Conservative Media Offer Problematic Call For Accuracy At CPAC Panel

JOE STRUPP/Media Matters For America

Top conservative media voices spoke out on the need to keep stories accurate and in-depth, while at the same time citing some of the right-wing media's worst stumbles as points of honor during a panel discussion Friday at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

It has been a rough few months for the right-wing media. After a variety of observers pointed to its ineffectiveness during the 2012 election, it has come under fire again over the last month as major stories from The Daily Caller and Breitbart.com have imploded. 

But such concerns were largely ignored during the CPAC panel titled "Survivor: Conservative Media," which was billed as an examination of the future of right-wing publications. This comes as little surprise, given that representatives from both the Caller and Breitbart.com were featured panelists.   

Moderated by Scottie Hughes of the Tea Party News Network, the panel included Katie Pavlich, news editor at Townhall.com and a Fox News Contributor; Seton Motley, a Breitbart.com columnist; Keith Urbahn, co-founder of Javelin; and Lars Larson, a conservative radio talk show host.

 While defending their past work, each appeared to espouse traditional journalistic values of accuracy, in-depth reporting and balance.

"Listen to what everyone else is saying, but don't be afraid to break from the pack," Larson said. "When there is a story, get on it, because there are too many stories that are a sleeper. Fast and Furious was a sleeper for a long time."

Larson referred to the botched ATF mission, which Pavlich and others had baselessly spun as a a conspiracy by the Obama administration to implement stronger gun laws.  

"You've got to go with your credibility and if you're new you will be questioned at first," said Motley. "If you break the first story on your blog it is not as credible as when you break the fifth story on your blog."

Rahn said loyalty had to be to facts over political parties.

"You have to treat every story, especially when it is breaking, with a great deal of skepticism," he said. "I think we have a very thorough process. The loyalty in the end has to be to the truth and to the facts."

But Rahn then cited one of The Daily Caller's biggest goofs, its controversial claims about Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) and his alleged link to prostitution, which has since been called into question by several media outlets who had previously examined the story and declined to run it due to insufficient evidence.

"This has very slowly trickled its way in to the mainstream press," Rahn said, without noting the criticism of the story. "This is a story we have stuck with and eventually the facts came out and we were proved correct."

Urbahn raised the recent Bob Woodward story and an alleged "threatening" email from a White House aide. He said conservative media wrongly defended Woodward.

"If you actually look back at his email exchange with the White House, it didn't reflect what Bob Woodward was talking about," Urbahn said. "That got turned into Bob Woodward, persecuted media. That ran everywhere because it happened to be easy for conservative media to advance that narrative. It is not helpful to elevate icons, liberal icons, guys who have not been reporting the truth for decades."

While some conservative media figures walked back their support for Woodward after the emails were released, others -- including writers for Breitbart.com -- did not.

Pavlich cited conservative columnist Michelle Malkin as her example of the right way to report, stating, "The reason Michelle Malkin is so successful, if you look at her columns, it is not just opinion. Every single column she's talking about facts."

At one point, the group disagreed over how openly conservative journalists should promote their political leanings and if that hurts their credibility.

"To identify ourselves as conservative journalists... that concedes way too much to mainstream journalists," said Will Rahn, deputy editor of The Daily Caller. "Reporting is reporting," he added. "We don't need to identify as conservative journalists."

When Rahn raised the conservative media identification issue, Larson countered that that was not the right move.

"I will disgree with you... there is a difference," he said to Rahn. "First, you have to start with the idea that 90% of American newsrooms... are made up of Democrats, they aren't all far left Democrats, but they are Democrats and they come at stories an entirely different way."

He later said, "I see left-wing reporters going after left-wing stories and in the commission of the story they are ignoring those lines of inquiry."

Larson said reporters would ignore teachers helping students with abortions, but did not cite a specific example.

Pavlich took the issue further, claiming "conservative journalism is mainstream."

"Reporters in conservative media and liberal media are doing the same job, reporting a story," she said. "The idea that mainstream has more credibility than conservative media is false."

Motley weighed in, telling conservatives: "Why not embrace [the label] because they are going to drape it over you anyway?"

