MRC's Graham Whines Yet Again That Right-Wing 'Satire' Got Fact-Checked (Because People Think It's Real)
Topic: Media Research Center

The Media Research Center in general, and Tim Graham in particular, love to complain that right-wing "satire" gets fact-checked -- but they usually leave out the part where people treating the "satire" as reality are the reason it gets fact-checked. Graham did it again in a June 24 column:

On June 18, someone captured video of President Biden riding a bike on vacation in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware. When he came to a stop, he caught his foot in the pedal and fell to the pavement. Without it being on tape, no one would have cared much.

On social media, conservatives quickly brought up how Trump was ridiculed for walking gingerly down a ramp at the West Point commencement in 2020. The liberal media – stoked by Trump-loathing social-media accounts – spread it far and wide.

Spencer Brown at Townhall pointed out the Biden campaign even made an ad championing Biden’s vigor, that he runs up ramps while Trump tiptoed down one. CNN’s Chris Cillizza wrote a silly piece headlined “Why the Donald Trump-West Point ramp story actually matters.”

But what stood out on the Biden bike bumble was the “fact checkers.” An AP Fact Check quickly proclaimed: “Despite a fabricated screenshot circulating online, The Atlantic hasn't published an article with a headline describing President Joe Biden's bike fall as ‘heroism.”

The fake headline was “The Heroism of Biden’s Bike Fall: The President gracefully illustrated an important lesson for all Americans—when we fall, we must get back up.” Radio host Jason Rantz tweeted “AP is fact checking a satire of The Atlantic because they think people would believe it really came from that publication — which is telling.”

Reuters also fact-checked it. The typography is exactly the same as the magazine’s, so it would be easy for Biden critics to share and enjoy it.

Again, Graham leaves out the fact that the fake Atlantic headline was fact-checked because people were treating it as real. The Reuters fact-check noted that "One user shared the screenshot on Twitter and said: 'Are you kidding me??'" and that "Another said: 'In 2022 this masquerades as journalism'." The AP fact-check similarly stated: "While some social media users realized that the headline is fake, others appeared to view it as authentic. One Twitter user who shared the image wrote on Saturday, 'Are you kidding me??'"

Rather than offer up examples of liberal-leaning social media memes that were mistaken for reality and thus required a fact-check, Graham whined that the current right-wing star, Ron DeSantis, was mocked by an obvious satirist:

The “fact checkers” lunge to clear up these satires around Biden. But not for, say, Ron DeSantis.

Sister Toldjah at RedState noted that satirist Stephen Colbert badly mangled a DeSantis press conference from January 31, 2022. The CBS late-night host implied DeSantis refused to condemn a gaggle of  “about 20" neo-Nazis quacking in Orlando. Colbert cited an Orlando Sentinel story, but just the words “Gov. Ron DeSantis remained silent.” The actual sentence said he was silent "until Monday afternoon when he responded to a question about the rallies with a tirade against his political enemies.”

Colbert then showed a 12-second video clip of this presser where the governor said he wouldn’t be smeared by Democrats. He insisted DeSantis didn’t have the courage to condemn the neo-Nazis. Again, the Orlando newspaper quoted DeSantis calling them “some jackasses doing this on the street” and said they’d be held accountable by law enforcement.

DeSantis went on to boast of having signed “the strongest antisemitism bill in the country” and denounced the Democrats for welcoming antisemites like Rep. Ilhan Omar.

But there were no fact checks: no AP, no Reuters, no Snopes, and no PolitiFact. Twitter had nothing to underline. Satirists on the Left have a free pass to smear DeSantis as a cowardly lion on neo-Nazis. The game is rigged.

As we documented when the MRC first complained about it, this summary leaves out important details -- it took DeSantis two days to issue a response to the neo-Nazis "quacking in Orlando" and only then when he was cornered on the issue. His then-press secretary, Christina Pushaw, issued a tweet (since deleted) falsely suggesting the Nazis were actually Democrats in disguise.

Graham's whining about how "the game is rigged" is particularly dumb since he gave no examples of it. To the extent that there is a "game" -- and Graham, as a right-wing political operative, thinks everything that doesn't support right-wing narratives is a "game" -- is about telling the truth, and conservatives not getting away with lying to people or misleading them somehow means it's "rigged." If Graham wants a less rigged "game," he should hold his own side as accountable as he holds the "liberal media."

WND's Farah Predictably Cheers Wis. Ballot Drop Box Ruling
Topic: WorldNetDaily

When the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that ballot drop boxes in the state were somehow illegal, Talking Points Memo highlighted how "it didn’t take long for right wing election lie evangelists to declare the decision proof of a fraudulent 2020 vote, and even to demand again that the election results be overturned." One of those rushing to do precisely that was Joseph Farah, who wrote in his July 11 WorldNetDaily column under the headline "Big victory for Trump at Wisconsin Supreme Court":

Wisconsin's Supreme Court ruled Friday that absentee ballot drop boxes may be placed only in election offices and that no one other than the voter can return a ballot in person.

It was the biggest development yet in addressing what Donald Trump and millions of others have called the "Big Steal" of the 2020 election.

Republicans who control the Wisconsin Legislature have also tried to enact laws limiting the use of absentee ballots, but [Gov. Tony] Evers has vetoed them.

The court's 4-3 ruling also has critical implications for the 2024 presidential race, in which Wisconsin will again be among a handful of battleground states. But Trump is trying to do more – hoping to win a series of rulings in key states that invalidates the 2020 election and saves the nation from two more years of Joe Biden.

[...]

