WND Columnist: We Shouldn't Care That Uganda Wants To Imprison Gay People Topic: WorldNetDaily
There is no end to the opportunities for us to wonder at what goes on in the mind of President Biden regarding the policies of our government.
Just a look at daily headlines and you are constantly surprised at what is going on. Who knew?
Now we find out that what the country of Uganda – that's in Africa in case you are geographically deficient – is doing concerning the treatment of gay people and how it relates to us.
After years of debate and discussion, a parliamentary vote was taken last week in Uganda, on a bill that calls for a life sentence for anyone engaging in gay sex in that majority-Christian country.
The law includes a provision that if someone just tries to engage in gay sex, they would face a prison term of seven years. The Guardian reported that there were 389 votes in favor and 2 opposed.
[...]
Where does the U.S. fit in all of this? Biden has declared that it's the policy of this country "to lead by the power of example in the cause of advancing the human rights of LGBTQ+ persons around the world."
"Around the world"??
As I said earlier, "Who knew?!"
[National Security Council official John] Kirby referenced the Ugandan vote and said, "We're never going to shy away or be bashful about speaking up for those rights and for individuals to live as they deem fit, as they want to live. And that's something that's a core part of our foreign policy and that will remain so."
Karine Jean-Pierre, White House press secretary, also had an opinion on the issue, saying the law "would impinge on universal human rights" and "damage Uganda's international reputation."
[...]
It remains to be seen what the outcome of this will be. What will Biden do. if anything? What will the U.N. do, if anything? Essentially, does anyone care – and if so, what will happen?
The reality is that Africa is a long distance away, and most Americans don't pay any attention to what happens there. The politicians care only about their world image and, of course, the money involved in our relations with them.
If we go by what Joe Biden has done so far, we are being kept in the dark about why we should care about what is happening in Africa, Uganda specifically.
What worries me is what the ramifications will be when we DO find out.
Newsmax Continued To Try And Take Advantage Of Carlson's Firing Topic: Newsmax
When Tucker Carlson got fired by Fox News last month, Newsmax flip-flopped on its previous attacks on him over his pro-Russia stance and fawned over him -- partly to stick it to its competition but also as a ploy to try and woo Carlson to its channel. Indeed, there were reports that Newsmax was offering to give Carlson not only his own show but also control over Newsmax's entire programming schedule.
That explains Newsmax's coverage decisions on Carlson. In the days after his firing, Newsmax continued to suck up to him and bash Fox News:
An April 26 article by Sandy Fitzgerald noted that Rupert Murdoch's empire used "their wholly owned television news outlet in Australia" to forward the idea that Carlson was "sacked essentially for thinking that he was bigger than Fox News," and another article cited Carlson's "combativeness toward Fox executives and other colleagues" as a reason he was fired. But it also touted Donald Trump claiming that Carlson's firing "is going to have a big impact and a very negative impact on Fox."
Newsmax also tried to exploit the situation for explicitly for its own gain. Brian Truesdell touted an endorsement of sorts in an April 28 article:
Former Fox News Channel show host Megyn Kelly told her podcast audience on Thursday that FNC's decision to fire prime time anchor Tucker Carlson is driving its viewers to Newsmax.
The statement during her Thursday program, "The Megyn Kelly Show," came in a conversation with Melissa Francis, another a former Fox News and Fox Business anchor and host who left News Corp.
[...]
As Kelly noted, Newsmax, conversely, has seen its average audience at 8 p.m. with "Eric Bolling The Balance" soar by 261% to an average 534,000 viewers.
Nielsen data indicates that Newsmax was drawing 57% of Fox's audience on a proportional basis Wednesday at 8 p.m.
An unbylined April 28 article (credited only to "Newsmax Wires") served up more ratings hype, while repeating the Newsmax bump from the Megyn Kelly story:
After Tucker Carlson's firing from Fox News this past Monday, the network has witnessed a collapse in ratings — especially in its 8 p.m. ET prime-time slot.
For years Tucker Carlson owned this prime time for Fox, drawing an average 3.2 million viewers a night.
Not anymore.
This week, Fox News Channel saw its audience during the Carlson hour plummet, with 2.6 million tuning in Monday to watch.
Things got even worse for Fox on Tuesday, with 1.7 million viewers tuning in.
But Wednesday, Fox saw a catastrophic drop to just 1.3 million viewers — a 59% drop from Carlson's average rating.
Neither article disclosed Newsmax's efforts in trying to woo Carlson.
CNS Circled The Right-Wing Wagons Around Trump As Indictment Loomed Topic: CNSNews.com
After Donald Trump floated the idea in March that his arrest was imminent, CNSNews.com unsurprisingly rushed to publish numerous articles about right-wingers defending him and attacking the district attorney investigating him, Alvin Bragg (whom CNS curiously makes sure to note is based in Manhattan):
A March 20 article by Susan Jones touted CNS' favorite right-wing radio host defending Trump:
First of all, whatever payment was made to Stormy Daniels, it's not "hush money," Mark Levin told the Fox News audience on Sunday morning. Nor were campaign funds used, he added.
"Every one of these cases is bogus, just like the Mueller case was bogus, just like the phone call to Ukraine was perfectly fine, two bogus impeachments -- this is outrageous," Levin said.
"Donald Trump today is the leading candidate for the Republican nomination for president. Can you believe a local D.A. knows that he doesn't have the law, state or federal, on his side, and is trying to cripple the nomination for the presidency?"
Never mind of course. that none of thesepoliticians or commentators had seen any of the evidence Bragg had against Trump.
Editor Terry Jeffrey used a March 22 column to cheer the widow of a New York City police officer kiled in the line of duty for using her eulogy to attack Bragg (though without mentioning Trump).
As Trump's self-declared arrest date passed without incident, CNS and Trump's supporters (but we repeat ourselves) started feeling a little cocky. A March 24 article by Craig Bannister happily touted how Hannity flip-flopped on Bragg (but didn't note that's what he did) by declaring that "the case died this very week" and that "it seems he can’t indict a ham sandwich."
