Topic: NewsBusters
The Media Research Center's Tim Graham just can't stand it when the hate and craziness of the right wing is exposed for what it is.
Graham's target in a Nov. 20 NewsBusters post is a Washington Post article by Paul Farhi highlighting how the vast majority of political email chains come from the right, and that President Obama has been the subject of most of them, and many of those are misleading or false.
Graham began by challenging the premise:
Farhi quoted Ari Fleischer as the only feint toward conservatives or Republicans in the piece but Fleischer wasn't quoted challenging the Farhi thesis. How scientific is Snopes, for example, in "turning up" false political e-mails? Do they rely on tips, and sent by whom? Can a "nonpartisan" site be an easy mark for partisan sources?
Graham is also put that "Farhi links to that Soros-funded group run by David Brock." How immature is Graham that he can't refer to Media Matters by its proper name? (Disclosure: I work for that Soros-funded group run by David Brock.)
While Graham concedes that "Wacky e-mails making demonstrably ridiculous and unsubstantiated claims about Obama are despicable" -- not that the MRC has any demonstrated record of debunking said emails -- he complains about the "familiar liberal media-elite thesis" that "The 'gatekeepers' have lost their power to dominate, meaning the lies run wild now, when they never did when the liberam [sic] media dominated."
But the lack of a dominant media is exactly what Graham and the MRC want. The MRC online store is replete with T-shirts and bumper stickers that read"I Don't Believe the Liberal Media" and "Impeach the Liberal Media." And if the MRC was really interested in media outlets that were truly fair and balanced, its CNSNews.com wouldn't be such a respository of right-wing hackery, would it?
UPDATE: Brent Baker keeps up Graham's childish refusal to identify Media Matters by name in a Nov. 22 NewsBusters post, blaming "a blog post by a far-left group devoted to silencing Rush Limbaugh" for an ABC report on Rush Limbaugh sliming Michelle Obama by blaming her "uppity-ism" for being booed at a NASCAR race. Baker links to a Media Matters audio clip (not a blog post) of Limbaugh's remarks but offers no actual evidence that ABC's report was actually inspired by the clip. Indeed, ABC does not reference Media Matters at all in the report, and its clip of Limbaugh is taken from his video web feed, compared with the audio-only clip at the Media Matters website.