Absentee voting exploded during the "plandemic" in 2020, with more than 40% of all voters casting mail ballots, a record high. At least 500 drop boxes were set up in more than 430 communities for the election that year, including more than a dozen each in Madison and Milwaukee — Wisconsin's two most heavily Democratic cities.

The movie "2000 Mules" exposed this charade that it said had deprived Trump of victory.

Trump called on Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos on Saturday to overturn the 2020 presidential election results in the swing state after Friday's rulng.

But as Talking Points Memo pointed out, there's no credible evidence that ballot drop boxes are in any way linked to fraudulent voting, and "2000 Mules" gets more discredited every day, despite WND's enthusiastic promotion of it.

Much of Farah's column seems to be copid-and-pasted from other sources, which is why parts of it sound surprisingly less-than-biased.

MRC's Jean-Pierre-Bashing, Doocy-Fluffing Watch
Topic: Media Research Center

Perhaps sensing he wasn't going to have the opportunity to do much in the near future, Curtis Houck worked as much Doocy-fluffing as he could in his writeup of the Aug. 9 White House press briefing, touting his right-wing narrative-pushing over the "FBI raid" at Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago compound:

With President Biden having spent Monday in flood-stricken Kentucky and departing Wednesday for vacation in South Carolina, Tuesday marked perhaps the week's only White House briefing, so reporters got in their takes about the FBI raid of former President Trump's Florida home. Of course, Fox's Peter Doocy did battle with Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on the raid and whether the White House would do anything to pushback arguments that they've weaponized law enforcement against opponents.

Doocy led off with a round-about way of asking about the raid: “Do you consider Donald Trump to be a political rival of President Biden?” When Jean-Pierre insisted she wouldn't “speak to that from here,” he countered with the fact that Biden “talks about Trump all time.” Incredibly, she disputed it: “Ehhh, I don't talk about Trump all the time.”

Despite a series of audible scoffs, Doocy noted a few recent examples, starting with one of the administrations catchphrases for the GOP: “Ultra-MAGA, you guys were criticizing his handling of COVID last week. You've mentioned his January 6 response a couple days ago. So, can you say, based on all that--I didn't say anything about Mar-a-Lago."

Doocy tried again, but Jean-Pierre ducked, leaving the Fox reporter with another approach in citing Biden's own declaration against him that he'd “be very fortunate if I had [Trump] running against me” in 2024. Jean-Pierre tried to interjected that she wasn't “going to comment on” the raid despite Doocy's insistence that “it's just a quote from the President”

The MRC couldn't kick around Jean-Pierre at the podium the rest of that week, so it kicked her around when she made TV appearances elsewhere (an MRC staple).Alex Christy complained an Aug. 12 post:

Stephen Colbert welcomed White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre onto his Thursday CBS show where he lobbed several softballs her way including wondering how is the White House mending the relationship with the press and wondering how Joe Biden has been so successful.

Regretting how the previous administration treated the press, Colbert declared, “So, when—when—when-- y'all, you know, came into office 18 months ago, one of the things, the goals stated was, to kind of, repair the relationship between that press office and the press.”

[...]

Being a good press secretary, Jean-Pierre gave all credit to Biden, but gas prices are still high, inflation is still bad, and the climate bill—called the Inflation Reduction Act—won’t reduce inflation. No wonder the White House has an easier relationship with the media than its predecessor.

Christy made sure not to mention all the softballs Houck and his boss, Tim Graham, tossed to former Trump press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Graham's podcast earlier this year.

Aidan Moorehouse cheered that Jean-Pierre was asked challenging questions in a CNN appearance, under the sneering headline "You Love To See It":

In an unexpected but not unwelcome act of journalism on Friday morning, CNN anchor and New Day co-host Brianna Keilar pushed back on White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre’s misleading answers about the Inflation Reduction Act.

Keilar began with the simple question of whether or not the White House is confident all Democrats in the House will vote for the bill. Jean-Pierre said “we are confident” about Pelosi’s ability to whip her caucus to vote for the bill, but not before misspeaking and calling the Inflation Reduction Act a “really critical, important anti-inflammation bill out of the Senate.”

[...]

It isn’t often that CNN hosts push back hard against Democratic talking points, so NewsBusters likes to highlight it when they do. Kudos to Keilar for a tough but not obnoxiously aggressive interview.

The MRC never likes it when Republicans are asked challenging questions.

Kevin Tober cheered even more pushback (even if it wasn't to full Doocy-level hostility) in an Aug. 14 post:

On Sunday’s edition of ABC’s This Week, viewers witnessed a random act of journalism from co-anchor Jonathan Karl who challenged White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre on why the recently passed legislation referred to as the Inflation Reduction Act should be called that since according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, the legislation will have a negligible effect on inflation at best. Karl even suggested the name sounded Orwellian. 

Before getting to that question, Karl started out by sucking up to the Biden administration and their economic record. He bemoaned how “just 37 percent of Americans approve of President Biden's handling of the economy” and “70 percent say they felt the economy was getting worse.”

“We have since learned that inflation actually abated in July,” Karl proclaimed. “Why is it that if things are getting better, so many Americans are unhappy with President Biden’s handling of it?” 

Jean-Pierre repeated the Biden administration’s claim that there was “zero percent of inflation” last month and credited the Inflation Reduction Act for working “to lower costs for Americans.”

[...]

While Karl did ask the right question, he’s too late. The time to challenge the Biden administration about the Orwellian named “Inflation Reduction Act” would’ve been before it was passed by Congress and signed into law, not after.

To the MRC, though, any question designed to attack and denigrate a member of a Democratic administration is the "right" question.

