CNS Followed MRC Parent In Gushing Over Musk's Purchase of Twitter
Topic: CNSNews.com

We've documented how CNSNews.com echoed its Media Research Center parent's early enthusiasm for Elon Musk purchasing Twitter and memory-holing its previous criticism of him, which devolved into gushing over every public utterance by Musk as a state statement. As Musk wavered on buying Twitter over the summer, CNS' interest in him dwindled, doing only one story on him, a July 27 piece touting how Musk snarked "bon voyage" to Russia's plans to exit the International Space Station.

In the meantime, however, CNS' (and the MRC's) anti-Twitter narratives were still operative -- as were the corporate narrative that there is no such thing as an objective definition of misinformation -- which explains an Aug. 11 article by Craig Bannister attacking Twitter's plans to fight misinformation:

On Thursday, Twitter announced “Our Approach to the 2022 U.S. Midterms,” detailing its plan to suppress some speech regarding the elections, and to advance other narratives it deems acceptable.

Specifically, Twitter says it is will be using “prebuttals” to “get ahead” of political narratives it subjectively considers “misinformation” - and “proactively” promote other speech it endorses:

[...]

Twitter will also actively suppress and denounce comments of some of those who question the legitimacy or results of elections, the announcement says:

“The Civic Integrity Policy covers the most common types of harmful misleading information about elections and civic events, such as: claims about how to participate in a civic process like how to vote, misleading content intended to intimidate or dissuade people from participating in the election, and misleading claims intended to undermine public confidence in an election – including false information about the outcome of the election.”

When Twitter sees a tweet it considers “misleading” or “false,” it will suppress and label the tweet and prevent it from being liked or shared in order to “prevent the spread” of speech it doesn’t like:

Bannister offered no evidence that pre-Musk Twitter's definition of "acceptable" speech it "endorses" involved anything beyond allowing facts and discouraging lies and misinformation. He also did not explain why any attack on "the legitimacy or results of elections" should be allowed to stand if it's based on falsehoods and misinformation.

After Musk finally agreed to buy Twitter at the terms he originally agreed to, Bannister fed a conspiracy theory in an Oct. 5 article:

Following Tuesday’s news that billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk’s original offer to buy Twitter had been accepted by both parties to the deal, prominent conservatives began tweeting complaints that they had suddenly lost thousands of followers on the giant social media platform.

Conservatives have long attributed sudden, massive, loses of followers to a Twitter “purge” of right-of-center voices. But, on Tuesday, many added the theory that Twitter has begun deleting “bots,” automated accounts passed off as accounts managed by humans. The contention that bots have inflated the number of users accounts on Twitter, and thus, Twitter’s value, had been a major sticking point in Musk’s purchase deal.

When Musk ultimateluy closed on his Twitter purchase, intern Laruen Shank spent an Oct. 27 article gushing over it, uncritically quoting Musk self-aggrandizing claim that he didn't buy Twitter “because it would be easy. I didn’t do it to make more money. I did it to try to help humanity, whom I love. And I do so with humility, recognizing that failure in pursuing this goal, despite our best efforts, is a very real possibility."

More hero worship of Musk followed:

• Elon Musk Shares His Motivation in Buying Twitter: 'It Is Important to the Future of Civilization'
• Sen. Cruz: Musk's Twitter Purchase Is 'One of the Most Significant Developments for Free Speech'
• Musk Tweets Twitter Tombstone, Mocking Predictions of Platform’s Demise

There was also an agenda item in the form of a Nov. 7 article from Patrick Goodenough complaining that certain people have yet to be "censored" by Twitter: "Amid concern in mostly liberal quarters that Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter will amplify harmful content, Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sunday again used the platform – as he has done for years – to spread anti-America sentiment to his well over one million followers."

A Nov. 15 article by Bannister helped CNS complete its Musk flip-flop by attacking President Biden for pointing that Musk's foreign entanglements are worth monitoring (while falsely claiming that Biden was demanding an investigation):

“It has nothing to do with national security,” former Director of National Intelligence (DNI) John Ratcliffe says of President Joe Biden’s call for Elon Musk to be investigated as a national security threat because the billionaire owner of SpaceX acquired Twitter.

“Whether or not he is doing anything inappropriate, I’m not suggesting that. I’m suggesting that it’s worth being looked at,” President last week, when asked by a reporter if Musk should be investigated as a national security threat now that he has purchased Twitter.

“What the hell’s going on here?” Host Dan Bongino asked Ratcliffe in an interview Saturday on “Unfiltered,” noting that, in America, “We don’t investigate people in search of crimes; we investigate crimes in search of people.”

“That’s absolutely right, Dan. And, you’re right: I do have an informed view on this,” the former Director of National Intelligence for the Trump Administration agreed. “This is clearly personal. This is clearly political. It has absolutely nothing to do with national security.”

“And, it does have everything to do with weaponizing the national security apparatus for political reasons,” Ratcliffe said, explaining that the Biden Administration has shared some of the nation’s most sensitive technologies with Musk and given him billions of dollars of contracts over the past year:

Bannister cheered Musk's restoration of the Twitter account of the right-wing "satire" site Babylon Bee in a Nov. 18 article, while intern Peyton Holliday gushed that "entrepreneur and business magnate" Musk advanced the current right-wing obsession with hating investments that focus on environmental, social and governmental issues by declaring that "ESG is the devil." Bannister returned for a Nov. 29 article again pushing the idea that any claim of misinformation is inherently subjective:

Billionaire Elon Musk’s recently-purchased Twitter has ended enforcement of its controversial, subjectively-enforced policy of censoring and suspending accounts posting COVID-19 comments and claims.

“Effective November 23, 2022, Twitter is no longer enforcing the COVID-19 misleading information policy,” Twitter declares on its “Transparency” page.

[...]

Prior to Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, and his subsequent promise to open it up to free speech, the behemoth social media platform had come under fire for punishing accounts for posting content that challenged liberal claims, mandates, shutdowns and policies regarding the coronavirus pandemic.

In April, when Musk joined Twitter’s board of directors after purchasing a 9.2% stake in the company, physician and Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who has led the charge to refute false COVID narratives promoted by the Biden Administration, expressed optimism that Musk’s commitment to free speech would improve the platform.

Bannister offered no evidence of how pre-Musk misinformation policies were  "subjectively-enforced," and he hid the fact that Musk had been suspending accounts that made fun of him, putting significant doubt about his purported "commitment to free speech."

MRC's Vazquez Still Laughably Thinks George Soros Dictates Wikipedia Articles
Topic: Media Research Center

We documented how the Media Research Center's Joseph Vazquez is under the bizarre delusion that Wikipedia accepting money from George Soros means it also takes dictation and editorial direction from him -- which completely ignores the fact that users write and edit Wikipedia articles, not Soros or even what paid editors Wikipedia has. He clearly remains under that delusion, as demonstrated in a Dec. 18 post that advance the MRC's hypocritical glee that Elon Musk suspended the Twitter accounts of several journalists:

Leftists at the George Soros-funded Wikipedia attempted to paint the elitist journalists who shared the real-time flight location information of Twitter owner Elon Musk as victims of a “massacre.”

Yes, you read that right.

A Wikipedia article was published with a babbling headline that needed no explanation: “Thursday Night Massacre (Twitter).” The article’s logic was just pure nonsense: “The ‘Thursday Night Massacre’ is a term that refers to the December 15, 2022, account suspension of several high-profile journalists from the Twitter platform.” The article mourned: “At least nine journalists who covered the social media company and its owner, Elon Musk, were all suspended without warning. This included ‘reporters’ Keith Olbermann, Steven L. Herman, and Donie O'Sullivan, and journalists from The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, and The Intercept.” Soros committed at least $2 million to Wikipedia in 2018.

