Newsmax Obsessed Over Biden Classified Documents Topic: Newsmax
Newsmax aggressively defended Donald Trump following the FBI raid on his Mar-a-Lago estate to retrive classified documents he stole (after months of refusal to cooperate on the matter). So when it was revealed that classified documents were found at properties used by Joe Biden after his vice presidency but before he became president, Newsmax unsurprisingly went all in on attacking him. Here are some of the articles it published just in the first week of the story:
That's 37 articles in the first week of the story, for those counting at home.
There were opinion pieces as well. A Jan. 13 column by Michael Dorstewitz rehashed much of what Newsmax had already reported while also defending Trump, insisting that "the records in Trump’s possession were covered under the Presidential Records Act, and he had the power to declassify those records. As vice president Biden had no such power, and there’s no 'Vice Presidential Records Act' for him to fall back on." Again, vice presidents do have declassification powers. Larry Bell pushed the same falsehood to protect Trump in a column the same day:
If you imagined that the Aug. 8 FBI/DOJ raid on Donald Trump’s private residence at Mar-a-Lago was truly over secret documents as part of an undisclosed “criminal investigation,” let’s see if a belated report of multiple illegal stashes of Joe Biden’s classified materials dating to his time as vice president between 2013-2016 receives comparable legal culpability zeal.
[...]
There is a big legal difference between former President Trump’s private possession of classified documents which he had full authority to declassify, versus Joe Biden’s removal of such materials as vice president with no such license.
Bell concluded by whining, "Don’t count on an armed raid on Jill Biden’s wardrobe closet as happened to former first lady Melania Trump any time soon." He forgot to mention that Trump's failure to cooperate is the direct cause of the raid.
Anti-LGBT Activist LaBarbera Now A 'Reporter' For WND Topic: WorldNetDaily
It appears that the right-wing grift of hating LGBT people is not as lucrative as it one was. In a sign of desperation on at least one party, Peter LaBarbera, the founder of the anti-LGBT organization Americans For Truth About Homosexuality -- which has promoted numerous falsehoods about LGBT people -- is now working as a reporter at WorldNetDaily (which of course, hate LGBT people at least as much as LaBarbera does). It says certain things about WND that it would hire a known liar as a reporter -- namely that WND's brand of "journalism" is decidedly untrustworthy -- but it also shows that AFTAH is no longer paying the bills for LaBarbera. Of course, WND's finances are pretty shaky too right now, so it's unclear if LaBarbera is even making much money doing this.
He proclaimed himself to be "a Washington political animal in a 1996 Washington Post article -- which means he's not a journalist, despite his claiming such credentials in his WND bio by noting he was once a reporter for the Washington Times (never mind that working for Moonies isn't exactly a credibility-enhancer). Indeed, all the other biographical details listed are of activism, not journalism, which says activism will come first here too.
Given LaBarbera's obsession with hating LGBT people, it's no surprise that a significant number of the articles he has written at WND have been about bashing them. His very first "news" article, on Dec. 28, was filled with transphobic attacks, particularly against Biden administration official Rachel Levine:
President Biden’s top transgender-activist appointee says body-altering “gender-affirming care” for people attempting to live as the opposite sex is “not in scientific or medical dispute,” and is urging doctors to work with Big Tech companies to effectively help eradicate such “disinformation.”
In a newly surfaced video, Dr. Rachel Levine, formerly Dr. Richard Levine, describes the “onslaught” of conservative “anti-LGBTQI+” state legislative efforts, which mainly oppose the transgender youth agenda, as “dangerous to the public health.” He says there is “substantial misinformation” surrounding the issue and looks to tech giants to partner with health professionals “to create a healthier, cleaner, information environment."
Levine’s remarks touched off a cascade of criticism in social media: “Not in dispute. This is a lie,” tweeted one Belfast critic, who linked to a post about a leading Swedish hospital that banned “puberty blockers” and cross-sex hormones for minors in 2021.
[...]
Levine, appointed by Biden as assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services, is hailed by LGBT activists as the first openly “transgender” presidential appointee to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Born male and having attended an all-boys school, Levine married a woman, psychiatrist Martha Peaslee, and fathered a boy and a girl before “transitioning” to his current “trans woman” identity. His radical “trans-formation” left his children without the normal, male-identified dad they grew up with, and he divorced Peaslee after 25 year of marriage in 2013.
The combination of the portly Levine’s aggressive trans advocacy and his decidedly masculine facial features, along with his long, flowing blond hair, has made him a prime target for conservatives and allied feminists.
In 2021, the Harvard-educated pediatrician was sworn in as an admiral in the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, in what the Washington Post celebrated as the "first-ever female" four-star admiral – even though Levine is a biological man. It was from this platform that he made his remarks about "gender-affirming care" for young people.
His second article, published the next day, uncritically touted the homophobia of Libs of TikTok creator Chaya Raichik:
Chaya Raichik, the conservative woman behind the hugely popular "Libs of TikTok" Twitter account that exposes "groomers" of innocent children using activist-teachers' own video recordings, has entered a new stage in her fight for American culture by revealing her face and identity to the world.
Eight months after being "doxxed" by a Washington Post hit-piece that revealed her name and exposed her private address, Raichik sat down for an hour-long interview with Tucker Carlson on his eponymous show on the Fox Nation streaming site. In the exchange, which aired Tuesday, Raichik explained the powerful, dark forces that are leading many children (and their parents) down the road of transgenderism, which she said was part of a larger LGBT "cult."
LaBarbera then attacked the Washington Post article that exposed Raichik as the account's creator:
The two discussed how the April hit-piece by Washington Post writer Taylor Lorentz "doxxing" Raichik (a link in the piece exposed her private address before it was taken down) actually propelled Libs of TikTok to greater popularity and influence.
The blatantly biased Post article, which relies heavily on the left-wing press watchdog Media Matters, attempts to cast Libs of TikTok ominously as "an agenda-setter in right-wing online discourse" largely responsible for "the recent push in legislation and rhetoric directly targeting the LGBTQ+ community."
LaBarbera identified no falsehoods in the Post article, nor did he explain how an article that he could find no falsehoods in could possibly be "blatantly biased."
LaBarbera spent a Jan. 3 "news" article raging that LGBTQ+ issues received funding under an omnibus spending bill:
Thanks to Republican support for a newly passed $1.7 trillion omnibus federal spending bill, American taxpayers are funding left-leaning LGBT organizations across the country, including those that promote deviant sex to youth, teach biased "gay history" to kids, and lobby for letting biological boys use girls' restrooms and locker rooms in schools.
The Washington Stand reported that the $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill — backed by 18 GOP senators and signed into law December 30 by President Biden — contains $11 million in LGBT funding, included the following homosexual- and transgender-related earmarks (specific spending requests) by Democrat lawmakers:
LaBarbera went on to attack the LGBT Center in New York City because it received funding and for a Keith Haring art piece it possesses:
The Center touts its programs serving youth, but like many gay/trans organizations and events—such as sexually-charged LGBT "Pride" parades across the world, which are attended by many young children—it subjects them to the excesses and immorality of a lifestyle centered on aberrant sexual "liberation."
The LGBT Center's partially pornographic "art" collection, displayed throughout the building, is a case in point. Among the works widely touted by New York City's art enthusiasts is a mural painted by homosexual artist Keith Haring on the walls of what once second-floor bathroom (it is now a meeting room). Haring's wall art consists of dozens of cartoonish, squiggly line drawings mainly of male phalluses, in various acts of faceless "sodomy" and stimulation.
The mural, which Haring called "One Upon a Time," depicts "the pre-1981 days of freewheeling [gay] sex," prior to the AIDS crisis, according to a sympathetic review by Alexander McQuilkin on the "untapped cities" website. Ironically, within months of completing the orgiastic bathroom drawing, Haring, just 31 years old, himself died of AIDS, a casualty of the "freewheeling sex" he had evidently practiced and celebrated.
LaBarbera also ranted about funding going to a new LGBT museum: "In reality, the museum's operation is sure to be deeply political (a leftist interpretation of "social justice") as the gay and transgender movements are based on a negation of Judeo-Christian morality."
A Jan. 11 article by LaBarbera deliberately misinterpreted a description of a medical school course to maliciously claim that the school believes infants are "queer":
Did you know a newborn baby could be "queer" right out of the womb? How about "asexual" or "transgender"?
