MRC's Double Standard On Gotcha Questions Topic: Media Research Center
A week after the Media Research Center enthusiastically embraced a gotcha question to Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson about what a woman is, MRC executive Tim Graham apent an April 2 post whining that a similar question was asked of a Republican governor:
The Associated Press reporter in Phoenix and other Arizona reporters want to put Gov. Doug Ducey on the defensive. AP's Bob Christie positioned Ducey exactly where the Left wanted him on his bill on preventing men from women's sports. The headline was "Arizona governor won’t say transgender people exist."
Nobody said transgender activists were like Santa Claus or the tooth fairy. But on the left, unless you respect transgenders and accept their gender-bending, you don't "see" them, you "erase" them, like they don't exist.
After an excerpt from thte article that noted Ducey "paused for several seconds before answering" with a non-answer then gave another non-answer after being asked again, Graham huffily played whataboutism: "This is somehow a gaffe. President Biden can say transgenders are 'made in the image of God,' and nobody shouts at him about how transgender people don't accept what God 'assigned' them."
It wasn't a hard question to answer, the AP gave him two chances to do so, and he couldn't do it. Graham made sure to note an after-the-fact tweet by Ducey whining that the question was "absurd and offensive" and finally giving a definitive answer to the question -- raising the question of why he couldn't have done that the first time. But Graham was silent on why this was such a terrible question, and Republicans demanding that Jackson define what a woman is was not absurd and offensive.
CNS Questions Russian Money To 'Anti-Energy Activists,' Censors Russian Money To GOP Topic: CNSNews.com
Craig Bannister wrote in an April 5 CNSNews.com article:
Twenty congressmen are calling on House Oversight Committee Chair Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) to hold a hearing to investigate potential efforts by Russia to undermine U.S. energy independence by funneling funds to anti-energy-production environmental groups in the U.S.
“Given the current global conflict, it is crucial that the Committee exercise its investigative powers to shine a spotlight on alarming reports of Russia’s attempt to buy influence in U.S. politics through domestic environmental groups,” says the letter sent to Maloney on Thursday.
“Russia’s energy sector plays an important role in facilitating its militaristic ambitions. Russia’s energy sales substantially support the current attack on Ukraine,” the letter explains.
The 20 members of Congress are requesting a hearing on alleged coordinated attempts by Russian entities to buy influence and finance U.S. environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in an effort to reduce the energy security of the United States.
Bannister was silent, however, on Russian money being funneled to Republican politicians. For example:
Len Blavatnik, a dual U.S.-British citizen with ties to Russia, donated more than $6 million to Republican PACs, many linked to GOP politicians in 2015-15.
Two Republican operatives were charged last year with funneling money from a Russian national to Donald Trump's 2016 campaign.
Russian oligarch Andrey Muraviev wasindicted in Marchfor funneling donations to Trump through two men who had already been accused of making illegal donations.
A donor to Republican Sen.Tom Cotton has received donations from a hedge fund investor who's making money off Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Donation pleas at the end of every CNS article claim that it "covers the news as it should be, without fear or favor." If that was true, wouldn't Bannister have mentioned all this Russian money going to Republican politicians?
MRC Goes Orgasmic Over Musk's Plan To Buy Twitter Topic: Media Research Center
If you thought the Media Research Center wasn't squee enough when Elon Musk announced that he had purchased a piece of Twitter, the squee ramped up to positively orgasmic levels when Musk declared he was planning to buy all of Twitter. Joseph Vazquez screamed "IT'S HAPPENING" (to which it was changed from "GAME ON") in the headline of his April 14 article announcing it:
The world’s richest man is officially launching his bid for a hostile takeover of one of the most censorship-obsessed Big Tech platforms in the country!
Bloomberg News reported Thursday morning that Tesla CEO Elon Musk is “saying the company has extraordinary potential and he is the person to unlock it.” The value of the offer, according to Bloomberg, amounts to a whopping $43 billion. Musk announced the move in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Musk also tweeted that, “I made an offer.”
This follows Musk’s cryptic rejecting of a seat on Twitter’s board of directors after his purchase of a massive 9.2 percent stake in the platform. CNBC reported recently that “[i]f Musk had joined the board, he would not be able to acquire more than 14.9% of the company’s shares.”
He apparently wasn’t satisfied with the shareholder cap and is now looking to buy up the outstanding stock to control the entire platform.
[...]
The game has now changed. Will Twitter finally be made to uphold the values of free speech? Only time will tell.
Remember, Vazquez and the rest of his MRC buddies thinks you have a right to lie to people and that Twitter has no right to call out those lies.
A few hours later, Vazquez and Dan Gainor cranked out a column peddling the rifht-wing falsehood that Twitter enforcing its terms of service equates to "censorship" (and making sure to please their boss by quoting him):
It was the stock buyout heard ‘round the world. Tesla owner Elon Musk’s offer to buy Twitter could save the whole concept of online free speech and alter politics and elections globally for years to come.
Musk’s move might be the biggest political event since the 2020 election. Media Research Center founder and President L. Brent Bozell tweeted about the offer, “Free at last. Free at last. Conservatives may be free at last!”
Leftists and the media were horrified that Musk might interfere with their ability to censor content, not just in the U.S., but worldwide. Twitter was consistently the absolute worst of the social media sites for restricting conservative content. MRC’s CensorTrack database tracked 1,954 examples of Twitter censorship, over half of the total 3,636 entries of Big Tech censorship logged.
[...]
Musk’s purchase could lift the veil of censorship that hangs like a shroud over the conservative movement. The pending purchase could also mean former President Donald Trump’s long-awaited return to Twitter. The former president used his social media superpower to beat former Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) in 2016. It helped offset the overwhelming bias against him in the legacy media.
They also rehashed an old MRC talking point: "Other platforms were 'offended' too and were determined to destroy Trump’s social media presence going into the 2020 election. Twitter in particular censored Trump and his campaign a whopping 625 times between May 31, 2018 and Jan. 4, 2021. President Joe Biden and his campaign weren’t censored at all during that time period." The correct way to state that is that Trump violated Twitter's terms of service 625 times while Biden did not.
