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.

EnterStageRight.com
"Lingua Publica"
May 30

"While reporters murmur about the White House trying to do 'damage control,' they do not describe their own activity, best defined as 'damage overdrive.' " -- Brent Bozell

Read the entire article

AgapePress.com
"Media Monitor Not Surprised by Poll Showing Glut of Left-Leaning Journalists," by Chad Groening
May 28

"MRC spokesman Tim Graham says the results of the Pew poll are pretty typical.

"'Thirty-four percent said they were liberal; 7 percent said they were conservative. Fifty-four percent said that they were moderate -- and I think a lot of those moderates are people who don't want to be tagged as liberals, even though they are...'"

Read the rest of the article

Agapepress.com
"Commentary and News Brief," by Jody Brown
May 28

"...It appears the liberal talk-radio experiment known as Air America has run into some severe turbulence. Have you heard the news? Chances are you've not. It only took two weeks for Air America to lose two of the largest markets in the country. Top management has fled. But major news outlets that trumpeted the network's launch have been curiously silent about its demise. Tim Graham with the Media Research Center offers Family News In Focus his thoughts on the media's silence. "I think the reason they're not publicizing the demise as we see it happening is that they're hoping it's not really going under," the media analyst says. "If you're rooting for this effort, you think that reporting on the demise is helping the demise happen." Among the offenders: ABC, NBC, and the New York Times. Details of the lack of coverage are documented on MRC's website..."

Read the entire article

Frontpagemag.com
"Nancy Pelosi Loses It," by L. Brent Bozell
May 27

"Two comfortable institutions of the liberal media establishment, the Pew Research Center and the Project for Excellence in Journalism, have discovered once again that five times as many national reporters (34 percent vs. 7 percent) identify themselves as liberal than conservative. As for that broad middle of 54 percent that declares itself to be "moderate," just consider them liberals with an honesty problem.

"For liberal tilt, look no further than this number: 55 percent of national reporters think they haven't been "critical enough" of President Bush. After the media's aggressive air war on the White House this year, the only way they could be tougher would be to physically beat the president with clubs and baseball bats. But that's precisely the attitude of the liberal media elite. Bush isn't a completely roasted turkey yet. Turn up the oven another notch..."

Read the entire article

This column also ran on TownHall.com on May 26.

Family.org Family News in Focus
"Liberals Outnumber Conservatives in News Media," by Steve Jordahl
May 25

"But Tim Graham, a spokesman for the Media Research Center, a media watchdog group, was skeptical of the claim.

"'Self-described liberals in the press don't think they're 'self described liberals' when they actually report on anything,' Graham said. 'So take it with a grain of salt...'"

Read the entire article

LifeNews.com
"Surevey Shows News Media More Biased, Abortion One Example," by Paul Nowak
May 25

"...While not monolithic, most liberals tend to back abortion while most conservatives tend to take a pro-life position.

"The Media Research Center noted that while survey respondents in 1995 were upset that the media was too critical of President Clinton, in 2004 the majority said the media was too lax in coverage of President Bush. Only 8 percent now believe that the press is 'too critical' of President Bush, while 24 percent believe news outlets are 'not critical enough...'"

Read the entire article

Washington Times
"Inside Politics," by Greg Pierce
May 24

"'After barrels of ink and hours of breathless TV promotion, the Air America radio network has gone from its media boost to a quick bust,' the Media Research Center's Tim Graham writes at www.mediaresearch.org.

""After just two weeks, the six-station network went off the air in Chicago and Los Angeles on April 14. By April 27, CEO Mark Walsh had left. On May 7, co-founder Evan Cohen signed off. On May 10, the network disbanded its Chicago and Los Angeles sales offices, laying off 15 to 20 people,'" Mr. Graham says.

Read the entire article

Fredericksburg Free-Lance Star (Va.)
"Frankenflop: Liberal Radio Crashes and Burns"
May 24

"The network featured comedian Al Franken, a rather vile sort, and other liberal commentators. Its short life was not devoid of the "meanness" the left often decried in conservative talk-show hosts: Jokes about torturing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld were heard, and Rush Limbaugh was called a "Nazi."

