CNS Goes On A Franklin Graham Stenography Frenzy Topic: CNSNews.com
CNSNews.com managing editor Michael W. Chapman has long had a obsession with right-wing evangelical guy Franklin Graham, basically serving as his PR guy (although to a lesser extent than CNS serves as Mark Levin's PR operation). Chapman really cranked up his inner Graham fanboy recently, publishing 15 articles touting Graham's musings since the November presidential election, mostly on election fraud conspiracy theories, how evil liberals and gay people supposedly are, and howgreat a president Donald Trump was:
Because these are stenography pieces, no criticism is allowed. Therefore, Graham is not going to bring up Graham's unseemly and aggressive support for Trump -- or that there's a petition aiming to remove Graham from running the ministry of his father, Billy Graham, over it -- nor a counterpoint to his "30 pieces of silver" smear; one commenter noted that "Graham’s inference that Donald Trump is comparable to Jesus by asserting a parallel between the 10 Republicans and Judas is ludicrous at best and, at the worst, is sheer blasphemy."
It's another violation of its own mission statement, which claims that CNS "endeavors to fairly present all legitimate sides of a story." CNS should either live up to its mission statement ... or edit out anything that might suggest that it's fair and balanced.
Right-Wing Activist MRC Defended Was Arrested In Capitol Riot Topic: Media Research Center
In a Jan. 8 Media Research Center post sounding alarms ahat "The Blaze journalist Elijah Schaffer, who has put his own physical safety at risk to report on riots throughout 2020 has been shockingly deplatformed for unknown reasons," Alexander Hall also wrote," Activist Brandon Straka’s WalkAway foundation was also reportedly purged from Facebook. Schaffer commented in response: 'The Purge is not only here, it’s going to get worse. We’ve been predicting this for a while now. Get ready.'"
Facebook purged the WalkAway Campaign, a conservative movement, in the overall censorship fiasco that started with the complete shutdown of President Donald Trump from all tech platforms, according to the campaign’s founder.
Brandon Straka, the founder of the WalkAway campaign, tweeted on Jan. 8, “FACEBOOK has removed the #WalkAway Campaign and has BANNED ME and EVERY MEMBER of my team!!! Over half a million people in #WalkAway with hundreds of thousands of testimonial videos and stories is GONE.” The tweet included two screenshots: one purportedly from Facebook informing Straka that “Your account was disabled,” and one email purportedly from Facebook that stated, “Pages that are hateful, threatening, or obscene are not allowed.”
The platform explained, “A Facebook Page is a distinct presence used solely for business or promotional purposes.” The company warned Straka, “Continued misuse of Facebook’s features could result in the permanent loss of your account.”
Well, that victimhood may have been a bit premature. NBC News reports that Straka was arrested last week for his alleged role in the right-wing Capitol riot, on charges of impeding law enforcement officers during civil disorder, knowingly entering restricted grounds and engaging in disorderly conduct with intent to disturb a hearing before Congress:
Straka, 44, who describes himself as a "former liberal," was a scheduled speaker at a Jan. 5 "Stop the Steal" rally at Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C. The FBI received multiple tips about his presence at the deadly siege the next day, according to a federal affidavit, including a tip from a woman who claimed to be a relative of Straka's.
Special Agent Jeremy Desor detailed a series of tweets and videos Straka made during and after the attack. They have since been deleted.
In one tweet, he called on "patriots at the Capitol" to "hold the line!" according to the affidavit.
The affidavit says a video posted to YouTube by a witness shows Straka at the Capitol doors saying: "We're going in. They're saying we're going in. We're going in."
At one point, the crowd was challenged by a Capitol Police officer with a shield. Straka told them, "Take it away from him," according to the affidavit.
The clip ends with Straka at the top of the stairs, the document says.
Unsurprisingly, neither the MRC's NewsBusters operation nor its "news" division, CNSNews.com, have told their readers that a man the MRC defended just a few short weeks about has been arrested-- just like it has refused to tell its readers that another person it has portrayed as a victim, Marjorie Taylor Greene, is a far-right QAnon conspiracy theorist and hater.
WND's Bad Coronavirus Takes, Scary Vaccine Edition Topic: WorldNetDaily
The first COVID vaccine is rolling across the nation, but many Americans are not buying the hype. Despite months of nonstop publicity in the media, only about half of those polled say they will get the shot when it becomes available.
[...]
Assertions that the coronavirus vaccines are 90% or 95% effective are misleading. The term effectiveness is used by some to mean merely reducing the severity of the illness, rather than providing complete immunity.
Questions have been raised about the sufficiency of the testing data, and whether serious adverse effects such as Bell's palsy were misleadingly portrayed as being non-serious. Millions of Americans have allergies, and severe allergic reactions occurred among early recipients of the Pfizer vaccine in England.
