Liberal Fox News contributor and former TV host Alan Colmes took a swipe at NewsBusters on Monday’s "Happening Now" over our coverage of "The New York Times" coverage of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).
Appearing alongside conservative writer Jim Pinkerton on Monday's "Happening Now", Colmes claimed that "Conservatives are always complaining they're not getting fair treatment in the media. It’s the conservatives saying that it wasn't fair" before laying into his attack on NewsBusters. [See video below.]
Colmes began his attack on NewsBusters by arguing that:
NewsBusters, you know a conservative website, says that "New York Times" called CPAC strident. When actually what they said it was an attempt to be less strident. Less strident based on party was the headline “New York Times.” Christie offers GOP subtle advice which they highlighted as some kind of anti-conservative headline was neutral. GOP divided on proper role for U.S. abroad is factual.
The GOP is divided. So, you know, conversely, when the Netroots met the array of Progressive bloggers, The "New York Times" headline said it was a pep rally for an uneasy Democratic team. That’s not a positive headline. So it's hard for me to show much empathy for conservatives complaining when I don't feel the media coverage was that terrible.
For starters, Colmes falsely claimed that NewsBusters misquoted the “New York Times” piece in question, however, my colleague Clay Waters clearly stated that the Times used the words “less strident” in the body of his piece. In addition, NewsBusters never claimed that the Christie headline was biased, but was an example of one of the many CPAC-related headlines.
Furthermore, Colmes’ comparison between the media coverage of CPAC and the liberal Netroots convention is flawed. If you read “The New York Times” piece on Netroots from 2010, which appeared as one blog post and never in the actual newspaper, it focuses on the need for Obama to please liberals, not that liberals are too extreme and strident:
President Obama addressed today, via video, a gathering that included some of his earliest and most hard-core supporters from the 2008 campaign. But he yielded about a quarter of his four-minute message to Rachel Maddow, using edited clips of her MSNBC show to tout his administration’s accomplishments over the past 18 months.
That Mr. Obama had to defer to a voice that would be more credible with the crowd of wired, liberal activists at the fifth annual Netroots Nation conference in Las Vegas illustrates the growing frustration within the base of a Democratic Party that controls the White House and both houses of Congress
Not only does Colmes take a cheap shot at NewsBusters, but his criticism of us is erroneous as he failed to see the stark difference in “The New York Times” coverage of CPAC versus the one blog post it provided on Netroots.
See relevant transcript below.
FOX News
Happening Now
March 10, 2014
12:24 p.m. Eastern
JON SCOTT: Joining us now Alan Colmes host of “The Alan Colmes Show.” Also with us Jim Pinkerton contributing editor and writer for the American Conservative magazine, both of these gentlemen are Fox News contributors. So what do you think about his point, Alan? If this had been some kind of a liberal conclave, the news media would have been singing the praises.
ALAN COLMES: Cry me a river. Cry me a river. Conservatives are always complaining they're not getting fair treatment in the media. It’s the conservatives saying that it wasn't fair. I'll give you some examples. NewsBusters, you know a conservative website, says that "New York times" called CPAC strident. When actually what they said it was an attempt to be less strident. Less strident based on party was the headline “New York Times.” Christie offers GOP subtle advice which they highlighted as some kind of anti-conservative headline was neutral. GOP divided on proper role for U.S. abroad is factual. The GOP is divided. So, you know, conversely, when the Netroots met the array of Progressive bloggers, The "New York Times" headline said it was a pep rally for an uneasy Democratic team. That’s not a positive headline. So it's hard for me to show much empathy for conservatives complaining when I don't feel the media coverage was that terrible.
