The micro-managing, freedom-stifling NFL control freaks are going way out of bounds in newly announced vaccination requirements. The league on Wednesday released a list of 10 ways it can punish teams without a full roster of vaccinated players.
SB Nation reports teams without 100 percent of their players vaccinated “will have a much, much more difficult season under new rules.” Along with: “Players can still choose not to get vaccinated, but they’re not free from consequences.” Both are huge under-statements.
The NFL’s new guidelines are so petty that they extend to family interactions and player use of team cafeterias, weight rooms and saunas. Fully vaccinated teams don’t have any restrictions in these regards.
[...]
It’s fair game to say some of these draconian rules challenge individual and civil rights.
Maxson followed that up on June 21 by complaining that anti-vaxxer athletes were getting called out:
Sports media outlets over the weekend unleashed their fury on former and current pro athletes who spoke out against COVID-19 vaccinations. NBA Hall of Famer John Stockton and current Buffalo Bills wide receiver Cole Beasley are expressing concerns about vaccines.
NBC Sports Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio went ballistic on Beasley, saying he “unfairly assailed the NFL Players Association for agreeing to rules that give vaccinated players far more freedom in 2021 than players who refuse to get vaccinated.”
[...]
Deadspin writer Bryan Fonseca piled on Stockton, too: “The ex-Gonzaga Bulldog even went on to add that he conducted his own research, which he’s holding to a higher regard than the health professionals who are researching all this for a living, a common pivot from people who have yet to be vaccinated, and probably won’t be.”
Research can apparently only be trusted if it’s in agreement with the beliefs of the left-stream media. Or if it comes from the mouth of LeBron James, who boasts of how well he educates himself on issues (but won't say if he's been vaccinated or not). Then it’s the Gospel truth.
On July 30, Maxson grumbled that one NFL player ultimately did the right thing:
Tennessee Titans quarterback Ryan Tannehill was not planning to get the COVID-19 vaccine. However, he has backed down out of fear that the NFL will make his life miserable if he refuses to get the shots, and he’s getting the vaccine.
Many are roasting the NFL for his draconian vaccine-or-else pressure. Arizona Cardinals wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins >even suggested he may end his pro football career over being made to get vaccinated.
On the flip side, Vanity Fair thinks the NFL imposing the choice on athletes is peachy-keen. Its headline declares "The NFL Is Setting the Standard for COVID Vaccine Crackdowns."
Maxson then forwarded a typical anti-vaxxer argument, claiming that "Numerous athletes have tested positive for COVID despite having been vaccinated." Maxson didn't mention that the Delta variant is much more transmissible than the original strain of COVID-19 -- even among vaccinated people -- or that vaccinated people who catch COVID are much less likely to be severely ill from it, which is the best argument for getting vaccinated.
Maxson huffed on Aug. 13 that a college football team was making the safety of its spectators a priority:
Vaccine mandates have reached into college football. Tulane University is the first major college football school to require so-called vaccine “passports,” and it now remains to be seen if other universities will follow like lemmings.
To attend a Tulane home game this season, fans will be required to prove they’ve been vaccinated or have tested negatively for COVID-19 within the past 72 hours. On top of these stipulations, all fans must wear masks at the outdoor game site.
[...]
All of this assumes that vaccines still lacking full FDA approval are the be-all, end-all to the spread of coronavirus infections. When in fact, that’s not true. News apparently hasn’t yet reached New Orleans about vaccine failures and complications, or people catching COVID-19 for the second time. Tulane only averages 20,000 fans per home game to begin with, and now the school wants to make it tougher to draw fans? Go figure.
Maxson then sounded like a full anti-vaxxer by pushing horror stories of alleged adverse effects to the vaccine:
A few weeks ago, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (Rep-Wis.) held a press conference featuring individuals who’ve suffered terrible reactions to vaccines. Among them was the wife of former Green Bay Packer Ken Ruettgers, who received the Moderna vaccine in January. Four days after receiving the first dose, she experienced severe neurological reactions that still inhibit her ability to live a normal life, including muscle pain, numbness, weakness and paresthesia. Others told similar horror stories, including one woman who incurred $250,000 in medical expenses.
Does Tulane University really want to flirt with liability for similar stories resulting from its football games? Do other universities across the nation want to be complicit in health horror stories as well? Football fans can choose to stay home and direct their own health decisions, rather than take unneeded risks forced on them by football teams. This fall, we’ll find out how essential Tulane football really is in the minds of fans.
Maxon is apparently referring to a June 28 press conference that Johnson held. Johnson was later forced to concede that there's no actual evidence any COVID vaccine caused the side effects he was hyping. Maxson didn't mention that more than 600,000 Americans have been killed by COVID, and that many millions of Americans have received the vaccine without incident.
Maxson moved his (or her) ire from football to basketball in an Aug. 30 post:
The National Basketball Association announced over the weekend a new vaccine mandate for its referees, coaches and others who work with players. With few exceptions allowed, these people must get the jab and recommended boosters. However, players and fans are not facing a vaccine ultimatum. How unfair is that for those under the mandate?
Referees – as well as trainers and coaches -- appear to be the NBA’s low-hanging fruit. The league may be too cowardly to try to force LeBron “King” James and other high-profile players to take the jab. The National Basketball Referees Association sold out its constituency on the vaccination mandate. What will happen with referees who suffer adverse reactions to vaccines is anybody’s guess at this point.
Maxson spent an entire Sept. 2 post ranting about "draconian vaccine mandates": "Like the rest of society, the sports realm is spinning out of control over draconian vaccine mandates. Vaccine-related madness is dominating today’s media reports on pro football, basketball and baseball." Like mosdt anti-vaxxers, Maxson never explains why it's so "draconian" to try to save lives and maintain public health so sports can go on.
Maxon went on to rant about his current cause celebre, NFL player Tyrann Mathieu: "He got vaccinated. Then he caught COVID-19. So vaccines do not guarantee insulation from the coronavirus. And besides, the vaccine gestapo are now hyping boosters, which further undermine the efficacy of vaccines." Again: Vaccines don't completely eliminate the threat, but they do keep you from getting severely sick if you catch it again. (Again, Maxson censored the fact that the Delta variant has changed the game.) And the claim that vaccine boosters "undermine the efficacy of vaccines" is nonsensical. The effectiveness of many vaccines wane over time, and at least some of them require booster shots -- there's a reason one gets a flu shot every year.
The MRC has generally not been an anti-vaxxer organization -- it's all about politics, being against whatever liberals are for just to be contrarian -- but it allows Maxson to act like a far-right anti-vaxxer. Not good for the MRC's image.
