Conrad Black's Russia Appeasement Idea Didn't Age Well Topic: Newsmax
Newsmax columnist Conrad Black has long been a Trump lackey (as well he should be, given that Donald Trump pardoned his financial crimes), but has been opining about Russia lately as well. And, uh, that hasn't aged too well. In his Jan. 25 column, Black endorsed President Biden's misspeaking about a "minor incursion" to argue in favor of appeasing Vladimir Putin and Russia by letting him have a piece of Ukraine:
It is not unreasonable for Russia to have reservations about the complete sovereign independence of Ukraine; nor is it unreasonable for the West to consider Russian pretensions to having a right of veto over which countries may join NATO to be intolerable.
[...]
It is likely that substantial numbers of Russian Ukrainians would prefer to be Russian rather than Ukrainian. The complexity of Ukraine's current status, including its poor performance at self-government, is mirrored by the complexity of the Western world's responses to it.
In this respect, Biden's mumbled confusion about invasions and incursions is plausible, though such reflections are usually formulated carefully and delivered in secrecy to the appropriate parties.
[...]
Putin has some right to seek to alter the status quo, but he has no right to threaten the entire Ukraine. The best settlement of this problem — though at the moment no one is in sight who has the stature to lead the intricate discussions that would be necessary to achieve it — would include the following elements: a referendum could be conducted by international authorities of unquestionable integrity in the heavily Russian districts contiguous to Russia on the question of whether the inhabitants would prefer to reside in Russia or Ukraine.
Those heavily Russian areas that wish to do so could join Russia over a one year period in which those who wish to remain in Ukraine would be facilitated in relocating within its new boundaries. Russia would accept, even tacitly, that it has no standing to comment on what countries are in NATO. Ukraine would become eligible for NATO and EU membership if it shaped itself up to a civilized standard of democratic self-administration.
Black devoted his Feb. 7 column to scoffing at the notion that Putin would actually invade Ukraine:
If Putin intended to invade Ukraine he would do so as he did with Crimea in 2008 and attempt to achieve some element of surprise. Instead he has made an international public spectacle of amassing six to 10 divisions on the Ukraine border, which every informed person in the world knows is inadequate to defeat and dominate a resistant country of 40 million people.
This is theater: Russia pretends to threaten to be going to war; America pretends to react strongly, the NATO allies send forces to neighboring countries that are not under threat while asserting that they will on no account deploy forces into Ukraine, but will apply sanctions to Russia; some even propose preemptive sanctions against Russia although it has not actually done anything objectionable. (Russia could never be more than moderately inconvenienced by sanctions, especially if China and Germany ignore them.)
The president of Ukraine says a Russian invasion is not imminent.
[...]
Biden knows that Russia is not likely to invade, and he may reason that the reiteration of the NATO position that Ukraine is not now acceptable in NATO can be seized by Putin as a tactical victory, while Biden can claim to have been a forceful defender of the national and alliance interest and of the rights of Ukraine as an underdog nation struggling to become a functioning national democracy, as the tension subsides.
Putin may even be astute enough to know that this is all that could raise Biden's standing among his countrymen and prevent the landslide in favor of the harder-line Trump Republicans, with or without Donald Trump himself.
He may even be astute enough to know that an appreciable number of Republicans could embrace, and some audibly have embraced, paleoconservative Republican isolationism, and have attacked any concept of helping defend Ukraine as asinine George W. Bush Iraq-style open-ended warmongering.
[...]
If Russia can be granted an unvexed relationship with the Russian minorities in neighboring countries, even if some borders have to be redrawn, conciliated respectfully but deterred effectively from traditional Russian expansionism and attracted instead by solidarity with the West in the front rank of western nations with such eminent comparative newcomers as Japan, India, and even Germany, the preeminence of the West, as long as we act sensibly and deserve the leadership of the world, will be relatively secure, and we can make arrangements with China from a position of strength.
That's not the way any of that turned out. Nope, didn't age well at all.
Newsmax's Kerik Battles With Jan. 6 Committee, Touts Another Congressional Candidate Topic: Newsmax
Disgraced ex-New York City police chief Bernard Kerikjhas been keeping himself quite busy over the past several months.
Kerik has doing a little dance with the House committee looking into the Capitol riot, which would like to hear from him because of his presence in the "command center" at a Washington, D.C., hotel -- which Kerik initially paid for, and later got reimbursement from the Trump campaign -- for Donald Trump's efforts to try and overthrow the presidential election he lost. Newsmax reported in November that Trump was waiving attorney-clilent privilege to allow Kerik to testify to the committee (never mind that Kerik is not an attorney, let alone under Trump's employ at the time). A month later, Newsmax noted that Kerik said he would publicly release some documents the committee was seeking, while also whining that he didn't "trust" the committee. Kerik did eventually do a document drop on New Year's Eve, which is more interesting for listing the stuff Kerik won't release.
After much wavering, Kerik eventually agreed to a "voluntary interview" with the committee, during which he would not be placed under oath. That took place on Jan. 13.
In the meantime, Kerikhas been linking himself to some extreme local candidates in upcoming elections. We've noted how Kerik signed on to help Missouri Senate candidate Eric Greitens -- best known for being forced to resign as Missouri governor over accusations he tried to blackmail a woman he was having an abusive affair with -- as well as fringe Georgia governor candidate Vernon Jones.
Now Kerik is trying to lend his dubious magic to another congressional candidate. Scott Kaspar, who's running for a House seat in suburban Chicago -- is such a Kerik-lover that Kerik was by his side when he announced his candidacy in an effort to bolster a tough-on-crime image (never mind that Kerik spent years in prison for breaking the law). To that end, Kerik and Kaspar co-wrote a Jan. 31 Newsmax column pushing the usual tough-on-crime talking points:
Scott Kaspar lives in a sleepy corner of Orland Park, in suburban Cook County, Illinois. There, leaving your garage door open all day while your kids play in the neighborhood is common.
Doors usually are unlocked during the day, and traffic in the area is minimal.
In many ways, up until recently, his neighborhood was the closest thing to a Norman Rockwell painting.
However, we’ve seen crime explode in suburban Chicagoland in the past couple of years.
The occasional carjacking in 2020 has been replaced by weekly carjackings in Orland Park, if not more frequently.
Everyone in Scott’s community knows of a neighbor who has been the victim of a carjacking.
[...]
Solving the problem of crime plaguing Chicago and its suburbs is the real challenge.
Leaders at all levels in government do not have to reinvent the wheel — they can lean on experts like former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and like the co-author of this article, former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik.
