Slanties 2023: Ultra Slantie

For the 20th time, it's time to honor (as it were) the worst ConWeb reporting and craziest ConWeb opinions of the year.

By Terry Krepel
Posted 1/20/2023

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With even more documented misdeeds than ever to choose from, it's time to announce the 20th annual Slantie Awards, ConWebWatch's celebration of bad journalism and creepy right-wing sycophancy.

Time to document the atrocities -- er, hand out some hardware.

* * *

The first award is for the most egregious example of bias in "news" coverage. The nominees are:

-- The MRC's war on NewsGuard: The Media Research Center spent a good part of 2022 waging a loud and lame war on website rating service NewsGuard for pointing out how right-wing websites aren't very credible. Not that the MRC actually rebutted any of those claims with actual evidence, mind you -- it just loudly ranted that right-wing sites that have been repeatedly busted for spreading falsehoods and misinformation were totally credible.

-- The return of Dick Morris at Newsmax: Morris is a notoriously wrong political prognosticator, but he decided to go all in on Donald Trump, writing a Trump-fluffing book (published by Newsmax, of course) that put him all over the channel promoting it. Oh, and he still made wildly wrong prognostications.

-- MRC's hero worship of Elon Musk: The Media Research Center started out 2022 criticizing Musk for being too cozy with China in order to sell Teslas there. When he showed interest in buying Twitter, however, the MRC quickly memory-holed that and went into hero-worship mode, praising every move he made -- as well as everything he did when, after months of hemming and hawing, he finally bought Twitter and fed right-wing narratives about supposed "censorship" of conservatives there.

-- MRC and CNS love of Kanye West backfires: Both the Media Research Center and its "news" division CNSNews.com spent years fawning over rapper Kanye West for spouting right-wing-friendly things about abortion and maintaining a bromance with Donald Trump. When Ye suddenly turned anti-Semitic, neither the MRC nor CNS were particularly quick or eager to criticize him -- and the same went for Trump when he later dined with Ye and white supremacist Nick Fuentes.

And the Slantie goes to ... the MRC's hero worship of Elon Musk. The MRC has served as a servile stenographer to Musk ever since he got interested in buying Twitter, and that's not going to stop anytime soon as long as he keeps feeding right-wing victimhood narratives.

* * *

The next award is the LoBaido Award for the silliest statement made by a writer for a conservative news Web site (named after Anthony LoBaido, who wrote a post-9/11 column for WorldNetDaily that was so unhinged -- he blamed the attacks on America's immorality since "all that is evil in the world can be found in New York" and, for good measure, called Hillary Clinton "openly Marxist, treasonous and abortion-mongering, occultic" -- that WND eventually pulled it from its site). Here are this year's finalists:

How do you know if Hillary is gearing up for another presidential bid?

Her weather vane begins to twirl and points to the most advantageous direction for a candidacy. Following her ruminations and political gyrations is as accurate as monitoring polling data.

[...]

She is setting up the blame game for the likely Democrat losses even as they have not yet happened.

It looks like we are in for Hillary 3.0.

-- Dick Morris, Jan. 1 Newsmax column

Stay away from the force-field of evil that is the Democrats' Jan. 6 Psychological Operation (PSYOP). Much like the Russia hoax – a plot to unseat a president – the Jan. 6 monomania is meant to overthrow a people, MAGA America.

Since there is nothing much to commemorate, except for the cold-blooded, unpunished murder of an unarmed protester, Ashli Babbit, Jan. 6 must be viewed as a long-term, cynical political strategy.

-- Ilana Mercer, Jan. 6 WND column

What a time to be alive! M&Ms has made its Green M&M mascot less sexy. All is well with the world.

Yep that’s a real news development and it’s not just about the green M&M losing her high heels and having her “come hither” demeanor turned way down. All the zany M&Ms characters that fill the candy product’s ads are getting their toxic personalities adjusted for the sake of inclusivity, as declared M&M’s parent company Mars.

Well this is downright pathetic.

-- Gabriel Hays, Jan. 25 MRC post

According to legend, 11th-century monarch King Canute ordered his chair to be placed on the beach while the tide was rising. "You are subject to me," Canute told the sea. "I command you, therefore, not to rise on to my land, nor to presume to wet the clothing or limbs of your master."

Of late, ex-President Barack Obama seems to be testing his Canute-like powers. This past week he was spotted maskless conferring with masked construction workers on the site of his new beachfront mansion. Located on the southeast edge of the island of Oahu in Hawaii, the property alone sold for $8.7 million.

