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Open in TheBrain

Associated Press AP

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TARGET ON GULF OF AM PRIMARY MODERATION

see PRESS SUPPRESS

KARI LAKE VOA

MERRI OK

gets punked BUT BASCIALLY RELAITY BASED

HAS FACT CHECKER

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an 11 25

An Associated Press (AP) lawsuit against the Trump administration has revealed a curious White House position on press access, theNew York Times reports.

The White House banned the Associated Press (AP) from accessing certain areas — including the Oval Office and Air Force One — due to the AP's refusal to use "Gulf of America" instead of "Gulf of Mexico" based on an executive order from President Donald Trump.

The AP has been barred from covering specific events because it acknowledges the president's executive order but will continue to use the original name in its reporting. The AP claims the ban violates the First Amendment.

"Arguments in that case are set to continue on Monday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit," theTimes writes. "At stake is whether the president is entitled to curate the crew of reporters who cover official events in the Oval Office. Can he boot those whose work he doesn’t like?"

Something curious, they write, has been discovered as this case ramps up: The administration has restored front line access to "AP photographers, even as it often excludes AP’s reporters from press pool events."

Evan Vucci, the chief Washington photographer for the AP tells the Times, "For me, I’m back to normal, completely. It’s like nothing happened, and it’s completely different for the print side of things.”

"The administration’s forked policy has the appearance of illogic. Why make a fuss of stiff-arming the AP only to welcome its photographers back into the fold?" the Times asks.

Experts say this "contradictory approach" is par for Trump's course, and note he "is eager to energize his MAGA base by bashing the work of mainstream journalists while keeping them close enough to carry his message to the world and perhaps take a memorable photo or two of him in action."

Susan Mulcahy, a former New York Post reporter, says this is how he operates, explaining, "He will trash a press person when he doesn’t get what he wants, but he’s never going to totally throw out an important press organization. He’s not. He needs them. That’s his oxygen.”

The AP's top lawyer Karen Kaiser says the press pool "demotion" remains a serious problem.

"The government should not be permitted to pick its coverage based on what it likes or doesn’t like. These principles transcend any administration, any news organization and any journalist," Kaiser says.

Traditionally, it's the AP photographer who is first to enter rooms where events are taking place, theTimes explains, and the organization had two slots in the press room — one for a reporter and the other the photographer — until the "Gulf of America" situation.

"We didn’t have any inkling that we were a target or would be retaliated against,” AP''s executive editor Julie Pace says.

In April, a U.S. District Court judge ruled in the AP’s favor and issued a preliminary injunction rescinding the access denial, explains the Times. The Trump administration then appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals, which put enforcement of that injunction on pause two months later.

During the legal maneuverings, the White House has "maintained its bifurcated access standards for AP photographers and reporters," the Times notes.

"AP officials said they had not received an explanation about the policy, and the White House did not provide a specific rationale in response to questions from The New York Times," they write, adding that "Trump has made it clear he likes seeing himself in AP photography."

The AP's Vucci was the one who took the now-infamous fist pump photo of the president following his assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Marc Fisher, Trump biographer and a former Washington Post reporter, says Trump and his aides “view the photographers as less dangerous and less antagonistic than reporters.”

“To him, a great news photo, a great magazine cover, is more important than a great podcast appearance, just because he is and will always be an artifact of the ’50s and ’60s," Fisher says.

Meanwhile, reporters await the court's decision on their fate inside the press pool.

Zeke Miller, former AP chief White House correspondent turned deputy Washington bureau chief says, "We ask to join the pool pretty much every day or before every event. We ask to join the trips. Most often we’re told the pool is full, but others are getting in.”

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OMFG

mma

Kari Lake says Voice of America will push OAN content abroad. This is how network personalities discussed foreign policy since Trump took office.

Written by Jane Lee, Helena Hind & Isabella Corrao

Published 05/16/25

Trump adviser Kari Lake has announced that international broadcasting network Voice of America will include content from One America News Network, a pro-Trump propaganda network.

Since Donald Trump's inauguration, OAN personalities have pushed bizarre and inflammatory foreign policy commentary, including referring to Canada as “our vassal state,” calling Greenland ”the new Africa,” and pushing for a revival of “manifest destiny.” They’ve also run cover for Trump over his planned acceptance of a luxury jet from Qatar.

The Trump administration wants to feed content from OAN to Voice of America — after canceling contracts with existing wire services

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Right-wing media cheer Trump's anti-Christian bias task force after years of laying the groundwork

Right-wing commentators have spent years claiming that the Biden administration was “waging spiritual warfare against Christianity” and that “the left wants to drive Christians out of the public square”

Written by Payton Armstrong

Published 02/27/25 mma

A task force created by President Donald Trump to eradicate alleged “anti-Christian bias” is drawing praise from right-wing media figures — some of whom have spent years baselessly claiming that Christians are a persecuted group in the United States, even though experts say there’s no such widespread bias.

Right-wing commentators celebrated Trump’s task force as “a cultural resurgency” and declared that “this is the counter-revolution against their color revolution that occurred in the summer of 2020.”

In one instance, Christian nationalist media figure Lance Wallnau joined Steve Bannon’s podcast to praise the task force as the first step in the “recapturing of institutions,” naming education, media, business, and government among the institutions he wants to infuse with “the ideas of Western civilization, which is the ideas of Christian civilization.” This appears to be a reference to the Seven Mountain Mandate popularized by Wallnau, which instructs Christians to impose fundamentalist values on American society by conquering the “seven mountains” of cultural influence in American life: government, education, media, religion, family, business, and entertainment.

Experts have argued “there is no widespread anti-Christian bias in our society" and that Trump’s anti-Christian bias task force is actually “enshrining Christian privilege in our society.”

Trump issued an executive order on “eradicating anti-Christian bias,” but experts say “there is no widespread anti-Christian bias in our society”

The Associated Press reported that “critics said Trump is claiming to see persecution in distorted case descriptions, a calendar coincidence and other situations that, while raising concerns, don’t add up to a pattern.”As noted by the Associated Press, “Christianity is by far the largest faith in America, and Christian conservatives have a strong grip on the levers of government.”}: The Associated Press, [2/13/25]|

* When Transgender Day of Visibility coincided with Easter in 2024, right-wing media figures — especially on Fox News and Newsmax — claimed that the Biden administration was attacking Christians.Right-wing media used the day to warn Christians that they were under attack after Biden’s statements recognizing Transgender Day of Visibility, with Fox’s Jesse Watters arguing that Biden is “waging spiritual warfare against Christianity.” Between Fox and Newsmax, the networks combined aired more than 4 hours of coverage and nearly 80 segments, slamming Biden for his “demonic” remarks which they said amounted to an “attack on Christian faith.” Media Matters, [4/2/24, 4/2/24]

Carlson again falsely claimed that Vaughn was facing felony charges “from the Biden administration for praying at an abortion clinic and daring to sing hymns,” adding that “from the perspective of the people who run the country there’s really just one enemy, and that’s faithful Christians.”During a Tucker Carlson Uncensored clip posted on X, Carlson said: “If you’re interested in who they really hate, well, look at what's happening. So Christian churches across the country have been burning and no one in the government is doing anything about it}:. Look at how Christian churches were treated during Covid … we talked the other day to a guy who is facing 11 years in prison, federal felony charges from the Biden administration, for praying at an abortion clinic and daring to sing hymns. So if you are a faithful Christian — not a fake Christian, David French Christian, but an actual Christian, of the kind this country has always had, of the kind this country was created to harbor actually — you are seen as an enemy by the people who run it.” Twitter/X, [4/18/24]|

Fox host Laura Ingraham repeatedly lamented the supposed anti-Christian bias of the Biden administration, including in an interview with Vaughn where she suggested that “singing hymns and peacefully expressing your traditional Christian beliefs can get you thrown behind bars.” During the interview, Ingraham’s show displayed a chyron that read: “Liberals fighting to wipe out Christian values.}:” FoxNews.com, [1/31/24]|

Following a deadly shooting at a Christian private school in Nashville, Tennessee, Ingraham claimed the Biden White House and “the left” had been “ginning up anti-Christian sentiment” by allegedly teaching kids “to treat Christians as haters and mortal threats to their existence.”Ingraham told her audience: “Isn’t it also the case that the left in America — and even this White House — is ginning up, without saying the words necessarily, but ginning up anti-Christian sentiment by referring to trans activists as heroes and their bravery for standing up against the intolerant class, the haters. So these kids are learning to treat Christians as haters and mortal threats to their existence.”}: Fox News, *The Ingraham Angle*, [4/11/23; Media Matters, 4/12/23]|

Sean Davis, CEO of The Federalist,}: argued that by charging anti-abortion protesters under the FACE ACT, “the Biden regime clearly desires to make being a pro-life Christian a crime.” As documented by Media Matters, anti-abortion figures baselessly accused the Biden Department of Justice of weaponizing the FACE Act against protestors convicted of harassment at abortion clinics. Twitter/X, [6/21/24; Media Matters, 6/11/24]|

While hosting Jack Phillips — a Colorado baker who had been sued for refusing to make a trans-themed cake — Fox’s Laura Ingraham declared that “the left wants to drive Christians out of the public square.”}:Ingraham added: “You don't even have a right to have a small business if you're a Christian today. You certainly don't have any conscience right, you have no religious rights, you have no First Amendment rights, if you clash with what they believe to be, you know, the supremely protected among us.” Fox News, *The Ingraham Angle*, [1/30/23; Associated Press, 10/8/24]|

Turning Point USA’s Charlie Kirk has relentlessly claimed that Christian values in the U.S. are under attack, claiming that they could be thrown in prison.}:At a 2023 TPUSA pastor’s summit, Kirk warned pastors that “if we continue theological disputes and don't focus on liberty, then we're going to be having those theological disputes from prison.” Ahead of the 2024 election, Kirk claimed that pro-choice Democrats would “create a secret police that will audit, intimidate, raid every single” pregnancy center in the U.S., saying that when that happens, “we'll be like, wow, I really wish that we Christians would have bought ourselves a little more time so that our nonprofits, our leaders, wouldn't go to federal prison.” NPR, [10/24/24; Media Matters, 4/27/23; Real America’s Voice, The Charlie Kirk Show, 8/16/24]|

Tucker Carlson suggested that the “trans movement is targeting Christians,” citing the Covenant school shooting.Carlson claimed that “the trans movement is the mirror image of Christianity and therefore its natural enemy,” d}:eclaring that “Christianity and transgender orthodoxy” are on a “collision course” and claiming that “one side is likely to draw blood before the other side.” Rolling Stone, [3/28/23]|

On Fox News, Oklahoma state superintendent Ryan Walters lamented that a Harris/Walz administration would “trans the kids“ and “push all faith out of the public square,” as now-White House faith director Paula White-Cain bragged that Trump was “promising in his second term to do even more for Christians as he shares the same values.”White-Cain called for national “revival” and “turning our hearts back to God” and Walters declared that a Harris/Walz administration would be the “most anti-Christian administration in American history.”}: FoxNews.com, [8/10/24; Religion News Service, 2/21/25]|

On Sebastian Gorka’s Salem Media podcast, Breitbart’s}: Thomas Williams said that the U.S. is a “post-Christian society, but in many ways an anti-Christian society.”Gorka — who is now the counterterrorism chief in Trump’s administration — replied, “right,” and Williams added, “We are a Judeo-Christian nation by its foundation, and in the value system that understands what the family is, what society is.” Salem Media, *America First with Sebastian Gorka*, [6/14/23; CBS News, 1/7/25]|

