Topic: Media Research Center
From an Oct. 8 NewsBusters post by Tim Graham:
In a Fox & Friends segment on Hillary Clinton and her founding of the left-wing group Media Matters, substitute co-host Greg Kelly brought the fair-and-balanced mantra to bear by questioning guest Byron York of National Review about the Media Research Center, suggesting (to gasps at MRC employee breakfast nooks) that these groups are "arguably...the same thing."
Graham quickly added: "Luckily, York quickly made one important distinction: MRC mostly monitors 'objective' media, while MMFA mostly badgers [and ahem, calls for the firing/censorship of] conservative talk show hosts and other opinion journalists."
Yes, Tim's pretending again. The MRC's alleged focus on " 'objective' media" is contradicted by its numerous attacks on Rosie O'Donnell and Keith Olbermann, which suggest that the MRC does in fact object to liberal opinions being voiced on air. And claiming that Media Matters (my employer) "mostly badgers ... conservative talk show hosts and other opinion journalists ignores that it has also been critical of coverage by purportedly liberal media bastions such as Chris Matthews and the New York Times. (We already know the MRC smears people and takes them out of context.)
And if the MRC doesn't "call for the firing/censorship of" liberals, why is it floating the idea that Chris Matthews should be barred from moderating an upcoming Republican debate for merely making a factual statement?
The only substantive difference between Media Matters and the MRC is that the MRC had a 17-year head start.
