Appearing on FBN's Cavuto Friday night, MRC President Brent Bozell argued that the news media are losing the trust of the American public because they've become more "marginalized" and "radicalized" during the Obama years, deliberately ignoring news "if it harms the narrative of the left."
Host Neil Cavuto began the segment, part of an hour-long look at the issue of trust in America, by pointing out that "the media itself is one of the least-trusted institutions, second only to Congress," and yet many in the media continue to champion government action as a cure to social ills.
Both MRC's Bozell and The Hill's Lauren Ashburn agreed that the media were too infatuated with government to act as an effective watchdog. But when Ashburn disagreed that journalists were ignoring liberal scandals, pointing to recent coverage of the Clinton Foundation scandal, Bozell called that "nonsense."
They have not gotten to the bottom of a single one of the Obama scandals....Look at the IRS, look at Benghazi, look at the VA, look at so many scandals -- they've been dropped. This one, this Clinton one, will be dropped as well.
You can watch video of the entire May 8 segment below, followed by the relevant transcript:
NEIL CAVUTO: The government does this, the government can do that. Is the media simply too busy kissing up to the government to objectively cover the government? Because the media itself is now one of the least trusted institutions, second only to Congress. That's according to at least one recent poll. Media watchers Brent Bozell and Lauren Ashburn say that the fourth estate stopped being the government's watchdog decades ago. Well, Brent, it's very interesting to me that, despite all of that, it's like the media wants double down on this faith in government and question those who would dare question government.
BRENT BOZELL: Yeah, isn't it incredible that their response to being marginalized is to be even more marginalized. They've become so radicalized. We've seen something in the last two years that I frankly hadn't seen before: This -- since 2008, I should say -- this commitment, this deliberate commitment not to report news if it harms the narrative of the left. This is not one example, this is not two examples, I can give you 20 examples. As a matter of fact, you and I have talked about this many times on your show. They are deliberately not reporting news.
...
BOZELL: They have not gotten to the bottom of a single one of the Obama scandals. They did not get to the bottom of a single one of the Clinton scandals [in the 1990s]. Just think about their coverage of watergate and Nixon where they would not let go until they'd gotten to the bottom of it. Now look at the IRS, look at Benghazi, look at the VA, look at so many scandals -- they've been dropped. This one, this Clinton one, will be dropped as well.