* Fox host Emily Compagno labeled the U.S. an “anti-Christian, anti-Judeo-Christian society.”Compagno cited backlash to a graduation speech from Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker that reportedly attacked the LGBTQ community and told “women to forget about a career and serve their man instead.” Fox News, *Gutfeld!*, [6/11/24; OutSports, 5/13/24]

Former Trump DOJ official Jeff Clark told Bannon that a second Trump administration needed a “beefed up” religious liberty task force to fight anti-Christian sentiment in the U.S., citing a story he heard about a “school district that was prohibiting bus drivers even from wearing Christmas regalia.” }:Responding to a campaign speech where Trump pledged to create an anti-Christian bias task force if elected, Clark said: “That's wonderful to announce, especially in an increasingly anti-Christian world. I mean, I'd seen a story about a school district that was prohibiting bus drivers even from wearing Christmas regalia to entertain the students a little bit. I mean things have gone into bonkers land. And look, in the first Trump term, we did have a religious liberty task force. And I think we need an even more beefed up one.” Real America’s Voice, *War Room*, [12/20/23; Fox News, 12/19/23]|

Steve Bannon celebrated the announcement and hosted media figure Lance Wallnau —}: a “prophet” and self-described Christian nationalist — with the two discussing right-wing Christians’ “recapturing of institutions” including “education, of media, of business, of government.”Bannon and Wallnau discussed how the task force can be used “to seize the institutions of the federal government” with “the ideas of Western civilization, which is the ideas of Christian civilization.” Wallnau said that “there are three arteries that make this happen: legislation, litigation, and the shaping of public opinion,” adding, “because people like you, as long as we can shape the public opinion, the secret sauce is you've got to work with the awakening that's happening and move with it in such a way that you litigate and you legislate, but never get too far ahead of public persuasion.” Real America’s Voice, *War Room*, [2/7/25; Media Matters; 9/27/24; Rolling Stone, 9/29/22]|

Video

Citation

From the February 7, 2025, edition of Real America's Voice's War Room

Fox host Jeanine Pirro praised the task force’s creation}: and attacked the FBI and the Biden administration for supposedly targeting Catholics, a claim that was found to be baseless after an internal investigation.Pirro noted that Trump “went to two prayer breakfasts this morning and he talked about eradicating anti-Christian bias,” and complained about “when the FBI director Christopher Wray came out and really told us no one at the FBI was targeting Christians and Senator Hawley came out and they found that leaked memo that the FBI was investigating Catholics and priests were gone to so they could then inform on parishioners who were considered domestic terrorists.” The New York Times reported that “Republicans claimed the bureau’s memo was evidence of an anti-conservative strain among F.B.I. ranks, but an internal investigation failed to uncover any ‘malicious intent.’” Fox News, *The Five*, [2/6/25; New York Times, 4/18/24]|

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  1. ### Trump and his MAGA allies increasingly embrace extreme prophetic media

05/30/24

  1. ### Trump scheduled to address right-wing media “prophets” and pastors who claim he’s “anointed to be King”

10/18/24

  1. ### Oklahoma state superintendent says pastor and right-wing commentator suggested his new Bible mandate in public schools

07/08/24

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MMA

The stars of Fox News have used their shows to defend President Donald Trump’s banning of Associated Press reporters from the Oval Office and Air Force One because the wire service refuses to adopt the administration’s renaming of the Gulf of Mexico as the “Gulf of America.” They’ve characterized the AP’s actions as “deadnaming” the Gulf and said that “the White House is right” to restrict its access in response.

But Fox has also reportedly signed on to a letter calling on the Trump White House to restore the AP’s access and characterizing the ban as “serious breach” of the First Amendment's protections for the press. So has Newsmax, whose on-air talent praised the White House response while attacking the “Fake News AP” as “Associated Propaganda.”

The disconnect demonstrates how Trumpist propaganda channels like Fox and Newsmax occasionally try to bolster their standing by play-acting as legitimate news channels which share the values of the free press, even as their on-air product plays to their right-wing viewership base.

Oliver Darcy reported Wednesday that “40 news organizations have signed onto a confidential letter circulated by the White House Correspondents’ Association supporting the AP,” including both legitimate news outlets and “the pro-Trump channels Fox News and Newsmax.”

Darcy published the letter, which said in part:

The First Amendment prohibits the government from asserting control over how news organizations make editorial decisions. Any attempt to punish journalists for those decisions is a serious breach of this Constitutional protection.

The decision to exclude The Associated Press from covering the president aboard Air Force One and in the Oval Office is an escalation of a dispute that does not serve the presidency or the public. News organizations must be free to make their own editorial decisions without fear of government intrusion.

...

We once again ask the White House to lift this ban on the AP immediately and to underscore its support for press freedom.

But that sort of defense of the First Amendment principles and repudiation of the Trump White House’s actions is a far cry from what the viewers of Fox and Newsmax have been hearing on those channels.

Indeed, the night before Darcy’s report, Fox star Jesse Watters said of the controversy on his prime-time show: “The Associated Press took Mexico's side. They're deadnaming the Gulf, so they got kicked out of the White House.”

Watters likewise said on his February 12 show, “The Associated Press is sticking with Mexico, and now they are banned from the Oval Office,” adding, “Kick them out. Kick them out, and kick some other people out while you're there. I have a list.”

Video

From the February 12, 2025, edition of Fox News' Jesse Watters Primetime

Watters’ colleagues were similarly blithe about the prospect of the federal government reducing access to reporters due to the editorial decisions of their outlet.

“So-called journalists in the media mob are ramping up their petty anti-Trump reporting,” Jason Chaffetz offered while guest-hosting the February 14 edition of Hannity. “For example, The Associated Press is still refusing to refer to the Gulf of America by its new name, despite recognition from Google, Apple, and other major outlets.”

After reading a quote from a White House official who said the AP’s decision is “not just divisive, but it also exposes The Associated Press' commitment to misinformation,” he commented, “The White House is right.”

Chaffetz later asked Fox contributor Joe Concha for his view of the White House’s restrictions on the AP. “It’s the best unintentional comedy of the week, Jason, hearing how The Associated Press, because they haven't been permitted onto Air Force One, into the Oval Office, that's somehow a threat to free press and a chilling attack on the First Amendment,” Concha said.

Other Fox hosts focused on mocking former CNN anchor Jim Acosta’s call for the press corps to take collective action and stop attending events from which the AP was barred. Greg Gutfeld said on the Wednesday edition of his show that the press would “love any excuse not to cover all of Trump's wins” and commented, “Your scam is up, media, and trust me, the hits are going to keep coming.” And guest-hosting Friday’s edition of The Ingraham Angle, Charles Hurt said of Acosta’s remarks, “I think that this derangement syndrome is in full swing, not just in celebrity la-la land, but also among our press brethren.”

Special Report, the flagship “news” show hosted by Bret Baier, has not addressed the controversy according to a review of its transcripts in the Nexis database.

Likewise, Newsmax hosts Rob Schmitt, Rick Leventhal, and Ed Henry teamed up to mock the AP and any concerns over whether the White House had breached the First Amendment during the February 13 edition of Schmitt’s show.

Video

Citation

From the February 13, 2025, edition of Newsmax's Rob Schmitt Tonight

On-screen text castigated the “fake news AP” and called the outlet “Associated Propaganda” as Schmitt introduced the segment, blaming The Associated Press for “refusing to accept Gulf of America” and said that “the media has no right to be” in the Oval Office.

Henry, a former president of the WHCA, began his response by saying that he would not be a “hypocrite” and “always stand up for the First Amendment.” But he went on to criticize the AP on the grounds that “it’s called the Gulf of America,” adding, “If you are not going to follow the actual name of the body of water, then I can understand why they don't want to give you access. You’re not playing with the basic facts.”

Leventhal also criticized the AP, saying that “they are supposed to be free of bias and opinion” and that by refusing to adopt the Gulf of America moniker, “you're saying you don't agree with the president, you don't like what the president did, and you're not going to play by his rules. That is completely opposite of what The Associated Press is supposed to be.” He added: “You can't make those kinds of unilateral decisions. You report the news, Associated Press.”

“That's exactly right,” Schmitt replied.

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mma 1 24 no pix

Fox host Jesse Watters and climate contrarian Michael Shellenberger attempted to delegitimize the trusted news wire service AP News, seemingly in response to a recent story from the outlet countering disinformation that Fox regularly pushes about offshore wind projects.

Video

CitationFrom the January 2, 2024, edition of Fox News' Jesse Watters Primetime

On the January 2 edition of Jesse Watters Primetime, Watters claimed that “liberal money is literally getting global warming stories planted on the front page of America's papers.” AP News has received grants from various foundations with a broad array of focuses and philanthropic leanings, which AP has used to hire more journalists and produce better climate change coverage.

But the expansion, during which the news agency hired about 20 climate journalists, was announced in February 2022. Though Watters and Shellenberger targeted the news service’s climate coverage as a whole, they also zeroed in on one December story titled “Contrary to politicians’ claims, offshore wind farms don’t kill whales. Here’s what to know.”

During the segment, Shellenberger, who authors a right-wing Substack called Public, refuted the article by repeating myths about offshore wind turbines killing whales, despite a lack of evidence to support those claims.

Shellenberger alleged AP News is accepting “millions of dollars … to basically do propaganda” on behalf of foundations that have “direct investments in things like those whale-killing wind farms,” presumably because the climate reporting grant came in part from foundations that also support renewable energy development. Shellenberger also called the article “disinformation,” even though the information it presents has been widely confirmed by experts who work with marine mammals and reiterated by several fact checks from a variety of sources.

Despite having produced a documentary attempting to vilify offshore wind projects in 2023, Shellenberger has failed to offer concrete evidence that this development is responsible for the unusual mortality even**t that is affecting whales on the Atlantic coast. Scientists say that while it’s nearly impossible to link the event to a single cause, fishing gear entanglement, vessel collisions, and the changing migration patterns of whale prey due to warming waters could all be contributing to an increase in whale deaths.

Far from indicating a genuine concern about biased reporting, the segment advanced a longstanding and concerted campaign led by Fox News to spread panic about offshore wind energy and hinder the transition away from fossil fuels.

Throughout 2023, Watters helped spearhead the right’s dubious obsession with whale conservation through his early coverage of wind projects in New York and New Jersey.

In reality, the story Shellenberger and Watters are attacking is far from “propaganda.” Not only does it quote both scientists and think tanks that are opposed to offshore wind development, but it also fails to mention that these think tanks have deep ties to the fossil fuel industry, as do smaller activist groups involved in the supposed whale conservation effort in the Mid-Atlantic region. When it comes to climate change, Fox won’t settle for anything less than science denial.

related

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10/02/23 5:07 PM EDT

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11/14/23 2:47 PM EST

  1. ### Fox News is touting a dubious new documentary repeating misleading claims about offshore wind link to whale deaths

08/29/23

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Climate Change-Obsessed AP Blames Humanity for 'Hellish' 'Summer of Earth's Discontent'

Newsbusters

Climate Depot Founder Marc Morano slammed Borenstein for his ridiculous sensationalization in comments to MRC Business. “The AP is hyping every ...

https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/business/joseph-vazquez/2023/08/08/climate-change-obsessed-ap-blames-humanity-hellish-summer-discontent

its imbecilic for The Associated Press to act like any person with common sense would take its screeching about “human-caused climate change” seriously now after being paid millions to spread eco-propaganda.

AP’s climate “writer” Seth Borenstein kicked off his July 31 enviro-screed by making it sound like the beginning of a science fiction novel. “At about summer’s halfway point, the record-breaking heat and weather extremes are both unprecedented and unsurprising, hellish yet boring in some ways, scientists say. Killer heat. Deadly floods. Smoke from wildfires that chokes. And there’s no relief in sight,” Borenstein cried. "Here’s a rundown of the summer of Earth’s discontent."

