Topic: Media Research Center
Media Research Center chief Brent Bozell hasn't said a word about the Bill O'Reilly sexual harrassment scandal -- in fact, nobody at the MRC has beyond Randy Hall obliquely complaining about CNN's "obsessive Bill O'Reilly coverage," and Bozell certainly does not want to put his TV hits on Fox in jeopardy by mentioning it -- but he has suddenly become a veritable hot-take machine on the subject of former Obama national security adviser Susan Rice and the unmasking of .
Bozell issued a statement asserting that Rice engaged in "politically-motivated unmasking of Trump associates"-- never mind the fact that Bozell does not and cannot know, at this point, whether Rice's actions were " politically-motivated."
Bozell went on to rant: "We have a smoking gun that points to criminal activity by President Obama’s national security advisor and the media have shown an utter lack of interest in pursuing the story. If this story is not a top priority for every news outlet, they are aiding and abetting a cover-up. President Trump has every right to be furious with the press and the American people have every reason to be disgusted."
Bozell, meanwhile, doesn't want to talk about the "smoking gun" that is the $13 million in settlements O'Reilly and Fox News have paid to settle sexual harrassment complaints.
Bozell then ran to Fox News' sister network Fox Business (of course) to assert that "CNN has been on a jihad" against outlets that report on Rice, insisting that Rice was engaged in "parsing of words" by claiming that she did not unmask for political reasons.Bozell then whined that "there have been non-stop, countless, innumerable stories done about these allegations of a Trump campaign conspiring with the Russians. Not one single piece of evidence has come up to point to that allegation." He didn't mention that his own "news" outlet, CNSNews.com, has been desperate to spin away the Trump-Russia connection.
In a separate Fox Business appearance, Bozell was still ranting about Rice, this time invoking the tired right-wing Benghazi warhorse: "This is the same Susan Rice who went on five national news shows after Benghazi and lied and blamed it on a video and yet you have got Andrea Mitchell reporting her spin on it that this was the latest of a Trump administration series of attacks." In fact, the House report on Benghazi found that Rice was following White House talking points about the video, which were based on an editing error by the CIA, and that she was not deliberately lying.
Bozell also invoked his persecution narrative, insisting that the media "want [Trump] out of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. So they're keeping a story alive that has absolutely no legs."
Bozell and Tim Graham's April 5 column rehashes all this hot-take spin -- calling her a "liar" on Benghazi, baselessly suggesting she leaked the unmasked names. They then laughably complain: "The media don't care first about "facts." They care first about liberal victory. Their hope now is to remove Trump from office. Keep that in mind when they speak."
Pretty rich coming from a couple of guys who didn't care about facts when applied to Trump and cared only about a Trump win and protecting Trump from his words and actions. Keep that in mind when Bozell and Graham speak.
