MRC Is Angry Olympics Aren't Heterosexual Enough Topic: Media Research Center
In the runup to the Olympics in Tokyo, the Media Reserach Center -- led by the mysterious and virulently transphobic sports blogger Jay Maxson -- was increasingly angry that they wouldn't be heterosexual enough, lashing out at LGBT athletes who might qualify.In May, Maxson raged over a transgender weightlifter from New Zealand, feven though he (or she) is likely not a New Zealand resident and, thus, has no actual reason to care. Maxson then demonstrated his utter ignorance of how transgenderism works in a June 9 post:
The U.S. Olympic women's BMX team just got a whole lot more macho! A man is now in prime position to steal a spot from a woman on the U.S. freestyle cycling team. Chelsea Wolfe is expected to become the first transgender athlete to make a U.S. team, at the Summer Olympics in Tokyo next month.
In 2014, Wolfe suddenly decided that he was not a man, but a woman. And presto, he’s a woman who defies the laws of biology! One who currently ranks third among female American BMX competitors. The two women ranked ahead of him will compete in Tokyo, and Wolfe will serve as the alternate, as things stand now.
Has Maxson ever met a person who is not heterosexual? Is he so cocooned in the heterogenic MRC bubble that he never has to, meaning he has free rein to make up stories about how and why a person feels the need to change gender?
Maxson ramped up his (or her) hatred of Wolfe in a June 22 post raging over a tweet in which she sarcastically said she would burn a flag on the podium if she won, smearing her as a "sicko" and ranting that "The two-faced IOC deserves a lot of the blame for allowing this assault on the integrity of women’s competition by trans activists." He concluded by huffing that "The males Wolfe and New Zealand weightlifter Lauren Hubbard are officially qualified for Tokyo and they’re destroying any chance these Olympic Games will promote fairness."
Abigail Streetman picked up the mantle of hate in a June 25 post, asserting without evidence that runner CeCe Telfer transitioned to female solely because he sucked as a male runner:
One small step for women, one giant hurdle for women’s sports. Transgender track star CeCe Telfer was just deemed ineligible to participate in the United States Olympic trials as a woman due to his testosterone levels being too high. Of course, any real doctor that doesn’t feed into the woke mob mentality will tell you that it’s impossible for a man to become a woman just because they lower their testosterone levels.
Men produce nearly 20 times more testosterone than women, and there are obvious strength differences between the two genders. Telfer learned how to use this to his advantage. The ‘star’ ran for the Franklin Pierce University men’s track and field team. He also placed in the top 200 in the 400m hurdles in the NCAA Division II men’s division in 2016 and placed 390th in 2017. After these accomplishments he realized that he was actually a woman.
Is it a coincidence that after falling 190 positions from 2016 to 2017 he decided to transition and compete against women instead? I think not. In 2019, Telfer became the first man to win an NCAA title in the women’s 400m hurdles.
Streetman apparently believes Telfer is as shallow as she is, and she knows as little about what she writes as Maxson does.
Meanwhile, Gabriel Hays -- who hates transgender people almost as much as Maxson -- cheered when former NFL quarterback Brett Favre (football isn't and never has been an Olympic sport) expressed "his disapproval of biological men competing in women’s sports," specifically targeting Hubbard and Wolfe. Bridge O'Neal complained that a TV show committed the offense of having "celebrated non-binary track athlete Nikki Hiltz, who competed against women during the Olympic trials," going on to complain that "It seems that now the liberal media is criticizing conservatives for their attempts to maintain fair and traditional competition in the Olympics and in kid's sports."
Maxson returned for a July 7 post whining that "Professional sports and the media who cover them just couldn’t impose enough LGBT propaganda on you in the recently completed month of June," citing as an example "Chelsea Wolfe, a man despite the female name, qualified to be an alternate on the U.S. Olympic women’s BMX team for the Summer Games at Tokyo." Maxson ramped up the hate again in a July 19 post in which he (or she) specifically complained there were way too many LGBT athletes in the Olympics:
Queer theory is in full session at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. And then some! The Summer Games will be the queerest ever, with 142 publicly out homosexual, transgender and nonbinary athletes going for the Gold.
Outsports and The Queerstory Files say the number of publicly out LGBTQ athletes in Tokyo is not only double the number of out athletes who competed in the 2016 Rio Games, but greater than the number of such athletes in all previous Summer Olympic Games combined. Aren’t we all in for a treat?
Guess who’s leading the gigantic LGBTQ parade. It’s the United States with 30 out-standing athletes. The leaderboard also includes Canada (16), the United Kingdom (15), the Netherlands (14), New Zealand (9) (see trans weightlifter Laurel Hubbard in above photo), Australia (10) and Brazil (9).
Lesbians outnumber gay men 8-1, with women’s soccer boasting 30 out players. Outsports says, “This continues a trend seen at past Olympics and is reflective of out athletes in elite non-Olympic sports where women also proliferate.” Atta boy, girls!
Maxson concluced his (or her) rant by huffing, "The long-held Olympic motto of 'citius, altitus, fortius'' ('fastest, highest, strongest') just doesn’t do justice anymore. The International Olympic Committee may as well make it official and add the word 'queerest.'"
If Maxson believes LGBT athletes are so inferior, why doesn't he (or she) put up or shut up, and race against them to prove that heterosexuality rules. Unless ... Maxson did race and was beaten soundly by an LGBT athlete, which would explain why he (or she) is so bitter and hateful.
