MRC -- Which Attacked Trump Prosecutor As 'Soros-Backed' -- Complained That It Was Pointed Out Trump Trial Judge Was Appointed By Him
Topic: Media Research Center

After months of attacking Alvin Bragg, the district attorney who's behind Donald Trump's first indictment, as a "Soros-backed prosecutor," the Media Research Center is aghast that anyone who would point out that Aileen Cannon, who will oversee Trump's second indictment (which the MRC has been defending Trump against), was appointed to her position by Trump and might be biased toward him. Alex Christy whined in a June 9 post:

Gone are the days when questioning whether a judge in a Trump indictment case can be truly impartial is said to be unacceptable because the cast of MSNBC's Friday special coverage on the matter sounded the alarm whether Trump-appointed Judge Aileen Cannon can truly be fair and neutral given some of her previous rulings.

Diaz-Balart presented the news to NBC senior executive editor for national security David Rohde and asked for his thoughts, “And now NBC can confirm indeed that Judge Aileen Cannon will be presiding over this case. Just thought, your reaction to that?”

Not thrilled with the news, Rohde declared that “I'm concerned and if she, you know, handles it through the trial she made some very unusual rulings in the course of the litigation surrounding the search warrant.”

Rohde is alluding to Cannon’s decision to appoint a special master back in September.

Christy didn't mention that legal experts questioned Cannon's movefor a special master, seen as a move designed to benefit Trump and which a federal appeals court later overruled.Christy pretended this wasn't evidence of bias: "Cannon was presented with an unprecedented and politically sensitive case involving a former president who is currently running again, she issued a ruling, it got reversed, that isn’t definitive proof of partiality.

P.J. Gladnick whined about the criticism in a June 11 post:

On Friday, MSNBC acted "concerned" over the news that Aileen Cannon was chosen as the judge to oversee the Trump documents case. However, the MSNBC reaction was mild compared to the sheer panic over Cannon in an article published by Slate magazine that same day. Mark Joseph Stern, Slate's senior writer on legal matters sounds like he will spend many sleepless nights over his extreme fear that "Judge Aileen Cannon Can Absolutely Sink the Federal Prosecution of Trump.

[...]

EEEK! And what gives Stern nightmares is that this case hasn't been assigned to a liberal judge who can be counted on to pressure the jury into the desirable outcome of convicting Trump.

[...]

GASP! She gave a decision favorable for Trump. Not permitted in a world where the federal government has largely been politically weaponized. You can't fight weaponizers! Stern notes Smith has the option of requesting a different judge, although "Trump would surely fight such a request, and it’s impossible to say where the 11th Circuit would come down."

It's not impossible to say where Mark Joseph Stern and his fellow media liberals would come down. And is there a Xanax bottle big enough to calm him down if Judge Cannon remains on the case?

Mark Finkelstein used a June 12 post to complain that MSNBC host Joe Scarborough questioned the odds that Cannon would end up with this case, but cheered that "both of Scarborough's expert guests—neither being in any way a Trump fan—shot down Joe's fevered fantasy."

Cassandra DeVries huffed the same day, with added Sonia Sotomayor whataboutism repeated for the MRCs defenses of Clarence Thomas:

During Monday’s CNN This Morning, host Erica Hill and senior legal analyst Elie Honig attempted to stigmatize and discredit Judge Aileen Cannon, who will preside over former President Trump’s indictment in the classified documents scandal. They doubted her ability to be impartial since Trump appointed her to the federal bench and discussed possible reasons for the Department of Justice to pressure her to recuse herself from the case.

[...]

While Honig concluded that there was not enough substance to recuse Cannon, Hill and Honig repeatedly highlighted her appointment by Trump, clerkship for a conservative judge, age, and previous rulings to undermine her credibility. They openly discussed reasons she might not be fit to preside and implied she should recuse herself because of her conservative ties. However, CNN did not have a problem with liberal Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor refusing to recuse herself from a case directly involving the publisher of her book. Once again, CNN evaluated conservatives with hasher standards.

Peter Kotara spent a June 15 post whining that Scarborough criticized Cannon again:

Seething MSNBC host Joe Scarborough on Thursday’s Morning Joediscovered that there was in fact, no limit to the depths he would dig to smear Judge Aileen Cannon, who will be presiding over former President Trump’s criminal trial.  Putting aside how Trump had appointed her to the bench, the gist of Scarborough’s criticism was that she was too young and too dumb, thus she couldn’t be trusted to oversee the trial.

Scarborough’s vendetta against Judge Cannon, one that was shared by the rest of the liberal media, stemmed from the fact that she made a prior ruling in the case that favored Trump, and was overturned by the Federal 11th Circuit Court. This case was the media’s chance to “get Trump” before the election, and they couldn’t stand the fact Trump didn’t get a hostile, left-leaning judge.

[...]

Their absurd argument was that because she hasn’t been a judge as long as some other judges have, she cannot run the trial. Scarborough even admitted that Judge Cannon being selected for the case was “assigned randomly,” which was standard procedure in the courts. Her being on the case was just a normal part of the way the judiciary system works, an impartial process, but it wasn’t enough.

Kotara concluded: "For someone who claimed to support the justice system in America and that Trump’s guilt was certain, Scarborough should stop crying that the dice didn’t roll his way and let the trial play out." We don't recall anyone from the MRC saying that about Bragg.

Christy returned to complain some more in a June 16 post:

MSNBC spent 93 percent of Tuesday discussing former President Trump’s arraignment on Tuesday and it appears some at the network think that number is too low. One of those voices belongs to contributor, professor, and former Solicitor General Neal Katyal, who joined Thursday’s edition of The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle to demand that Judge Aileen Cannon work with Chief Justice John Roberts to televise the trial.

His remarks also come as the network tries its hardest to discredit Cannon by doubting her ability to be impartial, so not only is MSNBC demanding the judge rule certain ways, but also that she consider their programming demands, “To me, the most important order, Steph, that she should be issuing is a request to the Chief Justice of the United States to get this televised.”

Christy then demanded that the media not turn a Trump trial into a circus, even though Trump is the one who would likely be responsible for doing that:

Katyal isn’t wrong to say this case will be “one of the most important” in the nation’s history, which is why it must be taken seriously and not turned into a sports-like spectacle with networks mashing together montages of the most “dramatic” moments to recap the proceedings for viewers that don’t watch cable news all day, every day and that are more geared towards attracting viewers than legal education.

A post by Christy later that day cheered a Republican congressman complaining that Cannon's status as a Trump-appointed judge was called out:

Tennessee Rep. Tim Burchett (R) joined CNN Primetime host Kailtan Collins on Thursday for a discussion that included a tense back and forth about whether CNN is creating “doubt in the mind of the public” by attacking Judge Aileen Cannon in the case of former President Trump’s second indictment with an exasperated Burchett telling Collins “I mean, come on, you're CNN, we know that, it’s just the game we all play.”

While lamenting that networks like CNN are attempting to try the case on air, Burchett also condemned the network for having “already started attacking the judge.”

Elaborating, Burchett claimed, “you’ve already started attacking the judge prior to this… if she'd have been a Biden appointee, you'd have been okay with it. So, I mean, you obviously, throwing doubt into the whole judicial system anyway.”

Collins pushed back, “I didn't attack the judge.” Burchett challenged her by pointing to segments earlier in the show and accusing her of throwing “doubt upon her by saying she was a Trump appointee. Why would you say that unless you had doubt about her and you’re creating the doubt in the mind of the public.”

