Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center keeps trying to defend discredited "conversion therapy" aimed at turning gays straight, but the sources its writers cite are questionable at best, if not discredited themselves. Read more >>
Wednesday, March 28, 2018
NEW ARTICLE: Scientifically Unsound, Totally Political
Topic: Media Research Center The Media Research Center keeps trying to defend discredited "conversion therapy" aimed at turning gays straight, but the sources its writers cite are questionable at best, if not discredited themselves. Read more >>
Posted by Terry K.
at 4:28 PM EDT
WND's Cashill Doesn't Understand Why Nobody Believes Larry Sinclair
Topic: WorldNetDaily Jack Cashill uses the Stormy Daniels scandal to spend his March 21 WorldNetDaily column rehashing one of the most completely unbelievable claims of the Obama years: that Larry Sinclair once slept with Barack Obama.
Actually, no, Sinclair was not convincing at all. As one attendee at that press conference noted, Sinclair provided no evidence to back up his claims other than "a few phone numbers — registered under different names and in different states — that Mr. Sinclair claimed he used to call, variously, a limousine driver, the deceased choir director of Trinity United Church of Christ, and others." Cashill went on to complain that "Politico, whose 'most read' story this week concerned Stormy Daniels’s alleged affair with Donald Trump 12 years ago, headlined its account of the Sinclair press conference, 'Obama accuser has long rap sheet.'" It's telling that Cashill doesn't link to that article -- it was written as a preview of Sinclair's presser, not a summary -- or give his readers any detail about that lengthy rap sheet, which includes a 16-year jail sentence for forgery, as well as other deceit-related crimes. Being the inveterate conspiracy-monger he is, Cashill can't stop peddling the never-substantiated claim that Donald Young, a member of the church Obama attended in Chicago who was later murdered, also slept with Obama, insisting that many people, "including Young’s mother, believe Young was murdered to protect Obama’s reputation." Despite his background and utter lack of evidence to back up what he says, Cashill clearly still considers Sinclair to be credible. That continued, bizarre embrace of a convicted felon is a reminder that there still isn't any reason to believe anything Cashill says.
Posted by Terry K.
at 12:40 AM EDT
Tuesday, March 27, 2018
CNS Is A Little Too Cool With Putin's Re-Election
Topic: CNSNews.com CNSNews.com reporter Patrick Goodenough plays it weirdly straight in a March 18 article on the Russian elections:
That's the only reference to Navalny in the article -- which is strange, given that Goodenough in December wrote an article about Navalny's disqualification, and in January wrote an article featuring Republican Sen. Tom Cotton denouncing the jailing of Navalny after a anti-Putin rally, saying that "Every time [Putin] imprisons an opposition leader, it only shows the world just how corrupt and oppressive his regime truly is." So he was a position to add more information about it; instead, he provides only a hint of the rigging that took place to ensure Putin's re-election. The same day, Goodenough wrote an article that devotes its first four paragraphs to how Putin denied involvement in the poisoning of a former Russian military official and his daughter in London, oddly waiting until the fifth paragraph that "The comments by Putin on the day of a major election victory directly refuted a claim made by British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson hours earlier" that Russians were involved. This evenhandedness is at odds with the rest of what passes for CNS' "news" coverage, which is heavy on one-source wonders designed to push a right-wing, pro-Trump narrative.
Posted by Terry K.
at 7:30 PM EDT
Updated: Tuesday, March 27, 2018 7:31 PM EDT
WND Columnist: Gay-Teen Movie Is 'Device of the Devil'
Topic: WorldNetDaily Larry Tomczak declares his hatred of the film "Love, Simon" in his March 19 WorldNetDaily column for committing the offense of not hating gays:
Tomczak then tells the story of Stephen Bennett, who says he believed the "lie" that that he was gay, then was converted by a friend who "clearly showed me from the Bible how God did not make anyone ‘gay’ and how no one was born homosexual and who now, in Tomczak's words, serves "young men and women confused about their sexuality and seduced by the preponderance of LGBTQ propaganda in America today." Tomczak doesn't mention that Bennett is so filled with hatred for the LGBT community that he doesn't believe they deserve equal rights.
