Newsmax Less Enthusiastic About Second GOP Debate, But Still Brings Pro-Trump Spin
Topic: Newsmax

Newsmax was less excited over the second Republican presidential debate than it was over the first one, in which it heavily hyped Donald Trump despite his refusal to take part and sniped at certain unfavored candidates, like Vivek Ramaswamy, who refused Newsmax's quid pro quo of getting positive coverage in exchange for buying ads on the channel (the deal it gave to Perry Johnson). It was largely a rehash of the first, with Trump again refusing to take part and the others fighting to get attention. A Sept. 18 wire article noted Trump skipping the debate for a photo op with striking auto workers in Michigan. Other pre-debate positioning was noted as well:

• Pence Slams Trump for Skipping Second Debate
• Biden Campaign Dispatching Newsom to GOP Debate
• Seven Candidates Qualify for 2nd GOP Debate; Hutchinson Out (wire article)
• Trump Sending Surrogates to Second GOP Debate
• Pence to Newsmax: 'Real Debate' Hinges on GOP Following Reagan's Brand

Newsmax also took a shot at the competition with a Sept. 27 article by Michael Katz claiming that "A 30-second spot for the second debate in Simi Valley, California, on Fox Business cost just above $200,000, a huge decline from the $495,000 charged for the similar spot during the first debate Aug. 23 in Milwaukee."

Post-debate coverage began with a Sept. 27 article by the apparently unironically named Charlie McCarthy that was surprisingly balanced, admitting that some candidates "criticized former President Donald Trump for again skipping the debate." That was joined by a wire article doing much the same thing. The next day, John Gizzi dismissed the debate:

None of the Republican presidential hopefuls on stage at the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California on Wednesday night gained any significant ground in the second GOP debate of 2023-24.

That was the general conclusion of a group of political experts with whom Newsmax spoke shortly after the two-hour debate concluded. Among them was Arizona State University Prof. Donald Critchlow, founding editor of the Journal of Political History.

"The debate stage was overcrowded. The [Fox News] panel was not in control of candidates talking over one another and interrupting," he said.

[...]

Critchlow's conclusion was echoed by Chapman University (CA) Prof. Luke Nichter, who told Newsmax, "In the three acts of a Greek tragedy, in Act II, the plot gets more complicated. That's where we are tonight."

Nichter, author of the critically acclaimed new book "1968: The Year That Broke Politics," concluded that "no one did anything so remarkable as to close the big gap with [former President Donald] Trump."

Jim Thomas took another shot at Fox over the debate's ratings:

Fox’s second Republican primary debate had the lowest TV audience for any GOP presidential debate since Donald Trump's debut appearance in 2015, NBC reported Thursday.

Nielsen ratings topped out at a little more than 9 million viewers for Wednesday's Fox debate, held at the Reagan Library. That was down 3.5 million viewers from last month's event, according to Nielsen Media Research data.

Josh Hammer spent his Sept. 29 column complaning that the candidates were not sufficiently  Reagan-esque despite the debate being held at the Reagan library. Michael Dorstewitz used his column the same day to hype Ron DeSantis declaring that he "is turning out to be the strong, steady hand America needs at the helm. If we can only find a way to get former President Trump to meet him on a debate stage." There were also the usual attempts to spin things:

• Bill O'Reilly to Newsmax: Trump Wins Debate Without Attending
• Christie Hits Trump on Debate Absence: 'Purely Selfish'

And it wouldn't be a Trump-adjacent event without Trump sycophant Dick Morris weighing in, which he did in a Sept. 30 TV appearance:

The second presidential debate not only affirmed former President Donald Trump as a runaway in the GOP primary race, but Trump was fully vindicated on skipping the debate "food fight," even as his top challengers are calling him out, presidential adviser Dick Morris told Newsmax.

"Yeah," Morris told "Saturday Report," Trump was "incredibly" vindicated on skipping the debate.

"First of all, the fact he's ahead going in and people really believe in him; his support has firmed to an unbelievable degree," Morris told host Rita Cosby. "But secondly, when you look at the food fight, the circus that went on and that rink, how can you possibly support one of those people? And Trump was so wise stepping out of it and not letting himself be dragged into it."

Morris also repeated his own insistence that Robert Kennedy running as an independent instead of a Democrat wold pull votes from Biden but not Trump, declaring without evidence that Krnnedy's "appeal is very much on the Democratic side."

WND Still Hyping Larry Sinclair's Bogus Claims About Sex With Obama
Topic: WorldNetDaily

We've shown how WorldNetDaily's recent flare-up of Obama Derangement Syndrome inevitably moved to an obsesseion with Obama's alleged sex life, culminating with an interview Tucker Carlson did with Larry Sinclair, who still claims that he had a drugs-and-sex encounter with Obama way back when. The fact that even people like right-wing garbage human Dave Portnoy and fabulist congressman George Santos believe Sinclair is a liar hasn't stopped WND from continuing to obesses over it. Obama-obsessed WND columnist Jack Cashill started his Sept. 5 column gushing over Sinclair's original 2008 stunt accusation:

In watching it years later, I am impressed by how well Sinclair understood Obama's hold on the media.

If you asked a question about a black man who chose to run for president, Sinclair observed, "All of a sudden you're called a racist, a bigot."

A genuine character, Sinclair acknowledged up front the various crimes he had committed in years past. He wanted to take that cudgel away from the media.

Sinclair then explained in exquisite detail the nature of his alleged 1999 interaction with then state senator Obama.

He provided dates, the name of the hotel, the name of the Muslim limo driver who arranged the assignation, the specifics of their sexual interlude, as well as insights into his more recent phone conversations with Donald Young, a member of Rev. Jeremiah Wright's church and an alleged lover of Obama's.

More than once during the question and answer period, reporters asked Sinclair, given his "tremendous credibility problem," why they should take him seriously.

In turn, Sinclair asked the reporters "to do your jobs and find facts." He provided them several useful leads and challenged them to follow up.

Cashill offered no evidence that he himself ever investigated any of that. He then built a conspiracy theory around Sinclair getting arrested followinghis press conference on an outstanding warrant:

Wired, meanwhile, ran an article celebrating those leftist bloggers who succeeded in getting Sinclair arrested on an on an "out-of-state warrant" just as he was leaving the Press Club.

The state in question is Delaware. The attorney general of the state in 2008 was Beau Biden. The media saw nothing suspicious about the arrangement.

Sinclair also had an outstanding warrant in Colorado at the time, but Cashill didn't mention that. He also didn't mention that Sinclair claimed in a 2004 affadavit to be "terminally ill," an assertion that clearly didn't age well even as Sinclair himself continued to age. Neverthetless, Cashill continued to vouch for Sinclair's credibility:

The messenger in this case had to be attacked, exposed, eliminated as a threat, and that he was. Until this week, few have ever heard of Sinclair. Fewer still have heard of the late Donald Young.

