MRC Cries Again When It Gets Fact-Checked Topic: Media Research Center
As we'vedocumented, the Media Resarch Center loves to lash out at fact-checkers, but it can't deal with its own content getting fact-checked. Kayla Sargent served up the whining in a June 14 post:
Facebook has slapped an unfair fact-check label on yet another post from the Media Research Center.
Facebook fact-checker Health Feedback fact-checked a video from MRCTV Managing Editor Brittany Hughes for “Partly False Information.” Health Feedback particularly took issue with a statement made by Hughes concerning comments by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
Health Feedback claimed that “The claim that Fauci knew ‘masks don’t work’ commonly referred to his response to Sylvia Burwell, a former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, sent on 5 February 2020.
Facebook slapped a label on the MRCTV video that stated: “Partly False Information: The same information was checked in another post by independent fact-checkers.”
In an email to the Media Research Center, Health Feedback called Hughes’ characterization of Fauci’s statement “inaccurate.” It claimed: “The spread of viruses can be reduced by masks in two ways: one is by protecting the wearer from other people’s infectious material; the other is by protecting other people from an infected person’s respiratory droplets, also known as source control. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends mask-wearing primarily as a means of source control.”
Fauci’s comments about masks originated in a collection of thousands of his emails that were released via a Freedom of Information Act request. Fauci said: “Masks are really for infected people to prevent them from spreading infection to people who are not infected rather than protecting uninfected people from acquiring infection.”
At no point did Sargent explain what, exactly, was "unfair" about Health Feedback's ruling -- but also notice that she didn't directly quote what Hughes said that got her in trouble with the fact-checker. Here's what Hughes ranted:
Meanwhile, [Fauci] was busy covering his own butt in telling the public that [coronavirus] originated naturally, all while telling them to smother themselves with face masks that he was also telling his own co-workers didn't actually work. Now, we learned all this from a giant email dump that's come out while the administration is busy trying to bribe half the country to get a vaccine that millions of people have already decided they don't want to get. Why? Well, see, billy goats don't like being bossed ardound by little narcissistic trolls who think the run the universse, and the American people are really sick of being lied to.
Sargent also failed to tell what, exactly, Health Feedback said about the claim that Fauci was lying about the effectiveness of masks:
It is important to note that Fauci’s statements above are consistent with mask-wearing guidance at that point in time, when masks weren’t recommended for the general public. This was because health authorities were concerned about a potential shortage of masks, which are needed to protect healthcare workers at high risk of contracting the disease.
But in early April 2020, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reversed its stance on community mask use, after scientists discovered that seemingly healthy people could spread the virus.
In keeping with the change in guidance spurred by the emergence of new scientific evidence, Fauci has since encouraged mask-wearing numerous times in the media (see here,here, and here), as Reuters pointed out in their fact-check.
In other words: Hughes is attacking Fauci for old guidance that evolved as new facts about COVID were uncovered. She's mad he changed his mind as the situation changed. So, yes, there's nothing unfair about this fact-check -- it's well deserved.
Because Sargent doesn't have a case, she decided to attack Facebook and its fact-checkers, rehashing old talking points:
Facebook clearly has not learned its lesson from censoring information about COVID-19. Early in the pandemic, Facebook and its “fraudulent” fact-checker program censored claims that COVID-19 was manufactured in a laboratory in Wuhan, China. However, the platform later reversed course and confirmed that it would no longer censor the Wuhan laboratory theory in light of new information. “In light of ongoing investigations into the origin of COVID-19 and in consultation with public health experts, we will no longer remove the claim that COVID-19 is man-made from our apps,” a Facebook spokesperson told MRC Free Speech America in a statement.
Media Research Center President Brent Bozell said in a tweet: “Facebook, which claims to be fighting ‘misinformation’ essentially admitted today that THEY have been spreading misinformation for over a year. Yet another reason to remove the protections Facebook and others receive from section 230.”
Facebook’s fact-checkers are all part of the liberal Poynter Institute's International Fact Checking Network, which received $1.3 million from liberal billionaires George Soros and Pierre Omidyar. Facebook’s fact-checkers must be approved by the Poynter Institute[.]
Hughes is not known for her honesty. We caught her a few years back making a Fox News appearance in which she hyped a claim that illegal immigrants committed a crime, but she refused to apologize when the claim turned out to be false.
WND Still Misinforming Readers About Ivermectin Study Topic: WorldNetDaily
We'vedetaiied how WorldNetDaily reporter Art Moore promoted a study promoting the use of ivermectin to treat COVID-19, conducted by an organization formed to promote treatments like ivermection -- and continued to promote it after the journal that originally had the chance to publish it ultimately declined due to the authors' clear conflict of interest. It turns out Moore promoted the study at a different journal that ultimately decided to publish it without telling readers about the controversy over it.
Meanwhile, a new peer-reviewed study published by the American Journal of Therapeutics concludes that ivermectin can end the COVID-19 pandemic. Reviewed by a team that includes three top U.S. government senior scientists, the research finds the drug significantly reduces the risk of contracting COVID-19 when used regularly.
In February, a study published in the U.S. journal Frontiers of Pharmacology found ivermectin reduces COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations and deaths by about 75%. In more than 30 trials around the world, the drug causes "repeated, consistent, large magnitude improvements in clinical outcomes’ at all stages of the disease," according to the study.
In fact, those studies are the same study -- Frontiers of Pharmacology rejected it, then it was picked up by the American Journal of Therapeutics.
In a May 31 article promoting a study claiming to show that ivermectin was a successful treatment in Mexico City -- while omitting the facts that the study is based on a database analysis, not clinical study, and it was a preprint that had not been peer-reviewed -- Moore wrote:
A study by the American Journal of Therapeutics that analyzed 18 randomized controlled treatment trials found ivermectin elicited "large, statistically significant reductions in mortality, time to clinical recovery, and time to viral clearance" in COVID patients.