The Pfizer vaccine is the first to use mRNA technology, which prompts a recipient's own biological cells to generate a protein in order to spark an immune response. Long-term effects of this new technology remain untested and unknown, as are its possible effects on reproduction.
Many Americans have legitimate questions about the novel vaccines being so heavily promoted. Even if the vaccines live up to their promise and do not prove to have unacceptable long-term side effects, thousands are dying NOW.
Bureaucrats ignore the fact that vaccines do not help people already sick with COVID. Sick patients need immediate combination prescription medications –which frontline physicians have been courageously doing since February, in spite of political, bureaucratic, and media opposition and intimidation.
It is past time for the media and elected officials pushing the vaccine agenda to admit their failures to educate the public about other treatment options that have been successful worldwide since March.
The true gift to the American people for this Christmas-Hanukkah season would be to widely publicize the successful early treatments, allow patients the freedom to choose one's treatment, and enable all Americans the freedom to choose to assemble, worship, work again and enjoy life. The early treatment options Sen. Johnson so courageously showcased in his two Senate hearings would indeed offer Americans a gift of hope – and a return to our core freedoms.
The trucks are rolling, bringing pallets of COVID-19 vaccine to distribution centers. If you are in the 1A allocation group, you'll be among the first to get the vaccine. Should you take some precautions?
[...]
Bell's palsy (paralysis of half the face) has occurred in four trial subjects out of about 22,000 who received the Pfizer vaccine; three of about 15,000 who received the Moderna vaccine; and one who received the Moderna "placebo" (a meningococcal vaccine known to cause frequent reactions). Although Pfizer claims this is about the same as the background rate (1/10,000 per year), this is 2/10,000 within a two to three month period, and is thus 8 to 12 times the annual background – and much higher if the paralysis occurred within a two-week period following the shot.
In most people, Bell's palsy is temporary, beginning to improve within a few weeks, with complete recovery in six months. Sufferers need to protect the eye that can't close properly.
The COVID vaccines are not recommended for women who are pregnant or might become pregnant. How long might a deleterious effect on pregnancy or ability to become pregnant last? We may know in a few years. There simply has not been enough time for long-term effects to emerge.
Manipulating the news is a standard propaganda technique for molding public behavior. Today it may be called "fake news."
It can be very hard to sort out the facts in the cacophony of conflicting statements on COVID-19. Dr. Anthony Fauci, perched as head bureaucrat at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) since the 1980s, would make it very simple for you: "Just do what you are told." Don't wear a mask, or wear a mask. Go back to normal when there's a vaccine, or when 70% are vaccinated, no, when 90% are vaccinated, or maybe when 70 to 85% are vaccinated.
[...]
How do we sort out the fake news or scaremongering? The remedy for misinformation is openness and free discussion. But here are two means for promulgating errors or lies and protecting them against rebuttal:
First, under the Smith-Mundt Modernization Act of 2012, section 1078, Operation Mockingbird was allegedly mobilized against U.S. citizens. This program purportedly could enable the Central Intelligence Agency to manipulate the news in the U.S. by channeling it through a foreign country – perhaps one that would benefit from destroying the U.S. economy. Federal agencies should not be funding news outlets and thereby influencing their content.
Second, social media outlets can control content with impunity under the Communications Decency Act of 1996 (CDA, section 230), which protects them from tort liability. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., threatened to withdraw this protection if they did not de-platform certain views. AAPS filed a lawsuit asking the court to enjoin Schiff from coercing media outlets to censor information about vaccine risks. There are increasing calls to censor information that might cause "vaccine hesitancy" or "distrust of government," based on the opinion of non-accountable authorities or "fact-checkers."
[...]
Public health authorities are very worried about loss of public trust. There is good reason for distrust. Without open discussion, skepticism will only increase.
Newsmax Gets Defensive Over Being Accused (Accurately) of Pro-Trump 'Election Denialism' Topic: Newsmax
Eric Mack worked up a little outrage in a Jan. 17 article in which he claimed, "CNN is making no mistake about it: It wants to censor and close Newsmax from broadcasting as a cable news channel." Mack kept up the outrage:
Apparently jolted by the fact Newsmax has skyrocketed to become the 4th highest-rated cable news channel in the country, the liberal CNN is decrying what it calls Newsmax's "election denialism" and is seeking to have it "deplatformed" from cable and satellite systems across the nation.
Oliver Darcy, CNN's leftwing media critic, has been demanding cable operators drop Newsmax, which is currently carried by every major system in the nation. Newsmax is also streamed free by most OTT platforms and devices.
In a CNN column in early January, Darcy falsely claimed conservative media caused the protests at the Capitol on Jan. 6.
"After all, it was the very lies that Fox, Newsmax, and OAN spread that helped prime President Trump's supporters into not believing the truth: That he lost an honest and fair election," Darcy wrote.