Thanks to Elon Musk and Tucker Carlson, that is about to change. Here's hoping Carlson gets into the really treacherous stuff.

Peter LaBarbera followed up in a Sept. 7 article:

Thanks to Tucker Carlson's interview with a man who claims he did drugs and engaged in oral sodomy with then-Illinois State Senator Barack Obama – plus newly surfaced proof in his own words that Obama fantasized about gay sex as a young man – more Americans than ever are learning that there is another side to the 44th president that liberal media could have reported, but refused.

Carlson's shocking X video interview Wednesday with Larry Sinclair had surpassed 27 million views by publication time. Even on Fox News, which stunned conservatives in April by firing Carlson, Obama's sordid partying behavior never received anything close to the full airing he just gave it on X. Sinclair, a homosexual, had tried to get the media to fairly cover his telling of an alleged 1999 drug-induced tryst with Obama since the 2008 election. Very few did.

Yet in one fell swoop, Tucker Carlson bypassed the left's "narrative control" celebrating Obama and ended 15 years of enforced media silence on the subject of Sinclair's allegation – thus showing the promise of independent media platforms, like Elon Musk's X, that are committed on principle to free speech.

Of course, if LaBarbera was really concerned about Sinclair being treated fairly, he would have mentioned that Sinclair has an extensive record of criminality and lies. Instead, he slipped into Obama Derangement Syndrome:

Preparing the way for Biden, Obama made advancing the LGBT revolution a top priority of his administration, even famously using colored spotlights to turn the White House into the politicized "rainbow flag" colors to celebrate the Supreme Court's imposition of homosexual "marriage" on the nation in 2015.

In Obama's case, the backstory behind his sexual-left agenda is likely the most perverse and dysfunctional of any U.S. president: Mentored by an actual card-carrying Communist with a perversion problem; smoking pot with his school "Choom Gang" friends whose adult supplier was a 29-year-old bisexual man who had a thing for showing them porn; and even growing up with a cross-dressing nanny.

Add to that the fact that Obama had a father who abandoned him and a mother who left him for long periods of time to pursue her career, and it could have been a formula for producing a future president who, more than any other (arguably, pre-Biden), would advance an agenda at war with the natural family – the so-called Gay Revolution, which has now morphed into the Transgender Revolution.

LaBarbera then devoted the rest of his article to reprinting his old, homophobic attacks on Obama, which originally appeared in a self-published 2018 anti-Obama book co-authored with three others, including Cliff Kincaid, formerly of Accuracy in Media and himself a victim of Obama Derangement Syndrome with a history of spreading lies and smears. In it, LaBarbera huffed that "Obama's sexual history was not fully vetted by the political press"; he referenced a "cross-dressing nanny in Jakarta," how Obama's alleged high school drug dealer was "a 29-year-old homosexual pervert who showed porn films to the teenage boys" and called mentor Frank Marshall Davis a "promiscuous pornographer," an apparent allusion to discredited claims by charlatan filmmaker Joel Gilbert that Obama's mother posed nude for Davis.

LaBarbera also quoted Joseph Nicolosi claiming that "The father plays a pivotal role in a boy's normal development as a male." Nocolosi founded the homphoobic group NARTH, which advocated the discredited practice of conversion therapy to attempt to force gay people to stop being gay. LaBarbera, meanwhile, runs his own anti-gay group, Americans for Truth about Homosexuality, though he's moonlighting as a WND reporter because homophobia apparently doesn't pay as well as it used to.

NEW ARTICLE: The MRC's Gun Deflections Pile Up
Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center labored hard to try and distract from gun violence -- from attacking inconvenient statistics to post-massacre spin to defending a killer who expressed a desire to "shoot looters." Read more >>

MRC Finishes Its Highly Tranphobic Pride Month
Topic: Media Research Center

The Media Research Center spent much of Pride Month spewing hatred at transgender people, and that pattern continued the rest of the month as well. Alex Christy spent a June 21 post being angry at a documentary film that aired on PBS for highlighting conservative Christians who stopped hating LGBTQ people:

Not long after condemning Christian pastors for not wanting drag queens at their Christmas parade, PBS has managed to outdo themselves on Tuesday by claiming that the Bible teaches that there is nothing wrong with transitioning four-year olds.

A summary for the Independent Lens: Mama Bears documentary states, “ Mama Bears is anchored by three intrepid women who found their relationship to the LGBTQ+ community at direct odds with their Christian upbringing. The protagonists are all members of the eponymous group Mama Bears. What started as an online network of conservative Christian mothers seeking guidance for their queer children turned into a boots-on-the-ground organization.”

One of those women is Kimberly Shappley who declared that “When Kai was about four years old, she prayed and said she would like to go home and be with Jesus and never come back. All of the things I had learned about transgender children having a 41 percent risk of attempting suicide came flooding back.”

A series of news clips from 2014 covering the suicide of 17-year old Leelah Alcorn was then shown, the last of which featured ABC’s Lindsey Davis reading from Alcorn’s suicide note, “Alcorn wrote she felt like a girl trapped in a boy's body but that her family ‘Wanted me to be their perfect little straight Christian boy.’ ‘The only way I will rest in peace is if one day transgender people aren’t treated the way I was.’”

Shappley would continue to use this emotional manipulation to justify her actions and shame anyone who objects, “I read about Leelah Alcorn and what she wrote. ‘Christian parents don't do this to your kids.’ And I realized I had a four-year-old who would rather go be with Jesus forever than stay here and have to live as a boy one more day.”

Yes, Christy thinks it's "emotional manipulation" to point out that some transgender children are driven to suicide due to rejection by their rigid right-wing parents.Christy ranted again when Shappley argued that her child being transgender is God's will:

Trying to justify herself, Shappley continued, “The Bible tells us not to call unclean what He has made clean. So if science says that my daughter was born transgender, that means that the Lord knit her together in my womb that way. And whether religious people disagree with me or not, I have to hold firm in the truth. And that is that she was fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of God, and she was born transgender. I knew that I was choosing life for my kid.”

Of course, Shappley is treating her son’s body as unclean—hence the transition to something else—, but the real point of this documentary wasn’t to try to win a theological argument, but rather to shame other people by tying opposition to gender ideology and transitioning minors to suicides while mangling the definition of "Christian" and "conservative" beyond recognition.

Well, yeah, Christy wouldn't recognize not hating LGBTQ people -- even your own child -- as a Christian value.

Speaking of twisting things beyond recognition, a June 27 post by Bethany Kawalec bizarrely framed a right-wing website's hatred of a transgender actor as "compassion":

YouTube once again silenced opposition to the "transgender" movement, this time suspending BlazeTV.

BlazeTV podcaster and political commentator Lauren Chen discussed actor Elliot Page, formerly known as Ellen Page, and some of the disturbing stories detailed in the actor’s new book Pageboy: A Memoir. YouTube removed the video over so-called “hate speech” and suspended Blaze TV’s channel for one week. Chen explained in a tweet: “.@YouTube has SUSPENDED @BlazeTV over my recent video covering Ellen Page's mental illness, specifically her admitted experiences with self-harm & her ‘trans’ identity.” 

