The Media Research Center had a hard time finding ways to attack Attorney General nominee Merrick Garland the way it has done to other Biden Cabinet nominees. It didn't go after him at all when he was first nominated, and its articles cherry-picking responses to questions during his confirmation hearing were lame at best.

A Feb. 22 article by Susan Jones appeared to compalin that Garland said he would prioritize the prosecution of "white supremacists and others who stormed the Capitol on January 6 -- a heinous attack that sought to disrupt a cornerstone of our democracy: the peaceful transfer of power to a newly elected government." Jones complained the next day that Garland said, in response to questions from mostly Republican senators, that he didn't have an opinion on the Second Amendment -- despite the fact that, because it is his job to enforce the law and not make law, he's not supposed to have an opinion on it. Another article by Jones merely summarized his views on "racism, disparate justice, and implicit bias."

It wasn't until March 4 that CNS came up with a plausible line of attack. Terry Jeffrey's column bashed Garland for, while serving as a judge, allowed a 17-year-old "illegal alien" arrested at the Mexican border to receive an abortion. "So, what was Garland thinking, if anything, when a pregnant alien teenager — caught trying to illegally enter the United States — came before his court, seeking his blessing to terminate her child?" Jeffrey huffed -- even though he repeatedly denied the humanity of the teen by repeatedly referring to her as an "alien."

And it wasn't until two days after Garland was confirmed by the full Senate on March 10 that CNS published an article by Emma Riley recounting how conservatives opposed Garland in a letter. "The letter cited Garland’s ambiguity over the law on whether attacking a federal court house at night or during the day constitutes 'domestic terrorism'; his unwillingness to condemn remarks that 'black people are genetically superior to white people'; and his unwillingness to denounce the comment that 'any pro-life advocate is unfit for office,'" Riley wrote -- again, ignoring the fact that the attorney general is not supposed to have an opinion on such things.

The fact that even the highly biased "journalists" at CNS couldn't findmuch to attack Garland tells us that he likely won't be as bad as they think.

Posted by Terry K. at 1:44 PM EDT

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We've documented WorldNetDaily's penchant for embracing white nationalism -- one example of which was Scott Greer, who wrote a WND-published book, "No Campus for White Men," which complained about "diversity, victimization and identity politics on today's college campuses." At the same time Greer was writing that book, he was also penning anti-Semitic and white nationalist articles under a pseudonym for the Radix Journal, published by white supremacist leader Richard Spencer. WND has never told its readers about that.

Either WND needs the money or has a bunch of Greer books gathering dust, because it has spent the past several months pushing the book at a deep discount.

In September, WND started sending out messages to its mailing list promoting "No Campus for White Men" for just $4.95. The first came out on Sept. 20, and it's done so about once a month since then. It's a recycled pitch; the ad copy still describes him as "an editor and columnist at the Daily Caller" though he resigned that job when his white nationalist proclivities became public in 2018. Needless to say, there's no mention of any of that in the ad copy.

That's not the only place where Greer's book is getting a renewed push. The March issue of WND's sparsely read Whistlelower magazine carries the theme "Brainwashing America's Next Generation," and if you subscribe to the magazine, WND will send you "a very special free gift": a copy of "No Campus for White Men."WND has also sent out several emails promoting the Whistleblower issue and offer, whcih is a carbon copy of the offer on the website.

It repeats much of the previous ad copy, including the ridiculous claim that "College campuses in America today have descended so far into Marxist indoctrination and bizarre political correctness that they are commonly referred to as 'small ivy-covered North Koreas.'" Who says that? Nobody we've ever read.

The article promoting the offer adds, "This special free offer will end without notice and is good in the U.S. only." How long will that offer last after more people are made aware of who Greer is and that WND published him?

Posted by Terry K. at 12:03 AM EDT

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The Media Research Center loves to attack the "liberal media" they so despise with childish name-calling. One of the nastiest names they've been tossing around is "whore," whenever news operations promote happenings elsewhere under their corporate umbrella or other reasons:

• Under the headline "‘Christmas Comes Early’ as ABC Whores Out News for Disney+ Push," Scott Whitlock complained in Nobember 2019 that ABC's "GHood Morning America" "devoted almost 17 minutes to shilling for the new Disney+ streaming service. Disney, of course, owns ABC and the journalists on the network sounded more like PR talking points come to life. 
• Under the headline "Disney WHORES: ABC Hawks Lion King Prequel, Ignores 28,000 Layoffs," Nicholas Fondacaro ranted in September 2020 about how "NewsBusters has long documented how ABC “News” has whored itself out to parent company Disney to promote its corporate products, everything from their streaming service Disney+ to films like Mulan."
• A Jan. 5 post by Whitlock was headlined "Corporate Whores at Commie China-Loving ABC Actually Cover Disappearance of Jack Ma," attacking the network as "journalists who have spun for their communist China-loving bosses at Disney."
• Under the headline "CBS Goes Full WHORE in Pushing 'Awesome' Streaming Service of Corporate Bosses," Whitlock complained on Feb. 25 that "CBS This Morning journalists promoted the 'awesome' new Paramount+, hyping just how 'excited' everyone was for the newly-named media platform."
• On March 12, the MRC's NewsBusters Twitter account smeared NPR reporter Scott Horsley as "Whore-sley" for not being negative enough about President Biden's coronavirus relief plan.
• On March 18, Fondacaro groused that ABC's "World News Tonight" was "busy suggesting everything was hunky-dory in California by being corporate whores and touting the reopening of Disneyland next month."

This, of course, applies to the MRC as well. If TV networks are "whores" for touting whatever things happening elsewhere, than the MRC's "news" division, CNSNews, is the MRC's whore for promoting MRC initiatives and whatever the Brent Bozell has to say in the form of "news" stories. A few examples since the November presidential election alone:

• Bozell Calls for Investigation Into Media's Election Tampering
• MRC's Bozell: Big Media and Big Tech Stole the 2020 Election
• Bozell to Levin: Survey Shows 4.6% of Democrats Would Not Have Voted for Joe Biden Had They Known Hunter Biden Story
• Poll Shows Media Censorship Cheated Voters of Vital Info, Robbed Trump of Second Term (poll paid for by the MRC)
• Bozell: Big Tech Is Doing What Tyrants Like Hitler, Mao and Stalin Do
• Brent Bozell Slams Facebook for Abandoning Free Speech
• MRC Demands an End to Amazon’s Hate Against Conservatives
• Bozell: ‘The Left-Wing Insurrection Continues in Portland and the Media Yawn’

Also of course, being the MRC, there's a double standard -- nobody is allowed to use such vulgar phrasing to describe right-wingers. In November, Fondacaro ranted that the "insufferably pompous" Tom Friedman claimed that "the Republicans were just a bunch of 'manure' eating racists and whores trying to stir up a Lebanese-style civil war while trying to suppress votes, while President Trump was trying to 'put a bullet into the country.'" Friedman didn't actually use the word as Fondacaro suggested, though he did describe the GOP as "a giant political brothel that basically rents itself out to the night to whoever will energize its base." Fondacaro didn't dispute the accuracy of Friedman's claim, instead content to dismiss him as riding a "crazy train."

Perhaps Fondacaro didn't want to admit that Friedman was correct -- about both the GOP and the MRC.

Posted by Terry K. at 7:20 PM EDT

Updated: Sunday, April 4, 2021 7:29 PM EDT

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CNSNews.com, like other right-wing media outlets, has been getting a lot of Biden-bashing mileage out of issues with immigrants at the Mexican border. But CNS primed readers to blame Biden for increased numbers of immigrants trying to cross the border even before he became president.

Back on Jan. 12, Melanie Arter touted how "President Donald [Trump] warned Tuesday that caravans of illegal immigrants are forming on the southern border, in anticipation of Joe Biden’s presidency and what’s in it for them, but the Trump administration is able to stop it."More examples from January:

