Media Research Center president Brent Bozell took to the airwaves of the Fox News Channel (FNC) on Monday afternoon during Your World to excoriate the liberal media for their latest double standard in harping on a New York Times story on Donald Trump’s taxes versus leaked audio of Hillary Clinton disparaging Bernie Sanders supporters.
“You know about the leak of Donald Trump's taxes and how everyone was all over that, but what about the audio leak of Hillary Clinton's remarks disparaging Bernie Sanders supporters from back in February? Have you heard much on that? Yeah, I didn't think so,” host Neil Cavuto explained in the lead-in to Bozell.
Using 2016 Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s 47 percent remark as a comparison, Bozell unveiled the latest “pretty incredible” numbers from the crack team of MRC’s news analysts about coverage on ABC, CBS, and NBC:
[T]hey really are pretty incredible. If you look at the coverage of the media and Donald Trump's taxes, 49 minutes, 21 seconds. The media — 42 seconds. The media and Hillary and what she say, two minutes and 41 seconds. Do the math. That's almost a 25 to one disparity. Now, look at the coverage of Hillary and her fundraising event, private statements, disparaging her opponent. Again, two minutes 42 seconds. Look at Mitt Romney, private fundraiser, disparaging his opponent — disparaging his opponent's voters. 88 minutes.
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Cavuto responded that the unevenness “tells you all you really need to know because it comes at time when we have this leak of the tax documents or the few that we were getting, and that was all over the place, but it — I’m saying, go ahead, do that, but there's no even attempt to balance it out.”
Speaking to the imbalance, Bozell summarized the media’s obsessive desire to make Romney’s remark a top campaign issue before revealing another double standard.
For this, the MRC founder brought up a story about Barack Obama’s personal information detailed hours earlier by deputy research director Geoffrey Dickens:
Do you remember when the State Department employees went through Barack Obama's passport and they got information on his passport, not only did the media not cover what was there but they denounced any attempt to possibly cover it. Even Andrea Mitchell was calling it an illegal act and therefore, they weren't going to cover it, so it’s the exact opposite attitude as they're taking with Donald Trump now.
The transcript of Bozell’s appearance on FNC’s Your World with Neil Cavuto from October 3 can be found below.
FNC’s Your World with Neil Cavuto
October 3, 2016
4:00 p.m. Eastern
NEIL CAVUTO: A story of two leaks. You know about the leak of Donald Trump's taxes and how everyone was all over that, but what about the audio leak of Hillary Clinton's remarks disparaging Bernie Sanders supporters from back in February? Have you heard much on that? Yeah, I didn't think so. Well, that's what we're on top of. That was the homework I gave you on Friday, half-jokingly saying just wait to see if the media would be as intrigued by the story and what Hillary Clinton was telling donors in a closed door meeting in February as it was obsessed with the story of Mitt Romney doing the same thing four years ago, bemoaning with donors the 47 percent of Americans wouldn't support him because they were getting something from the government. Now, of course, as I mentioned at the time, Mitt Romney was embarrassed when those remarks came out and even told me in his first media interview afterwards that he was inelegant. He was, but the media never let go. On this story, what about the media? What did it do? Did you do your homework? Did you look around. I did. I didn't find much of anything. Brent Bozell, not too surprised — the Media Research Center, overall media whiz on why that is. Brent, good to see you.
BRENT BOZELL: Hi, Neil. How are you?
CAVUTO: Well, you know, not well on this sort of thing if you're going to go after — as they should have at the time with this behind closed door remarks that Mitt Romney made, if you want to make hay of those, have at it. Four years later, we're presented with the same scenario with the Democratic standard bearer, nothing, crickets. What do you think about that?
BOZELL: Here are the numbers and the numbers won’t surprise you based on what you’re saying, but they really are pretty incredible. If you look at the coverage of the media and Donald Trump's taxes, 49 minutes, 21 seconds. The media — 42 seconds. The media and Hillary and what she say, two minutes and 41 seconds. Do the math. That's almost a 25 to one disparity. Now, look at the coverage of Hillary and her fundraising event, private statements, disparaging her opponent. Again, two minutes 42 seconds. Look at Mitt Romney, private fundraiser, disparaging his opponent — disparaging his opponent's voters. 88 minutes.
CAVUTO: You know, that tells you all you really need to know because it comes at time when we have this leak of the tax documents or the few that we were getting, and that was all over the place, but it — I’m saying, go ahead, do that. But there's no even attempt to balance it out. But this is the most glaring reminder yet.
BOZELL: No, and the attitude with Mitt Romney was, by golly, the American people need know about this and remember, that's over a three-day period. That’s 88 minutes. I mean, that’s just a landslide of information. Here’s something else we found and this goes to some the disparity again going back to Donald Trump and his taxes. Do you remember when the State Department employees went through Barack Obama's passport and they got information on his passport, not only did the media not cover what was there but they denounced any attempt to possibly cover it. Even Andrea Mitchell was calling it an illegal act and therefore, they weren't going to cover it, so it’s the exact opposite attitude as they're taking with Donald Trump now.
CAVUTO: But it comes at a time where — I know you and I shared that story of a former moderator or a presidential debate who was convinced if she had her way, she wouldn’t even mention Clinton's e-mails. She wouldn't mention Benghazi. She said those issues have been beaten to death, everyone knows there’s nothing there, but she would be, you know, exhaustive after going after Donald Trump and his taxes, which is fine. You want to go after Donald Trump and his taxes? I'm just saying, there are issues on the other side as well.
BOZELL: It was — it was — The New York Times said earlier this year that it was — that it was the responsibility to go after Donald Trump. The media had to do this. They're talking about news reporters and this is exactly what The New York Times did but you know, to see the coverage that's come out on these things, one person — one reporter said that his supporters call it genius, his opponents called him a tax-dodger. It's neither one of those things. It's not a genius to do what anybody can do and people do every day of the week nor is he a tax dodger. He didn't dodge any taxes. Major Garrett, unfortunately, on CBS, did much the same thing, said he is starving Uncle Sam. No, he’s not starving Uncle Sam. These are legitimate tax cut — tax return he was filling. Perfectly legitimate, so I —
CAVUTO: Yeah, you can. We'll get into this later about these amounts and if instead of Trump, you put a anytime like GM or Cisco there no one would bat an eyelash, but of course it is what it is. I just think it's a good idea if you're going to go after one side, you go after the other, but again and again that's not the case. Brent, thank you very, very much.
BOZELL: Thank you, Neil.