[...]

It remains unclear exactly which specific section of Chen’s video violated YouTube’s so-called hate speech policy. However, the policy identifies “Gender Identity and Expression” as a protected group and gives as an example of hate speech, “‘[Attribute noted above] is just a form of mental illness that needs to be cured.’” 

Chen, however, did not ignore the obvious signs of mental illness described in Page’s memoir. She noted Page’s allegations of facing sexual abuse and the actor’s struggles with self-harm prior to transitioning. “It’s no wonder that Page, when we look at her now, has all of these different mental health struggles,” Chen said. She later added that “as an individual, I feel sorry for her. This is clearly someone who has been through, I think, a lot. She was also a child actor and growing up in Hollywood I think it is hard to escape unharmed, and in the same memoir that she’s written it seems she has serious psychological problems.”   

Nowhere in the video does Chen encourage hatred or violence against Page or any other people claiming a “transgender” identity. Instead, Chen actually expresses great compassion for Page. “I do think there is an actual person, under all these labels, who is hurt, who is scarred, and who needs someone who genuinely has her best interests at heart,” Chen said.

Given that Chen has shown that she rejects Page's transgender identitythrough misgendering him and putting "trans" in scare quotes, it's highly unlikeluy that she has is "best interests at heart," unless those "best interests" involve fording him to stop being who he is. There's also the fact that Kawalec described Chen's video as an example of "opposition to the 'transgender' movement" (there's those scare quotes again).

Chrsity returned for a June 28 post whining that right-wing hatred of Bud Light for allowing a transgender person to drink its beer was called out:

Anheuser-Busch CEO Brendan Whitworth joined the crew of CBS Mornings on Wednesday to discuss the fallout to Dylan Mulvaney marketing campaign. It would prove to be a segment full of corporatespeak, Republican bashing, and covering up of just how badly the campaign backfired.

While talking about the Mulvaney campaign, co-host Gayle King illustrated, “How and why did it -- did it go so off the rails? Because that certainly wasn't your intention when you did one can to one person.”

For his part, Whitworth conceded it has “been a challenging few weeks,” but lamented “I think the conversation surrounding Bud Light has moved away from beer, and the conversation has become divisive. And Bud Light really doesn't belong there.”

Christy failed to justify the right-wing war against Bud Light over Mulvaney.

Chief MRC transphobe Tierin-Rose Mandelburg raged at the Washington Post in another June 28 post for not irrationally hating a pair of transgender teenagers the way she does:

The "Washington Post" released a gross profile last week on two transgender teenagers. The piece was woven with pro-trans propaganda.

The piece by author Caitlin Gibson and photographer Emily Monforte supposedly took a few months to prepare as Monforte, who had a strange affixation for photographing queer youth, followed the lives of two “trans” children living in Los Angeles. One goes by Evan and is a 15-year-old boy who thinks he’s a girl and the other, with the same type of confusion, is Natasha who is 17.

WaPo first highlighted Evan who claimed to want to be like Barbies as a child. He also claimed to frequently watch “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” which is a series featuring men in fishnets dancing and acting in some of the most hypersexualized ways. It’s safe to say that a show of the sort is not appropriate for children.

[...]

Honestly, I could make fun of the delusion young Evan is experiencing but quite frankly, the situation is heartbreaking. In the piece, he explained how he dances ballet at school and stares at his male body all day with dysphoria.

Mandelburg doesn't have to be coy -- we already know she's so lacking in basic humanity that making fun of transgender people is second nature to her. But as usual, she's too busy raging at the mere existence of transgender people, and the refusal of others not to share her unhinged hate for them, to remember to do that:

The authors emphasized the need for a piece to push what “trans life is like” at this specific moment. “At a time when transgender youths have been targeted by state legislatures across the country, when headlines often highlight the effects of laws that would restrict trans kids from accessing medical care or playing sports or using certain bathrooms, the rest of their lives — the nuanced entirety of their childhoods — can be overshadowed.”

Overall, it’s incredibly obvious that by WaPo has a pro-trans agenda. By giving these two young men the opportunity to share their stories, the outlet is enabling and encouraging a delusion. It’s clear that both Natasha and Evan have mental health struggles and issues that are not solved by identifying as something they’re not.

But the WaPo and the leftist media still wants you to affirm and believe their delusion.

Yes, Mandelburg thinks allowing transgender people to be who they are is somehow a sinister "pro-trans agenda." She has to pretend her hate is logical in order to affirm and believe her delusion that what other people do with their lives is any of her business.

Meanwhile -- despite claiming that it's a "media research" organization -- theM RC did not tell its readers that Fox News got caught injecting biased anti-transgender language into the Associated Press and Reuters wire stories it reprints, at one point altering a quote from a state politican that referenced "gender-affirming care" to instead state "sex reassignment care." One wonders if any of the numerous former MRC employees who now work for Fox News had a hand in doing any of that.

WND's Mercer Bashes Zelensky For Not Capituating, Praises Putin For Helping White People
Topic: WorldNetDaily

WorldNetDaily columnist Ilana Mercer has been a supporter of Russia's war against Ukraine, though she has also expresssed support for Ukraine's Nazi imagery-invoking Azov Batallion because it's fighting for white people (not surprising logic from a native South African who tried to make an intellectual case for apartheid). Mercer's WND columns have grown more sporadic, but she continues to back Russia and bash Ukraine. In a December 2022 column, amidst anti-immigrant and anti-vaccine rants (touting how those who didn't get a COVID vaccine are "healthy pure-bloods"), took a shot at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for capitulating to Russia:

"It's biblical, Zelensky: a leader who fails to haggle for the lives of his people is a failed leader." Since the command-and-control U.S. media purge any news of peace talks with Russia, we're none-the-wiser to the fact that at least Israel, France and Turkey are currently active in mediating peace talks.

Ever wonder how Zelensky and family could have remained safely ensconced in Ukraine, as over a million of his countrymen have been forced to flee? The little runt is very likely heavily protected by the best of our Special Forces, or by a private, paramilitary security company paid for by the American taxpayer. A kept man, his flesh softer than sin under the khaki costume, Zelensky has no incentive to quit his shabbily self-serving "heroics," now that the world's greatest deliberative body has authorized billions for his upkeep and that of his country for posterity, in sickness and in health.

Mercer didn't raise the possibility that Russia should withdraw and end its unprovoked war against Ukraine.

Mercer began her Aug. 10 column by quoting herself defending  Russia being white, right-wing and Christian: "By America's prescriptions, Russia should be a woke, minority white, multicultural sewer, awash with MeToo, BLM, and Antifa sensibilities." She never did get around to explaining how all that justifies Russia's invasion of Ukraine -- though she did approvingly quote political scientist John Mearsheimer, who has been perpetually wrong about Russia and Ukraine --  but again attacked Zelensky:

"Win or die, dummies" is what Ukrainians are being instructed by the U.S. Uniparty, its NATO marionettes and their leader Zelensky, who is protected by the above forces.

