Topic: Media Research Center
Last May, the Media Research Center's Tim Graham had a meltdown when a reporter asked a very interesting question of Republican Tim Scott:
Washington Post political reporter Ben Terris is promoting his new book and reminded people on Twitter that he asked Sen. Tim Scott if he was still a virgin -- apparently in 2012 -- because when he was younger, he promoted abstinence until marriage. Liberal reporters don't ask trolling sex-life questions to Bill Clinton or Kamala Harris, so why Tim Scott?
Liberal reporters routinely seem to have more discretion with the sex lives of Democrats, perhaps because reporters don't see them as sexually repressed religious people. Questions about virginity are meant to embarrass weirdos.
Terris tweeted "Tim Scott will be the first prez candidate I’ve ever asked about the status of his virginity." He said the initial answer: “I’m not talking about my sex life with Ben Terris.” He eventually implied “I just wish we all had more patience.”
Some insist that it's fair to ask Scott about it, considering his earlier advocacy. But Bill Clinton claimed to be a feminist, and liberal journalists ignored it and told voters in 1992 to "grow up about sex."
Graham is rather deliberately ignoring that Scott is the one who put his claimed virginity out there as an item for public discussion, while Bill Clinton made no such public proclamations about his sex life or lack of one (until he was caught in an affair, anyway). Graham also didn't explain why he randomly referred to Kamala Harris, who has also never talked about her sex life (or lack of one) in public; it appears to be a sly allusion to right-wing smears that she purportedly slept her way to the top of California politics through an alleged affair with powerful state official Willie Brown. (The MRC previously tried to justify smearing Harris as a "hoe" over this.) Plus, reports that Scott has a girlfriend make such a question perfectly logical, especially given that he was running for president.
When the co-hosts of "The View" raised questions about Scott's alleged girlfriend, Nicholas Fondadcaro had his own meltdown in a Sept. 12 post:
The staunchly racist co-host of ABC’s The View, Sunny Hostin was back attacking South Carolina Republican Senator and presidential candidate Tim Scott again on Tuesday. This time, she demanded to know who the Senator was dating because she feared his girlfriend was “a lunatic.” But the example she kept returning to was that of another black conservative, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas whose wife, Ginni Thomas, was white.
Scott’s relationship status was bizarrely the first hot topic discussed on the show. “Is it important for the U.S. to have a married presidential candidate? Must you be married to someone in order to be president? Are people more comfortable, or can you be a single person, you know, who is looking for love in all the wrong places?” moderator Whoopi Goldberg asked the table.
[...]
Following the soundbite of Scott talking about his girlfriend on Fox News, Hostin argued that it was “very important” she know who he was dating “because of the pillow talk that happens and if she's a lunatic.”
And as if it was some form of evidence against the Senator, she read from a Washington Post hit piece that claimed he might be “reverse catfish[ing] America” and lying about having a girlfriend. “Then The Washington Post reports that six friends of Scott said they didn't know about a woman in his life,” she proclaimed as if it was fact.
Reminder: Fondacaro thinks Hostin is a "racist" because he doesn't understand how metaphors work.
When Scott's girlfriend finally made her presence known by appearing on stage with him after the third GOP presidential debate, Jorge Bonilla whined that MSNBC highlighted it in a Nov. 9 post, huffily adding:
For MSNBC, even a bit candidate gossip ... is better than having to discuss the substance of the debate.
On balance, it is certainly better than the serial misrepresentation of the candidates’ stances on the issues and, in the case of both Psaki and Sanders-Townsend: far better than having to defend the ongoing dumpster fire at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Alex Christy brought a similar huffiness to a Nov. 14 post complaining that "Daily Show" temp host Leslie Jones referenced the girlfriend after Scott dropped out of the presidential race:
As it was, Jones also took the opportunity to take shots at Scott’s romantic life, “But what's really surprising about this is we finally got to meet Tim Scott's mystery girlfriend. He brought her out on stage and then a week later, he drops out. And you know she was only dating him because she thought he was going to be the president. I bet you he's now like ‘Well, I fell short, but at least we've got each other, baby. Baby? Where did you go, baby?’"
One could ask the same thing about The Daily Show’s jokes.
Or, you know, the MRC's "media research."
