Topic: Media Research Center
For the past month, the Media Research Center has been pushing a conspiracy theory that the media stole the presidential election from Donald Trump by refushing to adopt the MRC's preferred pro-Trump, anti-Biden bias in its reporting, in part by commissioning polls from biased pollsters including one that was working for Trump's campaign (despite also claiming that pre-election polls showing Joe Biden with a large lead over Trump were deliberately fraudulent). Let's look at a couple more examples of how the MRC pushing these bogus claims.
MRC chief Brent Bozell appeared on the Nov. 10 show of his favorite right-wing radio host, Mark Levin, to peddle the conspiracy. He ludicrously asserted that the dubious story of Hunter Biden's laptop was "a hundred times bigger" than the Watergate scandal and it shouldn't have been ignored by the non-right-wing media. He didn't tell readers that the McLaughlin polling firm whose results he was pushing at the time was also working for Trump's campaign, raising questions about conflicts of interest and polling bias. Nevertheless, Levin laughably asserted that Bozell made "an incredibly compelling case."
Bozell went on to reference the MRC's claims of "monthly negative coverage of the president" -- as we've documented, these MRC studies examine only a tiny sliver of media coverage and falsely extrapolates them into an indictment of all non-right-wing media (whose coverage is exempt from MRC scrutiny). Levin went on to ridiculously claim that Biden was engaging in "tyranny" by accurately describing himself as the president-elect, while Bozell responded that this was "false advertising on his part."
(The "news" organization Bozell leads, CNSNews.com, also dutifully reported on its boss' radio appearance, as well as the original poll the MRC did, which also censored the fact that McLaughlin also worked for Trump.)
In a Dec. 3 video, Bozell showed how much of a Trump dead-ender he is by stating that Trump's fale claims that the election was stolen from him are "very serious" and "something that has to be investigated very seriously." He then rehashed all the above claims, as well as a second poll the MRC bought from The Polling Company pushing similar accusations through asking leading, biased questions; Bozell didn't disclose that The Polling Company was founded by Kellyanne Conway, longtime White House adviser to Trump, and currently owned by a right-wing PR firm that has done millions of dollars in business for the MRC. Bozell went on to rant in an attempt to keep right-wing activism centered around attacking the non-right-wing media, which helps keep the MRC in business:
Here's the point, folks: The news media cost Donald Trump this election. They deliberately -- this was not accidential -- they deliberately chose not to report these stories and we've proven that, how they didn't cover these stories. And now the polling shows that it worked, that Biden voters didn't know about it, and as a result they voted for Biden and had they known, they would have voted for Donald Trump. Folks, make that the biggest part of the conservation for the conservative movement, what to do about this weft-wing press that has become so militant that thye are actually tipping campaigns, presidential campaigns. That's the biggest priority now for the conservative movement.
Bozell's emphasis on how what he and the MRC does should be the "biggest priority" of the conservative movement suggests that this is more a funding ploy to keep his organization viable during the upcoming Biden years -- as Trump, they candidate they steadfastly supported over the past four years, collapses into his own morass of lies and conspiracy theories -- than any sort of serious "media research."
Bozell ended by claiming "what we're going to break next week is going to blow you away." What will Bozell and the MRC be hiding about those claims? Stay tuned.
