Appearing on Fox Business’s Cavuto: Coast to Coast on Wednesday, Media Research Center research director Rich Noyes took the editor-in-chief of Buzzfeed to task for “basically telling his staff that it's okay to call Trump a mendacious racist, a lying racist.” Noyes told host Neil Cavuto it was “another example of the media trying to basically, you know, deal with Trump themselves rather than waiting and let voters to do it in February and March.”
After citing numerous other examples of the press labeling Trump as extremist and comparing him to Adolf Hitler, Noyes explained “...there are opinion journalists and they can give opinions, but too often you’ve got news reporters who think it’s their job to not just report what’s going on, but to put their own finger on the scale.”
Cavuto wrapped up the segment by blasting liberal journalists: “I don’t know, but telling him [Trump] to shut up, why don't they shut up?... a classic case, guys, of media bias. When you say that kind of stuff on the left, that’s okay, the left will condone, accept lionize those remarks. If you, if you just step back and say, ‘Wait a minute, who’s being the bigger ass here?’ Just curious.”
Here is a full transcript of the December 9 exchange:
1:42 PM ET
NEIL CAVUTO: Alright, in the meantime, speaking of critics, media critic Rich Noyes on Buzzfeed. The editor-in-chief saying that it’s okay – it’s okay to call Donald Trump a racist. I thought those were pretty strong words. What did you make of that?
RICH NOYES: Well, it was basically telling his staff that it's okay to call Trump a mendacious racist, a lying racist, because it's a proven fact. Well you know, easier said than done. It’s not a proven fact, it’s something that some people believe. Maybe more people believe it now than believed it a week ago. But people have different definitions of what racist is. People, you know, have different sets of facts. A reporter's job is to report what Trump says, what his critics say, not to come to conclusions themselves. And this is another example of the media trying to basically, you know, deal with Trump themselves rather than waiting and let voters to do it in February and March.
CAVUTO: You know and another thing I find a little arrogant here is this – you know, the next thing is the Nazi comparison. “Oh, he’s a Nazi,” and all of this. And his views, they don’t agree with, so the next logical leap, “Oh, yeah, he’s a racist.” How do they get away with that?
NOYES: Well, I think they get away with it because right now Donald Trump doesn't have a lot of supporters among the Republican establishment. He’s got his base of support, but not amongst the elected leaders. Nobody in the media, you know, with some exceptions, is a real big Donald Trump fan right now. He’s sort of an outsider. And of course that’s what gives his campaign strength. But you know, it’s more than Buzzfeed. I mean, you saw the New York Daily News today calling him – suggesting in a front-page article that he was a radical who would chop off the head of the Statue of Liberty. A Philadelphia newspaper yesterday suggested he was the new Fuhrer, they spelled Fuhrer like “Furor,” but you know, it was sort of a Nazi-esque salute. Tom Brokaw, venerable Tom Brokaw, on Nightly News last night summoned up, you know, McCarthyism, the Japanese internment camps, and slavery as a –
CAVUTO: Out of control wackery. And I’m not endorsing Trump's remarks one way or the other, but I’m old enough to remember how the press covered Ronald Reagan and had a field day with comments like trees cause more pollution than cars do. Media had field day with that, said he was an idiot, a moron. I can remember the Carter folks hoping at the time that he would be the nominee when it looked like George Bush senior might be after winning Iowa because, well, George Bush would be much tougher to beat. Ronald Reagan would be walk in the park. We know what happened and the wisdom of American people, say what you will, voted him in back-to-back landslides. There are big differences, I grant you, between Donald Trump and Ronald Reagan, but the one commonality is this arrogant, dismissive view of the media opinionating on a guy I don’t know if they know.
NOYES: Right. And you know there are opinion journalists and they can give opinions, but too often you’ve got news reporters who think it’s their job to not just report what’s going on, but to put their own finger on the scale. I think, you know, that’s the kind of mentality that Donald Trump is right now building off of. You know, it’s sort of – in his supporters eyes that’s why he’s an outsider, that’s why they like him. So I think they’re strengthening him, not really damaging him.
CAVUTO: You know, I don’t know, but telling him to shut up, why don't they shut up? You know? I don’t know, that’s just – now I'm sounding like trump. I get that. Alright, thank you very much. Great observations. But a classic case, guys, of media bias. When you say that kind of stuff on the left, that’s okay, the left will condone, accept lionize those remarks. If you, if you just step back and say, “Wait a minute, who’s being the bigger ass here?” Just curious.
