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Thursday, October 20, 2022
CNS Unemployment Coverage Distortion Watch
Topic: CNSNews.com

The employment numbers are still too good for CNSNews.com writer Susan Jones to complain about (not that CNS hasn't tried). So her article on September's employment numbers led with future job losses before she got around to the relevant (and actual) numbers, then cherry-picking her favorite number to try and make the overall picture look bad:

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell warned last month that raising interest rates to cool inflation is likely to dampen economic growth -- "and there will very likely be some softening of labor market conditions," he said.

But there's no significant softening evident in Friday's jobs/employment report.

On Friday, the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the number of employed Americans in September rose by 204,000 to 158,936,000, a record high. The previous record, 158,735,000, was set in December 2019 when Donald Trump was president.

But another key indicator of economic health -- the labor force participation rate -- dropped a tenth of a point to 62.3 percent from 62.4 percent in August.

This number reflects the active workforce -- the percentage of civilian, non-institutionalized workers available for the production of goods and services, so the higher, the better.

And it wouldn't be Jones if she wasn't gushing over how much better things were under her favorite president: "The participation rate was 61.4 percent when Joe Biden took office as the pandemic raged. Today's number, 62.3 percent, is still below the Trump-era high of 63.4 percent recorded in February 2020, just before COVID shut things down." She did surprisingly admit, though, that the lower labor force participation rate can't be blamed on a Democratic president, conceding that it "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."

This month also continued CNS' recent trend of Jones' story being the only one, with editor Terry Jeffrey abstaining from his usual sidebar on manufacturing jobs.


Posted by Terry K. at 12:58 AM EDT
Wednesday, October 19, 2022
MRC Immaturely Gloats That CNN's Lemon Is Being 'Demoted' To Mornings
Topic: Media Research Center

The immature glee the Media Research Center shows to CNN whenever something even mildly unpleasant happens to the network or one of its employees reared its ugly head again, this time in the form of a Sept. 15 post about some schedule-shuffling:

CNN announced Thursday morning that, after a nine-year run, their morning show New Day would be canceled this fall as new CNN boss Chris Licht and new parent company Discovery continue to remake the far-left, low-rated network and replaced with a yet-to-be-named newscast starring longtime CNNers Don Lemon and Poppy Harlow and chief White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins.

CNN said in a statement that current New Day co-hosts John Berman and Brianna Keilar would “continue to anchor New Day until the new program premieres” when they will thereafter “assume new roles at the network later this year.”

The obvious highlight and takeaway from this new trio is Lemon, the far-left, deeply partisan evening host who had helmed anywhere from one to two hours of primetime starting in 2014. Originally borne as CNN Tonight, it became Don Lemon Tonight in May 2021.

Chronicled with diligence and humor (with a side of fact-checking) by our Nick Fondacaro for seven years, Lemon had established himself as a home for rampant partisanship, snarky commentaries ,yelling, and venom toward conservatives.

Partisanship and venom? Is Houck actually talking aboaut Fondacaro, who we've chronicled for years and found him to be humorous or factually diligent?Houck also aoffered no evidence to back up his assertion that both CNN and Lemon are "far-left."That's just name-caling to pander to the MRC's right-wing audience.

The headline of Houck's piece insisted that Lemon was being "demoted" by moving from prime time to mornings, and the MRC was deadly serious about keeping it, so it was pleased when its favorite right-wing media critic on Fox News embraced it, as documented in a Sept. 18 post by Kevin Tober:

With the news this week of low-rated leftist CNN host, Don Lemon's demotion to mornings, Fox News MediaBuzz host Howard Kurtz noted the glaring double standard in media coverage of the move. Kurtz pointed out how there was barely any mention of Lemon's divisive and hyper-partisan commentary nor mentions of how being moved from primetime to early mornings is a serious demotion for Lemon. 

"CNN is throwing out its third-place New Day and launching a new morning show with Poppy Harlow, Kaitlin Collins, and Don Lemon. It’s a big move by new CNN boss Chris Licht who once helped create Morning Joe," Kurtz reported.

[...]

The Fox anchor then pointed out that: "The press sure is giving him a pass. Maybe most of the writers agree with Lemon’s anti-Trump stance" adding "can you imagine the reaction if one of Fox's most conservative opinion hosts was suddenly reinvented as a morning personality?" 

If Sean Hannity or Tucker Carlson were moved to mornings, the media would make sure to mention every chance they got to say it was a demotion, and they would be right. The media refuse to say anything critical of Lemon because he is a Democrat Party [sic] propagandist like them. 

Tober doesn't mention that Kurtz is never going to criticize Hannity or Carlson because, like them (and Tober), he's a right-wing propagandist as well as a fellow Fox News employee. Also, being a morning host does require a certain set of skills that nobody has ever accused Hannity or Carlson of having -- and neither Kurtz nor Tober (or Houck, for that matter) offer any evidence that Lemon does not have those skills.

Talking trash is not "media research." The MRC does not seem to understand that.


Posted by Terry K. at 9:19 PM EDT
Newsmax's Hirsen Fearmongers About Digital Currency That Doesn't Actually Exist
Topic: Newsmax

Aside from his dishonest moral projection -- specifically, his insistence on pushing right-wing virtue-signaling while refusing to apologize for the election fraud lies he peddled after the 2020 election -- Newsmax columnist has been getting into more esoteric conspiracy theories, such as claiming that you lose your soul if get yourself microchipped. For his Sept. 19 column, Hirsen peddled a slightly less esoteric conspiracy theory that has also been embraced by the likes of WorldNetDaily's Joseph Farah:

The Biden administration is pursuing something called a central bank digital currency (CBDC), also sometimes referred to as the “digital dollar.”

In March 2022 an executive order was issued, calling on federal agencies to research a number of topics that include the pros and cons of the digital dollar.

The Treasury, Justice Department, Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, Securities and Exchange Commission as well as other agencies were asked to contribute to the reports.

[...]

With regard to the inherent dangers of these developments, there is a whole lot to be concerned about.

CBDCs are very different from cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin are private and untraceable. CBDCs are controlled by government.

Not only are CBDCs able to collect personally identifiable financial information and track the transactions of each and every individual, they are also programmable.

Programmable digital currency gives government leaders something they have never had before — the ability to limit or even stop altogether the purchases of all persons engaged in the digital currency’s use.

Money spent on things that for whatever reasons are deemed by government as “inappropriate” could be restricted, or said purchases could be totally halted.

How could a plan such as this be implemented? With the flick of a virtual switch.

Programmable currency has the capacity to have a built-in off switch. The government powers that be could then de-activate such digital currency and render it worthless, if they so choose.

Additionally, use of CBDCs would enable all shopping records to be stored in government databanks. Records could then be evaluated and measured against government-created standards.

As we documented when Farah pushed this conpsiracy, none of this is happening. Biden's executive order simply authorized analysis of the risks and benefits and what legislative changes would be needed if such a system went forward.Despite that inconvenient fact, Hirsen concluded with mroe fearmongering:

Should the digital dollar arrive in our virtual wallets, the longstanding U.S. motto that has graced our coin and paper currency is unlikely to be visible.

But it will prove to be more important than ever.

Apparently, Hirsen has decided that scaring his readers is easier than apologizing to them.


