Topic: Media Research Center
The Media Research Center's Kevin Tober wrote in a June 4 post:
Roland Martin Unfiltered, the always unhinged Elie Mystal who serves as the justice correspondent for the left-wing rag The Nation, melted down when previewing upcoming decisions the United States Supreme Court is due to hand down. The case that got Mystal especially triggered is a case on the constitutionality of certain sections of the Voting Rights Act.
When giving his prediction on how he thinks the high court will rule, Mystal slimed Chief Justice John Roberts as a racist who doesn't want black people to vote. "For all the people for all the media people especially. All the generally kind of mainstream media people especially who tend to act like Roberts is some kind of moderate good guy influence on the Supreme Court," Mystal wailed.
Note where this interview happened: on a podcast. But because Mystal has appeared on MSNBC, MRC writers started attacking MSNBC over the interview even though -- again -- it didn't take place on MSNBC. Tghe NewsBusters Twitter account quote-tweeted out a clip of Mystal from Tober (who has petulantly blocked us from seeing his tweets) with the message "The M in MSNBC stands for 'Misinformation.'"
The tweet was later deleted.
In his post, Tober quoted a tweet from co-worker Nicholas Fondacaro that quote-tweeted the Tober clip of Mystal and added; "James Hodgkinson, the man who tried to assassinate congressional Republicans at a baseball practice in 2017, was a avid MSNBC watcher. This is kind of hate he was exposed to." First: Hodgkinson has been dead since 2017, so it's highly unlikely he heard aything Mystal said. Second: It's an article of right-wing faith at the MRC that MSNBC somehow made Hodgkinson commit his crime, even though they could never cite any evidence of that beyond the guy once stating that he liked Rachel Maddow's show. Maddow reported that the shooter had no contact with anyone at her show, but that didn't keep Tim Graham from mocking her looks in the process.
By contrast, there's a much more solid through line bdetween Fox News and another mass shooting. Robert Bowers appears to have been inspired to shoot up a Pittsburgh synagogue, killing 11 people, in part because a Jewish agency that aids immigrants had an office there; Fox News regularly demonizes immigrants, and Bowers echoed the denigrating "invasion" rhetoric Fox News uses. We don't recall Fondacaro ever criticizing violence-inducing "hate speech" when it happens on Fox News.
And, again, Mystal's interview didn't take place on MSNBC. But then, clicks are more important than facts at the MRC.
