Journalists always warn us of the far right, but where on earth is the far left? When journalists are puffing socialists like Zohran Mamdani, they show where they belong on the ideological spectrum. If they tagged Ilhan Omar or AOC as "far left," our jaws would drop.
MRC Director of Media Analysis Geoff Dickens and PBS analyst Clay Waters joined the show. Clay's latest study of labeling over a year on the PBS News Hour found "far right" terms are 11 times more likely to be applied than "far left" terms. That's because PBS is on the far left, so AOC is their hero for moving the Democrats further to the left. The last time Clay did the numbers it was a more dramatic imbalance, 27 to 1.
Among the examples Clay found was a January report from PBS congressional reporter Lisa Desjardins, where she explained House Speaker Mike Johnson was narrowly elected after facing some opposition from "hard right" Republicans like Reps. Tom Massie, Ralph Norman, and Keith Self. No member of Congress was on the "hard left."
Geoff discussed his work on our weekly opinion poll on social media to pick the "Worst of the Week" in liberal media utterances. Often, there is a cast member from The View in there, most recently Sunny Hostin declaring “I think everyone should be offended at the blatant xenophobia and racism that comes from the highest office in the United States and the misogyny." Trump language oozes of "fascism" and "white supremacy." Plus: David Letterman offered a gauzy tribute to Jimmy Kimmel as "leader of the Resistance."
We also discuss Jennifer Welch, a former Bravo reality-show star who was celebrated this week by The New York Times for how she tries to shame Democrats into lurching further to the left. She drops vicious hot takes like calling widow Erika Kirk as a "an absolute grifter, just like Donald Trump and just like her unrepentant, racist, homophobic husband was.”
Joy Reid missed the cut this week since her most notable move was sharing a video on her Instagram account that suggested the song "Jingle Bells" was racist, since its writer was involved in minstrel shows and the Confederate army. Shouldn't she be objecting next to "White Christmas"?
Since Geoff and Clay both joined the Media Research Center in the mid-1990s, I sprung a quiz on them from some of the worst media quotes from that time. It's like remembering hit songs by the Cranberries or the Smashing Pumpkins, only much worse.
Enjoy the podcast below on video, or the audio is here.