Posted by Terry K. at 5:43 PM EDT
WND Can't Stop Pushing The 'Charlottesville Lie' Lie
Topic: WorldNetDaily

WorldNetDaily is highly invested in the "Charlottesville lie" lie, and it's never going to tell its readers the truth. Thus, Art Moore is at it again in a Sept. 18 article:

Promoting his United We Stand Summit at the White House – an event intended to "counter the corrosive effects of hate-fueled violence on our democracy and public safety" – President Biden repeated the false "very fine" people claim against former President Trump.

"I decided to run for president after Charlottesville because I believed our story is to unite as one people, one nation, one America," Biden said on his Twitter account Thursday.

"Today, we convened a first-of-its-kind United We Stand Summit held at the White House to make that story clear."

In fact, Trump made it clear during his remarks on the Charlottesville riot in 2017 that he was not referring to "the neo-Nazis and white nationalists" as "fine" people, explicitly declaring "they should be condemned totally."

His reference – as a CNN contributor pointed out in a rebuke to his network colleagues – was to the people on both sides of the issue of whether or not to maintain statues of Robert E. Lee and other Confederate figures.

As we've documented, the group that was protesting the removal of the Confederate statue and Robert E. Lee park renaming in Charlottesville was a group calling itself American Warrior Revolution, which considers itself a militia and later effectively blaming liberal counterprotester Heather Heyer for her own death in getting mowed down by a car driven by white supremacist James Fields Jr.

Moore tried to play whataboutism by noting that "Biden, for his part, weighed in on the controversial Confederate flag issue in a 1993 Senate session, declaring that 'many fine people' display it." Again, that was nearly 30 years ago when Americans as a whole were more sanguine about the Confederacy, and his source for the Biden video clipis something called the "Trump War Room," an opposition research Twitter feed run by Trump supporters -- hardly an objective source of information.

Moire keeps trying to make this counter-narrative happen, but he can't fight the facts.


Posted by Terry K. at 2:42 PM EDT
NEW ARTICLE: The Heathering of Alyssa Farah
Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center is quite upset that the daughter of WorldNetDaily's Joseph Farah and a former Trump administration official left the Trump cult and wants to co-host "The View" -- as is her father, apparently. Read more >>

Posted by Terry K. at 1:03 AM EDT
Tuesday, October 18, 2022
MRC Still Loves How DeSantis Owned The Libs By Treating Immigrants Like Pawns
Topic: Media Research Center

Jeffrey Lord continued the Media Research Center's narrative of praising GOP Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' stunt of flying migrants to Martha's Vineyard to own the libs in his Sept. 17 column:

Suddenly the media is freaking out over the flood of illegals into wealthy, white and liberal Martha’s Vineyard in the sanctuary state of Massachusetts — a “flood” of fifty sent to the far left Martha’s Vineyard by Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis.

[...]

What the liberal media has vividly illustrated here is the sheer hypocrisy of -the liberal media. Illegals crossing the southern border and flooding into Texas and Arizona by the tens of thousands? No big deal. 

But bring in fifty to the left-wing and white paradise of Martha’s Vineyard? And bam.

To borrow from the filmmaker Ken Burns, the authoritarian fist of the left comes down like a hammer.

As I said: You can’t make it up.

Kevin Tober cheered right-wing talking points being parroted on TV in a Sept. 18 post:

During Sunday morning’s “Powerhouse Roundtable” segment on ABC’s This Week, former Chief of Staff to Vice President Mike Pence, Marc Short slammed co-anchor Jon Karl for crying about Governors Ron DeSantis (R-FL) and Greg Abbott (R-TX) sending migrants to Martha’s Vineyard and Vice President Kamala Harris’s residence respectively. Short accurately pointed out how the United States didn’t have this problem under the Trump-Pence administration because they actually worked to secure the border. 

Curtis Houck denounced commentators who argued that DeSantis could be jailed for his stunt:

While real Americans were either getting ready to return to work on Monday or watching NFL games, MSNBC had dialed up a Sunday night episode of The Medhi Hasan Show with a panel fit for some sort of hall of fame for idiots that called for Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) to face “human trafficking” and “kidnapping”charges for flying illegal immigrants to the ultra-liberal, white vacation spot Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts.

Hasan set the table by claiming that Republicans aren’t actually Christians because, if they had accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior, they knew He “wouldn’t be playing a glorified game of hot potato with babies” and “flinging unwanted brown people across the country.&rdquo

He added that DeSantis broke the law and if what he did was “not what most people would call kidnapping” or “human trafficking, I don’t know what is.” To address this, he said the federal government should use its full force to “see if there is a legal, crime case to be made” or risk more “brown families, brown children, brown babies [being] hurled...like political footballs.”

The Nation’s Elie Mystal was the main draw for this panel of kooks, but he first had to burst the bubble of his fellow nuts that “[n]ot every evil, sadistic, twisted, bigoted, racist thing these people do is illegal” because “some of those evil, sadistic, racist, bigoted things are just allowed in this country.”

Houck was paid to watch this gegment and write this post aboutit instead of watching football or getting ready for work. Does that mean he's not a "real American"?

Alex Christy got mad that DeSantis' callous stunt was mocked:

Monday’s edition of The Late Show on CBS resembled more of an Orwellian Two Minutes Hate than a comedy show as host Stephen Colbert led a booing audience in wondering “how big of an a-hole is Ron DeSantis?”

Colbert began by showing an unflattering picture of DeSantis, “There's an update about who might want to be the president next: Florida Governor, Ron DeSantis seen here—”After several seconds of booing from the audience, Colbert continued, “seen here watching your grandma fall into a ditch.”

Getting to the Martha’s Vineyard news, Colbert absurdly accused DeSantis of “kidnapping two planeloads of migrants and then flying them to Martha's Vineyard.”

For Colbert, it only gets worse, “Well, it turns out, it was way worse than we imagined, because he actually abducted them from Texas. For a guy who acts so concerned about borders, he doesn't seem to know where his state ends. So why is the governor-- why? why, I say. Why? So, why is the governor of Florida spending his taxpayers' money to snatch asylum-seekers in Texas? Because he can read their minds.”

[...]

Following another clip of DeSantis declaring people arriving in Florida in cars makes it more difficult to track these people, Colbert wondered, “Oh, I remember that one from the SAT "If two people are traveling in a car, and there are hundreds of different cars, how big of an a-hole is Ron DeSantis? Gaping. Gaping.”

Apparently Colbert got the question on what makes something funny wrong because all he’s got is name calling.

That's an odd complaint, given how endemic name-calling is in the MRC's "media research." (i.e., fat jokes about Lizzo).

Speaking of name-calling, Curtis Houck was angered that someone was going to look into DeSantis' stunt:

The major broadcast networks of ABC, CBS, and NBC have spent days bellyaching and screeching about Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) sending flights of less than 50 illegal immigrants to ultra-liberal Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, so it was only natural Tuesday that their morning shows would be ebullient over a far-left Texas sheriff launching a criminal investigation of DeSantis.

“Immigrant showdown. Overnight, a new criminal investigation targeting Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who flew that group of migrants to Martha’s Vineyard. This as new numbers show record apprehensions at the border,” boasted ABC’s Good Morning America co-host and former Clinton official George Stephanopoulos.

