Why Did The MRC Kill CNS So Abruptly?
Topic: CNSNews.com

The Media Research Center's shutdown of CNSNews.com was shocking but perhaps not surprising. The way it did it, though, may be even more shocking.

CNS was founded by the MRC in June 1998 -- meaning that it was killed two months short of its 25th anniversary. Most of the people working that at the time of its shutdown had been with theMRC for quite some time:

• Editor Terry Jeffrey joined in 2007
• Managing editor Michael W. Chapman joined in 2007
• Patrick Goodenough joined in 1999
• Susan Jones joined in 1999
• Melanie Arter joined in 2000
• Craig Bannister joined in 2005

The only other major on-staff contributor, commentary editor Georgiana Constantin-Parke, had only been with CNS a few months before shutdown. The only person of this group of this group who appears to remain at the MRC is Bannister, who's still cranking out blogs under a severely depleted CNS nameplate at MRCTV. 

That means the others have apparently been relieved of their MRC jobs after years of employment -- and relived in a very rude and abrupt manner. Whatever happened at CNS happened quickly; there was no evidence of a impending shutdownbeforehand, with stories continuing to be posted as usual through April 20, when the site ceased being updated. Then, after being in stasis for a few days, it was abruptly wiped away, with the domain being redirected to the CNS page on MRCTV. An alert box on MRCTV -- which took a few days to become visible to all readers -- promised to create "a new conservative media platform" through the merger of CNS and MRCTV, but it still looks like rant-filled MRCTV with an added CNS box of Bannister blog posts. Hardly a new "media platform," and it speaks to the haste in which the dismantling of CNS was done.

Longtime MRC employees were summarily dismissed and their work erased (though we found an archived version of the CNS website that the MRC has not publicized). They were not allowed to say goodbye or to celebrate the work they did. Heck, the MRC couldn't even be bothered to issue a press release to announce the shutdown and thank those longtime staffers for their years of work (or even to explain their fate).

That tells us that something more is at play. Did someone at CNS do something that drew legal scrutiny? Is the MRC hard up for cash and desperate for places to cut? (According to the 2022 annual report, 13% of the MRC's budget was spent on CNS.) Is there a link between this and all the staffers fleeing the MRC to work for Fox News? Inquiring minds want to know. (Have a tip? Let us know.)

Despite the shocking treatment CNS got in being shut down so abruptly, it isn't surprising. Online metrics suggest that CNS' website traffic has been dropping over the past few months, its audience was aging, and other right-wing websites draw much more traffic. Also, having longtime employees running it meant that they may have been stuck in their old ways. It seemed to be caught between two worlds: It wasn't as nimble and aggressive as other right-wing "news" operations, yet its fuddy-duddiness wasn't used to its advantage, staying content to merely peddle right-wing talking points (and Ted Cruz press releases to help out Jeffrey's daughter, a Cruz staffer) instead of doing any sort of reporting that would boost its credibility.

Perhaps the biggest piece of evidence that the death of CNS was not a surprise: nobody seems to miss it. There are no news stories in other media about the shutdown -- not even in other right-wing media. The only place to have noted the shutdown is ... here.

The MRC spent millions of dollars over the past 25 years building a "news" operation and a brand that ultimately went for naught and was blown up quickly in a day. Doesn't seem like the way one should treat something so expensive.

MRC Melts Down Over Pride Nights At Hockey Games, Defends Players Who Won't Take Part
Topic: Media Research Center

The sports bloggers at the Media Research Center not only hate LGBT people, they hate sports teams that refuse to hate them -- and the defend professional athletes who do. When an NHL player refused to wear a pride-themed warmup jersey, though, it was MRC executive Tim Graham who rushed to his defense in his Jan. 20 column:

On January 17, Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Ivan Provorov infuriated sports journalists when he refused to wear a rainbow jersey for warm-ups during “Pride Night,” citing his Russian Orthodox faith. “I respect everybody and I respect everybody’s choices. My choice is to stay true to myself and my religion.”

On the NHL Network, analyst E. J. Hradek trashed Provorov, who moved from Russia to Pennsylvania when he was 13, saying he should go back to Russia and fight in Ukraine. “Ivan Provorov can get on a plane any day he wants and go back to a place where he feels more comfortable, take less money and get on with his life that way if it's that problematic for him,” he said. “If it bothers you that much, there's always a chance to leave, go back to where you feel more comfortable — I understand there's a conflict of sorts going on over there, maybe get involved.”

For their part, the Flyers didn’t punish Provorov, but offered their usual corporate expressions of support for LGBTQ “pride.”

Graham responded by playing the religion card, as if that makes it OK to hate LGBT people:

Journalists should know that sometimes, religious people are trying to put themselves on the right side of God, not the so-called “right side of history.”

[...]

Here in America, we still have freedom of religion, even if our sports journalists no longer believe in it. Here in America, people still watch sports for the action, not for the political woke-stakes. Here in America, we can’t imagine why someone would want to live in the suffocating censorship that’s emerging in Canada. Let freedom ring.

Jeffrey Lord's column the next day quoted Graham's defense, then added a defense of his own with an assist from Fox News:

Got that? Hockey star (and Russian) Ivan Provorov had the nerve - the nerve!- to stand up for his religious beliefs, making it plain that “I respect everybody and I respect everybody’s choices. My choice is to stay true to myself and my religion.”

And with that the NHL Network’s analyst E. J. Hradek freaks out.

[...]

Notably, there was also this from Fox News: Ivan Provorov jerseys selling out online after media condemned him for not wearing Pride-themed jersey

Imagine that. Hockey fans who rebel against being forced to be woke.

One can only wonder what Hradek would say if Provorov were a Muslim, and said he wouldn’t wear the “gay pride” jersey because it would violate his Islamic faith. One suspects the cat would suddenly have Hradek’s tongue.

Sports blogger John Simmons raged at a minor-league hockey team's pride night in a Feb. 17 post:

Pride nights are not just a major occurrence on the schedules of NHL teams. Minor league hockey clubs are going to great lengths to host LGBT-themed events as well.

The Manitoba Moose - the American Hockey League (AHL) affiliate of the Winnipeg Jets since 2015 - announced that it will host a Pride Night on Saturday that will serve as a fundraiser for Rainbow Resource Centre.

"The 2022 Pride Game aims to create a safe and welcoming atmosphere where all fans feel welcome regardless of their ethnicity, race, religion, gender identity or sexual orientation,” a press release from the team announced. So by implication, the rest of the Moose games are lawless, horrific scenarios of tribal bloodletting -- "The Lord of the Flies" with beer and donuts.

But on Pride night, the fans put away their sharpened sticks and beat their scalping knives into rainbows. “This game showcases that hockey holds no biases and truly is a game for everyone.”

