Last Tuesday, in a blog suggesting the PBS Frontline documentary on 'News War' would be biased, I added: "Suffice it to say PBS has not contacted the news watchers at the MRC." Frontline executive editor Louis Wiley protested that they had. I asked our publicists, and they located an e-mail from April, requesting a 90-minute interview with MRC president Brent Bozell, which was refused. I was not aware of the request, and I was incorrect. Here is the e-mail I received from Wiley of PBS:
As our producer Arun Rath said, we had wanted to interview O'Reilly and Limbaugh in person to ask them questions about this topic, but they turned us down. It didn't, however, stop us from doing our best to represent their views as our commitment to professionalism requires.
In fact, there are a number of conservative voices, as well as other critics, in next Tuesday's film about reporting on sensitive secret government programs in a time of war. You'll hear the President call such stories "disgraceful;" you'll hear from a former number two at the CIA explain how they may be harmful; you'll hear a spokesman for the FBI, himself a former newsman, question the decision to publish; you'll hear from Pat Buchanan; and there will be a steady drumbeat of voices in stock footage clips, including Bill O'Reilly, Rush Limbaugh, and William Kristol, who will pillory The New York Times and The Washington Post.
As to your point about "not contacted the news watchers at the MRC," in fact, we spent several weeks trying to get an interview with your publisher, Brent Bozell. Maybe you didn't know that he turned us down, but perhaps you'll understand why your complaint about the lack of conservative voices strikes me as chutzpah in the first degree.
Cheers, Louis Wiley, Executive Editor, FRONTLINE
—Tim Graham is Director of Media Analysis at the Media Research Center
Editor at Large
Comments Policy
PBS
February 19, 2007 - 13:09 ET by PeterWhy would anyone expect balance from PBS? Why would any talk show host give a 90 minute interview to PBS knowing that they will recompile the questions and answers to embarrass those who are not liberals?
Why?
February 19, 2007 - 14:48 ET by NetizenCainWhy did MRC turn down the request? I understand that many folks don't like to be sandbagged or sucker-punched when speaking their minds in a left-leaning forum stacked high with folks that are liberal, on a liberal show, funded by liberals... but the opportunity to gain exposure and help spread opposing viewpoints is very important. Why a no show?
Tim, So, PBS scores a cheap point. Ah well.
February 19, 2007 - 13:18 ET by acaiguanaSo, PBS scores a cheap point. Ah well.
That's what they are good at Tim. I, myself, actually misread Warner's blog this morning and was duly chastised.
:-)
ACA
...
Hillary Clinton says: "I want to take those profits."
Stock Footage?
February 19, 2007 - 13:32 ET by tnculpUh ok, that's a way to bring balance, stock footage/audio, not direct dialogue? What a load of bull. I can bet there will be plenty of live conversations with Libs though.
Tim - I'm disappointed that
February 19, 2007 - 13:51 ET by Dee BunkTim - I'm disappointed that Mr Bozel would turn down the interview without offering another representative. I'm also disappointed that FNC turned it down. Do you know what Mr Bozel's reasoning was?
Did anyone see the show? Wiley's e-mail itself seems to support the bias. He admits that he used stock footage for conservative voices. How convenient. If you are going to complain about conservatives complaining - don't you have to show them complaining?
Maybe next time, Brent will
February 19, 2007 - 14:57 ET by sarcasmoMaybe next time, Brent will finally show the Constitutional courage to treat the FCC the same way he apparently treated PBS, and shut-up rather than showing-up at the next big-government nasty-speech hearing (I know, hope springs eternal...).
JMR
There's no doubt the question
February 19, 2007 - 14:09 ET by Mica the MagnificentThere's no doubt the questions would not match the answers if Limbaugh or O'Reilly showed up to be interviewed:
The real question: Mr. Limbaugh, how do you see the war in Iraq going so far?
The real answer: Very good. It's a tragedy that more of this good news isn't reported by the MSM.
The inserted, fake question: Mr. Limbaugh, how do you feel when you hear that another American soldier died in Iraq?
I'm sorry, Timmy. Lassie died from global warming. - - Final, politically correct episode
Gimme a break...
February 20, 2007 - 12:12 ET by Chidi Nwachukhu"As our producer Arun Rath said, we had wanted to interview O'Reilly and Limbaugh in person to ask them questions about this topic, but they turned us down." L. "Brent" Bozell, Bill Orally and Rush "Rex Grossman doesn't suck" Limbaugh are clearly cowards. If they had the stones, they would have gone on Frontline.
It's a rock and a hard place.
February 19, 2007 - 16:27 ET by tracheostomyIt's a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, you can't debate in enemy territory without getting the "spin, edit, wash, rinse; repeat" treatment.
On the other hand, you can't fight on your own side forever. You'll have to find a way to take the hill somehow.
Wasn't there some way Brent, Rush, or FNC could have negotiated terms with the interviews?
-PJ
This posting by Hugh Hewitt
February 19, 2007 - 21:02 ET by John in CAThis posting by Hugh Hewitt on his decision to decline a similiar offer from PBS
The Usual Suspects and the Usual Spin
Frontline has a big four part series on the news rolling out. Producer Raney Anderson journeyed to California to make the case for why I ought to
participate, and I declined. I spent a decade inside the PBS system,
and while I think Ms. Anderson is a talented and sincere documentarian,
the form is inherently biased as the moment a cut gets made, an
editorial choice has been rendered, and I didn't trust a PBS team,
however talented, to make those choices about what I have to say about
media, new and old.
[...]
Give a Democrat Party free America a chance!