Topic: Media Research Center
Media Research Center news analyst Matt Hadro -- best known as the MRC's documentarian of how CNN repeatedly fails to denigrate gays -- sure hates it when controversial statements by conservatives are covered. He whines in an April 4 NewsBusters post:
CNN's Piers Morgan put Michael Reagan through the wringer on Wednesday over a small portion of his op-ed on churches and same-sex marriage. Morgan barely discussed the overall point of the article, focusing instead on "very controversial comments" near the end of the op-ed.
Within his call for churches to openly oppose same-sex marriage, Reagan had noted a "slippery slope" that would occur if same-sex marriage is legalized, possibly leading to legalization of "bestiality, and perhaps even murder." Morgan found this "at worst really very bigoted and offensive" and attacked Reagan for comparing gay marriage to bestiality and murder, even though Reagan was not comparing the two, but rather was arguing that legalization of one could lead to legalization of the other.
That seems like a distinction without a difference, a desperate attempt to defend an absurd slippery-slope argument. There is no logical progression from same-sex marriage to murder, and surely Hadro knows it.
Also, notice Hadro's complaint that Morgan focused only on the "very controversial" statement Reagan made. He whines about that again in another April 4 post that "CNN didn't show as much respect for Reagan's conservative son Michael who had penned an op-ed calling on churches to stand up for traditional marriage. Anchor Brooke Baldwin focused only on the most controversial part of his article."
But isn't focusing on controversial statements and ignoring their context pretty much the MRC's modus operandi? Yes, it is. Isn't it hypocritical for Hadro to complains about context supposedly being ignored? Yes, it is.
Just to name one example of focusing only on a controversial statement to the exclusion of everything else, the MRC loves to portray two sentences of a profile of Ted Kennedy that referenced Mary Jo Kopechne and stated that "Kennedy would have brought comfort to her in her old age" as being laudatory of Kennedy when the author himself said it was a criticism.
So, yeah, Hadro is complaining about what he and his employer do all the time.
