Rosen slammed TV network news as “left-center” despite admitting he “never” watches it

Written by Media Matters Staff

Published

Discussing television network newscasts with a caller, Newsradio 850 KOA's Mike Rosen on November 29 asserted that ABC, CBS, and NBC have a “left-center agenda” and a “liberal” newsroom culture. But Rosen acknowledged that he “never” watches those networks' newscasts and claimed that what he knows about their content he gets from a “conservative media watchdog group.”

After criticizing ABC, CBS, and NBC for having a “left-center agenda” and a “liberal” newsroom culture, Newsradio 850 KOA host Mike Rosen admitted on his November 29 broadcast that he “never” watches newscasts on those networks. He further claimed, “What I know about it I usually get from reports of others, and of course the Media Research Center (MRC)," which Rosen called a “conservative media watchdog group.”

Rosen told a caller that Fox News has a “right-center agenda,” then asserted that “it's only accurate to acknowledge that ABC, CBS, and NBC have a left-center agenda, and the people who work there embrace that kind of ideology.”

From the November 29 broadcast of Newsradio 850 KOA's The Mike Rosen Show:

CALLER: I do think Fox is a little bit -- they do play both sides as far as -- not play both sides, but they give air time to both sides.

ROSEN: They do. But their news department has a right-center agenda.

CALLER: Oh, there's no doubt about that. But my center is to the right anyway, so I tend to lean that way anyway.

ROSEN: Yeah, well I do lean that way and so do you, and it's only accurate to acknowledge that ABC, CBS, and NBC have a left-center agenda, and the people who work there embrace that kind of ideology. And by people who work there, I don't just mean the anchors, the face people; I'm talking about the producers, and the people who write copy, and all the people who --

CALLER: Oh, well certainly as an organization they hire from that standpoint.

ROSEN: Yeah, their newsroom culture is liberal.

CALLER: Certainly.

ROSEN: All right.

CALLER: Anyway, that's all I had to say Mike; thank you.

ROSEN: Thanks for your phone call. Anybody else who watched the evening news on ABC, CBS, and NBC last night -- and I never do. What I know about it I usually get from reports of others, and of course the Media Research Center in Alexandria [Virginia] is a conservative media watchdog group, and they make it their business to monitor the dominant liberal mass media and report on it to document their behavior in that area so we don't just throw out unsupported generalizations.

Media Matters for America has noted numerous instances in which MRC founder and president L. Brent Bozell III and the MRC blog NewsBusters have provided conservative misinformation.

As Colorado Media Matters has documented (here and here), on previous broadcasts Rosen has criticized ABC, CBS, and NBC and their on-air personalities as “liberal” without noting their frequent conservative spin.