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ABC News Pete Madden and Erin Galloway smeared Christians who believe the Bill of Rights secures religious liberty as a hate group, in an article this week headlined, Jeff Sessions addresses anti-LGBT hate group, but DOJ wont release his remarks. The lede of the story made it clear this was not just the work of a rogue headline writer but the failure of the reporters themselves:

Attorney General Jeff Sessions delivered a speech to an alleged hate group at an event closed to reporters on Tuesday night, but the Department of Justice is refusing to reveal what he said.

First, a note that you can and should read the prepared remarks of the Attorney General here at The Federalist.

Who is this hate group? Alliance Defending Freedom is not a hate group at all, but a civil liberties organization that battles for religious liberty. And theyre not a fringe group either. They just weeks ago won their most recent Supreme Court victory Trinity Lutheran v. Comer 7-2. It was their fifth Supreme Court victory in seven years, during which time theyve had no losses at the high court.

And the group is ranked among the top law firms in the country for its successes at the Supreme Court.

Most recently the non-profit law firm found out that the Supreme Court agreed to hear another one of their cases dealing with artistic freedom and religious liberty.

To characterize such an accomplished civil rights group as a hate group is unacceptable and inexcusable. It boggles the mind why ABC News, in the midst of cratering credibility, would disparage Christian efforts in favor of religious liberty in such a mendacious way.

How in the world did this happen?

Well, for some reason ABC News chose to wholly adopt the Southern Poverty Law Centers framing for the significance of the attorney generals speech to the group. Check it out:

Heres why reporters such as Pete Madden and Erin Galloway should be wary before slightly rewriting SPLC press releases and passing off the work as their own. SPLC previously had a reservoir of credibility based on a history of good work exposing legitimately nefarious individuals and groups. In recent years, however, that reservoir has all but dried up as SPLC has gone after reasonable groups it merely disagrees with politically but labels as hate groups. It engages in this campaign while ignoring serious problems on the left.

SPLC has the gall to list the Family Research Council as a hate group, for instance, even after an SPLC follower used an SPLC hate map to locate the Family Research Council offices in Washington, D.C., and commit an act of terrorism and attempted mass murder against the group. Thankfully, the SPLC-inspired terrorist was stopped by the security guard he shot when he arrived. Read all about that incident here.

The most recent attempted assassination by a left-wing terrorist was also a follower of SPLC. As Jeryl Bier wrote in the Wall Street Journal, The Insidious Influence of the SPLC: Its branding of hate groups and individuals is biased, sometimes falseand feeds polarization.

Last week the SPLC found itself in the awkward position of disavowing the man who opened fire on Republican members of Congress during baseball practice. Were aware that the SPLC was among hundreds of groups that the man identified as the shooter liked on Facebook, SPLC president Richard Cohen said in a statement. I want to be as clear as I can possibly be: The SPLC condemns all forms of violence.

Its not just Christians who SPLC targets. SPLC also faces legal action for placing British Muslim author and counter-extremism activist Maajid Nawaz on an anti-Muslim hate list.

The Southern Poverty Law Center has put my name on a list that calls me an anti-Muslim extremist. I am the only Muslim on the list. This list has smeared my name and possibly put me in physical danger. This is a message to those who think they can throw around damning labels like Islamophobe racist and Nazi without any evidence and simply get away with it.

You can read more about Nawazs plight here at The Atlantic.

ABC News can certainly quote the Southern Poverty Law Centers extreme views, but it shouldnt build a story around the wholesale acceptance of their flawed premises. That turns journalism into anti-religious propaganda on behalf of a partisan group. Media outlets do not want to be perceived as enemies of average Americans. They should avoid giving people reason to view them as just that.

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ABC News: Christians Who Believe In The First Amendment Are A 'Hate Group' - The Federalist

AUGUSTA, Maine. (WABI) A little rain didn't stop kids from having fun at a week-long summer camp held at Viles Arboretum in Augusta.

