Conspiracy Theories

Vox Writer: Conservatives’ Belief In Conspiracy Theories Turning GOP Presidential Contest Into a ‘Horror Comedy’
By Tom Johnson | December 12, 2015 | 12:25 PM EST

According to David Roberts, activist conservatives are “bending the political system to their will” not by scoring policy victories but by taking their cues from “fever dreams” (i.e., conspiracy theories).

In a Thursday article, Roberts suggested two reasons why conservatives generally are more inclined than liberals to buy into CTs. One is that for conservatives, not trusting “the political system [is] built into the ideology.” The other is that even though right-wingers are “politically engaged and intense,” their sources of information tend to be, in Roberts’s estimation, unreliable.

Fox's 'Scream Queens' Likens Dick Cheney to a Political Ventriloquist
By Dylan Gwinn | October 14, 2015 | 12:39 AM EDT

I suppose it is both fitting and proper that on a night when liberal candidates reinforce the fact that they never, ever move on from anything that Fox’s Scream Queens would resurrect one of the most tired and lame liberal talking points of the early 2000s.

In an episode titled “Pumpkin Patch,” Hester Ulrich (Lea Michele) explains to her nerdy friend how she plans to control and manipulate the “Chanels” (the Mean Girls-like clique that the show is based on) and likens her behind-the-scenes manipulation to that supposedly greatest of all political ventriloquists, Dick Cheney.

Genocidal Environmentalists Try to Save World from Overpopulation on NBC’s ‘Blindspot’
By Erik Soderstrom | October 13, 2015 | 12:44 AM EDT

On the latest episode of Blindspot, the protagonists find out that every major disease outbreak of the past half-decade has been the result of an intentional security breakdown at the CDC. Ebola, SARS, MRSA, Typhoid fever: they were all delivered directly from a secret CDC lab to infect innocent populations around the world. For once, however, the culprit isn’t some heinous government plot. Instead, the villains of the episode “Bone May Rot” are ardent environmentalists convinced they are saving the planet from the human scourge that has infested it. Mass death now is necessary to offset the evils of “modern medicine” and the plague of “overpopulation,” Dr. Frank Surrey (Paul Fitzgerald) explains.

NYT Skips Louis Farrakhan's Vile History in Fact-Free Celebratory Report from D.C. 'Justice or Else' Rally
By Clay Waters | October 12, 2015 | 10:51 AM EDT

New York Times reporter Jada Smith celebrated "Justice or Else," an ominously named protest marking the 20th anniversary of the "Million Man March," led by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, the preacher notorious for his anti-Semitic and paranoid ravings: "Echoing Calls for Justice Of Million Man March, But Widening Audience." This year's version latched on to the harder-edged tone of the Black Lives Matter social media movement. But you wouldn't learn anything about organizer Farrakhan from Smith's adulatory treatment.

CBS: CMP Videos, Defunding Planned Parenthood ‘Could Fuel Frustrations and Lead to More Crimes’ at Clinics
By Curtis Houck | September 20, 2015 | 1:39 AM EDT

With college football games airing Saturday on ABC, CBS, and NBC, none of the three aired their evening newscasts for viewers in the eastern or central time zones, but the CBS Evening News was shown in the western U.S. and featured another segment hinting at a link between the Planned Parenthood baby parts video scandal and a string of recent fires at their facilities. 

Dan Rather 'Suspicious' Trump and Fox Are Faking Feud
By Mark Finkelstein | August 26, 2015 | 10:07 PM EDT

When it comes to fake news stories, if anyone's an expert it's Dan Rather . . . The disgraced former CBS News anchor has a new twist on the vast right-wing conspiracy. Instead of plotting against poor innocents like Bill and Hillary, those conspiratorial conservatives are now creating phony feuds among themselves! 

On Rachel Maddow's show tonight, Rather declared himself "suspicious" about the battle between Donald Trump and Fox News, suggesting that Trump and Roger Ailes might have "gotten together and planned out" the feud for their mutual benefit.

Vaccination as a Wedge: NY Times Front Page Smears Conservatives as Opposed to 'Modern Science'
By Clay Waters | February 4, 2015 | 9:14 AM EST

Eagerly clawing around for a wedge issue with which to split the Republican Party, the New York Times used the controversy over mandatory vaccinations to smear the GOP as opposed to "modern science" and "established science" in "Measles Proves Delicate Issue to G.O.P. Field," a front-page story Tuesday.