The study concluded that “the many examples of ivermectin distribution campaigns leading to rapid population-wide decreases in morbidity and mortality indicate that an oral agent effective in all phases of COVID-19 has been identified.”
In February, a peer-reviewed study found that invermectin reduces coronavirus infections, hospitalizations and deaths by about 75%.
Ivermectin, in more than 30 trials around the world, causes "repeated, consistent, large magnitude improvements in clinical outcomes’ at all stages of the disease," according to the study, which was published in the U.S. American Journal of Therapeutics.
Moore got his facts wrong here as well. The study originally surfaced in February at Frontiers of Pharmacology as a preprint -- where studies appear before they're peer-reviewed -- but never formally published there. It was published by the American Journal of Therapeutics in May.
Moore promoted the study again in a June 23 article: "Worldwide, more than 50 peer-reviewed studies have shown the effectiveness of ivermectin as a treatment and prophylaxis against COVID-19. A recent study by the American Journal of Therapeutics that analyzed 18 randomized controlled treatment trials found ivermectin elicited 'large, statistically significant reductions in mortality, time to clinical recovery, and time to viral clearance' in COVID patients." He added:
Known for his congressional testimony about the effectiveness of ivermectin, Dr. Pierre Kory is urging White House coronavirus adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci to reconsider his opposition to ivermectin as a COVID-19 treatment.
Kory, the chief medical officer of the Front Line Covid-19 Critical Care Alliance, or FLCCC, noted Wednesday in a tweet Fauci's statement in a recent interview hat it's "essential as a scientist that you evolve your opinion and your recommendations based on the data as it evolves ... that's the way science works."
Moore didn't report that Kory was one of the co-authors of that study, or that the FLCCC paid for that study.
Moore repeated his false claims again in a June 30 article:
Worldwide, more than 50 peer-reviewed studies have shown the effectiveness of ivermectin as a treatment and prophylaxis against COVID-19. A recent study by the American Journal of Therapeutics that analyzed 18 randomized controlled treatment trials found ivermectin elicited "large, statistically significant reductions in mortality, time to clinical recovery, and time to viral clearance" in COVID patients.
A peer-reviewed study released in February found that invermectin reduces coronavirus infections, hospitalizations and deaths by about 75%.
In more than 30 trials around the world, the drug caused "repeated, consistent, large magnitude improvements in clinical outcomes’ at all stages of the disease," according to the study, which was published in the U.S. American Journal of Therapeutics.
Again, the study was not published in the American Journal of Therapeutics in February.
Such misinformation and false claims are just more reasons thats WND can't be trusted.
CNS Attacks Pelosi For Not Being Catholic Enough Topic: CNSNews.com
As they have with PresidentBiden, the uber-Catholics who run CNSNews.com have -- as part of their multi-prongedwar on her -- have deemed Nancy Pelosi to be insufficiently Catholic and hare taken numerous potshots at her faith. Despite the fact that it utterly failed in playing gotcha on her by refusing to understand that epiphany is more than a Catholic religious day, CNS labored to try to own her on her religion.
An anonymous CNS writer seemed upset with Pelosi in a January article in which she "expressed her view that pro-life Catholic and Evangelical voters had been responsible for electing Donald Trump president in 2016 after responding to Trump’s 'dog whistle' about Supreme Court justices." The anonymous writer didn't dispute that but instead got nitpicky by noting that Brett Kavanaugh wasn't originally on the list of judges Trump said he would appoint.
CNS also trotted out the Catholic archbishop of San Francisco, where Pelosi is from, to attack Pelosi:
A anonymously written Jan. 22 article featured the archbishop "sharply criticizing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.)—who represents San Francisco—for attacking Catholics who voted for President Donald Trump to advance the pro-life cause of protecting unborn babies from abortion," quoting him as saying, "To begin with the obvious: Nancy Pelosi does not speak for the Catholic Church."
A May 3 article by managing editor Michael W. Chapman hyped how the archbishop "explains why Catholic politicians (and other public Catholics) who support abortion must not receive Holy Communion and why they must stop pretending that advocating for abortion is compatible with the Catholic faith," though he admitted that the archbishop did not specifically name Pelosi or Biden.
Chapman promoted the archbishop again in a May 17 article quoting him saying that Pelosi advocates "practices that are gravely evil" and that it's his job to determine whether she deserves to receive Communion.
CNS also got mad that Pelosi had opinions about her faith and how she practices it. Craig Bannister complained in a May 14 article that "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who supports legalized abortion, said at her press briefing on Thursday that she can use her "own judgement" on whether to take Holy Communion at a Catholic Mass," adding that "she was “pleased” with a recent letter on the subject of pro-abortion Catholic politicians receiving communion the Vatican sent to U.S. bishops" urging them against a blanket refusal to Communion to Cathollic politicians who support abortion rights. (The May 17 Chapman article was in response to this.)
CNS even got upset at Pelosi for merely referencing her faith. An anonymously written April 9 article carried the headline "Pelosi: ‘Here It Was Good Friday…as a Person Who Is Catholic–and in California--the Most Holy Time’" -- even though it was just a passing reference in an article about Pelosi's commenta on security issues at the U.S. Capitol in the wake of the shooting death of a Capitol Police officer on Good Friday.
CNS even takes stealth potshots at Pelosi over her support for abortion rights. An anonymously written Jan. 22 article noted that Pelosi issued a statement "celebrating the 48th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision that declared abortion a constitutionally protected right" -- while including an undated file photo of Pelosi holding a baby. An anonymous June 21 article noting that Pelosi "put out a statement on Sunday to mark World Refugee Day and note that every 'precious life torn apart by violence and catastrophe is a tragedy'" is illustrated with the same photo.
