NEW ARTICLE: Joseph Farah's COVID Conspiracies
Topic: WorldNetDaily
Of course WorldNetDaily's editor leads by example in pushing coronavirus misinformation. That's what he does. Read more >>

MRC Slowly Reacts To FBI Search of Trump's Mar-a-Lago
Topic: Media Research Center

Like its "news" division CNSNews.com, the Media Research Center avoided immediately weighing in on the FBI search of Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago compound, apparently taking the time to figure out how to put the right spin on it to avoid having to label their beloved Trump a criminal. The first post on the subject on Aug. 9, from Mark Finkelstein, whined that certain of the MRC's designated enemies were talking about the raid, like Joe Scarborough:

Some media people have been restrained, but MSNBC morning hothead Joe Scarborough was in all his predictable glory on today's Morning Joe over yesterday's FBI search of Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago.

Inevitably, Scarborough broke out his "fascist" shtick, using the term nine times in one exchange with Michael Steele in describing Trump and his followers.

The exchange ended with Scarborough literally screaming at the camera

"You break the law, you go to jail . . . In America&mdasheven in the age of Trump! No! Man! Is above the law "

Steele, the former RNC Chairman turned “MSNBC Republican,” dutifully responded: "Amen brother. I can't say it better than that."

Alex Christy complained that NBC's Andrea Mitchell called out House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy's kneejerk demand to investigate Attorney General Merrick Garland to punish him for approving the search:

On her Tuesday show on MSNBC, Andrea Mitchell blasted House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s “outrageous” pledge to investigate Attorney General Merrick Garland if the GOP were to regain the House in November in the aftermath of the FBI’s raid on former President Trump’s home.

After declaring that all the cries for the FBI and Justice Department to explain themselves are wrong because commenting on an on-going investigation would be improper, Mitchell focused on critics of the raid, “And yet, you have an unrestrained, you know, litany of comments from Trump World and as we’ll get to later with Ben Collins and others, you know, online, you know, threatening comments.”

Given the FBI's recent history, one can be critical without endorsing the behavior of the worst parts of the internet. Yet, Mitchell tied that to the ordinary pledge of one party promising to investigate the other if they take control of Congress, “Kevin McCarthy, with really, you have to say an outrageous attack on Merrick Garland. You know, you know, brace yourself when we take over, you know, clear your calendar, we’re going to investigate you.”

Curtis Houck, meanwhile, was giddy that his hated "liberal media" outlets called for transparency from the FBI and Garland, as if they didn't have a plan or evidence before approving the search:

The “big three” networks of ABC, CBS, and NBC dedicated extensive time Tuesday morning to the stunning news that former President Trump’s Palm Beach, Florida home of Mar-a-Lago was raided Monday night by the FBI with a search warrant reportedly pursuant to a possible Presidential Records Act violation. 

However, the liberal networks were surprisingly not ready to celebrate with ABC and CBS noting there’s been very little “transparency from the Justice Department or the FBI” and, if they had only sought boxes of presidential records, it would be correctly viewed as “overreach” by the Department of Justice (DOJ).

Kevin Tober was similarly thrilled that some on CNN worried that the search was a "daring and dangerous move by the Department of Justice," and he gloated that ABC called for transparency as well. Nicholas Fondacaro, meanwhile, grumbled that an MSNBC analyst "suggest[ed] that the secrecy surrounding the raid was on par with the secrecy of the Navy SEAL raid that killed Osama bin Laden."

Aidn Moorehouse served up a different complaint:

With news of Trump’s home of Mar-a-Lago being raided by the FBI dominating the news, substitute host Dr. Jason Johnson brought on Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank on Monday night's ReidOut to spread fear that news of the raid would inspire a latter-day Timothy McVeigh to commit an act of terrorism comparable in scale to the 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing that killed 168 people and injured nearly 700.

[...]

Blaming Republicans for the Oklahoma City bombing is sadly not a new phenomenon, and the MRC reported it when they did it right after the bombing.

As for the bomber’s true motivation, Timothy McVeigh stated in a letter published after his execution in 2001, “When an aggressor force continually launches attacks from a particular base of operations, it is sound military strategy to take the fight to the enemy.”

Needless to say, somebody worried about federal overreach is not the same as someone who views the federal government as an enemy combatant.

And finally, the reaction of Trump supporters on the ground was...to drive to Mar-a-Lago and protest the raid with signs and flags.

Moorehouse seems to have missed the past several years of right-wing ranting about the "Deep State," which, yes, does portray the federal government as enemy combatants. And pro-Trump activists are certainly seeing the Mar-a-Lago search as something an enemy combatant does.

Christy came back to whine that late-night comedians were making jokes about the search:

CBS The Late Show host Stephen Colbert must live a rather dull life because how else does one come to the conclusion that the FBI raid on former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home is like Christmas? Not only did Colbert compare the raid to that holiday on Tuesday, he also declared the related news headline “the most beautiful sentence America has ever produced.”

Colbert kicked off his opening monologue by reporting that while it may have been 96 degrees outside, “in here it's Christmas.”

To a rambunctious applause from the studio audience, Colbert continued, “Because yesterday, we all got the present we wanted: FBI agents raided Mar-a-Lago.”

[...]

Admitting to not knowing the context around something, but still comparing it to Christmas and treating it as historically positive development is why so many people have reacted to the raid with suspicion or even outright hostility.

Hostility? Wasn't this what Moorehouse was denying that Trumpies were engaging in after the raid?

Chuck Norris Continues Bromance With Authoritarian Dictator Orban
Topic: WorldNetDaily

A few years back, we noted how Chuck Norris struck up a "bromance" (a word he has accepted as a good description) with authoritarian Hungarian dictator Viktor Orban, riding around Budapest with him and gushing over Orban's irrational hatred of George Soros. Well, Orban came to the U.S. last month and there was some name-dropping and more bromancing, and WorldNetDaily was there for it in an Aug. 6 article by Bob Unruh:

Longtime action movie and "Walker Texas Ranger" star Chuck Norris, a longtime WND columnist, says he'd be happy to work with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban for "that better future."

Norris' comment came on Friday in response to Orban's message to the Conservative Political Action Conference in Texas that America needs now "more Chuck Norris."

Orban, a firebrand who frequently has triggered liberals and progressives over and over with his comments, got a hero's welcome at the CPAC events and pleaded with his audience not to pull punches in a culture war – going on globally – with liberals.

In America, under Joe Biden, that fight has erupted over and over with the president's blatant promotion of abortion, the LGBT ideology, progressive government priorities like massive spending and more.

 Orban explained that Hungarian state institutions define marriage as the union of one man and one woman, and he said Americans in the fight need to trust their Judeo-Christian tradition.

"We have to be brave enough to address even the most sensitive questions, migration, gender and the clash of civilizations," he said.

His election victories – four in a row – have shown that his perspective is appreciated in his home country, and he lobbied for the same in America.

Actually, Orban wins because he rigged elections in Hungary to make sure that he does, and he also suppresses political opposition to make sure criticism of him never finds a large audience. Then it was bromance time again:

Norris, to WND, issued a statement that, "In 2018, my wife Gena and I were invited by Hungarian Baptist Aid to visit Budapest. We love the Hungarian people and were honored to spend time with Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

"We heard he fired up conservative Texans at CPAC in Dallas this week by saying America needs 'more Chuck Norris.' I'm humbled and honored to fight with Orban and all conservatives to rebuild America (presently and in 2024 with a new president) from the depression (in economy and spirit) too many Americans are experiencing right now. Let's pray and fight for that better future! We've done it before, and we can do it again!"

Unruh, for his part, was eager to dismiss the most recent controversy surrounding Orban:

Some of Orban's comments have, in fact, raised controversy in recent months, including his statement about Hungary not becoming a "mixed race country."

But President Trump said he and Orban had had good discussions on various issues just recently.

"Great spending time with my friend, Viktor Orban, the prime minister of Hungary," Trump said. "We discussed many interesting topics – few people know as much about what is going on today."