Liberal correspondent Rachel Scott accepted Bexar County, Texas Sheriff Javier Salazar’s framing as gospel:

Houck called Salazar a "lefty" in the headline of his piece, but provided no evidene to back up the assertion.

Kevin Tober turned to an anonymous source -- which the MRC professes to hate -- to attack another DeSantis critic:

On Tuesday’s The ReidOut, MSNBC host Joy Reid attempted to pass off Roberto Rodriguez Tejera, a well-known left-wing Democrat Party [sic] activist in South Florida as an objective Spanish radio host. According to a source who spoke to our colleagues at MRC Latino on the condition of anonymity, Rodriguez Tejera is paid by the Democratic Party a “monthly sum for alleged advertising for a weekly show on Actualidad Radio 1040 AM.” 

[...]

According to a source who spoke to MRC Latino on the condition of anonymity, "Roberto Rodriguez is a known Democratic activist, the Democratic party pays him a monthly sum for alleged advertising for a weekly show on Actualidad Radio 1040 AM and for segments with RoRo, as he is known in Democrat circles. He served as director of Radio and TV Martí under a Democrat administration."

Rodriguez Tejera’s bio on the radio station Actualidad Radio 1040 AM doesn’t disclose that his show is paid for by the Democrat Party [sic].

Tober gave no evidence that he fact-checked his anonymous source's claims -- making this the kind of anonymous one-source story the MRC tried to discredit when it involved a raped child being forced to go to another state to get an abortion.

Scott Whilock took up the Colbert-bashing baton:

It’s beyond obvious that the late night hosts have no interest in appealing to any part of the country outside the rabidly liberal Democratic base. But Late Show host Stephen Colbert on Tuesday night proved that his obsession with Ron DeSantis has ruined any possibility of “comedy” on the show. In a rant about the Florida Governor sending illegals to liberal enclaves like Martha’s Vineyard, Colbert abandoned jokes for cheap partisan gibes. 

Colbert attacked the possible 2024 contender: “You'll recall that Governor DeSantis tried to score cheap political points in Florida by dragooning people off the streets in Texas and smuggling them to Massachusetts.” Cheering Democratic stunts, the host continued, “Well, good news we found out that a Texas sheriff is investigating DeSantis' role in flying migrants to Martha's Vineyard. Hell yeah! Get him!”

“Hell yeah”? “Get him”? Can you imagine Johnny Carson even or Jay Leno even trying anything so nakedly partisan? After all that build-up, here’s Colbert’s lame “joke.” 

You can catch it all on the new TV showWalker Texas Florida Martha's Vineyard!”

Given that the MRC thinks making fat jokes agbout Lizzo is the height of comedy, perhaps Whitlock should sit this one out.

Andit wouldn't be the MRC if someone wasn't playing the George Soros bogeyman card, and Jeffrey Clark obliged:

A group funded by George Soros with nearly $1.4 million is behind a legal effort to punish Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for shipping migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.

Immigration activists sued the Florida governor just days after DeSantis took credit for sending about 50 migrants by plane from San Antonio to the liberal paradise island of Martha’s Vineyard on Sept. 14. Lawyers for Civil Rights (LCR) filed on behalf of the group Alianza Americas=, “a class of affected immigrants, including the immigrants” on Martha’s Vineyard, according to a LCR press release. 

Soros funded Alianza Americas with a total of $1,383,947 between 2016 and 2020, according to Open Society Foundations records. The group describes itself as “the premiere digital organizing site for the Latinx community” on its website.

[...]

This is nothing new for Soros, who has bankrolled several far-left, pro-open borders organizations. In January 2022, a Soros-funded group secured a $158 million government contract to help illegal immigrants avoid deportation, in what appears to be a violation of U.S. policy. 

DeSantis, on the other hand, has voiced support for strong national borders.

Clark didn't explain why migrants must be deprived of legal representation or even basic rights.

Torer returned to defend DeSantis' own-the-libs mentality in a Sept. 27 post:

While real news outlets were tracking the path of incoming Hurricane Ian and covering the preparations that local authorities were executing in their towns, MSNBC's Joy Reid went on another hate-filled rant Tuesday night about how allegedly terrible Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis is. Reid couldn't even make it a full minute into her show The ReidOut before falsely accusing DeSantis of spending his entire term "owning the libs" instead of preparing his state for hurricanes.   

"Florida prepares for a monster storm, with landfall expected tomorrow. Governor Ron DeSantis is going to be put to the test, forced to actually do his job. When he's used to spending most of his time hanging out on Fox News and owning the libs," Reid hatefully claimed in the opening preview of her show.

[...]

Obviously, DeSantis is doing his job as governor of the state of Florida. He consistently receives high marks for his job performance and is currently on track to win reelection decisively. Reid can't stand that he's successful and lashes out every chance she gets. 

Look for DeSantis to copy Tober's statement and paste it into future campaign literature.


Posted by Terry K. at 9:30 PM EDT
Updated: Tuesday, October 18, 2022 9:32 PM EDT
WND Columnist Tries To Whitewash Pro-Putin Philosopher
Topic: WorldNetDaily

Hanne Nabintu Herland wrote in her Sept. 14 WorldNetDaily column:

The murder last month of Russian journalist Darya Dugina has brought international attention to her influential father, the Russian philosopher Alexander Dugin. As the car bomb that killed her apparently was meant for her father, many read up on who Alexander Dugin is. Why is he considered so dangerous in the West and hailed as such a hero in the East?

As it turns out, Dugin is Russia's strongest critic of the ideology of globalism, or what he calls liberal totalitarianism. He says that the post-Cold War idea that Western liberalism represents "the end of history" is a very premature assumption.

[...]

Then, says Alexander Dugin: "Russia under Putin became an obvious obstacle to the end of history, and after the start of the New World Order, it completely challenged this project. Hence Fukuyama's fury: Before his eyes, the project for the end of history was not only postponed, but completely collapsed."

In trying to whitewash Dugin, Herland is obscuring certain relevant facts, as a more trustworthy media outlet reported:

Dugin helped revive the expression “Novorossiya” or New Russia – which included the territories of parts of Ukraine – before the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014. Russian President Vladimir Putin used the word in declaring Crimea part of Russia in March of that year.

Dugin has long had a visceral loathing of Ukrainians resisting assimilation into “mother Russia.” After dozens of pro-Russian protesters were killed during clashes in Odesa in May 2014, he said: “Ukraine has to be either vanished from Earth and rebuilt from scratch or people need to get it. I think people in Ukraine need total revolt on all levels and in all regions. An armed revolt against junta. Not only in the South-East.

“I think kill, kill and kill. No more talk anymore. It is my opinion as a professor,” he said.

[...]

The work that propelled Dugin to prominence was the “Foundations of Geopolitics” in 1997, in which he set out his vision of a Eurasian empire, stretching from Dublin to Vladivostok. The book advocated sowing instability and dissent in the United States – a pre-echo of the disinformation campaign around the 2016 US election.

