witness23
Veteran Expediter
Here are the first three. More to come over the next few days.
In my opinion these are relevant to post here in the Soapbox because the sources of these stories and the story themselves, may be recognizable to some here in the Soapbox. Albeit, we have seen a decrease of late of these kind of articles, but in the past year we have seen these stories pop here and often seen these sources used by certain members. It boils down to credibility, if you feel these are credible sources then so be it. I would hope after seeing some of these examples you might think twice about the validity of the story and where they are coming from.
Link: Most Embarrassing Failures Of The Year By Conservative Websites | Media Matters for America
Most Embarrassing Failures Of The Year By Conservative Websites
December 29, 2010 9:35 am ET by Ben Dimiero
Over the next three days, we'll be counting down the Most Embarrassing Failures of the Year by Conservative Websites.
As will become apparent, conservative sites regularly get themselves into trouble by having editorial standards that consist entirely of: "Does this story reflect poorly on Obama and/or liberals? Print it!"
For many prominent conservative online outlets, anything seen as reaffirming a conservative narrative is worth printing -- fact-checking is, at best, a minor annoyance to be handled after publication, if at all. This is the very definition of political hackery, yet many of these same conservative websites like to spend much of their time lecturing the "lamestream media" on how they are supposed to do their jobs.
No matter how many times conservative websites embarrass themselves by running completely false stories, they just can't help themselves.
10. Israeli delegation "skips" Obama speech to observe religious holiday
In the first entry on our list: Conservative websites cheered on the Israeli United Nations delegation supposedly "skip[ping]" Obama's speech at the UN General Assembly in September.
On the morning of September 23, Real Clear Politics posted video pointing out that the "Israeli assembly does not attend Obama's UN address." Rather than try to determine why this may have been the case, numerous prominent conservative sites just went ahead and made up their own answer: "They skipped it because they hate Obama as much as we do!"
Fox Nation, Jawa Report, and Breitbart TV all declared the delegation was a "no-show." Jim Hoft, as he often does, took things a step further by declaring that "Israeli delegation skips Obama's UN speech." Hoft then labeled this "another historic shift" and decided that "Israel didn't want to hear" Obama's speech.
The punchline?
As reported by Reuters, Israel explained that it "was not a boycott" and their delegation was absent due to the Jewish holiday of Sukkot (an absence they had alerted the Obama administration to ahead of time.)
Most of the aforementioned sites added embarrassing updates to their original posts, but Hoft took the cake with his:
That's not what "skipped" means, Jim.
9. Conservatives outsource Obama attack to openly anti-Semitic website
Oftentimes, conservative websites' eagerness to get confirmation from international leaders that Obama is, in fact, the Worst President Ever Ever ™ can get them into hot water.
In April, numerous conservative blogs, including Fox Nation, NewsBusters, Atlas Shrugs, Jammie Wearing Fool (who later pulled his post without explanation) and, as always, Jim Hoft, picked up an absurdly sketchy report "circulating the Kremlin" that French President Nicolas Sarkozy had called Obama "insane."
They all sourced a website called the European Union Times, which I suppose sounds vaguely credible, but, based on the content at the site, a more apt name might be the Protocols of the Elders of Zion Weekly.
As we quickly learned -- thanks to an assist from The Village Voice's Roy Edroso -- the European Union Times' site is not only openly anti-Semitic, but, according to the SPLC, "is registered to the wife of a racist skinhead gang member who was involved in a bizarre stabbing incident" in November 2009.
The site is filled with red flags that would lead any responsible person to question using it as a source (perhaps least of which is the fact that it was apparently infested with spyware).
As we documented, in 2009 the EU Times reprinted a story by Ynetnews that was headlined "Anti-Semitism makes it to China?" and discussed a "bestselling book in China" that blames Jewish people for the global financial crisis. The EU Times changed that headline to "China finally Learns the Truth about the Jews." They attached to it this charming image:
And, for safe measure, the EU Times mixed their anti-Semitism with some 9-11 trutherism. Their homepage featured a graphic called "9-11 Missing Links" that linked to a website blaming Jewish people for the September 11 terror attacks.
For conservative bloggers, this incident apparently established a new axiom: The enemy of my enemy is my friend, even when he's an anti-Semitic 9-11 Truther.
8. Global Warming Activist Freezes in Antarctica
Due to the fact that conservatives don't have actual science to buttress their belief that the planet is not warming, every winter they resort to pointing out that it is cold outside in December as proof that climate change isn't real.
The flimsy basis for climate science skepticism also leads them to promote overblown "scandals" like Climategate, ignore actual temperature records, and, apparently, run with stories from satirical websites as if they were actual news items.
Back in March, Fox Nation, Jim Hoft, Jammie Wearing Fool, and Ace of Spades all picked up a story about a "famed global warming activist freezing to death" in Antartica.
They were apparently too busy laughing at what they believed was another person's untimely death and relishing the "irony" of the situation to notice the many indications that the "story" might not have been accurate. Specifically, that the website responsible for the story, EcoEnquirer.com, is quite clearly a satirical site, featuring at the time "Breaking News" about the "successful" Bali 2027 Global Warming Conference.
But if poking around an unfamiliar website before running with one of their stories is too much work for the leading lights of the conservative blogosphere, several passages in the story itself should have stood out as being of questionable validity. Here's my favorite, which was excerpted in full, and in complete seriousness, by Jammie Wearing Fool, Fox Nation and Hoft:
Sounds real to me.
