Topic: Media Research Center
We documented how the Media Research Center -- led by chief fanboy Curtis Houck -- spent the summer swooning over the alleged awesomeness of White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany's supposedly sick burns of the media for not being total suck-ups to President Trump. Well, Houck has continued to fanboy all over himself every time McEnany does a press briefing. here's a few headlines to how the swooning has gone since the last time we checked in in the run-up to the election, with more sycophantic odes to her petulant "mic drop" moments:
- OUCH: WH’s Kayleigh McEnany Smacks Down Pro-Antifa Reporters
- WH’s Kayleigh McEnany Wipes the Floor with The Atlantic Over ‘Fake News’ ‘Propaganda’ ("And in a true mic drop moment, McEnany read the roughly four-minute statement and left the podium without taking questions.")
- WH’s Kayleigh McEnany, Liberal Reporters Go to WAR Over COVID, Woodward Book
- Watch McEnany Call Out WH Press Corps for No Questions About Middle East Peace Deal
- Acosta, Alexander Get OWNED by Kayleigh McEnany in Embarrassing Briefing
- WH Reporters Lose Their Minds, Melt Down After Being Schooled by McEnany ("And since the room wasn’t interested in what McEnany had to say, we’ll provide her full closing statement in full.")
Houck presumably would have liked to gush over McEnany more, but that last post, on Oct. 1, was the last press conference she held before the election. He had to contain himself until Nov. 20, when his fanboying made up for lost time:
On Friday, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany held a formal press briefing for the first time in almost two months and, as expected, she didn’t disappoint by opening with a timeline on coronavirus vaccines the liberal media so desperately worked to undermine and ended by smacking down the hurt feelings of liberal reporters like CNN’s Kaitlan Collins after they weren’t called on.
Houck touted her "closing statement," and added: "To be clear, McEnany’s opening statements shouldn’t be undersold either and Friday’s consisted of a thorough timeline in the federal government’s push to find coronavirus vaccine."
Houck had to wait a few more weeks for his next opportunity to gush (and McEnany's next briefing), which he did on Dec. 15, under the headline "Absolutely Fire":
On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany opened and closed the press briefing by savaging the liberal media for their behavior regarding on their hopes that a coronairus vaccine wouldn’t be available in 2020, their purposeful refusal to cover a Chinese spy cozying up to Congressman Eric Swalwell (D-CA), and waiting until after the presidential election to both cover and give credence to probes of Hunter Biden’s corrupt business dealings.
McEnany first addressed the liberal media’s wishes failing to come to fruition due to the overwhelming success of the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed initiative.
[...]
Surprisingly, the briefing proceeded without any real fanfare or fireworks in the Q&A portion with reporters behaving themselves and choosing not to go down the route colleagues like Jim Acosta, Peter Alexander, Brian Karem, Paula Reid, or April Ryan would normally go down. For the sake of the country, McEnany chose not to call on Acosta.
The only "Absolutely Fire" we're seeing may be Houck's apparent crush on McEnany -- and his burning hate for Acosta and every other CNN employee.
Houck is clearly going to have a hole in his heart when McEnany leaves the White House.
UPDATE: Houck capped off his year of gushing with a Dec. 28 roundup post sycophantically headlined "Tour de Force: Here Are the Top Ten Kayleigh McEnany Smackdowns of 2020." Houck gushed further in a tweet: "Kayleigh was masterful as @PressSec. In terms of personnel, she was one of President Trump's best hires. And even though her first briefing came in May, it was still a tough time narrowing down to ten. If the press had to face Kayleigh for four years, there'd be no one left."
That earned Houck praise from his idol, who retweeted the item with the message, "You are great! Thanks." Houck will probably sleep tonight with his arms around a printed version of that tweet.