But when news of Trump's actual indictment broke on March 30, CNS led with an article by Melanie Arter that quoted the reaction of only Trump and one of his lawyers, then went into full meltdown (and Trump defense) mode:
Managing editor Michael W. Chapman also wrote a roundup item hyping how "conservatives and Republicans across the country denounced the step as a 'political witch hunt' designed to try to keep Trump from running for president in 2024 against Democrat Joe Biden." By contrast, CNS published only one article critical of Trump -- quoting Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff denouncing Trump's threat of "death and destruction" -- and one neutral article, quoting the Biden White House stating it had no advance knowledge of Trump's indictment.
Jeffrey also expanded his praise for the police officer's widow trashing Bragg into a full "news" article on April 3 and touting that she got a "standing ovation" -- never mind that this had happened nearly three months earlier and was not actually "news." Perhaps this contrarian definition of what constitutes "news" is one reason why CNS was shut down by its Media Research Center parent on April 20.
MRC Lashes Out At Expelled Tenn. Legislators, Still Laughably Portraying Anti-Gun Protest As 'Insurrection' Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center first tried to distract from a gun massacre at a Nashville by hyping the shooter's alleged transgender identity. Then it falsely framed an anti-gun protest at the Tennessee capitol building followig the massacre as an "insurrection" (though nobody was arrested and nobody was trying to overthrow the government). Tim Graham invoked all of this in his April 7 podcast:
When leftist agitators storm state capitols, you can’t use those words. Leftist media won’t use labels for their own kind, and they won’t use “storm” for a left-wing disturbance inside a state capitol building, unless someone is shot by police. Two black legislators in Tennessee became instant media heroes when the Republican House majority expelled them for creating a disturbance on the House floor and violating House rules.
On NPR, Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep was upset when the Republican leader of the Tennessee House of Republicans compared the screaming and shoving matches with the January 6 riot. No policeman shot a protester in Tennessee's state capitol. But Inskeep grew snarky and minimized the Nashville circus to “three lawmakers talked out of turn.” That sounds a lot like comparing January 6 to a Capitol tourist trip.
The scrum did help the liberal media try to change the subject from a transgender shooter murdering six at a Christian school. The words "transgender" and "Christian" are being dropped out of the narrative.
From there, the MRC's main focus of complaint was that the two expelled legislators got attention. An April 8 post by Alex Christy complained that one outlet noted that the two expelled legislators were black:
NBC Today hosts Peter Alexander and Kristen Welker welcomed recently expelled Tennessee State Rep. Justin Jones on to the Saturday show by putting the ball on the tee for him to routinely denounce Republicans as racist for his role in shutting down legislative proceedings with a bullhorn.
[...]
Ideally, Welker would also have asked how the minority party shutting things down constitutes democracy because after Jones doubled down on the race card, he laughably claimed what he did was “good trouble” and “First Amendment activity.”
Neither Welker no Alexander followed up by challenging that absurdity, how holding people accountable for their actions is racist, or with any meaningful distinction between the actions of three representatives, instead choosing to move onto gun control.
The "meaningful distinction" Christy claims exists is that, according to the link he supplied, the lawmaker who wasn't expelled didn't make use of a bullhorn. Of course, the meaningful distiction that everybody noted was that the non-expelled lawmaker was white, while the two expelled ones were black.
Another April 8 post, by Kathleen Krumhansl (also in Spanish), claimed that a Spanish-language news anchor told "the truth" about the expulsion of the lawmakers after the demonstration because of areference to "incitement of violence very similar to what happened during the January 6th assault on the Capitol." But she didn't cite an example of any lawmaker issuing any "incitement of violence."
Kevin Tober spent an April 9 post being upset that one of the expelled lawmakers appeared on TV:
On ABC’s This Week, co-moderator Jon Karl invited Justin Pearson, one of the expelled former Democrat Tennessee representatives on the program to let him play the victim because he was held accountable for his actions. Opening the program on Easter Sunday, Karl still insisted on lying on this holy day.
Karl claimed the “two young black lawmakers [were] expelled from the state house of representatives after they took a stand on gun violence.” As NewsBusters Executive Editor Tim Graham noted on Twitter earlier on Sunday in response to Karl’s comments, it was like claiming “January 6 being ‘a stand for Trump's victory.’ You're moving the goalposts on shooting up a Christian school.”
Introducing the disgraced radical former representative, Karl asked the leading question: “You have spoken with great passion on the issue of gun violence. And I was wondering if you can tell us. I know you lost a classmate of yours to gun violence shortly before you were sworn in as a representative, what can you tell us about how that motivates you?”
This led Pearson to tell his sob story about experiencing so-called “gun violence” and how “over two thousand cars have gotten broken into” in his city. Which ironically is another reason why more Americans should be allowed to own firearms.
ABC's Good Morning America kicked off their Easter Sunday broadcast by hyping so-called "growing community outrage" over the two insurrectionist Democrat Tennessee state representatives who were expelled for whipping up a mob on the House floor. Not only did Good Morning America parrot the Democrat Party line on this controversy, but they barely aired any opposition from Republicans. The only soundbite played was a brief clip of Tennessee Republican House Speaker Cameron Sexton from his interview on Fox News Channel's morning show Fox & Friends.
Nicholas Fondacaro repeated the bogus "insurrection" narrative again in an April 10 post:
Judging from the liberal media’s behavior, insurrections are good when leftists carry them out. That’s the gist of the tone shared by the broadcast networks on Monday as ABC’s Good Morning America, CBS Mornings, and NBC’s Today celebrated the likely return of former Democratic state Representatives Justin Jones and Justin Pearson after they led a violent and disruptive takeover of the Tennessee State Capitol two weeks ago.