[...]

Despite Collins’s claims to the contrary, Burchett is correct. By attacking the judge by bringing up rulings they don’t like, who appointed her, and her age, they are setting her up as a potential target for condemnation should Trump not be convicted.

Neither Christy nor any other MRC writer admitted that the did the exact same thing he accused CNN of doing when attacking Bragg. Nevertheless, Christy invokved this in crying hypocrisy in a June 22 post:

On June 15, Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) accused CNN’s Kailtan Collins of referring to Judge Aileen Cannon as “Trump-appointed” in order to instill doubt in the Trump documents case and questioned whether she would do the same if the judge was appointed by Barack Obama. Collins defended herself by saying “We talk about who judges were appointed by all the time.” Now, less than one week later we have proof from two separate Wednesday stories: one involving a Republican-appointee and one involving a Democratic appointee that shows that isn’t true.

Judge James Moody Jr. is an Obama appointee and he recently issued the radical ruling that Arkansas’s ban on transitioning minors violated the Constitution, but any reference to Obama or the Democratic Party was missing from any CNN report on the matter. 

If the president who appointed a judge is irrelevant -- as the MRC is arguing when it comes to Cannon -- why make a big deal of who appointed the Arkansas judge?Christy offered no evidence why it was the Arkansas judge's ruling over turning the anti-transgender law was "radical" and not the actual law itself.

Newsmax Joins Right-Wing Transphobic Bandwagon To Attack Target
Topic: Newsmax

Like others in the ConWeb, Newsmax jumped on the transphobia bandwagon targeting Target for not hating LGBT people. It was in on the war early:

• A May 11 article stating that "With Pride month right around the corner, Target is letting its rainbow flag fly with a new LGBTQ+ clothing line that includes breast binders and packing underwear," citing the virulently transphobic Matt Walsh.
• A May 19 article by Wells repeated a right-wing Daily Mail report that "Target is offering a 'tuck-friendly" bathing suit in this year's LGBTQ Pride clothing collection, which is seemingly designed for children," again citing Walsh. In fact, the tuck-friendly swimsuits were never marketed for children.
• A May 23 article by Eric Mack declared that "Target is partaking in campaigns to capitalize on LGBTQ messaging and merchandise and critics are lashing out on social media with calls for boycotts, leading to fears of a Bud Light-like public relations hit."
• A May 24 article by Sandy Fitzgerald noted that Target was "removing some of its Pride Month collection items after this year's promotion led to threats to the safety of its workers."

A May 25 article by Theodore Bunker peddled a false attack that it had to eventually admit was false:

Conservative Political Action Coalition Chair Matt Schlapp on Thursday hit out at Target for partnering with artist Erik Carnell and accusing him of being a "satanist."

Schlapp, in an open letter to Target, claims that Carnell is "a self-declared 'satanist,'" who "openly flaunts his anti-Christian agenda posting that 'Satan respects pronouns,' selling items with phrases like, 'Trans Witches for Abortion,' and participating in a 'satanic flea market' in London called an 'anti-Christmas fayre.'"

Carnell, a British designer, created a collection for Target that included shirts, pins, and bags with pro-LGBTQ+ messages. Some contained references to Satan, such as a pin that reads, "Satan respects pronouns," which Carnell told the Daily Dot "I don't believe in Satan. I don't believe in the Bible … . It's a metaphor," he said.

While Bunker did admit that Carnell is not a Satanist, he failed to tell his readers that none of the merchandise created for Target carried any sort of "Satanic" theme.

Another article the same day, by Lee Barney, cheered that Target's market value dropped over the "backlash over its LGBTQ kids clothes," claiming that "the line included 'tuck friendly' swimsuits for transgender females to hide their private parts" while failing to tell the truth that those swimsuits were not marketed to children.

A May 26 article by the apparently unironically named Charlie McCarthy parroted another right-wing attack on Target: through an LGBT advocacy group:

Now, Target’s close ties with K-12 group GLSEN has come to light.

GLSEN is an organization that pressures school boards to allow children to secretly transition without their parents' consent and make sexually explicit books available in classrooms.

The group also instructs teachers about how they can alter classes to be "more inclusive of trans and non-binary identities," including the use of "they/them" pronouns, Fox News reported.

McCarthy offered no facts to back up his wildly biased, Fox News-approved description of GLSEN.

A paywalled May 26 article by Marisa Herman cheered that "Companies rolling out campaigns in support of June's Pride Awareness Month may take a more "nuanced" approach following consumer backlash to recent initiatives from Bud Light and Target, marketing and branding experts predict." An article by Charles Kim noted a bomb threat at a Target story. Another article by Michael Katz hyped that "A conservative investment fund reported it has sold its shares in Target and has slapped the retailer with a "refuse to buy" label over its Pride Month collection." (We thought right-wingers believed that investing shouldn't be based on ESG-style goals.) He repeated the false claim that "Target had transgender 'tuck-friendly' bathing suits seemingly designed for children."

Meanwhile, an article by Luca Cacciatore gave a platform to a right-wing senator to spew hate:

Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, criticized Target for its LGBTQ+ Pride Month collection on Friday, saying the company has "decided to wage war" on its loyal customers.

"Target could have decided to stay out of the culture wars, instead it decided to wage war on a large share of its customer base," Vance tweeted. "I no longer shop at Target, and it seems many families are doing the same."

The senator retweeted a post by journalist Benny Johnson stating, "Target stock has just COLLAPSED to its lowest trading value in a YEAR with no end in sight."

Newsmax did, however, publish a wire article noting that Carnell "has seen a surge in demand for his pins, prints, stickers and T-shirts after U.S. retailer Target Corp pulled his products amid a backlash by some customers to its Pride collection."

Newsmax then tried to pretend Target wasn't the victim of a hateful and partisan political campaign. A June 1 article by Barney claimed that Target's finances were hurt by "customers’ intense backlash against its Pride collection." In fact, it was only right-wing activists with media megaphones who disapproved, not "customers" as a whole.

WND Misleads About Yet Another COVID Vaccine Study
Topic: WorldNetDaily

Bob Unruh found another COVID vaccine-related study to mislead about in a May 31 WorldNetDaily article:

A study done during the COVID pandemic, preliminary at the time, charged that people actually were more likely to get COVID if they'd had multiple vaccine doses.

But it was dissed widely by political leaders and health industry officials because it had not been peer-reviewed.

Now it has. And it is delivered the same stunning verdict: "The risk of COVID-19 … varied by the number of COVID-19 vaccine doses previously received. The higher the number of vaccines previously received, the higher the risk of contracting COVID-19."

It was Joe Biden, among others, who tried to shame and coerce Americans into taking the experimental shots.

It wasn't until the 10th paragraph of his article that Unruh got around to quoting from the actual study:

The results documented by Open Forum Infectious Diseases said, "The association of increased risk of COVID-19 with higher numbers of prior vaccine doses was unexpected."

It suggested a "simplistic" explanation is that those who got more doses were more likely to be at higher risk.

But, it said, "the majority of subjects in this study were generally young individuals and all were eligible to have received at least 3 doses of vaccine by the study start date, and which they had every opportunity to do. Therefore, those who received fewer than 3 doses (46% of individuals in the study) were not those ineligible to receive the vaccine, but those who chose not to follow the CDC's recommendations on remaining updated with COVID-19 vaccination."