Borenstein buried a more logical explanation for the extreme weather event and yet still managed to smear it with climate change, anti-fossil fuel drivel: “‘This story, these impacts, are going to continue,' NASA climate scientist [Gavin] Schmidt said. 'We’re going to be seeing this pretty much this year and into next year' with a natural El Nino warming of the Pacific adding to the overwhelming influence of human-caused climate change largely from the burning of coal, oil and gas.” [Emphasis added.]

Of course, readers wouldn't know it until the bottom of Borenstein's 31 paragraphs-long agitprop that AP announced in 2022 that it was receiving $8 million from a consortium of leftist, eco-obsessed nonprofit organizations like the Rockefeller Foundation and Quadrivium (the activist organizationof News Corp. Executive Chairman Rupert Murdoch’s estranged son and climate activist James Murdoch). The purpose of the leftist funding was supposedly for the purpose of “significantly expand[ing]” AP’s “climate coverage” with the goal to “infuse” the media landscape with climate journalism, all while keeping the deceptive veneer of “unbiased news” intact.

The vague disclosure in Borenstein's article made it seem like its nonprofit financiers were apolitical and that AP was still acting independently: "Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content." Yeah, sure. [Emphasis added.]

Borenstein concluded his climate Armageddon rant with the ramblings of frequent MSNBC climate alarmist guest and University of Pennsylvania Earth and Environmental Science Professor Michael Mann. “‘How on God’s Earth are we still burning fossil fuels after witnessing all this,’” Mann told Borenstein. This is the same Mann (no pun intended) who scaremongered to MSNBC in June 2022 how we supposedly “have less than a decade” to save the planet, an exhausted propaganda talking point that the media have been peddling for years. He also grumbled in June 2023 that the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in *West Virginia v. EPA*(2021)that prohibited federal agencies from arbitrarily regulating carbon emissions at power plants without congressional approval meant it supposedly “removed the right to a livable planet.”

Climate Depot Founder Marc Morano slammed Borenstein for his ridiculous sensationalization in comments to MRC Business. “The AP is hyping every bad weather event it can find globally to fit their narrative,” Morano rebuked. “What they do not explain is that your chance of winning the lottery is very low, but the chance of someone, somewhere, winning the lottery is very high. So the activists essentially hype 'lottery winners' of extreme weather events and try to imply these events are increasing and happening everywhere.”

But Borenstein’s knee-jerk reaction to wield any weather event to bellyache about the climate boogeyman is definitely on brand. After all, this was the same Borenstein who mindlessly touted the output of an unofficial climate model — not actually measured temperatures — to sensationalize in a July 6 headline how “[f]or third day, it was the hottest day on Earth, as global temperature matches record set Tuesday.” Borenstein and his co-author would later update their headline after it was clear they got the story wrong: “Earth hit an unofficial record high temperature this week – and stayed there.”

The authors inserted comments from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in their newly edited piece calling the output data “‘not suitable’ as substitutes for actual temperatures and climate records,” undercutting their initial argument.

Conservatives are under attack. Contact the Associated Press at 212-621-1500 and demand it quit acting like a mouthpiece for its eco-extremist donors.

:{

Email: jvazquez@mrc.org

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an bad 3 23

**U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene** (R-GA) and **U.S. Senator Mike Lee** (R-UT) are actively spreading anti-Ukraine disinformation, posting to Twitter a deceptively-edited video of Volodymyr Zelenskyy, which they falsely claim means the Ukrainian President wants America's "sons and daughters" to die defending Ukraine.

Senator Lee complained his personal Twitter account was suspended at some point after he retweeted the video. It was recently restored and his post with the deceptively-edited video has not been removed.

The original Twitter sources of the video have warning labels that Greene and Lee appear to have ignored before posting. Greene posted it to her official U.S. government Twitter account.

That warning, in the form of a readers' note, says: "This quote is taken out of context. The full quote is :'If Ukraine loses, Russia is going to enter Baltic states, NATO states, then the U.S will have to send their sons and daughters exactly in the same way as we are sending our sons and daughters to war'."

READ MORE: Marjorie Taylor Greene SPOX Issues Profanity-Filled Response When Asked Why She Lied About a Family's Fentanyl Tragedy

The Associated Press also published a fact check on Wednesday noting the deceptively-edited video is "missing context." The AP states: "He was not suggesting Americans would have to fight in Ukraine."

But in the deceptively-edited video Greene and Lee tweeted, Zelenskyy (via an interpreter) says, "the U.S will have to send their sons and daughters exactly in the same way as we are sending our sons and daughters to war."

Zelenskyy goes on to say, "and they will have to fight because it's NATO that we're talking about. They will be dying, God forbid, because it's a horrible thing."

In the full video from February 24, Zelenskyy is urging Americans to not give up on Ukraine. The most important portion of Zelenskyy's remarks have been edited out in Greene's and Lee's version: "If Ukraine loses, Russia is going to enter Baltic states, NATO states."

Greene tweeted, "There's not a parent in America that wants their son or daughter dying defending Ukraine's border. When have Ukrainian & NATO sons and daughters died defending America's border?"

READ MORE: 'Trump Bullying Worked': Experts Blast FBI After Bombshell Report Reveals Agents Were 'Afraid' to Raid Mar-a-Lago

Lee tweeted, "Zelensky has no right to presume that our sons and daughters will fight his war. Shame on him. We've somehow sent the message that we work for him. Shame on us!"

The 19-second deceptively-edited video has been viewed nearly 400,000 times.

Zelenskyy'sfull remarks (via interpreter):

"I would like to thank the American people. I would like to thank all of the American people that are supporting Ukraine, the Congress, the President, the TV channels, the journalists, and everyone that has been supporting us, and that percentage of Americans, as you've mentioned is increasing. I can tell them only one thing. If they do not change their opinion, if they do not understand us, if they do not support Ukraine, they will lose NATO, they will lose the clout of the United States, they will lose the leadership position that they are enjoying in the world, that they are enjoying for a very fair reason, and they will lose the support of the country with 40 millions of population, with millions of children. Are American children any different than ours? Don't Americans enjoy the same things as we do? I don't think we're that different. And I'm actually very happy that we have bipartisan support, but we keep hearing those messages from time to time and they’re dangerous.

There are political leaders that are elected by people. And if this issue is raised, those political leaders need to be responsible and cautious because people are looking at them. Who wants a third world war? Would anyone risk would anyone be willing to accept that risk? The US is never going to give up on the NATO member states. If it happens so that Ukraine, due to various opinions and weakened and depleting of assistance, loses, Russia is going to enter the Baltic states, NATO member states, and then the US will have to send their sons and daughters exactly the same way as we are sending their sons and daughters to war and they will have to fight because it's NATO that we're talking about and they will be dying, God forbid because it's a horrible thing."

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5 22 no lnx

BERLIN (AP) — A longtime contractor for Shell has publicly called out the oil and gas company’s climate plans, accusing the company of “double talk” by saying it wants to cut greenhouse gas emissions while working on tapping new sources of fossil fuel.

Caroline Dennett, who says she consulted Shell on safety issues for more than a decade, said Monday that she was ending her links with the company and urged others in the fossil fuel industry to do likewise.

“I’m quitting because of Shell’s double talk on climate,” Dennet said in a public post on the business networking site LinkedIn.

“They know that continued oil and gas extraction causes extreme harms to our climate, to our environment, and to people,” she said. “And what ever they say, Shell is simply not winding down on fossil fuels.”

Shell, which is due to hold its annual general meeting for shareholders Tuesday, responded by saying it was committed to achieving net zero emissions by 2050.

“We have set targets for the short, medium and long term, and have every intention of hitting them,” the company said in a statement. “We’re already investing billions of dollars in low-carbon energy, although the world will still need oil and gas for decades to come in sectors that can’t be easily decarbonized.”

Dennett said her growing personal concerns about climate change made it increasingly difficult for her to work for Shell.

“It’s one thing to support a company to, hopefully, transition to alternative energy sources and making sure that they operate safely,” she told The Associated Press. “It’s another thing to actually be supporting new oil and gas projects.”

Dennett said climate change wasn’t a subject of discussion among front-line staff in the company.

“It’s probably happening in the PR team and the marketing and branding team, but it’s not happening in the operational divisions as far as I can see,” she said.

Dennet said she felt privileged to be able to sever her ties with Shell, and acknowledged others may not find it so easy.

“But the fossil fuel industry, it’s the past,” she said. “And if you can find a way out, then please walk away while there’s still time. Do it now.”

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres last month accused some government and business leaders of saying one thing but doing another when it comes to tackling global warming.

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“Simply put, they are lying. And the results will be catastrophic,” he said, calling for an end to all new fossil fuel infrastructure.

Guterres recently appointed an expert panel to scrutinize companies’ net zero claims amid concerns that they could be mere “greenwashing.”

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Follow AP’s coverage of climate change at https://apnews.com/hub/climate

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implied quid pro quo but never explains what it is, livable planet for kids?

https://dailycaller.com/2022/02/16/associated-press-climate-change-reporting-progressive-groups/

REF

NO LNX

ENERGY

‘Mutually Beneficial’: Major News Outlet Expands Climate Change Reporting Funded By Left-Wing Activist Groups

[Death Toll Rises To 6 As Redding Area Wildfire Spreads To 90,000 Acres

Terray Sylvester/Getty Images]

Daily Caller NewsFoundation logo

THOMAS CATENACCI

ENERGY & ENVIRONMENT REPORTER

February 16, 2022

:{

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The Associated Press announced Tuesday that it had secured funding from several progressive interest groups to hire two dozen climate change reporters.

“This far-reaching initiative will transform how we cover the climate story,” AP executive editor Julie Pace said.

The five organizations — the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Rockefeller Foundation, Quadrivium and the Walton Family Foundation — are well known for pushing a variety of left-wing causes and funding Democratic political campaigns.

The Associated Press announced Tuesday that it had secured funding from several progressive interest groups to hire two dozen climate change reporters.

The outlet referred to the groups’ funding as “philanthropic grants” and promised that the groups wouldn’t have any editorial control over the climate change content published, according to an announcement. But the five organizations — the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Rockefeller Foundation, Quadrivium and the Walton Family Foundation — are well known for pushing a variety of left-wing causes and funding Democratic political campaigns.

“This is a mutually beneficial arrangement,” said Brian Carovillano, the vice president of the AP’s news partnerships and grants.

The AP’s expansion of its climate change reporting will lead to about 20 new hires worldwide while other journalists will be reassigned, the outlet said. The reporters will be based in Africa, Brazil, India and the U.S., and they will reportedly write about climate change’s impact on various sectors, including the economy, agriculture and culture.

“This far-reaching initiative will transform how we cover the climate story,” AP executive editor Julie Pace said. (RELATED: Leftist Millionaire To Fund Associated Press Climate Change Reporting: REPORT)

The five groups agreed to give the AP an $8 million grant lasting three years.

“Funders have no influence over AP’s reporting on this topic or any other,” AP spokesperson Lauren Easton told the Daily Caller News Foundation in a statement. “AP has long provided accurate, factual coverage of climate and the environment. This initiative is an expansion of that fact-based journalism. AP retains all editorial control.”

An entrance to the ExxonMobil headquarters is pictured on Feb. 1 in Houston, Texas. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images) WHY?]

‘Extremely well-funded and includes paid media coverage’

The Hewlett Foundation has long supported leftist causes, including abortion provider Planned Parenthood and Defending Democracy Together, according to the Capital Research Center. The organization has also funded several climate groups and causes like the Sierra Club, Urban Environment Foundation and ClimateWorks Foundation.

