MRC President and NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell appeared on the October 4 edition of Hannity and exposed the hollowness of the media's argument against covering inflammatory quotes Barack Obama made in a 2007 speech on race, clips aired for the first time earlier this week on Hannity. [Watch the full video after the jump.]
Host Sean Hannity set up the newest "Media Mash" segment: "I just played this tape, 2007. Yeah, the speech was reported on, but they didn't report what happened in this speech. They didn't -- major portions of it where the President is accusing the United States government -- before a predominantly African-American audience -- of not taking care of Katrina victims because of race."
What followed was a montage of NBC, CBS and CNN reporters insisting the tape was old news, including CNN anchor Carol Costello dismissing the clips on Wednesday: "A little reality here: This tape is not new. It was an open press event, recorded in its entirety in 2007, and many media outlets, including CNN, extensively covered it."
But Bozell pointed out that while the speech was covered at the time, the actual quotes that showed Obama suggesting government racism against Katrina victims were not shown, even though CNN was one network that had the full tape in its hands.
Bozell: "What CNN reported is flat-out untrue. When they say, 'we all covered it extensively,' -- we looked. Check your Nexis. Not one media outlet has ever covered what you showed on your show. Not one has ever done it. So when they say 'it's old news, let's move on,' that's an old canard, and that's really dishonest because they never have."
In a second segment, Hannity played a montage of MSNBC hosts decrying the supposed anti-Obama racism of the GOP, a frequent theme that the far Left has used to discredit the President's critics.
Bozell: "If they have the evidence to back up the race card attack, then they are doing the Lord's work. If they don't have the evidence, then it is the worst form of character assassination imaginable."
