MRC/NB News

As some of our readers know, I'm heading off to Iraq, where I'll be reporting for CNS, the news agency of MRC.

Our focus at NB is of course exposing liberal media bias, and to the extent I have a chance to "cover the coverage" I'll certainly be blogging on that.   At the same time, I'm thinking that our NB readers might enjoy experiencing more generally some sights, sounds and impressions from the trip.  So, with the indulgence of my editors, I'll maintain an 'Iraq Diary' here with written reports, photos and even some video clips - internet connections permitting.

Here's the schedule, which is of course subject to change:

November 8th - travel commercial from Ithaca to Charleston, SC
November 9th - fly from Charleston AFB to naval base in Rota, Spain, near Gibraltar
Nov. 10th - arrive Rota
Nov. 11 - depart Rota, arrive Balad, Iraq.
Nov. 11-13 - International [Green] Zone.  Visits with Gulf Reconstruction Divsion of Army Corps of Engineers and military hospital featured in HBO documentary 'Baghdad ER.'
Nov. 13th-20th - With Marines in Fallujah.
Nov. 21st-23rd - heading home
Nov. 23rd [Thanskgiving] - arrive base Dover, DE

Election Day is upon us which means it's time for an official NewsBusters predictions thread.

Unlike other places, though, there's an actual prize for being correct. The commenter who most closely predicts the margin of both houses of congress will win a free Apple Ipod Nano. Entries must be submitted before 11:00 AM Eastern time. (Please do not post anything other than numeric predictions on this thread.)

Update 16:42. Comments are reenabled on this post. The chat server is also available at live.newsbusters.org.

For daring to criticize Keith Olbermann's Wednesday night “Special Comment” rant against President Bush for inspiring “domestic terrorism,” the MSNBC host on Thursday night named Media Research Center President Brent Bozell his “bronze” nominee in his daily “Worst Person in the World” segment. Olbermann, who misidentified the MRC as the “Media Research Council,” proceeded to claim that Bozell was on the phone ordering men's underwear to don “on his head.” Olbermann ridiculed Bozell: “The bronze to funny man Brent Bozell, self-appointed President of the self-created Media Research Council, responding to my Special Comment last night with a press release headlined, 'MSNBC's Keith Olbermann Preaches Hate Speech.'...[T]his is the guy who wrote the Willie Horton ad and in the press release he calls me a 'brown shirt.' And he thinks other people are preaching hate speech. Buy this man a mirror!”

Moving to his next nominee, the designer of men's underwear in which “the fabric cup protrudes everything out in front instead of down toward the ground. The design of the underwear separates and lifts,” Olbermann sarcastically quipped: “I'm told Brent Bozell is on the phone looking to order a dozen -- to wear on his head."

Video clip (1:01): Real (1.8 MB) or Windows Media (2.1 MB), plus MP3 audio (365 KB)

Since Kerry's "the troops are stupid" remarks were reported on Newsbusters yesterday, the story has truly grown some legs. This has caused the MSM to bend themselves into pretzels to explain away Kerry's typically anti-military remarks and leading the pack, as always, is the "Paper of broken record", the New York Times.

In a piece titled ”Bush Attacks Kerry for Remarks on Iraq Troops”, the Times spends nearly the entire story making this out to be a Bush/Republican issue and barely even takes the time to mention what it is that Kerry said to initiate the incident in the first place, casting the entire story into the rote Republicans-are-at-fault mode.

The story, by Adam Nagourney and several other contributors (amusing that it took a whole committee to make this spin up), nearly ignores Kerry’s actual remarks not even bothering to mention the phrase that caused this whole dust up until the 15th paragraph.

The 14 paragraphs before that has some anti-Bush doozies, too.

NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell, President of the Media Research Center, appeared Monday on CNBC's "Kudlow and Company" where he discussed how the media are misreporting the economy.

The segment, in which Bozell appeared with Mark Weisbrot of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, was prompted by a new Special Report study from the MRC's Business & Media Institute, "Bad News Bears: How Networks Distort a Good Economy and Batter President Bush."