The word "Ukraine" did not appear once in Herland's column, let alone that his philosophy is rabidly anti-Ukrainian. Instead, she concluded by singing the praises of Mother RussiaL

The restoration of the sovereignty of the nation state of Russia, the national control over its coveted natural resources and richness in commodities, the revival of its cultural Orthodox history and traditional value system, strengthening the self-awareness of Russians in general, its denial of the Western atheist liberalism – all this represents currents that push for a multi-polar world. A new phase of history has begun, Dugin writes. The future will show if he is right.

Herland's silence on Putin's invasion of Ukraine shows that she doesn't want it to interfere with her vision of Russia's future.


Posted by Terry K. at 7:03 PM EDT
Newsmax, Jon Voight Suck Up To Trump With 'Abraham Accords' Special
Topic: Newsmax

Newsmax wouldn't take part in a TV show for its channel if it wasn't completely sucking up to Donald Trump, and a special on the so-called "Abraham Accords," hosted by actor Jon Voight, was certainly that. Voight teased the show in a Sept. 12 Newsmax TV appearance:

The Newsmax exclusive "The Abraham Accords" with former President Donald Trump debuts Sunday, hosted by actor Jon Voight, detailing the historic move toward peace in the Middle East and the "grace" and "humility" of the former president.

"It's an unbelievable thing, a movement towards peace of this kind; it was unprecedented," Voight told Monday's "Eric Bolling The Balance" previewing the special presentation "The Abraham Accords" that will air Sunday at 8 p.m. Eastern time exclusively on Newsmax.

"It's really been quite a remarkable thing what happened — peace for the first time in that area was brought forth."

The special brings an in-depth interview with Trump and the Abraham Accords, which Voight said the mainstream media has tried to downplay to avoid praising him.

A Sept. 14 article by Eric Mack was effectively a press release for the show:

Peace in the Middle East has been considered unachievable for decades, if not centuries, but the Trump administration's Abraham Accords changed the paradigm, actor Jon Voight told Newsmax on Wednesday.

"Peace has never been there it seems from the beginning," Voight said on "Rob Schmitt Tonight," previewing the special "The Abraham Accords" that will air Sunday at 8 p.m. Eastern time exclusively on Newsmax.

"There's always been trouble and violence and difficulty for the Jewish people. And now with Donald Trump and the Abraham Accords, there's a possibility of peace in that region — real peace for the first time."

Voight's special, in cooperation with JLTV's (Jewish Life Television's) Stephen Paul and Newsmax CEO Christopher Ruddy, sits down with the former president to dig into the peace deals that President Joe Biden is effectively damaging but will not be able to suppress or make go away, Voight told host Rob Schmitt.

In reality, as we noted when CNSNews.com was promoting them as a reason to re-elect Trump, the "Abraham Accords" were peace deals Israel made with three minor Muslim countries that had no active violent hostilities against Israel, and they had no impact whatsoever on the central conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

Sandy Fitzgerald wrote her own promo piece for a Sept. 15 article:

The premiere of actor Jon Voight's new documentary with former President Donald Trump celebrating the historic Abraham Accords will air Sunday at 8 p.m. ET on Newsmax.

The program — "Israel & The Abraham Accords" — details the role Trump and his administration played in the groundbreaking peace agreement between Israel and its Arab neighbors, including the UAE and Bahrain.

Reaching peace in the Middle East has been a goal considered unachievable for many years, but the Abraham Accords have changed that, the Oscar-winning Voight says.

You can see the narrative being peddled here -- nobody could get peace in the Middle East done before Trump, even though, again, these have basically no direct impact on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Voight hyped his show yet again in a Sept. 17 article:

Famed actor Jon Voight joined Newsmax Saturday to discuss his new documentary, "The Abraham Accords."

Voight told "The Count" that the Newsmax exclusive is "a monumental event that is very little reported in the media. Of course, the mainstream media doesn't want to give any attention to Donald Trump at all. But it's a monumental event that happened that has brought peace and the possibility of peace — real peace to the Middle East — for the first time."

The special, which will air Sunday at 8 p.m., brings an in-depth interview with President Donald Trump about the Abraham Accords.

Voight added that despite Trump's public image, for the special, "You're going to see me sitting down with a very different kind of man."

Well, yes and no. Voight was clearly not going to ask anything challenging of Trump -- like, say, his insistence on continuing to lie about election fraud -- but that didn't keep Trump from spouting word salad during the interview.Voight managed to embarass himself as well through his obsequiousness, as Mediaite documented:

At one point in the interview, Voight got choked up recalling a story to Trump he had once heard about the former president.

“I can’t go through this story without crying,” Voight says as he retells Trump about a time the former president was said to have offered to pay for the cancer treatments of one of his employees.

The fawning interview ended with Trump decrying the issues currently facing the U.S.

“And let’s appreciate those who are capable of turning the tide and bringing us back to the greatness that we were given by our founding fathers,” Voight says.

[...]

“And we say, God bless you and good luck. John, thank you very much. I appreciate it,” Trump concluded.

“Thank you very much for this time, Mr. President. I hope it’s I hope it’s worthy of you,” Voight responded, concluding the interview.

Then again, there is entertainment value in watching Voight be such a Trump suck-up.


Posted by Terry K. at 1:51 PM EDT
CNS Shares MRC's Hypocrisy In Complaining About Dems Meddling In GOP Primaries
Topic: CNSNews.com

There's basically no wall between the activist Media Resarch Center and its "news" division CNSNews.com anyone -- which a real, credible "news" organization would have -- so what one side of the operation does, the other side likely will as well. So the MRC's hypocritical obsession with Democrats supporting extremist Republicans to win their GOP primaries so Democrats could beat them more easily in the general election unsurprisingly spread to CNS. Susan Jones wrote in an Aug. 23 article:

Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.), head of the Democrat Congressional Campaign Committee, told NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday that his job is "to win elections for the Democrats," even if that means supporting pro-Trump Republican candidates perceived to be weak opponents for Democrat candidates.

"The moral imperative is keeping the gavel out of the hands of Kevin McCarthy," Maloney told Chuck Todd.

But a number of Democrats oppose what the DCCC did in Michigan -- running ads to promote Trump-endorsed John Gibbs over Republican incumbent Peter Meijer, who voted to impeach Trump. Gibbs won the Republican primary.

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) is among the Democrats who oppose the DCCC's attempt to advantage Democrats by boosting Republicans perceived to be the weakest opponents.

Jones complained further in a Sept. 6 article:

As President Joe Biden slams "MAGA Republicans" and Donald Trump as "election deniers" who threaten democracy, the Democrat Party [sic] is spending millions of dollars to boost the campaigns of so-called Republican election-deniers ahead of the midterm election.

Their goal is to have Democrats in New Hampshire and other states run against Republican candidates viewed as weak.

As CNSNews.com has reported, not all Democrats approve of the strategy. But two Democrats on Sunday gave it a pass.

[...]

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, has criticized the Democrat hypocrisy. He tweeted last week: "If President Biden is truly serious about threats to democracy, then he would condemn the tens of millions Democratic groups have spent promoting extremists threatening democracy. The fact that he won't do so shows this is more posturing from a failed administration."

But Jones didn't report her employer's own hypocrisy on the issue: Like its parent, CNS approvingly promoted Rush Limbaugh's "Operation Chaos," his plan to encourage Republican voters to vote in the 2008 Democratic primaries to needlessly prolong the race between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Jones herself lovingly wrote about Limbaugh's plan in a July 2008 article:

Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh says the ultimate goal of his Operation Chaos is "Democrats losing in November."