Posted by Terry K.
at 3:46 PM EDT
MRC Treats Mark Levin Like A God At NewsBusters Too
Topic: Media Research Center CNSNews.com is not the only part of the Media Research Center empire that treats right-wing radio host Mark Levin like a god whose words demand slavish transcription for hungry readers. CNS has devoted 17 articles dutifully transcribing Levin in the first two months of 2018 alone. Levin swooned at the Media Research Center's ridiculous awards gala last fall that "I rely on" the MRC and leader Brent Bozell. (He didn't mention that the two have had, and may still have, a cross-promotion deal.) That's enough for the MRC to do some bonus stenography on his behalf at NewsBusters that's beyond what it already does at CNS:
The MRC also goes into full-on defense mode for Levin, even when the target is orbsure or irrelevant. In a March 10 post, Graham ranted about a newspaper in Israel calling Levin "controversial" and a "shock jock," huffing that "Other countries have the same liberal bias as America does." (Actually, the Times of Israel is independent, but to Graham and the MRC, any media outlet that does not blindly repeat right-wing orthodoxy is "liberal.") Graham also huffed that "There was nothing in this article that would explain how Levin is not a 'shock jock' like Howard Stern." Apparently, Levin sneering about Jon Stewart that "I don't trust Jews who changes their names" was not a shocking statement to Graham even though obsessing over Jews who change their names is a pastime Levin shares with the neo-Nazis at Stormfront. And then, returning to lackey mode, Graham quotes Levin's rant about the "shock jock" label, including the pithy retort "If I had a bird, I wouldn't even want to use your paper at the bottom of my birdcage...I wouldn't want to poison the bird." In fact, the Times of Israel is an online-only publication, so that would be impossible to do. Not that Graham would ever deign to fact-check his idol, of course.
Posted by Terry K.
at 12:33 AM EDT
Monday, March 26, 2018
WND Forgets Its History of Pushing Rothschild Conspiracy Theories
Topic: WorldNetDaily An anonymous WorldNetDaily writer states in a March 19 article:
WND not gets White's first name wrong -- it's Trayon, not Trayvon -- it also conveniently forgets how it too has pushed Rothschild-linked conspiracy theories over the years.
Additionally, the WND online store sells the book "Brotherhood of Darkness" by Stanley Monteith, which claims to be about "secret societies, how they have directed the course of civilization and how they influence your life today." In it, Monteith writes that "Those who believe that Jewish banks are responsible for our problems cite Benjamin Disraeli's book ["Coningsby"] and claim that he exposed the Jewish Banking Conspiracy. Then they point to the Rothschilds, Kuhn, Loeb and Co., the Warburgs, the Lazard Bank, Lehman Brothers, and Goldman Sachs to justify their contention that Jewish bankers control the world." Monteith then adds that "those arguments are convincing," though he went on to note that non-Jewish bankers played a major role in the banking industry and that "Jewish banks played an important part in financing industrial development in Europe, but they never controlled the financial institutions of the world."Monteith also claims that Disraeli and Rothschild promoted the Jewish banking conspiracy to obscure the real banking conspiracy, in which the Masons control everything. It's rather cute how WND is now pretending it's never been a conspiracy theory-laden website.
Posted by Terry K.
at 5:42 PM EDT
Finally! CNS' Jones Speaks Stormy Daniels' Name
Topic: CNSNews.com CNSNews.com reporter Susan Jones has finally decided that She Who Must Not Be Named has a name after all. After writing a story about the burgeoning Stormy Daniels scandal involving President Trump that somehow avoided using Daniels' name (while also dismissing the entire story as a "liberal media" narrative), Jones has finally decided that Daniels has a name after all -- while also continuing to try and pigeonhole the story as nothing but a liberal media narrative. In a March 13 article, Jones dismisses MSNBC's Joe Scarborough as a "Trump hater" for bringing up the story:
Jones then added her pithy summary of the scandal:
You know who else denied a sexual incident with a politican and then "changed her mind and now insists it really did happen"? Juanita Broaddrick. But you'll never see Jones report it that way. In a March 16 item -- presented as a blog post even though its partisan tone is no different from the above "news" article -- Jones huffed: "Making the rounds of liberal cable channels Friday morning, Stormy Daniels' attorney Michael Avenatti said he was not there to hype an upcoming "60 Minutes" interview with the porn star -- even as he hyped the upcoming interview." She huffed even further that "Rarely has a porn star been accorded such credibility." Jones ended the article by complaining:
Jones has a conveniently short memory if she thinks the "politics of personal destruction" began only 14 months ago. Bill Clinton's womanizing didn't come as a shock to Americans either, despite CNS parent the Media Research Center's pearl-clutching over it in the 1990s. Using Jones' argument, this means that the MRC was never motived by any sense of morality but as a means of trying to undermine his presidency -- which would seem to be a violation of its nonprofit tax status. In a March 26 article, written after Daniels' interview on "60 Minutes," Jones makes sure to identify Daniels as an "aging porn star," then huffed that she "assured America she's not in it for the money -- then talked about all the "job offers" she's getting by going public with her claims about Donald Trump." And in a companion article, Jones complained that Daniels' attorney, Michael Avanetti, was trying to "discredit Donald Trump" by trying to get a deposition from Trump regarding Daniels -- as if Trump hasn't already discredited himself long before now. We already know Jones is a slavish pro-Trump loyalist, but she's just embarassing herself her with her aggressive defense of Trump over something she'd be in attack mode over if Trump were not a Republican.