Combining a nature camp with hands-on experiences that teach campers about being an active citizen, the 'Speak Your Mind' camp isn't your typical summer getaway.

Campers in Augusta are keeping their minds and bodies active on summer break. While the rain kept kids inside Thursday, they continued working on a mural depicting the five freedoms afforded to Americans by the first amendment.

"There happened to be five kids and five freedoms within the first amendment so they've each chosen a person to represent each of those. So we're in the process of painting that and that's one of our end projects," said Abigail Stratton, amp organizer from Children's Discovery Museum.

Ranging from ages six to eleven, these kids are getting the traditional summer camp experience by meeting new friends, participating in arts and crafts activities, as well as hiking and gaining a stronger appreciation for nature on less rainy days.

But they're also learning more about why the freedom of religion, the press, free speech, and the right to petition and assemble are so valuable as a citizen of this country at this new camp program offered by the Gannet House Project First Amendment Museum and the Children's Discovery Museum.

"It's important because it gives people the freedom to do things without the government telling them they can't or they have to do this or that," said Adelle MacLeay, a 9-year-old camper from Rome.

They're also exploring how to take ownership of their opinions by learning how to write letters to editors on topics and issues that are important to them, such as...

"How girls can change the way boys think of girls and to not let it bother girls," said Shee Sculli, a 10-year-old camper from Pittston.

"My cause is to stop polluting the water because some people like to fish in the water and if we keep polluting the water then there won't be any more fish," said Zuri Voorhees, an 11-year-old camper from Augusta.

Campers also drew themselves however they like accompanied by their favorite hobbies and interests.

"I made it out of tons of animal parts because I really like animals and they're my favorite thing in the whole wide world," said Michael, a six-year-old camper from Winslow.

While the camp's first year was a bit light in attendance, it fulfilled the intentions of organizers by giving kids the opportunity to express their opinions and ideas through storytelling, artwork, and writing.

"I would say it's been a great success so I think we could see this going forward," said Rebecca Lazure, camp organizer from Gannett House Project First Amendment Museum.

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Kids Learn Importance of First Amendment at 'Speak Your Mind' Summer Camp - WABI

A Republican operative who reportedly tried to obtain Hillary Clintons hacked emails from Russia killed himself inside a hotel room in May, just days after speaking with a Wall Street Journal reporter about his efforts during the 2016 election.

Public records unearthed by the Chicago Tribune show that Peter W. Smith, 81, left a suicide note and was found with a bag over his head and a helium source on May 14, just 10 days after he gave an interview to the WSJ.

In his suicide note, according to police, Smith wrote that he decided to take his life due to recent bad turn in health since January, 2017 and because his $5 million life insurance policy was expiring. Smith also wrote that no foul play whatsoever led to his death. Smiths cause of death was listed as asphyxiation due to displacement of oxygen in confined space with helium.

The hotel where Smith was stayingthe Aspen Suites in Rochester, Minn.is frequented by Mayo Clinic patients, but a spokeswoman did not confirm to the Tribune whether Smith was a patient there, citing privacy statutes.

Shane Harris, the WSJ reporter who interviewed Smith, said Thursday night that he had no indication that [Smith] was ill or planning to take his own life.

An employee of Rochester Cremation Services who helped remove Smiths body from the hotel room said he saw a tank inside the room. When I got there and saw the tank, I thought, Ive seen this before, and was able to put two and two together, the employee told the Tribune.

Harris, a former Daily Beast reporter, wrote in his initial story that U.S. intelligence officials believed the Russians discussed how to send Clintons emails to Michael Flynn, President Trumps former national security adviser, through an intermediary.

Smith was a key source in one of the WSJs biggest scoops of the Trump presidency, which showed that in his quest for Clintons 30,000 deleted emails, he reached out to multiple hacker groups, including at least two that he believed had ties to the Russian government.

Although he did not work for the Trump campaign, Smith dropped Flynns name when contacting the hacker groups, claiming that he was in contact with the future national security advisor about his hunt for the emails.