Of course, the first event has nothing whatsoever to do with the second. And Unruh did not mention the obvious racism of Orban's "mixed race" comment. Good to see that WND is as cool with white nationalism as usual -- as is Norris, apparently.

Distraction: MRC Censors Hawley Fleeing, Obsesses Over 'Squad'
Topic: Media Research Center

Criticism of Republican members of Congress is forbidden at the MRC -- unless, of course, they're being criticized for not being right-wing enough. Thus, when footage of Republican Sen. Josh Hawley running out of the Capitol to escape the mob of pro-Trump insurrectionists (who had been partly incited by Hawley himself at the pre-riot rally lead by Donald Trump) was released at the July 21 hearing by the House committee looking into the insurrection, the MRC said nothing. Even when the video sparked memes on social media, the MRC continued to censor it.

A few days later, in an apparent attempt to distract attention away from Hawley, the MRC issued a July 25 post by Scott Whitlock attacking the liberal Democratic congresswomen right-wing media likes to package as "the Squad":

We are just 15 weeks away from election day in what is already shaping up to be a contentious 2022 midterm season. If the press follows their typical campaign play book, journalists will pick out certain conservative candidates who commit gaffes or make odd comments and try and make them the face of the GOP.

One thing they won’t do is single out the radical, extreme nature of some of the Democratic Party’s most well known congressional members: The Squad. 

Socialist Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, as well as far-left representatives like Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar and Ayanna Pressley, have been gaffe machines in the last few months. Most recently, some of them pretended to be restrained by police officers using invisible handcuffs while protesting for abortion at the Supreme Court.

And the leadoff "scandal" was, yes, the "invisible handcuffs":

Last week, Ocasio-Cortez and 16 other far-left members of Congress were detained at a pro-abortion rally in front of the Supreme Court. Embarrassing footage showed Ocasio-Cortez holding her hands crossed behind her back, pretending to be handcuffed. Seeming to forget the invisible cuffs, she lifted her hands in a show of defiance. 

In fact, she wasn't pretending to be handcuffed. Whitlock censored her logical explanation: “Putting your hands behind your back is a best practice while detained, handcuffed or not, to avoid escalating charges like resisting arrest.”

Whitlock then tried to make a deleted tweet into a "scandal":

Finally, we have Massachusetts Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley. You may not know her as well as other members of the Squad. But she’s just as radical. And this past spring, she appeared to tweet support for Will Smith’s violence against Chris Rock at the Oscars. 

The tweet was quickly deleted and she sent out a series of comments attempting to clarify: “I don’t endorse violence in any form.” We’ve all seen how ill-advised tweets by conservatives and Republicans are jumped on by the press. But the networks quietly looked the other way on this one.

Whitlock didn't mention his employer's double standarrd on this -- obsessing over deleted tweet by liberals but censoring them when, say, boss Brent Bozell deletes one with an embarrassing factual error.

The others involve versions of the usual right-wing attacks on these people, such as portraying comments critical of Israel as "anti-Semitic" and accusations of ties to terrorist groups. Whitlock went on to lecture -- and then praise others in his right-wing media bubble for hyping these stories:

Expect Squad members to make more embarrassing moments this fall, to embrace more shocking and radical positions. But there’s one thing the American people should demand: If journalists are going to highlight some obscure Republican candidate who says something outrageous, be sure and cover the scandals coming from the socialist Squad in Congress. 

Kudos to Fox News and Newsmax, two outlets that did take the time to cover the gaffes and controversies of the Squad. Newsmax host Eric Bolling especially has been reporting on this in detail. He and others have done so in the past and are continuing to put the spotlight on extreme members of Congress. If only the rest of the press would do the same.

Whitlock undercut all this, however, by having to admit to an embarrassing factual error:

Correction: A previous version of this article stated that Rashida Tlaib is Somali-born. She is not. The article has been updated and we regret the error.

If Whitlock had been more concerned about facts than making a partisan attack, he wouldn't have made himself look so bad.

CNS Coverage Of Trump Raid Laden With Right-Wing Spin
Topic: CNSNews.com

CNSNews.com was slow to respond to the Aug. 8 search warrant that the FBI executed on Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago compound seeking classified documents-- perhaps it was taking its time to figure out the best way to spin things to make Trump look good and law enforcement look bad. But the next morning, it was loaded for bear and spewing out all the right-wing hot takes it could throughout the day:

• Trump Calls Raid 'Prosecutorial Misconduct, the Weaponization of the Justice System'
• Rubio on FBI Mar-a-Lago Raid: ‘This is What Happens in Places Like Nicaragua … They’re Playing With Fire’
• Gingrich: If They Can Do This to a Former President, 'What Can They Do to You?' (Susan Jones didn't mention that holding a former president accountable to the same laws as everyone else is what makes America great)
• Prof. Dershowitz on FBI’s Mar-a-Lago Raid: ‘They Darn Well Better Have Smoking-Gun Proof – Which I Don’t See Happening’
• Conservatives Denounce FBI Raid on Trump’s Home
• Florida AG Ashley Moody: FBI Raid Is ‘Uncommon’ for a ‘Document Dispute’
• ‘Take a Polygraph,’ Brent Bozell Dares, Responding to Reports WH Claims It Was ‘Blindsided’ by FBI’s Mar-a-Lago Raid
• House GOP Leader McCarthy to Attorney General Garland: ‘Preserve Your Documents and Clear Your Calendar’
• Levin: Raid on Trump’s Home is ‘Worst Attack on This Republic in Modern History’

CNS churned out even more right-wing attacks over the next couple days:

• Rep. Banks: FBI Raid on Trump's Home 'Unifies Us in Our Outrage to Fight Back'
• Graham: ‘Is It Plausible the FBI Would Open Up an Investigation of Donald Trump Without Merit? Hell Yeah, They’ve Done It Before’
• Megyn Kelly: FBI Raid on Trump Was ‘About January 6,’ 'They Don't Want Him to Run Again'
• Victor Hanson: 'We Don't Have Rule of Law in Washington ... FBI is Beyond Redemption'
• Trump Attorney: 'If They Needed Any Other Documents, They Could Have Just Asked'
  

There was also a hot-take column that CNS published on Aug. 10 in which Michelle Malkin raged against the raid and "Feds Behaving Incorrigibly" and called President Biden "the White House occupant."

CNS also tried to play the whataboutism game with Nancy Pelosi. Jones wrote in an Aug. 10 article:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said on Tuesday that she did not have advance knowledge that the FBI was executing a search warrant on Donald Trump's Palm Beach home, leaving with some ten boxes of material.

"It will be interesting to find out exactly what the warrant was, what the order was to have a search warrant and for what purpose. But again, we can only speculate," she told NBC's "Today" show.

"But nonetheless, we believe in the rule of law, and that's what our country is about and no person is above the law, not even the president of the United States, not even a former president of the United States," Pelosi said.

She did not question the unprecedented move by the FBI and Biden Justice Department, searching the home of a political rival of the sitting president. Nor has Pelosi commented on the FBI seizure of Rep. Scott Perry's cell phone.

It wasn't until Aug. 11 that CNS published an article that led with a defense of the raid, in which intern Stephanie Samsel also tried to play whataboutism with Pelosi:

"No person is above the law...not even a former president of the United States,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Aug. 9, when she discussed the FBI’s raid of former President Donald Trump's Florida home.

While Republicans like House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) say the Department of Justice (DOJ) has reached “weaponized politicization,” Pelosi called McCarthy’s claims “idle” during an interview with TODAY host Savannah Guthrie.

“We believe in the rule of law, and that’s what our country is about,” said Pelosi. “And no person is above the law, not even the president of the United States, not even a former president of the United States.”

[...]

Despite there being an ongoing investigation into potential crimes of President Joe Biden’s son Hunter, Trump is the only U.S. president to have his home raided by the FBI. 

