In light of more declassified documents illustrating the cockamamie claims of Trump-Russia collusion, MRC Founder and President Brent Bozell brought his A-game Monday night to the Fox Business Network’s Evening Edit, telling host Liz MacDonald that the liberal media engaged in the “aiding and abetting an attempted coup” of President Trump through “character assassination…by tens of thousands of cuts.”
And with help from an equally-irked MacDonald, Bozell trashed the liberal media’s shameless overreliance on anonymous sources, noting that they have no interest in “journalism 101” and “have nothing to do with the news.”
MacDonald began by asking whether “the media keep citing anonymous sources to attack Trump” and Bozell replied by citing an MRC study that found the broadcast network evening newscasts spent 2,284 minutes on the Mueller probe with likely thousands of cable news segments and newspaper articles concocting a narrative that never came to fruition.
Bozell added that they knew “the whole time” that “they had nothing” and lambasted the President for calling the Steele dossier fake. And with that in mind, the media were “equally guilty” as onetime intelligence officials like Peter Strozk and thus “should be charged with aiding and abetting an attempted coup of the President of the United States.”
After MacDonald took note of the intelligence community’s longstanding use of the media to promote their “propaganda…to continue their probes,” Bozell pointed to the sad reality of how “the media weren’t born yesterday” and have shown no interest in “journalism 101” and “independent sources.” Instead, they’ve hitched their wagons to anonymous sources the public know little to nothing about.
MacDonald then interjected to voice her disgust with the media’s use of “anonymous attacks” to advance their agenda, as well as the inconvenient fact (for the left) that the anti-Trump intelligence officials admitted under oath that they “didn’t have the goods” to throw Trump out that they had either directly or indirectly alluded to when not under the risk of perjury.
Bozell concluded with his assessment pertinent to not just the Trump-Russia probe, but the liberal media writ large:
This was attempted murder by character assassination by 1000 cuts, by tens of thousands of cuts. That’s what they are trying to do the whole time. I hope the American people understand, this is the media today. They have nothing to do with the news.
To see the relevant FBN transcript from July 20, click “expand.”
FBN’s Evening Edit
July 20, 2020
6:47 p.m. EasternLIZ MACDONALD: Okay, more and more as we dig into government documents, we're seeing that leaks to the media believed to be from the FBI and intelligence agencies did keep the Trump-Russia collusion story alive for three years but that was not what was going on behind the scenes. Newly declassified documents reveal the lead FBI investigator on the Trump-Russia probe, former FBI official Peter Strzok, was pointing out numerous mistakes and errors in these leaks in a February 2017 New York Times article. That article claimed Russian intelligence was in touch and had connections with the Trump team. The Times is now defending the story. Let's welcome Media Research Center and president and founder, Brent Bozell. Great to see you, Brent. It was written by Michael Schmidt --
BRENT BOZELL: Hi, Liz.
MACDONALD: --- Mark Mazetti, Matt Apuzzo. It quoted four anonymous sources. Do the media keep citing anonymous sources to attack Trump?
BOZELL: Think about this, Liz, you’ve had since --- since the start of the Mueller probe, you've had thousands of stories dealing with the Trump collusion. 2,284 minutes on prime-time television --- broadcast television, which is astonishingly enormous coverage. You had --- what --- hundreds or thousands of segments on CNN, on MSNBC. Hundreds of newspaper articles and yet what did we know the whole time? What did they know the whole time? The whole time they knew they had nothing. The whole time the President kept saying there is no there, there. There is no evidence. The whole time, he kept saying. This is based on a fake dossier. They knew this, Liz and they were reporting this, so you can say Peter Strzok is guilty and should go to prison and I believe he should, but if they could, I would say they need --- the media should be charged with aiding and abetting an attempted coup of the President of the United States. They're equally guilty, Liz.
MACDONALD: Okay. So who are these four American officials that The New York Times cites in this story? Apparently providing false information saying that Russian intelligence had contacts with the Trump team? I mean, the FBI, here’s the thing, we've seen this since the Church Report, that intelligence and, federal enforcement officials routinely use propaganda in the media to --- as a reason to continue their probes of whatever it is, and that has been known for decades, that that is what goes on in intelligence circles in Washington. You use the media
BOZELL: Yep.
MACDONALD: --- to keep propaganda going in to keep your probes going. So, what happened here with The Times story, it happened within a day of Michael Flynn, Michael Flynn stepping down over phone calls he had with the Russian ambassador and misleading the vice president about that, so you see what I'm saying. It’s --- they used the media to lay the groundwork to keep it going. Would you take that on?
BOZELL: Well they --- Liz, they do but the media weren't born yesterday. Look, you had tens of thousands of stories. 99 percent of them were based on anonymous sources. What does that tell you? Why was it that there was anybody on the record in thousands of stories? Because they didn't have the sources. And so somebody sends something to them. Look, Liz, you're a professional, I'm a professional. You're supposed to vet these things out. You know journalism 101 is you get two independent sources. They knew they didn't have anything and they went after the President the way ---
MACDONALD: Wait, wait, so you’re ---
BOZELL: --- they never once ---
MACDONALD: --- supposed to get ---
BOZELL: --- gone after any president.
MACDONALD: --- sorry. You're supposed to get a person ---
BOZELL: Sorry, go ahead.
MACDONALD: --- on the record. If you're going to attack somebody, you have to --- you have to --- get --- you can't be anonymous attacks. You have to get a person on the record. So when we continue to ---
BOZELL: This ---
MACDONALD: --- we've been looking at this for three or four years. I --- I have rarely seen ---
BOZELL: --- this was ---
MACDONALD: --- somebody on the record saying yeah, this happened. What I've seen on the record, forgive me, Brent, are James Clapper --- excuse me, James Clapper, James Comey, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, on the record saying we didn't have the goods. They didn't have a case. We have that on the record.
BOZELL: --- this was ---
MACDONALD: The anonymous attacks are not people on the record.
BOZELL: --- this was attempted murder by character assassination by 1000 cuts, by tens of thousands of cuts. That’s what they are trying to do the whole time. I hope the American people understand, this is the media today. They have nothing to do with the news.
MACDONALD: Alright. Brent, thank you so much. Appreciate you coming on.
BOZELL: Thank you, Liz.