"The Media Research Center notes that "what the national media promoted as the roar of a new liberal lion turned out to be the quiet whimper of a sickly kitten."

Read the entire article

Washington Times
"Poll Shows Liberal Tilt Escalates in News Room," by Jennifer Harper
May 24

"'The assumption has been that as time went on, the mainstream media was becoming less liberal as people looked for an alternative voice. But the survey shows this is not true at all. The mainstream news outlets are more liberal than ever,' said Brent Baker of the Media Research Center..."

Read the entire article

Boston Globe
"Press Feels Its Gone Easy on Bush," by Mark Jurkowitz
May 24

"'It confirms our fears that the mainstream media are not getting less liberal,' said Brent Baker, vice president of the Media Research Center, a conservative watchdog group. One explanation, Baker added, is that journalism 'inherently attracts people unhappy with society's . . . status quo [who] still see the news media as a vehicle to change society...'"

Read the entire article

Washington Times
"Press Can't Let Abuse Story Go," by Jennifer Harper
May 21, 2004

"Tim Graham of the Media Research Center (MRC) noted yesterday that the "gay marriage story" overtook the prisoner abuse story in the press, but only for a day.

"'This abuse story is just not going away. It's still the first topic on most network news,' Mr. Graham said. 'And there's strong focus on the court-martials, on the bad apples — it's as if those troops represent the military at large, as far as the media is concerned. That is very discouraging...'"

Read the entire article

Investors's Business Daily
"Amid a Berg Blackout, Prison Abuse Nonstop," by Brent Bozell
May 20, 2004

"The news of Nicholas Berg's gruesome murder came urgently in mid-afternoon on Fox News Channel. Anchor Shepard Smith didn't -- couldn't -- show the video that had hit the Internet. He handled it gravely, correctly. He explained the deadly facts, how masked Muslim fanatics screamed praise to Allah as they savagely sawed off Berg's head -- the head of an American who came to Iraq to help it rebuild.

"How would this story grab the American news media? How would it change the media's obsession with much less graphic photos of sexual humiliation of prisoners? Many suggested that since the media wanted to make such a show out of the Abu Ghraib pictures, they ought to do the same with the Berg murder. An endless spiral into more and more gory images isn't the best way to run a news business -- or a foreign policy. But it's instructive that after news reports had touted the public's "right to know" about Abu Ghraib, to see every picture, suddenly, some images weren't supposed to stick in the public mind..."

The column also ran on Townhall.com on May 19.

AgapePress.org
"Media, Liberal Pols Charged With Painting One-Sided Picture of Iraqi War," by Chad Groening and Jody Brown
May 19, 2004

"...The Media Research Center says the incessant coverage of the Abu Ghraib prison-abuse scandal has had a direct effect on public opinion about the war. Spokesman Tim Graham says viewers cannot help but come up with negative feelings about the war in Iraq when they do not see pictures of atrocities committed by the other side.

"'You create a very distorted picture so that when the American people are asked in a poll -- which [atrocity] is worse, or whether the war was worth it -- how can they evaluate whether the war is worth it without really considering what kind of enemy we're fighting?' he asks.

"By way of example, the MRC director of media analysis notes that the American viewing and reading public did not see much coverage of last year's discovery of the graves of thousands of Iraqis who had been murdered under Saddam Hussein's regime. The result?

"'You get a very one-sided picture, a false picture of moral equivalence, with only the American offenses amplified -- then you're surprised at the polling numbers for the war aren't good? That's the intention!' he says..."

Read the entire article

AccessNorthGa.com
"Are Political Reporters Beginning to Hear We the People," by Gordon Sawyer
May 19, 2004

"...Political news reporters are beginning to admit the media bias watchdogs may have some legitimacy ... that they may be right and the reporters wrong...The Media Research Center, which exposes liberal media bias, was started in 1987, and now you have the strongly liberal Move0n.org group which is targeting Fox News..."