It continued, "One could reasonably expect these individuals to have been more likely to have exhibited higher risk-taking behavior. Despite this, their risk of acquiring COVID-19 was lower than those who received a larger number of prior vaccine doses."

Much of the rest of Unruh's article quoted from an unhinged commentary at the right-wing PJ Media, which insisted on calling vaccine supporters "COVIDians," whined about the "sponsored-by-Pfizer media" and ranted that "The pharmaceutical companies’ ill-gotten blanket immunity from damages caused by their products needs to be retroactively revoked because they were granted on fraudulent premises." Unruh couldn't be bothered to talk to one of the actual researchers about the significance of that finding, like a fact-checker did:

Incorrect claims about the paper have been circulating since before it was peer-reviewed and published. Recently, a widely viewed social media post jumped to the conclusion that the study shows that “a higher number of COVID-19 vaccine doses received increases the risk of infection with COVID-19.” Another widely viewed post sharing the study results incorrectly concluded that the vaccines were a “failed experiment.”

The original COVID-19 vaccine series was initially very effective against infection and without question “saved a lot of lives,” co-author Dr. Nabin Shrestha, an infectious disease physician at the Cleveland Clinic, told us. Determining whether getting more doses of the COVID-19 vaccines can later cause greater susceptibility to infections “wasn’t the point of the study,” he said. 

Shrestha said he did not know the explanation for the findings. The paper mentions immunological mechanisms that “have been suggested as possible mechanisms whereby prior vaccine may provide less protection than expected.” But Shrestha said that the result could also be from a confounding factor — some characteristic of people who got more vaccines that led them to have a higher number of positive tests.

[...]

Observational studies like the Cleveland Clinic one can turn up associations between things, but it can be difficult to assess what caused these patterns.

Shrestha said the finding in his study on prior doses and infection risk “should certainly give us some pause.” But he also said that “a study like this, one study, is not going to prove any cause-effect relationship.” The goal in presenting the findings, he said, was to prompt other researchers to also look at the relationship between past doses and infection risk.

In other words: The study didn't prove what Unruh claimed it did, nor was it designed to -- it was an observation that calls for additional research. Of course, misleading and fearmongering about COVID vaccines is what WND does.

NEW ARTICLE -- The MRC Flips Over Elon Musk, Part 12: NPR Derangement Syndrome
Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center despises public broadcasting, so it was wildly giddy when Elon Musk arbitrarily labeled the Twitter accounts of NPR and PBS as "state-affiliated media," even though it violated Twitter's own labeling standards. Read more >>

MRC Again Came To Trump's Defense Over His (Second) Indictment
Topic: Media Research Center

The Media Research Center labored hard to distract from Donald Trump's first indictment, and it did the same thing for his second one. Nicholas Fondacaro found a formerly hated TV host joining forces with a right-wing journalist to complain about it in a June 8 post:

Former President Trump dropped a bombshell on the race for president Thursday night, an announcement that he had been indicted for willfully holding onto classified documents. But while many of his detractors in the liberal media were doing their happy dance, Chris Cuomo was on his eponymous NewsNation show with independent journalist Matt Taibbi, where both men cast doubt on the charges and had some pretty intense criticisms, including a comparison to a third-world country.

Towards the end of the show, which was entirely dedicated to the Trump Indictment, Cuomo introduced his guest and had some critical words for investigators. He chided that he wasn’t sure if they were “intentionally or unintentionally helping” Trump “because every time there's a swing, it seems to expose the fact they go after him with what seems to be at or below a level of anything that would be impressive to people reviewing the documents.”

Taibbi agreed and reminded viewers that he was “not a fan” of Trump but he had a simple test that any charges directed at a person in Trump’s position needed to pass. Taibbi felt the charges against Trump failed:

Given that Taibbi was Elon Musk's lapdog for the early part of the "Twitter files" saga, calling him an "independent journalist" is highly inaccurate.

Mark Finkelstein whined about schadenfreude in a June 9 post:

On Friday's Morning Joe, they were wallowing in more proof of their constant foresight that the "walls are closing in on Trump." Joe Scarborough cried crocodile tears, breaking out a more-in-sorrow-than-in-anger shtick. Scarborough proclaimed this to be a "bleak, dark day for America," and "something I feared for a long time." Riiight.

Scarborough was clearly aware that many wouldn't buy his crocodile tears, and he thus insisted that: "if anybody thinks I'm being glib or or not completely straightforward in saying that, they don't understand." Sure.

Scarborough quickly enough recovered from his sadness, and proceeded to speculate with Chuck Rosenberg, a former US Attorney and aide to FBI Director James Comey, about the long prison term Trump could be facing. Scarborough even imagined Trump spending "the rest of his life in jail." That prospect surely helped dry Joe's tears.

Alex Christy spent a post being mad that a historian claimed that Gerald Ford's pardon of Richard Nixon over his  Watergate crimes set the stage for Trump's lawlessness (with a dose of Clinton Equivocation):

Presidential historian Douglas Brinkley appeared on Friday’s CNN News Central to discuss former President Trump’s latest indictment and blamed it on a curious suspect: Gerald Ford. Brinkley and host Sara Sidner also acted as if nothing has happened between Watergate and present day when wondering why Republicans do not urge Trump to step aside like they did with Richard Nixon.

Sidner claimed that Watergate represents the best comparison to Trump’s current situation, “but there is a key difference which you just mentioned now, which is that back then Republicans turned on their president because of the enormity of all of the evidence that was coming out about Nixon. That is not happening today. What's the difference? Why?”

That CNN could ask that question in a history segment without going through the history of Clinton family, whether it be Bill’s impeachment for perjuring himself or obstructing justice or Hillary’s e-mail server, and the lack of criminal charges and of Democrats urging them to step aside is remarkable.

Curtis Houck was aghast that someone would complain that Republicans insisted on standing by a repeatedly criminally indicted presidential candidate:

CBS News chief political analyst and longtime liberal journalist John Dickerson surfaced on Friday’s CBS Mornings to opine on the second Trump indictment and, interestingly, it sounded like what he said after the first indictment as it consisted of a pious lecture trashing Republicans for denouncing the charges before documents are unsealed and preferring Trump (if he were to become the GOP’s 2024 presidential nominee) over President Biden.

Dickerson also reveled in how Trump was “being charged with something that...Hillary Clinton, was — was accused of doing” and led to his 2016 victory. Co-host Tony Dokoupil also went aboard the wayback machine, reading an 2016 quote of Trump ironically promising to “enforce all laws concerning the protection of classified information” and “[n]o one will be above the law.”

Dickerson then huffed the GOP “is largely rallying behind him” even though “we don’t know the facts of the case yet” and thus not only are speaking too soon, but not being proper “stewards of our system” of government.

Peter Kotara complained that one TV show promoted "a wild and baseless conspiracy theory that Trump tried to sell classified documents to Saudi Arabia." Christy return to grouse that more folks pointed out that Republicans won't reject Trump despite his criminality:

New York Times columnist and the supposedly conservative half of PBS NewsHour’s weekly Friday Brooks and Capehart panel was dismayed that even “supposedly mature and moderate” Republicans were decrying President Trump’s latest indictment as “selective prosecution.” Washington Post columnist and pinch hitter Ruth Marcus went even further, labelling it “sickening.”

Host Geoff Bennett led Brooks with an unrelated question about the trial being held in Florida which would mean the jury pool will be far less liberal than in New York City, “it's harder for him to make a convincing argument that he's being railroaded when it's happening in — on his home turf, as I said?”

