Liberal Media Agenda: INSIDE
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VOLUME 10 ISSUE 4 APRIL/MAY 2004 www.MediaResearch.org The Media Research Center’s Monthly Members’ Report Liberal Media Agenda: INSIDE PAGE 3 Get George Bush ABC Skips Bush Lead ● Dear Member, PAGE 4 April was “Get George Bush” month for information that terrorists “might be targeting Graham and Noyes Are Now Radio the liberal media. a building in lower Manhattan.” Regulars Whether the story was the 9-11 Except the PDB made no such claim and ● Commission or President Bush’s press the two men who wrote the story knew it. conference or Bob Wood- The document doesn’t PAGE 5 MRC Special Report ward’s latest book, the even contain the word Finds Networks mainstream media tossed “Manhattan,” nor does it Hostile to Religion objectivity aside last month suggest that any buildings ● and lit into President Bush had been targeted. It does PAGE 6 with a partisan viciousness state that there had been Rooney Insults not seen since the Reagan suspicious activities American Soldiers years. around federal buildings in ● When 9-11 Commis- New York. These activi- PAGE 8 sioner Bob Kerrey, the CBS’ John Roberts told ties turned out to be, as CNSNews.com liberal former Democratic viewers that the Presidential the Post duo noted later Confronts Ted senator from Nebraska, Daily Briefing memo should in the story, tourists Kennedy used National Security have set off “alarms” at the taking pictures. Oops. ● White House and quoted a Adviser Condoleezza Rice’s Clinton official to prove it. This story was so PAGE 8 testimony on April 8 to biased that a week later the Inside the MRC effectively declassify what had been a top- Post’s ombudsman, Michael Getler, ● secret Presidential Daily Briefing (PDB), the condemned it as misleading and wrote that Page 10 media storm really started to roll. critics who see political bias in the story MRC In the News The media did their best to play up the “make a fair point in my view.” dramatics, suggesting this vague, largely The Post wasn’t the only outlet trying historical document was somehow the to mislead the public. CBS’ John Roberts “smoking gun” that proved the President had took a similar tack in his report on the CBS been terribly negligent in the days prior to 9- Evening News on April 12. After admitting 11. that there was “nothing specific as to time The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank and and place” in the PDB, Roberts still claimed Walter Pincus led the charge, writing in the that “counter-terrorism experts say [it] should lead paragraph of their April 11 front-page have raised a deafening alarm at the White America’s Media story in the Post that the PDB contained House.” Watchdog Continued on page 2 MEDIA RESEARCH CENTER FLASH APR/MAY 2004 Continued from page 1 And who were these counterterrorism “experts”? Roberts Former Clinton adviser Stephanopoulos was also shocked interviewed only one, and he was a former Clinton official. by the revelation, telling World News Tonight viewers that the As bad and as slanted and as misleading as the PDB reporting oil passage was the “most explosive” charge in the book. was, it just a warm-up for the outright attack White House MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann, a man given to exaggerated reporters launched at the April 13 presidential press conference. attacks on the Bush administration, thought the book raised Reporter after reporter hounded President echoes of Watergate. Bush, insisting he take personal respon- As you expect, the MRC sibility for what these journalists had confronted these media rantings head determined were the many failures of his on. MRC Vice President Brent Baker administration. The President was asked wrote an op-ed for the April 21 New six questions, one after the other, urging, York Post, the nation’s eighth largest begging or demanding that he admit to newspaper, that exposed the networks mistakes in Iraq or apologize for 9-11. misleading and slanted coverage of the There was “almost an insistence” Woodward book. I appeared on Fox on the part of reporters for the President News Channel’s Fox & Friends the next admit mistakes, ABC’s Peter Jennings day to defend the President and point noted in his post-press conference out that the book is a generally positive ABC’s Peter Jennings acted innocent wrap-up. “Why are reporters pushing after President Bush’s April 13 press portrayal of the Bush administration and so hard on this issue?” he asked his conference, wondering why reporters that it’s listed as recommended reading sidekick, former Clinton aide George were insisting that the on the President’s campaign Web site. Stephanopoulos. President admit a mistake. The MRC also had other Answer: Because they want this comments to