Brent Bozell's blog

Anyone who clicks around on the website of National Public Radio is often bombarded with ads for MSNBC, since naturally if you love one hard-left network, you’ll love the other. But the promotion isn’t just in advertisements. 

Yes, conservatives: You’re being forced to underwrite with your tax dollars what you’re about to read; and yes, you’re not going to like it.

It's more than a little shocking when someone makes a movie that deals harshly with abortion. This is Hollywood after all. Abortion is a feminist sacrament. The movie "October Baby" just debuted on 390 screens and registered in eighth place for the weekend, with an estimated $1.7 million gross.

"October Baby" is a drama loosely based on the real-life story of Gianna Jessen, born with cerebral palsy after she survived a failed abortion procedure and now a celebrated pro-life speaker. In the film, the lead character, Hannah, discovers her adoptive parents hid from her that she was never meant to be born.

What if the atheists declared they were about to throw “the largest atheist event in world history” on a Saturday in Washington and few people showed up? “Reason Rally” organizer David Silverman estimated that "99 percent of all atheists are closeted.” The closet must still be full, because they sure weren’t in Washington.

The Washington Post story on Sunday guessed there were “several thousand” people in the intermittent rain. But Paul Fidalgo of the Center for Inquiry told the Post "We have the  numbers to be taken seriously…We're not just a tiny fringe group."

In 1968, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) effectively nationalized the movie industry’s rating system to guide parents and the wider public about the content of films before purchasing tickets. A year doesn’t go by since then that the Beautiful People don’t throw their artistic temper tantrums when they receive a harsher rating than they want.

The latest example is a documentary named “Bully,” which investigates the lives of five bullied students during the 2009-2010 school year in five states – Georgia, Mississippi, Iowa, Texas, and Oklahoma. Two of the five committed suicide. The filmmaker is basing his whole publicity campaign on shock and outrage for receiving an “R” rating for six uses of the F-bomb, as well as other vulgar threats.

A few nights back, Mark Levin made a powerful point on his radio show: Fox News boss Roger Ailes is a well-known and infamous name in media circles, like some sort of cable-news Voldemort or Darth Vader. Meanwhile, MSNBC boss – quick, can you name him? – Phil Griffin is unknown and not the least bit controversial even after hiring, as Mark unforgettably put it, a “conga line of morons.”

NBC News used to be the channel for sober, boring Huntley-Brinkley journalism. Liberal, to be sure. But serious.  It wasn’t always objective, but it had a reputation for professionalism. Think Tim Russert. But in today’s era, Brian Williams going on saucer-eyed burger runs with President Obama is a refreshing improvement over MSNBC’s lineup, chock-full of vicious, uncivil, shamelessly partisan left-wing hacks.

Editor's Note: What follows is a letter sent by Mr. Bozell to Comcast Chairman Brian L. Roberts earlier today.

Dear Mr. Roberts,

By now, you are well aware of the Media Research Center’s (MRC) concerns with MSNBC.  Last week, I wrote letters to both you and Mr. Griffin asking for Ed Schultz’s termination because of highly controversial and deplorable comments he routinely makes about women and conservatives. Yesterday, I posted an open letter to Mr. Griffin about equally controversial and appalling comments made by Al Sharpton; comments that are blatantly racist and xenophobic, and which in one instance led to the death of an innocent bystander.

Because of these well documented instances of unacceptable comments made by both Sharpton and Schultz, I have called for their termination.  I have also called for Mr. Griffin to resign as president of MSNBC.  In my March 15 letter I called on you to clean house at MSNBC.

Editor's Note: What follows is a letter that NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell sent to MSNBC President Phil Griffin early today.

Dear Mr. Griffin,

Last week, in my open letter to you I called for Ed Schultz’s termination.  I also called for you to resign as President of MSNBC because you hired Ed Schultz.  Today, I have yet another reason you should step down - one which some might argue is even more compelling than Schultz. His name is Al Sharpton.

