Most Embarrassing Failures Of The Year By Conservative Websites

witness23

Veteran Expediter
Here are the first three. More to come over the next few days.

In my opinion these are relevant to post here in the Soapbox because the sources of these stories and the story themselves, may be recognizable to some here in the Soapbox. Albeit, we have seen a decrease of late of these kind of articles, but in the past year we have seen these stories pop here and often seen these sources used by certain members. It boils down to credibility, if you feel these are credible sources then so be it. I would hope after seeing some of these examples you might think twice about the validity of the story and where they are coming from.

Link: Most Embarrassing Failures Of The Year By Conservative Websites | Media Matters for America

Most Embarrassing Failures Of The Year By Conservative Websites
December 29, 2010 9:35 am ET by Ben Dimiero

Over the next three days, we'll be counting down the Most Embarrassing Failures of the Year by Conservative Websites.

As will become apparent, conservative sites regularly get themselves into trouble by having editorial standards that consist entirely of: "Does this story reflect poorly on Obama and/or liberals? Print it!"

For many prominent conservative online outlets, anything seen as reaffirming a conservative narrative is worth printing -- fact-checking is, at best, a minor annoyance to be handled after publication, if at all. This is the very definition of political hackery, yet many of these same conservative websites like to spend much of their time lecturing the "lamestream media" on how they are supposed to do their jobs.

No matter how many times conservative websites embarrass themselves by running completely false stories, they just can't help themselves.

10. Israeli delegation "skips" Obama speech to observe religious holiday

"Do you remember when Jesse Jackson said that under Obama Jews would lose all of their clout? He was right." - Jim Hoft

In the first entry on our list: Conservative websites cheered on the Israeli United Nations delegation supposedly "skip[ping]" Obama's speech at the UN General Assembly in September.

On the morning of September 23, Real Clear Politics posted video pointing out that the "Israeli assembly does not attend Obama's UN address." Rather than try to determine why this may have been the case, numerous prominent conservative sites just went ahead and made up their own answer: "They skipped it because they hate Obama as much as we do!"

Fox Nation, Jawa Report, and Breitbart TV all declared the delegation was a "no-show." Jim Hoft, as he often does, took things a step further by declaring that "Israeli delegation skips Obama's UN speech." Hoft then labeled this "another historic shift" and decided that "Israel didn't want to hear" Obama's speech.

The punchline?

As reported by Reuters, Israel explained that it "was not a boycott" and their delegation was absent due to the Jewish holiday of Sukkot (an absence they had alerted the Obama administration to ahead of time.)

Most of the aforementioned sites added embarrassing updates to their original posts, but Hoft took the cake with his:

Update: The Israelis admitted later that it wasn't a boycott- They just skipped it.

That's not what "skipped" means, Jim.

9. Conservatives outsource Obama attack to openly anti-Semitic website

"President Sarkozy called [Obama] "a madman," "a lunatic." Perhaps, I don't know -- but one thing is for sure: Hussein is a muhammadan." -- Pam Geller

Oftentimes, conservative websites' eagerness to get confirmation from international leaders that Obama is, in fact, the Worst President Ever Ever ™ can get them into hot water.

In April, numerous conservative blogs, including Fox Nation, NewsBusters, Atlas Shrugs, Jammie Wearing Fool (who later pulled his post without explanation) and, as always, Jim Hoft, picked up an absurdly sketchy report "circulating the Kremlin" that French President Nicolas Sarkozy had called Obama "insane."

They all sourced a website called the European Union Times, which I suppose sounds vaguely credible, but, based on the content at the site, a more apt name might be the Protocols of the Elders of Zion Weekly.

As we quickly learned -- thanks to an assist from The Village Voice's Roy Edroso -- the European Union Times' site is not only openly anti-Semitic, but, according to the SPLC, "is registered to the wife of a racist skinhead gang member who was involved in a bizarre stabbing incident" in November 2009.

The site is filled with red flags that would lead any responsible person to question using it as a source (perhaps least of which is the fact that it was apparently infested with spyware).

As we documented, in 2009 the EU Times reprinted a story by Ynetnews that was headlined "Anti-Semitism makes it to China?" and discussed a "bestselling book in China" that blames Jewish people for the global financial crisis. The EU Times changed that headline to "China finally Learns the Truth about the Jews." They attached to it this charming image:

eutimesimage.jpg


And, for safe measure, the EU Times mixed their anti-Semitism with some 9-11 trutherism. Their homepage featured a graphic called "9-11 Missing Links" that linked to a website blaming Jewish people for the September 11 terror attacks.

For conservative bloggers, this incident apparently established a new axiom: The enemy of my enemy is my friend, even when he's an anti-Semitic 9-11 Truther.

8. Global Warming Activist Freezes in Antarctica

"God looks out for drunks and fools, but not, apparently, retards." -- Ace of Spades

Due to the fact that conservatives don't have actual science to buttress their belief that the planet is not warming, every winter they resort to pointing out that it is cold outside in December as proof that climate change isn't real.