• On Jan. 18, Arter wrote that "Former acting ICE Director Tom Homan told Fox Business’s 'Mornings with Maria Bartiromo' on Monday that the prediction he made six months ago is coming true that if Joe Biden won the presidency, there will be a surge in illegal immigration like you’ve never seen."
• A Jan. 19 article by Susan Jones featured a file photo of "A caravan of would-be illegal immigrants" from ovember 2018.
• A separate article by Jones the same day declared: "Illegal immigration is accelerating once again, as thousands of Central Americans are heading to the U.S., taking President-elect Joe Biden at his word that he will halt deportations in his first 100 days, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) told the Homeland Security Committee on Tuesday."
• On Jan. 20, Jones noted that Antony Blinken, at his confirmation hearing for secretary of state,  saying that undocumented immigrants shouldn't come, which would seem to undermine CNS' later claim that Biden encouraged them to come.
• On Jan. 22, Jones gave space to a Fox News appearance by the head of the union for Border Patrol employees, claiming that "There is absolutely reason to be concerned" about security at the Southwest border.
• The same day, an anonymous CNS writer complained that "When President Joe Biden arrived at the White House after being inaugurated on Wednesday, he signed an executive orderhalting the construction of an 'impassable physical barrier' at the U.S.-Mexico border."
• Another Jan. 22 article, this one by the mysterious "A. Kim," groused that Biden's executive orders on immigration represent "a sweeping change that reflects a return to Obama-era policy," further complaining that "illegal aliens" are "now officially termed 'non-citizens.'" "Kim" also claimed that Republicans opposed Biden's "plans for amnesty," even though no policy change was identified as such.
• On Jan. 25, Jones let Chad Wolf, onetime acting Homeland Security secretary under Trump, fearmonger about Biden's policy changes, claiming that the are "going to cause an immigration and border security crisis on our Southwest Border."

In short: CNS was always going to attack Biden on immigration no matter what is happening now. It telegraphed that nearly three months ago.

Posted by Terry K. at 4:43 PM EDT

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The Media Research Center hates both transgender people and fact-checkers, so when right-wing claims about trangenders get fact-checked, Tim Graham is sure to complain. In a March 4 post, Graham lost it when PolitiFact pointed out there's a difference between gender and gender identity:

You can tell a "fact checker" is marching to the drumbeat of the libertine left when they labor to deny the biological fact that the overwhelming majority of humans are born as either boys or girls.

On Thursday, PolitiFact took sides in the hallway Twitter battle between freshmen congresswomen Marie Newman and Marjorie Taylor Greene over the so-called "Equality Act" being debated. "We checked, and the science is clear: Gender identity goes beyond male and female."

How can you trust any "fact check" from people who are this slippery with obvious facts? On Thursday, PolitiFact wasn't subtle by illustrating their "check" with a picture of left-wing activists holding up a sign reading "TRANS EQUALITY NOW." 

(Greene is once again being defended by the MRC despite her far-right views because she hates transgender people as much as Graham apparently does.)

Graham then attacked the experts PolitiFact used -- as he's wont to do when they don't conform to his right-wing ideology -- complaining that one "teaches a "Biology of Sex" courseto correct "society" and "a general lack of scientific interest and understanding when it comes to sex and gender," and another "donated repeatedly to Obama for President and other Democrats and wrote a book called Galileo's Middle Finger. Heretics, Activists, and the Search for Justice in Science."

The next day, Graham whined in defense of transgender-hating Republican Sen. Rand Paul:

PolitiFact isn’t the only “fact checker” that abandons the facts to embrace the Church of Gender Fluidity. On Thursday, CNN’s went after Sen. Rand Paul for referring to the removal of a penis as “genital mutilation.” There’s also breast amputation, but CNN “fact checker” Aaron Millman put the scary snip-snip aside for politically correct descriptions – six usages of “gender confirmation” surgeries or “gender affirmation” treatments.

That's not counting the headline: "Fact-checking Rand Paul's comparisons of genital mutilation and gender confirmation surgery." 

Using terms like "affirmation" and "confirmation" clearly identify CNN with LGBTQ orthodoxy, but they're not "facts" words. They're "feelings" words. CNN is "Feelings First" on this "fact" check.

Graham was particularly put out that the CNN fact-checker pointed out that "Paul draws on data from the American College of Pediatricians, a group that many health experts believe is on the wrong side of a number of controversial medical topics, especially the issue of gender conversion therapy," and that the American Association of Pediatricians offered a more credible take. Grahamhuffed in response: "Millman is trying to suggest that the AAP -- which has accepted all tenets of the LGBTQ ideology, and eschewed the hard facts of biological sex -- is somehow non-political, non-ideological, "mainstream" -- while the ACP represents 'non-credible sources.'  In other words, the AAP is supposed to be revered like CNN, and the ACP should be tainted like Fox News."

Well, yes. The ACP is a right-wing group with only 500 members that exists to hate LGBTQ people and puts its fringe politics ahead of sound medicine. The AAP is a mainstream froup of 67,000 pediatricians that has been around since 1930 and conducts credible research on numerous issues involving children's health.