Rahn shot back: "How much of it is a self-inflicted wound? We have written plenty of stories that have been damaging to the Republicans, we in no way endeared ourselves to the Romney campaign and I am proud of that... we are not loyal to the party." 

The Group Behind CPAC Has a White-Nationalist Problem

By Stephanie Mencimer/Mother Jones

On Tuesday, the Hill published a story noting that the organizers of the upcomingConservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), the preeminent national confab for politicians and activists of the right, are responding to the last November's election by using the event to "showcase the movement's 'diversity.'" Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, and Sarah Palin will be headlining, but 20 percent of the panelists this year will be African American, according to CPAC bean counters. And the CPACers proudly point to the prominent role of Latinos and women on various panels. Yet the CPAC organizers have neglected one important task as they attempt to appeal to minorities: staying away from white nationalists.

For the past week, the American Conservative Union, which founded and is the primary organizer of CPAC, has showcased on its website an article from its newsletter, theConservative Battleline, headlined "Debating Liberal Tactics" and written by Robert Weissberg. The ACU identifies Weissberg as a professor from Cornell and the University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign and the author of 11 books. What it doesn't mention is that Weissberg has long been affiliated with a pseudo-think tank called the New Century Foundation. This foundation publishes a magazine called American Renaissance and hosts conferences under the same name, promoting the theory of "scientific racism" and providing a forum in which Klan members, neo-Nazis, and David Duke followers can mix it up with the intellectuals of the white-nationalist movement. The Southern Poverty Law Center describes the foundation's founder and American Renaissance editor, Jared Taylor, as a "courtly" white supremacist, who once wrote in American Renaissance, "Blacks and whites are different. When blacks are left entirely to their own devices, Western civilization—any kind of civilization—disappears."

Weissberg has been writing for Taylor's magazine for years and has spoken at American Renaissance conferences. The Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights (IREHR), a nonprofit social-justice organization that tracks far-right groups, has been sounding the alarm about Weissberg this week and first called attention to his work on the ACU website. It has assembled a history of his racist work here. Among the highlights—or lowlights—is a speech Weissberg delivered at a 2012 American Renaissance conference on a "Politically Viable Alternative to White Nationalism," in which he argued that white racism needed an image update. He suggested that white people retreat into "Whitopias" that carry zoning codes and other subtle requirements that would keep out the "undesirables," according to IREHR. 

IREHR dug up a video of Weissberg, who is Jewish, giving a speech in 2000 entitled "Jews and Blacks: Everything the Goyim Wanted to Know But Were Afraid to Ask," in which he puzzled over Jewish support for civil rights—a problem he dubbed "an affliction"—and suggested that non-Jewish whites and Jews should team up to fight against the blacks and what he termed African Americans' hatred of education and learning. Here's that speech:

Following up on that theme, Weissberg recently published a book called Bad Students, Not Bad Schools, which blames black and Latino students for wrecking the American public school system with their genetically low IQs. (On Amazon, the book features a glowing review from fellow white nationalist John Derbyshire, and is "frequently bought" with a book on education by Bell Curve author Charles Murray.) 

Such work, and Weissberg's affiliation with American Renaissance, got him booted from the pages of National Review last year after IREHR raised the issue. Editor Rich Lowry explained at the time:

Unbeknownst to us, occasional Phi Beta Cons contributor Robert Weissberg (whose book was published a few years ago by Transaction) participated in an American Renaissance conference where he delivered a noxious talk about the future of white nationalism. He will no longer be posting here. Thanks to those who brought it to our attention. 

An ACU spokesman hasn't responded to a request for comment from Mother Jones. 

Maybe it's progress that Weissberg is only on the ACU website and not speaking at CPAC. Last year, the ACU gave a microphone to several white nationalists who headlined a panel titled, "The Failure of Multiculturalism: How the Pursuit of Diversity Is Weakening the American Identity." Among the panelists was Derbyshire, who also has been kicked out of the National Review editorial lineup for his racist writings; Peter Brimelow, the founder of the nativist site VDARE, which publishes the work of many other anti-Semitic and white-supremacist writers; and Robert Vandervoot, who's also affiliated with American Renaissance and the nativist group Pro-English. 