Newsmax Still Sending Conflicting Messages On COVID Vaccine Topic: Newsmax
Newsmax has gotten itself into a spot of bother as COVID-19 vaccine hestitancy has grown among conservatives -- and particularly among people who watch Newsmax. A recent survey found that viewers of Newsmax and One America News are twice as likely to refuse the vaccine than even Fox News viewers. For months, Newsmax has been trying to walk the line of serving anti-vaccine clickbait to its core audience while trying not to be too irresponsible about -- hence, all those "the author is a non-clinician" disclaimers on columnists spreading COVID conspiracy theories.
Still, more aggressive walkbacks were needed. When Newsmax TV host Rob Schmitt declared that vaccinations are "just generally kind of going against nature" and "stand in the way" of the circle of life "where something’s supposed to wipe out a certain amount of people," it didn't go over well -- to the point that Newsmax had to issue a statement backing away from his claim and in support of vaccines: "Newsmax as a network strongly supports President Biden’s efforts to widely distribute the covid vaccine. It is important for the safety of all and especially those at high risk, such as the elderly."
This was followed by a July 20 column by Newsmax CEO Christopher Ruddy, in which he even more heartily endorsed COVID vaccines (while staying true to his operation's right-wing slant by framing them as a Trump achievement that Biden had managed not to screw up):
As a journalist, I believe in giving credit where it’s due.
Six months into his administration, President Joe Biden should be applauded for making a huge dent in the COVID pandemic.
He inherited an effective vaccine from President Donald Trump, took it into his arms, and ran with it.
The success of this approach has been obvious. Serious deaths and hospitalizations (the most important COVID data) have collapsed.
[...]
So far, Biden’s success as president is all about COVID – not only with the vaccine, but also his push for ample and popular stimulus packages.
His success is also about Donald Trump.
Biden could have distanced himself from the vaccine since his political nemesis had been key for its creation.
Instead, Biden did the right thing and embraced Trump’s work – and built upon it to the betterment of the country. He also benefited politically.
When we have witnessed Biden fumble, it usually has to do with him rejecting Trump’s work.
The rest of Newsmax is still not on board with that message, though. A July 26 article by Jack Gournell complained that the death from COVID of a man -- an apparent conservative -- who opposed vaccines was getting too much media attention:
Stephen Harmon, a 34-year-old California man who didn't believe in vaccines, died of COVID-19 complications last week. His death — and his social media posts mocking vaccinations — were reported by local and national news outlets.
Harmon, who wasn't famous, was a member of a Hillsong church in California. The global church counts celebrities including singer Justin Bieber among its members, but has not taken a stand for or against vaccines.
The Associated Press reported in its opening sentence that Harmon "mocked COVID-19 vaccinations" and had "died this week at a Los Angeles-area hospital after contracting the virus."
A column the same day by Tom Borelli demanded that Anthony Fauci be fired because he wasn't sucking up to conservatives in a way that would make them want to get vaccinated:
Many Americans, especially conservatives, have “Fauci Fatigue.”
His numerous TV interviews with too many conflicting statements over the past year and a half has eroded his credibility.
Moreover, Fauci’s sales pitch to get vaccinated is a turnoff to conservatives.
On MSNBC, Fauci interpreted the personal decision to avoid getting vaccinated is based on politics and said, “Get over it. Get over this political statement. Just get over it and try and save the lives of yourself and your family.”
Scolding conservatives for not obeying his view is a sure way to get the opposite response.
The recent exchange between Fauci and Senator Rand Paul, R-Ky., over the definition of gain-of-function research and Fauci’s role in funding the Wuhan Institute of Virology during a Senate hearing will only further alienate conservatives.
[...]
To summarize, increasing numbers of Americans don’t trust the government or the science. Logically, that makes Fauci - a government scientist - the worst person to convince individuals to get vaccinated.
But conservatives have never trusted government or science. It's not Fauci's responsibility to change it -- it's the responsibility of conservatives like Borelli. So what has he done to encourage his fellow right-wingers to get vaccinated? He doesn't say, nor does he say whether he himself has been vaccinated.
CNS Covers Anti-Transgender Activists At School Board Meeting (That CNS' Parent Helped Incite) Topic: CNSNews.com
We've documented how the Media Research Center helped to inflame right-wing emotions against a Virginia school board located near MRC headquarters over the hot-button issues of critical race theory and transgender rights, resulting in a school board meeting where disorderly people got arrested. It also generated more content for various MRC operations, like this June 23 CNSNews.com article by Elizabeth Nieshalla, under the biased headline "Virginia Parents Fight Back Against Loudoun County School Board’s Transgender Policy":
A Loudoun County, Va., school board meeting on Tuesday was the site of a large protest against a transgender policy that ended reportedly in one arrest and one injury.
Nearly 300 parents and community members attended the meeting to speak out against the pending pro-transgender Policy 8040, Critical Race Theory, and related left-wing ideologies of the Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) School Board. Some people who support the policy were also in attendance.
Loudoun County parents organized a rally outside of the LCPS Administration Building to take place prior to the meeting. A crowd wearing red gathered in solidarity against the school board and the policy.
Cathy Ruse, a lawyer and former Fairfax County School Board member said at the rally, “Loudoun County School Board is poised to impose on all families in the public school system a radical anti-science proposition that biological sex is meaningless.”
The policy, she said, “wraps itself in fake science and then shuns any true science that doesn’t further its politics.”
Needless to say, more attention was paid to opponents of thet policy than supporters, and Nieshalla made no mention at all of the fact that her employer help to incite the anti-transgender forces.