The flimsy basis for climate science skepticism also leads them to promote overblown "scandals" like Climategate, ignore actual temperature records, and, apparently, run with stories from satirical websites as if they were actual news items.

Back in March, Fox Nation, Jim Hoft, Jammie Wearing Fool, and Ace of Spades all picked up a story about a "famed global warming activist freezing to death" in Antartica.

They were apparently too busy laughing at what they believed was another person's untimely death and relishing the "irony" of the situation to notice the many indications that the "story" might not have been accurate. Specifically, that the website responsible for the story, EcoEnquirer.com, is quite clearly a satirical site, featuring at the time "Breaking News" about the "successful" Bali 2027 Global Warming Conference.

But if poking around an unfamiliar website before running with one of their stories is too much work for the leading lights of the conservative blogosphere, several passages in the story itself should have stood out as being of questionable validity. Here's my favorite, which was excerpted in full, and in complete seriousness, by Jammie Wearing Fool, Fox Nation and Hoft:

"He kept talking about when they 'get down to chili', and I thought they were talking about the order in which they would consume their food supplies", Mrs. Schneider recounted. "I had no idea they were talking about Chile, the country from which you usually fly or sail in order to reach Antarctica."

Sounds real to me.

Check back tomorrow for stories 5-7.
 

dieseldiva

Veteran Expediter
As will become apparent, Liberal sites regularly get themselves into trouble by having editorial standards that consist entirely of: "Does this story Glorify and raise up Obama and/or liberals? Print it!"

See how easy it is......:D
 

LDB

Veteran Expediter
Retired Expediter
Ooh, ooh, are we going to have Dan Rather's famous report listed in here too? There's plenty of stupidity to go around and a large amount of it is on the liberal side of the aisle.
 

witness23

Veteran Expediter
Get yourself another cup of coffee...there's 16 categories of the Best of Notable Quotables......

We can all play this game....to what end?:rolleyes:

Done with the coffee for the day, thank you though.

Nice compelation of outrageous quotes from the liberal media, I enjoyed reading them the other day when I was on that site. It makes you wonder how they can be allowed on T.V., Radio or worst yet, hold a political office.

We really can't play that game all day though. I am at a lost of when any of those "quotables" have ever been posted here or any of the people mentioned in the contest quoted or posted here, in the Soapbox as fact or used to back up an opinion. Here's the list of people that are the winners in the "Notable Quotables":

Tavis Smiley
Lesley Stahl
Joy Behar
Matt Lauer
Joe Klein
Allison Samuel and Jerry Adler
Diane Sawyer
Chris Matthews
Keith Olbermann (X3)
Christiane Amanpour
Linda Greenhouse
Nina Totenberg
Joe McGinniss
Charles Pierce

Who here, in the Soapbox, has used those listed above as sources or have repeated anything of their "quotables" here in the Soapbox? If myself or anyone else were to post a news related story and used one of the 16 "quotables" above, to back up there argument or opinion, then they should be called out on it. I haven't seen that in here though.

You see, the difference from what I posted from MediaMatters and that of MediaResearchCenter, is that the latter is pointing out silly comments the media have made, without explaining why they are silly or pointing out if they are fact or not fact. Just because you believe what they are telling you, doesn't mean that it is fact.

From MediaMatters About us page:

Media Matters for America is a Web-based, not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media..........

providing them with the resources to rebut false claims and to take direct action against offending media institutions.

There is plenty of mis-information thrown out there by the Far-Left and the Far-Right but MediaMatters chooses to point out the conservative views and backs it up with sources. Now, you can see that mediamatters provides "resources" to back up what they are dissemenating. You may or may not agree with those "resources" but at least you are able to look at a story, research it, and come up with your own opinion if you choose to. In which I very much like to do, but hey, that's just me.

The bottom line is.......we have seen these stories, blogs, e-mails, that have been proven to be outright lies, fabrications, mis-leading facts, etc, etc, pushed here in the Soapbox as truth and when called out, we have seen first hand that they have no shame at all in repeating or spreading those lies to further their agenda.
 
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dieseldiva

Veteran Expediter
Media Matters for America is a Web-based, not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media..........

providing them with the resources to rebut false claims and to take direct action against offending media institutions.

This quote says it best and it's from one of your favorite writers......

There's plenty of stupidity to go around and a large amount of it is on the liberal side of the aisle.
Today 12:29 PM

The point of my posting anything on this thread is that whether quoted here or not, just like Leo said, there's plenty of stupidity to go around.....ON BOTH SIDES.....which really makes your original post irrelevant.
 

greg334

Veteran Expediter
Media Matters for America is a Web-based, not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media..........