Posted by Terry K.
at 2:28 PM EDT
Updated: Thursday, March 29, 2018 9:55 PM EDT
WND Tries To Save Itself With ... Bitcoin?
Topic: WorldNetDaily When Joseph Farah said that WorldNetDaily had been saved through reader donations and that he was "working with a non-profit foundation through which we can more efficiently produce the kind of content that makes WND unique," we figured he was hooking up with the likes of the Farah-founded Western Journalism Center and doing something like the Daily Caller does in having its reporters actually employed by a nonprofit while the ostensibly for-profit WND benefits from all their work. Farah hasn't revealed anything, but he is taking another direction in the funding front: investing in cryptocurrency. WND announced in a March 14 article that donors to WND would be given bitcoin -- not actual bitcoin, mind you, the one that hit a bubble late last year and is still trading for thousands of dollars each, but something called AML Bitcoin, which clains to have "patented anti-theft and anti-hacking technology," whatever that means. Farah does his best to try and sell it by baselessly suggesting that AML Bitcoin will appreciate in value just like actual bitcoin:
Wait, AML Bitcoin hasn't actually been introduced yet? That means Farah is giving away something that doesn't actually exist. It's something that's purely speculative at this point. Farah has not explain exactly what kind of deal he made with the purveyors of the thus-far-nonexistent AML Bitcoin, the NAC Foundation, to get his grubby littlehands on enough AML Bitcoin IOUs to give away to donors. But AML Bitcoin is running a serious hype machine to promote its actual release -- and, thus, hopefully build up the coin's value. It all feels like a pump-and-dump penny stock. Now, cryptocurrency is a very complicated business for investors, and there are more than 1,000 types of cryptocurrencies, of which AML Bitcoin is but one. And Farah has given no indication that he knows what he's doing in signing on to this giveaway to donors other than being a hype man for the issuers. This should raise plenty of red flags. In a March 24 email letter, Farah seems to admit he's desperate enough to try this:
In other words, it's a total gamble. Farah is so devoted to being a hype man for AML Bitcoin that's he peddling one of their lies. In a March 23 email letter, Farah writes about "AML Bitcoin’s swaggering attitude that got the company’s big commercial debut on the Super Bowl banned by politically correct NBC and the NFL." But as Buzzfeed details, the claim that AML Bitcoin's ad was "banned" is bogus because the company never actually bought any Super Bowl airtime and NBC never reviews content unless money actually changes hands.But AML Bitcoin got lots of publicity off the hoax, so that was apparently considered a success. Buzzfeed also details other ways AML Bitcoin is putting hype before ethical business practices:
WND, it so happens, published a book by Abramoff, so that may be the connection between the two companies. Still, it's not a good sign. This whole venture reeks of desperation and scamminess. Buyer beware.
Posted by Terry K.
