Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center doesn't understand how bad it looks to defend lying or misinforming about coronavirus and its vaccines because it's somehow "free speech." Read more >>
Thursday, September 16, 2021
NEW ARTICLE: The MRC Loves COVID Misinformation
Topic: Media Research Center The Media Research Center doesn't understand how bad it looks to defend lying or misinforming about coronavirus and its vaccines because it's somehow "free speech." Read more >>
Posted by Terry K.
at 1:59 PM EDT
CNS Echoes MRC's Meltdown Over (Allegedly) Cross-Dressing Muppet
Topic: CNSNews.com Following in the footsteps of its Media Research Center parent, CNSNews.com similarly melted down over the idea of a supposedly male Muppet wearing a dress. Craig Bannister gave right-wing activist Candace Owens a platform to rant about it in an Aug. 2 article:
Owens apparently provided no evidence of how she knows Gonzo is a "manly" Muppet who should remain that way. Bannister, meanwhile, was silent about how Owens got dragged in social media for her bizarre, hateful comment, where it was also pointed out that Gonzo has worn dresses for decades. Meanwhile, LGBT-hating Bill Donohue got an entire Aug. 5 column to rant about it and invent a conspiracy theory:
Donohue weirdly concluded: "This is not about treating everyone with respect—that is not the issue—it is about shielding our children from those who want to sexually engineer them." But Donohue has never respected LGBTQ people, so it clearly is an issue with him. He just doesn't what to be called out on it.
Posted by Terry K.
at 12:02 AM EDT
Wednesday, September 15, 2021
Mean Girls At MRC Insist On Immaturely Mocking CNN's Allegedly Low Ratings
Topic: Media Research Center How do we know that the Media Research Center is a partisan attack dog that cares nothing about actual "media research"? Because actual media researchers wouldn't engage in abject gloting when a channel's ratings drop. But that's what the MRC -- mostly NewsBusters managing editor Curtis Houck -- has been doing for months when reporting on ratings at CNN. Houck immaturely cheered back in March under the sneering headline "How Refreshing":
Houck went on to huff: "On this past Sunday, Stelter’s show was more of the same, spewing hate in his never-ending quest to send Fox News employees to the unemployment rolls" -- as if Houck doesn't want to do the same to Stelter and every other CNN employee -- and complained he said of Fox News, “Bottom line here, you are what you watch and it could make you sick.” Houck retorted, "Trust us, Brian. The feeling is mutual." In April, Houck chortled under the immature headline "Sad Trombone":
Houck was back in May to mock CNN ratings again:
Houck loves to portray Zucker -- who is Jewish -- as CNN's puppetmaster, an anti-Semitic trope. As if Roger Ailes didn't do the exact same thing at Fox News, which Houck presumably had no problem with at all. Houck actually uses the racially charged "puppetmaster" insult to mock CNN's ratings again in a June 2 post:
Houck's weird CNN-hating obsession continued on June 29:
Scott Whitlock took tie CNN mocking stick from Houck for a July 23 post: "Apparently, Americans don’t want to watch 80 minutes of CNN’s Don Lemon sucking up to Joe Biden. The July 21 town hall special bombed the ratings, losing not only to Fox News (which would be expected), but even MSNBC." So pathological is the MRC's hatred of Stelter that it even tried to blame him for tanking the ratings of someone else's show , as Abigail Streetman did an an Aug. 13 post:
Demonstrating she's a Mean Girl with nothing to offer but lame, juvenile insults, Streetman concluded, "The Lame Show will be no more if Stelter ever makes an appearance again." Yet the MRC wants to be treated as serious "media researchers." Go figure.
Posted by Terry K.
at 10:35 PM EDT
Updated: Tuesday, September 27, 2022 8:45 PM EDT
Newsmax Interview With Nunes Omits Mention Of Previous Failed Lawsuits
Topic: Newsmax A Newsmax interview with Rep. Devin Nunes, as summarized in an Aug. 13 article by Sandy Fitzgerald, touts the one defamation lawsuit he filed that hasn't been dismissed outright:
But the Post never reported Nunes did "James Bond-style" stuff. The article originally stated that Nunes went to the White House in a "midnight run" to find evidence that the Obama administration was spying on Trump Tower, which the Post later corrected to say happened during the day, and misattributed a statement about spying to Nunes instead of Donald Trump. Nunes didn't tell Newsmax that part of his lawsuit against the Post was dismissed. Unsurprisingly, neither Newsmax nor Nunes made no mention of all the other Nunes lawsuits against media outlets that have ended in swift dismissal. For instance, a different suit Nunes filed against the Post last year was dismissed. Most infamously, Nunes tried to sue Twitter over a couple of parody accounts -- one stating itself to be "Devin Nunes' Cow" -- mocking over his dubious claims of being a farmer, among other tihngs, and failed. Those cases have since been completely dismissed as well. Nunes is clearly unable to handle any sort of public criticism, so he's trying to strip his critics of the right to criticise him by forcing them to spend money defending themselves in court. Newsmax doesn't want to report any of that.