To get to that point, he's issued "orders" to loyal listeners of his radio program, telling them in recent weeks to switch sides, if possible, and cast ballots for Sen. Hillary Clinton in various primaries -- just to keep Clinton in the bruising Democratic race.

The point of Operation Chaos is not to support Clinton, but to undermine Obama, Limbaugh says. On Thursday, he told Fox News that Clinton should stay in the race and insist that delegates from Florida and Michigan be counted.

[...]

By pressing Clinton to scream "disenfranchisement," Limbaugh is staying true to his "chaos" theme.

Limbaugh noted on Thursday that he told everyone in advance what he intended to do with Operation Chaos -- and how they could stop it.

"I advised the Obama campaign, look, if you guys want to shut this down, all you have to do is acknowledge it -- and simply say that a number of Mrs. Clinton's votes are tainted because they come from people who actually have no intention of voting for her in November."

[...]

Limbaugh says he hatched the plan because Republican presidential candidate John McCain -- and the Republican Party -- were so reluctant to criticize Obama, who was being treated like a "messiah." Limbaugh decided there was only one person who could beat up Obama politically -- and that was Sen. Clinton.

"Operation Chaos thus was born to keep Mrs. Clinton in the race, and it worked. Obama has been bloodied," Limbaugh said Wednesday on his radio program.

Limbaugh has now urged Democrat superdelegates to side with Obama -- because "he will lose" the general election. At the same time, he's urging Sen. Clinton not to drop out of the race -- "because the chaos...is not over."

"The chaos will continue," Limbaugh promised on Wednesday. "We have been successful beyond our wildest dreams. We have created a bloodied Obama via our vessel of the Clinton campaign because the McCain campaign and the Republican Party refuse to do so. Obama is no longer the messiah," he said.

And the Democratic Party is in disarray.

Jones did not include any criticism of Limbaugh's plan in her article. That, apparently, was offloaded to a separate article the same day by Fred Lucas:

Rush Limbaugh's "Operation Chaos" -- a tactic that calls on Republicans to vote for Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries to keep her in the race where she will "bloody" Barack Obama and cause primary mayhem in general -- is apparently working, according to the Obama campaign. The campaign said that the tactic helped Clinton win the Indiana primary on Tuesday.

During a "State of the Campaign" teleconference Wednesday, Obama's >campaign manager, David Plouffe, and several high-profile supporters talked to reporters about Obama's (D-Ill.) double-digit primary win over Clinton (D-N.Y.) in North Carolina and narrow two-point loss in Indiana.

"If it was not for Republicans taking Democratic ballots, he would have won (Indiana). Rush Limbaugh was tampering with the primary," said Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), the party's 2004 presidential nominee and an Obama supporter. "The GOP has clearly decided they want Hillary as the candidate."

[...]

Limbaugh has said that he thinks Obama will be the Democratic presidential nominee. But he has been encouraging his audience of about 14 million listeners to vote for Clinton.

Speaking about "Operation Chaos" on his talk-radio show Tuesday, Limbaugh said it has not only caused chaos in the Democratic Party, but also in the "drive-by media."

[...]

Limbaugh had said on Tuesday that he was not tampering with the election.

"I don't think there's anything untoward going on with Operation Chaos," Limbaugh said in response to a caller. "Operation Chaos is balance to all of the fraud that is being committed throughout our electoral process. George Soros is tampering with our electoral process with a huge multibillion-dollar fortune. MoveOn.org is tampering with vast fundraising tentacles. The unions -- I mean, who doesn't 'tamper' with elections, if you want to get right down to it? Everybody tampers with elections because they're trying to influence the outcome. But I'm not a tamperer. I'm an untamperer. I'm trying to level the playing field here somewhat."

Given its support of election meddling when Republicans do it to affect Democratic primaries, CNS has no real moral basis to complain when Democrats return the favor.


Posted by Terry K. at 12:41 AM EDT
Updated: Tuesday, October 18, 2022 9:08 AM EDT
Monday, October 17, 2022
MRC Mad That DeSantis Immigration Stunt Likened To 'Reverse Freedom Rides' -- But Censors That The Comparison Is Apt
Topic: Media Research Center

The Media Research Center just loves Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis'own-the-libs mentality in treating migrants like political pawns by shipping them to Martha's Vineyard -- but it's quite sensitive about criticism. And when critics pointed out that his stunt smacks of the "reverse freedom rides" in the 1960s -- in which Southern segregationists sent black families to live in northern states by falsely promising them free housing and good jobs -- the MRC got a bit upset.

Graham spent part of his Sept. 16 podcast -- which, as we've noted, otherwise praised DeSantis' stunt largely because "it's audacious in getting right in the liberal media's face" -- complaining that the JFK Library sent a tweet reminding people of the reverse freedom rides. First, he sneered that "I like to call it the John Adulterous Kennedy Library, because you always gotta take the Kennedys down a bit," then whined that the library is "taxpayer-funded lberal trolling because the Kennedy Library and Museum receives an annual federal appropriation for building maitenance and pays a portion of their personnel costs." Grahamfinally got around to grousing about the tweet:

So they're comparing Ron DeSantis sending Venezuelans to Martha's Vineyard to basically the Klansmen sending Negroes, ad they called them in the headline in this thing, with one-way-tickes to northern cities. Liberals are so gross. They think they're so smart, and ths isn't smart at all.

Alex Christy whined about the comparison in a Sept. 17 post:

Friday’s CNN Tonight came up with several comparisons for Governors Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis sending 50 migrants to Martha’s Vineyard and none of them were good. Host Laura Coates compared the governors to segregationists while theGrio White House correspondent April Ryan cited the debunked scandal where border patrol agents were said to have whipped migrants with horse reins.

Coates kicked off the segment by trying to give viewers a history lesson, “they echo something that happened some 60 years of our past. Back to something called the ‘Reverse Freedom Rides.’ And maybe you've never heard of what this is. You certainly heard of Freedom Riders, right? But the Freedom Rides in the Reverse, were Black families who were tricked by white supremacists. They were lured by the promise of a job or a better home and they were bused to Hyannis, Massachusetts, right near John F. Kennedy's holiday home.”

[...]

Those victims would be Americans who were uprooted from their homes under false pretenses. These migrants are from outside the U.S. and even if they are granted asylum, they likely would not all have settled down in Texas.

However, not only did Coates compare Abbott and DeSantis to segregationists, she argued they could be considered even worse, “Now, the numbers, racked up by Governors Abbott and DeSantis put the segregationists of that dark period, well, frankly, to shame in the numbers alone. Now, the Reverse Freedom Riders, they tricked about 200 people into getting onto a bus. 199 or maybe even 200, far too many. While today's Republicans have moved more than 9,000 people, and are promising more.”

But it turns out those migrants were, in fact, being deceived as well. Christy failed to mention that the migrants were given a brochure that promised they would be eligible for "8 months cash assistance," "assistance with housing," "food," "clothing," "transportation to job interviews," "job training," "job placement," "registering children for school," "assistance applying for Social Security cards," among other benefits, when the arrived in Massachusetts -- which isn't true.