When Attorney General Merrick Garland addressed the raid later on Aug. 11, Melanie Arter served up a stenographical article on it. That was followed a half-hour or so later by Arter serving up Republcian Sen. Lindsey Graham's hot take on Garland. The right-wing hot takes continued on Aug. 12:

• Trump: ‘Release the Documents Now!’
• Trump Attorney: 'This Is What the Democrats Do...Create Fear'
• Intel Committee Republicans Demand Answers: ‘No One Is Above the Law and That Includes the Attorney General’

CNS also took offense at a soap opera actor who, in Arter's words, that "suggested Wednesday that the FBI dig up the body of former President Donald Trump’s ex-wife Ivana Trump in its search for classified documents."

To sum up: CNS' reporting on the raid was entirely dominated by right-wing bias -- contradicting the boilerplate text in the money beg at the end of each article that purports to claim that CNS "covers the news as it should be, without fear or favor." Or maybe the massive right-wing bias is CNS' idea of covering the news "as it should be."

MRC Would Rather Keep Griner In Russian Prison Than Trade Her For Arms Dealer
Topic: Media Research Center

The Media Research Center has been looking for excuses to keep WNBA star Brittney Griner rotting away in a Russian prison on trumped-up drug charges. The latest: It doesn't like the person the Biden administration is reportedly offering in a prisoner exchange for Griner. John Simmons huffed in an Aug. 3 post:

As we wait for the Brittney Griner situation to reach its drawn-out conclusion, President Joe Biden has proposed a moved to get Griner out of Russia … but at a terrible cost.

White House national security spokesperson John Kirby has confirmed that Biden has signed off on a plan to potentially swap Griner and corporate security executive Paul Whelan for Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, who is currently serving a 25-year prison sentence in the U.S. 

“The president and his team are willing to take extraordinary steps to bring them home,” Kirby said. “We believe it’s important for the American people to know how hard President Biden is working to get Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan home.”

Bout isn’t some low-tier player in the arms dealing world, he was formerly once one of it’s most dangerous and powerful operatives.

Simmons went on to approvingly quote Donald Trump smearing Griner:

Any sane individual would see this deal and think, “I’m all for freeing American citizens, but we cannot let Bout go free.” Former President Donald Trump basically said the same thing when he went on the Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show.

“She went in there loaded up with drugs into a hostile territory where they’re very vigilant about drugs. They don’t like drugs,” Trump said. “And she got caught. And now we’re supposed to get her out – and she makes, you know, a lot of money, I guess – and we’re supposed to get her out for an absolute killer and one of the biggest arms dealers in the world.”

Griner was not "loaded up with drugs"; she had two vape cartridges of cannibis oil.

Scott Whitelock devoted an Aug. 5 post to a "nets ignore" item on how terrible "vicious terrorist-backer" Bout is and how unworthy of a trade he is for Griner.He did somehow manage to avoid slandering Grainer like the MRC's sports bloggers love to do: "Americans want to see any imprisoned fellow citizens brought home quickly. But when Joe Biden is considering releasing a violent terrorist-supporter who has been intent on killing Americans, viewers should be told just how serious a decision that may turn out to be." Jay Maxson played the whataboutism card in another post the same day:

Vice-president and world class hypocrite Kamala Harris is in full virtue signal mode with her condemnation of Russia for sentencing WNBA all-star Brittney Griner to nine-plus years of prison for drug possession. 

As the district attorney for San Francisco, Harris was the bane of marijuana users. She jailed 1,900 of them. Now all of a sudden, with her higher profile as VP, Harris has done a 180 with her opposition to a black, lesbian basketball player’s cannabis conviction. If it weren’t for double standards, leftists like Harris would have no standards at all.

Maxson went on to sneer that Harris is now "enlightened about marijuana users. Especially if they can attract black, lesbian voters."

Yet another post that day cheered an NBC reporter for criticizing the proposed swap but but complained that he said he was "sorry to say it."

Simmons found yet another person to criticize the proposed swap in an Aug. 9 post: "Most current and former NBA players have a shockingly low amount of common sense, but former Boston Celtics forward Enes Kanter Freedom is a welcome exception. ... Freedom, like any human being with a shred of common sense, sees this proposed plan as foolish and potentially detrimental to the United States in the long run."

Maxson was back to laughably smearing Griner as a drug smuggler in an Aug 17 post -- then pretended he (or she) cares agout Griner's plight:

Our bad. Shame on us for failing black women who try to smuggle drugs onto planes. Through our bigotry, we have really let down Brittney Griner, the black lesbian basketball star serving a nine-year prison sentence in Russia for drug smuggling.  

Our accuser is Yahoo writer Sughnen Yongo-Okochi, an immigrant from Nigeria, who says the narrative on Griner needs to change. She assailed the people who say Griner should not have broken the rules in Russia, for they are “overly righteous and puritan when a black person gets into the slightest trouble.”

[...]

The harsh reality is that Griner has been detained for months, and has allegedly been treated poorly, not by Russian detainers, but by Americans. Instead of investing in wisecracks, showing genuine support is what is needed now. 

Yet the empathy for Griner has been underwhelming, writes her defender. It’s deeply insensitive for people to counter that LeBron James would not have put himself in the situation (she tried to carry vape cartridges containing cannabis onto a plane in Moscow and got busted.) 

Maxson quickly returned to hateful ways, though: "Griner’s story demonstrates that we need to do a better job of protecting black women. Who knew that she needed us to protect her by yelling “no!” before she tried to board that Russian jetliner?"

Maxson ramped up the homophobia in an Aug. 18 post maliciously cheering low TV ratings for the WNBA:

With a strong LGBT-ISK3FG flavor, the WNBA has become one of the most woke, left-wing, unappealing professional sports enterprises in the United States. 

This is also a league that adorned its courts with BLM and Brittney Griner decals. It named Griner, the Phoenix Mercury center imprisoned on drug charges in Russia, an honorary starter for its 2022 all-star game. Apparently, that's their idea of a 'heroic figure.'

An Aug. 22 post by Simmons, though, somehow managed to avoid spewing hate at Griner to evoke a more universal sentiment: skepticism that an offer by Dennis Rodman to help free Griner will amount to anything.

Newsma's Morris Shills for Trump After Mar-a-Lago Raid
Topic: Newsmax

After the FBI search warrant on Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago compound in search or improperly held classsified documents, Newsmax writer Dick Morris had to shift his narrative from promoting the pro-Trump book he wrote (and Newsmax published) to defending Trump against being held accountable for his own actions and portraying the raid as a motivating incident for die-hard Trump supporters (and hopefully selling a few more copies of his book in the process). An Aug. 8 article detailed Morris' first post-raid appearance on Newsmax TV:

The FBI raid on Mar-a-Lago is not intended to send former President Donald Trump to jail as much as just damage him to keep him from running for president again, according to presidential adviser Dick Morris onRob Schmitt Tonight." "The appellate courts, even if they find the district judge under a rock who will rule that way, the appellate courts would never agree to that.

"But what they are trying to do is to make Trump so damaged, such damaged goods, that Democrats and Republicans look for primary alternatives – and all of a sudden, they see virtue in Mike Pence or Ron DeSantis. Not that they're fomenting it. Those people are being used, but they're being used to try to generate a primary fight against Trump, because the Democrats feel that's the only way they can win."

[...]

Morris hailed Trump as a "ruthless S.O.B.," but one that plays within the rules.

"Donald Trump plays between the foul lines, on the playing field," Morris continued. "He never goes outside of it. He never engages in this kind of underhanded tactic. Even when he controlled the FBI and controlled the CIA, sort of, he doesn't do that. The Democrats do.

"I've worked side by side with Trump; he's a ruthless S.O.B., but on the playing field within the foul lines, not in extraneous stuff."

Not actually true, but Morris is in hard-shill mode here. Morris did get in his usual shilling in another Aug.8 TV hit, declaring that "Republicans could pick up between 5-7 seats in the Senate this November, taking the majority in that chamber."

