NB Staff's blog

"If you're going to say that a known conservative entity like the Koch brothers should not be getting into the business of dictating what a news operation should do, what does that tell you about Warren Buffett," or the Sulzburger or Graham families behind the New York Times and Washington Post respectively, Brent Bozell argued on the April 30 edition of CNBC's Kudlow Report. Bozell also noted the vast sums of money leftist billionaire George Soros pumps into media outlets, while the liberal media raise no concerns about him somehow corrupting journalism with ideological influence.

The NewsBusters publisher and Media Research Center founder was on the program opposite Steven Pearlstein of the Washington Post, who last week offered up an uncharacteristically blustery column -- headlined "How the L.A. Times can stop the Kochs" -- in which Pearlstein coached Times reporters to threaten to quite en masse rather than work for libertarian publishers. [To watch the full segment, click play on the embedded video below the page break]

MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough likes to call himself a “true conservative” on his daily MSNBC show Morning Joe, yet his recent flip-flop on Second Amendment rights makes him anything but a conservative. He’s a typical MSNBC “demagogue,” NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell declared on April 25 as he and Fox News anchor Sean Hannity chastised the MSNBC host. 

In their weekly “Media Mash” segment, the Media Research Center president and the Fox News host went through numerous examples of Scarborough’s bombastic and hostile language towards conservatives, from guns to the recent CPAC conference. After Scarborough smeared that the NRA has made millions of dollars on the Newtown shooting, Bozell called Scarborough’s commentary “radical kook stuff” akin to what you hear from “Occupy Wall Street.” 

Hannity and Bozell proceeded to hammer Scarborough for flip-flopping over gun control, going from a strong supporter of the Second Amendment, to a gun-control proponent. Bozell called Scarborough’s harsh language, “bomb throwing of the worst rhetorical kind and personal insults. Now, he's aiming them against people who supported exactly what he supported.” The two concluded by counseling Scarborough to, “never call yourself a conservative again.” [Watch the full “Media Mash” segment below the page break.] 

It’s blatantly obvious that the broadcast networks can’t claim the murder trial of abortionist Kermit Gosnell isn’t as newsworthy as the parade of piffle they display on the airwaves. But they're audacious enough to block out the news, and keep up the bubbly blather.

To underline this, please see this video compilation of the things that the major "news" networks deemed more important, from Sixties rock bands to cupcakes to cats on the Internet. Katie Yoder and Kristine Marsh put this together with help from MRCTV's Cory Parks. 

Although the bombing of the Boston Marathon rightfully commanded much of the media's attention last week, the Big Three broadcast networks still found time for a host of superficial and inconsequential "news" stories while continuing to censor the horrific details of abortionist Kermit Gosnell's murder trial in Philadelphia. For example, ABC's Diane Sawyer devoted 32 seconds on the April 18 World News to Superman's 75th birthday while NBC's Brian Williams took time on the same night's edition of Nightly News to report that octogenarian actor Dick Van Dyke gets headaches when he lies down.

Even after one of the most gruesome details of Gosnell’s alleged crimes emerged last week – a baby who survived an abortion “swimming” in a toilet and “trying to get out” – the broadcast networks’ deafening silence continues. NewsBusters publisher and Media Research Center president Brent Bozell released the following statement about this censorship this morning:

With their "right-wing, homegrown" terrorism theory shredded to bits, it's been a tough day for our "progressive" friends. But that doesn't mean it's a time for sobbing in their carrot juice smoothies.

Instead, lefties are busy plotting a strategy to mitigate damage and somehow shift blame back to conservatives.

During today's Stephanie Miller Show, guest David Shuster (formerly of NBC) and Miller's regular entourage focused on hoped-for "conservatives saying crazy things" as well as potential damage to their pro-illegal alien amnesty and gun-grabbing agendas.

From the program:

While an angry Barack Obama rails against those who failed to advance his anti-Second Amendment agenda, the Reverend Al Sharpton continues to show his unending loyalty to the regime.

Making a false connection between the gun debate (which he feels should be suppressed entirely) and this week's Boston bombings, Sharpton shamelessly exploited the victims for Obama's benefit.

Did anyone notice guns used during the marathon terror incident? If so, it would be news to us.

From today's Keeping It Real With Reverend Al Sharpton:

While we sift through conflicting reports of a Boston terrorism suspect's arrest, it's interesting to note a rare exception to the media's "right-wing" blame game. Frankly, the source is unexpected: the far-left Southern Poverty Law Center.

