Tuesday's broadcast media inaugural coverage "really was over-the-top" with journalists falling over themselves to describe the Obama ceremony in glorious overtones, Media Research Center President Brent Bozell told the crew of "Fox & Friends" earlier this morning.
"Look, Obama is their investment. They did the best they could to elect him," and now the media will avoid sharply criticizing the man they helped put in office, the NewsBusters publisher told Fox News Channel viewers, appearing via video link from the MRC's new studio in Alexandria, Va. [audio excerpt available here]
Yet even if they wanted to critically cover the new president, the downsizing of the mainstream media ensures that they don't have the staff to provide the public with hard-hitting reporting, Mr. Bozell added.
Mr. Bozell also commented on how some media outlets have falsely attributed George W. Bush with the lowest approval ratings of any modern president upon his leaving office.
BRENT BOZELL, MRC President: Props to Bill Sammon... who pointed out correctly that the New York Times and the Washington Post were wrong in their front page stories saying that Bush exited with the lowest approval ratings in modern history. It's not true. Truman had lower ratings. Nixon had lower ratings. Secondly, with the exception of Bill Clinton, in modern history... every single president has gone from higher approval ratings to lower approval ratings. How many people know that JFK was in a free-fall in his approval ratings when he was assassinated? So, how you leave office and how history ultimately judges you is very, very different.