Did The MRC Inflame Anti-CRT Emotions At School Board Meeting? Topic: Media Research Center
In a June 20 post, the Media Research Center's Nicholas Fondacaro asserted that NBC's Chuck Todd "tried to lie to viewers by claiming that parental opposition and outrage to Critical Race Theory was “manufactured at Fox [News]," claiming that the claim was "even more obviously untrue" because Todd had on a reporter who "had covered the 'dozens and dozens and dozens of parents' that turned out the Loudon Country school board meeting in Virginia to speak out against the racism inherent in Critical Race Theory."
Well, Todd's not completely right, just not in the way that Fondacaro wants you to think. Not only is anti-CRT outrage manufactured by Fox News, it's also manufactured by the MRC.
On JUne 22, the day of a Loudon County school board meeing, the MRC sent out an email to subscribers declaring that the "MRC will be at the Loudoun County school board meeting today as teachers and parents fight Critical Race Theory, 'Trans' In Any Bathroom, and 'Genderless Pronouns' In Loudoun County, Virginia Schools." The email went on to rant (random bolding in original):
On Tuesday, June 22, staff from the Media Research Center (MRC) will be on hand to cover the incendiary Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) Board meeting, in Ashburn, VA, as concerned parents, teachers, and students fight the leftist agenda to cement Critical Race Theory, the admission of “trans” students into any bathroom or locker room, and the banning of “gendered speech” in all district schools.
[...]
The LCSB meeting begins at 4pm ET, and its agenda includes “adoption of Policy 8040” as well as discussion of the bathroom/locker-room policy, and word is spreading that this will be a powerful moment for the kids, parents, teachers, and ALL taxpayers forced to pay for the increasingly progressive agenda being pushed by the bureaucracy.
As an MRC Action member, we want you to know what the MRC team is doing, right there, on the scene, to keep families and friends informed about this very important battle, and the ideology against which the Loudoun residents fight.
Transgenderism, the claims of “inherent racism” leveled against innocent people by the pushers of Critical Race Theory, the destruction of the language, and even the inclusion of biological males in girl’s bathrooms — it’s all being exposed, today, at Ashburn.
Thanks to you, the MRC will be there.
Please keep us and the good folks who fight for their kids and their tax dollars in your prayers.
The MRC went on to tout one of the people who spoke out against the school board:
You also might have seen MRC chatting, in person, with Lilit Vanetsyan, a Fairfax County-based teacher who, at a recent Loudoun board meeting, also railed against the LCPS policy proposals, especially Critical Race Theory, explicitly saying that the proposed policies will push a radical lesson plan prompting kids to “root for socialism by the time they get to middle school."
[...]
Now, Vanetsyan and others are pushing for the removal of six LCPS Board members and the vanquishing of these anti-family, anti-reality, collectivist agendas, this afternoon, at 4pm ET.
The MRC didn't tell you that Vanetsyan is no mere school teacher -- if she is that; it's unclear which school, if any, in the Fairfax County district Vanetsyan actually teaches at -- she's a right-wing activist who's affiliated with Turning Point USA and is a former reporter for the highly biased Right Side Broadcasting Network. (Also: Why is a teacher in one school district trying to speak out against policies in another school district? Isn't that out of her jurisdiction?)
The MRC got the provocation it was seeking at that meeting -- chaos reigned, and at least one arrest was made. But the MRC couldn't have been more delighted, as an email it sent out the next day showed (typographical effects in original):
Leftist Local VA School Board SHUTS DOWN Dissent Over Critical Race Theory, Trans In Bathrooms - AND The MRC Was There
Local Loudoun, Virginia, residents who have become national heroes turned out in the hundreds on June 22 to oppose the Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) Board plan to adopt Critical Race Theory and perverse sexual “identity” rules in schools across Loudoun County, Virginia, and the Media Research Center (MRC) was on the scene.
As MRC Action members likely are aware, both CNS News and MRCTV have focused time and manpower to bring tell the nation about the plight of Loudoun County taxpayers, children, and numerous teachers, as the LCPS board prepared plans to force racist Critical Race Theory ideology into classrooms and as it prepped its scheme called “Policy 8040.”
Policy 8040 would require schools to admit “trans” students into any bathroom or locker room, and would ban “gendered speech” — i.e. pronouns that conform to the correct biological sex of the individual being addressed — in all district schools.
On Tuesday, June 22, the board abruptly ended the public comment period, even as taxpayers lined up to add their voices to the scant number that the bureaucrats allowed to speak. Tuesday also saw Sheriff’s Department police ARREST individuals who tried to be heard while the board members walked off.
But Tuesday saw the courage that is lighting fires nationwide — fires that could help others stop Marxist Critical Race Theory and Trans-permissive bathroom, locker room, and speech policies from being imposed on them, other taxpayers, and kids.
[...]
MRCTV’s Libby Kreiger Tuesday also reported on the meeting, revealing how these bureaucrats — formerly insulated from public outcries by COVID-related lockouts of the public — shut down dissent, and police cuffed and arrested citizens who tried to voice their protestations, claiming they were engaging in “unlawful assembly.” Which is curious, since the First Amendment prohibits the government from infringing on the right to peaceably assemble for redress of grievances…
Clearly, the leftist Loudoun way is not the American way.
[...]
This story is receiving far less national news attention than it is from conservative and libertarian talk radio hosts and web commentators, and MRC Action and the Media Research Center will follow this, thanks to YOU.
Your care about freedom and the generations to come are the fuel for our never-ending efforts.
The MRC, meanwhile, cares about fomenting and exploiting chaos to advance its right-wing political agenda.
P.S.: It's not like the MRC went through any huge effort to turn this school board meeting into a launching pad for activism. Loudon County is just a few miles from the MRC's headquarters in the Washington, D.C., suburbs, so it just cost MRC employees a little gas money.
Newsmax Massages Ratings Numbers To Claim Trump Speech Was Popular Topic: Newsmax
Anthony Rizzo enthused in a June 8 Newsmax article:
Former President Donald Trump's speech to the North Carolina Republican Convention last Saturday drew more than 1.8 million viewers to Newsmax as the network beat Fox News in a key demo rating.