CNS Wants You To Know Monkeypox Is A Gay Disease
Topic: CNSNews.com

As with its homophobic columnist Bill Donohue, the similarly homophobic "news" side of CNSNews.com was quick to blame gay people for the spread of monkeypox. In a June 24 article, Patrick Goodenough initially focused on efforts to rename monkeypox over possible racist connotations in a June 24 article, then made sure to hype the gay angle:

While the scientists focused in their article on the associations with Africa, the WHO has also raised concerned about another “stigmatization” concerns, arising from the fact that most of the cases reported in the “newly-affected” countries are in “men who have sex with men.”

Goodenough hammered the narrative home in a July 24 article:

As he declared monkeypox to be a “public health emergency of international concern,” World Health Organization (WHO) director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus noted on Saturday that the viral disease, now recorded in more than 70 countries, is currently “concentrated among men who have sex with men, especially those with multiple sexual partners.”

“That means that this is an outbreak that can be stopped with the right strategies in the right groups,” Tedros said during a briefing in Geneva.

[...]

Data collated by the U.K. Health Security Agency show not only that most of those infected in that country are men who have sex with men, but that in almost one-third of cases multiple sexual partners have also been recorded.

Of 699 cases with information available in Britain, 97 percent (681 out of the 699) are in what the calls “gay, bisexual, and men who have sex with men (GBMSM).”

In 31 percent of the cases for which information was known, the individuals concerned reported having had “10 or more sexual partners in the last 3 months.”

A study in the New England Journal of Medicine, covering 528 monkeypox infections in 16 countries between April and June, found that 98 percent of those infected were “gay or bisexual men.”

The article's rubbed in further, stating: "Monkeypox Named a Global Emergency; WHO Cites ‘Multiple [Gay] Sexual Partners’ As Risk Factor." In fact, WHO did not use the word "gay"; CNS inserted it, presumably to make gay people appear more evil.

Susan Jones complained that gay descriptors weren't used enough by the White House in discussing monkeypox in an Aug. 12 article:

The word 'gay' was mentioned just once Tuesday in a press briefing by the White House Monkeypox Response Team and public health officials, but the fact remains, the disease so far affects mostly homosexual men.

[...]

While the Biden administration avoids mention of men having sex with men, WHO does not:

"Although I am declaring a public health emergency of international concern, for the moment this is an outbreak that is concentrated among men who have sex with men, especially those with multiple sexual partners," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on July 23.

Jones pushed the narrative as well in an Aug. 19 article, headlined "CDC Director: 98 Percent of Monkeypox Cases Are Occurring in Men":

Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra on Thursday repeated something he's said before: "It's important that we all take monkeypox seriously, and it’s critical that we do all we can to keep this dangerous virus from spreading."

Becerra told a video conference that more than 60 jurisdictions have reported approximately 13,500 cases of monkeypox across the country," but given the demographics, most Americans are not at risk.

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky told the same news conference, "As of August 17th, over 39,000 cases have been detected globally in 94 countries. Here in the United States, there have been over 13,500 cases of monkeypox identified across 49 states, as well as Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. 

"Monkeypox case data reported to CDC show that 98 percent of cases are occurring in men," she said.

After noting that the CDC "will publish 'a toolkit for health departments to assist with planning of these large events,' which are intended to attract people most at risk for monkeypox," she made sure to add that "According to a White House fact sheet, the "large events" envisioned by CDC must attract "gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men."

CNS loves portraying gay people as filthy and diseased.

WND's Ollie North: Military Enlistments Down Because Young Americans Are Brainwashed 'Fat, Drugged-Up Criminals'
Topic: WorldNetDaily

The Pentagon, White House and Congress concede there are now recruiting and retention shortfalls in all branches of our military. For example, the Army acknowledges an "alarming" reduction in enlistments between 21,000 and 28,000. Projections for 2023 are even worse.

Lt. Gen. Thomas Spoehr of the Heritage Foundation claims signing up new recruits has not been this difficult since the end of the Vietnam War. He questions whether our all-volunteer military can remain viable.

The problem of enlistment and retention shortfalls is getting worse because "leaders" in the White House, Congress and Pentagon refuse to acknowledge the cause of the problem. They claim current sharp declines in enlistments and retention in all branches of our military are because of a bustling post-COVID economy in which young people can easily find well-paying civilian jobs. This is simply not the root cause of the shortfall in reenlistments and new military accessions.

The pool of candidates for military service is not declining because of well-paying civilian jobs. Rather, it is waning because too many young Americans are fat, drugged-up criminals who were raised in a woke environment where helicopter parents and pandering teachers gave them everything they wanted, neglecting what they needed most: responsibility, accountability and self-discipline. 

The reason so few qualified young people in the eligibility pool choose to serve has less to do with civilian job availability than with the 12 years of anti-America Marxist indoctrination they received in public schools. Why would anyone taught since kindergarten to hate America want to serve in our military? Why would anyone who idolizes professional athletes for kneeling during our national anthem want to serve in a military uniform?

Why would combat veterans reenlist when forced to accept a steady diet of politically correct tripe that runs counter to their personal values on transgenderism, critical race theory and the LGBTQ agenda?

Who wants to serve under a feckless commander in chief like Biden who abandoned American troops and allies on the battlefield in Afghanistan? Finally, who wants to serve under a president who, at a time when all branches are struggling to meet enlistment and retention goals, is dumb enough to terminate tens of thousands of military personnel for failing to take a vaccination they don't want?

Our armed forces exist to deter war and win if we have to fight. Joe Biden's domestic and foreign policies are making both missions impossible.

