Topic: Media Research Center
A June 22 Media Research Center press release stated:
MRC President L. Brent Bozell on Monday announced that the Media Research Center would no longer accept money from the AmazonSmile program. Amazon has brushed off conservative concerns about letting an anti-Christian organization like SPLC decide which groups may receive funds. Additionally, Amazon recently tried to censor a book because it didn’t toe the party line on the coronavirus lockdowns.
“Any money from Amazon is tainted, hate-filled money that we want nothing to do with,” said MRC President L. Brent Bozell. “The liberal-loving Jeff Bezos and his hacks at Amazon and Washington Post oppose everything we stand for at the MRC. While we thank supporters who have used the program, we ask that they continue their donations directly, instead of through Amazon’s filter of hate,” added Bozell.
“AmazonSmile uses the hate group SPLC to oversee the Amazon Smile program. To allow Planned Parenthood to receive donations, but not Christian convervative groups like Family Research Council and Alliance Defending Freedom, is completely unacceptable. We will no longer have anything to do with this deeply biased program,” Bozell said. "Amazon is no longer just a retailer. It's a left-wing activist organization with an agenda."
Bozell's description of the the Southern Poverty Law Center as "anti-Christian" and a "hate group" is laughable. Hhis evidence that Amazon "brushed off conservative concerns" linked to a column at Bozell's CNSNews.com by the Heritage Foundation's Kay Coles James complaining that AmazonSmile would no longer fund right-wing groups like the Family Research Council and the Alliance Defending Freedom based on the SPLC's designation of them as hate groups for their virulent opposition to LGBT rights. James insisted that the FRC and ADF are "long-established, venerable organizations" and "mainstream conservative organizations" and framing their anti-LGBT activism as merely "defense of traditional marriage." Rather than address the SPLC's evidence against the groups, James ranted that "The SPLC itself is a completely discredited organization" and denied that that her fellow gay-haters were listed "in a directory alongside real hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis."
In other words, James is declaring that hating gays is a "mainstream conservative" position -- and Bozell is declaring that he's as homophobic as other conservatives, but he didn't explain why favoring LGBT rights is inherently "left-wing." But he clearly opposes those rights to the point that he will refuse donations to his organizations.
Bozell also didn't say how much money the MRC had received through AmazonSmile, or if he will return that money to Amazon. Bozell is apparently hypocritically happy with the money the MRC has already accepted through the program.