A new College Fix report uncovers a reccurring Harvard Medical School course that offers "clinical exposure and education" focusing on "serving gender and sexual minority people across the lifespan, from infants to older adults."
The course is offered at Massachusetts General Hospital, which offers “gender-affirming surgical procedures” for ages 18 and up, according to the report. Translation: MGH performs transgender operations such as removing the healthy breasts of women who seek such mutilating "surgeries" as part of their quest to live as "men," i.e., to match their perceived "gender identity."
The anti-LGBT hate masquerading as "news" continued in other LaBarbera articles:
He wrote in a Jan. 16 article that "The United States is the most permissive country in the world in allowing children to pursue extreme transgender "transitions" such as puberty blockers and "surgeries" removing young women's healthy breasts," based on a report by right-wing group Do No Harm, whose ideology he didn't disclose.
He rated in a Jan. 25 article that "Another leftist indoctrination video has surfaced showing a trans-identified day-care instructor using a gender-neutral doll to teach four-and five-year-old children to accept the identity 'non-binary' as an alternative to 'boy' or 'girl.'"
He spent a Feb. 2 article touting how Donald Trump would "mobilize the full power of the presidency and federal government against gender-transition 'mutilations' of children and 'left-wing gender insanity' in schools, should he win the White House again."
He similarly gushed in a Feb. 7 article how "Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt received two standing ovations Monday from the state's lawmakers as he called on them to send him a bill banning mutilating 'gender transition surgeries' and transgender hormone 'therapies' performed on minor children in the state."
In a Feb. 9 article, LaBarbera huffed that "Every single Democrat in the Virginia House of Delegates voted against a 'common sense' bill that would require schools to notify parents if their child is 'self-identifying as a gender different from the student's biological sex,'" but he waited until the 16th paragraph of his article to actually quote anyone speaking in opposition -- then smearing her because she is a transgender legislator:
Leading the charge against HB 2432 was biological male, self-styled "trans woman" and LGBT activist Virginia Delegate Danica Roem, D, Prince William County. Speaking on the House floor, Roem angrily called it a "reckless" bill that would drive "transgender" kids with unsupportive parents into homelessness. He said the bill "deals with forcibly outing trans kids" and scolded the body's Republicans: "You have no idea the harm you're causing."
That's the only paragraph in LaBarbera's 25-paragraph article that actually quotes opposition -- the rest promote the bill.
The classic definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Given that WND's current financial crisis is caused in large part to its longtime embrace of fake news and conspiracy theories, it's unclear why WND thinks its situation will improve by the hiring of which a highly biase and hate-filled activist pretending to be a "reporter" like LaBarbera.
NEW ARTICLE -- The MRC's DeSantis Defense Brigade: Election Division Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center effectively served as part of the campaign PR operation for GOP Florida governor Ron DeSantis as he ran for re-election, hyping his dubious election-cop operation and bashing his critics. Read more >>
Months After He Left CNN, Stelter Derangement Syndrome Continues At The MRC Topic: Media Research Center
Brian Stelter left CNN months ago, but the Media Research Center -- which gleefully danced on the grave of his CNN career and his "Reliable Sources" show, which it hated because he criticized Fox News, something that is forbidden -- can't stop obsessing over the guy. Tim Graham huffed in a Nov. 27 post:
For a definition of what "far left" is, you could suggest that someone who sounds extreme sitting next to former CNN media reporter Brian Stelter. Check out left-wing extremist Nandini Jammi, whose "Check My Ads" racket seeks to separate all advertiser money from Fox News, Breitbart, and other conservative media outlets.
Graham didn't mention that his employer has a very similar operation of attacking advertisers on shows and channels it has deemed to be its ideological enemies, under the name of "Conservatives Fight Back." It's highly iunlikely he considers that project to be a "racket." Despite calling Jammi "far left" and a "left-wing extremist," he never explained how doing exactly what the MRC does earned her those labels. Graham even touched on this again in his Nov. 28 podcast.
So continually obsessed is the MRC with Stelter that it named one of tis a year-end awards "The Brian Stelter Memorial Award for Worst Quote of the Year." No explanation was given or a Stelter quote provided to justify the award. It also took another victory lap over Stelter's departure from CNN in another year-end post, and it even complained that one critic lamented Stelter's firing.
When Stelter showed up at the World Economic Forum to moderate a panel on media disinformation, the MRC really went nuts. Catherine Salgado complained in a Jan. 18 post:
A World Economic Forum panel at Davos 2023 endorsed censorship and enforced online narratives to fight supposed “disinformation.”
The World Economic Forum (WEF) hosted a panel as part of its ongoing Davos 2023 conference titled, “The Clear and Present Danger of Disinformation.” Ironically, the panel moderator was Brian Stelter, a former anchor for CNN, a network renowned for its constant lies and partisan half-truths.
Graham devoted his Jan. 18 podcast to Stelter's appearance:
Brian Stelter sighting! The former CNN host resurfaced at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland to moderate a panel on crushing "disinformation." He made it sound like a European version of his old show Reliable Sources, asking his fellow leftists how they manage a world in which Donald Trump is still proving that "lying works."
Naturally, those assembled -- including New York Times owner Arthur Gregg Sulzberger -- were encouraged by Stelter to discuss how "trustworthy" media sources (like the Times, apparently) should be highlighted and "hate speech" (conservative speech?) should be energetically suppressed by private companies and governing elites.
Neither Graham nor Salgado explained why disinformation should never be corrected or called out.
In yet another post that day, Kevin Tober gushed at how Fox News' Tucker Carlson "used the opening segment of the show to mock former CNN janitor and current Harvard University fellow Brian Stelter and all the other 'self-confident dumb people' who flocked to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland to thumb their nose at non-elites all over the world and America in particular. In classic Tucker fashion, he humorously ridiculed Stelter while also driving a point home." That point largely being about mocking Stelter.
That's right -- the MRC cranked out three separate posts attacking Stelter over this single appearance. On top of that, Joseph Vazquez had a Stelter-bashing aside in a post the next day: "Also, what was CNN has-been Brian Stelter doing hosting a WEF panel complaining how people need to start trusting 'established' information sources instead of so-called online 'disinformation' spreaders?"
The MRC was even annoyed with Stelter for entertaining questions from (non-bad-faith) critics. Curtis Houck wrote in a Feb. 24 post:
Former CNN’s Reliable Sources host Brian Stelter made a rare return to a microphone Friday as he interviewed Megyn Kelly Show executive producer and Fourth Watch Podcast host Steve Krakauer about his new book, Uncovered: How the Media Got Cozy with Power, Abandoned Its Principles, and Lost the People. In just under an hour, the pair had a engaging and fascinating discussion about the media, CNN, Fox News, January 6, and& his post-CNN life.
But for readers here, the newsiest topic came when Krakauer cited the New York Post reporting on Hunter Biden’s laptop as an answer to this question from Stelter: “What are the ones that stand out most to you? What — what — what did me and my colleagues at CNN screw up the most, in your view?”
When Krakauer brought up the selectively released "Twitter files," Houck seemed to complain that Stelter responded by pointing out that the Hunter Biden laptop story really was quite shaky when introduced and that Republicans whined that it wasn't immediately accepted:
Stelter began his defense by saying this was “Twitter’s problem”and “separate from the press,” so “[i]f Twitter screwed up, we should go after Twitter.”
In the case of news organizations, he argued they “looked around and said, we don’t have the laptop. We don’t have evidence. We don’t have evidence it’s real and we know that are reasons to wonder if it’s disinformation.”
He then bemoaned the criticisms, saying they can be boiled down to, “all these assholes...called it disinformation” when the (supposed) truth is “[a] lot of us just wondered” if it was from Russia.
Stelter continued, saying they referred to said “former U.S. officials” because they “think it might be,” so news outlets were “cushioned and cautious...because of Hillary e-mails, but because of the Russian attempt in 2016”.
Houck shockingly concluded by saying something nice about Stelter: "To his credit, Stelter made his case at the end for the necessity of journalists to do more of 'show[ing] that we’ve walked all the way around the block before we’ve started to write about the block and, you know, that’s my way of saying let’s be fair to everybody...because if you’re only writing about the story from the back yard, then you’re missing a big part of the story.'"
