MRC Mocks Fact-Checks on Satire -- Then Fact-Checks A Joke
Topic: Media Research Center

The Media Research Center -- specifically, Tim Graham -- loves to mock fact-checkers like Snopes who point out that the right-leaning satire site Babylon Bee is fake news, even though Snopes explains that it does so because "satire often isn’t recognizable as such in social media posts" and that right-wing fake-news sites repost Babylon Bee articles without identifying them as satire. Still, Graham sneeringly interpreted that in a May 12 post as "Snopes complained people are NOT bright."

If humor isn't supposed to be fact-checked, why did the MRC's NewsBusters -- of which Graham is the executive editor -- fact-check a joke?

Christian Toto -- a movie reviewer moonlighting as a right-wing pundit -- huffed in a lengthy May 4 post:

Stephen Colbert couldn’t resist.

Former Vice President Joe Biden finally announced his 2020 presidential campaign last week. Biden joined a crush of fellow Democrats hoping to unseat President Donald Trump next year.

Naturally, The Late Show host had to talk about it. And, given the program’s leftist slant, Colbert didn’t find much fault in Biden’s video announcement.

The comic had another target in mind.

Colbert accepted Biden’s inaccurate video claim that President Donald Trump praised white supremacists nearly two years ago following a Charlottesville, Va. protest which left one woman dead. If you listen to the president’s full comments he made it clear he did no such thing.

[...]

He began, with what else, a misrepresentation of actual facts.

“Donald Trump is still president? Did anyone read the Mueller Report,” Colbert asked. Yes, that’s the report that found no collusion between Trump and Russia. Seems like an important detail, the kind that would be exonerating for any clear-eyed reader.

Even a cartoonishly biased comedian.

Then Colbert moved on to Biden’s Charlottesville attack line. He dubbed the video both “powerful” and “true,” and a potent way to put the president on the defensive.

Toto included a screenshot of a tweet from "Dilbert" creator Scott Adams purporting to make the case that Trump's "full comments" showed he did not praise white supremacists when he said there were "very fine people on both sides" because that comment was adjacent to a reference to people protesting the removal of a statue of Confederate general Robert E. Lee. But as the Washington Post's Aaron  Blake pointed out, the statue-removal protest "was partly organized by a well-known white nationalist, Richard Spencer, and included both neo-Nazis and white supremacist groups" and, thus, "was clearly not one for your average supporter of Confederate monuments." Blake added:

For the Trump defense to make any sense, there would have had to be some other group of people who didn’t subscribe to these awful ideals but for some reason decided to march in common cause with neo-Nazis, white supremacists and white nationalists. It’s theoretically possible there might have been some such people there, but you would think they’d quickly become pretty uncomfortable marching next to people chanting “Jews will not replace us” — and people who appeared prepared for violence, even donning helmets.

But never mind actual facts -- Toto went on to spout the accepted right-wing narrative on the Mueller report:

The grand daddy of all Fake News stories remains the Russia Collusion hoax. Late night hosts spent two years telling us Trump colluded with Russia, sometimes in rather disturbing ways. Colbert famously used a homophobic slur to attack Trump regarding the allegations.

Did they apologize after the Mueller Report showed zero collusion? Of course not. As you just read, Colbert still insists the report should remove Trump from office.

Toto concluded by effectively making the same argument that Graham mocked when it came from Snopes:

Late night hosts crack wise with impunity. They serve up biased or downright fake news and never pay a single consequence. What’s to stop them from doing it all the way through the 2020 presidential campaign?

How many viewers will listen to their rants and think it’s the cold, hard truth?

The next time you read a survey saying Americans get their news from late night comics be afraid …. very afraid.

Of course, Graham will keep on mocking Snopes for fact-checking satire -- and forget he let a writer fact-check a joke.

WND Gives A Platform to Obama's Disgruntled Half-Brother
Topic: WorldNetDaily

Malik Obama is a disgruntled man who's still trying to ride the coattails of his half-brother, Barack -- and supported Donald Trump for president in 2016 when the coattail-riding didn't work out for him. And because WorldNetDaily is even more disgruntled with Barack Obama that it looks for reasons to smear him even though he's been out of office for more than two years, it gave Malik Obama a platform. Behold, an anonymously written May 7 WND article:

Malik Obama, the older half-brother of Barack Obama, said in an interview that when he fell on hard times, he asked to stay with his brother and his family for a brief period, but Michelle Obama was against it.

Malik told “The Hidden Truth Show with Jim Breslo” the then-president turned his back on him again when two of Malik’s children died while waiting for approval to come to the United States from Kenya.

“I told him, brother, you’ve got to help me out,” Malik said.

He said that while illegal immigrants entered the U.S. claiming they had a right to be there, he was “struggling to follow the legal channel.”

The relationship went from being the best man at each other’s weddings to no longer being on speaking terms, Malik said, PJ Media reported.

Malik said the falling out centered on Malik starting the Barack H. Obama Foundation, named for Barack Obama Sr.