Two board members of Young America's Foundation, which cofounded and sponsors CPAC along with the ACU, run a political action committee that gave money to a white-nationalist group, as my colleague Nick Baumann documented earlier this year here. As Baumann noted, Ron Robinson, one of the YAF board members in question, is also on the ACU's board.

The conservative movement will continue to have a tough time appealing to minorities if it keeps cavorting with these folks, no matter how many African Americans appear on their panel discussions.

CPAC Participant Defends Slavery At Minority Outreach Panel: It Gave ‘Food And Shelter’ To Blacks

By Scott Keyes and Zack Beauchamp/Think Progress

NATIONAL HARBOR, Maryland — A panel at the Conservative Political Action Committee on Republican minority outreach exploded into controversy on Friday afternoon, after an audience member defended slavery as good for African-Americans.

The exchange occurred after an audience member from North Carolina, 30-year-old Scott Terry, asked whether Republicans could endorse races remaining separate but equal. After the presenter, K. Carl Smith of Frederick Douglass Republicans, answered by referencing a letter by Frederick Douglass forgiving his former master, the audience member said “For what? For feeding him and housing him?” Several people in the audience cheered and applauded Terry’s outburst.

After the exchange, Terry muttered under his breath, “why can’t we just have segregation?” noting the Constitution’s protections for freedom of association. Watch it:

ThinkProgress spoke with Terry, who sported a Rick Santorum sticker and attended CPAC with a friend who wore a Confederate Flag-emblazoned t-shirt, about his views after the panel. Terry maintained that white people have been “systematically disenfranchised” by federal legislation.

When asked by ThinkProgress if he’d accept a society where African-Americans were permanently subservient to whites, he said “I’d be fine with that.” He also claimed that African-Americans “should be allowed to vote in Africa,” and that “all the Tea Parties” were concerned with the same racial problems that he was.

At one point, a woman challenged him on the Republican Party’s roots, to which Terry responded, “I didn’t know the legacy of the Republican Party included women correcting men in public.”

He claimed to be a direct descendent of Confederate President Jefferson Davis.

The panel continued to be racked in controversy, as an African-American audience member repeatedly challenged the racism on display at this event. CPAC is the marquee conservative conference of the year, with speakers ranging from former Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney to Senator Marco Rubio.

UPDATE

K. Carl Smith, the panelist from Fredrick Douglass Republicans, released a statement following the media storm related to the racist outburst in his panel. Astonishingly, he reserves the brunt of his criticism for the female reporter who raised objections to the comments being made in the room:

I was invited by the Tea Party Patriots to conduct a breakout session entitled: “Trump The Race Card” and share the Frederick Douglass Republican Message. In the middle of my delivery, while discussing the 1848 “Women’s Rights Convention,” I was rudely interrupted by a woman working for the Voice of Russia. She abruptly asked me: “How many black women were there?” This question was intentionally disruptive and coercive with no way of creating a positive dialogue.

In addition, a young man who wasn’t a Tea Party Patriot, made some racially insensitive comments, he said: “Blacks should be happy that the slave master gave them shelter, clothing, and food.” At the conclusion of the breakout session, I further explained to him the Frederick Douglass Republican Message which he embraced, bought a book, and we left as friends.

Familiar faces lined up for CPAC

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Fox Pundit Tells CPAC Crowd That Rachel Maddow Is ‘The Best Argument In Favor Of Her Parents Using Contraception’

By Faiz Shaki/Think Progress

In the “closed circuit world on the right,” MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow is often the subject of ugly denigrations. Whether it’s being mocked for her sexual orientation, her name, or even her education, right-wingers can’t get enough of slamming her.

During a political discussion at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) today, Fox News pundit and conservative columnist Cal Thomas continued the ugliness. After the Heritage’s Genevieve Wood played a quote of Maddow eloquently debunking the conservative argument on contraception, Thomas said:

I’m glad that you played the Rachel Maddow clip because I think she is the best argument in favor of her parents using contraception. I would be all for that.And all of the rest of the crowd at MSNBC, too, for that matter.