Newsmax Touts Lindell's Bogus Election Claims ... To Keep His Ads? Topic: Newsmax
Newsmax gave the controversy over MyPillow guy Mike Lindell pulling his ads from Fox News because it refused to run ads for his (bogus) election "cyber symposium" ... perhaps because it wanted to keep Lindell's ads on Newsmax TV.
A July 30 article credited only to "Newsmax Wires" hyped the controversy, then added: "Newsmax is planning to the air the Lindell ad on its network." That included a further statement: "Newsmax, in a statement, noted, 'We do not endorse any political or issue ad that appears on our network. We do believe, however, that all Americans have a First Amendment right to free speech.'"
The next day, an article by Sandy Fitzgerald touted how Newsmax hosts Diamond and Silk "slammed Fox News for refusing to run advertising for My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell's upcoming cyber symposium on election fraud, calling the decision a denial of Lindell's freedom of speech. Fitzgerald went on to note that "Newsmax is airing the Lindell ad," adding a minor dig at Fox by pointed out that "The duo came to Newsmax for their show "Diamond and Silk Crystal Clear" last August after leaving Fox Nation." Fitzgerald didn't mention that Diamond and Silk lost their Fox Nation gig for spreading false coronavirus conspiracy theories.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Newsmax invited Lindell on one of its TV shows to to talk about the Fox News controversy, as summarized in an Aug. 5 article by Bill Hoffmann, who helpfully recited the ad -- but adding a disclaimer to keep it out of further legal trouble:
In the one-minute ad Fox refused to air, Lindell looks into the camera and says: “Hi, I’m Mike Lindell and I'm coming to you with the most important commercial that I've ever done. All of you know what MyPillow and myself have gone through in the last five months in my efforts to bring the truth forward.
“Well it's all come down to this. I'm having a cybersymposium on Aug. 10, 11 and 12. This historical event will be live-streamed 72 hours straight on my new platform, FrankSpeech.com.''
Lindell then makes a pitch for MyPillow products, which he says are available at discount prices through FrankSpeech.com.
Newsmax, along with several other networks, has accepted the ad.
The network said in a statement it does not endorse any advertisements that appear on the network and editorially has accepted the 2020 election results as “legal and final.”
Newsmax also let Lindell hype his symposium, which he claimd "will feature 65 forensic cyber experts who will challenge the official results of the presidential election" and " will include a re-creation of election night vote counting 'in real time' so viewers can better understand what happened." A clip of the ad Fox wouldn't run (but Newsmax will) was embedded in the story.
Speaking of legal trouble, an Aug. 10 article by Marisa Herman on Dominion Voting Systems' $1.6 billion lawsuit against Newsmax for spreading false claims about the company also included a Lindell disclaimer:
The Dominion lawsuit was filed on the opening day of “Mike Lindell’s Cyber Symposium” in South Dakota, a three-day event in which he and panels of experts, government officials and other political figures were to discuss the MyPillow CEO’s claims of election fraud.
Newsmax — as well as other outlets — aired paid television advertisements for the symposium. Fox News declined to air the advertisement citing pending litigation.
Herman and Logan Ratick gave Lindell's symposium sympathetic treatment in an Aug. 11 article:
Halfway through Mike Lindell's 72-hour cyber symposium concerning claims of 2020 election fraud, roughly 90,000 viewers are tuning online for his revelations.
The MyPillow CEO has promised the "proof" that will show that the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump, a sentiment that has been echoed by the former president himself.
[...]
Lindell has been promoting the three-day cyber event as the forum that will ultimately demonstrate the 2020 election was hacked.
For months, Lindell has claimed that Chinese government hackers changed votes in every state.
Herman and Ratick did have to conceded a couple nods to reality, admitting that "Election infrastructure and Trump administration cyber security officials all have deemed the 2020 election the 'most secure in American history'" and that "All 50 states have certified the election as legal and final, a conclusion that was sealed by the Electoral College and Congress."
But when the symposium turned out to be a fraudulent bust, Newsmax didn't do a story on that. It did, however, publish an Aug. 12 article by Jeffrey Rodack uncritically repeating Lindell's claim that he had been "attacked" at his hotel after the symposium (Lindell later admitted the alleged assailant was a fan who "aggressively poked" him in trying to get a selfie). Rodack also wrote that Lindell "promised the 'proof' that will show that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump, a sentiment that has been echoed by the former president himself" -- but didn't tell readers none of that proof ever surfaced.
Newsmax's kid-gloves handling of Lindell appears to have paid off. Not only are there still MyPillow ads on Newsmax TV, he returned to Newsmax to tout his new social media platform, as summarized in an Aug. 31 article by Jack Gournell:
Fox News might have rejected advertising for Mike Lindell's new social media platform, FrankSpeech.com, but he said several others, including Newsmax and two national broadcast networks, did accept it, which just shows Fox wants to censor his platform, he told Newsmax.
"Where does it end with the censorship?" Lindell said Tuesday on "The Chris Salcedo Show." "We have [Twitter CEO] Jack Dorsey and [Facebook CEO] Mark Zuckerberg and what those guys have done in Google. ... These guys have exposed themselves."
Gournell didn't mention that Fox News rejected the ad for Lindell's symposium, not his social-media platform. He didn't mention the symposium at all, let alone that it was a major bust that made Lindell look terrible.
Like the rest of Newsmax, Gournell clearly knows on what side is bread is buttered.
NEW ARTICLE: CNS' Hot Pestering Intern Summer Topic: CNSNews.com
CNSNews.com put its summer interns to work by having them ask biased gotcha questions to members of Congress. Not exactly journalism, but they'll get a few nice clips out of it. Read more >>
WND's Farah Plugs His Magazine Filled With Bogus Election Fraud Claims Topic: WorldNetDaily
He loves the Big Lie, and it may very well hae been his idea (and his directive) to devote an issue of his sparsely read Whistleblower magazine to perpetuating lies about the 2020 presidential election, so it's no surprise that WorldNetDaily editor Joseph Farah has spent several recent columns promoting that magazine issue. Farah gushed in his Aug. 12 column:
David Kupelian has outdone himself.
The longtime managing editor of WND and the Grand Swami of Whistleblower magazine has made it official – saying the words you are not permitted to say in America. He's not only saying that the 2020 election was stolen, he's put together a historic, unforgettable, special report PROVING it beyond any doubt.
I've never been prouder of my colleague of 35 years – yes, that's how long I've known him and been working with him.
[...]
But the reality that the election was stolen is not what Democratic operatives wanted to hear. It's not what Big Tech wanted to hear. It's not what China wanted to hear. So, the mainstream media caved in to the theory that no one cheated, couldn’t happen here in America. Claims that the election was “rigged” were all just one big racist right-wing Trumpian conspiracy theory!
But it did happen.
And that is the crime, the horrible truth, before us.
