The MRC Flips On Kanye West: The Early Years

The Media Research Center hated rapper Kanye West -- until he started spouting right-wing anti-abortion rhetoric and launched a bromance with Donald Trump.

By Terry Krepel
Posted 11/11/2022

Kanye West

• Ryan Foley huffed that "many" people at CNN "spent the entire week slamming Kanye West as mentally ill and/or directing racial slurs at him."
• Foley also complained that CNN's Chris Cuomo called the Kanye-Trump meeting a "traveshamockery," adding that "Cuomo also made sure to take shots at West’s mental health ... as he attempted to make the case that people should not take the meeting between President Trump and West seriously."
• Nicholas Fondacaro grumbled that "the broadcast networks spent 5 minutes and 59 seconds on Kanye’s visit to the White House (ABC = 1 minute, 58 seconds; CBS = 2 minutes, 4 seconds; NBC = 1 minute, 57 seconds). But when it came to the policy proposals Kanye and [Jim] Brown were there to promote, the nets punted with a total of 27 seconds."
• Scott Whitlock claimed that "When it comes to the so-called mainstream media, it’s a case of Kanye West vs. Kanye West" since some media outlets who now criticize West "gushed over the 'thoughtful' entertainer when he derided then-President George W. Bush as a racist."

But Whitlock and the rest of his MRC cohorts did not remind its readers that it was Kanye vs. Kanye at the MRC as well. Until his political flip-flop, the MRC despised West.

The MRC spent years nursing the grievance that West asserted that "George Bush doesn't care about black people" during a 2005 telethon to benefit the victims of Hurricane Katrina. or instance, a 2008 column by then-MRC apparatchik Dan Gainor complained that "Top performers bash President Bush as a matter of faith," citing as an example "Kanye West’s embarrassing stupid comments saying: 'George Bush doesn't care about black people'" during a benefit concert for the victims of Hurricane Katrina.

In 2011, the MRC's Erin Brown was outraged that a preview for the video for West's song "Monster" "shows the rapper making sexual advances to a dead or drugged female corpse in his bed, and several dead, lingerie-clad women are seen hanging with chains around their necks." Brown added: "West has objectified women in his videos before such as the 2005 hit 'Gold Digger,' in which attractive young females were seen throughout the video in provocative lingerie dancing around West. But none have gone so far as 'Monster,' which sexually objectifies a woman to the point of death."

Catherine Maggio complained that "Monster" includes "28 F-words," adding about the video: "West's so-called "art piece" opens revealing a dead, young girl, hanging from a ceiling in a noose, wearing nothing but underwear and heels. The video is centered around the graphic violence against and the death of the women in the video, who are often shown wearing only underwear or lying face down, naked, bloody and dead. We are warned before the video that it is to be taken as art, but the saddest thing is that violence and necrophilia would be considered 'art' by anyone at all."

A 2012 post by Paul Wilson declared that West and Jay-Z "have once again expressed their love of gratuitous violence" through their song "No Church in the Wild," the video for which includes "anti-police riots."Wilson further huffed that "Kanye showed up to support the Occupy Movement wearing expensive gold chains," which made him "the embodiment of the 1 percent."

In 2013, NewsBusters' Noel Sheppard cheered a Jay Leno joke about "Kanye West wanting to be the Obama of clothing saying, 'To achieve his goal, he's designing fashion nobody wants and offering it on a website that doesn't work.'" Sheppard also mocked -- in hindsight, highly ironically -- one commentator's suggestion that President Obama should meet with West: "Does the President of the United States really need a vulgar, anti-Semitic manager who thinks Obama's inability to get his agenda passed is because black people don't have the connections that Jewish people do?"

MRC chief Brent Bozell sneered in a 2012 column that "Rapper Kanye West, worth $70 million, showed up to the [Occupy Wall Street] protests in New York wearing gold chains." In a 2013 column, Bozell bashed West as a "nattering, narcissistic rapper" and whined that the New York Times was "pandering to West's colossal self-regard," He took offense to West's criticism of Bush, claiming that "West lashed, for no reason, and stupidly, arrogantly, and rudely declared that President Bush 'doesn’t care about black people.,'" then added: "West aspires to be a limousine leftist, a race-baiting revolutionary driving a $760,000 Lamborghini. How many poor Katrina victims could he feed if he didn’t have those car payments?" He then huffed: "Lyndon LaRouche is more rational than this idiot."