Hewlett has also funded the Niskanen Center, which has argued in favor of punishing oil companies for climate change and provided legal support in a Colorado case against ExxonMobil and Suncor Energy seeking environmental damages. (RELATED:James MurdochGave $20 Million To Biden, Progressive Groups In 2020: REPORT)

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute, meanwhile, gave 98% of its political contributions for federal candidates to Democrats in 2020 [AKA THE ONLY PARTY TO PROVE HEALTH CARE], according to OpenSecrets. The group has historically given the vast majority of its political donations to Democrats, including President Joe Biden, OpenSecrets data showed.

The third group, the Rockefeller Foundation is a “pillar of the liberal philanthropic establishment,” a report from InfluenceWatch, which tracks non-profit organizations, said. The group has fundedliberal think tanks, including the Urban Institute, the New America Foundation, PolicyLink and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

The foundation has also promoted anti-fossil fuel activism such as the “ExxonKnew” campaign, whichalleges that ExxonMobil has hidden data about climate change for half a century. In 2016, the Rockefeller Family Fund announced it would divest from fossil fuel companies and accused Exxon of “morally reprehensible conduct.”

James Murdoch speaks during Vanity Fair's 6th Annual New Establishment Summit on Oct. 23, 2019 in Beverly Hills, California. (Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for Vanity Fair)]

“ExxonKnew is acoordinated campaignperpetuated by activist groups with the aim of stigmatizing ExxonMobil,” the fossil fuel company said in a February 2021 statement. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Top Conservative Group Slams Aspen Institute’s Disinformation ‘Hypocrisy’ In Letter)

“Funders of the ‘#ExxonKnew’ campaign have placed ‘pay to play’ news stories [2 PAGE AD ADVERTORIAL FOR DECADES?], released flawed academic reports and coordinated with public officials to launch investigations and litigation, creating the false appearance that ExxonMobil has misrepresented its company research and investor disclosures on climate change to the public,” the company statement said.

The company specifically noted that Rockefeller funds were involved in promoting the campaign, which the statement said was “extremely well-funded and includes paid media coverage.”

Quadrivium was founded by James Murdoch, the son of billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch, and his wife Kathryn. The couple donated $20 million to Biden’s election campaign and other progressive political groups in 2020.

The foundation, which lists climate change as among its priorities, has been active during recent federal elections, often giving millions of dollars to progressive groups and candidates, OpenSecrets data showed. The Murdochs funneled $100 million into the organization in 2019, but it’s unclear how much was doled out during the 2020 election, according to tax documents obtained by CNBC.

James Murdoch previously resigned from the board of Fox News parent company News Corp in 2020, citing “disagreements over certain editorial content published” as the reason for his departure.

Finally, the Walton Family Foundation is an active donor to multiple environmental groups, including the Environmental Defense Fund, World Wildlife Fund, Natural Resources Defense Council and the Meridian Institute. The foundation also funded the New Venture Fund, which helps grow left-wing advocacy groups, according to InfluenceWatch.

Lukas Walton, who chairs the foundation’s environment program committee, has a history of donating to Democrats, and he owns a major stake in First Solar,a large solar panel manufacturer.

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Tags : exxonmobil niskanen center the associated press

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the Associated Press announced Tuesday that it had secured funding from several progressive interest groups to hire two dozen climate change reporters.

:{

“This is a mutually beneficial arrangement,” said Brian Carovillano, the vice president of the AP’s news partnerships and grants.}:The outlet referred to the groups’ funding as “philanthropic grants” and promised that the groups wouldn’t have any editorial control over the climate change content published, according to an announcement. But the five organizations — the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Rockefeller Foundation, Quadrivium and the Walton Family Foundation — are well known for pushing a variety of left-wing causes and funding Democratic political campaigns.

The AP’s expansion of its climate change reporting will lead to about 20 new hires worldwide while other journalists will be reassigned, the outlet said. The reporters will be based in Africa, Brazil, India and the U.S., and they will reportedly write about climate change’s impact on various sectors, including the economy, agriculture and culture.

“This far-reaching initiative will transform how we cover the climate story,” AP executive editor Julie Pace said. (RELATED: Leftist Millionaire To Fund Associated Press Climate Change Reporting: REPORT)

the five groups agreed to give the AP an $8 million grant lasting three years.

“Funders have no influence over AP’s reporting on this topic or any other,” AP spokesperson Lauren Easton told the Daily Caller News Foundation in a statement. “AP has long provided accurate, factual coverage of climate and the environment. This initiative is an expansion of that fact-based journalism. AP retains all editorial control.”

[ entrance to the ExxonMobil headquarters is pictured on Feb. 1 in Houston, Texas. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

‘Extremely well-funded and includes paid media coverage’

The Hewlett Foundation has long supported leftist causes, including abortion provider Planned Parenthood and Defending Democracy Together, according to the Capital Research Center. The organization has also funded several climate groups and causes like the Sierra Club, Urban Environment Foundation and ClimateWorks Foundation.

Hewlett has also funded the Niskanen Center, which has argued in favor of punishing oil companies for climate change and provided legal support in a Colorado case against ExxonMobil and Suncor Energy seeking environmental damages. (RELATED: James Murdoch Gave $20 Million To Biden, Progressive Groups In 2020: REPORT) 

Howard Hughes Medical Institute, meanwhile, gave 98% of its political contributions for federal candidates to Democrats in 2020, according to OpenSecrets. The group has historically given the vast majority of its political donations to Democrats, including President Joe Biden, OpenSecrets data showed.

The third group, the Rockefeller Foundation is a “pillar of the liberal philanthropic establishment,” a report from InfluenceWatch, which tracks non-profit organizations, said. The group has funded liberal think tanks, including the Urban Institute, the New America Foundation, PolicyLink and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.

The foundation has also promoted anti-fossil fuel activism such as the “ExxonKnew” campaign, which alleges that ExxonMobil has hidden data about climate change for half a century. In 2016, the Rockefeller Family Fund announced it would divest from fossil fuel companies and accused Exxon of “morally reprehensible conduct."

Murdoch speaks during Vanity Fair’s 6th Annual New Establishment Summit on Oct. 23, 2019 in Beverly Hills, California. (Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for Vanity Fair)

“ExxonKnew is a coordinated campaign perpetuated by activist groups with the aim of stigmatizing ExxonMobil,” the fossil fuel company said in a February 2021 statement. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Top Conservative Group Slams Aspen Institute’s Disinformation ‘Hypocrisy’ In Letter)

“Funders of the ‘#ExxonKnew’ campaign have placed ‘pay to play’ news stories, released flawed academic reports and coordinated with public officials to launch investigations and litigation, creating the false appearance that ExxonMobil has misrepresented its company research and investor disclosures on climate change to the public,” the company statement said.

The company specifically noted that Rockefeller funds were involved in promoting the campaign, which the statement said was “extremely well-funded and includes paid media coverage.”

Quadrivium was founded by James Murdoch, the son of billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch, and his wife Kathryn. The couple donated $20 million to Biden’s election campaign and other progressive political groups in 2020.

The foundation, which lists climate change as among its priorities, has been active during recent federal elections, often giving millions of dollars to progressive groups and candidates, OpenSecrets data showed. The Murdochs funneled $100 million into the organization in 2019, but it’s unclear how much was doled out during the 2020 election, according to tax documents obtained by CNBC.

James Murdoch previously resigned from the board of Fox News parent company News Corp in 2020, citing “disagreements over certain editorial content published” as the reason for his departure.

Finally, the Walton Family Foundation is an active donor to multiple environmental groups, including the Environmental Defense Fund, World Wildlife Fund, Natural Resources Defense Council and the Meridian Institute. The foundation also funded the New Venture Fund, which helps grow left-wing advocacy groups, according to InfluenceWatch.

Lukas Walton, who chairs the foundation’s environment program committee, has a history of donating to Democrats, and he owns a major stake in First Solar, a large solar panel manufacturer.

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3 22 rg&b:

last week, the Associated Press announced plans to hire 20 journalists around the planet who will spotlight the “profound and varied impacts of climate change on society in areas such as food, agriculture, migration, housing and urban planning, disaster response, the economy, and culture.”

Sounds impressive. But we’ve seen something like this before in 1990, when after the 20th anniversary of Earth Day and congressional testimony about climate change, scores of U.S. newspapers hired more environment reporters and devoted whole sections, or at least whole pages, each week to environmental news. (Full disclosure: I got a supervisory editor’s job at the Los Angeles Times as a result.) But interest waned and the financial death spiral of the industry soon eliminated all that.

Grover notes: “Of course, quantity doesn’t equal quality. And from an excessive focus on lifestyle environmentalism and carbon footprints to an unforgivable tendency to overlook climate injustices and disparities, there are plenty of ways that mainstream media climate coverage has messed up over the years. That’s why I’m profoundly grateful not just for the climate journalists and writers who are finally getting hired in decent numbers, but for the folks who are scrutinizing how that work is being done.”

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i shd prolly verify this finding

MRC has only a few headers but one is: https://www.newsbusters.org:{/latino:(style="background-color:#ffff66;"):}:

https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/business/jeffrey-clark/2022/02/17/ap-climate-army-four-leftist-big-money-orgs-fund-ap-eco

gmail

The Associated Press recently celebrated an $8 million cash infusion from left-wing mega-donors to fund a small army of eco-journalists.

The Associated Press (AP) declared on Feb. 15 that “it is assigning more than two dozen journalists across the world to cover climate issues.” The announcement of the $8 million in funding marked the “largest single expansion paid for through philanthropic grants” in AP history.

Climate Depot founder Marc Morano put it best: “The AP will now have zero 'obligation to serve as watchdogs over public affairs and government' and instead be approved messaging lapdogs to their paymasters. Will the AP ever offend [its] donors and look critically at the UN IPCC climate panel? Or NASA? It's a laughable thought.” The organizations that opted to exchange cash for influence included left-wing organizations like the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, The Quadrivium Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation.

AP referenced an earlier time, when it suggested news agencies were more independent: “For many years, Journalists and philanthropists were more wary of each other. News organizations were concerned about maintaining independence and, until the past two decades, financially secure enough not to need help,” [emphasis added].

So what changed? AP explained the journalism industry’s need for “philanthropy” since its “financial outlook has been otherwise bleak.” But this flies in the face of independent journalism. The Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics states journalists should “[a]void conflicts of interest, real or perceived.”

The Hewlett Foundation gave at least $583,165,182 in grants to the ClimateWorks Foundation from 2008 to 2020, according to Foundation Directory Online. ClimateWorks has been linked to the “‘greening of the Belt and Road Initiative,’ global trade infrastructure project pushed by Chinese President Xi Jinping to link the communist country with the rest of Eurasia,” according to investigative think tank the Capital Research Center.

The Rockefeller Foundation has a sordid history of extremism. The Rockefeller Archive Center, a research center and grantmaking organization, documented the group’s funding of population control research in the past. Additionally, “Dean Rusk, who served as Rockefeller Foundation president in the 1950s, led an effort to dramatically expand federal population control funds when he served as Secretary of State in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations,” Influence Watch reported.

The Walton Family Foundation of Walmart fame also got in on the climate action. It awarded at least $64,597,090 in grants to the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). The EDF held a string of events in 2020 that exploited the Marxist Black Lives Matter protests and riots to rail how “[c]urrent demands for racial justice have put the spotlight on environmental racism.” 

Quadrivium is another environmentalist sponsor. Under James Murdoch, the son of News Corp. Executive Chairman Rupert Murdoch, Quadrivium flexed its climate change financing muscles. Quadrivium gave at least $14,250,000 to the same radical EDF from 2013 to 2019.

Conservatives are under attack. Contact The Associated Press at (212) 621-1500 and demand it reject climate alarmism.