Nothing else makes any sense. They STOLE it – right before our eyes.
It was like no election before or since – and it must be like no election in the future. Or else we will continue to live in the kind of tyranny we've experienced since Jan. 6, 2021.
Actually, contrary to Farah's claim that Kupelian's report is "PROVING it beyond any doubt," we were able to easily prove that the issue contains numerous false and misleading claims about the election.
Farah began his Aug. 16 column with a heaping helping of self-aggrandizement:
There was a time when WND had a uniquely broad reach.
The last time we were one of the hottest sites on the internet was in 2016 – late 2016. It was a good run for us. I thought it was the precursor for more really good things.
WND played a distinctive role in the success of Donald J. Trump being elected president – the first time he was elected. Trump was the best president we ever had in the modern era, just the man we needed for the times we were living in.
Because Trump represented such an existential threat to the establishment, the Big Tech monopolies and their approved-media cabal would never forgive us for our full-throated and convincing endorsement of Trump and his pro-America agenda. We started seeing our Google search-engine rankings and Facebook rankings drop precipitously.
WND never had a "uniquely broad reach" -- it was always a right-wing website with a self-limiting readership. And the decline in WND's readership has much more to do with the fact that it publishes misinformation and conspiracy theories than its full-throated (and highly biased) support for Trump. Farah eventually begs his readers to buy as many copies as possible:
Here's one important thing you can do today: We need this issue of Whistleblower to be our biggest ever!
It's well worth it – whether you buy a subscription or a single issue, and whether you go print or digital. We're counting on you like never before.
This is a collector's item. It's also a convincing, stirring and powerfully compelling 48-page issue with lots of terrific contributors. You need this. You need to arm yourself with FACTS, TRUTH and REASON.
Buy as many copies as you can afford to hand out to your friends who are not quite convinced, or as a motivator to action in this critical moment.
We all have a lot of work to do. We've got to ensure that our next election is a fair one. If it's not, it's pretty much the end of the America we have known and loved all our lives.
Farah then tried to push a conspiracy theory in his Sept. 1 column:
Remember what Joe Biden did on his first day in the White House?
Within moments of taking the oath of office, he signed an executive order abolishing the "President's Advisory 1776 Commission."
It was a great idea, by President Donald Trump – and a popular one. The stated purpose was to "enable a rising generation to understand the history and principles of the founding of the United States in 1776 and to strive to form a more perfect Union."
People need to understand the beauty of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and the sacrifice it took to institute them.
Why did Joe kill the commission so quickly? What did it mean? And why were his fellow Democrats so thrilled about its demise?
Farah will never accept the fact that the commission deserved to die because it put out a report rife with factual errors and partisan politics. Instead, he peddled the evidence-free idea that Democrats are subverting elections, culminating in "the Big Steal of 2020. These people were serious about no longer having free elections." The column ended with a plug fo rthe magazine.
Farah spent his Sept. 3 column arguing that the 2018 midterms were stolen by Democrats as well:
Here's the thing: When Republicans vote in America, Republicans actually win. That's not the case among Democrats.
You could get dead people to "vote."
You could get fake voters.
You could get illegal voters.
In fact, it would be wrong to speculate that these things couldn't happen; it's a fact that this kind of activity is part of any Democratic Party game plan.
[...]
When I heard that twice as many Americans likely were voting in November 2018 as voted in the presidential election year in 2016, I got worried.
Donald Trump worked very hard for those votes. That's what I saw over the previous several days. Maybe it was wrong of me to assume Dems wouldn't show up. But, where were they in 2014, 2016? Why did nearly every American – eligible and ineligible to vote – all come out to join the party on the same day?
Farah offers no actual evidence of this, of course -- he's just fearmongering to keep his dwindling readership afraid and engaged. And, of course, there was another plug for the magazine.
Weirdly, throughout all this, WND has made no effort to defend the false claims in the magazine that we've identified. Perhaps Farah and Kupelian know they're lying and running a scam, they can't prove us wrong, and they would prefer to pretend they've been busted.
MRC Cranked Out Numerous Posts Attacking Critical Race Theory Topic: Media Research Center
We've noted that the Media Research Center has posted more than 132 articles referencing critical race theory, which is typically attacked with hate, invective and extremism. Let's go back and take a look at a few more of those.
A June 11 post by Kayla Sargent declared that Twitter was "seemingly taking its orders from the left" because it had suspended a right-wing think tank's account after it "posted resources combating Critical Race Theory." Her accusation of order-taking came from the suspension happening after "leftist group" Media Matters "called the toolkit “a conspiracy theory about the overthrow of America’s constitutional system," adding that Media Matters "also somehow drew an arbitrary connection between the toolkit’s language and what the organization called the “infamous white nationalist march in Charlottesville, Virginia.'" Actually, it was not arbitrary at all; Media Matters detailed how the group's literature "echoes the 'Great Replacement' conspiracy theory, which posits that white people are being systematically “replaced” by people of color through mass immigration at the behest of shadowy elites, often referring to Jews."
Abigail Streetman ranted on June 15 in a post complaining that the media wasn't swallowing right-wing narratives about CRT:
Critical Race Theory has been all the rage this year, literally. The media have adopted its language and assumptions, while companies, governments and even the U.S. government have inflicted the ideological poison on their personnel. And yes, it has crept into some schools. the mainstream media can’t stop talking about it. Conservatives have had enough of the left-wing indoctrination and many states have stepped up by creating legislation that prohibits schools from teaching curriculum that paints one race as superior to another. But now the backlash is sparking a backlash of its own, as progressives swear up and down they don't see what the big deal is.
Nicholas Fondacaro went on a massive anti-CRT tirade in a June 23 post, calling the educational concept "poison":
In a disturbing segment of Wednesday’s World News Tonight, ABC came out in support of poisoning the minds of students with Critical Race Theory. And instead of showing the parents of Loudoun County, Virginia rising up against their radical school board who wanted to teach it to their kids, the network promoted Joint Chiefs Chairman, General Mark Milley defending the teaching of the racist theory to West Point cadets.
Foncacaro further screeched that "Milley disgustingly defended Critical Race Theory by suggesting it would help cadets understand why the Capitol Riot happened."
A June 25 post by Joseph Vazquez touted how a new "education organization" has declared its "commitment to fighting against woke school boards indoctrinating students" in the form of a $1 million ad campaign opposing "the despicable movement propagating hate-filled critical race theory in schools." Vazquez didn't ask where this group got its money from.
On June 27, Alex Christy complained that NBC's Seth Meyers called the CRT controversy an "astroturfed moral panic" and insisted that CRT is really about how "the CRT adherent starts with a provocative conclusion and then shoehorns evidence to fit that predetermined conclusion. It's this backwards reasoning that leads to everything from math to pedestrians on sidewalks being cited as examples of systemic racism." Or, you know, how the MRC starts with the conclusion that "the media" has a "liberal bias" and shoehorns evidence to fit that predetermined conclusion.