This new mansion will help Obama fill out a real estate portfolio that already includes a 7,000-square foot, $12 million waterfront home on Martha's Vineyard, a short bicycle ride from Chappaquiddick.

Better still, these twin purchases give him all the excuse he needs to stay as far away from the American heartland as possible and still be able to get all the ESPN channels.

-- Jack Cashill, Feb. 9 WND column

Whatever we may think of Putin, he is no Stalin. He has not murdered millions or created a gulag archipelago.

Nor is he "irrational," as some pundits rail. He does not want a war with us, which would be worse than ruinous to us both.

Putin is a Russian nationalist, patriot, traditionalist and a cold and ruthless realist looking out to preserve Russia as the great and respected power it once was and he believes it can be again.

-- Pat Buchanan, Feb. 25 CNS column

But for now, thanks to the Biden administration’s one-two punch of weakness and incompetence, Ukraine is now Putin’s to do with what he wants.

He’s been waiting for a weakling like Biden to occupy the White House and he has not let the opportunity pass him by.

He’s 73. He knows he’s personally running out of time to "Make Russia Great Again" (MRGA).

He also knew that he had only a four-year window to make his dream a reality.

He had to "MRGA" before Biden or his inevitable successor, the even more clueless Kamala Harris — was replaced by a competent president with a spine.

The fact is, no matter what you think of Donald Trump — and people know I don’t think very highly of him – the invasion of Ukraine would have never happened under Trump and certainly not under Ronald Reagan.

-- Michael Reagan, Feb. 25 Newsmax column

Blacks have not been discriminated against in appointments to the Supreme Court in recent years. Indeed, there has been a black Supreme Court justice ever since 1967, even though blacks have never been more than 13% of the U.S. population during that period, and blacks have usually comprised less than 3% of the legal profession during that period. (It is the black percentage of the legal profession, not the black percentage of the general population, that is legally relevant in assessing whether blacks are "underrepresented" in the judiciary, according to Supreme Court rulings like Wards Cove Packing Co. v. Atonio (1989)).

-- Hans Bader, Feb. 28 CNS column

Russia demands only that Ukraine end its military hostilities, promise not to join the anti-Russia EU or NATO, recognize Crimea as part of Russia and acknowledge the independence of the small Donetsk and Lugansk whose residents speak Russian.

Those modest demands hardly fit the liberal narrative that Russia is supposedly targeting innocent civilians or refugees fleeing the fighting. Beating war drums prolongs the bloodshed until residents leave, as more than 2 million Ukrainians have already fled.

Without support by the American people, a handful of globalists have quietly expanded NATO all the way to the Russian border, including even nations that were part of the former Soviet Union. Joe Biden endorsed this reckless expansion, which provoked the war that we now watch tragically unfold.

-- Andy Schlafly, March 8 WND column

Women are being erased by the very people and companies that claim to support women’s rights. Disney has changed Minnie Mouse’s outfit from a red polka dot dress and heels to a blue pantsuit with flats and M&Ms has de-feminized its green and brown commercial characters. Those are just the tip of the iceberg of how our culture is erasing women today.

-- Crystal Renaud Day, Feb. 21 CNS column

Social justice is not Christian. It does not reflect a Christian understanding of justice. It does not fit the Christology of Jesus. It’s a distorted attempt to create a “perfect” world, according to a vision of perfection that’s cast in the image of man, and is quite aside from what God understands as perfection.

Sometimes even people within the Church persist in believing there are valid “truths” other than those Jesus shows us. When that happens, those “Christians” are in danger of losing their identity as human beings. They are in danger of losing their moral compass. They are in danger of losing their souls.

-- Rev. Michael Orsi, March 21 CNS column

The very next written question asked Jackson: "Do you hold a position on whether individuals possess natural rights, yes or no?"

Jackson responded: "I do not hold a position on whether individuals possess natural rights."

So, she does not agree with the foundational principle of the Declaration of Independence?

-- Terry Jeffrey, April 6 CNS column

One does not need to approve of Russia’s military actions to analyze its stated motivation: NATO membership for Ukraine was a red line it was not willing to see crossed. As we find ourselves at risk of a terrible escalation, we should remind ourselves that it didn’t have to happen this way. There was no advantage to the United States to expand and threaten to expand NATO to Russia’s doorstep. There is no way to argue that we are any safer for it.

NATO itself was a huge mistake.