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A separate team of economists and scientists has also checked the claims made in the NERA report, which has previously been cited by failed Republican Presidential candidate (and climate science denier) Ted Cruz. They come to similarly unflattering conclusions to the AP fact check. 

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AP promoted anti-choice misinformation about abortion access and :{Roe v. Wade:(style="box-sizing:border-box"):}:. Here are the facts.

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NOT REAL NEWS: A Look at What Didn't Happen This Week

https://apnews.com/hub/not-real-news

Social media users shared a range of false claims this week, including erroneous information about vaccines and the infrastructure bill.

By Associated Press

|

Oct. 8, 2021

The Associated Press

FILE - In this Sept. 14, 2021, file photo, a health worker administers a dose of a Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine during a vaccination clinic at the Reading Area Community College in Reading, Pa. On Friday, Oct. 8, The Associated Press reported on stories circulating online incorrectly claiming newly leaked emails among Pfizer employees show that the company’s COVID-19 vaccine contains fetal cells. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File) THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

By The Associated Press

A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked them out. Here are the facts:

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[Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine does not contain fetal cells, contrary to online claims

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CLAIM: Newly leaked emails among Pfizer employees show that the company’s COVID-19 vaccine contains fetal cells.

Political Cartoons

View All 393 Images

THE FACTS: A widely shared video by the group Project Veritas has led to a false claim online that purported emails among Pfizer officials show that the pharmaceutical company’s COVID-19 vaccine contains aborted fetal cells. But the video — an interview between Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe and a self-identified Pfizer employee who claims to show internal emails from the company — does not support that erroneous conclusion. Instead, it shows that the company used a fetal cell line when testing the efficacy of its vaccine. Cell lines, which are key to medical research, are cloned copies of cells from the same source that have been adapted to grow continuously in labs. 

Nevertheless, users spread the falsehood about the contents of the vaccine widely on social media. “You are mandated to inject dead babies into your body,” one Twitter account sharing the video falsely claimed. “Fetal cells in the vaccines yet they are denying people religious exemptions.” At the heart of the widely shared video spurring the false claims are purported emails among Pfizer officials from early 2021. The messages displayed show an alleged conversation about the company’s reluctance to publicize that testing of its vaccine — not production — used a cell line that was originally derived from fetal tissue.

One of the main emails cited specifically says, “Human fetal derived cell lines are not used to produce our investigational vaccine, which consists of synthetic and enzymatically produced components.” It adds: “One or more cell lines with an origin that can be traced back to human fetal tissue has been used in laboratory tests associated with the vaccine program.” The video also shows an email referencing the HEK293T cell line — or Human Embryonic Kidney 293 — which was first established in the early 1970s using cells from a kidney of a fetus. What’s not made clear in the video is that it is already public record that Pfizer’s vaccine was tested using such cells.

In a paper published in September 2020 detailing the vaccine’s development and success in mice and monkeys, Pfizer and BioNTech scientists said that the vaccine had been tested using the HEK293T cell line. And the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in a January document about the COVID-19 vaccines noted: “Neither Pfizer nor Moderna used an abortion-derived cell line in the development or production of the vaccine. However, such a cell line was used to test the efficacy of both vaccines.” The conference recommended that, in the absence of a vaccine with no connection at all to such a cell line, vaccines that use them “only for testing would be preferable to those that use such cell lines for ongoing production.”

Dr. Saahir Khan, an assistant clinical professor of infectious diseases at the University of Southern California, said about the Pfizer shot, “There are no components of fetal cells in the vaccine, and none used in manufacturing." Khan said it is very common to use such cell lines somewhere along the way in the research or development of vaccines and other medicine for humans. He said such cell lines, started decades ago, are grown in labs — so the cells being used for research are not the original cells.

One COVID-19 vaccine used in the U.S., from Johnson & Johnson, is produced by using an adenovirus that is grown using retinal cells that trace back to a fetus from 1985, according to the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.Vaccines for chickenpox and other diseases also use this type of process. But none of these vaccines contain fetal cells.Pfizer did not respond to questions about the Project Veritas video, but a spokesperson pointed out that information about the testing has been publicly disclosed through a number of sources and news reports.

— Associated Press writer Angelo Fichera in Philadelphia contributed this report.

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The FBI is not targeting opponents of critical race theory

CLAIM: “Attorney General Merrick Garland has instructed the FBI to mobilize against parents who oppose critical race theory in public schools, citing ‘threats.’”

THE FACTS: A memo Garland issued on Monday to address a rise in criminal conduct targeting school personnel is being misrepresented online. Garland did not single out opponents of critical race theory. Rather, he stated the FBI would work with U.S. attorneys and federal, state and local authorities to develop strategies to combat what he called “a disturbing spike” in violent threats facing educators, administrators and school boards. The trend was highlighted in a Sept. 29 letter from the National School Boards Association to President Joe Biden requesting federal assistance to investigate mounting threats and crimes against educators and school officials. Following Garland's memo, an activist known for speaking out against critical race theory — a way of thinking about America’s history through the lens of racism — shared the erroneous claim that the FBI was specifically targeting public school parents who oppose such race education. Wyn Hornbuckle, the Justice Department’s deputy director of media affairs, told The Associated Press the claim was misleading and stated that the Attorney General’s guidance and the Justice Department’s efforts are focused on rooting out criminal threats of violence for any reason, not targeting a particular ideology. “There has been misinformation circulated that the Attorney General’s directive is an effort to silence those with particular views about COVID-related policies, school curricula, or other topics of public discussion. This is simply not true,” Hornbuckle wrote in an email. Critical race theory, developed by scholars during the 1970s and 1980s, centers on the idea that racism is systemic in the nation’s institutions and that they function to maintain the dominance of white people in society. The concept has drawn condemnation by conservative commentators, lawmakers and former President Donald Trump. The NSBA’s letter did not specifically focus on threats surrounding critical race theory. It asked for the federal government to investigate any cases where threats or violence could be handled as violations of federal civil rights laws — no matter what prompted them. “NSBA and school board members don’t want to stop parents from expressing their First Amendment rights,” the NSBA said in a statement emailed to the AP. “We want to stop the death threats, threats to family members, and other harassment and acts of intimidation that school board members are facing.” The group documented more than 20 instances of threats, harassment, disruption and acts of intimidation across multiple states. While the letter did cite several threats it had flagged in response to false assertions that school boards were adopting critical race theory curriculum, the majority of the threats it documented were in response to coronavirus-related restrictions, including mask and vaccine requirements in schools.

— Associated Press writer Sophia Tulp in Atlanta contributed this report, with additional reporting from Terrence Fraser in New York.

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Infrastructure bill doesn’t include tax on cows

CLAIM: Under the proposed infrastructure bill, farmers will be taxed for each cow, including $6,500 a year for dairy cows.

THE FACTS: The infrastructure bill, a $1 trillion package that was approved in August by the Senate, does not include such a provision. Yet in a tweet shared by thousands that also circulated on Facebook, a conservative commentator falsely claimed the legislation would impose taxes on cows that would cripple American agriculture. “Just one example cattle farmers have to pay $2600 PER COW a year,” Melissa Tate wrote. “Dairy cows $6500 a year. This will put millions of cattle farmers out of business.” Tate did not respond to a request for comment. The erroneous claim follows a congressman’s false assertion about a separate, $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill, referred to as the Build Back Better Act, that is supported by many Democrats. In a statement criticizing that bill, Oklahoma Rep. Markwayne Mullin said the legislation “would impose a ‘fee’ on all methane emissions, including in our agriculture industry. … The tax is estimated to cost $6,500 per dairy cow, $2,600 per head of cattle, and $500 per swine each year.” But the reconciliation bill as currently drafted includes taxes on methane emissions relating to oil and gas production — not from livestock. A spokesperson for Mullin acknowledged that the bill does not currently contain those provisions. “This is what could happen if the methane fee were applied to agriculture,” Meredith Blanford said in an email. She said that while the text of the bill only specifies the oil and gas industry, it also references the Environmental Protection Agency’s greenhouse gas inventory “and leaves too much room for the EPA to expand its regulatory reach.” Blanford said the numbers were derived from an analysis by the American Farm Bureau Federation, a lobbying group. The organization’s vice president for public affairs, Sam Kieffer, said in a Sept. 30 statement that the group’s economists over the summer conducted an analysis of potential costs on agriculture using proposals relating to the methane tax on oil and gas. “To clear up any confusion, I want to make clear that the current language of the reconciliation bill does not impose a methane tax on agriculture,” Kieffer said.

— Angelo Fichera

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Parents don’t need to be vaccinated to take their newborns home in New York

CLAIM: New York hospitals, including NYU Langone Health, will not release newborn babies or infants in neonatal intensive care units, frequently referred to as NICUs, to parents who have not been vaccinated.

THE FACTS: No such restrictions exist. The false information, which claimed to stem from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, circulated widely on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. “New Forced Control: NYU Langone and other Hospitals in New York and Long Island are Forcing that if the parent is not VAXXED they will not release Babies from the NICU to Parents or after birth as per CDC Guidelines. You Need to Show VAX-Passport to see your own New Born Baby,” the false post states. State health officials said there was no truth to the claim. “The New York State Department of Health is deeply disturbed by the grossly inaccurate messages being spread on social media regarding the false claim that there’s a prohibition on parents/guardians taking a baby home from the hospital based upon vaccination status,” Jill Montag, director of communications at the state Department of Health, told the AP in an email. NYU Langone Health addressed the baseless claims on Twitter last week. “In response to the false & completely unfounded post circulating on social media: NYU Langone DOES NOT prohibit a parent/guardian from taking a child home from the NICU due to their vaccination status — we vehemently discourage the spread of this inaccurate, harmful information,” the statement said.

— Associated Press writer Arijeta Lajka in New York contributed this report.

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Teen’s death in England misrepresented by vaccine opponents

Adam Ali, a high school student from Solihull, a town in West Midlands, England, died from the COVID-19 vaccine....

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http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/the-associated-press-circulated-right-wing-misinformation/

no lnx dox

The Associated Press Circulated Right-Wing Misinformation

By Jared Holt | March 12, 2019 10:44 am

The Associated Press, a standard-bearer for the news industry, published at least three press releases on its APNews.com website and AP News app that contained misinformation and partisan propaganda from conservative political groups,Right Wing Watch has learned. One press release advocated for prosecuting doctors who perform abortions, another claimed that measles vaccines cause autism, and one was used to advertise a shady right-wing fundraising campaign. All appeared on the AP’s site, surrounded by the company’s branding.

On January 25, a press release from WeBuildTheWall Inc., circulated by Business Wire, was published to APNews.com in its entirety. It advertised a questionable GoFundMe campaign seeking to privately fund President Trump’s promised U.S.-Mexico border wall by advancing Kris Kobach’s claim to The New York Times that the president had given the project his blessing during a phone call. “President Trump ‘Blesses’ Private Solution to Build the Wall As Government Reopens,” the headline reads on APNews.com.

The only apparent written indication that the press release was not an actual AP article was a dateline with the name of the wire service as evidenced by a screenshot captured on January 28. An uninformed reader would have been forgiven for mistaking the press releases for a news article.

AP appears to be trying to address the problem. On February 27, the news service incorporated more visual indications to alert readers to the fact that what they are viewing is not the newsroom’s reporting. As of this writing, press release content on site displays a bolded disclosure above the headline and a note stating: “This content is a press release from our partner [wire company name]. The AP newsroom and editorial departments were not involved in its creation.” However, as recently as last month, the pages displaying such releases did not include those elements, as shown in screenshots and archives of press releases on AP’s site.