make. Research Director President to be defeated, as Jennings well knows. The liberal Rich Noyes discussed CBS’ 60 Minutes recent trend of hyping national press corps is opposed to practically everything this anti-Bush books with the Associated Press and the story was President has done, from the War on Terrorism to tax cuts to picked up in more than a dozen newspapers, including such his judicial appointments, and they desperately want him out of prominent national papers as the Denver Post, San Francisco office. Forcing him to admit a mistake in front of a national Chronicle, Chicago Sun-Times and Miami Herald. television audience would provide them with a weapon that they The MRC was also busy on other fronts, releasing a could use against him for the next six months. religion study during Holy Week that found network news Five days after the press conference, Bob Woodward’s coverage is hostile to organized religion. More than 70 new book about the Bush administration was released and it newspapers and Internet news sites ran stories on this study quickly became another media firestorm. Just as they had done alone. with the PDB, journalists insisted on grabbing snippets of These efforts illustrate that the MRC is a lively, active information and spinning them into indictments of the President. organization that is effectively combating liberal media bias CBS’ anchor Dan Rather read a passage about military on a daily basis. Needless to say, we could not do this without budgeting and a supposed conversation between the Saudi your support. ambassador and President Bush about reducing oil prices and And, as always, I thank you for it. decided that it was major news. “Explosive new allegations Until next time, against President Bush: manipulating gas prices and military money!” Rather bellowed as he opened the April 19 CBS Evening News. L. Brent Bozell IT’S HERE... Get the MRC’s 2003 Annual Report The MRC’s 2003 Annual Report is an 18-page color brochure packed with details about the MRC’s projects, accomplishments, and impact in 2003. If you would like to receive a free copy of the brochure, simply call Jennifer Bookwalter at (800) 672- 1423 or e-mail jbookwalter@mediaresearch.org and request a copy. Mention that you read about it in FLASH! MEDIARESEARCH CENTER 2 FLASH APR/MAY 2004 MRC Study Finds Network Morning Shows Ignore 9-11 Families That Are Pro-Bush A mid-April study of network morning shows found that the families of 9-11 victims who were critical of President Bush received far more air time than those who supported him. MRC analysts reviewed every interview with 9-11 family members on ABC’s Good Morning America, CBS’ The Early Show and NBC’s Today from March 23, when the 9-11 Commission’s public hearings began, through April 15, when the public hearings ended. They found Bush critics were inter- viewed 20 times, while Bush sup-porters were interviewed on only three occasions. ABC and CBS were the worst offenders. Neither net-work conducted a single interview with a pro-Bush relative on their morning shows during the three-week period. The study, which was published in a Media Reality Check and sent to outlets across the nation on April 15, also found that the morning programs focused on a narrow group of 9-11 relatives. Kristen Breitweiser, a Bush critic whose husband died in the World Trade Center, was on NBC’s Today four times during the three-week period and six other anti-Bush relatives made a total of seven appearances on the program. None of the relatives, pro- or anti-Bush, received tough questioning, but the imbalance in the guest lists means that the theories of those hostile to Bush prevailed. While these relatives Throughout the hearings, the are certainly entitled to their views, network viewers are also networks favored a handful of entitled to a balanced presentation. 9/11 relatives who fault Bush Good Morning America Refuses to Report Bush Lead Add ABC’s Good Morning America to the ranks of reported some of the poll’s findings – news reader Robin network news programs who have decided to play Roberts noted that 59% think the U.S. is bogged down politics with their poll reporting. in Iraq – but didn’t mention a word about Bush’s lead. In early March, an ABC News/Washington Post poll Good Morning America’s decision to spike its poll put Sen. John Kerry ahead of President Bush by four numbers comes on the heels of similar scandals, as points and Good Morning America highlighted the FLASH has reported, at the CBS Evening News and finding in two morning news updates. ABC’s World News Tonight. Fast forward six If we were cyni- weeks to April 20 and a cal, we would almost new ABC News/Washing- think that these three ton Post poll found examples are proof President Bush was ahead that the networks are of Kerry by five points.