Brannon Howse cites Russian state-run media

Why? Well, the phrase gullible sucker moron comes to mind.

Go to Howse's site and look at part of the most recent conspiracy theory that Howse is willing to embrace uncritically.

When I looked at the video, I recognized none of the reporters' names or even the format of the broadcast. So, I looked up the reporters. I found them almost nowhere on the web. Seriously. Real reporters, well, report and get cited. They don't even really have a web presence. These people are not even in LexisNexis Academic, the Daddy Mac of all news databases. I did find out, however, that "RT," which appears at the bottom right, refers to "Russia Today." You will notice that the weather in the corner cycles through US cites and then goes to Moscow.

So, I went to the website to see what they are about. I looked in their "Americas" section to see what type of stories they typically ran. The first six are:

• CIA Tortured terror suspects in secret Lithuanian prison.
• Swine flu vaccine not considered safe.
• Health care debates in US heat up
• Georgia to take Gitmo detainees
• "In the name of fighting terrorism you don't become a terrorist"
• Hundreds of 9/11 first responders die of cancer

Pictures of Gitmo accompany 1/3 of the news stories. Very pro-America, of course, you know, in much the way Howse loves America by denouncing everything about it at every moment.

Some of the other prominent headlines on the America page include:

• Afghan drug trafficking brings US $50 billion a year
• Death in US immigration prisons in shadow
• Russia will never give up its deterrent forces

...and my favorite:

• Most US dollar bills used to snort coke.

Haha! I don't know about my bills, but maybe the ones in Brannon's wallet! Haha!

But it's the strange Russia headline that led me to think this might not be an entirely reliable news source. I went to wikiworld to get the straight poop.

Western state and commercial media claim that RT has close ties with the Russian state authorities and a few years after the channel started broadcasting, for being a "cheerleader" of the Kremlin, applying positive spin to reports about governmental institutions, refraining from criticizing Prime Minister and former Russian president Vladimir Putin or the government, and deliberately and incessantly engaging in US/NATO/EU-bashing through "interviews" in which only Russian ultra-nationalists or highly critical, anti-western "experts" are interviewed--without any probing questions or challenges by the RT reporters, and without even bothering to hear opposing points of view. A CBS News story contains allegations that RT is "a continuation of the old Soviet propaganda services". Western commercial media, including The New York Times, routinely call it "state-run."

And did you notice how the "expert" says that mercury in vaccines causes autism? Seriously, Brannon. Is that how low you are willing to go? Willing to side with Oprah's protege, Jenny McCarthy? Really? Willing to quote the official news media of Gog, or possibly Magog? A few months ago, Brannon had a show about how the Kremlin was infiltrating the United States. Why would Brannon suddenly flip sides and endorse the Russian state-run media? I mean, unless he had no principles. Why are you letting Worldview Weekend be used as the tool of the devil, Brannon?

Some of the other claims: 1/3 of British nurses will not take the vaccine because of possible side effects. That survey reflects public concern about the vaccine, one caused by scare-mongers like yourself! Do you see the echo-chamber effect, Brannon? You are your own news source, you self-referential weirdo. (This is how we got into Iraq, by the way.) And this has serious potential health effects. Undermining faith in basic public health initiatives like vaccinations, which have more than DOUBLED life expectancy in the west over the last 125 years, is a disgrace and is unconscionable. And did you see how the credulous and basically useless reporter said that the vaccine was similar to a vaccine that caused problems back in the '70s...what's wrong with that statement? IT SHEDS NO LIGHT ON THE ACTUAL VACCINE THAT THEY'RE TALKING ABOUT. When you measure disease preventability against the cost of prevention and the annual number of fatalities, the flu is at the top of the list as the most cheaply preventable major communicable disease. And that is because of vaccination, damn it. By making irresponsible and wild claims about vaccination, you are putting not only the lives of Christian children at risk, but, ironically given the current health "debate," old people, who benefit from the principle of herd immunity and have a hard time fighting off flu and subsequent infections.

So, if the TV show has a crawler at the bottom, Howse thinks it is legitimate news. No doubt he has bought tons of miracle cures from Kevin Trudeau.

Would you let me call in to your show, Brannon? Please. I really want to know.

HJ