Media Research Center President David Bozell and NewsBusters Executive Editor Tim Graham joined The Sean Spicer Show Monday night to break down the latest example of media double standards: from the New York Times’ attempt to manufacture a “decline” narrative about President Trump to the press outrage over the White House’s new “Media Offenders” page.
Bozell and Spicer first focused on the absurdity of a recent New York Times article suggesting Trump was "losing his energy" or "declined," contrasting it sharply with the media's treatment of his predecessor. "We all saw Joe Biden's cognitive decline in real time," Bozell said. He emphasized the irony: "Then Trump's holding court day in and day out, doing all sorts of different interviews... the idea that he's lost a step is ridiculous." Bozell said the Times piece was a cynical attempt to drive traffic by deliberately provoking a reaction from conservatives.
The discussion then shifted to the White House’s new “Media Offenders” page, a public tracker highlighting reporters and outlets with a record of bias. Graham said the MRC was “very pleased,” noting the document included nine links to NewsBusters. He criticized the defensive response from outlets such as The Washington Post, which ran a headline suggesting Trump was “ramping up reporter attacks.” “They pretend this is an attack on freedom of the press … we are democracy and you’re authoritarianism. It’s maddening,” Graham said, arguing that many in the elitist media believe they can criticize others freely but view any factual critique of their own work as off-limits.
Bozell doubled down on the importance of the White House fighting back, calling the tracker a "terrific, terrific advancement" in the fight against liberal bias. He observed that while the media does not dispute the factual conclusions of the White House tracker, they simply "don't like being exposed," noting that the alternative is Republican leaders refusing to act on important stories because they believe "the media won't cover it."
The segment wrapped up with a call to action, encouraging Republicans to follow the White House’s lead and call out, rather than cozy up to, hostile journalists. The takeaway is simple: the media's swift and uniform condemnation of the tracker served as the strongest evidence yet of its necessity.