Posted by Terry K.
at 9:04 PM EDT
CNS Unemployment Coverage Distortion Watch, Vacation Edition
Topic: CNSNews.com CNSNews.com did not serve up a summary of federal employment numbers for August because Susan Jones -- the biased CNS reporter in charge of that monthly duty -- was off that week. (You'd think that a "news" organization would have someone else write that story, given how it's "news" and all, and how it is a predictable staple of CNS coverage.) Instead, the only article was the usual sidebar from editor Terry Jeffrey on government jobs, complaining that "The federal government added 3,000 civilian employees in August." Instead, Craig Bannister stepped into the breach with an article accusing Nancy Pelosi of spinning the "disappointing" numbers to push federal spending:
Bannister didn't mention that the lower numbers were driven by the Delta variant harming restaurant and hospitality jobs.
Posted by Terry K.
at 3:24 PM EDT
WND's Kupelian Spreads Election-Fraud Lies On Ex-WND Columnist's Show
Topic: WorldNetDaily The claims that the presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump presented in the most recent issue of WorldNetDaily's sparsely read Whistleblower magazine were easily disproven -- but that's not stopping WND managing editor David Kupelian from trying to promote it, something he rarely goes out to do. So we were graced with an Aug. 15 article pushing his dishonest PR:
Stop right there. WND offers no evidence that Loudon's show is "popular," and the article gets the name of the channel wrong -- it's Real America's Voice, not America’s Real Voice. Also, you might remember that Loudon is a former WND columnist who tried to armchair-diagnose President Obama as a psychopath and demonstrated some serious pathology of her own by spreading lies. YOu might also remember her for trying to make hay off her teenage daughter being in a relationship with a 57-year-old actor-- then later making sure WND deleted the column she wrote on it. So Loudon was the perfect "popular" host to regurgitate Kupelian's lies. The article continued:
We've documented how Epstein's anti-Google reserarch is dubious at best. As for his star claim, as repeated by Kupelian, that Google "turn[ed] an estimated 6 million 'undecided' voters to Biden," the Washington Post's Philip Bump noted: "Of course, the idea that people primarily base their decisions on what they learn from Googling candidates — particularly at the presidential level — is dismissible on its face. President Biden got a record level of support from Democrats even as Trump earned near-universal support from Republicans. Which of them was influenced by his or her search results?" More from the article:
As we've documented, the MRC poll was conducted by McLaughlin & Associates -- the same pollster employed by Trump's campaign -- so the trust factor is quite low. Kupelian added:
We've pointed out how WND -- which, again, Kupelian is an executive at -- repeatedly likened President Obama to Hitler and other Nazis and had no moral qualms about that. (Also, the Antichrist.) Is Kupelian saying that by doing so, it was immoral for WND NOT to lie about Obama's birth certificate and various other things during his presidency? It appears so, making him a raging hypocrite as well as a liar. The article concluded:
Actually, the only person gaslighting here is Kupelian, and he has no intention whatsoever of stopping -- the grift is just too alluring, even as all those conspiracy theories have pushed WND to the edge of insolvency.
Posted by Terry K.