Apparently because he realized his attack on the fact-check itself didn't hold water, Graham then  issued a personal attack on the fact-checker himself for being an intern. "They’re letting interns do the 'fact checking,'" Graham exclained, adding: "Under his Twitter bio with the words “justice unit intern,” his pronouns (he/him) and a rainbow-flag emoji (confirming he's an LGBTQ ally), his "header" photo is liberal Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) with Desus & Mero."

We would no doubt hear from Graham if we went after the MRC's interns -- which are allowed to do "media research" stuff like the full-timers -- the way he smeared the CNN intern. But it's apparently OK for Graham because he's a Republican.

Posted by Terry K. at 10:07 AM EDT

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For white Luciferian leftists, Black History Month isn't about accomplishment and the embracing of modernity. It's about a month-long jeremiad of accusations, defeatism, Kunta Kinte, white man bad, conservative white man really bad and America responsible for slavery.

These progeny of Satan are godless life forms that make a great show of being singularly aware when it comes to all things skin-color. Their pompous sagacity hides raw bigotry and unbridled contempt for Americans who refuse to view themselves as a crayon color. These leftists hate any black person not subscribing to Munchausen syndrome of slavery and white oppression.

A month-long public display by blacks suffering from the fantasy of being disadvantaged because of slavery, etc. allows for these self-righteous behavioral modifiers to treat free thinking and self-determination as contra-indicative.

[...]

This is why they applaud someone like the Obama woman. She's a common and uncouth harridan who would blame white people for blue skies if it served her divisive heterodoxy. Are we supposed to forget the bigoted things liberal superiors such as Biden and former Sen. Harry Reid said about Obama's speech pattern?

White liberals applauded the Obama woman for wallowing around on the floor doing push-ups, etc. for the excitable pleasure of lesbian Ellen DeGeneres. Can you imagine former Democratic first ladys such as Jackie Kennedy, Eleanor Roosevelt, Rosalyn Carter or even Hillary Clinton behaving as boorishly?

Kamala Harris is heralded as being a black vice president. The truth is she isn't black, but she epitomizes the definition of harlot. Of course, white liberals see nothing wrong with a black woman in high office as long as she fits a schematic of commonality.

-- Mychal Massie, Feb. 15 WorldNetDaily column

Practically everywhere you turn there is a fatuous, enlightened, white, liberal, elitist bigot telling other people they should be ashamed for being white. This evolving pandemic of stupidity may be in the neoteric stages of social-behavioral demagoguery, but that's not to say it hasn't been spectacularly well received by those who use the space between their ears as repositories for that which falls from chickens to the floor. Hence the prefix for the single syllable descriptive of their brains.

That said, after ruminating upon the demands by these invidious Mohocks of ophidian origin, I've realized that they present an argument that has merit. Thus, I hereby now proclaim that I am in agreement with the progeny of Satan who are advancing the white-shame narrative.

I submit that it's the white, liberal trust-fund babies sponsored by George Soros et al. who should be ashamed for being white devils. They should be ashamed for undermining hardworking Americans who have the singular desire of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. They're a disgrace to all Americans who reject skin-color of any hue as a qualifier for success or failure.

White, liberal wannabe-commies should be ashamed of being the godless whites applauding the successful theft of a presidential election, thus making election outcomes in many Third World countries trustworthier than in the United States.

White, liberal anarchists – who actually would have us believe a teetering old sot with dementia and a hair-sniffing fetish and an amoral hoydenish who has a legendary track record for sleeping with equally repulsive married men are capable administrators – should be ashamed of being white. The liberal whites supporting a woman ashamed of her nationality to the point that she pretends to be another nationality should be ashamed. The cherry on the top of this chamber pot filled to overflowing is the son of the hair-sniffing-liar-in-chief, who is a crack cocaine addict wholly given over to the most base practices of sexual depravity.

White liberals should be ashamed of their billionaire underwriters like Mark Cuban, the owner of some basketball team who forbade the American National Anthem from being played in the arena the team calls home. I'm guessing he preferred the CCP national anthem.

White, liberal, elitist bigots should be ashamed for their corruption of public schools. White liberals should be ashamed for advancing a hebephrenic psychological mental illness of aberrant sexual practices under the charade of normalcy.

-- Mychal Massie, March 8 WND column

The latest example of how to further emasculate blacks is Rocket Mortgage's "Fair Way Award" for diversity and inclusion by "leaning on minority-owned vendors at the Detroit Golf Club and having a volunteer base that reflected the community."

[...]