[...]

Not only did a hockey team come up with a way to legitimize the derangement of people who think their “spirit identity is fluid,” it now presumes to lecture fans on how to be more inclusive with their words. Come for the hockey, stay for the authoritarian speech moderation in the name of “inclusivity.”

Am I the only one that wishes for the days when we could watch sporting events at all levels without wondering if we were going to get the LGBT agenda shoved down our throats?

Simmons cheered in a March 8 post when an entire NHL team declined to wear pride-themed warmup jerseys:

The Minnesota Wild hosted the Calgary Flames last night and lost 1-0 in a shootout. However, it was what happened before the game that was upsetting - even disgusting - to people from all sorts of fanbases.

Last night was supposed to be Minnesota’s “Pride Night,” but just before warmups, the Wild opted to not wear their pride-themed pre-game jerseys. Some players still had rainbow tape on their sticks, but that’s all the support the LGBT agenda got from star forward Kirill Kaprizov and his teammates.

The Wild released a statement saying they still supported the LGBT community despite the choice to not got through with wearing the jerseys. But If you’ve watched how fans reacted to similar decisions by Philadelphia Flyers defenseman Ivan Provorov and the New York Rangers, you can probably guess that the LGBT zealots and their lefty supporters said all sorts of hateful things about Minnesota as an organization, and its players.

[...]

It's sad. The LGBT agenda inevitably corrupts those who buy into it. A large contingent of American citizens have thoughtlessly supported an agenda that makes them hateful, intolerant, and bent on shaming those who disagree with them.

What the Wild did was courageous; if they don’t agree with the LGBT lifestyle, they shouldn’t be expected to wear pride jerseys. But the reactions of the people who gnashed their teeth at these hockey players for expressing their views serves as a sobering reminder of what political LGBT is really about, and a warning to never embrace it.

Simmons would never describe being a homophobic right-winger as being a "lifestyle."

Simmons cheered another non-participating hockey player in a March 20 post:

Courage is contagious, and a slew of NHL players and teams are providing courage for millions of normal Americans who might be afraid to take a stand against the LGBT agenda.

The San Jose Sharks hosted a pride night on Saturday before playing host to the New York Islanders. The team used its Twitter account to publish facts about the LGBT community instead of providing updates about the game (which San Jose lost, 4-1), and all players wore pride-themed warmup jerseys.

All players, except James Reimer, that is.

The Sharks goaltender chose to abstain from this PR stunt and instead provided a statement on how his religious beliefs led him to make this choice. San Jose, to its credit, also posted Reimer’s response on Twitter, which may have dialed down the force of backlash he would inevitably get from the progressive media.

[...]

What’s happening is more and more athletes in the NHL are recognizing that they do not have to accept the agenda that people like Slone evidently support. They are gaining enough courage to stand against the toxicity of the LGBT movement and inspiring others to do the same.

Simmons didn't explain what is supposedly "toxic" about being LGBT or what is supposedly courageous about hating LGBT people.

Jay Maxson spent a March 23 post raging at minor-league hockey player Luke Prokop for criticizing players who refuse to take part:

Prokop scolded the dissidents for refusing to focus on the NHL’s initiative to grow advocacy for the rainbow cause. Gee, I mistakenly thought the cause was pursuing the Stanley Cup. My bad.

"Everyone is entitled to their own set of beliefs but I think it's important to recognize the difference between endorsing a community and respecting individuals within it," Prokop whined.

Well trained in the LGBTQABCD mantra, Prokop said he "strongly" believes that the NHL can become "an environment where every player feels comfortable bringing their authentic selves to the game" if teams and players can "prioritize diversity and inclusion."

That’s all so much nonsense distracting hockey teams and players from pursuit of the Stanley Cup. Let sports be sports … without the rainbow shenanigans. Hockey rinks, football and baseball fields are not the place for people to come out of the closet and affirm their true selves.

It appears Maxson is well trained in homophobic mantras.

When reports surfaced that the NHL may get away from pride nights, Maxson praised the idea in a March 30 post:

At long last, one professional sports league gets it. The National Hockey League is thinking about discontinuing pride night events, due to the increasing number of team and individual opt-outs. 

Commissioner Gary Bettman (appearing in photo) indicated the NHL may reevaluate the future of taking a knee to LGBTQABCD pressure groups and team sponsorship of pride events. 

"This is the first time we've experienced that, and I think it's something that we're going to have to evaluate in the offseason," Bettman said. "This is one issue where players, for a variety of reasons, may not feel comfortable wearing the uniform as a form of endorsement." 

The NHL was the last of the four major North American leagues to start schmoozing the alphabet mob. Dropping pride night would be unthinkable for the woke NBA, NFL and Major League Baseball.

Hockey players and three teams this season said “no thanks” to helping spread pride propaganda. For some, it was a matter of upholding their religious beliefs. For Russian players, it was due to their nation’s refusal to celebrate rainbow nonsense and the fear that family members back home could be punished by the government for their decision to wear pride-themed uniforms.

Like Simmons, Maxson thinks that hating LGBT people deserves some sort of badge of courage:

The commissioner bravely defended those who resisted the LGBTQABCD mob, which has canceled people and threatened the careers of resisters. 

Left of center media do not share that respect. Sports Illustrated and The Athletic trashed the Rangers, accused them of "bungling" pride night and warned that any "retreat on Pride Night" would send a "somber message to younger, closeted players." 

By standing firmly on their beliefs, the NHL players and teams proved that courageous stands can achieve positive results, namely the right to live out one’s faith and preserve freedom of conscience. Such values are in short supply in these troubling times.

The MRC, however, does not believe that LGBT people have any rights or should have "freedom of conscience."

CNS Commentaries Also Pushed Bogus Narrative Blaming ESG Policies For Bank Collapse
Topic: CNSNews.com

CNSNews.com's commentary side joined its "news" side in pushing the bogus right-wing narrative that caring about environmental, social and governmental issues is the reason Silicon Valley Bank failed in March. A March 13 commentary by Diana Furchtgott-Roth of the right-wing Heritage Foundation acknowledged some management issues at the bank but also tried to blame ESG:

While neglecting critical risk management, the bank’s 2023 proxy statement records 40 mentions of the environmental, social, and governance—or ESG—movement currently in vogue at many corporations and financial institutions.

In a “key change,” the board expanded the Governance and Corporate Responsibility Committee’s oversight role in ESG.

The committee’s oversight includes, according to the proxy statement, “environmental sustainability, climate change, the Company’s external diversity, equity and inclusion (“DEI”) initiatives, Board diversity, as well as our philanthropic strategy and advocacy activities.”