Vazquez is apparently too young to understand what metaphors are, or to know that the term is actually an allusion to the infamous "Saturday Night Massacre," in which President Nixon order the attorney general to fire the special prosecutorlooking into the Watergate scandal (he and his chief deputy resigned rather than do so, leaving the third in command, future failed Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork, to do the dirty work).

Vazquez also uncritically quoted Musk saying that "They posted my exact real-time location, basically assassination coordinates, in (obvious) direct violation of Twitter terms of service." As we've noted, Musk had previously promised never to censor the Twitter account that tracked Musk's plane, to which the journalists were referencing (which hardly makes them "elitist," as Vazquez claims). Ironically, a couple days later, Musk tweeted out his own assassination coordinates by posting a real-time photo of himself at the World Cup final in Qatar; Vazquez and the other boys at the MRC were completely silent about that.

Vazquez concluded by ranting:

The irony is that Soros said at the time of his endowment to Wikipedia that his gift “represents a commitment to the ideals of open knowledge—and to the long-term importance of free knowledge sources that benefit people around the world.” Apparently the “ideals” Soros’ Wikipedia funding supports are only those that cater to leftist propaganda.

Remember, Vazquez is the MRC's current point man in its dirty war against Soros. Vazquez is obviously so consumed with irrational hatred of Soros that he doesn't understand that its Wikipedia articles are written by website users, not Soros himself.

WND's Lively Rejects White Supremacism -- But Only As A Purported 'Elite' Plot
Topic: WorldNetDaily

WorldNetDaily columnist Scott Lively may be an unapologetic Putin-lover and in serious denial about the anti-Semitism of Gab founder Andrew Torba, but it turns out there are some right-wing extremists he won't embrace -- albeit in his own weird, conspiratorial way. His Dec. 9 column didn't start out that way at first, serving up his version of right-wing arguments against civil rights reforms:

The problem of racism continues, not for the lack of Christian ethics among whites in racial matters, but because the "elites" have always embraced the slave-master mentality and have cynically used the very "civil rights" machinery ostensibly designed to solve the problems to instead deliberately perpetuate them. After almost a century of floundering and piecemeal stopgap measures, they recreated the old plantation-system in LBJ's Civil Rights Act of 1964, using government largess to lure blacks into liberty-negating government dependency where they became the crop rather than the field hands: each one a cash cow to facilitate the transfer of federally collected tax revenues from vast centralized "entitlement" reservoirs to elite-managed overseers in the big cities. All for the purpose of creating and funding massive armies of entitlement-dispensing election-controlling foot-soldiers called public-employee unions.

And, to ensure that blacks never collectively broke free from the dependency system, the elites kept them centralized in the inner-cities, destabilized their families in numerous ways, sabotaged any meaningful entrepreneurial success among them, indoctrinated their children with every leftist narrative and ensured that the fire of resentment against white people was always kept smoldering in their hearts. Racism in America today is coming mostly from blacks against whites – intentionally stoked by Critical Race Theory and other polarizing tactics.

He then weirdly and without evidence portrayed right-wing extremists as secret government agents designed to justify alleged left-wing extremism:

But the most important secret weapon in this strategy is the exploitation/manufacture of white resentment against elite-sponsored/directed black thuggery and destructiveness. The key to elite control is hyper-polarization among the "common" people. Marxist radicalism always grows its own opposition to have an enemy to point to, to justify its rage: a "Proud Boys" for every "Antifa," if you will. When the commoners fail to produce a counterpoint of their own, one is created for them by the FBI or whatever other social-engineering asset is best suited to the task. In the "gay marriage" wars I always suspected Fred Phelps was a government "agent provocateur" sent out to incite public outrage against the pro-family movement by protesting the funerals of war heroes with "God Hates Fags" signs. In Charlottesville (the blueprint for J6) it was tiki-torch-bearing, Trump-costumed "Antifa" assets fabricating evidence of "white supremacy."

It's through that lens that Lively denounced white supremacist Nick Fuentes -- not because white supremicism is bad, mind you, but because he justifies liberal criticism of right-wing extremism (and, since Lively is a homophobe, that Fuentes leans a bit to much into neo-Nazi homoeroticism as hyped in Lively's discredited book "The Pink Swastika"):

In the Current Act of the continuing stage play, I suspect Nick Fuentes and Jared Taylor (whom I just learned about this week) are also assets of the elites (wittingly or not). I actually caught Fuentes' performance at the "Gathering of the MAGA Tribes" in D.C. on Dec. 12, 2020. Being very familiar (by virtue of co-writing "The Pink Swastika: Homosexuality in the Nazi Party") with how Nazi propaganda was facilitated by vaguely homoerotic visual imagery in the 1920 and '30s, I was literally shocked to encounter what looked to me like a deliberate re-staging of a particular infamous Nazi poster with Hitler (reenacted by Fuentes) addressing an adoring all-male flock of acolytes packed tightly around him like sardines. And what I heard Fuentes shouting, with all the passion and charisma of Der Fuehrer, was a string of borderline white-supremacist platitudes.

What most bothered me was that Fuentes was literally and blatantly vindicating the accusations of the left against the MAGA movement, and that struck me as intentional, and thus Obiden-orchestrated. That hypothesis and the whiff of a potential homoerotic undercurrent in Fuentes' network was partially vindicated in the recent (joint venture?) sabotage of President Trump by self-declared "ex-gay" (but still "gay" acting) Milo Yiannopoulos, using Fuentes and Kanye West as either allies or props.

Thankfully, Fuentes was only a small sideshow in the wild carnival atmosphere on 12/12, where tens of thousands of MAGA faithful from every conceivable constituency flowed and swirled like white-water rapids around both the several officially planned and the many spontaneous mini-rallies all over the Washington Mall and its environs – none of which echoed Fuentes' themes (except a suspicious-seeming speech-maker at the Proud Boys stage the members there didn't seem to know).

My point here is that the MAGA faithful need to carefully guard ourselves against the temptation to join the "right-wing" polar extreme that is characterized by blaming "the Jews" or "the blacks" collectively as the problem because that is just another "Whitmer trap" of the elites – used to justify the violence and cancel culture of the left, and to prevent the empowering unification of the conservative/populist Jews, blacks and whites against the elites themselves.

Lively's claim that he only just now "learned about" Jared Taylor strains credulity because the white supremacist has been a fixture on the fringe right (where Lively operates) for decades -- we first wrote about him in 2003. And that "Whitmer trap" is apparent reference to the right-wing extremist kidnapping plot against Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, which right-wingers blame not on the extremists but on FBI agents who infiltrated the plot. But as one judge pointed out, it's hard to entrap people already eager to commit a crime.

MRC Parrots Bogus Election-Denier Attack On Ariz. Election Official
Topic: Media Research Center

The Media Research Center dabbled in election denierism by hyping right-wing claims that the midterm election vote in Arizona may be fraudulent because it took so long to count the votes (which was actually due in large part to mail-in ballots being delivered to polling place on the day of the election because of right-wing scaremonging about mail-in ballots). It did further dabbling when Catherine Salgado took dictation directly from a discredited Trump lawyer in a Dec. 14 post:

Maricopa County, Arizona’s County Recorder Stephen Richer asked the Department of Homeland Security Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) for help censoring alleged election “misinformation,” according to a tweet by 2024 Trump campaign attorney Christina Bobb.

Pro-censorship ex-Twitter executive Vijaya Gadde also attended the meeting, endorsing government-tech collusion to “pre-bunk” so-called “misinformation,” according to the tweet’s screenshot.

Christina Bobb tweeted on Dec. 7, “Well look at what we found!! Turns out @CISAgov has been collaborating with Maricopa County @stephen_richer to censor election information and keeping it from the public.” The document she shared had a CISA heading and was marked “FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY.” 

The document recorded what Richer and the CISA Protecting Critical Infrastructure from Misinformation and Disinformation Subcommittee discussed during a March 29 meeting.