-- Oliver North and David Goetsch, Aug. 1 WorldNetDaily column

NEW ARTICLE -- A Shared Love Of Hating Others, Part 2: The Chappelle Show
Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center went from hating comedian Dave Chappelle to loving his transphobic "humor." Plus: How has the MRC continued to show transphobic love to Ricky Gervais and J.K. Rowling? Read more >>

WND's Farah Just Can't Stop Pushing Obama Birtherism
Topic: WorldNetDaily

WorldNetDaily editor Joseph Farah continues his revisionist history of Obama birtherism in his Aug. 3 column," which came out to mark Barack Obama's "purported birthday":

Donald Trump was hardly the first "birther." Neither was I. Nor was my colleague Jerome Corsi. And neither was Hillary Clinton.

That honor belongs to one person and one person alone – Barack Obama.

We all followed suit, but were not the first to raise it.

Obama went to extreme lengths to conceal his past. And, indeed, if he was born in the U.S. and was eligible to serve as president, he certainly did his best to create the mystery that led to the question being asked.

Farah went on to claim that Obama "billed himself as having been born in Kenya," citing only a blurb by a former book agent; in fact, the agent who edited the blurb said it was a fact-check error, and there's no evidence Obama himself ever signed off on that description.

But, of course, Farah quickly moved to rehashing old conspiracy theories:

His fans in the media will look back on their hero with feelings of nostalgia. Watch for it. There may be "birther" recaps written about me. I, after all, published the bestselling book "Where's the Birth Certificate," by Corsi.

I won't go into the voluminous amount of evidence of a cover-up, or all the valid reasons for questioning not only where Obama was born, but whether he had even retained citizenship when he and his mother left the country to move to Indonesia and enroll him in a Muslim school there over the objections of U.S. immigration officials concerned, at the time, about his citizenship status.

I won't go into his missing college records, which might shed light on whether Obama had claimed to be a foreign student, as many at Columbia assumed.

I won't go into the fact that his supposed "birth hospital" in Hawaii steadfastly refused to acknowledge publicly that simple fact for years, inexplicably.

Would that not be reason enough to investigate his background? But there's more.

The governor of Hawaii at the time, Neil Abercrombie, searched for the birth certificate and said he could not find it.

None of which prove Obama wasn't born in the U.S., but instead prove that he has privacy rights. Still Farah went on:

Then Obama refused to release his long form birth certificate throughout his entire first term in office, despite the controversies he had ignited years earlier.

The question of eligibility was real. His father was a native of Kenya and his mother was an under-age 17-year-old who might not be have been able to confer citizenship to her son.

A birth certificate was eventually released for two reasons:

WND Books published "Where's the Birth Certificate?" by Jerome Corsi – and it went to No. 1 on Amazon. And, secondly, Obama's favorite fix-it law firm, Perkins Coie, was dispatch to Hawaii to finally "find" it, or so they say. Perkins Coie is the Democratic law firm that boasts "sharing" space with the FBI. Isn't that cozy?

I will add that the document has never been authenticated as genuine.

The "long form" birth certificate contained nothing that wasn't in the certificate Obama released. And it has been authenticated -- WND chose, rather than to accept it, concocted a false conspiracy theory that the PDF of the certificate that the Obama White House released was manufactured.Farah concluded:

Personally, I thought it was important to establish that Obama met the minimal constitutional litmus test for eligibility. For that I was vilified, called a racist, lampooned, besmirched, called a conspiracy theorist and worse.

It's worth recalling that in the 2008 election, the only "birther" issue to be raised by any media was the question of John McCain's eligibility. That one was driven home by the New York Times and had to be settled by a U.S. Senate investigation and unanimous vote that he was. McCain needed to turn over his birth certificate – because he was born in Panama. His parents were stationed there in the war. Obama never needed to show his birth certificate.

And that's the real story of who the first "birther" really was. It was Barack Hussein Obama.

But Farah lied to people to perpetuate his birtherism crusade in an attempt to destroy Obama. Instead, Farah destroyed any shred of credibiity WND had to push a false story. And even now -- as he has to beg for money to keep WND alive -- Farah can't stop lying.

MRC's Lord Defends OAN From Latest Platform Loss -- But Censors The Channel's Lies
Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center normally vociferously defends its fellow right-wing media outlets against any and allc riticism from non-right-wing quarters, it has mostly tepid about defending One America News. It didn't have much to say when DirecTV dropped OAN from its TV offerings beyond a couple posts and a column by Jeffrey Lord -- all of which ignored the fact that OAN has a notorious history of airing false and misleadoing claims, and that it's currently being sued by election-tech firms Dominion and Smartmatic for helping Donald Trumo's Big Lie by falsely accusing them of engaging in election fraud. When Verizon -- OAN's last remaining distributor -- decided to drop OAN, Lord returned with a July 23 column ranting that Verizon was "leftist" and "woke" for engaging in a business decision and somehow blaming it on the company encouraging diversity in its workforce:

Of course.

Verizon, now completely in the woke tank, has moved to silence the conservative One America News Network (OAN). Here’s a sample headline from CNET:

Verizon Becomes Last Big TV Provider to Drop Right-Wing Channel One America News

OAN was criticized for spouting misinformation about COVID and the 2020 election. But Verizon says it's dropping OAN for “economics.”

"Verizon says it's dropping OAN for ‘economics.’”

Right. If you believe that I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you. This is, after all, the self-same Verizon that was headlined in The Blaze as follows not quite a year ago:

Verizon pushes leftist, anti-American agenda in social justice training for employees: Report

Breitbart has exactly captured what this is really all about.

[...]

Make no mistake. This shutdown of One America News by Verizon is part and parcel of the American Left’s determination to use Big Tech to shut down not just conservative media but conservatives in general - and there is nothing new about it. ( AT&T’s Direct TV has also dropped OAN.)