When Meyers pointed out that anti-CRT laws would prohibit certain teachings of history and that the frist most Americans heard about the Tulsa race massacre was on the TV show "Watchmen," Christy retorted: "Of course, people learn all sorts of history from TV and movies that they didn't learn in school. One could argue the Mountain Meadows Massacre could be taught alongside the Tulsa race massacre, but that is a Mormon bloodbath, and isn't useful for a perpetual-systemic-racism narrative." Given that the Mountain Meadows Massacre was perpetrated in 1857 in Utah territory -- so, technically not part of the U.S. at the time -- by Mormon militia members against a wagon train of settlers seeking to move to the West, it's utterly irrelevant to talk about systemic racism.
On July 12, Streetman sneered that actor John Leguizamo is "another left-wing Hollywood star who thinks being famous makes them an expert" and complained that he "has joined CRT-enthusiasts in the fight to indoctrinate our children." In the great MRC tradition of belittling actors who weigh in on political issues by portraying them as emblematic of a part they once played, Streeman insisted that Leguizamo is "famous mostly for his voice role of Sid the Sloth in Ice Age" and called him "John 'Sid The Sloth' Leguizamo" in the headline, going on to dismiss him as "Sid the socialist sloth" later in her piece.
Kyle Drennen melted down in a July 19 post over a "left-wing Florida teenager" who supports CRT running to join his local school board, whining that NBC gave what "amounted to an in-kind political donation" by doing a story on him (as if teenagers running for political office were not newsworthy). Drennen did not counter any of the statements regard CRT made in the interview; instead, he further, complained: "When can NBC viewers expect the network to offer similar free campaign advertising to one of the numerous conservative candidates running in local school board races across the country?" As if the MRC's "news" division, CNSNews, were not in the habit of doing exactly what Drennen demands.
PoliticsNation, host Al Sharpton warned that conservatives are showing up to school board meetings, and encouraged his left-wing viewers “to rise up together and show up to those same meetings, demanding that our children get a full and accurate history curriculum.”
[...]
What Sharpton doesn’t seem to understand is that parents who are fighting against critical race theory are already paying attention to their child’s education. The reality is, teaching students that America is inherently racist is historically inaccurate, and parents have every right to stand up and voice their concerns. The liberal media are just upset that parents are fighting against the left, not with them.
O'Neal did a fine job of spouting right-wing talking points. The MRC has indocrinated her well.
Despite a fresh crop of summer interns to perform the work that full-time employees apparently not longer want to do, CNSNews.com remained at a lo level of Mark Levin stenography in July and August. Here's what CNS published for that period:
That's eight articles, making for a total of just 37 Levin stenography articles so far in 2021, well off its usual pace in which Levin would benefit from more than 100 articles annually.
Still, Levin got plenty of exposure at CNS during that time, because it was part of the promotional machine run by its parent, the Media Research Center, hyping Levin's new book, "American Marxism." Like other MRC websites, CNS made an interview Levin did with MRC chief Brent Bozell its lead story for the weekend of July 9-11, and published numerous other items touting Levin's book:
A July 8 link to an American Spectator review of the book, gushily headlined "Mark Levin’s American Marxism: A Much-Needed Home Run."
A July 12articleby Ashilanna Kreiner plugged Levin plugging his own book on his Fox News TV show.
A July 14 article by Craig Bannister gushed that "Former President Donald Trump is praising Constitutional Scholar and Author Mark Levin’s new book, 'American Marxism,' for pulling the veil off the Marxist ideology being deceptively peddled in the U.S. - not just by Democrats and the Biden Administration - but by schools, media, corporations and entertainment." Bannister didn't mention, however, that Trump's plug was largely a copy-and-paste of the publisher's promotional copy as he is wont to do).
MRC executive Tim Graham's July 16column whining that CNN's Brian Stelter criticized the book.
David Limbaugh's July 16 endorsement of the book, under the headline "American Marxism, a Counterrevolution."
CNS also published an Aug. 3 article by Bannister touting that "Mark Levin’s new book, 'American Marxism,' has topped the New York Times bestseller list in each of its first two weeks since publication, giving the conservative commentator and constitutional scholar his seventh #1 bestseller.
MRC: Robin Committing 'Sexual Deviancy' By Not Being Heterosexual Topic: Media Research Center
WorldNetDaily's Michael Brown isn't the only ConWeb denzien to freak out over the idea that Batman's sidekick Robin might not be heterosexual. Over at the Media Research Center -- which already has a problem with DC Comics characters failing to be heteronormative -- Gabriel Hays whined about in in an Aug. 12 post:
Holy shoehorned sexual deviancy, Batman! The Dark Knight’s greatest sidekick, the Boy Wonder himself, Robin has finally come out of the closet. What, really? Yep, in one of the latest Batman comics from DC, Robin is interested in men.
Oh, thank goodness for that.
According to nerd culture outlet Polygon, Tim Drake, AKA Robin, came out in the latest volume of DC’s new anthology series, Batman: Urban Legends. This unique series takes detours from Batman’s main story and focuses each volume on a specific character in the DC Batman universe. This latest volume apparently includes a story beat on the sex life of Bruce Wayne’s most trusted crime-fighting friend.
[...]
Imagine how exciting the next installment concerning Robin’s sex life will be. Does the date go well? Does Robin get cold feet? Is Bernard actually the Joker hiding an evil plot behind an innocuous dinner date? Oh yeah, the suspense is just killing us.
Joking aside. It’s just the latest pop culture staple pandering to the ever-present, ever-complaining LGBTQ crowd. Maybe DC can stay relevant for a few more years, until the woke crowd demands that the Dark Knight himself becomes gay or some other sort of non-hetero sexuality.
p>Though, for real old school Batman fans, there’s no need to get too angry about Robin being gay, bi or pansexual. At least this new queer Robin is not the Robin introduced in the 1940s. That Robin was Dick Grayson. Nor was it the second Robin, Jason Todd. Tim Drake is the third Robin iteration who was introduced in 1989. There’s some consolation ... maybe?
If Hays thinks DC is "pandering" to a certain crowd for this character interpretation, Hays' homophobic meltdown -- decdlalring that if you're not a solid masculine heterosexual, you're committing "deviancy" -- is pandering too. It's also clear that Robin doesn't fit into Hays' imagined effeminite stereotypes of LGBT people. We know who we're rooting for in a fight between Hays and Robin.
