White House Uses Liberal Media Smear Tactics to Attack Fox News
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The WatchdogTHE MRC’ S MONTHLY MEMBERS’ REPORT CREATING A MEDIA CULTURE IN AMERICA WHERE TRUTH AND LIBERTY FLOURISH Vol. 16 • Issue 12 • December 2009 White House Uses Liberal Media Smear Tactics To Attack Fox News Channel The liberal media went after conser- sistently beats its competition — CNN, MRC Headquarters • Alexandria, Va vative Rush Limbaugh with a vengeance MSNBC — in the ratings game. In fact, in October, smearing him as a racist us- often its numbers are better than all its ing manufactured quotes and repeat- cable competitors combined! INSIDE ing the lie long enough to kill the talk- In addition to its popular news re- radio giant’s chance to bid on a football porting programs, such as Special Re- PAGE 3 team. It was a sleazy, dirty trick. That port with Brett Baier, Fox’s political MRC Special Report Quoted in Congress, same month, the White House took a commentary shows draw big audiences. CNSNews.com Interview page from the liberal media handbook Glenn Beck and The O’Reilly Factor, for Sparks National Coverage to launch an attack against Fox News. example, both reach more than 3 mil- The White House cam- lion viewers per broad- PAGES 4 & 5 paign against Fox is no cast. BITS & PIECES: surprise. Several years The popularity of Joe Joke, ago I warned conserva- Glenn Beck soared af- Washington Com-Post, tives to prepare for this. What Defi cit? ter the show ran several CBS’s Harry ‘Marx’ Smith The left is out of ideas. hard-hitting reports on They have only one Obama’s green jobs czar, PAGE 6 weapon left: character Van Jones, a self-avowed Brent Bozell’s Nationally assassination. I warned communist. After Beck Syndicated Column: then that anyone in their reported that Jones had The Censorious Sound path would be savaged. signed a petition calling on the Left It’s now happening to Fox News Channel, for an investigation into Rush and Fox News. which regularly uses MRC PAGE 7 the Bush administration’s That liberal chicanery research and interviews alleged complicity in MRC in the News MRC experts, is under attack continues every day. So 9/11, Jones was forced by the White House precisely PAGE 8 we document and ex- because of its fair and to resign. The liberal me- Want Year-End Tax Savings pose it for the country balanced reporting. dia had largely ignored and Some Tax-Free Income? to understand the left’s the story and then tried agenda. Fox News, which regularly uses to spin away the resignation as insignifi - our research and interviews our MRC ex- cant. perts, is in the crosshairs of the White After the ACORN scandal broke on House precisely because of its fair and Breitbart TV, Fox News ran numerous balanced reporting. Fox is a new media reports on the issue. It also documented powerhouse the Obama administration in detail Barack Obama’s long-time as- cannot control and so the administra- sociation with the corrupt organization. tion is trying to marginalize it. Again, the liberal media had either ig- When the Fox News Channel started nored or downplayed the story, a fact back in 1996, it had 17 million subscrib- that we documented and exposed. www.MRC.org ers. Today, more than 100 million people subscribe. The cable news channel con- Continued on page 2 The 2 Watchdog DECEMBER 2009 “Several years ago I warned conservatives to prepare for this. The left is out of ideas. They have only one weapon left: character assassination. I warned then that anyone in their path would be savaged. It’s now happening to Rush and Fox News.” Continued from page 1 The White House also set up a “Re- Not long after Fox News’ relentless ality Check” Web site page that posts reporting on those issues, among items supposedly geared to expose others, the administration pounced. “the lies of Fox News.” Hugo Chavez White House Communications Director and Fidel Castro would be proud. Anita Dunn went on CNN on Oct. 12 and The administration’s attacks on Fox declared that Fox News “really is more News mirror those of the liberal media, a wing of the Republican Party. They which repeatedly insult and smear the take their talking points, put them on cable channel and its viewers. CNN’s the air; take their opposition research, MSNBC’s Ed Schultz attacked Jack Cafferty, for example, has called put them on the air. And that’s fi ne. the MRC and personally railed against Fox News the “F-Word Network,” opined that “the dumb ones watch But let’s not pretend they’re a news its president, calling him “Bozo the Clown” and someone who engages Fox,” and described the station as a network the way CNN is.” in “psycho talk.” “safe haven” for Republicans. No, they’re not a network