The "win or die" policy imperialism, vis-à-vis Ukraine, was seconded, on Aug. 7, by Joni Ernst, Republican U.S. senator from Red Oak, Iowa. Ernst proves, in the end, that it is as Dr. Johnson said: "There is no settling the point of precedency between a louse and a flea." Neoconservative or neoliberal, louse or flea, a pest is a pest is a pest.

Um, isn't Russia the "pest" here given its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine? Mercer continued with a defense of Russia and Putin:

Putin is a reactionary Russian patriot, a natural ally of any sovereign, conservative nation-state. The American objective is to end Russian sovereignty and make it over in the woke image of America: a radical Jacobin stronghold. By America's prescriptions, Russia should be a woke, minority white, multicultural sewer, awash with MeToo, BLM and Antifa sensibilities.

As your columnist had remarked in commentary about "America's radical, foreign-policy Alinskyites," in March 2021, "Certain national-conservative governments in Eastern Europe should be natural allies to conservative policymakers stateside, if such unicorns existed. Vladimir Putin's, for example. Before his death … Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, one of Russia's bravest and most brilliant sons, praised Putin's efforts to revive Russia's traditional Christian and moral heritage. For example:

"'In October 2010, it was announced that "The Gulag Archipelago" would become required reading for all Russian high-school students. In a meeting with Solzhenitsyn's widow, Mr. Putin described "The Gulag Archipelago" as "essential reading": "Without the knowledge of that book, we would lack a full understanding of our country and it would be difficult for us to think about the future." … If [only] the same could be said of the high schools of the United States.' (Via The Imaginative Conservative.)"

Actually, students are required to read only certain excerpts from the book -- which, in full, exposed the horrors of labor camps under Stalin -- and doing so hasn't stopped Putin from praising Stalin and downplaying the bad things, or from running a Stalin-esque crackdown on dissent to his rule (as Alexei Navalny can attest) or launching a Stalin-esque war on Ukraine. Mercer continued with the Putin praise for defending white people and hating LGBTQ people:

For a long while, the Russian president patiently tolerated America's demented, anti-Russia monomania. As our country sank into the quicksands of what conservatives call "Cultural Marxism" – by contrast, and since the get-go, your columnist has framed the new, woke Western dispensation as anti-whiteness – Putin's inclinations have remained decidedly reactionary and traditionalist.

The Russian leader had prohibited public sexual evangelizing by LGBTQ activists. He comes down squarely on the side of the Russian Orthodox Church, such as when vandals, the Pussy Riot whores, obscenely desecrated the cathedral of Christ the Savior. He has also welcomed as refugees persecuted white South Africans, where America's successive governments refuse to acknowledge that the latter are under threat of ethnocide. Also, policies to stimulate Russian birthrates have been put in place by the conservative leader.

Ukraine, for its part, is led by a vainglorious fool. "Zelensky is a kept man, his flesh softer than sin under the khaki costume." For all his Jewish-lineage boasting, Zelensky ought to know that, in the Hebrew Bible, a "leader who fails to haggle for the lives of his people is considered a failed leader."

But wouldn't Zelensky be more of a failed leader if he sold out his people to oppression under an invading force under the guise of achieving "peace"? Mercer has offered no evidence that Putin offers anything but subjugation and oppression to Ukraine -- and, thus, no reason for Zelensky to negotiate with terrorists.

MRC Alum Runs Website That Drove A Man To Suicide
Topic: Media Research Center

Last week, F.L. "Bubba" Copeland, the mayor of Smiths Station, Ala., and the pastor at a nearby Baptist church, committed suicide after 1819 News -- a right-wing website created under the aegis of the similarly right-wing Alabama Policy Institute but made an independent entity earlier this year -- published photos of his "secret life" as a cross-dressing alter ego. Copeland tried to fight back, insisting that "What I do in private life has nothing to do with what I do in my holy life," but he ultimately died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound during a police welfare check.

The editor-in-chief of 1819 News is Jeff Poor, an alumnus of the Media Research Center who wrote for the MRC's Business & Media Institute until departing in 2010. Poor kicked around other right-wing outlets after that, working for the Daily Caller and Breitbart and ultimately returning to his native Alabama to do a radio show. He joined 1819 News in 2021, serving as political editor and executive editor before being named editor-in-chief earlier this year.

Since Copeland's suicide, 1819 News has been shamefully silent, publishing only a short article noting his death and laughably adding, "Our prayers are with the residents of Smiths Station, the parishioners of First Baptist Church of Phenix City and Copeland's family." Beyond that, the website has done nothing else and refuses to talk to other media outlets looking into the story, and Poor has walled off his Twitter feed, restricting addess to "approved followers."Bryan Dawson, president and CEO of 1819 News, has been silent on the controversy on his Twitter feed; John Monger, the 1819 reporter who wrote the hit job on  Copeland, served up a tone-deaf defense on his Twitter feed: "'Digging up someone’s personal life' is reporting on what someone posts publicly on social media? Interesting take. The Alabama Baptist reported on the church’s live stream. I actually spoke to the mayor."

The MRC, for its part, has been completely silent on the controversy; even chief transphobe Tierin-Rose Mandelburg, who would normally be celebrating the death of a cross-dresser, has remained mute. We suspect that the MRC is not exactly eager to claim an alum who drove a man to suicide.

NEW ARTICLE -- Trump Indictment Theater At WND: Act 2
Topic: WorldNetDaily
There was wildly biased "reporting" and columnist meltdowns all over WorldNetDaily when Donald Trump faced his second indictment. Read more >>

MRC Would Rather Help Musk Insult Biden Than Talk About Twitter's Problems
Topic: Media Research Center

The bad and unsavory news about Elon Musk and Twitter (well, X) continues to pile up:

• Musk stole the @music username without compensation from a user with half a million followers who had been using the account since 2007. 
• More than 2,200 Twitter employees Musk dumped in a mass firing after he bought the company tooks their claims for promised severance pay into arbitration, but Twitter has refused to pay the filing fees -- totaling more than $3 milloin -- that would allow those arbitration cases to move forward.
• The Twitter account of a man accused of murdering a woman over a Pride flag was originally allowed to stay live even though the alleged killer made numerous anti-LGBTQ and anti-Semitic messages on it, insisting that the account didn't violate its policies. It was not until a story was published about that decision that Twitter abruptly suspended it.
• Musk is continuing to amplify the Twitter accounts of QAnon conspiracy theorists and white nationalists by interacting with them through his own account.

The Media Research Center doesn't want its reader to know about any of that -- it has Musk PR to create. Luis Cornelio wrote in an Oct. 3 post:

President Joe Biden whined that X (formerly known as Twitter) is not as aggressively engaging in widespread censorship of constitutionally protected free speech.