Brooks pleaded ignorant, citing is lack of law school experience and turned the conversation back to the political reaction, “If you're running against Donald Trump for president, your job is to take this day and say, ‘see, that guy's not qualified to be president.’ That's like, simple.”

Unfortunately for Brooks that has not happened, “Does Ron DeSantis do that? No. Does Tim Scott do that? No. They're all — they're all jumping on the, it's prosecutive — it's weaponizing the justice system. They're jumping on that, Mike Lee in the Senate. Glenn Youngkin, the supposedly mature and moderate governor of Virginia, he was like ‘selective prosecution.’

Kevin Tober cheered a Republican presidential candidate whose campaign the MRC helped to launch: "During the obsessive coverage of the recently unsealed indictment of President Donald Trump by Biden's Department of Justice over his alleged mishandling of classified documents, CNN's State of the Union host Dana Bash Sunday was schooled by Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. Bash walked right into a buzz saw when she, as usual, acted like a Democrat [sic] hack instead of a journalist." Tober later showed he's more interested in being a Republican hack than a "media researcher":

During the panel discussion on CBS’s Face the Nation, fill-in anchor John Dickerson said the quiet part out loud Sunday when discussing the recent indictment of former President Donald Trump when he expressed his concern that Trump and his allies in the Republican Party could frame the indictment in a way that makes there more of an appetite for Trump. 

“Some people say, well the Republicans have rallied around Donald Trump, he's under threat,” Dickerson observed. “But what if the way this is being framed by Republicans, which is this is all partisan, this is all a manipulation of the system, creates an appetite for Donald Trump,” he worried.

“In other words if it's all rigged we want the best rigger in the game on our side,” he added. 

CBS White House correspondent Ed O’Keefe put Dickerson’s nerves at ease by noting “if that's the case, then I think the polling continues to show us they can nominate him but he may be set up to lose again.”

Given that a solid majority of Republicans continue to support Trump as the nominee despite his criminality, Tober can't plausibly claim that the non-right-wing media is making that happen.

The complaining continued:

• A June 13 post touted how "NewsBusters managing editor Curtis Houck hopped on Newsmax Monday night during Eric Bolling: The Balance alongside New York Post columnist and 2023 MRC Bulldog Award winner Karol Markowicz to sound off on the ebullient liberal media’s coverage of the second Trump indictment and their continued penchant for hurling venom at Trump supporters." It was not explained why the panel was not fair and balanced by adding a non-conservative to the discussion, or why people who support Trump even after multiple indictments shouldn't be criticized.
• Fondacaro grumbled that a co-host of "The View" pointed out that Republicans have shown by their continued support ofTrump that their "moral compasses" are broken, but did not rebut the argument.
• Finkelstein came back to whine that co-hosts on "Morning Joe" made an argument he decided to frame this way: "Are you a Republican congressman or senator who doesn't agree with the liberal media about the seriousness of the charges against Donald Trump regarding his handling of classified documents? Well then, your own security clearance should be stripped!"

Kotara complained that a commentator argued that "Republicans were following a script and had stopped caring about national security," and he served up a Republican script in response:

Republican commentator Scott Jennings countered Jones and stopped him from painting all Republicans as irrational and insensitive. He explained Republicans’ distrust of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Justice, and how this affected their views of the indictment:

[...]

While many believed the verdict to be clear-cut, including several Republicans, many others did not and were waiting to hear Trump’s defense. The purpose of a trial was to sift through both sides and hopefully arrive at an objective verdict. However, CNN already reached its verdict and even wanted to ensure prosecutors could impanel a jury that would find Trump guilty.

Just because many Republicans disagreed with CNN’s predetermined conclusion does not imply an invasion of bodysnatchers or a deep-rooted indifference to national security.

We can assume that Kotara is not interested in giving this same benefit of the doubt to, say, Hunter Biden.

WND Columnist Gives Chick-fil-A Hypocritical Break On Violating Right-Wing Sensibilities
Topic: WorldNetDaily

We've shown how WorldNetDaily has backed off going scorched-earth on companies who don't hate gay people enough (Bud Light, Target) when that company is typically considered in the right-wing camp (the makers of "The Chosen"). Another example came in a June 1 column by someone named Joy O'Curran, who purports to be "a voracious Christian, adoring homeschooling mom, and avid writer homesteading on a sub-rural two acre Embassy for Christ" who loves reading "the Bible, Christian fiction (especially the old stuff), and conservative news from WND" -- though her column image is a sultry silhouette that doesn't seem like something a "voracious Christian" would do. We could find no evidence of her existence outside of WND archives, which combined with the non-representational image if it's a pseudonym for someone who is either a more prominent writer who wanted a fake name to hide behind or merely someone who really is the described person but wants to remain anonymous outside the column.

O'Curran's column began by repeating falsehoods about Target, claiming that was "marketing satanic products in their 'Pride' month collection" and that it offered "a T-shirt for sale claiming, "Satan respects pronouns." False on both counts. She touted how Target was getting "the Bud Light treatment Anheuser-Busch is currently reeling from after the deeply offensive, misogynistic Dylan Mulvaney ad fiasco: a squeeze from both sides."  She didn't explain what, exactly, was "offensive" or "misogynistic" about a transgender person drinking beer. She then offered a lesson from the past:

When will our corporate community learn to stay out of politics? Better yet, take a lesson from Chick-Fil-A from the past and choose biblical morals as your guide for business behavior.

Back around 2012, then-CEO of Chick-Fil-A, Dan Cathey, made some remarks that clearly marked him as against same-sex marriage. There was an alphabet community outcry with calls for boycotts and "kiss-ins." Within the following weeks, though, what happened was a call from the conservative community to counter that action with extra trips through the restaurant's drive-thru and dining room. The result was a clear and complete statement that there is more than ample support for those corporations who choose biblical moral values and peacefully stick to it. Chick-Fil-A revenues went through the roof.

In fact, there are a number of retailers that have gotten the memo that sticking to conservative values and speaking up against the woke mob will actually win you customers. One shining example is Mike Lindell and his MyPillow corporation.

O'Curran seems to be confusing being anti-"woke" with being a dishonest liar. Ah, but all is not well in the fast-food chicken world:

It's a shame that the big corporations that run their businesses on borrowed money and short-term loans are now in such a pickle. So many of the banking institutions have been coerced or even willingly implemented ESG criteria for eligibility to get those needed loans. However, conservatives are smelling blood in the water with the effective Bud Light pinch and are also seeing Target clearly suffer. What is a corporate executive to do? They must do leftist craziness to get their ESG scores up so they can get the bank loans needed, but when they do, their customer base vanishes. Go woke, go broke! My hope is that this will result in fewer mammoth corporations drunk on short-term loans and result in lots more mom-and-pop operations, which helps keep our money local. After all, that is really better for our environment, in more ways than one.

Sadly, this week, Chick-Fil-A has also succumbed to the woke DEI madness that meets ESG banking requirements. No doubt, if the founder, S. Truett Cathey, were still in the driver's seat, instead of his Gen X grandson, Andrew Cathey, who took over in late 2021, things might be very different. Andrew is in his mid 40s, making him officially Gen X, but he is on the cusp, and no doubt identifies more closely with millennials who have been brainwashed from birth on alphabet community talking points. This could very possibly be the origins of his recent leadership decisions.

