Topic: Media Research Center
Jon Stewart called out the right-wing outrage machine as best personified by the Media Research Center, and the MRC's Tim Graham is, surprisingly, only mildly annoyed at the exposure.
In a June 4 post, Graham quotes from a Daily Beast article on Stewart reacting to Samantha Bee's vulgar criticism of Ivanka Trump:
“Please understand that a lot of what the right does, and it’s maybe their greatest genius, is they’ve created a code of conduct that they police, that they themselves don’t have to, in any way, abide,” Stewart said.
The right described him as a “tool of the Obama presidency,” because he made two visits to the White House. Meanwhile, Trump “spoke to the head of Fox [News] and strategized with him on a weekly basis and uses their on-air talent as advisers.” He told liberals, “Don’t get caught in a trap of thinking you can live up to a code of integrity that will be enough for the propagandist right. There isn’t. And so, create your own moral code to live by, but don’t be fooled into trying to make concessions that you think will mollify them.”
[...]
Seeming to imply that Bee shouldn’t have apologized, Stewart said there is nothing anyone can do to “make them give up this ‘We’re the real victims’ game,” because, “it’s a game, it’s a strategy, and it’s working.”
Interestingly, Graham responded only to the last comment with only lame whataboutism: "So if someone insulted Jon Stewart's wife as a feckless (fill in the blank), it would be a 'game' or a 'strategy' for him to object?"
Graham says nothing about Stewart's statement that the right holds liberals to standards they can't be bothered to follow themselves -- perhaps because he knows it's true. After all, the MRC's "news" division CNSNews.com would be much more than a pro-Trump stenography service and PR agency for Mark Levin and Judicial Watch if it was forced to follow the same standards regarding bias that the MRC demands from the so-called "liberal media."
And, really, we've lost count of the number of times we've caught the MRC in blatant double standards -- excoriating a media person or outlet for something it does itself.
So, yeah, it's probably best that Graham doesn't challenge Stewart on that particular point.