Speaking to the leftist zealots at ProPublica on Oct. 1, Biden accused, without evidence, X owner Elon Musk and right-leaning media outlets of igniting an imaginary increase of misinformation online. In the same disturbing interview, Biden claimed — again with no evidence — that Americans can’t differentiate real news from fake news. “Where do people get their news?” Biden asked before answering his own question, “They go on the internet, they go online and you have no notion whether it's true or not.”

The increase in misinformation on Twitter isn't imaginary at all. The shutdown by Musk of trust and safety teams and the revoking of bans on accounts who spread hate and misinformation, as well as rendering the blue check meaningless as a sign of credibility, meant that misinformation and hate has, in fact, increased on Twitter.But rather than address facts,Cornelio cheered that Musk insulted Biden: 

Musk, known for his witty and hilarious clapbacks, reacted to Biden’s claims, saying, “The corpse in Weekend at Bernie’s literally looks more alive than Biden.” His response, a reference to a 1989 comedy film where two individuals parade their dead boss around, marked a direct jab at Biden’s cognizance.

Cornelio didn't expalin how Musk's petulant insult was either witty or hilarious. He then chose to hurl some insults of his own:

Biden’s assertions came during the segment where journalist John Harwood claimed that Fox News, alongside other outlets that do not conform to White House talking points, are a danger to democracy (or in other words, the Democratic Party). Specifically, he asked, “Do they drive the threat that you're concerned about? Are they simply reflecting a sentiment that already exists in the country?” In turn, Biden replied, “They do both. Look, there’re no editors anymore.”

Doing the left’s bidding, Harwood then drew attention to Musk’s promise to promote free speech on X. “What about what Elon Musk has done to Twitter, lowering guardrails against misinformation? Does that contribute to it?” the so-called journalist asked. “Yeah, it does,” Biden replied before claiming that he was going to write a book about the changing media landscape. “Look, one of the things that I said to you when I thought I wasn't going to run, I was going to write a book about the changes taking place.”

Who would’ve thought that Biden — notoriously known for his incoherent and gaffe-plagued speeches, was also a social media and communications expert? “Most of this directed over the years were these fundamental changes in society by changing technology, Gutenberg, printing and the printing press changed the way Europeans could talk to one another, all the way to today,” Biden claimed.

Again, Cornelio refused to address the substance of what Biden and Harwood were talking about -- and he certainly wasn't going to bring up the fact that Fox News did, in fact, help endanger democracy by lying to its viewers and the country about election fraud, for which it had to pay Dominion $787 million to settle a defamation lawsuit. Then again, Cornelio isn't much of a social media and communications expert either, given his embrace of lies and hate on social media because not only they advance right-wing narratives, it's a right-wing narrative to dishonestly portray any efforts to address hate and misinformatoin online as "censorship."

The fact that Cornelio would rather play insult comic instead of having a serious discussion of how Musk is mismanging Twitter tells us he doesn't actually care about "free speech" at all -- he's only interested in being Musk's PR boy.

WND's Massie Has Hate-Filled Meltdown Over Idea Of 'The Obama Woman' Becoming President
Topic: WorldNetDaily

Mychal Massie has long had a deranged level of hatred for Michelle Obama, whom he loves to call "Buttzilla" -- which, of course, disqualifies him from being taken seriously by anyone. Nevertheless, he insists on being taken seriously anyway. Thus, we have a  Sept. 25 WorldNetDaily column from him in which he petulantly cannot bring himself to say the word "Michelle" (except in quotes from others) and refers to her only as "the Obama woman":

There's increasing talk that the Democrats are devising or perhaps have already devised a way to jettison the Obama woman into the numero uno seat. For the record, I don't believe that for a second; I'll explain why in moment.

Whether it's wishful thinking or a reality, the chatter of them finding a way to parachute the Obama woman into the picture is gaining momentum. I will add that a close colleague has been assuring me since early summer that this is the plan. I still disagree.

Granted, there are those who slobber and droll over the very mention of that woman. But, who in their right minds would want this woman as the Democratic presidential nominee, much less in the Oval Office?

She may be liked by a crowd with a big megaphone, but I submit they're the minority. I say that she not just disliked, but she is unlikable. Add to that her unbridled dislike for Americans and well-documented contempt, if not outright hatred for, so-called working-class people sans the melanin she displays.

Massie went on to rehash excerpts of his Obama-hate from previous columns, including a rant that "She used the decorative position she enjoys as her personal taxpayer-provided American Express Black Card, arguably the most exclusive credit card in the world. She has used her position to spend, glut, gobble and drink like no other woman in her position before her and doubtful after her." Massie claimed to cite an article from foreign right-wing rag the Daily Mail as evidence, but the article is a rewrite from supermarket rag the National Enquirer citing no named sources and offering no actual evidence to back anything up. There's no reason whatsoever to trust anything in this story -- yet Massie does because it feeds his Michelle Obama Derangement Syndrome. Who cares if it's not the truth? Massie certainly doesn't.

Speaking of untrue, unsupported claims, Massie went on to huff:

The ploy is: whomever the Democrats select to replace Biden and Harris, it will be hailed as a brilliant move. Every talking head and poll quoted will show the person unbeatable by Donald Trump, as the Democrats work to execute a plan to steal another election. And nothing, absolutely nothing, makes me believe the 2020 election wasn't stolen. They just used a different method than was employed when Kennedy stole the 1960 election from Richard Nixon – but they stole it nonetheless.

Again, Massie can't be bothered to offer any sort of evidence to back up his claim. It's as if he thinks he can get away with spreading lies because of his black-conservative privilege.

Massie ultimately concluded that Democrats will not run "the Obama woman," conveniently omitting the fact that Michelle Obama herself has clearly stated she has no interest in running for president. He concluded by sneering: "If I'm wrong and they do go with the Obama woman, I predict Trump in a landslide, theft attempt notwithstanding." Trump is an even bigger liar than Massie is, so it makes sense that Massie would support a fellow prevaricator.

MRC's Gun-Lovers Defend Shady Ghost Guns
Topic: Media Research Center

The Media Research Center is a profuse apologist for anything gun-related, no matter how dubious -- like ghost guns. When Philadelphia officials tried to hold ghost-gun providers accountable for the carnage their weapons create, the MRC objected. Naturally, this started as an attempt to deflect from yet another mass shooting by focusing on anything else but the guns (a trick the MRC specializes in). Nicholas Fondacaro did exactly that in a July 5 post:

On Tuesday, authorities in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania announced that the suspect behind the Monday mass shooting there was Kimbrady Carriker, a transgendered man who pretends to be a woman and a Black Lives Matter activist. But while the Wednesday morning newscasts of ABC, CBS, and NBC omitted all of that information, ABC’s Good Morning America went the furthest, using gender-neutral pronouns when talking about the shooter and editing a video of the district attorney referring to Carriker as male.

“We do turn to the mass shooting that left five people dead in Philadelphia. We are learning more about the victims and police are identifying the suspected shooter who they say was armed for battle,” ABC co-anchor Whit Johnson declared, teasing they would inform viewers about the shooter.