[...]

The tweeted CISA document shows that Richer described supposed mis-, dis-, and malinformation online and asked CISA to help in five areas. According to the document, the five areas included were:

“- Educate the public and determine how people are manipulating the public’s understanding of the truth;

“– Funding and resources;

“– Intelligence and metrics;

“– Partnership with social media; and

“– Share best practices on pre-bunking.”

That means, per the document, Maricopa’s recorder asked the federal government to partner with social media to recommend censoring election-related content he deemed “misinformation,” “disinformation” or “malinformation.”

So Salgado is back to insisting that misinformation cannot possibly be objective. And she and Bobb are objectively misinforming people about the nature of that meeting; as one writer pointed out, Richer and other officials "were trying to prevent outright lies from being used to try to undermine democracy. Again, that is. As usual, Salgado doesn't explain why lies and misinformaton should never be countered with facts, even though she works for an organizaiton that spends millions of dollars a year claiming to do exactly that by calling it "bias."

Salgado huffed that Richer "previously 'started a Super PAC' to prevent so-called 'election deniers' from taking office, according to Bobb." Which is true -- but Salgado doesn't explain why this is a bad thing. Shouldn't people who spread election lies and misinformation be kept out of political office?

Salgado further complained:

Twitter’s ex-general counsel Vijaya Gadde, who pushed Twitter to ban former President Donald Trump despite no violation of platform rules, recommended that social media work with election boards to remove “false information.”

Gadde added praise for the “effectiveness of pre-bunking on Twitter,” noting that pre-bunk efforts caused a decrease in supposed “false information” online, the document showed. Gadde and Richer then agreed that censorship needs to occur within 24 hours of posting. The subcommittee recommended pre-bunking to encourage state and local officials to “release accurate information” on the handling of elections “prior to misinformation and disinformation campaigns.”

Richer cited the 2020 election as a learning experience for media in the meeting, noting as one challenge that some media outlets are “not open to government feedback.” The Media Research Center previously found that Big Tech and media censorship of the now-verified Hunter Biden scandals helped steal the 2020 election for Joe Biden.

To be fair, nobody thought a sitting president would try to incite an insurrection because he couldn't mentally handle the fact that he lost. And that MRC finding that the election was stolen from Trump is based on polls the MRC bought from Trump's 2020 election pollster and a polling firm founded by Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway, so it should be treated as the partisan, biased narrative that it is.

Salgado also huffed:

Bobb also tweeted on Dec. 4 that Democrat Arizona Secretary of State and gubernatorial candidate Katie Hobbs’s office had asked Twitter to have “posts removed.” Bobb said in the tweet that Hobbs “ran the AZ election, censored her political opponents, disrupted Election Day votes, and then threatened counties with prosecution if they didn’t declare her the winner.”

As we documented when WorldNetDaily regurgitated this talking point, the posts Hobbs requested to be taken dow ntook place months before she even entered the race for governor and involved the objective falsehood that Arizona's voter registration system is controlled by foreigners; again, Salgado doesn't explain why such a falsehood shouldn't be countered. Further, the secretary of state's role in certifying elections is largely ceremonial, and those counties brought threats of prosecution by refusing to certify the election -- not just Hobbs' victory but the entire election -- by a longstanding state-mandated deadline.

Salgado concluded by whining that media outlets pointing out that social media was serving again as a conduit for election misinformation was "propaganda" -- even though she herself had just peddled propaganda by uncritically promoting a Twitter post filled with misinformation without bothering to fact-check it first.

CNS Unemployment Coverage Distortion Watch, Inability To Distort Edition
Topic: CNSNews.com

The monthly job numbers have been so consistently good that they haven't been doing the hoped-for trick of making President Biden look bad, forcing CNSNews.com to fall on its usual trick when a Democrat is president to cherry-pick the numbers. That meant CNS had to find something else to keep up its narrative, and Craig Bannister found that for a Dec. 19 article:

The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia has revised the number of new jobs created in the second quarter of 2022 down by more than a million, prompting a Bloomberg market expert to issue a warning.

In its Q2 Vintage Early Benchmark Revisions of State Payroll Employment released last Tuesday, the Philadelphia Fed reports that actual job growth was “significantly” different than the number reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS):

[...]

On Monday, Bloomberg Senior Editor for Markets and Opinion Columnist John Authers characterized the revision as a “startling finding ” that could prompt the Federal Reserve to continue to raise interest rates:

Because that number was too good to look into further, Bannister didn't report what other observers noted, that the Philly Fed's metric is new and untested, seasonality is not fully accounted for, and that private secotor numbers did not show a dramatic employment slowdown for that period.

Even then, the jobs numbers continued to prove too strong for CNS to effectively spin. Even Susan Jones' favorite cherry-picked number, the labor force participation rate, looked good enough that she led with it in her main article on December's employment numbers:

Reversing recent declines, the percentage of the population that is either working or actively looking for work increased slightly to 62.3 percent in December, up one-tenth of a point from November, and four basis points higher than the 61.9 percent in December 2021.

In its final report for 2022, the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics counted a record 159,244,000 employed Americans in December, an increase of 717,000 from last month's 158,527,000 (revised number); and the number of Americans counted as not in the labor force dropped below the hundred million level to 99,879,000.

Despite higher interest rates, the economy added a strong 230,000 jobs in December, above expectations of 200,000. Notable job gains occurred in leisure and hospitality, health care, construction, and social assistance.

Along with the record number of employed Americans, the number of unemployed -- no job but actively looking -- dropped by 278,000 to 5,722,000 last month, producing an unemployment rate of 3.5 percent, one-tenth of a point lower than it was in November.

The only sidebar this month was editor Terry Jeffrey's counting of manufacturing jobs, and even he couldn't spin things: "There were 12,934,000 people employed in the U.S. manufacturing sector in December 2022, which is more than in any month since November 2008, when there were 13,034,000 people in this country employed in manufacturing."

WND Still Annoyed That Capitol Riot Is Called An Insurrection
Topic: WorldNetDaily

WorldNetDaily has long tried to downplay theseverity of the Capitol riot. The latest attempt came in a Dec. 16 article by Bob Unruh complaining that the riot is being called an "insurrection" and that Donald Trump might be held accountable for his actions in fomenting it:

Outside of fairly extreme rhetoric from Democrats, President Trump has never been accused of "insurrection," much less convicted.

Nevertheless, Democrats are intent on characterizing his reaction to the anomalous 2020 election results and his concerns that the election was stolen – as well as his response to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol, as the actions of an "insurrectionist."

Which, they say, means he never can hold any public office again. Ever.

Breitbart reports 41 House Democrats filed a bill that would bar Trump, and they claim for their effort support from Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.

[...]

Mainstream media and Democrats repeatedly have insisted that it was an insurrection, and that President Trump was its leader. But they have to argue that to support their claim he should be disqualified from holding office.

Unruh referred to an August article by Art Moore touting a Harvard studyclaiming to examine the reasons for the riot:

WND also reported on a Harvard study that said those protesters "motivated by loyalty to President Trump" actually "were not attempting to carry out an insurrection."

Mainstream media and Democrats repeatedly have insisted that it was an insurrection, and that President Trump was its leader. But they have to argue that to support their claim he should be disqualified from holding office.

The Harvard study was based on court documents from 417 of the more than 800 defendants prosecuted for the riot, the Harvard Crimson said in a report spotlighted by Just the News.

"The folks with QAnon T-shirts, and signs, and flags were so prominently displayed in much of the visual imagery that came out of the Capitol attack," said Kaylee Fagan, one of the authors of the study.

"So we expected to see more QAnon-related concepts come through in the documents."

The study showed fewer than 8% said they wanted to start a civil war or armed insurrection.