That passing reference to "misinformation" at OAN is Lord's only reference to the elephant in the room. He went on to rant about "CNN pushing the Trump-Russia collusion hoax," which wasn't a hoax at all, and did not entail pushing the kind of lies OAN spread about Dominion and Smartmatic. He apparently doesn't believe that OAN should face any real-life consequences for spreading lies.

CNS Unemployment Coverage Distortion Watch, Headline Shenanigans Edition
Topic: CNSNews.com

Susan Jones' main CNSNews.com story on July's employment numbers started out this way:

Non-farm payrolls added a whopping 528,000 in July, more than double the estimate of 250,000; and the unemployment rate edged down to 3.5 percent in July from 3.6 percent in June.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that job growth was widespread, led by gains in leisure and hospitality, professional and business services, and health care. "Both total nonfarm employment and the unemployment rate have returned to their February 2020 pre-pandemic levels," BLS noted.

You wouldn't know any of that from the headline of the story, however,. which cherry-picked all the less positive numbers and crammed them in:"62.1%: Labor Force Participation Falls in July, As 239,000 More Americans Drop Out of Labor Force." Jones didn't mention any of that stuff until the thhird paragraph:

But on the downside, the number of Americans not in the labor force -- no job and not looking for one -- climbed above the 100,000,000 mark again, settling at 100,051,000 in July. That's a 239,000 increase from June; and it follows an increase of 510,000 from May to June, when the number rose to 99,812,000.

The “not in the labor force” category includes retired persons, students, those taking care of children or other family members, and others who are neither working nor seeking work.

People who don't have a job and aren't looking for one put downward pressure on the important labor force participation rate, which dropped a tenth of a point to 62.1 percent in July.

One might call the headline on Jones' story false advertising. And even after conceding that the job numbers hit pre-pandemic levels, Jones still searched for a way to credit Ddonald Trump for having an even better economy pre-pandemic:

The participation rate was 61.4 percent when Joe Biden took office as the pandemic raged. Today's number, 62.1 percent, is still below the Trump-era high of 63.4 percent in February 2020, just before COVID shut things down.

After rising for more than three decades, the overall labor force participation rate peaked in early 2000 at 67.3 percent and subsequently trended down. In recent years, baby-boom retirements have contributed to the decline in the overall participation rate.

Instead of hisusual sidebar on government jobs, editor Terry Jeffrey wrote one on manufacturing jobs, admitting that they "increased by 30,000 in the month of July" and is "is now above what it was in the months immediately preceding that start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020." It must have painful for the Trump-loving Jeffrey to admit that.

MRC Continues To Hypocritically Whine About Dems Meddling In GOP Primaries
Topic: Media Research Center

We've shown how the Media Research Center has hyporitically complained about Democrats taking part in Republican primaries to boost far-right candidates who might be easier to beat in November -- though it had hearily endorsed Rush Limbaugh's "Operation Chaos," an effort in which Republicans meddled in Democratic primaries. The MRC's whining on the subject has, unsurprisingly, continued. Kevin Tober hyped in a July 24 post:

On Sunday’s State of the Union on CNN, panelist Scott Jennings wiped the floor with the leftists he was debating during the panel segment of the show. Once the direction of the panel drifted toward how in many Republican primaries, voters have nominated what some claim are weak or radical candidates, Jennings turned it around on them and noted how the Democrat Party [sic] has been propping up these candidates. 

“Let me just say. We’ve heard a lot of names here this morning. Cox, you brought up the Maryland guy, Lake, Arizona, Mastriano, Pennsylvania. What do all these people have in common?” Jennings asked rhetorically. “Trump is for them and the Democrat [sic] Governors Association has spent millions of dollars to get them their nominations. It is the height of cynicism and hypocrisy!”

Tim Graham, who did most of the earlier selective ranting about cross-party meddling, did more of it in a July 26 post:

On Monday night, Rachel Maddow fulsomely interviewed Josh Shapiro, the Democrat nominee in the governor's race in Pennsylvania, about how his opponent Doug Mastriano is a dangerous, anti-democratic extremist, and never asked Shapiro why -- if he was such a danger -- Shapiro spent almost a million dollars trying to help him win the Republican nomination.

Shapiro spent $840,000 running ads calling Mastriano “one of Donald Trump’s strongest supporters.” The ad went on to say that Mr. Mastriano “wants to end vote by mail. He led the fight to audit the 2020 election. If Mastriano wins, it’s a win for what Donald Trump stands for.” Shapiro and the state Democratic Party sent out mailers boosting him.

It's cynical, but MSNBC doesn't think it's worth mentioning. This, obviously, is the same tactic the Democrats attempted with Trump in 2016, only to see it backfire in their faces. But Maddow will play the game of pretending they had nothing to do with this!

[...]

Shapiro ran an "Operation Chaos" in the race, spending money to make it possible that the "dangerous chaos" candidate won. And MSNBC is presenting this Fake News impression that he never wanted this to happen.

Graham didn't explain that "Operation Chaos" started with right-wing icon Limbaugh -- and that his employer loved it.

Tober returned for a July 31 post touting talking heads on ABC criticizing the idea:

On Sunday’s This Week on ABC, both co-moderator Jonathan Karl and his panelists on the “PowerHouse Roundtable” tore into the Democrat Party congressional campaign arm: the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) for running ads promoting Trump-backed candidates in GOP primaries. One panelist, USA Today Washington Bureau chief Susan Page declared it both “risky” and “hypocritical."  

Switching gears from an unrelated subject, Karl turned to the topic of the Democrats' election meddling. He remarked: “Speaking of this question of credibility, I wanna Susan, get you to kinda help explain Democrats going in and putting millions of dollars in states, in races across the country to support candidates” that are like former President Donald Trump. 