No one on the panel condemned the comment. Watch it:

CBS To Receive Award From Fringe Group At CPAC

From Media Matters

CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson is set to receive a journalism award at this year's Conservative Political Action Conference from Accuracy in Media, a right-wing group with a long history of promoting anti-gay views and conspiracy theories. Attkisson -- the first reporter from a mainstream news outlet to receive AIM's annual award -- has produced some notably bad journalism over the past year, particularly on the topics of clean energy and vaccines. 

CBS's Attkisson To Receive "Accuracy In Media" Award

Accuracy In Media Will Honor CBS Correspondent Sharyl Attkisson At CPAC. Accuracy in Media (AIM), a right-wing organization that criticizes perceived liberal bias in the media, announced this month that it would "honor Dana Loesch and Sharyl Attkisson for their outstanding contributions to journalism" with its Reed Irvine Accuracy in Media award. The award is being presented at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on February 9, 2012. Attkisson is listed on the schedule as a speaker at the award presentation. [Accuracy in Media, 2/1/12] [CPAC, accessed 2/6/12]

*UPDATE: CBS Responds. In response to questions about the award, CBS told Politico: "CBS News journalists are regularly honored by a broad spectrum of organizations for their outstanding original reporting." See below for factual problems in Attkisson's reporting that have not been corrected by CBS.

*UPDATE 2: AIM Responds. AIM spokesman Logan Churchwell told the Washington Post that Attkisson agreed to accept the award "in person" and will speak for 8-10 minutes. The Post also reported: "Attkisson, says Churchwell, has worked with AIM founder Reed Irvine in the past."

AIM Is A Cesspool Of Hate And Conspiracy Theories

AIM Known For Extreme Anti-Gay Views. Led by Cliff Kincaid, former Editor of Accuracy in Media and now Director of AIM's Center for Investigative Journalism, AIM has repeatedly published virulently anti-gay commentary.