“He said if I don’t shut it down, he is going to cut me off,” Malik said. “This was an opportunity to do something. If he were to be a part of it, it would not be an issue. It is my father’s foundation.”

Malik said his brother “is a narcissist.”

“He feels like he is only one.”

WND has long portrayed Obama as a narcissist (while dismissing even the very thought that Donald Trump is an even greater one), so Malik is simply playing into an old trope that WND for some reason wants to relive.

WND also conveniently ignored Malik's credibility problems -- which it should know because it uncharacteristally busted him. In 2017, WND stated that a purported birth certificate Malik tweeted how showing that Barack Obama was born in Kenya "is not a valid document" (even though it spent two months claming otherwise wen it first surfaced in 2009).

It's rather sad that WND has to regress to dubious attacks on Obama -- and it doesn't exactly inspire confidence in any future WND might claim to have.

MRC's Sloppy Labelers Defend Ben Shapiro From Being Mislabeled
Topic: Media Research Center

The Media Research Center has apparently never done the media research to determine the difference between political labels on the liberal side of the ledger -- as we've documented, the MRC has sloppily labeled pretty much anyone and anything that's not unambiguously conservative as "far left." That, of course, is joined by its rage at the media labeling conservative figures and organizations as (gasp!) "conservative."

So it's unsurprising the the MRC is suddenly concerned with correct labeling, spewing more rage over a conservative figure it deemed to have been mislabeled.

Gabriel Hays ranted in a March 28 post:

In a not-so-subtle smear attempt, The Economist published a interview with conservative commentator Ben Shapiro and labeled him as a member of the “alt-right.” Shapiro is a mainstream conservative who has taken great pains to distance himself from right-wing fringe groups -- a devout Jew who often preaches about the dangers of tribalism and its destruction of reasonable discourse.

After swift backlash the Economist amended the headline. Still, the incident demonstrates the left’s aggressive push to demonize conservative speakers and connect them through implication to unreasonable and even violent and fringe groups.

The Economist titled the interview, “Inside the mind of Ben Shapiro, the alt right sage without the rage.” Inside, readers learn that the Daily Wire founder is a “controversial commentator” and proponent of “western values” -- enough to disgust progressives without resorting to dishonest labels.

So, yes, Ben Shapiro is a conservative, and the antithesis of white supremacy, anti-semitism, atheism/paganism that characterizes much of that is known as the alt-right.

Hays went on to huff, "Labeling traditional conservatives as part of an extremist, and often racist or violent, right wing fringe group is nothing new."Like how the MRC labels everything that's not conservative as "far left"?

Hays was back a few weeks later to rage over another alleged mislabeling of Shapiro:

In back-to-back articles, The Washington Post slimed conservative commentator Ben Shapiro as being ‘far-right’ and that his recent comments claiming that Notre Dame belongs to the “Judeo-Christian heritage” have contributed to “baseless, racist conspiracy-peddling” targeting Muslims.

The first article to engage in this malicious smear was written by Talia Lavin on Tuesday. Lavin claimed that Shapiro contributed to the “far-right’s” racist reaction to the Notre Dame fire, a “series of conspiracy theories neatly slotted into pre existing cultural biases.”

She concluded that “fast-talking-far-right” Shapiro’s assertion that the Cathedral was a “monument to Western civilization,” combined with “already-raging rumors about potential Muslim involvement,” made him complicit in evoking “the specter of a war between Islam and the West that is already part of numerous far-right narratives.”

[...]

Again, for The Washington Post this meant that these four individuals were in the same league, using the tragedy as a moment to defend white, European heritage at the expense of other cultures. For example, the piece contended that “others suggested Shapiro’s invocation of ‘Judeo-Christian’ values were in this instance simply a euphemism for ‘white.’ It then added that Spencer “spoke more plainly” on the issue, hoping the destruction would “spur the White man into action — to sieze [sic] power in his countries, in Europe, in the world.”

This is a laughable association.

Remember:The MRC has labeled Walter Cronkite, the sports blog Deadspin, and actress Meryl Streep as "far left." Does Gabriel think that's laughable or malicious? (Hint: It's both.)

Hays, it seems, is Shapiro's protector at the MRC. Last September, he complained that a liberal-leaning study of YouTube sought to link "top conservatives" like Shapiro to white nationalists like Richard Spencer, grousing that the report "deemed the entire collection — from moderate conservatives to full-blown racists — 'reactionary,' a term the report employed 13 times in order to hammer home that everyone mentioned was part of the same 'extremist' network. 'Extremist' was used 25 times in the report."

If the MRC wants to be credible in complaining about political labeling, it should do something about its own label carelessness first.

NEW ARTICLE -- Out There, Exhibit 72: CNS Obsesses Over Peter Strzok's Sex Life
Topic: CNSNews.com
CNSNews.com doesn't want you to forget that the ex-FBI agent involved in Trump and Clinton investigations had an affair. But President Trump's extracurricular sex life and paying hush money to a porn star? CNS had trouble even saying her name. Read more >>

MRC Gives Up 'Media Research' For Trolling Journalists
Topic: Media Research Center

The Media Research Center was never really about media research -- manipulating data to push its right-wing anti-media narrative was, and is, more important than objectivity and transparency. Now it's getting even farther away from research -- and confirming that it's a political organization at heart -- by doing straight-up trolling of journalists.

