[To read Part I, “Newsmax TV: A Rising Alternative to Fox News,” CLICK HERE.]
Media Matters, the leftwing smear machine funded by George-Soros affiliated organizations, was established by the self-described former “right-wing hit man” turned leftist, David Brock. As Lara Logan, former correspondent for “60 Minutes,” wrote,
propaganda machines like David Brock and his staff at Media Matters for America, smear, manipulate and invent false narratives driven by their well-funded political agenda. With armies of bots and a stable of journalists that parrot their talking points, they silence and intimidate.
Media Matters encourages advertiser boycotts to squash its conservative enemies. It also uses the McCarthyite tactic of guilt by association. This is what Angelo Carusone, Media Matters’ president, tried to do to Sean Spicer while he was serving as President Trump’s White House press secretary. Carusone used a single photo of Spicer with an allegedly bigoted White House correspondent to imply that they were best buddies. Carusone has excused his own past racist, anti-Semitic, xenophobic blog posts as mere “parody,” but this self-righteous hypocrite gives no quarter in passing “moral” judgment on others who happen to be conservative.
Newsmax TV, owned by journalist-entrepreneur Chris Ruddy, recently signed Sean Spicer to anchor a new show Spicer & Co that launched on March 3rd. The show belies Media Matters’ venomous libel about conservative media. Sean Spicer’s name is instantly recognizable to many millions of Americans, not only as President Trump’s former press secretary but also as a good-humored celebrity contestant who managed to get to the quarterfinals on “Dancing with the Stars.” He connects with ordinary Americans as someone who avoids taking himself too seriously, while still standing firmly on principle in the face of vicious attacks from spiteful leftists like Angelo Carusone.
Spicer’s goal was to create a show that he compares to a dinner conversation with his guests that the viewers get to observe as if they were sitting “at the table with us.” Sean’s “company” at the table includes co-host Lyndsay Keith, together with newsmakers and experts in a variety of fields who can add substantively to the national conversation about issues of the day. During my interview with Spicer, he made it clear that he wants to deliver straight talk to viewers that is informative and relatable from people who truly understand the issues they are discussing. Chris Ruddy has described his vision for Newsmax TV in similar terms – “information-based rather than being vituperative and polarizing.”
While Media Matters has weaponized the coronavirus pandemic to falsely accuse conservative media of spreading disinformation, Spicer’s show has put the lie to Media Matters’ virulent propaganda. Spicer & Co has avoided gratuitous politicization of the coronavirus pandemic from either the right or the left. It has taken a multidimensional approach to providing information about the crisis, with a somber but not alarmist tone. The March 16th show, for example, offered perspectives from a congressman seeking to improve the stimulus bill circulating in Congress, a former military man discussing the best ways in which the military can provide logistical support, and religious leaders on how the faithful can still worship in the midst of the pandemic crisis and the ensuing social distancing. On St. Patrick’s Day, which was not celebrated this year with the customary festivities, Spicer’s show invited Ireland’s Ambassador to the U.S., Dan Mulhall on the show, who said that he was already looking forward to St Patrick’s Day 2021. “This year will be seen as an exception to the rule,” Ambassador Mulhall said, reminding us that we will get through this crisis and return to normal life. The show also invited local restaurant owners to discuss what we can be doing to support the restaurant industry safely in the wake of coronavirus. And a psychologist talked about the potential psychological effects of the coronavirus quarantine and what we can be doing to mitigate some of the stress in such an uncertain time.
Other Newsmax TV programs such as the primetime Greg Kelly Reports have also presented factual accounts of the pandemic crisis and its ramifications in a responsible manner. However, The Wayne Allyn Root Show is one unfortunate exception. On his March 11th program, for example, Root continued to minimize the crisis despite its rapid spread and rising death toll. Root said the coronavirus pandemic was a “media creation” that is “no different from the flu.” Which is obviously false.
The crisis is real, created by a lethal virus that originated in China and has spread throughout the world. That said, there certainly has been exploitation of the crisis by the Trump-hating leftwing media. Perhaps the most outrageous example to date is MSNBC “legal analyst” Glenn Kirschner’s suggestion that President Trump should be prosecuted for negligent homicide for his response to the coronavirus outbreak in the United States. “I’m trying to assimilate all available evidence (rapidly developing and being reported every day) to fairly assess whether Trump and his administration may have acted/failed to act in a way that could give rise to homicide liability,” Kirschner said. He added that “the homicide liability issue MUST be addressed,” urging action before the presidential election in November.
During the impeachment hoax, Media Matters quoted this MSNBC buffoon’s bogus claim of solid evidence of “an illegal quid pro quo.” Media Matters loves MSNBC, which has hosted Media Matters President Angelo Carusone to launch outrageous attacks on his conservative enemies. The relationship is incestuous.
The Nation leftwing magazine praised David Brock as a “conservative journalistic assassin turned progressive empire-builder.” Frontpage Mag’s own Daniel Greenfield described this “progressive empire-builder” more accurately as a man consumed by the “darkness of endless paranoia, the fear and hatred of others, which makes him a willing weapon in the arsenal of political vendettas.”
After his 180-degree turn from right to left, Brock set about viciously smearing conservatives with whom he had previously sided ideologically, such as Chris Ruddy. In his book, Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative, Brock accused Ruddy of being a “dis-informer” and engaging in “conspiracy-mongering.” Brock’s Media Matters called Ruddy a “right-wing/fringe media figure.”
AllSides Media Bias Ratings disagrees. It rates Ruddy’s Newsmax online news coverage as “Lean Right,” which is considered a “moderately conservative rating on the political spectrum.” AllSides explained the rationale for its rating: “Our reviewers evaluated the types of bias Newsmax displays and found the outlet does not add a lot of spin to its stories nor is its word choice sensationalist; Newsmax’s bias largely lies in its story choice. Notably, the site features a substantial amount of news reports from wire sources AllSides rates as Center, such as Reuters and the Associated Press.” While conservative in his own viewpoints, Chris Ruddy defended CNN in an online Newsmax column he authored on July 29, 2018 entitled “Why I Oppose the White House Ban on CNN.” He wrote, “I strongly disagreed with the White House’s decision this past week to remove a CNN reporter from the press pool covering the president.”
Newsmax Media Inc, headquartered in Florida, publishes news and content both online and through its magazine, Newsmax. It also owns the cable Newsmax TV network, which carries news shows including Spicer & Co. and reaches 70 million homes. The company reported that its magazine reaches more than 500,000 Americans monthly. In a head-to-head comparison between Newsmax.com and Media Matters.com of total visits during January and February 2020, Newsmax drew 17,960,000, far surpassing Media Matters, which drew 2,070,000.
Newsmax Media also owns the book publisher, Humanix Books. David Horowitz, whose Freedom Center publishes Frontpage Magazine, is one of Humanix Books’ featured authors. Two of his books published by Humanix are Big Agenda: President Trump’s Plan to Save America, and Dark Agenda: The War to Destroy Christian Agenda, which together sold over 160,000 copies. His upcoming book, set for release on June 2, 2020, is entitled Blitz: Trump Will Smash the Left and Win. Media Matters has maliciously attacked Horowitz on repeated occasions. Horowitz’s answer to Media Matters’ bottom feeding trolls is to continue publishing in order to expose these totalitarian character assassins. As Winston Churchill said, “Truth is incontrovertible, ignorance can deride it, panic may resent it, malice may destroy it, but there it is.”
Leave a Reply