WND's Dubious Doc Falsely Fearmongers About COVID Vaccines
Topic: WorldNetDaily

For someone who loves plugging unproven medications like hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin to treat coronavirus, dubous WorldNetDaily doc Jane Orient of the fringe-right Association of American Physicians and Surgeons sure loves to fearmonger about coronavirus vaccines, whose wfficacy is much more thoroughly documented. Orient served up more fearmongering in her March 18 column, which was also filled with falsehoods under the guise of "a few facts that you should know before getting in line." First up in her bullet points:

• The products are not vaccines in the usual sense – the dictionary definition had to be changed to call them that. They are experimental biologic agents, a form of gene therapy.

Orient is lying -- mRNA vaccines like the ones from Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech are not gene therapy because the RNA does not stay in the body.

• Public health authorities state that none of the 1,637 post-vaccine deaths reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) as of March 8 are provably caused by a COVID vaccine. But the deaths cluster in the first few days (see graphic below) instead of being evenly distributed, and the rate is many times higher than for other vaccines.

In fact, the rate of adverse effects from coronavirus vaccines are comparable to other vaccines.

• It is too soon to evaluate long-term adverse effects, such as autoimmune diseases, cancer, birth defects, impairment of fertility, or antibody-enhanced disease from later virus infection.

Did Orient evaluate the long-term adverseeffects of hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin before promoting them?

• Deaths in the vaccinated population may be higher than if they had gotten the disease. Analysts in Israel calculate that in the five-week mass immunization period, 40 times more elderly people and 260 times more younger people died than the disease would have killed during that period.

Not true. it's a misinterpretation of data leading to flawed conclusions.

• In German nursing homes there were many times more deaths in the two months after the vaccination campaign started than in the entire prior year (see graphic).

Orient offers only an unverified chart from a random German Twitter account in support, but it appears that's not true either.

Orient the lists among "further information" a column she wrote for the AAPS' journal in which she pretends she and the AAPS aren't anti-vaxxers: "Since many physicians will dismiss without consideration any information from a source tarred with an “anti-vax” label, one must state from the outset that AAPS does not oppose vaccination. AAPS does not endorse or oppose specific measures but favor medical interventions, including drugs, surgery, vaccines, or other modalities that have benefits exceeding risks in an individual patient, to which the patient has given informed consent." But in contradiction to that declaration, Orient also went on a rant against Bill Gates for advocating vaccination efforts.

Orient followed up in her March 31 WND column in which she again attacked the mRNA vaccines, in which she uncritically repeated the outlandish claim that the vaccines "constitute 'human experimentation,' which was and still is in violation of the Nuremberg Code."

CNS Still Thinks Kevin Sorbo's Bogus Claims Must Be Amplified
Topic: CNSNews.com

For some reason, CNSNews.com writer Craig Bannister just loves enshrining the utterings of far-right one-time "Hercules" actor Kevin Sorbo. In February, for instance, Bannister gave him space to spew a painfully unfunny "Jen Psaki impression," with things like "Yea I’ll have to circle back on that but in the meantime did you know we have a pansexual accountant?"

After Facebook banned Sorbo later that month, Bannister let him complain that "being a Christian and a conservative in Hollywood, that’s kind of like being a double-leper" -- but censored the fact that Facebook banned him because he spread misinformation about coronavirus, with Bannister falsely claiming instead that Facebook "banned him as part of liberals’ Cancel Culture censorship movement."

In a March 1 article, Bannister let Sorbo's wife, Sam -- an activist against public eduction -- falsely and hyperbolically claim that  "Kevin just got digitally assassinated by Facebook" for posting his conservative views -- again censoring the fact that he was removed for spreading lies. Ironically, this was part of a radio appearance in which the Sorbos asserted that leftists, in Bannister's words, "debase and degrade language in order to render it useless."

Bannister then used a March 18 article to amplify a  bogus meme Sorbo pushed:

Were former President Donald Trump’s “mean tweets really that bad?” Actor and conservative Filmmaker Kevin Sorbo asked on Thursday, sharing a photo of a gas station charging more than five dollars a gallon.

While Trump was criticized for harsh tweets as president, before his account was permanently closed by Twitter, Pres. Joe Biden is currently being criticized for his anti-energy policies, such as canceling the Keystone XL oil and gas pipeline project.

“Were the mean tweets really that bad?” Sorbo tweeted, embedding a viral photo, shared on social by Donald Trump, Jr., of a gas station with prices ranging from $5.55 for regular to $5.75 for supreme, and $5.85 for diesel.

But as Bannister eventually admitted, the photo was of a gas station that regularly charges exorbitant prices and the actual average price of fuel in the U.S. is nowhere near that high. Of course, that's not in the headline -- Bannister doesn't repost Sorbo in order to correct him, after all.

Promoting bogus claims is not how a "news" organization builds credibility.

MRC Again Whines About Babylon Bee Getting Fact-Checked ... While It Fact-Checks A Satirical Headline
Topic: Media Research Center

The Media Research Center loves to complain that fact-checkers look askance at right-wing satire site Babylon Bee even though it fact-checks jokes. And it can't stop doing either.

A Feb. 18 post by Corinne Weaver complained:

Satire is not meant to be taken seriously. Yet Big Tech and its tools find a way to label any humor coming from the right as disinformation or fake news. 

The Babylon Bee has been repeatedly victimized by this tug of war. In a public history page known as a “Talk” page on Wikipedia, editors with anonymous tags or usernames discussed whether or not the conservative satire site could “legally be considered ‘satire’?” The alleged Twitter account for Bee managing editor Joel Berry tweeted a thread about this Wikipedia incident on Feb. 18. 