After Attorney General William Barr released his summary of the Mueller report claiming there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, MRC chief Brent Bozell made a video declaring he would provide a care package to those in the media he claimed were suffering from "Collusion Delusion Syndrome":

CDS is caused by that belief that no matter how much evidence is there that shows that he is innocent, President Trump should be in prison. What can we do for people suffering from CDS? The Media Research Center, with your help, is sending a special care package to every member of the news media and on Capitol Hill suffering from CDS. Our care package, the MRC Emergency Care Package, includes a number of items of importance. We have a teddy bear, a Russian teddy bear, for them to hug. We also have a crayons book for those snowflakes who need to stay inside the lines. And a special box of crayons for them to use.

For those suffering from CDS, they may need a stress relief bag of tea. And there it is. Or maybe, maybe you need to squeeze to get some relief. This is for you. For those suffering of CDS with migraine headaches, we have some Advil. Or maybe for impending ulcers, some Tums. For those who have to weep uncontrollably, we have some tissues. And finally, if nothing else works, a bottle of Russian vodka. And if that doesn’t work, a second bottle of Russian vodka.

The juvenile trolling continued. When CNN showed a ratings drop, the MRC's Tim Graham was quick to mock; under a "CNN Sucks" headline, Graham sneered, "How do you like them Fact Apples, CNN?" This was followed by a May 3 post by Rich Noyes that claimed to "put those numbers in their proper perspective" by making absurd comparisons, claiming there are more, say, prostitutes or households with chickens than CNN viewers. These numbers were promoted with graphics on social media designed to ridicule, not inform.

Is this real "media research"? Nope. Then again, the MRC hasn't done that in a long time.

WND's Kupelian: Either You Love God, Or You're A Man-Hating Marxist
Topic: WorldNetDaily

The theme of this month's edition of WorldNetDaily's sparsely read Whistleblower magazine is "HATING MEN," and David Kupelian has posted his lead essay. After cherry-picking a few examples of male-bashing feminists, he ponders: "Question: How can intelligent, educated adults in 2019 America, where women are freer and better off than in any country or at any time in history, possibly be consumed with such unbridled hatred for an entire group that comprises fully half of the population? Especially when that half of the population has fought all of our wars, cleared all of our wilderness, invented everything, constructed our civilization, and protected and sacrificed itself for women and children from day one."

Kupelian's answer: Hating men is the same thing as hating God, because if you're not of the proper Judeo-Christian mindset, you're a Marxist. No, really:

For Western nations rapidly transitioning into post-Christian societies, two opposite worldviews now openly war with each other. One is the traditional Judeo-Christian, biblical, patriarchal “prism” and the other is based on Marxist notions of radical equality.

The Bible – and the historical, cultural, moral and spiritual worldview it illuminates and champions – is utterly patriarchal. God is neither our Mother nor a genderless cosmic being, but our heavenly Father. God the Father created the first man, Adam; then out of Adam He created Eve. Almost all the Old Testament prophets were men. Jesus Christ was a man, as were all His disciples and apostles. Down through the centuries, the vast majority of Jewish and Christian religious leaders, from popes and priests to evangelists, rabbis and ministers, have been men. So, for that matter, have the vast majority of national political leaders.

Why? Is it, as alleged by those sworn to “tear down the patriarchy,” simply because men take advantage of their greater size, strength and aggressiveness to oppress women by bullying them into submission? Or is there a higher, indeed transcendent, principle – a divine order – evident in the overwhelmingly dominant leadership role men have exercised throughout human history?

In the Judeo-Christian worldview, just as God causes electrons to orbit around atomic nuclei and planets to orbit around suns so everything doesn’t crash into everything else and quickly descend into smoldering chaos, He also ordains a certain order to life on earth – to prevent much the same chaotic outcome.

[...]

Competing against this traditional worldview, which for centuries admirably served as the basis for a stable and prosperous America, is today’s essentially godless cult of radical equality. Seen through this prism, every race, religion, ideology, culture, ethical system and sexual/gender orientation, no matter how bizarre, immoral or insane, is as valid and worthwhile as every other (well, except for Christianity, conservatives, Republicans, men and white people in general). At the core of this worldview, there is no God, no divine moral law, no higher purpose of life binding us all together; there is only power and glory for the individual and tribe. And since there’s no ultimate meaning to anything, there can be no real differences between the sexes, other than those we ourselves decree.

Thus, everything Americans of previous generations thought was solid and real, even the most basic biology, is now considered merely the result of “social constructs” overseen by society’s oppressor class. So, for example, whether there are two genders as we once believed, or 24 or 48 (Facebook currently offers 71 gender choices, but a more recent online list includes 112), we are living in a time when every person is encouraged to pursue his, her or zir own “truth.”