This shows a misplaced sense of priorities. The four members of the Governance and Corporate Responsibility Committee (including Garen Staglin, who operates a Napa Valley winery) were among the six members of the Risk Committee. In retrospect, more time devoted to the Risk Committee would have been advisable.

A March 20 commentary by Hans Bader actually started by trying to reflexively blame President Biden, claiming that his "massive government spending caused inflation ... led to the collapse of a big bank, by shrinking the value of its long-term loans and bonds," then criticized "woke San Francisco Fed Chief Mary Daly" for allegedly focusing too much on ESG stuff and attacked bank officials for the same thing:

The head of financial risk management at Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) UK spent the months leading up to the shocking bank collapse launching and leading LGBTQ campaigns for the company. Jay Ersapah, the head of financial risk management, organized a month-long pride campaign, a space for employees to share their coming out stories, and co-chaired the European LGBTQ Employee Resource Group, as the bank was at the brink of collapse.

Bader offered no direct evidence that any ESG-related action is directly responsible for the bank's collapse, but he did complain that "Bank officials gave money to Democratic politicians."

MRC Can't Stop Whining About NewsGuard
Topic: Media Research Center

The Media Research Center's latest loud and lame attack against website-ratings service NewsGuard for committing the sin of pointing out how unreliable right-wing media is came in a form of a particularly lame March 20 gotcha post by Catherine Salgado and Gabriela Pariseau:

Leftist ratings firm NewsGuard claimed that it’s not federally funded after journalists accused the organization of receiving government money at the recent Twitter Files hearing. But NewsGuard lists the Department of Defense and State Department as Partners and received a substantial Department of Defense “grant” in 2021.

NewsGuard’s co-CEO Gordon Crovitz claimed in the wake of the recent Twitter Files Congressional hearing that the leftist ratings firm is “not a non-profit funded by government grants,” according to an email screenshot tweeted March 10 by Washington Examiner Investigative Reporter Gabe Kaminsky.” But a payout of nearly $750,000 from the Department of Defense (DoD), which NewsGuard itself previously called a “grant,” seems to indicate otherwise. NewsGuard also lists DoD and the State Department as “partners” on its website.

MRC Free Speech America reached out to NewsGuard General Manager Matt Skibinski about the DoD funding it had received. Skibinski did not deny the government contract, and then doubled down on the co-CEO’s claim that NewsGuard is “not” government funded. 

“That’s like saying the Wuhan laboratory wasn’t government funded,” said MRC President Brent Bozell. “They were just providing a service for the government.”

Salgado and Pariseau are trying to exploit imprecise wording to attack NewsGuard, seizing on a clearly mistaken description of the DoD contract as a "grant" to claim that NewsGuard is lying. They even trotted out an old trick it has previously used in attacking Planned Parenthood for taking federal money for non-abortion-related services, the "fungible" canard:

MRC Free Speech America & MRC Business Vice President Dan Schneider said, “All money is fungible. Whether it’s a contract or a grant, NewsGuard still received funds from the federal government and has exhibited an obvious leftist bias.”

Salgado and Pariseau concluded by regurgitating the MRC's usual whining that NewsGuard rated right-wing outlets lower than "left-leaning" ones for accuracy without providing any evidence that the ratings are in any way wrong.

NEW ARTICLE: Joel Hirschhorn Can't Stop Misinforming
Topic: WorldNetDaily
Despite the occasional visit to reality, the WorldNetDaily columnist continues to baselessly fearmonger about COVID vaccines. Read more >>

MRC Cheers Musk's Arbitrary Re-Labeling Of NPR's Twitter Account
Topic: Media Research Center

When last we checked, the Media Research Center was getting irritated with Elon Musk's Twitter for doing the thing that the MRC's year of Musk-fluffing was designed to do: keep it and its fellow right-wingers from being held accountable for posting offensive content. Musk knew he had to distract from that growing critical narrative, and it was with what has usually worked: tossing out right-wing red meat. Joseph Vazquez eagerly took Musk's bait for an April 5 post under the hateful headline "GET WRECKED":

Elon Musk’s Twitter finally confirmed what the Media Research Center has been saying for years: National Public Radio is nothing but state propaganda.

Twitter slapped a “state-affiliated media” label on NPR’s account. Musk responded to conservative personality Benny Johnson celebrating that Twitter tore off NPR’s fake veneer of objective journalism.  “Seems accurate,” Musk tweeted. MRC Free Speech America Vice President Dan Schneider took a blowtorch to NPR following the news.

“NPR is not just state media. It is a mouthpiece of the Deep State,” he said. “It has worked to deceive American taxpayers about its real role, but it’s so obvious that it really is just a state-sponsored tool for the left to silence half of Americans and create propaganda for the other half.”

During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Democrats inserted $75 million in the coronavirus stimulus bill earmarked for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to maintain NPR and PBS stations. This was on top of the $465 million already granted to the CPB (itself an increase of $20 million in annual funding). NPR even proclaimed on its website how “[f]ederal funding is essential to public radio's service to the American public and its continuation is critical for both stations and program producers, including NPR.”

One look at how NPR historically covered the COVID-19 pandemic illustrates why it’s a rubber-stamp for false government and deep state narratives.

The MRC raged hard at that money going to public broadcasting, hyperbolically suggesting that this relatively tiny amount in a $2 trillion bill was killing people (and, by extention, arguing that public broadcasting employeees should die instead). Of course, Vazquez did not mention that his employer got its own share of this largesse, receiving as much as $2 million in pandemic relief money.

Given that Vazquez is also the MRC's designated George Soros-hater, it's unsurprising that he took a tangent into Soros derangement:

But NPR doesn’t just receive tax funding. It is also financed by some of the most notorious liberal billionaire activists in American politics, including Bill Gates and George Soros. MRC Business recently released a study on leftist billionaire Soros and his enormous influence over world media, including NPR. 

Soros funds NPR directly, meaning that a Soros-funded organization also happens to simultaneously be a prominent news outlet. His direct funding of NPR gives him influence over NPR’s entire legion of at least 1,800 journalists and 400 reporters and editors in over 200 member stations across the country. The leftist content that NPR has been spewing as a result of both its state-funding and iberal billionaire funding has been nothing short of nutty.

Vazquez didn't mention which "nutty" billionaires (cough*Mercer*cough) have influence over his own content.

When NPR pointed out that Musk's new label violated Twitter's own definition of "state-affiliated media" and that the government does not dictate NPR's content, Vazquez raged in an update: "if a news outlet is getting funding from the government, it's not 'free press.'"

The next day, Curtis Houck cheered that a former Fox News personality (though not identified as such) reinforced Musk's anti-NPR narrative:

Wednesday night on NewsNation, On Balance host Leland Vittert battled woefully unprepared liberal strategi Tuesday night with a “US state-affiliated media” label with Vittert noting it does, in fact, derive part of its budget from the U.S. government. 