“There has been an ongoing effort to classify The Babylon Bee as ‘disinformation’ rather than satire,” reportedly said Berry. “They desperately want The Babylon Bee to be censored. I wonder why… .”

This was followed on March 21 with Clay Waters whining that the New York Times waslooking into the Bee:

The headline at the New York Times, was promising: “For Political Cartoonists, the Irony Was That Facebook Didn’t Recognize Irony -- As Facebook has become more active at moderating political speech, it has had trouble dealing with satire.” It appeared on the front of Saturday’s Business Day section as “Facebook Just Does Not Get Satire.”

Would it be a long-overdue defense of the Babylon Bee, which has suffered instances of “moderation” in the form of ham-handed censorship from Facebook, blocking a Babylon Bee story claiming a Democratic senator had accused Amy Coney Barrett of witchcraft during her Senate hearings? 

Of course not. In fact, technology reporter Mike Isaac uncorked another Times attack on the satire site, again ludicrously attacking it as “misinformation,” an angle the paper would never consider with the leftist satire of The Onion.

Isaac flattered these crude cartoonists as sophisticated ironists, revealing that the only social media censorship the paper disapproves of is when left-wingers get clipped, although such squelching happens on a regular basis to the right.

What the MRC doesn't want to tell you is that right-wingers -- even Donald Trump and Ted Cruz -- tweet the alleged satire at the Babylon Bee as real news -- much more than liberals are prone to treating anything from the Onion as real -- and that's why it gets fact-checked as "news."

Of course, the MRC's complaining wouldn't matter if it didn't do what it attacked others for doing. But it does, which is why we have a March 11 post by P.J. Gladnick complaining about an obviously hyperbolic headline in Vanity Fair:

Sorry, Vanity Fair. We know you want to get eyeballs on your site but publishing a completely fake news headline is not the way to go.

Since Vanity Fair is no Babylon Bee it doesn't even have the excuse of pretending to be satire, especially since the article below the headline is dead serious. "LINDSEY GRAHAM: I’M WILLING TO OVERLOOK THE FACT THAT TRUMP HAS PROBABLY BEATEN A FEW HOMELESS PEOPLE TO DEATH."

Nowhere in the rather angry Tuesday article by Bess Levin is there even a hint of what is absurdly proclaimed in the headline.

In addition, the Axios On HBO video upon which she bases her story also has nothing about what Graham supposedly claimed in the fake news headline. She could only claim "Lindsey Graham, though, is not like most people, which is why he‘s apparently willing to overlook the fact that Donald Trump is a remorseless monster."

Okay, we get it, Bess. You really, really hate Trump. However, does that excuse Vanity Fair putting a fake news headline on your story? 

[...]

So where is the part where Graham stated, as claimed in the headline, that he is willing to overlook that Trump has probably beaten a few homeless people to death? Oh, it is not true? So Vanity Fair, by putting that in their headline, is guilty of... FAKE NEWS.

Satire may be in the eye of the beholder, but it appears lack of humor about satire is as well.

CNS Still Touting Far-Right Boebert, Won't Tell Readers Her 'Origin Story' Is A Lie
Topic: CNSNews.com

We've documented how -- on top of its work promoting far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene -- CNSNews.com has tried to mainstream another extremist Republican member of Congress, Lauren Boebert. While CNS has effectively stopped promoting Greene when her extremism could no longer be ignored or whitewashed, it's still touting Boebert despite her expressed support for the far-right QAnon movement.

We already noted that in February, CNS promoted a statement by Boebert falsely blaming wind and solar energy for the Texas power crisis in February. Craig Bannister gushed over Boebert in a March 4 article:

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) is going to force Democrats’ entire, pork-laden so-called “COVID relief” bill to be read aloud in the Senate before it’s voted on – and Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) thinks that’s such a great idea that all bills should be read aloud in Congress so Americans can know what’s in them.

“Every single bill should be read aloud so the public can hear very clearly what’s in it,” Rep. Boebert tweeted Wednesday in response to news that Sen. Johnson will require the full bill to be read aloud. “Joe Biden thinks many people are too dumb to get on the internet, so by his racist standards no one should be expected to read bills online,” Boebert added.

Bannister gushed again in March 16:

“The Left attack women who are too strong for their liking every single day, then claim there’s a ‘war on women,’” Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) says.

“Well, there is, but they’re the ones leading it!” Boebert added in a Tweet thanking Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) for explaining how the Left is even more hostile to conservative women than it is to conservative men.

Boebert's and Bannister's invocation of Gaetz is a little awkward now given the sex scandal he's involved in (that CNS has been studiously censoring). And Bannister didn't mention that the reason Boebert has been criticized by "the left" is not because she's a "conservative woman," or even because she likes to show her "support for the Second Amendment" by promiscuously brandishing weapons, but that she has supported extremist movements like QAnon.

Speaking of censoring, there's another story CNS won't tell its readers. As an actual news outlet reported:

We’re often interested in the “origin stories” of politicians — regular lines that they use over and over to explain their political motivations.

Boebert is a strong booster of gun rights. She arrived in Congress this year after leveraging her fame as the owner of a restaurant, Shooters Grill of Rifle, Colo., where the wait staff often serve customers with open-carry firearms. A sign outside tells customers that guns are welcome.

Over and over, Boebert says she started allowing her staff to carry guns after a man was killed outside her restaurant. But we’ve obtained police and coroner reports that show her story is mainly fiction.

[...]

Boebert tells the story of a man who was beaten to death outside her restaurant. Police considered it a possible homicide but quickly concluded that the man died of a drug overdose. There was a fight, but it took place blocks away from her restaurant; the man merely ran near her business before collapsing.