like CNN. MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann says that The Cable News Network runs a lot Fox News viewers are “tin foil hatters, of reporting that is favorable to the conspiracy theorists, paranoids and Obama administration. Fox News does racists.” Rick Sanchez at CNN actually not. However, several studies, including reported that the killer of three police our own, have documented that when offi cers in Pittsburgh was driven to it it comes to the political persuasion of “after no doubt watching Fox News news guests and the type of questions and listening to right-wing radio.” asked, Fox News is more fair and There are countless attacks, and balanced than its competition. we are not immune from them. The smear didn’t stop with Dunn. CNN’s Jack Cafferty regularly smears MSNBC regularly smears the MRC. Fox News, calling it the “F-word On his Oct. 27 broadcast, for exam- David Axelrod, the senior adviser to network,” and that only “the dumb President Obama, went on ABC’s This ones watch Fox.” ple, Ed Schultz put yours truly in his Week and told host George Stepha- “Psycho Talk” segment, ranting, “Hal- nopoulos (the former senior adviser loween week continues with ‘Bozo to President Clinton), that Fox News is the Clown,’ Brent Bozell. I tell you, “really not news.” this guy is a piece of work.” He went “It’s pushing a point of view, and on to mock the MRC and insult me for daring to claim that Fox News Channel the bigger thing is that other news reports the news correctly — in other organizations like yours,” lectured words, without a left-wing bias. For Axelrod, “ought not to treat them that, I engaged in “psycho talk.” that way. And we’re not going to treat This is what the liberal media are them that way. We’re going to appear MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann rants doing now: personal attacks, smears, on their shows and participate, but insults, lies. The White House is doing understanding that they represent a that Fox News viewers are “tin foil hatters, conspiracy theorists, some of the same in its assault on Fox point of view.” paranoids and racists.” News. In their left-leaning mind, the In other words, liberal media ends justify the means. outlets with liberal biases are legitimate and okay for Clearly, we are having an impact, as is Fox News the White House, but the tough questions and balanced and the new media in general. We must continue to reporting at Fox News are not okay. expose liberal media bias and spread the truth. With White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel your help, we can take the fi ght to them — and win. also attacked. He went on CNN and repeated the Sincerely, administration’s talking point that Fox News is “not a news organization so much as it has a perspective,” adding that CNN and other (read: liberal) media should L. Brent Bozell III not “be led and following Fox.” Founder and President The DECEMBER 2009 Watchdog 3 CNSNews.com Interview with Congressman Kennedy Sparks National Coverage and Sharp Denouncement from Bishop Congressman Patrick Kennedy (D-R.I.), son of the late Ted Kennedy, put his foot in his mouth, as he is wont to do, when the MRC’s CNSNews.com interviewed him on video on Capitol Hill. Among MRC Special Report other incendiary things, Kennedy said that by not supporting the Democrats’ socialized health care Quoted on Floor of Congress plan, the Catholic Church was not really pro-life and An MRC Special Report about the liberal media’s was “fanning the fl ames of dissent and discord.” cheerleading for socialized medicine was quoted on Kennedy’s remarks trashing the Catholic the fl oor of the House of Representatives, proving once Church’s opposition to health care funding again that the MRC’s work is vital and effective in the of abortion sparked widespread coverage on national debate over an issue that affects literally every television, on radio, across the Internet and even American. in the establishment liberal media, such as the As Congressman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) said on the New York Times and the Boston Globe. Millions of people heard the story and Kennedy’s House fl oor on Oct. 20: “Network news programs have own bishop in Rhode Island was so outraged he favored proponents of the administration’s health care issued a public statement denouncing Kennedy proposal over critics of the plan by a margin of more than as “irresponsible and ignorant” and a continuing 2-to-1, according to the [MRC’s] Business & Media Insti- “disappointment to the Catholic Church.” tute. The White House, like the national media, should You can watch the MRC’s interview of Kennedy let the American people make up their own minds — not from Oct.