Topic: Media Research Center
Tim Graham devoted a March 5 NewsBusters post to complaining that NPR ombudsman Edward Schumacher-Matos "attacked media watchdogs as a class as silly, uninformed nitpickers."
Just four days earlier, however, Graham proved Schumacher-Matos correct by writing a post ranting that the Washingtonian magazine's website published "The Cutest Photos of President Obama With Kids." Graham raged that the Washingtonian "is a monthly for the Beltway crowd, and like many other D.C. organs, it’s in love with Obama," because what other reason could it have to publish photos of Obama with kids, which are "just a lot of mugging and Obama love"?
This is the height of silly, uninformed nitpicking, but Graham is apparently too self-unaware to notice.
Graham also takes offense at Schumacher-Matos' defense of the role of the newspaper ombudsman:
Is this the kind of copy an "independent" ombudsman should write if they're trying to seek public goodwilll? No, but Schumacher-Matos has been an insular voice from the day he arrfived at NPR in 2011. Unlike the last NPR ombudsman, he has made zero attempt to reach out and talk to us at MRC. (I'm the "NPR guy." The call would come to me.) His copy has proven he's about as "independent" as the average NPR reporter, and maybe less so.
Has he ever considered that the "objective" media's reporting often sounds to the audience like "silly nitpicking or advocacy opinion thinly disguised as analysis"? He's written about some silly, nitpicking subjects, like whether it's okay to call the president "Obama" instead of "Mr. Obama" after the first reference.
Then he separates groups like MRC from the “serious, nonpartisan” efforts inside the bubble of the liberal media industry[.]
More self-unawareness on Graham's part. The reason the MRC has no connection to "serious, nonpartisan" is because it is neither. The MRC's so-called research is nothing but partisan hackery that fails even basic standards of professional research and is tailored to back up a predetermined conclusion.
And really, should anyone take seriously an organization that posited that Matt Lauer wearing a checkered scarf meant that he was displaying Palestinian sympathies? We didn't think so.
Graham might want to keep that in mind the next time he whines that the MRC isn't being taken seriously.
