Topic: WorldNetDaily
The fringe-right Association of American Physicians and Surgeons knows it can count on WorldNetDaily to let it peddle anti-vaxxer conspiracy theories unchallenged. Read more >>
Wednesday, April 17, 2019
NEW ARTICLE: Vaccine Misinformers Get A WND Platform
Topic: WorldNetDaily The fringe-right Association of American Physicians and Surgeons knows it can count on WorldNetDaily to let it peddle anti-vaxxer conspiracy theories unchallenged. Read more >>
Posted by Terry K.
at 12:16 AM EDT
Tuesday, April 16, 2019
MRC Mad At 'Black Press Only' Event, Silent On Pompeo's Briefing Only For 'Faith Based Media'
Topic: NewsBusters Randy Hall found something to be offended about in a March 29 NewsBusters post (boldface in original):
Meanwhile, Hall -- not to mention anyone else at NewsBusters or any other Media Research Center website, for that matter -- has yet to mention a similar act of bigotry perpetrated not by a political candidate but by the Trump administration. On March 18, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo held a press briefing conference call only for "faith-based media" -- thus effectively creating a religious test for reporters wanting to cover Pompeo. Not only has the State Department refused to release a list of the "faith-based media" outlets who took part in the briefing, it has also refused to release a transcript of what was said in the briefing. If the coverage restriction by the Georgia candidate is so offensive to Hall -- as judged by the boldface he used in writing about it and the word "SEGREGATED" in all-caps in his headline -- why isn't Pompeo's discriminatory and segregated coverage restriction? We may never get an answer.
Posted by Terry K.
at 8:15 PM EDT
WND Columnist Goes Godwin on Transgenders (While Pretending He's Not)
Topic: WorldNetDaily
-- Brent Smith, March 22 WorldNetDaily column
Posted by Terry K.
at 3:40 PM EDT
CNS Still Thinks Mocking AOC Is 'News'
Topic: CNSNews.com As a right-wing "news" outlet, CNSNews.com thinks it's "news" to take lame shots at Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, usually with headlines designed to make her look ridiculous and unserious. That pattern hasn't stopped. An anonymously written March 1 article pulls a line by AOC out of context in the headline -- "Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: ‘I’m the Boss!’" -- and in the lead: "At an event at the New York Hall of Science on Feb. 22, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez described why it was important for her to have introduced her Green New Deal, saying: 'I’m the boss.'" It's not until later that CNS gets around to putting the statement in context, revealing it to be much less braggodocius than it was portrayed in the headline and lead paragraph:
Another anonymously written article -- funny how no writer at CNS wants to put their names on these hit pieces, isn't it? -- carries the headline "Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: ‘What We Need to Do is Have a Serious Conversation’ About Cow Flatulence." But the article makes it clear she didn't say exactly that:
In other words, there's notable distance between "serious conversation" and "cow flatulence." But CNS' narrative on AOC is to make her look ridiculous, not accurately report the facts. There was one attack on AOC to which the writer did volunteer to be identified, though. A Feb. 15 piece by managing editor Michael W. Chapman lectured her: "Although nearly all the major studies on habitual marijuana use show a strong link between its consumption and mental illness, including schizophrenia, and violence, House Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) said it's perfectly fine if a president of the United States smokes dope because 'you're not hurting anybody.' The 29-year-old self-declared socialist added, 'yeah, I don't care.'" Indeed, most of Chapman's piece is reciting "bulleted highlights" from author Alex Berenson's speech at the right-wing Hillsdale College about "his findings on teenage marijuana use and its link to mental illness and violence." Chapman didn't mention that the author didn't exactly help his case by giving his book the same title as original title of the notoriously insane anti-marijuana propaganda film "Reefer Madness" -- or that his book has been largely dismissed as inaccurate and alarmist.
Posted by Terry K.
at 12:43 AM EDT
Monday, April 15, 2019
WND's Anti-Vaxxer 'Health Pros' Are Just Its Fringe-Right Dubious Docs
Topic: WorldNetDaily The headline on an April 10 WorldNetDaily article read "Health pros: De Blasio's forced vaccinations abuse of power." But the only "health pro" WND quotes is the article is its old fringe-right anti-vaxxer friend, Jane Orient of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. WND gave Orient unchallenged space to rant against New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio's order to vaccinate people in order to stop a measles epidemic in the city:
Orient is misleading: Jacobson v. Massachusetts actually upheld the right of states to enforce compulsory vaccination. It did, however, create a medical exemption to compulsory vaccination, and it ruled that people could not be forcibly vaccinated but could be punished with fines or imprisonment for refusing to do so. Further, the party that made the argument that compulsory vaccination was "arbitrary and oppressive" was plaintiff Henning Jacobson, not the Supreme Court as Orient suggests. The rest of the WND article rehashes Orient's and the AAPS anti-vaxxer stance, including the scientifically unsound claim that "vaccines are inevitably unsafe." As opposed to catching a disease a person could die from?
