MEDIA TRANSPARENCY

Newsletter

Sign-up for our newsletter

Register

Only registered visitors are allowed to email content or post comments

Support Media Transparency

Your help is essential to this website

AROUND THE WEB | pages 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21

Philadelphia Inquirer
July 8, 2006
Editorial

Times' bashers are reckless and wrong

Sometimes lies should be called what they are.

"Since publishing a highly controversial story about a secret U.S. program that monitors financial transactions as a tool to fight terrorism, New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller... has admitted that the liberal press is not 'neutral' in this war on terror.

"Indeed, the track record proves the New York Times and Bill Keller are not 'neutral' but grossly biased against the U.S.-led war against terrorism."

So fulminated conservative propagandist Brent Bozell of the Media Research Center last week. His statement was part of an anti-Times frenzy whipped up by Republican strategists, then echoed ad nauseam by Pavlovian talk shows and blogs.

For these folks, bashing the Times (and journalists generally) is a hobby.

This time, though, the rhetoric has ratcheted up beyond reason: accusing Keller of a heinous crime, treason. One talk-show host talked of sending the editor to the gas chamber.

What's amazing about Bozell's statement is that he sent it to hundreds of journalists' in-boxes, even though it is so blatantly false.

Also see:

L. Brent Bozell

Media Research Center

[ link ] Read the story >

Alternet.org
July 6, 2006
Rob Boston

The Top 10 Power Brokers of the Religious Right

Who they are, what they want, and why these American ayatollahs must be stopped.

The United States is home to dozens of Religious Right groups. Many have small budgets and focus on state and local issues; the most powerful organizations conduct nationwide operations, command multi-million-dollar bank accounts and attract millions of followers. They have disproportionate clout in the halls of Congress, the White House and the courts, and they wield enormous influence within the political system.

What follows is a list of the nation’s Top Ten Religious Right groups, as determined by publicly available financial data and political prominence. Additional information describes the organizations’ leaders, funding and activities.

1. Christian Broadcasting Network
2. Focus on the Family
3. Coral Ridge Ministries
4. Alliance Defense Fund
6. American Center for Law and Justice
7. Family Research Council
8. Jerry Falwell Ministries
9. Concerned Women for America
10. Traditional Values Coalition

[ link ] Read the story >

Antiwar.com
July 6, 2006
Justin Raimondo

David Horowitz: It’s All About Him

Inspired, perhaps, by the recent prominence of North Korea in the news, over in the Land of the Neocons David Horowitz is doing his Kim il-Sung imitation. His “Center for the Study of Popular Culture” has been renamed: it is now the “David Horowitz Freedom Center.”

Also see:

Center for the Study of Popular Culture

[ link ] Read the story >

Center for American Progress
July 5, 2006
Think Progress

Bush Nominates Anti-Regulatory Zealot To Head ‘Super-Powerful’ Public Safety Office

President Bush is expected to nominate Susan Dudley as the next head of an obscure but “super-powerful office that oversees many business regulations.” The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs holds sway over federal regulatory agencies like the EPA and helps set regulatory policy for a wide range of issues, from workplace safety to water quality.

As the director of regulatory studies at the industry-backed Mercatus Center [Dudley] has worked to oppose vital public health regulation as a “hidden tax” that hinders profits.

Also see:

Mercatus Center

[ link ] Read the story >

ConWebWatch
July 4, 2006
Terry Krepel

The Bush Administration Research Center

As its promotion of a dubious WMDs-in-Iraq claim and its attacks on the New York Times demonstrate, the Media Research Center is much more interested in advancing White House talking points than engaging in media research

The Media Research Center, historically, has been less about media research and more about advancing Republican talking points. Events of the past couple weeks make that clearer than ever.