They are reflective of leaders who have a proven record of driving down crime in their communities.
When Mayor Rudy Giuliani took office, New York City was the crime capital of the country with over 2,200 homicides per year. That’s more than Chicago, Detroit and Los Angeles combined. And by the time Mayor Giuliani and New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik left office in 2001, there were approximately 400 homicides per year.
Parents in some of New York City’s most dangerous neighborhoods used to put their children to bed at night in the bathtub so they wouldn’t get hit by stray bullets in the middle of the night — while they slept.
Under the leadership of Mayor Rudy Giuliani, New York City, saw a significant reduction in crime. By giving police more power and utilizing "stop-and-frisk" policies, homicides dropped by 70%, and in the black communities, by 80%.
No mention, of course, that Kerik is a convicted felon (whom Donald Trump pardoned) or that Giuliani has utterly beclowned himself in his efforts to attempt to overturn an election Trump lost.
Newsmax Hires Even More Dubious On-Air Talent Topic: Newsmax
Newsmax is continuing its recenthistory of making questionable hires. One of them was announced in a Jan. 26 article:
Newsmax Media Inc. announced Wednesday that 21-time Emmy Award-winner Wendy Bell on Saturday will premiere her new show, "Wendy Bell Common Sense," which will examine the news of the day with a lively approach to national issues.
The 28-year broadcast veteran of nationally syndicated and network affiliate news will delve deep into topics and concerns with interviews and roundtables in her weekly show airing 4:30 p.m. ET Saturdays on Newsmax. The show also will air Sundays at 3:30 p.m. ET.
"People are hungry for common sense in this country, and that's what this new program is about," Bell said. "Telling the truth, having great conversations, talking about what really matters. It's going to be outstanding."
[...]
"Wendy Bell has had a remarkable career as a television journalist and radio host, and throughout it all has been an advocate of common sense and American values," Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy said. "We are glad to have her on the Newsmax team."
While the article noted Bell's previous radio gigs, it didn't tell the whole story about her. As the Daily Beast detailed, she has a history of making inflammatory statements on radio in Pittsburgh:
Bell was fired by WTAE in March 2016, after nearly 20 years at the station, over comments she made on Facebook that sparked accusations of racism. Following a deadly mass shooting at a Pittsburgh-area cookout, she wrote: “You needn’t be a criminal profiler to draw a mental sketch of the killers who broke so many hearts two weeks ago... they are young black men, likely in their teens or early 20s.”
While opining that the shooters likely “have multiple siblings from multiple fathers and their mothers work multiple jobs,” Bell—who is white—also praised a Black teen she said she saw working hard in a local restaurant. “He’s going to Make It,” she wrote.
[...]
After landing at KDKA-AM radio, Bell sparked controversy again in September 2020 when she was yanked off the air after openly advocating for park rangers to shoot “on sight” protesters who pull down problematic monuments.
Newsmax has also hired Bianca de la Garza as a co-host of a midday show. Prior to that, she had worked on TV in Boston, then moved on to TV production and other various business ventures. But as the Daily Beast also detailed, "de la Garza’s lifestyle and production company were financed by millions worth of embezzled funds": A close friend, Richard Hajjar, embezzled $30 million from the shoe company where he was chief financial officer, and more than half of that went to de la Garza in the form of money transferred to her and gifts and vacations lavished on her. She was never charged, and she denied knowledge of where all the money came from. Pretty much all the money was spent, and she r"eached a confidential settlement" with the shoe company to return what little was left.
The Daily Beast also noted that de la Garza's job status at Newsmax is a bit under the radar: "The network never publicly acknowledged de la Garza’s hiring. Despite anchoring the midday broadcast, she is not currently under contract with Newsmax, suggesting she’s trying out with the network in a freelance capacity."
Newsmax Gives Loving, Uncritical Coverage to Trump Rallies Topic: Newsmax
The sucking up to Donald Trump continues apace at Newsmax, which is quite desperate to remain in his good graces.
For his rally in January in Arizona, he got a Dec. 31 article from the apparently unironically named Charlie McCarthy announcing it. McCarthy proclaimed that "Trump and his allies have said that voter fraud in several key battleground states, including Arizona, gave Biden the election," which was surprisingly followed with a little bit of pushback: "A Republican-backed review of the 2020 presidential election in Maricopa County, Arizona's largest county, ended without proof that the election was stolen." A Jan. 11 article by Nicole Wells followed up by touting how "Trump announced the program speakers Tuesday for his first 2022 rally in the battleground state of Arizona."
The rally itself generated a barrage of "news" articles, even though the rally could easily have been summed up in a single article:
These were all straight stenography pieces, with no attempt to fact-check anything Trump said, even though his history of being truthful is less than stellar.The same for a Jan. 17 article featuring an interview Trump did with Newsmax TV host John Bachman before the rally.
As the interview showed, Newsmax is continuing to work hard to be symbiotic witih Trump. A Jan. 20 article touted how good Newsmax's ratings were for its rally coverage:
Donald Trump may have left the White House a year ago, but ratings for Newsmax’s live coverage from his recent Arizona rally suggest the former president is as popular as ever.
Newsmax’s start-to-finish broadcast of Trump’s Jan. 15 rally in Florence, Arizona, drew 2.9 million viewers in total audience reach on cable alone, according to Nielsen.
A total of more than 5 million Americans watched the Trump rally when OTT streaming platforms that carry Newsmax are included, network data shows.
The new year and Joe Biden’s falling approval ratings seem to be increasing interest in the 45th president.
Newsmax’s cable audience for the rally was up almost 40% over his last rally, held in Iowa on Oct. 9.
Newsmax did the same thing for Trump's rally in Texas the a couple weeks later: a story on the speaker list, then one touting that Newsmax would air it, complete with an "IMPORTANT" note at the end: "Get a reminder about the rally time and latest Trump news from Newsmax, just text REMIND to 39-747 and you’ll be on the Trump List!" Then another barrage of articles on the rally itself:
Again, that was followed by an article touting the rally's ratings, this time with a focus on trying to own Fox News:
Newsmax was the big ratings-winner with its exclusive cable coverage of former President Donald Trump's rally in Texas last weekend.
Some 2.9 million cable viewers tuned in to watch the event live from Conroe — and 1.1 million of them were adults ages 35-64, the demographic craved by advertisers.
Though Newsmax is carried in 20 million fewer homes than Fox, total audience impressions for both networks during Trump's speech was almost at parity, both drawing around 1.4 million viewers per minute, according to Nielsen.