That doesn't excuse the riot, no matter how much Unruh thinks it does.

Unruh whined further that the House committee on the riot was holding Trump accountable for his actions in a Dec. 19 article, which additionally framed the committee as "partisan" and "activisdt":

A partisan committee set up by soon-to-be-replaced House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to review the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol, and essentially find ways to blame President Trump, has released its report.

And to no one's surprise it insists that the Department of Justice should review charges against President Donald Trump, including make a false statement, defrauding the U.S., conspiracy and inciting insurrection.

The Washington Examiner reported that at this point the recommendations are considered largely "meaningless" by legal experts, as the committee is expected to be dissolved as soon as the GOP becomes the majority in the House in just weeks.

Unruh didn't dispute any of the committee's findings despite his attack on it, preferring to quibble over words instead:

Democrats have been harping on the riot, describing it as an "insurrection" although it was more or less a riot, ever since it happened. That's because a conviction for insurrection would prevent Trump from ever being in office again – one of the major goals of the entire Democrat party [sic].

At no point in either article does Unruh deny that Trump played a key role in fomenting the riot.

NEW ARTICLE -- Slanties 2023: Ultra Slantie
Topic: The ConWeb
For the 20th time, it's time to honor (as it were) the worst ConWeb reporting and craziest ConWeb opinions of the year. Read more >>

MRC Hypocritically Cheers Musk's Suspension of Journalists He Doesn't Like
Topic: NewsBusters

For an organization that purportedly hates censorship, the Media Research Center sure loves it when journalists who don't share its right-wingn ideology get censored -- and even more when it's Elon Musk doing the censoring. Kevin Tober justified the censorship in a Dec. 16 post:

Late Thursday night, Elon Musk banned the Twitter accounts of a group of leftist reporters from various left-wing outlets like CNN, The Washington Post, and The New York Times for violating the site's terms of service agreement against doxxing. They weren't just doxxing anyone, they were dumb enough to reveal the location of Musk's private jet which puts his personal safety in jeopardy. Needless to say, the lefty meltdowns both on Twitter and cable news were explosive and fun to watch.  

The leftist media tears were especially delicious on MSNBC & CNN where the respective networks gathered their panelists to wail about the attack on freedom of the press. On MSNBC's The 11th Hour, host Stephanie Ruhle was apparently terrified about Musk banning leftist reporters. "This seems really scary. Okay?" Ruhle cried. 

"These are reporters who covered Elon Musk, who have covered the changes on Twitter since he took over. Now he's claiming these suspensions are taking place because these reporters put him at risk," Ruhle added. She then attempted to deny that the reporters have put Musk's safety at risk: "there's not even evidence any of them did that."

Ruhle's guest Alex Stamos from the Krebs Stamos Group claimed Musk was just trying to intimidate reporters from reporting critically on him:

Tober offered no evidence that the suspended reporters were "leftist," nor did he offer the evidence Ruhle said was lacking to justify the suspensions.He also failed to mention that the Twitter account that tracked Musk's jet -- which the journalists got suspended for linking to -- used publicly available data, or that Musk himself had previously said he would not ban the tracking account because of his claimed support for free speech.

Alex Christy demanded "nuance" on this discussion, something the MRC is not known for:

Friday’s CNN This Morning reacted to Thursday night’s suspensions with none of the nuance that a discussion about doxing and flight tracking information should have. Instead, it was claimed that non-democratic governments around the world will use the incident to clamp down on free speech in their own countries.

While some of the panel was hesitant to give Elon Musk more attention, senior media reporter Oliver Darcy claimed, “You don't want to give someone attention if they're looking for attention. But I think it's important to talk about what's happening on this platform because it is such a crucial information platform. This is how a lot of the world communicates. I mean, world leaders are on this platform.”

Christy didn't mention Musk's previous vow not to suspend the tracker program; instead, took offense when the CNN discussion turned to theidea of foreign dictators taking cues from Musk's banning of journalists:

Not only did CNN not have this story under the old Twitter leadership when they were banning New York Post< links, but the idea that dictators needed Thursday night to clamp down on free speech and press freedom is so obviously wrong, CNN should be embarrassed. Many of these countries had already banned Twitter.

The fact that dictators had already banned Twitter strongly suggests that pre-Musk Twitter wasn't as censorious as right-wing narratives depicted it, but Christy didn't comment on that.

Chrsity then tried to argue the tracker account was illicit because it "evaded the FAA’s privacy program," linking to a tweet claiming the account's owner made a workaround to get informaion on Musk's plane.

Curtis Houck served up more glee at the suspensions:

On Friday, ABC’s Good Morning America and NBC’s were in a state of anger, shock and sadness over a number of their fellow leftists propagandists being suspended from Twitter late Thursday over what new boss Elon Musk insisted was a violation of the company’s doxxing policies and sharing information about his movements.

Agree or disagree with the decision, but one has to acknowledge the irony of ABC and NBC setting aside time to lament the plight of their comrades in keyboarding whereas conservatives faced years of censorship, election interference, and anti-American browbeating from Big Tech and their media allies.

Houck agrees, obvioiusly -- while failing to prove thaty any of the suspended journlaists were "leftists" -- while adding: "The suspensions came after Musk said a stalker had tracked down his son Tuesday and attacked the car he was traveling in by even jumping on the hood." But that story turned out not to be true: There was no link between the tracking account and the alleged incident, which happened at a gas station and not an airport, and the stalker was actually more interested in Musk's ex-girlfriend and baby mama, the singer Grimes, than in Musk himself.

The MRC then dragged Rich Noyes out of retirement to complain about the coverage the suspensions were getting:

CNN and MSNBC are pouncing on Twitter’s suspension of several liberal journalists, but those same cable news giants had about 15 times less interest in evidence of the same platform’s suspensions, blacklists and shadow banning aimed at conservatives when the so-called Twitter Files were released two weeks ago.

Last night, CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360 was first to report the suspension of the reporters, breaking the news at around 8:54pm ET. “Musk seems to be just stamping out accounts that he doesn’t like,” CNN reporter Donie O’Sullivan, one of those whose account was affected, told Cooper.

Between then and noon on Friday, CNN pumped out 38 minutes, 25 seconds of coverage to the suspension of these journalists. MSNBC didn’t pick up the story until shortly before 10pm on Thursday, but they have also been busily griping at the move, churning out 31 minutes, 51 seconds of coverage.

The whining continnued from Christy in a Dec. 17 post:

CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan was one of the journalists suspended by Twitter on Thursday for spreading information that Twitter considers to be reach the threshold of doxing. On Friday, he traveled over to Amanpour and Company which airs domestically on PBS and internationally on CNN International to warn of the “chilling effect” this may have on other journalists who cover Elon Musk.

With no sense of irony, guest host Paula Newton wondered if Musk is so sensitive, would he ban President Biden or French President Emmanuel Macron next, “Yeah. I mean, the point is -- Donie, it's you today. Is it the president tomorrow? Is Biden going to say something? Is Macron going to say something to criticize him? I mean, there is a lot at stake here.”

Christy didn't mention his own lack of irony in cheering these suspensions as his employer raged about "censorship."

Musk PR agent Autumn Johnson ranted:

Leftist MSNBC host Chris Hayes had an absolute conniption over Twitter owner Elon Musk not tolerating journalists sharing his real-time flight location on the platform.

Hayes went on a rant against Musk’s changes to Twitter on the December 16 edition of All in with Chris Hayes. He spewed that Musk was a “power mad billionaire attempt[ing] to coerce and capture the American discourse.” He argued that Musk’s suspension of journalists that shared information “doxxing” him and his children was somehow authoritarian. 

“You cannot trust anyone with absolute power, in any domain,” Hayes flailed. “No matter if it is the U.S. presidency, a social media enterprise, a cable news show, a condo board association, even a pillow company. Left unchecked, they will drive it into the ground."