Nieshalla is a summer intern for CNS, who doesn't seem to be interested in teaching her how to do fair and balanced reporting -- or to disclose clear conflicts of interest.
WND's Cashill Defends Chauvin Again, Stays On Wrong Side of History Topic: WorldNetDaily
Jack Cashill, it seems, is determined to remain on the wrong side of history. His June 23 WorldNetDaily column is yet another defense of Derek Chauvin and an attack on the man he killed, George Floyd:
Chauvin is not your average murderer. He did not seek out his victim. By aggressively resisting a valid arrest, George Floyd sought him.
Chauvin did not go to the crime scene voluntarily. The dispatcher sent him. Once at the scene, he found two rookie cops struggling to subdue the muscular 223-pound Floyd in the back of the police vehicle.
[Judge Peter] Cahill concedes as much. "Although George Floyd was handcuffed, he had still been able to resist and to prevent three police officers from seating him in a squad car. …"
After assessing the scene for a minute, Chauvin did not strike Floyd or tase him. He offered to roll down the car windows and turn on the air conditioning to alleviate Floyd's anxieties, not routine behavior for a murderer. None of this made Cahill's filing.
Cashill added, "While helping Chauvin restrain Floyd, Officer Thomas Lane said, 'I am worried about excited delirium or whatever.' Chauvin responded, 'That's why we have him on his stomach.'" Cashill didn't mention the fact that there's considerable doubt about whether "excited delirium" is even a thing, or just an excuse for police to justify aggressive or violent responses to a suspect.
Cashill also wrote regarding Floyd: "Chauvin had no way of knowing that the perp – soon to become victim – had two dangerously blocked arteries or that he had ingested enough fentanyl to kill a man three times over and enough meth to finish the job." In fact, medical professionals involved in the case testified during Chauvin's trial that Floyd did not die or a fenanyl or meth overdose, and that any fentanyl and meth in Floyd's system were well below lethal levels.
Cashill went on to suggest that Floyd deserved to die: "Floyd was sentenced to five years. He served less than four. Floyd had been arrested nine times. Chauvin just once, but Chauvin could very well serve more prison time than Floyd."
He concluded by laughably likening Chauvin to black victims of racism: "Like the Scottsboro Boys and others, Derek Chauvin made the mistake of being of the wrong race in the wrong place at the wrong time. And unless Cahill acknowledges as much, history will not forgive him." Unlike the Scottsboro Boys, Chauvin received a fair trial, was not judged by racists, and actually committed the crime he was accused of.
MRC's Double Standard On Describing Misinformation Topic: Media Research Center
It matters how words are used. When the Media Research Center attacks someone for pushing misinformation, it does so in no uncertain terms. Let's look at some examples from the past couple months: (bold added):
Ironic that an outlet funded by one of America’s most notorious billionaires was willing to push misinformation and Chinese propaganda while claiming to fight “bad information.”-- Joseph Vazquez, June 3
Cruz criticized Facebook for allowing communist China to push misinformation on the platform about its human rights violations against Uyghurs, while simultaneously censoring the 45th president of the United States.-- Alec Schemmel, June 16
Now that the "anti-trans" states are outlined for the American public, the special includes a completely ludicrous segment of misinformation on medical intervention on vulnerable children being “life-saving.” -- Veronica Hays, June 18
Misinformation: Nets LIE as GOP Saves Country from Election Power Grab -- Nicholas Fondacaro, June 22
Lies and misinformation, this is CNN. -- Nicholas Fondacaro, June 22
The new targets are white Americans who are presumed guilty of exploiting racism for “their own political and financial gain.” And the new media misinformation is that none of this is happening at all, it’s just right-wing panic and propaganda. -- Tim Graham, July 9
But when the MRC's fellow right-wingers get caught pushing misinformation -- particularly regarding coronavirus and COVID vaccines -- it's never defined so aggressively, and it is usually put in scare quotes or accompanied by other qualifying language. Again, from the past couple months (bold added):
MRC 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.” -- Kayla Sargent, June 7
The platform recommended WHO information to users who had a history of engaging with content that the platform deemed to be misinformation. -- Alex Schemmel, June 11
Last year, a video promoted by former President Trump that detailed the potential benefits of hydroxychloroquine was removed from YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter for “misinformation.” -- Autumn Johnson, June 11
YouTube has constantly censored what it considers misinformation about COVID-19 throughout the pandemic. -- Kayla Sargent, June 21
The organization's lawsuit alleged that Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) sent letters to Facebook and Google regarding “vaccine misinformation.” -- Kayla Sargent, June 30
CNN Reliable Sources host Brian Stelter is always decrying "misinformation" from conservative media, but extreme climate panic is never considered inaccurate. -- Brad Wilmouth, July 5
Trump said that Big Tech’s apparent war with what it deemed to be misinformation could be traced back to the government. -- Kayla Sargent, July 8
The Biden administration continued its rampage against what it deems to be "misinformation" about COVID-19. -- Kayla Sargent, July 15
The Biden administration announced at a press briefing on Facebook Friday that it was working with Facebook to censor posts that contained “misinformation.” -- Auitumn Johnson, July 16
The social-media sites offered statistics on how much COVID "misinformation" they removed -- which probably includes anything on the theory that the virus leaked from a lab in Wuhan, China. -- Tim Graham, July 17
Facebook VP of Integrity Guy Rosen whined about the Biden administration’s rampage over so-called misinformation about COVID-19 in a blog post. -- Kayla Sargent, July 19
The Biden administration said it is trying to censor so-called “misinformation” about COVID-19 online, then completely denied it four days later. ... Psaki responded by flip-flopping on whether the White House planned to take down what it deemed to be misinformation about COVID-19 online. -- Kayla Sargent, July 20
The Biden administration has faced criticism for working with Facebook to flag what they deem “misinformation” and the President’s declaration that “Facebook is killing people.” -- Bridget O'Neal, July 20
President Joe Biden’s administration is considering a massive reform of Section 230 to bully Big Tech into censoring so-called misinformation from conservative sources online. -- Alexander Hall, July 21
Twitter, of course, has refused to allow anything it deems to be misinformation about COVID-19 or its vaccines on the platform.-- Kayla Sargent, July 22
The Biden administration has continued its war against what it considers COVID-19 misinformation. ... U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy panicked about the threat of COVID-19 and so-called “misinformation” online in a July 22 address, according to Reclaim the Net. -- Kayla Sargent, July 26
Nine GOP senators wrote a letter to President Joe Biden demanding answers for the White House flagging so-called “misinformation” about COVID-19 on social media. -- Kayla Sargent, July 27
Apparently, in the MRC's eyes, there's an unambiguous, objective definition of what misinformation is when its political enemies do it but a fluid, subjective definition when its allies do it.