Read the entire article

Fox News Channel
Hannity & Colmes
May 14, 2004

MRC President Brent Bozell commented on the media's neglect of the Nick Berg murder and compared it to the nonstop coverage of the prison abuse scandal.

American Daily
“The Battle Against Right-Wing Media Bias,”
by Lisa Fabrizio
May 13, 2004

Phase two of the beat Bush campaign was launched last week when ping-pong pundit David Brock announced the rollout of his new website Media Matters. Meant to compete with Brent Bozell's Media Research Center which documents liberal journalistic bias, its mission statement illustrates the difference.

In defining the conservative disinformation they seek to expose and uproot, it states: "Conservative misinformation is defined as news or commentary presented in the media that is not accurate, reliable, or credible and that forwards the conservative agenda."

Misinformation in commentary? Were Mr. Bozell to tackle that job from the right he would have to increase his staff by ten-fold. The truth is, the site is no more than a chronicle of the evils of Rush Limbaugh and other conservative entertainers and opinionists.

Read the entire article

Human Events Online
"Michael Moore, Smear Specialist," by Brent Bozell
May 10, 2004

"It was awarded the status of top news, the front page of The New York Times. Disney was telling its Miramax subsidiary that it could not distribute radical, Bush-loathing Michael Moore's new "mockumentary," titled "Fahrenheit 9-11." This report, like virtually all the news accounts surrounding Moore's upcoming film, seem to glide right around Moore's very obvious hatred of conservatives and his very checkered history of cinematic fact-mangling.

"The first act of fact-mangling on this film may be this story of Disney censorship. In paragraph six of the Times story, we were given a Disney spokesman declaring they 'advised both the agent and Miramax in May of 2003 that the film would not be distributed by Miramax.'

"Stop right there. May of 2003? This was not news to Michael Moore. This was not a story for page one ...or page 30...."

Read the entire article

The Bozell column also ran in:
Town Hall.com, May 7.

TownHall.com
"The Media Stampede," by Diana West
May 10, 2004

"CNN, for example, couldn't and didn't wait to use Abu Ghraib as a 'segue' into a nostalgic, sicko reminiscence of My Lai, the 1968 civilian massacre in Vietnam that still defines the American military for a lingering generation of media, Democratic and Hollywood elites.

"According to watchdog group Media Research Center's account of the CNN report, images of the My Lai mayhem were followed by images of the naked backsides of abused prisoners at Abu Ghraib. "We all carry with us the potential to be the killer and the victim," said CNN's Bruce Morton, reading the words of a Vietnam-era medic, adding: "Maybe that's the lesson now, too.

"Sorry, that wasn't the lesson then, and it's not the lesson now. But it's one the media love to teach..."

Read the entire article

Chattanooga Times Free Press
"Proving the Case," by Steve Barrett
May 9, 2004

"You would think that in a news article on bias in the media, The New York Times would bend over backwards to be even-handed.

"Think again.

"The story was about David Brock, a conservative-turned-liberal who has started a Web site to track conservatism in the media. (Appropriately, his staff is small.)

"Here's one choice sentence: "For Brock, 41, the project marks yet another considerable step in his public evolution from conservative muckraker to liberal activist."

"Think about that for a moment. As a conservative, he was a sleazy "muckraker"; his newfound liberalism has made him a noble-sounding "activist."

"'Brock will start a new Internet site this week that he says will monitor the conservative media ...,"'the article continues. 'Brock said he hoped his new project could be as influential as the Media Research Center, a conservative media monitoring group run by L. Brent Bozell III that frequently calls attention to what it calls examples of liberal bias in the news media.'

"Note the double standard: Mr. Brock's site 'will monitor the conservative media.' That is to say, it is a perfectly sensible pursuit of a real issue, in the view of the Times. Mr. Bozell's group, by contrast, is obsessed with "what it calls" liberal bias. Mm-hmm. That "so-called" liberal bias (wink wink).

"I tend to doubt most claims that media elites conspire to promote liberalism as such. They don't need to. They simply see the world in a certain way and cannot imagine people of good will or more than bovine intelligence seeing it differently.

