Newsbusters News

Newsbusters & Media Research Center Make Up Story About “Ant-Covered Jesus” Art

5:00 pm EST November 30th, 2010 | Conservative | 49 Comments

Reality didn’t conform to their right-wing frame, so they just manipulated the facts to create a fake scandal and the media (Fox) and GOP lap it up.

Something about “homoerotic” and “ant-covered Jesus,” combined with a mention of the Christmas season, seems to have struck the right nerve among right-wingers. Drudge linked to it, and the Breitbart empire has weighed in. And it seems more than a little convenient that top congressional Republicans have told Starr they want the exhibit shut down, quickly followed by Starr’s boss, the Media Research Center’s Brent Bozell, demanding not just that the exhibit be killed but also that Congress investigate this “direct assault on Christianity.”

As Starr acknowledged in her article, the exhibit — like every Smithsonian exhibit — is not paid for by taxpayer funds. But Bozell doesn’t care because, as he wrote in one of his letters to congressional leaders, “[i]t is housed in a federal institution funded by the American people.”

Aside from the manufactured-outrage aspect, there’s also some anti-gay dog-whistling going on.

It’s groups like MRC that make liberals wince when so-called centrists try to play the “both sides” game. Both sides have activists that want their side to win, but the right favors making things up and doing it in a nakedly dishonest fashion.

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Newsbusters Attacks ABC For Stating A Fact

1:46 pm EST October 5th, 2010 | Media | 1 Comment

media research centerI don’t usually get into the weeds of conservative media criticism, but this one is such a slam dunk of deception, it’s worth noting. Writing at Media Research Center’s Newsbusters site, Scott Whitlock wrote:

ABC trumpeted a new poll on Tuesday as proof that conservatives and Republicans could be losing ground in the midterm election. Good Morning America co-host George Stephanopoulos excitedly opened the show by speculating, “This morning, is the Tea Party losing traction? Our new poll says the answer may be yes as the movement’s most famous candidate releases this ad.”

…

The GMA anchor also conducted a combative interview with conservative activist Ginni Thomas (wife of Clarence Thomas). Citing ABC’s new numbers, he argued, “The Tea Party, losing a little bit of steam.”

Stephanopoulos played up a supposed divide between Tea Partiers and the GOP, highlighting a worry that “Tea Party candidates are actually going to cost Republican seats they otherwise would have won.”

Of a possible Republican victory, he spun, “This could end up being a recipe for more gridlock, depending on who wins in November.”

I’m no Stephanopoulos fan. Not by any stretch. He was a key part of one of the worst presidential debates in history.

That said, Stephanopoulos is simply stating a fact. The poll he was reporting on asked this question:

Say a candidate for Congress associates him or herself with the political movement known as the Tea Party. Would that make you more likely to (support) that candidate for Congress, more likely to (oppose) that candidate, or wouldn’t it make much difference in your vote? IF SUPPORT/OPPOSE: Would you be MUCH more likely to support/oppose that candidate, or SOMEWHAT more?

In April 2010, 15% said they would support such a candidate. In July 2010, 30% would support such a candidate. And the most recent poll, October 3, 18% would support such a candidate.

18% is smaller than 30%. This would be characterized by people who do math as a loss of momentum.

On Twitter, I happened to ask Kevin Eder, Marketing Coordinator for Media Research Center – who had pushed this story – what, factually, Stephanopoulos had gotten factually wrong.

He did not answer.

(Also, MRC is upset that ABC referred to Christine O’Donnell as the most famous Tea Party candidate instead of Sarah Palin. Except so far, Palin hasn’t run as a Tea Party candidate. Again, this is a factually accurate statement.)

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How They Lie: Newsbusters Invents A Story

2:47 am EST July 24th, 2010 | Conservative, Media | Comments Off

You would think that Media Research Center’s Newsbusters would at least wait until the fake Andrew Breitbart story was out of the headlines before they got in the “conservatives fabricate a story” business, but no.

Newsbusters headline: “CNN Host Calls for Crackdown on ‘Bloggers’ in Wake of Sherrod Incident”

The closest the quoted host gets to that idea, in the entire story written by Newsbusters’ Alana Goodman, is this:

“Well what Andrew talked about with me was this idea of a gatekeeper but there are huge first amendment rights that come into play here – freedom of speech and all that. And he said the people who need to be the gatekeepers are the media to check into these stories,” said Roberts.

Phillips wanted to go even further, asking if “there’s going to come a point where something’s going to have to be done legally” about anonymous bloggers.

“There has to be some point where there’s some accountability. And companies, especially in the media have to stop giving these anonymous bloggers credit,” she said.

So the CNN anchor says that bloggers should have “some accountability” and somehow in the ears of Newsbusters that translates to “Host Calls for Crackdown.”

In what respect, Charlie? Even allowing for the exaggerated tendencies of the Internet, that’s a Breitbartian stretch on the headline, Newsbusters.

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Newsbusters’ Noel Sheppard Clutches His Pearls

5:34 pm EST March 7th, 2010 | Conservative | 51 Comments

fainting couch

Noel Sheppard of Newsbusters falls right on the fainting couch because of an off-color joke Kathy Griffin made about Sarah Palin.

