Right Wing

Privatization, Before and After

by Sheldon Rampton — September 25, 2002 - 8:22am

Thanks to the internet archives, we can see what the Cato Institute's "Project on Social Security Privatization" looked like last year and compare that with its new look, now that the stock market crash has reminded the public about the reality of privatization. In the Orwellian new version, all references to "privatization" have been airbrushed out of history and replaced with the word "choice."

The Big Lie Continues

by Sheldon Rampton — September 17, 2002 - 10:00pm

"The myth that the National Educational Association told teachers not to blame Sept. 11 on al-Qaida continues to unravel," reports Brendan Nyhan. "It's now clear that Washington Times reporter Ellen Sorokin based her original myth-creating article on a preliminary NEA Web site that clearly wasn't complete, misconstruing quotations from a recommended sample essay allegedly written by a professor named Brian Lippincott and attributing them to the NEA.

Main Source: 
Spinsanity.org, September 18, 2002

Social Security = "Reverse Reparations"?

by Sheldon Rampton — September 11, 2002 - 10:00pm

The Republican Party in Kansas City is backpedalling after running an advertisement on black radio stations attacking Social Security as a form of "reverse reparations" to blacks. "You've heard about reparations, you know, where whites compensate blacks for enslaving us," says the ad. "Well guess what we've got now. Reverse reparations ...

Main Source: 
Talking Points Memo, September 12, 2002

Smearing Teachers as Terrorists

by Sheldon Rampton — August 31, 2002 - 10:00pm

Did America's largest teachers union construct a subversive web site concerning September 11? This nasty slander against the National Education Association has been spreading across the Internet, sparked by a series of articles in the Washington Times.

Main Source: 
http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh082802.shtml

The Blowhard Next Door

by Sheldon Rampton — August 25, 2002 - 10:00pm

Fox TV pundit Sean Hannity has a book out, titled Let Freedom Ring. Spinsanity.org analyzes its rhetoric, calling it "a poorly researched effort full of blatant falsehoods and highly distorted versions of the truth. ... Hannity seems on the brink of becoming America's leading conservative pundit. Let Freedom Ring is troubling evidence that Hannity won't let a little thing like truth get in the way of his rapid ascent."

Main Source: 
Spinsanity.org, August 26, 2002

Hitler's Filmmaker Turns 100

by Sheldon Rampton — August 23, 2002 - 10:00pm

Leni Riefenstahl, the director of Nazi propaganda films including "Triumph of the Will," marked her 100th birthday while continuing to insist that she "just did my job" and "never intended any harm to anyone."

Main Source: 
New York Times, August 24, 2002

Times Takes Flak on Iraq

by Sheldon Rampton — August 20, 2002 - 10:00pm

Conservative pundits such as Charles Krauthammer are accusing the New York Times of "liberal bias" for reporting that "Leading Republicans from Congress, the State Department and past administrations have begun to break ranks with President Bush over his administration's high-profile planning for war with Iraq." As Joshua Marshall notes, however, the Times coverage has been far more accurate than Krau

Main Source: 
Washington Post, August 21, 2002

Rethinking the Think Tanks

by Sheldon Rampton — July 31, 2002 - 10:00pm

Curtis Moore looks at corporate-funded think tanks like the Cato Institute and Citizens for a Sound Economy whose anti-environmental messages permeate the news. "Fashioning themselves after the very university research centers they deplore (or old-style "think tanks" that are only a step removed from universities), these groups have neither the neutrality nor the expertise of their academic counterparts," Moore writes.

Main Source: 
Sierra Magazine, July/August, 2002

More Junk from the Junkman

by Sheldon Rampton — July 25, 2002 - 10:00pm

PR Watch has exposed the antics of Steven ("the Junkman") Milloy more times than we can stand to remember, as he flacks for the tobacco industry, speaks up for asbestos, and attacks environmentalists as "terrorists" and "fear profiteers." Nowadays he writes a column for

Main Source: 
Fox "News" Channel, July 26, 2002

NCPPR's Terror Campaign

by Sheldon Rampton — July 1, 2002 - 10:00pm

The latest bulletin from the Clearinghouse for Educational Advocacy and Research (CLEAR) features an elegant crique of the National Committee for Public Policy Research (NCPPR), a right-wing front group that campaigns for tobacco and Republicans and against the environment.

Main Source: 
http://www.CLEARproject.org
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