You know it’s election season when Republican candidates get angry phone calls from liberal musicians telling them not to use their old music (like Survivor whacking Newt Gingrich for using “Eye of the Tiger” from 1982). Meanwhile, Democrats are handed new anthems on a silver platter written with their re-elections in mind.

Bruce Springsteen’s new album has been hailed as a soundtrack for Obama’s re-election, especially the song “We Take Care of Our Own” (“wherever this flag’s flown”). Springsteen is lauded for going on “a tear to raze Wall Street and raise Main Street.” This is where author Jason Mattera comes in to laugh and point with the facts in his new book “Hollywood Hypocrites.”

Last night, Bill O’Reilly had some very nice things to say about the Media Research Center and for that I’m grateful.  But he made a major criticism of this organization, and rather than have me on to respond to it, he brought on two other guests to discuss it. So I’ll respond here.

Bill O’Reilly is wrong.

Dear Mr. Roberts,

As the chairman of Comcast, you have a responsibility to your shareholders and the public to produce programs which follow a basic standard of civility.

Unfortunately, MSNBC anchor Ed Schultz regularly doles out hate-filled, venomous rhetoric which has reached a boiling point. MSNBC should not give Mr. Schultz a platform to spew such hate.

Dear Mr. Griffin,

Your network, working on marching orders from Media Matters, is on a mission to take Rush Limbaugh off the air. Far from being an independent journalistic enterprise, MSNBC is the very essence of a political lapdog of the far left.

Just last night on MSNBC, Ed Schultz, Al Sharpton, and Lawrence O’Donnell all devoted time on their programs attacking Rush. In each case, they grabbed at thin air looking, looking, looking for the opportunity shamelessly to keep the story alive.

Our transparently feminist media are currently cranking their hyperbole machines in their War on Limbaugh. They are reporting – chortling, really – that Republicans have a huge problem with women voters. The Washington Post breathlessly reports that their poll found Democrats won by 25 points on "Cares more about issues that are especially important to women.”

But there’s an enormous, deliberate, daily oversight by most of these pro-Obama journalists. They are choosing to ignore the vicious way liberal talk show hosts and comedians talk about women – and not just conservative women, on a regular basis. Many of them come from NBC and MSNBC.

At the same time Washington was ablaze with outrage at the idea that Rush Limbaugh insulted a woman as a “slut,” ABC premiered a new Sunday night show called “GCB” – shortened from “Good Christian Bitches.” Limbaugh apologized. ABC displays no such contrition. They insulted only those Christians. In the midst of this trashy debut, ABC promoted a new sitcom coming in April titled “Don’t Trust The B---- in Apartment 23.”

ABC advertised the debut of “GCB” with a photo of actress Kristin Chenoweth in a choir robe cut way above the knee, as if such a thing exists. “Love One Another,” it read, dripping in sarcasm. That’s Hollywood’s definition of a “good Christian.”

A couple of years ago, “comedian” Louis CK “joked” on the Opie and Anthony radio show about Palin coming to the Republican convention “holding a baby that just came out of her f-ing, disgusting [C-word], her f-ing retard-making [C-word].”

Last night, I emailed letters to all the female anchors and on air TV correspondents at all broadcast and cable broadcast networks, numbering more than 60, asking them if they “stand behind the association's decision to give Louis C.K. an endorsement and give him the honor of sharing the stage with the President of the United States given his vile remarks – never even apologizing or even acknowledging he was wrong?”

In the wake of the Obama administration dictate that private insurance companies cover contraceptives and abortifacients, supporters have defined anyone who would oppose this mandate as waging a “war against women.” Obviously, no opponent of this policy is actually bombing, shooting, or stabbing women to death.

The same cannot be said for what the cultural Left favors – a war against babies. The latest front of “advanced” leftist medical ethics has emerged from the experts at Oxford University. They don’t just favor abortion, even partial-birth abortion. They favor “after-birth abortion.”