And in another 2013 column headlined "Kanye, Go Away," Bozell took offense to Kanye "offending the Jews" by saying blacks "don’t have the same level of connections as Jewish people." Bozell ranted that "This oppressed man is worth an estimated $100 million. But victimization is way too seductive to let go." Bozell added:

It’s just ridiculous that mega-rich black rappers complain about their terrible plight. Or is that all just part of their cynical marketing? Don’t count it as a political act. It’s a craven business strategy. Aren’t they and their race-baiting enablers easily accused of strangling the people’s view of what is possible in America? If Kanye West can’t handle the heat of public opinion – especially the opinion of people who live outside the bubble of his ideological apple-polishers – he should just go away.

The other night he performed in the Sprint Center in Kansas City, a venue that was 75 percent empty. Maybe I’m not the only one wishing him to go away.

Funny how none of this derogatory history was referenced by the MRC in its Trump-era defense of West.

Bozell and the MRC clearly aren't wishing for Kanye to go away anymore -- at least, not as long they can exploit him in order to boost Trump. And it's funny how narcissism and anti-Semitism suddenly become genius at the MRC when it's a right-winger (or right-wing-adjacent rapper) engaging in it.

Of course, this is doubly disingenuous because in this Kanye flip-flop, the MRC is doing the same thing it accused the media of doing when President Obama invited the rapper Common to the White House in 2011 for a poetry event. Scott Whitlock huffed that Common "has repeatedly defended cop killers such as Mumia Abu-Jamal," and Tim Graham took offense to Common's lyric that God "was able to Barack us" and declared that the media assert that "raising questions about songs honoring convicted cop killers was not a legitimate line of inquiry." The MRC, meanwhile, no longer considers raising questions about Kanye's song a legitimate line of inquiry.

And of course, Bozell felt compelled to rant: "Everyone from record companies to record buyers should be condemned for enabling "music" that glamorizes killing police officers. It's ridiculous and offensive that a black multi-millionaire like Common can still pretend America and the police officers who protect Americans of all colors are racist. It's even more offensive that this man would be honored as a poet at the People's House." Again, Bozell will never raise this issue about Kanye.

MRC continued its Kanye lovefest for years afterward. A June 2019 post by Rachel Peterson and Alexa Moutevelis gushed over an interview West did with David Letterman, which involved "an enlightening conversation about Trump supporters getting bullied and media groupthink that liberals like Letterman don't often get to hear," adding: "Trump supporters are shunned and treated like they don't deserve to even be a part of the national conversation. The media buy into this and push their narrative that automatically assumes anyone wearing a MAGA hat must be a bigoted bully (think of the news reaction to the Covington Kids and Jussie Smollett). Kanye can be off the wall sometimes, but it’s still nice to see a celebrity not afraid to speak up against the liberal media and trigger them by wearing a MAGA hat in public.

An October 2019 post by Gabriel Hays kept up the Kanye slobbering:

In what many have seen as one of his more provocative moves to date, the larger-than-life rapper, producer, and clothing designer Kanye West has decided to take his new Christian-themed concerts to historically African American Howard University, prompting more of the “Kanye, what are you doing?” responses from his former lefty colleagues who can’t stand that he’s the owner of a “Make America Great Again” hat.

Kanye is Hollywood’s highest profile Trump supporter. He's taken plenty of heat for having an oval office visit with the president himself, and has been "bullied" by SNL cast members and producers for trying perform on the sketch comedy show while wearing the red Trump hat.

Despite all that, West has doubled down in support for certain “right wing” things, like Trump, and notably, Christianity. In the last few months, Kanye has focused on a new series of Christian-themed concerts he calls “Sunday Services” and has expressed his desire to forgo making future secular rap albums, and only make Gospel music from here on out. Yeah it ain’t orthodox, but you can’t fault the man for trying to make Jesus relevant in a hip hop kind of way ... right?