Video clip (4:58): Windows Media (9.8 MB at higher-quality 256 kbps) or Real (3.8 MB at lower-quality 100 kbps) , plus MP3 audio (1.7 MB)

On this weekend's Fox News Watch on FNC, liberal panelist Neal Gabler, rejecting the Media Research Center's contention of liberal bias in coverage of North Korea's nuclear test, damned the MRC with faint praise in ridiculing the MRC's mission: "MRC can find a needle in a hay stack. We ought to sic them to find Osama bin Laden because they always find what they're looking for, and liberal bias is what they're looking for." Host Eric Burns had set up the lead segment: “The Media Research Center, a conservative watchdog group, charges that some American news organizations are, to an extent, defending the action [atomic test] because North Korea is worried about an attack from the United States and hopes the bomb tests will be a deterrent.” Conservative panelist Cal Thomas pointed out how “ABC's Mark Litke made this point on World News Tonight.” Indeed, an October 10 MRC CyberAlert article, posted the night before as a NewsBusters item, “ABC: North Korea Has Rational 'Historic Fear' of U.S. Worsened by Bush's 'Axis of Evil,'” detailed Litke's October 9 story.

Thursday evening, nationally syndicated radio host Mark Levin treated listeners to a round-up of NewsBuster items documenting how big liberal media outlets like CNN and the New York Times are playing down or totally ignoring questions about Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid’s failure to properly disclose a $1.1 million land sale.

Numerous MRC/NB staffers heard Levin cite NewsBusters in the opening minutes of his 6pm EDT radio show, which is heard live in Washington on WMAL-AM. Levin’s flagship station is WABC in New York City, where his program is the top-rated AM show in its time slot. MP3 Audio (1.35 MB)

The Web site MarkLevinFan.com posted a lengthy audio file of Levin’s entire discourse on Reid from Thursday’s show. MRC’s Scott Whitlock transcribed the portion in which Levin cited postings from himself, MRC’s Tim Graham and TimesWatch editor Clay Waters.

If you have a look at this NewsBusters item of mine, you'll note it is dated August 14th, 2006. It was, as noted there, the first one written after I "broke down" and subscribed to the New York Times 'Times Select' section that gives access to the work of its in-house columnists. In that historic first item, I wrote that in their pay-per-view columns, Paul Krugman and Bob Herbert had sounded the nearly-identical theme: that the Bush administration allegedly sees terrorism as something to be "exploited."

In the ensuing weeks, I wrote no fewer than 22 more NB pieces critical of items on the Times editorial page, the majority focusing on the work of the subscription-required columnists. A pretty good return on my investment, you'd have to say.

NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell is appearing on FNC's "Hannity & Colmes" to discuss Ted Turner's comments on North Korea and how he thinks it's difficult to choose sides in the war on terror. Tune in now (or 2am Eastern) and watch. Post your comments here.

Bozell appeared with former ABC News reporter Bob Zelnick, now with Boston University. Sean Hannity set up the segment by playing a clip of Turner at the National Press Club on Monday:

“He said, 'either you're with us or you're against us.' And I had a problem with that because I really hadn't made my mind up yet. You know, what if you haven't made your mind up? What if you're thinking about it, doing some studying, doing some reading? Because it's an important decision to go to war, whether to go to war or not to go to war. I mean, you're either with us or against us -- that's pretty black and white.”

Video clip (5:10): Real (3.9 MB at 100 kbps) or Windows Media (3.3 MB at 81 kbps), plus MP3 audio (1.8 MB)

On Friday's "Countdown," MSNBC host Keith Olbermann named NewsBusters the "Worst Persons in the World." Olbermann took issue with a posting by NB contributor Al Brown, who mistakenly said Brian Williams instead of Brian Ross. Brown corrected the post after an NB commentor, SMGalbraith, noticed the error. But it was too late: Olbermann had seized the error and made it the centerpiece of his "Worst Person" segment.

A name error tops the list as the "worst"? The "paper of record," the New York Times, runs a daily corrections page and has an average of seven errors per day.