Posted by Terry K.
at 11:03 AM EDT
Updated: Saturday, September 18, 2021 11:04 AM EDT
WND Columnist Doesn't Want Californians Moving To Her State Topic: WorldNetDaily
Conservatives love it when California residents move out of the state, since it validates right-wing narratives about how oppressively liberal the state supposedly is. But they're not thrilled at the idea that people might move from California to their state, lest they turn it into another Golden State. A newsmax columnist fretted about this a few months back; now it's WorldNetDaily columnist and Arizona resident Rachel Alexander's turn. She complained in her Aug. 2 column:
The real threat to states like Arizona is not COVID, it's CALVID, Arizona turning into California.
People fleeing the deteriorating state are flocking to Arizona and bringing their failed political views with them. Former Californians now make up about 10% of the population in Arizona. Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey titled an op-ed for The Orange County Register in March warning those considering moving to Arizona, "Leaving California? Don't Forget Why." He joked about thanking the California governor during a speech about growing Arizona's economy.
More people are leaving California than moving there. A survey in 2019 found that 53% are considering leaving. Websites have popped up helping people escape. Any growth comes from births, including a large percentage from illegal immigrants. In contrast, Arizona has one of the highest rates of people moving there of any of the states. About 80% of those moving to Arizona choose Phoenix, which explains why its city government is now dominated by Democrats.
[...]
Arizonans should be more afraid of CALVID than COVID. Despite the MSM hype, Arizona is not experiencing a third surge of COVID-19. People blame California for starting to turn Arizona blue. While Maricopa County may have gone blue in some of the 2020 races due to voter fraud, Republicans did lose some of their voting edge, as Democrats gained 51,000 more voters in the state between 2016 and 2019.
But this may be turning around. The latest quarterly registration numbers released from the Arizona secretary of state show that 3,093 registered as Republicans and only 539 registered as Democrats, leaving Republicans with a significant 125,322 advantage statewide, and almost 100,000 more voters in Maricopa County. Additionally, 40% of those considering leaving California are Republicans, whereas only 14% are Democrats. Let's just hope the voter fraud in Arizona stops.
Election fraud in Arizona hasn't been proven -- the "audit" is a joke -- but good try, Rachel.
MRC Psaki-Bashing, Doocy-Fluffing Watch, Doocy-Gasm Edition Topic: Media Research Center
Peter Doocy man-crusher Curtis Houck went a-crushing twice on Aug. 26. First, he gushed that Doocy asked President Biden biased questions:
After hiding for hours since word came in that there had been a string of deadly bombings at the Kabul airport, President Biden addressed the nation early Thursday night and, thankfully, he not only took questions, but he went off-script to call on the perspicacious Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy and Philip Wegmann of Real Clear Politics.
In Doocy’s case, he found himself in a back-and-forth with Biden that, at one point, left Biden burrowing his head in his hands and leather notebook after he tried to pass the blame of the collapse of Afghanistan to Donald Trump.
[...]
To the likely horror of White House staff, Doocy came next because Biden wanted to take “one more question...from the most interesting guy I know in the press.”
Unsurprisingly, Doocy was ready and made it count as he wanted to know about how much he “bear[s]...for the way” things transpired:
Later, Houck rolled more right-wing reporters into his crush-fest -- all the better for trashing Jen Psaki -- for the Aug. 26 White House press briefing:
Less than an hour after President Biden addressed the nation early Thursday night on the deadly terror attacks at the Kabul airport, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki took to the podium and continued her terrible, horrible, no good, very bad return Thursday’s episode of The Psaki Show featured usual cast members in Fox’s Peter Doocy, the Daily Caller’s Shelby Talcott, Real Clear Politics’s Philip Wegmann, and plenty of liberal media reporters, but it also featured the briefing debut of Fox Business Network correspondent Hillary Vaughn (who also happens to be Doocy’s wife).
Thursday’s episode of The Psaki Show featured usual cast members in Fox’s Peter Doocy, the Daily Caller’s Shelby Talcott, Real Clear Politics’s Philip Wegmann, and plenty of liberal media reporters, but it also featured the briefing debut of Fox Business Network correspondent Hillary Vaughn (who also happens to be Doocy’s wife).
Fresh off his back-and-forth with Biden, Doocy was called on thirdand wanted to know how it’s possible the U.S. will “still...work with the Taliban...to get American citizens and Afghan allies out” considering one of the suicide bombers had successfully passed through Taliban security without being stopped.
Psaki stuck to the party line, which was that “they’re not a group we trust” but it’s “necessary” to rely on them because they control most of the country.
Note that Houck labeled non-right-wing reporters as "liberal," but he censored the fact that Doocy, Wegmann and Talcott are conservatives. Also note that Houck did not put up with similarly tough (and less biased) questioning when it came from the "liberal" media and was addressed to his beloved Kayleigh McEnany.
Houck again failed to honestly label Doocy and Wegmann in his writeup of the Aug. 27 briefing:
Despite it being a Friday afternoon after a long, difficult week for the country, many in the White House press corps kept up the heat against Press Secretary Jen Psaki on Afghanistan with Fox’s Peter Doocy, the New York Post’s Steven Nelson, Real Clear Politics’s Philip Wegmann, and even some liberals testing Psaki’s patience.
Houck didn't have Doocy to crush on for the Aug. 30 briefing:
Hours before the U.S. military announced the official end of the war in Afghanistan, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki took heavy fire on Monday afternoon from a litany of establishment liberal media outlets, Fox’s Jacqui Heinrich, and usual cast member Philip Wegmann over the administration’s handling of the withdrawal, what to say to those being left behind, and whether America is now less safe of a country.
Again, Houck refused to tag Doocy, Heinrich and Wegmann as biased conservatives, even as he insisted every other reporter was "liberal." Houck chortled at the end: "If Monday’s briefing were any indication (and the world didn’t know that the war was about to end), Tuesday’s episode of The Psaki Show will be a must-watch."
President Biden stuck to form Tuesday by refusing to take questions after his speech on the end of the war in Afghanistan, so they fell to Press Secretary Jen Psaki and she found a cadre of reporters who were loaded with queries on topics such as Biden’s “angry” tone, Biden checking his watch during Sunday’s dignified transfer or remains, blaming Americans for not getting out in time, and whether Afghanistan will resume being a terrorist safe haven.
And while it continued a petering out from previous briefings of almost universal hardballs, there were still reporters from a diverse range of outlets who came ready.
Houck didn't accuse his beloved McEnany of cutting and running from her job after the Trump-instigated Jan. 6 riot. Indeed, he was completely silent on her refusing to do the job she was paid to do.