Reporter Bill Hoffmann even promoted a Washington Post article that detailed how ridiculous its coverage was:
"Newsmax treated the Texas rally like a Super Bowl, with pre-game coverage and postgame analysis from Bill O'Reilly and Ben Carson — both former Fox News personalities — as well as an on-screen poll asking viewers whether they want Trump to run again," the Post's media reporter Jeremy Barr wrote.
Hoffmann doesn't seem to realize the Post may have mocking Newsmax for such over-the-top coverage. Or maybe he did: he didn't reproduce a statement in the article noting that "At one point, the network split the screen between Trump’s rally and an advertisement for Newsmax-branded hats."
Newsmax Parroted Bogus Ray Epps Conspiracy Theory Topic: Newsmax
We've noted how Newsmax marked the anniversary of the Capitol riot by largely trying to downplay it. ONe exception to that, however, was its promotion of a conspriacy theory from two far-right Republican members of Congress. Eric Mack gave a preview of their stunt in a Jan. 4 article:
Democrats are planning more tarnishing of Republicans and former President Donald Trump on Jan. 6, according to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga. But, she told Newsmax on Tuesday night that she is going to get to the truth of what happened in the storming of the Capitol.
[...]
On Thursday, Greene said, she will hold her own news conference in Washington, focusing on a look into insurrection allegations.
"We're going to talk about the things that need to be talked about, like oft-reported, unindicted man who was preaching "we've got to go into the Capitol" starting Jan. 5 and helping orchestrate that the next day — as Trump was delivering his rally speech.
"Where are the other people that are on different videos? Why haven't the FBI tracked those people down? Why haven't they been arrested? Why didn't I see Ray Epps and others in the D.C. jail like other Jan. 6 defendants? We have a lot of questions to ask.
Theodore Bunker also touted their stunt beforehand in a Jan. 5 article as ''a Republican response on the anniversary of the January 6th protests" by Green and Rep. Matt Gaetz.ON the day of theanniversary, the apparently unironically named Charlie McCarthy hyped a claim that "Three men who took part in the Capitol attack inexplicably have been removed from the FBI's Capitol Violence Most Wanted list," including Epps. In fact, Epps was removed from the list because he was investigated and cleared.
Nearly lost in the comparisons by Democrats and the White House between Jan. 6, 2021, and two of the deadliest days in U.S. history — Pearl Harbor and 9/11 — was a news conference on Thursday afternoon by Reps. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., and Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.
[...]
Gaetz and Greene's news conference showed footage of the storming of the Capitol last Jan. 6, including Beattie's Revolver.news compilation that suggested there were numerous unindicted conspirators, led by Arizona Oath Keeper Ray Epps, a Marine Corps veteran and Trump supporter who started the ''we must go into the Capitol'' campaign Jan. 5 — a day before the Capitol riot.
''Imagine if we actually had the powers of the Jan. 6 [House] committee, the powers of the federal government, to understand why Ray Epps, the evening of the 5th, is out telling people dispassionately, professionally, with laser focus that the objective is to enter the United States Capitol building?'' Gaetz said, after showing a video of Epps whispering into the ear of an indicted suspect right before the final blockade was breached Jan. 6.
Revolver.News' video evidence shows this to have occurred before the conclusion of Trump's speech at a rally nearby — a speech Democrats assert incited supporters to breach the Capitol.
''Then, on the 6th, it's not the Proud Boys who engaged in the initial breach, it's Ray Epps at that precise moment.''
Because Mack can't be bothered to do basic fact-checking, his readers don't know that Gaetz and Greene were spreading lies, much like fellow ConWeb outlet WorldNetDaily did: Epps is not a federal agent, and he did not enter the Capitol.
It wasn't until Jan. 11 that Newsmax reported that the Epps stuff is a conspiracy theory, admitting that the House committee investigating that riot said that Epps is not a government informant. The same day, however, another Newsmax article hyped Sen. Ted Cruz pushing the Epps conspiracy without any mention of the fact that the conspiracy theory had been debunked.
Newsmax Marked Capitol Riot Anniversary By Trying To Downplay It Topic: Newsmax
How did Newsmax mark the anniversary of the Capitol riot? By trying to downplay it, of course. It kicked things off with a behind-the-paywall piece complaining that "not one of the more than 700 people facing charges has been accused of anything close to insurrection or terrorism. (this was a few weeks before several right-wing Oath Keepers were arrested on charges of seditious conspiracy.)
That was followed by an article hauling out disgraced Fox News host Bill O'Reilly claiming that, in writer Eric Mack's words, that "President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are going to try to pin the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol on former President Donald Trump, ignoring evidence to the contrary" because, according to O'Reilly, "It's almost inconceivable that a rational person would go: Yeah, I'm going to break into the Capitol, and that's going to help Donald Trump in any way. It hurt him, and it hurt the conservative cause." Mack stayed silent about the rampant sexual harassment that got O'Reilly fired from Fox News; instead, he insisted without evidence that O'Reilly "remains a prominent conservative voice."
Like its ConWeb pals at the Media Research Center and CNSNews.com, Newsmax didn't like President Biden's speech about the Jan. 6 riot, with Sandy Fitzgerald sticking Donald Trump's petty and negative reaction in her story on the speech; Trump was also given an anonymously written article to whine further.
Newsmax served up more right-wing reaction from Republican politicians:
Fitzgerald returned to tout Republican Rep. James Comer's whining that "there should be investigations into the security lapse that allowed people to be able to storm the Capitol, but Democrats have "just tried to play this from an angle of embarrassing Donald Trump and embarrassing the Republicans."
Theodore Bunker devoted an article to letting Mitch McConnell complain how "Washington Democrats" are supposedly "try[ing] to exploit this anniversary to advance partisan policy goals that long predated this event. It is especially jaw-dropping to hear some Senate Democrats invoke the mob’s attempt to disrupt our country’s norms, rules, and institutions as a justification to discard our norms, rules, and institutions themselves."
GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham was given his own article by Jeffrey Rodack to complain about Biden's speech and its alleged "brazen politicization" of the riot.
Fitzgerald touted how GOP Rep. Pat Fallon purported to be "flabbergasted, dumfounded, and speechless" to hear Vice President Kamala Harris comparing what ended up being a "small riot" to the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor and the 9/11 attacks, while Democrats have "amnesia" about the Black Lives Matter and antifa riots in the summer of 2020, that "swept over 140 cities, caused $2 billion worth of damage and cost 25 lives."