The MRC seems to be conceding this point. Aside from an Oct. 1 post by Geoffrey Dickens that repeated Christy's attack -- without admitting just how apt the comparison is -- it hasn't complained about the comparison again.

Christy also referenced "the debunked scandal where border patrol agents were said to have whipped migrants with horse reins" -- in fact, the only debunked scandal we found is the MRC falsely asserting that media outlets accused those agents of using whips.


Posted by Terry K. at 9:20 PM EDT
WND Continues To Be Sad About Confederate Monuments Being Taken Down
Topic: WorldNetDaily

WorldNetDaily has long been sad that Confederate memorials are being removed as it occurs to people that it's a bad idea to honor those who led (and lost) a war against the United States. An anonymous WND writer expressed that sadness again in a Sept. 14 article:

A commission set up to evaluate the political correctness of the names of military bases and other sites around the nation says a memorial in Arlington National Cemetery has to go.

It's because it recognizes the Confederacy.

The Confederate Memorial at Arlington, according to the Washington Examiner, features a bronze woman and the coats of arms of the 13 states, as well as depictions of slavery.

It is "problematic from top to bottom," the commission concluded of the statue put up in 1914.

Because this anonymous WND writer is ignorant of history (or perhaps it's just laziness since the Washington Examiner article this story is lifted from is also ignorant of it), he or she omits the relevant history of Arlington National Cemetery -- namely, that it originaly the estate of the wife of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee and was occupied by the U.S. government during the Civil War -- you know, the one that Lee fought on the losing side of -- and used to bury Union war dead. A descendant of the memorial's sculptor has denounced it, saying its suggestion of enslaved people as complicit in the Confederacy is offensive.

The anonymous WND writer went on to complain about the effort to remove vestiges of enemies of the United States from military installations:

The instruction is just part of a report from the commission which wants new names for military bases including Fort Bragg in North Carolina; Fort Benning and Fort Gordon in Georgia; Fort A.P. Hill, Fort Lee, and Fort Pickett in Virginia; Fort Hood in Texas, Fort Polk in Louisiana, and Fort Rucker in Alabama.

The report explained, "The recommendations are part of a larger report by the commission that seeks to propose new names for Army bases and assets that commemorate the Confederacy. The Naming Commission is set to submit a three-part report to Congress by Oct. 1 that includes recommendations for all memorials, awards, scholarships, and 'inactive, decommissioned, or obsolete assets."

It is expected to cost taxpayers about $62.4 million to do the changes the commission is requiring.

Military officials have explained that the various names preserve history, but do not signal support for the Confederacy.

The anonymous WND writer did not any cite specific "military official" making that argument, nor was it explained why the U.S. should continue to honor losers and traitors -- or why ceasing to do so makes one "woke," as the headline claims.

 


Posted by Terry K. at 4:36 PM EDT
New Season Of 'The View,' Same Old Vicious MRC Hate For Farah Griffin
Topic: Media Research Center

The Media Research Center's Nicholas Fondacaro continued his war on Alyssa Farah Griffin for ceasing to be the far-right Trump toady he remains as the new season of "The View" -- which named her as a permanent co-host -- arrived. The hate emanted from him as he spewed in a Sept. 5 post:

On the eve of yet another vapid and hate-fueled season of ABC’s The View, the Labor Day Monday edition of ABC’s Good Morning Americateamed up with new permanent “conservative” co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin to promote the 26th season. In the course of the interview, Farah Griffin made the laughable claim that she and her fellow co-hosts aim to “elevate the discourse” of the country and chided politicians for not being able to talk like they do.

Seemingly hinting at Fox News, GMA co-host Janai Norman said Farah Griffin could have gone to “a place where others have views just like yourself, but you wanted to have that discussion with people with opposing views.” She also noted that “sometimes things get heated, especially during Hot Topics” on the show

“Listen, by the way, I survived the Trump West Wing. I think I can survive The View,” Farah Griffin pompously declared, despite how she often cowered to push back from the rest of the liberal cast when she was a guest host.

[...]

“[A]s a Republican, the table skews to the left. Umm. I'm not going in trying to change everyone's mind. Merely to show the other viewpoint, show how, you know, nearly half the country sees some of these issues,” Farah Griffin continued.

Still speaking as a “Republican,” she explained that she was looking forward to lecturing Republicans about her master plan for the future of the party from her perch in a New York City studio:

Fondacaro continued to whine that Farah Griffin refused to be the kind of blind ideologue he is in a post the next day:

During a Monday promotion for their new season, “conservative” co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin claimed The View cast was looking to “elevate the discourse” on the show and in America. But during their 26th season primer on Tuesday, co-host Whoopi Goldberg’s audio dropped out as she cursed out Republicans and average hard-working Americans who opposed President Biden’s unfair and legally dubious student loan bailout

Fondacaro was furether angered that a comparison was made between student loan forgiveness and the Paycheck ProtectionPlan loans that were given out during the COVID pandemic, most of which have been forgiven:

Farah Griffin offered mild pushback, noting that “the PPP conversation is a little bit different. We artificially shut down the economy because of COVID, businesses were not allowed to operate. So, of course, private businesses were given rightfully PPP loans.” Goldberg refused to listen to reason and insisted they were exactly the same.

Fondacaro somehow forgot to mention that his employer received more than $1 million in PPP money, and it has shown no interest in repaying that money.

It's clear that Fondaaro is not going to elevate his discourse and continue to engage in the misogynist hate he's been spewing at the show. If he finds it so "vapid and hate-fueled," he should quit the MRC and do something else.


Posted by Terry K. at 2:53 PM EDT
NEW ARTICLE: Newsmax's Trump Defense Brigade Against The Raid
Topic: Newsmax
When the FBI raided Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago compound searching for the classified documents he absconded with, Newsmax cranked out dozens of stories to defend him, and it even put Dick Morris on full defense alert. Read more >>

Posted by Terry K. at 8:58 AM EDT
Sunday, October 16, 2022
MRC Cheers DeSantis Immigration Stunt
Topic: Media Research Center

Because the Media Research Center is all about owning the libs and hating the immigrants (despite none ofthat being "media research") and absolutely loves right-wing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, it was totally jazzed about DeSantis' stunt of spending state money to fly undocumented immigrants from Texas to Martha's Vineyard. Curtis Houck gushed over the owning-the-libs and abusing-immigrants-for-partisan-purposes angles, along with parroting DeSantis' PR flacks, in a Sept. 15 post:

On Thursday, CBS Mornings and NBC’s Today were nearly apoplectic over Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) sending two flights of illegal immigrants Wednesday to the rich, white, and liberal Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts, calling it “inhumane” behavior “us[ing]” so-called “migrants” to play “politics” and overwhelm such a “great, great place.”

“Migrants are flown to Martha's Vineyard not knowing where they are. How they wound up being used for politics,” fretted CBS Mornings co-host Nate Burleson.

Socialist and fellow co-host Tony Dokoupil said DeSantis caused “an escalation in the political fight over immigration” by sending “[d]ozens of apparent migrants” to Martha’s Vineyard, which he attempted to paint like an East Coast Alcatraz by calling it “a rocky island in the Atlantic.”

[...]