But in reality, without the Living God overshadowing people in their relationships with one another, it doesn’t ultimately matter whether we have a patriarchal culture (Muslim culture is oppressively and abusively “patriarchal”), or a revolutionary matriarchy with a radical feminist queen at the top, or some dreamed-up totalitarian nightmare regime of enforced radical equality. The result will be the same: ever-evolving anxiety, conflict, loss of freedom, madness, violence and slavery. One of our founding fathers, William Penn, put it perfectly: “If man is not governed by God, he will be ruled by tyrants.”

Truth is, what we’re really beholding in today’s growing condemnation of men – not of the Harvey Weinsteins of the world, but disdain toward men in general – is primal rage and rebellion against God and the divine laws, order and values He so wisely has provided for our eternal benefit.

That framing is, of course, cartoonish. Kupelian must describe those he despises in the most radical, denigrating terms he can think of as part of a mysterious, monolithic "left" -- while depicting his own right-wing views as being the only possible correct viewpoint. It's that stark binary viewpoint that has doomed WND, and his insistence on sticking with it despite flailing to keep his job alive shows he has learned nothing from the past year and a half of trying to keep WND alive (or from his heart attack).

CNS Uses Prayer Breakfast To Suggest Trump Is Sent From God, Has Healing Powers
Topic: CNSNews.com

We noted back in March that CNSNews.com was creeping further toward WorldNetDaily territory by forwarding the idea that President Trump's election was divinely ordained. It leaned into that much more after Trump's appearance at the National Prayer Breakfast.

Managing editor Michael W. Chapman kicked things off with the blaring headline "Trump: 'We Pray That THIS Nation, OUR Home' Will be Blessed by the 'Eternal GLORY OF GOD!'" He further gushed that "In his remarks for the service and worship at the White House for the National Day of Prayer on Thursday, President Donald Trump stressed that Americans place 'our hope in the hands of our Creator' and pray that that "these United States" will be blessed by the goodness, grace, and 'eternal glory of God.'" Sadly, Chapman probably thinks that Trump actually believes what he spouted.

Melanie Arter laid it on even thicker in a companion piece suggesting that, through the words of the rabbi at the California synagogue victimized by a shooter, Trump has the power of spiritual healing:

Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein of Chabad of Poway told President Donald Trump on Thursday that the president was the first person to begin healing him following the shooting last week at the synagogue that claimed the life of one of his parishioners and injured three others.

During the National Day of Prayer service in the White House Rose Garden, Goldstein said he “faced evil and the worst darkness of all time” when a gunman opened fire on him and others during Passover service on Saturday.

[...]

“If something good could come out of this terrible, terrible, horrific event, let us bring back a moment of silence to our public school system,” he said. The rabbi thanked the United States and Trump.

“Mr. President, when you called me, I was at home weeping. You were the first person who began my healing. You heal people in their worst of times, and I’m so grateful for that. You have helped me bring great honor to Mrs. Lori Kaye of blessed memory – a 60-year-old dear friend of our congregation. I’ve known her for 25 years,” he said.

Finally, CNS published a column by Alveda King, who fully went there by rhapsodizing that "God  has placed America on a path to redemption" through the election of Trump:

May history always remember the day the president of The United States humbly acknowledged God our Creator at the annual National Day of Prayer on May 2, 2019. My heart was filled with love for humanity, faith for a gloriously transformed nation, and hope for a better day there in the Rose Garden of the White House yesterday.

The sincere prayers of our vice president and our first lady set the tone for the impactful message delivered by America’s 45th president, Donald J. Trump. As the president spoke, tears filled my eyes, and during the lovely worship song, I heard myself resounding along with many gathered there: HALLELUJAH!

President Trump reaffirmed “In God we Trust” in so many ways. His strengthening of America’s religious freedom, his affirmation of the sanctity of life from the womb to the tomb, his compassion for those burdened by the opioid crisis – all of which are powerfully blanketed in prayer by those in support of the POTUS agenda – is so very encouraging.

When Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein called President Trump a healer, the resounding amens from among those gathered reminded me of the need of a great awakening. President Trump recently said he believes in redemption. Indeed, God has placed America on a path to redemption.

The Spirit of the Living God is upon many of us, evident in the POTUS delivery on promises of criminal justice reform, economic assistance for everyone, sanctity of life, compassionate humanitarian intervention and so much more.

If King really things that trump does anything humbly, she is sadly mistaken.

Horowitz Repeats Hoary Right-Wing Tropes To Brand Obama As 'Anti-Christian'
Topic: Newsmax

Newsmax is the publisher of right-wing activist David Horowitz's new book on "the war to destroy Christian America" (not that Newsmax wants to admit that in its heavy promotion of said book). On May 2, Newsmax gave Horowitz a column that comes straight from right-wing fever swamps circa 2012, in which he explains why President Obama was the "most anti-Christian president":

Which American president changed the White House Christmas cards from being about Christmas or faith to cards featuring the family dogs and similar non-Christmas related subjects?

Which president decorated the White House Christmas tree with ornaments that included figures such as Mao Zedong and a drag queen?

