Topic: Media Research Center
Rich Noyes' Jan. 17 Media Research Center attack, as it were, on Andrea Mitchell starts this way:
Longtime NBC News correspondent Andrea Mitchell will join Nightly News anchor Lester Holt in moderating tonight’s debate among the three Democratic candidates for President. If history is a guide, Mitchell’s participation is a good omen for Hillary Clinton, since NBC’s “Chief Foreign Affairs correspondent” (who, despite her title, seems to spend most of her time covering U.S. politics) has a long history of fawning over the Democratic frontrunner.
There's a couple things wrong with Noyes' approach, however. First, all of his clips of Mitchell are taken out of context, so it's impossible for anyone to tell whether the clips actually say what Noyes says they say.
Second, there's plenty of reason to doubt Noyes' interpretation because he ascribes emotions to Mitchell he cannot possibly know. At various points, according to Noyes, Mitchell "fawned" and "fretted" over, "chirped" and "crowed" about and "salute[d]" Hillary and "felt Hillary's pain."
None of this is "media research," by the way. Noyes is simply making stuff up, allowing his (and his employer's) right-wing bias to color his work. Actual research involves documentable facts; Noyes is simply issuing opinions.
Noyes is apparently also buying into the right-wing conspiracy theory that Hillary Clinton is "physically unfit for the presidency" and is hiding that from the public:
Mitchell was also bothered by any suggestion that Hillary, who will be 69 years old on Election Day, might be physically unfit for the presidency. After Karl Rove in May 2014 talked about Clinton’s hospitalization for a fall and concussion 18 months earlier, Mitchell acidly reported on the Nightly News: “There is no longer any doubt that some powerful Republicans are playing hardball against Hillary Clinton, raising questions about her age and her health, even before she decides whether she’s a candidate....As one Republican operative said, ‘Karl is either an evil genius — or just evil.’”
Noyes doesn't mention that Rove didn't just "suggest" that Hillary was "physically unfit," he actively pushed the idea that she has brain damage. He also doesn't mention that Rove's political operative-style smear -- for which Fox News praised him as a "evil genius" -- was denounced by none other than MRC fave right-wing radio host Mark Levin. Which means that Mitchell and Levin are on the same page.
Noyes is so desperate to attack anything remotely resembling "liberal media" that he doesn't care about intellectual or factual consistency. That's "media research" at the MRC these days.