at 12:04 AM EDT
Updated: Wednesday, September 15, 2021 12:09 AM EDT
Tuesday, September 14, 2021
MRC Rushes To Defend DeSantis Over COVID -- Again
Topic: Media Research Center Last year, the Media Research Center fawned all over Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for his hands-off approach to the coronavirus epidemic in his state -- then had to switch to defense mode when the state became an epicenter of COVID infection. Well, Florida has become an epicenter of the Delta variant this summer, and the MRC is back in defense mode. Alex Christy complained on July 17 that CNN's Chris Cuomo spread "disinformation" by "insinuating" that DeSantis isn't encouraging people to get vaccinated, then made excuses for DeSantis' abhorrent behavior:
Christy also falsely identified guest Leana Wen as "Planned Parenthood president" -- she hasn't worked there for two years, and even then was the group's president for only nine months. (the MRC is weirdly obsessed with tagging Wen as tied to Planned Parenthood even though it's irrelevant to her current TV appearances as a health expert.) Christy then justified people who refuse to get the vaccine by blaming others, not them, for their own behavior:
Christy returned on July 31 to portray any criticism of DeSantis' handling on COVID as an effort to derail his potential 2024 presidential camapign:
Mark Finkelstein peddled the same angle in an Aug. 2 post:
Clay Waters complained that New York Times columnist Paul Krugman "pointed out that over 10,000 Floridians are currently hospitalized with Covid, then blamed DeSantis," adding that "Krugman was obliged to note, but strenuously attempted to discount, the inconvenient fact that Florida is actually doing just fine with vaccinations." Waters then huffed:
After MSNBC's Joe Scarborough pointed out that DeSantis' pandering to his right-wing supporters on COVID made him sound a bit like "Simpsons" character Cletus the Slack-Jawed Yokel, Finkelstein returned to sneer: "Was Joe Scarborough ever a good ol' Southern boy, as he still likes to portray himself? In any case, that persona has definitively disappeared. On today's Morning Joe, Scarborough exposed himself as the worst kind of condescending Upper West Side snob." As the COVID death toll mounted in Florida, Kristine Marsh helped DeSantis distract and play whataboutism while decrying a new nickname for the guy:
Christy then served up more defense for DeSantis on Aug. 5 by insisting that he's not terrible on COVID, he's merely average:
Christy is rather desperately understating the situation in Florida. As week after his post, Florida alone accounted for nearly 18 percent of all new COVID cases in the U.S. And if the vaccination rate of Florida and Texas had been higher, 70,000 hospitalizations and 4,700 deaths could have been prevented through July.
Posted by Terry K.
at 10:39 PM EDT
WND Promotes False Conspiracy Theory About 'Fake' Biden Photo
Topic: WorldNetDaily Bob Unruh wrote in an Aug. 16 WorldNetDaily article:
Citizen Free Press, by the way, is a far-right Drudge-esque news aggregator run by an anonymous person, so it hasn't really earned the right to be trusted. And it can't be trusted on this either. Because Unruh has put WND's hate-Biden agenda before the truth, he dismissed the most obvious possibility: one of the clocks was wrong. As a fact-checker pointed out:
But Unruh -- and WND as a whole -- clearly despise Biden so much, they'd rather embrace a conspiracy than report the truth.
Posted by Terry K.
at 6:42 PM EDT
Updated: Tuesday, September 14, 2021 9:12 PM EDT
Newsmax Columnist Defends Poland's Right-Wing Authoritarianism
Topic: Newsmax Marek Jan Chodakiewicz wrote in an Aug. 16 Newsmax column:
Actually, there's plenty of evidence that the Disciplinary Chamber lacks full independence. Just ask Igor Tuleya, who was disciplined by the chamber, opening him up to criminal charges, for allowing media to cover a politically sensitive case. Additionally, the Disciplinary Chamber's legitimacy has been rejected by the Polish Supreme Court itself. At any rate, it's now a moot point because the day after Chodakiewicz's column appeared, Poland agreed to shut down the Disciplinary Chamber. Chodakiewicz wasn't done, going on to somewhat defend Poland's efforts to squelch media dissent. He admitted that efforts to force partial Polish ownership of media outlets in the country is "silly" and that state-controlled media "are little more than [Law and Justice Party] propaganda loudspeakers." Still, he criticized the channel TVN -- owned by a branch of the U.S.-run Discovery Channel -- should switch to right-wing propaganda anyway:
Chodakiewicz offered no examples of the "liberal" and "woke" content he claims TVN offers, let alone that said content attacks the country.
Posted by Terry K.
at 3:44 PM EDT
CNS Repeats Harassment Claims Against Cuomo -- But Belittled Or Hid Those Made Against Trump
Topic: CNSNews.com CNSNews.com dedicated three articles to specific allegations made by women accusing former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo of sexual harassment, all of which were anonymously written:
By contrast, when Stormy Daniels revealed that Donald Trump paid her hush money to keep quiet about their extramarital affair, CNS at first treated her as She Who Must Not Be Named, then moved to belittling her for revealing the affair and hush money, and finally decided to give Trump a pass because "Trump's womanizing hardly comes as a shock to the American people" and merely talking about it advances "the politics of personal destruction." Around the same time, an Aug. 5 article by Susan Jones stated:
Jones complained that "Psaki gave a non-response response." Actually the question was not surprising at all, given that the questioner was Steven Nelson of the New York Post, a notoriously right-wing, anti-Biden newspaper. And we recall how much CNS heavily hyped Reade's accusations, parroting its Media Research Center parent -- while it effectively censored news of E. Jean Carroll's accusation that Trump sexually assaulted her. In other words: Only women who make sexually related accusations against a liberal are considered news at CNS. If a woman makes similar accusations against a consevative, she is belittled and denigrated, at least when she's not being completely ignored.
