Topic: Media Research Center
Media Research Center vice president Dan Gainor is hopefully learning a valuable lesson: don't mess with the Muppets.
We've noted how an MRC Business & Media Center piece by Iris Somberg went on a tirade about how the new Muppets movie has an oil tycoon as its villain. Somberg's boss, Gainor, parlayed that piece into an appearance on Fox Business' barely watched "Follow the Money," where he and host Eric Bolling commiserated about about how the Muppets are "brainwashing" your children. "The only thing green up on that screen should be Kermit the Frog," Gainor ranted, further complaining that movies don't show "what oil means for most people, which is fuel to light a hospital or heat your home or maybe fuel an ambulance to get to the hospital if you need that."
That clip went viral, making Bolling and Gainor laughingstocks for obsessing over the Muppets' supposed left-wing agenda.
Then, Gainor followed it up with a return appearance on Bolling's show complaining about the "ridiculous and humorous overreaction ... all because we dared basically to reveal the man behind the curtain." Gainor further huffed that Media Matters, which first posted the Gainor-Bolling clip (and which I work for), is "one of these Soros-funded media outlets, so when they do something, the left picks up on it."
Meanwhile, at the echo chamber that is the MRC network of websites picked a weird, nitpicky thing to complain about. A Dec. 6 NewsBusters post by Somberg grumbled about a "false Huffington Post claim," repeated by Conan O'Brien, that Bolling called the Muppets "communist,"helpfully clarifying that "he just said liberals are trying to brainwash children against capitalism." But brainwashing is what a communist would do, right? Somberg did concede, though that Bolling did say, "We’re teaching our kids class warfare. What are we, communist China?"
Somberg embeds the Conan clip in her post but not the original Bolling-Gainor clip. Is that a sign that Gainor and the MRC are a bit embarrassed by this whole fiasco, even if Gainor himself is shameless enough to make a repeat appearance on Bolling's show?
P.S. We couldn't find either Bolling-Gainor clip posted elsewhere at NewsBusters, or at the MRC's video site, MRCtv. So maybe someone at the MRC (if not Gainor) has a sense of shame after all.