He said, Im talking to Michael Flynn about thisif you find anything, can you let me know? Eric York, a computer-security expert who hunted hacker forums for potential leads on the emails, told the WSJ.

We knew the people who had these were probably around the Russian government, Smith said in the interview with the WSJ, which took place ten days before his death.

Smith was a private-equity executive by trade, but had worked as a longtime opposition researcher for conservative campaigns in the past. In the early nineties, Smith helped lead the charge in publicizing accusations by Arkansas state troopers that Bill Clinton, then the states governor, had enlisted them to help arrange assignations with dozens of women who were not his wife, from whom they hid the alleged affairs (an accusation that Clinton, as a candidate and as president, denied). The ensuing scandal, known as Troopergate, nearly sank Clintons 1992 presidential campaign.

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Flynn has not commented on Smiths search for the emails, or his potential involvement thereof, and Trump campaign officials have asserted that if Flynn had coordinated with Smiths efforts, it was not in his capacity as an advisor to the future presidents campaign.

Flynn was fired in February after just a few weeks on the job as national security adviser, after it was revealed that he misled Vice President Mike Pence about the content of his conversations with Russias U.S. ambassador.

Multiple congressional committees and a federal special counsel are investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election, and whether Trump associates colluded with Russian operatives.

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GOP Operative Who Sought Hillary Clinton Emails from Russian Hackers Killed Himself - Daily Beast

Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks onstage at the Ms. Foundation for Women 2017 Gloria Awards Gala & After Party in New York City in May. A recent University of Edinburgh study showed Clinton was three times as likely to be criticized than praised on Twitter in the days leading up to the 2016 presidential election.(Photo: Monica Schipper)

In a recent Twitter tirade, President Trump declaredhe won the presidency no thanks to the news, but through "interviews, speeches and social media."

On the last point, it appears Trump may be right. A study of viral tweets in the run-up to the presidential election showed posts favoring him nearly doubled that of challenger Hillary Clinton, who was three times as likely to be criticized than praised on Twitter in the campaign's final days .

The University of Edinburgh research analyzed the 50 most viral election tweets for each of the final 68 days of the 2016 presidential campaign Sept. 1 through Nov. 8. The researchers divided the tweets into pro-Clinton and pro-Trump categories and delved into theuse of slogans, mentions of swing states and the credibility of linked news sources.

Nearly two-thirds of the 3,450 viral tweets which were retweeted about 26 million times either attackedClinton (39%) or supported Trump (23%). The other third either supported Clinton (14%) or attacked Trump (19%).

Using tweets, researchers framethe narratives and strategies of both campaigns, which include tweets by Stephen King and Jerry Springer.

Here's what else the study found:

On Sept. 26, 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and Republican nominee Donald Trump leave the stage after the first presidential debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York.(Photo: TIMOTHY A. CLARY, AFP/Getty Images)

Most of the viral tweets came from the candidates themselves. Clinton more often criticized Trump than she praised herself.

Clinton sent 331 positive tweets about herself and 363 that attacked Trump in the campaign's final weeks. Meanwhile, Trump boasted about himself 446 times and slammed Clinton 246 times ahead of Election Day.

"This suggests that Clinton expended more energy attacking her opponent than promoting herself, while Trump did the exact opposite," the study said.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally in Tallahassee in October 2016.(Photo: Evan Vucci, AP)

The president got more bang for his buck with his attacks.

Despite being fewer, his attacks earned more retweets than Clinton's. His posts of self-flattery also had more reach.

NIkkiUsher, anassociate professor in George Washington University's School of Media and Public Affairs, said this speaksto the lack of enthusiasm around the Clinton campaign. On the other hand, Trump "nailed it," she said, posting tweets bearing all the characteristics of virality:Highly spreadable, emotionally charged statements that resonate.

On about 85% of the days, Trump-friendly tweets were retweeted more than those favoring Clinton.

Still, there weretimeswhen pro-Clinton tweets came out on top: The day after the first debate and after the release of a tape showingTrump making sexual comments about women on Access Hollywood.