What bothers me is this;

The exempt purposes set forth in section 501(c)(3) are charitable, religious, educational, scientific, literary, testing for public safety, fostering national or international amateur sports competition, and preventing cruelty to children or animals. - from the IRS

Media Matters doesn't fit one of the qualifications that the IRS and congress has set forth for a non-profit organization.
 

dieseldiva

Veteran Expediter
Media Matters for America is a Web-based, not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) progressive research and information center dedicated to comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the U.S. media..........

What bothers me is this;

The exempt purposes set forth in section 501(c)(3) are charitable, religious, educational, scientific, literary, testing for public safety, fostering national or international amateur sports competition, and preventing cruelty to children or animals. - from the IRS

Media Matters doesn't fit one of the qualifications that the IRS and congress has set forth for a non-profit organization.

Not to mention their financial connections to George Soros.
 

witness23

Veteran Expediter
This quote says it best and it's from one of your favorite writers......



The point of my posting anything on this thread is that whether quoted here or not, just like Leo said, there's plenty of stupidity to go around.....ON BOTH SIDES.....which really makes your original post irrelevant.

That's it? That's all you got?

I will give you this, when your sacred media outlets are being called to the carpet you never cease to dissapoint in blindly defending them. You and a few other's in the Soapbox are precisely why I post some of these things from MediaMatters. Your responses along with others are so scripted, it is actually kind of scary.:D
 

dieseldiva

Veteran Expediter
That's it? That's all you got?

I will give you this, when your sacred media outlets are being called to the carpet you never cease to dissapoint in blindly defending them. You and a few other's in the Soapbox are precisely why I post some of these things from MediaMatters. Your responses along with others are so scripted, it is actually kind of scary.:D

There are only a few things in this life that I hold "sacred"...media outlets are not included on that list. I don't see where I defended anyone....I merely pointed out that there were, as Leo said, idiots ON BOTH SIDES. Perhaps you're just too disappointed in the lack of spirited response.....you count on that, don't you?

You don't have to give me any credit for being the reason you post things from MediaMatters.....you wouldn't post from there if you didn't go there, would you?

As far as my comment about Soros.....that's scripted? Are you saying he's not involved up to his wallet with MediaMatters....no, I don't think you are.
 

greg334

Veteran Expediter
I sort of agree with you Witness. but the fact remains, how can they qualify for a 503 c3 recognition when they do not fit any of the qualifications?

Falling under educational doesn't cut it by the standards the IRS has set and neither does promoting of literature, which they are not poets.

So their existence under the 501 c3 banner is that for the sole purpose of obfuscating taxes under the guise of being a non-political and non-profit entity when their actual sole purpose is that of a political nature and for profit.
 

witness23

Veteran Expediter
I sort of agree with you Witness. but the fact remains, how can they qualify for a 503 c3 recognition when they do not fit any of the qualifications?

Falling under educational doesn't cut it by the standards the IRS has set and neither does promoting of literature, which they are not poets.

So their existence under the 501 c3 banner is that for the sole purpose of obfuscating taxes under the guise of being a non-political and non-profit entity when their actual sole purpose is that of a political nature and for profit.

I also agree with you greg about their tax exempt status. This tax code has been exploited by both sides of the political spectrum. I suggest the congress take a look at the tax code and make sure they(mediamatters), and anyone else isn't taking advantage of this tax-exempt status.
 

witness23

Veteran Expediter
There are only a few things in this life that I hold "sacred"...media outlets are not included on that list. I don't see where I defended anyone....I merely pointed out that there were, as Leo said, idiots ON BOTH SIDES. Perhaps you're just too disappointed in the lack of spirited response.....you count on that, don't you?

You don't have to give me any credit for being the reason you post things from MediaMatters.....you wouldn't post from there if you didn't go there, would you?

As far as my comment about Soros.....that's scripted? Are you saying he's not involved up to his wallet with MediaMatters....no, I don't think you are.

You must be dissapointed Beck has been on vacation. Withdrawals maybe?
 

dieseldiva

Veteran Expediter
You must be dissapointed Beck has been on vacation. Withdrawals maybe?

You seem to have an unhealthy need to point all things back to Fox/Beck/Palin, etc. There are certainly a lot of different articles about Soros out there and not all come from Fox News.....you really DO need to do something about your "rental space", it appears that it's getting quite crowded in there.
 

witness23

Veteran Expediter
You seem to have an unhealthy need to point all things back to Fox/Beck/Palin, etc.

Hmmm.....there does seems to be a pattern there, huh?

There are certainly a lot of different articles about Soros out there and not all come from Fox News

Why not share those "articles", as you say with us here in the Soapbox.

.....you really DO need to do something about your "rental space", it appears that it's getting quite crowded in there.

Are you sure its not me that has rental space in your head?
 

jaminjim

Veteran Expediter
If you Google 'media matters lies' you get well over a million hits. What does that mean? IMO about the same thing as your topic.
 
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