Newsmax pundit and disgraced ex-New York City police chief Bernard Kerik led an article by Rodack featuring various right-wingers reacting badly to Harris' comparison; Kerik sneered that she is an "incompetent fool."And the apparently unironically named Charlie McCarthy gave Trump another article in which to vent, this time through a "scathing lengthy statement."
An article by Jack Gournell promoted an appearance on Newsmax TV by the widower of Ashli Babbitt, the rioter who was shot and killed by police inside the Capitol as she was trying to break through a door. Gournell editorialized: "Over the past several months, many on the political right have pointed to Babbitt's case as evidence that the characterization of Jan. 6, 2021, as an 'insurrection' in which the right did all the harm is grossly inaccurate."
Fitzgerald, though, did slip in an article about how a police officer wounded in the riot is suing Trump over the injuries she suffered from rioters incited by him.
Michael Reagan spent his Jan. 7 column whining about the coverage and trying to distract from it by bashing Biden:
So does insisting on calling 1/6 an “insurrection” instead of what it was – a peaceful political protest that exploded into a dangerous and disgraceful riot whose only fatality was an unarmed Trump supporter, Ashli Babbitt, who was shot to death by a Capitol police officer.
[...]
But for the Democrat Party [sic] and its flock of parrots in the media, the “deadly” insurrection of 1/6 Trump supposedly fomented has become a myth they are never going to let the country forget.
1/6 is their new national holiday. A day they can memorialize – weaponize – each year for decades for purely partisan political reasons.
For now, Democrats know 1/6 is the only propaganda weapon they have left to distract the public’s attention from the Biden administration’s never-ending list of failures.
But ordinary Americans don’t care about marking the anniversary of “Insurrection Day.” They know a fake insurrection when they see one.
They’re more worried about things that are real and things that really matter to them – today. Things like the rising price of gas and hamburger and Biden's bungled war on COVID.
Judd Dunning similarly tried to distract in his Jan. 7 column:
January 6, 2022 was about forcefully forgetting failures. Americans are ordered to forcefully forget the Afghanistan failures, our supply chain problems, our politicized COVID lockdowns tearing our prosperity and security, our decimated global foreign policy, and rampant Biden-induced inflation.
Democrats lacking any decency or tangible legislative platform excitedly brought you their January 6th “Insurrection Anger Games.” The lions, bears and crocodiles were thrown in the pit. The leftist half of the crowd hunger for red conservative Republican blood.
Dunning then portrayed the rioters as the real victims:
Forty-thousand hours of sealed footage will show the truth of the non-insurrection. Currently, zero insurrection charges have been filed.
January 6 has been blown out of proportion. Several times political objections have historically been expressed more disruptively than 1/6 on a myriad of issues. The 209 BLM riots in 2020 caused over 40 deaths and $2 billion to $3 billion dollars in property damage.
Biden bellowed out false bigotry from the bleachers, stoking the flames, referencing a “bunch of thugs, white supremacists, (conspiracy) theorists, antisemites.” Many are average citizens held over 10 months in inhumane conditions. They are pawns victimized for political reasons.
Some face 23 hours of daily solitary confinement. They have been denied lawyers, medical and legal care, and basic due process rights enshrined in the Bill of Rights. They are political prisoners of war treated worse than Guantanamo Bay prisoners.
The lesson of the January 6th games is not what the left wishes their performance art would yield. Democrats’ devolution reveals they lack a true platform. They offer only weaponized elitist hate.
In fact, the vast majority of rioters are not in prison awaiting trial, and they are anything bug political prisoners.
Dick Morris Pushing Evidence-Free Claim That Hillary Is Running In 2024 Topic: Newsmax
Before the 2020 presidential election, Dick Morris declared at Newsmax there was a "good shot" that Hillary Clinton would join the campaign. That didn't work out, as so many Dick Morris predictions don't. But hating the Clintons has been Morris' meal ticket for years, so he's already dragging out the Hillary-will-run-again thing for the 2024 election. He wrote in his Jan. 1 column:
How do you know if Hillary is gearing up for another presidential bid?
Her weather vane begins to twirl and points to the most advantageous direction for a candidacy. Following her ruminations and political gyrations is as accurate as monitoring polling data.
Lately, America's disgust with the woke progressives is registering with her, and she gives evidence of tacking to the center. It is triangulation all over again. She told MSNBC's Willie Geist that Democrats needed to do "some careful thinking about what wins elections, and not just in deep blue districts where a Democrat, and a liberal Democrat or so-called progressive Democrat, is going to win."
[...]
She is setting up the blame game for the likely Democrat losses even as they have not yet happened.
It looks like we are in for Hillary 3.0.
Never mind, of course, that Morris hasn't been on speaking terms with anyone named Clinton for a good couple decades now, and he offered no actual evidence of Hillary moving toward a presidential campaign.
Despite that utter lack of evidence, Newsmax touted Morris pushing this claim again in a Jan. 16 article:
Ex-Clinton adviser Dick Morris told "The Cats Roundtable" radio show Sunday that there is a "good chance" the 2024 presidential election will be between former President Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
Hillary "has set up a brilliant strategy," a "zero-sum game, where the worse [Biden] does, the better she does, because she's positioned herself as the Democratic alternative to Biden. Not just to Biden, but to the extreme left in the Democratic party," Morris told host John Catsimatidis on WABC 770 AM.
Morris adds that among the Democratic frontrunners, there will be a Black candidate, likely Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., "a crazy left-wing candidate, probably AOC, and you're gonna have Hillary."
Clinton is a stronger candidate, says Morris, because of her focus on "pragmatism" and not "ideological issues."
Writer Nick Koutsobinas tried to sell the idea that claiming that everyone else is doing it: "In the last week, multiple publications from The Wall Street Journal to CNN, from CNN to The Hill have all published stories sprurring the idea of Hillary making a 2024 run." Biut The Hill article was pure speculation, and the CNN item Koutsobinas linked to is a discussion spurred by the Hill article.
Morris may be perpetually wrong (and he has yet to apologize for the bogus election fraud conspiracy theories he embraced), but he knows what sells in order to keep his job as a (terrible) pundit: he just has to keep pushing the Clinton button.
Newsmax Columnist Wants To Strip The Right Of D.C. Residents To Govern Themselves Topic: Newsmax
Home Rule is a legislative carveout granted to the District of Columbia that allows the city to govern itself by electing a city government with a mayor, city council, and various bureaucratic agencies. Congress first granted D.C Home Rule in 1973, devolving their constitutionally outlined power to govern D.C to the residents of Washington.
