Cybercast News Service
Cybercast News Service (CNS) is a subsidiary of the conservative news monitoring group, the Media Research Center (MRC). Originally calling itself the "Conservative News Service," CNS changed its name to Cybercast in 2000.[1]
Contents
History
CNS was launched on July 16, 1998, by founder Brent Bozell, as an "alternative news service" to mainstream news sources which reports by MRC claim have a "liberal bias."
CNS says it strives to "cover stories that are subject to the bias of omission and report on other news subject to bias by commission," and "endeavors to fairly present all legitimate sides of a story."[2]
In September 2007, Terry Jeffrey, former editor of the conservative weekly Human Events, was named editor-in-chief, replacing David Thibault, who died earlier in the year.[3]
Personnel
Current CNS personnel include[4]:
- L. Brent Bozell III, President
- Terry Jeffrey - Editor-in-Chief
- Michael Chapman - Managing Editor
- Patrick Goodenough - International Editor
- Craig Bannister, Communications Director
- Eric Pairel, Chief Technology Officer
- Stuart James, Systems Administrator
Washington News Staff
- Melanie Hunter, Senior Editor
- Susan Jones, Senior Editor
- Randy Hall, Staff Writer/Editor
- Pete Winn, Senior Staff Writer
- Josiah Ryan, Staff Writer
- Fred Lucas, Staff Writer
- Kevin Mooney, Staff Writer
- Penny Starr, Staff Writer
- Nicholas Ballasy, Video Reporter
Foreign Bureaus
- Julie Stahl, Jerusalem Bureau Chief
- Sergei Blagov, International Correspondent
- Eva Cahen, International Correspondent
- Mark Mayne, International Correspondent
- Kevin McCandless, International Correspondent
- Stephen Mbogo, International Correspondent
- Deepak Mahaan, International Correspondent
Regular Columnists
Controversies
Iraqi Intelligence Service documents
On October 4, 2004, CNS reported that a "senior government official who is not a political appointee" provided CNS with 42 pages of Iraqi Intelligence Service (IIS) documents which were then translated from Arabic by two CNS translators. CNS reports that the official told them that the documents answer "whether or not Iraq was a state sponsor of Islamic terrorism against the United States. It also answers whether or not Iraq had an ongoing biological warfare project continuing through the period when the UNSCOM inspections ended."[5] Details can be found at Cybercast News Service: Claim of Hussein's WMD, Ties to Al Qaeda.
False claim about Paul Begala
A July 15, 2005, CNS article claimed that Democratic strategist Paul Begala said that Republicans wanted to kill him and his family. [6] Begala vehemently denied this, claiming that when he said, "They want to kill me and my children if they can," he was referring to terrorists, not Republicans. [7] CNS refused to retract the claim, insisting that "[t]here was nothing unclear about what Begala said."[8] Then-CNS editor in chief David Thibault challenged Begala for his "unmistakable and outrageous coupling of terrorists and Republicans."[9]
Attack on John Murtha
A January 13, 2006, CNS article assailed the military record of Democratic Rep. John Murtha, a former Marine who has heavily criticized the Iraq war. The article quoted people who were either former political opponents of Murtha or who were dead or incapacitated casting aspersions on the two Purple Hearts Murtha earned while serving in the Vietnam War.[10] The next day, the Washington Post repeated the article's allegations.[11] Critics likened the CNS article to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth attacks on the war record of Democrat John Kerry during the 2004 presidential campaign as another example of conservatives attempting to discredit the military credentials of Democrats in order to blunt their criticism of the Iraq war.[12]
Contact details
Cybercast News Service
325 S. Patrick
Alexandria, VA 22314
Phone: 703-683-9733
Toll-Free: 877-CNS-NEWS
URL: http://www.cnsnews.com/
Related SourceWatch Resources
- Cybercast News Service: Claim of Hussein's WMD, Ties to Al Qaeda
- Marc Morano
- Crosswalk
- GOPUSA
- Media Research Center
- Parents Television Council
- Swiftboating John Murtha
- Talon News
References
- ↑ Terry Krepel, 'Journalistic Window Dressing", ConWebWatch, December 14, 2000.