Vazquez and Gainor just couldn't stop drooling over Trump's use of Twitter:
Trump wielded social media like a Twitter version of the Incredible Hulk. It gave him the power to virtually smash critics and leftist journalists alike — defining the campaign. The Washington Post noted at the time that, “Trump used social media, and Twitter in particular, to build relationships with voters and create a word-of-mouth buzz for his brand.” The paper added, “this strategy helped Trump build attitudinal loyalty, the degree to which a customer prefers or likes a brand, rather than behavioral loyalty, when a customer buys a product out of habit.”
Ohio University Social Media Analytics Research Team Lab Director Laqeeq Khan also noted in 2016 that “Trump won social media. Simply put, Trump’s campaign was more engaged with voters.” Khan added that Trump “mastered Twitter by embracing immediacy (right now), transparency (unvarnished expression), and risk (rather than caution).”
[...]
Trump built that Twitter army up to 88 million followers during his presidential term and used it to influence major news organizations. Even journalists who hated him hung on every tweet, eager for Trump to make news.
Now Musk has an opportunity to hit a reset and journalists and leftists in Big Tech are going to try to stop him.
Speaking of making the boss happy, Bozell appeared on Fox Business later that day to spout his talking points, and an anonyous MRC blogger was made to document it:
Appearing on Fox Business Network’s Varney & Co. late Thursday morning, Media Research Center President Brent Bozell declared that billionaire Elon Musk possibly buying out Twitter would both restore free speech to the social media platform and change “the entire dynamics of politics” across the globe. He also blasted the left-wing co-hosts of ABC’s The View for using the New York City subway shooting to attack gun rights.
“Elon Musk offering to buy 100% of Twitter in an all-cash deal. He says Twitter should go private....Brent, this is all about free speech, right?,” fill-in host Ashley Webster asked Bozell at the top of the segment. Bozell declared: “You know, I’m gonna suggest to you that this is the biggest story since the 2020 elections. It may be even bigger than the 2020 elections.”
Bozell went on to falsely overstate his case: "Consider, Donald Trump won the presidency of the United States in 2016 because he was able to use Twitter. In 2020, one reason, a major reason he lost the presidential campaign is because Twitter censored him and wouldn’t allow him." In fact, Twitter did not suspend Trump until after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot he helped to instigate (and in which Bozell's son participated), meaning it did not affect the 2020 election. And even then, the MRC itself could find few instances of Trump getting "censored" (read: violating its terms of service) only 65 times by "big tech" as of a few weeks before the eleciton.
The MRC then flooded the zone with mocking reaction pieces:
Vazquez returned to whine that "A left-wing outlet funded by liberal billionaire George Soros whined that the world’s richest man’s plan to purchase Twitter was a threat to democracy." He then rehashed an old complaint that the group, Free Press, "tried to get the Federal Communications Commission to censor former President Donald Trump’s coronavirus briefings as 'hoaxes.'" Given that Trump was using those pressers to spread misinformation, that's not too extreme of a question to raise.
Vazquez concluded with his own censorship demand: "Take a seat, Free Press." Just like the MRC to not practice what it preaches.
WND's Brown Melts Down Over Caitlyn Jenner Joining Fox News Topic: WorldNetDaily
Every once in a while, WorldNetDaily columnist Michael Brown likes to remind us of just how homophobic and transphobic he is. When Fox News hired Caitlyn Jenner as a commentator, Brown used his April 1 column to demand that conservatives reject Fox News:
For those who have watched Fox News over the years, it is no surprise that they announced the hiring of Bruce "Caitlyn" Jenner with great fanfare and hype. In the words of CEO Suzanne Scott, "Caitlyn's story is an inspiration to us all. She is a trailblazer in the LGBTQ+ community, and her illustrious career spans a variety of fields that will be a tremendous asset for our audience."
Perhaps these words could be used as an epitaph on Fox's legacy. Mark the day carefully.
All the talking points are in order in Scott's short, effusive statement: Jenner's transition from Bruce to Caitlyn is "an inspiration to us all." This famous biological male is "she." And LGBTQ+ activism is something to celebrate. You go, girl!
Surely this is the death knell for Fox, even if it remains large and influential for decades to come. It has lost its voice and sold its soul. And with what moral authority can Fox call on Jenner to speak against "Lia" Thomas competing against women? Is this Fox's new message? "Transitioning is fine and sex and gender are whatever you perceive them to be. Just play fair!"
[...]
The cat has long been out of the bag when it comes to Fox's core values.
In fact, without mentioning specific names here, a friend of mine who is a publicity agent told me a few years ago that, while he wanted to land me an interview on one of the biggest shows on Fox, it would be hard for him to get past some of the show's gay producers.
In short, just because Fox was pro-Trump doesn't mean Fox was (and is) pro-Bible (as if support for Trump equated with support for the Bible).
And just because Fox is more conservative politically and fiscally than CNN or MSNBC doesn't mean that Fox is conservative morally or spiritually.
But again, this should not come as a surprise.
So, if you want biblically based views, go to people who base their lives on the Word of God. If you want news that is more conservative on some issues than the left-leaning networks, go to Fox (and some others). But by all means, do not confuse the two, especially at a time when trans activism threatens to undermine the very nature of male and female, not to mention threatens women's sports and even our fundamental freedoms of speech.
He concluded with one more rant: "Ironically, despite Fox's incessant (and often well-placed) criticisms of President Biden and his administration, Fox made its unfortunate announcement on the same day the Biden administration announced its aggressive support for radical trans activism – beginning with the transitioning of children. Mark the day."
NEW ARTICLE: The Peter Doocy Protection Center Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center went into full defense mode after President Biden muttered an insult at him -- then laughably denied it was obsessed with the story even after generating days of content about it. Read more >>
CNS Publishes Men's Rights Activist Topic: CNSNews.com
In February and March, CNSNews.com published a trio of columns by Edward E. Bartlett with a curious theme. Bartlett's Feb. 7 column was dedicated to deflating the "hoax" that domestic violence against women increases during the Super Bowl, declaring, "So on Sunday, Feb. 13, let’s invite everyone to relax, enjoy the big game, and not be distracted by dishonest claims of a 'spike' in domestic violence or human trafficking."