• AIM Defended Ugandan Bill Threatening Death Penalty For The "Offense Of Homosexuality." In 2010 AIM aggressively defended legislation in Uganda that "sought to impose the death penalty for a number of reasons, including being a 'serial offender' of the 'offense of homosexuality,'" as the New York Times reported. Kincaid praised the bill, saying "The purpose of the Ugandan bill, quite clearly, is to keep homosexuality in the closet, where it used to be in this country. The country's literal survival may depend on passage of this legislation, after it undergoes hearings and some revisions." [New York Times, 5/13/11] [Accuracy in Media, 2/1/10] [Accuracy in Media, 2/3/10] [Accuracy in Media, 2/5/10] [Accuracy in Media, 2/11/10] [Accuracy in Media,2/18/10]
• AIM: Repealing DADT "Is A Recipe For National Suicide"; "They Will Demand Sexual Favors To Rise In The Ranks." Kincaid stated in a May 2010 column that repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell (DADT) would mean "a draft would be required to fill the ranks with soldiers reporting to the male homosexuals already there and in command positions. They will demand sexual favors to rise in the ranks, creating even more problems down the road. It is a recipe for national suicide." Kincaid also fretted about "permitting transgendered male soldiers to openly wear women's military uniforms," and stated that the entry of gay soldiers into the Armed Forces "could mean disease and death for those who come into contact with their blood and bodily fluids on the battlefields of the world." The column was titled, "Corporal Klinger and the Barney Frank Brigade." [Accuracy in Media, 5/25/10]
• AIM Promoted View That "The Nazi Party Was Entirely Controlled By Militaristic Male Homosexuals." As the Southern Poverty Law Center noted, AIM has promoted the views of Scott Lively, a pastor that runs an anti-gay hate group and claims in his book The Pink Swastika that "the Nazi party was entirely controlled by militaristic male homosexuals." When asked about Nazi persecution of gays and lesbians, Lively said on The Daily Show, "The Nazis did persecute homosexuals to distract public attention away from their homosexuality." In March 2009, AIM published a column by Lively in its "AIM Report" newsletter. Arguing against the repeal of DADT, the column claimed "Hitler's initial power base when he launched the Nazi Party was a private homosexual military force." [Southern Poverty Law Center, Spring 2011] [Comedy Central, The Daily Show, 7/28/10] [Accuracy in Media, March 2009]
• AIM Falsely Accused Obama Official Of Pedophilia. In December 2009 AIM posted a blog by Allie Duzett, an AIM intern, which asserted that then-Obama administration official Kevin Jennings, a gay man, was a "pedophile." AIM later removed the blog post, stating, "We have no evidence to support those specific charges. The blog entry was posted by an intern without permission." In September 2010, AIM apparently hired that intern as a blogger. [Media Matters, 12/11/09] [Media Matters, 9/24/10]
• AIM Called For News Organizations To Launch "Quit Gay Sex" Campaign. In response to ABC News' 2005 anti-smoking campaign, AIM called for news organizations to engage in a "Quit Gay Sex" campaign "advising people to quit engaging in the dangerous and addictive homosexual lifestyle" because "Life-threatening sexually transmitted diseases among homosexuals are on the increase." [Media Matters, 12/14/05]
• AIM Attacked Anti-Bullying Efforts. In 2007 AIM chairman Don Irvine criticized the National School Boards Association for discussing the hostility faced by LGBT students. Irvine wrote that "gay students have become one of the most protected class of students and heterosexuals are the ones facing hostility when they are labeled homophobes should they utter any word that can be remotely interpreted as being hateful." Irvine further suggested that there is pervasive "same-sex bullying (i.e. lesbian gangs assaulting innocent girls)." [Accuracy in Media, 4/15/07]
• AIM Thinks The Republican Party Is Too Gay-Friendly. In an August 2010 column titled, "Is the GOP Becoming the Gay Old Party?" Kincaid claimed that "homosexuals and their sympathizers occupy important positions of power in the Republican Party," adding: "What many Republicans have decided to ignore is that America's founders regarded homosexuality as a crime against nature and it was prohibited in the states and the military. This view was grounded in America's Judeo-Christian legal traditions." [Accuracy in Media, 8/15/10]

AIM Promoted Birther Claims. At the 2009 CPAC, AIM's Kincaid questioned whether President Obama was born in the U.S., saying "Back during the 1980's at least we knew -- we knew that our President was born in the United States." Kincaid later released a copy of his own long-form birth certificate in order to call on Obama to do the same. In 2011 AIM Chairman Don Irvine -- the son of the late Reed Irvine, the AIM founder for whom the award is named -- applauded the release of Obama's long-form birth certificate, saying "Accuracy in Media has been a longtime advocate for transparency regarding the President's birth records; today that need has been met." Two days later AIM published a guest column stating that Obama's "long form birth certificate may not be genuine." [Media Matters,8/5/09] [Media Matters, 2/26/09] [Accuracy in Media, 7/24/09] [Accuracy in Media, 3/1/10] [Accuracy in Media, 4/27/11] [Accuracy in Media, 4/29/11]

AIM Pursued Conspiracy Theories About Vincent Foster's Death. In The New York Times' 2004 obituary of Reed Irvine, the Times wrote: "while AIM occasionally lived up to its name, it also spent much of its time pursuing conspiracy theories." The Times noted that the organization had questioned whether the "death in 1993 of Vincent W. Foster Jr., the deputy White House counsel in the Clinton administration, was really a suicide." Indeed, as recently as 2004 AIM released a "Special Report" alleging that the "American Press participated in the cover-up of Foster's murder." [New York Times,11/19/04] [Accuracy in Media, 10/16/04]

AIM: "There Is No Evidence That Obama Was Baptized." AIM has argued that journalists should question Obama's Christian faith, stating: "[C]alling yourself something is not the same thing as proving it is the case. Obama's Christian claim deserves to be scrutinized ... The facts show that there is no evidence that Obama was baptized in a traditional Christian sense of the term. Indeed, Muslims could join the church in Chicago that Obama attended." [Accuracy in Media, 2/14/11]