During yesterday's Ed Schultz Show, the SPLC's Mark Potok strayed far from standard-issue "progressive" talking points, leading to this conclusion:

Moments ago there were explosions near the finish line of the Boston Marathon.  It has not been confirmed, but its quite likely these were bombings. Please keep the victims and their families in your prayers.

Liberals absolutely hate being mocked. They love to ridicule and deride people who think differently from them but they can't stand it when they are the target.

But NewsBusters's own comedy show, NewsBusted, is the one comedy show where socialism isn't worshiped and where American values aren't derided. A place where, for once, the joke writers weren't afraid to serve up the ridicule that Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and the liberal media so richly deserve. That's why we need your help to save it and to expand it. We need you to make your tax-deductible gift today at www.savenewsbusted.org so that we can keep producing more NewsBusted shows. [more details follow the page break]

Today twenty prominent leaders of the conservative movement have joined NewsBusters publisher and Media Research Center founder Brent Bozell in demanding the broadcast networks stop censoring coverage of the trial of Philadelphia abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell and the testimony of the Florida Alliance of Planned Parenthood Affiliates in favor of murdering children who survive botched abortions. [see related video here]

Although abortion has re-entered the news cycle following the passage of pro-life measures in North Dakota and Arkansas, the MRC’s Culture and Media Institute finds that ABC, CBS, and NBC have completely censored both of these outrageous stories:

Hopefully, everyone has by now figured out that yesterday’s Notable Quotables posting was an April Fools spoof, an annual tradition here at the Media Research Center, where our staff makes up quotes in an effort to parody the everyday outrageousness of liberal journalists.

This year’s twist: While all of the quotes were attributed to MSNBC host Chris Matthews, his over-the-top rhetoric is nearly impossible to parody, so eight of the 21 published quotes in the full edition were real (as were five of the 14 in the truncated version posted here at NB). The challenge for readers was to separate the real ones from the fake ones.

After the jump, you’ll find the same text as in yesterday’s post, this time with correct attributions and links to the corresponding MRC-TV video clip for each of the genuine quotes:

[April 2 update post: See which quotes were real and which were fake]

The latest edition of MRC's Notable Quotables newsletter (PDF) has just been posted over at MRC.org, a special "Matthews Mega-Meltdown Edition." In this issue: our favorite MSNBC host drools over the “perfect” Barack Obama, hailing the “amazing economy” Obama has delivered to America and lobbying for the new Pope Francis to bring an Obama-esque “hope and change” regime to the Catholic Church.

At the same time, Chris decries the “racism” of opposing anything Obama proposes; wonders if Republicans will switch to “sexism” if Hillary Clinton becomes the top Democrat in 2016; and sees an anti-Michele Bachmann message in Robert Frost’s poem, “The Witch of Coos.” Oh, and Chris insists: “Hardball is absolutely non-partisan.” You can read highlights after the jump; the whole package of 21 outrageous quotes is at www.MRC.org.

MSNBC's Chris Matthews is the "real face of character assassination," NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell argued on the March 21 edition of Fox News Channel's Hannity program. The Media Research Center founder and president reacted to just the latest instance of the Hardball host bashing Tea Party conservatives as racist, xenophobic, and anti-gay. "On Monday night, he was so off on his attacks on CPAC" that the non-partisan media criticism site Mediaite.com "called it grossly unfair and inaccurate." Two nights later, Matthews practically wrote off as insufficiently black African-American politicians like Mia Love, Herman Cain, former Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) and Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), who identify strongly with the Tea Party movement.

Also discussed on the "Media Mash" segment was a new Pew survey showing MSNBC is 85 percent commentary to 15 percent news reporting [watch the full Mash segment below the page break].

"Pick any Orwellian nickname you want: the Ministry of Truth, the Department of Agitation and Propaganda, but don’t dare call MSNBC a news organization," NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell snarked in a statement released this morning. "No legitimate news outlet spends 85 percent of its airtime pushing leftist commentary. Pravda would be proud."

The Media Research Center founder was reacting to a new Pew survey showing that the "Lean Forward" network devotes just 15 percent of its air time actually reporting news. The rest is far-left-leaning commentary. The network is "deeply unserious" and doesn't deserve to be listed in any cable systems "news" category.  "They’ve Lean[ed] Forward right off the cliff of credibility. What a farce," Bozell concluded.

A true "watchdog press would be all over" President Obama's "moving the goalposts" on the federal budget, NewsBusters senior editor Rich Noyes told Fox Business Network's Stuart Varney on Monday's Varney & Co.

