Topic: Media Research Center
We've previously detailed how the Media Research Center reflexively blames liberal bias for, well, pretty much everything. So it surprises exactly no one that the MRC would blame Newsweek's problems -- the Washington Post Co. has decided to sell the newsmagazine -- on liberal bias as well.
A May 5 NewsBusters post by Brent Baker claimed that Newsweek "repeatedly showcased their favorite candidate, Barack Obama, on the cover" and asked, "Might such obvious blatant liberal advocacy, which anyone could see in the grocery store checkout line, help explain its decline in fortunes – in credibility followed by finances?"
A May 6 TimesWatch post kept up the drumbeat, complaining that a New York Times article failed to mention "Newsweek's purposeful shift toward liberal opinion over news-gathering."
Completely missing at the MRC, meanwhile, is any claim about Newsweek that deviates from its right-wing talking points, or any serious analysis of its problems. Slate's Jack Shafer and Reuters' Felix Salmon, for example, offer insightful looks at Newsweek's problems, as does Chris Rovzar at New York magazine.
You won't find such analyses discussed -- let alone acknowledged -- at the MRC. Why? If they can't frame it in their liberal-bias tunnel-vision template, it doesn't exist.
