Appearing on the Friday edition of the Fox News Channel’s Your World, Media Research Center president Brent Bozell and host Neil Cavuto hammered the liberal media for their refusal to cover Democratic Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid’s latest lowering of American discourse as he used the Senate floor to declare Donald Trump to be “a human leech who will bleed the country.”
Cavuto set the segment up by comparing the media reception to Reid’s behavior (almost none) to cacophony of outrage for the infamous “you lie” comment uttered by Republican Congressman Joe Wilson (S.C.) in the House chamber during a 2009 speech by President Obama.
Bozell opined immediately that it’s not right and made sure to mention that Cavuto’s soundbite didn’t include how Reid went onto call Trump “a spoiled brat” who swindles people.
When Cavuto wondered what the media would do if someone called the President a swindler or liar, Bozell invoked Article I, Section 6 of the Constitution about behavior inside the chambers of Congress:
[T]his is the same Harry Reid who in 2012 who said — accused Mitt Romney of not paying taxes for ten years, and here's another funny. I didn't know this but you know that there's a law that says that you can't be sued for defamation if you're speaking inside the well of the Senate? If you're going across the street and given that speech might have gotten sued for defamation. Just an interesting tidbit.
As for the amount of airtime that Reid’s comment fetched, Bozell revealed that it garnered only 10 second (on Thursday’s NBC Nightly News). Here’s the full extent of the coverage that came during a report by correspondent Andrea Mitchell:
MITCHELL: Earlier today, Clinton making a pitch to African American voters going after Donald Trump on the Tom Joyner radio show....And getting back up today with a sharp attack from the top Senate Democrat.
HARRY REID: Trump is a human leach who will bleed the country and sit at his golf resort laughing at the money he's made.
“Incredible. And I’m just saying. I would have asked on the left or the right — look, if you're going to make a big deal of Joe Wilson. They got Joe Wilson to apologize and this guy is saying something far, far worse about a presidential candidate, wow,” an astonished Cavuto declared.
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The MRC founder went onto expose how “the arrogance of the left” is fed by the fact that they know they won’t face a tongue-lashing because “[t]hey know that NBC, CBS, ABC, have got a dual set standards here.”
“What do you think? Granted — excuse me, can we Neil, just imagine, just imagine for one minute, Mitchell McConnell calling Hillary Clinton a human leech,” Bozell zinged.
The final moments of the segment revolved around the softball questioning Hillary Clinton received on her press plane on Thursday afternoon and Bozell commented that the media’s behavior was “pathetic” asking about her viewing habits of The Good Wife and Madame Secretary.
Wrapping things up, Bozell left some viewers scrambling for their phones or computers to google Torquemada when he commented about the vicious reaction by the liberal media when one of their own in Matt Lauer aggressively questioned Clinton last week: “And, Neil, when Matt Lauer asks one tough question of Hillary Clinton, it's like Torquemada came out of the woodwork.”
The relevant portion of the transcript from FNC’s Your World with Neil Cavuto on September 16 can be found below.
FNC’s Your World with Neil Cavuto
September 16, 2016
4:34 p.m. Eastern
NEIL CAVUTO: Alright, no matter what they say about media bias, on the right or left, I'm telling you, is alive and well. The story of two different sound bites that got very different media reaction. This one you might recall from a 2009 President Obama speech before Congress. A certain Congressman, Joe Wilson, yelling. Listen.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: The reforms — the reforms I'm proposing would not apply to those who are hear illegally.
REPUBLICAN CONGRESSMAN JOE WILSON (S.C.): You lie!
MEMBERS OF CONGRESS: Boo!
OBAMA: It’s not true.
CAVUTO: Alright. “You lie.” Everyone, everyone ripped him a new one, right? Now, I want you to listen to something from Harry Reid just yesterday.
SENATE MINORITY LEADER HARRY REID (D-Nev.): Trump is a human leech who will bleed the country and sit at his golf resort and laughing at the money he has made even though working people have been — many have been hurt in real life.
CAVUTO: Alright, well fortunately, I have that swift and furious media reaction. Not saying anything. Where is the media outcry? If you’re going criticize one, you got to criticize anyone who says that kind of stuff or does that kind of stuff, or do you? Brent Bozell, media watchdog who looks at all this stuff. It ain't right, Brent.
BRENT BOZELL: It’s not. The preceding sentence to the quote you ran had Harry Reid calling him a swindler, a spoiled brat who is swindling people. If you were to look at media coverage —
CAVUTO: If someone called — in the well of the senate or the house, a swindler, a liar, a President Obama — oh my gosh, but I digress. Go ahead.
BOZELL: And by the way, this is the same Harry Reid who in 2012 who said — accused Mitt Romney of not paying taxes for ten years, and here's another funny. I didn't know this but you know that there's a law that says that you can't be sued for defamation if you're speaking inside the well of the Senate? If you're going across the street and given that speech might have gotten sued for defamation. Just an interesting tidbit. Okay, so the Joe Wilson comment, there were a gazillion stores about how improper it was to use one word, in the Congress so we looked to see — we spent all night covering this one to see — to try to add up the total amount of time given to the Harry Reid slap in the face. Ten seconds.
CAVUTO: Incredible. And I’m just saying. I would have asked on the left or the right — look, if you're going to make a big deal of Joe Wilson. They got Joe Wilson to apologize and this guy is saying something far, far worse about a presidential candidate, wow.
BOZELL: Not one second, by the way, of it was critical and — and — and this morning he was asked about it on CNN, and in an interview he was asked about it and he didn't walk it back at all. This is the arrogance of the left, but they do this, Neil, because they know they can because if it isn't — if it isn’t Fox calling that, who is going to call them out? They know that NBC, CBS, ABC, have got a dual set standards here and they’re going to do one thing with Republicans and they’re going to —
CAVUTO: If you criticize or interrupt Hillary Clinton there's hell to pay, poor Matt Lauer knows that, but this proved the point to me —
BOZELL: What do you think? Granted — excuse me, can we Neil, just imagine, just imagine for one minute, Mitchell McConnell calling Hillary Clinton a human leech?
CAVUTO: Oh, man, but I want to prove another point to you here. Even with all the controversy going on with the pneumonia and everything else, and you know — the deplorables comment, this was the line of questioning, Hillary Clinton was getting, yesterday. I want you to just see a smattering of this.
(....)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER #1: Did you catch The Good Wife?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER #2: Why North Carolina?
MITCHELL [TO CLINTON]: But that’ll be tonight after the newscasts.
CLINTON: It’s done. I am so sad. I know, I really am. Madame Secretary, however, is coming back. So that something to look forward to.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE REPORTER #3: Is it odd to watch that?
CLINTON: No, I actually get a big kick out of it.
CAVUTO: Alright. I guess the viewing habits are important comments, Donald Trump wouldn't get those kind of questions.
BOZELL: The people's right to know. It's pathetic now. It's gotten to the point where it's just pathetic. They're not going to ask her anything serious, although there are all manner, all manner of controversies swirling all around her, and you, Neil, you just showed the questions she is being asked.
CAVUTO: You know, there are lot of people are going to say the media is going to go all over Donald Trump for the birther thing, and go ahead, have a field day, but I just say, again and again, just when you think the media is going to do that and make sure it gets both candidates, it's constant proof that there’s more hell to pay when someone does that and gets aggressive with a Democratic one than with a Republican one.
BOZELL: And, Neil, when Matt Lauer asks one tough question of Hillary Clinton, it's like Torquemada came out of the woodwork.
CAVUTO: There is that. Wild stuff, Brent, thank you very, very much.