For their part, Team DeSantis spokesman Taryn Fenske said the governor wanted to make sure illegal immigrants were sent to places like “Massachusetts, New York, and California” to “better facilitate the care of these individuals who they are invited into our country by incentivizing illegal immigration through their designation as sanctuary states.” 

Houck didn't explain why he was so offended by calling migrants "migrants" that he employed scare quotes and the "so-called" modifier.He also didn't explain what evidence he had to support his description of Dokoupil as a "socialist" or what relevance doing so had to this discussion.

Nnicholas Fondacaro brought his misogynism to attack the co-hosts of "The View," whining that "the cackling coven of ABC’s The View started Thursday’s show by raging at Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis for sending a load of illegal immigrants to the liberal safe haven of Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts," going on to snark that "Martha’s Vineyard wasn’t as happy actually dealing with the illegals."

Kevin Tober cheered DeSantis' stunt as well while complaining it was called the stunt it was:

On Thursday, the three evening news broadcasts continued their meltdowns over Florida Governor Ron DeSantis sending two fights of illegal aliens Wednesday to the ritzy white liberal enclave of Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts. Despite their calls for diversity, the left threw a temper tantrum over 48 illegal immigrants from Venezuela landing in their overwhelmingly white and rich vacation spot. 

"It's a stunt using human beings to score political points. 50 undocumented migrants, including several children, arriving in Martha's Vineyard. Flown in by Florida Republican Governor and presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis. An effort to turn the spotlight to immigration just two months before the midterm elections," ABC's senior White House correspondent Mary Bruce cried during her report on World News Tonight

Bruce didn't finish her tantrum, she went on to kvetch that "Local officials had no idea the families were coming, but DeSantis made sure cameras were there to capture it all."

[...]

The leftist networks should explain how it is okay for Texas and Arizona border towns to be overrun by illegal immigrants but it's frowned upon when they are inhabiting Martha's Vineyard. Perhaps it's because the elite leftists in the media and politics all vacation at Martha's Vineyard and their lectures about how immigration is virtuous was all a lie. 

Despite all his name-calling and whataboutism, Tober didn't dispute the truth of anything Bruce reported.

Tober apparently also believes that criticizing his beloved DeSantis makes one a "leftwing crackpot":

On Thursday night’s edition of MSNBC’s The 11th Hour, leftwing crackpot and MSNBC political analyst Fernand Amandi had a complete meltdown over Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL) sending two planes filled with illegal migrants to Martha’s Vineyard. Amandi cried that it wasn’t a political stunt but was instead “an act of evil being done by evil men”>because DeSantis is apparently using the migrants as“political pawns, and political props.”

Amandi wanted everyone to know that “this is not a political stunt.”Doctor Oz running for the Senate in Pennsylvania when he resides in New Jersey.”

Again, Tober didn't dispute the accuracy of ahnything Amandi said.

Alex Christy whined that DeSantis -- along with Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who his pulled similar stunts of shipping migrants against their will to "liberal" areas outside his state -- were being called out for who they were:

Punchbowl News co-founder Jake Sherman sounded more like a Democratic politician or left-wing activist when he joined Friday’s Katy Tur Reports on MSNBC to accuse Governors Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott of human trafficking for sending 50 migrants to Martha’s Vineyard.

Talking about the issue of immigration in more general terms, Tur wondered where Congress is in terms of solutions, “Well, that’s what I was going to ask, where's the solution from Congress? They're all, you know, fighting over this and pointing fingers, well the Republicans are pointing fingers saying everything is too loose, well where is the solution? Where is the legislation? Where's the compromise?”

Sherman lamented that, “The solution is nowhere. I mean—it’s-- Congress has tried multiple times over the last couple of years, and the last two presidencies, it has not tried in Joe Biden's presidency, I think because of COVID and just the political dynamics in the post-Trump era, but again, this is a very easy problem to solve.” 

Turning his attention to the governors, Sherman added, “Now, on the Ron DeSantis, Greg Abbott angle, I just got off with a Republican consultant who was on when I was on my way to be on TV with you, who said that the donor class, the far-right conservative donor class, likes this.”

Under no credible interpretation of federal law could sending 50 migrants to blue cities be construed as human trafficking, unless Sherman is prepared to accuse Massachusetts of the same thing.

Just because something is legal doesn't make it right, Alex.

Houck got all snarky in a  Sept. 16 post:

Friday morning’s network news programs featured the third set of newscasts kvetching and screeching about how the liberal elite’s beloved Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts was beset with a “humanitarian crisis” of just under 50 illegal immigrants, who were turned into “pawns” thanks to “an audacious stunt” from Governor Ron DeSantis (R-FL).

Thankfully for them, the brown-skinned individuals were deported from the island by midday Friday, so they won’t have to worry about them anymore (and in turn only the ones whom they pay to clean their mansions and mow their lawns).

Of coruse, Houck isn't going to mock DeSantis for getting rid of "brown-skinned people," even though that's the point of his stunt -- instead, he's cheering DeSantis' lack of compassion and abuse of them just to own the libs.

Kathleen Krumhansl read from the right-wing talking points playbook in attack Spanish-language media coverage:

The corporate media went berserk on Thursday calling Florida governor Ron DeSantis “inhumane” for sending undocumented migrants to Martha's Vineyard, but one Telemundo correspondent reported that the label seemingly described residents of the elite playground upset at the arrival of the new visitors.

Watch as Cristina Londoño confirms the double standard of those from the Massachusetts island - a sanctuary state - upset about having a border crisis in their own backyard. But instead of facing the cameras for all to see, those against the presence of the migrants at their exclusive haven chose anonymity rather than “be depicted as inhumane.” That was their excuse for turning down an interview with Telemundo.

[...]

What a relief that must have been for the residents of “the rich and powerful seaside resort of Martha's Vineyard” who found themselves, as per Londoño, “in the midst of a border crisis.”  At the very least, they got a sample of what the Biden Administration border crisis means; about the tolling effects it has on the far-from-rich border towns, not just one day, not with 50 persons, but hundreds, thousands, pouring in daily through the wide open southern border. 

Krumhansl did at least refer to them as  "undocumented migrants" -- which seems to have gotten past editing, given how the MRC loves to dehumanize them by referring to them as "illegals."

Mark Finkelstein complained that MSNBC's Joe Sacrborough "repeatedly accused Republicans of "grotesque" human trafficking, for their practice of sending migrants to northern locations," sneering that "You'd have thought the migrants were being stranded on a barren rock in the ocean. Willie never mentioned that the island in question is Martha's Vineyard, the tony isle second in elitism only to Scarborough's favored island summering spot: Nantucket."

Tim Graham devoted his Sept. 16 podcast to cheering that DeSantis and Abbott's stunts were working in pushing right-wing narratives and trying to spin away their lack of humanity:

Suddenly, when Gov. Ron DeSantis sends about 50 illegal immigrants to Martha's Vineyard, the networks discover an "immigration crisis" in America. They denounced this "audacious stunt" -- but they prefer to avoid the border crisis entirely. DeSantis is forcing this into the "news."

The networks are heavily covering this story of DeSantis (as well as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott busing migrants to Kamala Harris's street in DC. This is a victory of sorts. They prefer to bury the border story. MRC Research Director Scott Whitlock found on five different months, the ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts managed ten minutes or less of border coverage. In three other months, they allowed no time at all. 