Later that month, Moutevelis cheered West engaging and Democrat-bashing while also praising his new Christian-themed album, "Jesus Is King," and bashing its critics: "Among the unspeakable horrors Jesus Is King has produced, New York Daily News reported, “Kanye praises notoriously anti-LGBTQ Chick-fil-A in new song.” Pardon me as I listen to Kanye’s new album while picking up Chick-fil-A on my way to the next pro-life rally."

When West's album hit the top of the charts the following month, Hays gushed:

If there’s one thing Kanye West shouldn’t be worried about, it’s the elitist music critics who claim his most recent album is a bust. The hip hop artist and fashion-designer has just topped the official Billboard Music “Artist 100” Chart for the second time thanks to the influence of his recently-released Jesus Is King hip hop/Gospel album.

This must be a sweet victory for Ye and his newfound Christian fans who have been told recently that Kanye’s Christo-centric production would bomb and that his Gospel message isn’t fit for the mainstream.

[...]

While we know that music quality isn’t necessarily tied to chart success (here’s to most of the “Top 40” for the last two decades) it is nice to see that audiences aren’t deterred from listening to the album, even though it promotes what mainstream culture deems highly-controversial content.

It’s not everyday that a rap album about Jesus Christ is number one on secular airwaves. At any rate, we’ll take it.

In a February 2020 post, Peterson complained that a character on the Hulu show "High Fidelity" mocked West for wearing a MAGA hat and said that he showed he had "shitty politics and a second-grade understanding of American history," then further groused that the character "defends Kanye by saying that he 'has a mental health issue.' Because that is the only reason that a reasonable person would willingly wear a MAGA hat and like Trump."

Hays gushed over Hays again in a March 2020 post:

Rapper-turned-Gospel-music-producer Kanye West refuses to let the media have the final word on his support for President Donald Trump.

The 42-year-old musician and clothing designer has generated his fair share of controversy in the last year, primarily for his support of the current president (someone many in Hollywood wouldn’t get caught dead praising,) and for turning his artistic ambitions to the message of Jesus Christ.

[...]

But as XXL reported, Kanye says it’s just 'cause he’s “out of their control.” He thinks for himself: “Anything I do, three times a year, people say, ‘Whoa, that’s the end. That’s the last we’ll see of him!’ People say I’m out of control. I’m not out of control. I’m out of their control.”

And we all know how much the left hates those who refuse to think like them.

Some say Kanye West doesn’t matter anymore, since finding Jesus and donning a MAGA hat. Yet there he is, on the cover of liberal men’s magazine GQ. Inside, West is saying he will be voting for Trump in November and calling out the media and Hollywood for trying to pressure African Americans to vote blue. Seems pretty consequential, doesn’t he?

The rapper, fashion designer, and “born again” Christian had an interview with the men’s style magazine where he talked about life on his Wyoming ranch, his newfound relationship with Christ and,of course, his political leanings, which buck celebrity peer pressure and media expectations.

A July 2020 post by Hays cheered West claiming that “Planned Parenthoods have been placed inside cities by white supremacists to do the Devil’s work.” In fact, as ConWebWatch has documented, most Planned Parenthood clinics are located in majority-white black neighborhoods; Hays apparently though West's declaration was too good to fact-check.

Kanye presidential effort

During the 2020 campaign, an effort began to collect signatures to put West on the presidential ballot. Michael Dellano wrote in a August 2020 MRC post trying to deny that this was a Republican dirty trick to try and steal votes from Joe Biden:

The Biden-backing media have been dumbfounded for weeks with the presidential campaign of rap star Kayne West, and by their twisted logic, the rational move was to blame it on Republicans. On Wednesday night’s All In, MSNBC host Chris Hayes, alongside other leftist hacks, accused Republicans of propping up West’s campaign.

Hayes used the topic as a cover for all of his other absurd theories about Trump’s 2020 campaign:

Republicans are obviously pinning their hopes on Kanye West to siphon off enough votes to squeeze Donald Trump through. But that's just one part of the strategy, right, that alone is not enough. You also needed to make it hard for people to vote, to suppress the votes of Democratic voters, which the Republican Party is aggressively trying to do. And then they also have to hope in the next few months, say, Russia delivers, or some other foreign adversary.