Turning to Page, Karl bemoaned how even liberal Never-Trump Republican Peter Meijer, who was one of the ten Republicans to vote for Trump’s second impeachment is being targeted by the DCCC.

In neither post did Tober mention the hypocrisy of being Republicans being outraged overthis when they cheered Rush's 'Operation Chaos."

Mark Finkelstein whined in an Aug. 7 post:

How all-in has Michael Steele gone for the Democrats? As his comments on Ali Velshi’s MSNBC show on Saturday demonstrated, the answer is, very all-in! Steele is the former chairman of the Republican National Committee, turned Never Trumper, MSNBC analyst, and eventually, member of the disgraced Lincoln Project.

The subject was the efforts by Democrats to meddle in Republican primaries by promoting MAGA/Trump-supporters, whom the Dems assume would be easier to defeat in the general election with the latest example being Michigan's third congressional district with Democrats pumping money in to promote John Gibbs, an ardent Trump supporter over incumbent Congressman Peter Meijer, who had voted to impeach the President in 2021.

[...]

Not only did Steele support the Democrats' intervention in the Republican primary, but he was also less-than-truthful in describing their efforts. Steele twice claimed that the Democrats had run “positive” ads for Gibbs.

Finkelstein also refused to mention "Operation Chaos."

Newsmax's Hirsen Gushes Over Country Singer's Right-Wing Rant In Song Form
Topic: Newsmax

Newsmax columnist James Hirsen loves movies and music that push right-wing narratives. He describes his latest love in his July 25 column:

John Rich has tapped into the current Zeitgeist like few others dare to even try, and it seems to be paying off big-time for the country music artist.

His latest inspiration is turning out to be an anthem for the times, one that since its release has been downloaded by millions all around the globe.

The singer-songwriter’s most recent project is titled “Progress,” and he appears to draw upon his extensive band experience, which includes being a member of Lonestar and Big & Rich.

Written, performed, and recorded by Rich, “Progress” shot to the top of the charts in what feels like a nanosecond. 

The tune was initially released independently via former President Donald Trump’s social media network Truth Social. Then on its first day it became the global No. 1 single on the Apple Music charts, outperforming some of the biggest pop artists.

The song's extraordinary rise in popularity is an indication of the sizable population of freedom-loving people in the U.S. and the world, whose entertainment choices are a reflection of their deeply held beliefs.

Indeed, the song is very Trumpy, as Hirsen goes on to gush:

The lyrics of the song go on to take direct aim at specific policies that are impacting our nation and others abroad, including border crises, financial mismanagement, abandonment of individuals, facilities, and resources in Afghanistan, and draconian measures in response to a virus.>

The first verse begins with words that express the feelings of people who are justifiably overwhelmed with the many unprecedented changes that have occurred in the past two years:

“There’s a hole in this country
Where its heart used to be.”

In one verse, Rich's song compares the current administration's zero-border policy with its ruinous withdrawal from Afghanistan that led to the deaths of 13 military service members:

“They invite the whole world to come live in our land
And leave our countrymen dying in Afghanistan.”

In another verse, the lyrics provide a commentary on the current tendency to denigrate and even try to eliminate Christianity in order to replace it with allegiance to the almighty state:

“They say let go of Jesus and let Government save
You can have back your freedoms if you do what we say.”

The subject of faith is near and dear to Rich, who posed the following question back in 2020: “Why is there such a push to get God out of the conversation?”

Hirsen's gushing continued:

Rich issued a press statement to explain his goals in releasing the song at this particular point in time.

“I, like you, have been watching and living through the systematic destruction of our country. And in the name of progress, we see our border is standing wide open,” he said.

“And in the name of their progress we see our children targeted. And in the name of progress we see crime coast to coast like we’ve never seen it before. And in the name of progress we see people wanting to take our rights away to defend ourselves and our families as we see fit. And so on and so forth in the name of progress,” he added.

Rich sounds like he's been watching Fox News and reading Newsmax. Tbhe fact that Rich chose Donald Trump's fringe social media site to launch the song tells us he's not trying to push a universal message -- he doesn't explain why doing what was necessary to save lives during a deadly pandemic was a bad thing -- but a very narrow one. Indeed, it;s a =right-winbg screed, and Hirsen loves it, even slobbering over the video for the song:

The music video of the song projects powerful images of the nation's so-called progress, including empty grocery store shelves, exorbitant gas prices, and streets on fire as the result of intentional burning and looting gone unchecked.

Is there any footage of the Capitol insurrection, which right-wingers like Hirsen and Rich presumably want to keep unchecked? Did the video include mention of the "so-called progress" of Donald Trump's rampant corruption and lies? Hirsen doesn't say.

WND's Lively Launches Sleazy Attack On Harris
Topic: WorldNetDaily

When WorldNetDaily columnist Scott Lively is not fluffing Vladimir Putin or spewing hate at LGBT people, he has the occasional meltdown about Democratic politicians. LIke this sleazy July 25 attack on Vice President Kamala Harris:

The American experience has become a horror story that's about to get truly scary. The most blatantly sexually corrupt – and publicly reviled – woman in American political history remains just one heartbeat away from the presidency of the United States as the Obama team waits for the exact right moment to pull the plug on putative "President" Biden.

What started in 1620 as the dream of America as a "Shining City on a Hill" has morphed into the nightmare of "The Shining" with crazy Joe Biden as the ax murderer of cultural normalcy, Jack, and Kamala Harris as the hapless wife, Wendy (set to inherit the dystopian ruins he leaves behind). But Harris' story goes much deeper than Hollywood – to the apocalyptic Babylonian script of Revelation 17, which America now emulates, in which she IS the "Horror," if not (technically) the "Whore" of Babylon.