Video clip (1:30): Real (2.5 MB) or Windows Media (2.9 MB), plus MP3 audio (0.5 MB)

"But tonight's winners: NewsBusters. Rabid right-winger Brent Bozell's self-styled media watch dog, with its typical kind of breathless headline: 'Is Brian Williams the Next Dan Rather?' Somebody named Al Brown claiming that the Mark Foley instant message story was a prank, and that in breaking it, quote, 'Brian Williams and ABC have already abused the anonymous source dodge at least once in this saga,' and, quoting again, 'Perhaps Brian Williams should resign. But for now, ABC is standing by their story.'"

MRC president Brent Bozell appeared on Fox News to discuss the Foley scandal and the calls for Speaker Hastert to resign.

Bozell was asked if Hastert was being "demonized by the media."

Watch the video clip and post your reaction.

Video clip (2:30): Real (4.10 MB) or Windows Media (4.69 MB), plus MP3 audio (716 KB)

Today we're unveiling a new occasional feature, a contest for readers of NewsBusters.

Since Rosie O'Donnell has joined the ABC-syndicated show "The View," tensions have risen pretty dramatically on the set between the co-hosts. Elisabeth Hasselbeck, the lone right-of-center host has reportedly brought to tears repeatedly. The rest of the show's staff is also upset.

Your task: Predict who will be the first to leave the show and when. The person closest to the date will become the winner of your very own Rosie O'Donnell doll, voodoo pins not included, and any conservative book of your choosing. (Entries must be posted as comments on NewsBusters before the end of the day Wed., Oct.

Since the other threads got full on tonight's posts, I'm opening up another thread for comments. I also want to point everyone to a new project: the NewsBusters FAQ. It's the place to go to get all your questions answered about NB. It's nowhere near complete so please post your thoughts.

Start your TV tuners: NewsBusters senior editor Rich Noyes will be appearing on MSNBC at 2:42 Eastern to discuss leaks of classified material and the role of the news media. Post your comments here.

Update, 3:05pm: Rich was delayed by non-news "Breaking News" on Terrell Owens and a shooting in Colorado, which was semi-news, but he made it on at 2:50 Eastern and had a solo interview for nearly three minutes. Video will be added in about 15 minutes.

Video (2:50): Windows Media (5.7 MB) or Real (5 MB), plus MP3 audio (850 KB)

As alert readers have noticed, NewsBusters is now offering advertisers a chance to get your message out. If you're interested in a chance to reach out to NB's 70,000 daily visitors, drop me a line at msheffield@gmail.com or click here.

MRC president and NB publisher Brent Bozell will be a guest on the MSNBC show "Scarborough Country" Tuesday night at 9:00pm Eastern (re-airing at 4am Eastern Wednesday morning). We're told he'll be on during the first segment of the show to discuss the media's coverage of Pope Benedict's remarks about Islam and the Muslim world's reaction to them.

Post your reactions to the show on this page.

The MRC's Comcast cable service went out just as the segment began and didn't come back until five minutes into the session, but in time to catch a heated exchange amongst Joe Scarborough, Brent Bozell and Joan Walsh, the editor of Salon.com. Video is of that.

Video clip (2:45): Real (4.6 MB) or Windows Media (5.3 MB), plus MP3 audio (970 KB)

MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, who in late 2003 devoted a fraction of the time to CBS's The Reagans movie as he has just this week to liberal complaints about ABC's The Path to 9/11 (he's led Countdown with it for two nights in a row), castigated MRC President Brent Bozell for supposed hypocrisy in criticizing The Reagans while not denouncing the new 9/11 movie. Naming Bozell his “Worst Person in the World” on Friday's show, Olbermann ridiculed him as “Bozo the Clown: Right-wing hysteric Brent Bozell weighing-in in his usual light-weight manner.” Olbermann quoted how on The Path to 9/11, Bozell wrote in his column that “as a docudrama, it has taken certain poetic license with history,” but on the Reagan movie Bozell said “there is no such thing as creative license to invent falsehoods about people. I don't care who you are, you don't have that right.” Olbermann snidely lectured: “Hey, Brent, when you look in the mirror, how many faces do you see? The rest of us count at least two. Brent Bozell, today's Worst Person in the World!”