It’s worth asking what Hayes thinks about censorship-obsessed CEOs like leftist Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew and Google CEO Sundar Pichai. Perhaps Hayes doesn’t have as much of a problem with them since all three have the correct left-wing politics.

Johnson censored the fact that Musk reneged on his earlier promise not to suspend the tracker account. There was also no mention that the jet doesn't even belong to Musk -- it's owned by one of the companies Musk leads, SpaceX, which means that, since it's a corporate jet and not a personal one, there's no guarantee Musk would even be on the tracked plane.

Christy continued to whine:

CNN Newsroom host Jim Acosta returned to his old form on Saturday of hyperbolically warning about threats to press freedom as he compared the Twitter suspension of several journalists to the Trump White House revoking his press credentials. He also managed to compare tracking Elon Musk’s jet to reporting when senators arrive on the Senate floor or athletes who arrive at a stadium.

Acosta was not pleased with Musk’s trolling of hypocritical journalists, “Mike, Elon Musk initially mocked his critics over this ban, tweeting ‘so inspiring to see this newfound love of freedom of speech by the press.’”

Christy further whined that a CNN guest "accused Musk of making up the policy as he goes along and that he appears to be driven by emotion," which Christy didn't dispute.

Jeffrey Lord served up his own brand of whining in his Dec. 17 column:

Back in the early days of 2021, former First Lady Michelle Obama led the charge that Twitter and other social-media giants needed to permanently ban then-President Donald Trump. Twitter’s leftists scrambled to do as she asked.

Not to mention that one conservative after another was either suspended, banned or shadow-banned over the years. All of this has come tumbling out into very public view in recent days thanks to Twitter’s new owner, the redoubtable Elon Musk.

And there was not a peep of outrage from this interesting collection of left-wing journalists who suddenly are outspokenly outraged that - gasp! - they themselves have suffered a version of the fate Mrs. Obama was recommending for then-President Trump in 2021 and that had been regularly dished to a collection of conservatives.

Lord somehow forgot to mention that Trump was suspended for inciting an insurrection -- an arguably more serious offense than following the location of Musk's plane.

Tober ran to Musk's defense again in a Dec. 18 post:

During Sunday's edition of ABC's This Week, there was a lot of crying over Elon Musk suspending the Twitter accounts of lefty journalists who purposefully broke Twitter's rules against doxxing other people on the platform. New York Times national political reporter Astead Herndon either couldn't understand this concept or didn't care, and instead proceeded to ironically accuse Musk of violating the tenants of free speech and being a hypocrite. 

In reality, Musk isn't being hypocritical since he bought Twitter to restore free speech to Twitter users who were suspended or shadow banned for saying objectively true things like "trans women" are men or tweeting out the New York Post's story about the massive scandal surrounding Hunter Biden's laptop. 

Conservatives have been consistent that free speech doesn't protect you from threatening people by posting their real time locations, which is what the slew of leftist journalists did to get banned on Twitter.

Clay Waters mocked the New York Times' concern about the jornalists being suspended and cheered the revenge aspect: "Yes, after years of bans on conservative accounts and deletion of conservative content by social media behemoths Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, suddenly it’s a 'free speech and online censorship' problem when it happens to left-wing journalists." Waters offered no evidence the suspended reporters were "left-wing."

WND Puts Crass, Glib Headline On Story About Actress' Death
Topic: WorldNetDaily

WorldNetDaily has done some notably crass things in 2022, from invoking 9/11 to sell website subscriptions to illustrating an article about black farmers with a picture of watermelons. It added to that crassness with its reprint of a Dec. 5 Fox News article on the death of actress Kirstie Alley. The WND headline read 'Drop Dead Gorgeous' star Kirstie Alley dead."

The Fox News article it republished did not put "Drop Dead Gorgeous" in its headline -- in fact, it didn't even mention that film until the very last paragraph, instead giving more prominent mention to more prominent roles, such as on the TV show "Cheers."

The crassness may have an point, however. It was likely designed to allude to WND's current obsession with depicting anyone who dropped dead or died suddenly of having done so beause of COVID vaccines.

It's not clear why WND thinks that engaging in such crassness will draw readers, but if its fake news and conspiracy theories aren't bringing in eyeballs, it's unlikely this will either, no matter how desperately WND needs the money.

MRC Childishly Mocks CBS For Fact-Checking Hunter Biden Laptop Story
Topic: Media Research Center

The Media Research Center's Hunter Biden Derangement Syndrome is so bad that it childishly mocks anyone who did their homework to actually verify the story about his Hunter's laptop before running with it -- unlike, of course, the MRC's fellow residents of the right-wing media bubble, who decided it was too good to fact-check before relentlessly hyping the partisan story. We saw that immaturity in a Nov. 21 post by Curtis Houck:

With Democrats having secured the White House in 2020 and fared better than expected in the 2022 midterms, Monday’s CBS Mornings spent nearly six minutes (five minutes and 41 seconds) finally conceding something ludicrously obvious: Hunter Biden’s laptop from hell is real.

CBS let the intrepid Catherine Herridge out to report on a story purposefully censored by the liberal media and Big Tech. And, sure enough, Herridge commissioned an independent review of a “clean copy” from former Delaware laptop repair shop owner John Paul Mac Issac that found there’s no evidence it was tampered with.

[...]

Herridge shared “the laptop’s backstory” dating back to 2019 and then, in an attempt to excuse the media’s censorship campaign, fretted that “versions were widely shared by Republican operatives” in the 2020 election cycle and “questions were raised about whether additional files were added to those versions.”

[...]

Following clips of moderate Republican strategist Doug Heye warning investigations into Hunter could “backfire,” Herridge threw in a dismissal meant to suggest there’s no there there: “After two years of scrutiny, the laptop has not produced evidence President Biden directly benefited from his son's business deals.”

This all led co-host and Democratic donor Gayle King to fret: “Hmmm. Could be a lesson to pay your bills. $85 could have changed everything had the bill been paid.”

Where in the world was this take two years ago, Gayle?

As usual, Houck never explained why anyone should have trusted the story at face value when it came out, given that it came from a pro-Trump newspaper that offered no independent verification and even seasonsed intelligence professionals said it looked like Russian disinformation. Instead, he took the lazy conspiracist's way out and claimed without evidence that the story was "purposefully censored."

This was followed by a mocking, unprofessional item later that day by Bill D'Agostino purporting to be "a list of things that somehow took less time than CBS took to finally admit to the existence of Hunter Biden’s laptop."

Then, the next day, Houck went on Fox News to clown around over the story:

Making his latest appearance on the Fox News Channel’s Fox News @ Night, NewsBusters managing editor Curtis Houck and host Trace Gallagher slammed CBS News early Tuesday for having finally admitted 768 days after the New York Post’s first report to concede Hunter Biden’s laptop is real and anything but a conspiracy theory.

“And another black eye for CBS. After dismissing the Hunter Biden laptop as disinformation and unable to be verified, the network once called Tiffany now having an epiphany, yet sadly it comes two years too late,” said Gallagher in a tease.

Going later to Houck, he noted that “the phrase better late than never...might not apply this time” with CBS waiting until two major elections passed to consider the laptop’s “authenticity” as well as the fact that CBS’s 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl mocked the idea it was real in an October 2020 interview with then-President Trump.

Note that Gallagher unironicially complained that CBS had "dismissing the Hunter Biden laptop as disinformation and unable to be verified" -- even though that was exactly the case. Gallagher certainly didn't criticize the New York Post for providing any independent verification at the time.

Houck went conspiratorial here too: "Houck later agreed with Gallagher’s recognition that CBS made this call in order 'to get ahead of' next year’s House probes, adding it could be that as well as simply being 'on the other side the midterm elections, but I think it's definitely more about wanting to get ahead of the House Oversight Committee'."