That's just another MRC double standard showing how little its word can (and should) be trusted.
Homophobic WND Columnist Smears LGBT People As 'Predators Of Children' Topic: WorldNetDaily
Mychal Massie hates LGBT people, so it's so surprise to see him serve up another homophobic frekout in his June 15 WorldNetDaily column:
Our children are not safe. They are the prey of reprobate sodomitic predators who are encouraged and supported in their demonic deviancy from the White House to the preschool classroom. And let there be no doubt about it: There is nothing normative about the conversion of children into anti-God sexual trinkets for perverts.
Dr. Michael Brown spoke well when he wrote:"… the homosexual movement could not grow by reproduction, it had to grow by seduction. … The homosexual movement cannot grow by biological replication, so instead, it puts its emphasis on ideological indoctrination."
And therein lies most of the reason for sexual cannibalization of the minds of our young.
This is not by accident; it is by design. It is part of a well designed, carefully orchestrated and successfully implemented satanic attack against the family. The plan has been successful to date because the demonic legislatures, rumored-to-be-participatory jurists and child-molesting, pro-homosexual presidents. Hollywood and television has made what should be viewed as criminal and/or mentally ill fashionable.
[...]
Along with other groups and churches, I have been warning parents about the homosexual plan to use vile behavioral-modification tactics and their alphabet moniker horror groups to subvert the classroom environment.
The leaders of these alphabet homosexual groups are morally opprobrious and bankrupt of any measurable semblance of truth. In brief they are pernicious liars and of the highest order. It never fails that whenever I write exposing the threat to family and children these groups pose, their minions claim I am lying. But that is because they have no choice. I place my record of being right beside their record of being liars any time and anywhere.
[...]
I contend, and nothing dissuades me, that the real reasons sexual deviants are forcing sexual deviance upon children in Kindergarten through fifth grade is because the sexual deviancy they practice is not normal, neither is it genetic. Ergo, they must continually find ways to replenish their kind. If they do not desensitize young children to the abnormality and ungodliness of this perversion by the time untainted children are adults, they will reject personal participation in this deviant sexual practice.
As far as Massie's "record of being right" goes, we'll just note that being right is not something he's known for.
As he has before, Massie invoked something called the "Gay Manifesto" (which he continues to insist on calling the "Homosexual Manifesto"), treating the satirical piece as utterly serious and getting that wrong too, whining that the author "and his perverts claimed his manifesto was just a humorous joke and everyone understood that except Christians. Fast forward to the zeitgeist of today, and it is apparent many are not laughing at abhorrent filth being forced upon our children."
Massie kept up the hate in a July 5 column that started out much the same way, with added complaining that his homophobia was being called out:
Let me be clear. Despite every lie you have heard and/or believed, there's nothing normal nor natural about the sexually deviant practice of homosexuality. The so-called "lgbtq" assemblage of sexual amoral deviancy is as unnatural, unhealthy and abnormal as an unemptied chamber pot at the kitchen table.
I've been ahead of the curve in warning about the social decline in America; and with every warning came assertions by demonic minions mocking me and calling me names.
May 30, 2013, a front group for People for the America Way called Media Matters, both of which are neo-Leninist groups committed to subversion of all truth and morality through demonic agitprop and intimidation, lashed out at me. Satan had to do his best to downplay my truth, and as usual he chose them to attempt same. I'd written in a syndicated op-ed, "Let the homosexuals have the Boy Scouts."
That column was his usual unhinged reaction to the Boy Scouts allowing openly gay youth to join the group, in which he asserted that boys would be "coerced into homosexual behavior" because of their "hormones." We'd also argue that Media Matters has a much better record of telling the truth than Massie does. (Note: We used to work for Media Matters.) He continued to rant:
I, along with others, have warned parents (and America) that demonic godless hordes were hell-bent and determined to destroy the biblical standard for family, marriage and child-rearing. I warned that each encroachment into society was a strategical act to advance their goal of destroying the biblical standard for family and propriety.
I'm right – and those attacking me are fools. These pernicious calumniators have maligned my cautions and warnings, but I've been as right as rain. Today we have Kellogg's cereals promoting homosexuality on the most grotesque and abdominal levels heretofore conceived to those most vulnerable.