Which president excluded pro-life groups from attending a White House-sponsored healthcare summit?

Which president nominated three pro-abortion ambassadors to the Vatican?

Which president speaking at Georgetown University ordered a monogram symbolizing Jesus’ name covered while he was delivering his speech?

Which president made a practice of deliberately omitting the phrase about “the Creator” when quoting the Declaration of Independence?

Which president opposed the inclusion of President Franklin Roosevelt’s famous D-Day Prayer in the WWII Memorial?

These things were all over right-wing circles back in the day -- and most are distorted or outright false. Let's summarize:

• The Mao image in on Christmas ornament was actually an image of Andy Warhol's mocking portrait of Mao; that an an ornament featuring the drag queen Hedda Lettuce were apparently part of a program in which the Obama White House sent ornaments to community groups across the country to decorate for placement on the tree.
• Horowitz never explains why it was so horrible for Obama to follow the secular traditions of Christmas and expanding the cards to cover other holidays around the same time instead of pushing a strictly religious interpretation.
• Theh complaint about "pro-life" groups being excluded from a summit apparently stems from a 2009 complaint by anti-abortion website LifeNews, which seems to ignore that anti-abortion groups are political activists that do not provide health care.
• Obama didn't actually nominate any of those "pro-abortion" ambassadors to the Vatican; those people were simply on a list of potential nominees that the Vatican said it didn't like. Two other people served as Vatican ambassadors under Obama, about whom neither the Vatican nor right-wingers complained about.
• We covered the manufactured Georgetown monogram controversy at the time. In summary: Nobody has ever proven that Obama or anyone else "ordered" the religious monogram to be covered up.
• Obama has left out "the Creator" when paraphrasing the opening of the Declaration but has used the word in other instances.
• Obama never personally opposed the addition of FDR's D-Day prayer to the World War II memorial; the Bureau of Land Management opposed the addition of a plaque containing the prayer because it was not part of the original design.

Horowitz's old-school ranting continued:

Among Obama’s more serious crimes was his support for the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, which gave a green light to that infidel-hating organization to murder thousands of Coptic Christians simply because they were Christian.

Even worse, Obama abandoned America’s military base in Iraq and withdrew America’s troops, creating a vacuum which gave rise to ISIS and the creation of the Islamic state.

The jihadists then set out to murder hundreds of thousands of Iraqi Christians without a protest from Obama or a serious military effort to stop them.

Actually, Obama was more supportive of the democratic process in Egypt post-Arab Spring, in which Muslim Brotherhood-tied Mohammed Morsi was elected, than to the Brotherhood itself. Does Horowitz really think that Egypt's current rule under a repressive military dictatorship (which overthrew Morsi in a coup) is an improvement?

Also, Obama and the Iraqi government failed to agree to terms to continue operating a military base in Iraq; the Iraq parliament refused to approve a status-of-forces agreement that gave U.S. troops immunity from Iraqi law.

And, of course, no right-wing attack on Obama, however belated, can be complete without a reference to Benghazi:

And it was the direct responsibility of a president who went to the United Nations after the attack in Benghazi to protect the Islamic jihadists responsible for the murder of four Americans — including the American ambassador.

Although he knew the claim was false, Obama blamed their deaths on an obscure filmmaker whose offensive video no one saw. Obama then proclaimed to the world in the strangest words ever uttered by an American president: “The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet Mohammed.”

The blood on Obama’s hands was more than a betrayal of the Iraqi Christians and the heroes in Benghazi.

It was a betrayal of every American and every Iraqi who gave their lives to keep that country out of the hands of the terrorists.

It was a betrayal of America itself.

Horowitz ripped Obama's statement out of context. Here's the full statement from Obama:

The future must not belong to those who target Coptic Christians in Egypt — it must be claimed by those in Tahrir Square who chanted, “Muslims, Christians, we are one.” The future must not belong to those who bully women — it must be shaped by girls who go to school, and those who stand for a world where our daughters can live their dreams just like our sons.

The future must not belong to those corrupt few who steal a country’s resources — it must be won by the students and entrepreneurs, the workers and business owners who seek a broader prosperity for all people. Those are the women and men that America stands with; theirs is the vision we will support. 

The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam. But to be credible, those who condemn that slander must also condemn the hate we see in the images of Jesus Christ that are desecrated, or churches that are destroyed, or the Holocaust that is denied.

Let us condemn incitement against Sufi Muslims and Shiite pilgrims. It’s time to heed the words of Gandhi: “Intolerance is itself a form of violence and an obstacle to the growth of a true democratic spirit.” Together, we must work towards a world where we are strengthened by our differences, and not defined by them. That is what America embodies, that’s the vision we will support.

Horowitz is simply recycling ancient anti-Obama claptrap for one more trot around the right-wing track. If his entire Newsmax-published book is like this, don't bother buying it.