It's immature and totally rehearsed, but it got Houck on TV, right? Getting TV hits and website clicks is much more important than legitimate "media research" at the MRC these days.

CNS Trashes Competition For RNC Chair Before Effectively Endorsing Her
Topic: CNSNews.com

We've noted how CNSNews.com lovingly quoted Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel touting before the midterm elections that Republicans were all lawyered up and poll-watcher-laden to attack the polls if things went badly for Republicans. Unfortunately for her, Republicans performed poorly enough that mass election challenges weren't plausible -- which put her in a precarious position for staying in power at the RNC. CNS has largely stayed out of that battle -- but it did publsih a Dec. 13 article by managing editor Michael W. Chapman that noted McDaniels' failures but devoted much of it to attacking her main competition for the job, Harmeet Dhillon, for the offense of being insufficiently hateful of LGBTQ people and abortion:

Although 107 Republican National Committee members have signed a letter in support of Ronna McDaniel to be reelected to a fourth term as RNC chairwoman, many conservatives in D.C. and across the country want California Republican Harmeet Dhillon to take the position.

Some conservatives say McDaniel has a long losing streak and needs to go. However, critics have noted that Dhillon has a controversial past on issues such as abortion, transgenderism, and gay marriage, which may make her less than ideal.

In addition to the 107 RNC members (out of 168) who back McDaniel – more than enough votes to win the election in January – SBA Pro-Life America President Marjorie Dannenfelser praised her and endorsed her for reelection.

[...]

However, long-time conservative leader Morton Blackwell tweeted on Dec. 10, “As Republican National Committeeman for Virginia, I support Harmeet Dhillon for Chair of the Republican National Committee. She has a long and successful record as a leader for conservative principles at the state and national levels.”

Attorney and Republican activist Victoria Toensing told CNS News that many people she has spoken with "are very upset with" McDaniel, and some say "she's a loser."

"I want to express my support for Harmeet," said Toensing. 

Harmeet Dhillon, an attorney, leads the California Republican National Committee, founded the Center for American Liberty, and frequently appears as a commentator on Fox News.

[...]

Concerning some of Dhillon’s controversial background, Suzanne Bowdey wrote in The Washington Stand, the Family Research Council’s news and commentary outlet, that the lawyer has defended Christian students, pro-life journalists, and gender-transition victims over the years. However, Dhillon has also “aligned herself with Republicans who identify as transgender, voiced evolving views on abortion, and said the government should have no role in sanctioning marriages.”

Dhillon is a former board member of the ACLU, former donor to Kamala Harris’ district attorney race in San Francisco, and former general counsel to Caitlyn Jenner’s (Bruce Jenner) gubernatorial run in 2021. In addition, Dhillon worked for Richard Grenell, a gay-partnered man who served as Director of National Intelligence in the Trump administration.

The Washington Stand further reported that Dhillon’s positions on abortion and gay marriage “seem to have ‘evolved’ over the years.”

Yes, "evolved," as in ... moving from a total abortion ban to allowing it "in limited circumstances — life of the mother and rape" and deciding that "the government should not interfere in most private choices by individuals." As if being a slightly less intolerant right-winger is "controversial."

Uitimately, though, Chapman seems cool with Dhillon being RNC chair -- even citing his favorite dishonest Catholic and his boss' kid in support -- even if he's also resigned to McDaniel staying in power:

Despite these controversies, there is no doubt that Dhillon has done yeoman’s work over the years fighting for pro-life clients and other conservative causes, as The Washington Stand details. And when compared it comes to the RNC race, many conservatives prefer Dhillon.

As Catholic League President Bill Donohue told CNS News, “In professional sports, losing coaches are often fired at the end of the season, if not before then. … Ronna McDaniel presided over a losing midterm election. She has to go. Given the monumental failure of the first two years of the Biden administration, expectations were running high that Republicans would post record gains. They did not. One reason they didn’t is because of McDaniel’s leadership."

“Fortunately, Harmeet Dhillon is waiting in the wings,” said Donohue.  “Smart and courageous, she would give the GOP a real shot in the arm. It’s not a close call.”

ForAmerica President David Bozell said, “There is no disputing that the Party has struggled to compete statewide, cycle after cycle, in the same critical states: Arizona, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Nevada are top of mind. Romney-McDaniel has had multiple election cycles to solve this problem and yet, the Party remains stuck in neutral. ‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.’ It’s time for new thinking at the top of the GOP.”

[...]

Republican Lee Zeldin, who decided not to run for RNC chairman, said in a statement, “The better path forward would be for Chairwoman McDaniel to listen to and respect the wishes of the actual grassroots voters of our party, and allow the RNC to forge ahead with new leadership. Her greatest service to the Republican Party at this time would be to make room for a new chair."

Zeldin added, however, that McDaniel’s reelection seemed “pre-baked by design,” implying it would be tough to unseat an incumbent from the RNC chair.

That's how Chapman both-sides an issue where it would not advance right-wing narratives to explicitly take a side.

MRC's Mandelburg Rages Against Abortion And Those Who Support And Have Them
Topic: Media Research Center

Tierin-Rose Mandelburg is the Media Research Center's resident abortion extremist, who believes women who have abortions are serial killers and advocates an Orwellian surveillance state to closely monitor women living in states where abortion is illegal in case they travel to another state where abortion is legal. She unsurprisingly spent much of last year spewing hate at abortion, those who support and the women who have them. In a July 15 post, she complained that the feminist site Jezebel highlighted the murder of a pregnant woman as an example of how the overturning of Roe v. Wade could result in more domestic violence:

Last week a Missouri man reportedly murdered his wife after a “heated argument about his affair with another woman.” The man’s wife was supposedly six weeks pregnant and used her phone to search “what to do if your husband is upset you are pregnant,” according to police. 

Jezebel pointed out that the woman’s pregnancy was a “risk” and was the cause for her murder. The outlet suggested that perhaps if she weren’t pregnant, her husband wouldn’t have killed her. This was Jezebels attempt to advocate for abortion rights.

[...]

I don’t think that abusers should go without severe punishment, but I also don’t think the solution to an abuser is to end the life of an innocent child. This lady’s husband was psycho and it is a tragedy that she and her unborn baby died. The solution to death is not more death. 

Things like this are unfortunately going to keep happening but not because of abortion bans but because some people are unable or unwilling to acknowledge that all life has intrinsic value.

When society indicates that not all life is valued, some life inevitably becomes disposable. Every second that abortion is still legal contributes to this mindset. 

Why would it matter if a pregnant woman is killed if it doesn’t matter if her baby is? 

That’s the vile attitude that many possess and that’s why people are subject to domestic abuse. Ending abortion isn't going to stop psychos from killing.

Mandelburg spent a Sept. 28 post raging at a comedian's abortion-related jokes:

“I feel guilty, not getting an abortion when I still had the chance.”

Ladykiller series is set to debut on September 30. The series is a comedy special where comedian Jena Friedman will talk about “marriage, motherhood, and murder” with a strong emphasis on the pro-abort narrative.

[...]

“Sorry,” she added while turning to expose her very pregnant belly and then continuing “while we still had the chance.” Her sarcasm on that last “joke” was deafening. 

The audience erupted into laughter at her insistence that there was a “we” due to the fact that she was pregnant. I presume they’re all in support of dehumanizing unborn children in order to justify their radical pro-death views.

[...]

Unfortunately, Freidman wasn’t overdramatizing her talking points for the entertainment aspect. In a statement following filming Ladykiller, Freidmen said that the show “made me really appreciate having a platform where I could talk about some of the things I have been losing sleep over since Roe was overturned, and to do so particularly before the midterms.” 

Great, so she really is just a horrible human.

The next day, Mandelburg was outraged that another comedian pointed out a location where it's still legal to have an abortion:

On today’s list of people I cannot stand: Amy Schumer.