Don't worry, that won't last -- Stelter is too significant a target for the MRC to actually embrace.
Jack Cashill And The Wrong Side of History, Russia-Ukraine War Edition Topic: WorldNetDaily
Jack Cashill has a long history of being on the wrong side of history on numerous things, and now we can add the Russian war on Ukraine to that list. He began his Feb. 8 WorldNetDaily column complaining that Ukraine is made to look good in the media and the aggressor, Russia, is made to look bad:
Approaching the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has his hands full dealing with the aftermath of a major corruption scandal.
On Tuesday, Zelensky called for an end to "rumors or any other pseudo-information" that could weaken the nation's resolve in its war against Russia.
The problem is that, from the beginning, the reporting on this war has been nothing but rumors and pseudo-information. A year in, I confess to having no idea who is winning or how the war can continue on Ukrainian soil given all the victories or pseudo-victories Ukraine has purportedly won.
[...]
A year in to the Russian-Ukraine war, I confess to not having seen any real battle footage at all. What I have seen are grim photos of alleged Russian strikes on apartment buildings, schools, hospitals and the like.
On watching this footage, I have asked myself, "Why are the Russians targeting apartment buildings and hospitals?" The answer is they are not.
The Russians could flatten Ukraine tomorrow if they chose. These buildings were likely collateral damage. I wasn't watching news, I realized. What I was watching was war propaganda.
Just because Russia is obliterating all civilian targets doesn't mean they're not targeting civilians -- all you have to do is hit the occasional hospital or apartment building to put the fear in civilians. Cashill conveniently ignored that manyobserversbelieve Russia is, in fact, targeting civilians and that it's more than just "collateral damage."
Cashill then basically complained that Ukrainians are better at war propaganda than Russia is:
In the later coverage of Vietnam, as well as in much of the coverage of the war in Iraq, our media were running propaganda for our enemies.
American viewers heard all they needed to hear about My Lai or Abu Ghraib. There is no Ukrainian equivalent.
In Ukraine, virtually all the video coverage has been propaganda on behalf of Ukraine. To test my thesis, I entered "Ukraine War video footage" in YouTube.
Of the 32 stories that appeared on the first page, 31 had Ukraine beating the Russians and not just beating them, but destroying, crushing, encircling, ambushing, shocking them.
Consider this recent headline from US News: "Horrible Footage! Ukrainian elite troops eradicate Wagner Groups troop like rats in a Bakhmut trench." Yikes!
Finally, Cashill complained that Democrats were making Russia look bad to get Donald Trump:
What is surprising is America's tag-teaming with Ukraine. In 2014, when pro-Russians nationalists seized the region, and Russia seized the Crimea, the Obama-Biden administration did nothing.
At the time, the administration was courting Russian help to seal the Iranian deal. Their hands were tied.
It was not until 2016, when the Democrats chose to frame Donald Trump, that they realized they had to frame Russia to make the conceit work.
If Russia were not evil, Russia collusion would be no big deal. So, with the media's mindless assistance, the Democrats turned Russia into our main enemy.
Russia was restrained during the four years of the Trump presidency. But President Biden, even if he were cognizant, could no more have negotiated a settlement with Vladimir Putin than he could have reconciled with Trump. His base would not allow him.
The result was a war Ukraine could never win in any meaningful way, and Russia could not allow itself to lose.
It was not hard to "frame" Trump when his campaign and its officials met dozens of times with Russian operatives and that Russia clearly interefered with U.S. elections to benefit Trump (which also involved hacking Democratic National Committee emails, which Cashill still falsely wants you to think was done by Seth Rich). And Cashill offers no evidence that anything Biden might have done would have stopped Putin from invading Ukraine, so desperate was he to have a show of force in the reason. It appears that Cashill is joining Putin in being mad that Ukraine fought back to try and preserve their country.
By siding with an aggressor like Putin and being mad at Ukraine for fighting back to the point that Putin is losing simply by not having the decisive victory he was presumably expecting, Cashill is yet again on the wrong side of history.
With these 10 articles, Newsmax has published at least 238 articles attacking DirecTV for dropping it since Jan. 25, when it occurred.
Meanwhile, the head of Newsmax went to CPAC to mislead about his victimhood. Luca Cacciatore wrote in a March 2 article:
Newsmax CEO Christopher Ruddy sat down with Mercedes Schlapp on Thursday to discuss the network, its recent troubles with satellite provider DirecTV, and the ominous trend of media silencing alternate viewpoints.
At the Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Prince George's County, Maryland, Ruddy cited Nielsen ratings showing that Newsmax, a popular conservative news organization, is the fourth highest-rated news channel, a top 20 channel overall, watched by 25 million Americans on cable alone.
"It's really not our brilliance. It's the fact the American people want more choices in news," the network's founder declared, later noting that "the liberals and the left basically own everything in the media world."
"Why should the left have so many news choices, but conservatives only have one?" he continued. "Fox, let's admit it, is changing. It's good to have more voices, and I think Newsmax plays a very critical role in offering those."
Ruddy is lying. DirecTV replaced Newsmax with another right-wing channel, The First.
In part of the video Cacciatore didn't transcribe, Ruddy repeated the talking point that there are as many as "two dozen" news andinformation channels he calls "liberal." As we've pointed out, Ruddy's definition of a "liberal" channel is wildly and dishonestly overbroad, given that it includes things like the Weather Channel and Comedy Central
CNS Rages At Pope For Not Hating Gay People Enough Topic: CNSNews.com
When Pope Emeritus Benedict died at the end of December, CNSNews.com cranked up respectful tributes for a former pope whose views aligned with its own right-wing takes:
But CNS being CNS, it couldn't keep some of its right-wing bias from influencing its "news" coverage. When President Biden issued a statement on Benedict's death, an anonymously written Jan. 4 article complained that Biden noted that Benedict had "a more conservative view" of the Catholic church than he did.
By contrast, the boys who run CNS love right-wing Catholicism and hate liberal Catholicism, and they consider themselves more Catholic than the pope when that pope is a non-conservative one like Francis. When Francis stated in January that while homosexuality is a sin, it shouldn't be a crime, an anonymously written Jan. 25 article whined that a news article emphasized the "not a crime" part of the "is a sin" part:
In an interview this week with the Associated Press, Pope Francis reiterated the Catholic position that homosexual behavior is a sin.
The Associated Press published the pope’s statement in an article that carried the headline: “The AP Interview: Pope says homosexuality not a crime.”
The first two paragraphs of the AP story said: “Pope Francis criticized laws that criminalize homosexuality as ‘unjust,’ saying God loves all his children just as they are and called on Catholic bishops who support the laws to welcome LGBTQ people into the church."
The story continued: “‘Being homosexual isn’t a crime,’ Francis said during an exclusive interview Tuesday with the Associated Press.”
Sixteen paragraphs into its story, the Associated Press reported the following:
“On Tuesday, Francis said there needed to be a distinction between a crime and a sin with regard to homosexuality.
“‘It’s not a crime. Yes, but it’s a sin,’ he said. ‘Fine, but first let’s distinguish between a sin and a crime.’”
The anonymous writer went on to emphasize that The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that homosexual acts are 'intrinsically disordered'" -- but he or she didn't explain why that meant homosexuality must be made illegal.
For a Feb. 1 article, managing editor Michael W. Chapman found a foreign official who cheerfully criminalzes homosexuality in a weird attempt to own the pope:
Pope Francis recently said that homosexual activity is "not a crime" but it is "a sin," a claim that South Sudan Minister of Information Michael Makuei rejected, stressing that "God was not mistaken" and that in his country so-called gay marriage "is a crime, is a constitutional crime."
Pope Francis is scheduled to visit South Sudan on Feb. 3. In that East African state, sodomy (defined as anal sex between men or men and women) is illegal, as is same-sex marriage. Sodomy is punishable by up to seven years in prison and, after a third offense, life in prison.
[...]
After a cabinet meeting on Jan. 27, Information Minsiter Makuei spoke with the media. As reported by Radio Tamazuj, he said, “If he [Pope Francis] is coming here and he tells us that marriage of the same sex, homosexuality is legal, we will say no. But this is not what he is coming for.”
Makuei further said, “God was not mistaken. He created man and woman and he told them to marry one another and go and fill the world. Do same-sex partners give birth?”