The actual words "diversity, "equity" and "inclusion" are not utterly divergent from biblical moral values because true Christians believe in fairness, justice for all and color-blindness. However, DEI is a standard cudgel used by the alphabet community to make excuses to implement racial discrimination, advance reparations for the purported great great grandchildren of former slaves and encourage employment advancement based on the way a person looks versus his or her capabilities. None of these ideas is positive in the long term for our society. It is truly unfortunate that Chick-Fil-A has chosen to go this route even if just to check a box and get on with business as usual. Andrew may find that business may not be so usual now.

But O'Curran is not demanding a boycott of Chick-fil-A for this egregious violation of right-wing sensibilities. Instead, she lectured Target some more:

So, I ask you, Target execs, do you want the Bud Light treatment or the original Chick-Fil-A treatment? Choose the right, not because there are more of us than them, but because it's the right thing to do! One of the results of embracing those biblical values would be reworking your business so you require those loans less often, if ever. Problem solved.

I also ask you, Christian conservatives, how many of you signed the Target boycott years ago and then gave up because you selfishly wanted something frivolous you could only get at Target? Repent and see the strength of God's goodness working through you too! Let's stand together, not for hate but for love, saying to the alphabet community: Loved one, this sin is hurting you. Please stop!

It appears that O'Curran is saying to Target that it will get a Chick-fil-A-style pass if it starts hating LGBT people the way right-wing Christians do. 

By the way, WND as a whole largely ignored the Chick-fil-A DEI story, serving up only a republished story from the far-right Western Journal.

MRC Again Defends DeSantis' Purported Comedy Chops
Topic: Media Research Center

The Media Research Center's resident comedy cop, Alex Christy, has brought his policing skills to the DeSantis Defense Brigade. We've already noted his insistence that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' claim that he wanted to build a prison next to Disney World was a joke, despite offering no evidence that it was, and he returned to defend DeSantis' purported comedy chops again in a May 23 post:

As Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis prepares to launch his presidential campaign, NBC is pulling out all the stops to derail his bid before it gets going. On Monday, Henry Gomez wrote an article under the headline Ron DeSantis is learning that not every state wants to be Florida.Not only did Gomez not mention any anti-Florida states, he apparently can’t tell the difference between DeSantis’s criticisms of other states and jokes.

Gomez recounts a recent DeSantis speech:

In Georgia, a compliment quickly gave way to grievance. ‘One thing we’re no longer No. 1 in is college football,’ DeSantis told an audience during a visit to a gun store in March. ‘So I just have a little bit of a plea … just stop taking so many of our high school football recruits. Can you give us a little bit of a chance?’

It’s a joke about college football and how the University of Georgia has won two consecutive national championships while Florida schools have gone the opposite direction.

Gomez’s inability to comprehend a joke was also a fitting summary for the rest of his article. Gomez contends “a funny thing has happened as DeSantis travels the country with a ‘Make America Florida’ message that underpins the Republican’s soon-to-launch presidential campaign.”

[...]

NBC has claimed to discover some truly earth-shattering news: Republican governors do Republican things and all they had to do to turn that basic fact of life into an anti-DeSantis hit piece was lose anything resembling a sense of humor.

Of course, if you feel you have to explain the joke, that means the joke has failed. And remember, this is a guy who thinks any joke on late-night TV that makes fun of a Republican cannot possibly be funny, so maybe he's the one who does not have anything resembling a sense of humor.

NEW ARTICLE: Newsmax's Big Tucker Carlson Flip-Flop
Topic: Newsmax
Newsmax repeatedly attacked Tucker Carlson for his pro-Putin attitudes after Russia invaded Ukraine. Then Fox News fired Carlson -- and suddenly he became a victim worth promoting (plus, there's the chance he might work for Newsmax someday). Read more >>

MRC's DeSantis Defense Brigade Watch, NAACP Travel Advisory Edition
Topic: Media Research Center

When it wasn't aggressively pretending that his presidential campaign launch on Twitter wasn't utterly botched, the Media Research Center kept its DeSantis Defense Brigade deployed for its usual functions during the month of May. When the NAACP issued a travel advisory for Florida in part because of DeSantis "aggressive attempts to erase Black history and to restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in Florida schools," the Defense Brigade assembled yet again. Nicholas Fondacaro ranted in a May 22 post:

Ahead of the Memorial Day weekend on Saturday, the far-left race-baiting fear-mongers at the NAACP issued a so-called “travel advisory” for the State of Florida and falsely claimed the state was “openly hostile toward African Americans.” Seemingly afraid of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s capabilities in the GOP presidential primaries, the flagship newscasts of ABC and NBC took the fake and politically driven “travel advisory” and broadcasted it into American homes Sunday night and Monday morning.

During Sunday’s World News Tonight, ABC fill-in anchor Lindsey Davis direly announced: “The NAACP is issuing a formal travel advisory for Florida, saying the state has become hostile to black Americans under Republican Governor Ron DeSantis.”

“Other civil rights groups have issued similar warnings in recent weeks,” she added, to add credence to the factitious advisory. She said this with the on-screen headline reading "NAACP Issue Flroida Travel WARNING" (pictured above)

Without any mention of the NAACP’s political affiliations and historic use of fear tactics to drum up support, correspondent Jay O’Brien boosted their accusations that Florida was not a safe place to visit or live if you’re a minority:

The same day, Kevin Tober declared without evidence that the travel warning was "fake" and "politically motivated," whining that a CBS correspondent "labeled DeSantis’s policies to protect children from being taught inappropriate topics in school a 'conservative crackdown,' and proclaimed that 'DeSantis has stirred both content and contempt, blocking a high school AP course in African American studies, also in schools, bans on teaching gender identity, sexual identity, and Critical Race Theory, and a ban on abortion after six weeks.'" He concluded by huffing that CBS was trying to "keep the left’s racism narrative alive" by reporting on "a racial smear campaign against the state of Florida."

Fondacaro returned to whine about the advisory again in a May 23 post:

Following the overwrought coverage from CBS Evening News the previous night, CBS Mornings co-anchor Gayle King clutched her pearls on Tuesday over the NAACP’s ridiculous and false travel advisory for black Americans, which told them to steer clear of Florida because the state was “openly hostile” to minorities. King feared for her two sisters who lived in the state and was beside herself with concern for the black folks who called the state home.

“The NAACP has issued a travel advisory for Florida,” King announced as if the far-left race baiters didn’t have a political motive. “It says the state is, quote, ‘openly hostile toward African Americans, people of color, and LGBTQ+ individuals’ due to a series of measures recently signed by [Republican] Governor Ron DeSantis” (The same DeSantis who was reportedly getting ready to launch a presidential bid later this week).

Trying to lend credence to the warning, she added that the NAACP was “not the first civil rights group that issues this kind of warning, which comes as DeSantis prepares for a presidential run. Equality Florida and the League of United Latin American Citizens have also issued warnings.”

Actually, wouldn't the fact that other groups have issued similar warnings mean that the NAACP is likely not acting  with a political motive? Meanwhile, of course, Fondacaro is very much acting with a political motive in his defense of DeSantis.

When White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked about it at a press briefing, Curtis Houck whined that reporter April Ryan, who asked about the "faux" travel advisory, "is always carrying water for the far-left Black organizations." He concluded by whining further that Jean-Pierre "finally wrapped with a helpful reminder for DeSantis and Florida Republicans, promising the White House would remain 'outspoken' against DeSantis and Florida Republicans because '[t]hat's what we believe it is our duty to do here.'" As if the White House has never criticized anyone from the opposite party before.

