Topic: CNSNews.com
CNSNews.com gave Donald Trump plenty of space to push unchallenged his claim that the election was stolen from him. After the Capitol riot, though, CNS was briefly shocked into reporting balanced news. Read more >>
Wednesday, March 17, 2021
NEW ARTICLE: How CNS Embraced Trump's Bogus Election Fraud Conspiracy
Topic: CNSNews.com CNSNews.com gave Donald Trump plenty of space to push unchallenged his claim that the election was stolen from him. After the Capitol riot, though, CNS was briefly shocked into reporting balanced news. Read more >>
Posted by Terry K.
at 2:47 PM EDT
Updated: Sunday, April 4, 2021 11:28 AM EDT
WND Columnist Cites Pseudo-Historian While Fretting About History Being Wiped Out
Topic: WorldNetDaily Patrice Lewis wrote in her Feb. 12 WorldNetDaily column:
Turns out there's a good reason actual historians dismiss Menzies' conclusions: because he offers no proof to back them up. As one actual historian wrote:
But as Lewis already wrote, she doesn't care whether Menzies is accurate -- a strange stance for someone who has touted how she homeschooled her children. She thinks liberals are erasing history the way the alleged Chinese expedition to the U.S. was purportedly eradicated:
Lewis seems to have missed how the Trump administration tried to eradicate all mention of the Affordable Care Act from government websites as a prelude to the administration's attempt to overturn the law and discourage people from using it.Maybe Lewis doesn't think that rewriting history is that big of a deal when right-wingers do it -- which, or course, makes her a hypocrite. Lewis has been moving to the far-right fringe in recent months -- she previously pushed the false claim that Antifa was involved in the Capitol riot, declared that Trump was the victim of a "coup d'etat," and proclaimed that because ofthe pandemic, "we're in the throes of an orchestrated economic collapse. Orchestrated. Got that? Orchestrated." One could say she's fulfilling her potential as a WND columnist.
Posted by Terry K.
at 12:26 AM EDT
Tuesday, March 16, 2021
MRC Remains Angry TV Cop Shows Mirror Current Issues In Policing
Topic: Media Research Center We've documented how the Media Research Center has gotten upset that police-related dramas on TV are taking the ripped-from-the-headlines approach in addressing recent controversies over police brutality that don't adhere to the MRC's pro-police, anti-reform agenda. You will not be surprised to learn that the complaining has continued. Lindsay Kornick complained in a Jan. 3 post:
Kornick further complained that one character "even goes so far as to peddle the usual lie that the “vast majority” of BLM protestors are just peaceful idealists being dragged by a few bad actors. She linked to a right-wing Townhall.com post ridiculing a study finding that 93 percent of protests did not result in rioting -- a "vast majority" by any definition and, thus, not a "usual lie." (Ironically, the MRC would be using this exact same argument a few days later to distance conservatives from the right-wing Capitol rioters, even though both were clearly on the same pro-Trump side.) Rebecca Downs went after a different show, "The Rookie," grumbling on Jan. 4 that the show "aims to get political on policing" by discussing racial issues and that one show writer said that it "can’t do one special episode, where we feel good and solve racism in the end, and then go back to our usual thing the next week. We want to change things for as long as we get to do this show.” This was followed by her complaint on Jan. 11 that the show"revealed a new “ polarizing” character, veteran officer Doug Stanton (Brandon Routh) and his hit-you-over-the-head racial profiling. The episode also featured interactions between titular character Officer John Nolan (Nathan Fillion) and James Murray (Arjay Smith), a local black man, while Nolan's assigned to a community policing center." Downs' anger continued as the show's storyline did, ranting on Jan. 18 that the latest episode featured how that "polarizing" officer character "physically assaults an innocent young black man who does not match the description of their suspect, then threatens to arrest the man's entire family for trying to intervene while pointing his gun at them all in an over-the-top scene, with the rookie he is training, Officer Jackson West (Titus Makin Jr.), uncomfortably watching it all." She concluded by huffing that "it looks like next Sunday we can enjoy what is, at best, another increasingly crowded, melodramatic, and poorly written episode of The Rookie." The next week, Downs groused that the character was "a white racist cop personified," adding that "Our main characters may want Stanton gone, but he also is a veteran of the job who knows a thing or two." Elise Ehrhard bashed another show in a Jan. 26 post:
No, it's not "demonstrably false." Northern big-city police departments may not have been founded on capturing slaves, but historians point out that Southern cities had slave patrols that predated police departments' founding, and that all such police operations were created to enforce the existing social hierarchy before evolving into a force for protection starting in the late 19th century. On Feb. 14, Ehrhard complained that another show pointed out that last summer's protests were mostly peaceful: "Television shows this year just have characters keep saying over and over again that the protests are peaceful, really, really peaceful. Did they ever hear of Shakespeare's warning, 'I think thou doth protest too much'? If protests were genuinely peaceful, Hollywood writers would not have to keep telling audiences that." She concluded by sneering out the MRC's nasty narrative: "BLM and Antifa protests have been a poisonous exercise in domestic terrorism and no amount of Hollywood lying should ever cause Americans to forget it." Downs returned on Feb. 22 to bash "The Rookie" some more: "For weeks, ABC’s The Rookie hit viewers over the head with the evils of racist white cops, personified through Officer Doug Stanton (Brandon Routh). While Officer Stanton may be gone, the show is just getting started on the racial white guilt." Kornick, meanwhile, ranted about a yet another show in a Feb. 21 post: "CW’s Batwoman may have a new lead, but the politics are as bad as ever. With several subtle victimization jabs in the past few episodes, the superhero series finally makes a bold move by supporting the ACAB (All Cops Are Bastards) movement. Again, this is supposed to be our hero, ladies and gentlemen." Fortunately for the MRC, there's still one show on TV that reliably pushes its right-wing agenda. A Jan. 25 post by Dawn Slusher cheered, "Leave it to CBS’s excellent hit cop drama Blue Bloods to confront anti-police sentiment head-on and depict how it affects not only officers, but their families, as well," calling the show "a breath of fresh air in an industry that refuses to recognize the humanity of police officers and how they sacrifice their lives to keep us safe."
Posted by Terry K.
at 6:06 PM EDT
Updated: Tuesday, March 16, 2021 8:10 PM EDT
WND's Favorite Ex-Soviet Bloc Spymaster Has Died
Topic: WorldNetDaily WorldNetDaily reported last month that Ion Mihai Pacepa, "one-time communist spymaster" in Romania who defected to the U.S., has died. The article, by managing editor David Kupelian, gushed:
Since Kupelian dishonestly fails to come right outy and say it, it's up to us to point out that "Disinformation" was published by now-defunct WND Books. That was followed by a Feb. 25 column tribute to Pacepa by Paul Kengor that was similarly gushy, touting how "I often got his emails in response to my articles here at The American Spectator, of which he was an avid reader" and that Pacepa pushed the conspiracy theory that Lee Harvey Oswald was programmed by the Soviets to assassinate John Kennedy (though he did concede that "this theory of Soviet involvement is disputed by Kennedy assassination investigators and by the Warren Commission"). We remember Pacepa as the purported author of a pro-Trump screed that WND distributed before the 2016 election, which may have actually been ghostwritten by Pacepa's coauthor, mouthpiece and gatekeeper, Ronald Rychlak; we had a nonproductive conversation with Rychlak in which he deflected questions about why Pacepa would back a candidate who's cozy with another former communist spymaster, Vladimir Putin.
Posted by Terry K.
at 3:15 PM EDT
CNS Misses 'Great Conservative Leader' Limbaugh
Topic: CNSNews.com CNSNews.com unsurprisingly fell all over itself to toss plaudit after plaudit after the death of right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh. It published these gooey tributes to him:
CNS also echoed its Media Research Center parent by complaining that others said not-so-nice things upon Limbaugh's death. One article groused that "less than two hours after it was announced that Rush Limbaugh had died," Amazon executive and former Obama press secretary Jay Carney tweeted that "There is a direct line between Rush Limbaugh and January 6th -- and it runs through Fox News," a sentiment the anonymous writer didn't dispute. Craig Bannister was annoyed that CNN's Jim Acosta pointed out that Fox News did a softball interview with Donald Trump discussing Limbaugh's death that didn't challenge him on the "election lies" he told. And managing editor Michael W. Chapman devoted an article to whining that "Minutes after the death of conservative talk-radio legend Rush Limbaugh was announced today, some left-wing reporters took to Twitter to openly celebrate his death and attack and insult his memory." One of the things he complained about that reporters noted Limbaugh's "long history of sexist, homophobic and racist remarks." Chapman didn't dispute the claims -- and, like his MRC co-workers, he refused to acknowledge there are good reasons why people might feel that way about Limbaugh. Perhaps Chapman and the rest of the CNS crew are silently acknowledging that racism, homophobia and misogyny are what one needs to be a "great conservative leader."