But correspondent Trevor Ault refused to disclose anything about Carriker’s background and repeatedly used gender-neutral/plural pronouns and other non-descript language:

[...]

It was late in the report when Ault actually got around to giving a name to the suspect, even then, he refused to call the shooter a male. ABC was so dedicated to not offending the sensibilities of a mass shooter that they edited a video of liberal District Attorney Larry Krasner using male pronouns:

Fondacaro failed to explain what relevance (beyond his employer-mandated transphobia, that is) the shooter's alleged transgender status had in the shooting. When the topic turned to the fact that the shooter was armed with untraceable ghost guns, Fondacaro whined in a July 6 post:

With the broadcast networks ignoring the fact that the Philadelphia mass shooter was transgendered and a Black Lives Matter activist, their new narrative was to put focus on the weapons used: so-called “ghost guns.” Both ABC’s Good Morning America and NBC’s Today celebrated liberal Philly District Attorney Larry Krasner targeting two gun parts manufacturers (Polymer80 and JSD Supply) with laws suits, despite both companies selling a perfectly legal product.

“We also have information this morning out for Philadelphia and that mass shooting that left five people dead. We’re learning more now about the ghost guns use in the attack,” announced co-anchor Whit Johnson.

[...]

But in the reality obfuscated by the ABC, it’s not that easy. The parts sold by those companies are legally considered 80 percent finished and special milling equipment is needed to finish the build. These kits are completely legal and at-home gun building has been an American tradition since before the founding of the country.

Ana Schau whined further about it in another July 6 post:

CNN decided to break the new information about the ghost guns used in the Philadelphia shooting over the weekend on Thursday’s CNN News Central by blaming the ghost gun manufacturers and distributers for the shooting. In addition to blaming these companies for this shooting, anchor Sara Sidner hosted former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe on the show to essentially blame these companies for illegal gun ownership as well, since apparently they were “specifically…marketed to evade the law.”

Sidner began the segment by briefly describing the shooting itself, as well as breaking the new information about the ghost guns that were used in the crime. She then described ghost guns, being careful to note specifically that this type of firearm “doesn’t have any markings, and is not traceable.”

As if having a serial number would have somehow stopped the shooting?

Sidner then brought McCabe on the show to discuss the fact that “the City of Philadelphia is suing the two largest suppliers of ghost guns,” Polymer80, Inc. and JSD Supply. McCabe called the lawsuit “an admirable step” to “start to address” the issue, since Biden’s federal ban had been overthrown.

This lawsuit, in principle, makes no sense. Making firearms has always been legal in America, and possession of these firearms when completed is also legal, according to the Second Amendment. Suing a company for selling a product that enabled these things wasn’t right, even if those guns were used for bad things.

When McCabe pointed out that “really anyone with any sort of mechanical ability” could use these companies' kits to construct a gun, Schau huffed in response: "In reality, these guns required quite a bit of skill and some specific equipment to assemble, not merely the simple task that these two seemed to think it was." She offered no evidence to back this up. She then insisted that the disclaimers the companies post on their websites purportedly absolve them of blame:

And yet, amidst all of those claims, the websites of both companies being sued advise the buyer to follow the firearm regulations in his area. JSD Supply disclaimed for the buyer to “always make sure you know your local firearms laws for your own protection.” Polymer80’s website included a disclaimer at the bottom of the page that read, “By using this website, or using or purchasing a Polymer80 product, you affirm that you have verified that you may possess, purchase, and use Polymer80 products under all applicable federal, state, and local laws.”

Rather than seeming like a place that was “perfect” for criminals to obtain guns, these websites seemed to be places that cared a lot about the law, and encouraged its customers to follow all pertinent regulations.

If criminals ignore gun-control laws, as the MRC loves to claim whenever such regulations are proposed, there's no reason to believe they won't also ignore these disclaimers as well.

Schau's post called McCabe an "FBI Liar" in its headline, though she identified nothing he said as a "lie" in her post.

WND's Farah Can't Stop Complaining That Google Won't Do Business With Him
Topic: WorldNetDaily

In the month before he mysteriously disappeared from day-to-day operations -- with still no explanation why -- WorldNetDaily editor Joseph Farah felt the need to relitigate yet again his complaints against Google., which he continues to blame for WND's shaky financial situation. He ranted in his Aug. 1 column:

Censored by Google: Back in 2020, that is what happened to Martin Luther King's famous "Letter From Birmingham Jail," which had run in The Atlantic's August 1963 issue. I genuinely feel sorry for The Atlantic, but it wasn't censored like all of WND's content – 100% – has been since November two years ago. My colleagues at the Gateway Pundit were also permanently demonetized by Google about the same time.

MLK's letter is one of the most important texts of the civil rights movement.

Google thinks it's foolproof because of artificial intelligence and the like – but it's not. The letter's censoring wasn't intentional, of course. But it was more embarrassing than sticking it to WND, the oldest start-up on the internet (birthed in 1997), because of its reporting and commentary.

Google cost this gritty, conservative, Christian journal tens of millions of dollars because of its virtual monopoly and know-it-all attitude.

[...]

For 24 years we co-existed. Actually, I doubt [Google CEO Sundar] Pichai has been at Google that long. I don't even know if he's old enough. I could call Google evil, which I did often, and yet they were happy to take my money nonetheless. But when I crossed swords with the Southern Poverty Law Center I was doomed – me and most of my employees.

Even Slate, a bona fide leftist site, and many others also have had specific articles demonetized because Google disapproved of them. Yet only two sites have been "permanently demonetized" – for two years and counting.

As we've documented, WND has not been "demonetized" -- Google has simply chosen to stop doing business with a website known for fake news and conspiracy theories by no longer allowing its ads to appear there. In short, Google and WND had a business agreement, and WND repeatedly violated the terms of that agreement.

That was followed by WND's usual (and false) rebuttals to the Google standards WND broke -- guidelines against hateful content was retorted with how "WND dares to report honestly and forthrightly on the fantastically deranged transgender agenda," guidelines against "demonstrably false" content was rebutted with "the obvious and provable fact that the 2020 election was one of the most corrupt, manipulated and RIGGED elections in American history," and so on. Farah concluded by huffing:

We don't play ball with Google. We know exactly what we believe. One of the most precious things we believe in is the First Amendment to the Constitution. In the past, newspapers and other media never worried about that changing or getting watered down or becoming extinct. The First Amendment has been foundational to this nation for 236 years. It's our heritage, our government's most important statement of who we are.

It reads: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

May it always stand in word and deed.

Last we checked, the First Amendment doesn't protect lies and hate.

Farah used his Aug. 16 column to praise Robert Kennedy Jr. -- whose campaign for president WND has ironically promoting -- for suing Google for pointing out that he's an anti-vaxxer conspiracy theorist:

See how easy it is to sue the government and Google for censoring all of us?

