On Saturday's Fox News Watch, two studies from the Media Research Center - parent organization to NewsBusters - were cited during the program. The first mention came during a discussion of Newark, New Jersey, Mayor Cory Booker's criticism of the Obama campaign's attacks on Mitt Romney's record at Bain Capital.
After panel member and FNC contributor Judy Miller wondered why either Romney's time at Bain Capital or the Reverend Jeremiah Wright's association with President Obama should not be considered "fair game," fellow panel member Jim Pinkerton of the The American Conservative magazine brought up the media's double standard of focusing much more on Republican Romney's wealth in 2012 as compared to Democrat John Kerry's wealth in 2004. Pinkerton:
Let's say, for fun, that it is an issue, in which case we can then say, "Now, why is it that this Massachusetts political figure with good hair in 2012 did not get anything like the good treatment of another Massachusetts political figure with good hair eight years ago, John Kerry. And, as, you know, Mike Ciandela at the Media Research, the study you cited, 13 to 1 ratio of more coverage for Romney's wealth than Kerry's wealth, when, in fact, Kerry, through his wife, is probably worth 10 times-
Before discussing FNC host Bill O'Reilly's attention to the topic from Tuesday's The O'Reilly Factor, host Jon Scott recounted the results of the study compiled by the MRC's Busines and Media Institute:
For those of you who didn't understand what Ellen (Ratner) is talking about, the Media Research Center, a conservative-leaning organization, did a study of mentions of John Kerry's wealth on the evening news, the big three evening news broadcasts back in 2004. He got two mentions from CBS and ABC, one each. NBC didn't mention it at all. Contrast that with stories about Mitt Romney's wealth during the same three-month period in the current 2012 environment, he got mentioned 27 times