Also see:

Media Research Center

Media Research Center

[ link ] Read the story >

MediaMatters.org
June 27, 2006

Ignoring evidence, Bozell claimed the "hardened historical narrative" on Iraq WMDs "needs to be amended"

In his syndicated column, Media Research Center president L. Brent Bozell III claimed that "[t]he hardened historical narrative" on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq "needs to be amended" because of the assertion by Sen. Rick Santorum and Rep. Peter Hoekstra that a recently declassified report found there were WMDs in Iraq prior to the U.S.-led invasion. Bozell ignored conclusive declarations by intelligence officials that the degraded chemical munitions hyped by Santorum and Hoekstra were not, in fact, in the category of "weapons of mass destruction."

Also see:

L. Brent Bozell

[ link ] Read the story >

Media Matters
June 29, 2006

Prompted by Scarborough, Stossel attacked Gore with Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity

On MSNBC's Scarborough Country, ABC's John Stossel attacked former Vice President Al Gore and delivered a stream of false and misleading claims on global warming. Noting that Gore "implies the argument" about global warming "is over," Stossel repeatedly attempted to downplay, obscure, or deny the threat posed by human-induced global climate change, as depicted in Gore's documentary film An Inconvenient Truth. In fact, the vast majority of climate scientists agree that global warming is occurring and that human activity is contributing to the problem.

Also see:

[ link ] Read the story >

Newsweek
June 25, 2006

White House: Washington's Frequent (Freebie) Fliers

As Congress debatees a crackdown on members' and their staffs' accepting travel paid for by outside interests, newly filed records show Capitol Hill lawmakers aren't Washington's only frequent fliers. According to filings with the Office of Government Ethics, White House staffers have accepted nearly $135,000 in free trips since November 2004. Among those picking up the tab: some of the president's top business supporters, including the National Association of Manufacturers, and dozens of conservative and religious groups, among them the Southern Baptist Convention, Focus on the Family and the Federalist Society.

The most frequent traveler: Tim Goeglein, a White House point man for conservative groups, who reported $30,000 in free travel.

Also see:

Tim Goeglein: Selling Brand Bush to the Christian Right

Federalist Society

Focus on the Family

[ link ] Read the story >

Mpls Star Trib (op-ed)
June 23, 2006
John Soderberg, Jeanne Audrey Powers, Lyle Christianson and Betty Lundeen

Mpls Star Tribune debases itself with Republican "columnist"

Katherine Kersten's digs at the United Methodist Church are in line with those made by the Institute on Religion and Democracy, where she (sat?) on the board of advisors

As retired United Methodist clergy, we are extremely disturbed by the comments of columnist Katherine Kersten about our church ("Methodists' focus on activism may be clearing out pews," June 5). They distort facts and disparage the work of our faith communities.

...Kersten has long been listed on its website as an advisory board member of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, a right-wing political action group that has been working for the last 25 years to discredit the social witness of three mainline denominations -- the United Methodist, Presbyterian and Episcopal churches.

[Editor's note: Last year the Mpls Star Tribune hired a director and fellow of the Center of the American Experiment (CAE), a Twin Cities Republican propaganda outfit, as a general news columnist, after she was fired from the paper's op-ed page, even though she had zero experience as a journalist. Kersten was hired as a columnist after a former head of the Minnesota Republican Party who was CEO of a local bank threatened and then removed his bank's ads from the newspaper, this after another columnist criticized him.

Now, in typical Kersten fashion, she has smeared the United Methodist Church with attacks in concert with the unethical and nasty Institute on Religion and Democracy, where she [apparently sat ] on the advisory board.

Also, the prime contention of Kersten in her column on the United Methodists was that they are losing members because of their social witness beliefs, which is a lie. Proven social science research has shown the UMC's declining membership is due to a lower birth rate, which Kersten either deliberately ignored or didn't take the time to research.]

Also see:

Church and Scaife (MT story on IRD)

Center of the American Experiment (Republican propaganda outfit Kersten co-founded)

The Republican Center of the American Experiment should lose its tax-exempt status

[ link ] Read the story >

CNN.com
June 23, 2006

Report: Abramoff used Norquist to distribute funds

Anti-tax advocate acted as a buffer for lobbyist's activities

In Jack Abramoff's world, prominent Washington tax-cut advocate Grover Norquist was a godsend.

