Media Mash

"The media finally recognized a[n] [Obama] scandal, but then slowly but surely they took their foot off the gas," Fox News Channel's Sean Hannity noted of the media's treatment of the IRS/Tea Party scandal as he opened the "Media Mash" segment with NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell on Thursday's Hannity. As Hannity opened the segment, an on-screen graphic [embedded below the page break] displayed data collected by Media Research Center (MRC) deputy research director Geoff Dickens which showed the broadcast media's waning interest in reporting on developments in the scandal.

"Look, the first two weeks of this scandal, 96 stories. The second two weeks, 31 stories. This week: one story. It's over," as far as the media are concerned, the MRC founder noted, even though the MRC's own CNSNews.com division broke some damning revelations related to the IRS scandal this week. For example, Bozell noted:

Corrected from earlier*: On the May 16 Kudlow Report program on Fox Business Network, NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell hit the nail on the head, predicting that the media would quickly shift into the "Move On!" mode as they would start attacking Republicans as scandal-obsessed. The same evening on Fox News Channel's Hannity, Bozell noted how former CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather was already using the Clinton scandal playbook and grousing that Republicans need to "move on."

Sure enough, a week later when the Media Research Center returned to Hannity for another "Media Mash" segment [watch the video embed below the page break], he had plenty of fresh material from the networks to illustrate how the liberal media are doing precisely that. After watching a montage of journalists complaining that Republicans may be guilty of "overreach" with their dogged pursuit of the IRS investigation, Bozell reminded guest host Eric Bolling that "this is the old game plan, which is":

NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell and Fox News host Sean Hannity kicked off the "Media Mash" segment of the May 16 Hannity with a deliciously ironic clip of Hardball host Chris Matthews lamenting on his Tuesday program that President Obama is surrounded by adoring yes-men who can't bear to tell him bad news, and that that culture of groupthink leaves the president prone to embarrassing scandals. "A little irony there?! I couldn't resist! I had to start with that," Hannity said suppressing laughter. "Okay, a sycophant who's in awe and in love with Barack Obama. Chris Matthews, call your office," Bozell quipped, adding, "This is the man who spits to tell us how much Obama's the perfect man."

Also discussed on Thursday's "Media Mash" was former CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather's carping on Thursday's MSNBC program Morning Joe about how Republicans were capitalizing on Obama scandals. [watch the full "Media Mash" segment below the page break]

"When Hillary Clinton testified in January, she got five [and a half] hours on MSNBC," NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell told Fox News Channel's Sean Hannity on the May 9 edition of his eponymous program. By contrast, the Obama-boosting "Lean Forward" network failed to show any live testimony from the May 8 Benghazi whistleblowers hearing. "They're a little bit selective," the Media Research Center founder wryly remarked.

At this point, the cable news networks are "not news networks anymore" as "they are censoring news" on Benghazi, even as they have compelling whistleblower testimony. "How can it not be news," Bozell wondered, that Hillary Clinton insisted she took full responsibility for the Benghazi fiasco and yet the review board she commissioned to investigate the State Department's handling of the fiasco failed to interview her? "How was that not a story yesterday?! This is such a coverup taking place," Bozell argued. [watch the full "Media Mash" segment below the page break]

Appearing on the May 2 Hannity program for the weekly “Media Mash” segment, NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell noted that while the broadcast networks devoted considerable airtime in their news programming to courtroom sagas such as the murder trials of Amanda Knox and Jodi Arias or civil court proceedings like the Michael Jackson wrongful death lawsuit, they virtually ignored the trial of Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell.

Gosnell is “a man who butchered babies” and the “details [of the story] are beyond gruesome” such as “babies floating in toilets, trying to swim to come out, while he put scissors in the back of their skulls,” the Media Research Center founder noted. And yet, because the underlying story involves abortion, the networks have censored the story, Bozell argued. [watch the full “Media Mash” segment below the page break]

"CNN and MSNBC, as we can see with the gun control debate are openly promoting not just gun control but the president's gun control agenda and calling it news," NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell argued on the April 11 edition of Hannity, where he appeared for the popular weekly Media Mash segment. Reacting to the fact that MSNBC's Morning Joe program gave Vice President Biden an entire three-hour program yesterday to push for more gun control, Bozell added that the bias is so endemic that it must be addressed at the corporate level of media ownership, as the so-called news networks are pushing a political agenda, not relaying information and giving time for both sides of the debate.