In an Aug. 11 Newsmax TV appearance, Morris lamented that Trump "will be indicted on a "technical violation" of the National Archives and Records law," just for egregious mishandling of classifed documents:

"The archivist apparently cares whether the archives gather dust in the basement of Trump's house or the archives place, but they're still going to use any excuse they can to try to knock him out of the race," said Morris. "I don't think that will knock him out. It does not legally preclude him from running, but they can get a D.C. grand jury stacked with Democrats to indict [anyone] for anything."

The Democrats, he added, "need to knock Trump out and they will do anything they can."

And the raid at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, he added, "was just a brazen example of that, as they clearly see this as a zero-sum game."

After that, though, Morris was largely back to his usual shilling. In an Aug. 15 appearance, he baselessly asserted that "the hiring of 87,000 new Internal Revenue Agents is designed to "intimidate" American citizens into silence instead of criticizing the government." The next day, Morris cheered Liz Cheney's loss in her Republican primary, then tried to tie Cheney's work on the House committee investigating thte Capitol riot to the Mar-a-Lago raid:

But the Jan. 6 committee, of which Cheney is a vice chair, has failed to prove that, so now the Democrats have turned to "Plan B," which was the raid of Trump's Mar-a-Lago home, said Morris, author of the book "The Return: Trump's Big 2024 Comeback." 

"This was simply designed to get them in the door to Mar-a-Lago so that they can search for documents to try to prove that this was an insurrection, and that Trump led a revolution, so they can try to invoke the 14th Amendment," Morris said.

The Democrats know the courts likely will block that move, he added, but they hope that the accusation will be enough to keep the Republicans from nominating Trump, which won't likely happen.

Morris ranted in an Aug. 18 TV appearance:

Fearing they can't beat former President Donald Trump, or his movement, in elections, "Democrats have abandoned the political process" to stop him, presidential campaign adviser Dick Morris said on Newsmax.

"In my book, 'The Return,' I make the case that I think is very important: That the Democrats have abandoned the political process and are using criminal justice process and the judicial process to try to stop Donald Trump, and they weaponized the IRS and the FBI to be the enforcement arm of the Democratic Party," Morris, who has advised Democrat President Bill Clinton and Trump's presidential campaigns, said on Thursday's "John Bachman Now."

"The raid at Mar-a-Lago, the pretext was the archives. Who cares about the archives? They are in there to try to find documented evidence — or planted — to frame Donald Trump for the Jan. 6 riot, and to claim that somehow this was a revolution against the United States government, because they want to invoke the 14th Amendment that says that anyone who was involved in an insurrection against the government can't hold public office."

The following day, Morris declared that the raid ""has energized" Trump:

"I've worked with so closely with President Clinton and with President Trump; and with Clinton, if people liked him, it energized him," Morris said during "Spicer & Co." Friday. "With Trump, if he's facing opposition, particularly due to the low-level opposition using dirty tactics, that energizes him, and I think that the effect of the Mar-a-Lago raid ... is energizing. I think he relishes being in a fight, and I think he really feels that his adversary made a huge mistake, and he's determined to capitalize on it."

Morris said he predicted something similar to the raid, some kind of major legal move, in his new book, "The Return: Trump's Big 2024 Comeback" but could not predict the Mar-a-Lago raid.

"It's kind of like Pearl Harbor. They predicted they'd attacked Guam; they didn't realize they'd attack Hawaii," he said. "I knew that they would raid; I didn't know they would raid the president's home.

An Aug. 20 article repeated Morris' claim on TV that "Democrats are giving up on replacing Trump in a 2024 GOP primary, and instead are focusing on using the legal system to preclude him from seeking another term in office," going on to downplay the Capitol riot:

"The Democrats are trying to manufacture the idea that Jan. 6 was such a rebellion because — and the timing of this is very significant to the Mar-a-Lago raid — because it came after Trump had a winning streak in primaries, thereby debunking the notion that he could be defeated by the ballot box," he said. "[The search warrant] was executed precisely 90 days before the midterm elections, so it did not run afoul of the FBI rule that you can't do anything to affect the election within 90 days."

Morris didn't mention that Trump isn't running for anything in the midterms.

CNS Blamed Rising Gas Prices On Biden -- But Largely Censors Falling Gas Prices
Topic: CNSNews.com

We've documented how CNSNews.com has spent the past several months blaming President Biden for high gas prices, though it could never identify any specific Biden policy that resulted in a specific rise in prices (not even the cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline).n But the fact that gas prices have on a continual decline since a mid-June high -- and that they are expected to continue to do so, dropping below $3 in some areas -- isn't news at all at CNS. After all, it's CNS editorial policy to avoid giving attention to the achievements of a Democratic president.

The only CNS story we could find that had lower gas prices as a main focus is a July 22 article by Melanie Arter. It's a stenography piece in which she simply transcribes what Biden said:

One day after being diagnosed with COVID, President Biden on Friday hosted a virtual economic briefing on gas prices from the White House residence, taking credit for gas prices dropping below $4 a gallon in “more than 30,000 gas stations in more than 35 states.”

“Let me start by apologizing for my voice. I feel much better than I sound. We’re meeting today on gas prices, and we have really good news. Gas prices are coming down. In fact, gas prices have fallen everyday this summer for 38 days in a row. You can find gas for $3.99 or less in more than 30,000 gas stations in more than 35 states,” he said, appearing on-screen.

[...]

The president said that while the good news is that gas prices are falling, “it’s not happening fast enough.”

“We made progress, but prices are still too high, and so here's what I'm going to do to talk about today with all of you. We need to work on this,” Biden said.

To this end, the president announced that the administration would “look at ways to increase oil production from the existing wells and permits that exist today.”

Surprisingly, more biased CNS reporters like Susan Jones were not moved to hunt down Republican members of Congress attacking Biden for taking credit for lower gas prices -- of course, theuy all spent months blaming him for prices rising, and it would be a contradiction if they flip-flopped. Instead, it's helping to keep Republicans on brand (and on the attack), such as this Aug. 9 article by intern Janey Olohan:

During an interview on FNC’s Sunday Morning Futures, Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 will raise gas taxes for Americans, and that Democrats supporting the legislation are voting to “make our consumers pay more at the pump.”

“Every single Democrat, all of them voted to increase gas taxes,” Cruz told host Marie Bartiromo. “So the next time you see a Mark Kelly in Arizona, or Raphael Warnock in Georgia, or a Maggie Hassan in New Hampshire, or a Michael Bennet in Colorado, or Catherine Cortez Masto in Nevada say, ‘Hey! We want gas prices to be lower!’”

“You know they are lying because they stood up and voted raise the gas taxes, stick it to the producers, make our consumers pay more at the pump,” said Cruz, and “that’s the end result they want and their voting record proves it.”

Because CNS doesn't fact-check its fellow conservatives and don't train their interns to do so, Olohan didn't report that Cruz was wrong about the Inflation Reduction Act "increas[ing] gas taxes." What the act actually does is increase a superfund excise tax on crude oil and production rates on oil wells on federal land -- none of which can be plausibly called a "gas tax," and which the federal government is not forcing oil companies to pass on to consumers (which they don't actually need to, given the record profits they have been making while jacking up those gas prices).

WND Whines Google Blocked Access To Its (Malware-Infected) Website
Topic: WorldNetDaily

Joseph Farah's Aug. 12 column was yet another screed about Google is DEMONETIZING his WorldNetDaily -- which, of course, isn't true; Google has simply chosen to no longer do business with a hateful fake-news publisher like WND, as is its right as a private business. And he peddled more lies in pushing that claim:

Despite my somewhat hysterical warnings, they succeeded in their evil plot when Trump faced a challenge by a hapless opponent, Joe Biden. (Just see the documentary film "2000 Mules.")

America has not been the same place since that election. Biden followed the script well. He's turned America into a nightmare virtually overnight.