If Rocket Mortgage cared about poe-poe underprivileged African-Americans (sarcasm intended) in Michigan, they would be making hammers, nails, saws, roofing shingles and plumbing equipment available at what it cost wholesale with a no payments due for 36 months.

They would help sponsor the vocational training of all those interested in learning a skill within the building trade and advocate for on-the-job training after six months of vocational training.

That would actually be a service that provided benefit. This golf-tourney crap is a canard akin to a magician's act minus the rabbit. If golf were easy, more people would be playing it. If blacks were interested in playing pro-golf, there would be more of them on the tour. It's acknowledged that having Tiger Woods win every event under the sun umpteen times hasn't raised the interest level of blacks to play golf. It did raise the interest level for them to boast about Tiger Woods being black … except by those who argue he isn't.

If Rocket Mortgage were truly interested in lending itself to personal improvement, it wouldn't advocate involvement in a sport that's only marginally easier to be consistent at than one would be trying to shoot mosquitoes out of the air at night with a black powder pistol.

[...]

Tangential to that, Rocket Mortgage could sponsor evening and Saturday family-planning seminars that teach black girls the value of not having babies before they can afford pizza. They could sponsor seminars that teach about the white globalist construct that has industrialized the systematic extermination of blacks. They could teach young boys that there are life-changing ramifications to not keeping their diminutive egos zippered until they're in a position to marry and have a family.

The real tragedy is many blacks find it more important to be useful idiots blinded by the incandescent pretense of manifest destiny that's in reality managed by devils masquerading as white neo-Leninist liberals – people who hate blacks only marginally less than they hate Jesus Christ.

-- Mychal Massie, March 22 WND column

Posted by Terry K. at 12:20 AM EDT

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The Media Research Center's Alexander Hall is bizarrely excited in a March 10 post:

Russia has decided to fight back against Silicon Valley, suing five companies to force removal of posts supporting anti-Putin protests. This is part of a tidal wave of opposition to Big Tech around the world.

Big Tech has allowed civil discord to run rampant if it targets entities liberals want destroyed.  “Russian authorities are suing five social media platforms for allegedly failing to delete posts urging children to take part in illegal protests, the Interfax news agency cited a Moscow court as saying on Tuesday,” Reuters reported March 9. “Twitter, Google, Facebook each have three cases against them, with each violation punishable by a fine of up to 4 million roubles (around $54,000), and cases have also been filed against Tiktok and Telegram, the report said.”

The cases were reportedly launched “after protests nationwide over last month's jailing of Alexei Navalny, a prominent critic of President Vladimir Putin.” Navalny and his sympathizers claim that his 30-month sentence, “for alleged parole violations related to an embezzlement case, was trumped up for political reasons, something the authorities deny,” Reuters summarized.

President Vladimir Putin’s Russia is one of many countries growing wary of Big Tech’s unchecked power to control the flow of information based on the biases of its CEOs.

That's right -- Hall is cheering Russia taking on "Big Tech" in order to squelch dissent. Hall's problem here is not with Putin tring to censor political opposition, it's with "Big Tech" for not letting him censor it.

Hall cheered further:

In the weeks following Trump’s censorship on Twitter, Hungary joined Poland as one of the premier European powers taking on Big Tech. Hungarian Minister of Justice Varga Judit announced in a January 26 Facebook post: “After consulting with the heads of the involved state institutions, the Ministry of Justice will propose a law to the Parliament this spring about the regulation of the great tech companies’ Hungarian [operation].” 

Judit warned would-be censors that Hungarians will not tolerate technological tyranny from Big Tech: “The deliberate, ideological or business-motivated digital damaging can no longer happen without consequences in Hungary!”

Hungary is ruled by Viktor Orban, a right-wing authoritarian currently bent on exploiting the coronavirus pandemic to make a power grab that would let him rule by decree (as we've noted). Like Putin, Orban is trying to suppress political dissent, and his attacks on social media can be seen as part of that. Poland is also led by right-wingers who, like Hungary, are spouting the MRC's bogus narrative that social media is exclusively "censoring" conservative points of view.

Cheering authoritarian censorship to own the libs -- er, "Big Tech"? That's quite the stance, Mr. Hall.

Posted by Terry K. at 4:38 PM EDT

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Joe Kovacs huffed in a March 3 WorldNetDaily "news" article:

While Dr. Seuss is being summarily canceled by the Joe Biden White House for allegedly having "racial undertones," previous Democrats in the Oval Office adored and celebrated the popular children's author, with Barack and Michelle Obama hosting reading events with kids dressing up as characters from the books.