For the benefit of his viewers at home, Fox News host Sean Hannity played clips of Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) and Vice President Joe Biden praising CNN and MSNBC respectively for their biased coverage. "We appreciate your support too, this is very, very important," Manchin told the anchors of Thursday's edition of CNN's Starting Point.  Mr. Vice President, thank you so much," faux conservative Joe Scarborough told the vice president as he wrapped up the April 11 Morning Joe, thanking him for a "great discussion." "No, thank you!" Biden shot back. "No, no, no, no, no. You have changed the debate in America.... The two guys that deserve, if anything gets done [on gun control] - an award here are you and Michael Bloomberg." [watch the video below]

Clueless Chris Matthews stepped into it this week when he expressed shock that women actually fear domestic violence. After watching the clip on the "Media Mash" segment on Fox News Channel's April 3 edition of Hannity, NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell observed "It is a head scratcher because he spent all of last year and all of 2011 telling us that there was a war on women." [video embedded below the page break]

"He doesn't understand that there are -- in 2010, there were 765,000 cases documented of attacks on women. So suddenly he's oblivious to that," the Media Research Center founder observed. Host Sean Hannity also addressed the latest incident where Chris Matthews tried to tar conservatives with murderous violence, this time the slayings of prosecutors in Texas that may be connected to the Aryan Brotherhood. Responding to that video, Bozell observed:

"This is the ugly, intolerant face of the radical left that's taken over liberalism today," declared NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell on Thursday's Hannity program, reacting to charges by MSNBC's Al Sharpton and Mike Barnicle that conservatives up in arms over Mike Bloomberg's proposed soda ban are animated by anti-Semitism. Bozell appeared on the March 28 program with guest host Eric Bolling for the popular weekly "Media Mash" segment.

"You can't have an [honest] conversation with these radicals" at MSNBC, the Media Research Center founder complained. "I pine for the days of George McGovern... I pine for the days of Joe Lieberman, where are you when I need you? Because you could have a serious conversation, serious disagreements, but you weren't attacked personally for them," Bozell noted. "This is the radical left that goes for character assassination anytime it's faced with a debate" against conservatives. [watch the full Mash segment below the page break; special thanks to my colleague Scott Whitlock for the video]

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].

The liberal media should have reported President Obama's Chicken Little sky-is-falling claims about the sequester, but "with clear skepticism" instead of mindlessly parroting them, NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell told Fox News's Sean Hannity on the March 7 edition of his eponymous program.  "They should have gone to the American people and in effect said, this man is lying," but instead, "they did the exact opposite. They waved the pom-poms for him," the Media Research Center (MRC) founder argued.

Even worse, Hannity added, after the sequester ended up being a nothing-burger, the media whined about it, wringing their hands that the public are not concerned. "Let's understand what they mean when they say it's sad.... they're sad that the America people aren't believing the media," Bozell argued, adding the the "big losers" in the whole sequester ordeal are the liberal media, because "people are seeing right through it." [watch the full "Media Mash" segment here]

"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]

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]

While ultimately only cop-killer Christopher Dorner is responsible for his crimes, the liberal media's deliberate papering over of the left-wing views that inspired him is telling, NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell noted on the February 7 edition of Fox News Channel's Hannity program.

When you read Dorner's manifesto, it's clear that "[y]ou've got a direct association of liberal luminaries with this killer. This in no way is to suggest that" any of them should be held responsible for Dorner's murders, Bozell cautioned, but, that being said, "how in the world do you put that alongside the pattern of these reporters on the Left who have connected the dots to conservatives in previous killings when there was no connection to conservatives?" [watch segment video below page break]

"Chris Matthews has it exactly wrong!" NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell told Sean Hannity on the January 22 "Media Mash" segment, reacting to the Hardball host's effusive praise on Monday for what he insisted was a Lincolnesque inaugural address by the president. "The Gettysburg Address was an attempt at healing the nation's wounds" from the Civil War while "Obama's speech... was a left-wing declaration of war against the conservative movement, so it was the opposite of the Gettysburg Address."

Another telling exchange from MSNBC on Monday was when presidential advisor Valerie Jarrett thanked the crew of MSNBC's Morning Joe for "a good four years with you all," Fox News host Sean Hannity noted. [watch the full segment below the page break]

"The far left is making [the average American gun owner and NRA member] a villain for abiding by your Second Amendment rights," and they're finding willing accomplices in supposedly objective journalists like Bob Schieffer, Brent Bozell argued on the January 17 edition of Fox News Channel's Hannity. The Media Research Center president was reacting to a soundbite in which the CBS anchor compared the political challenge of President Obama taking on the NRA to defeating the Third Reich in World War II.

"Surely passing civil rights legislation as Lyndon Johnson was able to do, and before that, surely defeating the Nazis was a much more formidable task than taking on the gun lobby," Schieffer noted on January 16 shortly after President Obama's press conference on gun control. "This is a turning point in this country.," Schieffer insisted, concluding, "Unless we figure out a way to make sure that something like Newtown never happens again, we're not the country that we once were." [watch the full Hannity "Media Mash" segment below the page break]

The way the news media fawned over the Democratic 111th Congress -- which passed the wildly unpopular ObamaCare -- while smearing the Republican House in the 112th is like a bad Saturday Night Live skit, NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell told Sean Hannity on the January 3 edition of his eponymous Fox News Channel program.