Brian Kolfage, who started the GoFundMe campaign, shared a screenshot of the press release’s headline posted to social media alongside AP branding and thanked President Trump for his ostensible support. He did not note that his own organization had authored the content appearing on AP’s website.

[twit]

Brian Kolfage

@BrianKolfage

Replying to @BrianKolfage

Thank you @realDonaldTrump

312

6:41 PM - Jan 27, 2019

112 people are talking about this

Twitter Ads info and privacy

On December 7, an anti-vaccine press release from the conservative political advocacy group Association of American Physicians and Surgeons was aggregated from Globe Newswire and published on the AP website. That release warned of a supposed connection between measles vaccines and autism in children, a thoroughly debunked and dangerous myth. The press release has since been removed from the Associated Press website.

Right Wing Watch was able to find copies of the article on the Wayback Machine internet archive and Google’s cache, which both flashed the AP story briefly before displaying a message stating that the page no longer existed.

On February 26, another since-deleted press release was published on AP News and was captured by Wayback Machine and Google’s cache. It was an announcement from Texas Right to Life aggregated from Globe Newswire. The release contained criticisms of abortion laws passed in New York and Virginia and promoted legislation that would seek to prosecute doctors who provide abortion services.

AP has maintained years-long business relationships with several other wire companies that distribute press releases, including Globe Newswire and Business Wire. When one of those wire services distributes a press release, automated software duplicates it on the Associated Press site.

A spokesperson for AP told Right Wing Watch that APNews.com has “for years also served as a distribution channel for clearly-labeled third-party content from several press release companies” as part of a business arrangement independent from its news-gathering.

===

https://www.alternet.org/2019/01/the-ap-expunges-iran-contra-pardons-from-barrs-record-and-proves-how-little-interest-there-is-in-the-trajectory-of-presidential-power/

A president facing a major scandal, just as the highest-profile trial is about to begin, pardons the indicted or convicted officials around him to effectively stop the investigation that’s closing in on his own illegal conduct.

Trump soon? We’ll see. But this actually describes what President George H.W. Bush did in 1992.

The Iran/Contra scandal revealed, among other things, that the Reagan/Bush White House had secretly sold missiles to Iran in exchange for hostages held in Lebanon, using the proceeds to fund right-wing forces fighting the leftist Nicaraguan government in violation of US law.

On Christmas Eve 1992, just as the indicted former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger was about to face trial, Bush pardoned him and five others, including former Assistant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams and and former National Security Advisor Robert McFarlane. The New York Times (12/25/92) reported this as “Bush Pardons 6 in Iran Affair, Averting a Weinberger Trial; Prosecutor Assails ‘Cover-Up.’”

The attorney general for Bush who approved the pardons, William Barr, is now being nominated for the same position by Trump. Is this background relevant? Though current news columns are rife with speculation that Trump might likewise protect himself by pardoning his indicted or convicted associates, the dominant US news wire service doesn’t seem to think so.

n “Barr as Attorney General: Old Job, Very Different Washington” (1/14/19), Associated Press reporter Eric Tucker made no mention whatsoever of the Iran/Contra pardons. Rather than seriously examine the trajectory of presidential power and accountability, Tucker framed the story, as the headline indicates, as a stark contrast between the  gentlemanly Bush and the “twice-divorced” Trump:

Serving Trump, who faces intensifying investigations from the department Barr would lead, is unlikely to compare with his tenure under President George H.W. Bush.

The false implication is that Bush did not himself face intensifying investigations from Lawrence Walsh, who operated out of the Justice Department’s Office of Special Counsel.  The misleading comparison is compounded by Tucker describing Trump as “breaking with the practice of shielding law enforcement from political influence” and ousting Attorney General Jeff Sessions for “not protecting him in the Russia investigation”—as if Barr didn’t have direct experience in the first Bush administration with imposing political influence on law enforcement to protect a president from investigation.

Instead, Tucker cites Barr’s supporters calling him “driven by his commitment to the department” and “very much a law-and-order guy.” (The praise for the new head of the department Tucker regularly covers marks his article as a “beat-sweetener,” a long and unfortunate tradition of journalists’ making their jobs easier by sucking up to sources.)

This deceptive piece was apparently picked up by literally thousands of media outlets. A search of “unlikely to compare with his tenure under President George H.W. Bush” produces over 2,400 results.

As Consortium News founder Robert Parry, who broke much of the Iran-Contra story for AP, would later write in a review of Walsh’s book Firewall: Inside the Iran/Contra Cover-Up:

The Republican independent counsel [Lawrence Walsh] infuriated the GOP when he submitted a second indictment of Weinberger on the Friday before the 1992 elections. The indictment contained documents revealing that President Bush had been lying for years with his claim that he was “out of the loop” on the Iran/Contra decisions. The ensuing furor dominated the last several days of the campaign and sealed Bush’s defeat at the hands of Bill Clinton.

Walsh had discovered, too, that Bush had withheld his own notes about the Iran/Contra Affair, a discovery that elevated the President to a possible criminal subject of the investigation. But Bush had one more weapon in his arsenal. On Christmas Eve 1992, Bush destroyed the Iran/Contra probe once and for all by pardoning Weinberger and five other convicted or indicted defendants.

Parry, who died a year ago, left AP after many of his stories on Iran/Contra were squashed (Consortium News, 1/28/18).

After I criticized AP on Twitter for the omission, a later piece by Tucker, co-written with Michael Balsamo, noted perfunctorily in the 16th graph: “As attorney general in 1992, he endorsed Bush’s pardons of Reagan administration officials in the Iran/Contra scandal.” (A search on “as attorney general in 1992, he endorsed Bush’s pardons of Reagan administration officials in the Iran/Contra scandal” produced a mere 202 results.)

While much of the media obsesses over every bit of “Russiagate,” some breathlessly anticipating the next revelation will surely bring down the Trump presidency, it’s remarkable how little interest there is in the trajectory of presidential power.

Rather, much of the establishment media has gone to great lengths to rehabilitate officials from both Bush administrations, including the elder Bush himself when he died last month. (One exception to the generally hagiographic coverage of his death was Arun Gupta’s “Let’s Talk About George H.W. Bush’s Role in the Iran/Contra Scandal”— in The Intercept, 12/7/18.) Indeed, Trump naming Barr just after George H.W. Bush’s funeral could be seen as a jiu-jitsu move: How could anyone object to his nominating the AG of the just-sainted Poppy Bush? It’s as though Trump were saying, “If you all like him so much, I’ll have what he had.” See the Institute for Public Accuracy news release, “Barr as AG? Bush and Trump Dovetail.”

AP‘s actions also fit into the institution-protecting mode of what Parry derided as the “conventional wisdom”—which in its current formulation depicts Trump’s authoritarian tendencies as aberrations from the norms of US politics, rather than a continuation of the worst tendencies of his predecessors.

==

==

Security Guards 'Forcibly' Prevent Reporters From Attending EPA Hearing — And Shove One Out of The Building

An EPA spokesman claimed the room had reached capacity.

By Elizabeth Preza / AlterNet May 22, 2018, 7:02 AM GMT

The Environmental Protection Agency “forcibly” blocked reporters form attending a Tuesday summit with EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, at one point grabbing a “reporter by the shoulders” and shoving her out of the building.

As the Associated Press reports, the EPA blocked news organizations including the AP and CNN from attending the heading on contaminated drinking water.

“Guards barred an AP reporter from passing through a security checkpoint inside the building,” the AP reports. “When the reporter asked to speak to an EPA public-affairs person, the security guards grabbed the reporter by the shoulders and shoved her forcibly out of the EPA building.”

In a statement, EPA spokesperson Jahan Wilcox said the reporters weren’t invited because there wasn’t enough space.

“This was simply an issue of the room reaching capacity, which reporters were aware of prior to the event,” he said. "We were able to accommodate 10 reporters, provided a livestream for those we could not accommodate and were unaware of the individual situation that has been reported

===

https://www.ecowatch.com/epa-climate-denial-groups-2573273596.html

cf AP

Emails Show EPA's Cozy Alliance With Major Climate Denial Group

Newly released emails show that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under Scott Pruitt has routinely been in contact with one of the most prominent climate denier groups, the AP reported this weekend.

The emails, obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request by the Environmental Defense Fund and the Southern Environmental Law Center, show that John Konkus, a deputy public affairs official, routinely reached out to senior staffers at the Heartland Institute to collaborate on denier invitee lists for a proposed public hearing on climate science last May.

Konkus and EPA spokeswoman Liz Bowman also regularly commiserated with Heartland officials on negative press coverage of the agency, and collaborated on ways to amplify positive messages. Then-Heartland president Joseph Bast celebrated the retirement of New York Times climate reporter Justin Gillis in an email shared with EPA staffers last fall, writing that he is "still waiting for Chris Mooney and Juliet Eilperin at the WaPo and Seth Borenstein at AP to flame out."

As reported by the Associated Press:

"The emails underscore how Pruitt and senior agency officials have sought to surround themselves with people who share their vision of curbing environmental regulation and enforcement, leading to complaints from environmentalists that he is ignoring the conclusions of the majority of scientists in and out of his agency especially when it comes to climate-changing carbon emissions."

==

===

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/24102017/trump-pruitt-epa-press-office-attacked-reporter-lipton-ap-harvey

As The New York Times readied a story on the Environmental Protection Agency for last weekend's front page, an agency spokeswoman ignored the reporter's questions and accused him of writing "elitist clickbait."

The jab, in an email that the newspaper quoted in its story, was just the latest in a series of attempts by the agency's press office to thwart reporters or attack their work—a strategy it appears to have adopted from Donald Trump's White House.

The approach is a "sharp departure" from past practice, said Dan Fiorino, who worked for the agency for more than 30 years and is now director of the Center for Environmental Policy at American University.

"It's trying to manipulate journalists and favor those who say the right things," Fiorino said. "Now, what we're seeing from EPA is pretty much what we're seeing from the administration. The press people are there to sell a very particular point of view. They'll limit access."

Regardless of whether the president was a Republican or a Democrat, or whether his regulatory agenda was friendly to environmentalists or to business interests, the agency's press office generally tried to appear neutral.

When the EPA was still relatively young, its administrator—William Ruckelshaus, who was on a mission to rescue the agency from its own missteps—issued what's become known as the "fishbowl memo."

The 1983 Reagan-era memo said the agency, long in the crosshairs of conservatives and regulated industries, would operate with as much transparency as it could to steer clear of controversy: "EPA will not accord privileged status to any special interest group, nor will it accept any recommendation without careful examination."

At the frontline of that effort was the agency's press office. But today, former employees say, that press office handles an agency that's less like a fishbowl than a dark-windowed SUV.

Attempts to Stem Information Flow

The agency's brass-knuckle style comes at a time when it is under intense scrutiny for changing environmental and climate regulations in ways that favor coal and other fossil fuels. Among other things, it is swamped with demands for access to internal communications and other records.

From its first days in office, the Trump administration has tried to stem the flow of information from the agency to the public. The blockades began right away in January, with reports that EPA employees were being told to stop talking to the press. Reporters have been barred from events, and the agency has attacked journalists through press releases, while at the same time using press releases to promote its administrator.

"If you care at all about how the public views your work, you would try to communicate with the reporters, who are largely in charge of disseminating the information," said Monica Lee, a former spokesperson during the Obama administration. "Instead, this press office relies on [EPA Administrator Scott] Pruitt's comments, made to a very specific audience or to very friendly reporters."

This press office's efforts accompany a broader attempt at tamping down the work of climate scientists at the agency and stripping mentions of their work and of climate change from EPA websites. Earlier this year, the agency dismissed members of its Board of Science Counselors, and last week Pruitt said he would issue a directive to bar scientists who received EPA grants from serving on EPA advisory boards because he believed the grants represent conflicts of interest.