Newsmax reported Trump's 8 p.m. ET speech, his second major address since leaving the White House, drew a total audience reach of 1.1 million viewers across traditional cable platforms, according to Nielsen.
But Newsmax also drew a massive OTT audience as well, with the company reporting its streaming audience exceeded 700,000 total viewers during Trump's speech.
"OTT" stands for "over the top," TV industry parlance for streaming platforms (because they go "over the top" of cable boxes).
But Newsmax's version of the speech's ratings may be more corporate puffery than actual reality. The Associated Press reported:
Former President Donald Trump reached less than a million measurable television viewers over the weekend in his return to the public stage at a North Carolina political event.
Newsmax averaged just under 700,000 viewers between 8 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Saturday when Trump spoke, the Nielsen company said. His speech was also carried live on One America News Network and C-SPAN, but their audience is not measured by Nielsen.
Fox News Channel did not carry the speech by the former president beloved by many of its viewers. The network averaged more than 1.5 million viewers for its typical Saturday night fare of Jesse Watters and Jeanine Pirro.
Although Trump couldn't eclipse Fox's regular lineup, at least for Newsmax, showing the former president live appeared to be a good business decision for the network. So far this year, Newsmax has averaged 202,000 viewers in prime time, including the more heavily trafficked weeknights, Nielsen said.
Later on Saturday, Fox's debut hour with conservative media personality Dan Bongino reached 1.8 million people, making it the most-watched cable news show of the weekend.
Rizzo seemed to be conceding Fox News' overall ratings victory during the speech, because he selectively reported on an alleged demographic win: "Nielsen reports Newsmax beat Fox in the coverage rating for the key 35-64 demo, taking a .56 to Fox News' .46 during the speech." He did admit that "Newsmax drew a .58 for total P2 audience, close to Fox News' .77 for the same time period," then immediately tried to qualify that victory by complaining that "Fox News is available in 56% more television homes than Newsmax. The coverage rating shows audience penetration against total households available for a network."
CNS Parrots MRC Parent In Attacking Teen Who Gave Speech On Abortion Topic: CNSNews.com
The Media Research Center's "news" division, CNSNews.com, is even more blatantly abandoning any pretense that it's a legitimate journalism orgniazation and is simply the MRC in inverted-pyramid format -- what with the corporatewhoring and parroting of what the MRC writes about -- and the latter has happened again.
We've noted how the MRC went on the attack against a teenager who gave a graduation speech about a new, onerous anti-abortion law in Texas. CNS intern Julia Johnson did the same in a June 4 article:
Paxton Smith, valedictorian of her class at Lake Highlands High School in Dallas, Texas, delivered a pro-abortion speech in lieu of her previously approved remarks on Sunday, an unexpected speech that went viral on social media.
“I am terrified that if my contraceptives fail, I am terrified that if I'm raped, then my hopes and aspirations and dreams and efforts for my future will no longer matter,” Smith said.
[...]
D Magazine reported that Smith was originally planning on speaking about media and perception but felt compelled to speak about the recently passed Texas “heartbeat bill.”
Her school had approved her speech on media and had no idea what they were in for next. Smith prepared the second speech ahead of time, even sharing it with her parents, according to D Magazine.
“I hope you can feel how gut-wrenching it is, how dehumanizing it is, to have the autonomy over your own body taken from you,” Smith said.
Before the speech, students were warned that if they deviated from the pre-approved remarks, their microphones would be cut off, Advocate Lake Highlandsmreported.
But that didn’t happen to Paxton Smith. It is unclear why this particular speech was allowed, or whether a conservative version would’ve received the same discretion.
Johnson used biased language throughout her article, calling Smith's speech "pro-abortion" while describing the anti-abortion bills as "pro-life." She showed her bias again by complaining that "Smith has received an onslaught of fawning reactions from the leftist media, including glowing coverage from Vice, NowThis, and Teen Vogue. The teenager told Advocate Lake Highlands that she was 'overwhelmed' by the positive response." Johnson offered no evidence that any of those publications are "leftist."
The original headline on Johnson's article -- "High School Valedictorian Deceives Officials and Delivers Pro-Abortion Screed" -- was just as biased. The headline was later changed without explanation to the more bland (yet still biased) "High School Valedictorian Delivers Pro-Abortion Speech."
WND's Kupelian Uses Fear to Accuse Democrats Of Spreading Fear Topic: WorldNetDaily
The theme of last month's issue of WorldNetDaily's sparsely read Whistleblower magazine is "Merchants of Fear," and if you thought it was being critical of itself or it sfellow right-wingers, you would be quite wrong. David Kupelian summed up the premise in his opening piece published at WND proper on June 8:
During Joe Biden’s appallingly divisive speech in Tulsa last week, he basically claimed little has changed in America since a century ago when millions of white supremacist Ku Klux Klansmen routinely lynched innocent black people for fun. “Millions of white Americans belonged to the Klan,” Biden insisted, and their “hate became embedded systematically and systemically in our laws and our culture.”
Got that? America is still a bastion of hateful, low-IQ, white-supremacist terrorists – and people of color aren’t safe anywhere.
Biden’s comments were carefully crafted by his handlers to stir up and incite racial guilt, resentment, fear and loathing in today’s Americans, who live in the least racist nation on earth.
Why do our elites keep doing this? There is a pattern.