Instead, the media are falling down on the job, failing to note how the president has broken promise after promise on federal spending, both from his 2008 campaign and subsequently as president:

Media Research Center President Brent Bozell and Sean Hannity mocked journalists for cynically embracing the idea that Barack Obama is leading a "charm offensive" to win over congressional Republicans. Appearing on the March 14 Hannity, Bozell incredulously pointed out, "So he invites Republicans over for lunch a couple of times or dinner, and somebody uses the magic word, charm offensive, and suddenly everybody is doing stories about charm offensive." [See video below. MP3 audio here.]

Hannity played a clip of CNN's Jim Acosta lauding the so-called outreach over the budget as a "flashback to a bygone era." George Stephanopoulos raved, "Will Obama's charm offensive revive the grand bargain?" This led Hannity to complain, "They're so brain dead. They are such suckers...They take it hook, line and sinker."

Liberal Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank appeared on MSNBC, Thursday, to report on the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). Milbank's lapel prominently displayed a Media Research Center "Don't believe the liberal media" button. To the MSNBC crew, the idea of a left-wing press was a big joke. Martin Bashir could barely keep a straight face as he wondered, "Dana, I understand you're wearing a somewhat impressive badge today...Don't believe the liberal media." 

Although Milbank insisted, "I picked it out myself," he likely got it from the MRC booth at CPAC. Over the years, Milbank and other journalists have visited the MRC presence at CPAC, seemingly amused at the concept of media bias. The Washington Post journalist joked, "I'm undercover here as you can see at CPAC."

Discuss the news of the day or anything else you'd like. Some possible topics: The new pope or the beginning of the annual Conservative Political Action Conference.

In the Wall Street Journal today, the editors give close examination to what is likely to be the medium-term strategy for the Obama Administration: deliberately create governmental chaos in the hopes of manipulating the Democratic base.

This is an astonishing new development and one against presidential tradition but it all makes sense once you consider the ultimate goal: electing a Democratic House in 2014 so that Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid can go on another leftist spending and regulatory binge:

MRC director of media analysis Tim Graham appeared on the Fox Business network Friday morning on the show Varney & Co. Host Stuart Varney began by noting that negative columns toward Obama in the morning’s Washington Post suggest the press may be turning on the president.

Graham said in the wake of Politico praising Obama  for being a “puppet master” of the press corps, they might think “We don’t want to look like we’re easily manipulated, but if you actually watch the coverage this week of the sequester, you saw a lot of easy manipulation.” (Video and transcript below)

"They're dumb and they're lazy, they're also dishonest." That's how NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell assessed the liberal media's parroting of President Obama's sky-is-falling predictions regarding the pending federal sequester, which, of course, the media are largely failing to remind folks was the president's idea.

The $85 billion in cuts amounts to a mere "two percent of the budget," Bozell noted, but in reality, "it's more like $22 billion," in discretionary cuts, which is about 0.25 percent of the budget. "This is just typical fearmongering" from the left, the Media Research Center founder told the audience of the February 22 Hannity. Also discussed on Friday's "Media Mash" was MSNBC's Chuck Todd dismissing the "mythology of the liberal media." [video follows page break]

The media don't care about the fact the the sequester was President Obama's idea in the first place, NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell noted on the February 20 edition of CNBC's Kudlow Report. What's more, the media certainly don't care that the sequester will impose a mere two percent reduction in federal spending, hardly a "meat cleaver" approach to reducing spending.

The media are "beyond redemption" on the issue, so it's up to the Republican Party to directly make their case to the American people, the Media Research Center founder insisted during a panel segment with liberal economist Jared Bernstein and conservative former New York congresswoman Nan Hayworth (R). "What the Republican Party should be saying to Mr. and Mrs. America is this is an out-of-control government and they can't even cut two percent without claiming that the world is going to come to an end.... This should be a no-brainer." [To watch the full segment, click play on the video embedded below the page break]

Liberal journalists like NBC's Matt Lauer and CBS's Scott Pelley have been acting like "whiney crybabies" recently as they lamented Republicans daring to challenge the president for his lack of leadership in tackling the nation's tremendous national debt. "Toughen up fellas," NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell chided the liberal media on the February 14 edition of Fox News Channel's Hannity.

The Media Research Center president and the Fox News host also discussed how the analysts on MSNBC quickly set out to smear Marco Rubio following his response to the State of the Union. "It's a sign of the times that if you're a Republican giving the response" to the president that you "have to prepare for the media onslaught" critical of the speech." The media, Bozell noted, have failed to seriously consider the substance of Rubio's speech, "they've just hammered him for being who he is," while "you'll never see a Democrat hammered" like Rubio was. [watch the full "Media Mash" segment below the page break]

Now that the State of the Union speech is over, the chat has ended. Please use this to discuss it or anything else in the news.