Yet, when WND reports about this nightmare reality truthfully and boldly – about the intentional foreign invasion of our country, about January 6, about the transgender youth-grooming craze, about the astonishing level of Biden family corruption involving "the Big Guy," and so on – Google calls us "dangerous." Others call us similar things – "conspiracy nuts," "wackos," "purveyors of disinformation." In truth, though, it's the fake news outfits that are doing that. That's Google-controlled news.

Of course, fake news and conspiracy theories are a key component of WND's editorial agenda -- and the reason WND has been facing continuous financial crises over the past few years. It's a lesson Farah has chosen not to learn.

Managing editor David Kupelian tried to up the panic level in an Aug. 16 column accusing Google of going for a "kill shot" against WND, falsely suggesting this was a new thing. In fact, it's the "demonetization" that WND has been ranting about for months, yet Kupelian insisted this was evidence that Google is "maniacally intent on killing the WND 'David,' a small, Christian journalism operation that somehow refuses to die, despite continual attacks from all sides." Kupelian then laughably tried to frame its anti-LGBT hate as love and its COVID misinformation as somehow truthful (spoiler: it isn't):

Of course, all this pained moralizing over “hatred” and “discrimination” toward people who are military veterans, disabled, elderly and so on is idiotic. No one hates or discriminates against veterans, the disabled or the elderly. That’s camouflage. What Google really wants to protect from any criticism or opposing viewpoint is “sexual orientation” and “gender identity.” Indeed, when as a news organization WND dares to report honestly and forthrightly on the fantastically deranged transgender agenda – where beautiful American children from coast to coast are indoctrinated, seduced, groomed, recruited and enabled to “transition to a different gender” by taking puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and even undergoing double mastectomies and castration – when WND sounds the alarm over any of this, which we do daily, Google sees that as “inciting hatred” and “promoting discrimination.”

How about: We’re defending and protecting the most innocent, helpless and precious among us – the children who will make up America’s next generation? That’s not “hatred”; it sounds more like love.

There’s more. Google tells WND it does “not allow content that … promotes harmful health claims, or relates to a current major health crisis and contradicts authoritative scientific consensus.”

Translation: When we report knowledgeably and truthfully on the Biden administration’s absolutely deranged and tyrannical mismanagement of the COVID pandemic – from imposing vaccine mandates that have thrown tens of thousands of soldiers, sailors, Marines, nurses, paramedics, police, firemen and other frontline heroes (including my own son) out of work, to suppressing inexpensive, effective and readily available early outpatient treatment of COVID, to pretending “natural immunity” isn’t real even though at least 92 studies prove it’s superior to vaccine immunity, to insisting that infants and toddlers be needlessly injected with the experimental and hazardous mRNA “vaccines” – well, such reporting as ours is simply not allowed. Only the official Biden narrative – you know, the one based on massive lying, and which failed at every turn to end the pandemic, while driving up suicide, addiction, overdose deaths, depression and crime rates across the nation, and introduced a level of authoritarianism never before seen in America – is allowed.

Like Farah's column, Kupelian's piece ended with a money beg.

Farah reference a new issue with Google in his Aug. 26 column, citing a reader letter claiming that "Google has put a Malware warning" on WND, whcih of course sent Farah into conspiracy mode: "It's crazier than ever just maintaining our website in 2022. Big Tech must see the handwriting on the wall as they find out most Americans understand how they're all totally trashing our First Amendment rights." He then redefined WND's lies as truth:

So, what has WND actually done during this difficult, blighted time?

We told you the truth about the 2020 election and how it was STOLEN!

We told you the truth about Anthony Fauci!

We told you the truth, every step of the way, about the COVID vaccine hoax!

We exposed the transgender grooming epidemic now sweeping America – and much more.

Even though we're the longest lasting, pioneering antidote for fake news, the harassment continues and intensifies.

With the malware claim, Kupelian finally had a new complaint against Google that he ranted about in an Aug. 30 column:

The Google “Goliath” has finally outdone itself in its campaign to completely destroy the WND “David,” the small Christian journalism operation that somehow refuses to die, despite continual attacks from all sides.

For the past week, Google has been warning everyone on the internet who tries to access WND.com via Google that the 25-year-old pioneering news website is outright dangerous to their computer!

This is no exaggeration: Reports from readers from all over confirm what WND’s staffers and independent tech team have been experiencing continually for the last week: When they try to reach WND by way of Google, clicking on the “WND: Home” link that Google provides leads not to WND.com, but to a threatening page saying: "Warning — visiting this web site may harm your computer!"

[...]

Ironically, if you click on Google’s own “Safe Browsing diagnostic page” link, you get taken to a page labeled “Safe Browsing Site Status” which clearly states: “No unsafe content found.” (See screenshot below.) This deceitful and profoundly destructive attack on WND persists day after day, despite multiple appeals to Google by WND’s tech team.

Which is a strange complaint because WND frequently complains that Google excludes WND from its searches. Kupelian included screenshot of the message but no proof from "WND’s tech team" that there was nothing wrong with the website, so he has no apparent proof that Google;s claim about the WND website is "false." He went on to copy-and-paste parts of his Google attack from his earlier column and added a money beg. Then he declared another conspiracy:

In addition to this, WND is simultaneously receiving a flood of reader reports that subscribers to WND's email news alerts are discovering that our emails are being redirected to their spam folders! Even when subscribers take the time and trouble to repeatedly designate WND's emails as legitimate and not spam, our emails continue to go to their spam folder, many have told us.

The next day, Farah wrote a column declaring that Google had been blocking WND's site for "11 days" -- even though Kupelian had written that it had been going on only "for the past week":

For some, even the live links within the news alerts are now also dead, preventing email recipients from clicking through to WND's news stories.

It seems that once Google designated WND as "harmful to your computer," the world's email providers followed Google's lead and stopped delivering our emails to subscribers – because they're "unsafe."

Google has been attacking WND for years, as long ago as 2014, attacks which continued and metastasized until late last year Google permanently demonetized us. And now this.

WND has been a critical test case for what remains of free speech and a free press in America. If they can kill us, they will come for every other Christian and conservative site on the internet.

Farah continued to playvictim in a Sept. 1 column:

While the blacklisting continues now for 12 days, WND is simultaneously receiving a flood of reader reports that subscribers to WND's email news alerts are finding our emails being redirected to their spam folders! Even when subscribers take the time to designate that WND's emails are not spam, our emails continue to go to their spam folder, many have told us. For some readers, the live links to various stories on WND's news alerts are now also dead – so the recipients can't click through to read the news stories being presented.

[...]

Of course, it's not just Google. YouTube (owned by Google) has also permanently de-monetized WND's channel, Facebook has seriously suppressed our traffic for years, something Facebook's reps have even admitted to us. Amazon killed our book and movie division through monopolistic strategies too. And Microsoft calls us names on its opening page ("WorldNetDaily: Fake news website"). It's not just Big Tech; it should be called Big Bad Tech.

But we get a little livid when the biggest search engine in the world tells our readers who are trying to visit our site are turned away. Again, this latest full-bore assault on WND has being going on for 12 days.

An anonymously written "news" article that same day rebranded the site blocking as the "kill shot"-- but also that there was an actual, legitimate reason Google put the warning on the website:

WND's managing editor, David Kupelian, explained to the Gateway Pundit in an interview that early last week there was a malware issue with a new advertiser, but that WND's tech team had immediately removed the advertisement. Yet starting on about Aug. 22, the Google blocking of WND persisted for the next week and a half, despite the fact that the problem had long ago been removed, as Google's own diagnostic page confirmed.

If it were CNN's or the Washington Post's website that had such an issue, there is little doubt that Google would have resolved it immediately, Kupelian argued.

"Google demonetized WND.com a few months ago, which severely hurt our revenues, but this current attack is a genuine kill shot: Google is now warning the entire world that a respected 25-year-old independent Christian journalism site is harmful to their computer. That’s vicious," Kupelian said Wednesday.

That's right -- there was malware on WND's website, and Google did not invent the issue as a pretense to punish WND. How strange that Kupelian and Farah didn't mention the advertiser malware issue before this. Still, WND resumed its victim-playing quoting Farah as saying, without evidence, that Google doesn't like WND "because we were the first Christian news site, as well as the first independent news site of any kind."