In an elevator-pitch style, Amy Schumer promoted her show “Inside Amy Schumer.” Schumer advocated for women to visit Colorado for its best attraction: being a state that supports the slaughter of the unborn.

[...]

At the end of the clip, Schumer walked viewers through the use of a private browser to check out different abortion service sites. She also made sure to encourage people to “subscribe to an encrypted VPN internet provider” and to delete search history.  

Schumer also insisted that these services are available “for a limited time only,” alluding to the dwindling opportunity to murder an innocent child (good!). 

It’s pretty cringe-inducing for people to be so adamant about killing kids that they have to make entire shows glamorizing it. This is not something I’ll be wasting my free time watching. That’s a promise.

Oh, but if the MRC paid her to hate-watch Schumer's show, she would happily do it, as we learned when she hate-watched a drag queen on "DancingWith the Star" despite vowing not to do so.

An Oct. 4 post by Mandelburg petulantly ranted about a perfectly legal mobile abortion clinic:

This is not fake news. 

On October 3, Planned Parenthood announced its creation of a mobile abortion clinic. According to NPR, Planned Parenthood plans to drive the bus to red-state borders to make the act of murdering unborn babies more accessible.

How pleasant. 

The first mobile clinic is set to open in southern Illinois, a state where abortion is not only legal but celebrated.

[...]

I wonder if it will have a morgue attached to the clinic considering all the murders it plans to conduct. And hey, "We Deliver" could be a great value-add to Planned Parenthood's baby parts business.

This is a grotesque play from the left. Planned Parenthood is a vile organization that dehumanizes the unborn and treats their lives like mundane inconveniences that need to be eliminated.

This mobile clinic is a disgrace. I hope they bought a lemon.

Mandelburg raged against the mobiile abortion clinics again in a Nov. 2 post:

Baby on board? Not for long.

On Wednesday’s CBS Mornings, co-host and Democratic donor Gayle King introduced Planned Parenthood's new “solution” to abortion bans — mobile abortion clinics. Though CBS did include the perspective of one pro-lifer, the overall climate of the clip is a celebration of the mobile baby morgues.

[...]

Money spent to save women and children is much better than an RV aimed to kill but, this is the left we're dealing with.

Mandelburg also targeted Vice Presient Kamala Harris for failure to hate abortion the way she does. She spent a Sept. 9 post complaiing that Harris referenced abortion rights while speaking at a religious convention. The anti-abortion extremist unironically complained that Harris "likened pro-life legislatures to 'extremists,'" adding:

Harris also referenced verses from 1 Corinthians, but declined to reference any other passages from the Bible in which the Lord commands, “Thou shalt not murder,” nor the other parts in which Scripture reminds us of the sanctity of life. None of that helped her narrative.

Christianity is clearly against abortion, but Harris still claims to follow it closely --- yikes.

Mandelburg similarly complaikned in an Oct. 5 post:

I find it hysterical that Harris often alludes to faith when trying to justify abortion. She claims to be a Christian and follow the Holy Bible, which is unquestionably against abortion. Even so, she pretends that faith and abortion are on the same page. 

“One does not have to abandon their faith or beliefs to agree that the government should not be making these decisions for the women of America," she added.

Perhaps her translation of the Bible is different than mine. 

Harris also called pro-life lawmakers “extremist so-called leaders.”

I’ve said this numerous times, but it really makes me chuckle when the left calls lawmakers who advocate for saving lives the “extremists.” That makes no sense.

Yes, the woman who wants an anti-abortion surveillance state doesn't think wanting one is "extreme."

Mandelburg lashed out at Harris again in an Oct. 26 post:

I really didn’t know that there were more than one version of the Holy Bible. One that supports the slaughter of the unborn and one that doesn’t … oh wait. 

Yet again, Vice President Kamala Harris thinks that the Christian faith supports abortion. She has proven that point over and over and over again.

Most recently, on October 25, she was at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque talked with NM Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham and a local doctor, Dr. Eve Espey. The trio spoke on protecting the right to murder innocent children in New Mexico and beyond. 

Harris reiterated her regular talking points in order to help justify her enthusiastic support for abortion.

“One does not have to give up their faith or deeply held beliefs, one does not have to abandon one’s faith or deeply held beliefs to agree, the government should not be making this decision for her,” VP Harris told the audience. 

Ah, that’s one of her favorites.

Mandelburg further lectured Harris:

The Christian faith recognizes the intrinsic value of life at the moment of conception. It’s a grave evil to murder an innocent child, yet Harris seems to think her Christian faith doesn’t need to be neglected in order to support abortion. Harris is just trying to justify her claims by pretending, or convincing herself and others that the Bible supports abortion.

I’ve read the whole thing, and I can assure you, it doesn’t. 

It’s blasphemy against God for Harris to be manipulating the words of the Holy Bible to help push an anti-life agenda, but given her and her accomplices track record, it's not surprising.

Mandelburg is clearly unable to tolerate opinions that differ from her own. But then, that narrow-minded intolerance is what makes her an ideal MRC employee.

Newsmax Waited Until Brittney Griner Was Released Before Sniping At Her
Topic: Newsmax

Unlike its ConWeb buddies at the Media Research Center, Newsmax didn't spend much time launching personal attacks on WNBA star Brittney Griner after she was imprisoned in Russia on trumped-up drug charges -- it has been anti-Russia and pro-Ukraine, after all -- focusing instead on President Biden's purported incompetence in freeing her. A Nov. 14 column by Hugh Dugan, for instance, bashed Biden for having "cock-a-doodle’d the 'wrongful detention' talking point yet again" and insisted the U.S. should show "a modicum of humility" because "Russia was not so induced to give credence to the charge that Ms. Griner’s detention was wrongful." And a Nov. 28 article quoted a sportswriter calling out "the lack of sympathy — and outright anger — directed at Brittney Griner ... because she's not white, or male, or straight."

After Griner was freed following a swap for arms dealer Viktor Bout, however, Newsmax leaned into some sniping, largely framed around Republican congressmenappearing on Newsmax TV  complaining about her getting released instead of a different imprisoned American, Paul Whelan. The apparently unironically named Charlie McCarthy wrote in a Dec. 8 article:

Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., told Newsmax on Thursday that President Joe Biden "has upped the ante for what it takes to get someone out of Russia."

Lankford appeared on "National Report" following news that Russia freed WNBA star Brittney Griner in exchange for the U.S. releasing notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.

The exchange deal did not include Paul Whelan, a former U.S. Marine who has been held prisoner in Russia for nearly four years.

[...]

Lankford said he was happy that Griner was coming home, but again questioned the cost.

Sandy Fitzgerald wrote the same day:

WNBA star Brittney Griner's sentence of nine years in a Russian prison was far too long for a "too minor crime" of possession of cannabis oil, but her release in exchange for notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, whose nickname is the "Merchant of Death," means the return of an "evil man" who will "kill more Americans, more innocent people, and more people in general throughout the world," Rep. Jeff Van Drew told Newsmax on Thursday.

[...]

Meanwhile, U.S. Marine veteran Paul Whelan, a Michigan corporate security executive, has been jailed in Russia since December 2018 on espionage charges that his family and the U.S. government have called baseless, and Van Drew said Biden "doesn't really seem to care as much" about securing his release.

Jay Clemons followed with an attack on Griner:

Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Fla., said Americans will be pleased WNBA star Brittney Griner is coming home after being detained in Russia for eight months but they should also be upset with the Biden administration's handling of a hostage swap that didn't include U.S. Marine veteran Paul Whelan. 

"It's interesting and disappointing in what we see from the left that tends to say [America] is a 'racist, misogynist, and colonialist' country. These people tend to have never been abroad ... in countries where you can be snatched from the street and held [in jail] — for any reason," Waltz told Newsmax Thursday afternoon, while appearing on "American Agenda" with hosts Bob Sellers and Katrina Szish.