Fondacaro's evidence the protest was "violent" was a link to an earlier post of his in which he embedded a tweet from a reporter who stated that "This was a peaceful protest" and cited only "shoving" by protesters. Nevertheless, he presented the falsehood again in another post that day, laughably calling the protest a"violent insurrection" and dismissing the expelled legislators as "disruptive and disrespectful Democrats"who "have a history of disruptions and got insulting with their defense speeches before the vote," while the media was "smearing the Tennessee GOP with false claims of racism."
Tober raged that one of the ousted legislators was reinstated by other officials in another April 10 post:
On Monday night's CBS Evening News, senior national correspondent Mark Strassmann stuck his finger in the eyes of Tennessee Republicans who voted to oust two of the three attempted insurrectionist Democrat legislators. The obnoxious gloating came after one of the misbehaved Democrats, Justin Jones, was reinstated by the Nashville council.
Suddenly interrupting a legislative session is a good thing, according to CBS. Anything goes so long as it's in pursuit of the Democrat Party's [sic] radical anti-American agenda.
Tober doesn't seem to realize that deliberately getting the name of the Democratic Party makes people want to take him less seriously as a credible "media researcher."
Graham did something similar in his April 10 podcast, huffing that "the networks continue to bathe the Bullhorn Justins -- radical black Democrat [sic] legislators Justin Jones and Justin Pearson -- in glory for being expelled by the Republicans in the Tennessee House of Representatives. They completely downplayed the screaming on the House floor about "no action, no peace," making it sound like the Republicans would expel them just for gentle protesting. The goal remained to make Americans forget that a crazed transgender 'man' shot and killed six inside a Christian school."
The shooter being transgender is the only thing that Graham wants his right-wing listeners to take away from all this -- certainly not that guns are a problem.
Right-wing media have been embracing Robert Kennedy Jr.'s announced campaign for president because he would be riding his family as a spoiler to President Biden's re-election campaign. CNSNews.com played along as well, with an April 6 article by managing editor Michael W. Chapman touting his campaign:
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., son of the late U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy, filed papers with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) on Apr. 5 declaring his intention to run for president of the United States in 2024. RFK Jr. is a Democrat and likely would be challenging Joe Biden for the nomination.
In early March, Kennedy spoke at St. Anselm College in New Hampshire where he was asked if he planned to run for president. He said, "I'm thinking about it. I've passed the biggest hurdle, which is my wife has green-lighted it."
In a March 10 tweet, Kenendy said that if he runs, his "top priority will be to end the corrupt merger between state and corporate power that has ruined our economy, shattered the middle class, polluted our landscapes and waters, poisoned our children, and robbed us of our values and freedoms. Together we can restore America's democracy."
Chapman then felt the need to downplay Kennedy's anti-vaxx extremism:
Kennedy also is an outspoken critic of uncessary vaccines -- not all vaccines -- and has sharply criticized the COVID policies pushed by Dr. Anthony Fauci and the Biden administration.
Kennedy, an attorney, is the founder and chairman of Children's Health Defense, a non-profit organization that seeks "to end childhood health epidemics by working aggressively to eliminate harmful exposures, hold those responsible accountable and establish safeguards to prevent future harm."
Chapman did not explain which vaccines Kennedy purportedly approves of -- despite the fact that it's clear he opposes pretty much all of them. As Stat News summarized:
His outright disbelief in established science is demonstrated most vividly by his crusade against vaccines and vaccine science. He has produced and endorsed pseudo-documentaries that are chock-full of exaggerated, unsupported claims and then held screenings of them for legislators, though few showed up. He held rallies against vaccines on the steps of state capitol buildings and injected himself into discussions about licensing for doctors, keeping children healthy at schools, and Covid vaccines. He has amplified disinformation agents and even quacks who push false vaccine narratives. He has held fundraisers for politicians who reject public health protection.
That doesn't sound there's much leeway in Kennedy's anti-vaxx crusade.
Chapman went on to hype some of Kennedy's views, which include calling the U.S. support of Ukraine against Russia's invasion a "Neocon project," raging against the Federal Reserve for purportedly planning to issue a digital currency (which is actually just a payment system), ranting about the "exploding Autism epidemic far more devastating than COVID?" -- which is actually part of his anti-vaxxer crusade -- and declaring that liberal want to establish "a surveillance + security state to suppress dissent as billionaires gorge themselves on the bleached carcasses of our ruined middle class."
That sounds much more like a fringe right-wing ranter than a Democratic candidate. But, again, Chapman wants to set Kennedy up as a spoiler, so he apparently had a mandate to treat Kennedy as a serious candidate.
Going Gobshite: MRC Melts Down Over Biden's Trip to Ireland Topic: Media Research Center
Like its now-defunct "news" division CNSNews.com, the Media Research Center had a meltdown over President Biden's trip to Ireland and that people said nice things about it. Mark Finkelstein went on a rager against MSNBC's Joe Scarborough saying nice things in an April 14 post headlined "Gag Me With A Shamrock!":
Joe Scarborough has degenerated from hard-core conservative member of Newt's 1994 revolution into shameless Democrat sycophant.
Scarborough's obsequious new persona was on full display on today's Morning Joe. Reporting from Ireland on Pres. Biden's trip there, Scarborough's spiel was one long gush. It sounded so servile that even paid Biden flack Karine Jean-Pierre might have balked at reading it from her binder.
Scarborough summarily dismissed Biden's gasp-worthy gaffe, in which he confused the New Zealand rugby team with the the Black and Tans, which the New York Post describes as " the nickname for members of the notoriously brutal Royal Irish Constabulary, who were enlisted by the British to fight against Irish Republicans and committed atrocities against civilians during the Irish War of Independence."
Instead, Scarborough gave a relentlessly upbeat take on Biden's trip, displaying a number of positive newspaper headlines, including the 'Biden Joy' one seen in the screencap. Biden received "a joyous welcome to Parliament yesterday. And in fact, the front page story here, it said Biden's happiness and enthusiasm was so infectious because it was obviously so sincere."