So her basic origin story is a sham. Why won't CNS tell its readers the truth?

WND Plugs Crowdfunding Campaign For Wannabe Google Competitor
Topic: WorldNetDaily

Doing ads for Chuck Norris' new gold-company sponsor is not the only way WorldNetDaily is trying to make itself relevant. It's also promoting a new search engine ... that needs money at least as badly as WND does. An anonymously written Feb. 10 WND article gushed:

Emphasizing free speech and privacy, a tech entrepreneur who has been developing a search engine for the past decade plans to roll out a platform that will include the features of Google, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

Find.com, says Jeffrey Sisk, will begin with a messaging platform similar to Twitter then add the search, social networking and video features, putting them together in one app.

"It's the convergence of an amazing brand name, innovative technology and a public that is desperate to find any new way to help win this war on truth," he told WND.

Sisk said he is inviting the millions of Americans who are seeking an alternative to the Big Tech giants to join him in funding the venture.

The article is an ad for Sisk, complete with links to his GoFundMe page. His previous claim to fame -- conveniently for right-wing tech-victim narratives -- was launching a previous search engine called Zeekly, whcih allegedly had "millions of pageviews and positive feedback from users buyt was mysteriously "demonetized by Google's ad network and several others." Same thing with Zeekly TV, which was allegedly shut down by "severe denial of service attacks from an unknown source."

WND editor gushed further in his Feb. 14 column, touting that Sisk "is building a search and social-media platform under one app that will do much of what Google, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter do – except without controlling speech in America and around the world." Farah added: "I have known Jeffrey Sisk for quite a few years. He's been involved in some neat projects. He has bigger projects in his future. Right now, he's driven by the determination of our Founding Fathers. What's holding us back? Here it is! The solution to the Big Tech nightmare in our grasp!"

Farah plugged Sisk's project again in his March 5 column: "This project is taking off! Are we up to the challenge? YES! Brave men like Jeffrey Sisk need our support. I urge you to stand with him. Maybe then we can raise up something resembling what we had for nearly 245 years in America."

Farah took credit for the alleged success of Sisk's crowdfunding in his March 11 column:

Here's one free speech app that is taking off on GoFundMe in a campaign started on WND.

Jeffrey Sisk is the pioneer behind the Find.com. His company is building a search and social-media platform under one app that will do much of what Google, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter do – except without controlling speech in America and around the world.

Why is this an existential threat to the control-obsessed robber barons who think they're in charge of fair elections and the free press in America? Because anyone can be censored, canceled or suppressed by the official "mainstream media" and its masters ruling from atop Google, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter – even a sitting president, Donald J. Trump, can be silenced! Remember, he still doesn't have his Twitter handle back! Maybe he won't need it.

Farah went on to claim that Sisk and Find.com "have received in their GoFundMe.com account the record-setting amount of $3,252,240!" But the page currently shows the project at a little over $1.2 million of its declared $5 million goal. Where did that $2 million go?

Sisk's project got another boost in an anonymously written March 31 article featuring a podcast interview in which he declared that "Americans should be 'honoring' their Founding Fathers by protecting free speech and privacy."

The last time Farah was this excited about someone else's project, he was trying to give away cryptocurrency to donors in a desperate bid to save WND. He has still not told WND readers how that turned out -- which is a track record Sisk might want to take heed of.

NEW ARTICLE -- CNS On Impeachment: The Second Time Around
Topic: CNSNews.com
CNSNews.com did a lot of complaining that Donald Trump was going to face a second impeachment -- then largely refused to report on the impeachment trial itself. Read more >>

WND 'News' Articles, Columns Push Advertiser
Topic: WorldNetDaily

Doing ads for Chuck Norris' new gold-company sponsor is not the only way WorldNetDaily is trying to make itself relevant. It's also promoting a new search engine ... that needs money at least as badly as WND does. An anonymously written Feb. 10 WND article gushed:

Emphasizing free speech and privacy, a tech entrepreneur who has been developing a search engine for the past decade plans to roll out a platform that will include the features of Google, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

Find.com, says Jeffrey Sisk, will begin with a messaging platform similar to Twitter then add the search, social networking and video features, putting them together in one app.

"It's the convergence of an amazing brand name, innovative technology and a public that is desperate to find any new way to help win this war on truth," he told WND.

Sisk said he is inviting the millions of Americans who are seeking an alternative to the Big Tech giants to join him in funding the venture.

The article is an ad for Sisk, complete with links to his GoFundMe page. His previous claim to fame -- conveniently for right-wing tech-victim narratives -- was launching a previous search engine called Zeekly, whcih allegedly had "millions of pageviews and positive feedback from users buyt was mysteriously "demonetized by Google's ad network and several others." Same thing with Zeekly TV, which was allegedly shut down by "severe denial of service attacks from an unknown source."

WND editor gushed further in his Feb. 14 column, touting that Sisk "is building a search and social-media platform under one app that will do much of what Google, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter do – except without controlling speech in America and around the world." Farah added: "I have known Jeffrey Sisk for quite a few years. He's been involved in some neat projects. He has bigger projects in his future. Right now, he's driven by the determination of our Founding Fathers. What's holding us back? Here it is! The solution to the Big Tech nightmare in our grasp!"

Farah plugged Sisk's project again in his March 5 column: "This project is taking off! Are we up to the challenge? YES! Brave men like Jeffrey Sisk need our support. I urge you to stand with him. Maybe then we can raise up something resembling what we had for nearly 245 years in America."

Farah took credit for the alleged success of Sisk's crowdfunding in his March 11 column:

Here's one free speech app that is taking off on GoFundMe in a campaign started on WND.