Moving money from a casino-operating Indian tribe to Ralph Reed, the Christian Coalition founder and professed gambling opponent, was a problem. Lobbyist Abramoff turned to his longtime friend Norquist, apparently to provide a buffer for Reed.

The result, according to evidence gathered by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, was that Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform became a conduit for more than a million dollars from the Mississippi Choctaw to Reed's operation, while Norquist, a close White House ally, took a cut.

[ link ] Read the story >

TPM Muckraker
June 22, 2006
Paul Kiel

Grover Faces Ruin, But No Jail Time

As I mentione yesterday, Grover Norquist, the cold-blooded anti-tax bogeyman of the right, got hit hard yesterday in the McCain report.

It's now clear to anyone who's paid attention that Norquist used his non-profit, Americans for Tax Reform, as a money-washing business and lobbying firm. He took a "management fee" for laundering gaming money through to Ralph Reed. He has a long list of corporate donors that seek his help; and like any other lobbyist, his advocacy is for sale -- even to Democrats.

So what? Is there even a chance that he's going to jail?

Also see:

Grover Norquist

[ link ] Read the story >

Editor & Publisher
June 21, 2006
Staff

In New Column, Ann Coulter Again Slams Murtha and 9/11 Widows

Ann Coulter used her latest Universal Press Syndicate column to repeat some of the controversial language she has used in her new book, on TV appearances, and elsewhere.

"I dedicate this column to John Murtha, the reason soldiers invented fragging," Coulter began the piece, posted late yesterday on her Web site. She had said much the same thing in an online interview last week. A spokeswoman for Universal told E&P at that time that it does not censor columnists and, in any case, the "fragging" comment had not appeared in one of her columns -- until now.

Also see:

[ link ] Read the story >

TPMmuckraker.com
June 21, 2006
Paul Kiel

Committee: Reed, Norquist Used as Pass-Throughs

Here are some damning details about Ralph Reed and Grover Norquist, courtesy of the newly-released McCain Report. It goes into great detail describing Ralph Reed's scheme to launder casino fees through non-profits.

Everybody who's been paying attention to the Abramoff scandal knows that when Ralph Reed, the boy-king of the Christian right, went to work for Jack Abramoff's Indian casino clients (his job was to roust grassroots Christians against competiting gambling platforms), he got skittish about accepting money from the tribes directly, since he's, you know, supposed to be anti-gambling. So he used non-profits, like Grover Norquist's American for Tax Reform, as pass-throughs to disguise the origin of the funds.

Also see:

Grover Norquist

Ralph Reed: How the Mighty Have Fallen

Americans for Tax Reform Foundation

[ link ] Read the story >

NY Times
June 20, 2006
Jason DeParle

An A-to-Z Book of Conservatism Now Weighs In

It has red states and blond pundits; home schoolers and The Human Life Review; originalists, monetarists, federalists and evangelists; and no shortage of people named Kristol.

Now American conservatism can claim another mark of distinction: an encyclopedia all its own.

It is a big deal, in terms literal — 997 pages — and metaphorical. Few insults have stung the movement's thinkers as much as the barb from Lionel Trilling, the literary critic, who said conservatives had no ideas, "just irritable mental gestures."

Also see:

Intercollegiate Studies Institute

Intercollegiate Studies Institute

[ link ] Read the story >

FAIR/Extra!
June 17, 2006
Michael Dolny

Study Finds First Drop in Think Tank Cites

Progressive groups see biggest decline

The latest survey of think tank citations—which is based on appearances in major newspapers and TV and radio transcripts that appear in the Nexis database—found that 40 percent of such citations in 2005 were to conservative or center-right groups, 47 percent were to centrist groups and only 13 percent were to center-left or progressive groups.

While total think tank citations decreased for the first time in our study, the decline was most precipitous among left-leaning think tanks. Overall, the 27,229 citations that the 25 most widely quoted think tanks garnered in 2005 was a 10 percent decline from 2004, the decline was 23 percent for left-leaning think tanks vs. 8 percent for right-leaning groups and 7 percent for centrists. No left-leaning think tank appeared in the top 10.