Lively did not explain how Harris is supposedly "blatantly sexually corrupt" -- he's likely alluding to the old debunked right-wing slut-shaming that Harris advanced her political career through an affair with California politician Willie Brown. Fellow WND columnist Mychal Massie advanced the smear, and even the reasonable-by-comparison Media Research Center tried to as well.

From there, Lively spouted a bunch of bizarre conspiracy-mongering about Barack Obama, which somehow culminated with Harris:

That old serpent Barack promised to fundamentally transform America – and man, has he delivered. In his eight years in the White House, he mysteriously transformed this once-Christian nation into a demon-infested Babylon, and then, from his shadow-government war rooms in downtown D.C., he first orchestrated the 2020 election coup and has ever since played the part of ventriloquist Edgar Bergen to Biden's evil "Chucky" revision of the lovable Charlie McCarthy doll (a wooden puppet controlled by an arm up his backside), as Obama's minions feverishly consolidated their control over all our institutions under the cover of a continuing medical pandemic and a "domestic insurrection of white supremacists."

Obama's next major milestone and the ultimate humiliation of the "white America" he so fervidly reviles will be the ascension of the utterly inept and embarrassingly gauche Kamala Harris to the highest office in the land, at the very height of our worst national crisis ever.

After quasi-clarifying that "In the Bible, the 'Whore of Babylon' is not a woman but a city," Lively ranted even more about Harris and Harris-adjacent things:

What is not speculative, is the seeming inescapable, horrifying specter of our country falling into the incapable hands of Kamala Harris as the world collapses into lawlessness and chaos.

"Who can save us from this nightmare?" is the natural question we're all intended to ask at this stage – because it has all been staged to bring us to this very spot, where fear and anxiety make us ready to accept whatever "savior" the dark principalities and powers plan soon to unveil. The Whore of Babylon is just a supporting role in this real-life horror movie, while the Luciferian "Star" waits in the wings. Somehow, some way, I suspect it will be Obama.

However, no matter what human form that false Messiah will take, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." Choose you this day whom YOU will serve.

Lively has shown by his unhinged hate who he serves.

NEW ARTICLE: The MRC's Gun Defenders
Topic: Media Research Center
After each major gun massacre earlier this year, the Media Research Center devoted time and energy to defending the honor of guns and the refusal of Republicans to do anything meaningful to address gun crime. Read more >>

MRC In Defense Mode Over GOP Flip-Flop On Veterans Bill
Topic: Media Research Center

When Senate Republicans blocked a bill that would expand benefits for veterans would had been exposed to toxic environments while serving -- purportedly over a dispute over a funding mechanism despite having previously supporting the bill on a previous vote, though it may have been more beause the Republicans were throwing a fit that Democrats reached an agreement with Sen. Joe Manchin on a completely different bill -- the Media Research Center had to rush into defense mode, especially after former "Daily Show" host and longtime veterans advocate Jon Stewart excoriated the Republicans for the flip-flop. Alex Christy spent an Aug. 2 post complaining that Stephen Colbert called out the flip-flop and insisting Republicans had a perfectly good reason for doing so:

On Monday’s installment of The Late Show on CBS, host Stephen Colbert flipped off Republicans for voting against the PACT Act, alleging they oppose health care for veterans solely to get back at Democrats for Chuck Schumer and Joe Manchin coming to a climate agreement. Naturally, Colbert omitted other, less malicious explanations.

Colbert began by solemnly declaring, “there's a story about Congress and veterans out there that you might have heard of. I’m just gonna start by saying I've been making the political jokey make-'em-ups for over 20 years, and I've never seen anything so baldly cynical and pointlessly malicious as this.”

After explaining the bill's coverage of health care for those "who were exposed toxins and burn pits," Colbert reported, “Except that, due to an administrative issue, the Senate had to revote on the bill. And this time, it was blocked, because 25 Republican senators flipped their votes.”

As he continued, Colbert raised a middle finger, “And like many Americans, I'd like to flip them in return. And, why would Republicans screw over veterans on a good bill that they previously voted for? Well, one theory is they had their boxers in a bunch after Joe Manchin and Chuck Schumer secretly negotiated a big climate deal.”

That’s one theory. Another, more innocent explanation is that the bill was written is such a way that it was possible the money could’ve been spent on unrelated matters and Republicans realized that and wanted to fix it.

Christy didn't explain why Republicans failed to catch this before voting on it the first time -- possibly because he ewould have to explain that GOP senators were incompetent at their jobs.

Kevin Tober took his own shot at being the GOP apologist in a post later that day:

On Tuesday night, after a week of arguing between Senate Republicans and Democrats over legislation which would help veterans who have been made sick by burn pits, both CBS Evening News and NBC Nightly News omitted the reason why Republicans opposed the legislation. Hint: it’s not because they hate veterans.

After blocking the legislation late last week, both CBS and NBC were quick to pounce on Republicans for turning around and voting for the legislation on Tuesday evening. 

If you made the misguided decision to rely on either CBS or NBC for your news, you would never know that Senate Democrats stuffed the bill with over $396 billion in mandatory spending.

[...]

It turns out that if you stuff a bill related to care for veterans with Democrat Party [sic] pet projects, Republicans will fight to cut that waste out. It has nothing to do with not supporting veteran care. CBS & NBC know that but the truth doesn’t matter. Only the Democrat Party [sic] narrative does. 