Olbermann ignored how saying the movie takes “poetic license” is criticism and how on Wednesday's Scarborough Country, Bozell asserted: "I think that if you have a scene or two scenes or three scenes, important scenes, that do not have any bearing on reality and you can edit them, I think they should edit them.”

Video clip (45 seconds): Real 1.3 MB or Windows Media (1.6 MB), plus MP3 audio (275 KB)

This morning’s Wall Street Journal carries an editorial summarizing the findings of a new study from the Media Research Center that documents how the broadcast networks have skewed their coverage of the War on Terror in favor of those most concerned about civil liberties, not protecting the American people from another homeland attack. Here’s how it begins:

The title of a CBS special report Wednesday night posed the question that haunts us all after 9/11: "Five Years Later: Are We Safer?" Given the show's brevity--an hour minus commercials--and the complexity of the subject, CBS's treatment was predictably shallow. After host Katie Couric asked President Bush a few questions of the "your critics say . . . how do you respond?" sort, and we toured the federal antiterrorism command center, there was little time left for an in-depth examination of anything.

Tonight (Friday) at 9pm EDT/PDT, CBS will re-air its special, Dan Rather: A Reporter Remembers, that first ran on Wednesday March 9, 2005. The program showed the MRC's logo on screen at one point as Rather, dismissing a series of efforts to "intimidate" him, drew a line from being called "an 'N-lover'" during the civil rights movement to the Vietnam war years when critics tagged him with a "bad name: 'anti-military, anti-American, anti-war,'" and "then, when Watergate came into being was the first time I began to hear this word 'liberal' as an epithet thrown my way." Viewers then saw a montage of video clips and shots of Web sites with text accusing Rather and CBS of being "liberal," including the Media Research Center's logo and a headline over an MRC page on Rather. Without addressing evidence of his liberal tilt on policy, Rather charged that "people who have very strong biases of their own, they come at you with a story: 'If you won't report it the way I want it reported, then you're biased.'" On the Memogate affair, the CBS special touted how the review panel found "no political agenda."

Video clip with Rather's claims about "intimidation" with the MRC's Web site featured on screen (1:30): Real (2.6 MB), Windows Media (3 MB) plus MP3 audio (450 KB)

On Thursday night, CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight, anchored by Kitty Pilgrim, featured a full story on the MRC's study by Tim Graham released on Monday, “Election In the Streets: How the Broadcast Networks Promote Illegal Immigration.” Pilgrim announced that “this nation's major newscasts are being accused of being blatantly sympathetic to illegal aliens.” Reporter Casey Wian explained how “a study released this week by the conservative Media Research Center...claims ABC, CBS, and NBC News have been promoting illegal immigration." After a soundbite from Graham, Wian relayed how “the study examined network news coverage of the issue from March 24th through May 31st. Among the findings, illegal alien amnesty advocates appeared in about twice as many soundbites as supporters of border security.” In addition, “networks routinely ignored polls showing the vast majority of Americans favor stronger border security. And the study concluded: 'The networks seemed to offer honorary citizenship to anyone crossing the border.'” (Transcript follows)

Video of the story (2:28): Real (4.2 MB) or Windows Media (4.8 MB), plus MP3 audio (1 MB)

Last Sunday morning, I threw up a blog on the Sunday Washington Post publishing a story based on MSNBC host Joe Scarborough airing a segment on his show titled "IS BUSH AN ‘IDIOT’?" A few days later, Joe Scarborough granted an interview to the hard-left website Salon.com, ostensibly to discuss how conservatives can't handle dissent well. At interview’s end, interviewer Alex Koppleman threw NewsBusters at him:

Tim Graham, from the Media Research Center, recently referred referred to your criticism of the president as "Scarborough syndrome" and said that "being a conservative host inside a liberal network -- not to mention a liberal network that has a history of changing prime-time hosts like socks -- might compel you to being [sic] more critical of Bush and conservatives." What's your reaction to that?