"We don't have a perfect country, but it's still the greatest in the world," said Waltz, while making the point that Griner has a public record of protesting America, but still returned home.

Clemons served up another complaining, sniping congressman in a Dec. 9 post:

Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, maintains the Biden administration has made a "mess" of the last few days — in terms of trumpeting the prisoner-swap release of WNBA star Brittney Griner from Russia, but neglecting to bring home retired U.S. Marine Paul Whelan and American Marc Fogel in a deal that allowed a convicted terrorist and arms dealer, Viktor Bout, to return to Moscow.

[...]

On the surface, Nehls doesn't have a problem with Griner coming home, despite her open loathing of America, prior to the eight-month detainment in Russia. But the Texas congressman would also like Griner to show some humility upon returning to the states.

Regarding Griner, Nehls hopes she "will consider" singing the national anthem at her next sporting event, or perhaps going to an elementary school and leading the children in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

"You owe it to America," said Nehls of Griner.

Fitzgerald returned for a Dec. 10 article with yet another GOP congressman:

The prisoner swap that resulted in the release of WNBA star Brittney Griner from Russia and not U.S. Marine veteran and police officer Paul Whelan in exchange for notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout shows a "pattern of weakness" and "capitulation" from Democrats and the Biden administration, Rep. Scott Perry told Newsmax on Saturday.

[...]

"There's got to be a priority here, and the priority apparently is about what's trending on social media and what looks more politically correct," said Perry.

Griner is Black and openly gay.

"What the priority should be is the person that's out, making sure that every single one of us can live free, the Marine remains in prison and it just seems to be lopsided," he added.

All of these congressman and all of these Newsmax writers failed to note that, as we've pointed out, Whelan received a bad-conduct discharge from the Marines following a court martial for attempted larceny, false statements and dereliction of duty, among other things. In other words, he actually committed crimes that were much worse the Russia accused Griner of doing (having a couple vape cartridges of cannabis oil).

Meanwhile, Newsmax host Eric Bolling sneered that Griner is "a mere basketball player" who "can’t free-throw or hide her stash to save her life." (Actually, her free-throw percentage is above the average for both the WNBA and the NBA.) And columnist Michael Dorstewitz whined that "Paul Whelan, a U.S. Marine, is going on his fourth year in Russian captivity his arrest at a Moscow hotel for espionage" and grumbled that the "America-hating, lesbian doper" was released instead: "So the issue wasn’t justice so much as it was identity politics, and Griner checked all the boxes: she’s Black, female, and lesbian — and a basketball star to boot! Whelan never had a chance."

And it wouldn't be Newsmax if it wasn't doing Trump stenography:  A Dec. 8 article by Michael Katz hyped that "Former President Donald Trump slammed Thursday's prisoner exchange that freed U.S. women's basketball star Brittney Griner from a Russian prison, calling it an 'unpatriotic embarrassment,'" and a Dec. 11 article by Nick Kotsoubinas touted how Donald Trump claimed he would not have traded Griner for Bout and bragged that he turned down a Whelan-Bout trade.

Days later, Newsmax was still having people snipe about the Griner release deal. A Dec. 17 article by Solange Reyner hyped Oliver North's complaint that "Biden's decision to trade notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout for WNBA star Brittney Griner benefits Russian President Vladimir Putin more than it does the U.S." The same day, an article by Fitzgerald had former DEA agent Derek Maltz, who showed no expertise in international diplomacy, complain that "WNBA star Brittney Griner's return to the United States is a good thing, but it took a "bad deal" to get her here."

WND Misrepresents Yet Another COVID Vaccine Study
Topic: WorldNetDaily

Misrepresenting studies regarding COVID vaccines is a major pastime at WorldNetDaily, and Art Moore added another one to the list in a Dec. 19 article:

A new study by the Food and Drug Administration confirms the concerns of many physicians worldwide of a link between blood clots and the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.

The researchers examined data covering 17.4 million elderly Americans who had received two doses of the Pfizer vaccine. They found that the incidents of pulmonary embolism, or blood clotting in the lungs, met the initial safety signal, meaning further investigation is warranted, the Epoch Times reported.

After a more thorough evaluation, the statistical signal continued to meet the criteria. Researchers said three other outcomes initially raised red flags but did not meet the statistical threshold: a lack of oxygen to the heart, a blood platelet disorder called immune thrombocytopenia, and another type of clotting called intravascular coagulation.

The FDA, however, said it will not act on the results because they don't prove the vaccines cause any of the four outcomes. The agency said the findings, published by the journal Vaccine, "are still under investigation and require more robust study."

Without citing any evidence, the authors said the FDA "strongly believes the potential benefits of COVID-19 vaccination outweigh the potential risks of COVID-19 infection."

But as a more responsible and fact-based media outlet reported:

Social media users are misinterpreting a study published this month in the journal “Vaccine,” to falsely claim it proves that the FDA has admitted that Pfizer’s COVID-19 shot causes blood clots.

“So the FDA finally came out and said that Pfizer’s Covid shot causes blood clots? Only 2 years late!” wrote one Twitter user who received more than 37,000 shares and 168,000 likes on the post.

Other social media users shared a link to a post from a conservative publication that has spread vaccine misinformation in the past. While the article more accurately conveys the results of the study, the contents are behind a paywall and its headline left out key context, stating: “Pfizer’s COVID-19 Vaccine Linked to Blood Clotting: FDA.”

But the FDA made no such an announcement, and the claims take the study’s findings out of context, according to experts.

[...]

Dr. Jeffrey Olin, a cardiologist and professor at Mount Sinai’s Icahn School of Medicine in New York, reiterated that the paper found a “signal,” but emphasized that this is not the same as causation.

“There was a slightly increased signal in that vaccine compared to the other ones they tested,” said Olin, who is also the director of vascular medicine at Mount Sinai’s center for cardiovascular health. “So you can’t assess causation. All you can say is there’s an association. And then if you want to assess causation you need to have a much more sophisticated study.”

Olin noted that the group who received the Pfizer vaccine were older, more likely to be in nursing homes and had more comorbidities that would put them in the hospital — all things that are associated with blood clotting.

“It’s impossible to sort out those things as the cause versus the vaccine,” he said.

That's not the only thing Moore and WND have mislead about. He wrote in a Nov. 23 article:

President Biden repeatedly has scolded Americans who choose not to take the experimental mRNA COVID shots under emergency use authorization, charging they are responsible for a "pandemic of the unvaccinated."

On Wednesday, however, the administration's reliable media ally, the Washington Post, reported "a majority of Americans dying from the coronavirus received at least the primary series of the vaccine."

The report came a day after Biden's top health adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and his COVID coordinator, Dr. Ashish Jha, declared the data "overwhelmingly" show the effectiveness of the vaccines in preventing hospitalization and death.

[...]

The Post reported the latest data show 58% of COVID-19 deaths in August 2022 were from people who were vaccinated or boosted.

Some argue that with 68% of Americans fully vaccinated, a higher percentage of the unvaccinated are dying.

But Moore skipped the part in the Washington Post article pointing out that vaccine efficacy wanes over time and that regular booster shots are needed. He also censored other reasons behind the finding: More people have received at least one vaccination, and older people are more likely to die from COVID regardless of vaccination status.

Moore is deliberately misleading is readers. That's bad journalism, and yet another reason why WND is barely surviving these days.

NEW ARTICLE -- New Press Secretary, Same MRC Hate: October-December 2022
Topic: Media Research Center
Curtis Houck and Co. seemed to be getting bored with spewing hate at Karine Jean-Pierre and fluffing right-wing journalists, so the frequency of the Media Research Center's press briefing write-ups diminished toward the end of the year. Read more >>