MRC/NB News

Editor's Note: Following news reports today that AOL News would pay $315 million to acquire The Huffington Post, NewsBusters publisher and Media Research Center president Brent Bozell issued the following statement:

This proves AOL News has lost its mind. They must be in such dire straits that they’ve been blinded by the millions and think an acquisition of The Huffington Post is worth sacrificing credibility and objectivity. AOL News is fooling only itself in thinking there is no journalistic conflict in merging with a hate-filled, vicious, radically left-wing rag.

Overall the coverage of the ongoing protests against Hosni Mubarak in Egypt has been pretty good, but it's when journalists get around to offering their analysis that bias has crept in, NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell told Fox News's Steve Doocy on the February 4 "Fox & Friends."

Case in point, MSNBC's Chris Matthews comparing the Muslim Brotherhood with the Tea Party movement.

"Mr. Bozell, he's shameless, isn't he?" Doocy asked.

"These reporters are going to eat their words in a big way,"  NewsBusters publisher and Media Research Center founder Brent Bozell predicted on last night's "Hannity" regarding the mainstream media personalities who have credited President Obama with the popular uprising against dictator Hosni Mubarak in Egypt:

What happens when the government crumbles? What happens when this country is reduced to utter anarchy? What happens when the killings begin and the death begins? Are they still going to credit Barack Obama's soaring oratory for that, or are they going to separate them? What happens if an Islamic caliphate takes over? Are they going to credit his soaring oratory at that point? No they won't.

Indeed, Fox News host Sean Hannity noted during the February 3 "Media Mash" segment, the media have glossed over the radicalism of the Islamic Brotherhood, portraying the Islamist movement as a benign force for democratic reform, not as an extremist group that would impose sharia law in Egypt.

[Video embedded after page break]

When Republican presidents in years past delivered their State of the Union addresses, NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell noted this morning, "no sooner had the words, 'God bless America,' left their lips than the analysts were there... just pouncing on them, pointing out any discrepancy, pointing out any controversy, ridiculing any mistake."

Now "along comes Barack Obama, and the same outlets, now they have this national, maybe international fainting spell," Bozell complained to Fox News Channel's Steve Doocy on Friday's "Fox & Friends."

For the video of the full segment, watch the embed below the page break. To listen to the MP3 audio, click here.

"Can you hear the White House communications department giggling right now? Because they're saying this has succeeded beyond our wildest dreams."

That's how NewsBusters publisher and Media Reseearch Center (MRC) founder Brent Bozell responded on Thursday night's "Hannity" to a montage of mainstream media analysts insisting President Obama is shifting to the center politically.

[Embedded video attached after the page break; Click here for MP3 audio]

Editor's Note: In the last 24 hours, State Senator Leland Yee (D-CA) has incriminated Rush Limbaugh for a racist fax sent to him by an unidentified individual which allegedly read, "Rush Limbaugh will kick your Ch--k ass and expose you for the fool you are.”

NewsBusters publisher and Media Research Center (MRC) President Brent Bozell issued the following statement regarding the media reaction to this charge:

The attempted assassination of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords could have been averted if America had government-run health care, according to left-wing comedian Bill Maher.

That's just the first instance of liberal media advocacy that NewsBusters publisher and Media Research Center president Brent Bozell touched in the January 20 "Media Mash" segment on FNC's "Hannity" program.

"This is the desperation that they're in to sell ObamaCare, that they know the American people don't want," Bozell argued.

Video embedded after page break or click here for MP3 audio.

Editor's Note: In the wake of the CNSNews.com interview with potential presidential hopeful Rick Santorum and his criticism of President Obama’s support for abortion rights, numerous major news outlets including Politico, National Journal, the Wall Street Journal, and the Daily Beast have accused Santorum of playing the “race card” while discussing human life and personhood protected by the Constitution.

Santorum said this: "The question is, and this is what Barack Obama didn’t want to answer: Is that human life a person under the Constitution? And Barack Obama says no. Well, if that human life is not a person, then I find it almost remarkable for a black man to say ‘now we are going to decide who are people and who are not people.’”

