Topic: Media Research Center
In his July 10 column, the Media Research Center's Tim Graham took exception to some media commentators complaining about White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany's "walk-offs," in which she demans an insults a reporter then, apparently believing this to be a mic-drop moment, hustles out of the briefing room. Graham quoted one observer saying that "these mic drops create delight for Trump and 'the universe of Trump-friendly websites,' who turn these commentaries into clips "for the MAGA-sphere." That's true. McEnany's commentaries are great clickbait for people who want to see arrogant reporters get a dose of their own medicine."
Indeed, a significant percentage of the MRC's content over the past few months has been over-the-top gushing over McEnany's walk-offs and other media-bashing. A sample, many of which were written by Curtis Houck:
- MIC DROP: McEnany Scorches Media for Early Coronavirus Stories After Gotcha Question
- Smackdown: Kayleigh McEnany Embarrasses the Liberal Media, Cites NewsBusters
- McEnany Lowers the Boom on Another Reporter, Eviscerates the Left’s Russia Lies
- You Okay, Fredo? McEnany Slams Cuomo, Lefty Journalists Bashing Hydroxychloroquine
- Friday Fun: McEnany Tussles with Press on Reopening Churches, Homework on Flynn Probe
- Kayleigh McEnany Makes Fake News Jim Look Like a Fool on Liberal Media Screw-Ups
- Poor CNN: Kayleigh McEnany Calls Out Fredo, Lemon for Defending Riots
- McEnany Tells Off Jim Acosta, Lefty Journalists on Social Distancing Double Standard
- Kayleigh McEnany Owns Jim Acosta (Again), Cites ‘Extraordinary’ NewsBusters Video
- McEnany Calls Out Anti-Trump NYT Hacks for Harming America, Risking National Security
- McEnany Fires Back at WH Press After They Waste Time Defending Hateful, Marxist BLM
- Mic Drop! McEnany Scolds Liberal WH Press for Ignoring Weekend Gun Violence
Notice that several of those clips focus on CNN in general and Jim Acosta in particular, whom Houck has a pathological hatred of.
Nevertheless, Graham played whataboutism over the criticism of McEnany, insisting that it was reporters who asked provocative questions, and not her, who were grandstanding, while taking a shot at Politico reporter Ryan Lizza's "live-in girlfriend":
Lizza isn't being honest, because he represents "pure theater" and "negative partisanship" from the other side of the exchange. On May 26, he asked McEnany this beanball question repeatedly: "We're about to cross the 100,000 dead American milestone...on Election Day, what does the White House view the number of dead Americans where you can say that you successfully defeated this pandemic? Is there a number?"
Recently, Lizza asked her facetiously, "Does President Trump believe that it was a good thing that the South lost the Civil War?"
Lizza's live-in girlfriend, Olivia Nuzzi of New York Magazine, beat him to the sleazy punch when she asked Trump on April 27, "If an American president loses more Americans over the course of six weeks than died in the entirety of the Vietnam War, does he deserve to be reelected?"
This kind of question is performance art. It's a look-at-me spectacle, a Jim Acosta bump and grind. There's nothing "quaint" about it.
Strange how Graham is apparently scandalized by two reporters living together without benefit of marriage while giving a pass to a president who paid hush money to porn stars.