Mack offered no evidence that Darcy is "leftwing" other that he criticized Newsmax.Instead, he continued to attack Darcy:
Darcy doubled down, advancing the McCarthy-like political witch hunt by tweeting a fresh demand cable operators which carry Newsmax consider closing down the outlet:
"Just a reminder that neither @Verizon, @ATT, nor @comcast have answered any questions about why they beam channels like OAN [sic] & Newsmax into millions of homes. Do they have any second thoughts about distributing these channels given their election denialism content? They won't say."
In his tweet, Darcy failed to note AT&T is the parent company of CNN, and by removing Newsmax from cable lineups it reduces serious competition for his network, especially as Newsmax continues to rapidly increase audience and is on a trajectory to overtake CNN in viewership.
In fact, AT&T no longer operates cable TV systems; it does currently offer a streaming TV service.
In a statement released Sunday, Newsmax said, contrary to Darcy's and Stamos' claims, Newsmax never denied the election results.
The network called all contested states for Biden as they were certified and accepted him as president-elect Dec. 14, after the meeting of the Electoral College.
Newsmax also noted, while it justifiably covered the president's allegations about the election, and interviewed his lawyers and supporters – as did Fox News and Fox Business News, it never said all allegations were true.
Newsmax won't tell you that it did, in fact, present those claims without question, never subjecting them to the kind of fact-checking one would expect from a legitimate news organization -- thus implying to its readers that the claims are true.
Newsmax columnists from James Hirsen to Dick Morris to Michael Dorstewitz have pushed bogus election fraud conspiracy theories, and Newsmax "news" article also uncritically forwarded baseless or false election fraud conspiracy theories without informing readers they were false.
To cite another example of that: A Dec. 23 "news" article by Sandy Fitzgerald touted how "President Donald Trump Tuesday night released a 14-minute long video through Facebook declaring the election had been stolen from him in favor of Joe Biden because of "monstrous fraud." ... He added that he has proof of "overwhelming election fraud." But Fitzgerald uncritically repeated Trump's claims; not subjecting them to any sort of fact-check.
Interestingly, Mack made no mention of his employer walking back its reporting on voting-tech companies Dominion and Smartmatic after receiving a legal notice from Smartmatic accusing it of publishing false and defamatory claims about the company -- one of the major pieces of evidence that Newsmax has engaged in "election denialism."
Instead, Mack closed with the final sentence of the Newsmax statement, whcih went into whataboutism mode: "The network did note, after years of CNN falsely claiming the Steele Dossier was valid and the Russian collusion claim against Trump was credible, it was never held accountable for its misreporting. Newsmax never called for CNN to be shut down." Newsmax provided no evidence that CNN actually did any of that.
NEW ARTICLE: Military-Grade Defamation Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily columnist James Zumwalt is spreading falsehoods and conspiracy theories about the election. He also smeared an official at a voting-tech company -- and it might get WND sued. Read more >>
MRC's Double Standard On Double Standards Topic: Media Research Center
In his Jan. 8 column, in the immediate aftermath of the right-wing Capitol riot, Media Research Center executive Tim Graham warned against playing whataboutism on comparing the Capitol riot to last summer's protests against racial justice and police misconduct, which occasionally descended into violence: "If we were raised right, our parents told us two wrongs don't make a right. This is not a time for calling out double standards. This is a time for standards. Respecting the home of our Congress is the lowest possible standard for American civilization. You don't Make America Great Again by shoving cops and breaking glass on Capitol Hill." But almost immediately, Graham's MRC was playing that whataboutism card -- starting on the very day he made that statement.