Meanwhile, any perceived criticism was attacked as usual:

• Orlando Sentinel Front: ‘Bully’ DeSantis Uses ‘Fear Factor’ to Push ‘Hard-Right Agenda’
• NBC Boasts DeSantis Is ‘Facing Even More Pushback From Disney’ Over ‘Don’t Say Gay’
• Hostin Decries ‘Dangerous’ DeSantis Raising Money for NY Marine Vet
• CNN Dismayed DeSantis Would Defend NY Marine from Lefty D.A.
• MSNBC Previews DeSantis 2024 By Labeling Him 'Pro-White Supremacy'
• MSNBC Dubs DeSantis 'The Face of The Erosion of Those Freedoms'
• Reid Frets 'Toy-Sized Mussolini' DeSantis Will Turn U.S. into Iran, North Korea

The MRC is also trying to build a narrative that because ABC is owned by Disney, any negative coverage it does regarding DeSantis had to have been ordered by Disney management -- never mind that it has never provided any evidence that this is true. Thus, we have Curtis Houck huffing in a May 16 post:

Disney returned Tuesday to use its broadcast network ABC and Good Morning America to throw another childish tantrum over Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s (R) conservative agenda driving a stake through the heart of wokeism. This time, the Disney-owned outfit bemoaned DeSantis signing into law a bill to defund Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs from public colleges and universities.

Houck also declared that "When Disney needs ABC to do them a solid, they do it" -- again, without providing actual proof of this other than its previous complaints that ABC's coverage of DeSantis is too negative.

Alex Christy defended DeSantis from another Disney-related controversy in a May 19 post:

Friday’s editions of CBS Mornings and NBC’s Today hyped Disney’s Thursday announcement that they are cancelling a billion-dollar office complex project in Florida as the sort of thing that naturally happens when Gov. Ron DeSantis decides to pick a fight with them. Neither network gave much thought to the possibility that DeSantis had little or nothing to do with the decision.

[...]

As for Disney-affiliated ABC and Good Morning America, they lumped the news into a larger preview of DeSantis as he prepares to launch his presidential campaign with brief summations of D’Amaro and DeSantis’s press team's responses.

Christy really had to struggle to force a Disney reference in here since he couldn't find a way to portray ABC's reporting as negative.

WND's Hirschhorn Can't Stop Misinforming About COVID Vaccines
Topic: WorldNetDaily

The COVID pandemic may have passed, but WorldNetDaily columnist Joel Hirschhorn continues to mislead and fearmonger about COVID vaccines. He began his May 31 column by hyping a case report about a woman in Taiwan who was reportedly diagnosed with leukemia a few days after receiving a COVID vaccines -- though he censored the fact that researchers stated that they "cannot conclude the causal relationship" between the two. After citing another isolated case of an alleged side effect, Hirschhorn wrote:

The highly regarded Dr. Peter A. McCullough made this observation about the new findings:

"I wonder how many elderly patients have died within a few days of the COVID-19 vaccine, unrecognized and not reported by families, doctors, or others. Only all-cause mortality data published in the coming months to years will give us a clue. In the meantime, all seniors should understand that even if prior shots were tolerated, the next one could be fatal."

And, of course, there have been many findings of young people dying from cardiac problems post vaccine shots.

The only people who think McCullough is "highly regarded" are anti-vaxxers like WND; Hirschhorn, meanwhile, didn't cite a single case, let alone "many," of "young people dying from cardiac problems post vaccine shots."

Hirschhorn began his July 3 column by stating: "For those of us who see a critical need to elect a conservative president to restore U.S. democracy and our economy, it makes sense to look at candidates in terms of how they saw the government approach to managing the pandemic." He then attacked the Trump administration for listening to Anthony Fauci, whom Hirschhorn virulently hate:

For simplicity, consider the top two conservative candidates, Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis.

First, it is important to understand that Trump went along with all the wrong policies on addressing the pandemic.

Though I think the Trump presidency did many great things for the country, it has always shocked me that on the key issue of the COVID pandemic he supported all the wrong actions and policies. It became clear by early 2021 that Fauci had pursued totally unsound ways of addressing the pandemic. Here is the mystery question: Why has Trump never openly said that he made a big mistake in listening to the "expertise" of Fauci? Tony Fauci was both incompetent and evil – a truth Trump should acknowledge and speak loudly about. Many attempts to get Trump to see the truth, such as actions by Dr. Scott Atlas and Dr. Peter McCullough, failed.

Trump deserves to pay a heavy price for stubbornly refusing to admit he made a terrible mistake in falling for the myth that Fauci was a top expert worthy of shaping national policy. If the former president is as smart as he thinks he is, then during his campaign for another term he should admit his big mistake as soon as possible – and he should ask for forgiveness.

Hirschhorn ranted that Trump allowed mask mandates and lockdowns and "prohibitions on using safe and effective generics for early treatment such as ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine; and even vitamin D, as a better alternative to the COVID 'vaccines' that are really gene therapy products that were poorly tested." In fact, ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine have never been found effective against COVID in legitimate testing. He then touted how DeSantis purportedly did better:

In contrast to Trump, Gov. DeSantis did a much better job of addressing the pandemic by, for example, keeping workplaces and schools open. He also fought various mandates.

Because of the ever-present Fauci in and on every media outlet, in August 2022 DeSantis said: "I'm so sick of seeing him. … someone needs to grab that little elf and chuck him across the Potomac."

The failure of Fauci's policies must be honestly faced if future pandemics are to be better managed. What Fauci messed up explains why so many Americans have lost confidence in virtually all public health institutions.

Hirschhorn concluded: "The only Democratic presidential candidate with a correct, negative view of Fauci is Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the author of 'The Real Anthony Fauci.' But Kennedy advocates many terrible policies that disqualify him for consideration." One can assume that Kennedy's promotion of anti-vaxx consiracy theories is not on his list of "terrible policies."

MRC Rehashed Praise For Unabomber -- But Censored That Musk Did Too
Topic: Media Research Center

The death of Unabomber Ted Kaczynski prompted a June 11 flashback-style post by Tim Graham:

The apparent death by suicide of "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski might come as a "who's that" from younger citizens. Between 1978 and 1995, Kaczynski mailed or hand-delivered a series of increasingly sophisticated bombs that killed three people and maimed or injured 23 others.

Nevertheless, our Best of Notable Quotables 1996 edition included several sickening examples of journalists praising the eco-terrorist

[...]

Leftist journalists tried to claim you couldn't pin the Unabomber on the Left: 

Graham went on to complain that "just days" after Kaczynski's arrest, "Bryant Gumbel was blaming the Oklahoma City bombing on conservative talk radio," and concluded by whining: "PS: In 2015, remarkably unfunny Comedy Central host Larry Wilmore compared Kaczynski to Ted Cruz: 'Ted Cruz went to Harvard, just like Unabomber Ted Kaczynski. Hey, Harvard, stop admitting dudes named Ted.'"

It seems that Graham's definition of  "remarkably unfunny" is anyone who makes fun of Ted Cruz.

But what Graham -- and all other MRC writers -- failed to mention is that among those who praised Kaczynski was the MRC's favorite erratic billionaire, Elon Musk. When a person on Twitter repeated the beginning of the Unabomber's manifesto, in which he stated that ""The Industrial Revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race" -- which Graham also made a point of quoting in an attempt to portray Kazynski as being "on the Left" -- Musk responded, "He might not be wrong."