at 12:19 AM EDT
Sunday, March 25, 2018
MRC's Houck Pretends He Doesn't Want To Destroy The 'Liberal Media'
Topic: Media Research Center Following a March 18 appearance by conservative Ben Shapiro on the CNN's "Reliable Sources," hosted by Brian Stelter, Media Research Center employee and NewsBusters managing editor Curtis Houck tweeted, "We need MORE debates like the one @benshapiro and @brianstelter had today. It's important to show that many conservatives care about our media discourse and dispatch with the notion that we all want to see the liberal media fatally crushed." He later added that "there is a misnomer that this is the end game for the conservative movement when it comes to media accountability and liberal bias." But it's not a misnomer: The MRC really does want to see the liberal media fatally crushed. We don't need to look any farther than how NewsBusters -- again, the MRC-operated website for which Houck is the managing editor -- treated the Stelter-Shapiro debate. "Wrecked: Ben Shapiro Destroys Stelter for Denying Media’s Liberal Bias" screamed the headline on the post by Houck's colleague Nicholas Fondacaro, who ranted:
Does that sound like someone who cares only about accountability and not obsessed with fatally crushing the "liberal media"? Fondacaro filled his post with highly biased language, claiming Stelter was "ridiculous" and "snide" and used an "obvious falsehood," while Shapiro was portrayed as someone who responded with a "light-hearted chuckle" and who "scolded" Stelter for saying something he didn't like. Again, not the attitude of someone who is seeking anything other than destruction of media that doesn't align with right-wing orthodoxy. As NewsBusters managing editor, Houck presumably could have stopped that ridiculous headline or toned down Fondacaro's overheated rhetoric. He didn't. Meanwhile, Houck himself showed his true destruction-mode colors in a March 22 post lashing out at CNN chief Jeff Zucker for (accurately) calling Fox News a "propaganda machine" and "state-run TV." First, there's Houck's headline claim that Zucker is a "puppet-master" -- an image steeped in anti-Semitic stereotypes, as we pointed out when the MRC used it to attack George Soros. Houck tried to fabricate a context for the slur toward the end of his piece by claiming that a New York Times profile of Zucker "exposed" him as "a puppet-master choreographing big interviews and feeding questions in the ears of Anderson Cooper and Jake Tapper." One could argue Roger Ailes did the same thing at Fox News, but it's highly doubtful Houck or anyone else at the MRC would ever describe him as as "puppet-master."Plus, the label implies that Cooper and Tapper are incapable of thinking for themselves -- another biased assumption on Houck's part. Houck goes on to rant about "the chest-thumping, self-sanctimonious CNN" huffing: "Whether it’s CNN’s porn obsession, Jim Acosta at a White House press briefing, their fake news story about WikiLeaks, or Jake Tapper’s 1984-style town hall on gun control, CNN’s recent track record has been a complete and under embarrassment. And that doesn’t even touch their ratings." Again, not the language of someone who's interested in a serious conversation about media discourse. Houck should stop pretending he believes otherwise.
Posted by Terry K.
at 2:51 PM EDT
Updated: Sunday, March 25, 2018 2:54 PM EDT
HIllary Derangement Syndrome Watch
Topic: WorldNetDaily
-- Mychal Massie, March 19 WorldNetDaily column
Posted by Terry K.
at 11:19 AM EDT
Saturday, March 24, 2018
CNS Still Can't Stop Perpetuating False Planned Parenthood Funding Myth
Topic: CNSNews.com If there's one thing CNSNews.com loves to do, it's falsely suggest or outright claim that federal money to Planned Parenthood pays for abortion. It goes the false-suggestion-by-juxtaposition in a March 12 column by Monica Burke of the anti-abortion Heritage Foundation, who complained that "A recent government report has revealed that Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider, received over $1.5 billion in taxpayer funds from 2013 to 2015" and huffing that "there is still much more to be done to prevent public funds from being tied up with abortion on demand." In fact, federal money to Planned Parenthood, by law, does not pay for abortion; Title X funding given to Planned Parenthood pays for other services for women.Thus, the money is not, in fact, "tied up with abortion on demand." CNS managing editor Michael W. Chapman made the false juxtaposition more explicit in a March 22 blog post (needless boldface in original):
Chapman added: "If one were cynical, one might conclude that the establishment GOP -- not the conservatives -- has absolutely no intention of ever defunding Planned Parenthood. " One doesn't have to be cynical, however, to see that Chapman places right-wing propaganda before reporting the truth -- an odd position for someone who's supposedly running a "news" operation. As if the graphic photo of a "baby killed by saline abortion," taken from anti-abortion group Priests for Life, in his wasn't already an indicator of Chapman's preference for propaganda. UPDATE: CNS editor in chief Terry Jeffrey regurgitated the bogus juxtapostion in his March 21 column:
Jeffrey, like the others, failed to tell his readers that none of that money pays for abortion, yet he attacked Republicans as "moral cowards" for not trying to eliminate federal funding to Planned Parenthood. But isn't is also a form of moral cowardice to hide facts from readers in order to push a political argument?
