Topic: Media Research Center
Here's more evidence that the Media Research Center stopped being about "media research" -- if it ever was -- and is all about pushing right-wing narratives no matter how false. We've already noted how the MRC's Curtis Houck promoted the Republican-approved talking point -- as ably regurgitated by Fox News' Peter Doocy -- that Texas Democrats making a trip to Washington, D.C., to break quorum in the state legislature to stop a a voting-restriction bill was a "superspreader event" because six of the 60 legislators -- who had all been vaccinated against coronavirus -- had tested positive for COVID. But Houck wasn't the only MRC writer to push this GOP-approved narrative.
Scott Whitlock made sure to put "SUPER SPREADER" in all caps in the headline of a July 19 post while complaining that non-right-wing media didn't cover this story to his satisfaction: "On Sunday night, the CBS Weekend News DIDN’T cover the super spreader Democrats. Instead, they touted the Texas voting rights legislation separately with NO mention of the Covid spike amongst the Democrats."
Houck made the RNC proud on July 21 when he repeated the narrative:
World News Tonight felt the need to defend the Lone Star State lawmakers by omitting them in a segment about the other D.C. cases.
Sensationalist anchor David Muir teased that the newscast would cover “fully vaccinated staffers from the White House to Nancy Pelosi's office, testing positive,” but when it came to conducting basic journalism, Muir and White House correspondent Rachel Scott didn’t see a need for that.
Muir later added in the lead-in to Scott: “And one more note on the virus tonight. In Washington tonight, some fully vaccinated staffers from the White House to Speaker Pelosi's office have now tested positive.”
Instead of spend the whole segment on why the superspreader happened, Scott never gave an explanation for how a Pelosi aide and White House official contracted the virus[.]
Houck again failed to mention the fact that the Texas legislators were fully vaccinated at as well.
The same day, Clay Waters whined about the New York Times pointing out how Republicans are more vaccine-hesitant than Democrats, huffing in reference to the Texas legislators that "a Democratic super-spreader event wasn’t identified as such."
Kathleen Krumhansl referred to "Super-Spreading Texas Democrats" in a July 22 post attacking Spanish-language media for not smearing them the way she is:
Now that the publicity stunt by Texas Democratic lawmakers who fled to Washington, D.C. to boycott that state's election security laws backfired, with six of them testing positive for COVID-19, the Latino nets are doing their best to erase them.
After the news of the fiasco broke through, the previously heralded heroes and saviors of voting integrity and justice for both Univision and Telemundo somehow morphed into anonymous aides, officials and advisors to be referred to indirectly and in passing.
Watch as anchors and reporters from both networks save face for the reckless super-spreaders - –they exposed members of the Congress and the White House staff with the virus- who appear to be saved from any guilt by being “fully vaccinated”, as if that would make things any different[.]
The MRC is utterly hypocritical about this, of course. When it came to an actual superspreader event -- last September's Rose Garden introduction of Supreme Court judicial nominee Amy Comey Barrett by then-President Trump, where most attendees were unmasked (pre-vaccine) and after which several attendees, incuding Trump himself, came down with COVID -- the MRC didn't want to talk about it:
- Houck complained at the time that it was a "narrative" to point out the indisputable fact that few people wore masks, adding in an attempt at whataboutism: "While it’s admirable to stress masking-wearing and social distancing, CNN and the left writ large lost the chance to credibly lecture anyone on public health after having shown little to no issue with packed, should-to-shoulder Black Lives Matter marches and protests."
- Kristine Marsh also tried to downplay it by being outraged at a host on "The View" calling it the "Rose Garden massacre," insisting that just "a handful of people out of 150 present have tested positive for coronavirus," omitting the fact that among that "handful" were the president of the United States, his wife, aides and other politicians. She added: "Neither host seemed to understand that contracting a virus which the majority of people have recovered from, isn’t a death sentence."
- John Shannon groused that "in what felt like a strange combination of ESPN and murder-mystery, Morning Joe hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski constructed an in-depth play-by-play of events at the nomination ceremony for Judge Amy Coney Barrett at the White House, the “super-spreader” event that many in the media consider to be ground zero for many positive cases, including that of the President.
- Clay Waters unironically ranted that "The New York Times efficiently channeled the hypocritical left-wing rage over President Trump’s late-September Garden ceremony introducing his Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, which may have helped spread coronavirus among White House staff and others who have since tested positive."
In other words, just as hypocritical as the MRC's right-wing rage over the Texas legislators.