But then, the MRC is Musk's PR division, and it publishes only positive things about him (as long as he continues to adhere to right-wing narratives and allow those right-wingers to spew anti-transgender hate).

Still, it's glaring hypocrisy when the MRC attacks all those who have praised the Unabomber -- except one person.

NEW ARTICLE: Another Priest Who Thinks He's A Right-Wing Pundit
Topic: CNSNews.com
CNSNews.com gave space to Catholic priest Jerry Pokorsky to spout right-wing opinions, while also continuing to do the same for another priest, Michael Orsi. Read more >>

MRC Elon Musk PR Watch
Topic: Media Research Center

There's lots of bad news about Elon Musk that the Media Research Center won't tell its readers. It has censored continuing criticism of Musk for bowing to censorship demands from foreign countries. Some of that criticism has come from Enes Kanter Freedom, whose criticism of Musk the MRC has previouly published -- then shoved down the memory hole when he showed interest in buying Twitter. And it's certainly not going to tell readers thatMusk's decision to no longer block anti-transgender hate could be a bad thing for transgender people -- it spent too much time haranguing Musk into doing so to ever admit that.Instead, it continued to suck up to him by serving as his PR operation. For instance:

• Elon Musk Burns Woke Target After Stock Downgraded
• Snopes Changes 'True' Rating After Citing No Scientists On Musk, Sub Comms
• Elon Musk’s Hilarious Response to 'Cage Fight' with Mark Zuckerberg

Luis Corneio spent a June 2 post portrayin the reluctance of Tweitter employees to spread anti-transgender hate from the likes of Matt  Walsh as an "internal revolt aghainst free speech," touting how Musk's interference in decision-making by allowing Walsh's anti-transgender film "What is a Woman?" had "amassed nearly 63 million views in less than 24 hours, marking a victory for free speech and common sense amidst a bevy of radicalized rainbow mafia propaganda sweeping across the United States and schools." In fact, Twitter's "views" metric is highly unreliable.

Meanwhile, Musk was still letting hand-picked writers promote selectively released "Twitter files" despite the diminishing returns. Ignoring all that, Joseph Vazquez brethlessly wrote in a June 7 post:

Just as CNN didn't blink twice when it described "fiery but mostly peaceful protests" in 2020, the joke of a media outlet is telling Twitter Files readers "don't believe your lying eyes" when it comes to Big Tech-Big Government censorship collusion.

CNN published what amounted to a Big Tech-Big Government press release June 6 headlined: “Twitter’s own lawyers refute Elon Musk’s claim that The ‘Twitter Files’ exposed US government censorship.” CNN’s sources? The lawyers for the censorship-obsessed, pre-Musk Twitter regime in Donald J. Trump v. Twitter, Inc.

Wow, who would have thought that people paid to defend pre-Musk Twitter would do just that! “Twitter’s own lawyers are disputing those claims in a case involving former President Donald Trump — forcefully rejecting any suggestion that the Twitter Files show what Musk and many Republicans assert they contain,” CNN claimed.

Talk about awful timing.

Just a day after CNN’s spin, The Grayzone News host Aaron Maté released a batch of “New Twitter Files” showing that the FBI actively assisted Ukrainian intelligence in censoring Twitter users and journalists accused of spreading so-called “disinformation” and “fear.”

Vazquez hyped how "Twitter Files journalist Matt Taibbi" hyped the latest release, but he failed to mention that not only has Taibbi stopped bieng a "Twitter Files journalist," he acrimoniously split with Musk over Twitter censoring links to Substack, where Taibbi mostly writes.

This was followed by another post that day, by Catherine Salgado, hyping Taibbi's comments. Like Cornelio, she  called Taibbi a "Twitter Files journalist" without mentioning that he no longer was.

Salgado returned for a June 13 post complaining about the guy who founded Twitter: "Anti-free speech Jack Dorsey just claimed that his pro-censorship tenure was generally characterized by 'fairness' and that the platform remains 'the most important public square.'" She concluded by touting and lecturing Twitter's current proprietor:

New Twitter owner Elon Musk arranged for the release of The Twitter Files to expose its previous heavy censorship. Musk has repeatedly affirmed his dedication to free speech, although censorship did initially increase under his ownership, and has still continued amongst the rank-and-file under his leadership. 

Is Salgado admitting that the "Twitter files" released are biased and designed to peddle a preferred narrative instead of telling the full truth? It appears that way.

Salgado touted another "Twitter Files journalist" in a June 21 post:

Twitter Files journalist Michael Shellenberger said the war on free speech has taken “the form of a world war.”

The Twitter Files and The Facebook Filesshowed direct government-tech collusion to censor free speech. MRC Free Speech America exposed a government anti-terror program, the “Targeted Violence & Terrorism Prevention Grant Program” (TVTP), weaponized against Christians, conservatives, and Republicans. Like the now-defunct Disinformation Governance Board, TVTP came out of the Department of Homeland Security.  In light of all this and global efforts to suppress speech, Shellenberger warned in a June 19 article on UnHerd of the fight against free speech. He said, “You can see its shadow in every Western country, from the US and Canada to Ireland and Australia, as well as in every multinational organisation, from the EU to the UN.”

Actually, that MRC Free Speech America report was so filled with misinformation that even Fox News felt compelled to debunk it. Salgado continued:

Much of the censorship work is justified by the claims that digital hate speech is sharply increasing, but that’s simply not true, Shellenberger argued. It’s an excuse for the suppression of information, often true information. Ultimately, Shellenberger insisted of leftists’ “misinformation” and “hate speech” cant that “[w]e need to train our ears to hear such language as pretexts for government censorship.”

An “elitist, anti-populist strain” is coming from governments and NGOs around the world, Shellenberger soberly noted. Even many private entities that are calling for censorship have received government funding, he explained. This created the “Censorship Industrial Complex,” partly exposed by The Twitter Files.

Salgado didn't mention that Shellenberger, like Taibbi, is no longer a "Twitter Files journalist." And she certainly didn't say a thing about reports showing that Musk is signing off on more "censorship" requests from other countries than pre-Musk Twitter did.

How Has WND's Brown Been Hating LGBT People Lately?
Topic: WorldNetDaily

Our catch-up on Michael Brown's anti-LGBT activism continues with a May 19 WorldNetDaily column complaining that gay activists wanted people not to hate them, which was "propaganda", citing the "gay activist book" "After the Ball: How American Will Conquer Its Fear and Hatred of Gays in the '90s":

As stated at the beginning of the book, the authors called for a "campaign of unabashed propaganda, firmly grounded in long-established principles of psychology and advertising."

This "propaganda" even included the spreading of what they knew to be falsehoods, such as the idea that 1 in 10 Americans were gay (they admitted plainly that this number was inflated). But, in their view, spreading such falsehoods was only fair, since all kinds of negative falsehoods had been spread about their community over the years.

As to the success of their strategies, which reflected some of the thinking of other key gay activists and organizations, not even Kirk and Madsen believed that marriage would be redefined. Not a chance. That wasn't even one of their goals.

But even that sacred institution was outrageously redefined in 2015 by the Supreme Court primarily because the thinking of so many Americans had already been changed. Without that massive cultural shift, it is much more unlikely that the Court would have ruled as it did. In the view of many legal pundits, the cultural shift provided sufficient wind in their sails for the justices to make the change (at least, for someone like Anthony Kennedy, who was the swing vote).