Posted Thursday afternoon for Friday’s print edition on page A-12, Washington Post White House reporter Tyler Pager was joined by colleague and chief Biden apple polisher Matt Viser in a syrupy propaganda piece on President Biden’s unofficial vacation to Ireland that sounded like it was originally written in North Korean state media for a trip taken by Kim Jong-un to a missile launch.
Pager and Viser must have had weak knees in crafting the headline and subhead “Biden, the American president, seems awfully at home in Ireland; Biden this week has repeatedly wondered how anyone could leave the Emerald Isle.”
With takes like this, how are we supposed to consistently (if ever) take their journalism seriously?
With overractions like this, how are we supposed to take the MRC seriously? Indeed, Houck melted down further over a comment Biden made about ... football:
Fact-checkers weren’t present when Pager and Viser passed along Biden criticizing “the safety of one of the United States’ most popular sports” in American football “and praised one of Ireland’s” in rugby, which also involves men running towards each other and at full speed. While the kinds of injuries in U.S. football are more severe, one rugby blog concluded it’s “more dangerous…in the sense that a player is more likely to get hurt while playing.”
We don't recall Houck demanding that Donald Trump be fact-checked to this level -- in fact, the MRC hated it when Trump was fact-checked at all.
And it wouldn't be the MRC if Tim Graham didn't try to play whataboutism, and he did just that for his April 14 podcast:
President Biden's trip to his ancestral homeland of Ireland spurred a festive round of positive coverage from the networks and newspapers like The Washington Post. They didn't ask questions about why Hunter Biden accompanied his father on the trip. This kind of gush is obviously not something the national media did when President Trump visited Ireland in 2019.
Reporters skipped over a series of gaffes -- Biden putting Jesse Helms in South Carolina, ending a speech with "Let's go lick the world," and mixing up the All Blacks rugby team with the Black and Tans, a brutal police force the British used against the Irish. NBC's Lester Holt and Peter Alexander showed happy Irish folks waving American flags and played a series of less confused Biden video clips from what Holt called a "landmark" trip.
MSNBC's Joe Scarborough told everyone to ignore the gaffes, and held up positive headlines in Irish newspapers, like one saying "BIDEN JOY."
All this reminds us of Mitt Romney's trip abroad in July of 2012, where the networks held up headlines from London reading "MITT THE TWIT." NBC's Peter Alexander did it, and so did CBS reporter Jan Crawford. She said "Can you see it? 'Mitt the Twit.' That's not the type of headline you want." But it was definitely the headline CBS and NBC wanted!
[...]
The same Washington Post that poured sugar on Biden's Ireland trip poured acid on Romney in 2012. Reporter Philip Rucker announced on behalf of all journalists that Romney would never measure up the grandeur that was the Barack Obama European Rock Star Tour of 2008: “For any candidate on a foreign trip, the margin for error is small, with every misstep magnified, fairly or not — especially so for Romney, whose visit is drawing inevitable comparisons to Barack Obama’s largely successful foreign tour as a candidate in 2008.”
NBC also celebrated Obama's trips to Ireland in 2009 (with Al Roker) and 2011 (with Norah O'Donnell), highlighting his obscure Irish roots.
Man, Graham sure knows how to hold a grudge, no matter how unreasonable.
NEW ARTICLE -- Fake News At WND: Coronavirus Edition, Part 6 Topic: WorldNetDaily
In addition to spreading its usual false and misleading claims about COVID vaccines, it totally bought into the fiction that any person who "died suddenly" was a victim of the vaccine. Read more >>
MRC Tries To Bury Musk's Twitter Blue-Check Debacle, Continues Doing PR For Him Topic: Media Research Center
When it wasn't gushing over Elon Musk for arbitrarily putting a false "state-affiliated media" tag on NPR's Twitter feed, the Media Research Center was doing PR for Musk in other ways as well.Joseph Vazquez cheered Musk spouting the MRC's narrative against so-called "liberal media" in an April 3 post:
Twitter owner Elon Musk identified what many Americans know to be true about the leftist New York Times: Its incessant propaganda isn’t even good enough to line a birdcage.
Musk tweeted April 2 that the “real tragedy” for The Times is that their “propaganda isn’t even interesting.” In addition, Musk said in a follow-up tweet, “their feed is the Twitter equivalent of diarrhea. It’s unreadable.” Musk is right and it doesn’t take much digging into the NewsBusters archives to see the kind of brain-melting nonsense that The Timesspits out on a regular basis.
Catherine Salgado happily repeated Musk repeating right-wing talking points about Donald Trump's indictment in an April 5 post:
Don't kill the messenger... er, realtor? Elon Musk brought humor to recent news, as he mocked the ridiculousness of Donald Trump’s indictment on Twitter.
Musk reacted to the April 4 temporary arrest and arraignment of Donald Trump in New York. He tweeted a meme mocking the Democrats’ irrational hatred and attacks on Trump. “If the Dem Party had a time machine,” Musk joked, with a meme showing a younger Trump and the comment, “‘Why do time travelers keep trying to kill me? I’m just a realtor!’ -Donald Trump, 1980.” Musk previously shared a March 18 meme showing a man saying, “The banking system is collapsing” with a woman screaming in reply, “Arrest Donald Trump”!
In a more serious vein, prior to the official indictment, Musk predicted how a Trump arrest might affect Trump’s reelection chances.
On March 18, he responde to a reshare by Viva Frei of a Fox News clip and a tweet in which Mario Nawfal remarked, “Trump may be HANDCUFFED and arrested next week. This is as a result of a possible indictment. Could this be the end of Trump?” Musk disagreed. “If this happens, Trump will be re-elected in a landslide victory,” he insisted.
Also on March 18, Musk critiqued Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s financial tie to leftist billionaire George Soros.