This illustrates Trump supporters' consistent enthusiasm for their candidate, "regardless to what happens," said lead researcher Walid Magdy of Edinburgh's School ofInformatics.

"It was clear from the data how Trump supporters were more dedicated to this campaign compared to Clinton's, who seemed to have many of them supporting her because of hating Trump rather than loving her," he said.

However, Usher cautioned people shouldn't look too deep into the Twitter favor. Twitter, she said, "is not an appropriate stand-in for humanity."

Fake Twitter accounts known as "bots"can influence virality, she said.Twitter also tends to amplifyconversations among "elites" such as celebrities, entertainers, politiciansand journalists. As a result, such public figures have an outsized presence on the platform

"It's one piece of an overall puzzle of what people are saying about politics or anything else for that matter," she said.

Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks, speaks to the media from the balcony of the Embassy Of Ecuador on May 19, 2017 in London, England.(Photo: Jack Taylor, Getty Images)

Among the attacks on Clinton, the ones related to Wikileaks disclosures proved to be the most pervasive on Twitter.

"Wikileaks" was among the top terms used in Clinton attacks along with "crooked," "FBI" and "#DrainTheSwamp." The top three most retweeted Clinton attack tweets were all from the Wikileaks account.

As for Trump, his debate performance was most often the target of ridiculue followed by sexual misconduct accusations.

Among the most retweeted Trump attacktweets was this one from novelist Stephen King: "My newest horror story: Once upon a time there was a man named Donald Trump and he ran for president. Some people wanted him to win."

Pro-Clinton tweets more often came with links to legitimate news websites. The opposite was true of pro-Trump tweets.

The study found a "significantly higher proportion of highly credible websites were linked to" in pro-Clinton tweets.

"The opposite was true for the "support Trump" category, where the majority of links used to support Trump was from mixed credibility websites," the study said.

However, Wikileaks, which has high credibility, according to the study, was the top source used to attack Clinton.

(Photo: 1998 photo by Anne Ryan, USA TODAY)

The most retweeted tweet supporting Clinton came from former talk show host Jerry Springer, whose midday talk show often broke out into raucous brawls.

"Hillary Clinton belongs in the White House. Donald Trump belongs on my show," received nearly 79,000 retweets.

The most retweeted pro-Trumptweet came from him on Election Day.

"TODAY WE MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!" he wrote on Nov. 8, earning about 352,000 retweets.

The Edinburgh research will be presented at the Social Informatics 2017 conference in September.

Follow Sean Rossman on Twitter: @SeanRossman

Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2uVs3Wa

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Hillary Clinton lost the presidential Twitter war, study shows - USA TODAY

They were obsessed: ABC, CBS, NBC evening news shows have been dominated by one subject this week: Donald J. Trump Jr.s 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer at Trump Tower a meeting in which apparently no favors, money or meaningful information was exchanged, writes analyst Geoffrey Dickens, in a new study for Newsbusters.org, a conservative press watchdog.

In the past four nights, the Big Three networks devoted over 62 minutes of airtime to Mr. Trumps story he said, after tabulating the content of the coverage.

But those same news sources all but ignored Hillary Clintons Russia-Uranium scandal two years ago the analyst noted.

The total airtime for this subject amounted to a grand total of three minutes during the entire two-year period, Mr. Dickens found.

He recalls that Peter Schweizer author of the 2015 book Clinton Cash broke the story that a Canadian uranium company, seeking approval of a sale to the Russian government from then-Secretary of State Clintons State Department, had donated millions to the Clinton Foundation.

At the time, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was considered the favorite to win the Democratic nomination but the networks couldnt care less, Mr. Dickens noted in his analysis.

In just four nights the networks have swamped their evening news shows, he said, adding, that the Donald Trump Jr. coverage was 20 times more than what was devoted to the Clinton Foundation uranium deal.

See more here:
Broadcasters obsess over Trump Jr., ignore 'Hillary Clinton's Russia-Uranium scandal' study says - Washington Times