-- Ron Paul, March 1 CNSNews.com column

Aspen Institute wants less digital surveillance. Why? So that women can travel to abort their babies without anyone knowing.

In a May 11 Zoom lecture with Aspen Institute, speakers emphasized the importance of digital privacy in order to protect women who still want to kill their babies in areas where abortion is outlawed. The Aspen Institute speakers essentially pushed for less surveillance so that women won’t get in trouble when they commit the crime of abortion.

[...]

Should Americans have the right to privacy? Yes, but not when that privacy comes at the expense of innocent lives being aborted. Aspen Institute and every speaker they had on today advocated for more data privacy simply so that women can get away with the crime that is abortion. Talk about empowerment, am I right?

-- Tierin-Rose Mandelburg, May 12 MRC post

If we're going to try Putin in the court of public opinion, the least we can do is compare him point for point not with the perfect standard of Jesus Christ, but with other current and recent world leaders. How does Putin compare, for example to Joe Biden? Justin Trudeau? Boris Johnson? Emmanuel Macron? George Bush? Bill Clinton? Angela Merkle? Barack Obama? Have any of them killed foreign enemies? Conducted military operations on foreign soil that harmed civilians? Sabotaged political rivals? Consorted with billionaire "oligarchs"? Making fair comparisons is a duty we owe to ourselves, as much as to those being smeared.

-- Scott Lively, May 12 WND column

You know, come to think of it, Biden is possibly mentally ill.

Think about it. We had a communist living in the White House and we never knew if he was eligible for the office.

Now we have a mentally ill president living in the White House who hasn't found anyone who is ineligible.

What's next?

-- Joseph Farah, June 14 WND column

Wonders never cease in the wide woke world of the Women’s National Basketball Association. While doing time in a Russian prison on drug charges, Phoenix Mercury center Brittney Griner just made the WNBA All-Star Game as an honorary starter. Her initials and uniform number are adorning center court in each of the league’s 12 arena, too.

[...]

Once again, merit means nothing to virtue signalers on the far Left. Symbolism trumps substance. A criminal record for a black lesbian athlete is now a badge of honor.

If law breaking is the standard, then it’s not a stretch to assume more honors will be directed Griner’s way. Will woke do-gooders who want to make themselves feel better start piling on the accolades for the 6-foot-9-inch basketball player?

One can’t help but imagine Griner making the woke TV tour: Good Morning America, ESPN, The View and other woke outposts.

-- Jay Maxson, June 23 MRC post

Hollywood lefties hate Christians, and never pass up a chance to show it. Following a spate of incidents of children participating in drag shows, they’re showing what they hold sacred.

Lynda Carter, whose claim to fame is playing Wonder Woman on TV in the 1970s, was on Twitter taking shots at Christians who don’t think kids should hang around with drag queens.

Following the Dallas drag show for children's fiasco, many conservative commentators on Twitter showed their disdain for the event. Congressman Lauren Boebert tweeted, “Take your children to CHURCH, not drag bars.” Carter responded with an asinine retweet.

[...]

You don’t have to think like a superhero to have played one on TV.

-- Michael Ippolito, June 10 MRC NewsBusters post (which forgot about Kevin Sorbo)

The American experience has become a horror story that's about to get truly scary. The most blatantly sexually corrupt – and publicly reviled – woman in American political history remains just one heartbeat away from the presidency of the United States as the Obama team waits for the exact right moment to pull the plug on putative "President" Biden.

What started in 1620 as the dream of America as a "Shining City on a Hill" has morphed into the nightmare of "The Shining" with crazy Joe Biden as the ax murderer of cultural normalcy, Jack, and Kamala Harris as the hapless wife, Wendy (set to inherit the dystopian ruins he leaves behind). But Harris' story goes much deeper than Hollywood – to the apocalyptic Babylonian script of Revelation 17, which America now emulates, in which she IS the "Horror," if not (technically) the "Whore" of Babylon.

-- Scott Lively, July 25 WND column

Liberals are anthropomorphic diseased lifeforms suffering from severe mental illness who have transmogrified into a bipedal form of cancer that uses gross depravity as a food source to feed Satanic goals and agendas.

You cannot coexist peacefully with these creatures. Peaceful coexistence is the very last thing that interests their kind. They're a pestilence and infestation wholly given over to the global subjugation of those they deem beneath them.