In fact, Bragg arguably has no "financial tie" to Soros -- he never contributed any money to Bragg's campaign, though hedid give money to an organization that campaigned for Bragg.
In an April 12 post, Vazquez giddily wrote that "Twitter owner Elon Musk took the leftist U.K.-based BBC to the woodshed when the latter accused the platform of being plagued by a rise of so-called “hate speech.” Never mind, of course, that numerousstudieshaveshown an increase in hate speech on Twitter since Musk took over.
The MRC's unpaid (as far as we know) Musk PR stenography continued on other fronts as well:
Meanwhile, the MRC had little to say about the debacle Musk's attempted revamping of Twitter's blue checkmark system had become. In hyping Musk's attack on Twitter, Vazquez waited toward neer the end of his post to note that "Musk’s mockery of The Times comes as the newspaper lost its verified checkmark status on Twitter reportedly due to refusing to pay the verification fee like everyone else. Musk lambasted in response how The Times was being 'incredibl[y] hypocritical here, as they are super aggressive about forcing everyone to pay *their* subscription.'"
In fact, "everyone else" was not paying Musk for a blue checkmark, which contrary to Vazquez's assertion offered no meaningful verification -- it simply showed that someone was paying Twitter $8 a month. (Also, paying Elon for a checkmark that means nothing is not the same thing as paying for a newspaper subscription.) Meanwhile, despite announcing that legacy checmarks would disappear for people who didn't buy one would start on April 1, that didn't happen, and the only account that seemed to have lost its checkmark was ... the Times, which arguably indicates a certain level of arbitrary enforcement, something we thought the MRC hated. When those checkmarks finally did start disappearing, impostor accounts popped up, and so few people actaully paid for the checkmarks that Musk resorted to slapping them on celebrity accounts whether they paid for them or not (including dead celebrities).
Rather than offer any meaningful commentary about Musk's debacle, Vazquz bizarrely whined in an April 21 post that George Soros -- the MRC's greatestenemy -- wouldn't buy a checkmark from Musk:
Leftist billionaire George Soros is willing to spend billions of dollars to radically transform society into his own bizarre leftist utopia but he was apparently a cheapskate when it came to paying Twitter’s blue checkmark fee.
Twitter owner Elon Musk tweetedvApril 11 that April 20 would be the “final date” for removing legacy blue checkmarks from users who refuse to pay the $8 fee. Soros clearly didn’t pony up the cash and his account of roughly 388,000 followers was stripped of its blue checkmark.
To put this newfound miserly behavior into perspective, Soros transferred an enormous $18 billion of his own money in 2017 to his Open Society Foundations for the purposes of fueling a philanthropic giant that would spread his radical views on abortion, Marxist economics, anti-Americanism, defunding the police, environmental extremism and LGBT fanaticism, to name a few.
Or, perhaps, Soros understands that Musk has rendered the checkmark meaningless, since all it currently proves is that a person was suckered into to giving $8 a month to a multibillionaire and getting nothing of value in return. That would seem to make Soros a smarter investor than Musk, who wildly overpaid to buy Twitter and even admits the company is now worth less than half of the $44 billion he paid for it.
CNS Published Another Catholic Priest Who Wanted To Be A Right-Wing Activist Topic: CNSNews.com
Michael Orsi wasn't the only Catholic priest published by CNSNews.com who seemed to believe his real calling was to be a right-wing pundit. Jerry Pokorsky is a priest in suburban Washington, D.C., and as with Orsi, CNS was pleased by how he mixed Catholicism with pushing right-wing talking points. In a February 2020 column, Pokorsky complained that Catholic politicians weren't sufficiently imposing their faith on people:
By most measurements, America is the most prosperous country in the world. Yet the majority of “Catholics” in Congress support profound evils degrading marriage, confusing human sexuality, setting men against women, and mother against unborn baby – the effective destruction of the family.
Despite their talents and accomplishments, these elected professionals are “salt” that has lost its taste. They have severed themselves from the teaching of Jesus and no longer keep the world from corruption. Instead, they contribute to human degradation. Prosperity brings physical comforts, but prosperity cannot provide meaning, nor can it save.
In an October 2020 column shortly before the presidential election, Pokorsky complained that "during political campaigns, the clergy are effectively non-combatants" and declared that "the excommunication of pro-abortion politicians or the denial of Holy Communion to “those obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin” are not political acts. They are distinctly religious acts of charity, warning the public figure – and his supporters -- of threats to salvation." Pokorsky didn't explain why Catholics must be punished for not imposing their beliefs on others by law.
Pokorsky spent a February 2021 column raging against a letter by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops asking officials to address systemic racism, sounding like a right-wing politician in the process:
The bishops’ overall narrative on racism implicitly suggests a blanket condemnation of Caucasians, even implying that white people cannot ascribe racism to racial minorities. The bishops are echoing a common theme of neo-Marxist critical theory: “Racism is the oppression of a marginalized group in a society that is based on white supremacy. If you are a white person, then you naturally benefit from white privilege.” How does one repent of one’s whiteness?
It is doubtful the bishops hold this view. But it’s likely their ideological USCCB ghostwriters do, echoing the ideology of the neo-Marxist Black Lives Matter leaders who claim racism “is everywhere, it’s almost like the air we breathe.” Indeed, examples of racism are deemed so pervasive that many Catholic schools now have “diversity officers,” like KGB commissars, monitoring compliance with politically-correct views and rules.
Enough.
In a February 2022 column, Pokorsky tried to frame things like not hating LGBTQ people and mask mandates as un-Biblical:
Bureaucratic elites desire more than compliance. They want our hearts, souls, and minds. “Diversity, equity, and inclusion” training officers behave like KGB agents (or the dread “flying monkeys” in The Wizard of Oz). They monitor expressions of dissent on the job and social media and administer pedantic training modules to ensure “best practices.”
[...]
Violence and destruction are the hallmarks of most revolutions. The inimical purposes of bureaucratic consolidations are much more subtle: Buy off and replace the Ten Commandments.