Posted by Terry K.
at 5:48 PM EDT
MRC Loves The Lazy 'Meathead' Insult of Rob Reiner
Topic: Media Research Center We noted a couple of years back how the Media Research Center loves calling Rob Reiner "Meathead" as a cheap, lazy insult whenever he expresses an opinion it doesn't like. Indeed, that cheap, lazy insult has only increased in frequency during the Trump years, many them coming from the lazy keyboard of MRC writer Corinne Weaver:
The latest lazy insult came in an April 3 post by Tim Graham headlined "'Meathead' Rob Reiner Still Cries Collusion: 'The Russians Robbed the Bank,' Trump Hid Them." Graham also dropped the insult in his piece as well, claiming that "'Meathead' has dramatically changed his spin to suggesting special counsel Robert Mueller had a 'very, very narrow charge' to investigate." The fact that the MRC as a whole apparently can't separate an actor from a role he hasn't played in 40 years -- and can't rise above cheap, lazy insults -- does not inspire a sense that anyone should take it seriously.
Posted by Terry K.
at 2:03 PM EDT
WND, Newsmax Defend Dershowitz Against Sex Allegations
Topic: WorldNetDaily Over the past several months, attorney Alan Dershowitz has become the ConWeb's favorite liberal for his willingness to defend President Trump -- for instance, WorldNetDaily managing editor David Kupelian declared him to be "people of conscience and principle" because of his Trump defenses. Now, ConWeb components are defending Dershowitz himself over allegations raised as part of the Jeffrey Epstein sex scandal. A Miami Herald series on Epstein repeated the claim of one of Epstein's alleged sex trafficking victims that she had sex with Dershowitz -- who has served as Epstein's attorney -- while underage. Dershowitz has regularly denied any involvement with the woman and has said he has never met her. But the story has persisted, so Dershowitz's new conservative friends are running to his defense. An anonymously written April 3 WorldNetDaily article uncritically repeats Dershowitz's attack on the Herald for repeating the allegations against him -- though it waited until the 11th paragraph to reveal that crucial part of it.The article also made sure to highlight Bill Clinton's alleged connections to Epstein -- but not Trump's. WND has previously buried Dershowitz's link to the Epstein scandal, as well as Trump's, while hyping Clinton's link to it. Newsmax also published an article the same day, but while it was more upfront about the allegations against Dershowitz, it was as one-sided as the WND piece; neither sought out the Herald for its response to his allegations. And the Herald did have a response: a series of tweets in which it declared it stood by its story and claimed that in a meeting with the Herald, Dershowitz "read select passages from voluminous documents that he said vindicated him. He declined to let the journalists examine the documents or take copies." Neither WND nor Newsmax did a follow-up story reporting the Herald's response. Newsmax did, however, publish an April 11 column by Dershowitz again attacking the accusations against him, though not mentioning the Herald by name, let alone reporting their response to his accusations. Refusing to tell the full story to protect a political ally is not a good look for either WND or Newsmax.
Posted by Terry K.
at 1:29 AM EDT
Updated: Monday, April 15, 2019 9:19 PM EDT
Sunday, April 14, 2019
MRC Is Offended That TV Characters Aren't Shamed For Having Abortions
Topic: Media Research Center In a March 15 Media Research Center post, Rebecca Downs was offended that a character of the TV show "Shrill" had an abortion and didn't feel guilty about it or wasn't shamed for having one, that the procedure was portrayed as "relatively nonchalant" and that the character later feld "all empowered and glowing as she tries on a new dress." Downs continued to be offended that "the rest of the show delves into [the character's] life as if the pregnancy and abortion never happened" and that "the abortion is only mentioned in two of the six episodes for this first season." Downs' rage was renewed in a March 28 post, in which she lectured a writer for "Shrill" who described the abortion scene as "almost boring television" and who pointed out that abortion clinic workers get harrassed and murdered:
The idea that violence against "abortion workers" is "unacceptable" seems to run counter to a recent tweet on the NewsBusters Twitter account declaring, "There is no such thing as being 'extreme' when it comes to protecting innocent lives in the womb." Downs then served up a list of "recent examples of TV series with scenes that showed abortion in a nonchalant or positive way." Similarly, a March 29 post by Karen Townsend was annoyed that a character on "Gray's Anatomy" said she wasn't ashamed of an abortion she'd had years earlier when she was in an abusive relationship, grumbling that the abortion "is written off as something she just 'had' to do."