Personal Attacks on Reporters

The latest in a string of controversies came this weekend when The Times ran afront-page story chronicling efforts by a top-level EPA appointee to downplay the risks of toxic chemicals. Before taking the job in May, the appointee, Nancy Beck, had been an executive for five years at the American Chemistry Council,which provides policy, communications and research for major chemical companies, including Arkema, DuPont and Monsanto.

Times reporter Eric Lipton asked the EPA and Beck for responses to a list of questions.EPA spokeswoman Liz Bowman—who also worked at the American Chemistry Council, as director of issue and advocacy communications, before joining Pruitt's EPA—replied in an email: "No matter how much information we give you, you would never write a fair piece. The only thing inappropriate and biased is your continued fixation on writing elitist clickbait trying to attack qualified professionals committed to serving their country."

The response has shocked former press officers.

"Blatantly attacking reporters and giving responses that are incredibly critical personally—it may help your base and it may fire them up, but it in no way serves the broader American people," said Liz Purchia, who ran the press office under Obama.

A month earlier, the agency tore into an Associated Press reporter, Michael Biesecker, for a story he and a colleague wrote about Superfund sites being under water in Texas after Hurricane Harvey. Biesecker, the agency said in an official press release, "has a history of not letting the facts get in the way of his story." The story, written by reporters who visited the sites after the hurricane, was correct, and the EPA later acknowledged damage there.

The press office under Obama hewed to standards outlined in its scientific integrity policy, which refers to the "fishbowl memo," which has essentially guided conduct since its release 34 years ago.

"That is the ethos," Fiorini said.

What's Required by Law?

By law, the EPA is required to have an Office of Public Affairs, which is "responsible for providing newsworthy information to the various communications media." Beyond that, an administration can release information how it wants, although it has to respond to requests for information by Congress or under the Freedom of Information Act.

"I'm not aware of any legal issues," Fiorino said, referring to the current press office. "But certainly, ethically and in terms of what you'd expect in a democracy, there are some real problems. This is a real sharp departure from what we've seen in the past."

The Obama administration's EPA press office got a rap on the knuckles from the Government Accountability Office in 2015 for a social media campaign to drum up support for a Clean Water Act rule. It was accused of violating propaganda and anti-lobbying rules.

"Historically, the press office at EPA, the public information people, get the information out there, and to some degree you want to put the administration, the people making decisions, in a good light," Fiorino said. "This administration is trying to create reality in a way that fits its view. That's really scary."

The EPA did not respond to questions for this story.

==

omg fake news

:{

}:

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/donald-trump-fake-news-government

Pruitt appears to be the most Trump-like member of Donald Trump’s cabinet, and now the federal agency he is tasked with leading, the Environmental Protection Agency, has officially adopted the president’s most pernicious habit.

When Trump recently visited hurricane-ravaged Houston he praised the Coast Guard while knocking the journalists tasked with covering the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey.

“Think of it, almost 11,000 people by going into winds that the media would not go into . . . unless it’s a really good story,” Trump said, before gesturing toward the media.

That same day, theAssociated Press published a story about the flooding of toxic waste sites in Houston, noting that Scott Pruitt’s EPA was still not on the ground. The agency responded in Trump-like fashion,attacking the pressto distract from legitimate questions.

Echoing Trump’s longstanding habit of singling out specific reporters for attacks, the EPA called out one reporter on the story by name in a news release titled “EPA Response to the AP’s Misleading Story.” Remarkably, the statement starts with a personal attack on Washington-based AP reporter Michael Biesecker:

Despite reporting from the comfort of Washington, Biesecker had the audacity to imply that agencies aren’t being responsive to the devastating effects of Hurricane Harvey. Not only is this inaccurate, but it creates panic and politicizes the hard work of first responders who are actually in the affected area.

Biesecker’s AP colleague Jason Dearen, however, visited seven toxic sites known as “Superfund sites,” the most contaminated toxic waste sites in the country, in and around Houston — by boat, vehicle and on foot.  

After the waters receded in the town of Crosby, Texas, situated between two Superfund sites, “a sinkhole the size of a swimming pool had opened up and swallowed two cars,” Biesecker wrote. “The acrid smell of creosote filled the air.” The Saturday report also noted that the “EPA had not yet been able to physically visit the Houston-area sites.”

In its unprecedented attack, the EPA accused the AP of leaving out information about the EPA’s other efforts to monitor the toxic land sites.

“Once again, in an attempt to mislead Americans, the Associated Press is cherry-picking facts, as EPA is monitoring Superfund sites around Houston and we have a team of experts on the ground working with our state and local counterparts responding to Hurricane Harvey,” EPA associate administrator Liz Bowman wrote in a statement. “Anything to the contrary is yellow journalism.”

The release went on to criticize past reporting by Biesecker, arguing that he has a “history of not letting the facts get in the way of his story.” To illustrate this, the EPA linked to a sensational Breitbart story that claimed the AP faced a “CNN-like scandal” after a July story Biesecker wrote inaccurately characterized an interaction between Pruitt and Dow Chemical CEO Andrew Liveris. Biesecker’s story, based on EPA schedules, initially said the two met for half an hour at a Houston hotel. The AP’s**story**turned out to be wrong because they were reporting on inaccurate meeting schedules provided by the EPA. The AP corrected its story when the formal meeting was canceled.

Besides the personal criticisms it leveled against the report’s author, the EPA’s statement did not point to any specific factual inaccuracies in the AP’s story. The report’s co-author, who reported from on the ground in Texas, was not singled out by the EPA statement. In fact, the EPA appeared to confirm the AP’s report overall, noting that more than a dozen sites have been flooded and that EPA has not investigated them in person — only monitoring the waste sites by plane until the floodwaters receded.

When pressed by reporters about the aggressive statement, agency officials continued their attack on the media.t

“We understand you are very focused on our press release; we hope you will apply the same focus to the facts, which include that a national reporter from a wire service publishing [sic] inaccurate and misleading stories about the agency and it’s [sic] staff on the ground,” Bowman wrote in an email to Politico over the weekend. “We think that is more important than who drafted a press release.”

Earlier this year Trump called the press the “enemy of the American people.” Beyond the damage of his rhetoric, however, Trump’s war on so-called fake news through the official channels of the federal government can only have a chilling effect.

For its part, the AP standing by its story and its reporters.

“AP’s exclusive story was the result of on the ground reporting at Superfund sites in and around Houston, as well as AP’s strong knowledge of these sites and EPA practices,” AP’s executive editor Sally Buzbee said in a statement. “We object to the EPA’s attempts to discredit that reporting by suggesting it was completed solely from ‘the comforts of Washington’ and stand by the work of both journalists who jointly reported and wrote the story.”

Sophia Tesfaye is Salon's deputy politics editor

==

nazi SS photos? laguardia jew? mann bk: seth borensten AP standup guy on climategate===:{:{ }::{All the president's PR men: Raw Story investigation reveals revolving door on Iraq PR}::{

}:Larisa Alexandrovna and Muriel KanePublished: Wednesday October 17, 2007:{

}:New questions are being raised about political operatives who have promoted President Bush?s Iraq war agenda and their role in spreading ?good news? about Iraq, illustrating a public relations revolving door among the Republican Party, the White House and the private sector.:{

}:A month long investigation by RAW STORY, originally prompted by the pro-Iraq war advertising of a ?grassroots? group called Freedom?s Watch, has unearthed a series of connections between the Bush administration and two subsidiaries of the PR giant Burson-Marsteller, particularly BM?s own ?grassroots? firm, Direct Impact.:{

}:Founded in 1988, Direct Impact boasts of over ?1,200 field representatives covering every Designated Market Area in the nation, ready to engage their community in a moment's notice. Self-designated as a ?grass roots? company, Direct Impact's community operations include media and online advocacy.:{

}:Direct Impact began working with Burson-Marsteller by 1997 and became a full-fledged subsidiary in late 2001. Following the acquisition, the formerly low-profile firm began hosting a steady stream of powerful Republican Party political and communications figures.:{

}:For example, Burson-Marsteller, which had hired former National Republican Congressional Committee communications director Craig Veith to oversee their Media Relations Practice, appointed him CEO of Direct Impact in late 2002.:{

}:As head of Media Relations, Veith and Prince Bandar, then Saudi ambassador to the US, had signed an agreement for Burson-Marsteller to work on repairing Saudi Arabia's image in the wake of 9/11 ? just three days after the attacks.:{

}:Veith was joined at Direct Impact in 2003 by a prominent GOP campaign strategist, Steve Schmidt, who had held Veith?s former job of communications director for the NRCC since 2001. Schmidt left Direct Impact a year later to become a top strategist in the Bush-Cheney ?04 campaign, where he ran the rapid response operation. He then joined the White House staff as a Senior Adviser to the President and a Counselor to the Vice President.:{

}:In April 2005, former Bush-Cheney '04 Midwest regional political director Dave DenHerder joined Direct Impact. DenHerder would become Direct Impact's COO in September after Veith, who had been both CEO and COO, departed to found his own firm.:{

}:Freedom's Watch and Democracy Data:{

}:In August 2007, a ?grassroots? organization called Freedom?s Watch began running a series of ads attacking those who disagree with the Bush administration?s strategy in Iraq as ?anti-victory.? According to their mission statement, the group seeks to give voice to Iraq war issues which it claims have been underrepresented because ?those who want to quit while victory is possible have dominated the public debate about terror and Iraq since the 2004 election.?:{

}:Although Freedom?s Watch is a non-profit corporation ?dedicated to educating individuals about and advancing public policies that protect America?s interests at home and abroad,? the group was exposed by the online publication, Politico, as largely consisting of wealthy Republican donors, Neoconservatives, and, most prominently, former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer.:{

}:In his role as press secretary, Fleischer had helped sell the Iraq war to the American people. At a September 2002 press briefing, he said, ?There is already a mountain of evidence that Saddam Hussein is gathering weapons for the purpose of using them. And adding additional information is like adding a foot to Mount Everest.? (WH Press Briefing 9/6/2002).:{

}:But Freedom?s Watch's relationship to Fleischer, as well as other political operatives in the RNC, is not the only issue surrounding the startup ?grassroots? effort.:{

}:Freedom's Watch is hosted on servers belonging to Democracy Data and Communications (DDC) ? DEMOCRACYDATA.COM ? which for many years had common ownership, leadership, and even shared office space and telephone numbers with Direct Impact.:{

}:According to public records, in 2001 both Direct Impact and Democracy Data were located at 1029 North Royal Street, Alexandria, VA. They also shared the following telephone number: 703-684-9690 and the following fax number: 703-683-9626. In 2005, well after Burson-Marstellar had acquired Direct Impact and also well after Veith had become CEO, they continued to share the same address as well as the same phone and fax numbers.:{

}:Although there is no apparent current direct link between Freedom?s Watch and Direct Impact, the overlapping of relationships raises questions about the true origin of the ?Freedom?s Watch? grassroots effort and a larger, more political use of domestic organizations to convey a message that mirrors that of the Administration.:{

}:Blackwater USA:{

}:The most recent news buzz about Burson-Marsteller has been about their contract with the embattled security contractor Blackwater USA.:{

}:According to the Nation?s blog, Blackwater?s subsidiary BKSH was "tasked with salvaging Blackwater's tattered image and allegedly murderous conduct. ... The account is being handled by Robert Tappan, a former State Department official who directed communications for the Coalition Provisional Authority in 2004.":{

}:Reached for comment last Tuesday, Paul Cordasco ? a spokesman for Burson-Marsteller ? said that the engagement with Blackwater was short term.:{