[...]
I don't give a rat's behind what people call me, as long as I am speaking the truth. My position may be as unpopular as Christians protesting abortion, but what I've said is unimpeachable truth. And that doesn't change because the devil's minions call it untrue.
Massie is a hater and a liar, not a truth-teller. And that's the unimpeachable truth.
Newsmax Columnist Cites Racist Writer In Bashing Juneteenth Topic: Newsmax
Pedro Gonzalez used his July 7 Newsmax column to complain about Juneteenth becoming a federal holiday:
Juneteenth, in truth, marks the death of the old American nation and the birth of a new one, clawing out from the chest of the Republic in a nightmarish vision that would make Ridley Scott squirm.
The new holiday emerged from the mists of June with feeble opposition from Republicans, who spent months railing about the evils of anti-white critical race theory and the New York Times' “1619 Project,” only to turn around and inaugurate a national holiday to honor and validate the basic narrative underlying those things.
Just 14 Republicans voted against federalizing the holiday. It didn't matter to the GOP that a paltry 7 percent of Republican voters wanted it as a new holiday and that more than 60 percent of Americans know "nothing at all" or only "a little bit" about Juneteenth—though that will surely change now.
Gonzalez then tried to bolster this argument:
There is a historical precedent to Juneteenth: President Ronald Reagan’s signing of Martin Luther King Jr. Day into law, an event which Samuel Francis wrote about in the May 1988 issue of Chronicles.
Francis accurately predicted that the logic behind destroying Confederate symbolism would extend to virtually every other symbol of the historic American nation in the shadow of the King holiday.
He also perceived King's entry into the national pantheon, towering over the likes of George Washington, as marking the consummation of a new order that grew out of the smoldering ashes of the old.
"We forfeited the right to revere the Constitution, the governmental principles and mechanisms it established, and the men who wrote it when we put Dr. King into the pantheon," Francis wrote.
"The federalism, rule of law, states' rights, limits on majority rule, checks and balances, and separation of powers that characterize the Constitution," Francis explained, "all are incompatible with the full blossoming of the egalitarian democracy that Dr. King envisioned and which is the completion of the radical reconstruction to which his holiday commits us."
Gonzalez didn't mention that Francis was a racist -- to the point that he was the editor of the newsletter for the whit-supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens until his death in 2005.So, yeah, he was never going to be very complementary to the introduction of a King holiday. Like Francis did, Gonzalez writes for the right-wing journal Chronicles, where he is an associate editor.
CNS Stands With Putin, Against America in Trashing Biden After Summit Topic: CNSNews.com
CNSNews.com has an anti-American streak whenever a Democrat is president -- so much so that it seems to take the side of America's adversaries during those years. It took the side of Russian leader Vladimir Putin against President Biden earlier this year, and it did so again during the Biden-Putin summit in Geneva in June.
In a June 10 article, Patrick Goodenough -- who wrote much of that pro-Putin coverage and is still carrying a torch for Donald Trump -- uncritically touted Putin's attacks on Ukraine's desire to join NATO. On June 14, Susan Jones seemed to be complaining that Biden wouldn't hold a joint press conference with Putin the way Trump did with Putin at a 2018 summit. The same day, Jones promoted a separate interview with Putin in which he claimed China was not a threat to his country. Also that same day, Melanie Arter did an article on Biden discussing Putin that surprisingly did not make Biden look like a senile idiot as CNS is wont to do (though that would come later).
June 15 started with a Pat Buchanan column in which he suggested that Biden wouldn't do a joint presser because he was "afraid" of Putin, followed by an article by Goodenough criticizing Biden for being noncommital about Ukraine's entry into NATO. Then it was time for Jones to cast aspersions on Biden's congitive capacity, illustrated by a photo of an apparently confused-looking Biden:
At a news conference following his meetings at NATO, a Washington Post reporter asked President Joe Biden what he would say to allies who are "pretty rattled by what happened on January 6th” and “may still be alarmed by the continued hold that Donald Trump has over the Republican Party and the rise of nationalist figures like him around the world."
The reporter wondered if promises Biden makes to U.S. allies will be kept by the next president.
"What I'm saying is -- to them, is watch me," Biden said -- beginning a long and rambling reply that touched on American leadership, a "diminished" Republican Party, Trump's "phony populism," the failure of Republicans to vote for a January 6 commission, and even COVID vaccinations.
Trump gave many long and rambling replies to questions, but we're willing to bet that Jones never suggested he was in "cognitive decline."
On June 16, Goodenough complained that "President Biden’s much-anticipated summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin could go on for four or five hours, but there are no plans for a working meal," then gave space to former Trump secretary of state Mike Pompeo to do some Biden-bashing. Jones then devoted an entire article to Pompeo's Biden-bashing. Another Jones article noted Hillary Clinton pointing out that Putin interfered in the 2016 presidential election in a way that helped Trump get elected, but framed it as her "still blaming Russia."
Goodenough served up another article grumbling that "the controversial issue of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline appeared to be off the agenda, in public at least"; Goodenough didn't mention that Trump failed to stop the Germany-to-Russia gas pipeline project when he had the chance as president.It was left to Arter to serve up twoarticles on Biden's responses to questions that managed not to be biased. And as we've already noted, editor Terry Jeffrey played word police, accusing Biden of not using the word "Creator" when he otherwise ably explained the Declaration of Independence to Putin.
