Guests on Hannity's "Great American Panel" referenced NewsBusters yesterday as a leading watchdog of the liberal media.
Democratic strategist Julie Roginsky likened NewsBusters to liberal blogs that attempt to, as Fox News anchor Sean Hannity put it, monitor conservative shows for phrases that "they can take out of context and target advertisers to try to silence opposition or get them fired directly."
The veteran FNC anchor defended NewsBusters against Roginsky's comparison, forcing her to admit that she has "no idea what they do."
[Video embedded after the page break.]
As readers of NewsBusters know, the purpose of this blog is to document liberal bias and educate the public about media bias.
A transcript of the relevant portions of the segment can be found below:
Fox News
Hannity
January 19, 2011
9:58 p.m. EST
SEAN HANNITY: I am concerned, there's a whole industry that's been built up. And you know all about this, John. Part funded by Soros money and others, you have people, I said this last night, their job is to monitor every show, conservative show, for a phrase, a sentence, a word, a paragraph that they can take out of context and target advertisers to try and silence opposition or get them fired directly.
JEDIDIAH BILA, Daily Caller: Yes, silencing freedom of speech, Fairness Doctrine, all of that you have to be careful of. And it's ridiculous. You don't want people to have to be walking on egg shells every time they open their mouth, Left or Right for that matter.
JULIE ROGINSKY, Democratic strategist: But that's not just liberal groups, you have Republican groups and conservative groups who do that as well. Sure, NewsBusters, I mean I could name a few that monitor everything people say.
HANNITY: Are they going after anybody's advertisers? I didn't hear about that. Are they trying to get hosts fired?
ROGINSKY: I have no idea what they do. I have no idea what they do.
JOHN GIBSON, Fox News radio host: Media Matters and the Soros group puts bull's eyes, crosshairs on people in the media all the time and they are very effective at it.
(CROSSTALK)
HANNITY: By the way, you will be the headline by the time this show is off the air.
GIBSON: With any luck.
HANNITY: All right, that's all the time we have left this evening. As always, thank you for being with us. Let not your heart be troubled. The news continues. Greta is next. We'll see you tomorrow night.
--Alex Fitzsimmons is a News Analysis intern at the Media Research Center. Click here to follow him on Twitter.
