegations against Louis C.K.
But Stewart has since said he had no knowledge of the allegations against Louis C.K.:
"My first response was, 'What?' And then, joke, joke, and as he kept going, I was like, 'Look, I know this is very serious, but I know Louis, he's always been a gentleman to me,' which, again, it speaks to the blindness that I think a man has, which is, like, 'hey, he's a good guy, what are you talking about?'" Stewart said. "Digging around in it and finding that some people had done, it was hard, but we were all assured like, no, but we took somebody's word for it, and maybe that's an error on our part."
One might similarly ask if MRC bigwigs and Fox News fans/regular guests like Graham and Brent Bozell had any knowledge of the sexual harassment allegations against Roger Ailes and Bill O'Reilly before news of them became widespread public knowledge. But Graham doesn't want to talk about that, does he?
In a Nov. 5 WorldNetDaily article, Alicia Powe gives right-wing columnist Star Parker to make comments like this:
Black Americans are enticed by abortion giants to undergo abortions to reduce the black population, Parker contended. That was one of the goals admitted by Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger, she said.
In fact, there's no evidence Sanger ever targeted blacks out of a racist motive.
Powe herself contribuutes to the lies, claiing that "In her book 'Pivot of Civilization,' Sanger implied many impoverished blacks “should never have been born.” In fact, Sanger said no such thing in that book; the word "negro" (the accepted term for blacks at the time Sanger's book was published) appears only twice, neither referencing a claim that any black person "should never have been born."
Powe also asserts that "Seventy-nine percent of Planned Parenthood’s surgical abortion clinics are located within walking distance of black or Hispanic neighborhoods" -- as we've documented, a highly misleading claim.
Then, in a Nov. 12 WND column, William Hamnet Wall cited what he claimed were "15 deadly lies of abortion pushers." In response to the statement that "Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger was not a eugenics-loving racist," he huffed in response:
Even the squirming apologists from liberal Time magazine reported: “She did (say so), and very publicly. In a 1921 article, she wrote that, ‘the most urgent problem today is how to limit and discourage the over-fertility of the mentally and physically defective.'”
Want more proof?
“We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population,” Sanger wrote in a letter to Dr. Clarence Gamble on Dec. 10, 1939.
Even Planned Parenthood admits Sanger advocated eugenics (as a lot of prominent people did in Sanger's time), so we're not sure who's saying she wasn't. The quote Wall uses to support his claim that she was a racist, however, is taken out of context; as fact-checkers have pointed out, the quote is in reference to encouraging black doctors and ministers to let black women know that Sanger's birth-control campaign targeting blacks was not a Jim Crow-like action.
But Sanger's dead, and you can't libel the dead. That's what WND is counting on in publishing demonstrable lies.
CNS Managing Editor: Gays Practice 'Sexual Depravity' Topic: CNSNews.com
Michael W. Chapman has a long record of using his position as managing editor of CNSNews.com to attack and defame the LGBT community, including portraying them as the literal spawn of Satan. Chapman was at it again in a Nov. 8 blog post defending a "faithful" Catholic bishop for deny funerals to gays:
Because Robert C. Morlino, the Catholic bishop of the Madison Diocese, adheres to Church teaching and opposes funeral rites for homosexuals that would cause "scandal and confusion," gays and pro-sodomy advocates have launched a petition that calls on Pope Francis to remove Bishop Morlino from his position.
Simply, the LGBT activists do not want a Catholic bishop to actually believe in and follow Catholic teaching. They are in effect demanding that he celebrate sexual depravity.
But in all the Catholic canon law and allegedly authoritative statements from other Catholic officials, the word "depravity" is not used -- which means Chapman is freelancing from Catholic doctrine and hating on gays once again.
Jesse Lee Peterson Has Issues With Women, Sexual Harassment Edition Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily columnist Jesse Lee Peterson has long had issues with women. The recent spate of sexual harassment scandals has inflamed those issues yet again.
In his Nov. 5 column, Peterson lamented "the continued destruction of so-called 'men in power' by the radical left and wicked media" like Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey. He then lashed out at the women making those allegations and wondered where the "female Harvey Weinsteins" are:
This “accuser culture” is not about truth, justice or righting any wrongs. If it were, we’d see women too being exposed and dealt with. Why is nobody pointing out how selfish many of these women are for seeking career and position rather than forsaking worldly gain to stand for what’s right? If you truly put morality above selfish ambition, no “powerful man” in Hollywood can intimidate or silence you. But these women (and “men”) were silent for years and decades.
When God dealt with Adam and Eve after their fall, did he only address Adam? No, he dealt with both, and he did not accept excuses or casting of blame. And “I was afraid” was no reason to hide.
Furthermore, where are the female so-called “sexual predators” in Hollywood and media? Fox News, the Drudge Report and others have shown story after story of female teachers exploiting underage male students for sex. Do you really believe no women in Hollywood or media are guilty as well? It’s time to stop hiding this wickedness and hypocrisy. The left does not care about stopping evil. Leftists care about corrupting and maligning everything good about masculinity.
Rape, sexual exploitation, pedophilia and pederasty are not just a “male” or homosexual things: Women do these too – more frequently than you may think. And despite the supposed “locker-room” culture of bragging about sex, boys and men suffer at least as much humiliation and pain at the hands of women as vice versa.
Peterson ramped up his hatred for women in his Nov. 12 column:
So-called “empowerment of women” has nearly brought America to her knees. Women have been allowed to make up any accusation against men, and half the country believes them without any evidence.