Since today's open thread dealt heavily with the topic of censorship and trolling as several new or dormant liberal commenters began posting complaints, I think it's worth saying a little bit officially about the subject to give a little background to everyone.

Any conservative site is going to be the target of juvenile liberals who not being able to abide by the rules of logic and decorum, make it their goal to leave inane remarks that they can't defend.

For quite some time, we've had our eye on a particular group run by the banned NB user Hater who has become quite obsessed as you can see reading this thread he posted at a Howard Stern fan site after he was banned for the second time. It's a must-read look into the mind of the deranged left. The insanity and sheer hatred expressed by Hater and his little friends is both hilarious and disturbing.

Time's cover story on Hillary by Karen Tumulty is predictable, largely channeling anonymous Clinton aides and strategists about her forthcoming campaign for the White House. There are no conservatives quoted. It only gets unpredictable when Tumulty turns the corner to acknowledge (mean-spirited) conservatives. Typically, in her starry-eyed reflection on the "outsize status of both Clintons," and how her race will be "brutal," she exaggerates the number of anti-Clinton tomes by a factor of five or ten, but she surprises by actually naming the forthcoming Jonah Goldberg book, as well as the Brent Bozell-Tim Graham media-bias packet:

Hillary has already figured as Lady Macbeth in enough volumes to fill a bookmobile, and in the next year the publishing industry will be adding to the collection with such titles as Liberal Fascism: The Totalitarian Temptation from Mussolini to Hillary Clinton and Whitewash: How the News Media Are Paving Hillary Clinton's Path to the Presidency.

NewsBusters senior editor Tim Graham appeared Monday night on FNC's "Hannity & Colmes" to discuss the Reuters photography scandal. If you missed it (including his clash with Alan Colmes), watch the video clip, of his entire appearance, linked below -- or tune it when the program airs again at 2am EDT (1am CDT, 12 midnight MDT and 11pm PDT). Tim appeared for about five minutes, starting 14 minutes into the program. Use this thread to post your comments about the show.

Video clip (4:30): Real (3.4 MB at 100 kbps) or Windows Media (2.8 MB at 81 kbps), plus MP3 audio (1.6 MB)

MRC President Brent Bozell appeared Friday night on MSNBC's Scarborough Country to discuss the media's coverage of Mel Gibson and religion as well as Hollywood's hypocrisy in condemning Gibson while otherwise ridiculing religious believers. Use this thread to post your comments about the show. Bozell's August 4 column, "Mel Gibson and the Politics of Bigotry," which Scarborough and Bozell keyed off of at the start of the interview. For our regular open discussion, see today's thread

Video clip of the opening exchange with Joe Scarborough (2:10): Real (3.7 MB) or Windows Media (4.2 MB), plus MP3 audio (760 KB).

Our one-year anniversary is coming up very soon (Aug. 9). As we head into our second year of operation, we're pleased that NewsBusters has become one of the top 10 conservative blogs and one of the top 100 blogs in the world according to Technorati.

What are some of your suggestions for our second year? What kinds of new features, events, site components or other things would you like to see?

The MRC's Brent Bozell will be on the Fox News Channel's "O'Reilly Factor" tonight at 8pm Eastern to discuss the media's coverage of the Israel-Palestine conflict. The show repeats at 11pm and 4am Eastern as well. Use this thread to post your comments.

Video of interview (4:22): Real at 100 kbps (3.3 MB), Windows Media at 81 kbps (2.8 MB), plus MP3 audio (1.5 MB).

UPDATE: A full transcript is available below the fold.

Today in the 4:00 et hour, and later replayed in the 6:00 et hour, NewsBusters executive editor Matt Sheffield will speak with Tucker Carlson on MSNBC.

They will discuss Dan Rather's new career as a TV host for Mark Cuban, the controversial billionaire owner of the NBA Dallas Mavericks and owner of HDNet, a small network for high definition televisions sets. Rather will host his own show on the network.

Post your comments as you watch the 6:00 ET replay.

UPDATE: Video available in Windows Media (100k and 256k) or Real (255k). Transcript is below the fold.