Posted by Terry K.
at 12:42 AM EDT
Monday, March 15, 2021
MRC's Double Standard On Sleazy Sex Scandals
Topic: Media Research Center We've documented how the Media Research Center spent a lot of time over the past few years Heathering the Lincoln Project for being never-Trump conservatives and looks for any opportunity to write negatively about it. Well, it was handed a plum opportunity when it was revealed that Lincoln Project co-founder John Weaver had sent unsolicited and sexually provoctive messages to teenage males. Unsurprisingly, the MRC launched into its usual blitz of complaining that the alleged scandal wasn't getting attention outside its media bubble and that other Lincoln Project representatives were somehow still allowed to appear on TV:
Meanwhile, the MRC was studiously ignoring a creepy sex scandal involving a conservative who wasn't anti-Trump. Take it away, Law & Crime:
The MRC has censored any mention of Verastigui and his crime. Meanwhile, his former employer, Students for Life, has been given a lot of play at the MRC; The group's leaders have been been signatories to two letters issued by the MRC pushing its dubious narrative that "Big Tech:" is solely muzzling conservatives, and a January post by Gabriel Hays cited Students for Life among the groups cheering a Supreme Court ruling making it harder to obtain medication to induce an abortion. If the Lincoln Project is tainted by Weaver's sleazy sex scandal, why isn't Students for Life tained by Verastigui's even sleazier sex scandal? You'd think that the MRC would be outraged at all sex scandal perpetrators. Apparently, those who are sufficiently loyal to the right-wing cause and the organizations that employed them get a pass.
Posted by Terry K.
at 8:26 PM EDT
WND's Lively: U.S. No Longer A Republic Because Biden Was Elected
Topic: WorldNetDaily
-- Scott Lively, Feb. 15 WorldNetDaily column
Posted by Terry K.
at 6:16 PM EDT
CNS Frets Biden Will Allow More Non-Christian Refugees Into U.S. Than Trump Did
Topic: CNSNews.com We've documented how CNSNews.com, mainly reporter Patrick Goodenough, fretted that the U.S. let into the country too many Muslim refugees and not enough Christian ones under President Obama -- although there were almost always more Christians than Muslims -- and cheered when President Trump not only drastically cut the number of overall refugees but dramatically increased the percentage of those that were Christian. With a new administration and likely changes in refugee policies, CNS is ready to skew the issue again. An anonymously written article published in December complained about a Biden campaign policy statement stating that "Prohibiting Muslims from entering the country is morally wrong, and there is no intelligence or evidence that suggests it makes our nation more secure." Another anonymous article in january groused that "President-elect Joe Biden has promised to terminate policies followed under President Donald Trump that Biden says limited 'the ability of members of the LGBTQ community' to claim asylum in the United States." Goodenough fretted in a Feb. 4 article:
Goodenough did offer some sort of balance, noting that "Refugee resettlement agencies applauded the move." while "Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) criticized Biden’s announcement,"though he didn't explain what significance Cotton's remarks have to the debate beyond being a random Republican would happened to issue a statement on the issue. Goodenough rehashed what we already knew about the Trump administration's refugee policy in a Feb. 11 article:
Goodenough's assertion that Christianity is "the world’s most persecuted religious faith" is dubious at best, though he did graciously concede that "Adherents of faiths other than Christianity face persecution too." He also conceded a fact he obscured in his original reporting at the time, that Christian refugees almost always outnumbered Muslim ones under Obama:
Goodenough also complained that "President Biden is expected to increase the admission ceiling for the current fiscal year," though he had to admit that the move was applauded by not only resettlement agencies but also the USCIRF, "a bipartisan statutory body that advises the executive and legislative branches."