-- Mychal Massie, Aug. 29 WND column

Biden believes he is historically a "messianic" figure like Lincoln during the Civil War and FDR in World War II. I personally pray for him daily but believe he is cognitively deficient, living in a state of denial and devoid of a moral compass to protect human life in the womb, on the border or in war-torn Afghanistan where multitudes were callously left behind as the Taliban reconstitutes, enslaves masses and puts women back into slavery. Where is the outcry from the women of the world?

Like Jimmy Carter, Joe Biden is an accidental president. Carter was given the prize because of Nixon's resignation, Watergate and a weak Jerry Ford. Biden got the job because of COVID, collusion lies (launched by Hillary) and a biased media relentlessly trashing Trump while ignoring the scandal of Biden and his son along with Hillary Clinton's destruction of her 30,000 emails with no FBI investigation of her home.

-- Joel Hirschhorn, Sept. 5 WND column

Eventually, history will show that all the powers forcing COVID "vaccines" on the public do not have the courage and integrity to admit that the "vaccines" were a dangerous and false pandemic solution that ultimately will explain millions of deaths. They can be seen as part of the biowar forced upon humanity – a true crime against humanity. The principal force that created the phony vaccine movement was Anthony Fauci, whose prosecution as a criminal is sorely needed.

DeSantis has hit a home run. I should know; it's my idea. But now we have to double down. Put it into overdrive. Put the pedal to the metal. Every other GOP governor needs to join the fight. It's time for national expansion.

We have to make it rain illegals wherever rich liberals live.

First, don't stop at Martha's Vineyard. Let's hit all the rich, woke, liberal, spoiled-brat Democrat towns. Send thousands of migrants each week to the Hamptons, Scarsdale and Great Neck, New York; Beverly Hills, Malibu, Palo Alto, La Jolla and Napa Valley, California; Beacon Hill in Boston, the Gold Coast of Chicago, the Upper East Side of Manhattan and Georgetown in Washington, D.C.

Bury all the rich liberal towns with migrants from the border. Make sure elitist, woke, liberal Democrat hypocrites have to step over hordes of these people to get into Starbucks, their hairdresser, nail salon, supermarkets, restaurants and their kids' schools. Make them scream "Uncle."

Oh. So the massive, unannounced, armed police raid on a U.S. president’s home wasn’t a “raid.” But the Jan. 6, 2021, demonstration in the U.S. Capitol by that same president’s supporters, who had every reason to suspect the 2020 election had been stolen – was an “armed insurrection,” even though not one protestor was armed nor did their actions in any way amount to an “insurrection.” Nevertheless, Vice President Kamala Harris insisted the Jan. 6 “insurrection” was every bit as infamous and awful as the raid on Pearl Harbor and the 9-11 terror attacks, each of which killed thousands of Americans. Change the definitions of words and you change everything.

-- David Kupelian, Sept. 12 WND column

In a publicity stunt, some argue was designed to generate outrage this week, the Library of Congress allowed degenerate singer Lizzo to parade around half naked on stage while twerking and playing former President James Madison’s crystal flute. On Friday, the cackling coven of ABC’s The View looked on with glee as they mocked some conservatives for getting upset and argued that the disgusting display was retribution against Madison because he owned slaves.

-- Nicholas Fondacaro, Sept. 30 MRC NewsBusters post

American Jewish Committee (AJC) and Anti-Defamation League (ADL) are two Jewish organizations that both rightfully condemned Ye. However, they each used extreme language. AJC called his posts “dangerous” in a video that was produced before the “death con 3” tweet. So it was solely based on Ye using Jewish stereotypes such as greed and power.

ADL took it up a notch, tweeting: “The behavior exhibited this week by @kanyewest is deeply troubling, dangerous, and antisemitic, period. There is no excuse for his propagating of white supremacist slogans and classic #antisemitism about Jewish power, especially with the platform he has.” This tweet was also before the “death con 3” comment.

Ye has said terrible things before, but never has he been canceled to this extent. He was only banned from social media in the past for harassing his ex-wife, which is a much more agreeable reason. And he was never banned by a bank.

It would be more productive to condemn him, debate him, ask him to apologize, etc. Anything but canceling or condoning.

Hopefully, these institutions come to their senses and uncancel Ye. And hopefully, Ye comes to his senses, apologizes, and adapts his views. But if he continues to be canceled, they may be cemented instead.