Editor's Note: MRC President Brent Bozell sent the following letter to CNN Host Piers Morgan on Tuesday, March 6, 2012:

Dear Mr. Morgan,

I am disturbed by your ongoing double standard when it comes to coverage of political rhetoric. On your show, you recently called Rush Limbaugh out for his insulting comment about a Georgetown law school student: “Limbaugh’s disgusting comments are the work of an archaic old dinosaur living in a warped, ugly swamp, who thinks it’s okay to degrade decent young women for sport and ratings. Well, it isn’t it. Shame on you, Rush Limbaugh.” Fair enough. However you have seemingly turned a blind eye to the similar rhetoric of one of your guests – Bill Maher.

Rush Limbaugh was broadsided last week for attacking a star witness for the Democrats who demanded government force insurers to subsidize contraceptives. He called 30-year-old Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke a “slut” and a “prostitute.”

Let’s all agree Limbaugh crossed a line. He agrees. He posted an apology to Fluke “for the insulting word choices.” The scandal-ette should be over.

So why are the Left and the media still pushing and publicizing a campaign for advertisers to dump the Limbaugh show and end his career? Because it has little to do with his words. This is all about disingenuous politics. Liberals want this government-mandate controversy to be not about religious liberty, which is devastating, but about contraceptives, which works in their favor.

HBO has made Bill Maher perhaps America’s nastiest talk show host. He’s also America’s most prominent, militant atheist. Now he’s made himself the most prominent million-dollar donor to Barack Obama’s super PAC, Priorities USA. He broke out a big check on stage in San Jose to advertise his magnanimous support. 

A few days ago, NBC’s resident feminist Andrea Mitchell practically needed smelling salts when Santorum super-PAC backer Foster Friess repeated a very old (and equally innocent) joke about Bayer aspirin being used as birth control. This somehow became the Scandal of the Day for Rick Santorum. So why don’t Bill Maher’s “jokes” now blow back on Barack Obama? 

It seemed like someone had been inhaling something at CNN on Friday morning. They kept touting an upcoming interview: “Barack Obama could win the presidential election by a landslide. Op-ed contributor Charlie Garcia tells us how next.”

Garcia, a consultant to corporations on how to market to Hispanics, broke out rainbows and unicorns for Obama: “He’s doing all the right things. He’s basically saying, look, guys, comprehensive immigration reform. I’m all for it. It’s those Republicans that just keep getting in
the way.”

Sarah Palin’s top aides held a conference call to denounce the forthcoming HBO movie “Game Change,” which like any ultraliberal media production, knocks Palin as a mentally imbalanced moron. Reporters are already underlining the Palin aides haven’t seen the movie.

But isn’t that the point? As Pat Buchanan once said about another subject, “Does one need to lift the manhole cover to know what’s below?” Did the Clinton team wait to see the movie before begging ABC to kill “Path to 9/11"? Did the Kennedy team wait to see the miniseries “The Kennedys” before getting it demoted to the Reelz Channel? The Palin folks can be pretty certain – especially since the trailer itself announces it’s a hit job.

Bill Press has a new book out called “The Obama Hate Machine.” To read the blurbs, you might wonder if Press thinks no one should be allowed to criticize the president. Here’s Nancy Pelosi touting the book: "In a poisoned political climate, negative personal attacks on President Obama must have no place in our public discourse."

What’s next? A mandate forbidding inappropriate free speech? These tolerant liberals are out of control.

Editor's Note: This morning as part of the ongoing Tell the Truth! 2012 campaign, two massive Media Research Center (MRC) billboards totaling 1,684 square feet were hoisted in one of the world’s busiest pedestrian intersections – New York City’s Times Square. The objective: to hold the liberal media accountable. MRC is the parent company of NewsBusters.org.

What follows is a statement NewsBusters publisher and MRC founder Brent Bozell made earlier today:

The shocking death of pop star Whitney Houston built a massive audience for the Grammy Awards telecast Sunday night on CBS. It attracted 39.9 million viewers, making it the most watched non-sports program of the season.