What follows is NewsBusters publisher/Media Research Center founder Brent Bozell's reaction to the media attacks on the former Pennsylvania senator.

This has nothing to do with a supposed "race card." This isn’t even just about Rick Santorum. The media whirlwind whipped up on these accusations are nothing more than the continuation of an ugly and dishonest attempt to distort, delegitimize and damn conservative principles and conservative leaders.

Anyone who actually watched this interview can see that Santorum paralleled what many pro-life leaders have compared in the past. Just ask Dr. Alveda King, niece of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Day Gardner, Rev. Childress or any number of other black leaders who have also called abortion the civil rights issue of our day.

"Rush Limbaugh needs to choke to death on his own fat," deranged left-wing radio show host Mike Malloy hissed on his February 18, 2009 program.

Michele Bachmann should "slit [her] wrist!" Montel Williams told his Air America radio show audience in September 2009.

"We ought to rip [Dick Cheney's heart] out and kick it around and stuff it back in him," MSNBC's Ed Schultz blustered on his February 24, 2010 radio program.

Those are just three examples of left-wing hate that the mainstream media haven't denounced while accusing conservatives like Sarah Palin of engendering violence in the wake of the Rep. Gabrielle Giffords shooting.

"Have you ever heard any reporter... denounce these examples?" NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell asked Fox News' Sean Hannity after watching the montage during last night's "Media Mash" segment on "Hannity."

[For the full segment, watch the video below the page break or listen to the MP3 audio here.]

NewsBusters publisher and Media Research Center president Brent Bozell will appear on tonight's "Hannity" as well as tomorrow morning's "Fox & Friends" and C-SPAN's Washington Journal.

All three appearances will focus on the media's biased coverage in the wake of Saturday's assassination attempt on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Arizona).

Tonight's "Media Mash" segment on "Hannity" should air around 9:30 p.m. EST. Bozell's live interview on "Fox & Friends" should commence live around 8:15 a.m. EST tomorrow morning.

Just after the "Fox & Friends" appearance, Bozell will sit down at C-SPAN's Washington Studio for the January 14 edition of "Washington Journal," a call-in interview program. That appearance is scheduled at 8:30 a.m. EST.

For an archive of NewsBusters coverage of bias following the Giffords shooting, click here.

Jared Loughner was in no way a conservative or inspired by alleged conservative talk show "hate," yet the media have been quick to blame conservative talk radio and Sarah Palin for his assassination attempt on Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Arizona), all in an effort to delegitimize and demonize the conservative movement.

This stands in stark contrast to how the media have been silent on the real political motivations of crazed left-wingers, NewsBusters publisher and Media Research Center founder Brent Bozell noted on the January 11 "700 Club."

Editor's Note: NewsBusters publisher and Media Research Center founder Brent Bozell issued the following statement and provided evidence on the double standard of blaming conservatives for the tragic shooting in Tucson, Arizona while repeatedly ignoring left-wing media outbursts wishing death upon conservatives:

The so-called ‘news’ media have zero currency in this debate because we have documented the Left using hateful, vicious language far worse than any conservative. Their attacks on conservatives are untrue and utterly hypocritical. If they really cared about the effects of political rhetoric, they would have gone after any number of those left-wingers who have directly incited violence – starting with the man with the world’s biggest audience: President Obama. After all, he did say, "If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun."

But that would be a ridiculous charge. And besides, the media aren’t really concerned about violent rhetoric. This is part of a much more insidious and calculated campaign to criminalize conservative thought.

Next they will ramp up support to regulate free speech on radio airwaves and the like. They want to illegalize opposition to liberal thought and are willing to accuse, indict and prosecute anyone who stands in the way of that Socialist goal.

Here are some lowlights of the left-wing media’s death wishes:

Managing Editor's Note: Media Research Center President Brent Bozell issued the following statement after a thorough, two-day review of how the media have covered the tragic shooting in Arizona.

Implicating a conservative tie to this heinous act of violence or to Jared Lee Loughner, who is no conservative, is nothing short of a naked campaign to criminalize conservative thought.

Sadly, those who point their finger are at the nexus of hypocrisy. Take the unidentified “veteran Democratic strategist” who told Politico that, ‘they need to deftly pin this on the tea partiers … Just like the Clinton White House deftly pinned the Oklahoma City bombing on the militia and anti-government people.’