Jeffrey Sisk is the pioneer behind the Find.com. His company is building a search and social-media platform under one app that will do much of what Google, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter do – except without controlling speech in America and around the world.

Why is this an existential threat to the control-obsessed robber barons who think they're in charge of fair elections and the free press in America? Because anyone can be censored, canceled or suppressed by the official "mainstream media" and its masters ruling from atop Google, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter – even a sitting president, Donald J. Trump, can be silenced! Remember, he still doesn't have his Twitter handle back! Maybe he won't need it.

Farah went on to claim that Sisk and Find.com "have received in their GoFundMe.com account the record-setting amount of $3,252,240!" But the page currently shows the project at a little over $1.2 million of its declared $5 million goal. Where did that $2 million go?

Sisk's project got another boost in an anonymously written March 31 article featuring a podcast interview in which he declared that "Americans should be 'honoring' their Founding Fathers by protecting free speech and privacy."

The last time Farah was this excited about someone else's project, he was trying to give away cryptocurrency to donors in a desperate bid to save WND. He has still not told WND readers how that turned out -- which could be a cautionary tale Sisk might want to take heed of.

MRC Does GOP's Bidding In Defending Ga. Election Law, Attacking Its Critics
Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center is first and foremost a propaganda arm of the Republican Party. So when Georgia faced criticism for approving a Republican-backed measure changing election laws there, it went into full blast mode, smearing anyone who didn't mindlessly repeat the GOP-approved version of what the law would do. A sampling:

• Democrats say it and journalists parrot it back. That’s how things work in a Democratic administration. Joe Biden on Thursday slimed the state of Georgia for an “un-American” election security bill. CBS’s election law expert David Becker on Friday upped that to “anti-American.” Appearing on CBS This Morning, he derided the whole state, despite admitting that the bill was a “mixed bag.”-- Scott Whitlock, March 26
• CNN Tonight host Don Lemon railed against Georgia's new election law on his Friday show using all sorts of lies to allege Republicans "are trying to silence us." Focusing on early voting, Lemon declared, "I want to explain to people why so many people feel their passion about going to cast their votes on certain days, especially Souls to the Polls, It is a visceral and tangible thing because you grow up like I did, hearing these stories about voter's suppression and poll tax and on and on." -- Alex Christy, March 27
• Appearing on Friday's The ReidOut, Vanderbilt University professor and former MSNBC political analyst Michael Eric Dyson treated viewers to the kind of venomous trash talk that apparently qualifies as political analysis that said America suffers from an idolatry to whiteness and claimed that the GOP would have barred Jesus from being given a cup of water while he was dying on the cross. -- Brad Wilmouth, March 28
• ABC News was obviously working as an arm of the Biden administration during Sunday’s Good Morning America, as they spewed lies and misinformation about Republican efforts to increase the integrity of our elections. Despite claiming the GOP were targeting “black voters who helped him win there in Georgia,” the network refused to explain exactly how the law and other proposed bills would do that. Instead, they used broad stroke fear-mongering in an attempt to poison the GOP to viewers. -- Nicholas Fondacaro, March 28
• Sometimes it's almost impossible to tell the difference between the Democratic hacks calling Republicans racists and the so-called "journalists" on CNN. They sound exactly the same sometimes. On Saturday evening’s CNN Newsroom, host Ana Cabrera collaborated with national security analyst Juliette Kayyem and counterterrorism analyst Phil Mudd to continue the assault on legislation by absurdly linking it to the January 6th riot. Kayyem declared that the laws are based on “white supremacy and the violence to undermine a Democratic election." -- Duncan Schroeder, March 28
• On Monday, NBC’s Today show was eager to hype partisan, left-wing efforts to bully the state of Georgia into abandoning recently-passed voting reforms opposed by the Democratic Party out of fear of losing future elections. The propaganda masquerading as news coverage was designed to pressure businesses into cutting ties with the state and causing economic damage, all in pursuit of doing the DNC’s bidding. -- Kyle Drennen, March 29
• Voter ID: a necessary protection against voter fraud for some, and a scourge and grave evil for others, apparently. One Hollywood filmmaker has declared that he is done making movies in Georgia until lawmakers repeal newly-signed election regulations aimed at eradicating potential voter fraud. -- Gabriel Hays, March 29
• Showing MSNBC had no concern or regard for facts and sober analysis, The ReidOut host Joy Reid spun more lies and trumpeted apocalyptic rhetoric on Tuesday night about Georgia’s new election law, and cheered corporate boycotts to inflict further pain on workers amidst a pandemic while holding up a new, For the People Act-like law in New Jersey as a necessary step to loosen voter integrity measures. -- Curtis Houck, March 30
• It’s not enough to trash Georgia’s new voting law as racist, now the hosts of CBS This Morning are prompting business leaders to encourage a boycott. After prominent African American CEOs placed an ad in The New York Times calling for corporate America to speak out, Gayle King demanded they do more.  -- Scott Whitlock, March 31 (King did not "demand" a boycott; she simply asked why one had not been called for.)
• This wasn't parody but it might as well have been. Tuesday night on MSNBC, two liberal journalists accused the Republican party of leveraging racial victimhood to get their agenda across; in this case, racist voting laws. -- Kristine Marsh, March 31
• TV journalists have been using DNC talking points to inaccurately slam a series of state election security laws as “racist,” reminiscent of “Jim Crow,” and deliberate “voter suppression.” The narrative on TV news networks goes something like this: “racist” Republicans are using the “Big Lie” (their term for suggestions of fraud in the 2020 election) as an excuse to pass restrictive election laws, in an attempt to prevent people of color from voting. -- Bill D'Aostino, April 1
• Hack journalist Brian Williams couldn’t help himself and had to contribute his own lies to the media’s smear campaign against Georgia’s election security law. On his Wednesday night show, Williams mocked Georgia’s Republican governor, Brian Kemp for denying this bill was “Jim Crow, 2.0,” saying he should “embrace” his state’s “well-deserved tradition” of suppressing black voters. -- Kristine Marsh, April 1
• So much for a commitment to the truth. On Thursday’s CBS Evening News, anchor Norah O’Donnell and White House correspondent Nancy Cordes refused fact-check or pushback on President Joe Biden’s insistence that Georgia’s new election law is “Jim Crow on steroids.” In other words, Cordes and O’Donnell chose to cater to Stacey Abrams as their far-left overlord than even call out Biden’s claim as hyperbole (let alone factually inaccurate). -- Curtis Houck, April 1
• Reporters? Or unpaid publicists? On her Thursday show, MSNBC's Hallie Jackson was joined by NBC reporter Blayne Alexander in Atlanta just publicizing calls to boycott Georgia and the lies that justify them, including President Biden's Wednesday remarks where he outrageously called the Georgia's new election law "Jim Crow on steroids." MSNBC just casually put that on screen, like it was an authoritative statement of fact. -- Alex Christy, April 3
• Like so many of his colleagues, NBC’s Chuck Todd continues to offer a platform for the lie that Georgia’s election security bill is a racist tool meant to disenfranchise nonwhite voters.-- Bill D'Agostino, April 4
• Monday’s CBS This Morning began with the hacky hosts welcoming on Democratic Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms for a softball interview in which she and the liberal anchors desperately tried to blame Republicans for the massive economic damage being inflicted on Georgia by left-wing boycott efforts. Rather than demand Bottoms call on her radical supporters to stand down, the segment instead urged the state GOP to give in to Democratic bullying. -- Kyle Drennen, April 5
• If the last few weeks have shown us anything, it’s a reminder that far too many in the liberal media will lie in the name of facts to peddle a narrative. On Monday, NBC Nightly News did its part by lying that Georgia’s voter law was “more restrictive” to voting, passed off facts about the law as merely claims, and griped that many on the right were pushing back against corporations and Major League Baseball for peddling lies. -- Curtis Houck, April 5
• With Major League Baseball having moved its All-Star Game from the majority-Black Atlanta, Georgia to the heavily White Denver, Colorado, Tuesday’s CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News were enthralled with the decision, having done their parts to further lie about Georgia’s voting law and tout President Biden’s threat to any state that’s thinking about securing elections. -- Curtis Houck, April 7
• On Wednesday night, MSNBC displayed the leftist media's denial of reality as MSNBC contributor Eugene Robinson insisted that Georgia's new voting law is almost a "total verbatim repeat" of the "Jim Crow" era even after such hyperbole has been thoroughly debunked. -- Brad Wilmouth, April 9

