Topic: CNSNews.com
Charlie Daniels, CNSNews.com columnist and close personal friend of Brent Bozell -- and, thus, someone the MRC never told to shut up and sing -- died last week.
In a brief death notice recounting a 2017 interview he did with Daniels, CNS editor in chief Terry Jeffrey proclaimed him "great" and recounted an anecdote. A full obit by intern Bailey Duran called Daniels a "patriot" twice in the first two paragraphs -- but it didn't disclose that he was a conservative or that CNS published his column.
Jeffrey devoted his July 8 column to Daniels, gushing that he "was a great musician, a great man and a great example of what makes this nation great," adding: "He should be remembered not only for his contributions to popular music but also as a role model for the American dream." In neither of his articles did Jeffrey disclose that Daniels was a conservative and a CNS columnist.
Over the years, we caught Daniels lying about Margaret Sanger, distorting President Obama's words, going on a Democrat-hating freakout and liking President Trump to Jesus. In a column from April, Daniels pretended to write in a "bipartisan fashion," but his goal was to defend Trump's actions in responding to the coronavirus pandemic and suggest nobody else could have done better (including Jesus, apparently).
over at CNS' parent, the Media Research Center, an anonymous post touted how in 2016, "MRC founder and president Brent Bozell presented Charlie with the tenth annual William F. Buckley Jr. Award for Media Excellence for his passionate writing and advocacy." Unlike anyone at CNS, this post did disclose that Daniels wrote at CNS.
And in what appears to have been his final public appearance, he appeared in the MRC's pro-Trump ad disguised as a conservatrive response to "the mob" featuring more of Bozell's fellow travelers purporting to "stand up to those who would destroy our country’s heritage." The video was released a day after Daniels' death was announced.