The Biden administration recently stripped Dr. Seuss' name from Read Across America Day, but back in 2015, then-President Obama told White House interns that "pretty much all the stuff you need to know is in Dr. Seuss."

In fact, Biden did not "cancel" or "strip" Dr. Seuss from Read Across America Day. As we've pointed out, the contract giving Dr. Seuss exclusivity to Read Across America Day ended a few years ago, and the day has since focused on adding more diverse children's books.

And we thought WND actually cared these days about getting facts straight.

Posted by Terry K. at 2:02 PM EDT

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CNSNews.com attacked Rachel Levine upon her nomination as assistant HHS secretary because she is the first transgender person to nominated to a top Cabinet post. So when Republican Sen. Rand Paul harshly questioned her during her nomination hearing, CNS' Susan Jones cheered it:

Unafraid to address the transgender issue staring lawmakers in the face, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Thursday asked Dr. Rachel Levine (nee Richard) if she believes "minors are capable of making such a life-changing decision as changing one's sex."

Levine, President Biden's nominee for assistant secretary of health, now lives as a woman.

Twice, Levine gave Sen. Paul the same rehearsed, non-answer to his question:

Actually, Paul was merely unafraid to lecture and push anti-trans talking points, and Jones transcribed every word of his harangue of Levine.Jones apparently decided that Paul's attack was too good to fact-check; had she bothered to do so, she would have learned that, contrary to Paul's assertions, current medical guidelines in the U.S. do not recommend transition-related surgeries for minors.

But when Paul got called out for his harangue, Jones pouted in an article the next day:

It is now offensive and inappropriate in the U.S. Congress for a lawmaker to question a transgender physician about her views on minor children making the decision to change their sex through hormone use and surgery.

At her confirmation hearing on Thursday, Dr. Rachel Levine, born Richard, twice refused to say whether she thinks minors are capable of making such a "life-changing decision," as Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) put it. (See below)

Later in the hearing, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions, criticized Paul for his line of questioning:

"It is really critical to me that our nominees be treated with respect and that our questions focus on their qualifications and the work ahead of us rather than ideological and harmful misrepresentations, like those we heard from Senator Paul earlier," Murray said.

"And I will focus on that as chair of this committee. So thank you again for your response," she told Dr. Levine. "And with that, I will turn it over to Senator Murphy."

CNS rehashed Paul's hostile questioning of Levine in a March 16 article by the mysterious "A. Kim" featuring conservatives attacking the Equality Act (and deliberately misgenders Levine):

On Feb. 25, a Senate confirmation hearing was held for Dr. Rachel Levine, a transgender “woman” (biological male) nominated by President Biden to be assistant secretary of Health and Human Services. During the hearing, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), a medical doctor, questioned Levine about his left-wing views on sex-change surgery for minors, an issue that would be protected from discrimination under the Equality Act.

“Dr. Levine, you have supported both allowing minors to be given hormone blockers to prevent them from going through puberty, as well as surgical destruction of a minor's genitalia,” said Paul.  “Like surgical mutilation, hormonal interruption of puberty can permanently alter and prevent secondary sexual characteristics. The American College of Pediatricians reports that 80% to 95% of pre-pubertal children with gender dysphoria will experience resolution by late adolescence if not exposed to medical intervention and social affirmation.”

“Dr. Levine, do you believe that minors are capable of making such a life-changing decision as changing one’s sex?” said Paul. Levine did not answer the question but said “transgender medicine is a very complex and nuanced field.”

Bill Donohue took a swipe at Levine in his March 29 column, justifying Paul's hostile questioning and also misgendering Levine: "Given his status, both physical and professional, it is important to know what his position on sex transitioning is."

When Levine was confirmed by the full Senate for her new job on March 24, however, CNS couldn't be bothered to do a story on it. Apparently, good news about a transgender person isn't news at all at CNS.

Posted by Terry K. at 12:10 AM EDT

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In a March 9 Media Research Center post, Donovan Newkirk complained that "MSNBC host Joy Reid and frequent cable news hack Dean Obeidallah grossly speculated about a hypothetical retirement of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) as a chance to move Kentucky AG Daniel Cameron (R) into the Senate and accused every single person who works in and votes for the Republican Party as nothing more than a 'dangerous cocktail' of 'white supremacy,' 'fascism,” and 'lies.'" He further groused the Obeidallah "proceeded to tie all Republicans to Congressman Paul Gosar (R-AZ) and a far-right group," quoting him as saying, "Now you've got Paul Gosar going to white supremacist events. And there's no backlash."