MRC Pulls Post Mocking Jenner For Being Transgender, Doesn't Explain Why
Topic: Media Research Center

The Media Research Center was certainly enthusiastic about mysterious sports blogger Jay Maxson's latest post on May 12, tweeting it out with a picture of Caitlyn Jenner (back when he was Bruce) under the headlines like "Stars, Stripes & Trannies Forever in Sports Illustrated." It is on brand for the MRC to bash transgenders with such crude language; the NewsBusters subject archive lists Jenner under Bruce with the addition, "Olympic medalist turned transgender activist 'Caitlyn.'"

Strangely, though, Maxson's post was deleted some time after it was first posted, and the MRC has provided no explanation for why.

We found a copy of it at another blog, though. It appears Maxson was triggered by a report that Jenner would pose in Sports Illustrated's swimsuit issue "wearing only an American flag and the gold medal won by Bruce Jenner in the 1976 Olympic decathlon." Let the nasty trans-bashing begin (bolding in original):

• "America's Olympic champions usually wrap themselves in the flag after winning gold. ... They don't usually change their gender 40 years later and then wrap themselves in the flag for naked photos in Sports Illustrated. But in 1976 men were men and now Bruce Jenner is Caitlyn Jenner. There's a market for flag-wearing nudie transgenders in the weird, wide world of sports media in 2019, thanks to SI."
• "Falcone isn't only confused about which anniversary Jenner is observing, but also about the biological gender of the man who was hailed as the world's greatest male athlete 43 years ago. She writes that Jenner will retrieve "her most prized possession”from the bottom of a makeup drawer because she didn't want it to be a visible reminder for her five children of what they would have to compare their achievements to."
• "Jenner confirmed to Sports Illustrated's Tim Layden in 2016 that the gold medal was being stored in her nail drawer. However, there was no confirmation if it had been tarnished by pink nail polish."
• "The LGBT pressure groups might change their tune on Trump now that he has given Jenner the huge victory about where she can urinate, however."

Again: Trans-bashing is totally on-brand for the MRC -- an MRC videographer once embarrassed himself by pretending to be a transgender student at a college (his idea of "transgender" was dressing in shorts and a tank top and talking with a lisp) who wanted to use the women's locker room, and Maxson has previously mocked a transgender sports writer for having "Jennered" to "womanhood" (scare quotes his).

We're still not clear on why the MRC pulled this post, since it's just as tranphobic and insulting as other prevoius MRC works -- and the arguably even more offensive "Stars, Stripes and Trannies" tweet is still live as of this writing. Can someone at the MRC explain further?

WND Repeats Bogus Attack on 'Anti-Trump' Textbook
Topic: WorldNetDaily

WorldNetDaily's Art Moore repeats a bit of right-wing clickbait in an April 24 article:

A new high-school American history textbook depicts President Donald Trump as mentally ill and castigates both him and his supporters as racist.

Published by Pearson Education, “By the People: A History of the United States” will be used by many Advanced Placement students beginning in 2020, reports Todd Starnes.

In the final section, titled “The Angry Election of 2016,” the book states Trump’s “not very-hidden racism connected with a significant number of primary voters.”

“Most thought that Trump was too extreme a candidate to win the nomination, but his extremism, his anti-establishment rhetoric, and, some said, his not very hidden racism connected with a significant number of primary voters,” the book says.

Trump’s supporters, the author writes, are “mostly older, often rural or suburban, and overwhelmingly white.”

It says supporters of Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton “feared that the election had been determined by people who were afraid of a rapidly developing ethnic diversity of the country, discomfort with their candidate’s gender and nostalgia for an earlier time in the nation’s history.”

Clinton supporters “also worried about the mental stability of the president-elect and the anger that he and his supporters brought to the nation.”

But as the fact-checkers at Snopes detail, the textbook accurately attributes those views. The book doesn't "depict President Donald Trump as mentally ill" or "castigate both him and his supporters as racist"; it ascribes those views to Clinton supporters. Further, Starnes -- and, thus, Moore -- ignored that the textbook also stated that "Trump’s supporters saw the vote as a victory for the people who, like themselves, had been forgotten in a fast-changing America — a mostly older, often rural or suburban, and overwhelmingly white group" as well as the fact that there was also a negative depiction of Clinton from the point of view of Trump supporters, who "chanted 'lock her up' at political rallies, believing that Clinton’s use of her private e-mail account was not only a serious mistake — which many believed it was — but also a crime. Many within Trump’s base saw Clinton and the Democratic Party as elite snobs out of touch with many Americans’ economic pain or, perhaps even more, many Americans’ anger at being dismissed as not worthy of serious consideration."

Lazy stenography doesn't exactly instill trust in a media organization, even if lazy stenography is all you can afford to do.

MRC Parrots Trump White House In Downplaying Russian Election Interference
Topic: Media Research Center

The Media Research Center's undeniable mission is to create and perpetuate narratives that benefit President Trump. So it should be no surpise that on the very same day that Trump White House senior adviser Jared Kushner downplayed the impact of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election -- in which federal investigators agreed that Russia worked to get Trump elected -- by claiming it was just "a couple Facebook ads," the MRC was parroting that very same argument, albeit in a slightly different way. Corinne Weaver writes in an April 23 post:

Election manipulation is something the media have typically associated with Russians. But one liberal billionaire funnelled 56 times more money into manipulating content to win elections than the Russians.