In his March 8 column, Bartlett complained that the Violence Against Women Act violated the constitution and insisted that "men and women were equally likely to engage in domestic violence" and that VAWA became "a feminist crusade to stereotype men as abusers, weaken the family, and expand the power of the state."
With the federal Violence Against Women Act currently being considered in Congress, one would expect that all forms of domestic violence, including female-on-female abuse, would be the focus of vigorous debate. But it’s not. For example, during the recent Oct. 5 Senate hearing on the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, not a peep was said about abuse in same-sex relationships.
So what’s going on?
The Centers for Disease Controlsuggeststhat among all partners, female-initiated physical (not sexual) violence is more widespread than the male-perpetrated variety. Each year in relationships, 4.2 million men suffer from physical violence, compared to 3.5 million women.
When you zero in on abuse rates in same-sex lesbian couples, the numbers fly off the charts.
[...]
The typical framing of partner abuse as men abusing women does an enormous disservice to persons in abusive lesbian relationships. Each year, half a billion dollars of taxpayer money goes to the Violence Against Women Act. Republican and Democratic lawmakers should join together to assure this milestone law is rooted in science and fact, not gender ideology.
Bartlett clearly wants to push the idea that women are aggressors and liars and that men are docile victims. The CNS bio of Everett describes him only as "president of the Coalition to End Domestic Violence." But there's much more going on.
As the Nation documented, Bartlett is a so-call men's rights activist who is also the head of a group called Stop Abusive and Violent Environments, part of a group of right-wing organizations that claim there is a crisis of false rape allegations against male college students. (Interestingly, the Nation identifies SAVE's primary funder as Hans Bader, an attorney who is also a CNS columnist.) Bartlett also works in the Department of Health and Human Services, and he used his position as well as his presidency of SAVE to help nudge Trump Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos to develop new rules for handling sexual assaults on college campuses that narrowed the scope of what colleges are allowed to investigate, increased the evidentiary bar that must be met for colleges to take action and removed some protections from victims.
Even more interestingly, SAVE has been affiliated with an organization that procures mail-order brides from Russia. A woman who worked at both SAVE and the bride service, Natasha Spivack, fought to strip protection for immigrant women under a 2012 revision of the Violence Against Women Act on the grounds that they were supposedly abusing the system by making false claims of abuse -- presumably in part because her mail-order bride company was ordered to pay $434,000 in damages to a Russian immigrant woman who was abused by the man who paid the firm to procure her.
Again: The guy who runs this organization is a person CNS has decided would make a great columnist.
CNS Questions Russian Money To 'Anti-Energy Activists,' Silent On Russian Money To GOP Topic: CNSNews.com
Craig Bannister wrote in an April 5 CNSNews.com article:
Twenty congressmen are calling on House Oversight Committee Chair Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) to hold a hearing to investigate potential efforts by Russia to undermine U.S. energy independence by funneling funds to anti-energy-production environmental groups in the U.S.
“Given the current global conflict, it is crucial that the Committee exercise its investigative powers to shine a spotlight on alarming reports of Russia’s attempt to buy influence in U.S. politics through domestic environmental groups,” says the letter sent to Maloney on Thursday.
“Russia’s energy sector plays an important role in facilitating its militaristic ambitions. Russia’s energy sales substantially support the current attack on Ukraine,” the letter explains.
The 20 members of Congress are requesting a hearing on alleged coordinated attempts by Russian entities to buy influence and finance U.S. environmental non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in an effort to reduce the energy security of the United States.
Bannister was silent, however, on Russian money being funneled to Republican politicians. For example:
Len Blavatnik, a dual U.S.-British citizen with ties to Russia, donated more than $6 million to Republican PACs, many linked to GOP politicians in 2015-15.
Two Republican operatives were charged last year with funneling money from a Russian national to Donald Trump's 2016 campaign.
Russian oligarch Andrey Muraviev was indicted in March for funneling donations to Trump through two men who had already been accused of making illegal donations.
A donor to Republican Sen.Tom Cotton has received donations from a hedge fund investor who's making money off Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Donation pleas at the end of every CNS article claim that it "covers the news as it should be, without fear or favor." If that was true, wouldn't Bannister have mentioned all this Russian money going to Republican politicians?
MRC Writer Frets Over Those Poor, Canceled Russian Athletes Topic: Media Research Center
Media Research Center sports blogger John Simmons started writing about the Russian war on Ukraine the right way, with a Feb. 22 post cheeriing European soccer officials for pulling a tournament final out of St. Petersburg -- though he couldn't resist getting in a needless partisan dig, sneering that moving it "would be more nerve than President Biden had when he had the choice to boycott the 2022 Winter Olympics, but chose not to." That was followed by a Feb. 28 post on how "more and more Ukrainian athletes have chosen to take up arms to defend their homeland, then a March 3 post on Riussian oligarch Roman Abramovich deciding to sell his Chelsea soccer team in Britain.
Since then, however, Simmons' focus has been on how unfair it allegedly is that Russian athletes have been barred from competing in various world events. He lamented in a March 8 post:
The ostracism of a Russian presence from sports leagues continues.
On Monday, the NHL announced they cut ties with the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL), a professional hockey league based in Russia, making it nearly impossible for the NHL to sign anyone playing in that league.
[...]
Unfortunately, Russian businesses have not been the only ones to suffer because their globally ambitious government decided to launch an invasion.
At the start of the 2021-2022 NHL season, five percent of all players on opening day rosters were Russian. That's not a lot, but it seems many of these athletes have received an unjust amount of abuse and ridicule in recent weeks.
Thanks to the invasion, Russian and Belarusian-born hockey players who play in both the NHL and other professional and amateur leagues in North America have received numerous discriminatory comments based solely on their origin.
Simmons tried to walk a fine line on the issue:
While the sports world was right to remove numerous international competitions from taking place in Russia, this level of hatred towards the players specifically is way out of line. The majority of these players and organizations (like the KHL) do not support Putin’s actions and have no power over their leaders or what they decide to do. As long as they do not post “Down With Ukraine” messages on social media or say anything that would imply that they are happy with what is going on, they should not receive this level of hatred.