"I suspect the Times thought it was being generous even including references to the conservative Media Research Center. It might have been too much to ask the paper to treat the MRC as if it were something other than a card-carrying member of the Flat Earth Society."

CNBC
Capital Report
May 7, 2004

MRC President Brent Bozell discussed media coverage of the Iraqi prisoner mistreatment story.

Washington Times
"Rumsfeld Getting the Bum's Rush," by Jennifer Harper
May 7, 2004

"'The Democrats want a scalp, and the news media is helping them get it,' Brent Baker of the Media Research Center said yesterday. Mr. Rumsfeld, he said, is 'getting the bum's rush'...

"...Analyst Mr. Baker questioned the motives behind the piece [by New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman], which warranted its own hour of contentious discussion during C-SPAN's 'Washington Journal' yesterday.

"'Mr. Friedman is playing both sides as a reporter and a columnist. He's banking on his credibility as a veteran Times reporter but is, in reality, an analyst with a clear political stake in the process,' Mr. Baker said"...

Read the entire article

The Greg Garrison Show
WIBC-Indianapolis, Ind.
May 6, 2004

Research Director Rich Noyes discussed the media's coverage of the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. soldiers.

Richmond's Morning News with Jimmy Barrett
WRVA-Richmond, Va.
May 6, 2004

Director of Media Analysis Tim Graham discussed Arab television's coverage of President Bush's interview on the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners.

Washington Times
"Stossel Proudly Labeled a 'Scourge'", by Jennifer Harper
May 6, 2004

"Like comedian turned commentator Dennis Miller, Mr. Stossel has sidled into the conservative corner. Salon called him "a right-leaning bomb-thrower of prime-time news," and he has been praised by the likes of Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity of the Fox News Channel, the Media Research Center's Brent Bozell and John Fund of the Wall Street Journal.

""I was once a heroic consumer reporter; now I'm a threat to journalism," he writes in his book. "Instead of applying my skepticism to business, I applied it to government and 'public interest' groups. This apparently violated a religious tenet in journalism. Suddenly, I was no longer 'objective..."

Read the entire story

CNN
Paula Zahn Now
May 5, 2004

Paula Zahn: "...Brent, I want to start with you this evening. First of all, do you think the media is justified in covering the story of the alleged abuse in an Iraq prison?
Bozell: "Sure. It is a story, and it needs to be covered. I think I'll also say that you can't compare pictures of a murder with pictures of abuse. There's is difference in degrees there. That said, however, I think there is -- pardon the pun -- an overkill that's taking place here. In the cosmic order of things, there's a war going on, and it's as if everything else has stopped and what was going on in that jail is the only story. And the bigger problem that I had is that everything is attached to George Bush politically, where somehow this is politically damaging to him. And I think he's done everything correct so far..."

Read the entire transcript

Chicago Tribune
"Gore Plans Cable News Network for Younger Viewers," by Leon Lazaroff and John Cook
May 5, 2004

"...Some still believe there will be a political slant to the venture considering Gore and his partners are a veritable who's who list of the Democratic establishment: Hyatt is a former finance chairman of the Democratic National Committee. And investment firms run by Richard Blum, husband of Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), and longtime Democratic fundraiser Ron Burkle helped finance the purchase.

"The jury's still out, but the betting is that it will be not just liberal, but far left," said L. Brent Bozell III, founder of the Media Research Center, a conservative watchdog group that has long complained of a liberal bias in the news media...."

Read the entire article

This story also appeared in the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel on May 5.

The Tony Gill Show
WIAC-Springfield, Mass.
May 5, 2004

Research Director Rich Noyes discussed the media's coverage of the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. soldiers.

TownHall.com
"Media Silence for the Limbaugh Haters," by L. Brent Bozell
May 5, 2004

"Six years ago, the national drama revolved around a heavily investigated leader, his allegedly partisan prosecutor, and the media's fervent desire to save the leader from the prosecutor by hailing the leader as essential to the country and demeaning the prosecutor as a sleazy menace.