Kupelian, of course, is not going to give Biden credit for accurately stating Klan membership over the years -- he has a narrative to push and some blame to throw around -- and fear to peddle -- like blaming Democrats for pointing that a scary pandemic was, yes, scary:
There’s the COVID-19 pandemic and its attendant lockdown and mask mandates, plus the relentless campaign to pressure everyone to be vaccinated with an experimental drug even if they’re young and healthy and have virtually no risk from the virus, or are pregnant, or have recovered from COVID and thus already possess superior immunity to that which a vaccine could confer. Likewise, there’s the official demonization of early outpatient COVID treatments, including repurposed proven-safe-and-effective drugs like hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin, currently being successfully used by physicians and governments around the world to treat COVID patients and save countless lives, but officially disparaged and demonized in America;
[...]
uring the 2020 presidential campaign, many pundits astutely observed that Biden’s real running mate was not the shallow, dishonest, cackling and uniquely repellant Kamala Harris, but COVID-19. The pandemic allowed Biden to hide in his Delaware home and avoid answering questions that would easily have exposed his excruciatingly evident physical and cognitive decline, while subjecting him to inquiries about his decades-long history of lying and serial plagiarism, as well as his epic personal and family corruption. The public might also have discovered why Biden manages to be almost preternaturally wrong about everything. As Robert Gates, secretary of Defense for both Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, put it: “I think he has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades.”
Instead, the coronavirus pandemic allowed the Democrat-Media Complex to shield Biden from public scrutiny under cover of COVID – while simultaneously stoking fears of then-President Donald Trump, whom they continually compared to Hitler – and essentially to pick Biden up, hold him high overhead and carry him across the finish line without his ever really having to come face-to-face with the American people.
Since his January inauguration, Team Biden has done its very best to keep Americans in a constant state of fear and confusion with regard to COVID. In the name of “fighting COVID” or “COVID relief,” the Biden administration and the Democrat-controlled Congress are pushing astronomical spending bills, Democrat-socialist wish lists, big payoffs to Democratic constituent groups and a never-ending list of perverse, reckless, revolutionary, unconstitutional, corrupt and just plain stupid initiatives – all by invoking the fear-inducing magic word, “COVID!”
Actually, WND has a history of lying to its readers about the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin and about the supposed dangers of COVID vaccines. It seems Kupelian actually wants you to believe that a virus that has killed more than 600,000 people in the U.S. alone is safer than the vaccine to protect against it.
(And, yes, Kupelian is still hypocritically complaining that some people likened Trump to Hitler even though WND literallyspentyears likening President Obama to Hitler and other assorted Nazis.)
Kupelian also wants you to have fear about the election process, peddling the Big Lie that Trump actually won:
Many – perhaps most – Americans today are afraid of honestly expressing what they really think. Last November’s presidential election was likely the most fraudulent of our lifetime – and yet, no one in the media is supposed to say that anymore. If a news or opinion host says “the election was rigged,” he or she is likely to be censored or banned. Pretty soon, most people in such an environment become self-censoring: If they know they’re going to be shut down, they never say it in the first place.
We've caught WND spreading lies about the election results and never-proven claims it was rigged. Perhaps that alleged "fear" is the knowledge that lies are being spread and fear that they will be held accountable for spreading them.
How ironic that Kupelian used a fear-mongering screed to accuse Democrats of spreading fear. No wonder nobody trusts WND.
MRC's Graham Whines That Its Attacks On 'Liberal Media' Are Considered 'Bad Faith' Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center has long beem afraid of criticism of its work -- particularly that they're a bunch of partisan hacks who care more about scoring political points than contributing to journalism. They're especially sensitive to the argument that they're bad-faith critics.
MRC executive Tim Graham complained in his June 4 column about how CNN's Brian Stelter believes right-wingers like Graham will respond to the idea that the news media should receive government subsidies:
As for critics? Stelter writes: "Billions in funding for local news?! I can hear the bad-faith mockery on Fox News at the same time I type these words." Stelter is so unsubtle that every conservative critique of the liberal media is a "bad-faith mockery."
One problem, say the liberals, is "less local news meant more polarization" in communities. But anyone can see that hot issues like transgender "girls" in school sports or teaching "critical race theory" are inherently polarizing on a local level, and, in each case, the left sees only one "civic" opinion worth hearing. The other should be discouraged if not crushed.
Does anyone think Stelter's CNN demonstrates a concern about "polarization" in its national product? Does it offer conservatives a "good-faith" platform for discussion?
Ah, but conservative media criticism is done in bad faith, because its goal is to demonize and destroy, not improve. Can Graham argue with a straight face that every single criticism the MRC has made in the past three decades lacked partisan intent, that it wasn't done to brand the media as "liberal" in order to advance a political narrative? Of course he can't -- he knows what his employer is all about.
(Also, it's quite rich to hear Graham rant about evil government subsidies when the MRC sought and received as much as $2 million in pandemic relief money last year.)
So irked by Stelter's statement that Graham spent his June 16 column ranting about being accused of bad-faith criticism:
The arrogance of the liberal media can be measured by their dismissal of all conservative criticism as "bad faith" attacks on the press. Assuming that conservative critics are dishonest and disreputable cynics is a common trope of CNN's Brian Stelter when liberal journalists become mired in scandal.
In a June 15 "Academic Minute" podcast, Marist College professor Kevin Lerner explicitly defined the entire conservative movement as bad-faith media critics.
"These bad-faith attacks on the press began to rise most recently in the 1960s and '70s, led by a concerted effort among conservative journalists and critics," Lerner argued. "Along with efforts to create a conservative counterbalance to the mainstream press, they engaged in attempts to delegitimize legacy news organizations by painting them as irredeemably biased. This strain of bad-faith criticism is alive and well today."
"Good-faith" criticism, he insisted, is "based on the premise that a strong, independent press, responsive to the needs of an engaged citizenry, is essential to the functioning of a democratic society."
There are several obvious flaws in this argument.
First, conservatives don't see "legacy news organizations" as "independent." They are not watchdogs of both parties. They are savage destroyers of one party and cuddly defenders of the other. They are not "responsive to the needs" of all citizens but to the political needs of one party. This argument is somehow in "bad faith," regardless of the evidence.
Second, conservatives dare to argue that the "press" is not synonymous with the "mainstream press." Lerner's side always implies that there is not a liberal media and conservative media, but a mainstream media and an extreme media.