LGBT-Hating WND Columnist Doesn't Like That Robin Isn't Heterosexual Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily columnist Michael Brown doesn't like LGBT people (despite his insisting otherwise), so when a comic character was revealed to be bisexual, Brown had to spend his Aug. 13 column complaining about it:
In case you haven't heard the news, Robin of "Batman and Robin" fame has been outed as bisexual. And in case you were unsure if he was simply exploring his sexuality or had determined for sure that he was bi, DC Comics made it official: "Tim Drake [the third Robin in the series] dates boys." Robin now joins more than 65 other LGBTQ+ superheroes and villains – but be assured, no one has any agenda at all. Who would think such a thing?
Ten years ago, I wrote an article titled, "'Mutant' as a Codeword for 'Gay' in the X-Men Movies," claiming that "the movies, along with the comic books, draw many clear parallels between the mutants and the gay and lesbian community."
After the article came out, I was ridiculed on some gay LGBTQ websites for stating the obvious. "Of course 'mutant' stands for 'gay,'" I was told. "You're just discovering this?"
But, of course, no one has an agenda to promote the agenda, and no producers or screenwriters in Hollywood are trying to indoctrinate anyone. Perish the thought.
It's the same with the comic book industry. No one has an agenda, and there's no attempt to indoctrinate or influence the readers. It's just a coincidence that, as of 2017, there were 65 LGBTQ+ superheroes and villains. And it's just happenstance that last year, the first, major transgender superhero was announced on Marvel Comics. No agenda at all!
Does he think his anti-LGBT rantings are part of an agenda? Or that portrayal of a fictional character as heterosexual is part of an agenda? Probably not -- he considers those defaults and ideals that everyone automatically is, and that anyone who doesn't fit that mold are evil deviants who must be forcibly converted.
He concluded his column insisting -- despite all other evidence in his column to the contrary -- that he understands that LGBT people are marginalized, though they really should be compelled somehow to be right-wing Christians like him:
All sarcasm aside, I'm sure that people who are marginalized by the society see themselves in characters who appear in film and in writing, and that gives them a sense of identification. As always, my hope for each of them is that they find God's purpose for their lives and discover full acceptance with Him, regardless of how society treats them.
At the same time, we would have to be utterly naïve to think that many of the comic book writers (along with their counterparts in film) have not had clear and definite agendas. And we shouldn't be surprised when young comic book readers want to be like their favorite superhero, not just in terms of their superpowers but in terms of their sexuality.
He still doesn't get it. And he'll never admit that what he's pushing is an agenda too.
CNS' Jeffrey Tries To Blame Pelosi For Idea Of Universal Pre-K Topic: CNSNews.com
CNSNews.com editor Terry Jeffrey spent his Aug. 11 column ranting against the idea of federally funded universal pre-K for 3- and 4-years olds, under the ridiculous headline "Who Should Teach Your Toddler: You or Pelosi?" Because he actually believes Nancy Pelosi will be personally involved in making sure pre-K will teach toddlers to be liberal, or something:
"Universal pre-K. I love that because it's children learning, parents earning," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said at an April 29 press conference.
That was the day after President Joe Biden had presented Congress with his euphemistically titled "American Families Plan," which calls "for free universal pre-school for all three- and four-year-olds."
Pelosi's professed "love" for having parents leave their preschool children in government custody has not diminished since then.
At a press conference last week, she once again spoke about "universal pre-K, which I love."
[...]
The question here is fundamental: Who should care for and nurture a 36-month-old child? Should it be the government? Or should it be the child's parents?
That's one of the odder manifestations of CNS' multi-pronged war against Pelosi.
Jeffrey then goes on to complain about the cost of universal pre-K -- making sure to use the full zero-filled numbers even though that violates journalistic style standards -- and about the number of children born to unmarried mothers:
The problem now is not that too many American preschool children are being cared for at home by one of their biological parents — in a traditional family. The problem is that too few get to have that experience.
Now, Biden and Pelosi want to further decrease the number of preschool children who get to spend their days with a parent and increase the number who spend their days in government institutions where government employees oversee what they do and what they learn.
This is what Pelosi "loves" and Biden has targeted with potentially massive federal expenditures.
But Jeffrey offered no policy changes that would encourage parents to stay home with their children, given that one of the concepts behind universal pre-K is to keep parents from having to work so much to pay for child care for their children. Instead, he speculated how "Biden and Pelosi" will inculcate purportedly liberal values into pre-K children:
So, what values will Biden and Pelosi want the government to instill in three- and four-year olds when those children are spending their days in government institutions that Biden and Pelosi want taxpayers to fund?
Will they teach them to respect life? Biden and Pelosi both claim there is a right to kill an unborn child, and want to use federal tax dollars to pay for the killing of unborn children.
Will Biden and Pelosi's pre-K schools treat boys as boys and girls as girls? Both Biden and Pelosi support the Equality Act, which would instruct schools that "an individual shall not be denied access to a shared facility, including a restroom, a locker room, and a dressing room, that is in accordance with the individual's gender identity."
Will Biden's and Pelosi's pre-K schools introduce American children to this nation's great traditions of self-reliance and individual liberty and the traditional moral values that make self-reliance and individual liberty possible?
The core purpose of putting all three-year-olds in government-run institutions is to make them dependent on government.
Members of Congress who believe in the traditional family — and the American tradition of liberty — should make sure that this element of the Biden budget is never made American law.
Has Jeffrey ever been around a 3-year-old? Does he really that anyone, let alone "Biden and Pelosi," can force any ideology on them? And how does Jeffrey -- as thte ideal pre-K teacher he seeks -- plan to ram "elf-reliance and individual liberty and the traditional moral values that make self-reliance and individual liberty possible" down the throats of toddlers?
Again, Jeffrey referenced "the traditional family" as his ideal while heaping scorn on unmarried women. And, again, he offered nothing to achieve his ideal.
MRC Rushes To Defend DeSantis Over COVID -- Again, Part 2 Topic: Media Research Center
We've detailed how the Media Research Center once again rushed to the defense of Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over his lackluster response to spiking COVID cases in the state. There's much more where that came from.
Mark Finkelstein lost it on Aug. 6 when commenters on CNN pointed out the ultimate implication for DeSantis' inaction and attempt to punish anyone trying to do anything useful like making schoolchildren wear masks:
Appearing on CNN's New Daythis morning, a Democrat [sic] strategist accused Republicans of wanting "to basically turn Florida into a morgue."
But in a mark of just how deep CNN and the Dems have dived into loony-left extremism, the guy, Michael Starr Hopkins, was brought on to represent the centrist wing of the party!
[...]
In attacking Florida Republicans, the real target for Hopkins, his fellow Democrats, and the liberal media, is, of course, Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, seen as a real threat to whoever the Dems nominate in 2024.