It doesn’t matter whether or not Hayes has any evidence for his wild claims, he was just using it as a way to delegitimize the results of the 2020 election in case Trump wins. Hayes just wanted to fantasize that West’s presidential bid was another way for the election to be “hacked” by the GOP.

West has been talking about running for president as far back as 2015, saying he wanted to run in 2020, then changed his mind to 2024 after sitting down with President-elect Trump. So the entire narrative that West’s vanity project is some sort of “dirty trick” by Republicans has no basis in fact.

Except, you know, for all the evidence to the contrary conclusively showing that Hayes was correct:

• Efforts to get West on the ballot in at least five states were being led by Republicans.
• Another group gathering signatures in Wyoming to put West on the ballot there made a point of telling would-be signatories that putting west on the ballot would "take votes" from Joe Biden. As Newsmax noted: "The tactic appeared to work, as the journalists witnessed several people sign the document. One woman expressed her excitement at helping Trump win another term in office."
• West met with Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, a few weeks ago.

The MRC would rather that you forget how much it used to hate Kanye until he started sucking up to Trump.

And don't expect the MRC to issue a correction -- it doesn't do so when that would interfere with its anti-media agenda.

The return of Kanye

The MRC mostly lost interest in Kanye after that, serving only passing references to him -- until he resurfaced earlier this month to spout more right-wing-friendly things. So when Ye (as he has changed his name to) surfaced for a little more of the kind of right-wing provocation the MRC loves, Tierin-Rose Mandelburg lovingly wrote about it in an Oct. 4 post:

Kanye may not have won the 2020 election but he did just win the hearts of those who agree that the Black Lives Matter movement is built on a lie.

Kanye West debuted controversial “White Lives Matter” attire during Paris Fashion Week in France. Numerous celebrities pitched a fit but West doubled down on his views insisting that “Black Lives Matter was a scam.”

His shirts were long-sleeved and featured the late Pope John Paul II on the front and the words “White Lives Matter” printed on the back.

West wore the T-shirt while giving a speech before the show that triggered grouches in the audience and online.

[...]

BET News host Marc Lamont Hill called West’s shirts “disgusting” and “dangerous.” Hill posted a photo where West stood alongside none other than Candice Owens who smiled in support of the message.

Mandelburg went on to gush about how West posted a since-deleted post on his Instagram feed screeching, “EVERYONE KNOWS THAT BLACK LIVES MATTER WAS A SCAM NOW IT’S OVER YOU’RE WELCOME,” declaring him "actually correct" and reciting her own well-rehearsed right-wing talking points: "The Black Lives Matter movement, in and of itself, is a corrupt, self-proclaimed Marxist money making ploy. There’s been numerous reports of million dollar mansions bought as well as various money funneling allegations by the founders of the movement." Mandelburg didn't explain how something could be both "Marxist" and a "money making ploy" given how Marxists are not known for their love of capital.

A few days later, West appeared on Tucker Carlson's Fox News show, and Mandelburg was in right-wing heaven again:

BRB, adding Kanye West’s music to my daily mix.

Ye has been trending as of late but not just for his music. The 45-year-old rapper sat down with Fox News on the “Tucker Carlson Tonight” show on Thursday, where he professed his pro-life, pro-God, pro-Trump views and more.

The interview comes just days after "Ye" received massive blowback over his controversial “White Lives Matter” shirt design that he presented at Paris Fashion Week, and in a photo with Conservative Candice Owens. Tucker asked the rapper about the pushback during their interview.

“As an artist, you don’t have to give an explanation but as a leader you do,” Ye said, after quoting his own father’s reaction to the shirt which was “Just a black man stating the obvious."

[...]

Again, Ye is unphased and to put it simply, just wants to honor God.

“God builts warriors in a different way … He made me for such a time like this.” Then Ye brought up the story of David and Golioth likening himself to David as they both “have God on our side.”

“Even if you don’t believe in God, God believes in you," he said.

Unfortunately for Mandelburg's narrative of West as a God-loving right-winger, West went full anti-Semitic a couple days later, declaring in a tweet he was "going death con 3 On JEWISH PEOPLE" and bizarrely claiming that "The funny thing is I actually can’t be Anti Semitic because black people are actually Jew." More on the MRC's reaction to that in a future article.