But because the MRC is acting in bad faith on behalf of Republicans, it must portray all criticism of Republican-backed "election integrity" laws as false and evil while ignoring the elephant in the room: If the Georgia law wasn't design to ultimately result in more Republican ballots and fewer Democratic ballots, Republicans wouldn't be proposing them, and the MRC wouldn't be defending them.

Michael Reagan's Fauci Derangement Syndrome
Topic: Newsmax

You may have seen the video last week where Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., grills Dr. Anthony "Tony" Fauci (aka "Dr. Ubiquitous") over his fear-mongering and double-mask mania.

If not, make sure you watch the entire exchange on C–SPAN and not the heavily-edited, pro-Fauci version on the opposition media.

Sen. Paul — who just happens to be a doctor — cited a number of studies that found after one contracts COVID-19 and recovers the chance of getting reinfected is infinitesimally small.

In addition, when a patient has taken the coronavirus vaccine there is again a miniscule chance of reinfection and spreading the disease.

Then Paul directly challenged Fauci, "You’ve had the vaccine and you’re still wearing two masks! Isn’t that mask theatre?"

In response Fauci waved his hands and responded "variant" and "wild," which translated into English means, "Boo,"and "Double Boo."

[...]

Paul has some insight into Fauci’s motivation for continuing to mislead the public, "What Fauci won't tell you is he is telling you a 'noble lie'. He is lying because he doesn't think we are smart enough to make decisions. His fear is, if we quit wearing masks, the vaccinated [people] will say 'What the h**l, I'm not wearing a mask either.'"

Which wouldn’t make a difference anyway, since the science says face burkas don’t work.

We have another take on the head of the "Flustapo."

Fauci’s bitter clinging to his multi-mask mandate is a combination of an eagerness to extend his control of the public and his fantasy of a new pandemic right around the corner.

"Dr. Ubiquitous" has become drunk on power.

He just can’t give up the rush that comes when previously ignored "doctor’s orders" now have the force of law.

-- Michael Reagan, March 22 Newsmax column

(Yes, Paul "just happens to be a doctor," but one of opthamology, which gives him no special insight into viruses. Fauci is an immunologist, which is the study of immune systems, and his work crosses into virology. And actually, Mike, the science shows that face masks work.)

CNS Unemployment Coverage Distortion Watch
Topic: CNSNews.com

CNSNews.com is continuing its pattern of declining to give President Biden any credit for job gains. Susan Jones stuck strictly to the number in her lead story:

As more cities and states reopen, the number of jobs created and the number of employed Americans continues to substantially increase.

In March, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the economy added a whopping 916,000 jobs, compared with +468,000 (revised) in February.

At the same time, the number of unemployed Americans also dropped by 262,000 to 9,710,000, pushing the unemployment rate down two-tenths of a point to 6.0 percent. That's less than half of the record 14.8 percent unemployment rate set a year ago April.

