Mark Steyn

Not News: Coal CEO Decries EPA's 'Political Power Grab of America's Power Grid'
By Tom Blumer | July 25, 2015 | 11:48 PM EDT

In a speech at a Republican Lincoln Day dinner in West Virginia earlier this week, Murray Energy Corp. founder and CEO Robert Murray decried the Obama administration's determination to, as described at the financial news site SNL.com (to be clear, no relation to Saturday Night Live), "bypass the states and their utility commissions, the U.S. Congress and the Constitution in favor of putting the U.S. EPA in charge of the nation's electric grid."

In the establishment press, Murray's speech was only covered in a single snarky paragraph by Darren Goode at the Politico titled "Don't Hold Back Now" — obviously attempting to paint Murray as unreasonable and extreme — and a writeup at the Wheeling (WV) Intelligencer. After all, what does Murray know? He's only the head of the largest company in an industry which is still responsible for fueling 39 percent of America's electrical grid, and the majority of it in many states. Who would want to give him any visibility, as if he has anything valuable to say? Well, I do.

Mark Steyn Slams the Democratic Party's Dark History on Hannity
By Connor Williams | June 25, 2015 | 12:01 PM EDT

On the June 24 edition of Hannity, National Review’s Mark Steyn was invited to the program to discuss the notion in much of the media that the Confederate flag is a Republican problem. Steyn slammed the history of the Democratic Party as one filled with hate: “The Democratic Party was the largest and most powerful institution supporting slavery in the English speaking world.”

Mark Steyn Slams Obama for 'Dishonoring' Dead Christians, Media Still Silent
By Scott Whitlock | April 9, 2015 | 12:46 PM EDT

Though the networks have been silent on Barack Obama's latest slam against Christians, writer Mark Steyn unloaded on the President, Wednesday. Appearing on Hannity, the commentator responded to Obama's critique of "less than loving Christians" by highlighting the murder of Kenyan Christians: "This is a guy who's happy to draw general lessons when a black youth gets killed in Ferguson, Missouri. That apparently has wide application for black people all over America. But 148 black corpses has no general application!" 

On Hannity: Mark Steyn Slams Weak Response to Terror Attack from CNN, NYT and Jon Stewart
By Geoffrey Dickens | January 9, 2015 | 3:36 PM EST

On Thursday, the tag team of FNC’s Sean Hannity and conservative author Mark Steyn slammed the weak response by American journalists and satirists to the recent terror attack on Charlie Hebdo in France. On the January 8 edition of FNC’s Hannity, the host asked Steyn to make his case about how the “media has cowered in the face of radical Islamists.” 

Liberal Panic Now That Benghazi Fiasco Finally Getting Real Coverage?
By Howard Portnoy | May 12, 2013 | 12:20 AM EDT

There is no escaping the fact that, where Benghazi is concerned, there is blood in the water and the mainstream media has (at long last) picked up the scent. Yesterday, the sharks representing the three major TV networks circled Press Secretary Jay Carney, bombarding him with questions that were uncharacteristically tough.

ABC’s Jonathan Karl, who broke the story that the talking points underwent twelve revisions, had the aspect and attitude of a man scorned and determined to set the record straight as much to clear his own name as to ascertain the truth. When Carney attempted to weasel out of his claim earlier in the week that the White House had merely made minor “stylistic” changes to the talking points, Karl was adamant and unrelenting.

Liberal Media Cheer on Pro-Gay Discrimination
By Paul Wilson | June 18, 2012 | 2:38 PM EDT

The week of June 16-June 24, 2012 has been designated by the homosexual community as Gay Pride Week, during which LGBT people take pride in their triumphs over “violence and discrimination against gay, lesbian, and transgendered individuals.”

Funny, but they’re not making much noise about using government to discriminate in favor of their lifestyle. One Canadian activist even declared: “We’ll only take away charitable status from the buildings where the priests live and where the people pray.”

AP Report on Institute Burning in Egypt an Exercise in Reality Avoidance
By Tom Blumer | December 26, 2011 | 10:44 PM EST

A month ago, Aya Batrawy at the Associated Press's Egyptian bureau described those who ransacked the Israeli embassy in Cairo as "protesters," and absurdly asserted in the face of contrary evidence I was able to find in about five minutes that "the historic 1979 peace treaty with Israel ... has never had the support of ordinary Egyptians."