Posted by Terry K.
at 9:35 PM EDT
CNS' Jeffrey Thinks There's No Such Thing As 'Noncriminal' Obstruction
Topic: CNSNews.com CNSNews.com editor in chief Terry Jeffrey offers up a convoluted way to claim President Trump is innocent of obstruction of justice in his March 27 column, focusing on Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler:
The idea of noncriminal obstruction is not "nonsensical." As one law blogger points out, it's entirely possible that there was obstruction that did not rise to criminal levels, and there are also reasons one might not prosecute Trump for obstruction even if it did rise to a criminal level. Jeffrey then attacked Nadler for opposing President Clinton's impeachment because the offenses he was alleged to have committed didn't rise to that level. He added:
One can also ask: If the president committed no crime, why did he act in a manner as to obstruct the investigation into whether he committed one? Jeffrey never asks that.
Posted by Terry K.
at 6:19 PM EDT
Saturday, April 13, 2019
NewsBusters Blogger Thinks Roy Cohn Was A Good Guy
Topic: NewsBusters In a March 29 NewsBusters post, Mark Finkelstein complained that a "bitter" Joe Scarborough said that President Trump found his "own Roy Cohn" in Attorney General William Barr. Finkelstein then explained what he thought was the reason liberals hate Cohn so much: "In liberal-speak, Roy Cohn is a synonym for "someone we really hate." After all, he committed the egregious sin of successfully prosecuting the Rosenbergs, communist spies who worked to divulge America's nuclear secrets to the Soviets at the height of the Cold War." Um, no, Mark. It's more that Cohn was Joe McCarthy's henchman in purging alleged (but not necessarily proven) communists from federal jobs, then followed that up with working to purge alleged (but not necessarily proven) homosexuals from federal jobs despite being a closeted homosexual himself. He was disbarred shortly before his 1986 death from AIDS for various unethical deeds. Cohn was also a mentor to, and attorney for, a young Donald Trump -- and such an influence that President Trump once lamented, "Where's my Roy Cohn?" A couple days later, Alex Christy similarly took offense to Scarborough likening Barr to Cohn, but offered a different defense, insisting that Scarborough "may have bungled his analogy, because the real McCarthyites were people like Scarborough who saw Russian agents or Manchurian candidates behind every corner."
Posted by Terry K.
at 9:57 AM EDT
Irony: WND Columnists Complain About Dishonest Journalism (But Not At WND)
Topic: WorldNetDaily It's always deliciously ironic when WorldNetDaily columnists complain about the media behaving the way WND does ... but never acknowledging that the publisher of their columns behaves in those ways. First up this time around is Laura Hollis, who compalins in her March 28 column about how the media had an "obsession with the theory – now thoroughly debunked – that Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 presidential election because Donald Trump and his team colluded with Russians." No mention, of course, of her publisher's obsession with the thoroughly debunked conspiracy theories involving Barack Obama's birth certificate and the death of Seth Rich. Hollis then offered up ways that the media can "try and earn back the public’s trust" -- most of which, such as "Stop portraying your personal opinions as fact" and "Stop ignoring stories and hiding facts that paint your side, your preferred candidates or elected officials, or your favorite celebrities in an unfavorable light," should be followed by WND if it ever wants to try and earn back the public’s trust. Then, it was Adriana Cohen's turn to selectively lecture the media. In her March 31 column, she proclaimed the "hoax" of Russian collusion by Trump a to be "an all-out propaganda war against a sitting president," apparently forgetting that her publisher's Obama birther obsession was the exact same thing. She obliviously added:
Spreading propaganda based on fictitious conspiracy theories and lies was, and is, WND's business model. But Cohen won't tell you that.