But where CNS often illustrated stories about monthly job improvements under the Trump administration with pictures of Donald Trump, Biden got no such treatment here; Jones' article was illustrated with a photo of an amusement park preparing to reopen.

There were the usual sidebars of Craig Bannister noting increased Hispanic employment and Terry Jeffrey noting increased government employment. That article included a picture of Biden along with other Democrats, as if working in government was perpetrating a solely Democratic evil.

WND Spreads False Rumor Linking Boxer's Death To COVID Vaccine
Topic: WorldNetDaily

David Kupelian keeps insisting that WorldNetDaily cares only about "truth." So why does it spend so much editorial space spreading highly dubious rumors? Joe Kovacs wrote in a March 14 article:

oxing legend Marvelous Marvin Hagler died at the age of 66 Saturday night, and an online battle has erupted over reports his death was a direct result of getting "the vaccine."

Hours before the undisputed middleweight champion died, his fellow boxing great Thomas "Hit Man" Hearns noted Hagler was "fighting the after effects of the vaccine" before the former undisputed middleweight ultimately passed away.

Hearns' full message on Instagram stated: "A real true warrior Pray for the king and his family.. he's in ICU fighting the after effects of the vaccine! He'll be just fine but we could use the positive energy and Prayer for his Full Recovery !"

[...]

A post on Hagler's website stated: "We are very sad to report that Marvelous Marvin Hagler died on March 13 of natural causes near his home in New Hampshire. He was a champion until the end. His family asks for privacy at this time of sorrow."

Social media erupted, with one commenter stating: "Im proper gutted!! the Great Marvin Hagler dies after taking the vaccine! Please do your own research before making a decision on putting something in your body that has not been tested properly & we r being used as the guinea pigs & not told the #Truth about #vaccine."

That's right -- Kovacs is taking the word of a random Twitter user and a fellow former boxer with no apparent detailed knowledge of Hagler's medical history as evidence that the vaccine killed Hagler.

Kovacs' story was accompanied by a reader poll asking, "Did Marvin Hagler die as a direct result of being vaccinated?" Unsurprisingly given WND's readership, 88 percent voted yes.

What you're not going to learn from Kovacs or anyone else at WND is that the story is false. Hagler's widow shot down the rumors about the vaccine causing his death and confirmed that he died of natural causes, adding, "My baby left in peace with his [usual] smile and now is not the time to talk nonsense."

But irresponsible nonsense is what WND traffics in. Don't expect a correction.

How Is The MRC Freaking Out About LGBT Folks In Entertainment Now?
Topic: Media Research Center

It's been a while since we checked in on the Media Research Center's abject hatred of anyone in the LGBTQ community, real or fictional. Let's tally up the recent hate, shall we?

A corollary to the MRC's hatred for non-heteronormative people is love for anyone who hates them as much as they do, hence its flip-flop on J.K. Rowling from bashing her for the witchcraft in her "Harry Potter" books and having Dumbledore be gay to treating her as a victim because she doesn't like transgender people. The MRC revived Rowling's victim status as talk of a "Harry Potter" TV series picked up. Tierin-Rose Mandelberg wrote:

Fans are embodying the typically selfish desires of the left. They want the Harry Potter series but they don’t want Rowling involved. Giving money to a “transphobe” seems barbaric so they’re conflicted and feeding off of other leftists to figure out what the heck they actually stand for. MRC had a great day witnessing again how “the left has completely sold out to this lunacy and the fact that someone as previously woke as Rowling is getting heat for this speaks volumes.” Their mob mentality is not new.

[...]

Conservatives are just sitting out and watching the heat as leftists attack one of their own yet again. Tuesday afternoon comedic relief.

Mandelberg forgot to mention that her employer used to hate Rowling because Dumbledore was gay.

Mandelberg followed up a couple days later, unironically writing, "Holding a grudge is one area the left thrives. This week’s 'peaceful' protest includes attacks at J.K. Rowling yet again." Again, she forgot where she works, where grudges are legendary.

Lindsay Kornick complained about a fictional character who is transgender:

Here I thought cop dramas were the only shows under leftist scrutiny. Before it’s even aired, CBS’s new Silence of the Lambs drama Clarice is drawing attention from transgender activists. So much so, the series now has a token transgender character to discuss the “complicated legacy” of the original film. Liberals should just put out a list of things that aren’t “complicated” at this point.

Kornick is complaining that the trans character is meant to sort of undo the character of Buffalo Bill in the original movie: "Considering The Silence of the Lambs is one of only three movies to win all of the top five Oscar categories, I don’t think anyone on this show is qualified to lecture it, much less a trans activist." We thought the MRC believed award shows like the Oscars were worthless.

Alexa Moutevelis lashed out against more fictional transgender people:

ABC’s The Good Doctor might want to change its name to The Woke Doctor. After previous episodes this season supported Black Lives Matter and abortion, Monday night’s episode, “Irresponsible Salad Bar Practices,” offered the double whammy of a pregnant trans man and systemic racism in medicine.

The episode began with trans man Rio Gutierrez (played by trans actor Emmett Preciado) at the hospital to receive treatment for a pituitary tumor. Rio tells the doctors about being engaged to a man, while the doctors bemoan the “messed-up software” that correctly records Rio’s gender as female.

Elise Ehrhard lost it over "Blue's Clues" refusing to hate people who aren't like Ehrhard:

The past few years have seen a plethora of LGBTQIABCDEFG targeting of preschool, kindergarten, and elementary school audiences. 