Posted by Terry K.
at 11:05 AM EDT
NEW ARTICLE -- Fake News At WND: Election Fraud Edition
Topic: WorldNetDaily WorldNetDaily unsurprisingly embraced Donald Trump's bogus claims that voter fraud cost him the election -- but, surprisingly, some claims were so egregiously false that WND actually felt compelled to correct the record. Read more >>
Posted by Terry K.
at 8:57 AM EDT
Sunday, March 14, 2021
MRC Rushes To Limbaugh's Defense Afer His Death -- But Mentions Sandra Fluke Only Once
Topic: Media Research Center Right-wing radio host Rush Limbaugh's death brought the expected plaudits, under headlines like "Radio Icon Rush Limbaugh Delighted MRC Galas: ‘Stay on the Truth’" and "Mike Pence Honors Rush Limbaugh: ‘The Anchor of Conservatism’" and "Mr. Snerdley Pays Tribute to the Late, Great Rush Limbaugh as Only He Could." But as it did when Limbaugh announced he had been diagnosed with lung cancer a year earlier, the MRC lashed out at anyone who pointed out that Limbaugh was a racist, misogynist, divisive hater while almost failing to offer a coherent defense against the claims:
Again: Aside from the above-noted Jay Maxson example, none of this posts offer any sort of defense of Limbaugh -- they simply whine that Limbaugh was criticized -- accurately, one could say -- upon his death. (Also, note that the MRC so loved the word "despicable" to describe the non-right-wing media's response to Limbaugh's death that it appears in the headlines of three of these items.) One post, however, did attempt to defend the arguably indefensible. Tim Graham devoted a Feb. 18 post to responding to an Associated Press obituary of Limbaugh that noted "As the AIDS epidemic raged in the 1980s, he made the dying a punchline," that "When actor Michael J. Fox, suffering from Parkinson’s disease, appeared in a Democratic campaign commercial, Limbaugh mocked his tremors" and that "when a Georgetown University law student supported expanded contraceptive coverage, he dismissed her as a 'slut.'"Graham's response: There's context! And Rush (allegely) apologized!
Graham linked to no evidence that Limbaugh ever apologized for his "making light of AIDS patients." And Limbaugh didn't merely "suggest" Fluke was a "slut" -- he out-and-out called her one, the MRC gave him a pass for doing so, and Limbsugh's so-called apology wasn't much of one and it came only after advertisers threatened to quit the show. Graham's post, by the way, was the only one of the Limbaugh defense posts in which Fluke was mentioned by name. The MRC had the same hates as Limbaugh did, so it couldn't understand why his targets -- or anyone who's not in their right-wing media bubble -- might object to the offensive things he said. Because to Graham and the rest of the MRC crew, they weren't offensive.
Posted by Terry K.
at 9:50 PM EST
Updated: Sunday, March 14, 2021 11:30 PM EDT
CNS Keeps Disrespecting LGBT Politicians
Topic: CNSNews.com It's no secret that CNSNews.com hates LGBT people in general and LGBT politicians even more -- just look at the treatment it gave to Pete Buttigieg. Even when Buttigieg was nominated by President Biden as transportation secretary, CNS continued to obsess over his sexual orientation, illustrating articles about the nomination with photos of him kissing his husband in an apparent attempt to squick out its right-wing, homophobic readership. CNS pulled that disrespectful trick once again in a Feb. 22 article in which an anonymous CNS reporter noted that Buttigieg "has tweeted out a video of himself having an exchange with a person about the basic philosophy he brings to transportation in the United States." The original headline rad "Trans Secretary Pete Explains: ‘What About Bikes, Scooters, Wheelchairs...Roads Aren’t Only for Vehicles’" -- seemingly suggesting that Buttigieg was somehow transgender, whcih CNS hates even more than being gay -- and accompanied the article with, yes, a photo of Buttigieg and his husband kissing: CNS later changed the headline, swapping out "Trans Secretary Pete" for the more conventional "Transportation Secretary Buttigieg" and replaced the irrelevant kissing photo with a more normal stock shot of Buttigieg. But that's not the only recent example of CNS disrespecting an LGBT politician. An anonymously written March 1 article focused on Democratic Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney defending the Equity Act, asserting that the law "would force schools in the United States to let biological males play on girls’ sports teams and use their locker rooms, restrooms and dressing rooms" as if it was the only thing the llaw would do, and also pointing out out that Maloney "is in a same-sex marriage." The headline CNS put on his article? "Congressman Married to Other Man on Equality Act Opponents: ‘They Believe LGBT People Are Morally Inferior’." Yes, that's a picture of Maloney with his husband. CNS is apparently proud enough of this slight that it remains the article. CNS also doesn't dispute Malone's contention that Equality Act opponents belive that LGBT people are "morally inferior" and that "their beliefs demand existing discrimination against LGBT people be allowed" -- perhaps because it's indisputably true.
