WatchdogThe t h e m r c ’ s m o n t h l y m e m b e r s ’ r e p o r t CREATING A MEDIA CULTURE IN AMERICA WHERE TRUTH AND LIBERTY FLOURISH Vol. 17 • Issue 12 • DECEMBER 2010 Liberal Media Biggest Loser in Midterm Elections For the last two years the liberal me- from the party of Obama/Reid/Pelosi dia have performed like cheerleaders on was labeled in the same way. Not one. steroids for the Obama administration Tea Party-backed Republican candi- MRC Headquarters • Alexandria, Va and the Democrat-controlled Congress, dates Joe Miller in Alaska and Christine promoting the liberal agenda across the O’Donnell in Delaware were consis- nation and, at the same time, smearing tently tagged as “ultra-conservatives,” INSIDE conservatives and Tea Partiers as ex- but no Democrats were ever branded as tremists or racists or, yes, witches. “ultra-liberal.” Last year, their propaganda efforts In Pennsylvania, candidate Pat PAGE 3 helped to get socialized medicine passed Toomey was marked as “conservative,” MRC Presents the 2010 and the Keynsian stimulus spending un- which he is, but Democrat Joe Ses- William F. Buckley Jr. Award for Media Excellence to leashed, which pushed tak was not labeled M. Stanton Evans the nation further into as “liberal,” which he $13 trillion in debt. But is. CBS couldn’t find PAGES 4 & 5 that was last year. The the journalistic met- Bits & Pieces: sweeping midterm elec- tle to describe even Insults Galore, tion victories by con- loud-mouthed extrem- What Book? Blame Fox News, servative Republicans ist Florida Rep. Alan Olbermann Hypocrite proved that the biggest Grayson a “liberal,” loser in 2010 was not but the network consis- PAGE 6 just the Democrats, it tently labeled his op- Brent Bozell’s Nationally was the liberal media. ABC’s This Week host Christiane ponent Daniel Webster Syndicated Column: The 2010 elections Amanpour lectures that “people as “conservative.” NPR’s Religion are looking at the Tea Party and Double Standard were, in fact, a repu- The networks gave diation of the liberal saying this is not conservatism as more coverage to the we knew it, but it’s extreme.” PAGE 7 press. O’Donnell contest than MRC in the News As the Media Research Center me- to any other, though there were races ticulously documented and exposed, that were more competitive and, there- PAGE 8 through our own divisions and the alter- fore, newsworthy. The point for the lib- A Note Regarding the MRC Associates Program native media — talk radio, blogs, cable eral media was to hammer on O’Donnell TV, the Internet — the liberals pulled and turn her into the poster child for no punches in tarring conservatives the Tea Party conservatives. O’Donnell throughout 2010 and especially in the is a conservative Christian who once ex- months leading up to Election Day. pressed the view that masturbation is a A new study by the MRC’s News Analy- sin, a view that horrified the libertine sis Division, for example, shows that the media and they played it up to discredit evening news at ABC, CBS, and NBC, be- her and conservatism. tween Sept. 1 and Oct. 25, repeatedly In another example, NBC’s Today smeared conservative and Tea Party trashed New York gubernatorial candi- candidates as “extreme,” “fringe,” or date Carl Paladino as an “angry candi- www.MRC.org “out of the mainstream.” Yet in those date” who practices “gutter politics” broadcasts, not one left-wing candidate Continued on page 2 The 2 Watchdog DECEMBER 2010 Continued from page 1 and who somehow hates homosexuals because he be- lectured that Ronald Reagan and William F. Buckley Jr., lieves that a child has a right to a father and a mother. exemplified “a long and venerable tradition” of “intel- Both O’Donnell and Paladino lost their races, as did lectual conservatism,” but “people are looking at the Joe Miller. But while the liberal media buried those Tea Party and saying this is not conservatism as we candidates with endless, vicious attacks, they couldn’t knew it, but it’s extreme.” Over at MSNBC, Chris Mat- stop so many of the solid, conservative candidates run- thews was making near-constant references to 1930s ning in races across the country. Nazi Germany when covering Rand Paul. Matthews’ The liberal media were apoplectic, but tough con- cable comrade Ed Schultz was also harping, “We re- servative Rand Paul, the son of Rep. Ron Paul (R-Tex.), ally could have taken some video from the 1930s in won a U.S. Senate seat. So did Florida’s Marco Rubio, Germany and we could have matched it up with that the conservative son of Cuban immigrants, and Toomey video” from a Rand Paul event. On and on it went. in Pennsylvania. Nikki