Topic: Media Research Center
Radio host Mark Levin can take comfort in knowing that his buddies at the Media Research Center will always have his back, amplifying his misplaced outrage and whitewashing his errors and falsehoods. Read more >>
Thursday, June 10, 2021
NEW ARTICLE: Loving Levin -- And His Right-Wing Rants
Topic: Media Research Center Radio host Mark Levin can take comfort in knowing that his buddies at the Media Research Center will always have his back, amplifying his misplaced outrage and whitewashing his errors and falsehoods. Read more >>
Posted by Terry K.
at 1:02 AM EDT
Wednesday, June 9, 2021
MRC Predictably Pounces On One Month Of Bad Employment Numbers To Bash Biden
Topic: Media Research Center The Media Research Center loved to complain that the media was talking down the economy under President Trump -- but given the slightest opportunity, the MRC gleefully bad-mouthed the economy uner President Biden. When the job growth numbers for April came in lower than expected, Joseph Vazquez rushed to blame Biden's economic policies (and not, you know, that people might be alittle leery about returning to work with the coronavirus pandemic still not completely under control) in a May 7 post:
On May 11, Vazquez gushed over Payne again -- he loves Payne despite the fact that Payne has been credibly accused of sexual harassment -- uncritically repeating Payne's attacks on unemployment benefits:
Acutally, numerous studies have shown that unemployment benefits do not keep people from seeking work. But it's against MRC policy to tell the truth if that truth conflicts with a cherished right-wing narrative. Mark Finkelstein sneered in a post the same day: "Joe Biden was all geared up to go out last week and boast about the one million jobs the economy had added in April. But then the actual numbers came out, and . . . psych! Only 266,000 new jobs, 73 percent fewer than Biden was planning to brag about!" He then complained that New York Times reporter Elizabeth Bumiller -- whom he called "PATHETIC" in the headline -- called the low number a "real fluke" and would likely be revised upward the next month, adding, "It's not unusual, in fact, for jobs reports to be revised. But Bumiller's reflexive suggestion that they were likely to be revised up was telling. Think she would have made the same suggestion if a Republican president had suffered such a disappointing jobs report?" Scott Whitlock followed up in a May 13 post with the incredibly dumb headline "As Biden’s Economy TANKS, CBS Makes Excuses for Wretched Job Numbers":
Whitlock cited the biased and partisan right-wing National Review as evidence of allegedly surging inflation. Vazquez huffed in a May 18 post that "A National Public Radio host tried to spin the atrocious April jobs report numbers by accusing GOP governors of pushing people to go back to work when jobs aren’t available. Fact-check: Millions of jobs were available." he then cited scandal-ridden right-wing economist Stephen Moore to claim that "Perhaps giving people free money is actually a really bad method to stimulate the economy." On May 21, Vazquez got mad that The Hill accurately pointed out what he and the MRC were doing:
At no point did Vazquez dispute the accuracy of the reporter pointing that right-wingers were using the jobs numbers to attack Bide; in stead, he complained that Elis "characterized the terrible jobs numbers as 'the potential quirks of an economy reawakening from a pandemic-induced slumber.'" He also offered no evidence that The Hill is a "liberal outlet." Meanwhile, the May employment numbers proved the those who pointed out the flukiness of April's numbers correct -- 559,000 jobs were created last month, and April's numbers were adjusted upward from 266,000 to 278,000. Vazquez, the MRC's main blogger on economic matters, has yet to devote a post to the much better May numbers -- presumably because there's nothing for him to pounce on.