“Our constitution is very clear and says marriage is between the opposite sex and any same-sex marriage is a crime, is a constitutional crime," said the Information Minister.
Chapman didn't mention that Makuei Lueth -- his full name -- has been sanctioned by the U.S. and the United Kingdom for obstructing the peace process in South Sudan.He was also dismissive of the death of a U.S.-British journalist covering unrest in the country, smearing him as a "white rebel."So may be he's not the best person to oppose the pope.
Instead, Chapman spent the rest of the article recalling the good ol' days when everyone hated gay people:"Up until the early 1960s, nearly every state in the U.S. had laws against sodomy, and when the Lawrence v. Texas case was decided (6-3) by the Supreme Court in 2003 those laws were invalidated in every state and territory."
For a Feb. 3 article, Chapman found a right-wing priest here at home to demand that gay people be imprisoned to teach them a lesson about morality:
Fr. Gerald Murray, a priest with the Archdiocese of New York and a frequent contributor on EWTN, strongly criticized Pope Francis's recent remarks about homosexuality as confusing and contrary to Church teaching in some respects. He also said the Pope, "unfortunately," is "becoming an advocate of decriminalization of anti-sodomy laws."
[...]
In reference to the Pope's interview, Fr. Murray said, “Now, laws against sodomy are designed to warn people not to commit that sin and to protect society where, if that sin were tolerated, it might become more widespread. The story of Sodom and Gomorrah in the Bible is a warning to us."
“The Pope, unfortunately, is becoming an advocate of decriminalization of anti-sodomy laws," said Murray. "And it’s hard to believe we would say that."
CNS didn't mention that following his visit to Africa, Francis joined with leaders of other Christian congregations in denouncing laws punishing homosexuality. Rather, Chapman found another right-wing Catholic group to bash the pope in a Feb. 9 article:
Pope Francis' recent remarks to the Associated Press that homosexual behavior is "not a crime" but "is a sin" were strongly condemned by the Catholic Action League of Massachusetts because they "will confuse and mislead the faithful" and be presented by the liberal media as "papal affirmation of same-sex relations and the LGBTQ identity."
[...]
The Catholic Action League of Massachusetts in a press release said the Pope's remarks constitute "a major victory for the homosexual movement, which will be presented to public opinion as papal affirmation of same sex relations and the LGBTQ identity."
"The scandalous, improvident, and un-Catholic remarks of Pope Francis will confuse and mislead the faithful, empower and embolden the opponents of Christian morality, and demoralize and marginalize its defenders," said League Executive Director C.J. Doyle.
"These remarks will, in the long term, have significant adverse effects on the struggle to preserve what remains of moral sanity in Western society and to protect the already circumscribed rights of religious believers," added Doyle.
[...]
What the Pope said "repudiates 1,700 years of Christian legal principles," said Doyle. "Beginning in the fourth century AD, all Christian legal traditions---Roman Law, Canon Law, English Common Law and the positive laws of Christian states---have, harkening back to Mosaic Law, treated sodomy as a crime against nature, and have, accordingly, prohibited it, and attached penalties to its practice."
"Unlike Francis, the Fathers and Doctors of the Church understood sodomy to be both a sin and a crime," added Doyle. "The Angelic Doctor, Saint Thomas Aquinas, quotes Saint Augustine's statement that 'Those foul offenses that are against nature should be everywhere and at all times detested and punished....'"
An anonymously written Feb. 10 article hyped a video "that featured Father Jason Charron delivering a video message that criticized Pope Francis for his recent remarks on homosexuals and said that the pope was “using his platform to embolden sinners.”:
On the video, Father Charron says: “I am sure you heard today, as many people have, that Pope Francis again has called for the decriminalizing of homosexual acts among other things no his return flight from his African visit home to the Vatican.”
“And it struck me that a lot of the Holy Father’s public comments, you know, revolve around this issue of homosexuality as though that were the center piece of his ministry,” said Father Charron. “You don’t hear a whole lot of comments from him calling for the defense of persecuted Christians in place like, oh, I don’t know, China.”
“This is the great shame--that he has abandoned his first love and instead of preaching the Gospel, emboldening the saints and calling sinners to repentance, he’s using his platform to embolden sinners and to shame the saints into silence in conformity with the world,” Father Charron says in the video.
Chapman called on his favorite EWTN priest again in a Feb. 23 article to bash Francis for failing to hate gay people enough:
Fr. Gerald Murray, the pastor of Holy Family Church in Manhattan and a regular contributor to EWTN's The World Over, said that Pope Francis is neglecting "his duty to defend the Church's teaching" on sexual morality, which is contributing to a "grave disorder" in the church.
Fr. Murray added that faithful cardinals and bishops need to stage a "tough love" intervention with the Pope and "frankly" tell him "that this madness must be stopped. Now."
There is a very serious struggle going on in the Catholic Church, with progressive/left clerics pushing acceptance for homosexual relations and gay marriage or civil unions, gender ideology, and realted topics. On the defense are faithful bishops and priests trying to uphold the Church's 2,000-year-old teachings on sex, marriage, and sin.
Unfortunately, Pope Francis is clearly on the side of the progressives.
Murray apparently didn't explain how all this hatred helps anyone or why his hatred for LGBT people is so vicious that he refuses to follow the leader of his own faith.
MRC Melts Down Over Reimagining Velma As Neither White Nor Heterosexual Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center doesn't like LGBT people, and they really don't like fictional LGBT people. So when new projects portray Velma of the "Scooby-Doo" series as openly non-heterosexual, the MRC had a new reason to rage. Joseph Vazquez huffed in an Oct, 8 post:
Google showed users how much it supports Warner Bros. taking the classic Scooby-Doo TV series and turning one of its core characters into a rainbow mafia symbol of the woke left.
The New York Times slobbered in an Oct. 5 story that the script of a new Scooby Doo flick confirms “that Velma Dinkley, the cerebral mystery solver with the ever-present orange turtleneck, is canonically a lesbian.”
Velma’s appearance in “Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo,” according to The Times drivel, “was the first time the long-running franchise openly acknowledged her sexuality, thrilling some fans who were disappointed that it took so long.”
Apparently Google was “thrilled” too. When users search Google for Velma, an avalanche of pride flags plasters their computer screens.
[...]
The Google-Velma story is the latest chapter in Big Tech’s ongoing campaign to promote the leftist LGTBQ lobby.
Yes, Vazquez thinks any media outlet that doesn't spew the same kind of hate he does at LGBTQ people is "drivel."
When Mindy Kaling's more adult-oriented series reimaging Velma as a different ethnicity (and, yes, not heterosexual) came out in January, Elise Ehrhard was there to hate-watch it in a Jan. 16 post:
Every year now, Hollywood takes beloved intellectual properties, "reimagines" them through a woke lens, and sucks out any charm, joy or winsomeness from the original franchise.
The latest show to pull this stunt is HBO Max's new animated series Velma, the brainchild of overrated left-wing "comedian" Mindy Kaling. The first two episodes premiered on Thursday, January 12.
Parasitically feeding off nostalgia for the cherished Scooby Doo characters, Velma is a nasty, anti-white, anti-man, anti-human mess that needs to be erased from the brain after watching it.
The creators thought they were being "original" by changing the racial and ethnic backgrounds of the main characters and then proceeded to turn all those characters into awful, unlikable people.
Velma is now South Asian, but more importantly, the new Velma is mean. Shaggy is black and pathetically simps for vicious Velma's unrequited attention. Oh, and his name isn't even Shaggy anymore. It's Norville. Daphne is East Asian and a drug dealer.
Fred is still white and, of course, he is portrayed as a dumb man-child. Velma even humiliates him in a courtroom because he cannot cut his food with utensils.
[...]
Mindy Kaling, get help.
Of course, Velma and Daphne share a lesbian kiss in the second episode. The only two things most shows know how to do nowadays is hate on whitey and make characters gay.
Ehrhard continued to hate-watch the show, and a Jan. 20 post took glee in how otherswere criticizing the show and whining about a new episode:
HBO Max's Velma is currently one of the most hated shows in television history, earning some of the lowest audience scores ever on Rotten Tomatoes< (six percent audience score).
Last week, its first two premiere episodes were an orgy of nastiness and hate, so much so that it was impossible to imagine the show could go any lower.