Cross-dressing actor Billy Porter appeared in a gown on the show Sesame Street. Ru Paul's Drag Race star Nina West created a kids' ABC song using drag terminology. The classic children's cartoon Arthur had a same-sex wedding and PBS Kids sang about two dads and a baby. My Little Pony introduced a lesbian couple. Nickelodeon, alongside regularly promoting LGBTQIA+ propaganda on its children's shows, outed SpongeBob. 

So, it is no surprise that Blue's Clues & You, Nickelodeon's reboot of the beloved children's classic, would insert sexual identitarianism into its programming.

On the show's official YouTube channel, it introduced the song ABC Song with Blue! Guess what the letter 'P' stands for? Pride, of course. A perfectly fine word on its own, but the imagery surrounding the letter leaves no doubt of the political and social messaging.

"The letter is also surrounded by multiple other flags representing specific communities. Those include flags for the Trans community, asexual community, pansexual community, intersex community, gender-fluid community, and more," explains an article in Deadline praising the song.

Because, of course, every parent wants their preschooler to be introduced to the symbolism of the asexual, pansexual, intersex and gender-fluid communities. Who doesn't want their toddler up-to-date on the latest in pansexual imagery?

[...]

Some may call the song harmless because 3-year-olds cannot understand the larger sexual politics behind the imagery. But it is part of a bigger pattern of programming children early by inculcating them with loaded symbols so they will be good little left-wing sexual identitarians as they grow.

Ehrhard, presumably, wants her children to grow up hating LGBTQ people the way she does.

And, echoing its freakouts over Dr. Seuss and the Muppets, the MRC's Gabriel Hays served up a dumb rant over Mr. Potato Head losing his honorific:

Oh well isn’t that just so appropriate for our deranged and increasingly sterile society? The AP characterized the disturbing and unnecessary change as an update done in order to appeal to the perspective of current children. They wrote, “Many toymakers have been updating their classic brands in recent years, hoping to relate to kids today and to reflect more modern families.”

Of course, the implication there is horrifying. Kids young enough to enjoy Mr. Potato Head really shouldn’t not be having serious, obsessive questions about gender or sex. If anything this seems like insidious programming aimed at sensitive kids with far-left parents than a mere reflection of current toy users’ perspectives.

[...]

It seems the breakdown of the family in modern society won’t fail to be represented in every stupid bit of our culture. And what about Toy Story now? Will the fifth movie now do away with the stirring romance between Mr. & Mrs. Potato Head? What are we going to see next? A polyamorous, non-binary "throuple" of spuds helping Woody (who has since been changed into a gender-neutral Native American toy,) with his latest scheme? Next time we see him, will Andy have undergone a sex change which prompts all his toys to question their own gender realities? Knowing Disney, they’ll take that story idea.

Hays is what happens when the MRC pays someone solely to spew hate of people he thinks aren't like him.

WND Columnists Still Pushing Bogus Claims of Election Fraud
Topic: WorldNetDaily

WorldNetDaily's columnists, it seems, are not going to easily give up the idea that Democrats stole the 2020 presidential election -- it generates too many column ideas, apparently. Andy Schlafly wrote in his March 2 column of Republicans who were allegedly insufficiently loyal to Donald Trump:

No boat is big enough to salvage the careers of Republicans who tried to impeach Trump, or who stand in the way of reforms to fix what went wrong in 2020. Those Republicans have not only defied Trump; they never lifted a finger to protect the integrity of our elections.

Instead, they echo false Democratic talking points by pretending there was no evidence of election fraud in 2020. These anti-Trump Republicans likewise fail to see how strongly opposed they are now by Americans who once voted for them.

Michael Master wrote in his March 5 column:

Why did Democrats cheat in the 2020 elections? For control. Saul Alinsky: the end justifies the means. This was their only chance to stop the America First movement of Trump, to take control of the Senate, to "cancel" those who oppose them, to rewrite history – just as all totalitarian governments do. So Democrats cheated.

The 2020 election was their only chance to stack the deck against average working Americans. Statehood for D.C. and Puerto Rico to gain four more Democrat senators; pack the Supreme Court by expanding its size; pass election laws that guarantee more and more Democrats get elected; use stimulus money to bail out cities mismanaged by Democrats for the last 40 years; citizenship for illegal immigrants; more immigrants pouring over the border; increase government workers and families who then join SEIU and NEA and are dependent on government paychecks (now one-quarter of all American workers).

How could the GOP be so stupid to allow the cheating to happen unchallenged? The cheating brought about the defeat of Trump, two GOP senators from Georgia and Republican John James in Michigan. Why did total voting across the USA increase 20% in 2020? Election fraud, ballot harvesting, electronic ballot box stuffing, voting machine manipulations. What will ever reverse what Democrats do now?

European countries banned mail-in voting while the U.S. allows it. Even during COVID. Because it affords fraud.

A couple of things here. First, "the end justifies the means"is not an Alinsky invention; he actually has a serires of rules about ends vs. means, one of which is that "Any effective means is automatically judged by the opposition as being unethical." If Master had offered any actual evidence that Democrats cheated -- let alone "electronic ballot box stuffing" or "voting machine manipulations,"  he might have a point. But he doesn't.

Second, Master is lying when he claims "European countries banned mail-in voting." Several European countries permit it.

Laura Wellington wrote in a March 8 column:

It is dumbfounding to me that any politician on the right would spend more than a second entertaining the notion of recapturing the House in 2022 and telling us so, given the means by which we lost the presidency continue to be the means we use to decide elections. Did we not learn from that monumental loss followed by the two subsequent Republican Senate seats turned over in Georgia that the liberal left are holding our nation hostage through the voting mechanisms they presently have in place?