- ↑ "History", Cybercast News Service, accessed March 8, 2008.
- ↑ "Terence Jeffrey Joins Cybercast News Service as Editor-in-Chief", Cybercast News Service, September 17, 2007.
- ↑ "Staff contacts", Cybercast News Service, accessd March 2008.
- ↑ Scott Wheeler, "Exclusive: Saddam Possessed WMD, Had Extensive Terror Ties," CNSNews.com, October 4, 2004.
- ↑ Jered Ede, ["Ex-Clinton Aide Charges Republicans 'Want to Kill Us' ",Cybercast News Service, July 15, 2005.
- ↑ Paul Begala, "Right-Wingers Don't Want to Kill Me; Just Lie About Me", Campus Progress, July 20, 2005.
- ↑ Randy Hall, "Begala Now Says Republicans Want to 'Lie About Us' ", Cybercast News Service, July 22, 2005.
- ↑ David Thibault, "Paul Begala Needs a Lesson in Civility", Cybercast News Service, July 25, 2005.
- ↑ Marc Morano and Randy Hall, "Murtha's War Hero Status Called Into Question", Cybercast News Service, Janaury 13, 2006.
- ↑ Howard Kurtz and Shailagh Murray, "Web Site Attacks Critic of War Opponents, Question Murtha's Medals", Washington Post, January 14, 2006.
- ↑ Bob Geiger, Why Do Republicans Hate America's Veterans?', Alternet, June 27, 2006.
External links
2002
- Terry Krepel, "The Aborted Debate", ConWebWatch, January 4, 2002.
2004
- George Putnam, "One Reporter's Opinion - Fraud on Every Front!" NewsMax, May 28, 2004: [CNS News "feeds" NewsMax]: "A day before this public news conference, I received a report from Scott Wheeler of CNS News. Scott told me of an Iranian man convicted of drug trafficking, also suspected of money laundering and smuggling people from Iraq, Iran, Syria, and Jordan into the U.S."
2005
- "Revealing More About Phony 'Voting Rights' Org, GOPUSA Runs CNS Story on GOP Front Group ACVR!," bradblog, March 31, 2005: "As it turns out, Hogenson -- the Founding and Executive Editor of CNS and also (no conflict at all here) the Radio Services Manager at the RNC Press Office! -- is the longtime compadre to one of the two known lead scheisters at ACVR, Jim Dyke. ... Dyke, who has worked hand-in-hand for years in his position at the RNC with Hogenson, was the 2004 RNC Communications Director."
- "Chart: Al-Qa`ida's WMD Activities," by Weapons of Mass Destruction Terrorism Research Program at Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Monterey Institute of International Studies, May 13, 2005 (update). Cites: Scott Wheeler, "Evidence Points to Dirty-Bomb Plot," Insight Magazine (World Net Daily), October 29, 2003.
- Terry Krepel, "Prolonging the Lie", ConWebWatch, July 29, 2005.
2006
- Hunter, "The Murtha-Bashing Cybercast News Service Swarms with Pro-Exxon, Pro-Monsanto Reports, Quotes, and Commentary. Who's Paid to do What?" Political Cortex, January 16, 2006.
- Terry Krepel, "A Textbook Example of Conservative Journalism", ConWebWatch, January 18, 2006.
2007
- Terry Krepel, "Once and Future Bias", ConWebWatch, November 8, 2007.
2008
- Terry Krepel, "Planned Attacks", ConWebWatch, July 17, 2008.
GOPUSA News Service
- GOPUSA.com News web page.
- "New GOPUSA News Service, Cybercast News, Replaces Talon News; Now Embroiled in Scandal Over Flooding Google News With Identical Jeff Gannon Articles," The Nashua Advocate Blogspot, March 11, 2005.
- "Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss: Brent Bozell Supplants Jeff Gannon As Man Most Likely to Be Accused of Involvement in Bush Propaganda Scheme," The Nashua Advocate Blogspot, March 11, 2005.