All it takes is a little money and the will to do it. Like Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

A federal magistrate judge has set an emergency hearing on Kennedy request for a temporary restraining order barring Google from censoring his speech on YouTube during the 2024 campaign. Kennedy, a candidate for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court Northern District of California against Google, LLC and its wholly owned subsidiary YouTube, LLC, last week.

The hearing was to be held this week before Judge Nathanael Cousins in the federal courthouse located in San Jose, California.

Kennedy alleges that Google worked with the federal government to develop and enforce "misinformation" policies to censor the government's political opponents, like RFK Jr., who is running against President Biden in the Democratic primary. Such actions violate the First Amendment when, as here, "they result from a public-private partnership that relies on government sources and when the private party, Google, shares the government's censorship goals."

Farah went on to cheer Kennedy for playing the "censorship" card, then tried to ride his coattails:

Kennedy is absolutely correct. And so was WND when we set out blaze the trail in independent online journalism:

[...]

Two years ago, Google dropped a huge nuclear bomb on WND by permanently demonetizing us.

When Google demonetized WND, the world's second-wealthiest company finally revealed what they considered the three BIG LIES that this news site had been promoting, for which reason they throttled our traffic, advertising revenue and search accessibility. In other words, Google tried to drive us completely out of business.

Farah copy-and-pasted yet again WND's bogus rebuttal to its Google guideline violations After noting how it promoted various COVID conspiracies, he added: "This last one we share in common with Robert Kennedy. It was government under Joe Biden that made this formula lethal to the First Amendment."

Then it was time for a money beg as Farah mixed in a donation drive in his call for prayers:

We've lost more than 90% of our revenues since 2016. We are essentially operating on fumes.

If WND means something special to you, we continue to need your prayers and your financial blessings. While some of our friends in the independent media have billionaire patrons, you should know that we do not, and never have. We've always operated the old-fashioned way, earning our own way. We spend only what we take in through revenues and donations.

We do it because we love it. We always have. But we also love you for remembering us. Truly.

Most of all, we love God and trust Him for our daily bread.

So, please, don't forget to keep us in your prayers. We can feel their effectiveness. They give us great encouragement to keep fighting on.

He even provided a phone number and a special email address "for anyone who is in a position to contribute $5,000 or more."

MRC's Jean-Pierre-Bashing, Doocy-Fluffing Watch
Topic: Media Research Center

In his writeup of the Oct. 2 White House press briefing, the Media Research Center's Curtis Houck served up huge dose of Doocy-fluffing, insisting that only biased right-wing reporters like Peter Doocy were asking "real questions":

Monday’s White House press briefing started on a pathetic note with the first flurry of questions consisted of the press corps sticking up for and asking questions on behalf of the Ukrainians, not the American people. Eventually, there were real questions asked, thanks in part to Fox’s Peter Doocy and wife Hillary Vaughn of the Fox Business Network.

Vaughn came first: “New York Governor Kathy Hochul says the border is too open right now. Does the President think that the border is too open?”

Jean-Pierre launched into a hilarious answer that began with the token point that Biden “put forward a comprehensive piece of legislation to deal with immigration reform” when he took office, but Republicans won’t acquiesce. 

She then added that Biden’s tackled the border through “enforcement,” “detergence,” and “diplomacy.” On the second point, she comically bragged that “we’ve made clear that attempting to cross the border unlawfully will result in prompt removal, a five-year ban on — on reentry, and potential criminal prosecution.”

[...]

A few minutes later, Doocy drew some laughs at the White House when he alluded to Congressman Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) pulling a fire alarm on Saturday that delayed a House vote to keep the government open:“Would President Biden ever try to get out of a meeting by pulling a fire alarm?”

Jean-Pierre jokingly replied: “Are you talking about something specifically?”

Doocy then became more direct: “A Democratic member of Congress pulled a fire alarm around a series of votes. No fire. Is that appropriate?”

Jean-Pierre said she hadn’t “spoken to the President about this and” thus wouldn’t “comment.”

Doocy’s other questions focused on a possible strike of health care workers and riots last week with looters ransacking stores in Philadelphia[.]

In Houck's right-wing bubble, press questions are only "real" if they advance conservative narratives.

Houck's Doocy-fluffing continued the next day:

On Tuesday afternoon, the Fox News Channel’s Peter Doocy wasn’t having it as the ever-inept White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre reverted back to a years-long, cartoonish, pants-on-fire fable that Republicans are the true anti-cops, defund-the-police party in light of Monday night’s carjacking of Congressman Henry Cuellar (D-TX) in the Navy Yard section of Washington D.C.

It started with a question from The Wall Street Journal’s Catherine Lucey, who was not only the penultimate reporter called on, but shamefully only the first to bring up Cuellar: “[D]oes the White House any comment on the carjacking of Representative Cuellar? Has the President reached out to him? And more broadly, does it say anything about safety and crime in the District?”

After confirming that Biden “did have an opportunity to speak with the congressman today,” that the White House is “grateful and relieved” he was okay, and calling the attack “unacceptable,” she launched into blaming the GOP for cities not being fully staffed with police (click “expand”):

[...]

Doocy went straight to the obvious the left writ large — in or out of office — won’t admit, which is that they run nearly all of these major cities spiraling into lawlessness: “Well, the first follow up would be, how are you going to blame Republicans for this? Isn’t D.C. run by a bunch of Democrats?”

Jean-Pierre doubled down that Biden “has been very, very straightforward about” ensuring “communities are safe” whereas Republicans wouldn’t support giving “communities...funding” to “hire more police officers”.

Doocy hit back with this stinging hypothetical: “So, if President Biden’s policies are helping bring crime down, would he be comfortable with somebody borrowing his Corvette and parking it on the street overnight in Southeast D.C.?”

The Press Secretary refused to go there, saying she’d only “get into the facts about what this President has done” and brought up the gun control legislation from last year.

Apparently for Houck, "stinging hypotheticals" 'are the same as "real questions" when Doocy says them.

Biden's decision to build parts of a border wall gave Houck the chance to spread the right-wing narrative that the president caved and to chortle that Jean-Pierre was asked a lot of questions about it at the Oct. 5 briefing:

Karine Jean-Pierre, the Biden White House’s ever-inept press secretary, had a rough go of things Thursday afternoon as she took a plethora of brutal questions from the left and right over President Biden’s sudden capitulation to sanity and allow for the construction of just over 20 miles of new border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Given it was more than just Fox’s Peter Doocy and Real Clear Politics’s Philip Wegmann pressing, you knew it was a grilling.

He didn't forget his Doocy-fluffing, though:

Doocy Time ended the briefing, starting with: “As a candidate, President Biden didn’t say, ‘there will not be another foot of wall constructed that — except what was appropriated in 2019.’ He said, ‘there will not be another foot of wall constructed [in] my administration.’ So, something changed. What?”

This left Jean-Pierre furious (click “expand”):

[...]