The day after, though, Simmons cheered former NHL star Jaromir Jagr for raising money to help Ukranian victims of the war. On March 10, though, he was back to lamenting that the Chelsea soccer team was facing sanctions due to Abramovich's ownership:
So basically, a soccer team that had nothing to do with Abramovich's potentially shady business dealings or status within Russia now has their traveling funds slashed, their revenue stream strangled, and the ability to keep their players under contract stripped from them. This begs a question: how much of this is a serious attempt to hold Putin and his cronies to account and how much is simple cancel culture?
In this particular case, no one within the Chelsea organization has supported the war or condoned Russia’s actions, and yet everyone in Chelsea’s camp is suffering major consequences -- right down to the fans.
Well, yes, shady dealings tend to have a lot of collateral damage involving innocent people. Simmons lamented some more about collateral damage in a March 18 post:
The future of Russian soccer just took a massive blow.
Russia had been suspended and prevented from competing in World Cup qualifiers, and the nation appealed and pleaded for FIFA’s (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) ban to be removed. But on Friday, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) denied Russia’s request,meaning that Russia will still be suspended.
[...]
Just like the economic sanctions placed on Premier League team Chelsea F.C., it's difficult to know if these measures are really all that effective in holding Vladimir Putin accountable. Most Russian athletes have not supported Putin, so punishing the players and sports teams who have nothing to do with him seems like an overreach.
Simmons' whining on behalf of Russian athletes continued in an April 20 post:
Apparently, the sports world still has a thing for banning Russian athletes from competitions.
Wimbledon announced that Russian and Belarusian tennis athletes will not be allowed to compete in the iconic tournament, but those same athletes can compete in the French Open as neutral athletes.
"In the circumstances of such unjustified and unprecedented military aggression, it would be unacceptable for the Russian regime to derive any benefits from the involvement of Russian or Belarusian players with The Championships. It is therefore our intention, with deep regret, to decline entries from Russian and Belarusian players to The Championships 2022," the All England Club said in a statement.
The desire to hold Russia accountable for their actions is noble, but punishing athletes that have nothing to do with the war seems to be a miscalculation of what will solve the problem.
Simmons whined somemore about the decision in a post the next day:
Wimbledon's senseless decision to ban Russian athletes from the iconic tournament has drawn lots of backlash from the tennis community at large.
Novak Djokovic, who knows a thing or two about being on the receiving end of stupid decisions from governing tennis bodies, blasted the decision as "crazy."
[...]
?Nearly all Russian athletes across sports have said they do not support any actions from the Russian government involving the invasion of Ukraine, and are being treated unfairly for something they are not involved in. No athlete, regardless of the country, should be held to that standard.
Yes, Simmons still thinks that it was a "stupid decision" to bar a selfish unvaccinated athlete from playing a tournament in the middle of a disease surge that wash killing hundreds of people a day during a raging pandemic.
The complaining continued in an April 26 post about how Wimbledon decided to let unvaccinated athletes like Djokovic play but not Russian athletes: "Logic would suggest that you should not hold athletes who have nothing to do with a major conflict accountable for a country’s decision. But then again, logic is in short supply these days." Logic would also suggest that athletes who choose to remain affiliated with a warmongering authoritarian leader should have to feel the consequences of that decision, but that seems lacking on Simmons' side.
At least one tennis player is disgusted with Wimbledon’s decision to ban Russian athletes from this summer’s tournament.
Victoria Azarenka, who at one point in her career was the No. 1 tennis player in the world, wants the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) to protest and combat the ban.
"If you are asking me if I agree with Wimbledon or see their reasoning after being on a personal call with them, I don't see their reasoning,” Azarenka said. “It does not make sense and it does not connect to what they are saying. I have made my stance very clear on the issue. I will never, ever support war.”
Azarenka gets it. It’s not like any Russian or Belarusian tennis player is a sellout for Vladimir Putin and his political actions, so it doesn’t make sense that anyone born in those countries should have to face this wacky form of punishment.
CNS Sneers At New NFL Hiring Requirement Topic: CNSNews.com
CNSNews.com managing editor Michael W. Chapman sneered in an April 1 article:
The National Football League (NFL) announced this week that it is requiring all 32 teams in the league to hire an offensive coach who is either "a female or a member of an ethnic or racial minority" to help enhance diversity, equity, and inclusion, reported ABC News.
In other words, they must hire someone based on their genitalia or their skin color -- but not any white males.
But Chapman largely ignored or buried why the NFL is instituting this policy, as reported in the ABC article he cited: the NFL's players are 70 percent black, but there have been only five black NFL head coaches, including the two current ones, and only two NFL teams have non-white owners. NFL head coaches tend to be former offensive coaches.
Nevertheless, Chapman felt the need to end his article:
In his famous "I Have a Dream Speech" of Aug. 28, 1963, then-Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. said, "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today."
Chapman was silent on the fact that the existence of so few black NFL head coaches suggests they continue to be judged by their skin and not their ability. Conservatives love to claim King as their own based on that speech but forget the fact that they hated him back in the day.
Newsmax Portrays Fired Radio Host As Victim, Censors Previous Inflammatory Tweets Topic: Newsmax
An anonymously written April 5 Newsmax article ramped uyp the victimhood for a fired right-wing radio host:
A talk show host claims she was fired from a Washington radio station because she deigned to make light of an outfit worn by Vice President Kamala Harris during last month's State of the Union address.
As reported by The Daily Mail, Amber Athey also works for conservative magazine The Spectator.
Athey is a conservative host with a job on a morning show at news station WMAL.
She got into hot water, she said, when she wrote a light tweet about the color of the suit Harris was wearing -- a brownish hue.
'Kamala looks like a UPS employee — what can brown do for you? Nothing good, apparently,' Athey wrote in the March 1 tweet, making reference to a longtime UPS tagline.
She said there was no sign of any offense for days. But in time, she said, some comments about transgender issues earned her the wrath of left-leaning activists and the tweet was recast as racist.