"That was then, and this is now.

"The current legal situation surrounding Rush Limbaugh does not involve lying under oath, abusing public office and inappropriate adultery with the much younger help. But now that he has admitted his dreadful addiction to prescription pain-killers and made the painful steps of recovery, Limbaugh is facing a sleazy and reportedly duplicitous Democratic prosecutor in Palm Beach County: one Barry Krischer.

Read the entire article

CentreDaily.com
"Uproar Over Nightline' Reading of War Casualty List Grows," by Lynn Elber, Associated Press
May 5, 2004

"...ABC noted its news division had reported "hundreds of stories on 9-11" while adding that, on the first anniversary of that tragedy, it aired the victims' names.

"Still, some observers questioned ABC's motives.

"Brent Bozell, president of the Media Research Center, derided what he called the program's "partisan nature," saying its one goal was "to turn public opinion against the war."

Read the entire article

Capital Report
CNBC
May 4, 2004

Director of Media Analysis Tim Graham discussed Media Matters, a new, liberal media analysis center that was the subject of a New York Times profile.

Tech Central Station.com
"Welcome to the Post Bias Media," by Edward P. Driscoll
May 4, 2004

There were some other curious elements to the Times' story. First, the project is headed by David Brock, who not only did a little jumping of his own in the mid-1990s, ditching the conservative American Spectator magazine and becoming a committed man of the left. Second, Brock told the Times that he hopes that Media Matters will replicate the success of the Media Research Center, which for almost 17 years has documented the leftward tilt of the media. But as James Taranto of the Wall Street Journal wrote on Monday, "See the problem here? Brock's new shop is devoted to faulting conservative opinion journalists for expressing conservative opinions. What the Media Research Center does is entirely different; it analyzes liberal bias in the news media, which are supposed to be objective...."

Read the entire story

Fox News Channel
The O'Reilly Factor
May 3, 2004

Director of Media Analysis Tim Graham discussed bias in the New York Times book review section with host Bill O'Reilly.

Boston Globe
"Coverage of War Dead Triggers Fierce Debate," by Mark Jurkowitz
May 3, 2004

...The Sinclair Broadcast Group announced its ABC affiliates would preempt the show, asserting that Ted Koppel's program "appears to be motivated by a political agenda designed to undermine the efforts of the United States in Iraq." Other critics jumped into the fray. "By airing the list of names and pictures on the eve of the one-year anniversary of President Bush's much media-ridiculed `Mission Accomplished' speech and aircraft-carrier landing, ABC still raised suspicions about the motives behind the effort," Brent Baker, vice president of the Media Research Center, wrote on the press watchdog group's website....

Read the entire story

Toronto Free Press
"Left Lib Medai Line Up Behind Koppel," by Arthur Weinreb
May 3, 2004

"For balance, the Post published a short one-line quote, taken from a lengthy opinion piece by Media Research president, Brent Bozell, merely saying that Nightline’s purpose was "to turn public opinion against the war."

"None of the argument, made by Bozell and others, that the context of the war and why these soldiers died should have been part of the broadcast made it into the paper. Although the Washington Post sought out opinions of anti-war groups, no opinions were sought from groups who held the opposite view...."

Read the entire article

San Francisco Chronicle
"Franken Asks a Clinton for Advice on Senate Run," by Frederic Frommer, AP
May 3, 2004

"The group, called Media Matters for America, plans 'to correct conservative misinformation in the media.'

"The 41-year-old former journalist and author wrote pro-conservative books in the 1990s on Anita Hill and her allegations against Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and President Clinton's sex scandals. But six years ago, Brock abandoned the conservative cause and says he understands how the well-financed conservative manipulation of the media works....

"...a Limbaugh spokesman said he had no comment on the [Media Matters] efforts. Brent Bozell, founder and president of the conservative Media Research Center, scoffed: "If they focus on commentators, what are they going to say, that they're opinionated? If anything, the left is far better organized on this..."

Read the entire story

This story also appeared in:

The Guardian (UK),
May 3.