Where is the outrage for Democrats, who either stayed silent or publicly supported and offered to bail out jailed left-wing Antifa anarchists who assaulted police, murdered Trump supporters and tried to burn down federal buildings with people inside? Media commentators and journalists will conveniently give them a pass, while Republicans get blamed for the violence they condemn. -- Kristine Marsh, Jan. 8
The Hispanic media's double standards – when reporting about “double standards” – shone through at Telemundo News, where anchor Jose Diaz-Balart sanctified last summer´s BLM-Antifa riots, and demonized both the Capital Police and National Guard in Washington, D.C., in a report that echoed the liberal talking points featured yesterday on ALL of the liberal news outlets.-- Kathleen Krumhansl, Jan. 8 (also posted in Spanish)
In the aftermath of the seditious acts of some Trump supporters in storming the Capitol building while they grotesquely chanted “hang Mike Pence,” the liberal media insisted the double standard in the situation came from Capitol Police (suggesting they were harsher on Black Lives Matter). But During Sunday’s MediaBuzz on Fox News, Federalist editor Mollie Hemingway called out the media for their double standard in their rhetoric and coverage of the “summer of rage” featuring mass BLM and Antifa violence. -- Nicholas Fondacaro, Jan. 10
Many companies, like Ben & Jerry’s, Chevron, The Coca-Cola Company and The Walt Disney Company, took to Twitter to express their “outrage” at the events that transpired on Capitol Hill Jan. 6. This newfound outrage begs the question: Where was all this holy corporate fury when areas in cities ranging from New York City to Seattle and Chicago to Minneapolis and Portland were all set on fire throughout 2020? -- Joseph Vazquez, Jan. 12
CNN has shamelessly pandered to liberal rioters and downplayed their violent actions this past summer and now are showing their hypocrisy over last week’s violent Capitol Hill siege by a mob of Trump supporters. Even though most Democrats were reluctant to criticize, and many avoided condemning left-wing violence altogether, CNN and the rest of the media have made it their mission to punish Republicans in Congress and shame millions of Trump voters as responsible for the Capitol Hill riot. The network aided one Democrat official this morning in defending Democrat double standards, while claiming that Black Lives Matter protests were “unbelievably different” than the Capitol Hill violence. -- Kristine Marsh, Jan. 15
You know what else they're forgetting, Liz? All this talk about Washington, D.C. needed to be guarded yesterday. What about what happened four years ago? What about the mob that attacked four years ago during the Trump inaugural? Where they closed down streets where Antifa and Black Lives Matter were destroying property up and down. They rioted on the day of Donald Trump's inauguration and nobody in the press covered that. What hypocrisy. -- Brent Bozell, Jan. 21
Far more Republicans and conservatives immediately condemned the violent behavior at the Capitol than Democrats condemned any of the violent riots from Antifa and BLM. Yet there are not endless segments on how dangerous Antifa is on CNN or any of the networks. There are no journalists or media types demanding every liberal abandon the Democrat party [sic] because of violent rioters on their side. That’s not even a suggestion. -- Kristine Marsh, Jan. 27
Yes, the MRC has managed to have double standards about double standards.
The last time we checked in, CNSNews.com was falling behind on its usual pace of uncritically promoting things said by right-wing radio host Mark Levin or by guests on his show. So how did CNS finish out the year in Levin promotion? Here are the Levin-touting articles CNS published in the final two months of 2020, which was heavy on pushing dubious election fraud conspiracy theories:
That's 10 articles over November and December, for a total of 86 articles in 2020. That number is well off the pace of previous years, when CNS published at least 96 articles annually:
2017: 105
2018: 135
2019: 96
Still, that pace is good for an article every 4.25 days at CNS -- coverage frequency people normally have to pay for (and we still don't know whether that's actually the case).
MRC Wants You To Think Conservative Comedy Is A Thing Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center wants you to believe, against all evidence, that "conservative comedy" is a thing that is happening. In a Dec. 12 post, Christian Toto admits there's no evidence of it but trires to make the case for it anyway because of the right-wing victimhood narrative, as evidenced by the headline "Conservative Comedy Is FIGHTING BACK Against the Censors at Big Tech":
Suggest women aren’t funny and you’ll be quickly attacked, if not outright canceled.
Podcast giant Adam Carolla found that out the hard way.
Say that conservatives lack a sense of humor, though, and there’s little to no outrage. After all, the comedian class is overwhelmingly left of center. There’s no current late night show that leans remotely to the right. And, as liberal critics giddily point out, Fox News’ attempt to create such a program died a quick, merciful death.
There’s another reason so few conservatives make us laugh. They face industry-wide condemnation for telling right-leaning jokes.
Just ask Michael Loftus, who shared a chilling story about his scotched plan for a fair and balanced talk show. Or check in with Steve McGrew, who lost a critical gig for supporting President Donald Trump.
It's telling that Toto includes no examples of their alleged comedy so we can judge how funny they are.
Toto claimed that "It’s why the best conservative comedy today is found at the digital margins"-- but then cited as an example Steven Crowder, who's best known for being a nasty homophobe.
Then it was time to play victim again:
Big Tech doesn’t want conservative comedy on its turf, either.
The social media giants already censor right-leaning views, a trend which went nuclear in the weeks leading up to the presidential election.
Now, they’re ramping up their efforts to make sure liberal targets aren’t exposed to satire.
It’s also constantly under assault by both Facebook and the mainstream media. The former routinely lashes out at the Bee’s Facebook page, threatening to throttle its reach, demonetize it or simply crush it.
Facebook once suggested Bee humor could “incite violence.” It’s not funny to The Babylon Bee, which receives a sizable portion of its web traffic from Facebook. The social media giant’s repeated attacks on the Bee represent an existential threat to its business model.
Sites like Snopes.com also fact-check The Bee’s parodies, a practice they rarely, if ever, deploy on fellow news parody site The Onion.
Toto omits the fact that fact-checkers look at the Babylon Bee because too many right-wing wenbsites present its satireas fact. Which tells us it may not be very good satire.
