MRC In A Nutshell
Topic: Media Research Center
In its coverage of the Tom DeLay indictment on NBC's "Today" show, reporter Chip Reid played a clip of DeLay saying, "This is one of the weakest, most baseless indictments in American history. It's a sham, and Mr. Earle knows it," a clip introduced by Reid saying that "In a blistering attack, DeLay called [Texas district attorney Ronnie] Earle, who is a Democrat, a partisan fanatic." Reid followed that by saying that Earle "vigorously denied his investigation of DeLay is motivated by politics," followed by a clip of Earle: "We prosecuted four times as many Democrats as Republicans. This is not about Democrats and Republicans. This is about cops and robbers."

At the Media Research Center's NewsBusters blog, MRC staffer Geoff Dickens wrote of the above report: "Chip Reid attempted to play down Tom DeLay's charges of partisanship in Texas Democrat prosecutor Ronnie Earle's indictment."

That Dickens thinks a report that allowed a Democrat to respond to charges made by a Republican equals "playing down" the Republican's charges is pretty much all you really need to know about the Media Research Center.

UPDATE: Another NewsBusters post, by Tim Graham, claimed that on "Hardball," Chris Matthews "downplayed" Earle's alleged partisanship, but Graham failed to note that the first segment of "Hardball" was Matthews' interview of DeLay, in which DeLay repeatedly bashed Earle as a partisan and Matthews made no attempt to challenge DeLay's accusations.

Graham's claimed source for his "Hardball" item? Geoff Dickens.