Posted by Terry K.
at 1:01 AM EDT
Updated: Tuesday, September 14, 2021 12:56 PM EDT
Monday, September 13, 2021
MRC Runs The Larry Elder Defense Committee, Part 2
Topic: Media Research Center We've detailed some of the Media Research Center's defense of right-wing California gubernatorial candidate Larry Elder -- and burying of credible claims of misbehavior with women -- and it has continued. But first, Rich Noyes rehashed a complaint about how the media covered the 2003 recall in California: "Arnold Schwarzenegger is no conservative, but the liberal media are smearing him as if he were." But the MRC also defended Schwarzenegger as if he were, playing Clinton whataboutism to complain that it was "last minute dirty tricks" for the media to cover accusations of alleged sexual misbehavior (and Schwarzenegger praising Hitler). Gabriel Hays whined that actors are donating money to Newsom:
Actually, the article Hays linked to back up his claim stated that "only about a quarter of the electorate supports" Elder, which would not be a "sizable lead" in any real election. Also, Hays is the guy who can't even correctly define what a "Hollywood film" is, so maybe he should sit this one out. Kyle Drennen complained that MSNBC "brought on far-left Los Angeles Times columnist Jean Guerrero to hurl invective at the organizers of the effort and leading Republican contender Larry Elder. She ranted that the recall was fueled by “anti-immigrant nativists” who would spell doom for California and the Democratic Party," adding that she "was particular aghast [sic] that the conservative Republican wanted to rollback radical left-wing policies like sanctuary laws, driver’s licenses, and in-state tuition for illegal immigrants." Drennen complained that "Guerrero was never challenged on any of her outrageous rhetoric against Elder or Republicans in general" -- though he didn't dispute anything Guerrero said either. Kristine Marsh groused that MSNBC host Joy Reid couldn't hide her disdain for black conservative radio host Larry Elder, on her show last night while talking about California’s upcoming recall election. The Chicken Little commentator panicked that if Elder was elected governor, the state would go to hell in a handbasket (as if it wasn’t already?) and turn into “nightmare” states California [sic: Florida] and Texas." Marsh returned on Sept. 9 to try to make a big deal out of someone throwing an egg at Elder:
This was followed by Curtis Houck giving Ben Shapiro a platform to complain about "the liberal media refusing to give real airtime to the egg attack We would remind Houck and Marsh that the MRC has amply demonstrated its indifference to the safety of journalists who aren't also right-wing activists, so perhaps they should sit this one out as well. Tim Graham served yet another Brian Stelter whine-a-thon in a Sept. 12 post:
Then again, Graham spent the past four years attacking fact-checkers for daring to fact-check Trump while refusing to concede that Trump ever lied about anything, so he needs to do some sitting down as well. None of these posts, by they way, mentioned the credible accusations of sexual harassment and gun-waving made by an ex-girlfriend of Elder. The MRC is doing quite a job of trying to shove that down the memory hole.
Posted by Terry K.
at 9:38 PM EDT
Updated: Monday, September 13, 2021 9:41 PM EDT
WND's Farah Walks A Fine Line On His COVID Vaccine Conspiracy
Topic: WorldNetDaily As befits someone who's best known as a conspiracy theorist, WorldNetDailiy editor Joseph Farah loves his COVID conspriacy theories. But in his July 27 column, he tried to walk a fine line -- praising Donald Trump for the COVID vaccines, but trying not to step on WND's fearmongering over it:
So the vaccine is great, but only as long as nobody is mandated to take it.Got it. Then, as he has before, Farah made his way to Fauci Derangement Syndrome:
Actually, even the U.S. intelligence community has rejected the idea that COVID-19 was developed as a bioweapon. From there, Farah descended into yet another bout of Biden Derangement Syndrome, followed by begging for cash to keep WND alive. It's nothing we haven't heard before.