Two days later, Alec Schemmel fed into Toto's victimization narrative with a piece on another alleged conservative comedian:
In 2020, jokes aren’t even immune from Facebook censorship.
Anti-PC comedian JP Sears told his social media followers that Facebook is threatening to deplatform him. “Hey family, looks like my days here on Facebook are numbered,” Sears posted on Dec. 8. “Please join me on Parler (username @awakenwithjp) where I’ll continue to share uncensored.”
Sears is known for his counter-culture comedy, which takes jabs at subjects like political correctness, the liberal media and Big Tech. In a video posted on Facebook titled “How the Media Wants You To Think” Sears and others lit into the left’s pandemic narrative. They provided some hilarious pseudo-virtue signaling via a litany of anecdotes pretending to prove their courage in the face of COVID-19.
“Instead of working I'm brave enough to protect my family by letting them starve,” said one of the video’s actors in a very serious and melodramatic tone. “I'm brave enough to want to be tracked, so I can be safe,” said another.
We're not seeing the "hilarious" part here. But grievances, not hilarity, are what Sears and Schemmel are pushing:
Sears alerted his audience to be prepared for Facebook to drop the hammer on his account. He posted purported screenshots of Facebook’s notice to him stating that his “Page is at risk of being unpublished because of continued Community Standards violations.” In an episode of his "Awaken With JP" podcast, according to RedState, Sears said his channel has received this recent threat due to his unwillingness to stay within the boundaries of the mainstream narrative about COVID-19.
“I will not back down from Tyrrany[sic],” Sears said in his Facebook post. “I will without question risk losing what I have in the name of freedom.”
Maybe if all these "conservative comedians" worked harder at being funny instead of playing the victim, their careers might actually be going somewhere.
WND Is Sad That Confederate General's Statue Was Removed From Capitol Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily's Bob Unruh was very sad about a Confederate statue being "canceled" in a Dec. 22 article:
Gen. Robert E. Lee, a descendant of signers of the Declaration of Independence, a graduate of the United States Military Academy and a hero of the war with Mexico who married a great-granddaughter of Martha Washington, has been canceled at the U.S. Capitol.
The statue had stood adjacent to George Washington for 111 years but now will be moved to the Virginia Museum of History and Culture.
It was Virginia Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam, who once appeared in blackface and advocated for infanticide, who created a team to remove the statue, one of two the state is allowed to have in the Capitol building.
Replacing Lee will be a statute of Barbara Rose Johns.
Note that there's no mention so far of the thing Lee is best known for: leader of the Confederate army, which fought against the United States in the Civil War. Nor does Unruh explain who Barbara Johns is (a civil rights leader who, as a high school student, helped create an anti-segregation lawsuit that was consolidated into the Brown v. Board of Education that ruled segregated public schools to be unconstitutional).
Also note that the headline is wrong: The statue was not "torn down," it was removed and relocated.
It wasn't until the seventh paragraph of his article that Unruh got around to mentioning the defining fact of not only Lee's life but the removal of Lee's statue:
The removal of the statue is part of a movement accelerated by the protests in the wake of the death of George Floyd calling for a reassessment of major figures in American history.
In Lee's case, it was his decision, after years of serving with honor for American forces, to lead the Confederate forces..
At the end of the Civil War, Lee was granted parole to return to his home, as President Lincoln had wished.
That's an incredibly simplistic -- and inaccurate -- reading of what happened to Lee. While Lee submitted an amnesty oath to President Andrew Johnson in June 1865, he was not granted parole at that time; Lee's rights of citizenship were not restored until 1975, more than a century after his death in 1870. Further, Lee could not return to his home in Virginia because it had been turned into a burial ground for Union soldiers, known today as Arlington National Cemetery.
MRC Again Touts Shady Reporter Because He's Attacking Biden Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center has a thing for right-wing reporter John Solomon. In November, the MRC's Joseph Vazquez touted his claim that "a mountain of evidence has been amassed in private lawsuits alleging there was, in fact, significant and widespread voting misconduct," even though one reporter who looked into Solomon's claims found him to be "profoundly misleading" and that the claims typically leave out information that discredits them. Of course, Solomon's reputation as a biased, shoddy reporter precedes him, but Vazquez also failed to mention that Solomon's overall work is suspect because of his shady dealings with Russian and Ukranian sources to launch thinly sourced smear campaigns against critics of President Trump.
Nevertheless, Vazquez gave Solomon another platform to launch a political attack in a Jan. 4 post:
Just the News Editor in Chief John Solomon didn’t let former Vice President Joe Biden get away with attacking the Trump economy, especially since several members of Team Biden have made millions from it.
As Solomon put it, new financial disclosure reports with the Office of Government Ethics revealed that Biden “and his closest advisers personally fared extremely well during the Trump years, with some raking in millions each.”
