Why is C-SPAN hosting Brent Bozell?

The December 3 edition of the program After Words on C-SPAN2's Book TV featured an interview with former CBS producer Mary Mapes conducted by L. Brent Bozell III, founder and president of the conservative Media Research Center (MRC), an organization that purports to "prove -- through sound scientific research -- that liberal bias in the media does exist and undermines traditional American values." Yet at no point did C-SPAN identify Bozell or his organization as conservative, nor was it noted that Bozell and the MRC have long criticized Mapes for her role in the controversial CBS 60 Minutes II story on President Bush's alleged failure to meet his Vietnam-era Texas Air National Guard (TANG) requirements. In the C-SPAN interview, Bozell confronted Mapes with unsourced "criticisms" of the TANG story, leaving viewers unaware that the "criticisms" Bozell offered were actually drawn from MRC research and his own nationally syndicated columns.

Mapes discussed her new book, Truth and Duty: The Press, the President, and the Privilege of Power (St. Martin's Press, 2005), in which she offered her "account of the often-surreal, always-harrowing fallout she experienced for raising questions about a powerful sitting president." After 15 years as a CBS producer, during which she broke the Abu Ghraib prison abuse story, Mapes was dismissed following an internal investigation into the authenticity of the documents used for the TANG story.

The introduction to the Mapes interview noted simply that Bozell is the "president of the Media Research Center":

VOICEOVER: This week on Afterwords, journalist Mary Mapes explains her role in producing the 60 Minutes II investigative report on George W. Bush's National Guard record, and the controversy it created. Her new book is titled, Truth and Duty: The Press, the President, and the Privilege of Power. It's her version of the story, and the ensuing internal investigation at CBS that led to her dismissal, and Dan Rather's resignation as anchor of the evening news. She's interviewed by Brent Bozell, president of the Media Research Center.

While discussing the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal, Bozell confronted Mapes with the suggestion that the story received too much media attention:

BOZELL: Let's go back to Abu Ghraib for a moment. I don't think anybody can question that it was a story; a legitimate news story. But critics would say that it was overdone. That it was overplayed. In that, it was Abu Ghraib night after night after night. Do you agree or disagree with that?

In claiming that "critics would say that it was overdone," Bozell masked the fact that he is one of the critics who claim Abu Ghraib received too much media attention. In his May 18, 2004, nationally syndicated column, Bozell wrote:

While NBC aired 58 stories on U.S. prison abuse in the first few weeks of that story, NBC aired only five stories over 16 months on the discovery of Saddam's mass graves. Abu Ghraib holds 1,500 prisoners, a fraction of whom were abused. Saddam's graves held as many as 300,000 people, all of whom were murdered. How is Abu Ghraib 10 times more important than that?

Later in the program, Bozell again presented Mapes with another anonymous "criticism," this time of the TANG story:

BOZELL: I want to read you something, Mary Mapes. I want you to comment on this.

MAPES: All right, Brent Bozell.

BOZELL: (laughs) The criticism of the story -- a criticism of the story -- is that there were -- and what I'm going to say to you is nothing new, you've heard it -- is that there were all manner of people who weren't interviewed for this piece who would have said otherwise. One of the people who has been very outspoken on this is Jerry Killian's son, and to backtrack, Jerry Killian is the man who allegedly wrote those memos that displayed all the preferential treatment for young George Bush. Gary Killian, his son, went on the Hannity & Colmes show the night after your program came out, and I want to read to you this quick exchange, and ask you to comment on it because your name came up in it.

Bozell then read the transcript of the September 10, 2004, edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, on which Gary Killian claimed that Mapes "ignored" statements from him and his family that indicated that Jerry Killian liked Bush (Mapes disputes the charge). However, Bozell again obscured the fact that this "criticism of the story" has been pushed by the MRC. According to the MRC's September 11, 2004, CyberAlert:

Rather offered up Robert Strong, an administrative officer during Killian's tenure, to insist the memos matched Killian's concerns. But Rather ignored how the wife and son of the late Lieutenant Colonel maintain that he did not write memos such as the ones given to CBS News. In a phone call with FNC played on Friday's Special Report with Brit Hume (see item #2 below for more of the story), son Gary asserted: "I can tell you that he didn't type memos to himself." Gary Killian elaborated during a Friday night phone conversation on FNC's Hannity & Colmes, emphasizing that he conveyed his knowledge to a CBS News producer before the 60 Minutes piece aired.

Bozell later asked Mapes about the documents upon which the TANG story was based and referenced document analyses initiated by Cybercast News Service (CNSNews.com), but neglected to note his connection to the conservative news outlet:

BOZELL: Alright. Along those lines, the morning after your show aired, the CNSNews.com news service took those memos and gave them to three random typography experts -- independent experts -- and asked them to analyze them. Within one hour, these three experts -- none of whom was known to this news service -- came back and all three of them independently said this could not have been done on a 1972 machine. This was done on a late-model computer. That was within an hour.

MAPES: Mm-hmm.

BOZELL: How could a news service comment that quickly?

By referring to CNSNews.com as "a news service," Bozell hid the fact that CNSNews.com is his news service. It is a division of the MRC, founded by Bozell, who also serves as its president.

The only indication from Bozell of his conservative political activism was a hypothetical scenario Bozell put to Mapes regarding her political ideology:

BOZELL: You use the phrase throughout the book -- I don't know how many times I saw it, dozens, a hundred times -- "radical right." Let me tell you why that phrase jumps out. If I write a book, and I label all my critics "radical left," it would be fair to assume that I was a conservative -- at least a conservative -- because all my critics are on the radical left, according to me. Why isn't it fair to assume that you're politically a liberal?

At one point, Bozell asked Mapes why, given her investigation into Bush's Vietnam War record, there was no similar investigation into Sen. John Kerry's (D-MA) military record:

BOZELL: In the introduction to the National Guard story, Dan Rather says -- and I don't recall the exact words -- but he says words to the effect that Vietnam is a major debate on both sides of the campaign, with accusations about George Bush and accusations about John Kerry. I guess the same question: if it was important to do a story about George Bush, in the interest of fairness, ought not there have been an investigation into the charges about John Kerry?

MAPES: I know there certainly was coverage of the Swift Boat [Veterans for Truth (now called Swift Vets and POWs for Truth) ] charges. Tremendous, don't you think? Heavy coverage?

BOZELL: No, not -- not, not -- not to the degree that there was about the National Guard, no.

MAPES: Oh God, I disagree completely. I think there was much more coverage in the 2004 campaign of the Swift Boat issue on its merits, I mean -- I shouldn't say on its merits, I mean a repetition of the various charges and the testimonies of these various people. There also were tremendous political connections to that Swift Boat story.

Media Matters for America documented the widespread media attention the Swift Boat's scurrilous charges received during the 2004 presidential campaign. On the August 18, 2004, edition of Fox News's The O'Reilly Factor, Bozell disregarded the Swift Boat's extensive print and televised media coverage to claim that the group was "completely ignored by the media." In his October 20, 2004, nationally syndicated column, he complained that anti-Kerry veterans "are never invited to sit for extended interviews with [recently retired ABC anchor] Ted Koppel or Dan Rather." But in the same column, Bozell contradicted himself, writing: "Koppel sat down with an anti-Kerry veteran on live television for the first time this year."