Just because nobody was immediately offended doesn't mean Athey's tweet wasn't offensive. The "left-leaning activists" who purportedly "recast" Athey's tweet weren't identified; again, there's no need to "recast" something as offensive when it was always that way.
Newsmax also censored the fact that this is not the first time Athey has gotten in trouble for offensive tweets. In 2019, Athey issued an apology over racist and anti-Semitic tweets which she tried to dismiss as having been made "when I was in high school," adding that "I understand now that they are not funny and are in fact extremely harmful." Of course, the vast majority of high school students graduate without ever making racist or anti-Semitic tweets.
WND's Mercer Keeps Taking Russia's Side Against Ukraine Topic: WorldNetDaily
We've already noted that Ilana Mercer is among the WorldNetDaily columnists who have embraced Russian disinformation in the form of allegations that the U.S. is operating biolabs in Ukraine. That's not the only time she has taken Russia's side against the U.S. in Russia's war against Ukraine. Mercer suggested in her March 3 column that it was "reasonable" for Russia to invade Ukraine because of its "security concerns":
America is still the undisputed leader in attacking sovereign nations and killing their kids. Russia's foreign meddling since the early 1990s is insignificant by comparison.
[...]
We were warned. Surround Russia with NATO members, refuse to negotiate in good faith and Putin will go to war. Yet, the stance on both sides of the Atlantic has been dismissive, even contemptuous, of Putin's reasonable, long-standing security concerns.
Mercer linked to a version of her Jan. 27 column, in which she insisted that "'the struggle for Ukraine' is a chapter in a series of U.S. orchestrated provocations, which began with the expansion of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) eastward to abut Russia's borders" and declared that "Russia finds itself between Scylla and Charybdis – allow a buildup on its border, or act, for it has legitimate security concerns."
Mercer then argued that Ukraine should simply have capituated to Russia's demands:
Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelensky – who is the toast of the town simply because he did not skedaddle from the mess in which he mired his country – to this ass with ears goes a special award for recklessness. Not fleeing a situation largely of your making does not a hero make. Curiously, we Americans have offered Zelensky the coward's way out, when we ought to have forced him to sit down with his foes.
[...]
Ukrainians, for their part, are tireless and wily lobbyists in Washington, way more cunning than their American counterparts. For all intents and purposes, Zelensky, head of the corrupt American client statelet that is Ukraine, had tethered the fate of his country to America, NATO and the EU, constantly trying to bend these foolish and feckless entities to his will – too much of a clown to look out for his countrymen's safety, rather than his own popularity in the West.
In her March 24 column, Mercer dismissed Zelensky as a "failed leader" because he didn't capituate to Russia to stop its invasion:
To normies, a leader who doesn't plead for the lives of his people is a failed leader. Diplomacy, negotiations, a cease-fire: that's the nomenclature clear-thinking people ought to wish instinctively to hear when they see the immiseration of Ukrainians and their cities. To my knowledge, not before the war and not now has Zelensky initiated, or partaken in, or been urged to pursue serious, high-level talks with Putin.
And while there is some indication that Zelensky might be inching closer to acceding "neutrality for Kyiv and security guarantees for Moscow," publicly, Zelensky has done nothing but snarl his contempt for Russia, roaring at the Kremlin to "hold peace talks now or suffer for generations." This is not diplomacy, but yet more political posturing and provocation. (But then Zelensky, an actor, could be prepping to appear before the central, universal seat of asininity: Hollywood's Oscars.)
The Hebrew Testament (though "Old," it's never out-of-date) is bedecked with examples of leaders pleading, even bargaining, for the lives of the Stiff-Necked People. Abraham haggled ingeniously with The Almighty over Sodom and Gomorrah. Queen Esther petitioned mighty King Xerxes (Ahasuerus) on behalf of Persian Jews, and Moses did the same for his enslaved people before Pharaoh. Another Hebrew has written that "he who saves you from war is better than he who sends you to war." That's what real leadership is about – uphold and fight for the people's natural right to live peacefully.
By these reasonable and rational criteria, Zelensky and Biden are failed leaders for doing nothing but bait and goad the Russian Bear.
Mercer continued to lament poor Russia in her April 7 column:
All nations now are expected to have found religion on Ukraine. As I pointed out at the start of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, from COVID submission, we the zombie subjects of the new, global order – for citizens we are not – were directed to shuffle along, shipshape, into a new compliance, this time over Ukraine.
In other words, agree with the U.S.'s Disneyfied, angels-and-demons foreign policy, which has now thoroughly infected the world, or face the consequences.
And, unless Russia is made over in the cloying, sloganeering, self-righteously woke image of America – it will not be allowed to stand. Not in its current iteration. That's the message transmitted by the Biden administration, echoed by the Republican Party.
After smearing Zelensky as a "puppet President," Mercer cheered how Ukranian refugees are largely stayingin countries of similar ethnic makeup:
From the elephantine impact of the United States around the world, to the elephant in the proverbial room: Before our very eyes we see a peaceful, almost-seamless integration of millions-upon-millions of Ukrainian refugees into Poland, predominantly, as well as into surrounding countries such as Romania, Slovakia and Hungary. How so? No one will say what is so plain to see.
Those fleeing and those welcoming them with open arms are all almost exclusively of the same Slavic European racial groups, sharing similar habits, habitat and history. It's both natural and easy to welcome people so like you into your midst. For their part, grateful Ukrainians are already begging their benefactors not for handouts but for … jobs. Clearly, in homogeneous, smaller societies, the trust quotient and fellow feeling among people is high.
"Social capital" is how social scientist Robert Putnam termed this. Social connectedness, as in the "networks of organized reciprocity and civic solidarity," is high in these similar, smaller societies. If you doubt this statement of reality, just imagine the uproar that would have ensued if 3 million Syrian and Libyan refugees were preparing to flood Poland.
As befits someone who laments the end of apartheid, Mercer is not a big fan of swarhy, dark-skinned people hanging out with her fellow white Christians.