Posted by Terry K.
at 7:47 PM EDT
Newsmax Columnist Trying To Gin Up Census Conspiracies
Topic: Newsmax The last time we checked in on Newsmax columnist Mark Schulte, he was spreading coronavirus conspiracy theories so wacky that Newsmax felt compelled to add a disclaimer to his columns that he is a "non-clinician." Perhaps Newsmax also needs to note that Schulte is also not a statistician, because he's now trying to develop conspiracy theories about census numbers. In his April 29 column, Schulte declared that "Tallies for five heavily populated, Democratic-controlled states – New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Michigan and New Jersey - are worthy of scrutiny for several reasons" -- which mainly come down to Schulte believing that the populations of those "dystopian" states have supposedly increased too much.He also pronounced the census statistics to be "egregiously flawed." Schulte huffed further in his May 4 column (needless bolding and italics in original):
Schulte seems to be overlooking a couple things: First ,that the census is conducted only every 10 years, and that numbers in between those official census counts are just estimates, and second, Republican scare tactics may have led Hispanics to avoid census counts, leading to an apparent undercount in Republican-led states with a large Hispanic population. Even though several Republican-led states are already getting additional congressional seats based on the preliminary census numbers, Schulte spent his May 12 column demanding even more: But how does Texas, whose population soared by 4.04 million residents, receive only two more House seats? And on May 17, Schulte ranted that sparsely populated states have too much congressional represenatation:
Of course, if the proportion was more accurately reflective of the U.S. population, it's likely that Democrats would have more congressional representation. We presume Schulte doesn't actually want that.
Posted by Terry K.
at 5:56 PM EDT
Updated: Wednesday, June 9, 2021 7:49 PM EDT
CNS Columnist Eulogizes Dishonest Anti-Kinsey Obsessive Judith Reisman
Topic: CNSNews.com Hannah Harrison, a writer for the right-wing American Family Association wrote a column published May 6 at CNSNews.com eulogizing activist Judith Reisman, who she claimed "fought against the left's darkness." Harrison particularly praised Reisman's attacks on sex researcher Alfred Kinsey:
Actually, Reisman never proved any of that. As we documented, Reisman's assertions that Kinsey conducted sexual experiments on infants has been discredited by other researchers and the Kinsey Institite, which stated that Kinsey obtained his data from interviews, not direct experimentation. the data on the 317 young children, it turns out, came from a single pedophile who kept notes and was not paid. Harrison also wrote: "She discovered the effects of 'erototoxins' otherwise known as the chemicals that flood the brain when pornography is viewed. Her studies proved that these toxins could rewire one’s brain and cause many negative issues related to sex and relationships." In fact, there's no evidence that "erototoxins" exist, much less that porography affects the brain in a uniquely harmful fashion. Harrison didn't mention that Reisman has also blamed Jews for promoting abortion and likened homosexuals to Nazis. And in 2019 we caught Reisman using bogus statistics taken from a QAnon message board to tout President Trump as more aggressive on human trafficking than President Obama was. But facts apparently aren't important to Harrison. The only thing that matters is that Reisman peddled a narrative she approves of.
Posted by Terry K.
at 3:15 PM EDT
WND's Cashill Trashes George Floyd, Defends His Killer
Topic: WorldNetDaily WorldNetDaily columnist Jack Cashill continues to be on the wrong side of history by deciding to defend a convicted murderer -- Derek Chauvin, the former police officer who was convicted of killing George Floyd. Cashill started on his April 21 column by declaring: "While the clueless celebrate the possible lifetime imprisonment of a police officer whose trial was anything but fair, the leadership is bummed. Although the Derek Chauvin verdict came down on Hitler's birthday, radical honchos owe their unease to Josef Stalin." He then went on a long digression about the 1920s Sacco and Vanzetti case, then ranted that Chauvin's conviction eliminated something that liberals could have exploited:
Of courrse, if Chauvin hadn't been convicted, Cashill would have anything to write about, proving there's two sides to his analogy. In his May 5 column, Cashill found a random Texas doctor to attack the testimony of Martin Tobin, who said that Chauvin's knee on Floyd's neck is what killed Floyd. The supposed real cause of Floyd's death, according to Cashill's doc, John Dunn -- who claims in Cashill's words to have "followed the case from the beginning, studied the videos and reviewed the autopsy report." -- was "cardiac arrhythmia during an episode of excited delirium" brought on by the drugs in Floyd's system. Cashill went on to huff:
Cashill went on to trash Floyd -- not unlike the way he continually trashed Trayvon Martin, the black teenager killed by George Zimmerman -- in his May 19 column:
Cashill wenty on to be annoyed that President Biden likened Floyd's death to the assassination of Martin Luther King:
Cashill does love to take the side of white men who kill black men.