Curiously, Newkirk said nothing further, refusing to explain that reference. Since he won't, we have to.

In late February, Gosar was the keynote speaker at something called the America First Political Action Conference. Sounds innocuous -- until you learn that AFPAC was organized by Nick Fuentes, a white nationalist who has express anti-Semitic views. He was one of several far-right activists who shipped up crowds outside the Capitol on Jan. 6,  and who said a few days earlier, "What can you and I do to a state legislator — besides kill him?"

The MRC hasn't otherwise mentioned Gosar's appearance at this far-right confab, let alone criticize him for it.Perhaps that's because it's a fan of Gosar. In December, Alexander Hall gushed that Gosar was a co-sponsor of a bill that "would remove key protections from companies who engage in biased censorship." Last year, the MRC defended Gosar's use of derogatory terms like "Wuhan virus" to describe coronavirus. And in 2018, the MRC complained that CNN did a segment on Gosar's family members hating him so much they endorsed his Democratic opponent.

That's the kind of thing the MRC would like you to please ignore.

Posted by Terry K. at 10:07 PM EDT

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Sean Harshey ranted in his March 3 WorldNetDaily column:

We have reached a remarkable place in our national condition where it is so accepted that the current political narrative is equal to "truth," whatever that narrative may be at the moment, that important people are perfectly comfortable telling obvious lies and relaxing in the comfort they will not be held accountable.

This week in testimony before Congress, FBI Director Christopher Wray claimed the bureau had no evidence of antifa or "fake Trump supporters" participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, protests on Capitol Hill. This in spite of the fact the FBI actually investigated and arrested now former-antifa activist John Sullivan, who posted publicly on social media of his plans to infiltrate the crowd of Trump supporters and taking pictures and video of himself disguised in MAGA paraphernalia while screaming obscenities trying to encourage the crowd to go into the Capitol building. Americans can see the pictures, watch the video and read the indictment for themselves, but the political narrative is the opposite of reality. And so, we are told – under oath – that the "truth" is the opposite of what we see with our own eyes.

In fact, Harshey is misquoting Wray. In the link Harshey supplied, Wray makes it clear that Antifa was not responsible, did not organize, and did not play a "significant role" in the riot:

"Do you have any evidence that the capital attack was organized by, quote, 'fake Trump protesters?'" Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin asked Wray.

"We have not seen evidence of that," Wray responded.

[...]

Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont asked whether Wray had seen any evidence of antifa or left-wing groups playing a "significant role" in the attack.

“We're equal opportunity and looking for a violent extremism of any — of any ideology. We have not, to date, seen any evidence of anarchist, violent extremists or people subscribing to antifa in connection with [Jan. 6]," Wray said. "That doesn't mean we're not looking, and we'll continue to look. But at the moment, we have not seen that."

In fact, Sullivan appears to be the non-right-winger to have been arrested, and it's since become even more clear that violent far-right groups like the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys played key roles in the riot.

Harshey is trying to add to the bogus right-wing narrative -- which WND has promulgated -- that Sullivan's arrest somehow disproves that far-right Trump supporters were the ones behind the riot. 

Posted by Terry K. at 2:06 PM EDT

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The Media Research Center once attacked the Muppets for being conservatively incorrect in having an oil tycoon as a villain in a movie, so recent moves in the Muppetverse were sure to set the MRC off.

Gabriela Pariseau complained that some episodes of the 1970s "Muppet Show" being rerun on Diskey+ now have disclaimers at the beginning warning viewers of outdated offensive content:

According to Kermit the Frog, "It's not easy being green," and apparently it's not easy being The Muppet Show, either. Disney+ just couldn’t resist slapping an offensive content label on the beloved family show.

[...]

It seems Disney is keenly aware of the popularity and profit value of Muppets content so the streaming service must defend why it refuses to ban the show entirely. The Disney warning explains, "Rather than remove this content, we want to acknowledge its harmful impact, learn from it and spark conversation to create a more inclusive future together." That’s all fine and great but most families don’t need Disney’s parenting advice to decide what is appropriate for their kids and when it is appropriate to have conversations about racism and cultural appropriation.