Also see:

National Think Tanks and Advocacy Groups

[ link ] Read the story >

Inside Higher Ed
June 15, 2006
Alan Jones

Connecting the Dots

By all objective measures, the dawning of the 21st century should be a golden era for American higher education...A recent review article by Jonathan Cole, provost at Columbia University, meticulously documents the preeminence of U.S. higher education in the world today as an established fact.

This broad-based and even global acclaim for higher education in the United States is strangely at odds with the concentrated political attacks that Cole warns us about and that the academy is currently experiencing. It is particularly out of step with the dark and dysfunctional picture of the academy painted by David Horowitz and his Center for the Study of Popular Culture. If Horowitz were simply a disaffected political crank, as many have hitherto regarded him, then his views on the academy could be easily dismissed. Such dismissal would seem to be all the more in order following his disastrous testimony before the legislative subcommittee in Pennsylvania in which he was forced to recant as unsubstantiated several of the cases that he had been widely circulating as documentation of alleged malfeasance in the academy.

Oddly, however, his campaign goes on. Horowitz, with assistance from Karl Rove and the former House majority whip, Tom DeLay, has briefed Republican members of Congress on his Academic Bill of Rights campaign and DeLay has even distributed copies of Horowitz’s political primer The Art of Political Warfare: How Republicans Can Fight to Win to all Republican members of Congress. Rove refers to Horowitz’s pamphlet as “a perfect pocket guide to winning on the political battlefield.”

Also see:

Center for the Study of Popular Culture

[ link ] Read the story >

New York Observer
June 13, 2006
Joe Conason

A shameful silence on Coulter's spewing

McCain and Lieberman abandon Jersey Girls in face of Coulter bullying

With the predictable regularity of a locust plague, Ann Coulter and her enablers at the once-reputable firm of Random House have issued yet another volume of fascistic entertainment. Now the hard-drinking, trash-talking, fortysomething bachelorette bills herself as a Christian moralist, in holy battle against the liberal heathens.

Also see:

[ link ] Read the story >

Washington Post
June 12, 2006
Peter Baker

A Bush Aide's Blunt Words

New Adviser (from American Enterprise Institute) Pulled No Punches in His Magazine Pieces

Bill Clinton is a "virtuoso deceiver" and Hillary Rodham Clinton a "true chameleon" guilty of "self-serving behavior, comparative radicalism, and dubious personal morality."

Al Gore is a "mad dog" known to "foam at the mouth." John McCain is given to "showboating." And Jacques Chirac, Nelson Mandela, Gerhard Schroeder and Kofi Annan are all "feckless fools."

Says who? President Bush's new chief domestic policy adviser...few [advisors] in this day and age arrive with a more provocative paper trail than Karl Zinsmeister, who started his new job yesterday.

For a dozen years until his appointment, Zinsmeister held forth on all manner of issues and personalities as editor in chief of the American Enterprise Institute's magazine.

Also see:

American Enterprise Institute

American Enterprise Institute

Karl Zinsmeister moves on up to the White House

[ link ] Read the story >

Antiwar.com
June 12, 2006
Jim Lobe

'New American Century' Project Ends With a Whimper

Is the Project for the New American Century (PNAC), which did so much to promote the invasion of Iraq and an Israel-centered"global war on terror," closing down?

In the absence of an official announcement and the failure since late last year of a live person to answer its telephone number, a Washington Post obituary would seem to be definitive. And, sure enough, the Post quoted one unidentified source presumably linked to PNAC that the group was "heading toward closing" with the feeling of "goal accomplished."

In fact, the 9-year-old group, whose 27 founders included Vice President Dick Cheney and Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld, among at least half a dozen of the most powerful hawks in the George W. Bush administration's first term, has been inactive since January 2005, when it issued the last of its "statements," an appeal to significantly increase the size of the U.S. Army and Marine Corps to cope with the growing demands of the kind of "Pax Americana" it had done so much to promote.