Support NewsBusters with a tax-deductible year-end donation. We can provide NewsBusters as a free service only because of the thousands of concerned conservatives who support the Media Research Center financially each year and make possible the unique research operation behind the MRC's ongoing efforts to document, expose, and neutralize liberal media bias.

We realize that over the last few months we’ve tried your patience with changes to NewsBusters which were not implemented as smoothly as we would have liked, but that doesn’t lessen our financial requirements.

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Time's Joe Klein, ABC's Christiane Amanpour, and CBS's Lesley Stahl were just three journalists to see an outrageously biased quote of theirs land in the Best of Notable Quotables 2010.

A panel of 46 radio talk show hosts, magazine editors, columnists, editorial writers, and expert media observers chose the winners, and our news analysts introduce them and a few others in this highlight lowlight reel put together by Media Research Center video producer Bob Parks:

FNC’s Fox Newswatch on Saturday highlighted a winner in the MRC’s online balloting, in which many NewsBusters readers took part (Friday NB post announcing who you picked for Quote of the Year), for the annual awards for the year’s worst reporting. Host Jon Scott announced:

The results are in. The Media Research Center conducted an online poll asking the public to vote on the worst biased reporting. First up, the winner of the Poison Teapot Award for Smearing the Anti-Obama Rabble, goes to PBS's Tavis Smiley for this:

More than 8,000 participated in the public online voting for the Best Notable Quotables of 2010 (8,403 to be exact), weighing the idiocy and outrageousness of dozens of quotes from liberal reporters and celebrities. We posted the results a few hours ago.

 You can see which ones won and how many votes each quote earned by visiting: http://mrc.org/notablequotables/bestof/2010/publicballot/

For example, for "The Audacity of Dopes Award for the Wackiest Analysis of the Year," 1,691 of you picked none other than MSNBC's Chris Matthews (video after page break):

Before the media got thrills and chills over Obama, they were enthralled with Bill Clinton. They still have that lovin' feeling for him to this day, judging by their reaction to President Clinton's return to the White House briefing room lectern on December 10.

"This was really a bad moment for Obama. I don't think he realized just how much the media love Bill Clinton," NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell observed during the "Media Mash" segment of the December 16 edition of Fox News Channel's "Hannity."

Every year a panel of leading conservative media observers and experts picks the most-biased media quotes for the Media Research Center's annual awards for the year's "worst reporting." And these judges have done so again this year to decide the 2010 award "winners" with the choices to be announced on Monday, December 20.

Today is your last chance to vote. The deadline for your ballot is 3 p.m. EST.

In late October, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R) visited Media Research Center headquarters for a studio interview with CNSNews.com editor-in-chief Terry Jeffrey to discuss his state's lawsuit challenging the so-called individual mandate within ObamaCare that would require Americans, under penalty of federal law, to purchase health insurance.

Yesterday a federal District Court judge in the 4th Circuit ruled that provision unconstitutional.

[Click here for the full ruling by Judge Henry Hudson]

Given this development, we thought we'd post the full 33-minute Jeffrey-Cuccinelli interview below the page break.

Enjoy:

Recent news media coverage of the tax debate in Congress borrows heavily from misleading liberal Democratic talking points, NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell told viewers of today's edition of "Fox & Friends."

"Eighty percent of the time, the media have it wrong," the Media Research Center founder noted, referring to an MRC study on coverage of the debate on whether or not to extend the Bush tax cuts set to expire at the end of 2010. Many mainstream media journalists have been portraying the congressional Republican position to be advocating tax cuts, rather than what it really is: keeping tax rates at their current levels, thus preventing a tax increase.

"The fact of the matter is we are broke because our spending is out of control, it's not our taxes [being too low]," Bozell complained regarding the media portraying extending the about-to-expire Bush tax cuts as "costing" the government money.

For the full segment, watch the embedded video which appears after the page break.

"This is journalistic insanity," NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell protested after watching a montage of liberal journalists misrepresenting the tax policy debate before Congress.