The Sixth and Ninth Commandments protecting marriage must be destroyed and redefined to promote contraception and the LGBTQ agenda. The Fifth Commandment needs redefinition to mandate subsidized abortion on demand and euthanasia for those who are a drag on the economy. The Seventh Commandment protecting private property (always, of course, in the service of the common good) is replaced by the centralization of economic and social power in the hands of a few, including theft from children not yet born.
Duties to the State replace the first three Commandments, perverting the notion of “social justice.” The slogan “follow the science” really means “never question your Government masters.” The presumed infallible teachings of government replace the Fourth Commandment.
[...]
The bureaucratic revolutionary elites have revealed the tyranny of their moral relativism. Of course—as in the Soviet Union—not everyone is in the position to dissent in public. But the vocational freedom of celibates—priests and single men—give them a greater responsibility to push back. (They may find that even those strange flying monkeys celebrated when the Wicked Witch of the West melted.) Where are the fathers?
We could use old-fashioned male outrage to protect our daughters on university swim teams. Do not comply.
In an October 2022 column before the midterm elections, Pokorsky followed CNSnarratives in attacking Catholic politicians like President Biden and Nancy Pelosi for not forcling all Americans to adhere to Catholic doctrine, sneering they were like the hated tax collectors of old: 'Yet, all of those people listed above are potential tax collectors. All they would have to do is say with sincerity, 'O God be merciful to me, a sinner,' and make a good Confession. May an ordinary—not a 'devout Catholic'—priest be at their bedsides before they cross the threshold to eternity."
Pokorsky served up a right-wing rant in his Dec. 15 column:
The toxic politics of America and the incompetency and malice of the mainstream media have ruined our trust. We don’t know the facts because they don’t provide them or lie.
The lies are numerous and numbing: the Russia hoax, mendacious COVID narratives, the “mostly peaceful” Black Lives Matter riots, the refusal on Woke grounds to cover the Waukesha slaughter, the January 6 “insurrection,” the border security fraud, transgender advocacy that disguises the horror of genital mutilation, the Biden and Pelosi claim of devout Catholic status, and so on.
Adding insult to injury, U.S. military policymakers have now gone woke. According to a Heritage Foundation report, “Wokeness in the military is being imposed by elected and appointed leaders in the White House, Congress, and the Pentagon who have little understanding of the purpose, character, traditions, and requirements of the institution they are trying to change.”
Institutionalized lies provide the context for another futile war -- supported by Hollywood clichés, the Washington establishment, and a mendacious media. With policies set in secret by elites, most political, religious, and media establishments are dutifully executing operations supporting objectives they struggle to articulate.
Pokorsky then attacked the U.S. for suppoting the "oligarchs" in Ukraine and fighting a "proxy war" against Russia:
In part, negotiations are in deep freeze because meddling Americans have kept the Zelensky government on financial life support, with a thriving illegal arms trade. As Ukraine freezes, reports indicate that most Ukrainian oligarchs rest comfortably in elegant European hot spots.
The US hasn’t officially sent in troops (a secret contingent of Special Forces personnel counts only in terms of body bags). We won’t raise the rainbow flag of victory and probably won’t receive Russian POWs. Look at the bright side. The reluctance to send troops saves our guys from the ignominy of using a POW intake form that asks: What is your gender assigned at birth? What are your preferred pronouns?
Political elites in both parties and the experts and Hollywood stands proudly in a virtue-signaling posture with Zelensky and his oligarchs. Let’s stand, instead, with ordinary Ukrainians and not the inexplicable American proxy war.
By contrast, Pokorsky had little bad to say about Russia beyond noting that "The Russians aim to win big, possibly with widespread death and destruction" and seemingly lamenting that "many Russians are reportedly upset with their leadership for pursuing only half-measures instead of winning the war." It makes you wonder whose side he's on.
MRC Suggests Biden's Daughter Is Like A Porn Star Topic: Media Research Center
Media Research Center executive Tim Graham's lingeringcase of Jill Biden Derangement Syndrome -- who has committed the offense of being a nice person who is nothing like Melania Trump -- has apparently extended to Ashley Biden, daughter of Joe and Jill. Graham spent an April 10 post ranting that she was featured in a magazine:
The fashion magazine ELLE is a routine stop for Democrats getting a glitzy publicity shoot, often wearing expensive fashions while liberal journalists pile on the glamour. Ashley Biden, the only child of Jill and Joe Biden, has been extremely reluctant to grant interviews, but has decided that now is the time to be celebrated as one of the very best Bidens. On the cover, it only says "Ashley Biden Speaks Out."
[...]
Meanwhile the captions sell expensive fashions. So the social worker is promoting "Dress by Brandon Maxwell, $3,295" and for casual wear, "Jacket, Altuzarra, $1,995; Denim Trousers, Loro Piana, $1,350."
Graham complained that "Ashley's stolen diary is briefly discussed, but not what's in it," but he didn't comment further on the fact that, as noted in a blockquote, it was "stolen and sold to" the right-wing activists at Project Veritas, which has resulted in criminal charges.
The same day, Graham ran to Newsmax to complain about this, which also involved the host bringing up that Stormy Daniels got a profile in Vogue magazine, which Graham asserted was because "they all thought Stormy Daniels would be the downfall of Trump." (Graham didn't mention that the charges of falseifying business records Trump had been indicted on a week or so earlier were based on the hush money he paid to Daniels.) They all whined that Melania Trump didn't appear in any of these fashion magazines despite, Graham asserted, "how fashionable she was."
The NewsBusters tweet promoting this appearance, however, seemed to liken Ashley Biden to Daniels. On In retweeting a post from Graham promoting how he noted that "ELLE is currently puffing Ashley Biden. She's just a down-to-Earth gal, pictured in $1,350 "denim trousers." the NewsBusters tweet added: "Stormy Daniels Chic doesn't make any sense unless you're out to Get Trump."