Mercer framed her May 5 column around a writer named Boyd Cathey -- a far-right activist who helped racists take over the Sons of Confederate Veterans -- who is defending Putin as a traditionalist:
Vladimir Putin, argues Dr. Cathey, has rejected the West's culturally, racially and sexually decadent ways. For this reason, the Russian president has been targeted by the United States for an excruciatingly slow demise. Led by the U.S., the West is destined to bleed Russia dry, the eventual outcome being "regime change" in Moscow (yet another "color revolution").
A trickier question for those of us on the Old Right is this: Putin is a Russian patriot. This, in-depth interviews with the Russian president amply evince. He adores and is deeply acquainted with the nation's "ancient faith," its history and traditions. But could it be that we of the Old Russell Kirk Right, nostalgic for the very same things absent in our own societies, are romanticizing the Russian people? This writer shares Dr. Cathey's love of Tsarist Russia's great culture before communism.[...]
Finally, although it is possible to justify Putin's war with reference to the more statist scholastic Just War Theory – the libertarian axiom of non-aggression won't permit such justification. Putin's war in Ukraine is a war for which there are plenty of reasons, all of them vindicating Russia; Russia is in the right! Reasons for war, however, are not the same as justification for war. A war of aggression is seldom justified.
Yes, Mercer really thinks that Russia is perfectly justified in trying to destroy Ukraine.It's telling that of thes columns, her other ConWeb outlet, CNSNews.com, has published only the April 7 column.
MRC's Hunter Biden Derangement Syndrome: The So-Called Study Topic: Media Research Center
Of course, the Media Research Center had to work a misleading "study" into its Hunter BidenDerangement Syndrome, and Geoffrey Dickens did the honors in an April 18 post:
It was a bombshell story that could have swayed the 2020 presidential election.
Just weeks before Election Day, the New York Post printed an explosive story on the morning of October 14, 2020, that alleged Hunter Biden had corrupt business dealings with Ukraine and Joe Biden knew about them.
The Post story was full of stunning revelations. The “No.3 exec” of the Ukrainian firm Burisma (the firm that was paying Hunter $50,000 a month) asked Hunter Biden for “advice on how you could use your influence” to help the company. “The blockbuster correspondence&rdquo countered Joe Biden’s assertion that he “never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings.” The “correspondence” came from emails found in a laptop dropped off at a Delaware computer store. Also found in the laptop was video evidence of Hunter’s “raunchy” sexual behavior and drug use.
[...]
Broadcast networks systematically buried the devastating laptop story. From October 14, 2020 (the day the New York Post broke the laptop story) through the morning of April 18, 2022 — a period of 18 months — MRC analysts looked at the ABC, CBS, NBC evening and morning shows and their Sunday roundtable programs. That analysis found the total amount of time spent on the Hunter Biden laptop story came to a miniscule 25 minutes, 6 seconds.
LIke his MRC co-workers, Dickens convenient omits the fact that the Post offered no independent verification of the laptop or the information on it, and the fact it is a pro-Trump, anti-Biden media outlet repeating information from pro-Trump, anti-Biden activists like Rudy Giuliani. Those factors made it easy for media outlets outside of the MRC's right-wing bubble to ignore the story. The fact that information on the laptop couldn't be confirmed until just a couple months ago further demonstrates how questionable the original sourcing was.
As usual for an MRC "study," there was no attempt to document how much time Fox News spent on the story, let alone the amount of time Dickens and the MRC believe should have been an adequate amount for non-right-wing outlets to spend on the story. After all, if you're complaining that too little time was spent covering a story, you need a metric to determine what, exactly, "too little" actually means.
He went on to huff:
It all worked. Research conducted by The Polling Company for the Media Research Center after the 2020 election found that the media’s censorship of Biden scandals had a significant impact on the election. The survey found that 45.1% of Biden voters in seven key swing states said they were unaware of the financial scandal enveloping Biden and his son, Hunter. According to our poll, full awareness of the Hunter Biden scandal would have led 9.4% of Biden voters to abandon the Democratic candidate, flipping all six of the swing states he won to Trump, which would have given the former president 311 electoral votes.
Dickens didn't disclose the fact that, as we've noted, The Polling Company was founded by former Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway, raising the issue of another conflict of interest and throws doubt on the accuracy of the poll.
In short, yet another shoddy, biased, incomplete MRC "study." Did anyone expect anything different?
WND Defends Conspiracy-Mongering Over Biden 'New World Order' Reference Topic: WorldNetDaily
Leave it to the conspiracy-mongerers at WorldNetDaily to defend conspiracy-mongering. Art Moore wrote in a March 22 article:
Twitter is among the media platforms taking to task "conspiracy theorists" who spotlighted President Biden's mention in a speech that "there's going to be a new world order."
The Big Tech giant said "New World Order" is a trending term on the platform as "unfounded claims" are being spread.
At a meeting Monday in Washington of the Business Roundtable lobbying organization, Biden declared: "Now is a time when things are shifting. We're going to — there’s going to be a new world order out there, and we’ve got to lead it. And we’ve got to unite the rest of the free world in doing it."
The Independent newspaper of London reported Biden "has inadvertently drawn the attention of conspiracy theorists with remarks he made at the end of a speech about the implications of Russia's assault on Ukraine."
The paper said the "'new world order' conspiracy theory dates back decades." The British stated that the theory "holds that a nefarious elite led by the United Nations and other shadowy forces is planning to install a single transnational global government via the use of force – possibly with the involvement of US agencies including the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which some believe is preparing to put Americans in concentration camps."
However, regardless of what Biden meant when he used the term on Monday, his administration is an advocate of the World Economic Forum, the globalist organization that calls for a "Great Reset" of capitalism and national sovereignty while boasting of regularly assembling "the world's most powerful decision-makers."
Biden has adopted WEF's term "Build Back Better," which captures the idea of a "Great Reset" of the world order in the aftermath of the pandemic.
Moore then rehashed purported evidence that claims to support such conspiracy-mongering:
Fact-checkers have dismissed the "Great Reset conspiracy theory," but WEF founder and Executive Chairman Klaus Schwab made it clear in June 2020 that the COVID-19 pandemic should be exploited as an opportunity to advance the globalist agenda promoted by his Davos conferences, which have pushed for numerous proposals, such as a worldwide carbon tax, to redistribute wealth and shift sovereignty from nation states to global entities.