Goodenough dutifully repeated Putin's side of the summit in a June 17 article, under the insulting headline "Putin Says He Felt ‘No Pressure’ in His Talks With Biden – Who Spoke About His Mother." He also included Russian chess champion Garry Kasparov bashing Biden for elevating Putin (even though the tone of CNS' summit coverage has been all about elevating Putin). This was followed by numerous articles featuring Republican attacks on Biden, including an attack from Goodenough's (and CNS') favorite former president:
By contrast, CNS published only two articles defending Biden after the summit. The first was a piece by Goodenough noting national security adviser Jake Sullivan supporting Biden, which eventually devolved into anti-Biden attacks, and the second was a piece by Arter quoting White House press secretary Jen Psaki, which also concluded with anti-Biden criticism.
MRC Censors The Truth About Trump's Latest Social Media Adventures Topic: Media Research Center
When Donald Trump started his website "From The Desk of Donald J. Trump" tweetable blog, the Media Research Center was quite excited about it -- if only because it could reboot some of its victimization narratives. A May 7 post by Alec Schemmel complained:
Twitter is now even restricting statements made by former President Donald Trump from being posted on its platform.
The social media giant has reportedly suspended accounts that have been sharing statements from Trump, which he has been releasing from his new website, From the Desk Of Donald J. Trump. A Twitter spokesperson reportedly told NBC News: “As stated in our ban evasion policy, we’ll take enforcement action on accounts whose apparent intent is to replace or promote content affiliated with a suspended account.”
[...]
Trump’s new website, which was launched Tuesday, acts as a megaphone for the former president. Trump has been releasing his thoughts in short press release form or Twitter-like posts on the site which can then be shared by anyone to social media.
It turned out, however, that few people were particularly interested in listening to this particular megaphone: traffic to his website was miniscule compared to his pre-ban years. When Trump pulled the plug on his website roughly a month later, a June 2 post by Kayla Sargent sought to put such a pro-Trump spin on the situation that her post may has well come from the Trump Organization itself:
Jason Miller, senior advisor to former President Donald Trump, signaled that Trump may soon join another platform. “Stay tuned!” he tweeted.
Trump’s blog, “From the Desk of Donald J. Trump” may soon be replaced. Former Nevada GOP Chairwoman Amy Tarkanian tweeted: “‘The Desk of Donald J. Trump’ section of President Trump’s website has been removed and will not be returning per @JasonMillerinDC. Perhaps this is a precursor to him joining another social media platform?” Miller retweeted her post, saying, “Yes, actually, it is. Stay tuned!”
Miller also reportedly told CNBC that the platform “will not be returning,” and that it “was just auxiliary to the broader efforts we have and are working on.” He added that he was “[h]oping to have more information on the broader efforts soon, but I do not have a precise awareness of timing,” according to CNBC.
Sargent made no mention of the abysmal traffic that presumably led to the decision to pull the plug. Instead, she repeated the lie that Trump was banned from social media "after the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol in which the former president called for 'peace.'"
When the Trump camp launched a new social media platform in early July, Autumn Johnson was quick to gush over it:
Former Trump advisor Jason Miller will launch a new social media platform designed to “declare independence” from Big Tech platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
“GETTR,” which Miller says evolved from “getting together,” will launch on July 4. However, the platform’s app is already in the App Stores.
Miller says the new platform will be open to users worldwide.
"Let’s get together, we’re talking about a sense of community," Miller told Fox News. "We think it will ultimately be a global platform—not just conservatives in the U.S. We want people from all political stripes to join the platform."
"This ties in with Independence Day," Miller added. "Independent from social media monopolies, independent from cancel culture; embracing free speech—our launch on Sunday is very much intentional."
"We believe there needs to be a new social media platform that really defends free speech, and one that doesn’t de-platform for political beliefs," he continued. "This is a challenge to social media monopolies."
Because the MRC is much more eager to do free(?) PR for Trump than report the truth, it won't tell you the secret behind the app -- it was developed by a company owned by Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui, best known these days for being the benefactor of ex-Trump adviser Steve Bannon -- or that its launch wascompletelyamateurish: typos in the app page, filled with bugs and security holes, and allowed a Hitler account. GETTR got rid of the worst of those accounts, which tells us that it may not be as pro-"free speech" as it and MRC want you to believe.
Again, we see that at the MRC, the narrative is much more important than the truth.
NEW ARTICLE: At CNS, The Trump-Fluffing Never Stops Topic: CNSNews.com
Months after Donald Trump left the presidency, CNSNews.com reporter Patrick Goodenough was still touting his alleged achievements in office. Read more >>
AIM -- Which Got COVID Relief Money -- Complains Another Institute Got Some Topic: Accuracy in Media
John Ransom thinks he has a scoop in a July 1 Accuracy in Media post:
According to data from the Small Business Administration (SBA), the Confucius Institute, an academic group that has close ties to the communist Chinese party, applied for and received an SBA grant in June 2020, under the Covid relief plan.
The origination date is June 29, 2020, for four thousand dollars.
[...]
The Confucius Institute has a contentious relationship in the United States. Many have been shut down across university campuses in the United States after widespread criticism that they operate as a propaganda arm of the Chinese communist party.
This was followed by a July 8 post by Tyler Olson touting how Fox Business picked up AIM's story, complaining that the relief program was "hastiliy passed."
There are concerns about the institutes, but the controversy is also driven in no small part because it's being driven by anti-China Republicans, and that AIM is simply trying to advance a right-wing narrative.
The big irony here is not that the Confucius Institute got government money from a program signed off on by President Trump, but that AIM -- which, as a right-wing group, is not supposed to like government handouts -- received money out of that same program.