Specifically, Biden himself “saw an historic rise in income and net worth, scoring at least $16.7 millions in income since Trump took office in 2017, or about three times what he and his wife Jill had made in the prior 20 years combined.” But that wasn’t all. Solomon also wrote that “[t]he former vice president also picked up a nifty second house, a beach estate in Rehoboth, Del., worth more than $2 million.”
Except that Biden's increase in income had little to do with "the Trump economy" -- they were driven by the fact that he used to be vice president. According to a Forbes article to which Vazquez linked, Biden made that moneythrough a book deal made with him and his wife, Jill, speaking engagements and a college professorship -- all things former presidents and vice presidents typically do.
Still, Vazquez felt the need to sneer, "So much for that 'Joe from Scranton' imagery that the media had peddled on Biden’s behalf throughout the election cycle." It's a dishonest and hypocritical attack from Solomon that Vazquez is amplifying to manufacture a class war against Biden, never mind that his president for the past four years, Donald Trump, was all about flaunting his supposed wealth.
And, of course, Vazquez didn't bring up Solomon's history of shoddy reporting.
WND's Farah Pushing Coronavirus Conspiracies Too Topic: WorldNetDaily
It's not just election fraudconspiracy theories that WorldNetDaily editor Joseph Farah is peddling these days -- it's also coronavirus conspiracy theories. Farah wrote in his Dec. 29 column:
Two Minnesota state lawmakers are the latest to call for an audit of death certificates citing coronavirus, saying COVID-19 deaths could have been inflated by as much as 40%.
State Rep. Mary Franson and state Sen. Scott Jensen, a physician, have released a video on their findings:
"I have … examples where COVID isn't the underlying cause of death, where we have a fall,” she said in the video. “Another example is we have a freshwater drowning. We have dementia. We have a stroke and multi-organ failure.”
In one case, she added, a person who was ejected from a car was "counted as a COVID death" because the virus was in his system.
Franson said at least 800 of the "death certificate data points" inspected by them indicated the virus was not the underlying cause of death.
But Farah didn't mention the relevant fact that Minnesota state officials have debunked Jensen and Franson's claims:
Infectious Disease Director Kris Ehresmann says MDH follows the guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics on defining COVID-19 deaths.
"When we look at the number of deaths reported via [the NCHS], the number they’re reporting is consistent with what we are reporting," Ehresmann said. "We’re absolutely following the national guidance on how we are doing our death reporting from COVID-19.
Ehresman said car crash victims are not being counted among the state’s COVID-19 deaths.
"If someone had tested positive for COVID and then subsequently died, we would review the death certificate and motor vehicle accident would be the cause of death and so it would not be considered a COVID death," Ehresmann said.
Farah went on to write:
Questions continue to be raised by legislators in other states. A Southern Arizona lawmaker is claiming a new study he commissioned shows there is no correlation between the rising number of people being infected with COVID-19 and the number who wind up in the hospital. Rep. Mark Finchem, R-Oro Valley, is accusing the state health department of withholding the raw numbers that would allow him and other lawmakers to decide whether the trends being cited by Gov. Doug Ducey to justify his actions are merited.
But Finchem is a far-right-fringe politican who has links to the violent Oath Keepers militia, tried to make gold legal tender in Arizona and cheered the Capitol riot but then falsely blamed Antifa for the violence. So he's not exactly a reliable source.
If Farah is going to double down on the same type of conspriacy theories that have nearly put WND out of business, maybe he needs to spend some more time recovering from his health issues.
CNS Attacked Even More Biden Cabinet Nominees Topic: CNSNews.com
We've shown how CNSNews.com let its bias show with repeated attacks on Biden cabinet nominees Pete Buttigieg and Xavier Becerra. But it also went after several other nominees as well.
Biden's nomination of former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice brought a Dec. 11 article by Patrick Goodenough rehashing her "deeply controversial role in the September 2012 Benghazi affair." He highlighted how "the White House deployed Rice to deliver to five Sunday television talk shows the message that the attack was a “spontaneous reaction” to an online video mocking Islam’s prophet," adding that it "stoked Republican suspicions that the administration was trying to spin the events for political ends – and mislead voters – in the closing weeks of Obama’s re-election campaign." It wasn't until the final section of his 24-paragraph article that Goodenough got around to admitting that "Rice consistently maintained that her comments were based on the best information available to the intelligence community at the time."
Biden's nomination of Lloyd Austin as secretary of defense generated a Dec. 10 piece by Susan Jones trying to blame him for U.S. troops leaving Iraq:
The Obama-Biden administration's decision to pull combat troops out of Iraq in 2011 was heavily criticized at the time and years later for creating the vacuum eventually filled by the Islamic State. Obama ended up sending U.S. troops back to Iraq in 2014 to counter the rise of ISIS.