Haley won the governor’s seat But while they were trying to destroy the Tea Party in South Carolina, and John Kasich took Ohio. All had movement, they overlooked some facts. been lampooned by the left-wing media. For example, while the liberal media weren’t talk- Overall, 50 incumbent Democrats were defeated ing about this, a Rasmussen Reports survey from early while only 2 House Republican incumbents lost; the October showed that 41 percent of voters had a fa- GOP picked up more House seats than in any election vorable view of the Tea Party. In addition, a Gallup since 1938. (Republicans picked up 680 seats in state poll from August revealed that 40 percent of Ameri- legislatures.) Among the winners, 40 in the House were cans described themselves as “conservative.” Only 21 Tea Party-backed candidates while 5 of the Senate wins percent said they were “liberal,” and 35 percent said were Tea Party-backed, the people the liberal media “moderate.” painted as radical wackos, way out of the mainstream. Furthermore, a September CBS News/New York The attacks came day and night. Less than two Times poll showed that 53 percent of Americans want- weeks before the election, ABC’s Christiane Amanpour ed “smaller government providing fewer services” versus 34 percent who wanted “bigger government providing more services.” As for the public’s view of the media, the polls fur- ther confirmed what the MRC has been documenting for more than two decades. A Rasmussen Reports sur- vey showed, for example, that 66 percent of Ameri- cans are “angry” at the media, 33 percent of whom are “very angry.” The poll also revealed that 48 percent of voters think most reporters are trying to help the president pass his agenda when they report on him. The liberal media clearly lost with the midterm elections. The conservative victories and positive news from the polls, however, will not deter the liberals who run ABC, CBS, NBC, the major newspapers, the maga- MSNBC’s Chris Matthews made frequent references to zines, the publishing houses, the cable outlets CNN, 1930s Nazi Germany in covering the Tea Party and the MSNBC, HBO, and Hollywood, and academia, and the lead up to the midterm elections. ever-broadening news venues on the Internet. Mark my words, the liberal media will double down Although Katie Couric and go after conservatives with an even meaner ven- and the CBS Evening geance. This is why the MRC is vital to the conservative News were quick to movement. We fight the liberal press every day, every smear conservative hour. We don’t give up. We don’t quit. Come on! Let’s candidates as out of continue to take the fight to them! the mainstream, a Rasmussen poll showed Sincerely, that 41% of voters had a favorable view of the Tea Party. L. Brent Bozell III Founder and President The DECEMBER 2010 Watchdog 3 RUSH LIMBAUGH TONY SNOW BRIT HUME MRC Presents the 2010 William F. Buckley Jr. Award for Media Excellence to Conservative Leader M. Stanton Evans Longtime author, journalist and conservative His list of accomplishments and contributions movement leader M. Stanton Evans was presented include his integral role in the founding of the with the 2010 William F. Buckley Jr. Award for Young Americans for Freedom and the signing of Media Excellence by the Media Research Center on the Sharon Statement in Sharon, Conn., in 1960. Oct. 14. This is the fourth such award by the MRC He also worked as associate editor at National and the previous recipients were Rush Limbaugh, Review from 1960-1973 with William F. Buckley Tony Snow and Brit Hume. Jr., and then went on to be an In presenting the award to editor at Human Events. Evans during an event for the In 1977, he founded the 2010 “Tell The Truth!” cam- National Journalism Center, paign at the Mayflower Ho- where more than 1,700 tel in Washington, D.C., MRC young journalists have been President L. Brent Bozell III trained. He is the author of said, “Stan Evans’ list of con- nine books, including his tributions to the conservative most recent, Blacklisted by movement is nearly impossible History: The Untold Story of to measure. It is champions like Senator Joe McCarthy and him that keep the conservative His Fight Against America’s movement going. His unwaver- Enemies. ing dedication to simple, com- Evans said he was “very mon sense principles and truths honored” to receive the have led him to found some of award because one, it came our movement’s leading organi- from the MRC which does “tre- zations.” mendously important” work, “Stan Evans’ writing and wit M. STANTON EVANS and two, because it is the capture an audience that ben- William F.