Since 1973, Home Rule has been an unmitigated disaster that has subjected the capital to crises of crime, corruption, and unhinged progressive activism. Though in steep competition with crack-smoking crook Marion Barry for distinction as worst mayor, Muriel Bowser's administration may soon surpass all prior D.C infamy.
Mayor Bowser began in 2020 by forcing the city into some of the strictest lockdowns in the nation, not fully re-opening D.C's businesses until this past summer. The result was catastrophe.
Hundreds of businesses permanently closed, and with it came the destruction to incomes, lives, and community that always accompanies the collapse of small businesses.
She followed up by subjecting the city to lawlessness in the wake of George Floyd's death, permitting Black Lives Matter to riot, loot, and burn. Rather than restore order, she used tax dollars to plaster "Black Lives Matter" on the street in front of the White House, grossly abusing her powers to play race politics in the heat of the 2020 election.
If the American people want to visit the White House today, they're forced to walk over gigantic, ugly yellow neo-Marxist propaganda. So much for the so-called people's capital.
[...]
If Republicans win the House back in 2022, they should restore dignity to the capital by ending the Home Rule charade. The chaos must end, and the only way is for Congress to strip the Mayor and City Council of their abused authority.
Stripping the city council and Mayor Bowser’s authority is well within congressional rights. The Constitution plainly states the power to govern D.C is Congress’s, and the District’s charter makes plain that Home Rule is a privilege.
A Republican House could clean up the streets by instating camping bans and offering the homeless and mentally ill the help they need and deserve. They could drastically reduce crime rates by fully funding the police and giving them the authority to enforce the law.
Republicans could save communities by ending COVID-19 restrictions and empowering citizens to make their own choices. Most importantly, they could restore the nation's capital to constitutionally intended governance and end Mayor Bowser's humiliation of the country.
Newsmax's Hirsen Gushes Over Kevin Sorbo Topic: Newsmax
How much did Kevin Sorbo pay James Hirsen to write an excessively gushy Dec. 20 Newsmax column about him? Enough for Hirsen to crank out this press-agent-worthy glurge:
Kevin Sorbo is a multi-talented entertainment pro.
He first rose to international fame in 1995, when he landed the lead role as Hercules in “Hercules: The Legendary Journeys.” At the time it ranked as one of television’s highest-rated syndicated shows.
Its success yielded the popular 1995 spin-off series called “Xena: Warrior Princess.” Lucy Lawless plays the lead in the TV fantasy offshoot. And the pair of hits allowed for some fun crossover appearances of characters between the two shows.
Kevin also plays main character High Guard Captain Dylan Hunt in the 2000 sci-fi TV series “Andromeda,” which was penned by the creator of the enduring iconic series “Star Trek,” the late, great Gene Roddenberry.
As one of Hollywood’s top celebrities, Kevin’s more recent projects have focused on using his many mighty gifts in spiritually-oriented ways.
As a major co-star in the 2014 watershed faith-based film “God's Not Dead,” he portrays an atheist college professor, who on the first day of class mandates that his students disavow their religious beliefs.
The movie has an astounding profit margin, having grossed more than $62 million on a $2 million budget. It not only succeeded in turning industry heads, but it also ended up launching a whole new film franchise.
Of course, this is all a lead-up to promoting Sorbo's current film project:
His latest project is a new cinematic adaptation of a “Left Behind” work that is part of the bestselling series co-authored by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins.
[...]
Kevin produces and stars in the upcoming “Left Behind: Rise of the Antichrist,” which is currently being filmed in Canada. He and co-star Greg Perrow recently provided some insight as to why they are making the movie, and what people can expect in the re-launch of this beloved saga.
Hirsen concluded by bestowing victimhood on Sorbo for being a right-winger in Hollywood:
Like many other faith-filled people in Hollywood, Kevin has borne his share of scorn.
He noted, “There's a negativity towards Christians in Hollywood, and a negativity towards people who believe in God.”
Maybe, just maybe, Kevin, whose efforts in the past helped bring us tales of battling mythical beasts and who is now taking on the biblical ones, will get some folks to crack open the Good Book.
A great place to start at this time of year is Luke chapter 2, verses 1-20. Merry Christmas!
That's not the only gushy promotion Hirsen was handing out over the holiday season. His Dec. 6 column touted "The Chosen," a streaming show that claims to be "the first multi-season series focusing on the life of Jesus Christ," and its success at crowdfunding. And his Jan. 3 column touted the film "American Underdog," a fulm about football playerKurt Warner made by the "modern-day virtuosos of the faith-based genre" that "remained in the top four [movies] over New Year's weekend"; Hirsen concludedthat column with the corny line, "faith is the completed pass into the end zone."
This turn toward the spritual, by the way, came after Hirsen spent the weeks after the 2020 presidential election enthusiasticallyembracing election fraud conspiracy theories, only to apparently be so shaken by the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection that he took a more existential tone. Hirsen has largely stayed away from writing about politics ever since -- which makes sense, given that he's supposed to be Newsmax's entertainment writer -- but he also hasn't apologized to his readers for pushing those bogus conspiracy theories.
Newsmax's Black Adds COVID Misinfo To His Trump-Fluffing Topic: Newsmax
The first indication that Conrad Black's Dec. 22 Newsmax column -- headlined "The Clouds of Political Madness are Gathering" -- would be quite the trip was the tag that "The author is a non-clinician." We know what that means: lots of COVID misinformation. And, by golly, he didn't disappoint on that front:
Joe Biden and the Democrats are embarking on a new campaign of terror over the Omicron variant, (“a winter of ... death” for the unvaccinated), which is, in fact, a Christmas blessing. There are fewer than 10 fatalities reported in the entire world as a result of this new variant on COVID. It is like a conventional flu, except that 90% of the people afflicted have mild or no symptoms and all of those afflicted benefit from the reinforcement their immune systems are getting against all variants of the disease.
No greater gift to herd immunity from the COVID family of viruses could have been sought or imagined. Yet it is being used to justify a renewed campaign to transform Americans into a nation of cowardly, paranoid, and hypochondriacal moles.
Black also labored to spin the news that Fox News personalities were texting White House officials demanding Trump do something about the Capitol riot he helped incite:
The January 6 commission and Trump-hating nightly media commentators professed to find in the fact that Donald Trump’s family and Fox News Trump personalities Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity warned the then-president of backlash if he didn’t take a strong line against the trespassing and vandalism at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, proof that the melee was a pre-planned insurrection and that Trump’s complaints of election fraud were unfounded. (It confirms merely that like almost everyone, they disapproved of the attack on the Capitol, but did not deny Trump’s and his law-abiding supporters’ grievance.)