Third, criticizing liberal news organizations is part of the "functioning of a democratic society." We want a vibrant press, but media criticism is not anti-democracy. It defines democracy. Liberals like Lerner believe that democracy functions best when "legacy media" never lose public trust, no matter what kind of partisan hackery they foist on the public.
Notice that Graham cites criticism of onbly "liberal news organizations" as essential -- he does not see criticism of, say, Fox News as valid. And given that the MRC is dedicated to the destruction of media that doesn't act like Fox News, it's entirely fair to assume that Graham and his boss, Brent Bozell, have no interest in maintaining "a strong, independent press, responsive to the needs of an engaged citizenry."
And as much as Graham gets paid to lash out at the "liberal media," it's clear that he believes there is no such thing as "conservative media" -- not even the MRC's own "news" division, CNSNews.com, which has an unmistakable right-wing bias and refuses to publish any columnists who aren't conservative.
Graham, by the way, will not hold Fox News responsible for even the most egregious issues of bias and ethics. So unbothered was he by Bill O'Reilly's history of sexual harassment that he appeared on the final episode of what was his show on Fox News and didn't mention O'Reilly's sleaze at all.
Graham and the MRC attacks the "liberal media" for things it would never dream of criticizing Fox News for (lest it jeopardize future appearances on the channel). That's the essence of bad-faith criticism.
Meanwhile, in neither of those columns does Graham made a coherent argument that the MRC's attacks on "liberal media" -- funded by millions of dollars in nonprofit money every year -- are done in good faith and only the best of intentions. That's because he can't.
Newsmax Columnist Likens Trump To John The Baptist Topic: Newsmax
Until today thugs like Antonio Gramsci and Saul Alinsky and so many have invaded schools and colleges with a dark program to undermine the American legacy whoring word games like original sin and systemic racism, designed to shift power to them!
On the contrary, The Trump Phenomenon was more significant than the left or right or even the conservatives and RINOs (Republicans in Name Only). RINOs were the same old Establishment first enriching themselves.
[...]
Trump, as I explain in my new book, "Citizen Trump," is not a Jesus but more like a John the Baptist. We don't like him eating locusts and lives in the desert, but to paraphrase Jesus, "what did you expect a reed tossed by the sea?" So you ask him to do the dirty work but complain it got dirty?
The Far Left (not traditional liberals) has forfeited its place in our free society and shown its true colors. They have become cancer in the political body in need of severe radiation treatments.
Cancer has created slow leprosy for the innocent and creeping blindness in our children.
[...]
Jesus spoke in metaphors and parables. John the Baptist called his greatest enemies whitewashed sepulchers — in other words, phonies, frauds and fakes!
Yes, Trump performed his role as candidate and president; that's why he succeeded but just ran out of TV time.
Forget heaven. You're in a white noise reality.
Winning an election is one battle, but winning back your country from the media's control is all-out war!
WND's Zumwalt Tries 'Manchurian Candidate' Smear Against Biden Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily particularly loved to smear President Obama with the "Manchurian candidate" tag -- so much, in fact, that then-reporter Aaron Klein wrote an entire book about Obama called "The Manchurian President." WND columnist tried that smear against President Biden in a June 16 column praising Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin for standing in the way of Biden White House initiatives:
As a man of great political courage looking to impact such change and encourage more bipartisan discussion, it seems Manchin could play a much more effective role simply by surrendering his Democratic Party credentials and declaring himself an Independent. The move would cause those Senate Democrats lacking the courage to voice their own concerns about their party's sharp turn to the left to realize it is time to speak up and work with their Republican counterparts in the best interests of the people.
Biden's leftist actions since taking office raise concerns he is giving reality to the concept of the "Manchurian Candidate" – the politician whose disloyalty to country is influenced by others harboring undemocratic intentions. In Biden's rush to socialism, assisted by a Senate under Democratic Party control, it is comforting to know a "Manchinian Candidate" – a politician loyal to the republic established by our Founding Fathers – stands in his way of implementing such an agenda.
Zumwalt, of course, offers no evidence to back up his claim that Biden's a "Manchurian candidate."
Zumwalt also praised John McCain for his bipartisan approach that enabled him "to walk a bipartisan political tightrope for 31 years until his 2018 death," further touting Manchin as "the Democratic Party's equivalent to John McCain." But Zumwalt seems to have forgotten that McCain himself was smeared as a "Manchurian candidate" but right-wingers who didn't like his bipartisanship. Ironic, eh?
CNS Echoes MRC Parent With LGBT Freakouts Over Plastic Bricks, Cereal Topic: CNSNews.com
The Media Research Center's "news" division, CNSNews.com, parroted its parent in having an anti-LGBT freakout over plastic bricks and cereal. Craig Bannister complained in a May 20 article:
On Thursday, the LEGO Group announced that its new LGBTQIA+ set “goes on sale on June 1, to mark the start of Pride Month.”
“Inspired by the iconic rainbow flag,” the 346-piece set “features 11 monochrome minifigures each with its own individual hairstyle and rainbow colour” LEGO says in an announcementtouting the new product.
“I wanted to create a model that symbolises inclusivity and celebrates everyone, no matter how they identify or who they love,” set designer and Vice President of Design Matthew Ashton said, adding that the set is also a celebration of the LGBTQIA+ community within the LEGO Group and amongst the brand’s adult fans.
Each of the LEGO characters was designed to be gender-neutral, so it’s up to the builder to assign the gender of every character, Ashton says in LEGO’s promo video:
This was followed by a June 1 commentary by Monica Cole of One Million Moms, who brought the homophobic hate (and shilled for her petition):
Lego is confusing our innocent children by attempting to normalize this lifestyle choice, which is not only irresponsible but also dangerous to the well-being of our children. Toy manufacturers need to remain neutral and should avoid aiming to please a small percentage of customers while pushing away conservative customers.