But with the release of episodes three and four Thursday night, it reached a new nadir. Episode four, "Velma Makes a List," specifically hit rock bottom.
In this new episode, the town's middle-aged sheriff and mayor asks Velma to rank the "top five" hottest girls at her high school in order to protect them from a serial killer. The killer is targeting pretty high school females.
Since attractive girls are getting killed, the older men decide Velma could help by teaching the "hot girls" how to look ugly.
Velma fails in her mission and the teens, who are around 15 years old, remain beautiful. The girls consider her attempts to make them homely and frumpy a form of "slut-shaming." Apparently, the writers are very confused and think attractiveness and sluttiness are somehow synonymous.
When Velma reveals the girls, presuming they followed her advice, the mayor is clearly turned on:
Meanwhile, actual non-ideologues pointed out that the series was being review-bombed by haters and that it was also centered on apparent dislike for Kahling, whose Velma was refashioned as the kind of character she typically plays, and of South Asian characters in general.
Ehrhard was paid to hate-watch every single episode, and she cranked out yet another fit of bile in a Feb. 10 post:
Season one of HBO's Max's animated train wreck Velma wrapped up last night and never redeemed itself after its vile opening episodes.
The show premiered in January and quickly made headlines as one of the most hated shows in television history, insulting audiences with bad writing and disrespect for the original cartoon.
After watching all ten mean-spirited episodes, I can only hope creator and actress Mindy Kaling never helms an animated series again.
In her list of five reasons she hated the series, it's telling that Ehrhard put "hatred of white people" at the top of her llist.
Meanwhile, HBO Max apparently saw the attacks for their specious and manufactured nature and renewed the show for a second season -- which, of course, caused Ehrhard's head to explode in a Feb. 15 post:
One of the most hated shows in television history is somehow getting a second season.
On Monday, the Chairman and CEO of Warner Brothers Television Group, Channing Dungey, confirmed to Deadline that HBO Max's Velma is being renewed.
HBO Max is owned by Warner Brothers Discovery.
The decision to follow-through with the second season, despite near universal rejection of the woke cartoon by viewers, is mind-boggling.
Ehrhard did surprisingly admit that hate-watchers targeted the show:
Some of the initial interest in the cartoon may have come from viewers hate-watching the series to see if it was truly as bad as reported. Numerous popular critics took to YouTube to roast it after its premiere.
It's doubtful such hate-watchers will tune in for a second opening, however. One was more than enough.
Ehrhard concluded by whining that "the company is determined to promote a woke agenda at any cost to its bottom line, much like its competitors, such as Disney+." She didn't explain why people who aren't white and heterosexual must be hated as "woke," whatever that means.
CNS Whines Capitol Riot Considered Among Nation's 'Darkest Days' Topic: CNSNews.com
An anonymous CNSNews.com writer huffed in a Jan. 19 article:
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D.-N.Y.) sent out a tweet on January 6 of this year stating that January 6 of 2021 was “one of the darkest days in our nation’s history.”
“It’s been exactly 2 years since one of the darkest days in our nation’s history,” Schumer said.
“We will never forget what happened on January 6, 2021,” he said. “And we will never stop fighting to protect our democracy from the forces that sought to overthrow it.”
Schumer did not mention what other days he considered to be among “the darkest days in our nation’s history.”
If Jan. 6, 2021 was “one of the darkest days in our nation’s history” in Schumer’s analysis, it presumably would rank near Dec. 7, 1941, when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor; or Sept. 11, 2001, when terrorists flew hijacked planes into the World Trade Towers in New York City; or the days from 1861 to 1865, when the United States fought a Civil War; or the days that marked the assassinations of Presidents Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy; or April 4, 1968, when the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated; or Oct. 24, 1929, when the stock market crashed, marking the beginning of the Great Depression.
Our anonymous writer refused to explain why the Capitol riot shouldn't be counted among those days -- which is what is clearly implied by bringing up those comparisons. CNS -- partcularly managing editor Michael W. Chapman -- has been on a kick lately in trying rewrite history around the Capitol riot to make it sound not so bad.
The writer didn't explain why it took 13 days after Schumer issued his tweet to write this response article. Maybe it took that long to dig up other potentially dark days.
MRC Targets Transgender TikTok Star For Being Transgender In Public Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center hates transgender people in general, and it particularly hates anyone who commits the offense of being (gasp!) transgender in public. We've noted how lead MRC transphobe Tierin-Rose Mandelburg raged against the Biden White House for inviting "trannie" Dylan Mulvaney, who's documenting her transgender journey on TikTok, for a panel discussion. Jason Cohen -- the since-departed MRC blogger who infamously tried to justify Kayne West's anti-Semitism -- had a freakout over Mulvaney in an Oct. 26 post:
Caitlyn Jenner, Senator Marsha Blackburn, and Donald Trump Jr. all criticized trans Tik Tok star Dylan Mulvaney for an insane video from the 74th day of his famous series called "Days of Girlhood," which documents his determination to pretend he’s a woman.
In the video, Mulvaney showed and talked about how he wore extremely tight leather shorts to go shopping. On his outing, people stared directly at his crotch. He realized, “Oh, I forgot my crotch doesn’t look like other women’s crotches sometimes because mine doesn’t look like a little barbie pocket.”
Gross.
Mulvaney's solution was to declare it was time to "normalize the bulge," which caused Cohen to huff, "Jenner, Blackburn, and Jr. are correct that society should not normalize this":
Senator Marsha Blackburn tweeted, “Dylan Mulvaney, Joe Biden, and radical left-wing lunatics want to make this absurdity normal.”
So true. After all, like Jr. said, Mulvaney was invited to the Oval Office to talk to Biden. It cannot get much more normalized than that.
Powerfully, coming from a trans woman, Caitlyn Jenner thanked Senator Blackburn for speaking out and agreed with her, tweeting, “Let’s not ‘normalize’ any of what this person is doing. This is absurdity!”
It all seems so obvious, but in our upside-down world, it is not acceptable to take these stands. Hopefully, with even Caitlyn Jenner speaking against it, society will collectively conclude they should not normalize this.
Jenner gets a pass for being transgender because she's a right-winger, which caused the MRC all sorts of confusion when she contemplated a run for California governor as a Republican.
The same day, Mandelburg raged at Mulvaney during a "Woke of the Weak" video for stating that she wants to become a mom someday: "What in the ever-loving heck? Did he -- sorry, let me say Dylan so I don't get censored -- did Dylan just say, 'I want to be a mom one day'? If he can be a mom one day, then my 5-foot-2 self can be a power forward for the Knicks. It seems like people have forgotten men cannot get pregnant." Mandelburg conveniently ignored the fact that Mulvaney said nothing about being a biological mother, nor did she note that plenty of women who cannot have children (or decide not to have biological ones) adopt them and serve as fine mothers.
The MRC also published an Oct. 27 column by Ben Shapiro declaring that Mulvaney, "cosplaying as a woman," is leading "the collapse of the West" by having taken part in that panel led by "geriatric dotard" Biden.
Mandelburg lashed out at Mulvaney again in a Jan. 4 post for having plastic surgery for make her face more feminine:
An ode to contradiction.
Transgender TikTok star Dylan Mulvaney recently underwent a facial reconstruction surgery to make his male features less prominent, and his effort showed how brutal said surgery looks - and why it’s extremely unnecessary.
Mulvaney posted a video with bandages covering his face, where the swelling and bruises were very apparent.
In general, “facial feminization surgeries,” often called "ffts," aim to provide patients with a more feminine facial structure. Procedures often involved include moving the hairline down for a smaller forehead, having one's lips and cheekbones expanded, and/or having the jaw and chin reshaped and resized.
It seems brutal if you ask me. But Mulvaney elected to have the procedure done, and is supposedly thrilled at the results so far.
Nobody asked Mandelburg, of course, but she continued to rant anyway:
I get that if Mulvaney wants to dismember and harm his own body, that's technically his prerogative. But the message that he’s sending to his millions of viewers and followers is that they really can’t be happy in their own skin unless they change it.
[...]
This is the same "transgender" star who was invited by President Joe Biden to the White House, where he encouraged the president to support painful gender-affirmation surgeries - like this one - for both adults and children.
This is what Mulvaney and Biden are in support of.