AIM Calls Global Warming A "Fraud." In 2007 Kincaid wrote an article titled "Media Promote Global Warming Fraud" claiming there was a "lack of scientific data to support the man-made global warming assertions." And in 2008, AIM issued a "Special Report" titled, "Will Media Expose Global Warming Con Job?" The report encouraged journalists to "break ranks and pursue their next Pulitzer Prize by exposing the lack of scientific consensus on CO₂ as a planet-heating pollutant." [Accuracy in Media,2/5/07] [Accuracy in Media, 2/1/08]

All Previous Award Recipients Were From Right-Wing Media Outlets

Attkisson First Mainstream Reporter To Earn AIM Distinction. Attkisson appears to be the first reporter from a mainstream news network to receive AIM's Reed Irvine Accuracy In Media Award. This year AIM will also honor Dana Loesch, a conservative CNN contributor and the editor of Andrew Breitbart's website Big Journalism. The previous winners are:

• 2011: Tucker Carlson, founder of the Daily Caller, and Newsmax writer Ken Timmerman. [Accuracy in Media, 1/31/11]
• 2010: Andrew Breitbart and Marc Morano of Climate Depot. [Accuracy in Media, 1/31/11]
• 2009: M. Stanton Evans, Human Events contributor and author of Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America's Enemies, and Karl Denninger, then-Tea Party activist. [Accuracy in Media, 2/25/09]
• 2008: Heritage Foundation Fellow Lee Edwards. [Targeted News Service, 6/30/08, via Nexis] [Accuracy in Media, 2009] [Heritage, accessed 2/6/12]
• 2006/2007: Fox News contributor and conservative blogger Michelle Malkin and "Patriot Post" Executive Editor and Publisher Mark Alexander. [Patriot Post, 2/17/06] [Accuracy in Media,2/23/07]
• The award was established in 2005 in honor of AIM founder Reed Irvine, who died in 2004. The first recipients were FreeRepublic.com bloggers Harry MacDougald and Paul Boley. [Accuracy in Media,7/6/06, via AmericanDaily.com] [Accuracy in Media, 11/28/05]

Attkisson Has Produced Shoddy, Irresponsible Reporting Over The Past Year

Attkisson Botched Green Energy "Investigation." In a recent "investigation" for CBS's This Morning,Attkisson purported to reveal 11 "New Solyndras" -- companies she said "are having trouble" or "have filed for bankruptcy" after receiving federal assistance. But Attkisson was counting companies that didn't even receive federal funds, companies that haven't actually gone bankrupt, and companies that have sold the government-backed projects to other firms, meaning taxpayer funds are not in their hands. Bill O'Reilly and CBSNews.com used Attkisson's misleading report to spread additional false information. In announcing its award recipients, AIM specifically lauded Attkisson for her green energy report. [Media Matters, 1/13/12] [Media Matters, 1/18/12] [Media Matters, 1/30/12] [Accuracy in Media, 2/1/12]

Science Writer: Attkisson Is "One Of The Least Responsible Mainstream Journalists" Covering Vaccines and Autism. Science writer Seth Mnookin, author of The Panic Virus: The True Story Behind The Vaccine-Autism Controversy, wrote on his website: "For years, CBS News's Sharyl Attkisson has been one of the least responsible mainstream journalists covering vaccines and autism. Again and again, she's parroted anti-vaccine rhetoric long past the point that it's been decisively disproved." Indeed, in three articles on CBSNews.com this year, Attkission has suggested that there is a major "debate" in the scientific community over whether vaccines are connected to autism, despite the lack of evidence for the supposed link. Mnookin told Media Matters that he found it "shocking that her vaccine reporting is featured on a major news" site. [SethMnookin.com, 3/31/11] [Phone conversation, 2/6/12]

• Children Who Are Not Vaccinated Are At Risk Of Serious Infectious Diseases. Vaccination rates in certain areas of the United States are decreasing, coinciding with a rise in measles cases. As Dr.  Steven Weinreb wrote in the New York Times, "For each year between 2001 and 2008, the median number of [measles] cases in the United States was 56. In the first six months of this year [2011] alone, there were more than 150 reported cases -- the most since 1996. A vast majority of those who were sickened had not been vaccinated or had uncertain vaccination histories." [New York Times, 12/27/11]