Jeffrey Lord played whataboutism in his Aug. 7 column, declaring thatcriticism of DeSantis by CNN's Chris Cuomo "can quickly be perceived as an attempt, yet again, to use his show to distract from his brother’s Covid record by attacking DeSantis," adding:
To say the least, this isn’t good for Chris and it isn’t good for CNN. But the idea that his show would focus on attacking DeSantis - while being strangely silent not only on his brother’s nursing home scandal or the rest of his mess - but being silent on President Biden’s policy that has resulted in thousands of Covid-infected illegals swarming across the US border? All that does is increase the perception that Chris is really about liberal or Democratic Party activism as opposed to journalism.
The fact is that the surge in Covid cases in the illegal immigrant detention centers is also resulting in a rise in Covid cases around the country. Which is a direct result of Biden’s policy of dispersing the migrants around the country.
Again, that's not true.But that didn't stop Krstine Marsh from complaining that CNN's Brianna Keilar "accused Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Texas Senator Ted Cruz of perpetuating a 'dangerous trope' that illegal immigrants were spreading Covid," insisting that "this isn’t a figment of Republicans’ imaginations."
With Joe away, Mika jumped on his repetition hobby horse on today's Morning Joe. Her phrase: "death cult." In the opening segment, Mika used "death cult" no fewer than eight times to hammer DeSantis, Florida, and others over the Covid vaccine. In her melodramatic spiel, Mika veered from haranguing her audience to choking up.
She seethed, "And in Florida, we have a governor more interested in playing politics than saving lives:the DeSantis Variant. That's why nearly one-in-four new Covid cases are coming out ofFLOR-I-DA!"
[...]
It's simply false to claim that, because the governor isn't in love with four-year-olds being forced to wear a mask all day, he's somehow a death cult-loving anti-vaxxer.
After denouncing the Trump administration for banning travel from China in 2020, during the early days of the pandemic, on Monday, CNN’s New Day actually promoted the notion of somehow imposing a travel ban on the state of Florida over a recent rise in COVID cases there. Without a sense of irony, the show hyped the notion that travel from the Sunshine State would have already been banned if it were a foreign country.
[...]
The leftist media obsession with trying to deflect blame away from President Biden and onto Republican governors is transparently partisan. For CNN to go so far as to hypocritically start throwing around talk of “banning travel” to certain states just brings it to a whole other level of shamelessness.
On Aug. 10, Gabriel Hays declared that actor Bill Burr "revealed his disdain for freedom" by committing the offense of criticizing DeSantis:
Bill Burr is the champion of waffling between good opinions and downright awful ones. On a good day he hates cancel culture or CNN, but on a bad day he targets Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis and calls him a “piece of shit” for blocking mask mandates.
So DeSantis is a POS for allowing more freedom? Kind of a stupid point to make, Mr. Burr.
[...]
So he became the useful idiot and slammed the media’s new conservative bogeyman. “These fucking piece of shit politicians,” he stated, adding, “[DeSantis] knows that that’s what his fanbase wants him to do, so that’s what the fuck he’s gonna do. Unbelievable.” Oh you mean DeSantis is representing the Republicans that put him in power? You don’t say?
Well why would a lefty elite like Bill Burr understand that concept? His preferred politicians – those on the left – want to rule people, rather than represent them. Burr’s whole anti-DeSantis diatribe boils down to him bleating like a sheep for government control over his life – excuse the cliché.
It’s not like Governor Ron DeSantis is saying that no people in Florida can wear masks, he’s making sure that people will not be forced to wear them.
It was then Curtis Houck's turn to lash out at criticism of DeSantis, thistime from MSNBC's Joy Reid: "On MSNBC’s The ReidOut, host Joy Reid and lefty guests Tim Miller and Rick Wilson decided on Tuesday to go full Alan Grayson or the late Ed Schultz in proclaiming that not only does Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) not 'care' 'about the well-being of' Floridians, but he himself is 'rooting for' his 'strategy' of 'killing children in [his] own state.'"
Joe, back this morning, bought into Mika's "death cult" trope. Scarborough was responding to a report from NBC's Kerry Sanders, who said that a Collier County [Naples area] mom who was sending her children to school without masks was doing so because "we believe our faith will protect us."
That set Scarborough off. Scarborough scratched his head at the idea that parents were relying on "Jesus" to protect their children. He also questioned whether Jesus wanted 600,000 people to die from Covid.
[...]
It is ugly for Scarborough to call people with deeply-held religious beliefs members of a "death cult." Would Scarborough have done so if the person sending her kids to school without masks was a devout Muslim? For that matter, Sanders didn't say that the mom in question was a Christian: Scarborough simply assumed it when "faith" came up.
On Wednesday night’s ReidOut, MSNBC’s Joy Reid decided to double down on her poisonous narrative that not only are right-of-center Americans bad people, but they’re murderous terrorists. Along with a series of like-minded guests, Reid insisted these conspiracy theory-laden savages want to overthrow the government while having their Covid-infected children flood schools.
This came after a deranged Tuesday episode that posited that Governors Greg Abbott (R-TX) and Ron DeSantis (R-FL) are purposefully killing their citizens with Covid.
Tim Graham rehashed much of this in his Aug. 13 column, huffing, "This was their 2020 playbook on Trump, that he was killing his own supporters." He then reignited his war on fact-checkers by complaining they weren't fact-checking any of this, despite not providing evidence that the statements that so offended him and the rest of the MRC are anything other than hyperbolic criticism not meant to be taken literally.
WND Whines That Google Busted It Over The Misinformation It Publishes Topic: WorldNetDaily
WorldNetDaily has tussled with Google's ad program for years. Google first threatened to pull its ads in 2014, when WND was heavily into Colin Flaherty's race-baiting, but it agreed to shut off Google ads to those race-baiting articles. Now it apepars Google has finally had enough, and WND can't stop whining about it. An anonymously written Aug. 6 article served up some details:
Google, the dominant advertising service on the internet, stopped serving its ads on WND's homepage, apparently because the tech giant deemed many of the news site's stories and opinion columns to contain "unreliable and harmful claims."
Google has an "autocrawler" that searches for violations of its "community standards" and disables its ad server on offending websites.
After having blocked ads to individual stories for the past several years, Google stopped serving ads to WND's homepage altogether earlier this month under a new policy that assesses a site's general content.
Google has not specified the content that triggered the move, but in the past it has flagged WND articles that countered the media narrative on the COVID-19 pandemic.
Among the offending articles was an Aug. 2 opinion column by Wayne Allyn Root titled "The vaccine isn't working, but the gravy train is." In it, Root backs his claim by citing a Bloomberg report that there were more than 110,000 cases of "breakthrough COVID-19," meaning cases in which people tested positive for COVID after having been vaccinated.