Like Christy, Tober didn't explain why Republicans were so incompetent as to overlook that spending  on the first vote, nor did he e3xplain why it's a bad thing for making that spending mandatory rather than discretionary, or explain why it's a bad thing for spending on veterans to be mandatory rather than discretionary or explain what exactly the "Democrat Party [sic] pet projects" Republicans are oppsing (or why he can't get the name of the Democratic Party correct).

Margaret Buckley used an Aug. 3 post to gripe that MSNBC's Joe Scarborough "ranted his anger over the Republicans shooting down a bill that could potentially help Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans, labeling them as 'anti-veteran'" and that guest Sen. Tim Kaine was "droning on and on about his theory as to why these 'dirty' Republicans struck the bill down. He figured it was because they were “mad the Democrats were doing a reconciliation deal,' and wanted 'revenge.'" Surprisingly, Buckley didn't try to defend Republicans.

Emma Schulz's Aug. 3 post was devoted to whining that CNN interviewed "liberal activist" Stewart (Schutz didn't explain how Stewart's activism on this issue made him "liberal") and that that the host accurately pointed out that Republicans looked quite "anti-veteran" in flip-flopping on the bill before finally being shamed into supporting it:

What's the worst, most simplistic way to attack Senate Republicans? If you're a journalist at CNN, you suggest GOP members are “anti-veteran.” Discussing the new toxic exposure bipartisan bill traveling through the House and the Senate, on Tuesday’s CNN Newsroom with Ana Cabrera, the host interviewed liberal activist Jon Stewart. This new bill, according to Roll Call, expands on the existing House bill passed in March. The legislation would consist of “new health care and tax-free benefits as high as $3,332 a month to as many as 3.5 million veterans” at a cost estimated to be $278.5 billion over 10 years.

Originally, Republicans had backed the bill. When voting on it on June 16th, it was 84-14 in favor. Now, as Stewart claimed, Senate Republicans are “Flipping. Flipping their votes,” because of a “so-called budgetary gimmick.” The measure failed 55-42 last week.

Assuming the worst, Cabrera asked, “Why would they change their votes? Do you actually think they’re anti-veteran?” “No, I think they’re insulated and isolated, and that they’ve lost themselves to parliamentary procedures,” Stewart answered. He continued, “and you know, I’m not suggesting that there’s malevolence in the way that they’re treating veterans, but there is apathy and ignorance.”

The total spending would be more than $300 million over the upcoming decade, and in the words of Republican Senator Pat Toomey, “what I’m trying to do is change a government accounting methodology that is designed to allow our Democratic colleagues to go on an unrelated $400 billion spending spree that has nothing to do with veterans.”

What would it have looked like if this had been a bipartisan bill that Democrats had tried to stomp? The networks might surely be calling them, “smart” or “intelligent” for checking where millions of dollars were planned to go.

Yet, Cabrera stands to suggest that GOP might be against the men and women of service, probing the activist to do the same. Cabrera even went as going as far as to suggest that personal Twitter battles between Senator Ted Cruz and Stewart made the ‘No’ from the Senator a little more personal.

Schultz huffed at the end: "What CNN has failed to report is that POLITICO reported Minority Leader Mitch McConnell stating, “it will pass this week,” along with both Senator John Barrasso (R-WY) and Senator John Thune (R- S.D.) making comments on the same wavelength, how they would “expect it to pass.” Instead, Cabrera would rather paint the narrative that CNN so boldly holds: GOP stands for nothing good." Meanwhile, the MRC is too busy playing defense to acknowledge that Republicans would not be in this situation had they been more honest and not played last-minute budget games on this bill.

Correction: WND Did Report Dropping Of Charges Against Colbert Staffers
Topic: WorldNetDaily

A correction: We had previously written that WorldNetDaily hyped the arrest of "The Late Show With Stephen Colbert" staffers inside the Capitol complex but censored the charges being dropped later. Turns out WND did -- but that story was, for some reason, buried in thte search results on WND, which for some reason does not list stories chronologically. Bob Unruh reported the exoneration in a July 19 article -- but still managed to whine that Capitol riot insurrectionists are still in jail for actual crimes:

Hundreds of Americans have been accused of illegally invading the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as part of a protest over the known irregularities of the 2020 presidential election, and hundreds now are facing charges. Many of them still are in jail.

But authorities in Washington say staff members for a television show who were found to be in the Capitol complex without permission, and were accused of "unlawful entry," will face no punishment.

The New York Daily News reported that nine staff members for "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" – facing accusations of "unlawful entry" – will not be charged.

The staff members had been arrested last month but now are being given a pass on their offense, according to officials with the Capitol Police and the U.S. attorney's office in Washington.

Unruh did go on to grudginging admit that the show staffers were "being given a pass" because they did nothing wrong -- they were properly let into the building but did not have a staff escort with them at all times, as is apparently required. but after doing that, Unruh returned to complaining about the insurrectionists who committed actual, documented crimes remaining in jail and hyping a letter written by outraged Republicans on the subject:

WND reported when the situation caught the attention of Republican members of Congress, who have insisted on being given all the reports, witness statements, surveillance footage and photographs regarding the incursion.

"These individuals were arrested and charged with unlawful entry after causing 'disturbances' at the offices of several Republican members, including 'banging' on their office doors," a letter to Capitol Police from Reps. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Rodney Davis, R-Ill., said.

[...]

"Much has been made lately about unauthorized access to House office buildings, including debunked Democrat allegations that Republican members led so-called reconnaissance tours of the Capitol Complex in advance of January 6," the letter said.

"Unlike the Democrat allegations of reconnaissance tours, however, the events on June 16 actually resulted in arrests for unlawful entry," the Republicans wrote.

Yes, Unruh still found a way to push WND's right-wing agenda even when the original story turned out to be a nothingburger.