It stuns me and 73 million-plus Americans that any further conversation regarding the success of future elections is happening when the culprit damning the outcome of the most recent one has yet to be eliminated. Frankly, it doesn't matter how incredible any future Republican candidates are if the process of voting and, in that, the calculation of votes is corrupt. It could be Jesus himself who runs. He still wouldn't win.

Our voices have been stolen, and the only way to get them back is to embark upon an entirely new process that ensures almost no mistakes can be made. We should demand it from those who serve the people! We should also demand a do-over of the Trump-Biden election in conjunction with the new process laid out, putting the questions to bed, finally, as to who really won. It is the only way any type of national unity will be struck between the Trump voters and the Biden voters.

Wellington then advocated no early voting, no absentee ballots and hand counting only.

James Zumwalt --  who may still get sued for falsely defaming an official with election-tech company Dominion -- was still pushing never-proven claims of election fraud in his March 17 column:

The 2020 election triggered numerous lawsuits and claims of voting fraud. Since all the cases to date have been dismissed, Democrats see no evil, despite the fact no case has yet been heard on the fraud evidence but were decided on procedural grounds.

The 2020 presidential election, due to the numerous substantive discrepancies Democratic leaders ignore, has shaken voter confidence to the core (39%) – not only among Republicans but Democrats as well. This should cause responsible legislators to investigate what happened in order to fix and re-instill voter confidence in the system.

Of course, one reason voter confidence might be "shaken" is that right-wingers like Zumwalt and his fellow WND columnists can't stop spreading lies about the election.

Newsmax Still Running Touchy Disclaimers In Stories on Dominion
Topic: Newsmax

Newsmax, it appears, remains a little touchy about its legal exposure regarding bogus claims it promoted accusing voting-tech companies like Dominion of changing votes to make Donald Trump lose the presidential election. In a Feb. 22 article on Dominion suing MyPillow guy Mike Lindell for spreading lies about the company, Newsmax inserted a familiar disclaimer:

Newsmax received a letter from Dominion in late December threatening litigation.

While Newsmax covered and reported on allegations made by President Trump and his attorneys, it never claimed such allegations were true. Newsmax published and aired several stories and reports sharing Dominion’s response to the President’s allegations.

To further clarify its position, and before any legal action was threatened against it, Newsmax stated that it had had found no evidence that Dominion manipulated voting software during the 2020 election.

As we've noted, that's not the whole story -- Newsmax presented those claims uncritically, and without noting that the claims were false, until Dominion sent that letter to it. The double "had" in the final paragraph was repeated in an article five days earlier, showing that someone just copied and pasted it while not copy-editing it.

Newsmax repeated its disclaimer (though not the same exact language) in a March 26 article on Dominion filing a defamation suit against Fox News for doing essentially the same thing Newsmax did. But it also tried to play whataboutism with the Mueller investigation into Trump:

Conservative critics of the suits claim the litigation has been an attempt to squelch dissent about the election results that emanated from then-President Donald Trump and his lawyers.

They also noted that major media and networks published and broadcast multiple stories relating to claims of a conspiracy between the Russian government and Trump’s 2016 campaign.

Exhaustive investigations by Congress and Special Counsel Robert Mueller found no evidence such allegations were true.

In fact, there were numerous contacts between Russias and the Trump campaign, but the evidence did not rise to a criminal level.

Again! CNS Dings Biden For 'Gaffes,' Ignores Trump's Lies
Topic: CNSNews.com

Last month, we caught CNS reporter Patrick Goodenough nitpicking a speech by President Biden, complaining that he made "3 errors in 12 seconds" -- but gave Donald Trump a pass on numerous falsehoods a few days later at his CPAC speech, instead gushing over how "fired-up" he was. Well, he did it again. On March 26, Goodenough wrote an article headlined "On Afghanistan, Biden Makes Three Gaffes in 30 Seconds":

During his first press conference on Thursday, President Biden within the space of 30 seconds made three gaffes when responding to a question about Afghanistan.

He got a name wrong; he implicitly questioned the status of an elected U.S. ally who is Afghanistan’s head of state and commander-in-chief of the armed forces; and he corrected himself on “if” troops leave to “when we leave.”

When asked about one of the three gaffes, Biden reversed himself. The other two raised no comment.

But on the same day, Trump called into Fox News and, well, this happened:

Former President Donald Trump on Thursday attempted to whitewash the history of the January 6 Capitol riot by pushing the false suggestion that his supporters were "hugging and kissing" police officers and posed "zero threat" despite widespread violence, injuries to law enforcement officers and five deaths.

It's an outrageous attempt by Trump to rewrite the history of the insurrection, which he stoked by repeatedly and falsely claiming the 2020 election was stolen from him. There is no evidence of widespread fraud, but Trump and many of his conservative allies in the media and on Capitol Hill have continued to push the "big lie" regardless.

Calling into Fox News on Thursday night, Trump was asked if he was concerned about the US Capitol's beefed up security, including razor-wire fencing, which he derided as "disgraceful" and a "political maneuver."

"It was zero threat, right from the start, it was zero threat. Look, they went in, they shouldn't have done it. Some of them went in, and they are hugging and kissing the police and the guards, you know, they had great relationships," Trump told Fox News' Laura Ingraham. "A lot of the people were waved in, and then they walked in and they walked out."

Trump's latest whitewash attempt comes after the world has been presented with reams of video evidence of the violence that broke out on January 6, criminal charges filed against participants, law enforcement officials testimony, police officers' accounts of the violence, and lawmakers' descriptions of the fear they experienced that day.

Goodenough didn't whitewash this -- he ignored it completely, as did every other CNS employee. There's no mention of Trumps Fox News appearance that we could find at CNS.

It's clear that CNS is holding Biden to a different standard that it holds Trump. It's as if there's a pronounced ideological bias there.