VOLUME 8 ISSUE 1 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2003 www.MediaResearch.org The Media Research Center’s Monthly Members’ Report The Liberal Media’s Double Standard INSIDE PAGE 3 screamed in an MSNBC.com piece on Limbaugh & Ingraham Dear Member, December 13. “Richard Nixon’s ‘Southern Cite the MRC Leftwing columnists and politicians, like Al Strategy’ set the poisonous tone, and Republican ■ Gore, have recently been complaining about a candidates continue to exploit racial fears for PAGE 3 nasty “conservative” bias in the media. Yes, the political gain.” Best NQ: A Big media are unfair, partisan and mean-spirited. NBC’s David Gregory repeated the claim on Hit With the Media They’re also liberal to the core. his network. “Since the days of ■ Nothing quite proves this Nixon, it’s been known as the PAGE 4 point like the contrasting ‘Southern Strategy,’ an appeal The Best Notable coverage of liberal and con- to frustrated Southern whites Quotables of 2002 servative politicians. And no opposed to civil rights gains,” ■ example better illustrates it than the correspondent chirped on PAGE 6 the coverage of recent com- December 23. “That strategy, Hogie Notes: ments by Senators Trent Lott perceived by some to be subtly CNSNews.com Radio: and Patty Murray. The contrasting coverage of racist, has been a big reason Ask For It! We have all heard about Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and why the GOP enjoys a political ■ Lott. He ignited a firestorm in Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) lock on the South.” PAGE 7 proved once again that the early December with his No evidence was required The MRC: comments about Strom Thur- media have different rules for to prove that Republican gains conservatives and liberals. Always on Their Mind mond and his 1948 Presidential were tied to racist campaign- ■ campaign. Lott’s speech was ing, of course. Innuendo and PAGE 8 made at Thurmond’s 100th opinion work just fine for the Editor’s Corner: birthday party, was full of the liberal media. A Few Things the hyperbole politicians love and it “Former President Bill Media Didn’t Tell Us was never intended to be taken Clinton acidly, but not inaccur- as a policy pronouncement. All ately, observed that Lott had just the same, it was a stupid thing made the mistake of saying to say and Lott’s defense – if what too many Republicans still you can call it a defense – was indefensible. feel,” Newsweek liberals Evan Thomas and Clift But the media’s coverage was truly wrote in a tag-team article in the magazine’s disgusting. Rather than treat the misstep as one December 30 issue. The feeling extended all the man’s shortcoming – exactly as journalists did way to the White House, according to these two when Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd used the “N” judgmental journalists. “Like his father before him, word on Fox News in 2001 – liberal journalists George W. Bush stooped to win the GOP saw the opportunity and pounced. They treated nomination by appealing to the Southern redneck Lott’s statement as the smoking gun that linked vote in 2000 (by, for instance, declining to stand America’s Media conservatives to racism. against state capitols’ flying the Confederate Watchdog “The modern GOP is built on a legacy of flag.),” they wrote. racism,” Newsweek columnist Eleanor Clift Continued on page 2 HURRY! This is the LAST reminder you’ll The Media Research Center’s Third Annual see before the event! DISHONORS AWARDS Roasting the Most Outrageously Biased Liberal Reporters of The Year! Featuring a Private Concert by The Charlie Daniels Band Get Your Tickets Today! Why The Seats are limited and they will sell Charlie Daniels Band? out. First come, first served. “…please try to realize that when Special “MRC Member Rate” you see news coverage [of $150 per person Guantanamo Bay, Cuba] much of CALL NOW! the time you’re not getting the (703) 683-9733 ext. 163 whole story, but an account or (800) 672-1423 filtered through a liberal mindset Mention you saw the ad in FLASH! with an agenda…It’s a shame that Thursday, March 27, 2003 we can’t have an unbiased media The Omni Shoreham Hotel who would just report the truth and Washington, D.C. let us make up our own minds…” 6:00 pm Reception & Cocktails 7:00 pm Dinner & Awards ~ Charlie Daniels Business Attire Continued from page 1 How wonderful to be a journalist at “[Osama bin Laden] has been in many Murray gaffe? The same goes for U.S. Newsweek, where it’s perfectly acceptable countries that are riddled with poverty... News and World Report. to make unjust accusations against an He’s been out in these countries for decades Internet sites, Rush Limbaugh, the entire party (if it’s the GOP) and an entire building roads, building