I really wish that people would stay true to their word. It’s either “embrace who you really are” or “get procedures that change your appearance and harm your body,” but it can't be both.
This is yikes on a whole other level.
Is it on the same level as getting paid to spew hate against people because they are different from you? (Actually, Mulvaney looks just fine after a few weeks of recovery.)
NEW ARTICLE: Chuck Norris, Off The Conspiratorial Deep End Topic: WorldNetDaily
The onetime action star-turned-WorldNetDaily columnist spent 2022 endorsing dubious right-wing Republicans and embracing conspiracy theories about election fraud and COVID vaccines. Read more >>
MRC Sticks To Narratives, Censors The Truth About Twitter Hearing Topic: Media Research Center
House Republicans gave the Musk-fluffers at the Media Research Center the hearing they wanted to attack the pre-Musk management of Twitter over purported censorship. It didn't quite go the way they planned -- but you wouldn't know that from the MRC's coverage of it. Renata Kiss started off the biased coerage by cherry-picking a statement by Republican Rep. to declared that he "own[ed] a former Twitter official:
Congressman Jim Jordan (R-OH) said the quiet part out loud at Wednesday’s House Oversight Committee hearing on The Twitter Files.
The House Committee on Oversight and Accountability held its first Twitter Files hearing Wednesday morning. The hearing featured testimony from former Twitter Head of Legal, Policy, and Trust Vijaya Gadde, former Twitter special counsel and ex-FBI agent James Baker and former Twitter Trust and Safety chief Yoel Roth. Each apparently worked with the FBI to censor the Twitter Files.
“I think you guys got played,” Jordan said after Roth claimed it wasn’t his personal decision to take down the story. Jordan called him out on the alleged narrative and explained that it appears the FBI played Twitter and the company willingly fell in line. “I think you guys wanted it to be taken down. I think you guys got played by the FBI, and that’s the scary part.”
Jordan added that the “real takeaway” is that five days after Twitter took down the Hunter Biden story, “51 former intelligence officials send a letter and say the Hunter Biden story has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”
He further emphasized that the FBI apparently deceived Twitter. “The information operation was run on you guys and then by extension run on the American people. And that’s the concern,” Jordan said.
Kiss censored the fact that Roth told Jordan that it was others in the tech industry -- not law enforcement -- who raised warnings about possible misinformation about Hunter Biden, which corroborates an FBI agent who said the same thing.
When CNN pointed out that the FBI no actual role, Alex Christy lashed out in a Feb. 8 post:
House Republicans held their first hearings into Twitter’s handling of the New York Post’s 2020 story on Hunter Biden’s laptop on Wednesday and CNN’s Inside Politics didn’t see what the big deal was. Host John King sarcastically commented that it “sounds quite ominous, right?” while correspondent Donie O’Sullivan claimed “we haven’t seen the smoking gun of alleged collusion between the FBI and Big Tech.”
After introducing the hearing, King played a clip of Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer at the hearing declaring, “Immediately following the story’s publication, America witnessed a coordinated campaign by social media companies, mainstream news, and the intelligence communities to suppress and delegitimize the existence of Hunter Biden's laptop and its contents. That morning, Twitter and other social media companies took extraordinary steps to suppress that story.”
Christy went into spin mode, insisting that "While the FBI’s fingerprints may not be directly on this story, this is real life and smoking guns are not always readily available" and hyped how "over 50 'experts' claimed the Hunter laptop story was disinformation." in fact, as Kiss' earlier article more accurately stated, they said it had "all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation" -- a significant difference, and not an unreasonable conclusion especially given that the story was being pushed by pro-Trump outlets like the New York Post.
Gabriela Pariseau cherry-picked another Republican's questioning: "No one expected former Twitter special counsel and ex-FBI agent Jim baker to have all the answers, but when Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) questioned him on Twitter and “in-kind contributions,” it appeared Baker had none of the answers" -- while in reality, Donalds was asking irrelevant questions about whether Twitter was going to "quantify the amount of in-kind contributions associated with taking down the New York Post story." Pariseau also rehashed the MRC's pet conspiracy theory: "A 2020 MRC poll found that 45 percent of President Joe Biden’s voters weren’t fully aware of the New York Post story precisely because the media and Big Tech whitewashed it. Had Americans been fully aware of the scandal, 9.4 percent of Biden voters would have abandoned him, flipping all six of the swing states he won to former President Donald Trump, giving Trump a victorious 311 electoral votes." As we've documented, that poll was conducted by The Polling Company, which was founded by Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway, which raises questions about its accuracy and fairness.
Kevin Tober served up the usual complaint that non-right-wing outlets weren't advancing right-wing narratives -- and that fox News was -- in his own Feb. 8 post:
On Wednesday, the House Oversight Committee grilled former Twitter executives over their censorship and suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story, with two of the executives even admitting it was a mistake to have suppressed the story and suspended the New York Post for publishing and posting it on their platform. Predictably the three broadcast networks ignored the story.
Instead of reporting on it, the three broadcast networks spent time covering local weather reports (ABC), and a school bus crashing into a daycare center in Canada (CBS) & (NBC).
Meanwhile, Fox News Channel’s Special Report had the story and led with it at the top of the broadcast.
Tober went on to huff, "This is an important story with national political implications." But neither Fox News (at least in the report excerpt provided) nor the MRC reported on the biggest news to come out of the hearing: As president, Donald Trump pressured Twitter to delete a tweet by model Chrissy Teigen that called him a "pussy ass bitch."
As more people mocked the hearing for the partisan showboating that it was, the MRC got more incensed. Mark Finkelsteain whined in a Feb. 9 post:
This was gaslighting at its liberal-media worst. Trashing the Twitter hearing held yesterday by the GOP-led House Oversight committee, Morning Joe would have you believe that far from seeking to suppress Republicans and help Democrats, Twitter— 98.47% of whose donations went to Democrats in 2020 — actually bent over backward to help Donald Trump!
The most egregious example of Twitter's pro-Dem bias was its suppression, in the days leading up to the 2020 election, of the New York Post's reporting on Hunter Biden's laptop. But the panel literally laughed that off.
When Scarborough pointed out that Twitter never stopped Trump from spreading the lie that he murdered an intern when he served as a congressman, Finkelstein huffed that Section 230, which the MRC is trying to get rid of, "prevents him from suing Twitter for having published Trump's accusatory tweets. It doesn't stop Scarborough from suing Trump."
Alex Christy served up his own whine about people noting inconvenient Twitter-related facts:
Podcaster and NYU marketing Professor Scott Galloway joined Thursday’s CNN This Morning where he launched into a wild denunciation of the GOP-led hearing on Twitter, the FBI, and the Hunter Biden laptop story. Galloway labeled Republicans as “a conspiracy of dunces” and “idiots” while laughably claiming the fact that Twitter’s previous leadership was full of progressives is evidence they were biased in favor of Republicans.
[...]
Galloway then claimed that the First Amendment doesn’t apply to Twitter and “the only real targeted assertion that they really need to defend was that they coordinated with the FBI. They did not coordinate with the FBI.”
Even if that is true, it ignores the indirect pressure they put on Twitter prior to the New York Post’s Hunter Biden laptop story and other installments of the Twitter Files were the FBI did directly pressure Twitter to remove tweets.
Not quite done distributing hot takes, Galloway next claimed Twitter’s was actually biased in favor of conservatives:
If there’s any censoring going on, if there's any bias, it's towards letting the president organize an insurrection on their platform and that they weren't being as diligent as they should have been around censoring certain content. There is a certain both side-ism. I do believe the Twitter executives probably lean progressive and as a result they engage in both side-ism and let content and people on the right get away with things they wouldn't let people on the left, but it's a private company. They get to decide this.
Really? Twitters suspended The Babylon Bee for a joke about Rachel Levine and if Twitter was biased in favor of conservatives, then why did Galloway ask if Elon Musk’s commitment to free speech was because he wanted to “kill a puppy.”
Christy seemed oblivious to the fact that just a half-hour earlier, his colleague Finkelstein was defending Trump spreading lies that Scarborough committed murder as free speech.
Curtis Houck up a non-coverage update, noting that while ABC and NBC morning shows ignored the story, "CBS Mornings gave viewers two minutes and 35 seconds on the hearing that, while it barely scratched the surface, raised the bar" but also complained that it excerpted far-right Rep. Lauren Boebert's wacky rant: "A sitting president was banned. Who the hell do you think that you are?"
