Appearing on the July 9 Hannity, NewsBusters publisher Brent Bozell slammed the "character assassination" perpetrated by the liberal media in the 2012 presidential election. Talking with host Sean Hannity about his new book with Tim Graham, Bozell described the previous election cycle as "character assassination against anybody who would challenge Barack Obama." (Collusion is available online and in book stores.)
Highlighting the embarrassing Obama stories that the media refused to cover, the Media Research Center president explained, "All these things that you and I know to be scandals, the average Joe out there doesn't know even exists, because the media refuse to report them. And we show you over and over and over again real scandals, that never saw the light of day."
Regarding his assertion that the media "stole" the election, Bozell added, "But I'm absolutely convinced, absolutely convinced and this book proves it, if the media had done their job fairly and honestly, there's no way Barack Obama would have been re-elected. I absolutely believe that."
(Collusion is available online and in bookstores.)
A transcript of the July 9 segment, which aired at 9:49 ET, follows:
BRENT BOZELL: Yes, I don't even have a cold. Stage fright.
HANNITY: Great, I just shook your hand. Now I'm a germophobe. All right. Before we get to the book, which is fantastic. Not only did CNN raise the question, if black manhood is on trial in the Zimmerman case, they also wondered if he was, Zimmerman was enjoying the attack of Trayvon Martin. You can't make this up. CNN, watch.
[CNN clip.]
SUZANNE MALVEAUX: Earlier we heard from Leann Benjamin, she was another friend of George Zimmerman. And one of the things that she said is that she knew him because they were involved in these political campaigns. She had heard George Zimmerman as she said, whooping it up, you know, kind of like these screams of joy, if you will, or rallies during these campaigns, these political campaigns. And she was asked about the 911 tape, and she said, yes, that's George Zimmerman's voice, a cry for help, if you will.
Is there anyway that they could turn that and say, you know what, George Zimmerman, if he sounds that way on both the tape as well as what she recalls, that this was not somebody who was screaming for help and crying out, but that he was actually, you know, enjoying it, that he was pummelling Trayvon Martin, that there was a sense of joy in that moment. Is there anyway that the jurors could confuse that, her testimony?
[clip ends.]
HANNITY: Enjoy being -- having your nose broken and lacerations on the back of your head?
HANNITY: You just turn on any three minutes, you get something crazy. Okay, NBC, did you notice between Weiner and Spitzer, these news channels, they're loving it. As a matter of fact, MSNBC is going really in Spitzer's corner. It's like, it is almost like a thrill is going up their black socks.
[Hardball clip.]
MICHAEL SMERCONISH: Former governor and now candidate, Eliot Spitzer, joins me now. Governor, does running now mean that resigning was unwarranted? Would a Spitzer victory mark the end of the sex scandal as we know it? And I'm asking really, have we become too intrusive into our elected officials and candidates private lives?
ELIOT SPITZER: I'm not sure I'm the right person to ask, because I have a perspective that is so tailored to what I have been through.
SMERCONISH: If you're a competent guy, and I think Eliot Spitzer's a competent guy, then beyond the schadenfreude, what business really is it of ours?
SPITZER: I like hearing that, but again I think I'm not the one in the right position to embrace it and say, you're right and you're wrong.
[Clip ends.]
BOZELL: The name of that show is called Hardball.
HANNITY: Enough said. I am proud that I got to blurb your book, and the blurb I gave you was something I said in 2008. "Journalism is dead, censorship and character assassination are very much alive." This book proves it with evidence. This book does prove it, explain.
BOZELL: It does. We've been talking about this for the last couple of years, when you step back and put it all together and look at it again, as my colleague Tim Graham did, and you review it, only then do you see how shocking it is. What we saw last year was two-fold. One was a nonstop campaign of character assassination. Not critique, character assassination against anybody who would challenge Barack Obama. And on the flip side, an overwhelming attempt by the national media to suppress news, to censor news. All these things that you and I know to be scandals, the average Joe out there doesn't know even exists, because the media refuse to report them. And we show you over and over and over again real scandals, that never saw the light of day.
HANNITY: You say stole the election.
BOZELL: Those are tough words, I don't believe in hyperbole. I think that Romney lost for a good number of different reasons. But I'm absolutely convinced, absolutely convinced and this book proves it, if the media had done their job fairly and honestly, there's no way Barack Obama would have been re-elected. I absolutely believe that.
HANNITY: That goes to the second debate. That goes to Romney being rich, that goes to Republicans want dirty air and water.
BOZELL: And Sean, it continues to this day. Obama didn't stop his campaign, he continued it the day after the election. The media are there. Look, what happened to the IRS scandal, what happened to Benghazi, what's happened to NSA. They all disappeared, yet the scandals continue.
HANNITY: Do you think that lies about conservatives have stuck?
BOZELL: I think on one hand they do short term, but I think after a while, people are on to the media. Look, the approval rating of the national press corps is 7 percent right now, that's worse than Congress. So I think the politics of the bias by commission isn't that effective, it's the bias by omission, where they're not reporting news that's the danger.