Check back tomorrow for stories 5-7.
In my opinion these are relevant to post here in the Soapbox because the sources of these stories and the story themselves, may be recognizable to some here in the Soapbox. Albeit, we have seen a decrease of late of these kind of articles, but in the past year we have seen these stories pop here and often seen these sources used by certain members. It boils down to credibility, if you feel these are credible sources then so be it. I would hope after seeing some of these examples you might think twice about the validity of the story and where they are coming from.
Link: Most Embarrassing Failures Of The Year By Conservative Websites | Media Matters for America
Most Embarrassing Failures Of The Year By Conservative Websites
December 29, 2010 9:35 am ET by Ben Dimiero
Over the next three days, we'll be counting down the Most Embarrassing Failures of the Year by Conservative Websites.
As will become apparent, conservative sites regularly get themselves into trouble by having editorial standards that consist entirely of: "Does this story reflect poorly on Obama and/or liberals? Print it!"
For many prominent conservative online outlets, anything seen as reaffirming a conservative narrative is worth printing -- fact-checking is, at best, a minor annoyance to be handled after publication, if at all. This is the very definition of political hackery, yet many of these same conservative websites like to spend much of their time lecturing the "lamestream media" on how they are supposed to do their jobs.
No matter how many times conservative websites embarrass themselves by running completely false stories, they just can't help themselves.
10. Israeli delegation "skips" Obama speech to observe religious holiday
In the first entry on our list: Conservative websites cheered on the Israeli United Nations delegation supposedly "skip[ping]" Obama's speech at the UN General Assembly in September.
On the morning of September 23, Real Clear Politics posted video pointing out that the "Israeli assembly does not attend Obama's UN address." Rather than try to determine why this may have been the case, numerous prominent conservative sites just went ahead and made up their own answer: "They skipped it because they hate Obama as much as we do!"
Fox Nation, Jawa Report, and Breitbart TV all declared the delegation was a "no-show." Jim Hoft, as he often does, took things a step further by declaring that "Israeli delegation skips Obama's UN speech." Hoft then labeled this "another historic shift" and decided that "Israel didn't want to hear" Obama's speech.
The punchline?
As reported by Reuters, Israel explained that it "was not a boycott" and their delegation was absent due to the Jewish holiday of Sukkot (an absence they had alerted the Obama administration to ahead of time.)
Most of the aforementioned sites added embarrassing updates to their original posts, but Hoft took the cake with his:
That's not what "skipped" means, Jim.
9. Conservatives outsource Obama attack to openly anti-Semitic website
Oftentimes, conservative websites' eagerness to get confirmation from international leaders that Obama is, in fact, the Worst President Ever Ever ™ can get them into hot water.
In April, numerous conservative blogs, including Fox Nation, NewsBusters, Atlas Shrugs, Jammie Wearing Fool (who later pulled his post without explanation) and, as always, Jim Hoft, picked up an absurdly sketchy report "circulating the Kremlin" that French President Nicolas Sarkozy had called Obama "insane."
They all sourced a website called the European Union Times, which I suppose sounds vaguely credible, but, based on the content at the site, a more apt name might be the Protocols of the Elders of Zion Weekly.
As we quickly learned -- thanks to an assist from The Village Voice's Roy Edroso -- the European Union Times' site is not only openly anti-Semitic, but, according to the SPLC, "is registered to the wife of a racist skinhead gang member who was involved in a bizarre stabbing incident" in November 2009.
The site is filled with red flags that would lead any responsible person to question using it as a source (perhaps least of which is the fact that it was apparently infested with spyware).
As we documented, in 2009 the EU Times reprinted a story by Ynetnews that was headlined "Anti-Semitism makes it to China?" and discussed a "bestselling book in China" that blames Jewish people for the global financial crisis. The EU Times changed that headline to "China finally Learns the Truth about the Jews." They attached to it this charming image:
And, for safe measure, the EU Times mixed their anti-Semitism with some 9-11 trutherism. Their homepage featured a graphic called "9-11 Missing Links" that linked to a website blaming Jewish people for the September 11 terror attacks.
For conservative bloggers, this incident apparently established a new axiom: The enemy of my enemy is my friend, even when he's an anti-Semitic 9-11 Truther.
8. Global Warming Activist Freezes in Antarctica
Due to the fact that conservatives don't have actual science to buttress their belief that the planet is not warming, every winter they resort to pointing out that it is cold outside in December as proof that climate change isn't real.
The flimsy basis for climate science skepticism also leads them to promote overblown "scandals" like Climategate, ignore actual temperature records, and, apparently, run with stories from satirical websites as if they were actual news items.
Back in March, Fox Nation, Jim Hoft, Jammie Wearing Fool, and Ace of Spades all picked up a story about a "famed global warming activist freezing to death" in Antartica.
They were apparently too busy laughing at what they believed was another person's untimely death and relishing the "irony" of the situation to notice the many indications that the "story" might not have been accurate. Specifically, that the website responsible for the story, EcoEnquirer.com, is quite clearly a satirical site, featuring at the time "Breaking News" about the "successful" Bali 2027 Global Warming Conference.
But if poking around an unfamiliar website before running with one of their stories is too much work for the leading lights of the conservative blogosphere, several passages in the story itself should have stood out as being of questionable validity. Here's my favorite, which was excerpted in full, and in complete seriousness, by Jammie Wearing Fool, Fox Nation and Hoft:
Sounds real to me.
Check back tomorrow for stories 5-7.
