The Media Research Center’s Rich Noyes on Wednesday hammered the media’s obsession with bad news for Donald Trump, noting that journalists don’t care if Michael Wolff’s gossipy book is only half true. Appearing on Fox Business’s Cavuto, the MRC research director reminded, “This is the story they want to spend all their time on even though they can't confirm the most salacious details of Michael Wolff's book, even though there have been elements of the book that have been debunked.”
Host Neil Cavuto highlighted an MRC study finding that the three networks, over the period of January 3 to 9, devoted 140 minutes to Wolff, but only 11 tot he FBI re-opening the investigation into the Clinton Foundation scandal and only 6 to the Dow hitting 25,000.
Cavuto asked Noyes to theorize if a conservative author released a book about a Democratic president’s first year. Noyes responded, “If it got coverage at all it would have been antagonistic coverage. It would have been the media pushing back.”
A transcript is below:
Cavuto: Coast to Coast
1/10/18
12:12:17 to 12:17:57NEIL CAVUTO: Meanwhile, we were talking about Michael Wolff and it seems all the major networks, much of mainstream media devoted quite a bit of time, 140 minutes collectively on the Michael Wolff book alone. Eleven minutes on the Clinton probe. Six minutes on Dow 25,000. Isn’t that interesting? The Media Research Center’s Rich Noyes. That says all need to know, Rich. What do you think?
RICH NOYES: Well, I think this is, this is just a tiny sliver of the liberal media. ABC, CBS, NBC. This has been their story of 2018. That and Oprah Winfrey perhaps running in 2020. This is story they want to spend all their time on even though they can't confirm the most salacious details of Michael Wolff's book, even though there have been elements of the book that have been debunked. He called Wilbur Ross the Labor Secretary. He is the Commerce Secretary. A story like that if he was targeting a liberal politician I think would have been dismissed or ignored, or the media would have fought back against it. Here, even though people like George Stephanopoulos say, “Well if 50 percent is true, it is still pretty important.” Well, if only 50 percent is true, this is somebody that does not rise up to the level of standard that warrants this level of coverage.
CAVUTO: What I immediately noticed they have all but painted, or the book painted the President out to be Mr. Magoo, totally out to lunch, incapable of being, concentrating on anything for more than a few minutes. Yet we get this live White House spray yesterday with top Democrats and Republicans. The President is very aggressive in this give-and-take. Seems on top of his game. Not at all the picture Michael Wolff presents. What did you think of that?
NOYES: Yeah, this is where this may, you know, it is not meant to be flattering to the President but may be helpful to the president. You know Donald Trump is clearly not a perfect president. He has done a lot of things might be considered mistakes or missteps in his rookie year. But this is creating a caricature that he can easily exceed. I mean, it’s sort of, this was opportunity to have the words idiot and moron said over and over again on TV news. But look at record of the first year. You have a rising stock market. Record low unemployment. You have got these tax cuts that will give people bigger paychecks. You have got an expanding economy. The record that he is able to point to at the end of his first year, you know, just completely demolishes the idea that he is not up for the job or that his administration is some kind of a you know, gang of clowns. You know, yes, people inside might complain here and there, but that is not what people are going to care about in the next election. They will care about the record, the record so far looks pretty good.
CAVUTO: Very scant attention to that record. If a book been written like this so early into the Obama administration, whether people deemed it to be accurate or not, would it have gotten anywhere near this coverage?
NOYES: If it got coverage at all it would have been antagonistic coverage. It would have been the media pushing back. There was a book that came out in the Obama years. It was later on, but the Defense Secretary Robert Gates had a few critical things to say about President Obama in a largely flattering book but the media, because of his stature pushed back on everything he said they thought was not flattering about President Obama. That was the media playing defense for a president they like. Here it is the media taking elements of a story that they, you know, about a president they don't like, taking most insulting things and giving it vast traction. But I think, you know, at the end of the day it will build, sort of, lower the bar for President Trump. He will step over it pretty easily. And look better as a result, not worse.
CAVUTO: This is among the reasons why rich, you and I talked about this before, the President shouldn't even engage in that debate. He should ignore the book. He should ingore Michael Wolff. He should ignore media fixation and do what he was doing yesterday.
NOYES: No, he be building the record that people look to on election day, that is why we liked the guy, that’s why we voted for in the first place. You know, it is getting in the tit-for-tat with these people that I think brings him down and causes some anxiety on part of supporters. The meeting yesterday was something that you know, showed him in command. You know, he exceeded the caricature. ABC has sort of a snarky story how it was proving he wasn't as dim-witted as the book made him out to be. On other hand he did do that. So, it was mission accomplished.