Posted by Terry K.
at 12:17 AM EDT
Updated: Wednesday, June 9, 2021 6:02 PM EDT
Tuesday, June 8, 2021
MRC Got Mad Media Covered Liz Cheney Controversy, Insisted It Wasn't News
Topic: Media Research Center The Media Research Center hates it when the media focuses on issues that makes Republicans and conservatives look bad. Thus, it lashed out at coverage of Liz Cheney's status as a top Republican leader, desperate to change the subject. In a May 6 post, perpetually angry MRC writer Nicholas Fondacaro ranted that "Republican flack-turned-Democrat" Kurt Bardella was a "loon" in part for bringing up the Cheney battle, "saying that Republicans are the ones who are “detrimental and dangerous” to the country for removing Cheney for, according to Bardella, the lone sin of “telling the truth about January 6th” and the 2020 election." He added: "Numerous people have debunked this claim, but facts aren’t exactly Bardella’s strong suit." The "numerous people" Fondacaro linked to were Federalist writer Mollie Hemingway making unsubstantiated claims about Cheney and a Politico article citing anonymous Republicans criticizing Cheney (huh, we thought the MRC hated anonymous sources). Mark Finkelstein complained that MSNBC's Joe Scarborough lended his support to Cheney: "But with her harsh criticism of President Trump, and vote to impeach him, Cheney has made herself the darling of the liberal media. Witness the Washington Post offering her an op-ed spot yesterday to continue to blast Trump. So is Liz really indifferent to liberal love, or has she gone out of her way to cultivate it?" Tim Graham summarized his May 10 podcast thusly:
In the podcast proper, Graham complained: "The question is this: Which one of these is more newsworthy? Which one's more the news channel? Does doing the story more make you a better news channel, or doing the story less make you a better news channel?... That shouldn't be how we define news." Graham seems to have forgotten how much the MRC praises Fox News for covering certain stories (that advance right-wing narratives) more than CNN or MSNBC. He then paranoaically whined: "It should be obvious that ther media and the Democrats -- the media-Democrat complex -- aren't really interested in figuring out "let's help the Republicans win.' The Cheney fight is their hope to split the party into warring factions and then dominate at the polls." THe next day, Graham complained that a commentator noted that Cheney was being kicked out of GOP leadership "for no offense other than saying that Joe Biden won the election," retorting: "That's the official Democrat line on Cheney, and forget the reporters who've heard how Cheney's political operation "has been described as difficult, brittle, unresponsive and tone deaf," and that she's actually endangering the re-election of anti-Trump Republicans." LIke Fondacaro, Graham cited as evidence the anonymous source-ladenPolitico article. (Graham also called the person who said that, "hardcore partisan Democrat lawyer" Mark Ellias, a "shyster" -- a slur for an unscrupulous or dishonest lawyer.GHraham offered no evidence that Elias committed any crimes or acts that would get him disbarred other than complaining that he was "the bagman who paid Fusion GPS for the phony-baloney Steele Dossier full of collusion delusion.") On May 12, Scott Whitlock tried to embrace a CBS reporter's claim that he thought he could exploit:
Of course, by that very loose definition, every news story is a "media creation." Another post that same day, by Kristine Marsh, hammered further on the idea that Cheney is a non-story as decreed by conservatives:
CNN-hating writer Curtis Houck lashed out again in a May 13 post:
Fox News devotes no small amount of coverage to clickbait feuds and pro wrestling-type coverage, but Houck (nor any other MRC employee) will never, ever call it out. Ironically, a post by Kyle Drennen the same day complained that an NBC interview of Cheney didn't do enough pro-wrestling attacks on President Biden: " Despite Thursday’s Today show featuring an over 10-minute long interview with a sitting Republican member of Congress, only a paltry 29 seconds of the coverage focused on Wyoming Congresswoman Liz Cheney’s criticism of current President Joe Biden. Instead, nearly all of the exchange was centered on co-host Savannah Guthrie urging the newly-ousted House GOP leader to attack her fellow Republicans and former President Trump." Drenne made sure to insert the MRC's anti-media narrative: "The leftist media have been eagerly using Republican Party disagreements to distract from a border crisis, bad jobs report, and gas lines across the country. Reporters like Guthrie are doing everything they can to give President Biden a pass and portray the GOP in chaos." Graham whined further in his May 14 column:
Graham failed to mention that the Washington Times is a right-wing, andti-Biden paper that is still run by Unification Church cultists, so maybe its news judgment shouldn't be presented as accurate and objective. And he and the rest of the MRC don't seem to understand that just because the right-wing powers-that-be have deemed an unflattering story not to be news doesn't mean that it actually isn't.