It is crystal clear that Lego is attempting to desensitize our youth, so my group, One Million Moms, believes it’s urgent to warn parents of the company’s agenda.
[...]
We must remain diligent and stand up for biblical values and truth. Scripture says multiple times that homosexuality is wrong, and God will not tolerate this sinful nature.
Sign our petition urging Lego to stop the release of its “Everyone is Awesome” rainbow LGBTQ building set immediately.
Meanwhile, Susan Jones was CNS' designated lasher-outer at cereal in a May 27 article:
Would you like a little milk with your cereal? Or do you prefer a heaping helping of liberal activism?
Now available on grocer shelves -- Kellogg's limited edition "Together With Pride" cereal, a collaboration between the cereal-maker and GLAAD, an LGBTQ+ advocacy group.
"Our delicious new recipe features berry-flavored, rainbow hearts dusted with edible glitter," said Kellogg General Manager Doug VanDeVelde. "We can't wait for fans to try our latest limited run."
[...]
The outreach effort includes "correct" pronouns:
"Kellogg is not only building on an ongoing commitment to support the LGBTQ+ community, but initiatives that spotlight the importance of using correct pronouns to create safe and welcoming spaces for trans and nonbinary people," Ellis said.
"Together With Pride" cereal follows Kellogg's earlier collaboration with GLAAD to produce "All Together" cereal, which was available only online for a limited time.
Jones also added a list of other products Kellogg's makes, presumably as a way to help would-be boycotting homophobes like One Million Moms.
Another MRC Anti-LGBT Freakout, 'Gay, Inc.' Edition Topic: Media Research Center
One thing Media Research Center writer Elise Ehrhard lovesto do is blame any non-hateful depiction of LGBT characters on TV as the work of "Gay, Inc." She never really explains what that is -- all the better to make it sound as nefarious as possible, even though it's clear she works for "Anti-Gay, Inc." -- the notoriously homophobic MRC. Now Ehrhard is complaining about a show being a "Gay, Inc." despite lacking much in the way of actual gay content. She complained in a May 3 post:
Do you have no desire for homosexual sex, but really think your same sex best friend is amazing? Do you wish you could be called anything but "straight"? Gay Inc. is here to save the day!
Freeform's Everything's Gonna Be Okay introduced a Gay Inc. term for what used to be called "Best Friends Forever."
In the episode, "California Banana Slugs," on April 29, Drea (Lillian Carrier), the best friend of main character Matilda (Kayla Cromer), announces that she identifies as a "homo-romantic asexual". What on earth is that, you ask? Let me explain. But first, a little background.
You see, Drea and Matilda have been friends for years. In fact, at the end of their senior year of high school they liked each other so much they tried to be lesbians. (At first, they tried a threesome with a fellow student, but the guy ran away before it began.)
Now that they have graduated and entered adulthood, they realize they are not lesbians and have no sexual attraction to each other whatsoever. In fact, they find intercourse with the same sex icky. Matilda decides she wants to have casual sexual intercourse with men. Drea decides she is just not feeling it for anybody. But they both agree to still call each other "girlfriend" which is something many female friends do anyway.
[...]
Nobody told Drea that the entire history of same-sex friendship, in both real life and fiction, from the Gospel of John to the Lord of the Ring's Sam and Frodo, has involved intense bonds of love that someone could erroneously label as "romantic." Of course, in order to define it as romantic you would have to be immersed in a homosexual culture that eroticizes or romanticizes everything.
And that is exactly what the LGBTQUIABCDEFG world has done. With a new magic trick, Gay Inc. has now found a term to bring even straight people into its tent. You have to give Big Gay credit. They never cease to find ways to convince young people they are really somehow, some way, kinda sorta gay.
Or, maybe, people would like the space to figure out exactly what their relationship is with each other without hateful moral scolds like Ehrhard denigrating and mocking them every step of the way.
Ehrhard returned for more scolding and denigration (and more blaming of "Gay, Inc.") in a June 6 post after the episode in which these characters formalized their relationship:
Make way for the first television wedding between platonic same-sex best friends.
Last month, the Freeform show, Everything's Gonna Be Okay, introduced the first "homo-romantic asexual character," the latest iteration in LGBTQIA "identities." Basically, it is someone who has no sexual attraction to anyone, but really likes a best friend of the same sex. Gay, Inc. will create an identity foranything nowadays.
[...]
Believe it or not, this same-sex "best friend marriage" insanity is now being promoted by the left. The New York Times, a newspaper of emotionally immature writers that regularly pushes stupid ideas about marriage and relationships, recently published an article titled "From Best Friends to Platonic Spouses=." "Some people are taking their friendships to the next level by saying 'I do' to marriages without sex," the subheading announced. Actually, only lonely people living in an atomized society who no longer recognize the nature of either friendship or marriage would do any such thing.
[...]
And Hollywood needs to stop pushing these confused LGBTQIA narratives rooted in unhealed trauma or loneliness. There really are people in the world who know how to separate platonic friendships from marriage. There are also people who know how to create healthy, enduring families rooted in the monogamous love of a husband and wife.
Unfortunately, G.L.A.A.D. signs-off on most Hollywood scripts nowadays and is the arbiter of an increasingly extreme Gay, Inc. agenda. Therefore, these ludicrous storylines will only increase. And as they do, Americans will increasingly tune them out.
Is it emotionally mature for Ehrhard to obsess about the sex lives (or not) between fictional characters? Hard to say. Is sneering at and denigrating relationships that aren't floridly heterosexual a stupid idea? Perhaps. Is it "extreme" for LGBT people to not want to be hated and for media depictions of them to not be universally negative? Ehrhard seems to think so.
Perhaps Ehrhard needs to spend a little more time deconstruting her fictitious "Gay, Inc." and stop whining so much -- especially since "Anti-Gay, Inc." will pay her handsomely to noodle around like that.
