Topic: Media Research Center
Remember how we noted earlier this month that CNSNews.com suddenly decided to highlight the low unemployment rate among Hispanics among its rah-rah pro-Trump monthly unemployment coverage? Turns out there was a reason for that: so its Media Research Center parent could use the cherry-picked stat to attack media outlets it doesn't like for not reporting it.
And the MRC did indeed get a lot of mileage out of it:
- Tom Blumer (a few days before he was fired) played up the number, pointing out that "Craig Bannister at our sister site CNSNews.com noted the record-low Hispanic unemployment rate a half-hour after the jobs report's release" and complaining that "The establishment press's gatekeepers have been ignoring, downplaying, or deeply burying June's record-low Hispanic joblessness."
- MRC Latino's Ken Oliver-Mendez wrote a post a couple hours later complaining that Hispanic TV networks Univision and Telemundo failed to report it: "One would think such a historic achievement would be news that night on the nation’s leading Spanish-language television news programs, but that was not the case."
- Oliver then appeared on Fox Business to tout his attack on Univision and Telemundo, assering that this somehow "really illustrates the disconnect between the average Hispanic voter in the country and perhaps the average Hispanic viewer of Univision and Telemundo and what they're getting." Interestingly, Oliver-Mendez appeared with Fox Business host Charles Payne, whose travails with sexual harrassment allegations against him the MRC has censored.
And just to bring things full circle, Bannister wrote a blog post at CNS about Oliver's TV appearance promoting his CNS article. Bannister did helpfully include the disclaimer that "MRC Latino, like CNSNews.com, is a division of the Media Research Center (MRC)."
A truly independent news organization -- which the MRC likes to portray CNS as -- would not be writing "news" articles for the apparet sole purpose for use as activism by the parent organization. It's time for the MRC to publicly explain to readers what line -- if any -- exists between the editorial side and the activism side.