Looks like Graham needs to have his Ashley Biden Derangement Syndrome treated along with the Jill Biden variation. Maybe his therapist can give him a volume discount.
WND's Farah Wants To Deport George Soros Again Topic: WorldNetDaily
The indictment of Donald Trump has prompted WorldNetDaily editor Joseph Farah to make another one of his periodic declarations that George Soros' American citizenship should be revoked. He ranted in his April 3 column:
George Soros is destroying America – its institutions, its traditions, its freedoms, brick by brick.
With a $1 million donation to the PAC the supported Alvin Bragg's campaign for Manhattan district attorney, Soros did the most damage ever. He stepped on the gas in his political war with our country in the most visible way to date. This time I hope Donald Trump, as the 47th president of the United States makes him pay the price for it.
It's one I proposed when Donald Trump first became president. He must consider it seriously when he again becomes president in January 2025.
What should he do? He should revoke George Soros' fraudulent dual citizenship and deport him.
This is necessary for reforming election practices in the U.S., as well as generally fighting the radical left.
Are we going to make American great again? With this puppeteer of the left gone, we won't have opposition to that goal – not as much anyway.
Farah repeated the same talking points he issued in making the same demand last year -- it's unclear how Soros got his dual citizenship and getting busted for securities violations should be sufficient cause for revoking it -- and he repeated attacks taken from an issue of WND's sparsely read Whistleblower magazine dedicated to bashing Soros. He concluded by ranting further:
So, again, I ask: Why is this man permitted to retain U.S. citizenship? Why did he achieve it in the first place?
Is it only the money – so much of it he uses to spread strife and division within the nation?
If we're going to clean things up in America, we should start by giving this guy an unceremonious boot.
Again, we'll give Soros himself the last word: "Revoking citizenship as a form of punishment is wrong and undermines the rule of law." Farah had nothing to say about that.
MRC's Tantrums: Cover Hunter, Not Trump! Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center's desperation to defend Donald Trump from being held accountable for his actions led to no fewer than four bouts of Hunter Biden Derangement Syndrome, demanding that the media cover him and not Trump. Kevin Tober complained in a March 19 post:
Continuing the week-long trend of the leftist media ignoring each and every new revelation in the rapidly growing scandal surrounding the Biden family’s corrupt overseas business dealings, the March 19 Sunday shows all blatantly ignored this latest Biden scandal in favor of a familiar media spectacle: Donald Trump.
The four liberal Sunday talk shows, which consist of ABC’s This Week, CBS's Face the Nation, NBC’s Meet the Press, and CNN’s State of the Union spent a combined 46 minutes and 46 seconds obsessing and sometimes gleefully reporting on the news that former President Donald Trump could be indicted over his involvement with former porn star Stormy Daniels.
The time breakdown that each show spent on the Trump news is as follows: This Week (13 minutes 14 seconds), Face the Nation (7 minutes), Meet the Press (6 minutes 10 seconds), and State of the Union(22 minutes 22 seconds).
In contrast, these Sunday shows spent no time at all on the news that House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) acquired the bank records of Hunter Biden’s business associates.
[...]
Unfortunately, today’s media with the exception of Fox News and a few other outlets, serve no other purpose than being the Democrat Party’s [sic] PR agents.
Translation: Tober is very happy and grateful that Fox News is serving as a PR agent for the Republican Party.
Tober returned to complain a week later that non-right-wing Sunday shows still were not promoting Republican propaganda:
For the second week in a row (March 26), the four liberal Sunday roundtable shows ignored the rapidly growing scandal surrounding the Biden family’s corrupt overseas business dealings, even as new details continued to unravel. Instead, of reporting on the hard evidence in the federal Hunter Biden probe (and other alleged crimes and corruption surrounding the Biden family), they spent considerable airtime speculating and debating about a possible indictment of former President Trump by Alvin Bragg, the Soros-backed district attorney in New York City.
The four liberal Sunday talk shows, which consist of ABC’sThis Week, CBS's Face the Nation, NBC’s Meet the Press, and CNN’s State of the Union, spent over an hour (63 minutes and 53 seconds) of combined time on the possible Trump indictment story.
[...]
The fact that the Sunday shows continued to ignore the Biden story while harping on a week-old Trump story with no new substantive information shows their efforts to deflect for the Biden administration.
Tober didn't explain why he didn't think the possibility of a former president facing a criminal indictment wasn't newsworthy -- or why Republican specuation about a non-politician's possible indictment is.
After news of Trump's indictment broke, Geoffrey Dickens took the indignation stick, continuing to be mad that it was considered news and Republican ranting over Hunter Biden wasn't in a March 31 post:
Shhh! Nothing to see here! The Big Three (ABC, CBS, NBC) networks continue to bury the Hunter Biden probe and the growing scandals surrounding the Biden family’s corruption, including the House Oversight Committee’s revelations that Hunter, the President’s brother Jim and Hallie Biden (widow of son Beau) received payments from a Chinese energy firm — something President Joe Biden firmly denied.
However, their voracious appetite for covering the various investigations (Stormy Daniels, Mar-a-Lago documents, January 6th) surrounding former President Donald Trump remains unsatiated.
Beginning with the House Oversight Committee’s breaking of the Hallie Biden news through the evening of Trump’s indictment, MRC analysts tracked the glaring double standard.
Over 14 days (March 16-March 30) ABC, NBC, CBS filled their evening, morning and Sunday roundtable shows with over 272 minutes (4 hours, 32 minutes, 56 seconds) of Trump investigation coverage compared to ZERO seconds spent on Biden family corruption stories. On average, network audiences saw almost 20 minutes per day of Trump investigation stories.
The Big Three (ABC, NBC, CBS) networks are trying to play magician again, hoping their audiences stay so focused on former President Donald Trump that they don’t notice how they’ve used a sleight of hand trick to completely hide the Biden family corruption stories.