The show began with a heartfelt prayer for Houston to “our Heavenly Father” from the master of ceremonies, CBS actor L. L. Cool J. But sadly (and predictably), near the show’s end, religion was mocked in an elaborate Catholic-bashing mess starring the rapper Nicki Minaj. Someone on Twitter said it best: “Stevie Wonder was the luckiest man in the crowd” during the performance.

Valentine’s Day is probably not the day most people would pick to remember the marriage of John and Jacqueline Kennedy. But on February 14, CBS spent more than eight minutes recalling how it was the fiftieth anniversary of CBS’s “historic” TV tour of the White House with Jackie, and brought on liberal historian Doug Brinkley to proclaim “fifty years ago on Valentine's Day, she became America's sweetheart, and fifty years later she still is.”

The problem is that any honest historian couldn’t claim that Jackie was JFK’s sweetheart. He had lots of 'em. And now CBS has utterly ignored what NBC just exploited -- er, reported --  in prime time: former White House intern Mimi Alford has written a memoir revealing how President Kennedy pressured her into Jackie’s bed in 1962 to take her virginity and begin an affair when she was 19 and four days into her internship, and which would last until the eve of his assassination.

Super Bowl XLVI was a good football game, marred once again by the bohemian elite at NBC. NBC could have prevented, but failed to stop, the broadcast of a female rapper "flipping the bird" at 114 million viewers during Madonna's halftime show. It was another "fleeting expletive" of the hand-gesture variety, and somehow, despite elaborate rehearsals, no one at NBC could seem to stop it.

The same network skillfully edited God out of a clip of children reciting the Pledge of Allegiance during last year's U.S. Open golf tournament.

Editor's Note: Earlier today, CNN suspended contributor Roland Martin for some tweets he made regarding the David Beckham underwear ad that ran during the Super Bowl. Martin was the target of a pressure campaign from the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD). What follows after the page break is NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell's statement.

The Obama administration is waging war on Christianity. Somehow, the networks haven’t seen this as newsworthy.

On January 20, Obama’s Department of Health and Human Services announced its perverse attempt to force Catholic schools, hospitals, and other charitable agencies to finance sterilization, abortifacients and contraceptives in their insurance plans starting in 2013. Speaking for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Archbishop Timothy Dolan roared like a lion in a press statement: “In effect, the president is saying we have a year to figure out how to violate our consciences.” He asserted  "To force American citizens to choose between violating their consciences and forgoing their healthcare is literally unconscionable.”

Editor's Note: What follows is a letter that NewsBusters publisher and Media Research Center president Brent Bozell sent to the presidents of the news divisions of ABC, CBS, and NBC as well as to CNN president Jim Walton. It has also been carbon copied to 10 leaders representing various Catholic and Protestant faith organizations.

The broadcast and cable television networks need to report the current, unprecedented assault against freedom of religion in this country, as well as the millions of Americans who would be left out in the cold by the Obama administration if it does not rescind HHS’s recently issued insurance mandate requiring contraceptive coverage.  As our statistics and analysis below outline, they are not, and it’s a glaring double standard.

While Democrats mock Mitt Romney for his alleged lack of interest in the “very poor” and focus their political pitch on income inequality, one can’t help noticing the Obamas running around to $35,000-a-head fundraisers with the very rich and very famous in New York City and Hollywood.

Michelle Obama kicked off February with an exclusive fundraiser in Beverly Hills at the home of Netflix executive Ted Sarandos and his wife Nicole Avant, who raised Hollywood millions for the Obamas in 2008, and then became their ambassador to the Bahamas. Now Nicole Avant’s back managing Obama’s Hollywood money march. Many of Tinseltown’s titans ponied up: Jeffrey Katzenberg, Harvey Weinstein, Haim Saban, and Steve Bing, among others. (Katzenberg’s also given $2 million to the Obama-affiliated super PAC called Priorities USA Action.)