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MRC in the News

February 2003

 

Many media outlets — radio, television and print — regularly feature MRC guests on their programs, quote MRC spokespeople in their articles, and cite MRC research in their stories. Below is a sampling of MRC making news in the news media. Links are provided when available, and were active when posted.

 

Fox News Channel
The O'Reilly Factor
February 28, 2003

Impact Segment on Dan Rather's interview of Saddam Hussein

TIM GRAHAM, MEDIA RESEARCH CENTER: I can't say there was a moment I liked, unless it was something to make fun of. I mean, it was really poor journalism... it was way too soft.... He punted on first down.... [Rather asked] him all these easy questions like, what would you like to tell the American people on this historic juncture? I mean that's not a question; that's a red carpet. And so I think the thing that really offends me and probably offends a lot of Americans is that Dan Rather was -- made his name being rough on Richard Nixon. In 1988, he yelled at George Bush in an interview when he was running for president and said, you've made us hypocrites in the eyes of the world about Iran Contra. And then he goes over to Baghdad twice now, and he did the same thing in 1990, saying oh, Mr. President, what would you like to tell the American people? The American people deserve better than that. This was not about the American people. This was about CBS promoting itself for money.

More on this topic

 

Fox New Channel
Hannity & Colmes
Was CBS Fair When It Offered White House Conditional Opportunity to Rebut Saddam Hussein's Comments? (excerpt)
February 27, 2003

Brent Bozell, Media Research Center: Well, the irony is so rich here. First of all, to be very honest, the scoop that Dan Rather got is the scoop that just about anybody in journalism today would have wanted to get. So we have to be a little careful dumping on Dan on this.

But that being said, here is the problem with this whole discussion. The holy grail of journalism ought to be truth. Every journalist ought to be driven by the pursuit of truth. When you're talking to Saddam Hussein, you're talking to a liar, you're talking to a living lie, a propagandist who is trying to divide American public opinion.

So starting off on that premise, you have a problem as a journalist interviewing him for a news story. But then, when you make yourself subservient to everything he wants, and with him controlling the interview, and then you turn around, and to your own president you put conditions on him, I don't believe it.

More on this topic

 

MSNBC
Buchanan & Press (excerpt)
February 27, 2003

Buchanan: All right, that is Saddam Hussein himself in the exclusive interview he gave to Dan Rather of CBS, which has become controversial in and of itself. And here to discuss Mr. Rather's interview with Saddam and how it was handled is Tim Graham of the Media Research Center. Tim, it seems to me that -- I'm not a big fan of CBS over the years, from way back to the Nixon days. But, I mean, Dan Rather got an exclusive interview. He asked him the direct questions. And he answered them. And it's -- we're in a democratic republic and we ought to here what this character has to say. And we're big grownups. And we're not going to be swayed by his charisma.

Tim Graham, Media Research Center: Well, I don't think I'm swayed by his charisma. He said a lot of really silly things last night --- I don't have weapons of mass destruction; I believe in Allah -- and lot of things that are sort of giggle lines. But really the point is, he's got to get the interview. So we ask, shouldn't Dan Rather try to apply some of the same standards that you mentioned. You remember him in the Nixon White House. You remember him telling George Bush in 1988: You've embarrassed America in the eyes of the world. Why can't we have Dan Rather, then, do a better job than he did last night, actually ask him a tougher question than, tell us what you want the American people to know.

More on this topic

 

The Washington Times
"Rather's Saddam interview draws skeptics," by Jennifer Haper (excerpt)
February 26, 2003

The Media Research Center took Mr. Rather to task yesterday for saying he had a startling scoop: Saddam had "challenged" President Bush to a televised debate. No such scoop, the center pointed out. Saddam had proposed the same thing in a 1990 interview with Mr. Rather.

The CBS "appetite for promotion is plugging up its nose for news," noted Tim Graham of the research center.

See story | More on this topic

 

Portland (ME) Press Herald
"If listeners wanted liberal AM hosts, they'd be on the air now; Leftist politicians and media types just don't get it. They have their world, and Rush has his."
By M.D. Harmon staff writer
February 24, 2003

Was anyone else as bemused as I was by the announcement that a well-heeled group of Democrats is hoping to finance a radio syndicate that would produce talk and public affairs programming designed to get the left-of-center view across to the American people? ... So NBC, CBS, ABC, MSNBC, CNN, Time, Newsweek, The New York Times, The Washington Post and nearly every other major national newspaper aren't enough media dominance for liberals? ... For those who need more proof of the major media's outlook than the evidence of their own eyes, peruse the Media Research Center's Website, www.mediaresearch.org, or read best-sellers like Bernard Goldberg's "Bias," or Ann Coulter's "Slander," or Harry Stein's "How I Accidently Joined the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy (And Found Inner Peace)," and you'll have all the evidence any objective observer might need.