Shroff hilariously denounced the label, but unintentionally proved the label’s accuracy by proclaiming countries are better off with a state-run outlet to compete against everyone else.

When Musk adjusted his label on NPR to make it "government funded media," Luis Cornelio lamented it as a defeat in an April 10 post:

Twitter owner Elon Musk appeared to cave to leftist pressure and switched  NPR’s “state-affiliated media” account label for the more euphemistic “government funded media.”

The move came days after NPR and left-wing allies decried Musk’s designation of NPR’s Twitter account as “state-affiliated,” a label used for outlets that vomit government-run propaganda. While NPR is not directly run by the government, the media outlet has routinely positioned itself as a mouthpiece for leftist causes and Democratic politicians, including the Biden administration.

[...]

“The label change is little more than a distinction without a difference,” said MRC Free Speech America & MRC Business Director Michael Morris. “One thing remains clear: NPR does the bidding of the left, including protecting leftist policy prescriptions and federal politicians, many of whom it relies on to receive grant money.”

Cornelio repeated earlier whining that "Democrats funneled $75 million through the coronavirus stimulus bill in 2020 to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for the purpose of supporting NPR and PBS stations" without disclosing that the MRC also got government money or that Donald Trump, a Republican, signed off on all that funding.

CNS Continued Pushing Anti-ESG Narratives Before Its Demise
Topic: CNSNews.com

Before its demise, CNSNews.com was heavily pushing right-wing-mandated narratives against investing that take environmental, social and governmental issues into consideration, and it continued to do so pretty much until the end. Craig Bannister, CNS' chief ESG-basher, attacked a bank that wasn't even in the United States in a March 9 article:

A “Climate Modifier” bonus for top executives is among the tactics being used to advance the Royal Bank of Canada’s (RBC) environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals, the bank revealed Monday, announcing the publication of its 2022 Climate Report and ESG Performance Report.

“These reports reflect the importance that RBC places on identifying, understanding and responding to the ESG topics that matter most to our stakeholders and our business,” RBC explains in its press release.

[...]

The Royal Bank of Canada isn't alone in its efforts to mix business with politics in an effort to advance ESG ideology.

In February, a global asset management corporation handling total portfolio funds in excess of nine hundred billion dollars began providing financial incentives to its employees to make investment decisions that subordinate profit maximization to the advancement of environmental, social and governance goals.

Bannister hyped a claim that ESG isn't as profitable as regular investing in a March 20 article:

While powerful asset managers, such as BlackRock, are pressuring companies to cater to liberal environmental, social and governance (ESG) agendas, a new analysis finds that companies that aren’t influenced by politics outperform those that are.

In a Wall Street Journal commentary, “Is ESG Profitable? The Numbers Don’t Lie,” veteran investment industry experts Mike Edleson and Andy Puzder present the findings of their study of the effect of ESG politics on company fortunes.

Bannister ignored other research showing that companies that embrace ESG principles have seen higher revenues, stronger growth of profits and greater access to finance.

The next day, Bannister gave Vivek Ramaswamy -- who was previously given a platform by CNS to falsely blame the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank on ESG policies and whose presidential ambitions have been touted by CNS' Media Research Center parent -- to rage some more against ESG:

“The issue with the ESG movement – it stands for environmental, social and governance factors – it’s designed to sound boring for a reason,” Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy warns.

The reason the ESG movement doesn’t want Americans to take an interest in it is that it seeks “to accomplish through the back door what government could not get done through the front door using the Constitution,” the biotech entrepreneur explains in a video posted to his Twitter page.

A March 28 article by Bannister hyped a claim about "the apparent bubble-burst of the environmental, social and governance (ESG) investment market" made by a "financial and economics Author" writing at the right-wing blog Liberty Nation.On April 11, Bannister touted fossil-fuel interests (which CNS loved to do) as allegedly doing well despite not being embraced under ESG:

Despite being shunned by fund managers trying to advance liberal ESG (environmental, social and governance) ideology, coal industry stocks have been outperforming both the overall market and those of other forms of energy, a new analysis reveals.

“The Zacks Coal industry stocks staged a rebound in 2022 courtesy of global demand and surging natural gas prices,” Yahoo! Finance reports in an April 6 article analyzing the performance of an 11-stock group of companies engaged in the discovery and mining of coal.

Bannister spent an April 14 article hyping a group pushing anti-ESG talklinjg points:

A list of ways Americans can protect themselves from the financial harm inflicted by Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) ideology is being provided by a website warning of the little-known dangers of the ESG movement.

“ESG is a highly subjective political score infiltrating all walks of life forcing progressive policies on everyday Americans resulting in higher prices at the pump and at the store,” cautions State Financial Officers Foundation (SFOF) CEO Derek Kreifels, whose group sponsors the Our Money, Our Values website.

Bannister didn't disclose that the SFOF is a Republican group that's simply peddling partisan narrative -- perhaps because that's what Bannister was doing as well.

MRC's Graham Still Going On About Supposedly Rude Reporters During The Trump Years
Topic: Media Research Center

It seems Media Research Center executive Tim Graham still can't stop whining about how mean some White House reporters supposedly were during the Trump years. An anonyously written March 28 post hyped Graham appearing on Fox Business to whine about this:

NewsBusters Executive Editor Tim Graham appeared on the Fox Business show Varney & Co. on Tuesday morning to discuss his nationally syndicated column on reporters who have screamed in the White House briefing room. Host Stuart Varney showed some very polite questions from correspondents in the Biden White House briefing room. 

Varney asked if there were any reporters who were "willing to take on Biden, given all this failures?" Graham replied "I'd have to start with the reporters from Fox and Fox Business, you know?" So there's Steve Doocy and Jacqui Heinrich from Fox, as well as Ed Lawrence and Hillary Vaughn from Fox Business. He noted they challenge Biden and press aides politely, no screaming.

Varney asked if there was anyone else. "There are a few others," he said. There's Philip Wegmann at Real Clear Politics, James Rosen of Newsmax, and Blake Burman of NewsNation.

Strangely, niether Graham nor Varney brought up the reason for this renewed whinefest, even though it was in the column Graham was promoting: Simon Ateba, who actually did to White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre what Graham claims reporters did during the Trump years. Instead, the usual names were brought up, though the anonymous writer actually dinged his boss for getting a fact wrong:

Varney then asked if April Ryan "took a job" on TV after her antics. Graham noted she became a CNN analyst. (He also said Jim Acosta became a CNN analyst, but that was an oops -- Acosta was their screaming CNN reporter. We'll guess he meant [Brian] Karem, the Playboy writer, as he mentioned in his column.) 