Posted by Terry K.
at 9:29 PM EDT
Updated: Tuesday, June 8, 2021 9:44 PM EDT
WND Calls On Its Favorite Messianic Rabbi To Put Biblical Endorsement On Capitol Riot
Topic: WorldNetDaily WorldNetDaily has long promoted (and tried to make money off of) messianic rabbi Jonathan Cahn for his right-wing-friendly "prophecies," even calling on him to root for Donald Trump's re-election. With that record, Cahn was going to try to find a way to endorse the Jan. 6 pro-Trump Capitol riot, and WND is more than happy to spread his message. A May 4 WND article by Art Moore tried to claim that Cahn wasn't endorsing the riot, though he effectively was by shoehorning it into biblical prophecy:
Speaking of the Temple of Baal: You may recall that WND heavily promoted Cahn's ravings that a historical reconstruction of a Byzantine temple destroyed by ISIS was somehow evil because it was built for the pagan god Baal (never mind that it later served as a Christian church) and, thus, was effectively cheering the terrorist organization for destroying it.
Posted by Terry K.
at 2:34 PM EDT
CNS Not Sure How To Handle Jenner's Political Campaign
Topic: CNSNews.com When Bruce Jenner transitioned to Caitlyn Jenner, the transphobic CNSNews.com didn't take it well. That continued: Bill Donohue declared in a Septmeber 2019 column: "Bruce Jenner may call himself Caitlyn Jenner, have his genitals changed, and dress like a woman, but he cannot change his chromosomal makeup: he still carries a Y chromosome (as well as an X). In other words, he is a man." And a March 2020 article by managing editor Michael W. Chapman included a picture of "Bruce Jenner, now imitating a transgender woman, Caitlyn Jenner." Now, Jenner has not only declared she's running for California governor in the upcoming recall election but also running as a Republican and expressing conservative views in the process, and CNS doesn't quite know how to deal with it. Craig Bannister was only mildly snarky in an April 23 article on her candidacy -- clunkily headlined "Republican Transgender Olympic Gold Medalist Caitlyn Jenner Announces Run to Unseat Calif. Gov. Newsom" -- stating that "Caitlyn Jenner, who won a gold medal in the 1976 Olympics as a biological male named Bruce, has filed paperwork to run as a Republican to replace Democrat California Governor Gavin Newsom." Bannister got a little huffier in an April 29 article: "As a biological male, Jenner won the 1976 Olympic gold medal in the decathlon for the U.S., but now “identifies” as a female and has entered the race as a Republican vying for California’s governorship." In a May 3 article, Chapman was almost giddy that Jenner was spouting right-wing (and CNS) narratives on transgender athletes, yet still amde sure to take a shot at Jenner's own identity:
On May 6, Susan Jones surprisingly properly gendered Jenner in quoting her talking about "her struggle with gender dysphoria, her decision to live as a female, and her conversations with her pastor and God that changed how she’s living her life." Another article that day by Chapman repeated his sneering at Jenner's sexual identity while embracing her political stances:
And in a May 26 article, Jones didn't even make Jenner's transgender status an issue, not mentioning it until the eighth paragraph; instead, Jones highlighted how Jenner said "you can't have a healthy America with a sick California." CNS, it seems, may not have quite figured out how to handle a transgender woman who is also a solid conservative.