Last week, in the wake of the burning -- more like the gutting -- of the Institut d’Egypte in Cairo and the destruction of and serious damage to thousands of priceless books, manuscripts, documents, and artifacts, Batrawy attempted to deflect blame to the military (which did have a role, as will be seen later) for not sufficiently protecting the building instead of placing it on the arsonists who did the damage. And of course, you'll search in vain for any references to the Muslim Brotherhood, Salafi radicals, or Islam. I guess Batraway didn't want anyone to get any kind of crazy idea that this "Arab Spring" enterprise which Western news outlets so gullibly embraced earlier this year isn't exactly working out. Here are several paragraphs from the AP repoter's dispatch (bolds are mine throughout this post):

Steyn Ridicules Press's Insistence on Calling Budget Ideas 'Plans'; Now It's Ginned-up Fears of Stock-Market Plunge
By Tom Blumer | July 23, 2011 | 8:28 PM EDT

On Wednesday evening (at NewsBusters; at BizzyBlog), I noted the absurdity of Associated Press coverage characterizing the 5-page document with 3-1/2 whole pages of text issued by the "Gang of Six" as a "plan" -- 12 times, plus in the item's headline. Though I didn't bring it up then, an obvious point to make about any of these items floating around Washington is that if the Congressional Budget Office can't score it, it can't be a plan. A month ago, CBO Director Doug Elmendorf told a congressional committee, in response to a question about President Obama's April proposal, that "we can't score speeches." By contrast, there's no reason to believe it can't score Cut, Cap & Balance, because it's actual legislation passed by the House.

Last night at Investors Business Daily, Mark Steyn, the self-described "One-Man Global Content Provider," made more generalized comments about the media coverage of the debt ceiling-tax-spending-amending discussions and its identification of anything stated in a semi-coherent sentence as a "plan" (press-related items in bold):

Mark Steyn Wallops Lindsey Graham On Latest Call to 'Shut Up'
By Tim Graham | June 20, 2011 | 6:44 AM EDT

On Sunday's Meet the Press, Sen. Lindsey Graham said “Congress should sort of shut up and not empower Qaddafi” by discussing the possibility of cutting off funding for military operations there. He also said it was a boo-boo for Republican candidates to think that getting “to the left” of Obama on war is a path to victory in the GOP primary. At National Review's The Corner, Mark Steyn joined Mark Levin in disparaging Graham. (Levin calls him "Goober.") Laura Ingraham has also mocked his previous "shut up" comments:

Daniel, re Lindsey Graham’s suggestion that everyone should just “shut up” about the Libyan Non-War, you’ll recall that the last time the Senator attracted any attention in these parts he was also telling everyone to shut up – this time about Islam. Maybe it would be easier if he just issued the rest of us with an approved list of conversational topics.  Alternatively, here’s a suggestion for Senator Graham: Why don’t you shut up? Not permanently, but just long enough to:

Poll Suggests Even 'Moderate' Muslims Have Extreme Beliefs
By Lachlan Markay | December 20, 2010 | 1:21 PM EST

In his seminal book "America Alone", Mark Steyn offered this definition of a "moderate Muslim":

He's a Muslim who wants stoning for adultery to be introduced in Liverpool, but he's a "moderate" because he can't be bothered flying a plane into a skyscraper to get it.

Establishment Press Largely Covers Obama's Tracks on Disgraceful Daniel Pearl Remark
By Tom Blumer | May 22, 2010 | 10:48 AM EDT
DanielPearlInIslamistCaptorsVid2002President Barack Obama's statement just before he signed the Freedom of the Press Act on Monday painfully avoided reality to the point of giving offense. If it became widely known, it would likely become very problematic.

Here is what the President said that was particularly offensive (bolds are mine):

And obviously the loss of Daniel Pearl was one of those moments that captured the world’s imagination because it reminded us of how valuable a free press is, and it reminded us that there are those who would go to any length in order to silence journalists around the world.

Two key administration-protecting original news disseminators picked up on the need to keep the bolded words out of their news coverage of the event. The Associated Press, which usually (i.e., almost always) quotes the president in related stories, provided no quotes in its terse five-paragraph report, the first four of which follow (for fair use and discussion purposes, of course):

Dutch Politician Prosecuted for 'Insulting Muslim Worshipers', Where's the Media?
By Stephen Gutowski | January 27, 2009 | 5:51 AM EST

In a move strikingly similar to Canada's inquisition of Mark Steyn a Dutch court has ordered that Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders be prosecuted for expressing his belief that there is a clear connection between Islam and violence. Wilders is the creator of a movie titled "Fitna" which seeks to "stop Islamisation" and "defend our freedom". He has also equated the Koran to Hitler's infamous Mein Kompf. Apparently those are both criminal acts in the Netherlands nowadays.

Here's how the BBC described the court's order:

The three judges said that they had weighed Mr Wilders's "one-sided generalisations" against his right to free speech, and ruled that he had gone beyond the normal leeway granted to politicians.