After several paragraphs of Biden-bashing, Black returned to sucking up yet again to the guy who gave him a presidential pardon for his financial crimes:
After blithely assuming the swift demise of Trump’s support, they now see the dangers of a Trump/Republican return in 2022 and 2024. But they appear to have an airtight mental block against contemplation of their own role in elevating a U.S. administration that is destabilizing the world by the self-mutilation of America.
They are incapable of contemplating the fact that Trump achieved great successes in sharply curtailing illegal immigration, unemployment, oil imports, Chinese and North Korean provocations and bringing greater prosperity to low-income minorities than any president in history. They are as blind to his accomplishments as to the fraudulence of their claim that he threatens democracy.
The same people who falsely accused Trump of colluding with Russia during the 2016 election, and claimed that an unexceptionable telephone call to the president of Ukraine to ask what happened in the Biden family’s commercial activities there — not to try to dictate the condemnation of the Bidens — was an impeachable offense, are still raving that Trump is a fascist and even putschist mountebank.
As he has before, Black once again attempted to deflect blame from Trump over the insurrection:
For these purposes such hysterics cling more fervently than ever to the myth of the January 6 “insurrection.” There is not a scrap of evidence that Trump approved any illegalities or had any notion of overthrowing the government.
[...]
But the blame for this indignity resides clearly with the egregious mayor of Washington, D.C., Muriel Bowser and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who were repeatedly warned (including by Trump) that some hooligans might attach themselves to the large gathering of Trump voters and try to breach Capitol security, something which Trump himself admonished his supporters to avoid.
Black concluded his column with a vague threat: "The anti-Trump Republicans, or NeverTrumpers, are the most inexcusable wrong-doers: They pretended to support a president they actually conspired to defeat, by illegal means. All who righteously engaged in defamation and skullduggery to remove Trump share in the guilt for the abject failure of Biden. They have sown and they shall reap." Written like a guy who's still trying to justify the pardon Trump gave him.
Newsmax Film On Capitol Riot Pushes Right-Wing Narratives, Conspiracy Theories Topic: Newsmax
WorldNetDaily wasn't the only ConWeb outlet pushing a dubious "documentary" on the Jan. 6 riot. Newsmax made its own -- and it appears to be just as biased. A Jan. 7 article promoting it starts off by insisting that the film is fair and accurate, the devolves into demonstrating at it's ... not:
“Day of Outrage” was produced by Newsmax to accurately and fairly detail the events related to the Capitol siege of Jan. 6.
The film includes powerful video footage of the protests and riots that took place on that fateful day, as well as a careful examination of events that led up to it.
The program includes exclusive interviews with Greg Kelly,who is the host of "Greg Kelly Reports";Sebastian Gorka,former strategist to President Donald Trump; Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene,R-Ga.; Rep. Louie Gohmert,R-Texas; retired Marine gunnery Sgt.Jessie Jane Duff;senior analyst for strategy at at the Center for Security Policy J. Michael Waller; Ashli Babbitt’s mom Micki Witthoeft; Babbitt’s husband,Aaron; Jan. 6 detainee Kenneth Harrelson’s wife,Angel; former detainee Chris Worrell’s fiancée,Trish Priller,and business owner Roberto Minuta.
Any film climing to depict the riot "accurately and fairly" would have included people who are not angry right-wingers with axes to grind; none are listed above. The article went on to hype that the film was made by "award-winning filmmaker Jack Thomas Smith," whose actual filmmaking expertise is in horror movies.
The article -- and the film, apparently -- gets more conspiratorial from there:
Unbridled violence across the nation, a disputed election, distrust of the mainstream media, and a sense that hypocrisy was everywhere among elected officials — all helped set in motion the events of Jan. 6, 2021.
In the aftermath of this day — when laws were clearly broken and behavior was at best uncivil and at worst violent — the media and Democrat politicians have advanced a disputed narrative of “insurrection.”
“Jan. 6 started as a peaceful protest that became unruly and at times violent,” says Jack Thomas Smith. “But it was not an insurrection. The protesters didn’t seek to overthrow the government and did not bring firearms into the Capitol.”
Smith notes that acts of violence did occur and says the film makes clear that the people who committed crimes that day “should be held accountable for their actions.”
But he also adds that these protesters are entitled to due process. “The mistreatment of the Jan. 6 detainees is outrageous,” he said.
“Day of Outrage” reveals what some have described as cruel and unusual punishment against some protesters following their arrests. “They are being treated worse than terrorists in Gitmo,” Smith said.
Newsmax has not made "Day of Outrage" available for streaming, so we have to read some tea leaves from the article and the film trailer attached to it. It appears that the film will hype violence in protests over racial justice in an attempt to downplay the riot; indeed, the film trailer begins with footage from those protests, and there's much less footage of riot footage inside the Capitol. A clip of an unidentified talking head makes this tactic more apparent: "What BLM/Antifa did was actually much more akin to insurrection. January 6 was a trespassing incident that got out of hand." The film apparently also pushes the right-wing martyrdom narrative of domestic terrorist Ashli Babbitt, with footage of Babbitt's widower declaring that she was "executed ... assassinated ... murdered," followed by another clip of Newsmax host Sebastian Gorka declaring, "This is an attempt to criminalize conservatives."
Smith did an interview with Gateway Pundit -- another sign that the film should not be trusted -- and made that excuse-making even more explicit:
I sat on my couch watching it on TV, just like a lot of people, most people. Initially, I thought, ‘They shouldn’t be doing this.’ But then, the media kept that narrative going to calling them, insurrectionists. We have the footage of the police officers, allowing people in the Capitol building, footage of protesters walking peacefully through the rotunda who were just looking around and taking selfies. They were a praying in the Capitol building — they certainly were not insurrectionists.
If these were insurrectionists, don’t you think someone would have brought a firearm into the building? When you see the mainstream media claim these people were trying to overthrow our government – I mean, that’s absolutely ridiculous. They weren’t not trying to overthrow our government. They were upset with the results of an election.
[...]
If we compare what’s happening here to how socialism and communism started and ultimately destroy other countries –Venezuela, Cuba, China, and the Soviet Union — the similarities are striking. If you look at the cultural revolution in China during the 1960s and 70s, you see what’s happening today in the United States. Then, if you look at how socialism infiltrated Venezuela, the similarities are really uncanny.
The article concludes: "It is noteworthy that Gateway Pundit contributor Cara Castronuova has been credited as a “consultant” on this documentary." Duly noted.