Also see:

Search this website for grants and articles on PNAC

[ link ] Read the story >

MediaMatters.org
June 8, 2006

Matalin, defending Coulter's attacks on 9-11 widows: "I take her larger point"

On MSNBC's Imus in the Morning, Republican strategist Mary Matalin joined other Republican strategists and media figures in defending Ann Coulter's attacks on the widows of the 9-11 victims, expressing agreement with Coulter's "larger point." When Imus challenged Matalin to condemn Coulter for her "repugnant attacks," including "calling these women harpies," Matalin refused, saying: "That's completely not her point," and that such remarks are Coulter's "stock in trade." She added that she would not condemn Coulter because "I don't know her" and "I haven't read the book."

Also see:

David Horowitz: "Ann Coulter is a national treasure

[ link ] Read the story >

Center for American Progress
June 5, 2006
ThinkProgress.org

CEI Scholar: Gore Thinks Climate Change is Caused by ‘Widespread Sin,’ a Sign of ‘the Antichrist’

Ian Murray, senior fellow at the Exxon-backed Competitive Enterprise Institute, writes for the National Review on global warming issues. Today, he excerpts some promotional material from a horror movie that he says “mirrors Al Gore’s views” on global warming...Global warming skeptics can’t challenge Al Gore on the substance, so they just smear him personally. This is what is left of the “debate” about climate change.

Also see:

Competitive Enterprise Institute

Competitive Enterprise Institute

[ link ] Read the story >

NY Times
June 3, 2006
Neela Banerjee

Federal judge in Iowa rules Charles Colson prison program violated the separation of church and state

Says program used money from taxpayers to pay for a religious program that gave special privileges to inmates who accepted evangelical Christian teachings and terms

A federal judge in Iowa ruled Friday that a state-financed evangelical Christian program to help inmates re-enter society was "pervasively sectarian" and violated the separation of church and state...

The case was filed more than three years ago by Americans United for Separation of Church and State against the Iowa Department of Corrections and InnerChange Freedom Initiative, an organization affiliated with Prison Fellowship Ministries. Prison Fellowship was founded by Charles W. Colson, a close ally of President Bush and an influential evangelical who went to prison for his role in the Watergate cover-up.

Also see:

Prison Fellowship Ministries

The Resurrection of Charles Colson

Previously: Charles Colson's Christian-based prison project on trial in Iowa

Americans United: Ruling Is A Sharp Rebuke To President George W. Bush's 'Faith-Based' Initiative

MT's Faith-based Watch

[ link ] Read the story >

Washington Post
May 24, 2006
Eric M. Weiss

Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment (FREE) and George Mason University's Law & Economics Center lied about corporate sponsorship

Free trips for judges paid for by tobacco, oil and other corporate interests

Two organizations that have provided free trips to hundreds of federal judges received large contributions from tobacco, oil and other corporate interests, according to documents released yesterday.

The Montana-based Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment (FREE) and George Mason University's Law & Economics Center previously said corporate money does not pay for the judges' seminars or declined to disclose their donors.

Also see:

Law & Economics movement

"Trips for Judges" website

See all grants used to "educate" judges

David Sirota: Why We Should Worry About the Hostile Takeover of America’s Court System

[ link ] Read the story >

Huffington Post
May 29, 2006
David Sirota

John Stossel Is A Pathological Liar

Webster's Medical Dictionary defines a "pathological liar" as "an individual who habitually tells lies so exaggerated or bizarre that they are suggestive of mental disorder." Next to this definition should be this picture - a photo of a self-important, smarmy looking, all-too-coiffed ABC News "reporter" named John Stossel.

You may have noticed that Stossel is out hawking a book called "Myths, Lies, and Downright Stupidity" purporting to debunk those things. Instead, what we see is that Stossel is spewing them - and using his media platform as a megaphone of dishonesty. Stossel, in many ways, is exactly why I wrote my new book Hostile Takeover - to strip bare the opportunists, shills and half-wits who dominate our political debate and show them for what they really are: pathological liars.