"There is no tax cut going on here at all.... What we're talking about is preventing a tax increase, a tax increase which, by the way,  economists are saying, is going to throw this country into a double-dip recession," the Media Research Center (MRC) founder reminded viewers of the "Media Mash" segment on the December 9 "Hannity."

[Video embedded after page break]

While the media have been hyping rich liberals like Ted Turner and Warren Buffett calling on Congress to raise taxes on Americans earning over $250,000 per year, they've failed to inform the public that the nation's top earners already pay a disproportionately large share of the nation's tax burden, NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell told Fox News's Steve Doocy on this morning's "Fox & Friends" [video follows page break]:

After watching a montage of mainstream media journalists defending the TSA's invasive pat-down procedures as practically essential to preventing airline terrorism, NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell argued it'd be a far different story if those procedures had happened under the Bush administration.

"Imagine the same reporters reporting that story if George Bush had instigated these [TSA pat-down] policies," NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell argued on the December 2 edition of Fox News Channel's "Hannity."

[Video of the "Meda Mash" segment follows the page break]

"Look, if you like depictions of sadomasochism... if you like homoerotic art.... if you're into religious bigotry... if you like that, fine," but don't expect taxpayers to subsidize such an exhibit at a Smithsonian museum, NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell argued in a debate segment on last night's edition of "John King USA" on CNN.

The Media Research Center (MRC) founder and president appeared opposite Washington Post art critic Blake Gopnik, who defended the controversial art display "Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture" featured at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery.

You may recall that on Tuesday Bozell called for Congress to investigate the taxpayer-funded Smithsonian for showcasing the abhorrent and sacrilegious display.

[Video follows the page break]

Managing Editor's Note: The following is adapted from a news release issued earlier today:

Alexandria, VA – As CNSNews.com reported yesterday, the taxpayer funded Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery is hosting an exhibit during this Christmas season featuring images of an ant-covered Jesus, male genitals, naked brothers kissing, men in chains, Ellen DeGeneres grabbing her breasts, and a painting the Smithsonian itself describes in the show's catalog as "homoerotic."

[Link to CNSNews.com story here. WARNING: Story contains graphic photographs of items on display in an exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery.]

NewsBusters publisher and Media Research Center (MRC) president Brent Bozell reacted:

Katie Couric's boosterism of "moderate Republican" Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and NPR's cheap shot at former President George W. Bush's recovery from alcoholism were just two of the "Media Mash" topics NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell and Fox News host Sean Hannity addressed on the November 20 edition of "Hannity."

"When will you ever hear the word 'liberal' attached to a Republican?" Bozell asked, noting that Murkowski is in fact a liberal Republican.

"In eight years, she was on [CBS] one time. In the last week, she's been on there twice," the Media Research Center president noted after viewing a clip of CBS "Evening News" Katie Couric's November 15 interview with the Alaska senator.

[Video of the full "Media Mash" segment is available after the page break]

Upon receiving the Kennedy Center's Mark Train Prize for American Humor on November 9, comedian Tina Fey trashed Sarah Palin in her acceptance speech.

By the time PBS broadcast the taped ceremony, the taxpayer-subsidized network had edited out some of Fey's harsher jokes that maligned the former Alaska governor.

NewsBusters publisher and Media Research Center founder Brent Bozell appeared in studio on today's "Fox & Friends" to address the controversy, lauding PBS for doing the right thing by making those edits.

[Video follows after page break]

NBC's Matt Lauer and MSNBC's Dylan Ratigan last night found themselves just two of the targets in the latest "Media Mash" segment on Fox News Channel's "Hannity" show.

NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell appeared on the November 11 program to dissect NBC's biased coverage of former President George W. Bush's new memoir, "Decision Points," an ABC News puff piece on Michelle Obama's fashion sense, and MSNBC's Ratigan giving a platform to a leftist calling for violent revolution.

"Matt Lauer is absolutely delusional," opined Bozell, pointing to Lauer's criticism of the former president's defense of his signature tax cut legislation. "The tax cuts caused the recession? The reality is, the Bush tax cuts gave us four million jobs. Those are the facts; you can't go against these facts."

[Video of the segment available after the page break.]