[...]
One year ago, Pope Francis called for a "new world order" in a book titled "God and the World to Come." He described the new order as a shift from financial speculation, fossil fuels and military build-up to a green economy based on inclusiveness.
After the coronavirus pandemic, the pope said in an excerpt of the book released by the Vatican, "the world will never be the same again."
Did Moore think the world would remain the same after a global pandemic that killed millions of people?
Moore pushed the conspiracy theory again in a March 31 article:
Considerable attention recently has been drawn to the World Economic Forum's "Great Reset" initiative, which regards the COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity to accelerate the globalist objective of increasingly exchanging national sovereignty for international governance.
A lesser known entity, the starkly named World Government Summit, met this week in the ultramodern Gulf emirate Dubai, which is part of the United Arab Emirates.
Its 2022 meeting opened Wednesday with British journalist and CNN Abu Dhabi-based anchor Becky Anderson asking, "Are we ready for a new world order?"
Anderson said "the organizers here are nothing, if not ambitious" for tackling the subject, warning that the world "has hit an inflection point."
Moore then rehashed his complaints about conspiracy theorists like himself getting called out for latching onto Biden's "new world order" reference.
WND's columnist joined in the conspiracy-mongering as well. Oliver North and David Goetch wrote in their April 4 column:
On March 21, shortly before leaving for his NATO summit in Europe, President Joe Biden told the Business Roundtable about "a new world order out there, and we've got to lead it." Unlike so many of Biden's other jaw-dropping comments made before, during and after the summit, nobody raced to "clean up" or "correct" this one. White House, State Department and Pentagon officials and staffers tried to set the record straight about sending the 82nd Airborne into Ukraine, regime change in Russia and an "in-kind" response if Russia used chemical weapons against Ukraine and other Biden gaffes.
Yet no Washington or media elites tried to "walk back" Biden's "new world order" comment. Why? Because far-left globalists have been pressing for a new world order since 1940, when prolific British writer H.G. Wells published his nonfiction work, "The New World Order."
North and Goetsch went on to detail their imagined, hateful version of Biden's "new world order" to instill fear in their readers:
By allowing himself to be controlled, manipulated and scripted by the far left, Biden's new world order is one where the U.S. suffers spiraling inflation, undependable, unaffordable energy, second-class status on the world stage, out-of-control crime, increasing racial discord, food shortages, supply chain tie-ups and millions of immigrants illegally flooding our country.
In Biden's new world order, our federal government will dictate whether Americans must foreswear fossil fuels while our "elites" fly around in private jets – without wearing masks. The Bidenistas apparently believe we will allow the left to pack the Supreme Court, federalize voting laws, eliminate the Electoral College and – lest we forget – replace traditional energy sources with wind, solar and battery power. Do they really believe the eco-loons can control how hard the wind blows and how long the sun shines?
In the Biden new world order, the Peoples' Republic of China will remain ascendent in economic and military power. Through its global Belt and Road Initiative, the PRC will soon attain control over the world's most precious mineral resources and seize control over Taiwan's invaluable scientific microchip production.
[...]
Biden's pusillanimous vision of a new world order should not be America's future. We can still turn our country around before it goes over the cliff behind our bumbling, cognitively impaired, ethically miasmic and timorous president. Preventing the Biden administration's dreams of a new world order from coming to fruition is still possible, but it will require a "regime change" in Washington.
Of course -- the whoie point of "new world order" conspiracies are to instill fear, no matter how far from reality they are.
Newsmax's Gizzi Cheers Orban's Re-Election, Hides How He Rigged It Topic: Newsmax
John Gizzi gushed over an authoritarian's re-election in an April 4 Newsmax article:
As the Biden White House and the European Union no doubt looked forlorn, near-final results from Hungary showed Monday morning that Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his conservative Fidesz Party scored a resounding 53 percent of the vote in national elections.
The vote is even more reassuring because of the significant opposition Orban has faced from within and outside of Hungary.
Both the strong economy and what supporters call Orban's "sensible conservatism" — policies that increased the birth rate and kept Hungary neutral in the Russo-Ukraine War — were key to the big win by Fidesz.
Hungarian sources told Newsmax that Orban's conservative agenda has meant a strong economy, and he translated that into a big win in parliament.
The election result means Orban will hold a record fourth consecutive term as prime minister — with 135 seats for Fidesz and the six-party opposition alliance only 56 seats.
So crushing was the victory by Fidesz that opposition leader Peter Marki-Zay lost his own district where he had been a popular mayor.
Gizzi omitted one big reason why Orban won -- his years in power allowed him to rig the election to undercut his oppostion. The Washington Post reported:
Hungary’s electoral playing field is heavily tilted against the opposition. In 2010, Orban amended the Constitution to cut the size of the parliament in about half, after which he gerrymandered the entire country. The districts, drawn with no input from the opposition, spread Fidesz voters across many small districts in rural areas while concentrating opposition voters in much larger districts in the cities, thus giving them fewer chances to win.
After this redistricting, in 2014, Orban’s party won 45 percent of the vote — but 91 percent of the districts (under Hungary’s electoral system, 106 of the seats are awarded through single-member districts, while the other 93 are awarded through a nationwide electoral list). Similarly, in 2018, Fidesz won 48 percent of the vote and 86 percent of the districts. On election night 2022, with 98 percent of the vote counted, Orban won 53 percent of the vote but 83 percent of the districts. The absentee voters are divided between liberal expats who oppose Orban and conservative Hungarians in neighboring countries who are likely to support him in larger numbers.
[...]
Facing a united opposition, Orban then changed the rules again to wrong-foot them. A November law introduced “voter tourism,” allowing any Hungarian citizen to legally register to vote in any district. Before the election, evidence surfaced that voters were being strategically moved into districts that might otherwise be close, with hundreds of voters registered at single residences. On Election Day, monitors documented minibuses delivering clusters of voters to polls.
Beyond rule-rigging, Orban so dominates the broadcast and print media landscape that the opposition could hardly get its message out.