Exquisite Timing: USAT Runs Op-Ed on 'Beware the Christian Extremists'
By Tom Blumer | October 23, 2014 | 1:48 AM EDT

Sandwiched in between two domestic terrorist attacks by Islamic extremists in Canada during the past three days, USA Today ran a Tuesday op-ed which appeared in Wednesday's print edition by Mary Zeiss Stange called "Beware the Christian Extremists."

With all due respect, ma'am, we've got bigger worries. But in Ms. Stange's world, Christian "religious extremism taken to potentially lethal ends" is really the "primary threat to homeland security." She castigates the news media, which in her view "have been remarkably slow when it comes to zeroing in on the pervasive reality of hate-based Christian extremism," because "It is easier, after all, to blame the un-American other."

Publisher Rejects Fellow Soldiers' Book on Bowe Bergdahl, Because 'the Right' Might Use It 'Against Obama'
By Tom Blumer | August 13, 2014 | 3:33 PM EDT

Remember all those books that the publishing houses rejected during the eight years before Dear Leader took office because they might get used by "the Left" to hurt George W. Bush? No you don't, because it didn't happen.

But now, things are different. Fellow soldiers of released 5-year Taliban captive Bowe Bergdahl are trying to publish a book on their side of the "he was a deserter" controversy. A divison of publishing giant Simon & Schuster has rejected their submission. That isn't necessarily unusual, but the contents of a rejection letter from one of the publisher's representatives certainly is.

Juan Williams on the IRS Scandal: ‘There’s No News Here!’
By Tom Blumer | July 7, 2014 | 6:00 PM EDT

This goes back to a week ago Saturday morning, but given the content and that it occurred on a weekend, it really needs more visibility.

On June 28, Juan Williams put in an appearance on a Fox News "Cashin' In" show panel which discussed the IRS scandal. Host Eric Bolling discussed poll results revealing that three-quarters of Americans believe that the IRS deliberately destroyed emails, and overhwelmingly want to see people involved in destroying the emails to be held accountable. The video after the jump, accompanied by Mediaite coverage containing key quotes, will show that Williams not only insists that he is completely unimpressed with the newsworthiness of the story, but also believe that those who believe it to be important are engaging in a "paranoia conspiracy" (Warning: Those who are on blood pressure meds should make that they have taken them and have allowed enough time to pass for them to achieve their proper effect; bolds are mine):

White House Continues to Spin IRS E-mail Scandal as 'Republican Conspiracy Theory'
By Jackie Seal | June 20, 2014 | 4:59 PM EDT

Soon-to-be White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest took to the podium of the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room for his last outing as deputy press secretary. He will move into the White House Press Secretary role next week as Jay Carney officially vacates the job.

If we learned anything from his “test run” today, it’s that Earnest has learned the art of White House spin from his boss. When questioned about the IRS e-mail scandal, Earnest repeatedly touted “Republican conspiracy theories” as the ruling force behind any and all questions involving the scandal.

Revised 5 Times, NYT's 'Rush to Demonize Bergdahl' Editorial Attacking GOP 'Operatives' and His Unit Is What Was Rushed
By Tom Blumer | June 8, 2014 | 12:36 AM EDT

The seething anger at seeing the Obama administration being raked over the coals by critics of the Bowe Bergdahl exchange of five hardened terrorists for a soldier who left his post, including many Democrats and most prominently his fellow unit members, was apparently too much for the editorial board at the New York Times. On Thursday, they let loose with a poorly sourced and hastily drafted editorial originally entitled "The Politics of the Bergdahl Case." Tim Graham at NewsBusters alluded to this editorial on Friday in covering fake conservative David Brooks's completely predictable defense of President Obama's decision.

Several revisions later — five in all, tracked by an impressive site called NewsDiffs.org — there is a more pointed title ("The Rush to Demonize Sgt. Bergdahl"). The Times has also had to make two corrections, including an important qualification to a statement made by Arizona Senator John McCain which negated the Times's attempt to go after him (of course, the Times pretended that it didn't). The editorial went on to outrageously impugn the motives, integrity and basic decency of Bergdahl's comrades in Afghanistan and sympathizers who have had the unmitigated gall to help them tell their story to the press.