To be sure, some of the shifts in American views towards gay and lesbian-identified people have been positive, recognizing the many positive qualities they may have as individuals or couples and embracing our shared humanity. Many of the other shifts have been disastrous, contributing to millions of Americans losing their moral and societal bearings.

Our children and grandchild are paying the price today, with as many as 40% identifying as somewhere on the LGBTQ+ spectrum.

The takeaway from all this is that, while we labor tirelessly to enact pro-life, pro-family legislation – and we should – we must never take our eyes off the greater prize: the conversion of the hearts and minds of Americans, not by the spreading of propaganda but by the propagation of truth, grounded in the love, goodness and justice of God.

We have the ultimate, lasting, winning argument.

In other words, he wants anti-LGBT propaganda to spread to restore the hommophobic right-wing order.

Brown spent his May 22 column insisting that gays and lesbians were supposedly fighting  back against transgender people:

As the resistance to transgender activism continues to rise and millions of Americans push back against the transitioning of children and males competing against females in sports, an increasing number of gays and lesbians are raising their voices as well. They are saying, "This is not who we are, and this is not our agenda. In fact, trans-activism is actually erasing our very existence."

Examples of this phenomenon would be online groups such as, "Gays Against Groomers," described in 2022 as "the newest crusader in the fight against radical LGBTQ activists said to be grooming young children in a sexual, indecent manner." They have joined other conservative voices in speaking up against things like Drag Queen Story Hours for children.

In fact, Gays Against Groomers is little more than a group of right-wing grifters seeking to profit on the anti-gay hate of people plike Brown. He went on to cite gay right-winger Andrew Sullivan for his claim that LGBT activists have purportedly overplayed their hand, then got mad at him over the idea that children shouldn't be taught to hate LGBT people:

To be sure, I applaud Sullivan's call to leave the children alone, and I affirm his calling out of the growing wave of what can only be called transanity.

At the same time, I must differ with Sullivan strongly.

First, gay activists have most assuredly targeted children for decades now, in particular in children's education, as I documented at length already in 2011 in "A Queer Thing Happened to America." They may not have targeted children's bodies the way trans activists have, but they have surely targeted their hearts and minds.

Second, the progression from LGB to T and Q is inevitable, a natural part of the deviation from the God-established, biologically essential, heterosexual norm. The long-predicted slippery slope was not a figment of the imagination of the radical, fundamentalist, fear-mongering, bigoted, Christian right. It was a logical, biblically based deduction.

[...]

Sullivan is also quite wrong in thinking that the gay revolution was all about, "Live and let live."

To the contrary, it became clear to me already in 2004 that for many of the key players who had come out of the closet, their ultimate goal (in fact, it was a necessary goal for their success) was to put conservative Christians (and other conservatives, both religious and non-religious) in the closet.

And so I warned that "if cross-dressing and, more radically still, sex-change surgery are fine – after all, we have to be true to ourselves, and, in the end, 'it's my life' – then the day will soon come when the mutilation of other body parts will be considered fine if it makes the person feel happy and whole. Why not?

[...]

The irony of this all is that, in the years to come, it could well be that the very reason the gay revolution ultimately fails is precisely because it succeeded so well. Metaphorically speaking, given enough rope, it hung itself. Andrew Sullivan's dream has become his nightmare.

Brown's May 25 column was devoted to a mandated right-wing complaint that the Los Angeles Dodgers were honoring the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence during a pride celebration, even as he complained he really didn't want to write another anti-LGBT column (though that's his thing):

I can't wait to go a week or a month or – who could imagine? – a year without writing a single article on LGBTQ+ activism. I imagine you can't wait to go a week or month or year without reading another article on the subject either. But here we are in 2023 in the midst of a cultural implosion, and common sense, decency, the fear of God and a deep love for people cause me to cry out. Again.

In the aftermath of the Los Angeles Dodgers reinviting the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence drag team to their June Pride Night celebration, CatholicVote opined on Twitter, "The @Dodgers have instantly become the @budlight of baseball."

But this is a gross understatement. The Dodgers have gone far beyond Bud Light, which has reportedly lost billions of dollars after making Dylan Mulvaney (a male) into an online poster girl.

Brown went on to repeat misinformation and falsehoods about right-wing anti-LGBT attacks on Target from chief homophobe Matt Walsh, taking the out that what Target was doing was "offensive" even if Walsh is lying about it, and it's all good because anti-LGBT hate is spreading:

As for Target, after years of declaring war on gender distinctions and fostering radical transgender activism, they have upped the ante now by allegedly targeting children with their obscene "tuck" bathing suit line.

Yes, these are female bathing suits that allow males who think they are females to "tuck" in their privates. And although both Politfact and Snopes have stated that the swimsuits are only available in adult sizes, contrary to Matt Walsh's claims, even if this were true, it is still grossly offensive. (According to Walsh, "What @Target is doing is far worse than anything Bud Light did. They are selling chest binders & 'tuck-friendly' bathing suits for children." For Megyn Kelly's pointed response, see here.)

Target also came under fire for featuring the products of an overtly Satanic, radical LGBTQ+ supplier. (Snopes branded this charge to be True.) The giant retail company suffered immediate financial losses and, under alleged threats against its employees, decided to remove a limited amount of LGBTQ+ Pride Month items.

[...]

As for the millions of offended customers, the vast majority of whom are presumably fair-minded, non-fanatical, decent people, there is no mention of them. But of course!

No wonder Americans in droves are saying enough is enough. Good for them. The pushback continues!

So it's OK for Walsh to lie as long as it fiurthers anti-LGBT hate? That doesn't seem very biblilcal.

Brown concluded with more misinformation, repeating his usual claim that he doesn't hate LGBT people, only LGBT "activism":

As for the millions of people who identify as gay or lesbian or trans or queer and are just seeking to live their lives without conflict, I say to each of you: You are not my enemy, I do not despise you, I do not look down on you, and I offer you the same divine love that transformed me more than 50 years ago. It is the radical activism that I will wholeheartedly confront.

Of course, he's lying here too. In Brown's world it is inherently "radical" for LGBT people to want (or even be allowed) to "live their lives without conflict" -- which means as long as he attacks "activism," he is also attacking people. Contrary to these words, he really does despise them, is looking down on them, and he considers them his enemy.

MRC-Fox News Revolving Door Watch
Topic: Media Research Center

There are more names to add to the list of former Media Research Center staffers who now work for Fox News -- bringing the total to at least nine.

Alexa Moutevelis left the MRC at the end of 2021, and she wrote her first article for Fox News in March 2022. Her most recent article was in June, so it's unclear if she's still working there, though her Fox News bio suggests she still does through the lack of any past tense. It doesn't mention her MRC stint, however, instead vaguely claiming that she has "previous experience covering politics, entertainment and culture."

Ken Shepherd had a bigger gap. The former NewsBusters managing editor left the MRC in April 2016, then worked for the conservative Washington Times. He joined Fox News in September 2022, his Fox News bio does admit his NewsBusters work but doesn't note that it was for a partisan right-wing organization.

Since for some reason the MRC doesn't like to tout how many of its former employees now work for a major right-wing "news" organization it aggressively defends, we typically have to stumble across them before we know. While it seems that neither Fox News nor the MRC want to talk about this robust pipeline, one has to assume that the MRC is internally proud of this.