News for Democracy, a political organization backed by liberal billionaire and Microsoft board member Reid Hoffman, spent $5.6 million on Facebook ads in 2018. According to an April 23 report released by Tech for Campaigns, News for Democracy was one of the top 10 spenders on Facebook ads — outranking Planned Parenthood and the Republican Senatorial Committee. By comparison, Russia’s Internet Research Agency (IRA) only spent $100,000 on Facebook ads.

Of course, the big difference is that the "liberal billionare" is American and working within U.S. election laws, and Russiais a foreign country trying to influence another country's election to its own benefit.

 

CNS Still Promoting Right-Wing Insult Comic DiGenova
Topic: CNSNews.com

We've documented how CNSNews.com has becomed enamored of right-wing lawyer Joe DiGenova as something of an insult comic, hurling clickbait invective at liberals and other people he doesn't like -- at one point ridiculously and maliciously claiming that deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein, who oversaw the Mueller investigation, "deserves the guillotine." DiGenova has continued to serve up the ranty sound bites, and CNS -- usually managing editor Michael W. Chapman -- has continued to pretend they're newsworthy.

Chapman served up a DiGenova rant on Jan. 30, in which he claimed that "the scandal at the FBI and the Department of Justice (DOJ) involves a "brazen plot" to exonerate Hillary Clinton of felony crimes involving her mishandling of classified documents, and an ongoing "false case" to "frame" President Donald Trump with a "false Russian conspiracy that never existed."

On Feb. 22, Chapman touted another DiGenova rant that the U.S. is in a "civil war" because non-conservatives criticize President Trump, adding, "And as I say to my friends, I do two things – I vote and I buy guns.” Chapman chimed in that "the leftist press constantly refer to President Trump as Hitler, Stalin, a dictator, a Nazi, Mussolini, racist, white supremacist, treasonous, disturbed, demented, bigoted, etc.," referencing his own piece last October that conveniently omits that CNS never complained about similar epithets hurled at President Obama; for instance, in 2016 Chapman uncritically promoted Roseanne Barr's hyperbolic claim that "Obama's actions on the eve of Hanukkah mirrored those of the Nazis."

Susan Jones did the honors in a March 5 article, cheering how DiGenova encouraged Americans to break the law by refusing to respond to subpeonas from the Democratic-run House Judiciary Committee asserting in Jones' words that "private citizens should refuse to cooperate."

Chapman returned for an April 24 item repeating DiGenova's claim that "the forthcoming report by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz will be "condemning of senior DOJ/FBI officials" in their abusive handling of the Russia-Trump collusion matter, and that he is '100%' certain Attorney General William Barr will use the report to launch a 'full-scale, criminal investigation' of the Justice Department and the FBI.

Then, an April 25 piece piece by Chapman featured a prime DiGenova rant under the headline "DiGenova Shreds TheHill.TV":

After The Hill.TV's Krystal Ball strongly implied that Attorney General William Barr lied about part of the Mueller Report, former U.S. Attorney Joe diGenova strongly denounced her insinuation, stating that Ball had "no evidence that he lied, and you know it!"

He added that Barr had come "out of retirement to serve this country" in the Justice Department and that it was not acceptable to go on "national television calling the attorney general a liar!"

By contrast, CNS had no problem uncritically repeating claims by, among others, Brent Bozell, Mark Levin and Ted Nugent calling Obama a liar.

NewsBusters Forgets Dershowitz Is A Sleazy Porn Lawyer Too
Topic: NewsBusters

P.J. Gladnick complained in an April 22 NewsBusters post: "Compare the legal backgrounds of Harvard's Alan Dershowitz versus sleazy porn lawyer Michael Avenatti. Who has the more distinguished career?  Yet CNN chose Avenatti over Dershowitz for the go-to person for legal analysis of the Trump-Russia collusion probe."Gladnick went on to reference "sleazy Michael Avenatti."

But Gladnick forgot that Dershowitz has his own sleazy-porn-lawyer record as well.

As we've noted, Dershowitz has served as a lawyer for Jeffrey Epstein, known for his political connections and his sex-trafficking scandal. Dershowitz has also been accused by one of Epstein's underage victims of engeging in sex with her (which Dershowitz has denied).

NewsBusters loved to talk about the Epstein scandal when Bill Clinton's name came up with it, but since it turns out Donald Trump had ties to Epstein as well -- he liked to hang out at Mar-a-Lago to the point that he picked up one of his victims there, who was working as a towel girl -- blogger Mark Finkelstein can't change the subject fast enough.

Somebody need to tell Gladnick that Dershowitz and Avenatti aren't that different after all.

WND's Double Standard On 'Naked Refusal' To Accept Election Results
Topic: WorldNetDaily

An anonymously written May 5 WorldNetDaily article states:

The Democrats’ “naked refusal” to accept the 2016 election results triggered a recent Senate rule change on approving judicial nominees, according to a lawyer for a public-interest law firm.