-- Jason Cohen, Oct. 13 MRC NewsBusters post (later deleted)

So what caused this low birth rate among Caucasians and with industrialized nations? As pointed out by Virginia Raines and Sue Sarkis in different email exchange groups, the birth rate falls as a population becomes more educated and more affluent. Intellectuals brainwash our children into believing that careers are hindered by children and that motherhood is slavery – so birth rates fall as wealth and careers become more important than bringing life into the world.

Therefore, the lower-intelligent and poorer populations becomes a larger percentage of humanity as the population of educated, affluent people falls.

-- Michael Master, Nov. 22 WND column

Last week, Trump had dinner with a celebrity acquaintance (Ye, formerly known as Kanye West) and a stranger (Nick Fuentes). The media, Democrats and the RINO establishment GOP are trying to destroy Trump over a brief dinner – with a stranger.

The story is a scam. It's gaslighting at the highest level. Ye set Trump up. Ye is clearly mentally disturbed. He wanted to create a media firestorm that would fuel his own insane political ambitions. Trump was just eating dinner and expecting to give career advice to a billionaire celebrity acquaintance.

-- Wayne Allyn Root, Dec. 2 WND column

It took a lot of courage to do what Elon did in returning Trump to the Twitter platform.

It also took a whole lot of integrity, something society desperately needs yet too frequently gets in its civic and corporate leaders.

The man is a genuine free speech devotee who is determined to rebuild the digital town square.

For the sake of our country, pray that he succeeds.

-- James Hirsen, Nov. 21 Newsmax column

It will be interesting to see whether ingrate Griner ever appreciates all that was done, at great national expense financially as well as setting a dangerous foreign policy precedent, to bring her home ahead of others. Griner got a "get out of Russian jail free" card played on her behalf. The honorable thing for her now would be not to let Whelan be forgotten and to stand for our national anthem. Sadly, don't expect that to happen.

-- James Zumwalt, Dec. 11 WND column

Despite the fact that 412,336 concerned citizens sent emails to their two Senators through the Family Research Council website, the same 12 Republican senators were unmoved by the cry of their constituents. Through a series of votes, they repeatedly embraced the sexually perverse bill [the Respect for Marriage Act] with a white-knuckled grip.

Here’s the $64,000 question.

Why did these 12 Republicans betray the conservative Christians who elected them with a Judas-style kiss on the cheek? Follow the money.

-- Paul Milazzo, Dec. 16 CNS column

And the Slantie goes to ... the MRC's Tierin-Rose Mandelburg, for advocating an Orwellian surveillance state to monitor pregnant women lest they cross state lines to have an abortion. She's the chief anti-abortion extremist at the MRC and proud of it.

Runners-up included a couple regarding noted anti-Semite Kanye West: Jason Cohen's insistence that Jewish groups criticizing Kanye West's anti-Semitism is just as bad as anti-Semitism itself, and Wayne Allyn Root's whitewashing of Trump's dinner with Ye and fellow anti-Semite Nick Fuentes as merely involving a "celebrity acquaintance" and a "stranger."

* * *

Our next award is the Slantie Award for Career Achievement in Conservative Bias. This goes to a reporter or commentator with a consistent record of biased and slanted reports that fly in the face of time-honored journalistic practice, the truth and/or common sense.

This year's honoree is ... Art Moore of WorldNetDaily. Moore is a longtime WND employee and one of the few remaining as the website creeps toward oblivion, but over the past years he has distinguished himself as a premier misinformer about COVID and its vaccines. From misleading about study results to obsessively hyping treatments like ivermectin that have yet to be proven effective in legitimate trials, Moore is a key reason why WND is continuing on its path to oblivion.

* * *

Our final award is the Career Achievement In Crassness Award, which we are giving to ... WorldNetDaily.

WND is incredibly desperate for money -- so much so that it actually invoked the 9/11 terrorist attacks to sell paid subscriptions. An appeal accompanied by a picture of the New York City skyline with beams of light emanating from the former location of the World Trade Center towers stated:

NEVER BEFORE HAS A FOREIGN ENEMY SUCCESSFULLY ATTACKED OUR MAINLAND FROM OVER THE HORIZON.

AT WND, WE WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER!

THATS WHY

WE ARE GIVING YOU 50% OFF OUR ANNUAL WND INSIDER MEMBERSHIP!

It also stumbled into racism, choosing to illustrate a Daily Caller article about federal loans to black farmers with a picture of watermelons. Finally, WND got a little too glib over the death of actress Kirstie Alley with the headline "'Drop Dead Gorgeous' star Kirstie Alley dead."

And WND wonders why it continues its long march to oblivion.