Needless to say, neither Graham nor Varney cited any specific examples of this supposed bad behavior by these reporters, let alone any explanation of how they purportedly equaled Ateba's behavior.

Columnist At Hate-Filled WND Unironically Complains About (Non-Right-Wing) Hate
Topic: WorldNetDaily

Michael Master wrote in his March 14 WorldNetDaily column:

It is my observation that some people love to hate. Need to hate. Want to hate. They are locked into those teenage years of hatred. Hate their parents. Hate their siblings. Hate their classmates. Hate their country. Hate their gender. Hate the other gender. Hate life. Hate getting up in the morning (especially without caffeine from Starbucks). Hate their lots in life. Hate those that have better lives than theirs.

They look for reasons and targets to justify their hatred.

Picture a society like the teenage girl in Beetlejuice that stays that way as adults… never grows up… happy hating. Trapped. Constantly blaming others for their own failures. How many adults are trapped in their hatreds like that?

Has Master forgotten who publishes his column? WND is dripping with hatred toward anyone who's not as far-right as it is. If you're a Democrat, LGBT or, worse, both, WND hates you.

But just as he doesn't see right-wing groupthink, Master doesn't see right-wing hate. As far as he's concerned (for the purposes of his fantastical narrative, anyway), the only haters are on the left:

Democrats/liberals/Marxists figured out how to tap that need, want, desire to hate. They provided the reasons and targets. Critical Race Theory. Jan 6. Russia hoax. WOKE. Hate Reagan. Hate W Bush. Hate Trump. Hate FOX. Hate conservatives. Hate Christianity. Hate diversity of thought. Hate white men.

Hatred is addictive. A drug. Based on envy, coveting. The more that you hate, the more that you need to hate, the more that can be found to justify even more hatred.

So Democrats/liberals/Marxists organized hate teams, envy teams. BLM. Antifa. Climate activists. Feminists. Transgenders. Secularists. Abortion protectors. Socialists. Cancel culture. LBGTQ. SEIU. NEA. The UN. All of them designed to covet something, to hate someone.

Hatred is a great motivator that is stifling America. It taints vision. Taints vision to the point that truth is stifled. Fake news is accepted. Cheating is justified. Lies are accepted. Election fraud is ignored. The glass is always half empty, never half full. And “the end justifies the means” is the only rule that matters (Alinsky).

Again, Master appears to have never read the website that publishes him -- WND not only accepts fake news, it happily publishes fake news, including the lie that there was election fraud.

What's Master's solution to all this hate that mysteriously appears on only one side of the political ledger? Force people to think like he does, apparently:

o you want to help make America great again? Well, a sure way to help make America great again is to stop rewarding hatred. Help Americans grow up into adults. Make people responsible for their own actions.

• No deficits (is our federal government listening?).
• No forgiveness for student loans.
• No more affirmative action.
• No more soft on crime.
• No one exempt from paying income taxes (not the filthy rich and not the dirt poor).
• No one exempt from serving the country (a draft where everyone must serve in some way for 18 months at 18 years old).
• No more violations to our Bill of Rights.
• No more violations to our Constitution.
• No more appeasing hatred.

And then reward merit, merit, merit. Teach our children that if you want more, then produce more, produce what others want to buy from you, do what others are willing to pay you to do, and be some form of positive added value. Support our Constitution, Capitalism, and Christianity.

Master seems to have forgotten that WND has failed as a capitalist endeavor -- and, thus, as a machine of hatred -- and is now subsisting on donations.

MRC Falsely Frames Tenn. Capitol Anti-Gun Protest As A 'Violent Insurrection'
Topic: Media Research Center

As if attacking the shooter's alleged transgender identity wasn't enough, the Media Research Center found another reason to distract from the gun massacre in Nashville in which six people were killed. When protesters made a ruckus at the Tennessee Capitol by demanding state legislators do something abut gun violence, Nicholas Fondacaro spent a March 30 post trying to maliciously portray it as being as violent as the Capitol riot, even calling it an "insurrection":

There was more leftist violence in America on Thursday as a mob of over 1,000 people descended on the Tennessee State Capitol. What started as just a protest to abolish gun rights quickly turned into a scuffle. Online videos showed people fighting with police officers as they tried to break into the legislative chamber, eventually succeeding. What some online were calling a violent insurrection went unreported on MSNBC, which was outside the building. Instead, they claimed it was just “people singing songs.”

 Appearing on MSNBC’s Chris Jansing Reports, correspondent Lindsey Reiser described the crowd as “hundreds of people showed up today. I mean, probably about 1,500, maybe even upwards of that showing up. A lot of young people, a lot of young students, skipping school. A lot of parents bringing their young kids here as well.”

Note that Fondacaro's source for all this supposed violence is "some online." In reality, nobody was injured or arrested at the Nashville protest and were not trying to overthrow the government, as Fondacaro's right-wing buddies were trying to do on Jan. 6, 2021.

Nevertheless, Kevin Tober hyped the purported violence by a "mob" of "the left" in "what some described as a violent insurrection" in another post that day:

For the second time this week, the left turned violent Thursday when a mob of over 1,000 gun control activists stormed the Tennessee State Capitol in what some described as a violent insurrection. Much like their cable news colleagues from earlier in the day, the three evening news broadcasts either ignored or downplayed the violent riots at the Tennessee State Capitol. While the news of the indictment of former President Donald Trump soaked up much of the oxygen in the news cycle late Thursday, the three networks had plenty of time to cover the Tennessee mobs.  

ABC’s World News Tonight and NBC Nightly News completely ignored the riots at the Tennessee Capitol in favor of stories on a snowboarder in Washington state being rescued after getting buried in the snow (ABC), and a sitdown interview with a disgruntled former Fox News producer to smear her former employer (NBC). 

While CBS Evening News did cover the story, it was only briefly and when the footage of the leftist rioters clashing with capitol police was aired, CBS downplayed the violence.

Um, because there was no actual violence?

After Republican state legislators prepared to retaliate against three Democratic representatives who took part in the (non-violent) demonstration, Alex Christy complained in an April 6 post that the protesting legislators were getting support -- and like his co-workers, tried to make the protest sound worse than the Capitol riot:

As the Tennessee House of Representatives prepared to vote on Thursday to expel three Democratic lawmakers for disrupting proceedings by leading demonstrators with megaphones inside the House chamber, CNN Inside Politics host John King came running to their defense, claiming that “They were trying to get a discussion.” At the same time, chief national affairs correspondent Jeff Zeleny argued “no one cares about the rules of the Tennessee House.”

King began the panel discussion by suggesting expelling the lawmakers is excessive, “Now again, they broke the rules in speaking up. The question is okay, six people were shot and killed in your community. Emotions are raw. Do you expel them for speaking up?”

[...]