It’s interesting that Disney singles out the cultural offenses of The Muppets. Part of what makes the Muppets funny is the fact that, like all good humor, it lightheartedly offends and makes fun of everyone. Anyone who has seen The Muppets knows the franchise is politically incorrect about a whole bunch of things that make viewers both cringe and laugh at its brilliant comedic charm. As it is with many shows designed to keep the whole family entertained, much of so-called “offensive” or inappropriate content goes over kids’ heads and is left for them to enjoy or understand when they are older.

We would remind Pariseau that, again, her employer didn't think it was being "lightheartedly offended" through its choice of a villain for one film.

The MRC then took offense for being mocked for taking offense at this. A March 3 post by Alex Christy raged at NBC late-night-host Seth Meyers for calling out right-wingers pushing "invented culture war grievances" like the complaints over the Muppets, insisting that conservatives are "merely responding to the left's culture war offensive" and huffily adding: "Meyers, sounding like the political hack he is, of course omitted that it is the left's culture warriors, who motivated by "invented" grievances," urge content advisories for The Muppets on Disney+ and the turning of Mr. Potato Head into a genderless spud."

MRC executive Tim Graham similarly went into defense in his March 5 column, just like he did regarding Dr. Seuss: "Our family watched The Muppet Show every Saturday night when it originally aired. These defined the words 'family entertainment.' Conservatives are mocking the Left for attempting to turn wholesome products into loathsome products."

Then, Liondsay Kornick spent an entire March 25 post being mad that "Sesame Street" is adding two African-American Muppets:

The famous children’s show Sesame Street is determined to talk about race whether we like it or not. Their latest terrible example is the introduction of two African-American Muppets to “educate children about race.”

On March 23, the educational series introduced two new Muppets in an online video. As part of the series "ABCs of Racial Literacy," Elmo talks to 5-year-old Wes and his father Elijah about race and what it means to them. Elmo asks the two why their skin is dark and Elijah explains that it’s because of melanin and how “the color of our skin is an important part of who we are.”

[...]

Color me skeptical but telling kids that skin color is “an important part” of them doesn’t feel like it’ll end racism. In fact, suggesting that children can inherently judge others by race is far more racist than anything I’ve seen lately. Besides, we all know that the “racial justice” they’re talking about is the BLM abolishing the police variety. It always is.

Also, considering the most famous characters are colors not seen in the human race, Elmo (red), Big Bird (yellow), Cookie Monster (blue), and other more human-like characters like Bert (yellow) and Ernie (orange), was there really anyone really whining about Muppet color representation? And it’s not like Sesame Street was lacking in actual black characters beyond ones made of felt. How can a show that premiered in 1969 somehow think it’s more racist in 2021?

I can’t answer those questions, but Sesame Street will be sure to avoid them. And then they’ll claim it’s racial justice.

And the MRC will claim it's racial pandering.

Posted by Terry K. at 8:57 PM EDT

Updated: Wednesday, March 31, 2021 9:12 PM EDT

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Kenny Cody wasn't the only Newsmax columnist to play politics over Dr. Seuss. Michael Reagan (and co-writer Michael Shannon) ranted in a March 2 column:

We’re old enough to remember when local school boards reflected the culture and sensibilities of the surrounding community providing the students.

Those days are long gone.

Now all too many school boards reflect the latest intellectual fads and fashions of the Harvard School of Education faculty lounge.

Take the great minds inhabiting the Loudoun County, Virginia school board.

Fox News informs us the Loudoun County board has banned Dr. Seuss books from Read Across America Day. That’s the day "dedicated to the importance of reading and literacy. The day falls on Dr. Seuss’s birthday in honor of the impactful (sic) author, whose books have helped countless children learn to read across the globe."

Learning for Justice, a racial grievance and division–mongering group, claims the children’s books are chock full of "orientalism, anti-Blackness and White supremacy."

As we know, that's not true -- the Loudon County schools did not "ban" Dr. Seuss books -- it de-emphasized them for more diverse selection, following similar priorities from Read Across America Day.

But Reagan doesn't care about facts as long as he has an argument to make. He declared that "All we ever detected was general hilarity and borderline chaos in the Seuss’ books" and rehashed the storyline of "Green Eggs and Ham," which nobody was complaining about, and accused critics of the racism in some books of "wanting to deprive children of the Dr. Seuss experience," which nobody is actually trying to do.

Posted by Terry K. at 6:04 PM EDT

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