NEW ARTICLE -- CNS' COVID Coverage: Biden-Bashing and Reverse Mask-Shaming Topic: CNSNews.com
CNSNews.com has switched from downplaying coronavirus deaths under Trump to playing mask gotcha with the Biden administration. Read more >>
Clinton Derangement Syndrome Continues At The MRC Topic: Media Research Center
Bill Clinton hasn't been president for more than 20 years, but that's not keeping the Media Research Center from continuing to have meltdowns every time he appears on TV. Which brings us to a June 7 post by Scott Whitlock:
Given that a former Bill Clinton operative, George Stephanopoulos, is a co-host of Good Morning America, it’s no surprise that the morning show asked the controversial Democrat zero tough questions. But even for ABC, this was insane. Co-host Michael Strahan offered no follow-up when Clinton fantasized about being president for life.
Strahan offered this softball: “Do you miss being president?” The man who exemplified Me Too before the term existed, rhapsodized, “The real answer is I loved being president.” He offered his bizarre admission: “I loved the job. It's a good thing we had a two-term limit or I would have forced the American people to defeat me or take me out in a pine box.”
No follow-up from Strahan. Instead, the co-host acted as a stenographer for the Democrat, touting the new novel he has written with James Patterson: “The President and Patterson wrote their latest thriller over the course of the pandemic, using their time in quarantine for some self-reflection.”
What was the self reflection? Was it about his treatment of Monica Lewinsky or the numerous other women who have accused him of sexual harassment or abuse? Strahan didn't ask.
Once again, liberal journalists don’t really care about Me Too abuses, so long as a Democrat is involved.
WND's Cashill Sides With More Of The Worst People Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily columnist Jack Cashill remainsdetermined to stay on the wrong side of history by choosing to defend, um, certain people.
In his May 26 column, Cashill complained that attorney Benjamin Crump "cleverly framed George Zimmerman in the 2012 Florida death of Trayvon Martin" -- never mind that nobody has ever disputed that Zimmerman killed Martin. Cashill went on to rant that "Crump flagrantly corrupted the most racially charged trial since O.J. Simpson's," repeating the uncorroborated claim from charlatan filmmaker Joel Gilbert that a witness on behalf of Martin was an imposter. He then complained that Gilbert's film got no tractiion in right-wing media:
Having no vested interest in the success of Gilbert's film, I persuaded Gilbert that I could make a more objective case to the media, especially in Florida, than he could. So I tried.
I should have recorded the conversations. They would have dashed any hope anyone might have that the mainstream media can be reformed. The fear I encountered, often covered by hostility, was palpable.
I wish I could say the higher-level conservative media filled the void, but I cannot. From what I can tell, they are just as frightened as Big Media, maybe more so.
So the story of the greatest judicial fraud of the last half-century remains unknown to the vast majority of the American people. And if the president knows, as Crump might say, he ain't tellin'.
Cashill is lying about having "no vested interest in the success of Gilbert's film" -- he said himself he served as a consultant on the film and he heavily promoted it upon its release, as well as having written a book lionizing Zimmerman as a martyr and martin as a scary black thug in training, a narrative Gilbert's film reinforces. He's also delusional if he thought he could "make a more objective case" about the film; Gilbert's sleazy reputation precedes him, and there's no real way to overcome that, and Cashill would have to stay in serious denial of that in order to attempt to make that case. Not to mention Cashill's own reputation as a conspiracy-mongerer, making it even less likely anyone would consider anything he says as "objective."
In his June 2 column, Cashill took the side of a creepy cult leader:
"Some injustices are so heinous, so horrific, so grievous they can't be buried no matter how hard people try," said President Joe Biden in Tulsa on Tuesday.
Biden knows something about burying injustice. On April 19, 1993, he was serving on the Senate Judiciary Committee when a Democrat-controlled, FBI-led tank assault on the Mount Carmel religious community outside of Waco, Texas, left 74 people dead, more than half of them racial minorities.
As chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Biden had the responsibility to redress the injustice that took place at Waco. He passed on that responsibility.
Of the 74 killed that day, six were Hispanic. Six were of Asian descent. And 27 were black. The victims ranged in age from 6 to 61. And no, this is not something I read on the internet. I found a verifiable list of the dead, broken out by age and ethnicity, and counted them.
[...]
Truth be told, Waco represented the single greatest federally orchestrated one-day slaughter of racial minorities on American soil since Wounded Knee in 1890, and there, at least, the Indians fought back, killing more than 30 American cavalry.
Cashill gives only a single, end-of-column mention of the person who led that group, David Koresh, who was a cult leader whom people who grew up in the compound said he molested them as children -- and to whom his followers, regardless of ethnicity, were so in thrall they apparently didn't have the common sense to flee a burning building.
As we've documented, the Media Resarch Center loves to lash out at fact-checkers, but it can't deal with its own content getting fact-checked. Kayla Sargent served up the whining in a June 14 post:
We've
As they have with 
In a June 20 post, the Media Research Center's Nicholas Fondacaro 
Anthony Rizzo enthused in a June 8 Newsmax 
The Media Research Center's "news" division, CNSNews.com, is even more blatantly abandoning any pretense that it's a legitimate journalism orgniazation and is simply the MRC in inverted-pyramid format -- what with the 
The theme of last month's issue of WorldNetDaily's sparsely read Whistleblower magazine is "
The Media Research Center has long beem afraid of criticism of its work -- particularly that they're a bunch of partisan hacks who care more about scoring political points than contributing to journalism. They're especially sensitive to the argument that they're bad-faith critics.
WorldNetDaily 
The Media Research Center's "news" division, CNSNews.com, parroted its parent in 
One thing Media Research Center writer Elise Ehrhard 
Bill Clinton hasn't been president for more than 20 years, but that's not keeping the Media Research Center from continuing to have meltdowns every time he appears on TV. Which brings us to a June 7 
WorldNetDaily columnist Jack Cashill 