Doocy’s last question was spicy but pertinent: “If you have to build a border wall but you don’t think that it’s going to work, then once it’s done, are you just going to tear it down?”

Of course, Jean-Pierre scoffed at the idea of “getting into hypotheticals”.

Such partisan hackery from Doocy, remember, is what Houck considers to be "real questions" to ask the White House.

Newsmax's Hirsen Cheered Right-Wing Songs of the Summer
Topic: Newsmax

Like the Media Research Center, Newsmax columnist James Hirsen hyped the right-wing songs of the summer. He gushed over Jason Aldean's "Try That In A Small Town" in his July 24 column:

Jason Aldean is a superstar country music singer, with 27 number one hits and several top-selling albums.

He recently released a song that threw him smack in the middle of the cancel culture battle.

Aldean's recent single "Try That In a Small Town" came out in May 2023, but went with little mention in the non-music press.

Then in July the music video was released. That’s when the artist as well as the song came under heavy mainstream media and social media attack.

The video includes footage from the Summer of 2020, where flags were burned, cars were smashed, businesses were vandalized, police were abused, etc.

The left responded in what has become routine fashion, slapping a bigoted label on the art and the artist.

The tragic incidents of 2020 and the brutal crimes that continue to ravage major cities have been minimized and/or completely ignored by dominant left-leaning media outlets.

Aldean’s artistic inclusion of depictions of events seems to have really hit a nerve.

Hirsen let Aldean complain that "this song isn’t promoting violence as some have suggested" and that "There is not a single lyric in the song that references race or points to it" -- but failed to disclose that the video includes footage of Aldean performing in front of a Southern courthouse notorious as the scene of a lynching of a black teenager in 1927. Hirsen noted that a concert crowd unsurprisingly cheered the song, adding:

Aldean’s small town is proving to be mighty big in a lot more ways than one.

The "USA! USA!" chants from the concert crowd were more than just a show of support for the country music artist.

They were a great big "Thank You!" to Jason Aldean from down-home hearts across America and globally.

Hirsen has previously written a 2022 column defending Aldean's wife after she stated in an online video that "I’d really like to thank my parents for not changing my gender when I went through my tomboy phase," cheering them for trying to bring "our unique and legendary all-American country music back."

Hirsen followed that by hyping Oliver Anthony's "Rich Men North of Richmond" in his Aug. 14 column:

Truths, especially those that have been suppressed, often have a way of emerging in the form of a song.

With one finger on an instrument and another on the pulse of a culture, a gifted songwriter is able to capture a moment, compose melody, and pen lyrics.

With the luck of the draw, the creation may even become a musical soundtrack for its times.

This just happened in the life of former factory worker and off-the-grid farmer Oliver Anthony.

He performed an original song for an audience comprised of his dogs.

The instant the video was uploaded to the web, Oliver’s world changed forever.

Just days ago the Virginia singer-songwriter was unknown to the general public. Now he has the number one song on iTunes. It’s called "Rich Men North of Richmond."

[...]

Reflecting the discontent with the present economic reality and the fallout from unjust governmental policies, Oliver goes on to sing, "Lord, it’s a damn shame what the world’s gotten to for people like me and people like you."

One of the most compelling lines in the song points to the surreal nature of life these days, with the words, "Wish I could wake up and it not be true, but it is, oh it is. Living in the new world with an old soul."

Hirsen again whined that the song was criticized by non-right-wingers:

Meanwhile, left-leaning media are trying to sully the song.

For example, Rolling Stone published a piece titled "Right-Wing Influencers Just Found Their Favorite New Country Song," characterizing the tune as a "passionate screed against the state of the country."

News bulletin: His song is music to the ears of millions of Americans whose voices have been suppressed and who have simply been suffering in silence.

8.4 million views and counting is the exclamation point, and a fine one at that.

Hirsen hasn't written about the song since, so we don't know how he feels about Anthony distancing himself from the right-wing activists trying to appropriate his song for their purposes and pointing out that it was written about the kind of out-of-touch Republican presidential candidates who touted his song at their first debate. He did, however, name-check both songs in his Aug. 23 column as evidence that "the silent unwoke majority sure seems to have found its voice."

WND Promotes Faulty Anti-Biden Claims From Shady Ukrainian Ex-Prosecutor
Topic: WorldNetDaily

Bob Unruh uncritically wrote in an Aug. 25 WorldNetDaily article:

Viktor Shokin is the prosecutor in Ukraine that Joe Biden, as vice president and in charge of Ukraine relations for Barack Obama, demanded be fired.

Biden later bragged about it:

The situation that developed was that the U.S. was working to help Ukraine eliminate corruption, and one of Shokin's targets was Burisma, a gas company that was paying Joe Biden's son, Hunter, $1 million a year, ostensibly to be on its board but, as evidence suggests, allegedly to get rid of investigations.

The U.S. had concluded Shokin was making progress, but Joe Biden abruptly overruled that conclusion, insisting Shokin be removed, and threatened Ukraine with the loss of a billion dollars of American aid if he was not fired.

He was.

Now, in a coming interview reported to be lined up by Fox News this weekend, Shokin charges that Joe and Hunter Biden did take bribes.

Those bribes already have been documented in an FBI report that said a trusted confidential source confirmed they happened, $5 million to Joe and $5 million to Hunter.

A report Friday in the Daily Mail cites the coming interview, and clips that it obtained from that.

The report said Shokin described the Bidens as the ones guilty of "corruption," and said they took "bribes" from Burisma.

"I do not want to deal in unproven facts. But my firm personal conviction is that yes, this was the case. They were being bribed," Shokin explained, according to the Daily Mail report.

In fact, Shokin is not telling the truth -- he was fired in part because he wasn't investigating Burisma, not because he was (and, in fact, Burisma did not want Shokin fired); he also refused to prosecute any members of the government of former Ukranian president Viktor Yankunovych and was widely viewed as not doing his job. And it wasn't just Biden who sought to fire him; much of the internatoinal community, including more than 100 members of the Ukranian parliament, also wanted Shokin fired.

The only attempt Unruh made to present a balanced view of Shokin was a single paragraph in which he noted that  the Daily Mail story reported that "Biden's White House is accusing Fox of 'giving a 'platform to lies'" with the interview.'" But Unruh made no effort to detail those lies.

IUnruh repeated the dubious pro-Shokin narrative again in a Sept. 8 article that hyped how "a memo now has emerged that confirmed the European Union had reached internal consensus that prosecutor Viktor Shokin's office was meeting established goals for fighting corruption and organized crime." Unruh omitted that many other officials wanted Shokin fired for lack of progress against corruption, repeated the falsehood that Shoking was "investigating the Burisma company," and he again failed to detail the lies Shokin told in his Fox News interview.

NEW ARTICLE -- The MRC Flips Over Elon Musk, Part 15: Carrots And Sticks
Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center is still serving as Elon Musk's PR agency -- while also taking the occasional whack at him for not giving right-wingers total leeway to spread hate and lies. Read more >>