MRC's Bozell Discusses 'Tell the Truth' Campaign on 'Varney & Company'

October 6th, 2010 12:22 PM

NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell sat down for a satellite interview this morning with Fox Business Network's Stuart Varney to discuss the recently-launched "Tell the Truth" campaign.

It's a very simple proposition, Stuart. I think it's time that the American people say simply to the media, tell the truth! Stop distorting stories. Stop projecting an agenda and calling it objective truth. Start reporting news. Tell the truth about what's going on in Washington. Tell the truth about the positions of these candidates. Stop playing politics with everything.... I want them to get the message loud and clear the public is sick and tired of this left-wing agenda masquerading as news.

A slightly skeptical Varney then asked the Media Research Center founder if he thinks that's always been the case:

VARNEY:  Do you think it was always like this? I've been in America 38, nearly 40 years actually, and I just don't recall that left-wing bias when I first came to the country.... I really didn't perceive that kind of bias that I do indeed perceive today.

BOZELL:  It's changed. No, no, a generation ago, it wasn't the way it is now, but there is a big difference in the last 25 years. Twenty-five years ago, the polling data showed it. The American people believed what they were getting from the news media. Seventy-five percent believed what they were getting was objective truth, when in fact it was a liberal political agenda. Today, 89 percent, according to the Pew poll, 89 percent believe what they're getting is the biased opinion of a reporter. Overwhelmingly they're saying it's a left-wing opinion now.

BOZELL:  The percent of people today who distrust the media and believe it has a left-wing agenda is at an all-time high. So the American people are catching on to this, and they're disgusted by it.

Earlier in the segment, Varney and Bozell discussed the Los Angeles Times and the huge disconnect between its news division doing excellent work reporting on a massive government employee fraud scandal coming out of Bell, California, and the editorial board's habit of endorsing the sort of policies and liberal Democratic politicians that made that fraud more likely to happen.
For the full segment's video, click the play button on the embed above or click here to download the WMV video.  For the MP3 audio, click here.