An anonymously written Sept. 2 article repeated much of this, adding that "Kupelian appeared on several major shows, including One America News with D.C. Bureau Chief John Hines, and was also interviewed by InfoWars' Owen Shroyer, explaining to both outlets what Google has been doing." The fact that WND thinks the failing OAN and the about-to-be-sued-into-oblivion Infowars offer "major shows" shows the lowly state of WND these days.

How Has The MRC Been Hating Transgender People This Year?
Topic: Media Research Center

The Media Research Center's campaign of hate against Lia Thomas was the most visible recent manifestation of its anti-transgender ideology of hate. It has also spent this year hurling hate at other transgender people, as well as anyone who refuses to similarly hate them. Let's go way back to early this year to review, shall we?

A Jan. 10 post by Alexander Hall went to great lengths to pretend that right-wing anti-transgender author Ryan T. Anderson doesn't really hate transgender people, insisting that his book "When Harry Became Sally" is "compassionate but unapologetically honest." In fact, Anderson embraces the view of discredited anti-trans researcher Paul McHugh -- who is frequently cited by trans-haters -- that transgenderism is a mental illness. Hall portrayed Anderson as a victim because his book was delisted by Amazon -- though he doesn't explain why a private business like Amazon is obligated to sell every single book that has ever been published -- andsuggested the book was delisted because it offered "scientific facts that offend liberals" and not because it pushes a hateful narrative.

In a Feb. 23 post, Kevin Tober lashed out at New York magazine for  reporting on his anti-transgender activists are trying to influence education:

The left thinks they own your kids. Don't believe me? Well, take a look at this article in New York Magazine's Intelligencer. In the article titled "Household Tyrants," writer Sarah Jones begins by fear-mongering: "to empower parents, Florida Republicans would put children in danger." 

Jones argues that Florida's pending Parental Rights in Education bill, which would "prevent public-school districts from 'encouraging classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity,'” is some how a bad thing.

If you don't want your eleven-year-old child learning about transgender ideology and other sexually inappropriate terms and theories, then you are a tyrant and a bigot according to Jones.

Tober didn't identify what "ideology" being transgender is. He then argued that children are too stupid to know who they are, that parents who helpchildren be who they are are child abusers, and

Later on in the piece, Jones writes "the GOP’s position on parental rights isn’t entirely coherent. Any attempt to ban gender-confirming therapy for transgender children theoretically infringes on the rights of the parent."

What Jones doesn't understand is that parents don't have a right to abuse their children.

Young children aren't fully able to grasp the concept of what a man or a woman is (the bill deals with kids of elementary school-age). Parents shouldn't be allowed to chemically castrate their children or give them sex hormone injections (which is what "gender-confirming therapy" is). When the child turns eighteen and still wants to do that, then it's their prerogative as a legally recognized adult.

"The right insists that what’s good for parents is good for kids," Jones claims, "the idea that children are already people, with thoughts and needs independent of their parents, never factors into the party’s position at all." 

Nobody doubts that children are people (except the left who wants to abort them), but the idea that a child's thoughts and needs should be taken seriously is absurd. If your child wanted to eat candy all day long, would you let them? Obviously not, because children do not know what is good for them. That's what parents are for, to look out for their child's wellbeing.

Are parents who forcibly coerce a child into being something he or she is not guilty of child abuse too? Tober doesn't say.

A Feb. 28 post by Matt Philbin accused an Arizona teacher of teaching "trans ideology indoctrination"; actually, all the teacher did is tell sixth-graders that gender fluidity is a thing and that mocking purportedly insufficiently masculine boys as sissies is a bad thing. Philbin clearly disagrees with the latter. Philbin also demonstrated his utter ignorance about transgender people by illustrating his post with a publiclity still from the classic film "Some Like It Hot" -- in which the main characters are not transgender but, rather, cross-dressing as women to escape from the mob. Philbin clearly doesn't know (or care about) the difference.

A March 31 post by Rachel Peterson complained that the character played by transgender actor Elliot Page  -- whose transition the MRC has previously mocked -- on the show "Umbrella Academy" would also transition.Peterson went on to mock Page's preferred pronouns of he/they: "Still not sure how someone's pronouns can be both he and they." The same day, Alex Christy grumbled that MSNBC's Hallie Jackson used "dishonest faming" to portray Republicans (like, um, Christy) as anti-trans by passing anti-transgender laws: "Jackson made it seem as if these laws are tantamount to child abuse when all they seem to do is protect the integrity of women’s sports, don’t allow adults to affirm childhood beliefs about gender identity, or ensure that adults don’t encourage minors to make life-changing decisions about their bodies."

Philbin returned for an April 5 post about a target the MRC has spread numerous falsehoods about in the past, a school district in Virginia:

Normal people who have to send their kids to Loudoun County Virginia’s public schools face a Whack-A-Mole game of lefty dysfunction. As soon as you get a handle on Critical Race Theory, an unreported school rape pops up. Force the resignation of a lunatic school board member, the prospect of boys on the girls volleyball team leaps out at you. Heck, not even changing governors can tamp down the crazy. And the hits just keep on coming.

Passed last August, LCPS Policy 8040 doesn’t just degrade girls’ sports and disregard their safety by allowing biological males into girls’ restrooms and locker rooms. It also “elevates students' ‘privacy rights’ concerning their gender identity over parents right to know,” according to the group Fight for Schools.

So anyone who's not a right-wing transphobe like Philbin isn't "normal people"?

An April 9 post by Clay Waters whined that the New York Times called out right-wing activistrs for imposing anti-trans policies on schools, claiming without evidence that the activsits represent "the mainstream consensus on children and transgender issues." An April 11 post by Tober lashed out at MSNBC's Chris Hayes for calling out Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for treating parents who seek gender-affirming care for their children as criminal child abusers:

On Monday night’s episode of MSNBC’s All In, host Chris Hayes freaked out over Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordering the state’s child protective services to investigate reported instances of children receiving transgender surgeries, ironically accusing Abbott of being the real child abuser.

The deranged host started off by viciously attacking Abbott claiming he “found it helps him politically to be cruel to transgender children.” He then claimed Abbott denies the “very existence” of transgender children, despite the fact that there’s no such thing as a transgender child, the transgender ideology needs to be instilled in children by their parents or other adults.

This brings us to the reason for the Hayes meltdown. In his wailing over the order, Hayes claimed it “takes what used to be normal care for trans kids and classifies that care as child abuse in the eyes of the state.” As if chemically castrating children is “normal care.”

[...]

If anything, this order helps weed out the people who aren't fit to work in child protective services. If someone finds preventing children from being mutilated so offensive, then they shouldn’t be allowed to be anywhere near children. 

The only viciousness and derangement we see is in Tober's high level of transphobia.

Tim Graham spent a May 1 post whining that NPR covered a speech by a transgender Biden administration official:

On the Friday night commute, NPR listeners witnessed an audio press release of sorts for the Biden administration. Transgender activist and assistant HHS secretary Rachel Levine is giving a speech to an LGBTQ health conference at Texas Christian University, and NPR promoted it like a press secretary. No opposing view was considered, certainly not about the "Christian" part.

Graham didn't explain how, exactly, it is "Christian" to hate transgender people the way the typical MRC employee does.

Karen Townsend freaked out over a fictional transgender person -- as the MRC likes to do -- in a May 13 post, insisting there aren't enough transgender people to warrant appearances in TV shows:

Television networks are determined to advance the idea that transgenderism is normal behavior, especially in family dynamics. You will be made to accept the LGBTQ agenda, regardless of your personal opinions and religious beliefs. At least that's their plan. Tolerance is not optional.

The May 12 episode of ABC’s Station 19, “The Road You Didn’t Take," saw the ongoing battle between divorced parents of a transgender boy play out. She was born Mary and now lives as Matt with her father’s blessing. Her mother, Jane (Romy Rosemont), still considers her to be her daughter, Mary.