"Look, what they're saying is, when the Democrats were in charge with the 111th Congress they did all these things moving the agenda to the left, and, oh happy days, look at all the wonderful left-wing things they did," Bozell noted, but then, "The112th Congress comes around and Republicans try to put a stop to the madness and it's called tyrannical." [Watch the full "Media Mash" segment in the embed below the page break]

The same media that were "obsessive about the need for civility in the American public conservation" is deliberately ignoring the utter lack of civility, and worse, violence, from the left as evidenced by union thug violence this past week in Lansing, Michigan, NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell argued on the December 13 Hannity program.

"What is key here is that reporters were there. That scene is crawling with journalists. They're all there. They're seeing it with their own eyes. It's not like they missed the story, it's not like they didn't have the footage, it's not like nobody told them about it," the founder and president of the Media Research Center noted on the weekly "Media Mash" segment. "They were there, they saw it. And still, they withheld it from the public," Bozell noted, going on to call for peaceful Tea Party protests of media censorship outside the headquarters of the major networks: [Watch the full segment below the page break]

Cokie Roberts and other outspoken liberal journalists are "unelected lobbyists" in the very same sense that they charge Americans for Tax Reform president Grover Norquist is. "From her perch at ABC News," as an ostensible journalist, Roberts is agitating for tax hikes, NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell observed on the December 6 edition of Fox News Channel's Hannity. Rather than reporting the news regarding the fiscal cliff proposals by both the president and the Republicans, Roberts and other liberal journalists are cheerleading for the president's tax-and-spend plan.

The founder and president of the Media Research Center, Mr. Bozell was on Hannity for the popular weekly "Media Mash" segment. You can watch it in the video embed below the page break:

Attempts by liberal MSNBC pundits like Touré and Richard Wolffe to dismiss conservative criticisms of Amb. Susan Rice as racially-motivated are evidence of the "militant, radical Left flexing its muscles" post-Obama reelection, NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell told Sean Hannity on the "Media Mash" segment of the Fox News host's November 29 program.

"Where were" liberal journalists when "Clarence Thomas was smeared in his confirmation hearings" or "with Allen West in Florida?" Bozell asked. "When a conservative black man is attacked," the media are mute, failing to consider if perhaps there is racism at play in the criticisms leveled by liberals. What's more, if Rice were white, the media would simply complain Republican critics are "anti-woman," the Media Research Center founder observed [watch the full segment below the page break].

Chicago Tribune reporter Christi Parson's fawning fan girl act at Wednesday's press conference was bad enough, NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell told Sean Hannity on the November 15 edition of Hannity, but even worse was the reaction of the rest of the press corps in the room.

"This is the blue chip ensemble of journalists in America," the Media Research Center founder noted, and yet, "no one, but nobody seemed the least bit perturbed that she and [President Obama] are playing kissy-face in a press conference. Nobody was at all surprised by that. What does that tell you about our press corps?" Bozell asked. [watch the full "Media Mash" segment below the page break]

Chris Matthews's disgusting pronouncement that he was glad Hurricane Sandy struck New Jersey because it aided the president's reelection bid is just the latest in a string of mean-spirited, hateful, partisan rhetoric from the Hardball host, and Comcast/NBC has to own up to their responsibility for it, NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell told Sean Hannity on the November 8 Hannity.

"You own this guy, and you own responsibility for the things he's saying," Bozell insisted of the cable giant Comcast. "Look,, this guy is out of control. What more disgusting things can he say that he has to apologize for?" [watch the full "Media Mash" segment below the page break]

At this point in the campaign, most liberal journalists are panicked, but MSNBC's Chris Matthews, well, he's just "delusional," NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell noted on the Thursday edition of Fox News Channel's Hannity. The Media Research Center founder was reacting to a montage that a) showed the Hardball host bullying a college student, insisting that the "Innocence of the Muslims" video was the real spark of the deadly Benghazi attack and b) showed Matthews complaining that conservatives are more interested in turning Obama out of office than destroying al Qaeda, and that that was out of racial animus.

Matthews was being "clearly, clearly dishonest" since he most certainly "knows [the Benghazi attack was] not about a video." As to Matthews's charge about conservatives hating Obama more than al Qaeda [MP3 audio here]:

MRC President and NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell appeared on the October 4 edition of Hannity and exposed the hollowness of the media's argument against covering inflammatory quotes Barack Obama made in a 2007 speech on race, clips aired for the first time earlier this week on Hannity. [Watch the full video after the jump.]

Host Sean Hannity set up the newest "Media Mash" segment: "I just played this tape, 2007. Yeah, the speech was reported on, but they didn't report what happened in this speech. They didn't -- major portions of it where the President is accusing the United States government -- before a predominantly African-American audience -- of not taking care of Katrina victims because of race."