Despite the House Oversight Committee digging up new dirt on President Joe Biden and his clan, the broadcast networks continue to censor revelations that Hunter, the President’s brother Jim and Hallie Biden (widow of son Beau) received payments from a Chinese energy firm. Most recently they whistled past more incriminating news on Biden’s improper handling of classified documents.
However, they remain obsessed with covering the various investigations (Stormy Daniels, Mar-a-Lago documents, January 6th) surrounding former President Donald Trump.
Beginning with the House Oversight Committee’s breaking of the Biden family receiving payments from payments through the day after Trump’s arrest in New York, MRC analysts tracked the glaring double standard.
Dickens concluded by huffing: "It’s striking how the networks have completely disappeared any mention of the most recent Biden family scandals while at the same time obsessively reporting on the Trump investigations. The contrast is truly stunning." He didn't mention that no actual evidence of Biden wrongdoing has been released -- even Fox News has called out oversight committee head Jamnes Comer for not producing anything meaningful to back up his Biden-bashing claims -- and he again failed to explain why Trump's indictment was not newsworthy.
Newsmax Pushed Anonymous Attack Over Biden Not Attending Coronation Topic: Newsmax
Newsmax peddled a dubious, anonymous attack on President Biden in an April 3 article by Eric Mack:
President Joe Biden reportedly will not attend King Charles' coronation next month because he is deemed "too old" to make two transatlantic trips in a month, according to an insider.
Instead, first lady Jill Biden and "high-profile representatives" might be sent in order to avoid the appearance the U.S. president is snubbing the royal family, sources told The Telegraph.
President Biden, 80, is making an April 11 trip to Northern Ireland, and as the oldest U.S. president ever elected, there are concerns he is too old to handle two long trips in a month's time.
"The guy is 80," a source told The Telegraph. "They space out his big bursts of activity quite considerably. They did that too with Trump, and he was younger. When Biden does something like the State of the Union address, we didn't see much from him in the following 48 hours. They don't like to push him around the world too much."
Mack didn't mention that the Telegraph has a right-wing bias, which would make it more prone to attacking Biden, so there's little reason to take the word of an anonymous source at face value.
Mack also failed to tell his readers that there's a historical precedent for Biden not attending: As we pointed out when a WorldNetDaily columnist lashed out at Biden, no U.S. president has ever attended the coronation of a British monarch.Mack did hint at this but got the reasoning wrong: "The late Queen Elizabeth's coronation in 1953 was not attended by President Dwight Eisenhower. A U.S. president's attendance might have been rejected to avoid overshadowing the coronation event."
WND Pushes Another Capitol Riot Conspiracy Theory Topic: WorldNetDaily
It's been more than two years since the Capitol riot, and WorldNetDaily is still trying to whitewash it or build conspiracy theories around it to protect Donald Trump and his right-wing supporters (like WND). Bob Unruh did the latter in a March 14 article:
The congressional certification of Joe Biden's win in the 2020 presidential race was accomplished in the dark of night after the so-called "riot" happened at the U.S. Capitol and members of Congress reconvened.
Now a report on the Conservative Treehouse website explains it had to happen that way – no matter what any supporters of President Trump may or may not have done that day.
The short explanation is that since there were multiple motions pending before Congress on challenges to the election results, had the event proceeded routinely, they would have been considered, and Congress would have been required to debate them.
The results could have been catastrophic for Joe Biden.
In order to dispense with those motion without having them considered, Congress had to be in an "emergency" session, which was provided for by the reaction to the protesters at the Capitol, the report explains.
[...]
Cited is longtime Conservative Treehouse reader "Regitiger" who offered the analysis that suggests a "federal government motive to create a J6 crisis that permitted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to trigger an emergency session and avoid the 2020 election certification challenges."
Those challenges were known about well in advance of that day, and even if they had been voted down, could have provided a legal standing for subsequent judicial cases, the report said.
Unruh is in stenography mode here, so he's not going to even ettempt to do any critical analysis of a conspiracy theory forwarded by writers hiding behind fake names on a right-wing website. Instead, he simply parroted the discredited claims they made, such as "Why didn’t House Speaker Nancy Pelosi secure the Capitol Hill complex, and why did she deny the request by President Trump to call up the national guard for security support? Why did the FBI have agent provocateurs in the crowd, seemingly stimulating rage within a peaceful crowd to enter the Capitol building?" In fact, Trump issued no request for Pelosi to deny, and "agent provocateurs" is an apparent reference to Ray Epps, and WND can'tstopclinging to this never-proven conspiracy theory.
NEW ARTICLE -- Out There, Exhibit 84: The MRC's Watergate Complex Topic: Media Research Center
Fifty years after the scandal that brought down Richard Nixon, the Media Research Center wants you to believe that the real victim was ... Nixon. And an MRC executive served up a fond farewell to the sleazy G. Gordon Liddy. Read more >>
There is no end to the opportunities for us to wonder at what goes on in the mind of President Biden regarding the policies of our government.
When Tucker Carlson got fired by Fox News last month, Newsmax 
After Donald Trump floated the idea in March that his arrest was imminent, CNSNews.com unsurprisingly rushed to publish numerous articles about right-wingers defending him and attacking the district attorney investigating him, Alvin Bragg (whom CNS curiously makes sure to note is based in Manhattan):
The Media Research Center first 
Right-wing media 
Like its now-defunct "news" division 
When it wasn't 
Michael Orsi
Media Research Center executive Tim Graham's 
The indictment of Donald Trump has prompted WorldNetDaily editor Joseph Farah to make another one of his 
The Media Research Center's 
Newsmax peddled a dubious, anonymous attack on President Biden in an April 3 
It's been more than two years since the Capitol riot, and WorldNetDaily is still trying to whitewash it or build conspiracy theories around it to protect Donald Trump and his right-wing supporters (like WND). Bob Unruh did the latter in a March 14 