The film's trailer concludes with someone saying, "Just because some talking head calls it an insurrection doesn't mean it's one ... unless there's a campaign to make it look like one." Similarly, just because someone made a highly biased film claiming that it wasn't an insurrection doesn't mean it isn't one -- and that film is part of the campaign to pretend it isn't one.
Michael Reagan Throws A Vaccine Tantrum Topic: Newsmax
I’m sick and tired of wearing masks. I’m sick and tired of vaccine mandates.
I’m sick and tired of hearing the dire warnings and broken promises of politicians and incompetent public health officials.
For almost two years they’ve ordered us around like children and told us what individual freedoms we must sacrifice if we are to ever win the war against COVID-19.
Now a new variant, omicron, has knocked us backwards again.
[...]
I don’t blame the un-vaxxed for the continuing pandemic. As I tweeted the other day, I don’t care whether someone is vaxxed like I am or not.
I don't hate them, either. I realize I’ve hugged, shook hands and eaten dinner with dozens of people who haven’t been jabbed.
People tell me, "You could die."
Yeah. I’m 76. I could die of a lot of stuff. But I stay healthy. I take all my meds.
So far, thanks to the thugs running China who created the virus, more than 800,000 Americans have died ofor with —COVID-19.
Most, by far, were very old or already very sick or unhealthy.
About 1,100 Americans are still dying every day despite the fact that we’ve had vaccines for almost a year and we’ve done everything Fauci, government experts and politicians have ordered us to do.
Unfortunately, nothing they did worked to stop the pandemic.
[...]
Now these same geniuses want to give the vaccine to every kid five years old and younger — even though the science says they don’t need it.
The vaccine makers have done tests on some kids and they guarantee it's completely safe.
But how will the vaccines affect the kids' bodies five or 10 years from now, or during a pregnancy? And what about boosters — and more boosters?
The answers to those important questions are unknown but they might turn out to be some pretty horrible "Oops."
Meanwhile, everyone have a merry Christmas and don't let Santa down your chimney unless he's been vaxxed — oops.
Newsmax's Trump-Pardoned Columnist Keeps Up The Trump-Fluffing Topic: Newsmax
Trump pardon beneficiary Conrad Black continued his embrace of Trump's Big Lie about the election in his Dec. 17 column. First, though, he took shots at "pompous, insubordinate hypocrite Gen. Mark Milley" at "the woke Fifth Column inserted by President Barack Obama" into the military, then moved to complaining that everything was great under Ronald Reagan until George H.W. Bush succeeded him, than "allowed the political charlatan Ross Perot to steal 20 million mainly Republican votes and bring on the Clintons." When Black transition to huffing about "the monstrous falsehood that Trump had wrongfully connived with the Russian government to rig the 2016 election," it was clearly time for more Trump hagiography and whitewashing:
Hillary Clinton, in her book about the election, stated that "Trump's treason" was one of the principal reasons for her defeat and former National Intelligence Director James Clapper publicly stated his belief that Trump was "a Russian intelligence asset." Former CIA Director John Brennan repeatedly accused Trump of treasonable activity.
By their hysterical claims that Trump was threatening democracy, they understandably incited Trump and his vast army of followers to believe that the political establishment that Trump had previously thought of as only incompetent, was, in fact, the real threat to democracy.
[...]
Meanwhile, a number of swing states altered their voting and vote counting rules, supposedly to facilitate voting during the pandemic, with the chief consequence of producing more than 40 million ballots that were not cast by the voters identified with them in a process called "ballot harvesting" that is impossible to verify.
In these circumstances there was plenty of room to question the validity of the election result as a flip of only about 53,000 votes spread between Pennsylvania and any two of Arizona, Georgia, and Wisconsin, would have given the election to Trump.
Trump again disserved himself by a somewhat helter-skelter series of legal challenges over individual complaints. But the media effectively suppressed the fact that all 19 challenges to the legality of the alteration of the voting and vote counting rules (because they violated the constitutional disposition of that authority to the state legislatures and failed in the duty to assure fair elections) were rejected on process grounds.
[...]
Both sides felt confirmed in their views by the invasion of the Capitol on Jan. 6. To Trump's enemies, he had attempted an "insurrection." To Trump and his followers, his enemies had failed to listen to warnings that hooligans would attach themselves to the Trump meeting on the Ellipse on Jan. 6, and attack the Capitol.
Legislators assumed a posture indicative of their courage and hid under their desks wearing ridiculous gas masks when the warning was sounded, and have responded with this new malicious fiction of "insurrection." Of course, the "insurrection" is utter nonsense, and even after detaining hundreds of the trespassers and sweating them in the usual abuse of the plea bargain system, extorting false inculpatory testimony with dire threats and interrogation but a promise of immunity from perjury charges if the "evidence" extorted is useful, no hint of insurrection has emerged.
The last thing Trump wanted was any illegalities at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, and the only person who died violently in the incident was an unarmed Trump supporter, mysteriously shot dead by Capitol Police.
The anger of Trump and his 75 million followers was, in the circumstances, understandable. Approximately half the country thought the election was stolen, and the other half believes that it was fairly decided and that the losers attempted to overturn the result by assaulting the Capitol.
The House of Representatives' investigation, in which the Republican side is composed of nothing but anti-Trump zealots probably on their way out of politics as the Republicans nominated by the House minority leader were cavalierly rejected by the speaker — is clearly another rabidly partisan anti-Trump assassination squad.
Black concluded by asserting, "Political conditions are more dangerous than at any time since the bottom of the Great Depression 90 years ago, and there is no FDR at hand." He will never admit Trump's central role in ratcheting up the danger by spreading lies about the election.
Newsmax Bashes Fox News' Carlson For Supporting Putin Topic: Newsmax
Newsmax's little war on Fox News has even gone after the channel's current golden boy, Tucker Carlson, calling out his defense of Russia and leader Vladimir Putin for his aggressions toward Ukraine. Former NATO commander (and onetime Democratic presidential candidate!) Wesley Clark went after Carlson in a Dec. 13 column:
Last week, Fox News host Tucker Carlson made the surprising claim that Russian leader Vladimir Putin was justified in mobilizing military forces to threaten Ukraine.
Carlson’s comments betrayed a growing fault line in the Republican Party and American democracy itself.
The host went on to say that the buildup on the Russian-Ukrainian border was really NATO's fault for "tormenting" Putin.
Carlson is not only wrong in his analysis, but his claims have no basis in fact or history.
[...]
There are many in the GOP who still see Putin, rightly, as a danger to America and our interests.