Obama later defended his controversial 2011 troop pullout by saying he had no choice -- "we needed the invitation of the Iraqi government" to keep them there, he said. So clearly the Austin-Biden diplomatic efforts did not persuade the Iraqi leadership to keep residual U.S. forces in the country.
CNS' first reaction to Biden's nomination of Tony Blinken as secretary of state was an article by Goodenough promoting Republican Sen. Tom Cotton sneering that Biden was "surrounding himself with panda huggers who will only reinforce his instincts to go soft on China.” That was followed by a column from Ben Shapiro claiming that Blinken was "most famous for embracing the Iran deal and encouraging more American troops in Syria."
Jones penned a Dec. 2 attack on Blinken, uncritically quoting GOP Rep. Josh Hawley having "criticized Blinken as someone who advocates closer ties to China, a country that is and will be a continuing national security threat to the United States" and "noted that the election outcome is not yet settled, yet Biden already has nominated war hawk Tony Blinken as his secretary of state."
Craig Bannister bashed two nominees in a single Dec. 1 article:
At least two of presidential heir apparent Joe Biden’s cabinet picks support burdensome new taxes.
Biden’s choice to head up the Office of Management and Budget (OBM), Neera Tandemn [sic], has voiced support for two different costly soda tax proposals that would hit low-income Americans the hardest, Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) analysis reveals:
[...]
Biden’s pick for Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen, is a founding member of the Climate Leadership Council, a group lobbying Congress to pass a national carbon tax. As ATR reports<, such a carbon tax would cost Americans more than two trillion dollars over the next ten years, while sharply raising the average American’s energy costs[.]
Bill Donohue devoted a column to smearing Tanden, declaring that "there is no reason to trust her" because she "was part of the email chain" of a group that was purportedly "fomenting a "revolution" in the Catholic Church." He concluded by ranting that "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell should lead the fight to block her nomination as the new head of the Office of Management and Budget."
MRC Still Treating QAnon-Loving Rep. Greene As A Victim, Censoring Her Extreme Views Topic: Media Research Center
Back in September, the Media Research Center portrayed Marjorie Taylor Greene, then a candidate for a House seat in Georgia, as another victim in its conservative victimization narrative who was "censored" by social media -- but it made sure to censor her well-documented history of racism, anti-Semitism and QAnon affiliations. Now that she's won the seat, the MRC is still manufacturing victimhood for her while continuing to hide her extremism.
Twitter censored another member of the U.S. government, but she quickly fired back, calling out Twitter’s hypocrisy.
Twitter suspended Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) for twelve hours Sunday evening, citing “‘multiple violations’ of the company’s civic integrity policy,” according to The New York Times.
The suspension reportedly came after Greene tweeted: “The 1/5 disaster in Georgia lays solely in the hands of state leadership who failed voters in our state. @GaSecofState and @GabrielSterling were begged by Republicans to fix our elections. They did nothing. They are to blame, not me, not @realDonaldTrump, not @CollinsforGA,” according to the Washington Examiner. The tweet included a label that said, “This claim of election fraud is disputed, and this Tweet can’t be replied to, Retweeted, or liked due to a risk of violence.”
As before, Sargent censored all mention of Greene's QAnon affiliation or her extremism.
In a Jan. 22 post, Alec Schemmel went after a representative of one of the MRC's favorite targets, the never-Trump Lincoln Project, for describing "Marjorie Taylor ‘Cuckoo QAnon’ Greene" as an example of Republican "whiny bitch victimhood," then complained that MSNBC host Joy Reid "questioned how Greene, someone who has rallied against Big Tech censorship, could be considered a victim when she was 'literally on the House floor saying she’s being silenced while she’s on the House floor, also on TV.'" Schemmel didn't admit that Greene really is a QAnon fan, and he certainly didn't rebut the Lincoln Project guy pointing the GOP's "whiny bitch victimhood," since that is the core of the MRC's anti-social media strategy.
Ever since January 6, the media has been pushing hard the notion that domestic terrorists and QAnon conspiracy theorists are directly and only associated with the millions of Americans who call themselves Republicans and/or voted for former President Trump. Now, some in the media are taking this ludicrous smear even further by declaring that if you call yourself a Republican, you are supporting far right extremism.
On Wednesday’s The View, co-hosts Joy Behar and Sunny Hostin were disgusted by 45 Republican senators backing Sen. Rand Paul in calling the Senate impeachment trial of now private citizen Donald Trump, unconstitutional. Joy Behar seethed they were cowards who were "scared to lose their jobs," while the GOP was now the party who supports "seditionists and insurrectionists."
Sunny Hostin went even further than Behar, claiming that the Republican party was now the “QAnon” “Far-right extremist” party, along with a whole slew of other repellant smears.