Posted by Terry K.
at 1:24 AM EDT
Friday, April 12, 2019
Charlie Daniels Wants To Move On From Mueller Report (Which Hasn't Been Made Public)
Topic: CNSNews.com Despite the fact that the Mueller report has yet to be made public, Charlie Daniels declared in his April 1 CNSNews.com column that "Everybody in America is ready to 'move on' from the Mueller Report." Of course, those people are right-wing Trumpophiles like himself, who "want to actually move on, put the past and all its ugly implications and divisive rhetoric behind us and get down to the business of enjoying the best economy we’ve had in decades. And they’re ready to do something meaningful about the opioid pandemic and come together on a truly comprehensive solution to our immigration problem and the millions of illegals who are already in the country." ON the other hand, there are "the intransigent ones, who just a little of a week ago hailed Robert Mueller as the essence of truth and honesty, anxiously waiting for the report." Daniels didn't explain why we shouldn't wait for the actual report to be released before moving on. Instaed, he attacked those who want to see that report for exacting revenge on Trump for winning the election:
If that's true, can we also assume that Daniels' longtime animosity toward President Obama -- he has delcared that Obama "doesn't like America very much" and has deliberately distorted Obama's words -- is because he is unable to deal with what Obama has accomplished what he has accomplished in his life?
Posted by Terry K.
at 3:31 PM EDT
WND Columnist Thinks About AOC's Conception
Topic: WorldNetDaily James Zumwalt is creepily concerned with the conception of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in his March 27 WorldNetDaily column:
Zumwalt seems to be weirdly suggesting that if her parents had listened to Reagan's speech instead of having sex, Ocasio-Cortez might never have been born and there would be one less "socialist" in the world. The speech in question is Reagan's farewell speech in 1989, in which he talked about patriotism and national pride. Zulwalt then lashed out at Ocasio-Cortez:
Zumwalt once again relies on fringe right-wing websites to support his attacks, which is where the utterly false claim that Ocasio-Cortez called America "garbage" comes from. In fact, she was explaining that right-wing views have become normalized in America -- particularly on immigration, where conservatives defend caging children and forcibly using psychotropic drugs on them -- and that her ideas "sound radical compared to where we are, but where we are is not a good thing,” adding that we shouldn't settle for being merely "10 percent better than garbage." Zumwalt probably thought America was "garbage" during the Obama years, so he has little room to talk. Zumwalt concluded by huffing:
Posted by Terry K.
at 12:46 AM EDT
Thursday, April 11, 2019
CNS Unemployment Coverage Distortion Watch, Obama Flashback Edition
Topic: CNSNews.com Shockingly, the March employment numbers were so bad that CNSNews.com covered them as if President Obama, not President Trump, was in office. Susan Jones wrote disappointingly in her lead article by leading off with that Obama-ear staple, obsession over the labor force participation rate:
Jones did do somsething that she rarely did under Obama, though, pointing out that "not changed much in recent years" because of "the growing number of retiring Baby Boomers" -- thus giving Trump a pass Obama didn't get. Even the usual sidebars didn't come off as well as usual. Terry Jeffrey had to admit that manufacturing jobs declined and government jobs increased in March. Jeffrey did try to spin things by claiming that "there has now been a net increase of 466,000 manufacturing jobs during Trump’s presidency" and that federal hiring decreased. Even Craig Bannister had to admit that the new obsession with Hispanic jobs didn't pan out, since the Hispanic unemployment rate increased by 4/10 of a percent. But remember, all these numbers are simply fodder for the larger Media Reserch Center to exploit. And according to the MRC, there weren't any bad numbers at all. Julia A. Seymour declared that "The strong March jobs report 'should end' concerns that a recession is 'lurking' as one Hill op-ed suggested," and later complained thatthe media didn't report those numbers positively -- despite the MRC's own "news" division being unable to do so -- and that unemployment remained "extremely low."
Posted by Terry K.
at 8:19 PM EDT
Another WND Columnist, Another Bad Take on Mosque Massacre
Topic: WorldNetDaily WorldNetDaily filled out its trifecta of bad takes on the New Zealand mosque massacre with a March 24 column by Barbara Simpson. She starts off by a fit of whataboutism, whining that attacks on Christians didn't get the same news coverage:
(Media Research Center employees Matt Philbin and Allen West are similarly tired of hearing about dead Muslims and would rather hear about dead Christians instead.) Simpson then complained about an "over-reaction by non-Muslims"in New Zealand to the massacre, one of which was "Extra protection is being given to mosques by armed police even though New Zealand police usually aren’t armed." Apparently, protecting Muslims is a bad thing in Simpson's eyes. Finally, Simpson rants that we're being too nice to those evil Muslims:
Simpson knows untruths and innuendo, having made up quotes from an anti-genocide researcher to support her factually incorrect assertion that blacks in South Africa are committing "genocide" against the minority white population.
Posted by Terry K.
at 3:56 PM EDT
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