}:"Through a personal relationship, BKSH, a subsidiary of Burson-Marsteller, helped Blackwater prepare for their recent hearing before Congress,? Cordasco said. ?With the hearing over, BKSH's temporary engagement has ended.":{

}:Cordasco did not respond when asked to elaborate on what ?a personal relationship? means, nor to questions asking about what exactly the firm did for Blackwater.:{

}:Robert Tappan is not part of BKSH, however. In July 2006, Tappan became head of Burson-Marsteller?s Washington office with responsibility for overseeing the marketing operations of Direct Impact, a position he still maintains.:{

}:Prior to joining Burson-Marsteller, Tappan had served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs, holding that position from November 2002 to June 2006. Tappan?s case, one of many, illustrates the vanishing boundaries between the private sector of public relations and government communications.:{

}:While at the State Department, Tappan was said to have been involved in the distribution of domestic pro-Afghanistan war propaganda, in the form of a ?feel good? Administration pre-packagedpiece about Afghanistan that appeared on local tv outlets in 2003, without a disclaimer, as a news story.:{

}:?Tracking precisely how a ?good news? report on Afghanistan could have migrated to Memphis from the State Department is far from easy,? wrote two reporters for the New York Times. ?The State Department typically distributes its segments via satellite to international news organizations like Reuters and Associated Press Television News, which in turn distribute them to the major United States networks, which then transmit them to local affiliates.?:{

}:??Once these products leave our hands, we have no control,? Robert A. Tappan, the State Department's deputy assistant secretary for public affairs, said in an interview. The department, he said, never intended its segments to be shown unedited and without attribution by local news programs. ?We do our utmost to identify them as State Department-produced products.??:{

}:Tappan was sent to Iraq in early 2004 to serve as Director of Strategic Communications for the Coalition Provisional Authority. At this point in the war, optimism about the US endeavor in Iraq was beginning to fade and the Pentagon was turning to public relations to bolster popular support.:{

}:?U.S. occupation in Iraq has led to progress, in spite of what the media say, according to Robert Tappan,? a news story after his return remarked. ?Tappan and the CPA were also responsible for an advertising campaign in Iraq, he said. The messages in the three-commercial series were ?We all yearn to live in a free Iraq,? ?I want my children to live in peace? and ?I want a prosperous Iraq.??:{

}:For his services, Tappan earned the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Public Service ? the highest Defense Department civilian honor.:{

}:Immediately before joining the State Department, Tappan had been a senior vice president with public relations firm Powell Tate, whose co-founder and vice-chairman wasSheila Tate, a onetime press secretary to Nancy Reagan and George H.W. Bush. Tate was a participant in the Rumsfeld Group,named for the then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, a kitchen cabinet of lobbyists and Republican insiders who met informally to help the White House and the Defense Department produce sellable talking points about Iraq. In particular, they worked on ?linking the anti-terrorism cause with efforts to convince the public 'of the need to engage ?rogue states? ? including Iraq ? that are likely to harbor terrorists.??:{

}:The group was brought together after 9/11 by Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs Victoria "Torie" Clarke, who had advised Rumsfeld ?that in order to get the American public to buy into the war on terrorism, they needed to suggest a link to nation states, not just nebulous groups such as al-Qaeda.?:{

}:Like Tappan and his superiors at State, Clarke appeared to view news and the nature of reporting as a product to be delivered to the American people, ordered by a third party and often filtered through the foreign press.:{

}:In 2006, Direct Impact and Democracy Data appear to have parted ways. This was confirmed to Raw Story by Tappan in September.:{

}:?Burson-Marsteller does not have any role with Freedom?s Watch in any way, shape or form,? Tappan declared in an email to RAW STORY. ?Neither our firm, nor any of its subsidiary or affiliate companies, are involved with Freedom?s Watch. To the best of my knowledge, none of our principals, including me, have been involved with this organization, either on a personal or professional level, at any time.?:{

}:Taken in concert, this group of people suggests a pattern whereby GOP campaign and public relations expertise has been applied to selling the administration?s policies, particularly in the Middle East and Iraq, in a series of advertising campaigns where private PR and government advocacy become almost indistinguishable.:{

}:The privatization of propaganda:{

}:The National Security Act of 1947, Section 503(f), defines domestic propaganda as illegal. The Act states that ?no covert action may be conducted which is intended to influence United States political processes, public opinion, policies, or media.?:{

}:However, when asked specifically by Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) in February 2006 about his views of the President?s power to conduct domestic covert propaganda, then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said he was unable to answer the question::{

}:FEINSTEIN: Can the president suspend, in secret or otherwise, the application of Section 503 of the National Security Act, which states that no covert action may be conducted which is intended to influence United States political processes, public opinion, policies or media? In other words, can he engage in otherwise illegal propaganda? :{

}:GONZALES: Senator, this will probably be my response to all of your questions of these kind of hypotheticals. Questions as to whether or not ? can Congress pass a statute that is in tension with the President?s constitutional authority? Those are very, very difficult questions, and for me to answer those questions sort of off the cuff, I think would not be responsible.Bush Administration propaganda efforts have been well-documented.:{

}:In 2004, for example, local stations were found to have received videos produced by more than 20 different federal agencies to promote the administration?s policies, many of which aired as if they were the network?s own reporting. The Army and Air Force?s Hometown News Service has delivered ?good military news? to an estimated 41 million homes. Nor were commentators immune: In January 2005, news emerged that conservative commentator Armstrong Williamshad received $240,000 from the Education Department to promote the No Child Left Behind Act.:{

}:Larisa Alexandrovna is managing editor of investigative news for Raw Story and regularly reports on intelligence and national security stories. Contact: larisa@rawstory.com:{

}:Muriel Kane is director of research for Raw Story.}:http://rawstory.com/news/2007/All_presidents_PR_men_Raw_Story_1017.html===

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leak

collatral damage: AP reporter personal phone record grabbed 5/13

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Senate Environment Chair Inhofe and Aide

Take on AP/Borenstein, Brokaw, Revkin

By Bud Ward

The continuing political attacks on climate change science have taken a new and, some felt, menacing track in Washington with the Republican chair of the Senate's key environmental committee alleging bias on the part of three of the nation's leading news organizations and three specific reporters.

Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman James Inhofe of Oklahoma was assisted in his criticism of prominent climate reporting by a new and assertive staff aide, a former producer for conservative commentator Rush Limbaugh.

Inhofe, a staunch critic of what he calls the global warming "hoax," first put out a Committee majority press release blasting the Associated Pressand its well regarded science reporter Seth Borenstein for bias and faulty methodology. The Republican committee members' press release panned a June 27 AP piece reporting climate scientists' generally favorable reviews of the science as presented in former Vice President Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth." AP rejected the senators' criticisms outright, and several journalists and academics rallied to AP's and Borenstein's defense.

Inhofe's critics question the propriety of the efforts of the committee's chairman and communications director and wonder if it will have any effect on press coverage and public understanding of climate change. Some journalism professors say Inhofe's goal might be to intimidate reporters and editors, particularly in smaller markets that rely on the Associated Press for Washington coverage. This, they say, could damage the public's understanding of the issue at a time when scientific evidence of global warming is growing. "It strikes me that the public relations people for Senator Inhofe are trying to distract the media by attacking the media for fairly reporting what the vast majority of scientists are reporting," said Jim Detjen, director of the Knight Center for Environmental Journalism at Michigan State University. "It's a last ditch effort to now attack the journalists," Detjen added. "I really believe it's nonsense."

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AP removes Illegal alien" from stylesheet (asa esult of longtime campaign says Amy G

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wiki

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Associated_Press

The Associated Press is a multinational non-profit news agency based in New York City. The AP is a nonprofit cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio, and television stations in the United States, all of which contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staff journalists. Many newspapers and broadcasters outside the United States are AP subscribers, paying a fee to use AP material without being contributing members of the cooperative.

The AP staff is represented by the Newspaper Guild union, which operates under the Communication Workers union, which operates under the AFL–CIO. The content of AP news stories relating to current political issues that impact union interests has increasingly been subject to claims of news media bias.

As of 2005, the news collected by the AP is published and republished by more than 1,700 newspapers, in addition to more than 5,001 television and radio broadcasters. The photograph library of the AP consists of over 10 million images. The Associated Press operates 243 news bureaus, and it serves at least 120 countries, with an international staff located worldwide.

Associated Press also operates The Associated Press Radio Network, which provides newscasts twice hourly for broadcast and satellite radio and television stations. The AP Radio also offers news and public affairs features, feeds of news sound bites, and long form coverage of major events.

As part of their cooperative agreement with The Associated Press, most member news organizations grant automatic permission for the AP to distribute their local news reports. For example, on page two of every edition of The Washington Post, the newspaper's masthead includes the statement, "The Associated Press is entitled exclusively to use for re-publication of all news dispatches credited to it or not otherwise credited in this paper and all local news of spontaneous origin published herein."

The AP employs the "inverted pyramid formula" for writing that enables the news outlets to edit a story to fit its available publication area without losing the story's essential meaning and news information.

Cutbacks at longtime U.S. rival United Press International, most significantly in 1993, left the AP as the primary nationally oriented news service based in the United States, although UPI still produces and distributes news stories and photos daily. Other English-language news services, such as Reuters and the English-language service of Agence France-Presse, are based outside the United States.

This article is a stub. You can help by expanding it.

Associated Press (AP) is one of the major global wire services.

Contents [hide]

AP Ends Freelancer's Dual Role

"The Associated Press has terminated its relationship with a freelance reporter in Haiti after learning she was working for a U.S. government-sponsored organization," the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). In October 2005, reporter Regine Alexandre began working for NED as a "part-time facilitator" between the U.S. organization and Haitian non-governmental organizations. After another journalist questioned the relationship, Alexandre "denied she was an employee." However, NED confirmed her employment, saying "it was unaware when it hired Alexandre that she worked for the AP or any other media organization." Alexandre has also reported for the New York Times and National Public Radio, though it's unclear whether she contributed to either while working for NED.[1]

Principals

Journalists

Related SourceWatch resources

External Resources

References

  1. ↑ www.forbes.com

Categories:

Associated Press prints false Cheney claims unchallenged BLOG

They don’t call them the Associated Pravda for nothing. AP has become a shell of its former self. They used to do journalism. Now they’re little more than stenographers, reprinting any assertion, however outlandish, from the Bush administration as fact.

For example:

“We’re fighting a war over there because the enemy attacked us first,” Cheney said.

Iraq had nothing to with September 11. Why did AP fail to mention that?

The terrorism fight now centers on Iraq, the vice president said, because that is where the enemy has massed.

The war in Iraq started before the “enemy” was amassed there. Again, AP couldn’t mention this?

He promised that the Army will have all the manpower, equipment and support it needs.

This, the same day we learn that the Bush administration refused to give our troops IED-proof vehicles because the Bushies were too cheap.

In AP’s eyes, one assumes, it would be biased of them to challenge Cheney’s lies. They see their job as the daily stenographers of the administration’s latest tales. They are simply unable to look at any of their stories in a larger context, going so far as to contradict their own previous stories because to reference those previous stories, to note facts that prove the administration’s latest assertions to be untrue, is somehow “biased.” Yes, the truth is now “biased.” So AP simply reprints the lies, unchallenged. Who needs FAX machines when we can read partisan press releases on AP.

John Aravosis

@aravosis | Facebook | Google+. Editor of AMERICAblog, joint JD/MSFS from Georgetown, worked in the US Senate, World Bank, Children's Defense Fund, and as a stringer for the Economist. A frequent TV pundit, he has been on The O'Reilly Factor, Hardball, World News Tonight, Nightline & Reliable Sources. Full bio and article archive.