[...]

The number of Americans identifying as transgender is miniscule compared to the total population. According to the CDC, the number is about 1 million people, about 0.6 percent of the adult population in the United States. Nonetheless, television networks persist.

Townsend didn't explain why she appearant believes the opposite to be true -- that transgender people in fiction must be treated as freaks who deserve to be hated and denigrated. Oh, and complaining there are too many LGBT characters on TV is something the MRC loves to do.

Crass: WND Invokes 9/11 To Sell Subscriptions
Topic: WorldNetDaily

How desperate is WorldNetDaily to get people to pay it money to read its website? It invoked the 9/11 terrorist attacks to sell subscriptions to its (free) website.

One of the pop-up alerts to sell those subscrptions shows a picture of light beams emanating from the site of the World Trade Center, with all-caps stating:

NEVER BEFORE HAS A FOREIGN ENEMY SUCCESSFULLY ATTACKED OUR MAINLAND FROM OVER THE HORIZON.

AT WND, WE WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER! 

THATS WHY

WE ARE GIVING YOU 50% OFF OUR ANNUAL WND INSIDER MEMBERSHIP!

Clicking on it takes yopu to a web page with the same text, in the service of selling readers a one-year "Insider" subscription for $25. Among the "added benefits" of the subscription os "WND's 24/7 truth-based journalism" -- which, of course, is a lie given how much of WND's so-called journalism isn't based in truth at all. WND might argue, however that the fake news it publishes is "truth-based," though that doesn't make the final product any less of a lie.

The pop-up also included a Winston Churchill quote: "Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it." But WND doesn't seem to be aware thatthe quote applies to itself as well: It has continued to publish fake news and conspiracy theories even though those very things were the main things that have pushed WND to the financial brink where it has resided for the past few years.

That's the kind of cognitive dissonance that might make WND think invoking 9/11 is a good way to get people to read them.

Newsmax Spent Primary Season Hyping Trump's Candidate Endorsements
Topic: Newsmax

Like a loyal Trump shill, Newsmax has spent this year's primary elections touting Donald Trump's picks in Republican primaries and cheering every time they won. For instance:

• Trump Endorses Incumbent Mike Lee for Utah Senate in 2022
• Trump Tells Newsmax He's Endorsing Dr. Oz
• Trump's Backing Propels JD Vance to Victory in Ohio Primary
• Poll: Trump-Endorsed Walker Leads Warnock in Georgia Senate Race
• Trump Endorsement Streak Soars to 55-0

When Trump-backed Charles Herbster lost to his Republican primary opponent for Nebraska governor, John Gizzi went into spin mode in a May 11 article, blaming "dark money targeting of female urban voters" spent against him, a popular governor endorsing the winning candidate and, oh, the fact that "Herbster was hit with charges from seven women alleging the candidate had groped them."

Newsmax readjusted Trump's victory count going forward; a June 22 article by Eric Mack declared that "Katie Britt's victory over Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., on Tuesday night brought former President Donald Trump's record in Senate GOP primaries to 12-0," going on to hype that "Trump's perfect record to date is punctuated by some equally big victories in key battleground states." Mack then reframed previous Trump-backed losses, huffing that "Among the few losses of Trump-endorsed candidates were failed bids for the GOP gubernatorial nominations by some, Trump-admitted, tough sells." Then, on Aug. 5, Jack Gournell uncritically quoted Trump at a rally declaring he was at "45 winds and no losses" after primaries in Wisconsin; Gournell did not fact-check Trump's claim.

After the following week's primaries, Mack declared in a June 29 article that Trump "hailed a perfect 12-0 record in a Truth Social post," adding that "Trump's primary endorsement record is now, according to an unofficial Newsmax tally, 143-10, a 93.5% winning percentage (Trump officials count candidates advancing to a runoff as victories)." 

And, of course, the endorsement-hyping continued:

• Trump Endorses Reps. Wilson, Duncan, Armstrong
• Trump Endorses Veteran Eli Crane in Arizona
• Trump Endorses Zach Nunn For Iowa's 3rd District
• Trump Endorses Congressman Markwayne Mullin
• Trump Endorses 3 Missouri GOP Reps Before Tuesday's Primary
• Trump Endorses Tudor Dixon Before Tuesday's Michigan GOP Gov. Primary
• Trump-Endorsed Sen. Jerry Moran Wins Kansas GOP Primary
• Michigan Republicans See Easy Wins, Mostly With Trump Backing
• Trump-Endorsed Tudor Dixon Wins Michigan GOP Governor Primary

There was one unusually discordant note, however; a July 23 article by Solange Reyner quoted a competing candidate claiming that "former President Donald Trump made a bad endorsement in backing opponent Blake Masters."

After the FBI's search of Trump's Mar-a-Lago, however -- after which Newsmax did much Trump-fluffing stenography -- Newsmax felt the need to hype the victories of Trump-endorsed candidates even more. Mack led things off in an Aug. 9 article:

Completing a sweep of the gubernatorial and congressional endorsements of former President Donald Trump, Tim Michels has won the coveted Wisconsin GOP gubernatorial primary Tuesday night, Decision Desk HQ projected.

DDHQ made the call in the hotly contested race at 11:37 p.m. ET, giving Trump a 6-0 sweep of his primary endorsements on the night.

"Congratulations to Tim Michels on his win against a wonderful and highly competitive opponent, Rebecca Kleefisch," Trump wrote Tuesday night on Truth Social. "I know both sides will come together and defeat one of the worst governors in the country, Tony Evers."

It was a proxy battle between Trump's endorsement and that of former Vice President Mike Pence's chosen candidate in the race.

These were followed by articles on individual Trump-endorsed candidates in other states winning:

• Trump-Endorsed Finstad Wins Minnesota House Seat, '22 Primary
• Trump-Backed Joe Kent Wins; GOP Rep. Beutler, Who Voted to Impeach Trump, Concedes
• Trump-Endorsed Leora Levy Wins Senate GOP Primary in Connecticut

Another Aug. 9 article hidden behind a paywall claimed that "Former President Donald Trump's enduring hold on the Republican electorate was reaffirmed by the overwhelming number of Trump-endorsed candidates who racked up victories in recent primary elections." Gizzi further hyped Levy's victory in an Aug. 10 article, crediting the raid for motivating right-wing voters:

Republicans, Democrats, and independents throughout Connecticut were left reeling Tuesday night by the results of the GOP Senate primary.

In what is easily one of the Nutmeg State's biggest upsets in recent history, former State House Republican leader and long-presumed favorite Themis Klarides lost the Senate primary to Republican National Committeewoman and former President Donald Trump-endorsed Leora Levy.

[...]

To call Levy's upset of historic proportions is no exaggeration. In defeating Klarides, who had the endorsement of the state Republican convention, Levy became only the third Republican to win a statewide primary over the convention-endorsed candidate since primaries began in Connecticut in 1970.

"Trump voters were fired up," said one GOP consultant who requested anonymity, "His endorsement [which came last Thursday] along with what happened yesterday when the FBI raided Mar-a-Lago came at a good time for Leora. The conservative Trump bases had an outlet— today's primary— which allowed them to hit back by voting for Leora."

The touting continued afterwards: Mack touted Liz Cheney's defeat in a Wyoming Republican primary in an Aug. 16 article under the headline "Wyoming to Cheney: You're Fired! Trump-Backed Hageman Wins Easily." Mack followed that with an Aug. 20 article on how "Former President Donald Trump endorsed a slew of GOP House incumbents in Florida before the state's final primary vote Tuesday.

An Aug. 22 article by Mack gushed that "On the eve of her GOP primary, Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., drew the coveted endorsement from former President Donald Trump." And an Aug. 24 article by Sandy Fitzgerald cheered that "Former President Donald Trump took a victory lap on his Truth Social page late Tuesday night, celebrating a 'fantastic evening of ALL WINS' for the candidates he supported in the day's primary races."