Posted by Terry K.
at 1:02 AM EDT
Updated: Tuesday, June 8, 2021 1:03 AM EDT
Monday, June 7, 2021
MRC's Lame Gotcha: WaPo Runs Horoscopes!
Topic: Media Research Center It took both Tierin-Rose Mandelburg and Gabriela Pariseau to crank out this April 22 Media Research Center attempt at a gotcha:
Note that Mandelburg and Pariseau can't be bothered to correctly spell "Sagittarius," which tells you the level of seriousness and rigor that was put into this piece. Another sign: At no point do they prove that any employee of the Post follows the horoscopes the newspaper publishes, despite claiming that they "follow their horoscope." The duo also offer no evidence that horoscopes are for "far lefties," as they suggest. Many newspapers run horoscopes because they're popular, with readers regardless of their political persuasion. Indeed, one of the biggest right-wing newspapers in the U.S., the New York Post, also runs horoscopes. But Mandelburg and Pariseau will never write an MRC gotcha piece saying the New York Post's promotion of, say, the Hunter Biden laptop story is discredited because the paper also publishes horoscopes. This is just another reminder that the MRC's mission is partisan attacks, not "media research."
Posted by Terry K.
at 9:43 PM EDT
WND Pushing The Same Old (Debunked) Victimhood To Sell Subscriptions
Topic: WorldNetDaily WorldNetDaily recently used the 24th anniversary of its founding to run a subscription special -- and to play victim:
Indeed we do. We also get that WND is not telling the full story, which is:
The pitch here is to get readers to subscribe to its ad-free program, in part because "WND is staffed by veteran professional journalists who, unlike most of today’s media, are unapologetically Christian, pro-American and pro-Constitution." Which is another way of saying that WND is unapologetically biased -- and which makes any WND criticism of other news outlets being "one-sided, dishonest and ever more unhinged" utterly hypocritical. Just because WND has finally gotten serious about saving itself through seeking subscriptions and offloading its reporting to a nonprofit doesn't mean its content has improved or gotten any less dishonest and falsehood-filled.
Posted by Terry K.
at 5:04 PM EDT
CNS Returns To Promoting Extremist GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene
Topic: CNSNews.com We've documented how CNSNews.com loved to promote Marjorie Taylor Greene before and after her election as a House member from Georgia without telling readers about her extreme far-right views -- admitting them only when they got too much attention to ignore. After that, CNS decided Greene was too toxic to promote and laid off her for a while. Now, it appears CNS has decided that enough time has passed, so it's touting Greene again -- and to whitewashing the controversies surrounding her. Susan Jones began a May 6 CNS article by claiming: "Freshman Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the outspoken, conservative Trump supporter from Georgia, is a pariah among lawmakers for those and other reasons." Greene's anti-Semitism, homophobia and QAnon endorsement is actually much more offensive than her support of Trump, but Jones wants to keep that fact buried under "other reasons." Much of the rest of Jones' article is copy-and-paste from a Fox News interview in which she "returned the favor" to her critics in Congress, complaing that Congress "is a system that is severely failing the American people and the American people have no idea how bad it is" and agreeing with host Tucker Carlson that most of her congressional colleagues are "losers." Jones also summarized that "Greene said Congress should be 'accountable' to all Americans, regardless of their party." Of course, Jones has no interest in hold Greene accountable for her actions, even as her extreme actions -- the most recent of which include stalking Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and ludicrously comparing mask mandates to the Holocaust -- have drawn even more bipartisan criticism. She won't tell you about any of that, either.