schools, building Washington Times and Fox News picked group of people can be categorized and infrastructure, building day care facilities, up the Murray story as expected. The insulted with impunity (if they’re building health care facilities, and the people only mainstream media outlet that even conservatives). are extremely grateful,” Murray claimed. noticed or commented was the Washing- As I pointed out in my nationally Murray also compared America to the ton Post, which ran a short piece and an syndicated column on this topic, liberals murderer and found the U.S. wanting. editorial on it. The long and short of the and Democrats never have to worry about “We haven’t been out in many of these coverage was simple, a politician made this sort of treatment. They get a complete countries helping them build infra- up facts and praised America’s worst pass on controversial racial remarks – the structure,” she said. enemy but because she’s a liberal, the lack of media outrage over Sen. Byrd’s Where were all those national media media yawned and ignored it. KKK past is proof – and, regardless of the outlets that used the Lott comment to The unfair treatment of conservatives issue, comments by liberals and Democrats attack all conservatives? If the same is why we exist and why you support us. are never used to stereotype or brand either standard were applied to liberals, one We are increasingly making headway in the party or the movement. would think the magazines and news the long and constant struggle against The comments of Murray, the programs would have been full of stories liberal bias and I want to thank you for Democratic Senator from Washington claiming Democrats were unpatriotic, your consistent support. state, provides the latest proof of this hateful “blame America first” types. It is simply not possible without you. double standard. Murray spoke to But ABC, CBS, and NBC reported Until next month, students at a Vancouver, Wash. high nothing on Murray’s remarks. Nothing. Nor school on December 18 and spat out this was there anything in the New York Times, unbelievable tripe about Osama bin Laden. the Los Angeles Times, or USA Today. They If you don’t know what I’m talking could devote their covers and countless about, it’s because the liberal press has pages to Trent Lott, but Time and Newsweek L. Brent Bozell III refused to report it. What did she say? had no room anywhere for a story on the MEDIA RESEARCH CENTER 2 FLASH JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2003 Best Notable Quotables AAA MediaMediaMedia HitHitHit The Best Notable Quotables of 2002, the MRC’s 15th Annual Awards for the Year’s Worst Reporting, was released in late December. Again, it’s a hit. As of the first week of January, several major media outlets had showcased the awards. The New York Post dedicated its December MRC Cited by 31 editorial “Hoist on Their Own Petard” to this year’s edition and stories or columns appeared in the Boston Globe, National Review Online, Limbaugh and Ingraham Washington Times, FNC’s After Hours with Cal Thomas, Rocky Mountain An MRC item about CBS Evening News’ use News, TulsaToday.com, World magazine, Mona Charen dedicated her of a Democratic CPA as an “objective” source TownHall.com column to the subject, as did several others. on the Bush tax cuts got nationwide play from The Best NQ is an annual compilation of the worst statements Rush Limbaugh in early January. made by supposedly objective journalists over the past year. A panel A January 6 CBS News story by Byron Pitts of 52 judges from around the country selected the “winners.” The featured CPA Avery Neumark pounding away panel included prominent journalists and commentators such as Kate on an adding machine and delivering an almost O’Beirne, Robert Novak, Michael Reagan, William Rusher and Cal perfect, anti-tax cut soundbite: “If you want to Thomas. The “Quote of summarize this tax proposal as we see it today, the Year” came from the winners are the wealthy.” Neumark, as a former Lyndon Johnson check of the campaign contribution website aide and current PBS host OpenSecrets.org revealed, has given money to Bill Moyers, who deliver- both the Democratic National Committee and ed this angry – and tax- liberal Democratic Congressman Jerrold Nadler payer funded – diatribe of New York. after the Republican On January 9, Limbaugh told his audience victory in November. of 14 million listeners about the CBS misstep “The entire federal and credited “our old buddies at the Media government – the Con- gress, the executive, the PBS’s Bill Moyers won the Research Center” for the information. “Quote of the Year” for a hateful, Limbaugh wasn’t the only conservative courts – is united behind long-winded blast at conservatives.