Posted by Terry K.
at 10:49 AM EST
Updated: Sunday, March 14, 2021 10:52 AM EST
Saturday, March 13, 2021
MRC Writer Misunderstands The Lessons Of The Chicago 7
Topic: Media Research Center The Media Research Center's Kyle Drennen complained in a Feb. 12 post:
Drennen clearly doesn't know his history. Otherwise, he would be aware that none of the Chicago 7 were ultimately convicted of inciting a riot. The protesters had planned a nonviolent protest against the Vietnam War, but the violence outside the convention was actually instigated by the police determined to make a show of force by violently cracking down on them, and the arrests of the leaders and the resulting trial were pushed by federal prosecutors under Richard Nixon determined to make an example of anti-war protesters. In 1968, it was the police who created the riot and authorities tried to railroad protesters who would have been peaceful if not for the brutal police crackdown. On Jan. 6, it was the MRC's preferred president, Donald Trump, who incited thousands of protesters to storm and desecrate the Capitol. So, no, not the same at all. No irony here.
Posted by Terry K.
at 12:46 AM EST
Updated: Saturday, March 13, 2021 12:55 AM EST
WND Columnists Still Pushing Election Fraud Narratives
Topic: WorldNetDaily
-- Dennis Prager, Jan. 25 WorldNetDaily column
-- Michael Brown, Feb. 5 WND column
-- James Zumwalt, Feb. 17 WND column
-- Rachel Alexander, Feb. 22 WND column
-- Andy Schlafly, Feb. 23 WND column
Posted by Terry K.
at 12:03 AM EST
Friday, March 12, 2021
MRC's Double Standard On Attacking Reporters
Topic: Media Research Center Last month, the Media Research Center got a bit of clickbait mileage out of a controversy involving a deputy press secretary in the White House press office, TJ Ducklo. It actually began with some manufactured outrage about how a reporter ended up having a romatic relationship with Ducklo, even though the reporter responsibly asked to be reassigned after the relationship began; Kristine Marsh sneered that a People magazine article on the relationship read "more like a PR piece for the reporter and her Team Biden boyfriend" (as if anyone expects hard-hitting journalism from People) and whined that the reassignment allegedly didn't happen soon enough. Then there was an actual (though still relatively minor) controversy to address: Ducklo had objected to the story, and he tried to intimidate the female reporter working on it by using derogatory and misogynistic language. Since the MRC does not miss an opportunity to attack a Democratic president and his administration for even the slightest offense, it was quick to pounce. First, Curtis Houck complained that the one-week suspension he originally received was a "slap on the wrist." He later whined that this story wasn't getting wall-to-wall impeachment-level coverage on the (non-Fox) evening news. When Ducklo ultimately left his job over the incident, Houck was still whining that it deserved wall-to-wall coverage:
All of this is quite hypocritical, because the MRC has sown itself to be quite cool with not just offensive language but actual physical assualt of a reporter by a conservative. In 2017, Greg Gianforte, then a Republican candidate for a congressional seat in Idaho, body-slammed and hit a reporter who apparently asked him something he didn't like. He later pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault. And MRC management was OK with that. As we documented, MRC chief Brent Bozell delcared that the reporter was "an obnoxious, dishonest first class jerk. I'm not surprised he got smacked," and executive Tim Graham huffed that the reporter had been working for a British newspaper (though is an American), whining, "Let's ask why on Earth a House candidate in Montana should have to answer questions from a reporter for a BRITISH newspaper????" As we also noted, their disdain for the reporter was personal -- he exposed the MRC's legally questionable purchase of a house in Pennsylvania from MRC vice president David Martin and was also among the reporters who highlighted the revelation that Graham ghost-wrote Bozell's syndicated columns. The MRC has condoned behavior less egregious than Ducklo's, which makes all this hyperventilating less the expression of legitimate outrage and more a partisan political exercise.
Posted by Terry K.
at 6:24 PM EST
Updated: Friday, March 12, 2021 6:24 PM EST
WND's Farah Can't Understand Why Christians Would Criticize Sleazy, Amoral Trump
Topic: WorldNetDaily I'm very curious about a phenomenon practically inexplicable to me. -- Joseph Farah, Feb.2 column
Posted by Terry K.
at 2:24 PM EST
Updated: Friday, March 12, 2021 2:24 PM EST
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