 

The Weekly Standard
Scrapbook
Dumb celebrities, Miller time, and more. 
February 10, 2003
With War Protests Like These . . .

Happily, not all of Hollywood has lost its marbles. If you were lucky, you caught comedian Dennis Miller on the "Tonight Show" with Jay Leno last week, when he went off on liberals, Saddam Hussein, and even the ACLU (and not for the first time, as this page has noted before).

Miller admitted he is a Bush fan and that he loved the president's State of the Union speech. With regard to the inspectors in Iraq, Miller asked, "How long do we have to wait for these morons?" He compared Hans Blix to Inspector Clouseau -- and pictured the U.N. teams "driving around in the Scooby-Doo van" looking for weapons. "The only 'smoking gun' I need to see is the one they use to kill Saddam Hussein."

More on Dennis Miller | War on Terrorism: The Celebrity View

 

National Review
February 10, 2003
"A Man with a Plan: Bush has an economic program; his critics have myths," By Stephen Moore (excerpt) 

"The new Bush tax cut has been greeted with a level of media hysteria unrivaled since 1981, when the press corps predicted in unison that Reaganomics would cause economic ruin. So President Bush finds himself in all-too-familiar territory: It's two against one, with Democrats ganging up with the media against a Republican president's tax cut that's said to be too big, too tilted toward the rich, and too irresponsible. 

I like Bush's odds of winning. 

The challenge, though, is for the White House to get its message -- that the tax cut will boost economic growth and benefit all taxpaying families -- through the clutter of a biased media. The indispensable Media Research Center reports that "news" items on the Bush plan are running "at least 4 to 1" against it...."

 

National Review Online
"Trimester Trimming; The media's elastic interpretations of Roe v. Wade," by Tim Graham (excerpt)
February 4, 2003

Once again, President Bush pledged in his State of the Union address to stretch the word counts of news reporters by signing a bill to ban "what opponents call partial-birth abortion." That resurfacing bill, along with other pro-life legislation and judicial nominations for strict-constructionist judges, has abortion advocates fearing that someone, somewhere might let a baby survive....

See column | More on this topic

 

The Rush Limbaugh Show
February 3, 2003

(Reading from the column of The Orlando Sentinel's Kathleen Parker,"If you drive an SUV, park next to me")
Credit goes to the always-alert Media Research Center for noting Lauer's unequal treatment of his guests. Meanwhile, America is left in reality limbo: Will Matt give up his SUV? Will he share with us when he does? In keeping with Today's probing tradition, will we get to watch?

See column | More on this topic

 

The Orlando Sentinel
"If you drive an SUV, park next to me," by Kathleen Parker (excerpt)
February 2, 2003

Now, Matt Lauer, co-host of NBC's Today show, has outed himself as a guilt-addled SUV owner during the show's weeklong exploration of the nation's gas-guzzling problem.... Credit goes to the always-alert Media Research Center for noting Lauer's unequal treatment of his guests. Meanwhile, America is left in reality limbo: Will Matt give up his SUV? Will he share with us when he does? In keeping with Today's probing tradition, will we get to watch?

See column | More on this topic

 

Florida Times-Union
MEDIA: Spinning again
February 1, 2003

The anti-war, pro-tax television media have droned on incessantly about the "smoking gun" that is missing in the case of Iraq. Meanwhile, in another campaign, they are busy spinning the liberal line that the tax relief proposed by President Bush is a "tax cut for the rich."

....Media Research Center monitored news broadcasts by ABC, CBS and NBC for two weeks and found 73 percent of the stories presented the liberal arguments against tax relief, while only 27 percent even tried to balance the reports by noting that the people who pay the taxes would get the tax relief.

See editorial | More on this topic

 

World Magazine
"The Buzz"
Marching orders; The press reveals its convictions in coverage of war and abortion rallies, by Tim Graham (excerpt)
February 1, 2003

It's not often that the nation's capital witnesses two major rallies within four days of each other. On Jan. 18, opponents of a U.S. war against Iraq drew tens of thousands to the national mall to protest. Four days later, another crowd of tens of thousands congregated for the annual March for Life to mourn the 30th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion on demand....

See column | More on this topic 

 

2003 Archive

 

 

 


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