Attkisson: A "New Scientific Review" Shows The "Austism-Vaccine Debate" Is Not Over. More than a year after the formal retraction of the main study upon which theories connecting autism to vaccines were based, Attkisson wrote: "For all those who've declared the autism-vaccine debate over - a new scientific review begs to differ. It considers a host of peer-reviewed, published theories that show possible connections between vaccines and autism." Mnookin criticized Attkisson's article, noting that the author of the "new scientific review," Helen Ratajczak, had only "been the primary author of a published study" twice in the past decade, and it was "only the fourth study she's been associated with in any capacity during that time." Dr. David Gorski further broke down the "pseudoscience" cited in Attkisson's article, and concluded by wondering why CBS "tolerate[s] Attkisson's horrible reporting on vaccines and other scientific issues."  [CBSNews.com, 3/31/11] [SethMnookin.com, 3/31/11] [Media Matters, 9/16/11] [ScienceBasedMedicine.org, 4/4/11]

Attkisson Editorialized In Article About Debunked Vaccine-Autism Link. In 2010, a federal court ruled that families with autistic children are not entitled to compensation from the vaccine court because a causal link between vaccines and autism is "scientifically unsupportable." In an article titled "The Search for Safer Vaccines," Attkisson commented that "vaccine-injured children who end up with autism are quietly winning their cases, but only when they focus on the more general argument of seizures or brain damage rather than autism. Some victory." [CNN.com, 3/12/10] [CBSNews.com, 1/19/11]

CBS Reportedly Had To Remove A False Paragraph From Attkisson's Report. In January 2011, Attkisson wrote an article titled "Child Flu Vaccine Seizures?" According to an excerpt quoted by Mnookin, Attkisson's article originally ended by stating that a new study "discusses how early life seizures 'may contribute to the enhanced risk of IDD's (Intellectual and Development Disabilities) and ASD's (Autism Spectrum Disorders.)'"  But the study did not "say anything about vaccine-related febrile seizures," according to Mnookin, who noted that "when CBS was alerted to the problem," it removed the offending paragraph without noting a correction. The article still states that "non-government medical experts differ on the issue of whether flu shots should be given to children," even though the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association and the American Lung Association all recommend that children older than 6 months get the flu vaccine. [SethMnookin.com, 1/28/11] [CBSNews.com, 1/26/11] [American Academy of Pediatrics, 9/1/11] [American Medical Association, accessed 2/3/12] [American Lung Association, accessed 2/3/12]

Exclusive: Frank Gaffney Was Barred From Participating In CPAC, So He Invented A Reason To ‘Boycott’ It

By Alex Seitz-Wald

Frank Gaffney has been a leading figure in the neoconservative movement for over two decades, having served in the Reagan Pentagon and founded a national security think tank. But Gaffney was absent from the panels and podiums at the year’s biggest conservative conference, CPAC, despite having spoken at the annual event held this weekend for the past 15 years. Gaffney hadvowed to boycott the conference this year because, he claimed, it had been infiltrated by Islamic extremists. Specifically, he pointed to Grover Norquist, the influential anti-tax activist, and Suhail Kahn, who directed Muslims outreach efforts for the Bush White House. He accuses the two of being moles for the Muslim Brotherhood. However, ThinkProgress has learned that Gaffney was actually prohibited from participating in CPAC — disinvited from speaking this year by conference organizers fed up with his increasingly vicious attacks on fellow conservative leaders. Indeed, Gaffney appears to have invented the entire theory about the Muslim Brotherhood infiltrating CPAC as a pretext to explain his absence from the event.

A source close to conference organizers told ThinkProgress that Gaffney was “specifically not to be invited” to speak at the conference this year because CPAC Chairman David Keene and other conservatives were “sick of him” attacking other conservatives. “The whole boycott thing was just to save face,” the source said. (Gaffney did show up to CPAC to conduct some interviews, including one with ThinkProgress, but did not participate in any official capacity).