According to a database of recipients of relief money, AIM received $71,677 in a Paycheck Protection Program loan, which was forgiven to the tuen of $72,368 including accrued interest -- 16 times the amount of money that the Conficius Institute received.
We don't recall AIM ever complaining about getting what is essentially free money from the government, or about never having to pay it back.
The most recent edition of WorldNetDaily's sparsely read Whistleblower magazine is dedicated to the coronavirus pandemic -- or, rather, attacking the "ruling elite" for its handling of it by purportedly engaging in "all-out suppression of proven safe-and-effective COVID treatments." The issue covers all the dubious conspiracy theories WND has been promoting on the subject:
The first lie to be exposed was that an entire healthy society should be quarantined – not just the sick and vulnerable, but everybody, including those with virtually zero risk from the virus. This radical departure from previous public health practice served to prolong the pandemic by preventing the necessary attainment of herd immunity. America's booming Trump economy was crushed. Millions lost their jobs and businesses. Little children were needlessly forced to wear masks on the playground, or to stay home from school altogether. The entire nation lived in fear. Suicide, depression, drug addiction, alcoholism and crime all skyrocketed.
Moreover, the radical national lockdown enabled the far left to ride the wave of COVID chaos to shield the worst presidential and vice-presidential candidates in American history, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, from close scrutiny, then to corrupt the 2020 election, and ultimately to install a regime of deranged leftwing revolutionaries untethered to reality, history, the Constitution, the Bible or reason.
[...]
If that isn't surreal enough, there's the elite class's maniacal obsession with forcing everybody, including infants and children, pregnant women and COVID-recovered people with superior immunity, to be injected with an experimental drug despite an unprecedented lack of safety data and thousands of reported deaths after receiving the mRNA jab.
Even more shocking and inexcusable than all of the preceding has been the intentional suppression of well-documented, safe, effective and inexpensive early treatments for COVID-19 that could have saved hundreds of thousands of American lives. That is the considered conclusion of countless frontline COVID-treating doctors in the U.S. and around the world.
Repeat: Safe and effective treatment for COVID-19, which would allow the infected to be treated at home with inexpensive medications safely used for decades, avoiding massive hospitalization and death, has been intentionally suppressed and demonized. Even online discussions about these medications have been largely banned, suppressed or "fact-checked" out of existence by social media for more than a year.
While refusing to say it out loud, WND is referring to hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin, and research still hasn't proved they are effective treatments for COVID-19.
Articles in this edition of the magazine include at least one we've proven wrong. It's a repeat of a May 25 article by Art Moore touting fearmongering Dr. Peter McCullough advsing people not to get a COVID-19 vaccine because it's "too risky"; we caught him falsely claiming that reports of adverse side effects to a government reporting system was absolute proof of the vaccine's alleged harms (in fact, the database itself clearly states that "the inclusion of events in VAERS data does not imply causality."
The magazine also includes a reprint of a May 10 column by Jane Orient of the fringe-right Association of American Physicians and Surgeons baselessly fearmongering that the vaccine could harm fertility in young women. As we've documented, the column features other baseless or outright false claims.
There's also a reprint of a May 31 article claiming that "A citywide initiative in Mexico City to prescribe ivermectin to COVID-19 patients resulted in a plunge in hospitalizations and deaths." In fact, the study is based on a database analysis, not clinical study, and it was a preprint that had not been peer-reviewed.
WND managing editor David Kupelian laughably claimed: "This issue of Whistleblower is meant to offer hope, as well as practical and vital information, to Americans who have been forced to live in fear, isolation and hardship – and subject to nonstop disinformation – throughout the pandemic, and who are looking for some real light at the end of this long dark tunnel." Actually, the only agent of disinformation we see here is WND.
MRC Embraces Another Far-Right Activist As A 'Conservative' Topic: Media Research Center
A June 17 Media Research Center post by Alexander Hall beat the victimization drum hard:
First liberal corporations attacked conservative speech, but now they are destabilizing the finances of those they disagree with, as former Senate candidate Lauren Witzke has reportedly discovered.
American bank Wells Fargo has reportedly shut down the bank account of Lauren Witzke, a 2020 Delaware Senate GOP candidate and outspoken activist. An account purporting to represent Witzke claimed via Telegram that her bank account had been shut down, leaving her penniless in Florida: “Wells Fargo has shut down my bank account, taking all of my money and leaving me with a zero balance.” The Witzke account torched Wells Fargo for leaving her in the lurch and causing her to rely on the charity of her friends:
“When I called Wells Fargo told me that it was a ‘business decision’ and that they have the right to close my account at any time. Had I not been surrounded by friends in Florida, I would be completely stranded. Use this as a warning and get your money out of Wells Fargo if you are a conservative. This is so evil.”
Hall did quote Wells Fargo denying any political motivations for ceasing its relationship with Witzke, but he doesn't concede that the bank, as any private business in America, has the right to choose who it does business with. Meanwhile, Hall has censorred all metnion of Witzke's far-right extremism, just as it did when Marjorie Taylor Greene similarly ran as a Republican candidate.
Despite the fact that Wells Fargo is not a "big tech" company and didn't involve censorship, a July 7 post by Casey Ryan weirdly listed the incident as among the "WORST Censorship" in June.
The MRC has a bad habit of mainstreaming far-right activists as a tool to further its increasingly dubious narrative that conservatives -- and only conservativc=es -- are being unfalrly "censored" by social media.