Also see:

[ link ] Read the story >

Deltoid
May 27, 2006
Tim Lambert

CEI exaggerates by a factor of one million

After everyone laughed at their first two ads, CEI have made another one. This purports to compare Gore's CO2 emissions from flying around to give his presentation on global warming with that of an average person.

[A] screen capture shows that Gore's CO2 meter is about 683,000,000, while the one for the average person is 177, so apparently Gore's flying around produces 4,000,000 times as much CO2 as the average person does in their regular activities. The average person produces about 170 pounds of CO2 per day. According to the CEI video Gore only makes flights from one side of the USA to the other and never flies to somewhere in the middle of the country or on the same coast. This calculator says that a cross country flight produces 1600 pounds of CO2. It seems that the CEI believe that Gore must take 4,000,000*(170/1600)=400,000 cross-country flights every day of the year.

Also see:

Competitive Enterprise Institute

Competitive Enterprise Institute

[ link ] Read the story >

Knight Ridder
May 27, 2006
William Douglas

Heritage Foundation math on immigration disputed

It caught Vice President Dick Cheney off guard, emboldened the conservative opposition, and it's become one of the most talked about "talking points" in the battle over immigration.

A study by the Heritage Foundation...said the Senate's expansive immigration measure would allow a staggering 103 million immigrants to enter the United States over 20 years.

...But independent analysts and supporters of the immigration measure said the Heritage report's numbers don't add up.

A Congressional Budget Office study estimates the Senate bill would increase the U.S. population by 8 million residents by 2016.

Also see:

Heritage Foundation

Heritage Foundation

[ link ] Read the story >

MediaMatters.org
May 25, 2006

Easterbrook baselessly accused Gore film of lacking "factual precision," ignored his own record of twisting facts on global warming

In a May 24 Slate.com article, Gregg Easterbrook baselessly criticized Al Gore's new film on global warming, An Inconvenient Truth, as factually imprecise and morally careless, but his criticism ignored his history of using distorted scientific research to downplay the threat of global warming.

Also see:

Grants to Gregg Easterbrook

[ link ] Read the story >

AMERICABlog
May 25, 2006

FRC using Mary Cheney's name for anti-gay fundraising

One of the lead religious right groups, the Family Research Council, is attacking Mary Cheney by name in a fundraising letter, and accusing the openly-gay daughter of the vice president of "working to undercut the importance of marriage to our survival as a society."

Also see:

Family Research Council

Family Research Council

[ link ] Read the story >

MediaMatters.org
May 24, 2006

PBS' Ifill failed to identify Competitive Enterprise Institute as conservative, energy industry-funded

In a segment on Al Gore's global warming campaign, PBS' Gwen Ifill noted that "critics have called Gore 'alarmist,' " before airing a clip of an ad produced by the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), which she identified only as a "Washington think tank." But Ifill did not mention that CEI is a conservative institution largely funded by the energy industry, which has a financial stake in opposing policies that seek to combat climate change.

Also see:

Competitive Enterprise Institute

Competitive Enterprise Institute

[ link ] Read the story >

Washington Post
May 24, 2006
Michael A. Fletcher

AEI 'Scholar' appointed top policy advisor to George W. Bush

President Bush appointed a longtime scholar at the American Enterprise Institute yesterday to be his top domestic policy adviser, a post that has been vacant since February, when Claude A. Allen stepped down after being charged with stealing more than $5,000 in a phony refund scheme.

Karl Zinsmeister, who has worked the past 12 years as editor in chief of the American Enterprise magazine, is slated to assume his White House post June 12. At the institute, he focused on examining cultural issues, as well as social and economic trends. His columns for the magazine included pieces praising Wal-Mart's efficiency and extolling the role of religion in forming the glue that bonds communities.

Also see:

American Enterprise Institute

American Enterprise Institute

[ link ] Read the story >

pages 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21