Keene confirmed to ThinkProgress that “we weren’t going to invite him to speak this year,” but said, “we didn’t announce or tell him that.” In a statement provided by a spokesperson, Keene had some strong words for Gaffney, saying he has become “obsessed with his weird belief that anyone who doesn’t agree with him on everything all the time” is either “ignorant” or “dupes of the nation’s enemies” (full statement after the jump):

Having said that, we didn’t announce or tell him that we weren’t going to invite him to speak this year. We covered the issues in which he is interested (and which interest many of our registrants) and we did manage to do so without him. I do know that he attended CPAC and made his views known to as many as would listen through the talk shows on radio row.

The simple fact is that while Frank Gaffney did yeoman work on issues like missile defense in years passed, he has become personally and tiresomely obsessed with his weird belief that anyone who doesn’t agree with him on everything all the time or treat him with the respect and deference he believes is his due, must be either ignorant of the dangers we face or, in extreme case, dupes of the nation’s enemies.

The CPAC issue is just part of “a larger pattern” with Gaffney that goes back several years, the source told ThinkProgress. Since Gaffney began his public attacks on Norquist and Kahn shortly after September 11th, he has allegedly been reprimanded by a number of prominent conservatives or his attacks, such as the leadership of the secretive Council for National Policy and the late Paul Weyrich, a co-founder of the Heritage Foundation. Several years ago, he also became “the only person to have ever been kicked out” of Norquist’s famous Wednesday Meeting strategy sessions with conservative leaders. Gaffney and Norquist used to be friends and sit next to each other at the well-attended gatherings, the source said, but Noquist barred Gaffney “in writing” several years ago, sending a letter announcing Gaffney’s exile to over 100 regular attendees.

The theory that the Muslim Brotherhood had infiltrated the conservative movement is ridiculous on its face, but it now seems clear that is was merely a convenient fabrication to protect Gaffney’s ego. Nonetheless, Gaffney’s invention has taken hold in the paranoid right. Conservative blogger Pam Geller, who has close ties to Gaffney, pushed the theory at CPAC while Fox News host Glenn Beck advanced it on his radio show today. A CPAC panel involving Kahn even devolved into an ugly shouting matchSaturday.

Gaffney has “never ever tried to get the truth,” the source said, “and even if he finds the truth, he just keeps going” — “I really think he just raises so much money off this stuff that he really doesn’t care.” Indeed, Gaffney made nearly $300,000 in 2008 from his think tank, according to IRS documents. The organization, which appears to have few paid officers, brought in over $4 million in contributions that year.

Frank Gaffney has often spoken at CPAC in the past, but has never been a co-sponsor. For years he has argued that his organization hasn’t had the resources to officially participate, but that his message is so important that he should be included. Hundreds of people vie to speak at CPAC and while we don’t limit our invitations to those who are suggested by the more than a hundred participating groups, we give some priority to their suggestions and we are, frankly, rather skeptical of folks who claim that they are the only person who knows anything worthwhile on the topics we cover.

Last year, Gaffney complained because he was not given the microphone in the main ballroom and that as a consequence of his not receiving the attention he thinks he deserves, we had virtually ignored the threat of terrorism and militant Islam. This charge was made in spite of the fact that speakers from former Vice President Dick Cheney to former UN Ambassador John Bolton and perhaps a dozen other speakers addressed themselves to the issue.

It was an ironic position for him to take as at the same time he was taking it, former Congressman and ACU Chairman Mickey Edwards was charging that we paid too much attention to these issues and are, in fact, obsessed by them.

Having said that, we didn’t announce or tell him that we weren’t going to invite him to speak this year. We covered the issues in which he is interested (and which interest many of our registrants)and we did manage to do so without him. I do know that he attended CPAC and made his views known to as many as would listen through the talk shows on radio row.

The simple fact is that while Frank Gaffney did yeoman work on issues like missile defense in years passed, he has become personally and tiresomely obsessed with his weird belief that anyone who doesn’t agree with him on everything all the time or treat him with the respect and deference he believes is his due, must be either ignorant of the dangers we face or, in extreme case, dupes of the nation’s enemies.