This is what is acceptable to say about a married woman with five children as well as about an esteemed Senator who almost gave his life for our country?

Where are the feminists and the NOW crowd who are always speaking out for women’s rights?

After all, the implication is that the only reason McCain picked her was because of this fictitious act.

Is this REALLY where we are as a nation when this is not only acceptable, but judging from the applause of the crowd, considered fine entertainment?

I don’t know where conservatives got their latest crackpot theory that Sarah Palin, unlike every other pol on the face of the earth, is somehow immune from crass standup. And even further, the outrage from people like Noel Sheppard is silent when its Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck & Co. making vulgar jokes (Beck has “joked” about killing Pelosi and Michael Moore, for instance) on what are supposedly news programs and not standup routines.

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They Need Some Sort Of Electoral Victory I Guess

12:57 pm EST May 22nd, 2009 | News | 6 Comments

Conservative blogs like Newsbusters are seriously debating whether the evangelical vote determined the outcome of American Idol. We all know the evangelical right spends its entire life focused on distractions that don’t remotely matter, so if we can keep these rubes mass texting Fox and making money for AT&T in the process while staying out of our world? More power to them.

I hear the rapture will never come unless you lock in your votes for Dancing With The Stars. Go for it, wingnuts!

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Newsbusters Does History

5:03 pm EST March 22nd, 2009 | News | 8 Comments

They would really like for Parade Magazine (you know, that esteemed academic journal) to write a version of history blaming Robert Mugabe on Jimmy Carter. Now, my guess is that the guys at Newsbusters are too dishnonest to acknowledge America’s complicit role in propping up any number of bad guys for our own benefit. Or, are they just too stupid to know that Saddam Hussein didn’t just magically have the firepower to go to war with Iran, or that Osama Bin Laden and the Mujahideen didn’t just have guns that materialized out of nowhere to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan?

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Nick Jr. Is Eating Your Baby’s Brain!

4:48 pm EST March 5th, 2009 | News | 2 Comments

According to Newsbusters. Well, I’m convinced now why we should take right-wing media critics totally seriously.

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I’m As Powerful As Ted Turner*

12:02 am EST March 2nd, 2009 | News | 11 Comments

ted turnerWell, it isn’t every day that I get compared to the founder of CNN. The proud know-nothings at Newsbusters are up in arms over this post I made on Ash Wednesday. In the twisted mind of Ken Shepherd, the post was somehow mocking of the entire concept of Ash Wednesday.

I thought for a second about taking this thing seriously, but I can’t really muster that up. I think all religion is weird, to varying degrees and in concert with my posts slamming the Catholic Church for its pro-pedophile activities, I’ve also hit Muslims for engaging in reactionary censorship (the Dutch cartoons) and atheists for being asses. I honestly don’t think I’ve written anything negative about Judaism, but I do own two yarmulkes by way of barmitvahs (I was called anti-semetic one time for attacking Joe Lieberman, but Joe Lieberman is a douchebag no matter what God he prays to). On the topic of religion its all weird, though not as weird as the bias fetishists on Newsbusters.

And yes, walking around with coal ash on your forehead is as weird when Bill Donohue does it as it is when Joe Biden and John Kerry and Nancy Pelosi do it. But this is America, a nation built on the idea of being free to be as weird as you want to, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

* Using the logic of Newsbusters.

Previous Newsbusters brilliance:
Newsbusters doesn’t understand how journalism works

More unintentional comedy from Newsbusters

Newsbusters accuses Media Matters of “defamation”; doesn’t seem to know what the word means

Also that unfunny comic strip they ran for a year and a half without a single laugh, and that internet TV show they have that isn’t funny to anyone with a brain.

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Gawd, Newsbusters Is A Joke

9:41 am EST February 22nd, 2009 | Media | 13 Comments

Newsbusters headline: “WaPo Hypes Homecoming Drag Queen at George Mason as ‘Glittering Moment of Inclusiveness’”

The Washington Post sub-headline in print: “Not Everyone Is Celebrating Glittering Moment of Inclusiveness”

So the Post headline is discussing the fact that not everyone is wild about the drag queen, and yet the Newsbusters version is that the Post is hyping it as a positive thing. How does Newsbusters reconcile this b.s.?

The real issue here is that the people at Newsbusters (and Media Research Center, who backs them) are so insecure in their sexuality that they don’t want the newspaper reporting on an event about a drag queen. It’s not that they seriously have an issue with the paper’s reporting — they just don’t want the story reported.

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How Newsbusters And Media Research Center Operate

12:37 pm EST January 27th, 2009 | News | 10 Comments

Headline: “PBS: ‘Obama Is Our First Truly American President’”

Wow, that’s crazy! PBS as an organization said that about President Obama? That’s super crazy bias–

Wait. Who actually said that?

Oh wait, it was a commentary by pundit and author John Ridley. On a local PBS affiliate.

Somehow the opinion of one commentator (not an anchor or journalist or anything) on a local PBS station offering his opinion is transmogrified by the geniuses at MRC into an official statement of support from PBS.

Oh, Ridley is also a contributor to conservative blog Big Hollywood.

So, to use the Newsbusters method we can write:

Conservative Blog Big Hollywood: ‘Obama Is Our First Truly American President’

Wow, writing right-wing b.s. is fun.

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