Then came the media anguish on Twitter. MSNBC host Chris Hayes said it was "deeply sick and dehumanizing to fling human beings somewhere vindictively." Asawin Subsaeng of the Daily Beast also said DeSantis was "hurling migrants at liberal cities and towns." They weren't launched out of a catapult, they flew on an airplane.

In the podcast itself, Graham gushed at how "conservative Twitter and the conservative media would love" DeSantis' stunt (which they did), adding: "Yes,it's true -- this is a stunt, and it's audacious in getting right in the liberal media's face,"adding that it's "designed to upset people like Gayle King," who "parties with the Obamas as their mansion in Martha's Vineyard." He also insisted that "it's also making a serious point" regarding border states -- though it's telling that "getting right in the liberal media's face" is more important to Graham than any supposedly "serious point" DeSantis was purportedly trying to get across.

Graham also whined that these migrants were geing called "asylum seekers," which he dismissed as a 'term of art" that lets people "pretend that they're all being persecuted in their homeland instead of coming from countries that are just plain poor." Graham didn't explain why "illegals" isn't also a "term of art" designed to help right-wingers like him dehumanize them. Graham then ranted:

But I just take exemption to this whole idea that they're going to say, "well, the immigrants are pawns." OK, maybe they're -- yes, they're bit players in this play. But the reality is they're the ones -- they're aggressors, I'm sorry. They're the ones marching into this country by the thousands, and when they get here, the media treats them like, poof, what do you need? Poof, what do you need? Oh, these people need jobs and these people need food and these people need clothes. Like, they're the most entitled people in America, and they're not even from here! ... What I don't like is this whole idea of, yes, what about people who are, you know, scraping by on low salaries, working two jobs maybe, and then it's like "Excuse me, I'm going to take some of your money and give it to the guy who just walked from Venezuela, and you're not allowed to be upset about that."

All in service of owning the libs, apparently.


Posted by Terry K. at 7:26 PM EDT
Updated: Tuesday, October 18, 2022 9:31 PM EDT
CNS' Catholic Priest Still Thinks He's A Right-Wing Pundit
Topic: CNSNews.com

Rev. Michael Orsi is a Catholic priest who thinks he's a right-wing pundit, and CNSNews.com gives him a platform to do that. Orsi used a Sept. 6 CNS column to lash out at the Bidean administration's plan to forgive student debnt at "sinful":

It’s easy to reject Biden’s scheme as a transparent ploy to “buy” votes for Democrats from among the college educated.

I would also suggest that it’s a dandy way to pay back all those Antifa and BLM shock troops who spent their college years training to become street activists. After all, you want to make sure they remain loyal and ready to be mobilized in time for the next election.

Political concerns aside, however, let’s focus on the moral implications of reimbursement. There are three fundamental moral flaws that make this projected $240 billion program detrimental to the soul, and therefore sinful.

First, and most obvious, it heightens the sense of entitlement that’s already rampant in our society. Welfare and social-assistance programs, originally intended to provide a “safety net” for the poor, have grown into the primary source of income for a large and growing portion of our population.

[...]

Second (and a consequence of the first), Biden’s scheme robs people of the satisfaction that comes with paying off a debt. “Burning the mortgage” was once a valued symbol of accomplishment, a milestone in the life of a family, something of which to be proud.

If college becomes an entitlement, where’s the pride? For that matter, where’s the morally edifying sense of gratitude you might feel toward Mom and Dad for their sacrifices on behalf of your education, or to the donor of some scholarship for which you had to compete?

Third, in a very real sense, Biden’s “reimbursement” is a form of theft.

If enacted, this program wouldn’t just make all those loans go away. In actuality, it would shift responsibility for paying them off from the people who committed to these obligations — and received an education — to those who paid for their own college, those who never went to college at all, or (given the enormity of the plan and its indefinite ongoing extension) to generations yet unborn.

Orsi concluded by declaring that forgiving student debt "undermin[es] the integrity of our political system. That’s detrimental to your individual soul, and to the soul of the nation."

Orsi began his Sept. 20 column by complaining that Title IX demands thatwomen's school sports be treated the same as mens' sports "even though girls’ teams rarely generate as much public interest and revenue as the guys’ do." Then he channeled right-wing homophobic talking points in attacking the idea that federal law should expand protections to LGBT students:

My view is that the fix is in. All the resources of the left are being channeled into promoting this moral insanity. And it’s been reported that — because of a “secretarial error” — some 200,000 emails have mysteriously disappeared.

Under these circumstances, I would say that implementation of the changes is pretty much a given.

The consequences will involve considerably more than just the destruction of women’s sports — unfair as this may be to the many girls who have worked hard to develop their skills (and counted on athletic scholarships to underwrite their education).

If a student claims a gender identity that contradicts the observable characteristics of that individual’s being, teachers would be legally obligated to use whatever pronouns the student prefers.

This sounds stupid and comical, but it’s no joke. People have lost their jobs (and worse) over such claims, both in this country and abroad. And neither religion nor the long-established conventions of the English language can protect them.

Orsi didn't explain why the power of government must be used to hate and oppress LGBT students. instead, the hateful talking points continued:

Additionally, schools would be obligated to promote abortion to their female students, and make it readily available. This would be done in the name of sex equality, relieving the unfair concern about pregnancy which males do not face.

Naturally, such mutilation and life-changing (life-destroying) services would be provided without having to obtain the consent of parents.

All of this contradicts what we believe as Catholics. It’s anti-Biblical, and it’s depraved. It flies in the face of Judeo-Christian moral principles maintained for thousands of years, principles that are the foundation of our culture. It defies common sense, as understood by 99 percent of humanity.

It’s an overreach by government, an invasion of our private lives, an effort to manipulate us. It’s an attempt to make us into something different from how God created us.

I believe it’s also unconstitutional. This is not a piece of legislation being enacted by our elected representatives. Rather, it is arbitrary rulemaking by unelected bureaucrats who are committed to an ideological vision that is inhuman and evil at the core.

Actually, allowing people to be who they are is not an invasion of privacy, but Orsi's demand to be able to discriminate against people he personally hates is.

At this point, though, Orsi has clearly forgotten he's supposed to be a priests who cares about people and instead is  trying to make points as a right-wing wing pundit would rather appear on Fox News:

There is a solution to this situation, but it requires the kind of top-to-bottom reform that would be huge and difficult and unlikely to happen. Part of it would involve complete school choice, where parents receive vouchers or tax credits to fund alternative learning options.

Another would be eliminating the many levels of administrators, those “education specialists” who promote ill-conceived and ideologically driven curricular programs. Add to that limiting the activities of teachers’ unions to protecting the legitimate rights and working conditions of their members, and eradicating union influence on instruction methods and course content.

Also, schools should obtain textbooks and curriculum materials from publishers that don’t function as conduits for ideological and anti-human propaganda. They exist, but many are struggling against leftist domination of educational publishing.

Over the long term, we need to dismantle the national education bureaucracy, get the federal government out of the business of setting education policy, and return control of schools to states and communities.

DoesOrsi really thnk his preferred right-wing sources oif school curriculum aren't putting out "ideological propaganda"? He simply want his preferred ideology crammed down students' throats.


Posted by Terry K. at 1:59 PM EDT

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