But there are a growing number, like Carlson, who are embracing Putin, despite his near dictatorial control of Russia and his brutish menacing of his neighbors.
Fox News’ lead host Tucker Carlson is behaving like the discredited appeasers of Adolf Hitler in the prelude to World War II.
The lesson of 1930s appeasement is that it does not work, does not gain peace, and leads to even greater tragedy.
Today, Carlson is making excuses for Russian strongman Vladimir Putin and his increasing threats against Ukraine.
Carlson even makes the fantastical claim that NATO has “tormented” Putin. He implies the North Atlantic alliance bears responsibility for a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Morris reiterated this in a Dec. 15 appearance on Newsmax TV, in which he declared: "If Vladimir Putin is the new wave of Hitler gobbling up country after country and threatening everyone else, then Tucker Carlson is the new Neville Chamberlain, the appeaser who makes excuses for him and undermines the will of the democracy — which is to stand up against him."
Morris wrote another column bashing Carlson on Dec. 17, in which he did something he has rarely done in the past two decades, praised his former employer Bill Clinton:
I've been flooded with responses, almost all positive, since my recent column "Tucker Carlson's Putin Play Mirrors Hitler Appeasement."
It's indeed worrisome for many that Fox News’ lead host has become such an ardent defender of Vladimir Putin, criticizing the U.S. while defending the Russian dictator’s territorial ambitions by saying he "just wants to keep his western border secure."
[...]
When I advised President Bill Clinton during the 1990s, he always stressed that Ukraine was "the key" to stopping the emergence of a new Russian empire in Eastern Europe.
Clinton grasped that supporting a free Ukraine while admitting Poland and Hungary into NATO created a "land bridge" from Western Europe to the former Soviet empire.
Morris also repeated his Hitler comparison: "Like Putin, Hitler claimed repeatedly that his aggression was 'defensive' because of his need for secure borders. Amazingly, the Carlsons of the 1930s bought Hitler’s fantastical claims hook, line, and sinker, just as the Fox News host does today."
Newsmax TV host Grant Stinchfield took a, um, different approach, arguing that Carlson is "operating under duress" and suggesting that "the leftist leaders of this Trojan horse of a so called conservative network has compromised" him. Stinchfield offered no evidence that Fox News is run by "leftist leaders."
Newsmax Pretends Doug Wead Was A Real 'Presidential Historian,' Not A Right-Wing Hagiographer Topic: Newsmax
A Dec. 13 Newsmax article by Charlie McCarthy reported:
Conservative historian and political commentator Doug Wead died Friday after suffering a massive stroke a week earlier. He was 75.
Doug, a New York Times bestselling author, wrote the 2019 book "Inside Trump's White House: The Real Story of His Presidency."
The author of more than 30 books, Doug had been hospitalized in Fort Myers, Florida. He was removed from a ventilator and died of heart failure Friday.
"He will be remembered as a great American historian — and not a woke left winger," conservative author Craig Shirley told Newsmax Monday after learning of Doug’s death.
"Doug believed in just telling the facts of history as they were," he added.
Shirley said his passing will leave a great void because "the world is filled with left-wing historians but has very few conservative historians."
As Shirley all but admits, Wead was a biased "historian." And that book on what happened "Inside Trump's White House"? That was a ridiculous hagiography:
Doug Wead’s Inside Trump’s White House goes further, advancing to enraptured fantasy. Wead, a veteran Republican toady, acclaims Trump for “the magic of thinking big”; his own padded, puffy volume is an exercise in magical thinking.
Like a sun king freshly solarised on the tanning bed, Wead’s Trump radiates “beauty and intellect”. His sons are “well groomed”, his daughters “statuesque”, and his consort bends down from her spike-heeled altitude to “reach out to the suffering”. While Melania is cast as a stilettoed Madonna, Trump functions as a universal paterfamilias. “It’s a father thing,” smarms Jared Kushner to explain Kim Jong-un’s attachment to Trump: Kim’s actual begetter was a maniacal despot, so the chubby ogre has chosen a fitting surrogate.
Acclaimed by Wead as the creator of his own “immortal brand”, a lucrative logo that is “etched into the marble of history”, Trump the mass-market Midas dispenses product placements at every turn. Wead, briefly alarmed, sees him press “a big, fat red button” on a table; the command produces one of the dozen Diet Cokes he swills each day, not a missile strike.
Wead's fawning tone is apparently how conservatives should be written about, according to Shirley. Indeed, in a 2018 Newsmax column, Wead gushed all over Melania, proclaiming that she is "a dedicated mother who puts her child ahead of other justifiably demanding, distractions" and "whose life will one day cover entire bookshelves in libraries." We would ask if Wead actually died of embarassment for writing things like that, but it's clear he was not capable of shame.
Wead was a hater of Barack Obama and lover of both Ron and Rand Paul. He was also not afraid to do something competent, credible historians never do: peddle conspiracy theories. We've noted that a 2017 WorldNetDaily column by Wead pushed an unsupported claim about a "Bill and Hillary Clinton list of women" accompanied by a video that was more self-promotional than anything else.
In continuing to praise him, McCarthy inadvertently admitted Wead wasn't a real historian:
Credited with coining the phrase "compassionate conservative," Doug served in the White House as special assistant to then-President George H.W. Bush.
A devout Christian, he served the Bush White House and later the Republicans in helping to build their alliance with evangelicals, now a key constituency in GOP politics.
Newsmax was proud to have Doug as an Insider, and he weighed in on all matters Washington, D.C., since 2009.
Real historians would not be that partisan and that overly fawning. Let's not pretend that Wead was one.
Newsmax columnist Conrad Black has long been a Trump lackey (as well he should be, given that Donald Trump pardoned his financial crimes), but has been opining about Russia lately as well. And, uh, that hasn't aged too well. In his Jan. 25 column, Black endorsed President Biden's misspeaking about a "minor incursion" to argue in favor of appeasing Vladimir Putin and Russia by letting him have a piece of Ukraine:
Disgraced ex-New York City police chief Bernard Kerikjhas been keeping himself quite busy over the past several months.
Newsmax is continuing its 
The 
We've noted
How did Newsmax mark the anniversary of the Capitol riot? By trying to downplay it, of course. It kicked things off with a behind-the-paywall 
Before the 2020 presidential election, Dick Morris 
How much did Kevin Sorbo pay James Hirsen to write an excessively gushy Dec. 20 Newsmax 
WorldNetDaily
I’m sick and tired of wearing masks. I’m sick and tired of vaccine mandates.
A Dec. 13 Newsmax 