Posted by Terry K.
at 6:31 PM EDT
CNS Commentary Editor Rants Against Grad School
Topic: CNSNews.com CNSNews.com commentary editor Rob Shimshock's Aug. 20 column is headlined "Smashing the Grad School Shibboleth," and in the process, he perpetuates a shibboleth of his own:
Shimshock may have a point on the cost of grad school, but the idea that colleges exist only to indoctrinate students to be "far-left," anti-Christian and anti-white" is a long-held right-wing talking point that has no real basis in reality. Actual educators know that it's difficult to get a student's mind to open up at all. As far as indoctrination goes, Shimshock appears to be both victim and perpetrator. It's clear that he was fed that right-wing nonsense about colleges churning out brainwashed liberals ... even as he touts his bachelor's degree from the University of Virginia in his bio. But the CNS commentary section he manages carries only right-wing and libertarian writers -- there nary a liberal columnist in sight. Isn't he engaging in the kind of indoctrination he purports to despise? What is Shimshock so afraid of that he won't let a liberal opinion sully his commentary section? Seems like Shimshock may need to head back to college ... to take a remedial course or two in journalistic fairness and balance.
Posted by Terry K.
at 12:54 PM EDT
NEW ARTICLE: The WND Funding Crisis Du Jour
Topic: WorldNetDaily WorldNetDaily editor Joseph Farah put out a lot of bluster and conspiracy theories to cajole readers into keeping his company alive -- though he had to stealthily extend his self-imposed deadline a couple weeks in order to (barely) meet his goal. Read more >>
Posted by Terry K.
at 8:55 AM EDT
Sunday, September 12, 2021
MRC Runs The Larry Elder Defense Committee
Topic: Media Research Center The Media Research Center is undoubtedly happy Larry Elder came along to be the leading Republican canddiate in the California governor recall election. Otherwise, it would have to continue to fight its transphobic urges as it played defense for Caitlyn Jenner. The MRC began by touting Elder's chances against the incumbent facing recall, Democrat Gavin Newsom. On July 28, Scott Whitlock gushed that Fox News was touting Elder was emerging as the frontrunniner ina "perfect storm" against Newsom (and that non-right-wing media outlets weren't reporting on an state election that was a month and a half away). On Aug. 12, Kyle Drennen complained that non-right-wing outets weren't repoirting that Newsom "was beginning to crack under the pressure of an upcoming recall election that looks increasingly likely he may lose." Kristine Marsh wrote on Aug. 16 that CNN "tried to help out the embattled Democrat Governor Newsom with a puff piece that completely ignored his critics and glossed over his failures" while it "actually helped Newsom attack his conservative competitor, radio host Larry Elder, as the next Trump." Marsh didn't dispute that characterization. But as Elder started drawing more attention -- much of it negative -- the MRC got upset. On Aug. 18, designated New York Times-hater Clay Waters whined that the paper was "smearing the idea of the recall and Newsom's leading conservative opponent, black conservative talk show host Larry Elder" and that it was "calling Elder a liar for accurately stating that no one knows how much human action contributes to rising global temperatures." Brad Wilmouth then came to Elder's defense over a sexist view he espoused that CNN correspondent Kyung Lah highlighted:
As criticism of Elder mounted, the MRC made sure to emphasize the more strident ones, thus suggesting that all criticism of Elder was outlandish:
But even the MRC couldn't ignore accusations about Elder's history with women -- so it was time to downplay those claims. Waters was first up complaining that an ex-girlfriend's claim that Elder showed a gun to her while high on marijuana was merely "personal attacks and speculation in a way that under-substantiated allegations made against Democrats never get (see: Tara Reade)." Does this mean we can say the MRC was indulging in "personal attacks and speculation" when it uncritically repeated and breathlessly touted Reade's accusations? Graham similarly played Reade whataboutism -- and 30-year-old Anita Hill whataboutism -- in an Aug. 26 post:
Graham added: "The ex-fiancee is Alexandra Datig, who has endorsed Republican Kevin Faulconer in the recall election. Politico's Carla Marinucci first reported Datig's claims on August 19. What about the timing? California expected counties to begin sending mail-in ballots on August 16." Funny, we don't recall Graham or anyone else at the MRC questioning Reade's motivations or her timing. Marsh returned on Aug, 27 to mock Smith for highlighting the hate mail she received about her "Black face of white supremacy." Jeffrey Lord followed with an Aug. 28 column attacking Smith and another Los Angeles Times columnist, and he too played Anita Hill whataboutism -- while being completely silent about the accusations Elder's ex-girlfriend made.
Posted by Terry K.
at 10:05 PM EDT
Updated: Tuesday, October 5, 2021 10:29 PM EDT
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