Los Angeles Times,
May 3.

Charlotte Observer,
May 3.

Miami Herald,
May 3.

PhillyBurbs.com,
May 3.

KGW.com (Ore.),
May 3.

WHAS11.com (Louisville, Ky.),
May 3.

Daytona Beach News-Journal (Fla.),
May 3.

Newsday,
May 3.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer,
May 3.

Ft. Wayne Journal-Gazette (Ind.),
May 3.

Ft. Wayne News-Sentinel (Ind.),
May 3.

Ft. Worth Star-Telegram,
May 3.

MichiganLive.com,
May 3.

Kansas City Star,
May 3.

Lexington Herald-Leader (Ky.),
May 3.

Wilkes-Barre Times-Leader (Pa.),
May 3.

Philadephia Inquirer,
May 3.

Tallahassee Democrat (Fla.),
May 3.

Centre Daily Times (Pa.),
May 3.

Myrtle Beach Sun Times (S.C.),
May 3.

Bradenton Herald (Fla.),
May 3.

Biloxi Sun-Herald (Miss.),
May 3.

Columbus Ledger-Enquirer (Ga.),
May 3.

Monterey County Herald (Calif.),
May 3.

Opinion Journal.com Best of the Web
"Exposed: Conservative Opinionists' Conservative Opinions," by James Taranto
May 3, 2004

"...The site, called Media Matters, was devised as part of a larger media apparatus being built by liberals to combat what they say is the overwhelming influence of conservative commentators like Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly. . . .

"Mr. Brock said he hoped his new project could be as influential as the Media Research Center, a conservative media monitoring group run by L. Brent Bozell III that frequently calls attention to what it calls examples of liberal bias in the news media.

"We checked out the Media Matters Web site, and here are some of its shocking revelations:

"Linda Chavez, a conservative columnist, has written a column reflecting her harshly critical opinion of John Kerry.

"In the commentary panel segment of "Fox News Sunday," Chris Wallace expressed an opinion critical of last week's "Nightline" show rehearsing the names of soldiers who've died in Iraq.

"Some conservative pundits don't agree with the opinion of Thomas Oliphant, a Boston Globe reporter, vis-à-vis Kerry's Medalgate scandal.

"See the problem here? Brock's new shop is devoted to faulting conservative opinion journalists for expressing conservative opinions. What the Media Research Center does is entirely different; it analyzes liberal bias in the news media, which are supposed to be objective.

"If liberals are willing to spend $2 million funding a Web site that does nothing more than expose conservative commentators for engaging in conservative commentary, can we really afford to trust them with our tax dollars?"

Read the entire article

New York Times
"New Internet Site Turns Critical Eyes and Ears to the Right," by Jim Rutenberg
May 3, 2004

"...Mr. Brock said he hoped his new project could be as influential as the Media Research Center, a conservative media monitoring group run by L. Brent Bozell III that frequently calls attention to what it calls examples of liberal bias in the news media. Its findings often become subjects for conservative radio and cable talk shows.

"Mr. Brock argued that such monitoring groups have helped build the conservative media's influence, in part by making mainstream journalists toe a more conservative line by convincing them that they are liberally biased.

"'The right wing in this country has dominated the debate over liberal bias," Mr. Brock said during an interview Friday. "By dominating that debate, my belief is they've moved the media itself to the right and therefore they've moved American politics to the right'...

"...While Mr. Bozell did not argue with Mr. Brock's assertion that his group opened the door to greater influence for more conservative outlets, he did not agree with his central premise that conservative commentators had made the mainstream media more conservative.

"'I don't think we have pushed the mainstream media to the right,' Mr. Bozell said. 'I think what we have done is to neutralize their credibility, and every survey in the world shows that the public doesn't believe that these reporters are objective.'

"But, he said, Mr. Brock's new venture would have greater problems than that. 'The problem is that David Brock is a certified liar,' he said. 'He will forever have a credibility problem. One doesn't know what to believe in David Brock'"...

Read the entire story (NY Times registration required)

2004 Archive