The MRC finally referenced the hearing discussing Trump's attempt at censorship in a Feb. 10 post by Christy, when Seth Meyers brought it up (and other inconvenient facts):
NBC Late Night was not happy with Republicans on Thursday for holding hearings into Twitter’s suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story, claiming “no one actually gives a [bleep]” and trying to pretend that Republicans are greatly upset Twitter took down tweets containing nude photographs of Hunter Biden.
After playing a clip of Rep. Byron Reynolds asking why certain tweets were removed and former head of Trust and Safety Yoel Roth replying that they were non-consensual nudes, Meyers sarcastically claimed, Excuse me, Mr. Roth, but the American people are demanding to see Hunter Biden's nudes.”
Christy didn't mention that the key reason Twitter posts about Hunter Biden were initially censored was because people like right-wing actor James Woods were posting nude pictures of him; nonconsensual nudes are prohibited on Twitter then and now. Christy grudgingly served up the big Trump reveal (and more whining about the nude p[hotos):
In an attempt to prove his point, Meyers declared, “Twitter did field requests from the Trump Administration, the actual government at the time, to remove content that Trump didn't like. In fact, it was reported yesterday by Rolling Stone that Twitter kept an entire database of Republican requests to censor posts and in the hearing, a Democratic member of the committee, Maxwell Frost, brought up one of those examples, which led to some explicit language being read into the Congressional record.”
After playing a clip of Frost speaking about a request from the Trump White House to remove a Chrissy Teigen tweet calling Trump a “pussy ass bitch,” Meyers joked about C-SPAN’s lack of a bleep button before declaring, “Once again, Joe Biden could not have asked for a more flattering contrast. Republicans are using their time in the House to throw tantrums about their Twitter accounts getting suspended and Hunter Biden's nudes.”
It is easy for Meyers to pick at the low-hanging fruit when he jokes about Reynolds’s inquiries into tweets containing nude photos, but Twitter really did suppress the New York Post story, something they never did for a Rolling Stone article about Trump or one of his children and conservative accounts were suspended for “hate speech,” or, more accurately, running afoul of new left-wing rules about gender.
The example of "hate speech" he linked to was about a Babylon Bee post sneering about an imaginary "Man of the Year" award for transgender Biden official Rachel Levine. Referring to Levine as she presents herself is harding a "new left-wing rule about gender" -- it's just common courtesy and n ot being a jerk. And Christy said nothing about the chilling effect Trump's demand on Twitter has on free speech.
Paetin Iselin rehashed all of these talking points, as well as the MRC's election conspiracy theory, in a Feb. 10 podcast, insisting that the story is still relevant. She didn't see any relevance in Trump demanding that Twitter censor Teigen, since she didn't mention that at all.
When a Chinese spy balloon was found to be flying over the U.S., CNSNews.com's instincts kicked in -- fearmonger about Israel and blame Biden. The first CNS article referencing the balloon, a Feb. 3 piece by Susan Jones, did the former:
As a Chinese spy balloon drifts over the United States, there are growing concerns down below about companies with ties to Communist China buying property and exerting influence all over the USA.
And it's not just American farmland: "Chinese-backed private equity are buying up boarding schools, private schools, and secondary education all over Florida, New York, California, from what we can tell," Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.), a member of the House Armed Services Committee, told "The Ingraham Angle" Thursday night.
CNS actually did what could be considered actual news articles on the balloon's progress:
When the balloon was ultimately shot down, CNS did an anonymously written article about it, followed by an article from Patrick Goodenough on China complaining about it as well as a timeline compiled by Jones. After that, it was Biden-bashing time with several articles featuring Republicans spouting off:
That talking point on how there were no Chiese spy balloons over the U.S. when Trump was president was an important one for CNS to promote -- but it didn't age well. When it was revealed that there were, in fact, Chinese spy balloons over the U.S. when Trump was president, A Feb. 7 article by Goodenough made sure to blame anyone but Trump:
The head of the U.S. military command responsible for countering airborne threats to North America said on Monday that it had not detected Chinese spy balloons that reportedly flew over the United States prior to last week’s incident.
Instead, those previous incursions had been discovered “after the fact” by the intelligence community using “additional means of [information] collection,” said Air Force Gen. Glen VanHerck, commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and U.S. Northern Command. He did not elaborate.
According to an official transcript of an off-camera briefing to Pentagon reporters, VanHerck attributed the fact that NORAD had not detected those earlier balloons to “a domain awareness gap.”
A senior defense official asserted at the weekend that, before last week’s incursion, Chinese surveillance balloons had flown briefly over the continental U.S. at least three times during the Trump administration, and at least once at the beginning of the Biden administration.
So important was it for CNS to not blame Trump for any of this that Susan Jones wrote a second version of this very same talking point a few hours later:
Gen. Glen VanHerck, the commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command and the U.S. Northern Command, told reporters on Monday the United States military failed to detect four earlier balloons sent either toward U.S. air space or into it.
"So those balloons, so every day as a NORAD commander it's my responsible to -- responsibility to detect threats to North America. I will tell you that we did not detect those threats.
"And that's a domain awareness gap that we have to figure out. But I don't want to go in further detail," VanHerck said at an off-camera briefing.
Oddly, Jones did not name Trump during her article, presumably to avoid having to admit these incidents did, in fact, ocur during his presidency.
An article by Melanie Arter did surprisingly give Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg space to explain that it would have been a bad idea to shoot down the balloon over populated U.S. land since the debris field it acreated when it was shot down off the South Carolina coast was seven miles long. But that was followed by an article from her featuring Ted Cruz (who employs the daughter of CNS editor Terry Jeffrey) giving backhanded praise to Biden for shooting the balloon down but having "allowed a full week for the Chinese to conduct spying operations over the United States" before doing so -- with no mention of the debris field it left.
This was followed by more attack articles, some featuring Democrats and some pushing more China-bashing:
The lone direct response to all of this that CNS allowed was an article by Jones quoting Biden saying that "any suggestion that he was derelict in his duty to shoot down a Chinese spy balloon before it traversed the United States is 'a bizarre notion.'"
'CNS opinion pieces -- which are ultimately not that different from its "news" coverage -- also attacked Biden over the balloon incident. James Carafano of the right-wing Heritage Foundation ranted in a Feb. 6 commentary:
What’s next? Could this happen again? Absolutely. I don’t think the Chinese are afraid of this administration.
The problem here, however, is much bigger than balloons. We need to understand what’s behind the balloons—what China is up to—and put a stop to it.
How concerning is this overall? This is a big problem because this is a big signal the Biden administration has no clue how to handle the China threat. It appears about as competent securing our airspace as it does securing our border.
A Feb. 8 column by Jeffrey obsessed over Chinese treatment of Muslim Uyghurs in the country, which he called a "genocide," trying to fold the balloon story into it:
President Biden's approach toward the government of Communist Chinese has changed — at least cosmetically — since that regime flew a spy balloon over the United States last week.
Secretary Blinken announced he was canceling his trip to China.
But will Biden now do anything about America's massive and mounting trade deficit with this regime that Biden's own administration says is engaging in genocide?
This is pretty much the only context in which CNS will ever talk about Muslims in a sympathetic way.
Compare And Contrast, Congressional Lapel Pin Edition Topic: Media Research Center
I thought y’all claimed you don’t celebrate abortion.
At the State of the Union address Tuesday night, at least two Democrat lawmakers wore gold pins on their blazers that said “ABORTION.” The “o” in the word was fashioned with a heart.
Congresswoman Madeleine Dean (D-Penn.) tweeted about her accessory in the afternoon, spewing falsehoods like “abortion is healthcare” and that it “saves lives.”
[...]
Other social justice warriors wore pins to interesting pins. Rep. Illhan Omar (D-Minn.) wore a black pin with the number “1870” on it to protest white cops killing black people. Some wore crayons to support federal investment in childcare (judging by who they were I wouldn't be surprised if those investments included pushing woke ideologies to kids). Of course there were also the blue and yellow pins to support Ukraine and one to support the March for Our Lives group that pushes for gun control. But the ab❤️rtion pin is a sick profession of love for infanticide.
YUCK!
This display was demonic.