Sure, the lawmakers weren’t trying to get the governor out of office, but they literally did seize control of the chamber to the point where [Speaker Cameron] Sexton had to call for a recess. Furthermore, no GOP lawmaker stood on the House floor with a megaphone during January 6.

Tober returned to clutch his pearls about "decorum" in a post later that day:

On Thursday afternoon, the Tennessee legislature voted to oust three Democrat [sic] members of the state’s House of Representatives due to their instigation of an insurrection earlier in the week over the left’s demand that the legislative body passes a gun control bill. Later Thursday evening, the big three evening newscasts were clearly angry that Republicans would dare enforce decorum and punish the three Democrats for acting like children rather than serious lawmakers. 

Filling in for David Muir on ABC, Linsey Davis opened World News Tonight by disapprovingly reporting on the “dramatic fallout after that mass shooting at Covenant School in Nashville.” Davis bemoaned that “Tennessee lawmakers are voting to expel three Democrats from the state legislature after they protested for stricter gun control on the floor of that chamber.”

[...]

All three networks huffed over the Tennessee Republican legislature holding three Democrats accountable for attempting to incite an insurrection, yet they had no problem with then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) removing all of Kevin McCarthy's (R-CA) Republicans from her sham January 6 committee.

Tober is wrong -- Pelosi did not "remove" all of McCarthy's Republicans from the January 6 committee (which was very real and not a "sham"). Pelosi rejected two of the five Republicans McCarthy had named to the committee because they were pro-riot (we don't recall anyone from Al Qaeda being appointed to the 9/11 Commission, after all), and McCarthy pitched a hissy fit and withdrew all his nominees rather than work with Pelosi to seat Republicans both could agree on.

Actually, only two of the three Tennessee legislators targeted for removal were actually removed -- the two black ones, in fact; the third one, who is white, was ultimately not removed. When folks pointed out the optics of that, Christy complained in an April 7 post:

The Thursday edition of The 11th Hour came unhinged as Tennessee Lookout editor-in-chief Holly McCall responded to the expulsion of two Tennessee Democrats from the state House by asking if the state ever left it’s KKK past, declared the state to lead the way in “backwards and discriminatory legislation” and wondered if Gov. Bill Lee even cares about his own daughter and friends.

A third Democrat, Gloria Johnson, was not expelled and host Stephanie Ruhle was confident she knew why, “Let's lay it out there, three state representatives, all protested hand-in-hand together - two were black men, one was a white woman. Did she do anything different based on your reporting that would keep her in her position and keep these men out?”

[...]

Addressing expelled-Rep. Justin Jones, [former Repubican chairman Michael] Steele tried to wax poetic, “every last one of those bastards who voted you out will rue that moment… it makes a mockery of the very Constitution that you swore to uphold as a representative, so you continue to do you.”

No, using a bullhorn to shut down legislative proceedings makes a mockery of that oath. Not deterred, however, Steele continued, “Today, folks, what we saw was Tennessee telling two young African-American men to not get so uppity.”

This is an argument to also expel Johnson, not to not expel Jones and Justin Pearson. In any case, Johnson was likely spared because she was the least disruptive of the trio.

Mark Finkelstein similarly complained:

Right on, Don! Just because someone blatantly flouts the House rules, and uses a bullhorn to incite the crowd inside the Tennessee Capitol, it doesn't mean he's being "rude or boisterous" or "whatever."  He's just expressing himself! And if you don't understand how "we" express ourselves, you're a racist!

That was part of Don Lemon's take on the expulsion of two black members of the Tennessee House, during Friday's CNN This Morning. And of course, Lemon concluded that it was due to "racism."

Lemon's spiel came after a clip was played of Kaitlan Collins' interview with the chairman of the Tennessee House GOP caucus, Jeremy Faison. He gave some interesting background: that this was far from the first episode of this nature. The representatives who were expelled had a history of disrupting proceedings on the floor as well as in committee meetings.

Finkelstein huffed that the ousted legislators were being turned into martyrs with a platform (but didn't blame the Republican legislators who made that possible: "But being expelled could well turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to the two men. Overnight, they went from being obscure state representatives to hero status for a swath of Americans. Not to mention the liberal media. Witness the fact that one of the reps was treated to an interview on Friday's show for a second day running."

Meanwhile, Fondacaro was still pushing the bogus "violent insurrection" narrative:

A little over a week and a half after a leftist trans terrorist shot up a Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee, CBS Mornings spent part of their Friday newscast telling Republicans in the state that they could be the target of more leftist violence. And according to CBS Prime Time host John Dickerson, the violence would be caused by Republican state legislators voting to expel Democrats, who led a violent insurrection at the state Capitol and disrupted official proceedings on the floor of the House.

“Well, politics needs some cartilage. It needs some give. It can't be totally brittle,” Dickerson described the situation. He went on the warn that Republicans supposedly took a “maximalist” approach and left “no give” for Democrats. “[T]here are a series of steps to punish. But when you go to the maximalist, when you kick them out, that's brittle. There's no give,” he huffed.

Dickerson then suggested that Republicans should not be surprised if their actions led to Democrats getting violent:

[...]

Earlier in the newscast, they treated the legal vote to remove the Democrats like a travesty of justice and tried to compare it to elements of the civil rights movement. “We begin this morning with the growing uproar after two black lawmakers were expelled from Tennessee's legislature,” fill-in anchor Natalie Morales announced, trying to inject race into the situation.

“Never before has a Tennessee lawmaker, never mind two Tennessee lawmakers, been expelled on partisan grounds. But in a polarized country, the gloves are off,” correspondent Mark Strassmann clutched his rhetorical pearls.

Strassmann declared them “the Tennessee Three,” an apparent attempt to frame them as akin to the kids of the Little Rock Nine, who were the face of the desegregation of schools and faced angry mobs of racists.

Fun fact: In the early part of his career, Johnny Cash's backing band was called the Tennessee Three, but the name was changed to the Tennessee Two for a while, then became the Tennessee Three again. So the actual name alludes much more to in-state heritage than to the Little Rock Nine stretch Fondacaro is trying to make.

Make America Afraid Again! Newsmax Columnist (And Disgraced Ex-Priest) Wants The President To Be Feared
Topic: Newsmax

In his political discourse, Italian diplomat Niccolò Machiavelli argued that fear is a better motivator than love, which is why it is the more effective tool for a leader if one cannot be loved, and posed the question of whether it is better to be feared or loved if one cannot be both.

Many respected Republican candidates running for high office in 2024 may be "loved" —at least on the political right — they are seemingly polished on the exterior, eloquent, and meet the general public's ideas of "nice." 

They do not offend or hurt feelings on Twitter, and they share our visions for policies that would theoretically help turn around an America that we believe is on a downward trajectory. These candidates tout the importance of taking on the cultural wars of our day, and returning to the principles of our founding fathers that have historically made this country great.