“Something had to be done to restore the original constitutional vision. Adopting the two-hour standard was sadly necessary to put the brakes on persistent partisan obstruction on judicial nominees,” wrote Ken Klukowski of the First Liberty Institute wrote.

Here we have yet another example of WND complaining about something that happened under Trump that it championed under President Obama. As far as "naked refusal" to accept election results go, we need only to go back to a 2014 column by WND editor Joseph Farah in which he ranted: "Obama has never been my president. I have steadfastly refused to acknowledge him as such. He is undeserving of the honorific. To this day, I am unconvinced he is even eligible for office."

WND beat Democrats to the "not my president" mantra. If only it would honestly acknowledge its history on the subject.

CNS Cheers Gay-Bashing of Buttigieg
Topic: CNSNews.com

The anti-gay activists in charge of CNSNews.com will not let you forget that Democratic presidential candidtate Pete Buttigieg is gay. CNS also loves it when someone -- preferably right-wing political pastor Franklin Graham -- attacks Buttigieg for being gay.

So when Graham lashed out at Buttigieg for proclaiming his Christian faith, CNS managing editor Michael W. Chapman -- who loves Graham as much as he hates the LGBT community -- was on it, complete with scare quotes for Buttigieg's marriage:

Reverend Franklin Graham criticized Democratic presidential contender Pete Buttigieg, who is openly gay and "married" to another man, for stressing that God does not belong to a political party while ignoring God's commandments against homosexual behavior and so-called gay marriage. Without following God's Word, he said, we have no moral foundation and are at risk of "eternal damnation."

Pete Buttigieg, 37, is the mayor of South Bend, Ind. He is a graduate of Harvard University and Pembroke College, Oxford. Buttigieg is "married" to Chasten Glezman, a teacher.

In an April 23 post on Facebook, Rev. Graham wrote, "Presidential candidate and South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg is right—God doesn’t have a political party. But God does have commandments, laws, and standards He gives us to live by. God is God. He doesn’t change. His Word is the same yesterday, today, and forever."

Chapman filled out his article with selected gay-bashing Bible verses and a statement from St. Bernardine. But he was silent on Graham's hypocrisy in bashing Buttigieg but lending his political and religious support to a thrice-married adulterer who pays hush money to porn stars.

The next day, Chapman gave attention to a rant from "Ana Samuel, Ph.D., a research scholar at the Witherspoon Institute and founder of the marriage movement CanaVox," a "Latina Mama" who hates gays as much as Graham does:

But this "cuts both ways," wrote Samuel, specifically naming "policies that undermine our parental rights and duties by seeking to indoctrinate our children in progressive sexual ideology without our consent and sometimes in spite of our explicit protest."

These policies, she said, include reading assignments in the public schools that are explicitly designed "to normalize LGBT lifestyles"; sex education classes that promote abortion, masturbation, condom use, sex toys, and rectal intercourse; "[p]ediatricians who ask to see our teenagers alone and then push to prescribe them contraceptives or ask them about sexual behaviors that we find offensive"; "public library programming where unicorns, rainbows, gingerbread persons, drag-queen story hours, and other symbols of progressive sexual ideology make an appearance, so that we must regularly steer our toddlers clear of the propaganda"; and promotion of transgender propaganda in the schools.

"Mr. Mayor, it is hypocritical for you to cry foul about policies that 'harm you and your family' while your side pushes for government intrusions into the parent-child relationship at the most fundamental levels," said Samuel. 

[...]

As for the gay lifestyle itself, Samuel said, "It is not a good idea to tell society that you don’t need a member of the opposite sex to have a baby or that kids don’t need a mom and a dad because they will do fine in any kind of arrangement. That’s not true, and there’s plenty of empirical data to prove it."

[...]

"Ask yourself: is the lifestyle you are setting up as a pattern for others to follow replicable and sustainable?" said Samuel. "Or does it further destabilize the family form that has provided the greatest financial and social stability to women, children, and the poor? The evidence consistently points to the latter."

"The weight of the past 50 years of social science evidence is virtually unanimous in its conclusion: children—and societies—do best when kids are raised by their married, stable, biological parents," said Samuel.

[...]

In conclusion, Samuel said, "Speak up! Do not let the gender ideology of the Left destroy our family values! Do not stop exercising your rights as mothers! Mamas of the world, unite!"

A few days after that, CNS' Craig Bannister complained when Buttigieg once again invoked religious values:

Morals and values are “grievously missing” from the White House today, gay Democrat Presidential Candidate Pete Buttigieg said Monday night.

[...]

But, Christian leaders, such as Reverend Franklin Graham, say that, by practicing homosexuality and gay marriage, Buttigieg is behaving immorally and violating Christian values.

As previously reported by CNSNews.com, Rev. Graham recently rebuked Buttigieg for “ignoring God’s commandments against homosexuality”[.]

Like Chapman, Bannister also failed to point out that Graham's political hypocrisy in bashing Buttigieg while gushing over the amoral Trump.