-- Tierin-Rose Mandelburg, Feb. 8 Media Research Center post
In the wake of the tragic shooting at Michigan State University earlier this week, the unhinged gaggle of gals on ABC’s The View unleashed some truly crazy takes. Joy Behar was so unhinged that she seriously blamed Republicans wearing gun-shaped lapel pins for causing mass shootings. And of course, the so-called “conservative” on the stage couldn’t be bothered to truly defend the Second Amendment as she was too busy arbitrarily dictating who legitimately needed an AR-15.
[...]
[Behar] then drew attention to Georgia Republican Congressman Andrew Clyde, who owns a gun store. She was irate that he had the audacity to hand out AR-15-shaped lapel pins (which she called “automatic weapon lapel pins”) to his colleagues.
According to her unhinged mind, these pins were directly linked to mass shootings because they were “promoting more and more gun love, love of guns! Love of guns!” “Many of these people don't seem to understand that their actions are causing kids to die!” she shouted.
What was missing from the discussion was the truth that the shooter had a prior felony gun charge dismissed by a progressive prosecutor, which allowed him to remain on the street and commit the shooting. And that he used a handgun, not an AR-15. Then again, The View was not a place for truth and honest discussion.
What's Mychal Massie Melting Down Over Now? Topic: WorldNetDaily
I argue that our right to worship our God should not have been recognized as a constitutional right, because my right to worship and serve my God is not given to me by man. It's a Natural Right given to me by the God I serve. But, I digress; that's a discussion for another day.
The persecution we're going to face will be directed at Christendom and any church that refuses to recognize homosexuality and all of the assorted debaucherous behaviors associated with same. That specifically includes the mental disorder of transgenderism.
If individuals and churches are persecuted now for refusing to subscribe to the mental illness required to believe a man is a woman and vice versa, with or without the surgical butchering of one's body, what can be expected going forward as states elect more politicians who are openly hostile to our right to follow biblical foundations?
The Second Amendment is being nullified by "wokeness," at the hands of banks and lenders refusing to do business with those who make their living in related industries.
The pressure from behavioral blackmail to comply with deviant behavior that nearly 90 percent of the public disagrees with is real. Otherwise well-intentioned church leaders use the lexiconical assignations used to identify participants in the aberrant lifestyle(s) juxtaposed to identifying them according to their behavior. Homosexuality is not gay in my lexicon, and a person is the gender he or she was born.
The headline on the front page of a local newspaper proclaimed in bold letters: "We Can't Forget," as a testament to honoring Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday. I'd say the ship on that lie has long ago sailed.
Today, the people who value being a crayon color more than anything else in their life treat the mention of Dr. King with Pavlovian response, i.e., his name evokes blubbering references to a person's character over the color of his skin. The problem is that everything to them is about the color of their skin, character be damned.
These people are charades and haters fixated upon the myth that they're oppressed and persecuted, supposedly because of their color. That said, the old adage of there being some truth in every lie is applicable.
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These people have forgotten what Dr. King stood for. I'm sure there are people who will remind the public that Dr. King allegedly committed adultery. But, before we go to far down that path, let's not overlook the late President John Kennedy who was legendary for his promiscuity and Bill Clinton who remains an incorrigible philanderer, both of whom are revered by the public including both sides of the political aisle.
"Negro puh-leeze," was a jocular phrase used by young urbanites who considered themselves "colored," lightheartedly tossed at one another during my teenage years. After reading a summary of a Scientific American article by what purports itself to be Black Think Tank @ Duke University, I am forced to say: "Negro puh-leeze!"
The article I reference was written by Dr. Tracie Canada and titled, "Damar Hamlin's Collapse Highlights the Violence Black Men Experience in Football."
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It is time to stop sending these people (like Dr. Canada) to school to get dumb. The hebephrenic absurdity inherent in this baneful polemic cannot be overstated. This is another toxic, viscous substance used to lubricate the flim-flam machine invented and operated by pernicious neo-Leninists. These people would claim that lions and tigers were brought to America because the African slaves feared them back in the jungles, and thus, zoos were created to keep slaves from running away.
I'm talking about the people for whom the NFL played the so-called 'black national anthem.' A photo of Kari Lake, the political candidate from Arizona, seated with her legs crossed during the pathetic attempt by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to pucker up to reprobate haters of America has ignited a firestorm.
There's one national anthem of the United States of America, and it doesn't have a color. As was said referencing Kari Lake's position, it is about: "One Nation, Under God."
Of course, these loathsome creatures are beating a path to bureaus of agitprop that no longer pretend to be impartial. But, as usual, while pretending to be offended by what they claim was a blatant display of racism they showcase cultural amnesia.
Their selective degenerative memories are convenient ways to erase historical facts. Take for instance when the Obamas refused to pledge allegiance to the flag of the Untied States of America – the country he took an oath to protect and honor. A country he was completely comfortable allowing brave military men and women to be brutally slaughtered and raped by Muslims in foreign countries and America.
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The facts speak for themselves. What I have said isn't a pretty picture, but it most certainly isn't untrue. Add to my truth the fact that they curse Jesus Christ as the "white man's god" combined with their penchant for out-of-wedlock children, violence, and supporting Planned Parenthood by giving them money to murder their children, and they have exactly what their handlers want them to have – NOTHING.
I've concluded that the rage exhibited by these young men is directly attributable to the bitterness, rage and hatred their mothers act out and verbalize every day. I've seen, as have many of you, videos of these women behaving like animals in the jungles their so-called people supposedly come from.
Their mothers transmit rage and aggressive hatred because of the life they live. There are emotional and mental consequences for the over 21 million women for whom being a crayon color is more important than embracing modernity. Bitterness becomes a way of life when they see two or three of the daddies of their children riding around in a car, when they're forced to take a bus or subway. Living in squalor amidst ever-declining levels of crime takes a toll, especially if they're honest enough to realize they could have made something better out of their lives. Poor hygiene, squalid living conditions, nothing to look forward to that remotely resembles success generation after generation, engenders hopelessness and bitterness that metastasizes into rage that must be vented.
These young men and young boys grow up watching and hearing their mothers endless rage-filled outbursts. You don't just shrug off the rage these young men see and experience every day. The same goes for the young girls as they're growing up. Even in quasi-clean neighborhoods, the reality is the same when it comes to hopelessness of life.
We need not be students of Aristotelian mimesis to understand their behavior is the reality of their lives, which simply stated is "pain."
I further argue that the rage embodied and exhibited by these women is nothing short of demonic – and only a fool would argue to the contrary.
When a child, especially a male child, grows up without a father, he takes on the qualities and characteristics of the environment around him. This isn't rocket science. The young men model what they see and emote the disregard for life from abortion to disrespect for life to fathering children out of wedlock, continuing generational absence of propriety and responsible behavior.
Newsmax aggressively defended Donald Trump following the FBI raid on his Mar-a-Lago estate to retrive classified documents he stole (after months of refusal to cooperate on the matter). So when it was revealed that classified documents were found at properties used by Joe Biden after his vice presidency but before he became president, Newsmax unsurprisingly went all in on attacking him. Here are some of the articles it published just in the first week of the story:
It appears that the right-wing grift of hating LGBT people is not as lucrative as it one was. In a sign of desperation on at least one party, Peter LaBarbera, the founder of the anti-LGBT organization Americans For Truth About Homosexuality -- which has promoted 
Brian Stelter left CNN months ago, but the Media Research Center -- which 
Jack Cashill has a long history of being on 
Newsmax entered week 6 of self-proclaimed victimhood over getting dropped by DirecTV with 
When Pope Emeritus Benedict died at the end of December, CNSNews.com cranked up respectful tributes for a former pope whose views aligned with its own right-wing takes:
The Media Research Center doesn't like LGBT people, and they really don't like 
An anonymous CNSNews.com writer huffed in a Jan. 19 
The Media Research Center 
House Republicans gave the 
When a Chinese spy balloon was found to be flying over the U.S., CNSNews.com's instincts kicked in -- fearmonger about Israel and blame Biden. The first CNS article referencing the balloon, a Feb. 3 
I thought y’all claimed you don’t celebrate abortion. 
I argue that our right to worship our God should not have been recognized as a constitutional right, because my right to worship and serve my God is not given to me by man. It's a Natural Right given to me by the God I serve. But, I digress; that's a discussion for another day.