Posted by Terry K.
at 1:29 PM EDT
NEW ARTICLE: COVID Misinformers Rule WND
Topic: WorldNetDaily The fringe-right Association for American Physicians and Surgeons and its leader, Jane Orient, use WorldNetDaily to push questionable coronavirus cures and falsely fearmonger about vaccines. Read more >>
Posted by Terry K.
at 8:57 AM EDT
Sunday, June 6, 2021
Mysterious MRC Sports Blogger Signs On To Anti-Transgender Athlete Narrative
Topic: Media Research Center Mysterious gay-bashing Media Research Center sports blogger Jay Maxson is anti-transgender too, to the point that the MRC pulled a post of his (or hers) mocking Caitlin Jenner. That post wasn't so offensive, though that the MRC fired Maxson as a blogger, however; Maxson's transphobia has continued unabated, particularly over the past few months. Unsurprisingly, Maxson has signed onto the right-wing hysteria over transgender athletes:
That's not all. In a March 17 post, Maxson -- despite having displayed no qualifications as a legitimate researcher -- attacked a piece in Scientific American by psychiatrist Andrew Turban that doesn't hate transgender athletes as much as he (or she) does:
In a May 6 post, Maxson went on a sneering tirade against another transgender athlete who might appear in the Olympics:
The realities of right-wing punditry at the MRC is that the official right-wing narrative must be maintained, and Maxson has definitely done what he (or she) has been told.
Posted by Terry K.
at 6:36 PM EDT
Updated: Sunday, June 6, 2021 9:41 PM EDT
Word Police: CNS Attacks Biden For Omitting A Word From A Proclamation
Topic: CNSNews.com No slight is too minor an excuse for CNSNews.com to launch partisan attacks on President Biden. In a return to the way it covered President Obama, CNS previously played word police by complaining that Biden's Easter message didn't mention Jesus. IN a May 7 article, Patrick Goodenough ramped up the word-police activism:
Pronouns referring to God have usually been capitalized, a show of reverence used by some when referring to the deity in the Abrahamic faiths. Later that day, managing editor Michael W. Chapman trotted out his favorite right-wing evangelical to attack Biden:
CNS then puiblished commentaries by right-wing Catholics similarly playing word police and wildly speculating on why that certain word was missing. First up was dishonest Catholic activist Bill Donohue, who proclaimed: "It is no secret that the Democratic Party is home to secularists. Those who have no religious affiliation, as well as agnostics and atheists, have laid anchor in the Party, many of whom are openly hostile to religion and people of faith. It is not a leap to conclude that this mentality colored Biden's prepared remarks." He further huffed that participants in the National Day of Prayer "are expected to pay tribute to God, which is why what President Biden did was inexplicable at best and objectionable at worst." This was followed by a May 12 commentary by Rev. Michael Orsi:
What does it say that CNS is blurring the church-state line by engaging Catholic priests and activists to issue partisan political attacks?
Posted by Terry K.
at 1:11 PM EDT
Updated: Sunday, June 6, 2021 8:25 PM EDT
Saturday, June 5, 2021
MRC Tries To Justify GOP Culture-War Issues
Topic: Media Research Center The Media Research Center's Alex Christy began an April 30 post by complaining:
Christy went on to complain that West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice got caught in an interview with MSNBC's Stephanie Ruhle being unable to provide an example "of a West Virginian transgender athlete attempting to get an unfair competitive advantage" that would have justified his signing of a state law that would ban transgender girls from taking part in sports. No evidence, no problem, Christy says: "Just because Justice could not provide an example from his state, doesn't mean the issue is made up. Athletes who have had these advantages have recently appeared on MSNBC. Christy followed up by bashing Todd and his guest for pointing out the 1619 Project and critical race theory are issues only in the eyes of right-wingers trying to turn them into issues:
Christy provided no links to support either of those claims. Regarding the 1619 project, there was one overstated claim that was walked back a bit and which did not discredit the overall project (as if the way history is taught now has not been politicized).And critical race theory is not a term that teachers use, which makes it unclear what, exactly Christy is talking about, let alone objecting to. But facts are not important to Christy -- advancing the right-wing narrative is. And at no point did Christy explain why any of these things are actual problems and not merely GOP culture-war hot buttons.
Posted by Terry K.
at 10:16 PM EDT
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