Since MRC president Brent Bozell was busy celebrating at the MRC's 25th Anniversary Gala on Thursday night, Fox News asked him to appear for a "Media Mash" segment on Friday night's Hannity. Bozell and Sean Hannity focused mostly on the emerging scandal of  Team Obama's lies about the attacks at the Benghazi consulate that killed four Americans. As we've reported, the networks have been very slow off the mark on this one. ABC's Jake Tapper showed spokesman Jay Carney pooh-poohing it was a “pre-planned attack," which now looks like a lie. Networks didn't want to underline the government knew within 24 hours it was a terrorist attack.

Bozell asked, "Who shows up to a demonstration with rocket-propelled grenades?...Where are the press? They should have been doing this two weeks ago!" Hannity lamented, "They’re covering up the death by terrorists of Americans by terrorists!" And "CBS has yet to cover this,” Bozell said. (Video below)

Both Mitt Romney's "47 percent" remarks and Barack Obama's pro-"redistribution" comments could be considered "inflammatory if you want to look for inflammatory comments," and yet there's a massive double standard in how the media have reported on the two, NewsBusters publisher and Media Research Center (MRC) president Brent Bozell told Fox News's Sean Hannity on the September 20 Hannity program.

"In the case of Obama's comment," however, it "confirms... that he's a socialist who believes in the redistribution of wealth." Yet as an MRC review confirmed, the media gave roughly 10 times the coverage to the edited tape of Romney's comments at a May fundraiser as they did to the 1998 comments from then-State Senator Barack Obama. [MP3 audio here; video follows page break]

"In a press conference, it's not uncommon for reporters to get together before to make sure that their important question is asked. That's not the issue," however, with how the media prepared their attack on Mitt Romney at his September 12 press conference, NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell told Fox News Channel's Sean Hannity.

"This wasn't the coordination of a question, this was the plotting of an ambush" when you consider that "six of the seven" questions focused on hitting Romney for the alleged impropriety of his statement on September 11 about the attacks by Islamist mobs on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, and the embassy in Cairo, Egypt. [video embedded below page break]

"These are two of the most moronic statements I have ever heard," NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell, himself a practicing Catholic, complained after watching video of MSNBC host Martin Bashir and MSNBC contributor Jimmy Williams attacking Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) as championing an "unbiblical" budget that doesn't comport to Catholic social teaching.

"Consider that one of these morons is saying that Paul Ryan's budget is unbiblical?! I mean, what book of the Bible dealt with Paul Ryan's budget?" the Media Research Center founder asked on the August 23 "Media Mash" segment, going on to note that seeing as that the Catholic Church is suing the Obama administration over the religious liberty-infringing contraception mandate, it's laughable to suggest that Joe Biden is a better Catholic. [watch the full segment below the page break]

Paul Ryan is radically anti-woman, anti-senior citizen, and if he and Mitt Romney are elected and ObamaCare is repealed, people will die! That, in a nutshell, is the liberal media's spin about Gov. Romney's pick of the Wisconsin Republican as his running mate, with the latter claim being made recently by MSNBC political analyst Jonathan Alter, formerly of Newsweek.

"That sleazeball did exactly accuse Romney of murder!" NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell exclaimed on the August 16 Hannity program, adding that by Alter's logic, it would be the majority of Americans who voted for Romney's presidency who would be complicit in "murder." "Where is that talk... where is the discussion of civility? Where are those high-minded people talking about civility now?" the Media Research Center founder asked. [watch the full "Media Mash" segment in the video embedded below]

NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell appeared on Thursday night's Hannity and angrily denounced the big three networks for trashing Mitt Romney's foreign trip, what Bozell called "a clear-cut example of an agenda to kneecap" the presumptive Republican nominee. During the "Media Mash" segment, Bozell cited a new MRC report that found an astonishing 86 percent of stories about Romney's international visit wallowed in supposed "gaffes." (See Bozell's statement on the subject here.)

While in London, Romney highlighted Olympic security problems.  Bozell exposed, "The very same thing that Mitt Romney was accused of gaffing about is exactly what Brian Williams reported as news one week before." "It's shocking," the MRC president added.

The media are desperately at work spinning Barack Obama's "you didn't build that" comment because it was a "complete rejection of the free enterprise system" by the president, reveal the "soul" of the administration's approach to the economy, NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell told Fox News Channel's Sean Hannity during last night's "Media Mash" segment.

"It's so huge that ABC, NBC, and CBS ignored it for four days," but "one of the beautiful things about the new media" is that "you can't keep these things in the tube anymore... so the media finally had to cover it," the Media Research Center president noted. "And how did they cover it? Damage control for Barack Obama. Spin, spin, spin." [see video embedded below page break]