Corrupt judges, politicians and media encourage this madness. Accusations against men destroy the good reputations of decent men. They distance supporters from good leaders, wives from husbands, children from their fathers. This separation kills the souls of children, who grow up angry, aimless and out of control. Suspicions play on the imaginations and worries of women in relationships. False accusations breed malice and distrust between men and women.
How do you protect yourself from vindictive, selfish women and their wicked lies?
First, you don’t have sex with a woman until marriage. That way, you and she stay less emotionally involved. Liberals have a very low moral standard, or excuse, for sex under any circumstance. They call their low standard “consent,” whereas God’s standard is marriage. God gave us his commandments to help us live a good life and protect us from evil. Do not fall for Satan’s excuses and phony imitation of morality. Even so-called “consensual sex” outside marriage opens you up to all kinds of calamity. The daughter of Satan with whom you slept can change her mind, turn around and accuse you of insane things when the relationship sours. While not every woman will do this, you cannot afford to place your trust in any woman – if you trust the woman, you don’t trust God. Whether you know it or not, she will see your weakness, judge you and never respect you.
Peterson then tried to smear one accuser of Roy Moore by citing ... Newsmax columnist James Hirsen's unproven, slut-shaming claim that she has been "charged with multiple misdeameanors," then adding: "I remind you that if you support Democrats, you support evil. These women are evil."
MRC Incapable Of Unequivocally Denouncing Roy Moore Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center is running into the same problem with Roy Moore that it had with Bill O'Reilly: an inabilty to criticize the bad behavior of a prominent conservative without equivocating it with something else.
Mike Ciandella, for instance, complains that the Moore's perving on teenage girls is being covered more than the corruption trial of Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez (as usual limiting his media view to network news and completely ignoring cable). Of course, he plays the "if true" card on the way to his equivocation:
The media are right to cover the allegations of child molestation against Alabama Senatorial Candidate Roy Moore. If these allegations are true, they are inexcusable and unforgivable, and voters in that state have a right to know about them. Yet, the same media outlets that have moments of clarity when it comes to Republican scandals and corruption turn a blind eye when the scandals and corruption come from a Democrat.
Rich Noyes churned out a more in-depth -- but still biased and narrowly constructed -- study comparing Moore and Menendez coverage, with an added whine about "the liberal media’s double-standard on ethics: A Democrat’s corruption scandal is kept under wraps, while a Republican’s alleged transgressions are given saturation coverage." Speaking of double standards: Noyes apparently doesn't know that the "news" arm of the MRC, CNSNews.com, completely ignored the Moore story for four days.
Jeffrey Lord -- who played dumb about sexual harassment claims against Roger Ailes -- echoed Ciandella: "This sudden and massive coverage of Alabama GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore and a 38-year old charge of sex with a 14 year old? Where is all the massive on-going liberal media coverage of Democratic Senator Bob Menendez’s trial for corruption and bribery? It isn’t there. Funny how that works, yes? No, actually."
Scott Whitlock conceded that the accusations against Moore are "serious" -- then whined that the media identified him as a conservative Republican.
Curtis Houck also agreed the allegations are "damning" -- but then attacked the Washington Post for publishing them:
The allegations are damning and a clear example of not living life according to The Ten Commandments, but that doesn’t mean The Post is absolved from being labeled a part of the liberal machine. Allegations and important reporting can come from outlets across the political spectrum (e.g. Ronan Farrow’s masterful Harvey Weinstein stories in The New Yorker), but it’s important to recognize where stories are coming from.
Yet we can't recall an instance in which the MRC dismissed an allegation about a liberal made by a conservative media outlet because of where the story came from.
The MRC then moved to the Clinton Equivocation phase of the story. Tim Graham cheered that "Slick Willie" was brought up, however briefly, and Nicholas Fondacaro huffed: "Voters couldn’t be skeptical about the allegations against Moore, but her network and the rest of the media could be skeptical, omit, and deny the allegations against their precious Bill Clinton." And Houck rejoiced when CNN's Jake Tapper claimed that Clinton's accusers did not get "the same respect" in the media that Moore's accusers have.
Meanwhile, the MRC that contiuously portrayed Bill Clinton's accusers as unimpeachable has yet to make any sort of statement about the veracity of Moore's accusers, apparently incapable of even the most innocuous statement that they should be believed. By staying silent, the MRC is not showing them the same respect they showed Clinton's accusers.
In other words, the MRC sexual harassment double standard continues.
CNSNews.com editor in chief Terry Jeffrey writes a lot about economic stuff. Perhaps he shouldn't, if his Nov. 14 article is any indication:
No discerning news consumer has ever mistaken WorldNetDaily for a real news operation that was fair and balanced and was concerned about the truth. It's always been among the most highly biased "news" operations, and it became even more so with the advent of Donald Trump's presidential campaign, 
The Media Research Center's Kristine Marsh writes in a Nov. 14 
WorldNetDaily's writers are making it clear: they want the pervert to win in Alabama.
Somebody at CNSNews.com either really likes Notre Dame or hates the University Miami (or both).
An anonymous WorldNetDaily writer is way too cheerful about some racially charged trolling in a Nov. 1 
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A few years back, Colin Flaherty was 
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Anti-Muslim WorldNetDaily reporter Leo Hohmann loves it when other people hate Muslim as much as he does. So he clearly couldn't have been happier to devotea Nov. 15 
The Media Research Center's Tim Graham rushed to judgment in a Nov. 10 
Lying about Margaret Sanger and Planned Parenthood is a longtime ConWeb 
Michael W. Chapman has a 
WorldNetDaily columnist Jesse Lee Peterson has long had 
The Media Research Center is running into the same problem with Roy Moore that it had 
