MRC President and NewsBusters Publisher Brent Bozell appeared on the May 9 edition of Fox News Channel's "Fox & Friends" to discuss media coverage of the Democratic primary race. Bozell held that while the conventional wisdom that Clinton's candidacy is all-but-over may be accurate, political reporters who should be objectively reporting the campaign have taken on the role of pundits and commentators. What's more, Bozell added, it's precisely this sort of cheerleading by the referees that has called the game for Obama well before the clock's run out. [audio available here]
Below is a transcript of Bozell's first segment on "Fox & Friends.":
STEVE DOOCY, co-host: Not waiting for hard numbers, Time magazine's coverage screams, ‘And the winner is...' with Barack Obama front-and-center. Why does it seem that the mainstream media has anointed him the Democratic nominee and dismissed Hillary Rodham Clinton already? Brent Bozell is the president of the Media Research Center, joins us from D.C. Good morning to you, Brent.
BRENT BOZELL, MRC President: Good morning, how are you?
DOOCY: Fine, thanks, very much. We know that a lot of members of the mainstream media feel a tingle in their leg when they think about Barack Obama, on one channel at least. Does it appear to you that the mainstream media is ganging up now against Hillary Clinton?
BOZELL: You know, Steve, it's a bit of a toughie. If you were to ask my opinion of where the race stands at this moment, I would say exactly what people like Bob Schieffer and Tim Russert and others have said, which is that, basically, it's just about over. The problem is that I'm a commentator and I'm giving my opinion, and these people are reporters and are supposed to be reporting. But they are asked to be analysts, and they analyze and opine. And what happens, well, if I were the Clinton campaign I'd be furious right now. Because, although it is a long shot, when the news media are declaring it over, it may be over because of the news media.
DOOCY: Alright, we've got some clips that exemplify exactly what you were talking about, let's start with Tim Russert.
[airs some video clips of ABC's George Stephanopoulos, NBC's Tim Russert, CBS's Bob Schieffer]
DOOCY: Okay, you're right, without the numbers in hand, they've declared it over.
BOZELL: Yeah, and see, if I were asked in each one of those quotes, I look at those and I think stand-alone, each one of them may be absolutely accurate. But the problem is, these are meant to be reporters who are reporting the events, not stacking the deck against Hillary Clinton, which they're doing. Inadvertently.