CNS' Hot Pestering Intern Summer, Round 3 Topic: CNSNews.com
Even more than the firsttwo, CNS' third round of pestering members of Congress with questions is pure gotcha. The setup was the first question: "Do you believe that someone should have to show their ID in order to buy alcohol?" With the inevitable yes answer to that question came the follow-up: "And what about to vote?" There's no equivalence between drinking restrictions and voting laws -- and CNS did not offer any -- but that's not the point. The reason for this line of questioning is partisan, of course, designed to attack the Democratic-promoted For the People Act, which according to CNS' boilerplate "proposes election reform by prohibiting states from requiring voters to show an ID at the polls. It would also require states to provide same-day voter registration and expand mail-in voting opportunities." Some articles cheered that Republicans "successfully filibustered" the bill.
Some articles noted other right-wing attacks on the law, and some interns gave members of Congress space to attack the proposed law. A few Republican congressmen were asked their opinions on colleagues declining to take the bait by saying "they support having an ID to buy alcohol but have refused to answer whether they support having an ID to vote."
So enamored was CNS by this question (and its pure-gotcha nature) that it was asked of 45 members of Congress -- meaning lots of work for its interns running between Capitol Hill and the MRC's offices in far suburban Washington, D.C. -- and rolled out over more than two weeks. First up, the senators:
Remember: These loaded questions are designed to let Republicans virtue-signal about issues on their (and CNS') agenda, and to attack Democrats who decline to provide the conservatively correct answer.
MRC, WND Uncritically Promote N. Korean Defector's Dubious Story Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center's Veronica Hays wrote in a June 16 post:
You know it's bad when a North Korea Defector is decrying American higher education as a regressive, socialist propaganda machine. Obviously, she knows of what she speaks.
Yeonmi Park, who escaped from North Korea at the age of 13, has a grim outlook on the fate of the U.S. After her experience as a student at Columbia University in New York, she was shocked to learn just how brainwashed Americans have become. “I thought North Koreans were the only people who hated Americans, but turns out there are a lot of people hating this country in this country,” she said.
Park told Fox News, “I expected that I was paying this fortune, all this time and energy, to learn how to think. But they are forcing you to think the way they want you to think. I realized, wow, this is insane. I thought America was different but I saw so many similarities to what I saw in North Korea that I started worrying.”
The suffocating political correctness Park encountered within the Ivy League will lead to complete eradication of critical thought, she warns. "You guys have lost common sense to a degree that I as a North Korean cannot even comprehend," she said. Moral relativism and nihilism has become the new creed. Park asks, “Where are we going from here? There’s no rule of law, no morality, nothing is good or bad anymore, it’s complete chaos.”
“Trigger warnings” and “safe spaces” comprise the current setting of America’s most prestigious and challenging learning environments. For Park to encounter this pathetic display of political correctness and weak mindedness among those who should be the best and the brightest intellectuals America has to offer is both embarrassing and alarming. Park recounts how professors permitted students to have the option to opt out of specific classes/discussions whenever course material could potentially threaten their delicate sensibilities.
But as Wonkette pointed out: "Park didn't elaborate on what North Korean schools do to coddle students who would rather not attend classes they find objectionable. Probably give them a medal for doing communism right," adding:
Perhaps recognizing the limits of the American education Is North Korea analogy, Park didn't have anything at all to say in either interview about Republican efforts to ban "critical race theory" from public schools, although if she keeps touring wingnut media, she may eventually end up explaining that preventing teachers from openly discussing America's history of racial oppression is the only way to save students from being indoctrinated.
Park's story fits so neatly into right-wing narratives that Hays didn't bother to question it. But as Wonkette also noted, there are doubts about that story, with critics noting parts of it appear to be lifted from the accounts of other North Korean defectors.
Hays was joined by WorldNetDaily in repeating it in a June 14 article by Art Moore. Like Hays, Moore had no interest in checking into her background and the veracity of her story -- after all, this is WND's narrative as well.
In the runup to the Olympics in Tokyo, the Media Reserach Center -- led by the mysterious and virulently transphobic sports blogger Jay Maxson -- was increasingly angry that they wouldn't be heterosexual enough, lashing out at LGBT athletes who might qualify.In May, Maxson raged over a transgender weightlifter from New Zealand, feven though he (or she) is likely not a New Zealand resident and, thus, has no actual reason to care. Maxson then demonstrated his utter ignorance of how transgenderism works in a June 9 post:
Newsmax has gotten itself into a spot of bother as COVID-19 vaccine hestitancy has grown among conservatives -- and particularly among people who watch Newsmax. A 
We've 
Jack Cashill, it seems, is determined to remain on the wrong side of history. His June 23 WorldNetDaily 
It matters how words are used. When the Media Research Center attacks someone for pushing misinformation, it does so in no uncertain terms. Let's look at some examples from the past couple months: (bold added):
Mychal Massie 
Pedro Gonzalez used his July 7 Newsmax 
CNSNews.com has an anti-American streak whenever a Democrat is president -- so much so that it seems to take the side of America's adversaries during those years. It took the side of Russian leader Vladimir Putin against President Biden 
When Donald Trump started his website "From The Desk of Donald J. Trump" tweetable blog, the Media Research Center was quite excited about it -- if only because it could reboot some of its victimization narratives. A May 7 
John Ransom thinks he has a scoop in a July 1 Accuracy in Media 
The 
A June 17 Media Research Center 
Even more than the 
The Media Research Center's Veronica Hays wrote in a June 16 