[...]

But should "playing nice" and "being loved" be a prerequisite for the White House? Should the presidency be about being "liked/loved" and a "nice person" or should it be about defending America effectively from our enemies, both domestic and abroad?

Enter President Donald Trump and a common refrain of some patriots across America: "I like his policies but not his personality."

His personality may not be everyone's cup of tea, rougher around the edges than many would prefer. President Barack Obama was admired by many for his charisma and eloquence. But did charisma and eloquence translate into a stronger, safer America? We all know the answer to that question.

[...]

Recently at a Trump speech in South Carolina, GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham made this point, that there are no Trump accomplishments without Donald Trump himself. Dick Morris, in his book, "The Return," makes the same point: that a "kinder, gentler" Trump would not have brought about the accomplishments that he won, frankly, by an appropriate bullying of world leaders, Congress, the media, the Democrats, and weak Republicans.

Would it be better to not be totally loved, but to be feared by the likes of North Korea, China, Iran, Mexico, the Taliban, and others on the world stage who have taken advantage of America for decades to the detriment of our great country?

Would it be better not to be"loved," but to be respected by Congress, and have your ideas taken seriously where they stand a chance of actually being passed into law?

Would it not be better to collect fewer likes or loves on Facebook or Twitter, but to actually get the job done so American families can prosper and we actually have a legacy to leave to our children and grandchildren?

Many have tried, many have failed, many have touted our values, not all have succeeded once elected — but could it be that a certain personality and being feared more than being loved is what America needs, especially at this critical juncture in our history, to reclaim the greatness and respect that are so much a part of what America is.

-- Frank Pavone, Feb. 22 Newsmax column (Pavone was defrocked as a Catholic priest because of his anti-abortion extremism)

CNS Unemployment Coverage Distortion Watch: Final Edition
Topic: CNSNews.com

CNSNews.com's final report on monthly employment numbers -- two weeks before the website was shut down -- continued the trend of previous months in which the employment news was so good that writer Susan Jones had trouble find bad news to cherry-pick (as it does when a Democratic president is in office) in her lead article:

After setting three straight monthly records, the number of employed Americans leaped again last month, reaching another all-time high in March.

The Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics says 160,892,000 Americans were employed last month, an increase of 577,000 over February's record 160,315,000.

BLS defines employed Americans as those who, during the reference week, did some work for pay or profit, or did at least 15 hours of unpaid work in a family-operated business.

As the number of employed Americans jumped again last month, the number of unemployed Americans -- no job, but looking -- dropped by 97,000, producing an unemployment rate of 3.5 percent, down a tenth of a point from February. (The 3.4 percent unemployment rate in January was the lowest it's been since 1969.)

She did, however, dig up a number that was just slightly below expections, which gave her license to hype "less positive" news: "But on a less positive note, BLS says the non-farm economy added 236,000 jobs last month, below estimates of around 239,000 and the lowest number of jobs created since December 2021. BLS said job creation has averaged around 334,000 in the prior six months."

The only sidebar was the usual one from editor Terry Jeffrey on government employment, grousing that it "increased by 47,000 in March, climbing from 22,510,000 to 22,557,000." He didn't explain why this is the bad thing he clearly wants us to believe it is.

(Because the CNS website has been deleted from the internet, the above article links go to the Internet Archive, where the rest of the the CNS website can be found.)

NEW ARTICLE -- The MRC vs. Google: The Search Skirmish
Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center tried to attack Google as biased for purportedly downgrading the websites for Republican candidates in search results -- but never explained why the search terms it used should have generated the results it demanded. Read more >>

MRC's DeSantis Defense Brigade Bashes Critics of His Fla. Education Changes
Topic: Media Research Center

The Media Research Center's DeSantis Defense Brigade continues in full effect, especially when it comes to defending the intrusive education policies of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Kevin Tober defended DeSantis and attacked a teacher who exposed the practical effects of his policies -- in a Feb. 18 post:

The cast of CBS Saturday Morning spread some misinformation about the state of education in Florida when correspondent Cristian Benavides claimed that “classrooms and school libraries look like this” while showing a photo from a substitute teacher that was fired on Wednesday for spreading misinformation.

During his report, Benavides interviewed teacher Andrea Phillips, who was not the one who was fired, but who was there to provide the anti-Gov. Ron DeSantis emotion, “Without a diverse variety of books that represent my students, I can't get them interested in books.”

Reporting over some viral images, Benavides recalled, “Duval County Public Schools, which includes Jacksonville, said it would conduct a formal review of all books. While that review is ongoing, classrooms and school libraries look like this.”

What Benavides left out was a statement from the district. From First Coast News:

In discussion between the district and ESS regarding this individual’s misrepresentation of the books available to students in the school’s library and the disruption this misrepresentation has caused, it was determined that he had violated social media and cell phone policies of his employer. Therefore, ESS determined these policy violations made it necessary to part ways with this individual. (emphasis added)

So the problem is not that the teacher was actually wrong, it's that she went public with it. Tober never explained what, exactly, the "misrepresentation" is that Phillips made -- indeed, teachers were in fact stripping books out of their classrooms out of fear. Further, blogger Judd Legum reported that the Duval County school district did, in fact, order all books removed from classroom shleves to be vetted.

Geoffrey Dickens cranked more defense in a Feb. 23 compilation item attacking criticisms of DeSantis' changes in teaching black history, though he offered no reason why the changes needed to be made in the first place. The same day, Tierin-Rose Mandelburg sneered at Florida students who are pushing back against the changes, reading straight from the DeSantis PR handbook:

Walkouts are just about as effective as petitions.

Regardless, Florida college students are planning a walkout for Thursday, Feb. 23, to protest Governor Ron DeSantis’ (R) supposed anti-black and anti-gay policies. Yes, this is as dumb as it sounds. 

The Florida College Democrats and Dream Defenders organized the “Stand for Freedom” movement scheduled for noon on the 23rd. It’s in opposition to DeSantis and supposedly as a push to “restore diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in colleges and universities,“ USA Today reported.

In the “Stand for Freedom” statement/sign up sheet, organizers stated that their “education is being tarnished” by DeSantis and added, “He has displayed a pattern of behavior in which he Hijacks School Systems as he did with the New College of Florida. Marginalizes and Dehumanizes The LGBTQ Community, and portrays an abject Disregard Of The Rights Of Students. He says we are being indoctrinated by wokeness, but we say he is using us in his narrative, and destroying our schools to achieve his vision.”

Talk about drama!

Last month DeSantis did introduce a legislative proposal taking a stand against academic discrimination and indoctrination but nowhere did he “hijack” a school system or “dehumanize the LGBTQ community.” 