Hostin referenced Greene when she said of Republicans, "This is the party of QAnon," but Marsh left that buried in the transcript (and misspelled Greene's name).
NEW ARTICLE: The Strange Case of Dr. Brown and Mr. Trump, Part 2 Topic: WorldNetDaily
After President Trump lost the election, WorldNetDaily columnist Michael Brown still couldn't quite admit that evangelicals' embrace of him was a bad thing -- until the Capitol riot. Read more >>
Pete Buttigieg wasn't the only Biden administration cabinet nominee CNSNews.com lashed out at upon the announcement of their nomination.
When California attorney general Xavier Becerra was nominated to be secretary of Health and Human Services, managing editor Michael W. Chapman cobbled together an article on how his fellow right-wingers "strongly denounced" the nomination, "noting his long pro-abortion record, anti-free speech actions, and opposition to religious liberty." He quoted Susan B. Anthony List president Marjorie Dannenfelser declaring that "Becerra is aggressively pro-abortion and a foe of free speech. As attorney general of California, he continued what his predecessor Kamala Harris started by persecuting citizen journalists who exposed Planned Parenthood’s role in baby parts trafficking."
That would be a reference to David Daleiden, an anti-abortion activist who secretly and illegally taped people at abortion industry conferences while falsely presenting themselves as workers for a fake company interested in buying fetal body parts. No crimes were found, and a jury ruled in 2019 that Daleiden should pay Planned Parenthood $870,000 in punitive damages for his attempt to try and destroy the organization under false pretenses. In December, the judge in the case order Daleiden and his associates to pay Planned Parenthood $13.6 million in legal fees.
Chapman also wrote:
Ashley McGuire, senior fellow with the Catholic Association, said, "President-elect Joe Biden’s choice of Xavier Becerra to run HHS is a gross insult to Catholics. Becerra spent years tormenting the Little Sisters of the Poor in court, trying to force them to pay for things like abortion pills against their consciences. He also led efforts to force pro-life pregnancy resource centers to advertise for abortion."
Actually, it appears McGuire is lying a bit here. What actually happened was that Becerra sued the Trump administration in 2017 for broadening exemptions to contraceptive coverage under the Affordable Care Act, and then the Little Sisters of the Poor filed to intervene and became a party to the suit. In other words, if there was any "tormenting," the Little Sisters chose to have it happen.
Nevertheless, Chapman went on to uncritically quote another Catholic organizaiton claiming that Becerra "has targeted the Little Sisters of the Poor."
Tim Graham of CNS' parent organization, the Media Research Center, complained that "Becerra has zero medical expertise" and grumbled that he successfully prosecuted Daleiden: "California's Justice Department entered Daleiden's home and seized computers, digital storage devices and identification documents. A jury ordered Daleiden to pay $2.3 million in damages to Planned Parenthood for exposing its heinous trafficking."
Another column by Donohue raged that Becerra is a Catholic but is actually "an enemy of the Catholic Church," adding that "Biden himself is at war with these Church teachings."
CNS editor Terry Jeffrey devoted his Jan. 6 column to bashing Becerra, citing a case where California attempted to make "crisis pregnancy centers" had to inform clients that they could go elsewhere to get an abortion if they decided they ultimately wanted one. Jeffrey didn't mention that these "pro-life pregnancy centers" have a long history of coercing women into not having abortions, which was the basis for the proposed law. He concluded by huffing that "Xavier Becerra — if confirmed — will lead a Biden HHS that is focused on advancing the killing of unborn babies and funding that killing with federal tax dollars."
CNSNews.com managing editor Michael W. Chapman has long had a obsession with right-wing evangelical guy Franklin Graham, basically serving as his PR guy (although to a lesser extent than CNS serves as Mark Levin's PR operation). Chapman really cranked up his inner Graham fanboy recently, publishing 15 articles touting Graham's musings since the November presidential election, mostly on election fraud conspiracy theories, how evil liberals and gay people supposedly are, and howgreat a president Donald Trump was:
In a Jan. 8 Media Research Center 
The first COVID vaccine is rolling across the nation, but many Americans are not buying the hype. Despite months of nonstop publicity in the media, only about half of those polled say they will get the shot when it becomes available.
Eric Mack worked up a little outrage in a Jan. 17 
In his Jan. 8 
The last time we
The Media Research Center wants you to believe, against all evidence, that "conservative comedy" is a thing that is happening. In a Dec. 12 
WorldNetDaily's Bob Unruh was very sad about a Confederate statue being "canceled" in a Dec. 22 
The Media Research Center has a thing for right-wing reporter John Solomon. In November, the MRC's Joseph Vazquez 
It's not just 
We've shown how CNSNews.com let its bias show with repeated attacks on Biden cabinet nominees 
Back in September, the Media Research Center 
Pete Buttigieg
