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.
Levin got to us right after playing audio of an Associated Press story that include the sound of Reid hanging up on the AP reporter:
BEGIN transcript:
Our friends at Newsbusters.org, part of the Media Research Center, have analyzed the outstanding media coverage of this scandal. They write,
CNN devotes almost 20 minutes to the Foley story; 35 seconds to Harry Reid Scandal. The October 12 edition of ‘American Morning,’ –
which nobody watches!
-- demonstrated the stark difference between how the media focuses on a Republican scandal, versus one involving a powerful Democrat. The CNN program devoted 18 minutes to investigating the Mark Foley scandal and only 35 seconds to the details of a questionable land deal involving Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid. Despite the recent revelations that Reid earned $1.1 million on a Las Vegas property that he hadn’t owned for three years, and despite the fact that he recently hung up on an AP reporter who asked him about it, ‘American Morning,’ which airs from 6a.m. to 10a.m. only broadcast two brief anchor reads on the subject. In contrast, the program produced five full reports and one anchor read on the scandal involving former Congressman Mark Foley and congressional pages.
Still doing it. I’m listening to the news while I’m prepping for my show. Foley, who, ‘hey, the ethics committee just interviewed this guy Fordham, ohh, what’s he going to say? And this congressman-’ Ain’t going to work, boys. They go on:
Morning score card: ABC, CBS, NBC have no Harry Reid story, but five Foley items. Thursday’s morning shows on ABC, CBS, and NBC stayed true to Democratic partisan form. No one covered the AP investigative report on Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid’s inaccurate disclosure forms as he turned a $400,000 Las Vegas land deal into a $1.1 million bonanza. But there were five items on the Mark Foley scandal, almost at the end of its second week: an anchor brief on ABC, two anchor briefs on NBC, an anchor brief on CBS and a full story from CBS reporter Sharyl Attkisson.
Hey, but what was going on over at ‘The New York Slimes?’ I’m sure they covered this, didn’t they? Well, the great website Timeswatch.org, meaning ‘The New York Slimes’ Watch.org., they write:
Phil Shenon, ‘New York Slimes’ reporter, covers the possible financial scandal involving House Minority Leader Senator Harry Reid very carefully. For one, quote, ‘Senator Offers to Amend Financial Forms,’ unquote, is the most benign headline imaginable– as if Reid is doing everyone a favor by offering to follow the law. Contrast that with the negative headline over the Times’ AP story about Republican Senator George Allen from Monday, which has no problem focusing blame. Quote: ‘Virginia Senator Did Not Disclose Stock Options,’ unquote.
And he made no money from them either, unlike Harry The Body. ‘Why does he call him ‘The Body?’ We have new audiences coming and going- He was a big time boxer, they claim, hence ‘The Body,’ little skinny shrimp. Now:
Reporter Shenon conveniently catches Reid already claiming to be dealing with the matter: Quote, ‘The Senate Democratic leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, said his office contacted the Senate ethics committee on Wednesday and offered to correct his financial disclosure statements if they misrepresented his ties to a land deal in his home state in which his family made a profit of $700,000. In a statement, Mr. Reid did not acknowledge errors in the disclosure forms but said he was ready to make a 'technical correction' if the ethics committee determined that adjustments were needed.’
Slimes reporter Shenon resolutely skips over the interesting parts of the Reid story, including his hanging up on an AP reporter questioning him about the deal.
The lead from AP's John Solomon and Kathleen Hennessey, who broke the story, is a bit punchier: Quote: ‘Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid collected a $1.1 million windfall on a Las Vegas land sale even though he hadn't personally owned the property for three years, property deeds show. In the process, Reid did not disclose to Congress an earlier sale in which he transferred his land to a company created by a friend and took a financial stake in that company, according to records and interviews.
By the way, Reid and his people say, well, nothing wrong. He didn’t benefit from this. Well, then, why did he do it if he didn’t benefit from it? Can’t a reporter learn to answer a– rather, propose a serious question to a liberal politician? Can’t a reporter ask Harry The Body, ‘Why did you do this? Why did you do this if there was no special benefit to you?’”
END of transcript.
Later in the evening, NBC Nightly News aired their first (short) mention of Reid’s ethical troubles. This morning, ABC, CBS and NBC maintained their ‘Cone of Silence’ about the Reid story.