In addition, Fidesz spent almost 10 times more than the opposition on billboards, overshooting legal campaign finance limits on billboards alone. But Fidesz has repeatedly escaped enforcement of campaign finance rules because it controls the office that enforces them, while other parties have been fined nearly out of existence.
Hiding Orban's obvious election fraud and rigging is ironic given how Newsmax has enthusiastically promoted Donald Trump's discredited election-fraud claims.
Gizzi also touted Orban's allegedly neutral stance on Russia's invasion of Ukraine:
Despite the international media repeatedly dubbing Orban a "Putin Ally" and citing his convivial relationship with the Russian president, Hungarian voters apparently liked their prime minister's policy of neutrality toward Russia and Ukraine.
Hungary has criticized the invasion and taken in refugees, but has not offered to assist Ukraine's military resistance.
Despite repeated urging from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to send arms and impose sanctions on Russia, Orban has refused.
But as CNN reported, Orban has long been close to Vladimir Putin -- to the point that Putin congratulated Orban on his victory -- and much of Hungary's energy comes from Russia; in his victory speech, Orban called Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky one of the "opponents" he had to overcome during the campaign.
Gizzi further gushed that Orban's "pro-family policy," in which "mothers who have four children are exempt from federal income taxes for life," has resulted in "an increase in the fertility rate of 24% in the last decade," according to Minister of Families Katalin Novak, who was elected "Hungary's first woman president" in the election.
CNS Logic: Schools Don't Ban Books, But Amazon Does Topic: CNSNews.com
The Daily Signal's Katrina Trinko huffed in an April 28 CNSNews.com column:
Once again, Amazon has shown it’s on the side of leftist activists, not free speech.
Matt Walsh, a popular conservative podcast host and writer at The Daily Wire, just released a children’s book titled “Johnny the Walrus.” The book, according to the description on Amazon, tells the tale of Johnny, who likes to pretend to be a dinosaur or a knight.
But one day “when the Internet people find out Johnny likes to make-believe, he’s forced to make a decision between the little boy he is and the things he pretends to be — and he’s not allowed to change his mind,” states the description.
Amazon is clearly trying to squash Walsh’s book.
According to Walsh, his picture book has been removed from the category of children’s books and moved to political books. Ads for the book on Amazon also have been rejected by the tech giant as not being “appropriate for all audiences” — an umbrella term for standards that ban advertising for books promoting incest and pedophilia, among other things.
Trinko didn't mention the fact that Walsh is a raging, hateful homophobe who falsely tried to dupe transgender people into appearing in a film that his minions portrayed as a positive film about transgenders but was secretly an anti-trans film. Thus, it's not "squashing" Walsh's book to properly categorize it as a political book, because his transphobia sure isn't for children.
Trinko further complained that "Amazon also banned Ethics and Public Policy Center President Ryan T. Anderson’s book 'When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment'"without mentioning that 1) it too us an anti-trans screed and 2) Amazon, as a private business, has the absolute right to decide what it wants to sell.
Trinko then hypocritically complains about the "shockingly robust selection of propaganda books for little leftists" -- as if Walsh's book isn't propaganda fior little right-wingers-- going on to whine that "another Big Tech company is making clear that there’s one set of rules for leftists and another set for conservatives," again ignoring the fact that Amazon, as a private business, is under no obligation to sell every single book ever published. She would never demand that, say, "I Am Jazz" -- a book about transgender girl Jazz Jennings and among the titles she cited as propaganda books for little leftists" -- be sold at the online store of her employer, the Heritage Foundation or complain that her employer has two sets of rules based on ideology.
Ironically, CNS cheered the idea of books being banned from school libraries just a month before -- albeit by redefining what it means to ban a book. David Harsanyi tried to pull that sleight of hand in a March 29 column (which also appeared at WorldNetDaily):
Accusations of left-wing free-speech authoritarianism -- whether through corporate restrictions, the state targeting "misinformation," the shouting down of dissent in universities, or the canceling of dissenting voices -- are well-documented. Attempting to even the ledger, liberals have begun alleging that conservatives are engaging in "book bans" in public school districts.
The newest outrage on this front comes from a ProPublica investigation in which Superintendent Jeremy Glenn of Granbury Independent School District in North Texas is taped saying chilling things like: "I don't want a kid picking up a book, whether it's about homosexuality or heterosexuality, and reading about how to hook up sexually in our libraries." ("Minutes later," reports ProPublica, "after someone asked whether titles on racism were acceptable, Glenn said books on different cultures 'are great.'")
ProPublica repeatedly refers to the efforts of a volunteer committee set up to review titles as a "book ban." This is a category mistake. Public school curriculum and book selection are political questions decided by school boards. Schools have no duty to carry every volume liberals demand.
[...]
Refusing to carry a book is not tantamount to the heckler's veto, now regularly used by woke college students to shut down ideas in institutions where ideas are meant to be debated. Elementary-school-age kids do not get to choose the topics they learn. Adults do. The debate is about who gets to make that decision: parents or administrators?
So it's not banning books if you're physically stopping them from being available -- but Amazon properly classifying a book is tantamount to a ban. Go figure.
A week after the Media Research Center enthusiastically embraced a gotcha question to Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson about what a woman is, MRC executive Tim Graham apent an April 2 post whining that a similar question was asked of a Republican governor:
Craig Bannister wrote in an April 5 CNSNews.com 
If you thought the Media Research Center 
Every once in a while, WorldNetDaily columnist Michael Brown likes to remind us of 
In February and March, CNSNews.com published a trio of columns by Edward E. Bartlett with a curious theme. Bartlett's Feb. 7 
Media Research Center sports blogger John Simmons started writing about the Russian war on Ukraine the right way, with a Feb. 22 
CNSNews.com managing editor Michael W. Chapman sneered in an April 1 
An anonymously written April 5 Newsmax 
We've already noted
Of course, the Media Research Center had to work a misleading "study" into its 
Leave it to the conspiracy-mongerers at WorldNetDaily to defend conspiracy-mongering. Art Moore wrote in a March 22 
John Gizzi gushed over an authoritarian's re-election in an April 4 Newsmax 
The Daily Signal's Katrina Trinko huffed in an April 28 CNSNews.com 