Posted by Terry K.
at 10:50 AM EDT
Updated: Sunday, March 25, 2018 11:11 AM EDT
WND Columnist: Trump Accuser Is A 'Super-Whore'
Topic: WorldNetDaily Jane Chastain was moved to do some politically motivated lashing out in her March 14 WorldNetDaily column:
Chastain then made lame excuses for Trump's immoral behavior, then gives him a pass because he's doing such a bang-up job as president:
Has Chastain ever described any of Bill Clinton's accusers as "super-whores" in it for the money? We doubt it.
Posted by Terry K.
at 1:03 AM EDT
Updated: Sunday, March 25, 2018 6:03 PM EDT
Friday, March 23, 2018
MRC Still Thinks Hate-Watching TV Shows Is Charming (It's Not)
Topic: Media Research Center The Media Research Center has a thing for hate-watching TV shows for the sole apparent purpose of trashing them for not repeating right-wing propaganda. Here's a couple more recent examples. The headline for Alexa Moutevelis Coombs' "review" of Alec Baldwin's new talk show tells us that fairness and balance are not on her agenda: "Alec Baldwin's New Talk Show A Bloated, Self-Aggrandizing Snooze-fest - Just Like Him." Her "review" isnothing but one long hatefest:
Maybe Coombs should stick to watching shows that reinforce her right-wing ideology instead of pretending she's an objective media critic. Only slightly less hateful was Lindsay Kornick's hot take on a cartoon:
How does that compare to the overwhelming hatred of right-wingers? Kornick is a little too close to the situation to weigh in objectively. Hate-watching a show and then spewing said hate all over a blog isn't as charming as the MRC seems to think it is./
Posted by Terry K.
at 2:58 PM EDT
Should Seth Rich's Parents Sue WND Too?
Topic: WorldNetDaily Surprisingly, WorldNetDaily did an article on how Seth Rich's parents are suing Fox News for cynically exploiting their son's death and turning it into a "political football" and promoting conspiracy theories about it. Less surprisingly, WND used the opportunity to rehash some of its favorite conspiracy theories about Rich. The language has been temperred a bit, though; WND has been reduced to saying that "WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange appeared to suggest that Rich was one of his sources" and that "Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh appeared to have dropped a bombshell in audio" (emphasis added). As we've documented, WND's coverage of Rich has been nothing but cynical exploitation, so driven by its hatred of Hillary Clinton that it placed Rich on the so-called "Clinton Body Count"-- suggesting that the Clintons themselves played a role in Rich's death. It was so eager to smear with this story that it even enlisted notorious conspiracy-monger Liz Crokin -- who believes Pizzagate is real -- to write some of them. So why isn't the Rich family suing WND? Mainly, it seems, because it mostly didn't try to ensnare Rich's parents in the conspiracy theories. The Riches are also suing Ed Butowsky, a right-wing financier who worked with Fox News in getting that story published and also foisted Rod Wheeler upon the Riches as a private investigator. (Plus, there's also the fact that WND is barely existing as it is and doesn't have much money to pay out in damages.) Still, WND did try to co-opt the Rich family on its GoFundMe page to raise money to fund "investigative reporting resources" into finding Rich's killer but putting a blurb from Rich's brother, implying that the Riches had endorsed WND's efforts. By the way, the campaign has been up nine months now, and it still hasn't crossed the $5,000 threshold. The threat of being called to account for its irresponsible reporting hasn't quite stopped WND from covering things related to Seth Rich, however. It has an article up about a bizarre incident in which conspiracy theorist Jack Burkman -- whose work in exploiting Rich's death WND has promoted -- was "shot at and run over by the former U.S. Marine he hired to help him get to the bottom of the case." Needless to say, WND didn't frame this as a clash between two conspiratorial losers fighting over a never-proven conspiracy theory, nor did it report, as an actual news outlet did, that police have not verified Burkman's account. At this rate, WND may just earn that lawsuit after all.
Posted by Terry K.
at 1:37 AM EDT
Thursday, March 22, 2018
CNS' Jones Can't Be Bothered To Fact-Check Paul Ryan
Topic: CNSNews.com Susan Jones shows off her stenography skills yet again in a May 14 article:
Jones couldn't be bothered to fact-check what Ryan said -- too bad, because what Ryan said isn't true at all. As an actual news outlet reported:
But Jones isn't about facts -- she's all about stenography.
Posted by Terry K.
at 7:33 PM EDT
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