WND, needless to say, is misrepresenting the contents of Root's column, pretending a relatively uncontroversial claim is the sticking point. In fact, the thesis of Root's column is that it's "a great big lie" to claim that unvaccinated people are driving the current surge in COVID cases. Root touted that "In Singapore, 75% of the new COVID-19 cases are among the vaccinated" -- but that claim lacks context; it omits the fact that cases among vaccinated people are not severe, while unvaccinated people are catching severe cases of COVID. Rootalso ranted that President Biden let refugees from countries where the purprotedly "live among filth and squalor" and "bring with them Third World illness and disease" into the U.S., meaning "These are the dreaded superspreaders." That isnot true.
The anonymous writer made sure not to mention the voluminousamountofCOVIDmisinformation WND has published since the pandemic began, which would more than justify Google withdrawing its ads from WND.
Then the whining realy ramped up:
Google no longer is flagging WND's homepage, but the news site's advertising team has decided to move on from Google and rely instead on supportive advertisers.
WND founder and CEO Joseph Farah commented on Google's "community standards."
"I don't accept Google's parameters, because they do violence to the First Amendment. Period. End of the story," he said. "We live in America where the First Amendment is still the law of the land."
Google, which for years has set its algorithm to push WND way down in its search results, has suppressed, de-monetized and branded many of WND’s biggest news stories as "dangerous, derogatory or shocking content."
The far-left Southern Poverty Law Center, which advises all the major tech platforms as to who is "hateful and extremist," characterizes WND – which is Christian and conservative in worldview – as an "extremist group."
WND then served up a revisionist take on the 2014 race-baiting that first got it in trouble with Google:
In 2014, Google accused WND of using "hate speech" and threatened to block ads over its use of the term "black mobs" in news stories and columns reporting on a two-year epidemic of racial attacks in the U.S.
Farah said at the time that the Google policy was flawed because it "attempts to censor words and phrases that are truthful and accurate from First Amendment-protected media on the basis of political correctness and faulty algorithmic methodology."
Two years prior, WND began investigating and reporting on a spree of unprovoked attacks by groups of blacks on non-black victims, spearheaded by accounts compiled by journalist Colin Flaherty, author of "White Girl Bleed A Lot." The book had been endorsed prominently and repeatedly by celebrated black scholar Thomas Sowell for connecting the dots between hundreds of incidents taking place in cities across the country. Flaherty's reporting also first identified the phenomenon known as "the knockout game," in which groups or individual black people targeted non-black victims for unprovoked attacks designed to knock them unconscious with a surprise blow to the head.
"The answer to violence, whether motivated by race or some other rationalization, is not to turn away from it and hide it from the public, but to expose it to the light of day," Farah said.
"WND made a determination to do that after examining the overwhelming evidence presented by Flaherty in his research. In response to that kind of reporting, police departments and public officials – both black and white – across the country have acknowledged the pernicious ramifications of what’s happening and taken action to prevent others from being hurt. What Google is doing, after the fact, is ignoring hard facts and assigning insidious racial motivations for this kind of courageous reporting."
That's not really what happened. Flaherty was so obsessed with this "black mob" race-baiting that even white people and animals were deemed to be members of "black mobs." As we noted at the time, WND admitted it had published 670 articles referencing "black mobs," yet it never covered other crime to that extent. Additionally, that Google crackdown had its desired effect: WND distanced itself from Flaherty, and while WND continued to race-bait, it was a little less blatant.
The article went on to play victim by rehashing WND's claim that "YouTube, which is owned by Google, de-monetized WND after it posted a single video defending 'MyPillow guy' and Trump supporter Mike Lindell." But the likely real reason YouTube demonitized that video is because it included a clip from the podcast of Steve Bannon, who has been banned by YouTube for making false claims about election fraud.
WND could edit Bannon out of the video and get itself re-monetized, but that wouldn't fit its victimization narrative ... just as it continues to do the same things -- misinformation, conspiracy theories -- that have brought it to its current point of near-insolvency.
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 >>
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:
Conservative commentator Candace Owens says she’s in disbelief that even the “Muppet Babies” childrens’ cartoon is preaching transgender ideology to kids.
“This is sick and PERVERTED,” Owens tweeted on Sunday, embedding a video clip of recent episode of the cartoon, in which the character Gonzo turns into a cross-dressing “Gonzorella.” “You all expected me to look a certain way. I didn’t want you to be upset with me,” Gonzorella says following the transformation and revelation.
Everyone should be disturbed by the cartoon’s predatory effort to inflict gender dysphoria on children, Owens writes:
“I can’t believe I’m tweeting this but.. they are pushing the trans agenda on children via muppet babies. This is sick and PERVERTED. Everyone should be disturbed by predatory cartoons meant to usher children into gender dysphoria.
“Bring back manly muppets, anyone?”
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:
Why would Disney, the alleged family-friendly entertainment giant, want to encourage kids to reject their sex? And why aren't the media covering this story?
The Muppet character, Gonzo, has "transitioned" to a girl, Gonzorella. That is why he is wearing a dress to the "royal ball." He does more than wear a dress—he instructs Miss Piggy and Summer that "doing things a little different can be fun."
The message to children is: a boy can be a girl, and vice versa. Making this choice, they are told, is not something abnormal, it's just "a little different." Moreover, it can be "fun" to reject your sex and pretend that you belong to the opposite sex.
This needs to be called out for what it is: child abuse. Anyone who is even remotely knowledgeable about what sex transitioning entails—the physical and psychological problems that boys and girls experience are multiple—knows how pernicious this process is. Seven in ten of those who transition are girls wanting to be boys, and the extent of their suffering is well documented.
So why is it that, aside from some gay and conservative news sources, this story is being ignored by the most influential newspapers, as well as the broadcast and cable news networks? Is it their insouciance that is driving their passivity? Or cowardice?
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.
When he (or she) isn't hating on LGBT people or spreading conspiracy theories about election fraud, Media Research Center sports blogger Jay Maxson is going anti-vaxxer, raging at sports teams and leagues for requiring their players to receive the COVID vaccine. Maxson ranted in a June 17 post:
Newsmax gave the controversy over MyPillow guy Mike Lindell pulling his ads from Fox News because it refused to run ads for his (bogus) election "cyber symposium" ... perhaps because it wanted to keep Lindell's ads on Newsmax TV.
He 
Despite a fresh crop of summer interns to 
WorldNetDaily's 
Conservatives love it when California residents move out of the state, since it validates right-wing narratives about how oppressively liberal the state supposedly is. But they're not thrilled at the idea that people might move from California to their state, lest they turn it into another Golden State. A newsmax columnist fretted about this 
CNSNews.com editor Terry Jeffrey spent his Aug. 11 
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WorldNetDaily has tussled with Google's ad program for years. Google f
Following in the footsteps of its 