UPDATE: Gizzi also wrote an Aug. 11 article on the Washington state primaries that started by cheering how Republican Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler became "the 7th of 10 House Republicans who voted for former President Donald Trump's impeachment going down to defeat" while a Trump-endorsed Republican will advance to the general election, but that a Trump-endorsed Republican lost in another district. He then wrote about how "pundits and pols pondered how one pro-impeachment Republican could go down and another could emerge on top in the same state." Most of the rest was fawning over the Trump-endorsed candidate who beat Herrera Beutler, as a wonderful candidate with a great personal story, while the losing Trump-endorsed candidate was quickly dismissed as "not a good candidate" who "came across as a grumpy guy" and not mentioned again.

NEW ARTICLE: The MRC's Dirty War on George Soros
Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center was, sadly, not afraid to invoke anti-Semitic tropes depicting the liberal billionaire as a "puppet master" who controlled the media and embrace the false smear that he was a Nazi collaborator. Read more >>

MRC's Graham Whines That Media Not As Mean To Biden's COVID Bout Than Trump's
Topic: Media Research Center

Media Research Center executive Tim Graham complained in his July 22 column:

President Biden has tested positive for COVID. We should all hope the president has an easy time. We should not ask for media nastiness and/or glee.

But this presents an obvious occasion to remember just how the "objective" press made a frenetic, mean-spirited and hyperbolic mess out of Trump's bout with the virus, which was announced on October 2, 2020. In their ardor to get Trump removed from office, they couldn’t imagine acting with decency or restraint.

First and foremost, cable-news channels couldn’t pause for a day or two from their routine smear that Trump was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands. Take ex-GOP strategist Rick Tyler on Al Sharpton’s show on MSNBC: “I look at this as a drunk driver who injured himself in a wreck, and killed the oncoming sober driver. Donald Trump has injured himself...and 200,000 people, other drivers, have died due to the coronavirus.”

After Trump was infected, CNN analyst Carl Bernstein just doubled down that “His response has been homicidal negligence.” CNN brought on then-Washington Post opinion editor David Swerdlick, who couldn’t get rid of Trump fast enough: “President Trump is the President until at least January 20th at noon and every day, people’s lives are in the balance.”

So let’s just lay out the numbers again. When President Trump left office, we had lost about 400,000 Americans to COVID. Since then, under Biden, the death toll is now 1.02  million. But the media blamed Trump for every single death on his watch...and Biden was assigned zero blame for anyone’s demise.

You can loathe Trump’s remarks early in the pandemic trying to downplay the threat, but to accuse him of mass murder – which was routine in 2020 – was apparently what the liberals call “reality-based journalism.” No “independent fact checkers” objected.

How gracious of Graham to give us permission to "loathe Trump" for not taking the pandemic seriously. Note that he does not say that he himself does so -- that's the hallmark of someone putting political hackery ahead of reality (or an mandate that no criticism of Trump is allowed to be published at the MRC).

But let's look back at how the MRC covered Trump's bout of COVID. It acted as an extention of the White House comms office in whining that some in the media said mean things about Trump -- much of which he rehashed in the rest of his column -- though it would have no problem saying mean things if it was a Democrat (Graham's decrying of "media nastiness and/or glee" notwithstanding). Then it was shocked that people didn't trust what the Trump White House said about his infection (despite years of lecturing readers that the government couldn't be trusted).

Graham also overlooks the fact that Trump's downplaying of COVID very likely cost the lives of Americans, the most prominent being Herman Cain -- which can be argued justifies the mass-murderer epithet -- while Biden repeatedly campaigned for vaccines and responsible mask-wearing, both of which the MRC repeatedly campaigned against.

Graham concluded by ranting: "Biden didn’t have to exploit Trump’s illness. He had an entire media-Democrat complex to do it for him. Remember this: Democrats will always find it easier to appear above the nasty fray when they have media hacks like CNN to do all their dirty work for them." Graham didn't mention that Trump has the MRC to exploit Biden's illness -- which, by the way, wasn't severe because he was fully vaccinated and boosted, even though the MRC loves to fearmonger about COVID vaccines and pretend that anti-vaxxers aren't misinforming people about them. One key example of that exploitation is a July 21 post by Kevin Tober that hyped a poll "that shows many Americans give Biden 'low marks' for having the necessary mental and physical health to be President" and touting a newscast's claim that "Biden's age has been a liability for him and his COVID diagnosis isn't helping matters."

In short, Graham and the MRC love doing the dirty work for Trump and Republicans -- yet another example of the MRC holding the "liberal media" to standards it will not enforce on itself.

MRC Still Hypocritically Exposing Political Donations of Non-Right-Wingers
Topic: Media Research Center

Last year, the Media Research Center threw a fit that video game developer Scott Cawthon was found to have donated money to right-wing and anti-LGBT causes, which was framed as a "left-wing mob" criticizing how the developer "was spending his well earned money," adding, "How dare he donate his money to a cause that he supports!" -- never mind that the MRC has a beat that dedicated to criticizing how non-right-wingers spend their hard-earned money on causes they support.

It hasn't stopped doing that. Jeffrey Clark complained in a May 25 post that "A leftist crypto billionaire is hinting at throwing a billion dollars, give or take, to keep former President Donald Trump from winning the 2024 presidential election." There was no praise of the guy for giving his money to a cause he supports.

Clark returned to huff in a June 29 post under the headline "Big Tech Bias?":

The radical liberal billionaire who became infamous for backing a group that “spread disinformation during the 2017 Alabama special election for U.S. Senate” is throwing money behind so-called “mainstream” Democrats in an attempt to prevent Republicans from winning control of Congress.

LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman is a longtime donor to the Democratic Party. He spent at least $3,835,509 to oppose former President Donald Trump’s 2020 presidential re-election campaign and at least $678,703 to support then-presidential candidate Joseph Biden, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) records. Hoffman already donated at least $500,000 to the Mainstream Democrats Political Action Committee (MDP) in February of this cycle, FEC records show. But the MDP made it clear that it has a special purpose: defeat Trump by supporting so-called “mainstream” Democrats. The MDP even declared war on “far-left organizations” that it claims have attempted a “hostile takeover” of the Democratic Party on its website.

Hoffman’s six-figure donation in February made him one of the top contributors to the MDP this year, according to FEC records, and one of the most important players working behind the scenes of Democratic politics, as CNBC noted in a story Tuesday.

Hoffman and MDP are anything but moderate, however. Notorious leftist billionaire George Soros and Hoffman teamed up to tighten censorship and tackle so-called “disinformation” through an organization called “Good Information Inc.,” in 2021. But the leftist bias of the site is clear: Fox News host Tucker Carlson and former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon feature prominently on the front page behind banners of “misinformation” and “disinformation.”

Apparently, liberals don’t perpetuate misinformation.

And Clark didn't prove that Carlson and Bannon aren't perpetuating it.

Michael Ippolito did pretting much the same thing to ah Hollywood creator in a July 29 post:

It’s not shocking to see Hollywood loonies shilling for their fellow lefties in power. But sometimes the extent of their support is a bit surprising. Take Family Guy creator Seth McFarlane (please). 

According to Breitbart, Seth McFarlane is one of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s biggest donors.

This is not the only recent donation McFarlane has handed out. FEC records also show he has given $365,000 in May to Democratic Grassroots Victory Fund, $2,900 again to Nancy Pelosi’s re-election campaign in June, and $5,000 to the pro-LGBT Equality PAC. 

McFarlane also used his Twitter to shill for Democratic politicians.

Neither Clark nor Ippolito fretted that they was criticizing how Hoffman and McFarlane wre spending their hard-earned money on causes they support., and the certainly didn't reference the time they attacked a "left-wing mob" for doing the exact same thing they're doing to Hoffman and McFarlane.

Most of all, they didn't admit their own paychecks are highly dependent on right-wing moneybags like Rebekah Mercer, whom they would never criticize for wasting money and would undoubtedly plraise for giving "hard-earned money" to a cause they support.