Despite what critics are saying, the legislation will actually help diversify schools. Florida Lottery Secretary John F. Davis said the proposal will give all students the opportunity to succeed “regardless of their race, religion, ethnicity, or socio-economic status."

Written very much like a paid DeSantis operative, not a "media researcher."

A Feb. 25 post by Tim Graham complained that it was pointed out that DeSantis tried to water down content in AP black history curriciulum while the College Board, which governs AP content, was fighting to keep what the Washington Post falled "robust content" in the curriculum, which caused Grahsm to huff: "'Robust content' is a fancy term for overt propaganda." He offered no evidence this was, in fact, the case. Graham also whined that one critic "is a radical leftist who wrote a book celebrating Cedric Robinson, the author of Black Marxism."

Alex Christy spent a March 1 post grumbling that late-night comedy shows made jokes about DeSantis' dictatorial education reforms, .as well as the fact that the Disney-hating governor actually got married at Disney World. Christy found no humor here of course, insisting that "Disney changed in the time since DeSantis got married."

Christy then groused in a March 3 post:

MSNBC has officially run out of original thoughts. On Thursday’s Alex Wagner Tonight, the eponymous host and Columbia Journalism School Dean Jelani Cobb came together to agree with Critical Race Theorist Kimberlé Crenshaw that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is a fascist.

[...]

While the current segment was mostly about the university system, the interview Wagner referenced was about the A.P. African-American Studies controversy making it a bit ironic that MSNBC frequently says Critical Race Theory is a made up controversy while citing one of its most famous advocates to call people fascists.

Actually, a state-mandated prohibition against certain things being taught in school because they are believed to run counter to that government's political agenda -- was is the case with the irrational ban on CRT -- seems to be the very definition of fascism.

Graham returned to whine in a March 7 post when an actual historian -- something neither Graham nor DeSantis are -- called out thegovernor's education dictates:

"Renowned” PBS filmmaker Ken Burns appeared on Tuesday’s CNN This Morning to rain fire on Gov. Ron DeSantis over a bill in the Florida legislature to mandate some boundaries on how taxpayer-funded universities teach American history. In the fevered brain of this PBS star, DeSantis is somehow comparable to both the Nazis and the Soviets. CNN loved this, and didn’t blink at this blatant misinformation from a "treasured chronicler."

[...]

Burns told CNN “All of these bills that DeSantis and others are doing limit our ability to understand who we are and they are not inclusive, they are exclusive. They are narrowing the focus of what is and isn’t American history. It’s terrifying. It feels like a Soviet system or the way the Nazis would build a Potemkin village,” Burns said. 

He threw in Fox News to please his CNN hosts. “Tucker Carlson’s doing the same thing with the footage from 1/6. It’s just a kind of rewriting of history at the most dangerous level. It’s a huge threat to our Republic.”

When Burns noted that he learned from researching the Holocaust that "it's easy to make a person other," Graham huffed in response: "So conservatives are like genocidal Nazis and Soviets....and we shouldn’t create an “other.” Does that make any sense?" No less sense than the mindless right-wing demonization of CRT and portraying LGBT people as "the other: that is the foundation of DeSantis' education changes.

WND Hypes Bogus Numbers Regarding Purported BLM Donations
Topic: WorldNetDaily

An anonymously written March 15 WorldNetDaily article declared:

Online, Black Lives Matter calls itself a "decentralized political and social movement" that campaigns over racism and racial inequality.

It focuses on "police brutality and racially motivated violence against black people."

However, there are corporate entities within the movement, that exist legally, and have bank accounts, and spend money on their campaigns.

Because a new report from Breitbart reveals that the BLM "movement and related causes received an astonishing $82.9 billion from corporations."

Citing a database assembled by the Claremont Institute, the report said BLM and its "related causes" got $82.9$ billion donated by corporations.

"The Claremont Institute’s Center for the American Way of Life explained the necessity of their report in an article published in Newsweek, where the Center asserted that the 2020 BLM movement was about more than just 'rioting and destruction.' The Center explained that 'The BLM pressure campaigns, harassment, and moral blackmail also amounted to possibly the most lucrative shakedown of corporate America in its history.'"

The report noted the sum was "more than the GDP of 46 African countries."

The report described how the evidence shows "several popular corporations from a wide range of different industries supplied the movement with large sums of cash. Walmart, for example, which is based in Arkansas, gave a whopping $100 million in support of BLM and related causes focusing on 'racial equity.' Amazon gave even more, supplying the movement with an astonishing $169.5 million. Silicon Valley Bank gave the movement $73.45 million."

Just one little problem: This isn't true. As FactCheck.org reported, the far-right Claremont Institute dishonestly portrayed anything that helped black people as part of BLM -- such as "a need-based scholarship program, a commitment to lend to and support underserved borrowers, and a program to match employees’ charitable donations" -- and Silicon Valley Bank donated no money to BLM itself:

When we reached out to the institute for more details, as we said, we were provided with a statement that said, in part (emphasis theirs), “Claremont’s BLM Funding Database tracks contributions and pledges made to the BLM movement and related causes, which we define on our database as organizations and initiatives that advance one or more aspects of BLM’s agenda, and which were made in the wake of the BLM riots of 2020.”

Even so, it’s a stretch to include a needs-based college scholarship fund as a donation to “the BLM movement and related causes.” Similarly, including a pledge to increase economic diversity through a program the bank, itself, initiated also suggests that the threshold for what goes into the database is overly broad.

And, importantly, the database shows no contributions from SVB went to BLM.

Claremont's claim that Walmart gave $100 million to BLM is equally fraudulent, as Talking Points Memo's Josh Marshall documented:

Claremont reports that Walmart pledged $100 million to “BLM,” $14 million of which has already been granted.

According to the cited document recipients include American Heart Association (AHA), Bernard J. Tyson Impact Fund ($5 million); U.S. Vaccine Adoption Grants; The King Center; and the Association of Black Foundation Executives (ABFE).

Again, for Claremont, it’s Black-people adjacent, so that’s BLM.

The Daily Beast pointed out even more dishonesty in Claremont's database, noting that if flagged money given by cereal maker Kellogg for mental health treatment in underserved communities was treated as part of BLM: "For Claremont, providing mental wellness services to Black kids is a BLM 'related cause,' which on its own shows how unscrupulous and dishonest the mission behind its database is."

So WND is lying to its readers by claiming, as its headline does, that "billions and billions" have gone to BLM, or that organizations dedicated to helping black people are a direct part of BLM. Indeed, no apparent attempt to update or correct the article has been made since it was published, despite those lies being exposed. But WND doesn't care about facts -- it cares about narrative, and hating BLM is the narrative, not reporting accurately and fairly about it.